Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
November 5, 2014
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 are excerpts.
As an experiment, I invite you to say this twice a day for the
next ten days: "Novel intuitions are now erupting from my
smart heart, awakening me from any trance I've been ensnared in.
I am hereby breaking and escaping obstructions that have hindered
my ability to express my soul's code. My unique capacities are
being liberated, my potentials activated."
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In response to our culture's ever-rising levels of noise and
frenzy, rites of purification have become more popular. Many people
now recognize the value of taking periodic retreats. Withdrawing
from their usual compulsions, they go on fasts, avoid mass media,
practice celibacy, or even abstain from speaking. While we applaud
cleansing ceremonies like this, we recommend balancing them with
periodic outbreaks of an equal and opposite custom: the Bliss
Blitz.
During this celebration, you tune out the numbing banality of
the daily grind. But instead of shrinking into asceticism, you
indulge in uninhibited explorations of joy, release, and expansion.
Turning away from the mildly stimulating distractions you seek
out when you're bored or worried, you become inexhaustibly resourceful
as you search for unsurpassable sources of cathartic pleasure.
Try it for a day or a week: the Bliss Blitz.
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The greatest gift you can give might be the gift that you yourself
were never given. Give that gift.
The most valuable service you have to offer your fellow humans
may be the service you have always wished were performed for you.
Offer that service.
An experience that wounded you could move you to help people
who've been similarly wounded. Heal yourself by healing others.
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"Nothing's going right in my life. I feel anxious and paranoid
all the time. My relationships are a mess." In my line of
work, people make confessions like that to me.
My first response is usually something like this: "Do you
habitually gobble junk food near bedtime, steal a paltry five
hours of sleep per night, gulp two cups of coffee and no breakfast
in the morning, then bolt to a workplace where you get no sunlight
or exercise and sit in an uncomfortable chair?"
They often reply, "You must be psychic! How did you know?"
My point is that many psychological troubles stem from our chronic
failure to take good care of our physical needs.
Name three things you can do to promote pronoia in yourself by
taking better care of your body.
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The following isn't from my book, but from Robert Anton Wilson:
"The underlying principle of Robert Anton Wilson's philosophy
is 'I know I'm wrong, I want to be less wrong.' This is very different
to now, our current internet culture, where the underlying philosophy
is 'I'm right, and I want you to know that.'
"And if you go onto any internet discussion, or debate,
or things like that, you find people declaring certainties loudly,
people with very fixed positions that they can express in 140
characters, that they hunker down and defend, and don't listen
to anything else, and attempt to drown out all the others.
"That's so different to Robert Anton Wilson: he believed
-- hang on, the word believe is difficult with Bob -- he thought
that what you believed imprisoned you, he thought convictions
create convicts.
"His philosophy can be called 'multiple-model agnosticism.'
That's not just agnosticism about God, that's agnosticism about
everything."
tinyurl.com/mqg2kme
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
"All Sikh places of worship serve free meals for all visitors,
regardless of religious, regional, cultural, racial, caste, or
class affiliations."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurdwara
Living Wages, Rarity for U.S. Fast-Food Workers, Served Up in
Denmark
tinyurl.com/jw5mqe4
A British man who saved 669 children, most of them Jews, from
the Nazis has been awarded the Czech Republic's highest state
honor.
bbc.com/news/uk-29798434
(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 November 6
Copyright 2014 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Near the end of the 19th century, an American named Annie Londonderry
became the first woman to ride a bicycle around the world. It
was a brave and brazen act for an era when women still couldn't
vote and paved roads were rare. Her 15-month journey took her
through countries that would be risky for a single woman on a
bike to travel through today, like Egypt and Yemen. What made
her adventure even more remarkable was that she didn't know how
to ride a bike until two days before she departed. I'd love to
see you plan a daring exploit like that, Scorpio -- even if you
do not yet have a certain skill you will need to succeed.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
P. G. Wodehouse wrote more than 90 books, as well as numerous
plays, musical comedies, and film scripts. When he died at age
93, he was working on another novel. He did not suffer from writer's
block. And yet his process was far from effortless. He rarely
churned out perfection on his first attempt. "I have never
written a novel," he testified, "without doing 40,000
words or more and finding they were all wrong and going back and
starting again." The way I see your immediate future, Sagittarius,
is that you will be creating your own version of those 40,000
wrong words. And that's OK. It's not a problem. You can't get
to the really good stuff without slogging through this practice
run.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
It's a favorable time for you to meditate intensely on the subject
of friendship. I urge you to take inventory of all the relevant
issues. Here are a few questions to ask yourself. How good of
a friend are you to the people you want to have as your friends?
