Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
May 24, 2017
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.
MAYBE YOU'RE A BEAUTIFIER
Cancer cells are constantly developing in our bodies. Luckily, our immune systems routinely kill them off. Similarly, our minds always harbor pockets of crazy-making misconceptions and faulty imprints. They usually don't rise up and render us insane thanks to the psychic versions of our immune systems.
How can you stay strong in your ability to fight off madness? You know the drill: Eat healthy food, sleep well, get physical exercise, minimize stress, give and receive love. But as an aspiring pronoiac, you have at your disposal other actions that can provide powerful boosts to your psychic immune system. Here are examples:
Scheme to put yourself in the path of beautiful landscapes, buildings, art, and creatures.
Exercise your imagination regularly. Get in the habit of feeding your mind's eye with images that fill you with wonder and vitality.
Eliminate uhs, you knows, I means, and other junk words from your speech. Avoid saying things you don't really mean and haven't thought out. Stop yourself when tempted to make scornful assertions about people.
Every night before you fall asleep, review the day's activities in your mind's eye. As if watching a movie about yourself, try to be calmly objective as you observe your memories from the previous 16 hours. Be especially alert for moments when you strayed from your purpose and didn't live up to your highest standards.
With a companion, sit in front of a turned-off TV as you make up a pronoiac story that features tricky benevolence, scintillating harmony, and amusing redemption. Speak this tale aloud or write it down.
Take on an additional job title, beautifier. Put it on your business card and do something every day to cultivate your skill. If you're a people person, bring grace and intrigue into your conversations; ask unexpected questions that provoke original thoughts.
If you're an artist, leave samples of your finest work in public places. If you're a psychologist or sociologist, point out the institutions and relationships that are working really well. Whatever you do best, be alert for how you can refine it and offer it up to those who'll benefit from it.
If you're going through a phase when you feel you have nothing especially beautiful to offer, or if you think it would be self-indulgent to inject your own aesthetic into shared environments, turn for help to great artists and thinkers.
Sneak O'Keeffe or Chagall prints onto unadorned walls in public places, for instance. Memorize poems by Rilke and Hafiz, and slip them into your conversations when appropriate. Use Vivaldi's "Stabat Mater in C Minor" as your ring tone. Scrawl passages from Annie Dillard's "Teaching a Stone to Talk" on the walls of public lavatories.
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PLEASURE MIGHT BE SPIRITUAL
Assume that your drive to experience pleasure isn't a barrier to your spiritual growth, but is in fact essential to it.
Proceed on the hypothesis that cultivating joy can make you a more ethical and compassionate person.
Imagine that feeling good has something important to teach you every day.
What might you do differently from what you do now?
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"EVERYONE IS MY TEACHER"
I invite you to say the following, and see how it feels:
Everyone is my teacher.
Everywhere I go, I am a student.
Every person I meet is in some way my superior.
I vow to shut up and listen on a frequent and regular basis.
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The poet Kabir says:
Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think . . . and think . . . while you are alive.
What you call "salvation" belongs to the time
before death.
If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten --
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment
in the City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life
you will have the face of satisfied desire.
So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,
believe in the Great Sound!
Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for,
it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest
that does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.
- Kabir, translated and rendered by Robert Bly
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Peruvian scientists uses nanotechnology to recover polluted lake.
tinyurl.com/kz4qljj
Jesuits to return 525 acres of South Dakota land to Rosebud Sioux
tinyurl.com/ksnyqn6
When standard malaria medications failed 18 critically ill patients, the physician in a Congo clinic used the "compassionate use" doctrine to prescribe a not-yet-approved malaria therapy made only from the dried leaves of the Artemisia annua plant. In just five days, all 18 people fully recovered.
tinyurl.com/kjaf4ed
(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 May 25
Copyright 2017 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Generation Kill is an HBO miniseries based on the experiences of a reporter embedded with American Marines fighting in Iraq. Early on, before the troops have been exposed to any serious combat, they're overflowing with trash talk. A commanding officer scolds them: "Gentlemen, from now on we're going to have to earn our stories." Although you are in a much less volatile situation right now, Gemini, my advice to you is the same: In the coming weeks, you'll have to earn your stories. You can't afford to talk big unless you're geared up to act big, too. You shouldn't make promises and entertain dares and issue challenges unless you're fully prepared to be a hero. Now here's my prophecy: I think you will be a hero.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
In your mind's eye, drift back in time to a turning point in your past that didn't go the way you'd hoped. But don't dwell on the disappointment. Instead, change the memory. Visualize yourself then and there, but imagine you're in possession of all the wisdom you have gathered since then. Next, picture an alternative ending to the old story -- a finale in which you manage to pull off a much better result. Bask in this transformed state of mind for five minutes. Repeat the whole exercise at least once a day for the next two weeks. It will generate good medicine that will produce a creative breakthrough no later than mid-June.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
You're being invited to boost your commitment to life and become a more vivid version of yourself. If you refuse the invitation, it will later return as a challenge. If you avoid that challenge, it will eventually circle back around to you as a demand. So I encourage you to respond now, while it's still an invitation. To gather the information you'll need, ask yourself these questions: What types of self-development are you "saving for later"? Are you harboring any mediocre goals or desires that dampen your lust for life? Do you tone down or hold back your ambitions for fear they would hurt or offend people you care about?
