Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
November 2, 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.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS ARE JUST ONE WAY TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
Radical historian Howard Zinn: "We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don't 'win,' there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope.
"An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.
"If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
-tinyurl.com/jarncyv
Check out Howard Zinn's revisioned version of American history: "A People's History of the United States": tinyurl.com/bu8ylzk
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"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume there is no hope, you guarantee there will be no hope."
- Noam Chomsky
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FOR BEST RESULTS, KEEP RE-EVALUATING YOUR BIASES
Steven Pinker charts the decline of violence from Biblical times to the present, and argues that, though it may seem illogical and even obscene, given Iraq and Darfur, we are living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence.
tinyurl.com/9eywawj
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THIS IS A PERFECT MOMENT
(Hear this as a song: bit.ly/1NDeqiZ)
This is a perfect moment.
It's a perfect moment for many reasons, but especially because you and I are waking up from our sleepwalking, thumb-sucking, dumb-clucking collusion with the masters of delusion and destruction.
Thanks to them, from whom the painful blessings flow, we are waking up.
Their wars and tortures,
their crimes against nature,
extinctions of species
their engineered diseases.
Their spying and lying
in the name of the father,
sterilizing seeds and
trademarking water.
Molestations of God,
celebrations of shame,
mangling our dreams and
defiling our names.
Their ruthless commercials
and blood-sucking hustles,
their endless rehearsals
for the end of the world.
Thanks to them, from whom the painful blessings flow, we are waking up.
Their painful blessings are cracking open more and more gashes in the sour and shrunken mass hallucination that is mistakenly called "reality." And through the fractures, ripe eternity is flooding in; news of our souls' true home is pouring in; our allies from the other side of the veil are swarming in, inspiring us to become smarter and wilder and kinder and trickier.
We are waking up.
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As heaven and earth come together, as the dreamtime and daytime merge, we register the jolting and exhilarating fact that we are in charge -- you and I are in charge -- of imagining and discovering and animating a brash new world. Not in some distant time or faraway place, but right here and right now.
As we stand on this brink, as we dance on this verge, we cannot let the ruling fools and their killer's instincts consummate their curses. We have to rise up and fight their deranged logic; defy, resist, and prevent their tragic magic; uncork our sacred rage and supercharge it.
But overthrowing the psychopathic leaders is not enough. Protesting the well-dressed planet-torturers is not enough. We cannot afford to be consumed with our anger; cannot be obsessed and possessed by their danger.
Our mysterious animal bodies crave delight and fertility. Our ancient imaginations demand ever-fresh tastes of infinity.
In the new culture we are spawning, we need lusty compassion and ecstatic duty, ingenious love and insurrectionary beauty. In the new alliance we are hatching, we need radical curiosity and reverent pranks, voracious listening and ferocious thanks.
In the new covenant that we are mobilizing,
We will ridicule the cult of doom and gloom.
We will embrace the cause of zoom and bloom.
We will outfox the banality of evil and hate;
we will summon the chutzpah to praise and create.
No matter how upside-down it all may appear,
we will have no fear
because we know this big secret:
All of creation is conspiring to shower us with
catalytic blessings. Life is crazily in love with us
--brazenly and innocently in love with us.
Our destinies always bring us exactly what we need
to liberate us from our suffering.
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The winds and the tides are on our side, forever and ever, amen. The eagles and snakes are scheming to make us their sacred soul mates.
The sun and the moon and the stars remember our real names, and our ancestors pray for us while we're dreaming.
We have guardian angels and thousands of teachers
provocateurs with designs to unleash us
helpers and saviors we can't even imagine
brothers and sisters who want us to blossom
Thanks to them, from whom the blissful blessings flow, we are waking up.
The roads they pave us
the places they save us
the tomatoes they grow us
the rivers they flow us
Their mysterious stories
and morning glories
Their loaves and fishes
granting our wishes
The songs they sing us
The gifts they bring us
the secrets they show us
above and below us
Thanks to them, from whom the blissful blessings flow, we are waking up.
(Hear the above piece as a song: bit.ly/1NDeqiZ)
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Postscript:
I'm allergic to dogma.
I thrive on the riddles.
