Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
OCTOBER 7, 2009
FreeWillAstrology.com
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"My own definition of Dada: an insane lyrical impulse to
remain light and carefree, always looking for something to wonder
or marvel at, or love, or laugh at, but always remaining illogical
and joyous in a world gone mad with too much logic, seriousness,
science, newspapers, war, and destruction."
- Irving Stettner
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The revised and expanded version of my book PRONOIA IS THE
ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA is now available.
With 55% fresh material beyond the original edition (60,000 additional
words and 75 new illustrations), it basically has a whole new
extra book inside it.
Order it here:
Amazon: tinyurl.com/lxpnyt
Barnes and Noble: tinyurl.com/kkadtb
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Here's a piece from the book.
A Global Array of Further Pronoiac Resources
In recent years, the doom and gloom prophets have become even
more strident and brazen in blurting out their cacophony of curses.
Joining them in the mad rush to shower condemnation on the entire
human enterprise have been millions of emboldened everyday complainers
who've also become addicted to the sick thrill of chronic rage.
I'm sometimes tempted to view the growing hordes of fulminators
as a black magic army flinging hexes and maledictions on everything
they see.
But whenever I brush up against that fear, I stop my mind from
its careening and refocus my inner eyes. Breathing out the jive
and breathing in the love, I survey all the evidence I've been
gathering of an antidotal force rising up.
When my book on pronoia first came out in 2005, I felt isolated
in my seemingly eccentric invitation to celebrate the glory we're
surrounded by, to name the thousands of ways that the universe
proves its love for us, to notice all the miracles and help we
receive.
But I soon realized that I was by no means a lone crank crying
in the wilderness. I became aware of an ever-growing rebel crusade
-- swarms of pilgrims and activists and artists and creative optimists
who had signed on to the conspiracy to shower blessings, devoting
themselves to the work of not just saving the world but making
it more beautiful and mysterious and interesting.
I wasn't under any illusion that they were suddenly arising because
of my influence. Rather, my sense was that my book was just one
symptom of an energy that was awakening in the whole world. I
was a current in the flood.
For years, I've been compiling data about other currents in the
flood, making them known through this free weekly email newsletter.
A Beauty and Truth Lab researcher named Darin Wilson has created
a website that is archiving these pronoiac resources. The posts
are categorized and tagged, and there's built-in search. You can
find the site here: pronoiaresources.com.
Please note that when I praise all these purveyors of beauty
and truth and love and justice, I do so simply because I like
them. My endorsements are not advertisements, and I get no kickbacks.
Let me know about your own nominations for pronoiac resources.
I'm at beautyandtruth@freewillastrology.com.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Sources of good news are proliferating. In fact, their increasing
abundance is proof that there's no longer any excuse for steeping
yourself in the perverse life-hating obsession that infects the
mainstream media.
Here's my challenge to you: For the period of one week, I dare
you to refrain from sucking in the nihilism that pours out of
mainstream news sources. Instead, for those seven days, get all
your news from the pronoiac websites below.
Good News Network
goodnewsnetwork.org
Change the World News
cthings.com
Great News Network
greatnewsnetwork.org
Positive News
positivenewsus.org
Ode magazine
odemagazine.com
Yes! magazine
yesmagazine.org
Gimundo
gimundo.com
Good News Daily
goodnewsdaily.com
Good News Blog
goodnewsblog.com
Happy News
happynews.com
Heroic Stories
heroicstories.com
Positive Economic News
positiveeconomicnews.com
Good News Economist
goodnewseconomist.com
NPR report on good news
tinyurl.com/d5mkuw
New "positive change" magazines thrive
tinyurl.com/y9hen3d
(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 October 8
Copyright 2009 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
The sun shines brighter on my new home. The old place had resemblances
to a cave and was surrounded by tall trees. My new space has many
broad windows and soaks up the solar radiance from dawn to dusk.
As you might expect, my 15 plants need to drink a lot more than
they used to. The watering ritual at the old house used to come
once a week, but now it's every other day. According to my reading
of the astrological omens, a comparable shift is occurring in
your rhythm, Libra. Metaphorically speaking, more heat and light
are coming your way.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Amazingly enough, the good deeds you do in the next 21 days could
alone qualify you for a permanent exemption from hell. It seems
God has cooked up some imminent tests that will give you a chance
to garner some ridiculously sublime karma. What's that you say?
You don't believe in either God or hell? Well then, interpret
the opportunity this way: The good deeds you perform in the coming
three weeks could practically ensure that the sins you've committed
thus far in your life will not stain the world or be passed on
as IOUs to the next generation.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
In 1968, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn finished his book The Gulag
Archipelago, a scorching indictment of the oppression that
he and his countrymen suffered under the totalitarian regime of
the Soviet Union. Banned for years, it was never formally published
in his home country until 1989. Even after that, the new Russian
government tried to control the teaching of history by suppressing
texts like Solzhenitsyn's. This year, all that changed. The
Gulag Archipelago became required reading in Russian high
schools. At last, the truth is officially available. (Maybe one
day the equivalent will happen in the U.S., with alternate histories
by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky finding their way into the curriculum.)
I celebrate this breakthrough as a symbol of the events that are
about to unfold in your personal life: the long-lost truth finally
revealed.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
John, a colleague of mine, is a skillful psychotherapist. His
father is in a similar occupation, psychoanalysis. If you ask
John whether his dad gave him a good understanding of the human
psyche while he was growing up, John quotes the old maxim: "The
shoemaker's son has no shoes." Is there any comparable theme
in your own life, Capricorn? Some talent or knowledge or knack
that should have been but was not a part of your inheritance;
a natural gift you were somehow cheated out of in your early environment?
