Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
December 7, 2016
FreeWillAstrology.com
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If you would like to support my work, please visit my Virtual Tip Jar at Paypal. It's here: paypal.me/FreeWillAstrology
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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. (Or listen to it here: bit.ly/1yalYDE)
YOU ARE A PROPHET
Your imagination is the single most important asset you possess. It's your power to create mental pictures of things that don't exist yet and that you want to bring into being. It's the magic wand you use to shape your future.
And so in your own way, you are a prophet. You generate countless predictions every day. Your imagination is the source, tirelessly churning out images of what you will be doing later.
The featured prophecy of the moment may be as simple as a psychic impression of yourself eating a fudge brownie at lunch or as monumental as a daydream of some year building your dream home by a lake or sea.
Your imagination is a treasure when it spins out scenarios that are aligned with your deepest desires. In fact, it's an indispensable tool in creating the life you want; it's what you use to form images of the conditions you'd like to inhabit and the objects you hope to wield. Nothing manifests on this planet unless it first exists as a mental picture.
But for most of us, the imagination is as much a curse as a blessing. We're often just as likely to use it to conjure up premonitions that are at odds with our conscious values. That's the result of having absorbed toxic programming from the media and from our parents at an early age and from other influential people in our past.
Fearful fantasies regularly pop up into our awareness, many disguising themselves as rational thoughts and genuine intuitions. Those fearful fantasies may hijack our psychic energy, directing it to exhaust itself in dead-end meditations.
Every time we entertain a vision of being rejected or hurt or frustrated, every time we rouse and dwell on a memory of a painful experience, we're blasting ourselves with a hex.
Meanwhile, ill-suited longings are also lurking in our unconscious mind, impelling us to want things that aren't good for us and that we don't really need. Anytime we surrender to the allure of these false and trivial and counterproductive desires, our imagination is practicing a form of black magic.
This is the unsavory aspect of the imagination that the Zen Buddhists deride as the "monkey mind." It's the part of our mental apparatus that endlessly spins out pictures that zip around with the energy of an agitated animal. If we can stop locating our sense of self in the relentless surge of the monkey mind's slapdash chatter, we can be fully attuned to the life that's right in front of us. Only then are we able to want what we actually have.
But whether our imagination is in service to our noble desires or in the thrall of compulsive fears and inappropriate yearnings, there is one constant: The prophecies of our imagination tend to be accurate. Many of our visions of the future do come to pass. The situations we expect to occur and the experiences we rehearse and dwell on are all-too-often reflected back to us as events that confirm our expectations.
Does that mean our mental projections create the future? Let's consider that possibility. What if it's at least partially true that what we expect will happen does tend to materialize?
Here's the logical conclusion: It's downright stupid and self-destructive to keep infecting our imaginations with pictures of loss and failure, doom and gloom, fear and loathing. The far more sensible approach is to expect blessings.
That's one reason why I'm reverent in composing my messages for you. If I'm to be one of the influences you invite into the intimate sanctuary where you hatch your self-fulfilling prophecies, I want to conspire with you to disperse fear and invoke relaxation and joy.
Listen to me speak the above essay: bit.ly/1yalYDE
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Six major countries have recently announced imminent phase-out of all coal-fired power plants: tinyurl.com/z8ftolk
A behavioral therapy program called Becoming a Man (BAM) for economically disadvantaged youth in Chicago reduced the participants' violent-crime arrests by 45–50%, and increased graduation rates by 12–19%.
tinyurl.com/johyq88
20 Ways to Take a Bigger, Louder Stand in the Post-Election World. Many of us are rekindling our activist spirit knowing that the next four years will require everyone to act.
tinyurl.com/jtuaya4
(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 December 8
Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
"The awesome splendor of the universe is much easier to deal with if you think of it as a series of small chunks," wrote novelist Terry Pratchett. That's true enough, but I'll add a caveat: Now and then the trickle of small chunks of awesome splendor gives way to a surge of really big chunks. According to my astrological analysis, that's either already happening for you, or else is about to happen. Can you handle it? I'm sure you've noticed that some people are unskilled at welcoming such glory; they prefer to keep their lives tidy and tiny. They may even get stressed out by their good fortune. I trust you're not one of these fainthearted souls. I hope you will summon the grace you'll need to make spirited use of the onslaught of magnificence.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
In his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, John Koenig coins words to describe previously unnamed feelings. I suspect you may have experienced a few of them recently. One is "monachopsis," defined as "the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place." Then there's "altschmerz," meaning "weariness with the same old issues you've always had." Another obscure sorrow you might recognize is "nodus tollens," or "the realization that the plot of your life doesn't make sense anymore." Now I'll tell you two of Koenig's more uplifting terms, which I bet you'll feel as you claw your way free of the morass. First, there's "liberosis": caring less about unimportant things; relaxing your grip so you can hold your life loosely and playfully. Second, there's "flashover," that moment when conversations become "real and alive, which occurs when a spark of trust shorts out the delicate circuits you keep insulated under layers of irony."
