Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
NOVEMBER 6, 2013
FreeWillAstrology.com
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My book
PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA
is available at Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia
or Powells: bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
Below is an excerpt.
TORRENTIAL PRONOIA THERAPY, Part One
Experiments and exercises in becoming a blasphemously reverent,
lustfully compassionate, eternally changing Master of Transgressive
Beauty
1. Take inventory of the extent to which your "No"
reflex dominates your life. Notice for 24 hours (even in your
dreams) how often you say or think:
"No."
"That's not right."
"I don't like them."
"I don't agree with that."
"They don't like me."
"That should be different from what it is."
Then retrain yourself to say "YES" at least 51 percent
of the time. Start the transformation by saying "YES"
aloud 22 times right now.
2. Go to the ugliest or most forlorn place you know -- a drugstore
parking lot, the front porch of a crack house, a toxic waste dump,
or the place that symbolizes your secret shame -- and build a
shrine devoted to beauty, truth, and love.
Here are some suggestions about what to put in your shrine: a
silk scarf; a smooth rock on which you've inscribed a haiku or
joke with a felt-tip pen; coconut cookies or ginger candy; pumpkin
seeds and an origami crane; a green kite shaped like a dragon;
a music CD you love; a photo of your hero; a votive candle carved
with your word of power; a rubber ducky; a bouquet of fresh beets;
a print of Van Gogh's Starry Night.
3. Late at night when there's no traffic, stride down the middle
of an empty road that by day is crawling with cars. Dance, careen,
and sing songs that fill you with pleasurable emotions. Splay
your arms triumphantly as you extemporize prayers in which you
make extravagant demands and promises. Give pet names to the trees
you pass, declare your admiration for the workers who made the
road, and celebrate your sovereignty over a territory that usually
belongs to heavy machines and their operators.
4. What causes happiness? Brainstorm about it. Map out the foundations
of your personal science of joy. Get serious about defining what
makes you feel good. To get you started, I'll name some experiences
that might rouse your gratification: engaging in sensual pleasure;
seeking the truth; being kind and moral; contemplating the meaning
of life; escaping your routine; purging pent-up emotions. Do any
of these work for you? Name at least ten more.
5. In response to our culture's ever-rising levels of noise and
frenzy, rites of purification have become more popular. Many people
now recognize the value of taking periodic retreats. Withdrawing
from their usual compulsions, they go on fasts, avoid mass media,
practice celibacy, or even abstain from speaking. While we applaud
cleansing ceremonies like this, we recommend balancing them with
periodic outbreaks of an equal and opposite custom: the Bliss
Blitz.
During this celebration, you tune out the numbing banality of
the daily grind. But instead of shrinking into asceticism, you
indulge in uninhibited explorations of joy, release, and expansion.
Turning away from the mildly stimulating distractions you seek
out when you're bored or worried, you become inexhaustibly resourceful
as you search for unsurpassable sources of cathartic pleasure.
Try it for a day or a week: the Bliss Blitz.
6. When many people talk about their childhoods, they emphasize
the alienating, traumatic experiences they had, and fail to report
the good times. This seems dishonest -- a testament to the popularity
of cynicism rather than a reflection of objective truth.
I don't mean to downplay the way your early encounters with pain
demoralized your spirit. But as you reconnoiter the promise of
pronoia, it's crucial for you to extol the gifts you were given
in your early years: all the helpful encounters, kind teachings,
and simple acts of grace that helped you bloom.
In Homer's epic tale The Odyssey, he described nepenthe,
a mythical drug that induced the forgetfulness of pain and trouble.
I'd like to imagine, in contrast, a potion that stirs up memories
of delight, serenity, and fulfillment. Fantasize that you have
taken such a tonic. Spend an hour or two remembering the glorious
moments from your past.
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My book THE TELEVISIONARY ORACLE has been reprinted:
bit.ly/Televisionary
See the cover: bit.ly/yHbHHF
Here's what it's about: bit.ly/xpMhTz
Read the first four chapters here: bit.ly/y6br6D
Here's what novelist Tom Robbins said after reading the book:
"I've seen the future of American literature and its name
is Rob Brezsny."
