Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter February 18, 2015

 Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
 February 18, 2015
 FreeWillAstrology.com

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My book PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA is a big, heavy physical object. It's 400 pages long. It's eight-and-a-half inches wide and eleven inches tall, and weighs almost three pounds.

Naturally, people have been bugging me to create an e-book version so they could take it with them as they travel. That's finally happening. It will soon be on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks. In the meantime, you can buy an ePub version directly from me. Send $12 to my Paypal account and I will email you a link to download the e-book.

My Paypal address is televisionary@comcast.net.

Or go here to get a direct link to my Paypal account: bit.ly/eePronoia

"I have seen the future of American literature and its name is Rob Brezsny." - Tom Robbins, author of Still Life with Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, Another Roadside Attraction, and Skinny Legs and All

You can also, of course, buy a hard copy edition of the book. Here are three places to do that:

Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia
Powells: bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
Barnes & Noble: bit.ly/PronoiaBN

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Below are excerpts from PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA

Traditionally, the Seven Deadly Sins-"actions most likely to wound the soul"-are pride, lust, gluttony, anger, envy, sloth, and covetousness. We have formulated a fresh set of soul-harmers, the Four Foolish Virtues. They are as follows:

1. being analytical to such extremes that you repress your intuition;

2. sacrificing your pleasure through a compulsive attachment to duty;

3. tolerating excessive stress because you assume it helps you accomplish more;

4. being so knowledgeable and opinionated that you neglect to be curious.

Any others you'd like to add?

- bit.ly/Pronoia

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Every act of genius, Carl Jung said, is an act "contra naturam": against nature. Indeed, every effort to achieve psychological integration requires a knack for breaking out of the trance of normal daily life -- to do what doesn't come natural.

The eighteenth-century mystic Jacob Boehme had a similar perspective. The great secret to becoming enlightened, he said, is "to walk in all things contrary to the world."

Qabalist teacher Paul Foster Case agreed. He said that living an ethical and spiritually intelligent life demands that we reverse the usual ways of thinking, speaking, and doing.

The way I see it, tending to my sanity and being in service to the world require me to be in a chronic state of rebellion.

But here's an important caveat: While the rebellion can and should be partially fueled by anger at the consensual mass hallucination that's mistakenly referred to as "reality," it must be primarily motivated by love and joy and the desire to bestow blessings. A healthy proportion, at least for me, seems to be 15% rage, indignation, and complaint, and 85% compassion, celebration, and lust for life.

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Brainwash yourself before someone nasty beats you to it. Study the difference between wise suffering and dumb suffering until you get it right. Commit crimes that don't break any laws. Visualize Buddha at the moment of orgasm. Build illusions that make people feel so beautiful they can't stand to be near you.

Pretend to be crazy so you can get away with doing what's right. Sing anarchist lullabies to homosexual trees. Love your enemies in case your friends turn out to be jerks. Review in detail the history of your life, honoring every moment as if you were conducting a benevolent Judgment Day. Eat money. Drink the sun. Dream like a stone. Sing in the acid rain.

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Once more, with feeling: I've gathered all of the big-picture horoscopes I wrote for you, and bundled them in one place. Go here to read a compendium of your year-long forecasts for 2015:
bit.ly/BigView2015

If you like, you can also review the long-range, big-picture horoscopes I wrote for you back in January 2014. You can see whether my forecasts back then turned out to be accurate and helpful during the course of 2014. They're here: bit.ly/BigLife2014

More? If you'd like to go even further back to see how my oracles jibed with your actual destiny, here's a compendium of your forecasts for 2013:
bit.ly/BigLife2013

One more blast from the past: the long-range horoscopes I offered at the beginning of 2012. They're here: bit.ly/BigPic2012

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

Michael Meade's "Genius Project": "Much has been said and written about having a vocation or calling in life; but often overlooked is the idea that a true calling is aimed at the genius qualities already set within each person. Most know that the call to awaken to a genuine path in life begins in youth; but fewer know that the calling keeps calling even in later life. Not only that, but in mythic terms, the Fountain of Youth that people have roamed the earth seeking waits to be found within oneself."
tinyurl.com/mduldjx

Burlington, Vermont, the state's largest city, recently became the first in the country to use 100% renewable energy for its residents' electricity needs. In a state known for socially conscious policies, the feat represents a milestone in the growing green energy movement.
tinyurl.com/krorhq9

For $170 per person per year, a hotel mogul turned around a rough Orlando neighborhood -- cutting crime in half, multiplying property values, and raising the high school graduation rate from 25% to nearly 100% by offering to pay full tuition for anyone who graduated and wanted to attend college.
tinyurl.com/jwzt2mc

(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 February 19

Copyright 2015 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

"It isn't normal to know what we want," said pioneering psychologist Abraham Maslow. "It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement." That's the bad news, Pisces. The good news is that you may be on the verge of rendering that theory irrelevant. In the coming weeks, you will be better primed to discover what you really want than you have been in a long time. I suggest you do a ritual in which you vow to unmask this treasured secret. Write a formal statement in which you declare your intention to achieve full understanding of the reasons you are alive on this planet.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

There are many different facets to your intelligence, and each matures at a different rate. So for example, your ability to think symbolically may evolve more slowly than your ability to think abstractly. Your wisdom about why humans act the way they do may ripen more rapidly than your insight into your own emotions. In the coming weeks, I expect one particular aspect of your intelligence to be undergoing a growth spurt: your knowledge of what your body needs and how to give it what it needs.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

