Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
September 25, 2019
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: https://bit.ly/YourBestLifeStory
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DEAR READERS: I was born under the sign of Cancerian the Crab. A
potential weakness of our tribe is that we can tend to be excessively self-
sufficient. Some of us find it challenging to ask for help and support. In
my continuing effort to overcome this inclination, I'm asking for your
blessings!
If you would like to donate, please visit my Gift Center at Paypal:
https://paypal.me/GiftsForRob
You can also contribute to my well-being by buying the Expanded Audio
Horoscopes I create every week. These forecasts are different from the
written horoscopes I provide here. They're my four- to five-minute-long
ruminations about the current chapter of your life story. Access them
here: https://freewillastrology.sparkns.com/
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RAW, UNALLOYED, AGENDA-LESS KINDNESS
Since I'm working so hard on new books, I don't get out much these days.
But I just completed a five-day journey to New York City.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, which assures us that the world has
gone to hell, I found abundant evidence that the world is filled with
goodness.
Everywhere I went — restaurants, airports, bookstores, museums,
sidewalks, and people's houses — I was blessed with an extravagant
profusion of "raw, unalloyed, agenda-less kindness" — a term articulated
by David Foster Wallace.
I am still in a blissful shock from the healing joy of it.
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ENLIGHTENMENT IS INTIMACY WITH ALL THINGS
—Dogen
My guess is that there's no such thing as "enlightenment." It's impossible
for a human being to permanently own a perfect realization of the nature
of reality.
But if there is anything that comes close to resembling "enlightenment,"
it's the visceral sensation of feeling close to all living things, and
experiencing an ever-renewing empathy and affinity for all living things.
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MY SHOW IN NEW YORK
On September 13 at the Strand Bookstore in New York, I got to participate
in an outpouring of magic words and emotional intelligence with soul
genius poets Ariana Reines, CAConrad, and Zoe Brezsny.
Such amazing luck to be part of this team!
See a few photos of the night:
https://tinyurl.com/PhotosFromStrand
https://bit.ly/ShowAtTheStrand
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FEAR VERSUS INTUITION
(Hear the meditation below as a spoken-word piece:
https://tinyurl.com/FearOrIntuition)
This is a perfect time for you to learn more about the difference between
your fearful fantasies and your authentic, accurate intuitions.
It's always a good time to do that, of course, but even more so right now.
This is an exciting turning point, when the future is up for grabs. Worn-
out old habits of thought are unraveling. Structures that have kept us
enthralled to fake values are crumbling. The coming months and years
will be ripe with opportunities for us to lay the foundation for a new
world that's actually fit for the human soul.
And in the midst of this grand mutation, it's predictable that so many so-
called leaders are trying to fill up our imaginations with poison. They
want us to buy into their belief that fear and loathing should be our default
emotions.
In the face of their toxic paranoia, it's wise to remember that we always
have the power to turn away from their terror-mongering and tune in to
the guidance of the still, small voice within us -- the still, small voice of
intuition that will, if we allow it, lead us very capably through every
twist and turn of our destiny, even when our destiny brings us right into
the thick of our civilization's massive transformations.
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Knowing the difference between your fearful fantasies and your authentic,
accurate intuitions is one of the greatest spiritual powers you can
possible have. So let's explore what it means: knowing the difference
between the frightening, alienating pictures that sometimes pop into your
imagination, as opposed the simple, warm, clear direction that is always
available from the deepest source within you.
Strangely enough, many people get these two things confused. They are
especially prone to believing that the frightening, disempowering images
that erupt in their mind's eye are coming from their intuition.
For many people, if they get an image of a scary future possibility
popping into their imagination, they worry that it's a prediction of some
event that will actually occur in their lives. For instance, they may have a
fantasy of themselves getting into an accident, or maybe they dream of
losing a loved one, or maybe they internalize the sickening vision of some
talking head on TV who slaps them upside the head with a prediction of
imminent doom. When these people get images like these stuck in their
imagination, they may begin to obsess on the fear that these things are
literally going to happen.
Almost every time, scary fantasies like this are not true intuition. Our
true intuition is just not very likely to be fueled by fear, and it rarely if
ever motivates us to act by making us feel afraid.
No. Our true intuition emerges from the wise, loving core of our being. It
blooms in us like a slow-motion fountain of warmth. It reveals the
objective truth about a person or situation with lucid compassion. It
shows us the big picture.
Fearful fantasies, on the other hand, burn and itch and make us feel like
we're coming apart. They drain our energy and cloud our judgment. They
fill us with obsessive urges to run and hide or do something desperate and
melodramatic.
I don't want to say that true intuition is always calm and emotionally
neutral. It isn't, necessarily. But I will say this: The emotions that
accompany true intuition are never alienating. They don't make us feel
superior to other people or fill us with hatred and terror. They don't
disempower us or make us feel helpless.
True intuition may rouse our anger, but if so, it is the kind of
invigorating anger that leads to clarity and constructive action, and thus it
is an anger that ultimately relaxes us.
True intuition may show us a difficult truth, but it always does so with a
suggestion of how to deal gracefully and courageously with that difficult
truth. True intuition may reveal imminent changes that could compel us to
adjust our behavior, but it always does so in a way that empowers us.
