Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
June 3, 2020
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See a pretty version of this newsletter:
https://bit.ly/YourLoveIsHeroic
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This devastating moment in history has the redemptive effect of calling
forth our deepest longings to care for each other.
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OUR SPIRITUAL WORK INCLUDES ACTIVISM
Dismantling white supremacy and dissolving racism are crucial to our
spiritual work.
Those of us who aspire to carry out the bodhisattva vow, who strive to do
the Goddess's work, who yearn to create a world in which love is the
supreme law, devote ourselves to healing the toxic bigotry that is at the
heart of the American experiment.
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Things white people can do in behalf of racial justice:
https://tinyurl.com/y7ou7rkd
https://tinyurl.com/yb4xyxks
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SACRED ACTIVISM
A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an
authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal
juggernaut of history.
On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual
and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and
compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve,
however righteous its intentions.
When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married
to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political,
economic and social institutions, a holy force - the power of wisdom and
love in action - is born.
This force I define as Sacred Activism.
_ Andrew Harvey, *The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism*
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WHERE YOUR DEEP GLADNESS AND THE WORLD'S DEEP HUNGER MEET
"God calls you to the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep
hunger meet," writes theologian Frederick Buechner.
You’re free to ignore that call, of course. You can pretend that you don’t
really know what brings you deep gladness, and you can act as if the
world’s deep hunger is of no concern to you.
But if you hope to be proud of the life you have lived when, many years
from now, you shed your mortal coil, you’ll probably at least experiment
with using Buechner’s formula as a working hypothesis.
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KEEPING YOUR BODY HEALTHY IS A GIFT TO THE WORLD
Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole
cosmos—the trees, the clouds, everything.
_Thich Nhat Hanh
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THE LIGHTNING MEDICINE
"No one can give you the lightning-medicine."
—the people who cannot give the lightning-medicine
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THE MIRACULOUS IS CLOSE
Everything is plundered, betrayed, sold.
Death’s great black wing scrapes the air,
Misery gnaws to the bone.
Why then do we not despair?
By day, from the surrounding woods,
cherries blow summer into town;
at night the deep transparent skies
glitter with new galaxies.
And the miraculous comes so close
to the ruined dirty houses—
something not known to anyone at all
But wild in our breast for centuries.
—Anna Akhmatova, "Everything is Plundered, Betrayed, Sold"
(translated by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward)
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I WANT EVERYONE TO BE LOVED
The lyrics to my simple song "I Want Everybody"
(Listen to the song: https://tinyurl.com/WantEverybody)
I want to be free
in the mystery of love
I want to be wild
when the world begins again
I want to wake up and listen
Be in love with my life and death
and I want you to be there with me
I want all the children
to have enough to eat
I want all the angry men
to destroy their own pain
I want us all to be happy
and crazy and safe and real
I want everybody to be loved
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Lots more of my music: https://soundcloud.com/sacreduproar
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THE GIFT OF ATTENTION
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.
—philosopher and activist Simone Weil
Attention is the natural prayer of the soul.
