Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
December 14, 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.
The Beauty and Truth Lab is coming to you live from your repressed memory of paradise, reminding you that all of creation loves you very much.
Even now, secret and not-so-secret allies are cooking up mysteries that will excite you and incite you for years to come.
Even now, the Earth, moon, and sun are collaborating to make sure you have all you need to make your next smart move.
But here's the loaded question: Are you willing to start loving life back with an equal intensity? The adoration it offers you has not exactly been unrequited, but there is room for you to be more demonstrative.
Half of the art of pronoia is about being improvisationally receptive to life's elaborate scheme to shower you with blessings. The other half is about learning to be a co-conspirator who assists life in doling out blessings —- to help everyone else get exactly what they need, exactly when they need it.
Visualize yourself being able to recognize the raw truth about the people you care about. Imagine that you can see how they already embody the beauty their souls' codes have promised as well as how they still fall short of embodying that beauty.
Picture yourself being able to make them feel appreciated even as you inspire them to risk changes that will activate more of their souls' codes.
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Each one of us is a blend of life and death. In the most literal sense, our bodies always contain old cells that are dying and new cells that are emerging as replacements.
From a more metaphorical perspective, our familiar ways of seeing and thinking and feeling are constantly atrophying, even as fresh modes emerge. Both losing and winning are woven into every day; sinking down and rising up; shrinking and expanding.
In any given phase of our lives, one or the other polarity is often more pronounced. But sometimes they are evenly balanced; the Seasons of Rot and of Regeneration happen at the same time.
Where are you at in the cycle right now?
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"As a bee seeks nectar from all kind of flowers, seek teachings everywhere. Like a deer that finds a quiet place to graze, seek seclusion to digest all that you have gathered. Like a madman beyond all limits, go wherever you please and live like a lion completely free of all fear."
-- Ancient Tibetan text
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Dear Life:
I love you!
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David Whyte says: “ANGER is the deepest form of compassion, for another, for the world, for the self, for a life, for the body, for a family and for all our ideals, all vulnerable and all, possibly about to be hurt.
“Stripped of physical imprisonment and violent reaction, anger is the purest form of care; the internal living flame of anger always illuminates what we belong to, what we wish to protect and what we are willing to hazard ourselves for.
“What we usually call anger is only what is left of its essence when we are overwhelmed by its accompanying vulnerability, when it reaches the lost surface of our mind or our body’s incapacity to hold it, or when it touches the limits of our understanding.
“What we name as anger is actually only the incoherent physical incapacity to sustain this deep form of care in our outer daily life; the unwillingness to be large enough and generous enough to hold what we love helplessly in our bodies or our mind with the clarity and breadth of our whole being.”
- From David Whyte’s book, "Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words” - tinyurl.com/go53hmg
and as quoted in the excellent website Brainpickings: tinyurl.com/gwhsaxw
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I invite you to send me a photo of yourself from a time when you were President. Or of a time when you will be President.
Here's an old snapshot of me from when I was President of Insurrectionary Love and Orgasmic Reverence: bit.ly/youarethepresident
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
47 of the world's poorest countries are aiming to hit 100% renewable energy. "The idea is to skip from pre-industrialisation to renewables, avoiding the 'messy part' in the middle where a need for more energy to support economic growth spurs fossil fuel use to dangerously high levels."
tinyurl.com/gnalhqm
Stephen Colbert shocks South Carolina schools by funding every single teacher-requested grant.
tinyurl.com/qbahttb
U.S. military veterans at Standing Rock shock tribe members, beg forgiveness for U.S. war crimes against tribal nations. tinyurl.com/j5bbkx5
(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 15
Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Physicist Stephen Hawking is skeptical of the hypothesis that humans may someday be able to travel through time. To jokingly dramatize his belief, he threw a party for time travelers from the future. Sadly, not a single chrononaut showed up to enjoy the champagne and hors d'oeuvres Hawking had prepared. Despite this discouraging evidence, I guarantee that you will have the potential to meet with Future Versions of You on a regular basis during the next nine months. These encounters are likely to be metaphorical or dreamlike rather than literal, but they will provide valuable information as you make decisions that affect your destiny for years to come. The first of these heart-to-hearts should come very soon.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
During these last few weeks, you may have sometimes felt like smashing holes in the wall with your head, or dragging precious keepsakes into the middle of the street and setting them on fire, or delivering boxes full of garbage to people who don't appreciate you as much as they should. I hope you abstained from doing things like that. Now here are some prescriptions to help you graduate from unproductive impulses: Make or find a symbol of one of your mental blocks, and bash it to pieces with a hammer; clean and polish precious keepsakes, and perform rituals to reinvigorate your love for them; take as many trips to the dump as necessary to remove the congestion, dross, and rot from your environment.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Singer-songwriter Tom Waits has a distinctive voice. One fan described it this way: "Like how you'd sound if you drank a quart of bourbon, smoked a pack of cigarettes and swallowed a pack of razor blades. Late at night. After not sleeping for three days." Luckily, Waits doesn't have to actually do any of those self-destructive things to achieve his unique tone. In fact, he's wealthy from selling his music, and has three kids with a woman to whom he's been married for 36 years. I foresee a similar potential for you in the coming weeks and months. You may be able to capitalize on your harmless weirdness . . . to earn rewards by expressing your charming eccentricities . . . to be both strange and popular.