Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
March 16, 2011
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Here's a pretty version of this newsletter: http://bit.ly/fK0Azs
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My book *PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA* is available at
Amazon: http://bit.ly/Pronoia
and also at Powells: http://bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
I've posted a new piece from the book on my website. It's the true story
of my first trip to the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, when I
got the idea to create the Beauty and Truth Lab and write the book about
pronoia.
Go here to read it: http://bit.ly/BabyWipe
Here's a brief excerpt:
It was there in the middle of the desert that the Beauty and Truth
Laboratory was born. My vision was clear: It would be a tribe of hope
fiends. A hotbed of loving geniuses. A gang of lunatic saints and
emotional giants and crafty optimists. A think tank of sacred agents and
scientific poets and dissident bodhisattvas and virtuoso bliss-invokers.
The Beauty and Truth Lab would be an actual place, or maybe a web of
places, where compassionate masters of rowdy bliss gathered to explore
the frontiers of beauty, truth, love, justice, integrity, goodness, pleasure,
fun, redemption, and emotional intelligence. Part of it would serve as a
real laboratory, a matrix where we could conduct actual experiments. Our
purpose would not be merely to make our own lives richer, but also to
offer inspiration to others through the books, music, performances, and
films we'd generate in the course of our work.
READ THE REST OF THIS PIECE HERE: http://bit.ly/BabyWipe
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
MAGIC IS AFOOT
Nobel Prize winning biologist says DNA can electromagnetically teleport a
duplicate of itself between test tubes.
http://tinyurl.com/5u5ceq4
http://tinyurl.com/4f7muzx
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS ISN'T ALL BAD
New Forests Are Increasing Dramatically
"For every acre of rain forest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of
new forest are growing in the tropics on land that was once farmed,
logged or ravaged by natural disaster."
http://tinyurl.com/6cabdvh
USING HEAT TO GET COOLER
The First Solar-Powered Air Conditioner
http://tinyurl.com/4vlre9m
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They 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 March 17
Copyright 2011 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): If I had to come up with a title for the next
phase of your astrological cycle, it might be "Gathering Up." The way I see
it, you should focus on collecting any resources that are missing from
your reserves. You should hone skills that are still too weak to get you
where you want to go, and you should attract the committed support of
allies who can help you carry out your dreams and schemes. Don't be shy
about assembling the necessities, Pisces. Experiment with being slightly
voracious.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Like Bob Dylan in his 1962 song "A Hard
Rain's A-Gonna Fall," you've done a lot of rough and tumble living lately.
You've "stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains." You've
"stepped in the middle of seven sad forests." You've "been out in front of
a dozen dead oceans." Maybe most wrenching of all, you've "seen a
highway of diamonds with nobody on it." The good news is that the hard
rain will end soon. In these last days of the downpour, I suggest you
trigger a catharsis for yourself. Consider doing something like what Dylan
did: "I'll think it and speak it and breathe it / And reflect it from the
mountain so all souls can see it."
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Mythologist Michael Meade says that the
essential nature of every human soul is gifted, noble, and wounded. I
agree. Cynics who exaggerate how messed-up we all are, ignoring our
beauty, are just as unrealistic as naive optimists. But because the cynics
have a disproportionately potent influence on the zeitgeist, they make it
harder for us to evaluate our problems with a wise and balanced
perspective. Many of us feel cursed by the apparent incurability of our
wounds, while others, rebelling against the curse, underestimate how
wounded they are. Mead says: "Those who think they are not wounded in
ways that need conscious attention and careful healing are usually the
most wounded of all." Your task in the next few weeks, Taurus, is to make
a realistic appraisal of your wounds.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Metallica's frontman James Hetfield brashly
bragged to *Revolver* magazine that he was proud his music was used to
torture prisoners at the U.S. military's detention camp in Guantanamo
Bay. I urge you to make a more careful and measured assessment of the
influences that you personally put out into the world. It's time to find out
how closely your intentions match your actual impact -- and to correct
any discrepancies. How are people affected by the vibes you exude and
the products you offer and the words you utter and the actions you
undertake?
