Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
May 20, 2020
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We are in a collective Dark Night of the Soul, where all the stories are
scrambled into one messy and incomprehensible Zen Riddle. One set of
useful responses:
* Don’t go numb
* Be willing to dwell with poise and grace amidst the fear and
uncertainty
* Don’t indulge in primitive, runaway thinking that concocts crazy
stories
* Stay anchored in the quizzical here and now
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Dear Readers
You've been so extraordinarily kind to me lately! Thank you for your
generous donations and beautiful notes!
Here's the back story: In my last newsletter, I told you about how the
alternative weekly newspapers have been suffering financially from the
pandemic. I described how I've been allowing them to publish my
horoscopes for free, hoping that will help them survive.
This means, of course, that none of those newspapers have been paying
me, as they have done for so many years.
In response, many of you readers stepped forward to send me actual
money. I've been amazed at your largesse! So many of you have also
written me messages to express how much you love my work. I've been
touched by the deep feelings you've conveyed.
At the risk of asking too much, I will remind you of the ways you can
contribute to me:
1. Visit my Gift Page — https://paypal.me/GiftsForRob — and contribute
to me now and then via the "Friends and Family" option.
2. Commit to offering me a regular donation through my Patreon page at
https://Patreon.com/FreeWillAstrology
3. Send checks or cash to me at P.O. Box 4400, San Rafael, CA 94913.
4. Buy my Expanded Audio Horoscopes and/or Daily Text Message
Horoscopes. Go here: https://RealAstrology.com
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P.S.: No pressure, though! I understand that some of you don't have
enough money yourself, and it wouldn't make sense for you to give some
to me.
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REAL HOPE, NOT FAKE HOPE
Rebecca Solnit writes: "I use the term hope because it navigates a way
forward between the false certainties of optimism and of pessimism, and
the complacency or passivity that goes with both.
"Optimism assumes that all will go well without our effort; pessimism
assumes it’s all irredeemable; both let us stay home and do nothing.
"Hope for me has meant a sense that the future is unpredictable, and that
we don’t actually know what will happen, but know we may be able write
it ourselves.
"Hope is a belief that what we do might matter, an understanding that the
future is not yet written. It’s informed, astute open-mindedness about
what can happen and what role we may play in it.
"Hope looks forward, but it draws its energies from the past, from
knowing histories, including our victories, and their complexities and
imperfections.
"It means not being the perfect that is the enemy of the good, not
snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, not assuming you know what
will happen when the future is unwritten, and part of what happens is
up to us."
Read Rebecca Solnit's essay: https://tinyurl.com/y38m3sbu
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GOOD QUESTIONS FOR YOU
• Which aspects of your soulful beauty are potentially of greatest
service to the world?
• How can you express your uniqueness in ways that activate your most
profound generosity?
• What could you personally do to make the world a better place for our
descendants?
• What are the gifts and blessings that constitute your finest legacy?
• Can you foresee yourself becoming completely committed to
performing the magic that no one else can do?
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OPTIMISM
by Jane Hirshfield
More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape,
but the sinuous tenacity of a tree:
finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose
turtles, rivers, mitochondria, figs --
all this resinous, unretractable earth.
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WANT TO GET YOUR PERSONAL ASTROLOGICAL CHART READ?
If you want your personal chart done, I recommend a colleague whose
approach to reading astrology charts closely matches my own. She's my
wife, RO LOUGHRAN. Her website is http://www.roloughran.com .
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained intuition, emotional warmth, and
technical proficiency in horoscope interpretation. She is skilled at
exploring the mysteries of your life's purpose and nurturing your
connection with your own inner wisdom.
In addition to over 30 years of astrological experience, Ro has been a
licensed psychotherapist for 20 years. She integrates psychological
insight with astrology's cosmological perspective.
Ro is based in California, but can do phone consultations and otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic boundaries.
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HOW DO WE BECOME SKILLED THINKERS?
Williams James said, "A great many people think they are thinking when
they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
I would add that a great many people think they are thinking when they
are merely trying to rationalize their unconsciously generated and
habitual feelings.
As for myself, I'm still learning how to think. Fortunately for me, I do
keep improving.