—philosopher Nicolas Malebranche
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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
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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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Feisty 103-Year-old Grandma Celebrates COVID Recovery By Drinking an
Ice Cold Bud Light
https://tinyurl.com/y7m299xf
Canadian Government Buys Hotels to House Homeless People—And Also
Rehire Workers
https://tinyurl.com/yaf2j3uh
Maasai Nature Conservancy Asks For Help To Fight Pandemic—And
100,000 People Answer
https://tinyurl.com/yctbal3a
Wear the Cap, Donate the Gown: Student Helps Donate Thousands of
Graduation Gowns to Hospitals in Need
https://tinyurl.com/y8tfztzb
After Weeks of Struggling to Make Ends Meet, Hair Stylist Surprised With
$2,500 Tip From Walk-in Customer
https://tinyurl.com/y9hfrl9u
10-Year-old Gives the Gift of Art to More Than 1,500 Kids in Shelters
and Foster Care During Quarantine
https://tinyurl.com/y9n4lbq2
People Are Installing Portable Hand-Washing Sinks for the Homeless in
Cities Across the US
https://tinyurl.com/yc6dbyrq
Homeschooled 12-Year-old Boy Designs COVID-19 Protection Device –
The Safe Touch Pro
https://tinyurl.com/y78xapew
(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 June 4
Copyright 2020 by Rob Brezsny
https://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "It's OK to live a life others don't
understand," writes author Jenna Woginrich. That's a healthy attitude for
an eccentric person like her, who taught herself by trial and error how to
run a small farm with a meager budget while all alone in the middle of
nowhere. But does her advice apply to everyone? I say yes, it does. All of
us have quirky behaviors and idiosyncratic ideas and odd feelings that
other people find hard to understand, let alone appreciate. I bring this to
your attention, Gemini, because the coming weeks will be a time when it's
best for you to emancipate yourself as much as possible from the need to
be perfectly understood as you express your raw, pure, unique self.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): I'm one of the lucky people who has never
been addicted to alcohol or drugs. What's the source of my great fortune?
Two kinds of grace are key: I suffered no abuse and trauma when I was
growing up, and my genetic make-up doesn't predispose me to self-
medicate with intoxicants. But I am indeed a bit addicted to other things,
like fearful fantasies, sexual feelings, and the urge to win arguments. So
I'm blessed in some ways, cursed in others—just like all of us! In honor of
our season of introspection, my fellow Cancerian, I invite you to do what I
just did: Count your blessings and curses. Doing so will bring you just the
right kind of healing.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): "Jacquemus Mini Le Chiquito" is the name of a
tiny purse you can buy for $522. It fits into the palm of your hand, and
won't hold much—maybe a single-use strand of dental floss, a shoe from a
Barbie doll, a snippet of a loved one's hair, an aspirin, maybe a few
crumbs from a potato chip. In any case, I don't recommend it for you. You
should be surrounding yourself with symbols of capaciousness and
roominess. You need influences that inspire you to be a spacious container.
It's time for you to welcome and receive an abundance of blessings,
inquiries, and invitations.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "Worry is a way to pretend that you have
knowledge or control over what you don’t," writes author Rebecca Solnit.
"And it surprises me, even in myself, how much we prefer ugly scenarios
to the pure unknown." Your assignment in the coming weeks is to
thoroughly incorporate Solnit's wisdom—and then wield it with tender
ferocity as you reshape your relationship with the future. See if you can
manage, if only for ten days, to fight off and dissolve the reflex to worry.
Here's a tip: Any time the agitated fantasy of an ugly scenario rises up in
your imagination, remind yourself that it's not objectively true and
immediately replace it with a fantasy of a desirable scenario.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Nobel Prize-winning Libran author William
Faulkner was asked by a cousin if he was drunk when he dreamed up the
imaginative stories and characters in his novels. The truth was that on
occasion Faulkner did indeed consume alcohol in excessive amounts.
However, he rarely indulged while actually writing. His creative ideas
mostly came from his fertile imagination, not an unhinged spirit. In the
coming weeks, I hope you will be like Faulkner during the inventive
phases he enjoyed while sober and disciplined and driven by focused
intention. The astrological omens suggest that's the best recipe for
generating original ideas and productive visions.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "What use is this howling tenderness?"
wrote eighth-century Tamil mystic poet Andal. My research on Google
reveals that no one has answered her question until now. I decided you
would benefit from hearing my response, since you are in a chapter of
your life story when howling tenderness could work to your benefit. So
here's my counsel: Howling tenderness is useful because it has the power
to shatter mysterious barriers that have been at least partially
obstructing you from exploring the frontiers of sacred intimacy.
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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.
Contrary to what some horoscope fans believe, there's no such thing as
predestination. Fate is a tricky sucker that keeps changing its mind about
where it wants to go. The stars may impel, as the astrological saying goes,
but they don't compel.
