Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
September 5, 2018
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: https://bit.ly/YourJoyousTruth
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Cosmic Joke Alert: Long-term luck may initially be disguised as
short-term upheaval.
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All your adult life, the universe has played tricks on you. Some of them
have been so convoluted and enigmatic that you didn't even get the joke.
But lately the universe's pranks have become more comprehensible, and
have even seemed to display a touch of kindness.
What's going on? Have you finally paid off your ancient karmic debt? Has
your sense of humor expanded so much that you can now laugh at what
once made you cringe?
Maybe you're simply beginning to cash in on the strength and smarts
you've been forced to cultivate over the years in order to deal with
all of God's mischief.
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HOW DO I LOVE THEE?
I love your pilgrim soul and I love your ever-deepening eyes.
I love how unflinchingly you peer into the heart of your own darkness.
I love how you're making yourself more and more receptive to truths
in their wild states.
I love how you can lose yourself in passion but never shirk your
commitment to the good and the true.
I admire the way you never bear a grudge against the mountains that
are in your way, but rather just set to work getting around them.
I love your commitment to deciphering the code you left for yourself
before you came into this life.
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THE ART OF INTIMACY
Gertrude Stein said love thrives through "the skillful audacity
to share an inner life."
It suggests that expressing the truth about who you are is not
something that amateurs do well. Disciplined practice and ingenuity
are required. It also implies that courage is an essential element
of successful intimacy. You may have to be adventurous if you want
to weave your life together with another's.
Comments? Refutations? Action steps?
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PLEASURE AS A KEY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH?
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.
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HOW DID YOU FIND MY HOROSCOPES?
I'd like to hear your story about how and where you first discovered
my horoscopes. Tell me at Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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I'm sad to hear that New York's Village Voice is closing down forever.
I learned a lot about writing by reading the Voice in the 1980s,
then experienced the great fortune of having my column Free Will
Astrology published in its pages every week from 1999 to 2013.
Many people who first found out about my column did so by reading
it in the Village Voice.
More: https://tinyurl.com/VillageVoiceCloses
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
How Meditation Practice Can Impact Deforestation.
https://tinyurl.com/yc86vu3h
Berry Farmers Break Free From Big Agriculture.
These farmworkers created an organic co-op that guarantees fair
wages and healthy working conditions while preserving indigenous
heritage. https://tinyurl.com/y8sqocx9
Why Mister Rogers Is the Role Model We Need Right Now.
The unconventional children’s television pioneer celebrated dignity
and kindness in the age of mass media.
https://tinyurl.com/yauax5wk
(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 September 6
Copyright 2018 by Rob Brezsny
http://www.freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): By volume, the Amazon is the largest river
in the world. But where does it originate? Scientists have squabbled
about that issue for over 300 years. Everyone agrees the source is
in southwestern Peru. But is it the Apurímac River? The Marañón? The
Mantaro? There are good arguments in favor of each. Let's use this
question as a poetic subtext as we wonder and meditate about the origin
of your life force, Virgo. As is the case for the Amazon, your source
has long been mysterious. But I suspect that's going to change during
the next 14 months. And the clarification process begins soon.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When Warsan Shire was a child, she immigrated
to the UK with her Somalian parents. Now she's a renowned poet who
writes vividly about refugees, immigrants, and other marginalized people.
To provide support and inspiration for the part of you that feels like
an exile or fugitive or displaced person, and in accordance with current
astrological omens, I offer you two quotes by Shire. 1. "I belong deeply
to myself." 2. "Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself
—what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and
repeat."
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Once in a while came a moment when everything
seemed to have something to say to you." So says a character in Alice
Munro's short story "Jakarta." Now I'm using that message as the key
theme of your horoscope. Why? Because you're at the peak of your ability
to be reached, to be touched, to be communicated with. You're willing to
be keenly receptive. You're strong enough to be deeply influenced. Is it
because you're so firmly anchored in your understanding and acceptance of
who you are?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1928, novelist Virginia Woolf wrote a
letter to her friend Saxon Sidney Turner. "I am reading six books at
once, the only way of reading," she confided, "since one book is only
a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten
others at the same time." My usual inclination is to counsel you
Sagittarians to focus on one or two important matters rather than on
a multitude of semi-important matters. But in accordance with current
astrological omens, I'm departing from tradition to suggest you adopt
Woolf's approach to books as your approach to everything. Your life
in the coming weeks should be less like an acoustic ballad and more
like a symphony for 35 instruments.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Not many goats can climb trees, but there
are daredevils in Morocco that do. They go in quest of the delicious
olive-like berries that grow on argan trees. The branches on which
they perch may be 30 feet off the ground. I'm naming them as your
power creature for the coming weeks. I think you're ready to ascend
higher in search of goodies. You have the soulful agility necessary
to transcend your previous level of accomplishment.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): From 49-45 BC, civil war wracked the Roman
Republic. Julius Caesar led forces representing the common people
against armies fighting for the aristocracy's interests. In 45 BC,
Caesar brought a contingent of soldiers to Roman territory in North
Africa, intent on launching a campaign against the enemy. As the g
eneral disembarked from his ship, he accidentally slipped and fell.