I have steadily become more objective. I'm a better researcher. I'm more
precise in my use of language, a better evaluator of what's factual and
what's opinion-driven, more humble about my ability to grasp what's
true, and more committed to seeing things as they are rather than as I
would like them to be or hallucinate them to be.
I'm more truly skeptical—not faux skeptical as so many dogmatically
skeptical "skeptics" are.
I'm better at formulating useful questions. I know that asking good
questions is preferable to clinging to easy, pat, simplistic answers.
I've been able to critique rampant scientism, that distortion of true
science, even as I make rigorous use of the scientific method, with its
beautiful, clean, elegant approach to assessing the world.
My effort to become a better thinker has been hard work. None of it
would have happened if I hadn't been deeply committed to becoming a
better practitioner of the art of thinking.
And I still have a long way to go before I become the THINKER I could be.
What about you? How are you doing in your relationship with the art of
thinking clearly?
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One person told me, reacting to my thoughts above, that she aspires to
move beyond thought—to not stay in the duality of right/wrong,
true/false, good/bad, which in her opinion, thinking engenders.
Here's what I said in response: In my view, it's an excellent and healthy
strategy to regularly move beyond thought. We need that refreshment!
But it's also crucial to have a strong thinking function, which keeps my
discernment strong.
For me, using the thinking function does the opposite of shunting me into
dualism. It gives me a sense of the complicated nuance of everything in
the world, and makes me less likely to try to pigeonhole phenomena into
simplistic categories.
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CITIZEN OF DARK TIMES
by Kim Stafford
Agenda in a time of fear: Be not afraid.
When things go wrong, do right.
Set out by the half-light of the seeker.
For the well-lit problem begins to heal.
Learn tropism toward the difficult.
We have not arrived to explain, but to sing.
Young idealism ripens into an ethical life.
Prune back regret to let faith grow.
When you hit rock bottom, dig farther down.
Grief is the seed of singing, shame the seed of song.
Keep seeing what you are not saying.
Plunder your reticence.
Songbird guards a twig,
its only weapon a song.
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INTERNATIONAL CRYING WEEK
This is International Crying Week. You have a poetic license to sob,
mourn, lament, blubber, and weep because of deep sadness or
unreasonable joy or cathartic epiphanies or compassion for the
suffering of others or visions of the interconnectedness of all life.
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My friend Marika regards her crying spells as surrogate orgasms. They
bring a surging release of pent-up emotions, and leave her deeply
relaxed and in love with life.
Another friend, Ariane, weeps now and then out of self-pity, but more
often her sobs are triggered by overwhelming beauty, like the sight of a
dragonfly alighting beside her as she gazes on Mt. Tamalpais at dusk.
Myself, I experience my tears as a well-earned triumph, whether
they're driven by loss or fullness; they're the sign of the inner work
I've done to feel things deeply.
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In his book *Crying: the Natural and Cultural History of Tears*, Tom
Lutz asserts that people don't cry as much as they used to. The English of
the Victorian era, supposedly renowned for their stuffy behavior, put us
to shame with their abundant outpouring of tears.
So what's our excuse? There's as much, if not more, to be mournful
about nowadays; and we certainly don't suffer from a lack of events to
spur our cathartic joy and empathy.
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Would you like to volunteer to do something about the modern weeping
deficit? Because of our current Global Healing Crisis, you now have rich
opportunities to unleash extra tears.
Experiment: Walk into the hills or woods and find a large rock jutting up
out of the earth in a place that makes you feel at home. Sit down on or
next to that rock and let go of the tightly wound emotions you've been
holding onto. Sob or sigh until you achieve a spiritual release that will
free your mind and heart to feel uninhibited compassion for our global
predicament.
Ever hereafter you will call this the Crying Rock, and you will go there
whenever you need the kind of release that only a beloved natural power
spot can facilitate.
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Rambunctious singer Tom Waits is not known for his scientific
research, but a few years ago he made a valuable contribution in the
quest to measure sadness.
Holding a spoon to his cheek during an especially blue period of his life,
he found that it takes 121 teardrops to fill a teaspoon.
Building on his work, I've discovered that crying for joy causes a spoon
to overflow after only 98 tears, suggesting that they're bigger.
I invite you to do further studies on this subject. Tap into watery
breakthroughs of several varieties, ranging from the relatively poignant
to the outrageously sublime.
