Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
MARCH 20, 2013
FreeWillAstrology.com
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My book
PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA
is available at Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia
or Powells: bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
Below is an excerpt. To read the whole text, go here:
bit.ly/BeautyandTruthLab
WHAT IS THE BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB?
. . . On one occasion, an eight-lane highway at rush hour turned
into a temporary Beauty and Truth Lab. It was just a few days
after my return from the Burning Man festival where the dream
of the Lab had hatched. I was driving on Highway 101, the artery
that bisects Marin County.
As I cruised at 65 mph between Larkspur and Corte Madera, a blonde
in a Jaguar convertible with the top down passed me on the right.
Perhaps distracted by the chat she was enjoying on her cell phone,
she suddenly zipped in front of me. After hitting my brakes to
avoid rear-ending her, I honked my horn to express my annoyance.
In response, she careened over to the left lane, then slowed down
and waited for me to catch up.
I avoided eye contact at first, but finally looked over. Quaking
with agitation, she was flashing me a middle-finger salute and
a mad face as fierce as a Tibetan demon. Her car was veering closer
to mine. Might she actually crash into me on purpose?
I was quaking with agitation myself. My adrenaline surged, threatening
to explode to mushroom cloud proportions. Curses were rising from
my gut to throat. At the same time, I resisted it all. I didn't
want to be possessed by stupid rage because of the carelessness
of a bad driver. Such a trivial eruption of my fight-or-flight
instinct was against my religion.
Then a miracle happened. As if through divine intervention, without
any prompting from my will, fond memories of Burning Man surged
into my imagination. I was back there on the ancient lake bed
with my stack of baby wipes, intimately conversing with the Goddess
of the sun. I could hear the thump of music in the distance and
feel the desert breeze on my cheeks . . .
TO READ THE REST, go here: bit.ly/BeautyandTruthLab
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Check out Match.com via Free Will Astrology's link: bit.ly/SoulMatch
Look for a Co-Pilot, Co-Conspirator, or Collaborator . . . an
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
THE STEALTH REVOLUTION
What if we all owned and oversaw the banks, by vote, and had a
say in decisions made by retailers where we shop? How cooperatives
are leading the way to empowered workers and healthy communities.
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THE FRONTIERS OF WASTE MANAGEMENT
Thanks to a highly efficient waste management system in Sweden,
the vast majority of its household waste can be recovered or reused.
As a result, Sweden has run short of garbage. Since it does not
produce enough burnable waste for its energy needs, Sweden wants
to BUY the trash from other European countries because it needs
more to burn in its super-efficient and highly emissions controlled
power generators.
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(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 21
Copyright 2013 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
"Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings," says
poet Muriel Rukeyser in her poem "Elegy in Joy." "Not
all things are blest," she continues, "but the seeds
of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed." I
urge you to adopt this perspective in the coming weeks, Aries.
Be extra sweet and tender and reverent toward anything that is
just sprouting, toward anything that is awakening, toward anything
that invokes the sacredness of right now. "This
moment," sings Rukeyser, "this seed, this wave of the
sea, this look, this instant of love."
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
As you seek more insight on your current situation, consider
the possibility that the bad guys may not be as bad as they seem.
They might simply be so deeply under the spell of their own pain
that they can't see straight. And as for the good guys: I wonder
if they are as purely good as they would like you to imagine.
It might be the case that they are at least partially serving
their own self-interest, while pretending to be utterly altruistic.
If there's any truth to these speculations, Taurus, you'd be wise
to stay uncommitted and undecided for now. Don't get emotionally
riled up, don't get embroiled in conflict, and don't burn any
bridges.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Here's your mantra: "I get fresher under pressure."
Say it ten times right now, and then repeat it in 10-repetition
bursts whenever you need a tune-up. What it means is that you
stay cool when the contradictions mount and the ambiguities multiply.
And more than that: You actually thrive on the commotion. You
get smarter amidst the agitation. You become more perceptive and
more creative as the shifts swirl faster and harder. Tattoo these
words of power on your imagination: "I get fresher under
pressure."
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
"Stories happen to those who tell them," said the ancient
Greek historian Thucydides. Modern radio journalist Ira Glass
goes even further. "Great stories happen to those who can
tell them," he has said. Let's make this strategy a centerpiece
of your life plan in the weeks ahead, Cancerian. I have a suspicion
that you will need first-hand experience of novel, interesting
stories. They will provide the precise nourishment necessary to
inspire the blooming of your most soulful ambitions. One way to
help ensure that the best stories will flow your way is to regale
receptive people with transformative tales from your past.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
"Dear Rob: I'm spreading the word about Beer Week in your
town, and I'd love to see you and your beer-loving readers at
some of the events. Any chance you can include some coverage of
Beer Week celebrations in your upcoming column? Cheers, Patricia."
