Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
April 7, 2021
FreeWillAstrology.com
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I invite you to write down brief descriptions of the five most pleasurable moments you've ever experienced in your life. Let your imagination dwell lovingly on these memories for, say, 20 minutes. And keep them close to the surface of your awareness in the next six hours.
If you ever catch yourself slipping into a negative train of thought, interrupt it immediately and compel yourself to fantasize about those Big Five Ecstatic Moments.
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CUES AND CLUES FOR BETTER INTIMACY
• Purge yourself of an impossible longing for a person you can or should never be intimately connected with.
• Forgive and say goodbye to anyone whose influence on you isn’t healthy for you.
• Write a wild but kind letter that expresses feelings you haven’t yet found a way to reveal in person to an ally.
• Heal the effects that a past trauma or disappointment has had on your capacity to be ingeniously intimate.
• Decide what a “sacred desire” means to you. Then acquire a symbolic object that will arouse and foster sacred desire.
• Make a pact with a dear accomplice that the two of you will meditate on how you could help decipher and activate each other’s soul’s codes.
• While making love, ask a partner to sync up your breathing and join you in visualizing the same sublime image.
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DEFINITION OF REAL MAGICK
Magick: training your imagination to work in behalf of your highest purposes rather than allowing it to be a reckless conjurer of fear and illusions that leak your psychic energy.
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In response to this definition of magick, one reader asked me, "Is this done with retraining of negative thoughts to positive thoughts?"
I replied to this reader: That's complicated! It's important to acknowledge negative thoughts when they come up and see if you can trace them back to their source; see if you can discern whether they're based on objective truth. Once you do that, you might have earned the power to substitute positive thoughts for them.
The reader responded: "That’s much easier said than done. I am flooded with negative thoughts that have a hint of truth to them, but at the same time I am too hard on myself. They are exaggerated. And I can see where the truth lies in them, but I can’t seem to reclaim my power over them. It’s like knowing the truth isn’t enough. I am at odds with myself."
I replied: "Well, the retraining takes practice and diligence and commitment. Can't happen overnight. Write out a vow that you'll work on it steadily for a year and a day.
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If you'd like to donate to my cause:
1. Visit my Gift Page — 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 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: 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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SPIRIT IS EVERYWHERE, THANK GODDESS!
Amanda Yates Garcia (instagram.com/oracleofla/) writes:
In his book, The Spell of the Sensuous, ecological philosopher David Abram talks about how Western anthropologists misunderstood what indigenous oral cultures meant by “spirits.”
In the West, we have this idea that spirit is somehow separate from nature and the material world. Spirit shines in heaven or is tortured in hell, our spirit is something separate from our body.
But in indigenous/oral cultures, spirit is in everything, it is not, and can never be, disembodied.
Stones, mountains, trees and oceans have spirits.
And spirits are people, more-than-human people, and people have will and agency. People can speak and listen and are always in relationship.
This ocean speaks, its voice is the wave, the clicking of the sand and the singing of the whales.
It sees with a thousand eyes, hermit crabs and surfers and sharks. It welcomes, it casts out, it is sanguine and attacks.
We are not alone. We are surrounded by spirits that we are already in relation with, if we can get out of our own heads and show up enough to notice.
—Amanda Yates Garcia is at facebook.com/oracle.of.LA and instagram.com/oracleofla/
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Here are my thoughts in response: I am amazed at how many progressive people are adamantly materialist — rigidly and belligerently opposed to spirituality— even in the face of the fact that relationship with spirit has been a key element in virtually all indigenous cultures.
I'm especially puzzled by the narrow materialism of some environmentalists, and their apparent inability to understand that indigenous peoples' love of and relationship with the earth is inherently spiritual.
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"There is a Thai saying: Because we were never colonized, we never lost our animism, our sense that everything is alive if we have manners to collaborate. Animism is the antidote to colonialism."
—Caroline Casey ~ Coyote Network News
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Animism is Normative Consciousness. Far from being an abstract "belief system," animism is the default way that human beings experience reality. More about this in a podcast by Josh Schrei:
tinyurl.com/bd62ky4d
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"Animism is a way of approaching life that emphasizes relationships. Animists see the world as full of persons, both human and other-than-human, and prioritize living in respectful ways with these others. Animism is largely about ethics or core values that get expressed through practices, rituals, and traditions."
—tinyurl.com/yc7mxbdm
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"Indigenous and ancestral shamans know that we are all connected to the world of the animal powers, and that by recognizing and nurturing our relation with animal spirits, we find and follow the natural path of our energies.
"Yet many of us have lost this primal connection, or know it only as a superficial wannabe symbolic thing that we look up in books and medicine cards without feeding and living every day."
—Robert Moss
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More by Amanda Yates Garcia:
Yesterday, one of my “followers,” mentioned that they’d always wondered what we meant when we called in the spirits during a ceremony.
This past Full Moon for instance, we called in the Spirits of the Air, the Spirits of Spring, and the Spirits of the East - all of which are bound together in an interdependent web. They are subjectivities - beings with awareness and agency.