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
All of this week's Pronoiac Resources come directly from the
wonderful pronoiac YES! magazine: yesmagazine.org
For Safer Factories, CEOs Are Listening to Workers on the Frontlines
The future of corporate responsibility means hearing firsthand
from factory workers about their conditions.
tinyurl.com/m57tskl
Slave and Slaveholder Descendants Break Free of History's Trauma
-- Together
Responding to past traumas like slavery and acts of terrorism
can heal us -- and future generations.
tinyurl.com/kzpx4xy
A Roadmap to a World Without Drone Proliferation?
It's not too late to forge a drone-free future. International
treaties have already helped ban landmines and nuclear weapons
testing and could mitigate drone warfare's worst atrocities.
tinyurl.com/mj4zjfv
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They are not advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own personal nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning November 7
Copyright 2013 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"Not for all the whiskey in heaven," begins a poem
by Charles Bernstein. "Not for all the flies in Vermont.
Not for all the tears in the basement. Not for a million trips
to Mars. Not for all the fire in hell. Not for all the blue in
the sky." Can you guess what he's driving at? Those are the
things he will gladly do without in order to serve his passion.
"No, never, I'll never stop loving you," he concludes.
According to my understanding of your astrological cycle, Scorpio,
now is a good time for you to make a comparable pledge. What is
the one passion you promise to devote yourself to above all others?
And what are you willing to live without in order to focus on
that passion? Be extravagant, pure, wild, and explicit.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Dmitri Razumikhin is a character in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel
Crime and Punishment. His surname is derived from the
Russian word for "reason." At one point he makes a drunken
speech that includes these observations: "It's by talking
nonsense that one gets to the truth! Not one single truth has
ever been arrived at without people first having talked a dozen
reams of nonsense, even ten dozen reams of it." Let's make
this a centerpiece of your current strategy, Sagittarius. Just
assume that in order to ferret out the core insights that will
fuel your next transformations, you may need to speak and hear
a lot of babble.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
At the 2013 Grammy Awards, actor Neil Patrick Harris introduced
the band Fun this way: "As legendary gangster rap icon Katharine
Hepburn once said, if you follow all the rules, you miss all the
fun." Everything about that vignette is a template for the
approach you can use now with great success. You should gravitate
toward festive events and convivial gatherings. Whenever possible,
you should sponsor, activate, and pave the way for fun. Toward
that end, it's totally permissible for you to tell amusing stories
that aren't exactly factual and that bend the rules not quite
to the breaking point.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Some spiritual traditions regard the ego as a bad thing. They
imply it's the source of suffering -- a chronically infected pustule
that must be regularly lanced and drained. I understand this argument.
The ego has probably been the single most destructive force in
the history of civilization. But I also think it's our sacred
duty to redeem and rehabilitate it. After all, we often need our
egos in order to get important things done. Our egos give us the
confidence to push through difficulties. They motivate us to work
hard to achieve our dreams. Your assignment, Aquarius, is to beautify
your ego as you strengthen it. Build your self-esteem without
stirring up arrogance. Love yourself brilliantly, not neurotically.
Express your talents in ways that stimulate others to express
their talents.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Dr. Seuss wrote his children's books in English, but he liked
to stretch the limits of his native tongue. "You'll be surprised
what there is to be found once you go beyond 'Z' and start poking
around," he said. One of the extra letters he found out there
was "yuzz," which he used to spell the made-up word
"yuzz-a-ma-tuzz." I recommend that you take after Seuss
-- not only in the way you speak, but also in the ways you work,
play, love, dream, and seek adventure. It's time to explore the
territory beyond your comfort zone.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
I'm not a big fan of fear. It gets far more attention than it
deserves. The media and entertainment industries practically worship
it, and many of us allow ourselves to be riddled with toxic amounts
of the stuff. Having said that, though, I do want to put in a
good word for fear. Now and then, it keeps us from doing stupid
things. It prods us to be wiser and act with more integrity. It
forces us to see the truth when we might prefer to wallow in delusion.
