Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 17, 2007
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http://FreeWillAstrology.com
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"We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities."
- Pogo
"Strictly speaking there are no enlightened people, there is only
enlightened activity."
- Suzuki Roshi
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This newsletter is now available via RSS. Go here:
http://FreeWillAstrology.com/newsletter/
If you want to know more about what RSS is, go here:
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My book
"PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings"
is available for sale at http://tinyurl.com/qaj62
To read news and features from the book, go here:
http://tinyurl.com/lhwx2
Here's an excerpt:
THE SCIENCE OF THE INVISIBLE
"Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?" Biologist E.O.
Wilson says that philosophers long ago stopped addressing these
questions, believing them to be unanswerable. Scientists stepped forward
to fill the vacuum, and now act as supreme arbiters of the mysteries that
were once the province of philosophers.
I'm saddened by the loss. The scientific method is a tremendous tool for
understanding the world, but most scientists refuse to use it to study
phenomena that can't be repeated under controlled conditions and that
can't be explained by current models of reality. I think it's impossible to
explore the Big Three Questions without taking into account all that
elusive, enigmatic, unrepeatable stuff. The more accidental, the more
true.
I can at least hope the scientists won't object if the Beauty and Truth
Laboratory borrows their disciplined objectivity and incisive reasoning to
explore areas they regard as off-limits.
Two groups that may not mind are the astronomers and astrophysicists.
More than other scientists, they've been compelled to develop an intimate
relationship with invisible realms. In fact, they've come to a conclusion
that's eerily similar to the assessment of shamans and mystics from
virtually every culture throughout history: Most of reality is hidden from
our five senses.
"Ninety-six percent of the universe is stuff we've never seen,"
cosmologist Michael Turner told Geoff Brumfiel in the March 13, 2003
issue of the journal *Nature.* To be exact, the cosmos is 23 percent dark
matter and 73 percent dark energy, both of which are missing. All the
stars and planets and moons and asteroids and comets and nebulas and
gas clouds together comprise the visible four percent.
So where is the other 96 percent? No one knows. It's not only concealed
from humans, it's imperceptible to the instruments humans have devised,
and its whereabouts can't be predicted by any existing theories.
*
What will happen as the implications of these data filter down to the
other sciences? Maybe there will be a reversal of a long-term trend
documented by Nature. In 1914, the magazine found that 30 percent of
the world's top scientists believed in God. In a second survey in 1934, the
number dropped to 15 percent, and by 1998 it was seven percent.
If the fact that most of reality is hidden doesn't spur them to reconsider
the possibility of a divine presence working behind the scenes, maybe it
will move them to become more sympathetic to a project like ours, which
has the intention of adopting the scientific approach to an exploration of
the invisible.
*
The 17th-century Church fathers wouldn't look through Galileo's
telescope. Why bother? Catholic doctrine was clear that moons could not
possibly circle Jupiter.
Likewise, most of today's scientists refuse to consider the possibility that
there have been unidentified craft flying around our skies for years. "It's
absurd to think that beings from other star systems could traverse the
vast distances between them and us," they declare, "so why should we
even examine the so-called evidence?" Their certainty contains a giant
bias: that creatures from other worlds can only have ships that are limited
to the means of propulsion we have thus far discovered here on Earth.
Arthur Koestler said that to the ancient Greeks, electricity was as bizarre
and unfathomable as telepathy is to us in the modern era. Yet electricity
existed before it was believed in. It's just that there was no theory that
proposed its existence and no mechanism to gather evidence for it.
Culture had to change in order for people to be able to know where and
how to look.
Today we're aware of electricity as well as black holes, X-rays, radio
waves, and infrared light because we have instruments to extend our
senses. But is it wise to assume that we have finally developed every
sense-extending technology that will ever be invented?
When Columbus's ships first appeared on the horizon, the Arawaks on the
island of Guanahaní saw them as floating monsters. They didn't have the
conceptual framework to know them for what they literally were. You
can't perceive what you can't conceive. An adult who has been blind all
his life and through surgery is suddenly given the power of sight takes
quite a while to be able to learn to interpret what he's looking at. The eye
alone doesn't see. The mind and the cultural biases it has internalized
interpret and shape the raw data.