The Spirit of the Air moves, it thinks and speaks and watches and decides. The Crows are its eyes. The Bees are its hands. All winged creatures are Guardians of the Air; they are part of the air and not separate from it.
Because these Spirits are webs of interconnected subjectivities (just like we are – I am just as much the bacteria in my guts as I am Amanda Yates Garcia) they have agency. If we exploit them, we are harming more-than-human people.
I can imprison a bird, I can poison bees, I can spew toxins into the air, but I am doing that to a person, and that action has a cost FOR BOTH OF US.
In the colonialist West, the cost of “GETTING THINGS” is alienation and aloneness. Taking without reciprocity means a severing of relationship, but because we are all interconnected, it means that we sever ourselves from the very things that give us life.
And the worst part about it is that as we do this, as we sever all these threads of connection, we are no longer able to recognize the subjectivities around us — we can no longer see them or hear them for the people that they are. They become mute objects to us.
For every cord of relationship that we sever, we become more and more alone in the sea of trash that we create for ourselves.
Magic is important to me because it is the process by which we re-enchant the world. We shape-shift into spiders re-spinning the connections between things.
Reciprocity IS life. And I know for myself personally that I need to constantly be practicing this re-enchantment magic or I sink back into the self-serving delusion and aloneness that were made default mode for me by my culture.
Hail and welcome, Spirits of Air! Come let us honor and adore you!
(Calling in the Spirits of Air is an HONOR and a GIFT).
—Amanda Yates Garcia is at facebook.com/oracle.of.LA and instagram.com/oracleofla/
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I LOVE YOU
I love you.
You may be thinking, "You don't even know me. How can you live me?"
But if people can hate for no reason, I can LOVE.
See the meme: tinyurl.com/uj5emwpw
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PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE BIRDS
I pledge allegiance to the birds of the United States of America. And to the skies through which they fly.
See the meme: tinyurl.com/hduwe27u
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SHOUTING COMPLIMENTS
"My daughter and her neighbor friend spend a lot of the day sitting 6 feet away from the sidewalk, shouting compliments out at strangers who walk by. It's the right mood for these times.
"Just overheard: 'YOUR SHIRT MATCHES YOUR DOG AND I LIKE THAT ABOUT YOU!'"
—Bret Turner @bretjturner
See the meme: tinyurl.com/a5pucey
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
India Donates 200,000 COVID Vaccinations to Protect UN Peacekeepers Around the World.
tinyurl.com/3pnsyw6w
NASA Confirmation: Earth is Safe From Asteroid for 100 Years.
tinyurl.com/nn6sdvnr
Endangered Condors to Return to Northern California Skies After Nearly a Century.
tinyurl.com/kwfyrcz3
This High Schooler Invented Color-Changing Sutures to Detect Infection.
tinyurl.com/4xbk8hz6
A Team of Maverick Engineers Want to Roll the Geological Clock Back on Sinai and Replace Desert with Lush Greenery.
tinyurl.com/hs6jvrmd
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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: tinyurl.com/PronoiaBN
Available at Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia
A free preview of the book is available here: 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 8
Copyright 2021 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Author Susan Sontag defined "mad people" as those who "stand alone and burn." She said she was drawn to them because they inspired her to do the same. What do you think she meant by the descriptor "stand alone and burn"? I suspect she was referring to strong-willed people devoted to cultivating the most passionate version of themselves, always in alignment with their deepest longings. She meant those who are willing to accept the consequences of such devotion, even if it means being misunderstood or alone. The coming weeks will be an interesting and educational time for you to experiment with being such a person.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
In the 1930s, Taurus-born Rita Levi-Montalcini was a promising researcher in neurobiology at the University of Turin in Italy. But when fascist dictator Benito Mussolini imposed new laws that forbade Jews from holding university jobs, she was fired. Undaunted, she created a laboratory in her bedroom and continued her work. There she laid the foundations for discoveries that ultimately led to her winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. I foresee you summoning comparable determination and resilience in the coming weeks, Taurus.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Religious scholar Karl Barth (1886–1968) wrote, "There will be no song on our lips if there be no anguish in our hearts." To that perverse oversimplification, I reply: "Rubbish. Twaddle. Bunk. Hooey." I'm appalled by his insinuation that pain is the driving force for all of our lyrical self-revelations. Case in point: you in the coming weeks. I trust there will be a steady flow of songs in your heart and on your lips because you will be in such intimate alignment with your life's master plan.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
“It is not easy to be crafty and winsome at the same time, and few accomplish it after the age of six,” wrote Cancerian author John W. Gardner. But I would add that more adult Crabs accomplish this feat than any other sign of the zodiac. I'll furthermore suggest that during the next six weeks, many of you will do it quite well. My prediction: You will blend lovability and strategic shrewdness to generate unprecedented effectiveness. (How could anyone resist you?)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Staring at flames had benefits for our primitive ancestors. As they sat around campfires and focused on the steady burn, they were essentially practicing a kind of meditation. Doing so enhanced their ability to regulate their attention, thereby strengthening their working memory and developing a greater capacity to make long-range plans. What does this have to do with you? As a fire sign, you have a special talent for harnessing the power of fire to serve you. In the coming weeks, that will be even more profoundly true than usual. If you can do so safely, I encourage you to spend quality time gazing into flames. I also hope you will super-nurture the radiant fire that glows within you. (More info: tinyurl.com/GoodFlames)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Physicist Victor Weisskopf told us, "What's beautiful in science is the same thing that's beautiful in Beethoven. There's a fog of events and suddenly you see a connection. It connects things that were always in you that were never put together before." I'm expecting there to be a wealth of these aha! moments for you in the coming weeks, Virgo. Hidden patterns will become visible. Missing links will appear. Secret agendas will emerge. The real stories beneath the superficial stories will materialize. Be receptive and alert!
