Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
December 18, 2019
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Be still, and the world is bound to turn herself inside out to entertain you.
Everywhere you look, joyful noise is clanging to drown out quiet
desperation.
—Barbara Kingsolver
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WORLD KISS
All of creation is alive and conscious, and all of creation deserves our
burning, churning, yearning love. All of it. Not just the people and
creatures and things that we personally find beautiful and helpful and
interesting. But everything. All of creation.
If we want to become the gorgeous geniuses we were born to be, if we want
to give back as many blessings as we are given, we've got to be in love
with every single part of the Goddess's extravagant masterpiece.
And so we can't possibly be mere heterosexuals. We can't possibly be mere
homosexuals or bisexuals.
If we want to commune with the world the way the Goddess does, we've got
to be Pantheosexuals -- we've got to be experts in the art of
Polymorphous Omnidirectional Goddess Nuzzling. Anything less is a lie, an
obscene limitation.
With this in mind, I invite you to perform the ritual of the World Kiss. To
do the World Kiss, conjure up your most expansive feeling of tenderness -
- like what you might experience when you're infatuated with a new lover
-- and then blow kisses to all of creation.
Blow kisses to the oak trees and sparrows and elephants and weeds. Blow
kisses to the wind and rain and rocks and machines. Blow kisses to the
gardens and jails, the cars and the toys. the politicians and saints, to the
girls and the boys and every gender in between.
And with each World Kiss you bestow, keep uppermost in your emotions a
mood of irreverent adoration and horny compassion. And remember that
it's not enough simply to perform the outer gesture; you've got to have a
heart-on in each of your seven chakras . . .
Hear or read the rest of this spoken-word song:
https://bit.ly/WorldKisses
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I INVITE YOU
In 2020, I invite you to have an improbable quest playing at the edge of
your imagination: a heroic task that provokes deep thoughts and noble
passions even if it incites smoldering torment . . . an extravagant dream
that's a bit farfetched but not entirely insane . . . a goal that stretches
your possibilities and opens your mind . . . a wild hope whose pursuit
makes you smarter and stronger even if you never fully accomplish it.
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SO MUCH TO LOVE
There was so much to love, I could not love it all; I could not love it
enough.
—Louise Biogan
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ONE OF THE TOP FIVE ASTROLOGERS IN THE WORLD
"Core Spirit" has named me "One of the Top Five Astrologers in the
World." The other four: Susan Miller, Michael Lutin, Liz Greene, and
Oscar Cainer.
Here's what they say: "Rob Brezsny is one of the world's best astrologers.
His website, Free Will Astrology (https://FreeWillAstrology.com)
contains some of the most accurate horoscopes we've ever read. He also
serves up some of the best spoken word forecasts we've ever heard.
"Rob Brezsny has developed deep insight into the human experience and he
always delivers seeds for contemplation that are just right for the
astrological climate. His site is well laid out and the horoscope forecasts
are available all on one page as well as on individual pages for each sign of
the zodiac.
"In addition to the weekly horoscopes, he serves up a tremendous amount
of other original content. Rob has gained the respect of his fellow
astrologers for his excellent astrology readings."
Read more: https://bit.ly/BestAstrologers
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THE HEROIC TRICK OF DISPERSING FEAR
What is the Alchemical Secret of Secrets? The Great Work? The
fulfillment of the Quest for the Grail? The possession of the Pearl of Great
Price? It may be the heroic trick of dispersing fear: to be clear to
experience life without the rumbling subtext of anxiety.
The longer I live, the more I’m convinced that’s at the core of EVERYONE’s
struggle.
In my personal story, the cure is most possible as I approach having a
relaxed capacity to viscerally perceive the presence of the Universal
Consciousness at work in every action everywhere.
Not there yet, but making some progress!
And you? I'm genuinely curious about how you attend to this holy task. Let
me know at Truthrooster@gmail.com
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HOWLING TENDERNESS
What use is this howling tenderness?
—eighth-century Tamil poet Andal
Howling tenderness is useful because it has the power to shatter
mysterious barriers that have been preventing us from exploring the
frontiers of sacred intimacy.
