Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 26, 2016
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 are excerpts.
SHADOW SCHOOL
You're a gorgeous mystery with a wild heart and a lofty purpose. But like all of us, you also have a dark side -- a part of your psyche that snarls and bites, that's unconscious and irrational, that is motivated by ill will or twisted passions or instinctual fears.
It's your own personal portion of the world's sickness: a mess of repressed longings, enervating wounds, ignorant delusions, and unripe powers. You'd prefer to ignore it because it's unflattering or uncomfortable or very different from what you imagine yourself to be.
If you acknowledge its existence at all (many of us don't), you might call it the devil, your evil twin, your inner monster, or your personal demon. Psychologist Carl Jung referred to it as the shadow. He regarded it as the lead that the authentic alchemists of the Middle Ages sought to transmute into gold.
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Astrologer Steven Forrest has a different name for the shadow: stuff. "Work on your stuff," he says, "or your stuff will work on you." He means that it will sabotage you if you're not aggressive about identifying, negotiating with, and transforming it.
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The shadow is not inherently evil. If it is ignored or denied, it may become monstrous to compensate. Only then is it likely to "demonically possess" its owner, leading to compulsive, exaggerated, "evil" behavior.
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"The shadow, which is in conflict with the acknowledged values, cannot be accepted as a negative part of one's own psyche and is therefore projected -- that is, it is transferred to the outside world and experienced as an outside object. It is combated, punished, and exterminated as 'the alien out there' instead of being dealt with as one's own inner problem."
- Erich Neumann, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic
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The qualities in ourselves that we deny or dislike are often the very qualities that we most bitterly complain about in other people. So for instance, an old friend of mine named Mark had a special disgust for friends who were unavailable to him when he really needed them. But I was witness to him engaging in the same behavior three different times, disappearing from the lives of his friends just when they needed him most.
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"Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event," said Jung. If you disown a part of your personality, it'll materialize as an unexpected detour.
Everyone who believes in the devil is the devil . . . .
TO READ THE REST OF "SHADOW SCHOOL," go here: bit.ly/wGN3iM
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Read "Dissident Horoscopes for Samhain (and Halloween) Insurgents,"
by Job Disney, Rob Brezsny's only partially evil twin:
bit.ly/craweu
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Steal a song from the soundtrack for THE TELEVISIONARY ORACLE:
bit.ly/smkFxM
Triple Witching Hour
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Nation’s high school graduation rate reaches new record high
tinyurl.com/jgkvers
More trees than there were 100 years ago? It's true!
Protection and responsible harvesting are the reasons behind the success story.
tinyurl.com/42ajl33
New Study of Foragers Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots
tinyurl.com/jk2yenc
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They aren’t advertisements, and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES: Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning October 27
Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
During this Halloween season, you have cosmic permission to be a bigger, bolder, and extra beguiling version of yourself. I trust you will express your deep beauty with precise brilliance and imagine your future with superb panache and wander wherever the hell you feel like wandering. It's time to be stronger than your fears and wilder than your trivial sins. Halloween costume suggestion: the superhero version of yourself.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
I won't offer you the cliché "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Instead, I'll provide alternatives. How about this, from the video game Portal 2: "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! Say, 'I don't want your damn lemons!'" Or you could try this version, from my friend Barney: "When life gives you lemons, draw faces on them like Tom Hanks did on his volleyball in the movie Cast Away, and engage them in sexy philosophical conversation." Or consider this Brazilian proverb: "When life gives you lemons, make caipirinhas." (Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail.) Suggestion: Play around with these themes to create your Halloween costume.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
All of us are creators and destroyers. It's fun and healthy to add fresh elements to our lives, but it's also crucial to dispose of things that hurt and distort us. Even your body is a hotbed of both activities, constantly killing off old cells and generating new ones. But in my understanding, you are now in a phase when there's far more creation than destruction. Enjoy the exalted buzz! Halloween costume suggestions: a creator god or goddess, like the Greeks' Gaia or Prometheus; Rainbow-Snake from the Australian Aborigines; Unkulunkulu from the Zulus; or Coyote, Raven, or Spider Grandmother from indigenous North American tribes.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
In 1938, a chef named Ruth Wakefield dreamed up a brilliant invention: chocolate chip cookies. She sold her recipe to the Nestlé company in return for one dollar and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Maybe she was happy with that arrangement, but I think she cheated herself. And so I offer her action as an example of what you should NOT do. During the next ten months, I expect you will come up with many useful innovations and intriguing departures from the way things have always been done. Make sure you get full value in return for your gifts! Halloween costume ideas: Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, Hedy Lamarr, Leonardo da Vinci, Temple Grandin, George Washington Carver, Mark Zuckerberg.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Speaking on behalf of the cosmic powers, I authorize you to escape dull realities and go rambling through the frontier. Feel free to fantasize twice as hard and wild as you normally do. Avoid literalists and realists who think you should be more like them. This is not a time to fuss over exacting details, but rather to soar above the sober nonsense and see as far as you can. You have permission to exult in the joys of wise innocence. Halloween costume suggestions: bohemian poet, mad scientist, carefree genius, brazen explorer.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
I invite you to fantasize about what your four great-grandmothers and four great-grandfathers may have been doing on November 1, 1930. What? You have no idea how to begin? You don't even know their names? If that's the case, I hope you'll remedy your ignorance. Your ability to create the future you want requires you to learn more about where and whom you came from. Halloween costume suggestion: your most interesting ancestor.
