Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
January 8, 2020
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See a pretty version of this newsletter:
https://bit.ly/YourTriumphantLife
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Experiment: Review in loving detail the history of your life and
remember why you came to be where you are now -- and where exactly
you want and need to go in 2020.
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EXPLORE YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE
with my 3-Part EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for the Coming Year.
https://freewillastrology.sparkns.com
Who do you want to become in 2020? Where do you want to go and what do
you want to do? My reports might stimulate and inspire your meditations
about the interesting possibilities.
This week, my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES feature Part 2 of my long-
range, in-depth explorations of your destiny in 2020.
Part 1 of your Beginning-of-the-Year Predictions, which I offered last
week, is also still available. Part 3 will be ready for you on January 14.
What will be the story of your life in 2020? How can you exert your free
will to create adventures that'll bring out the best in you, even as you find
graceful ways to cooperate with the tides of destiny?
To listen to your BIG PICTURE horoscopes online, go here:
https://freewillastrology.sparkns.com
Register and/or log in through the main page, and then click on the link
"Long Range Prediction, Part 2"
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The cost for the Expanded Audio Horoscopes is $6 per sign. (You can get
discounts for multiple purchases.)
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888.
The cost is $1.99 per minute.
Each forecast is 7-9 minutes long.
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P.S. You can also still access my Sneak-Peek at 2020. In these Expanded
Audio Horoscopes, I describe some major themes I think you'll be working
and playing with in 2020. After you register and/or log in, click on "Two
Weeks Ago (Dec 24, 2019)."
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WHAT ARE YOUR RELATIONSHIP GOALS FOR 2020?
What are your relationship goals for 2020?
To stimulate your imagination, I offer below some of my ideas on
relationship, all taken from my book *Pronoia Is the Antidote from
Paranoia*. (https://bit.ly/Pronoia)
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CAST A LOVE SPELL ON YOURSELF
Experiment: Compose and cast a love spell on yourself. There's no need to
consult pagan books about how to proceed. It may even be better if you
improvise homemade conjurations and incantations. Be sure to formulate
a clear intention of what you want to accomplish with your mojo.
Example: "I want to make myself irresistibly lovable." For best results,
stand naked in front of an altar crammed with magical objects that
symbolize both lust and compassion.
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WHAT'S GETTING IN THE WAY OF ROBUST INTIMACY?
A common obstruction to a vital intimate relationship is what I call the
assumption of clairvoyance. You imagine, perhaps unconsciously, that
your partner or friend is somehow magically psychic when it comes to
you—so much so that he or she should unfailingly intuit exactly what you
need, even if you don't ask for it. This fantasy may seem romantic, but it
can undermine the most promising alliances.
To counteract any tendencies you might have to indulge in the assumption
of clairvoyance, practice stating your desires aloud.
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THE SKILLFUL AUDACITY TO SHARE AN INNER LIFE
Gertrude Stein defined love as "the skillful audacity required to share an
inner life." It suggests that expressing the truth about who you are is not
something that amateurs do very well. Practice and ingenuity are
required. It also implies that courage is an essential element of successful
intimacy. You've got to be adventurous if you want to weave your life
together with another's.
Comments? Examples? Refutations? Action steps?
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YOU CAN NEVER OWN LOVE
You understand that you can never own love, right? No matter how much
someone adores you today, no matter how much you adore someone, you
can't force that unique state of grace to keep its shape forever. It will
inevitably evolve or mutate, perhaps into a different version of tender
caring, but maybe not. From there it will continue to change, into either
yet another version of interesting affection, or who knows what else?
Describe how you could get the hang of putting this tricky wisdom into
practice.
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LOVE IS BEING SMART TOGETHER
"Love is being stupid together," said French poet Paul Valéry. While
there's a grain of truth to that, it's too corny and decadent for my tastes.
I prefer to focus on a more interesting truth, which is this: Real love is
being smart together. If you weave your destiny together with another's,
he or she should catalyze your sleeping potentials, sharpen your
perceptions, and boost both your emotional and analytical intelligence.
Your relationship becomes a crucible in which you deepen your
understanding of the way the world works.
Give an example of your closest approach to this model in your own life.
Then formulate a vow in which you promise you'll do what's necessary to
more fully embody the principle "Love is being smart together."
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LOVE NEEDS IMAGINATION
"For a relationship to stay alive," writes James Hillman, "love alone is
not enough. Without imagination, love stales into sentiment, duty,
boredom. Relationships fail not because we have stopped loving but
because we first stopped imagining."
Make this your hypothesis. The next time you sense that you're about to
say the same old thing to your closest ally, interrupt yourself and head off
in the direction of storyland.
