Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
April 21, 2021
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: https://bit.ly/ClaimYourJoy
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Keep two pieces of paper in your pockets at all times. One says "I am a
speck of dust," and the other, "The world was created for me."
—Rabbi Bunim of P’shiskha
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WHAT YOU NEED
You need regular doses of unreasonable beauty, sublime anomalies,
beguiling ephemera, and inexplicable joys.
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YOUR SYMPTOMS?
Congratulations if you've been having any of the following symptoms:
• spontaneous eruptions of gratitude
• a declining fascination with conflict
• seemingly irrational urges that lead to interesting discoveries
• yearnings to peer more deeply into the eyes of people you care about
• a mounting inability to tolerate boring influences that resist
transformation
• an increasing knack for recognizing and receiving the love that's
available to you
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FREE THE WHOLE WORLD
If you'd like to read a succinct summary of my philosophy of life—which
can't be published here because it has forbidden words— go here:
https://tinyurl.com/FreeTheWholeWorld
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LONG LIVE YOU AND ME
Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us.
—singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson
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Long live impudence! It's my guardian angel in this world.
—Albert Einstein
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LONG LIVE THE WEEDS
Long live the weeds that overwhelm
My narrow vegetable realm !—
The bitter rock, the barren soil
That force the son of man to toil;
All things unholy, marked by curse,
The ugly of the universe.
The rough, the wicked, and the wild
That keep the spirit undefiled.
With these I match my little wit
And earn the right to stand or sit.
Hope, look, create, or drink and die:
These shape the creature that is I.
—Theodore Roethke
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Long live freedom and damn the ideologies.
—Robinson Jeffers
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Long live also the forward march of the common people in all the lands
towards their just and true inheritance, and towards the broader and
fuller age.
—Winston Churchill
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Long live all the magic we made.
—Taylor Swift
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Long live diversity, long live the earth!
—Edward Abbey
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Long live the rose that grew from concrete.
—Tupac Shakur
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Long live the pioneers, rebels and mutineers.
—X Ambassadors
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Long live your soul and may i see you do great in life.
—birthday card
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Long live "fact journalism."
—David Leonhardt
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Vive la différence!
—French proverb
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Live long and prosper.
—Spock
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Love the life you live. Live the life you love.
—Bob Marley
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Long live wanting to live in this beautiful garden of life and knowing it as
a beginner.
—Anah-Karelia Coates
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Long live transfinite mountains, the hollow earth, time machines, fractal
writing, aliens, dada, telepathy, flying saucers, warped space,
teleportation, artificial reality, robots, pod people, hylozoism, endless
shrinking, intelligent goo, antigravity, surrealism, software highs, two-
dimensional time, gnarly computation, the art of photo composition,
pleasure zappers, nanomachines, mind viruses, hyperspace, monsters
from the deep and, of course, always and forever, the attack of the giant
ants!
—science fiction author Rudy Rucker
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Instead of complaining about impermanence, we should say, ‘Warm
welcome and long live impermanence.’ We should be happy. When we can
see the miracle of impermanence, our sadness and suffering will pass.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
Here's the whole passage of the Thich Nhat Hanh quote:
We are often sad and suffer a lot when things change, but change and
impermanence have a positive side. Thanks to impermanence, everything
is possible. Life itself is possible.
If a grain of corn is not impermanent, it can never be transformed into a
stalk of corn. If the stalk were not impermanent, it could never provide us
with the ear of corn we eat.
If your daughter is not impermanent, she cannot grow up to become a
woman. Then your grandchildren would never manifest.
So instead of complaining about impermanence, we should say, "Warm
welcome and long live impermanence."
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TRUE AWE
Each morning is all mornings.
The oak tree's shadow is the messiah.
The elephant shrew and the supernova are equals.
The Honda Accord is as natural as the Grand Canyon.
The skin is a temporary boundary, and so is the planet's surface.
The swallowtail butterfly is a savant.
Logic is crazy love.
The bat-eared fox is a razor-backed musk turtle.
Jubilation is an ecologically sound strategy.
No one knows how to sing the end of time because there is no end of time.
The critically endangered white rhinoceros is a forgotten birthday.
The vulnerable arctic wolf is emancipated from sin.
Purity is a sacrilegious vortex of panic.
Listening is the apotheosis of arrogance.
Our serpent thoughts keep us linked to original mirth.
The bumble bee redeems our unfertilized prophecies.
—by me
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DO IT NOW!
It's a favorable time to diminish the power of the past to obstruct you.
It's a favorable time to commit yourself to your high ideals and beautiful
goals with such fervor and love that you render your past conditioning
irrelevant.
It's a favorable time to diminish the power of any of your conditioned
urges that are not in alignment with your soul's code.
It's a favorable time to commit yourself to your high ideals and beautiful
goals with such fervor and love that you render your disruptive
conditioned urges irrelevant.
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PSYCHOLOGICAL & SPIRITUAL
Psychological work focuses more on what has gone wrong: how we have
been wounded in our relations with others and how to go about addressing
that.
