Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter October 21, 2015

 Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
 October 21, 2015
 FreeWillAstrology.com

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In early 2015, I wrote horoscopes for the coming year -- previews of the issues I thought you'd be facing and the opportunities that would come your way in the months ahead. I invite you to review them now and let me know if they were useful. bit.ly/BigView2015

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If you'd ever like to make a contribution to me via Paypal, here's where to do it: bit.ly/TipsforRob

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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. 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.

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2. Become a rapturist, which is the opposite of a terrorist: Conspire to unleash blessings on unsuspecting recipients, causing them to feel good.

Before bringing your work as a rapturist to strangers, practice with two close companions. Offer them each a gift that fires up their ambitions. It should not be a practical necessity or consumer fetish, but rather a provocative tool or toy. Give them an imaginative boon they've been hesitant to ask for, a beautiful thing that expands their self-image, a surprising intervention that says, "I love the way you move me."

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3. 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.

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4. What is the holiest river in the world? Some might say the Ganges in India. Others would propose the Jordan River or the River Nile. But I say the holiest river is the one that's closest to where you are right now.

Go to that river and commune with it. Throw a small treasure into it as an offering. Next, find a holy sidewalk to walk on, praise the holiness in a bus driver, kiss a holy tree, and shop at a holy store.

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5. Have you ever seen the game called "Playing the Dozens"? Participants compete in the exercise of hurling witty insults at each other. Here are some examples: "You're so dumb, if you spoke your mind you'd be speechless." "Your mother is so old, she was a waitress at the Last Supper." "You're so ugly, you couldn't get laid if you were a brick."

I invite you to rebel against any impulse in you that resonates with the spirit of "Playing the Dozens." Instead, try a new game, "Paying the Tributes." Choose worthy targets and ransack your imagination to come up with smart, true, and amusing praise about them.

The best stuff will be specific to the person you're addressing, not generic, but here are some prototypes: "You're so far-seeing, you can probably catch a glimpse of the back of your own head." "You're so ingenious, you could use your nightmares to get rich and famous." "Your mastery of pronoia is so artful, you could convince me to love my worst enemy."

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6. Salvador Dalí once staged a party in which guests were told to come disguised as characters from their nightmares. Do the reverse. Throw a bash in which everyone is invited to arrive dressed as a character from the most glorious dream they remember.

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7. 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.

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8. "You can't wait for inspiration," proclaimed writer Jack London. "You have to go after it with a club." That sounds too violent to me, though I agree in principle that aggressiveness is the best policy in one's relationship with inspiration.
     Try this: Don't wait for inspiration. Go after it with a butterfly net, lasso, sweet treats, fishing rod, court orders, beguiling smells, and sincere flattery.

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9. 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.

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

All of this week's Pronoiac Resources come from the site Good News Network, an abundant source of stories about all the wonders and marvels that are happening on the planet right now:
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

She Had No Medical Degree or PhD But Just Won Nobel Prize for Medicine.
tinyurl.com/oo9zr3x

City Pays Homeless to Learn Job Skills While Beautifying Riverbanks.
tinyurl.com/oap7tcu

Malawi Celebrates Dramatic Drop in Child Mortality--280,000 Kids Saved.
tinyurl.com/q4fleqv

(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 October 22

Copyright 2015 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

Are you an inventor? Is it your specialty to create novel gadgets and machines? Probably not. But in the coming weeks you may have metaphorical resemblances to an inventor. I suspect you will have an enhanced ability to dream up original approaches and find alternatives to conventional wisdom. You may surprise yourself with your knack for finding ingenious solutions to long-standing dilemmas. To prime your instincts, I'll provide three thoughts from inventor Thomas Edison. 1. "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." 2. "Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless." 3. "Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait."

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Some unraveling is inevitable. What has been woven together must now be partially unwoven. But please refrain from thinking of this mysterious development as a setback. Instead, consider it an opportunity to reexamine and redo any work that was a bit hasty or sloppy. Be glad you will get a second chance to fix and refine what wasn't done quite right the first time. In fact, I suggest you preside over the unraveling yourself. Don't wait for random fate to accomplish it. And for best results, formulate an intention to regard everything that transpires as a blessing.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

"A waterfall would be more impressive if it flowed the other way," said Irish author Oscar Wilde. I appreciate the wit, but don't agree with him. A plain old ordinary waterfall, with foamy surges continually plummeting over a precipice and crashing below, is sufficiently impressive for me. What about you, Capricorn? In the coming days, will you be impatient and frustrated with plain old ordinary marvels and wonders? Or will you be able to enjoy them just as they are?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Years ago, I moved into a rental house with my new girlfriend, whom I had known for six weeks. As we fell asleep the first night, a song played in my head: "Nature's Way," by the band Spirit. I barely knew it and had rarely thought of it before. And yet there it was, repeating its first line over and over: "It's nature's way of telling you something's wrong." Being a magical thinker, I wondered if my unconscious mind was telling me a secret about my love. But I rejected that possibility; it was too painful to contemplate. When we broke up a few months later, however, I wished I had paid attention to that early alert. I mention this, Aquarius, because I suspect your unconscious mind will soon provide you with a wealth of useful information, not just through song lyrics but other subtle signals, as well. Listen up! At least some of it will be good news, not cautionary like mine.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