Dear Patricia: I don't do product placement or other forms of
secret advertising in my horoscopes. To allow it would violate
the sacred trust I have with my readers, who rely on me to translate
the meaning of the cosmic signs without injecting any hidden agendas.
It is true that Leos might be prone to imbibing great quantities
of beer in the coming week, simply because they'd benefit from
lowering their inhibitions, getting in touch with their buried
feelings, and expanding their consciousness. But to be frank,
I'd rather see them do that without the aid of drugs and alcohol.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Hoping to stir up some fun trouble, I posted the following message
on my Facebook page: "Don't judge someone just because they
sin differently than you." A torrent of readers left comments
in response. My favorite was from Sue Sims, who said, "Yeah,
they might be better at your kind of sin and you might learn something!"
That advice is just the kind of healing mischief you need right
now, Virgo. It's a bit ironic, true, but still: Take it and run
with it. Study the people who have mad skills at pulling off the
rousing adventures and daring pleasures and interesting "sins"
that you'd like to call your own.
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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:
Register and/or sign in at RealAstrology.com.
You can also access them by phone:
1-877-873-4888
"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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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
The French verb renverser can be translated as "to
turn upside-down" or "to reverse the flow." The
adjectival form is renversant, which means "stunning"
or "astonishing." I think you may soon have experiences
that could be described by those words. There's a good chance
that a dry, impoverished part of your life will get a juicy, fertile
infusion. A deficiency you have worried about might get at least
half-filled. An inadequacy that makes you feel sad may be bolstered
by reinforcements. Alas, there could also be a slight reversal
that's not so gratifying. One of your assets may temporarily become
irrelevant. But the trade-off is worth it, Libra. Your gains will
outstrip your loss.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Professor Martyn Poliakoff creates short Youtube videos to help
teach the public about chemistry. In one video, he explains why
an explanation he gave in a previous video was completely mistaken.
"It's always good for a scientist to be proved wrong,"
he confesses cheerfully. Then he moves on to speculate about what
the right answer might be. I love humility like that! It's admirable.
It's also the best way to find out the truth about reality. I
hope you will summon a similar attitude in the coming weeks, Scorpio:
a generous curiosity that makes you eager to learn something new
about stuff you thought you had all figured out.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
On the one hand, menopausal women are no longer able to bear
children. On the other hand, they often overflow with fresh possibilities
and creative ideas. More time is available to them because their
children have moved out of the house or don't require as much
care. They can begin new careers, focus on their own development,
and devote more attention to their personal needs. So in one way
their fertility dries up; in another way it may awaken and expand.
I suspect that whether or not you are menopausal, you are on the
cusp of a comparable shift in your fecundity: one door closing,
another door swinging open.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The TV reality show Freaky Eaters profiled a woman named
Kelly who had eaten nothing but cheesy potatoes for 30 years.
Her average intake: eight pounds of potatoes and four cups of
cheese per day. "I love cheesy potatoes," she testified.
"They're stewy, gooey, and just yum-yum-yummy. They're like
crack to me." I'm a bit concerned that you're flirting with
behavior comparable to hers. Not in regards to cheesy potatoes,
of course, but to some other fetish. I will ask you to make sure
that you're not starting to over-specialize. It would be wise
to avoid obsessing on a single type of anything.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
In the 17th century, polite people referred to mountains as
"warts" and "boils on the earth's complexion."
So says Robert Macfarlane in his book Mountains of the Mind.
Annie Dillard describes the peculiar behavior of educated European
tourists in the 18th century. When they visited the Alps, she
writes in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, "they deliberately
blindfolded their eyes to shield themselves from the evidence
of the earth's horrid irregularity." Don't be anything like
those dumb sophisticates, Aquarius. When you spy irregularities
in the coming weeks, consider the possibility that they are natural
and healthy. This will allow you to perceive their useful beauty.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
You are not for sale. Remember? Your scruples and ideals and
talents cannot be bought off for any amount of money. You will
not be cheated out of your birthright and you will not allow your
dreams to be stolen. Although it's true that you may have to temporarily
rent your soul from time to time, you will never auction it off
for good. I'm sure you know these things, Pisces, but I suspect
it's time to renew your fiery commitment to them.
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HOMEWORK:
Describe what you'd be like if you were the opposite of yourself.
Write Freewillastrology.com.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2013 Rob Brezsny
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