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EXTRA BONUS SUPPORT
Factual information and reasonable thinking alone are not sufficient to guide you through life’s labyrinthine tests. You need and deserve regular deliveries of uncanny revelation.
One of your inalienable rights as a human being should therefore be to receive mysteriously useful omens on a regular basis. In this spirit, I offer you the free weekly horoscopes you read here.
If you ever want more, and think it's worth paying for, try my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny and where you're headed.
To listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to 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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"Your Expanded Audio Horoscopes provide me with the Rest of the Story. I'm not necessarily a believer in the scientific accuracy of astrology, but I do think you've got a lot of practical wisdom to impart."
—M. Tennenbaum, New York
"No one knows more about me than me. But you're right up there near the top of the list of people who do understand something about how I tick. How is that possible?"
—R. Goren, Albuquerque
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Jungian psychoanalyst and folklore expert Clarissa Pinkola Estés celebrates the power of inquiry. She says that "asking the proper question is the central action of transformation," both in fairy tales and in psychotherapy. To identify what changes will heal you, you must be curious to uncover truths that you don't know yet. "Questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open," says Estes. I bring this to your attention, Libra, because now is prime time for you to formulate the Fantastically Magically Catalytic Questions.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
In April 1933, Scorpio-born African American singer Ethel Waters was in a "private hell." Her career was at an impasse and her marriage was falling apart. In the depths of despondency, she was invited to sing a new song, "Stormy Weather," at New York City's famous Cotton Club. It was a turning point. She later wrote, "I was singing the story of my misery and confusion, of the misunderstandings in my life I couldn’t straighten out, the story of the wrongs and outrages done to me by people I had loved and trusted." The audience was thrilled by her performance, and called her back for 12 encores. Soon thereafter, musical opportunities poured in and her career blossomed. I foresee a parallel event in your life, Scorpio. Maybe not quite so dramatic, but still, quite redemptive.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
I love to see you enjoy yourself. I get a vicarious thrill as I observe you pursuing pleasures that other people are too inhibited or timid to dare. It's healing for me to witness you unleash your unapologetic enthusiasm for being alive in an amazing body that's blessed with the miracle of consciousness. And now I'm going to be a cheerleader for your efforts to wander even further into the frontiers of bliss and joy and gratification. I will urge you to embark on a quest of novel forms of rapture and exultation. I'll prod you to at least temporarily set aside habitual sources of excitement so you'll have room to welcome as-yet unfamiliar sources.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn poet John O'Donahue suggested that a river's behavior is worthy of our emulation. He said the river's life is "surrendered to the pilgrimage." It's "seldom pushing or straining, keeping itself to itself everywhere all along its flow." Can you imagine yourself doing that, Capricorn? Now is an excellent time to do so. O'Donahue rhapsodized that the river is "at one with its sinuous mind, an utter rhythm, never awkward," and that "it continues to swirl through all unlikeness with elegance: a ceaseless traverse of presence soothing on each side, sounding out its journey, raising up a buried music." Be like that river, dear Capricorn!
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
"Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?" wrote philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In response to that sentiment, I say, "Amen!" and "Hallelujah!" Even if you will live till age 99, that's still too brief a time to indulge in an excess of dull activities that activate just a small part of your intelligence. To be clear, I don't think it's possible to be perfect in avoiding boredom. But for most of us, there's a lot we can do to minimize numbing tedium and energy-draining apathy. I mention this, Aquarius, because the coming weeks will be a time when you will have extra power to make your life as interesting as possible for the long run.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I know of four different governmental organizations that have estimated the dollar value of a single human life. The average of their figures is $7.75 million. So let's say, for argument's sake, that you are personally worth that much. Does it change the way you think about your destiny? Are you inspired to upgrade your sense of yourself as a precious treasure? Or is the idea of putting a price on your merit uninteresting, even unappealing? Whatever your reaction is, I hope it prods you to take a revised inventory of your worth, however you measure it. It's a good time to get a clear and precise evaluation of the gift that is your life. (Quote from Julia Cameron: "Treating yourself like a precious object makes you strong.")
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HOMEWORK:
Send brief descriptions of your top three vices and top three virtues. 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 2021 Rob Brezsny
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