Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 24, 2018
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: https://bit.ly/YouDiscoverBeauty
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WHAT NOURISHES YOU EMOTIONALLY AND SPIRITUALLY
What nourishes you emotionally and spiritually?
I'm not talking about what entertains you or flatters you or takes your
mind off your problems.
I'm referring to the influences that make you stronger and the people who
see you for who you really are and the situations that teach you life-long
lessons.
I mean the beauty that replenishes your psyche and the symbols that
consistently restore your balance and the memories that keep feeding
your ability to rise to each new challenge.
I invite you to take inventory of these precious assets. And then make a
special point of nurturing them back.
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MAKE OPTIMAL USE OF YOUR LIFE ENERGY
Here's a prescription that may help you make optimal use of your
precious life energy:
Set an intention to clarify your intentions about the essential matters in
your life. Say "I am clarifying my intentions about . . ."
"who I really am"
"whom and what I love"
"how I want to serve my fellow creatures and the planet Earth"
"the unripe qualities in myself that I am ripening"
"what I need to do next"
"the best way for me to make money"
"the moral principles I hold most strongly"
"the truth about my relationship to the Source"
"the best use of my creative energy"
others?
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GET MORE RESPECT
Here are some ways to get more respect:
1. Do your best in every single thing you do -- whether it's
communicating precisely or upholding the highest possible standards at
your job or taking excellent care of yourself.
2. Maintain impeccable levels of integrity in everything you do -- whether
it's being scrupulously honest or thoroughly fair-minded or fiercely kind.
3. On the other hand, don't try so compulsively hard to do your best and
cultivate integrity that you get self-conscious and obstruct the flow of
your natural intelligence.
4. Make it your goal that no later than four years from now you will be
doing what you love to do at least 51 percent of the time.
5. Give other people as much respect as you sincerely believe they
deserve.
6. Give yourself more respect.
7. Others?
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I ME WED
I invite you to deepen and intensify your commitment to the most
important person in your life -- you. One way to further that sacred cause
is to get married to yourself. In my book, I've created a text you can refer
to as you perform the wedding. Or you can use my text for inspiration as
you create your own version.
Let's begin by telling a simple truth: You will probably never create a
resilient, invigorating bond with the lush accomplice of your dreams until
you master the art of loving yourself ingeniously. A wedding ritual that
joins you to yourself could catalyze an uncanny shift in your personal
mojo that would attract a fresh, hot consort into your life, or else awaken
the sleeping potential of a simmering alliance you have now.
If you're feeling brave, try speaking the following words aloud:
"I am no longer looking for the perfect partner.
I am my own perfect partner."
Say it even stronger:
"I am no longer looking for the perfect partner
to salve all my wounds
and fix all my mix-ups
and bridge all my chasms.
I am no longer looking for the perfect partner
because I am my own perfect partner."
TO READ THE REST OF "I ME WED," go here: http://bit.ly/IMeWed
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THOUGHTFUL OPTIMISM THAT DOESN'T IGNORE THE SUFFERING
One of my heroes, radical historian Howard Zinn, said that pessimism
tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we relentlessly imagine the
worst possible outcomes, if we concentrate on all the things that are
falling apart and going wrong, it cripples our capacity to make
constructive changes. "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly
romantic," he wrote. "It gives us the energy to act."
More from Howard: "What we choose to emphasize in this complex
history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our
capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places–and
there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives
us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning
top of a world in a different direction.
"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some
grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and
to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is
bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Danielle LaPorte at http://www.daniellelaporte.com writes:
Right now there are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas
endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the
flourishing of your happiness.
Someone you haven't met yet is already dreaming of adoring you.
Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that
will change how you look at life.
Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight
the hearts of all of God's children.
A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering, "nourish them."
Someone wants to kiss you, to hold you, to make tea for you.
Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favorite
food is, and treat you to a movie. Someone in your orbit has something
immensely valuable to give you — for free.
Something is being invented this year that will change how your
generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on.
