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week of March 28, 2019
You Are Everything
Here's a link to my free weekly email newsletter, featuring the Free Will Astrology horoscopes, plus a bunch of other stuff, including good news, lucky advice, and tender rants. It arrives every Tuesday morning.Read past issues of the newsletter. Sign up here for your free subscription.  LUSH BUDDIES and JELLY ROLLS Relationship" is a dull term for something so interesting. Try "link-flash" instead. Rather than calling people your "friend" or "partner," call them your "accomplice," your "freestyle," or your "lightning." Boring terms like "significant other," "boyfriend," "girlfriend," & "spouse" could be retired, too. Try "lushbuddy," "heartbeat," or "jelly roll." Feel free to coin your own surgecrafts and questbursts.  YOU'RE FREE! It's a free country. You're free to desecrate nature and live without any thought for our descendants and forever and adamantly believe every borrowed idea that settled into your head when you were coming of age. You're free to scarf down pesticide-laden junk food and memorize Ford truck jingles and vote for old white straight male millionaires. On the other hand, you're also free to go on jubilant picnics in the wilderness using sustainable dishware and cleaning up after yourself. You're free to formulate a master plan to achieve your own precious dreams in ways that will also serve our fellow humans and bestow blessings on our descendants. You're free to radically revise your philosophy of life every once in a while to account for the ever-changing contours of your own destiny and the ever-evolving urgencies of our shared culture and history. You're free—FREE!!!!—to care dearly about what foods you put in your body and regard advertising as a form of propagandistic brainwashing and do your part to increase the representation of women in political office to at least fifty percent. I bring these thoughts to your attention because i'd love to encourage you to become a connoisseur of freedom and a master of the art of liberation. I'm hoping to kick your butt a bit even as I pique your excitement about a full range of emancipatory possibilities. Hypothesis: to serve your ambitions most effectively, be more motivated by the desire to give your gifts and express your love than by the push to do your duty or the lust to attract approval or the hop to win money and prizes. MY DAUGHTER AND I ON THE SAME PODCAST For the first time, my daughter Zoe Brezsny and I both appear on the same podcast. The show is "Plaster Cramp," an experimental archive of readings, descriptions, sounds, & other aural ephemera for the vision and reading impaired, created by Maliea Croy. In this show, I do my spoken-word piece "Re-Genius Yourself," and Zoe does two pieces: “Light Beams for the Sky of a Transfer Corridor” and “See You in the Next World.” Listen here OTHER RELIGIONS TO CHOOSE FROM There are a lot of other religions to choose from besides the giant fundamentalist cults that dominate the mass media's attention. On of my favorites is Discordianism. Here's a sampling of Discordian tenets. 1. Everyone is a saint, especially you. 2. Meditation consists primarily of cruising around looking for good luck. 3. Eating hot dog buns is prohibited, except on Friday, when it's compulsory. 4. When you're stuck in a rut, you must speak in tongues, handle snakes, and experience phantasmagoria. 5. Your guardian angel loves you better when your room is a mess. 6. Bowling alleys are sacred; you must protect them from desecration. 7. The Goddess will solve all your problems if you solve all hers. YOUR MUSEFULNESS I propose we revive an archaic English word, "museful." Hundreds of years ago, it simply meant meditative, pensive, or thoughtful. Let's expand its definition to be "full of the presence and inspiration of the muse." P.S. Who is your muse or who are your muses? Provide an image or sound. MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES: For more about the good news stories below, plus links to the articles that provide full evidence, go here. 1. Youth crime in the Australian state of New South Wales has plummeted in the last 20 years. Vehicle theft is down by 59%, property theft by 59%, and drunk-driving by 49%. 2. In the last generation, arrests of Californian teenagers have fallen by 80%, murder arrests by 85%, gun killings by 75%, imprisonments by 88%, teen births by 75%, school dropouts by half, and college enrollments are up by 45%. 3. According to new data from the Department of Justice, the proportion of people being sent to prison in the United States has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years. 4. Thanks to shifting tastes amongst those born after 1980, 70% of the world’s population is reducing meat consumption or leaving meat off the table altogether. 5. Germany announced one of the most ambitious waste management schemes in history. The government plans to recycle 63% of its total waste within the next four years, up from 36% today. 6. The Malaysian government announced it would not allow any further expansion of oil palm plantations, and that it intends to maintain forest cover at 50%. 