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WHY IS IT CALLED "FREE WILL" ASTROLOGY?
It's called Free Will Astrology because my goal is to create horoscopes that nurture your free will!
And if you ever want more than the 'scopes you're reading here, keep in mind that I also create EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for you. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.
Need more help in figuring out the questions life is asking you? Crave more support in your efforts to build your courage? Check out the EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES.
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.
The Expanded Audio Horoscopes work on most smart phones and tablets.
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"Your Expanded Audio Horoscopes seem to have the effect of activating my inner teacher. Thanks!" - Eleanor A., Toronto
"Your expanded audio horoscopes are the next best thing to actually having you here next to me to remind me who I really am." - Alyssa R., Des Moines, Iowa
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TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
At any one time, over two million frozen human embryos are stored in tissue banks throughout Europe and North America. When the time is right, their owners retrieve them and bring them to term. That's the first scenario I invite you to use as a metaphor for your life in the coming weeks. Here's a second scenario: Scotch whisky is a potent mind-altering substance. Any particular batch must mature for at least three years, and may be distilled numerous times. There are currently 20 million barrels of the stuff mellowing in Scottish warehouses. And what do these two scenarios have to do with you? It's time to tap into resources that you've been saving in reserve -- that haven't been ripe or ready until now. Halloween costume suggestions: a woman who's nine months pregnant; a blooming rose or sunflower; ripe fruit.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
To create a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, a winemaker needs about 700 grapes. Compare this process with rain-making. When water vapor that's high in the sky becomes dense enough, it condenses into tiny pearls of liquid called cloud droplets. If the humidity rises even further, a million of these babies might band together to form a single raindrop that falls to earth. And what does this have to do with your life? I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will have both an affinity and a skill for processes that resemble wine-making and rain-making. You'll need a lot of raw material and energetic effort to produce a relatively small marvel -- but that's exactly as it should be. Halloween costume suggestion: a raindrop or bottle of wine.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Some Brazilians eat the heads of piranhas in the belief they're aphrodisiacs. In Zimbabwe, women may make strategic use of baboon urine to enhance their allure. The scientific name for Colombia's leaf-cutter ant is hormiga culona, translated as "fat-assed ant." Ingesting the roasted bodies of these critters is thought to boost sexual desire. Since you're in a phase when tapping in to your deepest erotic longings will be healthy and educational, you may want to adopt elements of the aforementioned love drugs to create your Halloween costume. Here are other exotic aphrodisiacs from around the world that you might be inspired by: asparagus, green M&Ms, raw oysters, wild orchids, horny goat weed.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Do you know how to repair a broken zipper or patch a hole in your bicycle tire? Are you familiar with the art of caulking a bathtub or creating a successful budget? Can you compose a graceful thank-you note, cook a hearty soup from scratch, or overcome your pride so as to reconcile with an ally after an argument? These are the kinds of tasks I trust you will focus on in the coming weeks. It's time to be very practical and concrete. Halloween costume suggestion: Mr. or Ms. Fix-It.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
In the film Terminator 2, Arnold Schwarzenegger played a benevolent android who traveled here from the future. As a strong, silent action hero, he didn't need to say much. In fact, he earned $30,000 for every word he uttered. I'm hoping your speech will pack a comparable punch in the coming days. My reading of the astrological omens suggests that your persuasiveness should be at a peak. You'll have an exceptional ability to say what you mean and mean what you say. Use this superpower with flair and precision! Halloween costume suggestion: ancient Greek orator Demosthenes; Martin Luther King Jr.; Virginia Woolf; Sojourner Truth; rapper MC Lyte, Winston Churchill.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
It's the prosperity-building phase of your cycle. Let's celebrate! Let's brainstorm! Are there rituals you can create to stimulate the financial lobes of your imagination, thereby expediting your cash flow? Here are a few ideas: 1. Glue a photo of yourself on a $20 bill. 2. Make a wealth shrine in your home. Stock it with symbols of specific thrills you can buy for yourself when you have more money. 3. Halloween costume suggestions: a giant bar of gold, a banker carrying a briefcase full of big bills, Tony Stark, Lady Mary Crawley, Jay Gatsby, Lara Croft, the Yoruban wealth goddess Ajé.
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HOMEWORK:
Scare yourself with your exquisite beauty. Freak yourself out by realizing how amazing you are. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.
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Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology 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 submissions for length, style, and content. Requests for anonymity will be honored. We are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative material.
Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright 2016 Rob Brezsny
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