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In Janet Fitch's novel *White Oleander*, a character makes a list of
"twenty-seven names for tears," including "Heartdew. Griefhoney.
Sadwater. Die tränen. Eau de douleur. Los rios del corazón."
(The last three can be translated as "The Tears," "Water of Pain," and
"The Rivers of the Heart.")
I invite you to emulate this playfully extravagant approach to the art of
crying. Now is an excellent time to celebrate and honor your sadness, as
well as all the other rich emotions that provoke tears. You'll be wise to
feel profound gratitude for your capacity to feel so deeply.
For best results, go in search of experiences and insights that will
unleash the full cathartic power of weeping. Act as if empathy is a
superpower.
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BYPASSING BYPASSING
If your path to so-called spiritual "enlightenment" or "growth" or
"evolution" doesn't lead you to have more of a capacity to witness and
acknowledge the suffering of your fellow humans, then it's not
enlightenment, growth or evolution; it's "BYPASS."
—Andrew Strowbridge
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
How to Fund a Just Economic Recovery. The five principles of the
"People's Bailout."
https://tinyurl.com/y7kskye6
How I Found Racial Healing During the Pandemic
https://tinyurl.com/y8w7r37c
How to Make Black Lives Matter During COVID
https://tinyurl.com/y84jb7c3
Family-Owned Greenhouse Donates $1Million in Orchids to Healthcare
Workers in 7 Hardest Hit U.S. Cities
https://tinyurl.com/ybcocfac
For the First Time, U.S. Renewable Energy Surpasses Coal Every Day
For An Entire Month
https://tinyurl.com/y8mu432r
Guy Fieri Giving $22 Million He Raised to Restaurant Workers; Plans
Nacho Battle With Bill Murray to Give More
https://tinyurl.com/ybflj56j
Positive Podcast – Inspiring Daily COVID Updates.
https://tinyurl.com/yben72pe
(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 May 21
Copyright 2020 by Rob Brezsny
https://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "The very least you can do in your life is to
figure out what you hope for," writes author Barbara Kingsolver. "And
the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance
but live right in it, under its roof." According to my analysis of the
astrological omens, that is exactly the work you should be doing right
now, Gemini. Everything good that can and should happen for you in the
coming months depends on you defining what you hope for, and then doing
whatever's necessary to live inside that hope.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The periodic arrivals of "natural
disruption" in our everyday routines has a divine purpose, writes
Yoruba priest Awó Falokun Fatunmbi. It is "to shake consciousness loose
from complacency and rigid thinking." To be vital, he says, our
perception of truth must be constantly evolving, and never stagnant.
"Truth is a way of looking at self and World," Fatunmbi declares. "It is a
state of being rather than an act of knowing." Many Westerners find this
hard to understand because they regard truth as a "fixed set of rules or
dogma," or as a body of "objective facts." But here's the good news: Right
now, you Cancerians are especially receptive to Fatunmbi's alternative
understanding of truth—and likely to thrive by adopting it.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Novelist and war correspondent Martha
Gellhorn departed this life in 1998, but she articulated a message that's
important for you to hear right now. She wrote, "People often say, with
pride, 'I’m not interested in politics.' They might as well say, 'I’m not
interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my
freedoms, my future or any future.'" Gellhorn added, "If we mean to keep
control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics." In
my opinion, her advice is always applicable to all of us, but it's
especially crucial for you to meditate on right now. You'll be wise to
upgrade your interest and involvement in the big cultural and political
developments that are impacting your personal destiny.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): According to author and teacher Marianne
Williamson, "Ego says, 'Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace.'
Spirit says, 'Find your peace, and then everything will fall into place.'" I
think the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to take
Williamson's advice seriously, Virgo. How? By giving control of your
life to Spirit as you find your peace. In saying this, I'm not implying that
Ego is bad or wrong. In fact, I think Ego is a crucial asset for you, and
I'm hoping that in recent months you have been lifting your Ego to a
higher, finer state of confidence and competence than ever before. But
right now I think you should authorize Spirit to run the show for a
while. If you do, it will bless you with good surprises.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "Snatching the eternal out of the desperately
fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence." Playwright
Tennessee Williams said that, and now I'm conveying his insight to
you—just in time for you to dramatically embody it. According to my
astrological analysis, you now have more power than usual to accomplish
this magic trick: to create something permanent in the midst of the
transitory; to make an indelible mark on a process that has previously
been characterized by restless permutations; to initiate a bold move that
you will forever remember and be remembered for.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the course of his 73 years on the planet,
Scorpio author Paul Valéry (1871–1945) wrote more than 20 books.
