Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
May 22, 2019
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: https://bit.ly/YourEpicJourney
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Are you willing to push hard to get better, become smarter, grow your
devotion to the truth, fuel your commitment to beauty, refine your
emotional intelligence, hone your dreams, negotiate with your shadow,
cure your ignorance, shed your pettiness, heighten your drive to look for
the best in people, and soften your heart . . .
even as you always accept yourself for exactly who you are with all of
your so-called imperfections, never demeaning the present by comparing
it to an idealized past or future?
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THIS IS A PERFECT MOMENT
(Hear this as a song: https://bit.ly/PerfectionNow)
This is a perfect moment.
It's a perfect moment for many reasons, but especially because you and I
are waking up from our sleepwalking, thumb-sucking, dumb-clucking
collusion with the masters of delusion and destruction.
Thanks to them, from whom the painful blessings flow, we are waking up.
Their wars and tortures,
their crimes against nature,
extinctions of species
their engineered diseases.
Their spying and lying
in the name of the father,
sterilizing seeds and
trademarking water.
Molestations of God,
celebrations of shame,
mangling our dreams and
defiling our names.
Their ruthless commercials
and blood-sucking hustles,
their endless rehearsals
for the end of the world.
Thanks to them, from whom the painful blessings flow, we are waking up.
Their painful blessings are cracking open more and more gashes in the
sour and shrunken mass hallucination that is mistakenly called "reality."
And through the fractures, ripe eternity is flooding in; news of our souls'
true home is pouring in; our allies from the other side of the veil are
swarming in, inspiring us to become smarter and wilder and kinder and
trickier.
We are waking up.
As heaven and earth come together, as the dreamtime and daytime merge,
we register the jolting and exhilarating fact that we are in charge -- you
and I are in charge -- of imagining and discovering and animating a brash
new world. Not in some distant time or faraway place, but right here and
right now.
As we stand on this brink, as we dance on this verge, we cannot let the
ruling fools of the dying world consummate their curses. We've got to rise
up and fight their deranged logic; defy, resist, and prevent their tragic
magic; uncork our sacred rage and supercharge it.
But overthrowing the psychopathic leaders is not enough. Protesting the
well-dressed planet-rapers is not enough. We cannot afford to be
consumed with our anger; cannot be obsessed and possessed by their
danger.
Our mysterious animal bodies crave delight and fertility. Our ancient
imaginations demand ever-fresh tastes of infinity.
In the new culture we are hatching, we need lusty compassion and
euphoric duty, lyrical logic and insurrectionary beauty. In the new
alliance we are mobilizing, we need radical curiosity and reverent
pranks, voracious listening and altruistic banks.
In the new covenant that we are midwifing,
We will ridicule the cult of doom and gloom.
We will embrace the cause of zoom and bloom.
We will outfox the banality of evil and hate;
we will summon the chutzpah to praise and create.
No matter how upside-down it all may appear,
we will have no fear
because we know this big secret:
All of creation is conspiring to shower us with
catalytic blessings. Life is crazily in love with us
--brazenly and innocently in love with us.
Our destinies always bring us exactly what we need
to liberate us from our suffering.
The winds and the tides are on our side, forever and ever, amen. The birds
and snakes are scheming to make us their sacred soul mates.
The sun and the moon and the stars remember our real names, and our
ancestors pray for us while we're dreaming.
We have guardian angels and thousands of teachers
provocateurs with designs to unleash us
helpers and saviors we can't even imagine
brothers and sisters who want us to blossom
Thanks to them, from whom the blissful blessings flow, we are waking up.
The roads they pave us
the places they save us
the tomatoes they grow us
the rivers they flow us
Their mysterious stories
and morning glories
Their loaves and fishes
granting our wishes
The songs they sing us
The gifts they bring us
the secrets they show us
above and below us
Thanks to them, from whom the blissful blessings flow, we are waking up.
(Hear this as a song: https://bit.ly/PerfectionNow)
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GIVING AWAY STUFF FOR FREE
An entrepreneur approached me with a proposal: "Your work should be
getting out to a bigger audience. People are starving for the message
you're putting out. That's why you need me. With my marketing machine,
your name could become as recognizable as Deepak Chopra's. Let's build an
entertainment conglomerate and hawk a hundred Rob Brezsny-style
products."