Any idea I believe, I reserve the right to disbelieve as well.
But more than any other vision I've ever tested,
pronoia describes the way the world actually is.
It's wetter than water,
stronger than death,
and truer than the news.
It smells like cedar smoke in the autumn rain,
and if you close your eyes right now,
you can feel it shimmering
like the aurora borealis
in your organs and muscles.
Its song is your blood's song.
Some people argue that life is strife
and suffering is normal.
Others swear we're born sinful
and only heaven can provide us with the peace
that passes understanding.
But pronoia says that being alive
on the rough green and brown earth
is the highest honor and privilege.
It's an invitation to work wonders
and perform miracles
that aren't possible in any nirvana, promised land, or afterlife.
I'm not exaggerating or indulging in poetic metaphor
when I tell you that we are already living in paradise.
Visualize it if you dare.
The sweet stuff that quenches all of our longing
is not far away in some other time and place.
It's right here and right now.
Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning knew the truth:
"Earth's crammed with heaven."
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
All of this week's Pronoiac Resources come from the pronoiac mother lode that is Yes magazine: yesmagazine.org
6 Ways to Make Our Money Bring Us More Happiness. What if we defined wise spending in terms of the happiness that it brings? Research shows certain spending can bring us closer to others.
tinyurl.com/jqzsvxy
Another Victory for Workers in Seattle: This Time It’s Their Schedules.
Thanks to a new ordinance, service and retail workers will finally get reasonable shift schedules, along with their $15-an-hour minimum wage.
tinyurl.com/h3z5f5s
Calling All Climate Activists: “Go Out and Get Yourself in Some Holy Trouble” - After activists launched a strike shutting off the flow of tar sands oil across the U.S., a movement leader calls for more faith-based direct action.
tinyurl.com/zxu5kjv
(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 November 3
Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Until 2007, Scotland's official slogan was "Scotland, the Best Small Country in the World." Deciding that wasn't sufficiently upbeat, the government spent $187,000 on a campaign to come up with something better. "Home of Golf" and "Home of Europe's Fastest Growing Life Sciences Community" were among the proposed phrases that were rejected. The ultimate choice: "Welcome to Scotland." I bring this to your attention, Scorpio, because you're in a favorable phase to rebrand yourself. But I hope you will be more daring and imaginative than Scotland. How about "Smolderingly Alarmingly Brilliant"? Or maybe "Safely Risky and Unpredictably Wise" or "Home of the Best Secrets Ever"?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
I cheer you on as you attend to your difficult but holy duties. I send you my love as you summon the wisdom and resourcefulness you need to weather the gorgeous storm. Here are clues that might be useful: Whether you are partially or totally victorious will depend as much on the attitude you hold in your heart as on your outward behavior. Be grateful, never resentful, for the interesting challenges. Love your struggles for the new capacities they are building in you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The coming weeks constitute the harvest phase of your personal cycle. That means you have the pleasure of gathering in the ripe rewards that you have been cultivating since your last birthday. But you also have the responsibility to answer and correct for any carelessness you have allowed to affect your efforts during the previous eleven months. Don't worry, dear. My sense is that the goodies and successes far outnumber and overshadow the questionable decisions and failures. You have ample reasons to celebrate. But I hope you won't get so caught up in your rightful exaltation that you'll neglect the therapeutic atonements.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Like England and Spain, the Netherlands has a royal family, including a king, queen, prince, and princesses. They're an egalitarian bunch. The young ones attend public schools, and the previous queen's birthday is celebrated with a nation-wide flea market. The king's crown is attractive but quite economical. Its pearls are fake, and other "jewels" are made of glass, colored foil, and fish scales. In accordance with the astrological omens, I propose that you create a regal but earthy headpiece for yourself. It's high time for you to elevate your self-worth in an amusing and artful way. What fun and funky materials will you use in your homemade crown?