But between the ages of 25 and 45, he passed through a phase he called
the "great silence." During that time, he quit writing and published
nothing. Afterwards, he returned to his life's work and was nominated
12 times for a Nobel Prize. Although your own version of a great silence
is less extreme than his, I'm happy to announce that you will emerge
from it sooner than you imagine.
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WOULD YOU LIKE FURTHER INSPIRATION?
My Expanded Audio Horoscopes offer suggestions about how you might
make best use of your time as you navigate your way through our Shared
Healing Crisis.
To buy and listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to
https://RealAstrology.com
Register and/or log in through the main page.
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The cost is $6 per sign. (Discounts are available for bulk purchases.)
You can also access the horoscopes for $1.99 per minute by phone at 1-
877-873-4888.
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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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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I'm sad that my two favorite 19th-
century poets were unfamiliar with each other's poetry. Walt Whitman
was 11 years older than Emily Dickinson, but didn't know her work.
Dickinson had heard of Whitman, but didn't read his stuff. Their styles
were indeed very different: hers intimate, elliptical, psychologically
acute; his expansive, gregarious, earthy. But they were alike in being
the most innovative American poets of their time, and equally
transgressive in their disregard for standard poetic forms. If there were
such a thing as time travel, I'd send one of you Sagittarians back to set up
a meeting between them. Acts of innovative blending and creative
unifying will be your specialties in the coming weeks.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The fictional character Sherlock Holmes
(born January 6, and thus a Capricorn) is a brilliant logician and acute
observer who has astonishing crime-solving skills. On the other hand,
according to his friend Dr. Watson, he "knows next to nothing" about
"contemporary literature, philosophy, and politics." So he's not a well-
rounded person. He's smart in some ways, dumb in others. Most of us fit
that description. We are both brilliant and ignorant; talented and inept;
interesting and boring. According to my analysis of the astrological
omens, the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to hone and
cultivate the less mature aspects of your own nature. I bet you'll reap
rich rewards by doing so.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "People become like what they love,"
observed theologian St. Catherine of Siena. That'll be an interesting truth
for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. You'll attract experiences
that are intense reflections of the kind of love you have cultivated and
expressed for quite some time. You'll be blessed in ways similar to the
ways you have blessed. You'll be challenged with questions about love
that you have not been dealing with. And here's a promise for the future:
You'll have the opportunity to refine and deepen your approach to love so
as to transform yourself into more of the person you'd like to become.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "Humanity is a mystery," wrote author
Fyodor Dostoevsky. "The mystery needs to be unraveled, and if you spend
your whole life unraveling it, you haven't wasted your time. I am
studying that mystery because I want to be a complete human being." I
love this tender perspective on the preciousness of the Great Riddle
we're all immersed in. It's especially useful and apropos for you to adopt
right now, Pisces, because you are undergoing an unusually deep and
intense communion with the mystery. As you marinate, you shouldn't
measure your success and good fortune by how much new understanding
you have attained, but rather by how much reverence and gratitude you
feel and how stirring your questions are.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Excellence does not require perfection,"
wrote Aries author Henry James. Now I'm conveying this brilliant
counsel to you—just in time for the season when it will make good sense
to strive for shining excellence without getting bogged down in a
debilitating quest for perfection. Have fun re-committing yourself to
doing the best you can, Aries, even as you refuse to be tempted by the
unprofitable lure of absolute purity and juvenile forms of idealism.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): To generate an ounce of pure cocaine, you
must collect 52 pounds of raw coca leaf and work hard to transform it.
But please don't do that. Fate won't be on your side if you do. However, I
will suggest that you consider undertaking a metaphorically comparable
process—by gathering a sizable amount of raw material or basic stuff
that will be necessary to produce the small treasure or precious
resource that you require.
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What has been your favorite lesson during our Global Healing Crisis?
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2020 Rob Brezsny
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