Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter July 1, 2015

 Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
 July 1, 2015
 FreeWillAstrology.com

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My mid-year, long-term audio horoscopes are still available. There's more information about them below.

Whether or not you want to listen to those Big Picture audio reports for the rest of 2015 and beyond, you may be interested in reviewing the long-term horoscopes I wrote for you early this year. They discuss your best potential destiny for all of 2015. To see them, go here:

bit.ly/BigView2015

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WHAT'S AHEAD FOR YOU in the next eight to ten months?

To hear my IN-DEPTH, LONG-TERM AUDIO FORECAST for YOUR LIFE for the rest of 2015 and onward into 2016, go here:

RealAstrology.com

Register and/or log in through the main page, and then click on the link "Long Term Forecast for Second Half of 2015."

What areas of your life are likely to receive unexpected assistance and divine inspiration?

Where are the prime sources of motivation that will be welling up from your depths?

How can you best cooperate with the cosmic rhythms?

Where are you likely to find most success?

Tune in.

The horoscopes cost $6 apiece. Discounts are available for multiple purchases.

You can also listen to your short-term forecast for the coming week by clicking on "This week (June 30, 2015)."

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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 are excerpts.

MAYBE IMAGINARY FRIENDS AREN'T ACTUALLY IMAGINARY

I have imaginary friends who help me. And yes, they sometimes even give me ideas for horoscopes. Are you OK with that? Among the many other perks my secret buddies provide, they show me where my phone and keys are when I've misplaced them -- a prime sign of their practical value.

What's your current status in regards to imaginary friends? Do you even have any? I invite you to seek them out and put them to work. In fact, I encourage you to do anything that might attract the input of undiscovered allies, behind-the-scenes collaborators, mysterious guidance, and divine assistance.

P.S. July 2 is Take Your Imaginary Friend to Work Day.

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MAKING A HABIT OF WAKING UP

Many of us are essentially asleep, even as we walk around in broad daylight. We're so focused on the restless narratives and repetitive fantasies unfurling in our heads that we only dimly perceive the larger story raging in all of its chaotic beauty around us.

To have any hope of permanently breaking out of our fuzzy trance, we require regular shocks. A single jolt might cause us to briefly come to attention and see the miracle of creation for what it is, but once the red alert has passed, we relax back into our fixation on the dreamy tales our mind never stops telling us.

In the course of its conspiracy to shower us with blessings, life does its best to provide us with a steady flow of healing shocks. But because it tends to err on the side of tenderness, its prods may be too gentle, allowing us to ignore them. Gradually, life will up the ante, trying to find the right mix of toughness and love, as it encourages us to WAKE UP!

But our addiction to the phantasmagoria is tenacious. The stream-of-conscious narratives and ever-bubbling fantasies, even when they're racked with torment and terror, are perversely entertaining. And so we may avoid responding to the kind shocks for so long that life finally has to resort to stronger medicine. Then we might get sick or lose our job or muck up our closest relationship.

It doesn't have to be that way. We could cultivate in ourselves a sixth sense for the wake-up calls life sends us. We might develop a knack for responding with agile grace to the early, gentler ones so that we wouldn't have to be visited by the more stringent measures.

There's also another possibility: With hungry intent, we could seek out and hunt down invigorating jolts. We wouldn't wait to have our asses kicked, but would kick our own asses -- over and over again, with a creative ingenuity.

Who knows? We might even master the art of inducing shocks that feel really good.

You can listen to the podcast of this mini-essay here: bit.ly/w3aGva

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"Ondinnonk" is an Iroquois word with two related meanings: 1. a secret wish of the soul, especially as revealed in dreams; 2. the spiritual part of our nature that longs to do good deeds.

How's your ondinnonk doing?

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We are dissident bodhisattvas rebelling against all those forces that feed fear and ignore love.

We are spiritual freedom fighters rising up to protect nature and foment peace and demand justice.

We are subversive mystics stoking the cool blue fires of poetry and lobbying for the liberated imagination.

We are militant ecstatics invoking the transformative powers of pleasure to sanctify and beautify our one and only Earth.

We are mutinous purveyors of grace who redistribute the wealth so that all creatures may have the means to thrive.

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

There's no evidence that children of same sex couples are negatively impacted.
tinyurl.com/ojp65xf

A man in Africa single-handedly stopped the desertification of his region by reviving ancient farming and irrigation techniques.
http://tinyurl.com/ka8kaa8

For decades, Leo Dray drove across dusty Ozark roads, introducing himself to farmers and offering to buy their timberland. Much of that land was nearly worthless from years of neglect by lumber companies.
But Drey had a grand plan to restore the wrecked forests, selectively selling some timber while preserving the rest for nature lovers, recreation, and gradual harvesting later. His forests thrived and he became a multimillionaire and Missouri's largest private landowner. Then he gave it all away -- to a foundation he set up to preserve the land.
tinyurl.com/pfs7xf4

(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 July 2

Copyright 2015 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

"I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I am doing," said composer John Cage in describing his creative process. That's excellent counsel for you to meditate on, Cancerian. The less expertise and certainty you have about the rough magic you're experimenting with, the more likely it is that this magic will lead you to useful breakthroughs. To bolster Cage's advice and help you get the most from your period of self-reinvention, I offer you this quote from Picasso: "I imitate everyone except myself."