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Was punk rock born on June 4, 1976? A fledgling band known as the Sex Pistols played that night for a crowd of 40 people at a small venue in Manchester, England. Among the audience members was Morrissey, who got so inspired that he started his own band, The Smiths. Also in attendance was a rowdy guy who would soon launch the band Joy Division, despite the fact that he had never played an instrument. The men who would later form the Buzzcocks also saw the performance by Johnny Rotten and his crew. According to music critic David Nolan, these future pioneers came away from the June 4 show with the conclusion, "You don't have to be a virtuoso or a musical genius to be in a band; anyone can do it." I see parallels between this seminal event and your life in the coming weeks.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how," said dancer Agnes De Mille. "We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark." As true as her words might be for most of us much of the time, I suspect they don't apply to you right now. This is one of those rare moments when feeling total certainty is justified. Your vision is extra clear and farseeing. Your good humor and expansive spirit will ensure that you stay humble. As you take leap after leap, you'll be surrounded by light.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
"We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange," wrote author Carson McCullers. Are you ready to give that adage a twist, Taurus? In the coming weeks, I think you should search for foreign and strange qualities in your familiar world. Such a quest may initially feel odd, but will ultimately be healthy and interesting. It will also be good preparation for the next chapter of your life, when you will saunter out into unknown territory and find ways to feel at home there.
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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 don't much believe in astrology. But that doesn't seem to get in the way of me deriving a whole lot of benefits from your expanded audio horoscopes."
- A. Arrosto, Indianapolis
"You have an amazing aptitude for cutting through the lies I tell myself. Thanks for the gentle shocks."
- T. Preneris, Toronto
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
"If you don't use your own imagination, somebody else is going to use it for you," said writer Ronald Sukenick. That's always true, but it will be especially important for you to keep in mind in 2017. You Geminis will have an unparalleled power to enlarge, refine, and tap into your imagination. You'll be blessed with the motivation and ingenuity to make it work for you in new ways, which could enable you to accomplish marvelous feats of creativity and self-transformation. Now here's a warning: If you DON'T use your willower to take advantage of these potentials, your imagination will be subject to atrophy and colonization.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Why are Australian sand wasps so skilled at finding their way back home after being out all day? Here's their trick: When they first leave the nest each morning, they fly backwards, imprinting on their memory banks the sights they will look for when they return later. Furthermore, their exiting flight path is a slow and systematic zigzag pattern that orients them from multiple directions. I recommend that you draw inspiration from the sand wasps in 2017, Cancerian. One of your important tasks will be to keep finding your way back to your spiritual home, over and over again.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Vault 21, a restaurant in Dunedin, New Zealand, serves sautéed locusts. For $5, patrons receive a plate of five. The menu refers to the dish not as "Oily Sizzling Grasshoppers," but rather as "Sky Prawns." Satisfied customers know exactly what they're eating, and some say the taste does indeed resemble prawns. I bring this to your attention, Leo, because it illustrates a talent you will have in abundance during 2017: re-branding. You'll know how to maximize the attractiveness and desirability of things by presenting them in the best possible light.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
The literal translation of the German word Kummerspeck is "grief bacon." It refers to the weight gained by people who, while wallowing in self-pity, eat an excess of comfort food. I know more than a few Virgos who have been flirting with this development lately, although the trigger seems to be self-doubt as much as self-pity. In any case, here's the good news: The trend is about to flip. A flow of agreeable adventures is due to begin soon. You'll be prodded by fun challenges and provocative stimuli that will boost your confidence and discourage Kummerspeck.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
"Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable," wrote journalist Brenda Ueland. Pause for a moment and fully take in that fact, Libra. It's breathtaking and daunting. What a huge responsibility it is to be absolutely unique. In fact, it's so monumental that you may still be shy about living up to it. But how about if you make 2017 the year you finally come into your own as the awesomely unprecedented creature that you are? I dare you to more fully acknowledge and express your singular destiny. Start today!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"To dream . . . to dream has been the business of my life," wrote author Edgar Allan Poe. I don't expect you to match his devotion to dreams in 2017, Scorpio, but I do hope you will become more deeply engaged with your waking fantasies and the stories that unfold as you lie sleeping. Why? Because your usual approaches to gathering useful information won't be sufficient. To be successful, both in the spiritual and worldly senses, you'll need extra access to perspectives that come from beyond your rational mind. Here's a good motto for you in 2017: "I am a lavish and practical dreamer."
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HOMEWORK:
Talk about the pleasures you'd enjoy if you went a week without consuming any media. Write: 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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