7. Denmark became the latest country to announce a ban on internal combustion engines. There are now 16 countries with bans that come into effect before 2040—including China and India, the two biggest car markets in the world. 8. In 2018, the world surpassed the four million mark for electric vehicles. In the world’s biggest car market, China, electric cars reached 5% of sales; China’s internal combustion car market is flat, with all growth now being absorbed by EVs. 9. Adidas sold five million pairs of shoes made from ocean plastic in 2018, and is committed to using only recycled plastic in its products by 2024. 10. Four years ago, China declared a war on pollution. It’s working. Cities have, on average, cut concentrations of fine particulates in the air by 32%. BENEVOLENT SHOCK OF THE NEW Your old self is the fuel you will use to burn your old self to the ground. This bonfire will liberate your new self, which has been trapped in a gnarly snarl deep inside your old self. It's only at first that you'll feel freaked out by the flames. Very quickly a sense of relief and release will predominate. Then, as the new you makes its way to freedom, escaping its cramped quarters and flexing its vital force, you will be blessed with a foreshadowing of your future. The intoxication that follows will bring you clarity and peace of mind. IF YOU HAVE NOT HAD A GOOD FATHER "When one has not had a good father, one must create one," said philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. What does that mean? How might you go about "creating" a good father? Well, you could develop a relationship with an admirable older man who is an inspiring role model. You could read books by men whose work stirs you to actualize your own potentials. If you have a vigorous inner life, you could build a fantasy dad in your imagination. Here's another possibility: Cultivate in yourself the qualities you think a good father should have. Your ideas? Tell me at Truthrooster@gmail.com Even if you actually had a pretty decent father, I'm sure he wasn't perfect. So it still might be interesting to try out some of these ideas. YOU TASTE DELICIOUS You taste delicious Animals understand you Your importance is unusual The funny faces you make are interesting to look at You fight for power in all the right ways Ecstatic gratitude is pouring out of you I see the best in you Your divine attitude You have strong feet and a pioneer heart No one can overflow as well as you can You are famous with God You are famous with me You are famous with the snakes and birds and roses and pines and oceans and earth and sky A lost tribe salutes you from the other side of the veil You remind me of a star + Hear this poem as a song sung by me Another version of the song, sung by the inimitable Adrienne Mehri Shamszad WANT TO GET YOUR ASTROLOGICAL CHART READ? If you want your personal chart done, I recommend a colleague whose approach to reading astrology charts closely matches my own. She's my wife, RO LOUGHRAN. Her website is here. Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained intuition, emotional warmth, and 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. In addition to over 30 years of astrological experience, Ro has been a licensed psychotherapist for 17 years. She integrates psychological insight with astrology's cosmological perspective. Ro is based in California, but can do phone consultations and otherwise work with you regardless of geographic boundaries. Check out Ro's website. PERFECT AGREEMENT? There's not one person on the planet, even my greatest teachers, with whom I agree on every subject. I conclude that perfect accord is impossible, and that's a good thing. A LESS BORING EVIL A Less Boring Evil, Part 1 "Rudolf Steiner believed that evil was comprised of two forces that were opposed to each other in many ways, though with a tendency to form an alliance. "One force, associated with Lucifer, represents grandiosity, arrogance, and self-indulgence. The other, associated with Ahriman, is manipulative, acquisitive, and ultimately sterile. We owe art to Lucifer and technology to Ahriman. "They have both played a necessary and constructive role at different stages of the evolution of consciousness, enabling human beings to find a path of development towards love, wisdom, and freedom. "Thus, for Steiner, 'the task of evil is to promote the ascent of humans.' Because there are two forces of evil, not just one, good is not seen as being opposed to evil. The forces of good, associated with Christ/Magdalen, balance, redeem, and heal the two evil forces." —Fraser N. Watts, "The Spiritual Psychology of Rudolf Steiner," an essay in "Beyond Therapy: The Impact of Eastern Religions on Psychological Theory and Practice" + A Less Boring Evil, Part 2 "Rudolf Steiner saw Christ as the human mediation between the demonic Ahriman and the satanic Lucifer. Ahriman is the unit crushed into the uniform, the destruction of individuality in sameness. He is the spirit behind Stalin, or Orwell's nightmares of Big Brother. "Lucifer is the opposite, the individual raised to a cosmic egotism where there can be no other one, not even God. The Ahrimanic evil is the state that crushes all diversity. The Luciferic evil is the overweening pride of the scientist who believes he can control evolution. "The Christ is neither the unit and the uniform, nor the alone, but expresses the crossing of the unique and the universal." —William Irwin Thompson, "Imaginary Landscape: Making Worlds of Myth and Science" BREAK ALL SPELLS You break all spells that keep you asleep to your own magic. ~ Chani Nicholas MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES: For more about the good news stories below, plus links to the articles that provide full evidence, GO HERE. 1. India increased its already massive 2022 clean energy target by 28%. It plans to add 150 GW of wind and solar in the next four years. 