Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
February 19, 2020
FreeWillAstrology.com
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I overcame myself, the sufferer; I carried my own ashes to the mountains; I invented a brighter flame for myself.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
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BRAINSTORM ABOUT YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE
with the help of my 3-part EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for 2020.
My long-range, big-picture audio horoscopes for 2020 are still available for a few more weeks.
Who do you want to become between now and January 2021? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? 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 these three-part, in-depth reports, go here:
freewillastrology.sparkns.com
Register and/or log in through the main page, and then access the horoscopes by clicking on "Long Range Prediction." Choose from Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Each part is a standalone report, not dependent on the other two.
If you'd like a boost of inspiration to fuel you in your quest for beauty and truth and love and meaning, tune in to my meditations on your Big-Picture Outlook.
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Each of the three-part Big Picture reports is seven to nine minutes long. The cost is $6 per report. There are discounts for the purchase of multiple reports.
P.S. You can also listen to a short-term Expanded Audio Horoscope for the coming week.
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YOU CREATE AND CHANGE
Even if you don't call yourself an artist, you have the potential to be a dynamic creator who is always hatching new plans, coming up with fresh ideas, and shifting your approach to everything you do as you adjust to life's ceaseless invitation to change.
It's to this part of you -- the restless, inventive spirit -- that I address the following: Unleash yourself! Don't be satisfied with the world the way it is; don't sit back passively and blankly complain about the dead weight of the mediocre status quo.
Instead, call on your curiosity and charisma and expressiveness and lust for life as you tinker with and rebuild everything you see so that it's in greater harmony with the laws of love and more hospitable to your soul's code.
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TWO SECRETS
Always keep 2 pieces of paper in your pockets. One says, "I am a speck of dust;" the other, "The world was created for me."
- Rabbi Bunim
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I INVITE YOU
I invite you to speak these vows out loud:
As long as I live, I vow to die and be reborn, die and be reborn, die and be reborn, over and over again, forever reinventing myself.
I promise to be stronger than hate, wetter than water, deeper than the abyss, and wilder than the sun.
I pledge to remember that I am not only a sweating, half-asleep, excitable, bumbling jumble of desires, but that I am also an immortal four-dimensional messiah in continuous telepathic touch with all of creation.
I vow to love and honor my highs and my lows my yeses and noes, my give and my take, the life I wish I had and the life I actually have.
I promise to push hard to get better and smarter, grow my devotion to the truth, fuel my commitment to beauty, refine my emotions, hone my dreams, wrestle with my shadow, purge my ignorance, and soften my heart -- even as I always accept myself for exactly who I am, with all of my so-called foibles and wobbles.
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CUTTING LOOSE
Sometimes from sorrow, for no reason,
you sing. For no reason, you accept
the way of being lost, cutting loose from
all else and electing a world
where you go where you want to.
Arbitrary, sound comes, a reminder
that a steady center is holding
all else. If you listen, that sound
will tell you where it is, and you
can slide your way past trouble.
Certain twisted monsters
always bar the path – but that’s when
you get going best, glad to be
lost, learning how real it is
here on the earth, again and again.
– William Stafford, “Cutting Loose” in "Dancing with Joy: 99 Poems"
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RECEPTIVITY REMEDIES
To read the entire piece, go here: bit.ly/x11kmj
Alert, relaxed listening is the radical act at the heart of our pronoiac practice. Curiosity is our primal state of awareness. Wise innocence is a trick we aspire to master. Open-hearted skepticism is the light in our eyes.
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To achieve what the Zen Buddhists call "beginner's mind," you dispense with all preconceptions and enter each situation as if seeing it for the first time.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities," wrote Shunryu Suzuki in his book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, "but in the expert's there are few."
As much as I love beginner's mind, though, I advocate an additional discipline: cultivating a beginner's heart. That means approaching every encounter imbued with a freshly invoked wave of love that is as pure as if you're feeling it for the first time.
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To be the best pronoiac explorer you can be, I suggest you adopt an outlook that combines the rigorous objectivity of a scientist, the "beginner's mind" of Zen Buddhism, the "beginner's heart" of pronoia, and the compassionate friendliness of the Dalai Lama.
Blend a scrupulously dispassionate curiosity with a skepticism driven by expansiveness, not spleen.