Let me emphasize this point: True intuition may not always reveal that
everything will be fine, or that we will be able to continue to live in the
ways be have been living -- true intuition is certainly not falsely
optimistic -- but if it does alert us to circumstances that are in flux, and
how we will have to transform ourselves, it does so with love and poise
and clarity, not with fear.
Here's one more thing. Just as our true intuition never works by scaring
the hell out of us, neither does it flatter us with grandiose suggestions
about how superior we are. In fact, it may often gently inform us of some
correction that should be made in our attitude. It may tactfully but firmly
lead us to the understanding that we have been suffering from some form
of ignorance and that we need to wake up and get smarter.
True intuition reveals the story of our lives from our soul's point of
view, not our ego's. In my understanding, true intuition is the voice of our
own personal inner teacher, which just happens to be the divine part of
us. The certainty that true intuition provides us is therefore not loud and
puffed up, but rather humble and graceful.
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This is a perfect moment to think on these things, and to add some insights
of your own. It's also an excellent time to flush away the fearful fantasies
that may have seeped into your imagination -- and thereby make it
possible for you to hear your true intuition better.
One way to facilitate this process, by the way, is to cut way back on the
amount of terrifying and disorienting images you allow to flow into your
imagination from the TV, Internet, newspapers, movies, and other mass
media. In fact, I invite you to consider the possibility of going on a media
fast for a while and spending more time in nature than you usually do.
In conclusion, my beloved companions on this beautiful, interesting
planet, please get to work on seeing your fearful fantasies for what they
are and enhancing your connection to your true intuition.
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"Fear Versus Intuition" is from the soundtrack for my book
*Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring
to Shower You with Blessings*. which is available here:
bit.ly/Pronoia
bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
Hear the above essay as a spoken-word piece:
https://tinyurl.com/FearOrIntuition
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THERE ARE NO RULES ABOUT HOW TO MEDITATE CORRECTLY
Buddhist modes of meditation are great! But there are many other ways to
meditate, too—in fact, an infinite number. I agree with Christopher
Bamford, who says:
"As a free deed, meditation is naturally individual, uniquely our own. It is
where we most fully become ourselves. Its practice is also always
individual.
"There are no rules. Just as every potter will elaborate his or her own
way of making pots, so every person who meditates will shape his or her
own meditation. No two people will do a given meditation in exactly the
same way. The same meditation practiced daily will be different every
time.
"Every meditation is experimental. One never knows what is going to
happen. Improvisation is essential . . . Meditation is something to play
with . . . There is no 'wrong' way of doing the meditation, except not doing
it!"
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THE GREAT ART
The Great Art consists of making continuous conscious effort to align our
thoughts and feelings with the highest ideals we have thus far been able to
comprehend.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Optimists live longer.
https://tinyurl.com/y5jypcqd
Making the Electoral College Irrelevant.
https://tinyurl.com/yxwju3ls
The School Where Refugees Thrive.
https://tinyurl.com/y6x3w9yz
Apiarists, geneticists, and bee breeding engineers have developed a new
bee breed that is supposed to have beneficial traits, including strength and
mite resistance, to try and cure colony collapse disorder and save the
bees.
https://tinyurl.com/yyas9z7s
(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 26
Copyright 2019 by Rob Brezsny
https://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "I just cut my bangs in a gas station
bathroom," confesses a Libran blogger who calls herself MagicLipstick.
"An hour ago I shocked myself by making an impulse buy of a perfect
cashmere trench coat from a stranger loitering in a parking lot," testifies
another Libran blogger who refers to himself as MaybeMaybeNot. "Today I
had the sudden realization that I needed to become a watercolor painter,
then signed up for a watercolor class that starts tomorrow," writes a
Libran blogger named UsuallyPrettyCareful. In normal times, I wouldn't
recommend that you Libras engage in actions that are so heedlessly and
delightfully spontaneous. But I do now.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You could call the assignment I have for you
as "taking a moral inventory" or you could refer to it as "going to
confession." I think of it as "flushing out your worn-out problems so as to
clear a space for better, bigger, more interesting problems." Ready? Take
a pen and piece of paper or open a file on your computer and write about
your raw remorse, festering secrets, unspeakable apologies, inconsolable
guilt, and desperate mortifications. Deliver the mess to me at
Truthrooster@gmail.com. I'll print out your testimony and conduct a
ritual of purgation. As I burn your confessions in my bonfire at the beach,
I'll call on the Goddess to purify your heart and release you from your
angst. (P.S.: I'll keep everything confidential.)
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Two hundred years ago, Sagittarian
genius Ludwig Beethoven created stirring music that's often played today.
He's regarded as one of history's greatest classical composers. And yet he
couldn't multiply or divide numbers. That inability made it hard for him
to organize his finances. He once wrote about himself that he was "an
incompetent business man who is bad at arithmetic." Personally, I'm
willing to forgive those flaws and focus on praising him for his soul-
inspiring music. I encourage you to practice a similar approach with
yourself in the next two weeks. Be extra lenient and merciful and
magnanimous as you evaluate the current state of your life. In this phase
of your cycle, you need to concentrate on what works instead of on what
doesn't work.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "When you hit a wall—of your own
imagined limitations—just kick it in," wrote playwright Sam Shepard.