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
In 1983, two Australian blokes launched a quest to tip a drink at every pub in Melbourne. Thirty-two years later, Mick Stevens and Stuart MacArthur finally accomplished their goal when they sipped beers at The Clyde. It was the 476th establishment on their list. The coming weeks will be a highly favorable time to plan an epic adventure of your own, Aquarius. I hope and pray, though, that you will make it more sacred and meaningful than Stevens' and MacArthur's trivial mission.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
For three seasons of the year -- spring, summer, and fall -- a certain weasel species has brown fur. During that time, it's known as a stoat. When winter arrives, the creature's coat turns to white. Its name changes, too. We call it an ermine. The next spring, it once again becomes a stoat. Given the nature of the astrological omens, Pisces, I think it would make poetic sense for you to borrow this strategy. What would you like your nickname to be during the next three months? Here are a few suggestions: Sweet Sorcerer; Secret Freedom-Seeker; Lost-and-Found Specialist; Mystery Maker; Resurrector.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Normally I cheer you on when you devote single-minded attention to pressing concerns, even if you become a bit obsessive. But right now, in accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to run wild and free as you sample lavish variety. It's prime time to survey a spectrum of spicy, shiny, and feisty possibilities . . . to entertain a host of ticklish riddles rather than to insist on prosaic answers. You have been authorized by the cosmos to fabricate your own temporary religion of playing around and messing around and fooling around.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Taurus poet Adrienne Rich described "an honorable human relationship" as "one in which two people have the right to use the word 'love.'" How is that right earned? How is such a bond nurtured? Rich said it was "often terrifying to both persons involved," because it's "a process of refining the truths they can tell each other." I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because you're in a favorable phase to become an even more honorable lover, friend, and ally than you already are. To take advantage of the opportunity, explore this question: How can you supercharge and purify your ability to speak and hear the truth?
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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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"The best part about your audio horoscopes is that they pat me on the head and kick me in the ass at the same time." - Rita L., San Diego
"Your audio oracles go beyond helping me find the truth -- they inspire me to find the WILD truth." - Patrick K., Montreal
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
In Goethe's play Faust, the hero bemoans his lack of inner unity. Two different souls live within him, he says, and they don't cooperate. Even worse, they each try to rule him without consulting the other. I'm guessing you've experienced a more manageable version of that split during the course of your life. Lately, though, it may have grown more intense and divisive. If that's true, I think it's a good sign. It portends the possibility that healing is in the works . . . that energy is building for a novel synthesis. To help make it happen, identify and celebrate what your two sides have in common.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
The poet Dick Allen described Zen Buddhism as being "so filled with paradoxes that it jumps through hoops that aren't even there." I'm tempted to apply this description to the way you've been living your life recently. While I can see how it may have entertained you to engage in such glamorous intrigue, I'm hoping you will stop. There is no longer anything to be gained by the complicated hocus-pocus. But it's fine for you to jump through actual hoops if doing so yields concrete benefits.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
For decades, numerous self-help authors have claimed that humans use ten percent or less of their brain's potential. But the truth is that our gray matter is far more active than that. The scientific evidence is now abundant. (See a summary here: tinyurl.com/mindmyths.) I hope this helps spur you to destroy any limited assumptions you might have about your own brainpower, Leo. According to my astrological analysis, you could and should become significantly smarter in the next nine months -- and wiser, too!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Born under the sign of Virgo, Mary Oliver is America's best-selling poet. She wasn't an overnight sensation, but she did win a Pulitzer Prize when she was 49. "What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself," she confesses in one poem. "Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to. That was many years ago." I bet that even at her current age of 81, Oliver is still refining and deepening her self-love. Neither she nor you will ever be finished with this grand and grueling project. Luckily for you both, now is a time when Virgos can and should make plucky progress in the ongoing work. (P.S.: And this is an essential practice if you want to keep refining and deepening your love for others.)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Most high-quality suits worn by men are made from the wool of merino sheep raised in Australia. So says Nicholas Antongiavanni in his book The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style. There are now more than 100 million members of this breed, but they are all descendants of just two rams and four ewes from 18th-century Spain. How did that happen? It's a long story. (Read about it here: tinyurl.com/merinosheep.) For the oracular purposes of this horoscope, I'll simply say that in the next nine months you'll also have the potential to germinate a few choice seeds that could ultimately yield enormous, enduring results. Choose well!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Five of my Scorpio acquaintances and 17 of my Scorpio readers have let me know that they're actively seeking to make new alliances and strengthen their existing alliances. Does this mean that Scorpios everywhere are engaged in similar quests? I hope so. I would love to see you expand your network of like-minded souls. I would love for you to be ardent about recruiting more help and support. Happily, the current astrological omens favor such efforts. Hot tip: For best results, be receptive, inviting, and forthright.
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HOMEWORK:
Imagine it's many years from now. As you look back on your life, what adventure do you regret not trying? Truthrooster@gmail.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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