Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 17, 2007
FreeWillAstrology.com
+
"We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities."
- Pogo
"Strictly speaking there are no enlightened people, there
is only enlightened activity."
- Suzuki Roshi
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My book
"PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR
PARANOIA:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring
to Shower You with Blessings"
is available for sale at
tinyurl.com/qaj62
To read news and features from
the book, go here:
tinyurl.com/lhwx2
Here's an excerpt:
THE SCIENCE OF THE INVISIBLE
"Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?"
Biologist E.O. Wilson says that philosophers long ago stopped
addressing these questions, believing them to be unanswerable.
Scientists stepped forward to fill the vacuum, and now act as
supreme arbiters of the mysteries that were once the province
of philosophers.
I'm saddened by the loss. The scientific method is a tremendous
tool for understanding the world, but most scientists refuse to
use it to study phenomena that can't be repeated under controlled
conditions and that can't be explained by current models of reality.
I think it's impossible to explore the Big Three Questions without
taking into account all that elusive, enigmatic, unrepeatable
stuff. The more accidental, the more true.
I can at least hope the scientists won't object if the Beauty
and Truth Laboratory borrows their disciplined objectivity and
incisive reasoning to explore areas they regard as off-limits.
Two groups that may not mind are the astronomers and astrophysicists.
More than other scientists, they've been compelled to develop
an intimate relationship with invisible realms. In fact, they've
come to a conclusion that's eerily similar to the assessment of
shamans and mystics from virtually every culture throughout history:
Most of reality is hidden from our five senses.
"Ninety-six percent of the universe is stuff we've never
seen," cosmologist Michael Turner told Geoff Brumfiel in
the March 13, 2003 issue of the journal Nature. To be
exact, the cosmos is 23 percent dark matter and 73 percent dark
energy, both of which are missing. All the stars and planets and
moons and asteroids and comets and nebulas and gas clouds together
comprise the visible four percent.
So where is the other 96 percent? No one knows. It's not only
concealed from humans, it's imperceptible to the instruments humans
have devised, and its whereabouts can't be predicted by any existing
theories.
+
What will happen as the implications of these data filter down
to the other sciences? Maybe there will be a reversal of a long-term
trend documented by Nature. In 1914, the magazine found that 30
percent of the world's top scientists believed in God. In a second
survey in 1934, the number dropped to 15 percent, and by 1998
it was seven percent.
If the fact that most of reality is hidden doesn't spur them
to reconsider the possibility of a divine presence working behind
the scenes, maybe it will move them to become more sympathetic
to a project like ours, which has the intention of adopting the
scientific approach to an exploration of the invisible.
+
The 17th-century Church fathers wouldn't look through Galileo's
telescope. Why bother? Catholic doctrine was clear that moons
could not possibly circle Jupiter.
Likewise, most of today's scientists refuse to consider the possibility
that there have been unidentified craft flying around our skies
for years. "It's absurd to think that beings from other star
systems could traverse the vast distances between them and us,"
they declare, "so why should we even examine the so-called
evidence?" Their certainty contains a giant bias: that creatures
from other worlds can only have ships that are limited to the
means of propulsion we have thus far discovered here on Earth.
Arthur Koestler said that to the ancient Greeks, electricity
was as bizarre and unfathomable as telepathy is to us in the modern
era. Yet electricity existed before it was believed in. It's just
that there was no theory that proposed its existence and no mechanism
to gather evidence for it. Culture had to change in order for
people to be able to know where and how to look.
Today we're aware of electricity as well as black holes, X-rays,
radio waves, and infrared light because we have instruments to
extend our senses. But is it wise to assume that we have finally
developed every sense-extending technology that will ever be invented?
When Columbus's ships first appeared on the horizon, the Arawaks
on the island of Guanahaní saw them as floating monsters.
They didn't have the conceptual framework to know them for what
they literally were. You can't perceive what you can't conceive.
An adult who has been blind all his life and through surgery is
suddenly given the power of sight takes quite a while to be able
to learn to interpret what he's looking at. The eye alone doesn't
see. The mind and the cultural biases it has internalized interpret
and shape the raw data.