That's why I've never considered myself a fortuneteller. I prefer to think
that my greatest service is as a psychic intelligence agent, helping you
explore the hidden patterns and unconscious forces that may be affecting
your life without your full knowledge.
If I "predict" anything, it's not so much the future as the unknown part of
the present.
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.
To buy and listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to
https://freewillastrology.sparkns.com
Register and/or log in through the main page.
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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. Each forecast is 4-5 minutes long.
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"Your audio horoscopes help me love myself better, and I mean that in a
non-narcissistic way."
—Deva P., Indianapolis
"I'm really grateful for the way you pick up my telepathic requests and
answer them in your expanded audio 'scopes."
—Marion H., Birmingham, AL
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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield
articulates the spiritual medicine I think you should seek in the coming
weeks. You especially need it, and by happy coincidence, it's likely to be
available. Kornfield writes: "When we have for so long been judged by
everyone we meet, just to look into the eyes of another who does not judge
us can be extraordinarily healing." I urge you to identify the people who
can perform this service for you, then ask them point-blank to perform
this service, even if it has to happen over FaceTime or via Zoom. To
generate the good karma that will ensure this happens in just the right
way, offer to perform the same service for others.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "The changes we dread most may contain
our salvation," writes author Barbara Kingsolver. Although I mostly
agree with her conclusion, I'll also suggest that we could come up with
less melodramatic versions of it. For example, we might say, "The
adjustments we're resisting may actually be healthy." Or "The
uncomfortable transitions we're avoiding might ultimately lead to a better
version of comfort." Or "The revelations we're attempting to ignore and
deny could eventually be the source of relief and release." Do any of these
work for you right now, Capricorn? I bet at least one does.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Some people seem to think of sacredness as
being pristine and pious—an immaculate and orderly transcendence of
earthly concerns. Author and minister Marilyn Sewell has a different
perspective. "Who can order the Holy?" she asks. "It is like a rain forest,
dripping, lush, fecund, wild. We enter its abundance at our peril, for here
we are called to the wholeness for which we long, but which requires all
we are and can hope to be." I recommend Sewell's version of holiness to
you in the coming weeks, Aquarius. You're primed to upgrade and deepen
your sacred lust for life.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): When Europeans arrived in the New World,
the Iroquois Confederacy in what's now northeastern North American had
been practicing participatory democracy for 350 years. The visionary
principles of these native people ultimately influenced the formation of
the United States and its Constitution. Now would be a good time for you to
be inspired by these facts. How? You could draw teachings from the past
and use them to create your future. You could study the perspectives of
indigenous people and incorporate their wisdom into the way you live your
life. You could tune in to and explore the traditions of people you respect
and adopt them for your own use.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries poet Paul Verlaine wrote "Autumn
Song" in 1866. It became a well-known French poem, and eventually
played a role in a historical turning point. In June 1944, a top-secret
British spy organization used the poem as a code to communicate crucial
information to the French Resistance, via BBC radio, about the allies'
upcoming D-Day invasion of Normandy. In the spirit of poetry being used
to accomplish practical actions, I'm now sending out a burst of code to you,
Aries. It's adapted from another poem by Verlaine: "Delight in good-
omened fortune, baptized by the bristling scents of mint, thyme, and
clover on the wind of dawn." Regard this as a signal for you to acquire a
necessary resource, strengthen connections with key allies, and intensify
your current quest.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus philosopher Bertrand Russell
observed, "The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the
largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest." That is always an
important principle for everyone to embrace, in my opinion. But it will
be an especially essential truth for you in the coming weeks. Your
creative powers will thrive, even soar and generate blessings, to the
degree that you downplay and outwit your possessive inclinations.
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Homework: What's your favorite thing to do when you're alone? Testify:
FreeWillAstrology.com
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Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
or in response to "homework assignments" may be
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2020 Rob Brezsny
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