Thinking fast, he exclaimed, "Africa, I have tight told of you!" and
clasped the ground, thus implying he had lowered himself on purpose
in a ritual gesture of conquest. In this way, he converted an apparent
bad omen into a positive one. And indeed, he won the ensuing battle,
which was the turning point that led to ultimate victory and the war's
end. That's good role modeling for you right now.
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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
http://RealAstrology.com.
Register and/or log in through the main page.
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888.
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The cost is $6 per sign on the Web (discounts available for bulk
purchases), or $1.99 per minute by phone.
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"I always feel like I know myself better after listening to your
audio 'scopes."
-June R., Austin, TX
"Your audio horoscopes calm me down when I'm too manic and pep me up
when I'm down."
-Arthur T., Cleveland, OH
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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Below are sweet words I've borrowed from
poets I love. I invite you to use them to communicate with anyone who
is primed to become more lyrically intimate with you. The time is right
for you to reach out! 1. "You look like a sea of gems." —Qahar Aasi
2. "I love you with what in me is unfinished." —Robert Bly 3. "Yours
is the light by which my spirit's born." —E. E. Cummings 4. "Tell me
the most exquisite truths you know." —Barry Hannah 5. "It's very rare
to know you, very strange and wonderful." —F. Scott Fitzgerald 6. "When
you smile like that you are as beautiful as all my secrets." —Anne
Carson 7. Everything you say is "like a secret voice speaking straight
out of my own bones." —Sylvia Plath
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Now is an excellent time to feel and explore
and understand and even appreciate your sadness. To get you in the mood,
here's a list of sadnesses from novelist Jonathan Safran Foer: sadness
of the could-have-been; sadness of being misunderstood; sadness of
having too many options; sadness of being smart; sadness of awkward
conversations; sadness of feeling the need to create beautiful things;
sadness of going unnoticed; sadness of domesticated birds; sadness of
arousal being an unordinary physical state; sadness of wanting sadness.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do you have any feral qualities lurking deep
down inside you? Have you ever felt a mad yearning to communicate using
howls and yips instead of words? When you're alone, do you sometimes
dispense with your utensils and scoop the food off your plate with your
fingers? Have you dreamed of running through a damp meadow under the full
moon for the sheer ecstasy of it? Do you on occasion experience such
strong erotic urges that you feel like you could weave your body and
soul together with the color green or the sound of a rain-soaked river
or the moon rising over the hills? I ask these questions, Taurus, because
now is an excellent time to draw on the instinctual wisdom of your feral
qualities.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "Close some doors today," writes novelist Paulo
Coelho. "Not because of pride, incapacity, or arrogance, but simply
because they lead you nowhere." I endorse his advice for your use, Gemini.
In my astrological opinion, you'll be wise to practice the rough but fine
art of saying NO. It's time for you to make crisp decisions about where
you belong and where you don't; about where your future fulfillment is
likely to thrive and where it won't; about which relationships deserve
your sage intimacy and which tend to push you in the direction of
mediocrity.
CANCERIAN (June 21-July 22): To casual observers you may seem to be an
amorphous hodgepodge, or a simmering mess of semi-interesting confusion,
or an amiable dabbler headed in too many directions at once. But in my
opinion, casual observers would be wrong in that assessment. What's closer
to the symbolic truth about you is an image described by poet Carolyn
Forché: grapes that are ripening in the fog. Here's another image that
resonates with your current state: sea turtle eggs gestating beneath
the sand on a misty ocean beach. One further metaphor for you: the
bright yellow flowers of the evening primrose plant, which only bloom
at night.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I want to make sure that the groove you're in
doesn't devolve into a rut. So I'll ask you unexpected questions to
spur your imagination in unpredictable directions. Ready? 1. How would
you describe the untapped riches in the shadowy part of your personality?
2. Is there a rare object you'd like to own because it would foster your
feeling that the world has magic and miracles? 3. Imagine the perfect
party you'd love to attend and how it might change your life for the
better. 4. What bird most reminds you of yourself? 5. What's your most
evocative and inspiring taboo daydream? 6. In your past, were there
ever experiences that made you cry for joy in ways that felt almost
orgasmic? How might you attract or induce a catharsis like that sometime
soon?
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Homework: What good old thing could you give up in order to attract a
great new thing into your life? Testify at Freewillastrology.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,
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Astrology column, and Free Will Astrology website. We reserve
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2018 Rob Brezsny
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