—me
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DEAR BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB: The chemo treatments burned out all the
math skills in my brain, which were already pretty meager. On the other
hand, they awakened my ability to feel perfectly at ease while in the midst
of paradoxical situations that everyone else finds maddening and
uncomfortable.
The chemo also made me ridiculously tolerant of people's contradictions,
sometimes even their hypocrisies, and freed me to enjoy life as an
entertaining movie with lots of interesting plot twists rather than as a
pitched battle between everything I like and everything I don't like. I
guess I could say that my cancer helped turn me into a pronoiac!
- The Chaos Artist Formerly Known as Risa Kline
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ADVICE TO MYSELF by Louise Erdrich
Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic—decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips
from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in through the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it,
don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.
- "Advice to Myself" by Louise Erdrich, from Original Fire: Selected and
New Poems"
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
In country after country, one of the world’s deadliest diseases—malaria-
—is being eradicated. In many cases, it’s women leading the fight.
https://tinyurl.com/rtdgp7y
It was legal teams—not politicians—that ultimately held the tobacco
industry to account. Their next target? Perpetrators of climate change.
https://tinyurl.com/yxykbtow
The biochar process is ingenious, turning green waste into heat before
returning it to the soil as an agricultural nutrient. No wonder it’s turning
a profit.
https://tinyurl.com/yyeo99rh
(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 December 19
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
https://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "People mistake their limitations for
high standards," wrote Capricorn author Jean Toomer. In my astrological
opinion, it's crucial that you avoid doing that in 2020. Why? First, I'm
quite sure that you will have considerable power to shed and transcend at
least some of your limitations. For best results, you can't afford to deceive
yourself into thinking that those limitations are high standards. Secondly,
Capricorn, you will have good reasons and a substantial ability to raise
your standards higher than they've ever been. So you definitely don't want
to confuse high standards with limitations.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Historians once thought that 14th-century
Englishmen were the first humans to track the rhythms of the planet
Jupiter using the complicated mathematics known as calculus. But in
2015, researchers discovered that Babylonians had done it 1400 years
before the Englishmen. Why was Jupiter's behavior so important to those
ancient people? They were astrologers! They believed the planet's
movements were correlated with practical events on earth, like the
weather, river levels, and grain harvests. I think that this correction in
the origin story of tracking Jupiter's rhythms will be a useful metaphor
for you in 2020. It's likely you will come to understand your past in ways
that are different from what you've believed up until now. Your old tales
will change.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): China produces the most apples in the
world. The United States is second. That wasn't always true. When
Europeans first reached the shores of the New World, crab apple was the
only apple species that grew natively. But the invaders planted other
varieties that they brought with them. They also imported the key to all
future proliferation: honeybees, champion pollinators, which were
previously absent from the land that many indigenous people called Turtle
Island. I see 2020 as a time for you to accomplish the equivalent, in your
own sphere, of getting the pollination you need. What are the fertilizing
influences that will help you accomplish your goals?
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The English word "hubris" means prideful,
exaggerated self-assurance. In the HBO TV series *Rome*, the ancient
Roman politician and general Mark Antony says to his boss Julius Caesar,
"I'm glad you're so confident. Some would call it hubris." Caesar has a
snappy comeback: "It's only hubris if I fail." I'm tempted to dare you to
use you that as one of your mottoes in 2020, Aries. I have a rather
expansive vision of your capacity to accomplish great things during the
coming months. And I also think that one key to your triumphs and
breakthroughs will be your determination to cultivate a well-honed
aplomb, even audacity.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): For years I've lived in a house bordering a
wetland, and I've come to love that ecosystem more than any other. While
communing with reeds and herons and muddy water, my favorite poet has
been Taurus-born Lorine Niedecker, who wrote about marshes with
supreme artistry. Until the age of 60, her poetic output was less than
abundant because she had to earn a meager living by cleaning hospital
floors. Then, due to a fortuitous shift in circumstances, she was able to
leave that job and devote more time to what she loved most and did best.
With Niedecker's breakthrough as our inspiration, I propose that we do
all we can, you and I, as we conspire to make 2020 the year you devote
more time to the activity that you love most and do best.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the English language, the prefix "re"
comes at the beginning of many words with potent transformational
meaning: reinvent; redeem; rediscover; release; relieve; redesign;
resurrect; rearrange; reconstruct; reform; reanimate; reawaken; regain.