Modern science is a fabulous way of understanding reality, but it's not the
crown of creation. Just as meteors, dinosaurs, and electricity (and dark
matter and neutrinos and gamma rays) were inconceivable and therefore
not real to earlier generations, there may be phenomena here with us now
that won't be real until our culture and minds and instruments evolve
further. Will they include events we now call UFOs and angels? Maybe.
Maybe not. Let's remain curious.
*
"Ancient stars in their death throes spat out atoms like iron which this
universe had never known. The novel tidbits of debris were sucked up by
infant suns which, in turn, created yet more atoms when their race was
run. Now the iron of old nova coughings vivifies the redness of our blood.
"If stars step constantly upward, why should the global interlace of
humans, microbes, plants, and animals not move upward steadily as well?
The horizons toward which we must soar are within us, anxious to break
free, to emerge from our imaginings, then to beckon us forward into fresh
realities.
"We have a mission to create, for we are evolution incarnate. We are her
self-awareness, her frontal lobes and fingertips. We are second-generation
star stuff come alive. We are parts of something 3.5 billion years old, but
pubertal in cosmic time. We are neurons of this planet's interspecies
mind." —Howard Bloom, *Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from
the Big Bang to the 21st Century*
*
Physicist Roger Penrose, who helped to develop the theories about black
holes, has said that the chance of an ordered universe happening at
random is nil: one in 10 to the 10th to the 30th, a number so large that if
you programmed a computer to write a million zeros per second, it would
take a million times the age of the universe just to write the number
down.
*
"The big bang is so preposterous," says renowned astronomer Allan
Sandage, co-discoverer of the quasar, "and the chain of events it set off
so unlikely, that it makes most sense when thought of as a 'miracle.'"
For the sake of argument, let's assume Sandage is right. If the very
beginning of the universe itself was a miracle, then everything in it is
impregnated with the possibility of smaller but equally marvelous miracles.
*
"When a scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly
right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably
wrong," said Arthur C. Clarke, who, due to his contributions to science,
has had an asteroid and dinosaur species named after him.
*
"The laws of physics appear 'fine tuned' for our existence. Even slight
deviations in the laws would result in a universe devoid of stars and life. If,
for instance, the force of gravity were just a few percent weaker it could
not squeeze and heat the matter inside stars to the millions of degrees
that are necessary to trigger sunlight generating nuclear reactions. If
gravity were only a few percent stronger, however, it would heat up stars,
causing them to consume their fuel faster. They would not exist for the
billions of years needed for evolution to produce intelligence. This kind of
fine tuning is widespread." —Marcus Chown, "Radical Science: Did Angels
Create the Universe?," *The Independent,* March 15, 2002
*
"Something unknown is doing we don't know what." —Astrophysicist
Arthur Eddington, "one of three persons in the world who understood
Einstein's theory of general relativity"
. . . To read the rest of this piece, go to page 227 of the book.
To read excerpts from the book at Google Books, go here:
http://tinyurl.com/3y7u9f
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To read news and features from my book, go here:
http://tinyurl.com/lhwx2
You can buy the book here:
AMAZON
http://tinyurl.com/qaj62
POWELLS
http://tinyurl.com/3dsx6q
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OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
GOOD NEWS IS CONTAGIOUS AND SPREADING
New "positive change" magazines thrive
http://tinyurl.com/yo57bh
THE EVOLUTION OF GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS
http://tinyurl.com/2vyh6j
"The noosphere is 'a living tissue of consciousness' enclosing the Earth."
And the Internet could be the mechanical infrastructure of the noosphere.