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In her book, A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman reports on the eccentric methods that professional writers have used to galvanize their creative process. Poet Amy Lowell relaxed into her work day by puffing on Manila cigars. Novelist Colette plucked fleas from her cat. T. S. Eliot's poetry thrived when he had a head cold. Novelist George Sand liked to jump out of bed after making love and immediately begin writing. Novelist William Gass, who is still among the living, wanders around outside taking photos of "rusty, derelict, overlooked, downtrodden" places. As for D. H. Lawrence: climbing mulberry trees naked energized his genius. What about you, Pisces? Now is an excellent time to draw intensely on your reliable sources of inspiration-- as well as to seek new ones.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
I am in awe of your headfirst, charge-forward, no-distractions approach. In fact, I aspire to incorporate more of the Aries-style directness into my own repertoire. But I also love it when, on rare occasions, you flirt with a more strategic perspective. It amuses me to see you experimenting with the power of secrets. Your wisdom often grows at an expedited rate when you get caught up in a web of intrigue that exposes you to dark joys and melodramatic lessons. During times like these, you feel fine about not having everything figured out, about not knowing the most straightforward route to your destination. You allow the riddles and enigmas to ferment as you bask in the voluptuous ambiance of the Great Mystery. Now is such a time.
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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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"Your audio horoscopes help me love myself better, and I mean that in a non-narcissistic way."
-Deva P., Indianapolis
"I'm really grateful for the way you pick up my telepathic requests and answer them in your expanded audio 'scopes."
-Marion H., Birmingham, AL
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TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
I am pleased to inform you that at least 30 percent of what you think you know about love and lust is too prosaic. Probably too narrow and constrained, as well. But here's the good news: As soon as you agree to relinquish the dull certainty of that 30+ percent, you will open yourself to a surge of fresh teachings. And soon, I expect, dewy throbs and hot flows will awaken in all the erotic parts of your body, including your heart and brain and soul. If you're brave enough to respond, generous lessons in intimacy will keep you entertained for weeks.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Over the last two decades, well-meaning Westerners have donated a profusion of clothes to low-income folks in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Kind and magnanimous, right? Yes, but their largesse has had an unintended consequence: the demise of the textile industry in those African countries. With this as a cautionary tale, I'm asking you to take inventory of your own acts of benevolence and charity. Are they having effects that you approve of? If not completely, how could you adjust the way you give your gifts and bestow your blessings?
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Is it possible that you might flourish as a topdog after all the work you've put in as an underdog? Can you wean yourself from the worried fantasy that you've got endless dues to pay, and then harness your imagination to expand your confidence and build your clout? I believe you can. And in the coming weeks I will unleash a flood of prayers to the Goddess of Holy Reversals, asking her to assist you. Now please repeat after me: "I am a creative force of nature. I am a strong song of liberation. I am a wise animal with direct access to my primal intelligence."
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
The next two weeks could be smooth, peaceful, and bland. Is that the experience you want? Mild satisfactions, sweet boredom, and slow progress? There's nothing wrong with any of that. Please feel free to loll and loaf as you explore the healing charms of laziness. Grant yourself permission to avoid conflict and cultivate sunny self-protectiveness. This is one of those times when silence and stasis are among the best gifts you can give yourself. Welcome the rejuvenating power of emptiness!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
It's time to replace banged-up, dried-out old obsessions with ripe, juicy fascinations. It's your duty to phase out numbing traditions and deadening habits so as to make room for exciting new rituals, customs, and sacraments. Can you summon the electric willpower to shed influences that are technically "correct" but lacking in soulfulness? I think you can. Do you love yourself enough to forswear pretty but meaningless titillations? I think you do. Now get out there and do the hard work necessary to bring more serious fun into your life. Homework: Write an essay titled "What I Can Do to Be More Playful."
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Over the course of his or her life, the average British person says "Sorry" on over 90,000 occasions. The typical Libran Brit probably utters routine apologies upwards of 120,000 times. Libras from other countries may not reach that heady level, but many do specialize in excessive politeness. (I should know, as I have three planets in Libra in my natal chart.) But in accordance with the astrological indicators, I am authorizing you to be a bit less courteous and solicitous than usual in the next two weeks. Don't go overboard, of course. But allowing yourself some breathing room like this will help you get more rigorous access to your authentic, idiosyncratic, soulful urges -- which will be very tonic.
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HOMEWORK:
Compose a sincere prayer in which you ask for something you think you're not supposed to. 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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