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
"Dear Dream Doctor: I dreamed that a crowd of people had decided to break through a locked door using a long, thick wooden plank as a battering ram. The only problem was, I was lying on top of the plank, half-asleep. By the time I realized what was up, the agitated crowd was already at work smashing at the door. Luckily for me, it went well. The door got bashed in and I wasn't hurt. What does my dream mean? -Nervous Virgo." Dear Virgo: Here's my interpretation: It's time to knock down a barrier, but you're not convinced you're ready or can do it all by yourself. Luckily, there are forces in your life that are conspiring to help make sure you do it.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
As long as you keep Syria, South Sudan, and North Korea off your itinerary, traveling would be food for your soul during the next 28 days. It would also be balm for your primal worries and medicine for your outworn dogmas and an antidote for your comfortable illusions. Do you have the time and money necessary to make a pilgrimage to a place you regard as holy? How about a jaunt to a rousing sanctuary? Or an excursion to an exotic refuge that will shock you in friendly, healing ways? I hope that you will at least read a book about the territory that you may one day call your home away from home.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
By now I'm sure you have tuned in to the rumblings in your deep self. Should you be concerned? Maybe a little, but I think the more reasonable attitude is curiosity. Even though the shaking is getting stronger and louder, it's also becoming more melodic. The power that's being unleashed will almost certainly turn out to be far more curative than destructive. The light it emits may at first look murky but will eventually bloom like a thousand moons. Maintain your sweet poise. Keep the graceful faith.
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YOU NEED MAGIC EVERY DAY
Every day, you have to wade through a relentless surge of soul-less facts. The experience tends to shut down your sense of wonder.
Every day, you're over-exposed to cynical narratives that have been sucked free of delight and mystery. That's why you have to make such strenuous efforts to keep your world enchanted.
I like to think I can contribute to the sacred cause of feeding your sense of wonder and enchantment. In fact, that's one of my prime motivations for offering you the free weekly horoscopes you read in this newsletter.
If you ever want more of that good stuff, and think it's worth paying for, please consider trying out my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.
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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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Life is inviting you to decode riddles about togetherness that could boost your emotional intelligence and earn you the right to enjoy lyrical new expressions of intimacy. Will you accept the invitation? Are you willing to transcend your habitual responses for the sake of your growth-inducing relationships? Are you interested in developing a greater capacity for collaboration and synergy? Would you be open to making a vulnerable fool of yourself if it helped your important alliances to fulfill their dormant potential? Be brave and empathetic, Sagittarius. Be creative and humble and affectionate.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
"In youth we feel richer for every new illusion," wrote author Anne Sophie Swetchine. "In maturer years, for every one we lose." While that may be generally true, I think that even twenty-something Capricorns are likely to fall into the latter category in the coming weeks. Whatever your age, I foresee you shouting something akin to "Hallelujah!" or "Thank God!" or "Boomshakalaka flashbang!" as you purge disempowering fantasies that have kept you in bondage and naive beliefs that have led you astray.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
"There are no green thumbs or black thumbs," wrote horticulturalist Henry Mitchell in a message you were destined to hear at this exact moment. "There are only gardeners and non-gardeners. Gardeners are the ones who get on with the high defiance of nature herself, creating, in the very face of her chaos and tornado, the bower of roses and the pride of irises. It sounds very well to garden a 'natural way.' You may see the natural way in any desert, any swamp, any leech-filled laurel hell. Defiance, on the other hand, is what makes gardeners." Happy Defiance Time to you, Aquarius! In the coming weeks, I hope you will express the most determined and disciplined fertility ever!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I believe it may be the right time to tinker with or repair a foundation; to dig down to the bottom of an old resource and consider transforming it at its roots. Why? After all this time, that foundation or resource needs your fresh attention. It could be lacking a nutrient that has gradually disappeared. Maybe it would flourish better if it got the benefit of the wisdom you have gained since it first became useful for you. Only you have the power to discern the real reasons, Pisces -- and they may not be immediately apparent. Be tender and patient and candid as you explore.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
"Sin" is a puerile concept in my eyes, so I don't normally use it to discuss grown-up concerns. But if you give me permission to invoke it in a jokey, ironic way, I'll recommend that you cultivate more surprising, interesting, and original sins. In other words, Aries, it's high time to get bored with your predictable ways of stirring up a ruckus. Ask God or Life to bring you some really evocative mischief that will show you what you've been missing and lead you to your next robust learning experience.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Attention, smart shoppers! Here's a special spring fling offer! For a limited time only, you can get five cutesy oracles for the price of one! And you don't have to pay a penny unless they all come true! Check 'em out! Oracle #1: Should you wait patiently until all the conditions are absolutely perfect? No! Success comes from loving the mess. Oracle #2: Don't try to stop a sideshow you're opposed to. Stage a bigger, better show that overwhelms it. Oracle #3: Please, master, don't be a slave to the things you control. Oracle #4: Unto your own self be true? Yes! Unto your own hype be true? No! Oracle #5: The tortoise will beat the hare as long as the tortoise doesn't envy or try to emulate the hare.
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HOMEWORK:
How could you change yourself to get more of the love you want? Testify by going to RealAstrology.com and clicking on "Email Rob."
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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 2017 Rob Brezsny
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