"Nah," I said. "People come to me seeking sanctuary from hype. They know
I won't smack them upside the head with relentless sales pitches."
Meanwhile, I regularly get inquiries from marketers who want to pay me
money for putting advertisements on my website or advertorials on my
social media sites. I always say no. I have turned down tens of thousands of
dollars in ad revenue.
I'm going on 24 years of maintaining this attitude. I launched my website
in 1995, and have never once had a paid ad on it. I've offered over 1,200
of my weekly Free Will Astrology columns for free on that site. And I've
been sending out this free newsletter, which includes the horoscopes and
much more, since the year 2000.
I freely give away two hours' worth of my music on Soundcloud. I don't
make any money from my Youtube videos. I freely give away large sections
of my books "The Televisionary Oracle" and "Pronoia Is the Antidote for
Paranoia."
I've never bought an ad on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, although I'm
considering doing so when my new books come out.
Have I been naïve? Idiotic? Overly idealistic? Too pure? Self-sabotaging?
Woefully unrealistic?
I may need an advisor to help me think more robustly about all these
matters.
Here are links to my various social media, where you can get more free
stuff:
https://freewillastrology.com/social
If you would like to contribute to me and my well-being, please visit my
Gift Page: https://paypal.me/GiftsForRob — Give your gift via the
"Friends and Family" option.
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MY DAUGHTER ZOE'S POETRY SERIES
In May 2017, my daughter Zoe Brezsny graduated from Columbia
University in New York with an MFA in Poetry. Since then she has been
writing poetry (read it: zoebrezsny.com) and curating poetry readings at
Hauser & Wirth art gallery.
The seventh and final reading in her series happens this Tuesday, May 21.
It features Kay Gabriel and Shiv Kotecha. More info:
https://tinyurl.com/yyyxsesy
The event starts at 7 pm. Hauser & Wirth is located at 548 West 22nd
Street in Manhattan.
See a family photo. From left to right: Zoe’s mother and my wife, Ro
Loughran; me; Zoe Brezsny; Zoe’s boyfriend Mario Miron:
https://bit.ly/TheFamilyPhoto
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WANT TO GET YOUR ASTROLOGICAL CHART READ?
If you want your personal chart done, I recommend a colleague whose
approach to reading astrology charts closely matches my own. She's my
wife, RO LOUGHRAN. She's at http://www.roloughran.com.
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained intuition, emotional warmth, and
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.
In addition to over 30 years of astrological experience, Ro has been a
licensed psychotherapist for 17 years. She integrates psychological
insight with astrology's cosmological perspective.
Ro is based in California, but can do phone consultations and otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic boundaries.
Check out Ro's website at http://www.roloughran.com
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TASTE YOUR NATIVE IMMORTAL AIR
Old-fashioned language delivering futuristic ideas, from Ralph Waldo
Emerson:
I am to invite people drenched in Time to recover themselves and come out
of time, and taste their native immortal air.
I am to fire with what skill I can the artillery of sympathy and emotion.
I am to indicate constantly, though all unworthy, the Ideal and Holy Life,
the life within life, the Forgotten Good, the Unknown Cause in which we
sprawl and sin.
I am to try the magic of sincerity, that luxury permitted only to kings and
poets.
I am to celebrate the spiritual powers in their infinite contrast to the
mechanical powers and the mechanical philosophy of this time.
I am to console the brave sufferers under evils whose end they cannot see,
by appeals to the great optimism, self-affirmed in all bosoms.
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SAFE AND LEGAL ABORTION
In the course of my life, my women partners and I have had three
abortions. They were critically important. They made it possible for my
wife and I to choose exactly when we did want to bring a new human being
into the world—when I had enough money and emotional maturity to do so.
I was able to be a good father to my daughter because she was welcome and
I was ready.
I have been horrified and saddened to witness the recent attempts by
numerous states to pass ultra-restrictive laws that make it very hard to
get safe and legal abortions. (The states are Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky,
Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, with Alabama also on the verge.)
The lawmakers behind the bills don’t attempt to conceal their true
intention: to unconstitutionally ignore Roe v. Wade, which they hope to see
overturned by the conservative-leaning Supreme Court.
Below are some ways to fight back against the unconscionable new laws
and advocate for the people they could potentially impact. Please let me
know if you have additional ideas.