Now is one of those times for you, Aries. Thank your fear for
helping to wake you up.
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YOU NEED MAGIC
Every day, you have to wade through a relentless surge of soul-less
information. The experience tends to shut down your sense of wonder.
Every day, you're over-exposed to narratives that have been sucked
free of delight and mystery. That's why you have to make strenuous
efforts to keep your world enchanted.
I aspire to contribute to the sacred cause of feeding your sense
of wonder and enchantment. That's one of my main motivations for
offering you my free horoscopes, book excerpts, and music.
If you ever want more of that stuff, and think it's worth paying
for, try out my Expanded Audio Horoscopes. They're four-to-five-minute
meditations on the current state of your destiny.
Go here to access them: RealAstrology.com
You can also listen over the phone by calling
1-877-873-4888
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TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
"Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed
feelings," wrote W.H. Auden. If that's true, then your job
is to be a poet right now. You seem to be awash in a hubbub of
paradoxical inclinations, complete with conflicting desires and
mismatched truths. There's no shame or blame in that. But you
do have a responsibility to communicate your complexity with honesty
and precision. If you can manage that, people will treat you with
affection and give you extra slack. They might even thank you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
What can you do to improve your flow? Are there obstructions
in your environment that keep you from having a more fluidic rhythm?
Do you harbor negative beliefs that make it harder for life to
bestow its natural blessings on you? Now is the time to take care
of glitches like these, Gemini. You have more power than usual
to eliminate constrictions and dissolve fixations. Your intuition
will be strong when you use it to drum up graceful luck for your
personal use. Be aggressive. Be bold. Be lyrical. It's high time
for you to slip into a smooth groove.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
In the beginning of his novel The White Castle, Orhan
Pamuk offers this meditation: "To imagine that a person who
intrigues us has access to a way of life unknown and all the more
attractive for its mystery, to believe that we will begin to live
only through the love of that person--what else is this but the
birth of great passion?" How do you respond to this provocative
statement, Cancerian? Here are my thoughts: On the one hand, maybe
it's not healthy for you to fantasize that a special someone can
give you what you can't give yourself. On the other hand, believing
this is true may inspire you to take an intriguing risk that would
catalyze invigorating transformations. Which is it? Now is a good
time to ruminate on these matters.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Canadians Tommy Larkin and Stephen Goosney are biological brothers,
but they were adopted by different families when they were young.
They lost touch for almost 30 years. Once they began looking for
each other, it didn't take long to be reunited. Nor did they have
to travel far to celebrate. It turns out that they were living
across the street from each other in the same small town in Newfoundland.
I foresee a metaphorically similar experience in your future,
Leo. When you get reconnected to your past, you will find that
it has been closer than you realized.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
This will be an excellent week for you to talk with yourself
-- or rather, with yourselves. I'm envisioning in-depth conversations
between your inner saint and your inner evil twin . . . between
the hard worker and the lover of creature comforts . . . between
the eager-to-please servant of the greater good and the self-sufficient
smartie who's dedicated to personal success. I think that in at
least some of these confabs, you should speak every word out loud.
You should gesture with your hands and express colorful body language.
It's prime time for your different sub-personalities to get to
know each other better.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
In the coming week you will probably have more luck than usual
if you play keno, craps, blackjack, bingo, or roulette. People
who owe you money will be inclined to pay you back, so you might
want to give them a nudge. I won't be surprised if you find a
$20 bill lying on the sidewalk or if a store cashier accidentally
gives you way too much change. In the wake of these tendencies,
your main assignment is to be alert for opportunities to increase
your cash flow. For example, if you wake up in the middle of the
night with an idea for boosting your financial fortunes, I hope
you will have a pen and notebook by the bed to write it down.
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HOMEWORK:
Make two fresh promises to yourself: one that's easy to keep
and one that's at the edge of your capacity to live up to.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2013 Rob Brezsny
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