CANCER (June 21-July 22): "In the absence of clearly-defined goals," said
Cancerian writer Robert Heinlein, "we become strangely loyal to
performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it." If this
description is even a partial match for the life you're living, now is an
excellent time to address the problem. You have far more power than
usual to identify and define worthy goals -- both the short-term and long-
term variety. If you take advantage of this opportunity, you will find a
better use for the energy that's currently locked up in your enslavement
to daily trivia.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): As I was mulling over your astrological omens, I
came across a short poem that aptly embodies the meaning of this
moment for you. It's by Richard Wright, and goes like this: "Coming from
the woods / A bull has a lilac sprig / Dangling from a horn." Here's one
way to interpret this symbolic scene: Primal power is emerging into a
clearing from out of the deep darkness. It is bringing with it a touch of
lithe and blithe beauty -- a happy accident.
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LISTEN TO AN EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE
Factual information and reasonable thinking alone are not sufficient to
guide you through life's labyrinthine tests. You need and deserve regular
deliveries of uncanny revelation.
One of your inalienable rights as a human being should therefore be to
receive mysteriously useful omens on a regular basis. In this spirit, I offer
you the free weekly horoscopes you read here.
If you ever want more, and think it's worth paying for, try my EXPANDED
AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're available here:
http://RealAstrology.com
You can also access them by phone:
1-877-873-4888
or
1-900-950-7700.
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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): As I see it, you have one potential enemy in
the coming weeks: a manic longing for perfection. It's OK to feel that
longing as a mild ache. But if you allow it to grow into a burning
obsession, you will probably undo yourself at every turn. You may even
sabotage some of the good work you've done. My recommendation, then,
is to give yourself the luxury of welcoming partial success, limited results,
and useful mistakes. Paradoxically, cultivating that approach will give you
the best chance at getting lots of things done. Here's your motto for the
week, courtesy of Theodore Roosevelt: "Do what you can, with what you
have, where you are."
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When I was nine years old, one of my favorite
jokes went like this: "What's worse than biting into an apple and finding a
worm? Give up? Biting into an apple and finding half a worm." According
to my reading of the astrological omens, Libra, that's a good piece of
information for you to keep in mind right now. If and when a serpent
offers you an apple, I hope you will sink your teeth into it with cautious
nibbles. I'm not saying you shouldn't bite, just that you should proceed
warily.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Normally we think of a garbage dump as a
spot where we go to get rid of trash and outworn stuff we no longer
need. It emits a stench that wafts a great distance, and it's a not a place
where you wear your finery. But there is a dump in northern Idaho that
diverges slightly from that description. It has the usual acres of rubbish,
but also features a bonus area that the locals call "The Mall." This is
where people dispose of junk that might not actually be junk. It has no
use for them any more, but they recognize that others might find value in
it. It was at The Mall where my friend Peter found a perfectly good
chainsaw that had a minor glitch he easily fixed. I suspect that life may be
like that dump for you in the coming week: a wasteland with perks.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): According to Argentinian writer Jorge
Luis Borges, time "is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a
fire that consumes me, but I am the fire." I believe he meant for that
statement to be true for all of us. Luckily for you, though, you'll soon be
getting a temporary exemption. For a while, you'll be more like the tiger
than the one the tiger devours; you will have more in common with the
fire than with the one consumed by the fire. In other words, Sagittarius,
you will have more power than usual to outwit the tyrannies of time. Are
you ready to take advantage? You're primed to claim more slack, more
wiggle room, more permission.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): San Francisco band Smash-Up Derby
approaches their music-making with a spirit that might be useful for you
to emulate in the coming week, Capricorn. Each of their songs is a blend
of two famous tunes. Typically, the instrumentalists play a rock song
while the singers do a pop hit with a similar chord progression. Imagine
hearing the guitars, bass, and drums play Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen
Spirit" while the lead vocalist croons Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." The
crucial part of their ongoing experiment is that it works. The sound
coming from the stage isn't a confusing assault. You could pull off a
challenge like that: combining disparate elements with raucous grace.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Last August I wrote you a horoscope that
spoke of opportunities you'd have to upgrade your close relationships. I
said you'd be tested in ways that would push you to get more ingenious
and tenacious about collaborating with people you cared about. Hoping to
inspire you, I cited two people I know who have successfully re-imagined
and reinvented their marriage for many years. In response, one reader
complained. "Yuck!" his email began. "I thought I was getting a horoscope
but instead I got a sentimental self-help blurb in the style of Reader's
Digest." I took his words to heart. As you Aquarians enter a new phase
when you could do a lot to build your intimacy skills, I'll try something
more poetic: *Succulent discipline and luminous persistence equals
incandescent kismet.*
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Homework: What is the thing you're so ignorant about that you barely
know you're ignorant about it? Testify at www.freewillastrology.com.
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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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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2011 Rob Brezsny
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