What is the proper blend for you these days? Is it something like 51 percent pleasure and 49 percent business? Or would you be wiser to shoot for 49 percent pleasure and 51 percent business? I will leave that decision up to you, Taurus. Whichever way you go, I suggest that you try to interweave business and pleasure as often as possible. You are in one of those action-packed phases when fun dovetails really well with ambition. I'm guessing that you can make productive connections at parties. I'm betting that you can spice up your social life by taking advantage of what comes to you through your work.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

In 1900, the world's most renowned mathematicians met at a conference in Paris. There the German whiz David Hilbert introduced his master list of 23 unsolved mathematical problems. At the time, no one had done such an exhaustive inventory. His well-defined challenge set the agenda for math research throughout the 20th century. Today he's regarded as an influential visionary. I'd love to see you come up with a list of your own top unsolved problems, Gemini. You now have extra insight about the catalytic projects you will be smart to work on and play with during the coming years.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

"Spanipelagic" is an adjective scientists use to describe creatures that typically hang out in deep water but float up to the surface on rare occasions. The term is not a perfect metaphorical fit for you, since you come up for air more often than that. But you do go through phases when you're inclined to linger for a long time in the abyss, enjoying the dark mysteries and fathomless emotions. According to my reading of the astrological omens, that's what you've been doing lately. Any day now, however, I expect you'll be rising up from the Great Down Below and headed topside for an extended stay.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

When faced with a big decision, you might say you want to "sleep on it." In other words, you postpone your final determination until you gather more information and ripen your understanding of the pressing issues. And that could indeed involve getting a good night's sleep. What happens in your dreams may reveal nuances you can't pry loose with your waking consciousness alone. And even if you don't recall your dreams, your sleeping mind is busy processing and reworking the possibilities. I recommend that you make liberal use of the "sleep on it" approach in the coming weeks, Leo. Revel in the wisdom that wells up in you as you're lying down in the dark.

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YOU NEED MAGIC EVERY DAY

Every day, you have to wade through a relentless surge of soul-less facts. 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 such strenuous efforts to keep your world enchanted.

I like to think I can contribute to the sacred cause of feeding your sense of wonder and enchantment. In fact, that's one of my prime motivations for offering you the free weekly horoscopes you read in this newsletter.

If you ever want more of that good stuff, and think it's worth paying for, please consider trying out my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.

Register and/or sign in at RealAstrology.com.

They're available on your tablets and smart phones as well as your computers.

You can also listen over the phone by calling
1-877-873-4888

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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

Edward Albee published his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It won numerous awards and is still performed by modern theater groups. Albee says the title came to him as he was having a beer at a bar in New York City. When he went to the restroom, he spied the words "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" scrawled in soap on the mirror. I urge you to be alert for that kind of inspiration in the coming days, Virgo: unexpected, provocative, and out of context. You never know when and where you may be furnished with clues about the next plot twist of your life story.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

Edward III, a medieval English king, had a favorite poet: Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1374, the king promised Chaucer a big gift in appreciation for his talents: a gallon of wine every day for the rest of his life. That's not the endowment I would have wanted if I had been Chaucer. I'd never get any work done if I were quaffing 16 glasses of wine every 24 hours. Couldn't I instead be provided with a regular stipend? Keep this story in mind, Libra, as you contemplate the benefits or rewards that might become available to you. Ask for what you really need, not necessarily what the giver initially offers.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

To make the cocktail known as Sex on the Beach, you mix together cranberry juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, peach schnapps, and vodka. There is also an alternative "mocktail" called Safe Sex on the Beach. It has the same fruit juices, but no alcohol. Given the likelihood that your inner teenager will be playing an important role in your upcoming adventures, Scorpio, I recommend that you favor the Safe-Sex-on-the-Beach metaphor rather than the Sex-on-the-Beach approach. At least temporarily, it's best to show a bit of protective restraint toward the wild and sometimes erratic juvenile energy that's pushing to be expressed.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

In Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener," a lawyer hires a man named Bartleby to work in his office. At first Bartleby is a model employee, carrying out his assignments with dogged skill. But one day everything begins to change. Whenever his boss instructs him to do a specific task, Bartleby says, "I would prefer not to." As the days go by, he does less and less, until finally he stops altogether. I'd like to propose, Sagittarius, that you take inspiration from his slowdown. Haven't you done enough for now? Haven't you been exemplary in your commitment to the daily struggle? Don't you deserve a break in the action so you can recharge your psychospiritual batteries? I say yes. Maybe you will consider making this your battle cry: "I would prefer not to."

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." That's what American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson advised. Even if you're not naturally inclined to see the potential wisdom of that approach, I invite you to play around with it for the next three weeks. You don't need to do it forever. It doesn't have to become a permanent fixture in your philosophy. Just for now, experiment with the possibility that trying lots of experiments will lead you not just to new truths, but to new truths that are fun, interesting, and useful.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

The art of the French Aquarian painter Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927) appears in prestigious museums. He isn't as famous as his fellow Impressionists Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro, but he wielded a big influence on them both. His career developed slowly because he had to work a day job to earn a living. When he was 50 years old, he won a wad of free money in the national lottery, and thereafter devoted himself full-time to painting. I'm not saying you will enjoy a windfall like that anytime soon, Aquarius, but such an event is possible. At the very least, your income could rise. Your odds of experiencing financial luck will increase to the degree that you work to improve the best gifts you have to offer your fellow humans.

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HOMEWORK:

Where in your life do you push harder than is healthy? Where do you not push hard enough? Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com.

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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 2015 Rob Brezsny

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