Spiritual work focuses more on what is intrinsically right: how we have
infinite resources at the core of our nature that we can cultivate in order
to live more expansively. If psychological work thins the clouds, spiritual
work invokes the sun.
—psychotherapist John Welwood
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To Welwood's ideas, I would add that the spirit is about rising above and
seeking what's most noble, while the soul is about diving in and wrestling
with exactly what is.
Both tasks are valuable. Neither realm is inherently better or more
important. If you have a bias one way or the other, it's usually best to be
conscientious about maintaining a balance.
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I call the high and light aspects of my being spirit and the dark and heavy
aspects soul.
Soul is at home in the deep, shaded valleys. Heavy torpid flowers saturated
with black grow there. The rivers flow like warm syrup.
Spirit is a land of high, white peaks and glittering jewel -_ like lakes and
flowers. Life is sparse and sounds travel great distances.
—Dalai Lama
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THE COMPASSION OF NO
'Tsültrim Allione says: "I was at a lunch with the Dalai Lama and five
Buddhist teachers at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. We were sitting in a
charming room with white carpets and many windows. The food was a
delightful, fragrant, vegetarian Indian meal. There were lovely flower
arrangements on the table.
"We were discussing sexual misconduct among Western Buddhist
teachers. A woman Buddhist from California brought up someone who was
using his students for his own sexual needs. One woman said, ‘We are
working with him with compassion, trying to get him to understand his
motives for exploiting female students and to help him change his actions.’
"The Dalai Lama slammed his fist on the table, saying loudly, ‘Compassion
is fine, but it has to stop! And those doing it should be exposed!’ All the
serving plates on the table jumped, the water glasses tipped precariously,
and I almost choked on the bite of saffron rice in my mouth.
"Suddenly I saw him as a fierce manifestation of compassion and realized
that this clarity did not mean that the Dalai Lama had moved away from
compassion. Rather, he was bringing compassion and manifesting it as
decisive fierceness. His magnetism was glowing like a fire.
"I will always remember that day, because it was such a good teaching on
compassion and precision. Compassion is not a wishy-washy ‘anything
goes’ approach. Compassion can say a fierce no!"
- Tsültrim Allione, from her book *Wisdom Rising*
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
We Can Eliminate Child Poverty. The U.S. stimulus bill includes
guaranteed monthly payments to families with children. Will it work? It
already has.
https://tinyurl.com/5jpej6pz
Singapore Shows What Serious Urban Farming Looks Like. In a city-state
that imports 90% of its food, rooftop gardens are a matter of national food
security.
https://tinyurl.com/6w6xybd8
Africa’s Wikipedia Editors Are Changing How the World Sees Their
Continent. A grassroots movement enlists Africans to write their own
story on one of the world’s biggest websites.
https://tinyurl.com/f96e7y4m
Nepal’s Endangered Rhino Population Has Grown By 16%.
https://tinyurl.com/4vjvparh
During the pandemic, many people have laid the groundwork for a better
future.
https://tinyurl.com/592y4cr2
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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 Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/548hp8y8
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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Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning April 22
Copyright 2021 by Rob Brezsny
https://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Some traditional Buddhist monks sit on city
streets in Asia with a "begging bowl" in front of them. It's a clay or iron
container they use to solicit money and food from passers-by who want to
support them. Contemporary American poet Mariannne Boruch regards
the begging bowl as a metaphor that helps her generate new poems. She
adopts the attitude of the empty vessel, awaiting life's instructions and
inspiration to guide her creative inquiry. This enables her to "avoid too
much self-obsession and navel-gazing" and be receptive—"with no agenda
besides the usual wonder and puzzlement." I recommend the begging bowl
approach to you as you launch the next phase of your journey, Taurus.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini-born Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) is
today regarded as an innovative and influential painter. But his early
years provided few hints that he would ultimately become renowned. As a
teenager, he attended naval preparatory school, and later he joined the
French navy. At age 23, he became a stockbroker. Although he also began
dabbling as a painter at that time, it wasn't until the stock market crashed
11 years later that he made the decision to be a full-time painter. Is there
a Gauguin-like turning point in your future, Gemini? If so, its early
signs might show themselves soon. This pivot won't be as dramatic or
stressful as Gauguin's, but I bet it will be quite galvanizing.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): A research team found that some people pray
for things they are reasonably sure God wouldn't approve of. In a sense,
they're trying to trick the Creator into giving them goodies they're not
supposed to get. Do you ever do that? Try to bamboozle life into offering
you blessings you're not sure you deserve? The coming weeks will be a
favorable time for you to dare such ploys. I'm not guaranteeing you'll
succeed, but the chances are much better than usual that you will. The
universe is pretty relaxed and generous toward you right now.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 2013, the New Zealand government decided to
rectify the fact that its two main islands had never been assigned formal
names. At that time, it gave both an English and M_ori-language moniker
for each: North Island, or *Te Ika-a-M_ui*, and South Island, or *Te
Waipounamu*. In the spirit of correcting for oversights and neglect, and
in accordance with current astrological omens, is there any action you'd
like to take to make yourself more official or professional or established?
