Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
December 9, 2020
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You don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be.
You don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations.
There’s no need to strive for a kind of perfection that’s not very
interesting to you.
You don’t have to believe in ideas that make you sad or tormented.
You don’t have to feel emotions that others try to manipulate you into
feeling.
You are free to be who you want to be.
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TRUE LIFE
"True life is lived when tiny changes occur," said Leo Tolstoy.
I agree. It's rare for us to undergo rapid, dramatic transformations in
short periods of time.
That's why it's delusional to be forever pining for some big magic
intervention that will fix everything.
The best way to alter our course is slowly and gradually, by
conscientiously revamping our responses to the small daily details.
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CHAMPIONING THE DIVINE FEMININE
Here are practical ways I carry on the work of championing and
embodying the Divine Feminine:
I regard relationship as a crucible for spiritual work.
I think of the practical expression of kindness and compassion and
ethical behavior as an essential spiritual practice.
I assume that a crucial element of spiritual practice is the consciousness
and compassion we bring to the sometimes chaotic and messy details of
being human beings.
I proceed as if loving and caring for animals and plants and the Earth is
the test of our spiritual intentions.
I regard play and fun and humor as not diversions from "serious"
spiritual work, but rather being at the center of it.
There are more, but I'll stop for now. What about you? What are the
practical ways you carry on the work of loving Goddess?
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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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HOORAY FOR OUR STORIES
"Having 'a sense of self' means possessing a set of stories about who we
are," according to William Kittredge in his book *The Nature of
Generosity.*
He says there are two basic types of stories: The first is "cautionary
tales, which warn us" and therefore protect us. The second consists of
"celebratory" tales, which we use to heal and calm ourselves.
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HOW TO INTERPRET OMENS
All omens should be interpreted favorably—as revelations about how to
solve our riddles, perpetrate liberation, avoid trouble, ease suffering,
find redemption, and perform tricky maneuvers that enable us to slip
free of our mind-forged manacles and guess the deeper meanings behind
our experiences.
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PHENOMENA THAT INSPIRE WONDER
What are mirabilia? They're phenomena that inspire wonder, winsome
curiosities, small marvels, eccentric enchantments. Here are a few:
* The National Center for Atmospheric Research reports that the average
cloud is the same weight as 100 elephants.
* The average river requires a million years to move a grain of sand
100 miles.
* With every dawn, when first light penetrates the sea, many seahorse
colonies perform a dance to the sun.
* A seven-year-old Minnesota boy received patent number 6,368,227
for a new method of swinging on a swing.
* Clown fish can alter their gender as their social status rises.
* In the Hindu epic the Mahabharata, the hero and heroine fall in love
without ever gazing upon each other, simply by hearing tales about each
other's good deeds.
* Twelve percent of the population believes that Joan of Arc was Noah's
wife.
* The closest modern relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex may be the
chicken.
* Kind people are more likely than mean people to yawn when someone
near them does.
* Singing Gregorian chants can cure dyslexia.
* All the gold ever mined could be molded into a 60-foot bust of your
mom.
* The moon smells like exploded firecrackers.
* The most frequently shoplifted book in America is the Bible.
* Black sheep have a better sense of smell than white sheep.
* There are about 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. Every
square inch of your body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.
* French author and statesman André Malraux observed that Jesus
Christ was the only anarchist who ever really succeeded.
* In his book *The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and
the Resurrection of the Dead,* physicist Frank J. Tipler offers what he
says is scientific proof that every human being who has ever lived will
be resurrected from the dead at the end of time.
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TAKING A BREAK FROM THE COLLECTIVE'S MONKEY MIND
One goal of meditation is to empty the mind of its obsessively generated
thoughts, habitual rationalizations, and addictive images.
Alas, much of the media functions as a reverse meditation machine. Not
only does it stir up your own mental clatter, it also floods you with the
seething surge of other people's private pandemoniums.
Furthermore, it delivers this rattling racket with entertaining words
and brilliant color and crystalline sound, driving it as deeply into your
psyche as your own flotsam.
What might heal the effects of the media's reverse meditations? How
about a day-long fast from all media once a month -- not just from
Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, but the thousands of other sources
that channel the collective's monkey mind?
