Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
July 25, 2017
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: http://bit.ly/2vBGfUl
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My book *PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA*
is available at Amazon: http://bit.ly/Pronoia
or Powells: http://bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
Below are excerpts.
Experiment: Figure out how you need to transform yourself in order for
the world to give you what you yearn for.
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MESSAGE FROM YOUR ANCESTORS
Attention, please. This is your ancestors speaking. We've been trying to
reach you through your dreams and fantasies, but you haven't responded.
That's why we've commandeered this space. So listen up. We'll make it
brief.
You're at a crossroads analogous to a dilemma that has baffled your
biological line for six generations. We ask you now to master the turning
point that none of us have ever figured out how to negotiate. Heal
yourself and you heal all of us. We mean that literally. Start brainstorming,
please.
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OUTWIT THE NUMBING TRANCE
How can we outwit and escape the numbing trance that everyday routine
seems to foster? What can we do to stay alert to the subtle miracles and
intriguing mysteries and numinous beauty that surround us on all sides?
Some possibilities:
1. Make it a daily practice to refresh the ways we perceive the world.
2. Scan regularly for opportunities to play and for creatures that like to
play.
3. Assume that the entire world is a constantly changing source of
oracular revelation that has meaning for us.
4. Experiment with what happens when we use empathy and intuition to
imagine how animals and other people experience life.
5. Don't take things too seriously or too personally or too literally.
6. Expose ourselves regularly to provocative myths and intriguing
symbols. Seek out stories that bend and twist our beliefs. Be open to
exploring events and phenomena that elude rational explanation.
7. Regularly give our unconscious minds the message that we want to feel
deeply.
8. Cultivate a willingness, eagerness, and receptivity to being surprised.
9. Others?
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HEALTHY OBSESSIONS
I invite you to experiment with the theme "Healthy Obsessions." Not
"Melodramatic Compulsions" or "Exhausting Crazes" or "Manias That Make
You Seem Interesting to Casual Bystanders," but "Healthy Obsessions."
To do it well, you will have to take really good care of yourself as you
concentrate extravagantly on tasks that fill you with zeal. This may
require you to rebel against the influences of role models, both in your
actual life and in the movies you've seen, who act as if getting sick and
imbalanced is an integral part of being true to one's genius.
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THE NATURE OF MAGIC DOORWAYS
Alice finds her way to Wonderland by falling down a rabbit hole. Dorothy
rides to Oz on a tornado. In C. S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe," Lucy stumbles into the magical land of Narnia via a portal in
the back of a large clothes cabinet.
In the sequels to all these adventures, however, the heroines must find
different ways to access their exotic dreamlands. Alice slips through a
mirror next time. Dorothy uses a Magic Belt. Lucy leaps into a painting of
a schooner that becomes real.
Moral of the story: The next time you seek passage into a magic interlude
or alternate reality, the doorway may be unlike anything you've
experienced before.
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MANY TYPES OF CREATIVITY
"Creativity is conceived as a reproductive act with a tangible result -- a
child, a book, a monument -- that has a physical life going beyond the life
of its producer. Creativity, however, can be intangible in the form of a
good life, or a beautiful act, or in other virtues of the soul such as
freedom and openness, style and tact, humor, kindness."
- James Hillman
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
More Dutch Prisons to Close Due to Staggeringly Low Crime Rates
http://tinyurl.com/ybwst6h4
Thousands of Indian Doctors Fight Sexism by Delivering Baby Girls For
Free
http://tinyurl.com/y76ysj2x
Pope Opens Free Laundromat for Rome's Poor
http://tinyurl.com/ya8cse3k
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They aren't advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning July 26
Copyright 2017 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Do you really have to be the flashy king or
charismatic queen of all you survey? Must all your subjects put on
kneepads and prostrate themselves as they bask in your glory? Isn't it
enough for you to simply be the master of your own emotions, and the
boss of your own time, and the lord of your own destiny? I'm not trying
to stifle your ambition or cramp your enthusiasm; I just want to make
sure you don't dilute your willpower by trying to wield command over too
wide a swath. The most important task, after all, is to manage your own
life with panache and ingenuity. But I will concede this: The coming weeks
will be a time when you can also probably get away with being extra
worshiped and adored.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Dear Hard Worker: Our records indicate that
you have been neglecting to allot yourself sufficient time to rest and
recharge. In case you had forgotten, you are expected to take regular
extended breaks, during which time it is mandatory to treat yourself with
meticulous care and extreme tenderness. Please grant yourself an
immediate dispensation. Expose yourself to intensely relaxing encounters
with play, fun, and pleasure -- or else! No excuses will be accepted.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): If extraterrestrial beings land their space ship
on my street and say they want to meet the creatures who best
represent our planet, I will volunteer you Libras. Right now, at least,
you're nobler than the rest of us, and more sparkly, too. You're dealing
smartly with your personal share of the world's suffering, and your day-
to-day decisions are based more on love than fear. You're not taking
things too personally or too seriously, and you seem better equipped than
everyone else to laugh at the craziness that surrounds us. And even if
aliens don't appear, I bet you will serve as an inspiring influence for more
human beings than you realize. Does being a role model sound boring? I
hope not. if you regard it as an interesting gift, it will empower you to
wield more clout than you're used to.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): During the four years he worked on painting
the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo never took a bath. Was he too
preoccupied with his masterpiece? Modern artist Pae White has a different
relationship with obsession. To create her fabric art pieces, she has spent
years collecting more than 3,500 scarves designed by her favorite scarf-
maker. Then there's filmmaker James Cameron, who hired an expert in
linguistics to create an entire new language from scratch for the aliens in
his movie *Avatar.* In accordance with the astrological omens, Scorpio, I
approve of you summoning this level of devotion -- as long as it's not in
service to a transitory desire, but rather to a labor of love that has the
potential to change your life for the better for a long time.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "The purpose of art is to lay bare the
questions that have been hidden by the answers," wrote author James
Baldwin. Even if you're not an artist, I encourage you to make that your
purpose in the coming weeks. Definitive answers will at best be irrelevant
and at worst useless. Vigorous doubt and inquiry, on the other hand, will
be exciting and invigorating. They will mobilize you to rebel against any
status quos that have been tempting you to settle for mediocrity.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You're in a phase of your cycle when the
most useful prophecies are more lyrical than logical. So here you go: three
enigmatic predictions to help stir up the creative ingenuity you'll need to
excel on your upcoming tests. 1. A darling but stale old hope must shrivel
and wane so that a spiky, electric new hope can be born. 2. An openness
to the potential value of a metaphorical death will be one of your
sweetest assets. 3. The best way to cross a border is not to sneak across
bearing secrets but to stride across in full glory with nothing to hide.