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AN ALLIANCE OF EQUALS
A heterosexual man who is seeking a partner often doesn't want a woman to
be complete unto herself; he hopes she'll feel inadequate and lost without
him. Similarly, many hetero women demand that their men be absolutely
dependent on them.
Those of the gay persuasion aren't necessarily any different; quite a few
also prefer their consorts to be unable to thrive alone. But there are also
plenty of people who want their intimate relationships to be an alliance of
strong, equal, independent partners.
Where do you stand on this issue?
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"TELL ME THE STORY OF YOUR SCARS"
Play the game called "Tell me the story of your scars." It's best to do it
with a skilled empath who is curious about your fate's riddles and skilled
at helping you find redemption in your wounds.
"How did you get that blotch on your knee?" he or she might begin, and you
describe the time in childhood when you fell on the sidewalk. Then maybe
he or she would say, "Why do you always look so sad when you hear that
song?"
And you'd narrate the tale of how it was playing when an old lover broke
your heart. The questions and answers continue until you unveil the
history of your hurts, both physical and psychic. Treat yourself to this
game soon.
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WHAT'S YOUR TYPE?
Some hetero men believe they won't find romantic happiness unless they
hook up with a woman who resembles a supermodel. Their libidos were
imprinted at a tender age by our culture's narrow definition of what
constitutes female beauty. They steer clear of many fine women who don't
fit their ideal.
The addiction to a physical type is not confined to them, though. Some
straight women, for instance, wouldn't think of dating a bald, short guy,
no matter how interesting he is. And there are people of every sexual
persuasion who imagine that their attraction to the physical appearance of
a potential partner is the single most important gauge of compatibility.
This delusion is the most common cause of bad relationships.
The good news is that anyone can outgrow their instinctual yearning for a
particular physical type, thereby becoming available for union with all of
the more perfect partners who previously didn't look quite right.
What's the state of your relationship with this riddle? Describe how you
might ripen it; speculate on how you can move it to the next level of
maturity.
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YOUR BROKEN HEART
Even if your heart's not exactly shattered at the moment, it has no doubt
been so at some time in the past. I invite you to feel a wave of sadness
about your suffering, then move on to this possibility: that having a
broken heart is one of the best things that can happen to you.
Why? Because it strengthens your humility, which makes you smarter. It
demonstrates to you that you have a tremendous capacity for deep
feelings—far more than you're normally aware of. It breaks down defense
mechanisms that have desensitized you to the world's secret beauty. It may
also inspire you to treat other people's hearts with greater care, making
it more likely that you'll be able to create intelligent intimacy in the
future.
That's why I say, celebrate your broken heart. It's a gift the world gives
you to awaken you to the truth about what matters most.
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THE MANY NAMES FOR LOVE
"The Eskimos had 52 names for snow because it was important to them,"
wrote novelist Margaret Atwood. "There ought to be as many for love."
Here are a few that the ancient Greeks devised, according to Lindsay Swope
in her review of Richard Idemon's book "Through the Looking Glass."
1. Epithemia is the basic need to touch and be touched. Our closest
approximation is "horniness," though epithemia is not so much a sexual
feeling as a sensual one.
2. Philia is friendship. It includes the need to admire and respect your
friends as a reflection of yourself—like in high school, where you want to
hang out with the cool kids because that means you're cool too.
3. Eros isn't sexual in the way we usually think, but is more about the
emotional gratification that comes from merging souls.
4. Agape is a mature, utterly free expression of love that has no
possessiveness. It means wanting the best for another person even if it
doesn't advance your self-interest.
Your assignment is to coin three additional new words for love, which
means you'll have to discover or create three alternate states of love that
have previously been unnamed. To do that, you'll have to put aside your
habitual expectations and standard definitions of what constitutes love so
that you can explore an array of nuances, including varieties you never
imagined existed.
Robin Norwood's self-help book "Women Who Love Too Much" deals with a
theme that has gotten a lot of play in recent decades: If you're too generous
to someone who doesn't appreciate it and at the expense of your own needs,
you can make yourself sick.
An alternative perspective comes from philosopher Blaise Pascal, who
said, "When one does not love too much, one does not love enough." He was
primarily addressing psychologically healthy altruists, but it's a fertile
ideal for pronoia lovers to keep in mind.
Decide whether you need to move more in the direction of Norwood's or
Pascal's advice. Develop a game plan to carry out your resolve, then take
action.
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THE MYSTERY OF YOUR THIRST
Imagine this scene. You're really thirsty—so dehydrated that you're
feeling faint. Yet here's the weird thing: You're walking along the bank of a
wide river that's so clear you could see the bottom if you looked. But
you're not looking. In fact, you seem oblivious to the surging force of
nature just a few yards away.