Modern science is a fabulous way of understanding reality, but
it's not the crown of creation. Just as meteors, dinosaurs, and
electricity (and dark matter and neutrinos and gamma rays) were
inconceivable and therefore not real to earlier generations, there
may be phenomena here with us now that won't be real until our
culture and minds and instruments evolve further. Will they include
events we now call UFOs and angels? Maybe. Maybe not. Let's remain
curious.
+
"Ancient stars in their death throes spat out atoms like
iron which this universe had never known. The novel tidbits of
debris were sucked up by infant suns which, in turn, created yet
more atoms when their race was run. Now the iron of old nova coughings
vivifies the redness of our blood.
"If stars step constantly upward, why should the global
interlace of humans, microbes, plants, and animals not move upward
steadily as well? The horizons toward which we must soar are within
us, anxious to break free, to emerge from our imaginings, then
to beckon us forward into fresh realities.
"We have a mission to create, for we are evolution incarnate.
We are her self-awareness, her frontal lobes and fingertips. We
are second- generation star stuff come alive. We are parts of
something 3.5 billion years old, but pubertal in cosmic time.
We are neurons of this planet's interspecies mind." —Howard
Bloom, Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big
Bang to the 21st Century
+
Physicist Roger Penrose, who helped to develop the theories about
black holes, has said that the chance of an ordered universe happening
at random is nil: one in 10 to the 10th to the 30th, a number
so large that if you programmed a computer to write a million
zeros per second, it would take a million times the age of the
universe just to write the number down.
+
"The big bang is so preposterous," says renowned astronomer
Allan Sandage, co-discoverer of the quasar, "and the chain
of events it set off so unlikely, that it makes most sense when
thought of as a 'miracle.'"
For the sake of argument, let's assume Sandage is right. If the
very beginning of the universe itself was a miracle, then everything
in it is impregnated with the possibility of smaller but equally
marvelous miracles.
+
"When a scientist states that something is possible, he
is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible,
he is very probably wrong," said Arthur C. Clarke, who, due
to his contributions to science, has had an asteroid and dinosaur
species named after him.
+
"The laws of physics appear 'fine tuned' for our existence.
Even slight deviations in the laws would result in a universe
devoid of stars and life. If, for instance, the force of gravity
were just a few percent weaker it could not squeeze and heat the
matter inside stars to the millions of degrees that are necessary
to trigger sunlight generating nuclear reactions. If gravity were
only a few percent stronger, however, it would heat up stars,
causing them to consume their fuel faster. They would not exist
for the billions of years needed for evolution to produce intelligence.
This kind of fine tuning is widespread." —Marcus Chown,
"Radical Science: Did Angels Create the
Universe?," The Independent, March 15, 2002
+
"Something unknown is doing we don't know what." —Astrophysicist
Arthur Eddington, "one of three persons in the world who
understood Einstein's theory of general relativity"
. . . To read the rest of this piece, go to page 227 of the book.
To read excerpts from the book at Google Books, go here: tinyurl.com/3y7u9f
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To read news and features from my book, go here: tinyurl.com/lhwx2
You can buy the book here:
AMAZON
tinyurl.com/qaj62
POWELLS
tinyurl.com/3dsx6q
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
GOOD NEWS IS CONTAGIOUS AND SPREADING
New "positive change" magazines thrive
tinyurl.com/yo57bh
THE EVOLUTION OF GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS
tinyurl.com/2vyh6j
"The noosphere is 'a living tissue of consciousness' enclosing
the Earth." And the Internet could be the mechanical infrastructure
of the noosphere.
PRIMAL JOY CAPTURED ON CAMERA
Dolphin Birth
tinyurl.com/2hx545
(Note: I endorse these because
I like them. These are not advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own personal
nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning October 18
Copyright 2007 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
In China's Zhejiang province, many of the cities specialize in
making a single product. For example, Datang township manufactures
one-third of all the world's socks. Wenzhou creates 70 percent
of the cigarette lighters on the planet, and Songxia has cornered
the market on umbrellas, churning out 350 million per year. I'm
not necessarily saying that you should copy their approach, Libra.