That seems like a faulty metaphor to me. Have you ever tried to literally
kick in a wall? I just tried it, and it didn't work. I put on a steel-toe work
boot and launched it at a closet door in my basement, and it didn't make a
dent. Plus now my foot hurts. So what might be a better symbol for
breaking through your imagined limitations? How about this: use a
metaphorical sledgehammer or medieval battering ram or backhoe. (P.S.
Now is a great time to attend to this matter.)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In 1965, Chinese archaeologists found an
untarnished 2400-year-old royal bronze sword that was still sharp and
shiny. It was intricately accessorized with turquoise and blue crystals,
precision designs, and a silk-wrapped grip. I propose we make the Sword
of Goujian one of your symbolic power objects for the coming months. May
it inspire you to build your power and authority by calling on the spirits
of your ancestors and your best memories. May it remind you that the past
has gifts to offer your future. May it mobilize you to invoke beauty and
grace as you fight for what's good and true and just.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "All human beings have three lives: public,
private, and secret," wrote Piscean novelist Gabriel García Márquez. I
will add that during different phases of our lives, one or the other of these
three lives might take precedence; may need more care than usual.
According to my analysis, your life in the coming weeks will offer an
abundance of vitality and blessings in the third area: your secret life. For
best results, give devoted attention to your hidden depths. Be a brave
explorer of your mysterious riddles.
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ARE YOU THE HERO OF YOUR OWN LIFE?
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that
station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." So begins
Charles Dickens' novel *David Copperfield*.
I'd like to inspire you to create a story of your own that begins with
similar words. That's why I provide these free horoscopes for you.
If you'd ever enjoy getting even more assistance from me, tune into your
EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE, which I create for you each week. 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
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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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"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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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Comedian John Cleese speaks of two
different modes toward which we humans gravitate. The closed style is
tight, guarded, rigid, controlling, hierarchical, and tunnel-visioned. The
open is more relaxed, receptive, exploratory, democratic, playful, and
humorous. I'm pleased to inform you that you're in a phase when spending
luxurious amounts of time in the open mode would be dramatically healing
to your mental health. Luckily, you're more predisposed than usual to
operate in that mode. I encourage you to experiment with the possibilities.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Upcoming adventures could test your poise
and wit. They may activate your uncertainties and stir you to ask
provocative questions. That's cause for celebration, in my opinion. I think
you'll benefit from having your poise and wit tested. You'll generate good
fortune for yourself by exploring your uncertainties and asking
provocative questions. You may even thrive and exult and glow like a
miniature sun. Why? Because you need life to kick your ass in just the
right gentle way so you will become alert to possibilities you have ignored
or been blind to.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Novelist John Irving asked, "Who can
distinguish between falling in love and imagining falling in love? Even
genuinely falling in love is an act of the imagination." That will be a
helpful idea for you to contemplate in the coming weeks. Why? Because
you're more likely than usual to fall in love or imagine falling in love—or
both. And even if you don't literally develop a crush on an attractive
person or deepen your intimacy with a person you already care for, I
suspect you will be inflamed with an elevated lust for life that will
enhance the attractiveness of everything and everyone you behold.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You know your body is made of atoms, but
you may not realize that every one of your atoms is mostly empty space.
Each nucleus contains 99 percent of the atom's mass, but is as small in
comparison to the rest of the atom as a pea is to a cathedral. The tiny
electrons, which comprise the rest of the basic unit, fly around in a vast,
deserted area. So we can rightfully conclude that you are mostly made of
nothing. That's a good meditation right now. The coming weeks will be a
fine time to enjoy the refreshing pleasures of emptiness. The less frenzy
you stir up, the healthier you'll be. The more spacious you allow your
mind to be, the smarter you'll become. "Roomy" and "capacious" will be
your words of power.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): "We don't always have a choice about how we get
to know one another," wrote novelist John Irving. "Sometimes, people fall
into our lives cleanly—as if out of the sky, or as if there were a direct
flight from Heaven to Earth." This principle could be in full play for you
during the coming weeks. For best results, be alert for the arrival of new
allies, future colleagues, unlikely matches, and surprise helpers.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In North America, people call the phone
number 911 to report an emergency. In much of the EU, the equivalent is
112. As you might imagine, worry-warts sometimes use these numbers
even though they're not experiencing a legitimate crisis. For example, a
Florida woman sought urgent aid when her local McDonald's ran out of
Chicken McNuggets. In another case, a man walking outdoors just after
dawn spied a blaze of dry vegetation in the distance and notified
authorities. But it turned out to be the rising sun. I'm wondering if you
and yours might be prone to false alarms like these in the coming days,
Virgo. Be aware of that possibility. You'll have substantial power if you
marshal your energy for real dilemmas and worthy riddles, which will
probably be subtle.
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Homework: "It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious," said
John Irving. How are you doing with that task? 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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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2019 Rob Brezsny
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