Is it invisible to you? Are you so preoccupied with your suffering that
you're blind to the very source that would end your suffering?
Up ahead you see a man. As you approach, you realize he's holding a bottle
of water. You run to him and beg him to let you drink. He readily agrees.
Gratefully, you guzzle the precious liquid, then thank him profusely.
As you walk away, he calls after you, "By the way, there's a lot more
water over there," and he points to the river.
Do you hear him? If you hear him, do you believe him? Or do you keep
walking, hoping to find another person with another bottle somewhere up
ahead?
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ALL I ASK OF YOU
1
Be my slow_motion dance.
Be my birthday earthquake.
Be my spiral marble staircase
in the middle of a Vermont meadow.
Be my handstand on a barstool,
my whirlwind week in clown school,
my joke shared with a Siberian shaman
while shopping for T-shirts at Sears.
Be my last because.
2
Be my puzzle with one piece missing.
Be my ripe pomegranate
floating in a blue plastic swimming pool
on the first day of _winter.
Be the imaginary conversations
I have with Thomas Jefferson
while watching the news on TV.
Be the waves crashing on my beach
in the south of France in the 22nd century
and the song
that my great-grandmother wrote for my great_granddaughter.
Be my golden hammer resting on a mossy rock
I've known for 10,000 years.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES
Experiment: Imprint yourself with the intention that in 2020, you will
seek out the GOOD news at least as often as you seek out the BAD stuff --
that you will regard tales of affliction and mayhem and corruption and
tragedy as no more interesting or worthy of your attention than tales of
triumph and liberation and pleasure and ingenuity.
If this idea appeals to you, here are sources of GOOD news to get you
started:
Yes magazine: https://yesmagazine.org/
Good News Network: https://goodnewsnetwork.org/
Celebrate Small Victories:
https://celebratesmallvictories.com/archives/
Reddit Uplifting News: https://reddit.com/r/UpliftingNews
Heroic Stories: https://heroicstories.org/
(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 January 9
Copyright 2020 by Rob Brezsny
https://FreeWillAstrology.com/horoscopes/
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Let's get 2020 started with a proper
send-off. According to my reading of the astrological omens, the coming
months will bring you opportunities to achieve a host of liberations.
Among the things from which you could be at least partially emancipated:
stale old suffering; shrunken expectations; people who don't appreciate
you for who you really are; and beliefs and theories that don't serve you
any more. (There may be others!) Here's an inspirational maxim,
courtesy of poet Mary Oliver: "Said the river: imagine everything you can
imagine, then keep on going."
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In a poem titled "The Mess-iah," spiritual
teacher Jeff Foster counsels us, "Fall in love with the mess of your life . .
. the wild, uncontrollable, unplanned, unexpected moments of existence.
Dignify the mess with your loving attention, your gratitude. Because if
you love the mess enough, you will become a Mess-iah." I bring this to
your attention, Aquarius, because I suspect you'll have a better chance to
ascend to the role of Mess-iah in the coming weeks and months than you
have had in many years.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Comedian John Cleese believes that
"sometimes we hang onto people or relationships long after they've ceased
to be of any use to either of you." That's why he has chosen to live in such
a way that his web of alliances is constantly evolving. "I'm always meeting
new people," he says, "and my list of friends seems to change quite a bit."
According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Pisces, 2020 will be a
propitious year for you to experiment with Cleese's approach. You'll have
the chance to meet a greater number of interesting new people in the
coming months than you have in a long time. (And don't be afraid to phase
out connections that have become a drain.)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When comedian John Cleese was 61, his
mother died. She was 101. Cleese testifies, "Just towards the end, as she
began to run out of energy, she did actually stop trying to tell me what to
do most of the time." I bet you'll experience a similar phenomenon in
2020—only bigger and better. Fewer people will try to tell you what to do
than at any previous time of your life. As a result, you'll be freer to be
yourself exactly as you want to be. You'll have unprecedented power to
express your uniqueness.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Renowned Taurus philosopher Bertrand
Russell was sent to jail in 1918 because of his pacifism and anti-war
activism. He liked being there. "I found prison in many ways quite
agreeable," he said. "I had no engagements, no difficult decisions to make,
no fear of callers, no interruptions to my work. I read enormously; I
wrote a book." The book he produced, *Introduction to Mathematical
Philosophy*, is today regarded as a classic. In 2020, I would love to see
you Tauruses cave out an equally luxurious sabbatical without having to go
through the inconvenience of being incarcerated. I'm confident you can do
this.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): It's common to feel attracted to people
because of the way they look and dress and carry themselves. But here's
the problem: If you pursue an actual connection with someone whose
appearance you like, there's no guarantee it will turn out to be interesting
and meaningful. That's because the most important factor in becoming
close to someone is not their cute face or body or style, but rather their
ability to converse with you in ways you find interesting. And that's a
relatively rare phenomenon. As philosopher Mortimer Adler observed,
"Love without conversation is impossible." I bring these thoughts to your
attention, Gemini, because I believe that in 2020 you could have some of
the best conversations you've ever had—and as a result experience the
richest intimacy.