When I advise you to GET NAKED, I don't mean it in a literal sense. Yes, I will applaud if you're willing to experiment with brave acts of self-revelation. I will approve of you taking risks for the sake of the raw truth. But getting arrested for indecent exposure might compromise your ability to carry out those noble acts. So, no, don't actually take off all your clothes and wander through the streets. Instead, surprise everyone with brilliant acts of surrender and vulnerability. Gently and sweetly and poetically tell the Purveyors of Unholy Repression to take their boredom machine and shove it up their humdrum.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

According to the online etymological dictionary, the verb "fascinate" entered the English language in the 16th century. It was derived from the Middle French fasciner and the Latin fascinatus, which are translated as "bewitch, enchant, put under a spell." In the 19th century, "fascinate" expanded in meaning to include "delight, attract, hold the attention of." I suspect you will soon have experiences that could activate both senses of "fascinate." My advice is to get the most out of your delightful attractions without slipping into bewitchment. Is that even possible? It will require you to exercise fine discernment, but yes, it is.

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LOVE YOUR LIFE!

How's your fight for freedom going? Are you making progress in liberating yourself from your unconscious obsessions, bad habits, and conditioned responses? Are you turning out to be the hero of your own life?

For assistance and inspiration, tune in to my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES.

These forecasts are different in tone and format from the written horoscopes you read here in the newsletter. They're longer and more leisurely in tone. They tend to bring out more of the patient counselor in me, and have a bit less of the poet.

To listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to RealAstrology.com.

Register and/or log in through the main page.

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

The cost is $6 per sign on the Web (discounts available for bulk purchases), or $1.99 per minute by phone. Each forecast is 4-5 minutes long.

The Expanded Audio Horoscopes work on most smart phones and tablets.

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"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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TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

One of the largest machines in the world is a "bucket wheel excavator" in Kazakhstan. It's a saw that weighs 45,000 tons and has a blade the size of a four-story building. If you want to slice through a mountain, it's perfect for the job. Indeed, that's what it's used for over in Kazakhstan. Right now, Taurus, I picture you as having a metaphorical version of this equipment. That's because I think you have the power to rip open a clearing through a massive obstruction that has been in your way.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock did a daily ritual to remind him of life's impermanence. After drinking his tea each morning, he flung both cup and saucer over his shoulder, allowing them to smash on the floor. I don't recommend that you adopt a comparable custom for long-term use, but it might be healthy and interesting to do so for now. Are you willing to outgrow and escape your old containers? Would you consider diverging from formulas that have always worked for you? Are there any unnecessary taboos that need to be broken? Experiment with the possible blessings that might come by not clinging to the illusion of "permanence."

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

Terence was a comic playwright in ancient Rome. He spoke of love in ways that sound modern. It can be capricious and weird, he said. It may provoke indignities and rouse difficult emotions. Are you skilled at debate? Love requires you to engage in strenuous discussions. Peace may break out in the midst of war, and vice versa. Terence's conclusion: If you seek counsel regarding the arts of love, you may as well be asking for advice on how to go mad. I won't argue with him. He makes good points. But I suspect that in the coming weeks you will be excused from most of those crazy-making aspects. The sweet and smooth sides of love will predominate. Uplift and inspiration are more likely than angst and bewilderment. Take advantage of the grace period! Put chaos control measures in place for the next time Terence's version of love returns.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

In the coming weeks, you will have a special relationship with the night. When the sun goes down, your intelligence will intensify, as will your knack for knowing what's really important and what's not. In the darkness, you will have an enhanced capacity to make sense of murky matters lurking in the shadows. You will be able to penetrate deeper than usual, and get to the bottom of secrets and mysteries that have kept you off-balance. Even your grimy fears may be transformable if you approach them with a passion for redemption.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

New friends and unexpected teachers are in your vicinity, with more candidates on the way. There may even be potential comrades who could eventually become flexible collaborators and catalytic guides. Will you be available for the openings they offer? Will you receive them with fire in your heart and mirth in your eyes? I worry that you may not be ready if you are too preoccupied with old friends and familiar teachers. So please make room for surprises.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

More than any other sign, you have an ability to detach yourself from life's flow and analyze its complexities with cool objectivity. This is mostly a good thing. It enhances your power to make rational decisions. On the other hand, it sometimes devolves into a liability. You may become so invested in your role as observer that you refrain from diving into life's flow. You hold yourself apart from it, avoiding both its messiness and vitality. But I don't foresee this being a problem in the coming weeks. In fact, I bet you will be a savvy watcher even as you're almost fully immersed in the dynamic flux.

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HOMEWORK:

Send pictures of your favorite scarecrows or descriptions of your dreams of protection to me at Truthrooster@gmail.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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