The coming weeks will be a favorable time to do so.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Author Grant Morrison observes that our
heads are "big enough to contain every god and devil there ever was. Big
enough to hold the weight of oceans and the turning stars. Whole universes
fit in there!" That's why it's so unfortunate, he says, if we fill up our
"magical cabinet" with "little broken things, sad trinkets that we play
with over and over." In accordance with astrological potentials, Virgo, I
exhort you to dispose of as many of those sad trinkets and little broken
things as you can. Make lots of room to hold expansive visions and
marvelous dreams and wondrous possibilities. It's time to think bigger
and feel wilder.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author bell hooks (who doesn't
capitalize her name) has a nuanced perspective on the nature of our pain.
She writes, _Contrary to what we may have been taught, unnecessary and
unchosen suffering wounds us, but need not scar us for life." She
acknowledges that unnecessary and unchosen suffering does indeed "mark
us." But we have the power to reshape and transform how it marks us. I
think her wisdom will be useful for you to wield in the coming weeks. You
now have extra power to reshape and transform the marks of your old
pain. You probably won't make it disappear entirely, but you can find new
ways to make it serve you, teach you, and ennoble you.
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ARE YOU THE HERO OF YOUR OWN LIFE?
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that
station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." So begins
Charles Dickens' novel *David Copperfield*.
I'd like to inspire you to create a story of your own that begins with
similar words. That's why I provide these free horoscopes for you.
If you'd ever enjoy getting even more assistance from me, tune into your
EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE, which I create for you each week. 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://RealAstrology.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 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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"Your expanded horoscopes get more personal and intimate with me than
some of my closest friends. Thanks for the loving reflections."
—Ari Schlectman., Ann Arbor, MI
"When I listen to your audio 'scopes, my free will lights up."
—Alex Denares., Los Angeles
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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I love people who inspire me to surprise
myself. I'm appreciative when an ally provides me with a friendly shock
that moves me to question my habitual ways of thinking or doing things. I
feel lucky when a person I like offers a compassionate critique that nudges
me out of a rut I've been in. Here's a secret: I don't always wait around
passively hoping events like these will happen. Now and then I actively
seek them out. I encourage them. I ask for them. In the coming weeks,
Scorpio, I invite you to be like me in this regard.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "Where did last year's lessons go?"
asks Gillian Welch in her song "I Dream a Highway." Now I'm posing the
same question to you—just in time for the Remember Last Year's Lessons
Phase of your cycle. In my astrological opinion, it's crucial for you to
recollect and ruminate deeply on the breakdowns and breakthroughs you
experienced in 2020; on every spiritual emergency and spiritual
emergence you weathered; on all the scary trials you endured and all the
sacred trails you trod.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn painter Henri Matisse had a
revolutionary influence on 20th-century art, in part because of his
raucous use of color. Early in his career he belonged to the movement
known as Fauvism, derived from the French term for "wild beasts."
During his final years, he invented a new genre very different from his
previous work: large collages of brightly colored cut-out paper. The
subject matter, according to critic Jed Perl, included "jungles, goddesses,
oceans, and the heavens," and "ravishing signs and symbols" extracted
from the depths of "Matisse’s luminosity." I offer him as a role model for
you, Capricorn, because I think it's a perfect time to be, as Perl describes
Matisse, both "a hard-nosed problem-solver and a feverish dreamer."
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "The guiding motto in the life of every
natural philosopher should be, ‘Seek simplicity, but distrust it.’"
Aquarian philosopher Alfred North Whitehead wrote that, and now I'm
proposing that you use it as your motto in the coming weeks, even if
you're not a natural philosopher. Why? Because I suspect you'll thrive by
uncomplicating your life. You'll enhance your well-being if you put
greater trust in your instinctual nature and avoid getting lost in
convoluted thoughts. On the other hand, it's important not to plunge so
deeply into minimalism that you become shallow, careless, or
unimaginative.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In ancient Greek comic theater, there was a
stock character known as the *eiron*. He was a crafty underdog who
outwitted and triumphed over boastful egotists by pretending to be naive.
Might I interest you in borrowing from that technique in the coming
weeks? I think you're most likely to be successful if you approach victory
indirectly or sideways—and don't get bogged down trying to forcefully coax
skeptics and resisters. Be cagey, understated, and strategic, Pisces. Let
everyone think they're smart and strong if it helps ensure that your
vision of how things should be will win out in the end.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Blogger Emma Elsworthy wrote her "Self-
Care List." I'll tell you a few of her 57 action items, in hopes of inspiring
you to create your own list. The coming weeks will be a perfect phase to
upgrade your focus on doing what makes you feel healthy and holy. Here
are Elsworthy's ideas: Get in the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful
breakfast. Organize your room. Clean your mirror and laptop. Lie in the
sunshine. Become the person you would ideally fall in love with. Walk
with a straight posture. Stretch your body. Challenge yourself to not judge
or ridicule anyone for a whole day. Have a luxurious shower with your
favorite music playing. Remember your dreams. Fantasize about the life
you would lead if failure didn't exist.
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Homework. I'm in the mood for you to give me predictions and past life
readings. Send your psychic insights about my destiny.
Truthrooster@gmail.com
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Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2021 Rob Brezsny
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