But if you have recently had inklings about cultivating a certain
specialty you'd love to pursue with more intensity, the coming
weeks will be an ideal time to set that process in motion.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"Dear Rob: Three and a half weeks ago, I had a dream that
I was an archaeologist excavating hell. I took comfort in the
fact that I was just a visitor, not a permanent resident, but
my stay there was . . . well, hellish. Whenever I found an interesting
artifact buried in the hot dirt, it would spontaneously ignite.
I narrowly avoided getting burned again and again. Anyway, my
actual waking life has pretty much felt like that ever since the
dream. Yesterday, though, I felt the torment lifting. And then
last night I dreamed of floating in a fireproof boat along an
underground molten river of lava that eventually took me out to
a green meadow under blue skies. Whew! -Sizzled Scorpio."
Dear Sizzled: Your journey parallels that of many of your fellow
Scorpios. Welcome back from hell!
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
While traveling long distances, birds are constantly napping.
They can close one eye at a time, allowing one side of the brain
to sleep. I hope you'll be inspired by their technique in the
coming weeks, Sagittarius -- not by literally snoozing in mid-air
as you soar across abysses during your leaps of faith, of course.
Rather, I'm suggesting that you become a master of inducing utter
relaxation for brief spells between each of your daring,
heart-pounding exploits. Stay poised, good-natured, and full of
grace even while you're in the thick of adventure.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Your symbol of power in the coming week is a book by businessman
Robert Rodin entitled Free, Perfect, and Now: Connecting to
the Three Insatiable Customer Demands. He talks about how
important it is for a company to provide cheap prices, excellent
quality, and quick responses. That's a good formula for you to
remember as you brainstorm about how to generate greater interest
in the products and services and experiences you create. But I
also encourage you to meditate on the theme of free, perfect,
and now in its widest sense. How can you bring more of the
exuberant spirit of that mantra into everything you do?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AUDIO LOVE LETTERS
In addition to the horoscopes
that come to you in this newsletter,
I create
more in-depth audio horoscopes
for your inspiration. I think of
them as
my love letters to you. They're
$6 if you access them on the Web,
or
$1.99 per minute over the phone.
Try them at RealAstrology.com.
They're available by phone at
1-877-873-4888
or 1-900-950-7700.
"Your expanded astrology thingees
help me remember who I really am."
-
Gareth N., Toronto
"I never knew it was possible
to get my butt kicked and my head
patted
at the same time -- until I listened
to you, Rob." -Kristi P.,
Portland, OR
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
You now have the potential to do in your own field what painter
Joe Bravo has done in his own field: branch out in unexpected
directions and claim territory few people have ever explored.
Bravo executes his works of art not on canvases but on tortillas,
some of which are almost three feet in diameter. He earns as much
as $3,000 for his masterpieces. In your own sphere, Aquarius,
what would be the equivalent to painting on tortillas? This is
a perfect time to make a move.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In his book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy,
religious scholar Mircea Eliade speaks of Qaumaneq, a
special capacity that may be magically obtained by Eskimo shamans.
It's "a mysterious light the shaman feels inside his head,
an inexplicable searchlight, a luminous fire. It enables him to
see in the dark, both literally and metaphorically speaking, even
with closed eyes, allowing him to see through darkness and perceive
things that are hidden from others." Even if you're not an
Eskimo shaman, Pisces, you now have the potential to wield a power
with resemblances to Qaumaneq.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In his book The Primary Colors, Alexander Theroux writes
that yellow is the color of "early bruises, forbidding skies,
dead leaves, dental plaque, foul curtains, speed bumps, and callused
feet." And yet, he muses, yellow is also the color of "the
generous sun, butter, candlelight, ripening grain, translucent
amber, and spring itself." I suspect that in the coming week,
Aries, you will have encounters with a situation that is as paradoxical
as yellow. Whether your experience is more like wrapping yourself
in foul curtains or basking in the generous sun may depend largely
on whether you summon a determination to see the best in everything.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Speaking on the authority of the expansive planet Jupiter, I
hereby free you from all inferior temptations. In the coming weeks,
you will, by cosmic decree, be enticed by only the finest, most
uplifting temptations. That doesn't mean you should automatically
succumb to the charms of those temptations. The more important
point is that you should allow them to influence you -- to change
you around every which way. Trust that the impact they have on
you, as they invite you to follow them, will inspire you to express
yourself more beautifully and upgrade your relationship with yourself.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AUDIO HOROSCOPES
In addition to the horoscopes
that you're reading here, I create
more in-depth audio horoscopes
for your inspiration. Find out
more at RealAstrology.com.