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WHAT'S YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE?
Would you like some inspiration as you muse and wonder about your
upcoming adventures in 2020?
In this week's EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, I offer you Part 2 of a
long-term, in-depth exploration of your destiny in the coming year.
Part 3 will be available next week. Part 1 is still available.
To listen to your BIG PICTURE horoscopes online, go here:
https://freewillastrology.sparkns.com
Register and/or log in through the main page, and then click on the link
"Long Term Prediction, Part 2"
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888.
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The cost for the Expanded Audio Horoscopes is $6 per sign. (You can get
discounts for multiple purchases.)
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888.
The cost is $1.99 per minute.
Each forecast is 7-9 minutes long.
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CANCER (June 21-July 22): Mystic poet Rumi told us the kind of person
he was attracted to. "I want a trouble-maker for a lover," he wrote.
"Blood spiller, blood drinker, a heart of flame, who quarrels with the sky
and fights with fate, who burns like fire on the rushing sea." In response
to that testimony, I say, "Boo! Ugh! Yuck!" I say "To hell with being in an
intimate relationship with a trouble-maker who fights with fate and
quarrels with the sky." I can't imagine any bond that would be more
unpleasant and serve me worse. What about you, Cancerian? Do you find
Rumi's definition glamorous and romantic? I hope not. If you do, I advise
you to consider changing your mind. 2020 will be an excellent time to be
precise in articulating the kinds of alliances that are healthy for you.
They shouldn't resemble Rumi's description. (Rumi translation by Zara
Houshmand.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The 18th-century comic novel *Tristram
Shandy* is still being translated, adapted, and published today. Its
popularity persists. Likewise, the 18th-century novel *Moll Flanders*,
which features a rowdy, eccentric heroine who was unusual for her era,
has had modern incarnations in TV, film, and radio. Then there's the
19th-century satirical novel *Vanity Fair*. It's considered a classic even
now, and appears on lists of best-loved books. The authors of these three
books had one thing in common: They had to pay to have their books
published. No authority in the book business had any faith in them. You
may have similar challenges in 2020, Leo—and rise to the occasion with
equally good results. Believe in yourself!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I'll present two possible scenarios that could
unfold for you in 2020. Which scenario actually occurs will depend on
how willing you are to transform yourself. Scenario #1. Love is awake,
and you're asleep. Love is ready for you but you're not ready for love. Love
is hard to recognize because you think it still looks like it did in the past.
Love changed its name, and you didn't notice. Scenario #2. Love is awake
and you're waking up. Love is ready for you and you're making yourself
ready for love. Love is older and wiser now, and you recognize its new
guise. Love changed its name, and you found out. (Thanks to Sarah and Phil
Kaye for the inspiration for this horoscope.)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Renowned Greek sculptor Praxiteles created
some famous and beloved statues in the fourth century B.C. One of his
pieces, showing the gods Hermes and Dionysus, was displayed inside the
Temple of Hera in Olympia. But a few centuries later an earthquake
demolished the Temple and buried the statue. There it remained until
1877, when archaeologists dug it out of the rubble. I foresee a
metaphorically equivalent recovery in your life, Libra—especially if
you're willing to excavate an old mess or investigate a debris field or
explore a faded ruin.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Over a period of 74 years, the Scorpio
philosopher and author Voltaire (1694–1778) wrote so many letters to
so many people that they were eventually published in a series of 98
books, plus nine additional volumes of appendixes and indexes. I would
love to see you communicate that abundantly and meticulously in 2020,
Scorpio. The cosmic rhythms will tend to bring you good fortune if you do.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Picasso was one of the most influential
artists of the twentieth century. He was also the richest. At the end of his
life, experts estimate his worth was as much as $250 million, equivalent
to $1.3 billion today. But in his earlier adulthood, while Picasso was
turning himself into a genius and creating his early masterpieces, he
lived and worked in a small, seedy, unheated room with no running water
and a toilet he shared with twenty people. If there will be ever in your life
be a semblance of Picasso's financial transformation, Sagittarius, I'm
guessing it would begin this year.
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Homework: Figure out how you might transform yourself in order for the
world to give you what you yearn for. 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
2020 Rob Brezsny
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