Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
DECEMBER 30, 2009
FreeWillAstrology.com
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EXPLORE THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE
with my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for the Coming Year.
RealAstrology.com
What new influences will be headed your way in 2010? What fresh
resources will you be able to draw on? How can you conspire with
life to create the best possible future for yourself?
Beginning this week, and for the next two weeks as well, I'm
exploring the BIG PICTURE of your life in my Expanded Audio Horoscopes.
If you slip into a philosophical, visionary mood at the end of
each year, you might appreciate my perspectives on your long-term
outlook.
To listen to your BIG PICTURE horoscopes online, go to RealAstrology.com.
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888
or 1-900-950-7700
The cost is $6 per sign on the Web, or $1.99 per minute by phone.
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"The universe is nothing but your love making."
- Deepak Chopra
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The revised and expanded version of my book PRONOIA IS THE
ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA is available at Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia
Here's an excerpt:
Many people alive today are convinced that our civilization is
in a dark age, cut off from divine favor, and on the verge of
collapse. But it's healthy to note that similar beliefs have been
common throughout history.
As far back as 2800 BC, an unknown prophet wrote on an Assyrian
clay tablet, "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days.
There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end."
In the seventh century BC, many Romans believed Rome would suffer
a cataclysm in 634 BC.
Around 300 BC, Hindus were convinced they lived in an "unfortunate
time" known as the Kali Yuga -- the lowest point in the great
cosmic cycle. In 426 AD, the Christian writer Augustine mourned
that this evil world was in its last days. According to the Lotharingian
panic-mongers who lived more than a 1,000 years ago, human life
on earth would end on March 25, 970.
Astrologers in 16th-century London calculated that the city would
be destroyed by a great flood on February 1, 1524. American minister
William Miller proclaimed the planet's "purification by fire"
would occur in 1844. Anglican minister Michael Baxter assured
his followers that the Battle of Armageddon would take place in
1868. The Jehovah's Witnesses anticipated the End of Days in 1910,
then 1914, then 1918, then 1925. John Ballou Newbrough ("America's
Greatest Prophet") promised mass annihilation and global
anarchy for 1947.
The website "A Brief History of the Apocalypse" at
tinyurl.com/yqb83n lists
over 200 visions of doom that have spilled from the hysterical
imaginations of various prophets in the last two millennia.
Our age may have more of these doomsayers per capita than previous
eras, although the proportion of religious extremists among them
has declined as more scientists, journalists, and storytellers
have taken up the singing of humanity's predicted swan song.
In her book For the Time Being, Annie Dillard concludes,
"It is a weakening and discoloring idea that rustic people
knew God personally once upon a time but that it is too late for
us. There never was a more holy age than ours, and never a less.
There is no whit less enlightenment under the tree by your street
than there was under the Buddha's bo tree."
I invite you to go sit under that tree by your street.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LUCKY YOU ARE
About once a month, a miracle will happen to you
bit.ly/7IbwE0
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW AMAZING YOU ARE
Do you have any idea how many millions of years of amazing events
it took to create you?
wimp.com/bigbang
bit.ly/8eDv0T
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW POWERFUL YOU ARE
How the brain got liberated
bit.ly/6f9lzn
(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 December 31
Copyright 2009 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
"I am a man of fixed and unbending principles," said
American politician Everett Dirksen, "the first of which
is to be flexible at all times." That's the kind of playful
and resilient spirit I urge you to aspire to in 2010, Capricorn.
I think you're most likely to have a successful year if you regularly
explore the joys of improvisation. The more empirical and less
theory-bound you're willing to be, the better you'll feel. Practicing
the art of compromise doesn't have to be galling, I promise you;
it may even turn out to be more fun and educational than you imagined
possible.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Who and what do you hold most dear, Aquarius? I encourage you
to get clear about that. Once you do, I hope you'll make a vow
to bestow extra care and attention on them in 2010 -- I mean literally
write out a one-page oath in which you describe the inner states
you will cultivate in yourself while you're in their presence
and the specific actions you're going to take to help them thrive.
Nothing else you do will be more important to your success in
2010.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
The philosopher Nietzsche said there was no middle ground: You
either said "yes" to life or you said "no."
You either celebrated your vitality, enjoyed your power, and thrived
on challenges, or else you practiced constant self-denial, hemmed
yourself in with deluded rationalizations, and tormented yourself
with indecision. I'm not so sure it's always as clear-cut as that.
While I'm usually in the "yes to life" camp," I've
gone through "no to life" phases, as well as some extended
"maybe to life" times. What about you, Pisces? Whatever
you've done in the past, I hope that in 2010 you will take maximum
advantage of the cosmic rhythms, which will be encouraging you
to give life a big, resounding, ongoing YES.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
One of my favorite landscape painters makes a livable wage from
selling her art. She has had many gallery showings and has garnered
much critical acclaim. That's the good news. The bad news is that
she feels obligated to keep churning out more landscape paintings
-- even when her muse nudges her to take a detour into, say, abstract
expressionism or surrealistic portraits. Galleries don't want
anything from her except the stuff that has made her semi-famous.