I hope you'll put words like those at the top of your priority list in 2020.
If you hope to take maximum advantage of the cosmic currents, it'll be a
year of revival, realignment, and restoration.
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YOU NEED MAGIC EVERY DAY
Every day, you have to wade through a relentless surge of soul-less facts.
The experience tends to shut down your sense of wonder.
Every day, you're over-exposed to cynical narratives that have been
sucked free of delight and mystery. That's why you have to make such
strenuous efforts to keep your world enchanted.
I like to think I can contribute to the sacred cause of feeding your sense of
wonder and enchantment. In fact, that's one of my prime motivations for
offering you the free weekly horoscopes you read in this newsletter.
If you ever want more of that good stuff, and think it's worth paying for,
please consider trying out my 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
https://freewillastrology.sparkns.com
Register and/or log in through the main page.
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888.
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The cost is $6 per sign on the On the Web. (Discounts are available for
bulk purchases.) You can also access them for $1.99 per minute by
phone
The Expanded Audio Horoscopes work on most smart phones and tablets.
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CANCER (June 21-July 22): I won't be surprised if you're enamored and
amorous more than usual in 2020. I suspect you will experience delight
and enchantment at an elevated rate. The intensity and depth of the feelings
that flow through you may break all your previous records. Is that going
to be a problem? I suppose it could be if you worry that the profuse flows
of tenderness and affection will render you weak and vulnerable. But if
you're willing and eager to interpret your extra sensitivity as a
superpower, that's probably what it will be.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Does the word "spirit" mean anything to you? Or
are you numb to it? Has it come to seem virtually meaningless—a foggy
abstraction used carelessly by millions of people to express sentimental
beliefs and avoid clear thinking? In accordance with astrological omens,
I'll ask you to create a sturdier and more vigorous definition of "spirit"
for your practical use in 2020. For instance, you might decide that
"spirit" refers to the life force that launches you out of bed each morning
and motivates you to keep transforming yourself into the ever-more
beautiful soul you want to become.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "There are people who take the heart out of
you, and there are people who put it back," wrote author Charles de Lint.
According to my analysis of the astrological omens, your heart will
encounter far more of the latter than the former types of people in 2020.
There may be one wrangler who tries to take the heart out of you, but
there will be an array of nurturers who will strive to keep the heart in
you—as well as boosters and builders who will add even more heart.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Composer Igor Stravinsky was born a Russian
citizen, but later in life became a French citizen, and still later took on
American citizenship. If you have had any similar predilections, Libra,
I'm guessing they won't be in play during 2020. My prediction is that you
will develop a more robust sense of where you belong than ever before.
Any uncertainties you'd had about where your true power spot lies will
dissipate. Questions you've harbored about the nature of home will be
answered. With flair and satisfaction, you'll resolve long-running riddles
about home and community.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Friendship is a very taxing and arduous
form of leisure activity," wrote philosopher and educator Mortimer
Adler. He was exaggerating a bit for comic effect, but he was basically
correct. We all must mobilize a great deal of intelligence and hard work to
initiate new friendships and maintain existing friendships. But I have
some very good news about how these activities will play out for you in
2020, Scorpio. I expect that your knack for practicing the art of
friendship will be at an all-time high. I also believe that your close
alliances will be especially gratifying and useful for you. You'll be well-
rewarded for your skill and care at cultivating rapport.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1933, Sagittarian artist Diego
Rivera was commissioned to paint a huge mural in one of the famous
Rockefeller buildings in New York City. His patrons didn't realize he was
planning to include a controversial portrait of former Soviet Communist
leader Vladimir Lenin. When the deed was done, they ordered him to
remove it. When he refused, they ushered him out and destroyed the whole
mural. As a result, Rivera also lost another commission to create art at
the Chicago World's Fair. In any other year, Sagittarius, I might
encourage you to be as idealistic as Rivera. I'd invite you to place artistic
integrity over financial considerations. But I'm less inclined to advise that
in 2020. I think it may serve you to be unusually pragmatic. At least
consider leaving Lenin out of your murals.
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Homework: Thousands of things go right for you every single day. Listen:
https://tinyurl.com/GloryInTheHighest
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2019 Rob Brezsny
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