The next great song is being rehearsed.
Thousands of people are in yoga classes right now intentionally sending
light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth.
Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will
always be that way.
Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they'll be
thriving like never before. They just can't see it from where they're at.
Someone who is craving to be partnered, to be acknowledged, to ARRIVE,
will get precisely what they want — and even more. And because that gift
will be so fantastical in it's reach and sweetness, it will quite magically
alter their memory of angsty longing and render it all "So worth the wait."
Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because
they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche
— this luminous juju is floating in the ether, and is accessible to you.
Someone just this second wished for world peace, in earnest.
Someone is fighting the fight so that you don't have to.
Some civil servant is making sure that you get your mail, and your
garbage is picked up, that the trains are running on time, and that you are
generally safe. Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil
liberties and clean drinking water.
Someone is regaining their sanity. Someone is coming back from the
dead. Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable.
Someone is curing the incurable.
You. Me. Some. One. Now.
Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning October 25
Copyright 2018 by Rob Brezsny
http://www.freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "He believed in magic," writes author Michael
Chabon about a character in his novel *The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier & Clay*. "Not in the so-called magic of candles, pentagrams, and
bat wings," nor "dowsing rods, séances, weeping statues, werewolves,
wonders, or miracles." Then what kind? Chabon says it's the "impersonal
magic of life," like coincidences and portents that reveal their meanings in
retrospect. I bring this to your attention, Scorpio, because now is a
favorable time to call on the specific kind of magic that you regard as real
and helpful. What kind of magic is that? Halloween costume suggestion:
magician, witch, wizard.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "If adventures will not befall a young
lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad." Sagittarian author
Jane Austen wrote that in her novel *Northanger Abbey*, and now I'm
passing her message on to you, slightly altered. My version is, "If
adventures will not befall Sagittarian people of any age or gender in their
own neighborhood, they must seek them abroad." And where exactly is
"abroad"? The dictionary says it might mean a foreign country, or it could
simply mean outside or in another place. I'd like to extend the meaning
further to include anywhere outside your known and familiar world.
Halloween costume suggestion: traveler on a pilgrimage or explorer on a
holy quest.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): PR executives at a beer company offered
to pay me a lot of money if I would sneak a product placement ad into
your horoscope. They asked me to pretend there was a viable astrological
reason to recommend that you imbibe their product in abundance. But
the truth is, the actual planetary omens suggest the opposite. You should
not in fact be lounging around in a haze of intoxication. You should
instead be working hard to drum up support for your labor of love or your
favorite cause. Very Important People will be more available to you than
usual, and you'll be wise to seek their input. Halloween costume
suggestion: the Ultimate Fundraiser; Networker of the Year; Chief
Hobnobber.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "What kind of idea are you?" asks author
Salmon Rushdie. "Are you the kind that compromises, does deals,
accommodates itself, aims to find a niche, to survive; or are you the
cussed, bloody-minded, ramrod-backed type of damnfool notion that
would rather break than sway with the breeze?" I pose this question to
you, Aquarius, because I think you could be an effective version of either
idea in the coming weeks. If you're the latter—the cussed, damnfool
notion—you may change your world in dramatic ways. Halloween costume
suggestions: revolutionary; crusader; agitator; rabble-rouser.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "There is no beauty without some
strangeness," wrote Edgar Allen Poe. Fashion designer Rei Kawakubo
ventured further, declaring, "Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in
beauty." She also added another nuance to her definition: "For something
to be beautiful, it doesn't have to be pretty." I'll offer you one more seed
for thought: wabi-sabi. It's a Japanese term that refers to a kind of
beauty that's imperfect, transitory, and incomplete. I bring these clues to
your attention, Pisces, because now is an excellent time to refine and
clarify your own notion of beauty—and re-commit yourself to embodying
it. Halloween costume suggestion: the embodiment of your definition of
beauty.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In her poem "Shedding Skin," Harryette Mullen
compares her own transformation to the action a snake periodically
carries out to renew itself. Since you now have an excellent opportunity
to undertake your own molting process, you may find her thoughts
helpful. (I've rendered them in prose for easier reading.) "Pulling out of
the old scarred skin—old rough thing I don't need now—I strip off, slip out
of, leave behind. Shedding toughness, peeling layers down to vulnerable
stuff. And I'm blinking off old eyelids for a new way of seeing. By the rock
I rub against, I'm going to be tender again." Halloween costume
suggestion: snake sloughing its skin.