1. Donate to grassroots organizations like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and
the ACLU. There are many smaller reproductive-rights organizations that
provide support and resources to people seeking abortion in their states.
Click on the link to see other good places to give.
2. Volunteer as a clinic escort.
3. Speak out about the potential repercussions of six-week bans, because
they’re not going anywhere.
I just donated $60 to Planned Parenthood. If you'd like to donate, go here:
https://tinyurl.com/y2q7mdy2
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Humans are leading the planet into the sixth mass extinction, with a
million species in danger of disappearing forever. But there are practical
actions we can take to call if off. Here are some:
Reverse the expansion of monoculture
Restore and protect coastal marine ecosystems
Protect fish for real
Put Indigenous people in charge of their own territory
Let wild areas remain roadless
Address economic inequality, lower consumption, expand access to
education, and support sustainable technology
More details: https://tinyurl.com/y2jhlsfb
(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 23
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
https://FreeWillAstrology.com/horoscopes/
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If there were a Hall of Fame for writers,
Shakespeare might have been voted in first. His work is regarded as a
pinnacle of intellectual brilliance. And yet here's a fun fact: The Bard
quoted well over a thousand passages from the Bible. Can you imagine a
modern author being taken seriously by the literati if he or she
frequently invoked such a fundamental religious text? I bring this to your
attention so as to encourage you to be Shakespeare-like in the coming
weeks. That is, be willing to draw equally from both intellectual and
spiritual sources; be a deep thinker who communes with sacred truths;
synergize the functions of your discerning mind and your devotional heart.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): "People will choose unhappiness over
uncertainty," writes Cancerian author and entrepreneur Timothy Ferriss.
He doesn't do that himself, but rather is quite eager to harvest the perks
of dwelling in uncertainty. I presume this aptitude has played a role in his
huge success; his books have appeared on bestseller lists and his podcasts
have been downloaded more than 300 million times. In telling you this,
I'm not encouraging you to embrace the fertile power of uncertainty 24
hours a day and 365 days of every year. But I am urging you to do just
that for the next three weeks. There'll be big payoffs if you do, including
rich teachings on the art of happiness.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Many eighteenth-century pirates were
committed to democracy and equality among their ranks. The camaraderie
and fairness and mutual respect that prevailed on pirate ships were
markedly different from the oppressive conditions faced by sailors who
worked for the navies of sovereign nations. The latter were often pressed
into service against their will and had to struggle to collect meager
salaries. Tyrannical captains controlled all phases of their lives. I bring
this to your attention, Leo, with the hope that it will inspire you to seek
out alternative approaches to rigid and hierarchical systems. Gravitate
toward generous organizations that offer you ample freedom and rich
alliances. The time is right to ally yourself with emancipatory influences.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Don't wait around for fate to decide which
decisions you should make and what directions you should go. Formulate
those decisions yourself, with your willpower fully engaged. Never say,
"If it's meant to be, it will happen." Rather, resolve to create the
outcomes you strongly desire to happen. Do you understand how important
this is? You shouldn't allow anyone else to frame your important
questions and define the nature of your problems; you've got to do the
framing and defining yourself. One more thing: don't fantasize about the
arrival of the "perfect moment." The perfect moment is whenever you
decree it is.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the coming weeks, I hope you'll regularly
give yourself to generous, expansive experiences. I hope you'll think big,
funny thoughts and feel spacious, experimental emotions. I hope you'll get
luxurious glimpses of the promise your future holds, and I hope you'll
visualize yourself embarking on adventures and projects you've been too
timid or worried to consider before now. For best results, be eager to
utter the word "MORE!" as you meditate on the French phrase "joie de
vivre" and the English phrase "a delight in being alive."
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): According to *Popular Mechanics*
magazine, over three million sunken ships are lying on the bottoms of the
world’s oceans. Some of them contain billions of dollars’ worth of
precious metals and jewels. Others are crammed with artifacts that would
be of great value to historians and archaeologists. And here’s a crazy fact:
fewer than one percent of all those potential treasures have been
investigated by divers. I bring this to your attention, Scorpio, because I
hope it might inspire you to explore your inner world’s equivalent of lost
or unknown riches. The astrological omens suggest that the coming weeks
will be an excellent time to go searching for them.
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WHY IS IT CALLED "FREE WILL" ASTROLOGY?