If so, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to start recovering
from your loss and getting the good stuff you have coming to you.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Let's imagine that an independent filmmaker has been following
you around, gathering footage for a movie based on the story of
your life. This week he or she would face a dilemma. That's because
unexpected new sub-plots may arise, veering off in directions
that seem to be far afield from the core themes. The acting of
the central players won't be bad or unskillful, but it might be
out of character with what they've done before. And there could
be anomalous intrusions that impinge on the main scenes, like
a bug landing on your nose during an intense conversation. Yet
I can't help wondering if this chapter of the tale won't be intriguing
for just these reasons.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
"Tenderness and rot / share a border," writes the U.S.
Poet Laureate Kay Ryan in one of her poems. "And rot is an
/ aggressive neighbor / whose iridescence / keeps creeping over."
Your job in the coming week, Pisces, is to reinforce that border
-- with a triple-thick wall, if necessary -- so that the rot cannot
possibly ooze over and infect tenderness. It is especially important
right now that the sweet, deep intimacy you dole out and stimulate
will not get corrupted by falseness or sentimentality. I urge
you to stir up the smartest affection you have ever created.
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LISTEN TO AN EXPANDED HOROSCOPE
Since I put all my heart and soul into the written horoscopes
I send out in this newsletter, they're pretty nutritious. You
may never need any of the other stuff I create.
But if you ever do crave an added boost, you may want to sample
my Expanded Audio Horoscopes. They're different in tone and intent
than the written scopes, imbued with a little more of the psychologist
in me, and a little less of the poet.
Find out more at RealAstrology.com.
The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888
or 1-900-950-7700.
"Your Expanded Audio Horoscopes provide me with the Rest
of the Story. I'm not necessarily a believer in the scientific
accuracy of astrology, but I do think you've got a lot of practical
wisdom to impart."
- M. Tennenbaum, New York
"No one knows more about me than me. But you're right up
there near the top of the list of people who do understand something
about how I tick. How is that possible?"
- R. Goren, Albuquerque
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ARIES (March 21-April 19):
The poet Stephen Mallarmé wrote the following in a letter
to a friend: "I don't know which of my internal climates
I should explore in order to find you and meet you." I love
that passage. It alludes to one of the central facts about the
nature of reality: The quality of your consciousness is crucial
in determining whether you'll be able to attract the resources
that are essential to your dreams coming true. In order to get
what you want, you have to work on yourself at least as hard as
you work on the world around you. This is always true, of course,
but it's especially true for you now, Aries.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Is there anything in your life that you don't really want but
nevertheless find it hard to part with? A situation or experience
that gives you a perverse sense of comfort because of its familiarity,
even though it has a steep emotional cost and doesn't serve your
higher dreams? If so, the coming week will be an excellent time
to change your relationship with it. You will make dramatic progress
if you brainstorm about how you could break up the stagnant energy
that keeps you entranced and entrapped.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
One of my New Age friends says she has it on good authority that
the Seven Lords of Time will reconvene in their Himalayan sanctuary
on December 21, 2012 and reinvent the nature of time, as they
last did back in 3114 BC. I have no idea if that's true or not,
but if it is, I say "hallelujah!" We would all benefit
from some big-time reinvention of time. But that happy event,
even if it actually does come to pass, is still more than three
years away. What to do in the meantime? Luckily, you Geminis now
have major personal power to do some time reinvention of your
own. To get started, ask yourself what three things you could
do to stop fighting time and start loving it better.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Soup is your metaphor for the week, Cancerian. Symbolically speaking,
it's the key to your personal power and a model for the approach
you should take in everything you do. On the most basic level,
you might want to eat some soup every day. That will make potent
suggestions to your subconscious mind about how to mix lots of
ingredients together so that their value and beauty as a totality
are more than the sum of their parts. Not just in the kitchen,
but in every area of your life, blend many little miscellaneous
things into one big interesting thing.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Change your password. Take a different way home. Ask a question
you've never asked. Dream up a new nickname for yourself. Choose
a new lucky number. Change the way you tell the story about an
important event in your past. Make it a little more difficult
for people to have you pegged. Eat a type of food you've never
tried. Do the research necessary to discover why one of your opinions
may be wrong. Add a new step to your grooming ritual. Feel appreciation
for a person whose charms you've become numb to. Surprise yourself
at least once a day.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
One of the best modern Turkish poets was Seyfettin Bascillar,
who worked as a meat inspector in New Jersey for many years before
his death in 2002. Nobel Prize-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz lived
in Berkeley, California for over four decades while writing his
books in Polish, his native tongue. Iceland's great poet of the
20th century, Stephan G. Stephansson, lived in Canada most of
his life but always wrote in Icelandic. These people remind me
of what you're going through: striving to do what comes natural
and authentic in a situation very different from the place where
you first learned to be natural and authentic. The interesting
fact of the matter is that this feeling of displacement could
very well be key to your success.
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HOMEWORK:
To try the exercises and experiments in "Pronoia Therapy,"
an excerpt from my new book, go here: tinyurl.com/95ykn
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WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?
I'm not doing personal charts, but I highly recommend my astrological
colleague, RO LOUGHRAN. Her approach closely matches my own. In
our many discussions about astrology over the years, we've had
a major influence on each other's work.
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained
intuition, emotional warmth, and
a high
degree of 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.
Ro is based in California, but
can do phone consultations and
otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic
boundaries.
Ro's website is at YourSoulJourney.com
She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2009 Rob Brezsny
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