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MAYBE JOY AND PLEASURE ARE ESSENTIAL SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
Assume that your drive to experience pleasure and happiness isn't a
barrier to your spiritual growth, but is in fact essential to it. Proceed on
the hypothesis that cultivating joy can make you a more ethical and
compassionate person. Imagine that feeling good has something
important to teach you every day.
For inspiration in practicing this approach, tune in to your EXPANDED
AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the
current state of your destiny.
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.
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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "Only the young and stupid are confident
about sex and romance," says 49-year-old author Elizabeth Gilbert, who
has written extensively about those subjects. I agree with her. I've
devoted myself to studying the mysteries of love for many years, yet still
feel like a rookie. Even if you are smarter about these matters than Gilbert
and me, Taurus, I urge you to adopt a humble and curious attitude during
the next few weeks. The cosmos has prepared some interesting lessons
for you, and the best way to take advantage is to be eagerly receptive
and open-minded. Halloween costume suggestion: sex researcher, love
explorer, intimacy experimenter.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "My way of learning is to heave a wild and
unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery," wrote Gemini author
Dashiell Hammett. But I recommend that you use his approach very rarely,
and only when other learning methods aren't working. Most of the time,
your best strategy for getting the lessons you need is to put lubricating
oil into the machinery, not a monkey-wrench. That'll be especially true in
the coming weeks. I suggest that you turn the machinery off for a while
as you add the oil and and do some maintenance. Halloween costume
suggestion: repair person; computer techie; machine whisperer.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman
was a Cancerian like you and me. One of the factors contributing to his
success was that he put his demons to good use, "by harnessing them to
his chariot." He also testified that he gained control over his demons by
taking long walks after breakfast. "Demons don't like fresh air," he said.
"They prefer it if you stay in bed with cold feet." I suspect that now
would be an excellent time to adopt his advice. Halloween costume
suggestion: walk your demon on a leash, or make it into a puppet, or
harness it to your chariot.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Throughout the Halloween season, I encourage
you to fantasize extensively about what your dream home would look like
and feel like if you had all the money necessary to create it. What colors
would you paint the walls? Would you have carpets or hardwood floors?
What would be your perfect lighting, furniture, and décor? As you gazed
out your windows, what views would you see? Would there be nature
nearby or urban hotspots? Would you have an office or music room or art
studio? Have fun imagining the sanctuary that would bring out the best in
you. Halloween costume suggestion: the ultimate homebody.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "Extraordinary things are always hiding in
places people never think to look," writes novelist Jodi Picoult. That's
crucial for you to meditate on during the coming weeks. Why? Because
your superpower is going to be the ability to find extraordinary things
that are hiding in places where people have almost never thought to look.
You can do both yourself and those you care for a big favor by focusing
your intensity on this task. Halloween costume suggestions: sleuth,
treasure hunter, private eye, Sherlock Holmes.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "There is a season for wildness and a season
for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming."
Author Shauna Niequist wrote that. In accordance with the astrological
omens, I endorse her persepctive as true and useful for you. You've
zipped through your time of fertile chaos, conjuring up fresh possibilities.
When January arrives, you'll be ready to work on stability and security.
But for now, your assignment is to blossom. Halloween costume
suggestions: beautiful creature hatching from an egg; strong sprout
cracking out of a seed.
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Homework: What part of you is too tame? How can you inspire it to seek
wilder ways of knowing? Write Freewillastrology.com.
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Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
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published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion,
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2018 Rob Brezsny
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