The audio horoscopes are also
available by phone at 1-877-873-4888
or 1-900-950-7700.
"You told me the truth when
no one else in my life would."
-Darren H., Minneapolis
"Your wake-up calls keep
me from getting stale." -Arris
T., Aspen, CO
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Last August, a woman in Pennsylvania experienced a miracle when
she cut open an eggplant. The seeds were arrayed in the shape
of the word "God." Felicia Teske regarded it as a divine
sign that had been sent to comfort her for some difficulties she
had recently experienced. She felt deep gratitude for the gift.
Nevertheless, she cooked up the vegetable and served it to her
family for dinner, though not before saving a slice that she offered
for sale on eBay. I urge you to follow Felicia's lead in the coming
week, Gemini. Magnetize yourself to epiphanies and breakthroughs
that will simultaneously feed your soul, your body, and your bank
account.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
You could be like a thunderstorm that rejuvenates a parched landscape.
At the same time, you have the power to express yourself like
a thousand-foot waterfall. Why not take advantage of both these
potentials? Be both helpful and charismatic, nurturing and alluring.
Be of humble service as you flout your magnificence. This is one
of those grace periods when you can do good and look good and
feel good. I hereby dub thee the Flow Master.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
For years, rural villagers in China's Henan province cooked and
ate the giant bones they found buried in the earth. They believed
they were ingesting what was left of flying dragons, thereby drawing
on the creatures' healing powers. But a year ago, scientists from
the big city informed the villagers that the magic bones were
actually the skeletal remains of dinosaurs, not dragons. In the
wake of this revelation, some people have stuck to their belief
in the curative properties of the bones, while others have decided
that they were deluded and moved on. I expect that you will soon
come to a comparable fork, Leo: You'll discover surprising, possibly
disruptive information about a source whose energy you've drawn
on for a long time. Will you leave it behind or will you reinvent
your relationship? I don't know what the right decision is, only
that you should trust your own intuition, not anyone else's.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
A study by the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry
concluded that overindulgence in text messaging and emailing typically
leads to a ten-point loss in IQ, whereas pot-smoking causes a
decline of only four points. You probably won't have to worry
about either of those dangers for a few weeks, though, since you're
entering an astrological phase when your mind will be working
more efficiently than usual. In fact, given how smart you'll just
naturally be, you could actually afford to kill off some brain
cells. Even if you toke up while texting, your IQ is likely to
be above your normal level.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
HOMEWORK:
Finish this sentence: "The one thing that really keeps me
from being myself is _______." Testify by going to RealAstrology.com
and clicking on "Email Rob."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?
I'm not doing personal charts, but I highly recommend my favorite
astrological colleague, RO LOUGHRAN. Her approach closely matches
my own. In our many discussions about astrology over the years,
we've had a major influence on each other's work.
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained
intuition, emotional warmth, and
a high
degree of technical proficiency
in horoscope interpretation; she
is skilled
at exploring the mysteries of your
life's purpose and nurturing your
connection with your own inner
wisdom.
Ro is based in California, but
can do phone consultations and
otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic
boundaries.
Ro's website is at www.YourSoulJourney.com
She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Submissions sent to the Free
Will Astrology Weekly 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 such submissions
for length, style, and content.
Requests for anonymity will be
honored with submissions;
otherwise, reader names, screen
names, or initials will be used.
Please be sure to note your preference
when sending to us. We
are not responsible for unsolicited
submission of any creative
material.
Contents of the Free Will Astrology
Newsletter are Copyright
2007 Rob Brezsny
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