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MY DAILY HOROSCOPES
Some people don't know that I write daily horoscopes, available as text
messages sent to your cell or smart phone.
They're shorter than the weekly 'scopes, but on the other hand they're
more frequent -- every day of the week.
My weekly horoscopes are free, but the dailies cost about 67 cents a day
if you sign up for a subscription.
If you think you might enjoy getting regular bursts of inspiration from
me to illuminate your adventures, check them out.
Go to https://RealAstrology.com. Register or log in. On the new page,
click on "Subscribe / Renew" under "Daily Text Message Horoscopes" in
the right-hand column.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates
the Soul
https://tinyurl.com/mq7s9sq
In praise of the brave people who do good acts that they risk being
demonized for. "Contemptible heroes" often suffer terrible isolation for
standing up for what's right.
https://tinyurl.com/yy3hw5ty
A Happy Life or a Meaningful One: Do We Really Need to Choose Between
Them?
https://tinyurl.com/pcw64jw
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For a lot more pronoiac resources and ideas, read my book *Pronoia Is
the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower
You with Blessings*
Available at Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/PronoiaBN
Available at Amazon: https://bit.ly/Pronoia
A free preview of the book is available here:
https://tinyurl.com/PronoiaPreview
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
December 10
Copyright 2020 by Rob Brezsny
https://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I'm envisioning a scene in which
you're sitting on a chair at a kitchen table. At the center of the table is a
white vase holding 18 long-stemmed red roses. The rest of the table's
surface is filled with piles of money, which you have just unloaded from
five mysterious suitcases you found at your front door. All of that cash is
yours, having been given to you no-strings-attached by an anonymous
donor. You're in joyful shock as you contemplate the implications of this
miraculous gift. Your imagination floods with fantasies about how
different your life can become. Now, Sagittarius, I invite you to dream
up at least three further wonderfully positive fantasies involving good
financial luck. That's the medicine you need right now.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Boisterous Capricorn novelist Patricia
Highsmith (1921–1995) once made the following New Year's Eve Toast:
"To all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange
desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I
do battle—may they never give me peace." Right now I suspect you may
be tempted to make a similar toast. As crazy-making as your current
challenges are, they are entertaining and growth-inducing. You may even
have become a bit addicted to them. But in the interests of your long-
term sanity, I will ask you to cut back on your "enjoyment" of all this
uproar. Please consider a retreat into an intense self-nurturing phase.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the French city of Strasbourg, there's
a wine cellar built in the year 1395. Among its treasures is a barrel
filled with 450 liters of wine that was originally produced in 1472.
According to legend, this ancient beverage has been tasted on just three
occasions. The last time was to celebrate the French army's liberation of
Strasbourg from German occupation in 1944. If I had the power, I would
propose serving it to you Aquarians in honor of your tribe's heroic
efforts to survive—and even thrive—during the ordeals of 2020. I'm
predicting that life in 2021 will have more grace and progress because
of how you have dealt with this year's challenges.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): There are too many authorities, experts,
know-it-alls, and arrogant ideologues trying to tell us all what to do and
how to do it. Fortunately, the cosmic rhythms are now aligned in such a
way as to help you free yourself from those despots and bullies. Here's
more good news: Cosmic rhythms are also aligned to free you from the
nagging voice in your own head that harass you with fearful fantasies and
threaten you with punishment if you aren't perfect.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): According to Taoist scholar Chad Hansen,
"Western philosophers have endlessly analyzed and dissected a cluster of
terms thought to be central to our thinking," such as truth, beauty,
reason, knowledge, belief, mind, and goodness. But he reports that
they've never turned their attention to a central concept of Chinese
philosophy: the Tao, which might be defined as the natural,
unpredictable flow of life's ever-changing rhythms. I think that you
Aries people, more than any other sign of the zodiac, have the greatest
potential to cultivate an intuitive sense of how to align yourselves
vigorously with the Tao. And you're in prime time to do just that.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): What's the cause of the rumbling at the
core of your soul? How do we explain the smoke and steam that are
rising from the lower depths? From what I can discern, the fire down
below and the water down below are interacting to produce an almost
supernatural state of volatile yet numinous grace. This is a good thing!