2. Ireland became the world’s first country to divest from fossil fuels, after a bill was passed with all-party support in the lower house of parliament. 3. Spain committed to shutting down most of its coalmines by the end of the year, after the government agreed to early retirement for miners, re-skilling, and environmental restoration. 4. The Journal of Peace Research said that global deaths from state-based conflicts have declined for the third year in a row, and are now 32% lower than their peak in 2014. 5. After a decade long effort, Herat, Afghanistan’s deadliest province for landmines, was declared free of explosive devices. Nearly 80% of the country is now mine free. 6. Following the collapse of ISIS, civilian deaths in Iraq decreased dramatically. 80% fewer Iraqis were killed in the first five months of 2018 compared to last year. 7. Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace treaty, signaling the end of a 20-year war, and reuniting thousands of families. 8. Malaysia abolished the death penalty for all crimes and halted all pending executions, a move hailed by human rights groups in Asia as a major victory. 9. Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world in 2012. Murders have decreased by half since then, more than any other nation. 10. Crime and murder rates declined in the United States’ 30 largest cities, with the murder rate for 2018 was 7.6% lower than 2017. Here's a link to my free weekly email newsletter, featuring the Free Will Astrology horoscopes, plus a bunch of other stuff, including good news, lucky advice, and tender rants. It arrives every Tuesday morning. Read past issues of the newsletter. Sign up here for your free subscription. Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane. —Anne Lamott Perfection is a stick with which to beat the possible —Rebecca Solnit The perfect is the enemy of the good. —Voltaire Excellence does not require perfection. —Henry James THE ART AND SCIENCE OF UNIVERSAL COMPASSION' Has there ever been a time in the history of civilization when masses of people were actively cultivating a capacity for transcendental empathy? Have there ever been so many of us attuned to and concerned for the suffering of those we've never met? In his book *Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming*, Paul Hawken argues that organized political action devoted to advancing the rights of others is a relatively new phenomenon. The drive to abolish slavery was where it began. In recent decades it has grown exponentially, becoming a global crusade to improve social justice, economic conditions, human rights, and environmental health. By Hawken's estimates, there are well over a million organizations engaged in the effort, which thrives without centralized leadership, charismatic front men, or a fixed ideology. Because of its grass-roots ubiquity, it is largely invisible to the mass media and underestimated by politicians. Some day, maybe 500 years from now, our descendants will have installed the art and science of universal compassion as the first law of civilization. And I bet they will give honor to us, the people alive on the planet today, as the heroes who gave critical mass to their prime directive. Read more. CHOOSING WHICH OF YOUR THOUGHTS TO EMPHASIZE My understanding is that you get to choose which of your thoughts to go with. —Anne Lamott In other words, you can decide which of the thoughts and images that bubble up from your unconscious will be the ones you act on and identify as belonging to your intentions. + You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That’s the only thing you should be trying to control. —Elizabeth Gilbert EVIL IS BORING The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates: considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artists; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.” - Ursula K. Le Guin + See the video of my performance piece, "Evil Is Boring" HEALING FROM THE LIES Take a day to heal from the lies you've told yourself and the ones that have been told to you. —poet and activist Maya Angelou Take fifty-five days to heal from the lies you've told yourself and the ones that have been told to you. Or two hundred days. Or four hundred thirty-nine days. No more than a thousand, though. —Mash-up of me and Maya Angelou |
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© 1995-2013 -- Rob Brezsny. All rights reserved |
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