It's called Free Will Astrology because my goal is to create horoscopes that
nurture your free will.
Contrary to what some horoscope fans believe, there's no such thing as
predestination. Fate is a tricky sucker that keeps changing its mind about
where it wants to go. The stars may impel, as the astrological saying goes,
but they don't compel.
That's why I've never considered myself a fortuneteller. I prefer to think
that my greatest service is as a psychic intelligence agent, helping you
explore the hidden patterns and unconscious forces that may be affecting
your life without your full knowledge.
If I "predict" anything, it's not so much the future as the unknown part of
the present.
And if you ever want more than the 'scopes you're reading here, keep in
mind that I also create EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for you. They're
four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.
To buy and listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to
https://freewillastrology.sparkns.com
Register and/or log in through the main page.
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The cost is $6 per sign on the On the Web. (Discounts are available for
bulk purchases.) You can also access them for $1.99 per minute by
phone.Each forecast is 4-5 minutes long.
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"Your audio horoscopes help me love myself better, and I mean that in a
non-narcissistic way."
-Deva P., Indianapolis
"I'm really grateful for the way you pick up my telepathic requests and
answer them in your expanded audio 'scopes."
-Marion H., Birmingham, AL
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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "Some days you need god's grace,"
writes poet Scherezade Siobhan. "On other days: the feral tongue of vintage
whiskey and a mouth kissed by fire." I'm guessing, Sagittarius, that these
days you might be inclined to prefer the feral tongue of vintage whiskey
and a mouth kissed by fire. But according to my astrological analysis,
those flashy phenomena would not motivate you to take the corrective and
adaptive measures you actually need. The grace of god—or whatever passes
for the grace of god in your world—is the influence that will best help you
accomplish what's necessary. Fortunately, I suspect you know how to call
on and make full use of that grace.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn poet William Stafford
articulated some advice that I think you need to hear right now. Please
hold it close to your awareness for the next 21 days. "Saying things you do
not have to say weakens your talk," he wrote. "Hearing things you do not
need to hear dulls your hearing." By practicing those protective
measures, Capricorn, you will foster and safeguard your mental health.
Now here's another gift from Stafford: "Things you know before you hear
them—those are you, those are why you are in the world."
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "Love is an immoderate thing / And can
never be content," declared poet W. B. Yeats. To provide you with an
accurate horoscope, I'll have to argue with that idea a bit. From what I can
determine, love will indeed be immoderate in your vicinity during the
coming weeks. On the other hand, it's likely to bring you a high degree of
contentment—as long as you're willing to play along with its
immoderateness. Here's another fun prediction: I suspect that love's
immoderateness, even as it brings you satisfaction, will also inspire you
to ask for more from love and expand your capacity for love. And that
could lead to even further immoderate and interesting experiments.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You will know you are in sweet alignment
with cosmic forces if you have an impulse to try a rash adventure, but
decide instead to work on fixing a misunderstanding with an ally. You can
be sure you're acting in accordance with your true intuition if you feel an
itch to break stuff, but instead channel your fierce energy into improving
conditions at your job. You will be in tune with your soul's code if you
start fantasizing about quitting what you've been working on so hard, but
instead sit down and give yourself a pep talk to reinvigorate your devotion
and commitment.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks, I suspect you will
have the wisdom to criticize yourself in constructive ways that will at
least partially solve a long-standing problem. Hallelujah! I bet you will
also understand what to do to eliminate a bad habit by installing a good new
habit. Please capitalize on that special knowledge! There's one further
capacity I suspect you'll have: the saucy ingenuity necessary to alleviate a
festering fear. Be audacious!
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): What standards might we use in evaluating
levels of sexual satisfaction? One cruclal measure is the tenderness and
respect that partners have for each other. Others include the ability to
play and have fun, the freedom to express oneself uninhibitedly, the
creative attention devoted to unpredictable foreplay, and the ability to
experience fulfilling orgasms. How do you rate your own levels, Taurus?
Wherever you may currently fall on the scale, the coming months will be
a time when you can accomplish an upgrade. How? Read authors who
specialize in the erotic arts. Talk to your partners with increased
boldness and clarity. While meditating, search for clues in the depths.
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Homework: Make up a secret identity for yourself. What is it? How do you
use it? Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com
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P.S. I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your
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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
2019 Rob Brezsny
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