PRIMAL JOY CAPTURED ON CAMERA
Dolphin Birth
http://tinyurl.com/2hx545
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. These are not advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own personal nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning October 18
Copyright 2007 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In China's Zhejiang province, many of the cities
specialize in making a single product. For example, Datang township
manufactures one-third of all the world's socks. Wenzhou creates 70
percent of the cigarette lighters on the planet, and Songxia has cornered
the market on umbrellas, churning out 350 million per year. I'm not
necessarily saying that you should copy their approach, Libra. But if you
have recently had inklings about cultivating a certain specialty you'd love
to pursue with more intensity, the coming weeks will be an ideal time to
set that process in motion.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Dear Rob: Three and a half weeks ago, I had
a dream that I was an archaeologist excavating hell. I took comfort in the
fact that I was just a visitor, not a permanent resident, but my stay there
was . . . well, hellish. Whenever I found an interesting artifact buried in the
hot dirt, it would spontaneously ignite. I narrowly avoided getting burned
again and again. Anyway, my actual waking life has pretty much felt like
that ever since the dream. Yesterday, though, I felt the torment lifting.
And then last night I dreamed of floating in a fireproof boat along an
underground molten river of lava that eventually took me out to a green
meadow under blue skies. Whew! -Sizzled Scorpio." Dear Sizzled: Your
journey parallels that of many of your fellow Scorpios. Welcome back from
hell!
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): While traveling long distances, birds are
constantly napping. They can close one eye at a time, allowing one side of
the brain to sleep. I hope you'll be inspired by their technique in the
coming weeks, Sagittarius -- not by literally snoozing in mid-air as you
soar across abysses during your leaps of faith, of course. Rather, I'm
suggesting that you become a master of inducing utter relaxation for
brief spells *between* each of your daring, heart-pounding exploits. Stay
poised, good-natured, and full of grace even while you're in the thick of
adventure.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Your symbol of power in the coming week
is a book by businessman Robert Rodin entitled *Free, Perfect, and Now:
Connecting to the Three Insatiable Customer Demands.* He talks about
how important it is for a company to provide cheap prices, excellent
quality, and quick responses. That's a good formula for you to remember
as you brainstorm about how to generate greater interest in the products
and services and experiences you create. But I also encourage you to
meditate on the theme of *free, perfect, and now* in its widest sense.
How can you bring more of the exuberant spirit of that mantra into
everything you do?
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AUDIO LOVE LETTERS
In addition to the horoscopes that come to you in this newsletter, I create
more in-depth audio horoscopes for your inspiration. I think of them as
my love letters to you. They're $6 if you access them on the Web, or
$1.99 per minute over the phone.
Try them at http://RealAstrology.com.
They're available by phone at 1-877-873-4888
or 1-900-950-7700.
"Your expanded astrology thingees help me remember who I really am." -
Gareth N., Toronto
"I never knew it was possible to get my butt kicked and my head patted
at the same time -- until I listened to you, Rob." -Kristi P., Portland, OR
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AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You now have the potential to do in your
own field what painter Joe Bravo has done in his own field: branch out in
unexpected directions and claim territory few people have ever explored.
Bravo executes his works of art not on canvases but on tortillas, some of
which are almost three feet in diameter. He earns as much as $3,000 for
his masterpieces. In your own sphere, Aquarius, what would be the
equivalent to painting on tortillas? This is a perfect time to make a move.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In his book *Shamanism: Archaic Techniques
of Ecstasy,* religious scholar Mircea Eliade speaks of *Qaumaneq,* a
special capacity that may be magically obtained by Eskimo shamans. It's
"a mysterious light the shaman feels inside his head, an inexplicable
searchlight, a luminous fire. It enables him to see in the dark, both literally
and metaphorically speaking, even with closed eyes, allowing him to see
through darkness and perceive things that are hidden from others." Even
if you're not an Eskimo shaman, Pisces, you now have the potential to
wield a power with resemblances to *Qaumaneq.*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In his book *The Primary Colors,* Alexander
Theroux writes that yellow is the color of "early bruises, forbidding skies,
dead leaves, dental plaque, foul curtains, speed bumps, and callused
feet." And yet, he muses, yellow is also the color of "the generous sun,
butter, candlelight, ripening grain, translucent amber, and spring itself." I
suspect that in the coming week, Aries, you will have encounters with a
situation that is as paradoxical as yellow. Whether your experience is
more like wrapping yourself in foul curtains or basking in the generous sun
may depend largely on whether you summon a determination to see the
best in everything.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Speaking on the authority of the expansive
planet Jupiter, I hereby free you from all inferior temptations. In the
coming weeks, you will, by cosmic decree, be enticed by only the finest,
most uplifting temptations. That doesn't mean you should automatically
succumb to the charms of those temptations. The more important point
is that you should allow them to influence you -- to change you around
every which way. Trust that the impact they have on you, as they invite
you to follow them, will inspire you to express yourself more beautifully
and upgrade your relationship with yourself.