To pull this off, you'll have to be willing to regularly suspend your brilliant theories about the way the world works. Accept with good humor the possibility that what you've learned in the past may not be a reliable guide to understanding the fresh phenomenon that's right in front of you.
Be suspicious of your biases, even the rational and benevolent ones. Open your heart as you strip away the interpretations that your emotions might be inclined to impose.
"Before we can receive the unbiased truth about anything," wrote my teacher Ann Davies, "we have to be ready to ignore what we would like to be true."
At the same time, don't turn into a hard-ass, poker-faced robot. Keep your feelings moist and receptive. Remember your natural affection for all of creation. Enjoy the power of tender sympathy as it drives you to probe for the unimaginable revelations of every new moment.
"Before we can receive the entire truth about anything," said Ann Davies, "we have to love it."
To read the rest of "RECEPTIVITY REMEDIES," go here:
bit.ly/x11kmj
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THE POWER OF PRONOIAC THINKING
"Scientific American" chimes in on the power of pronoiac thinking: "Your thoughts can release abilities beyond normal limits. Better vision, stronger muscles -- expectations can have surprising effects."
Excerpt:
"Thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. There is accumulating evidence that suggests that our thoughts are often capable of extending our cognitive and physical limits."
More: tinyurl.com/pqc4am5
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Finland's Women-Led Government Has Equalized Family Leave: 7 Months For Each Parent.
tinyurl.com/wpo2m32
No one has been able to discover the fountain of youth, but an English study indicates that a trip to your local art museum could help extend your life.
tinyurl.com/uwt4oov
If You Buy a Sapling For This Rainforest, Money Also Helps Turn Illegal Loggers into Forest Guardians.
tinyurl.com/ujww5vp
(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 February 20
Copyright 2020 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In 1908, British playwright W. Somerset Maugham reached the height of success. Four of his plays were being performed concurrently in four different London theaters. If you were ever in your life going to achieve anything near this level of overflowing popularity or attention, I suspect it would be this year. And if that's a development you would enjoy and thrive on, I think the coming weeks will be an excellent time to set your intention and take audacious measures.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Do you feel ready to change your mind about an idea or belief or theory that has been losing its usefulness? Would you consider changing your relationship with a once-powerful influence that is becoming less crucial to your life-long goals? Is it possible you have outgrown one of your heroes or teachers? Do you wonder if maybe it's time for you to put less faith in a certain sacred cow or overvalued idol? According to my analysis of your astrological omens, you'll benefit from meditating on these questions during the coming weeks.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
When she was alive more than 2,500 years ago, the Greek poet Sappho was so famous for her lyrical creations that people referred to her as "The Poetess" and the "Tenth Muse." (In Greek mythology, there were nine muses, all goddesses.) She was a prolific writer who produced over 10,000 lines of verse, and even today she remains one of the world's most celebrated poets. I propose that we make her your inspirational role model for the coming months. In my view, you're poised to generate a wealth of enduring beauty in your own chosen sphere. Proposed experiment: Regard your daily life as an art project.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Have you ever dropped out of the daily grind for a few hours or even a few days so as to compose a master plan for your life? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to give yourself that necessary luxury. According to my analysis, you're entering a phase when you'll generate good fortune for yourself if you think deep thoughts about how to create your future. What would you like the story of your life to be on March 1, 2025? How about March 1, 2030? And March 1, 2035? I encourage you to consult your soul's code and formulate an inspired, invigorating blueprint for the coming years. Write it down!
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Cancerian novelist William Makepeace Thackeray (1819–1875) is famous for Vanity Fair, a satirical panorama of 19th-century British society. The phrase "Vanity Fair" had been previously used, though with different meanings, in the Bible's book of Ecclesiastes, as well as in works by John Bunyan and St. Augustine. Thackeray was lying in bed near sleep one night when the idea flew into his head to use it for his own story. He was so thrilled, he leaped up and ran around his room chanting "Vanity Fair! Vanity Fair!" I'm foreseeing at least one epiphany like this for you in the coming weeks, Cancerian. What area of your life needs a burst of delicious inspiration?