"Sometimes I fantasize about creating a series of 'Sock Puppet
Monkeys Playing Poker,'" she told me. If she were an Aries,
I'd advise her to do what I think you should do in 2010: Listen
to what your version of the sock puppet monkeys are urging you
to do.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
My Taurus friend Jill had a dream in which she stopped by a blackberry
bush on a summer afternoon. All the ripe blackberries were too
high on the bush, just out of reach. She stood there gazing longingly
up at them for a long time. Finally three people in medieval garb
came by, as if having stepped out of a deck of Tarot cards --
a warrior, magician, and priestess. "I really want those
blackberries," she said to them. "Could you give me
a boost?" They stooped down to make their backs available.
She climbed up, but still couldn't reach the berries. "Oh
well, we tried," she said. "Follow us," said the
priestess, and she did. After a while they came to another bush
whose blackberries were lower and easy to pluck. Then the four
shared the feast. After analyzing the omens for 2010, Taurus,
I've come to the conclusion that Jill's dream is an apt metaphor
for your best possible destiny in 2010.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
"We should not think of our past as definitely settled,
for we are not a stone or a tree," wrote poet Czeslaw Milosz.
"My past changes every minute according to the meaning given
it now, in this moment." I suggest you make abundant use
of this wisdom in 2010. According to my reading of the astrological
omens, you will have unprecedented power to re-vision and reinterpret
your past. Keep the following question in mind as you go about
your work: "How can I recreate my history so as to make my
willpower stronger, my love of life more intense, and my future
more interesting?"
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EXPLORING YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE
Would you like some inspiration as you muse and wonder about
your upcoming adventures in 2010?
In this week's EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, I offer you Part One
of a long-term, in-depth exploration of your destiny in the coming
year.
Part Two and Part Three will be available in the next two weeks.
Find out how to access them online at RealAstrology.com.
They are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.
The cost is $6 per sign on the Web, or $1.99 per minute by phone.
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CANCER (June 21-July 22):
I think everyone should always have an improbable quest playing
at the edges of their imagination -- you know, some heroic task
that provokes deep thoughts and rouses noble passions even if
it also incites smoldering torment. I'm talking about an extravagant
dream that's perhaps a bit farfetched but not entirely insane;
a goal that constantly rouses you to stretch your possibilities
and open your mind further; a wild hope whose pursuit makes you
smarter and stronger even if you never fully accomplish it. The
coming year would be an excellent time to keep such an adventure
at the forefront of your awareness.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
A guy who goes by the name of "Winter" has made it
his goal to visit every Starbucks in the world. According to his
website, he has thus far ordered drinks in 9,874 stores. His project
contrasts dramatically with an acquaintance of mine who calls
herself "Indian Summer." She is in the midst of a global
pilgrimage to the hundreds of sites listed in Colin Wilson's book
The Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites, including
cave paintings, dolmens, medicine wheels, and temples. Guess which
of these two explorers I'm nominating to be one of your inspirational
heroes in 2010.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Scientific studies have proved what we all knew already: A person
who's only mildly interesting to you will probably become more
attractive if you drink a couple of pints of beer. What if I told
you, Virgo, that in 2010 you could regularly create the same effect
without drinking the beer? I have it on good astrological authority
that this will be the case. Due to fundamental shifts in your
relationship with the life force, and having nothing to do with
how much alcohol you consume, the entire world will often be at
least 25 percent more attractive to you than it ever was before.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Your limitations will be among your greatest assets in 2010.
Yes, you heard me right, Libra; I'm not speaking ironically or
sarcastically. During the coming months, you will be able to benefit
from circumstances that you might otherwise imagine would prevent
you from operating with maximum freedom. It might require you
to look at the world upside-down, or work in reverse to your habitual
thought patterns, but you could actually generate interesting
opportunities, vital teachings, and maybe even financial gain
by capitalizing on your so-called liabilities.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
"Dear Rob: I sure don't like so much God stuff mixed into
my horoscopes. Can you cut it out, please? I understand it's common
for the masses to believe in an Ultra Being, but you? Pul-lease.
You're smarter than that. I just can't abide all the 'Divine Wow'
this and 'Cackling Goddess' nonsense that you dispense; it doesn't
jibe with the practical, sensible, unsuperstitious, non-mushy
world I hold dear. -Sally Scorpio." Dear Sally: I predict
that many Scorpios will have sensational, ongoing, up-close and
personal communion with the Divine Wow in 2010. You're free, of
course, to call it something else, like an unprecedented eruption
of creative energy or a breakthrough in your ability to access
your own higher powers.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
You Sagittarians may wander farther and wider than the other
signs of the zodiac, and you may get itchier when required to
stay in one place too long, but you still need a sense of belonging.
Whether that comes from having a certain building where you feel
comfortable or a wilderness that evokes your beloved adventurousness
or a tribe that gives you a sense of community, you thrive when
you're in regular touch with a homing signal that keeps you grounded.
According to my analysis, 2010 will be prime time for you to find
or create or renew your connection to a source that serves this
purpose well.
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HOMEWORK:
Make a list of your anti-resolutions. What weird habits, incorrigible
vices, dissident uprisings, and controversial actions do you promise
to cultivate in 2010? Report your results by going to FreeWillAstrology.com
and clicking on "Email Rob."
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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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