You may soon begin having visions of eerie loveliness and earth-shaking
peace. The clarity that will eventually emerge may at first seem dark,
but if you maintain your poise it will bloom like a thousand moons.
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MAYBE JOY AND BLISS ARE CATALYTIC SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
Assume that pleasure and happiness doesn't interfere with your
spiritual growth, but may in fact stimulate it.
Proceed on the hypothesis that cultivating delight and wonder might
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
https://RealAstrology.com
Register and/or log in through the main page.
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The cost is $6 per sign online. (Discounts are available for bulk
purchases.)
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888. The
cost is $1.99 per minute. Each forecast is 4-5 minutes long.
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"I don't much believe in astrology. But that doesn't seem to get in the way
of me deriving a whole lot of benefits from your expanded audio
horoscopes."
—A. Arrosto, Indianapolis
"You have an amazing aptitude for cutting through the lies I tell myself.
Thanks for the gentle shocks."
—T. Preneris, Toronto
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Author and student Raquel Isabelle de
Alderete writes wittily about her paradoxical desires and contradictory
qualities. In accordance with current astrological omens, I encourage you
to ruminate about your own. For inspiration, read her testimony: "I
want to be untouchably beautiful but I also don’t want to care about how I
look. I want to be at the top of my class but I also just want to do as best
as I can without driving myself to the edge. I want to be a mystery that’s
open to everybody. A romantic that never falls in love. Both the bird and
the cat."
CANCER (June 21-July 22): What would it take for you to muster just a
bit more courage so as to change what needs to be changed? How could you
summon the extra excitement and willpower necessary to finally make
progress on a dilemma that has stumped you? I'm happy to inform you
that cosmic rhythms will soon be shifting in such a way as to make these
breakthroughs more possible. For best results, shed any tendencies you
might have to feel sorry for yourself or to believe you're powerless.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Novelist Tom Robbins says you have the power
to change how you perceive the world. You can change reality—and how
reality responds to you—by the way you look at it and interpret it. This
counsel is especially useful for you right now, Leo. You have an
unparalleled opportunity to reconfigure the way you apprehend things,
and thereby transform the world you live in. So I suggest you set your
intention. Vow that for the next two weeks, every experience will bring
you a fresh invitation to find out something you didn't know before.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was
re-elected in 2019. During his campaign, the Virgo-born politician
arranged to be photographed while wearing the saffron robes of a Hindu
priest and meditating in an austere Himalayan cave. Why did he do it? To
appeal to religious voters. But later it was revealed that the "cave" was
in a cozy retreat center that provides regular meals, electricity, phone
service, and attentive attendants. It will be crucial for you to shun this
type of fakery in 2021, Virgo. Your success will depend on you being as
authentic, genuine, and honest as you can possibly be. Now is an
excellent time to set your intention and start getting yourself in that
pure frame of mind.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When author Ernest Hemingway was working
on the manuscript for his novel *A Farewell to Arms*, he asked his
colleague F. Scott Fitzgerald to offer critique. Fitzgerald obliged with a
ten-page analysis that advised a different ending, among other
suggestions. Hemingway wasn't pleased. "Kiss my ass," he wrote back to
Fitzgerald. I suggest a different approach for you, Libra. In my view,
now is a good time to solicit feedback and mirroring from trusted allies.
What do they think and how do they feel about the current state of your
life and work? If they do respond, take at least some of it to heart.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Mistletoe is a parasite that grows on trees,
weakening them. On the other hand, it has been a sacred plant in
European tradition. People once thought it conferred magical protection.
It was called "all-heal" and regarded as a medicine that could cure
numerous illnesses. Even today, it's used in Europe as a remedy for colon
cancer. And of course mistletoe is also an icon meant to encourage
kissing. After studying your astrological potentials, I'm proposing that
mistletoe serve as one of your symbolic power objects in the coming
months. Why? Because I suspect that you will regularly deal with
potencies and energies that could potentially be either problematic or
regenerative. You'll have to be alert to ensure that they express
primarily as healing agents.
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Homework: What's the one thing you don't have that would help you make
the biggest improvement in your life? FreeWillAstrology.com
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2020 Rob Brezsny
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