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Who loves you best, Leo? Which of your allies and loved ones come closest to seeing you and appreciating you for who you really are? Of all the people in your life, which have done most to help you become the soulful star you want to be? Are there gem-like characters on the peripheries of your world that you would like to draw nearer? Are there energy drains that you've allowed to play too prominent a role? I hope you'll meditate on questions like these in the coming weeks. You're in a phase when you can access a wealth of useful insights and revelations about how to skillfully manage your relationships. It's also a good time to reward and nurture those allies who have given you so much.
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EXPLORING THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE
Would you like some inspiration as you muse and wonder about your upcoming adventures in 2020?
You can still buy access to my long-range, in-depth explorations of your destiny in the coming months. Each report in the three-part series is 7 to 9 minutes long.
Go to freewillastrology.sparkns.com to register and/or sign in through the main page.
Then access the horoscopes by clicking on "Long Range Prediction." Choose from Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Each part is a standalone report, not dependent on the other two.
Each of the three-part reports is seven to nine minutes long. The cost is $6 per report. There are discounts for the purchase of multiple reports.
A new short-range forecast for this week is also available.
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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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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Doom and gloom dominate the forecasts made by many prophets. They experience perverse glee in predicting, for example, that all the rain forests and rivers will be owned by greedy corporations by 2050, or that extraterrestrial invaders who resemble crocodiles will take control of the U.S. government "for the good of the American people," or that climate change will eventually render chocolate and bananas obsolete. That's not how I operate. I deplore the idea that it's only the nasty prognostications that are interesting. In that spirit, I make the following forecasts: The number of homeless Virgos will decrease dramatically in the near future, as will the number of dreamhome-less Virgos. In fact, I expect you folks will experience extra amounts of domestic bliss in the coming months. You may feel more at home in the world than ever before.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
I don't require everyone I learn from to be an impeccable saint. If I vowed to draw inspiration only from those people who flawlessly embody every one of my ethical principles, there'd be no one to be inspired by. Even one of my greatest heroes, Martin Luther King Jr., cheated on his wife and plagiarized parts of his doctoral dissertation. Where do you stand on this issue, Libra? I bet you will soon be tested. How much imperfection is acceptable to you?
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Scorpio comedian John Cleese co-founded the troupe Monty Python more than fifty years ago, and he has been generating imaginative humor ever since. I suggest we call on his counsel as you enter the most creative phase of your astrological cycle. "This is the extraordinary thing about creativity," he says. "If you just keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious." Here's another one of Cleese's insights that will serve you well: "The most creative people have learned to tolerate the slight discomfort of indecision for much longer, and so, just because they put in more pondering time, their solutions are more creative."
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Sagittarian philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) developed a vigorous and expansive vision. That's why he became a leading intellectual influence in the era known as the Enlightenment. But because of his inventive, sometimes controversial ideas, he was shunned by his fellow Jews and had his books listed on the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books. Understandably, he sometimes felt isolated. To compensate, he spent lots of time alone taking wide-ranging journeys in his imagination. Even if you have all the friends and social stimulation you need, I hope you will follow his lead in the coming weeks—by taking wide-ranging journeys in your imagination. It's time to roam and ramble in inner realms.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
"Absolute reason expired at eleven o’clock last night," one character tells another in Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt. I'm happy to report that a different development is on the verge of occurring for you, Capricorn. In recent days, there may have been less than an ideal amount of reason and logic circulating in your world. But that situation will soon change. The imminent outbreak of good sense, rigorous sanity, and practical wisdom will be quite tonic. Take advantage of this upcoming grace period. Initiate bold actions that are well-grounded in objective rather than subjective truth.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Renowned Aquarian composer Franz Schubert (1797–1828) created more than 700 compositions, some of which are still played by modern musicians. Many of his works were written on and for the piano—and yet he was so poor that he never owned a piano. If there has been a similar situation in your life, Aquarius—a lack of some crucial tool or support due to financial issues—I see the coming weeks as being an excellent time to set in motion the plans that will enable you to overcome and cure that problem.
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HOMEWORK:
I declare you champion, unvanquishable hero, and title-holder of triumphant glory. Do you accept? FreeWillAstrology.com
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Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter or in response to "homework assignments" may be published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion, including but not limited to newsletters, books, the Free Will Astrology column, and Free Will Astrology website. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, style, and content. Requests for anonymity will be honored. We are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative material.
Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright 2020 Rob Brezsny
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