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AUDIO HOROSCOPES
In addition to the horoscopes that you're reading here, I create more in-
depth audio horoscopes for your inspiration. Find out more at
http://RealAstrology.com.
The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or
1-900-950-7700.
"You told me the truth when no one else in my life would." -Darren H.,
Minneapolis
"Your wake-up calls keep me from getting stale." -Arris T., Aspen, CO
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Last August, a woman in Pennsylvania
experienced a miracle when she cut open an eggplant. The seeds were
arrayed in the shape of the word "God." Felicia Teske regarded it as a
divine sign that had been sent to comfort her for some difficulties she
had recently experienced. She felt deep gratitude for the gift.
Nevertheless, she cooked up the vegetable and served it to her family for
dinner, though not before saving a slice that she offered for sale on eBay.
I urge you to follow Felicia's lead in the coming week, Gemini. Magnetize
yourself to epiphanies and breakthroughs that will simultaneously feed
your soul, your body, and your bank account.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You could be like a thunderstorm that
rejuvenates a parched landscape. At the same time, you have the power
to express yourself like a thousand-foot waterfall. Why not take
advantage of both these potentials? Be both helpful and charismatic,
nurturing and alluring. Be of humble service as you flout your
magnificence. This is one of those grace periods when you can do good
and look good and feel good. I hereby dub thee the Flow Master.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): For years, rural villagers in China's Henan province
cooked and ate the giant bones they found buried in the earth. They
believed they were ingesting what was left of flying dragons, thereby
drawing on the creatures' healing powers. But a year ago, scientists from
the big city informed the villagers that the magic bones were actually the
skeletal remains of dinosaurs, not dragons. In the wake of this revelation,
some people have stuck to their belief in the curative properties of the
bones, while others have decided that they were deluded and moved on. I
expect that you will soon come to a comparable fork, Leo: You'll discover
surprising, possibly disruptive information about a source whose energy
you've drawn on for a long time. Will you leave it behind or will you
reinvent your relationship? I don't know what the right decision is, only
that you should trust your own intuition, not anyone else's.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A study by the University of London's
Institute of Psychiatry concluded that overindulgence in text messaging
and emailing typically leads to a ten-point loss in IQ, whereas pot-smoking
causes a decline of only four points. You probably won't have to worry
about either of those dangers for a few weeks, though, since you're
entering an astrological phase when your mind will be working more
efficiently than usual. In fact, given how smart you'll just naturally be, you
could actually afford to kill off some brain cells. Even if you toke up while
texting, your IQ is likely to be above your normal level.
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HOMEWORK: Finish this sentence: "The one thing that really keeps me
from being myself is _______." Testify by going to
http://RealAstrology.com and clicking on "Email Rob."
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WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?
I'm not doing personal charts, but I highly recommend my astrological
colleague, RO LOUGHRAN. Her approach closely matches my own. In our
many discussions about astrology over the years, we've had a major
influence on each other's work.
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained intuition, emotional warmth, and a high
degree of technical proficiency in horoscope interpretation; she is skilled
at exploring the mysteries of your life's purpose and nurturing your
connection with your own inner wisdom.
Ro is based in California, but can do phone consultations and otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic boundaries.
Ro's website is at
http://YourSoulJourney.com
She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net
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Submissions sent to the Free Will Astrology Weekly Newsletter
or in response to "homework assignments" may be
published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion,
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2007 Rob Brezsny
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