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Your words of wisdom come from Leo artist Andy Warhol: "Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years, when they could just say, 'so what.' That's one of my favorite things to say. 'So what.'" Can I interest you in that approach, Leo? It has similarities to the Buddhist strategy of cultivating non-attachment -- of dropping your fixations about matters that can't be controlled or changed. But I suspect you would draw special benefits from the breezy, devil-may-care spirit of Warhol's version. So start there.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

In her late twenties, J. K. Rowling was a single mother living on welfare. That's when she began work on her Harry Potter books. Craig Newmark had turned 42 by the time he founded Craigslist. One of the world's most oft-visited websites is HuffingtonPost.com, which Arianna Huffington established when she was 54. As for Harland Sanders, creator of KFC: He didn't begin building the global empire of fried-chicken restaurants until the age of 65. I hope the preceding serves as a pep talk, Virgo, reminding you that it's never to late to instigate the project of a lifetime. The time between now and your birthday in 2016 will be an especially favorable phase to do so. Start ruminating on what it might be.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

It's the power-building phase of your astrological cycle. To take maximum advantage, convey the following message to your subconscious mind: "I know you will provide me with an abundance of insight, inspiration, and energy for whatever intention I choose to focus on. And during the next four weeks, my intention will be to cultivate, expand, and refine my personal power. I will especially focus on what author Stephen R. Covey called 'the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones.'"

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

I'm a big fan of science and logic and objective thinking. Most of us need more of that good stuff. The world would be a saner, safer place if we all got regular lessons on how to be more reasonable and rational. But in the immediate future, Scorpio, I'll steer you in a different direction. I believe you will benefit from injecting your imagination with primal raw crazy wild mojo. For example, you might read utopian science fiction and fairy tales about talking animals and poetry that scrambles your intellectual constructs. You could remember your dreams and ruminate about them as if they were revelations from the Great Beyond. You may also find it healthy to fantasize profusely about forbidden and impossible and hilarious adventures.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

There are lots of inquiries and invitations coming your way -- perhaps too many. I don't think you should pursue all of them. In fact, I suspect that only one would ultimately make you a better human being and a braver explorer and a wiser lover. And that one, at first glance, may have not as much initial appeal as some of the others. So your first task is to dig deep to identify the propositions that are attractive on the surface but not very substantial. Then you're more likely to recognize the offer that will have lasting value even if it doesn't make a spectacular first impression.

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WHAT'S AHEAD FOR YOU?

BRAINSTORM ABOUT THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE

with my Expanded Audio Horoscopes for the Second Half of 2015 and beyond:

RealAstrology.com

Register or log in and click on the link
"Long Term Forecast for Second Half of 2015"

You can also listen to your short-term forecast for the coming week by clicking on "This week (June 30, 2015)."

"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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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

"I find a lot of people physically attractive, but finding people mentally and spiritually attractive is different and much harder for me." So says 40ozshawty on her Tumblr page. If you share that frustration, I have good news. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you're due to encounter a higher-than-usual percentage of mentally and spiritually attractive people in the next six weeks. But I wonder how you'll deal with this abundance. Will you run away from it, feeling overwhelmed by the prospect that your life could get more interesting and complicated? Or will you embrace it, daringly welcoming the interesting complications?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

I think you will generate good fortune for yourself by choosing between two equally invigorating but challenging tasks: losing your illusion or using your illusion. Both are quite worthy of your attention and intelligence. To succeed at either would fuel your emotional growth for months to come. You probably can't do them both, however. So which will it be: Will you purge the illusion, or put it to work for you?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Do you sometimes imagine yourself to be an underachieving underdog? If so, I suggest you start weaning yourself from that fantasy. Do you on occasion allow people to take advantage of you? It's time to outgrow that role. Do you ever flirt with being a self-pitying martyr? Say bye-bye to that temptation. Cosmic forces are conspiring to relieve you of tendencies to act in any or all of those ways. I'm not saying you will instantly transform into a swashbuckling hero who knocks people over with your radiant self-assurance. But you will, at the very least, be ready to learn much, much more about how to wield your vulnerability as a superpower.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

To determine whether you are aligned with the cosmic flow, please answer the following questions. 1. Would you say that your current situation is more akin to treading water in a mosquito-ridden swamp, or conducting a ritual of purification in a clear mountain stream? 2. Have you been wrestling with boring ghosts and arguing with traditions that have lost most of their meaning? Or have you been transforming your past and developing a riper relationship with your roots? 3. Are you stuck in a gooey muck? Or are you building a flexible new foundation?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Taurus singer Sam Smith won four Grammys this year, largely on the strength of his hit single "Stay with Me." The song has a lush gospel choir backing up his lead vocals, or so it seems. But in fact, every voice in that choir is his own. He recorded twenty separate harmony tracks that were woven together to create the big sound. What would be the equivalent in your world, Taurus? How could you produce a wealth of support for yourself? What might you do to surround yourself with a web of help and nourishment? How can you amplify and intensify your efforts so they have more clout? Now would be an excellent time to explore possibilities like these.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

Born under the sign of Gemini, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was a French painter who upset traditionalists. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he wasn't interested in creating idealistic art based on historical and religious themes. He focused on earthy subjects about which he had direct experience, like the day-to-day lives of peasants and laborers. So even though he became a highly praised celebrity by his mid-thirties, the arbiters of the art world tried to exclude him. For example, they denied him a place in Exposition Universelle, a major international exhibition in Paris. In response, Courbet built a temporary gallery next door to the main hall, where he displayed his own work. As you strive to get your voice heard, Gemini, I urge you to be equally cheeky and innovative. Buy yourself a megaphone or erect your own clubhouse or launch a new enterprise. Do whatever it takes to show who you really are.

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HOMEWORK:

What would be most fun and interesting thing for you to learn next? 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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