What capacities do you cultivate in your effort to build and maintain
vigorous alliances? Do you have a clear sense of what qualities
you seek in your cohorts and colleagues? Are you discerning in
the way you choose your compatriots, or do you sometimes end up
in associations with people you don't truly enjoy and don't have
much in common with? If you discover any laziness or ignorance
in your approach to the art of friendship, make the necessary
fixes.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Before the invention of the printing press, books in Europe
were handmade. Medieval monks spent long hours copying these texts,
often adding illustrations in the margins. There's an odd scene
that persistently appears in these illuminated manuscripts: knights
fighting snails. Scholars don't agree on why this theme is so
popular or what it means. One theory is that the snail symbolizes
the "slow-moving tedium of daily life," which can be
destructive to our hopes and dreams -- similar to the way that
literal snails may devour garden plants. In accordance with the
cosmic omens, I am bestowing a knighthood on you, Aquarius, so
you will be inspired to rise up and defeat your own metaphorical
version of the snail.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
To be in righteous alignment with cosmic forces, keep the Halloween
spirit alive for another week. You have a license to play with
your image and experiment with your identity. Interesting changes
will unfold as you expand your notion of who you are and rebel
cheerfully against your own status quo. To get started, try this
exercise. Imagine that your gangsta name is Butt-Jugglin Smuggla.
Your pirate name is Scallywagger Hornslasher. Your sex-worker
name is Saucy Loaf. Your Mexican wrestler name is Ojo Último
(Ultimate Eye). Your rock star-from-the-future name is Cashmere
Hammer. Or make up your own variations.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Shape-shifting is a common theme in fairy tales, says cultural
historian Marina Warner in her book From the Beast to the
Blonde. "A rusty lamp turns into an all-powerful talisman,"
for example. "A humble pestle and mortar become the winged
vehicle of the fairy enchantress," or a slovenly beggar wearing
a dirty donkeyskin transforms into a radiant princess. I foresee
metaphorically similar events happening in your life sometime
soon, Aries. Maybe they are already underway. Don't underestimate
the magic that is possible.
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MY OTHER HOROSCOPES
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 four-to-five-minute meditations
on the current state of your destiny and where you're headed.
They're available here:
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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TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
The technical scientific term for what happens when you get a
headache from eating too much ice cream too fast is sphenopalatine
ganglioneuralgia. I urge you to be on guard against such
an occurrence in the coming week. You should also watch out for
other phenomena that fit the description of being too-much-and-too-fast-of-a-good-thing.
On the other hand, you shouldn't worry at all about slowly getting
just the right amount of a good thing. If you enjoy your pleasures
with grace and moderation, you'll be fine.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
"Pregreening" is a term for what impatient drivers
do as they are waiting at a red light. They partly take their
foot off the brake, allowing their car to creep forward, in the
hope of establishing some momentum before the light changes to
green. I advise you to avoid this type of behavior in the coming
week, Gemini -- both the literal and the metaphorical variety.
Pregreening might make sense by, say, November 15 or 16. But for
now, relax and abide.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was one of the
greats. His influence on the evolution of Western music has been
titanic, and many of his best compositions are still played today.
He was prodigious, too, producing over 350 works. One of the secrets
to his high level of energy seems to have been his relationship
with coffee. It was an indispensable part of his diet. He was
fastidious in its preparation, counting out exactly 60 coffee
beans for each cup. I recommend that you summon a similar attention
to detail in the coming days. It will be an excellent time to
marshal your creative energy and cultivate your lust for life.
You will get the best results if you are precise and consistent
and focused in your approach.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
By the time we have become young adults, most of us don't remember
much about our lives from before the age of five. As we grow into
middle age, more and more childhood memories drop away. Vague
impressions and hazy feelings may remain. A few special moments
keep burning brightly. But the early events that shaped us are
mostly gone. Having said that, I want to alert you to the fact
that you are in a phase when you could recover whole swaths of
lost memories, both from your formative years and later. Take
advantage of this rare window of opportunity to reconnect with
your past.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Photographer Joel Leindecker can kick himself in the head 127
times in one minute. Guinness World Records affirms that
his achievement is unmatched. I'm begging you not to try to top
his mark any time soon. In fact, I'm pleading with you not to
commit any act of mayhem, chaos, or unkindness against yourself
-- even if it it's done for entertainment purposes. In my view,
it's crucial for you to concentrate on caressing yourself, treating
yourself nicely, and caring for yourself with ingenious tenderness
in the coming weeks.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
The writing of letters is becoming a lost art. Few people have
a long enough attention span to sit down and compose a relaxed,
thoughtful report on what they have been doing and thinking. Meanwhile,
the number of vigorous, far-reaching conversations is waning,
too. Instead, many of us tend to emit and absorb short bursts
of information at frequent intervals. But I invite you to rebel
against this trend in the coming weeks. Judging from the astrological
omens, I believe you would stir up some quietly revolutionary
developments by slowing down and deepening the way you communicate
with those you care about. You may be amazed by how much richer
your experience of intimacy will become.
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HOMEWORK:
Is there a place in your life where you're skilled at bending
but not breaking? Brag about it! Truthrooster@gmail.com
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2014 Rob Brezsny
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