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WHY IS IT CALLED "FREE WILL" ASTROLOGY?
It's called Free Will Astrology because my goal is to create horoscopes
that nurture your free will!
And if you ever want more than the 'scopes you're reading here, keep in
mind that I also create EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for you. They're
four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.
Need more help in figuring out the questions life is asking you? Crave
more support in your efforts to build your courage? Check out the
EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES.
To listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to
http://RealAstrology.com.
Register and/or log in through the main page.
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888.
The cost is $6 per sign on the Web (discounts available for bulk
purchases), or $1.99 per minute by phone.
The Expanded Audio Horoscopes work on most smart phones and tablets.
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"I always feel like I know myself better after listening to your audio
'scopes."
-June R., Austin, TX
"Your audio horoscopes calm me down when I'm too manic and pep me up
when I'm down."
-Arthur T., Cleveland, OH
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AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian novelist James Joyce had a
pessimistic view about intimate connection. Here's what he said: "Love
(understood as the desire of good for another) is in fact so unnatural a
phenomenon that it can scarcely repeat itself, the soul being unable to
become virgin again and not having energy enough to cast itself out again
into the ocean of another's soul." My challenge to you, Aquarius -- in
accordance with the astrological omens -- is to prove Joyce wrong. Figure
out how to make your soul virgin again so it can cast itself out into the
ocean of another's soul. The next eight weeks will be prime time to
achieve that glorious feat.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Years after he had begun his work as a poet,
Rainer Maria Rilke confessed that he was still finding out what it took to
do his job. "I am learning to see," he wrote. "I don't know why it is, but
everything enters me more deeply and doesn't stop where it once used
to." Given the current astrological omens, you have a similar opportunity,
Pisces: to learn more about how to see. It won't happen like magic. You
can't just sit back passively and wait for the universe to accomplish it for
you. But if you decide you really would like to be more perceptive -- if you
resolve to receive and register more of the raw life data that's flowing
towards you -- you will expand and deepen your ability to see.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are you feeling as daring about romance as I
suspect? If so, I've composed a provocative note for you to give to
anyone you have good reason to believe will be glad to receive it. Feel
free to copy it word-for-word or edit it to suit your needs. Here it is: "I
want to be your open-hearted explorer. Want to be mine? We can be in
foolishly cool drooling devotion to each other's mighty love power. We
can be in elegant solid-gold allegiance to each other's genius. Wouldn't it
be fun to see how much liberation we can whip up together? We can play
off our mutual respect as we banish the fearful shticks in our bags of
tricks. We can inspire each other to reach unexpected heights of brazen
intelligence."
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You still have a wound that never formed a
proper scar. (We're speaking metaphorically here.) It's chronically
irritated. Never quite right. Always stealing bits of your attention. Would
you like to do something to reduce the distracting power of that annoying
affliction? The next 25 days will be a favorable time to seek such a
miracle. All the forces of nature and spirit will conspire in your behalf if
you formulate a clear intention to get the healing you need and deserve.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In his poem "The Initiate," Charles Simic speaks
of "someone who solved life's riddles in a voice of an ancient Sumerian
queen." I hope you're not focused on seeking help and revelations from
noble and grandiose sources like that, Gemini. If you are, you may miss
the useful cues and clues that come your way via more modest
informants. So please be alert for the blessings of the ordinary. As you
work on solving your quandaries, give special attention to serendipitous
interventions and accidental luck.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): For many years, the Tobe Zoological Park in
China housed a "praying panther" named Ato. The large black feline
periodically rose up on her hind legs and put her paws together as if
petitioning a higher power for blessings. I suggest we make her your spirit
ally in the coming weeks. I hope she'll inspire you to get your restless
mind out of the way as you seek to quench your primal needs. With the
praying panther as your muse, you should be able to summon previously
untapped reserves of your animal intelligence and cultivate an instinctual
knack for knowing where to find raw, pristine satisfaction.
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Homework: Make a prediction about where you'll be and what you'll be
doing on January 1, 2020. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.
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Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
or in response to "homework assignments" may be
published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion,
including but not limited to newsletters, books, the Free Will
Astrology column, and Free Will Astrology website. We reserve
the right to edit submissions for length, style, and content.
Requests for anonymity will be honored. We are not responsible for
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2017 Rob Brezsny
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