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Free Will Astrology
horoscopes for week of April 17, 2014
Aries (March 21-April 19)
It's Compensation Week. If you have in the past suffered from injustice, it's an excellent time to go in quest of restitution. If you have been deprived of the beauty you need to thrive, now is the time to get filled up. Wherever your life has been out of balance, you have the power to create more harmony. Don't be shy about seeking redress. Ask people to make amends. Pursue restorations. But don't, under any circumstances, lust for revenge.
All of creation loves you very much. Even now, people you know and people you don't know are collaborating to make sure you have all you need to make your next smart move. But are you willing to start loving life back with an equal intensity? The adoration it offers you has not exactly been unrequited, but there is room for you to be more demonstrative. For help in cultivating this approach, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Many people sincerely think that they will be called before God to account for themselves on Judgment Day. If you yourself have held that belief, you can stop worrying about it. The fact is, according to a survey of over 800 dissident bodhisattvas, urban witch doctors, sacred agents, and undercover geniuses, that you are called before "God" on Judgment Day on a regular basis.
Since you still exist, you have apparently passed every test so far. "God" obviously keeps finding you worthy. You shouldn't get overconfident, of course. But maybe from now on you can assume that although there may be a world of pressure on you, that pressure is natural, merciful, and exactly what you need.
Try this experiment: For seven days, see what it feels like to be secure in your knowledge that you have passed the tests of Judgment Day many, many times.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
"Our brains are no longer conditioned for reverence and awe," said novelist John Updike. That's a sad possibility. Could you please do something to dispute or override it, Taurus? Would it be too much to ask if I encouraged you to go out in quest of lyrical miracles that fill you with wonder? Can I persuade you to be alert for sweet mysteries that provoke dizzying joy and uncanny breakthroughs that heal a wound you've feared might forever plague you? Here's what the astrological omens suggest: Phenomena that stir reverence and awe are far more likely than usual.
What is the obvious secret you can't quite see? How could you turn your challenges into daily gifts for yourself? For clues to mysteries like these, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Writing on Salon.com, Scott Rosenberg recalled how in his youth he loved to play the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. "You'd have to choose not one but two 'alignments' for your character," he mused. "Good and evil, of course, but also 'law' and 'chaos.' And among the people I ran with, 'chaotic/good' was the thing to be, because it let you trust other people and still have fun."
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
I wonder if it's time for you to modify an old standby. I'm getting the sense that you should consider tinkering with a familiar resource that has served you pretty well. Why? This resource may have some hidden weakness that you need to attend to in order to prevent a future disruption. Now might be one of those rare occasions when you should ignore the old rule, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." So be proactive, Gemini. Investigate what's going on beneath the surface. Make this your motto: "I will solve the problem before it's a problem -- and then it will never be a problem."
Grace emerges in the ebb and flow, not just the flow. The waning reveals a different blessing than the waxing. Where are you in the great cycle of your life? For inspiration in figuring it all out, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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The water you drink is three billion years old, give or take five million years. The stuff your body is made of is at least 10 billion years old, probably older, and has been as far away as 100,000 light-years from where it is right now. The air you breathe has, in the course of its travels, been literally everywhere on the planet, and has slipped in and out of the lungs of almost every human being who has ever lived.
Would you act differently if you had a visceral sense of how eternal and infinite you are? What unprecedented behavior might you express? Visualize a waking dream in which you remember the water you floated in three billion years ago. Imagine you can see the light that shone on you 100,000 light-years ago.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
"Do you really have what it takes or do you not have what it takes?" That's the wrong question to ask, in my opinion. You can't possibly know the answer ahead of time, for one thing. To dwell on that quandary would put you on the defensive and activate your fear, diminishing your power to accomplish the task at hand. Here's a more useful inquiry: "Do you want it strongly enough or do you not want it strongly enough?" With this as your meditation, you might be inspired to do whatever's necessary to pump up your desire. And that is the single best thing you can do to ensure your ultimate success.
Whether it's your time to ferment in the shadows or sing in the sun, fresh power to transform yourself is on the way. Life always delivers the creative energy you need to change into the new thing you must become. For more help in understanding it all, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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"If everything seems under control," said auto racer Mario Andretti, "you're probably not moving fast enough." I second that emotion. It applies to the entire human race, which is swirling through evolutionary tipping points at an accelerating speed. But it's doubly apropos for you spiritual freedom fighters and renegade bodhisattvas, because you're the vanguard shock troops fighting to merge heaven with earth.
For your edification and amusement, we will add three corollaries to Andretti's wisdom: 1. If you're not pretty much always half-confused, most likely you're not thinking deeply enough. 2. If you're not feeling forever amazed, maybe you're not seeing wildly enough. 3. The truth is fluid, slippery, vagrant, scrambled, promiscuous, kaleidoscopic, and outrageously abundant.
How might you go about using these tricks to marinate yourself in a gentle state of ecstasy pretty much all the time?
Leo (July 23-August 22)
I swear my meditations are more dynamic when I hike along the trail through the marsh than if I'm pretzeled up in the lotus position back in my bedroom. Maybe I've been influenced by Aristotle's Peripatetic School. He felt his students learned best when they accompanied him on long strolls. Then there was philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who testified that his most brilliant thoughts came to him as he rambled far and wide. Even if this possibility seems whimsical to you, Leo, I invite you to give it a try. According to my reading of the current astrological omens, your moving body is likely to generate bright ideas and unexpected solutions and visions of future adventures.
You can learn to be lucky. It's not a mystical force you're born with, but a habit you can develop. How? For starters, be open to new experiences, trust your gut wisdom, expect good fortune, see the bright side of challenging events, and master the art of maximizing serendipitous opportunities. For more help, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Answer, from a reader named Jason R.: "I was like a mole in a suburban backyard. I had just one little path I trod each day: to the compost pile and back. I chewed on orange rinds and leftover cabbage. I was tamed by the comfort of my familiar environment, content to have a narrow vision. But then I was eaten by a hawk, and became part of a wild, free body. Now I perch on the tops of trees and the peaks of roofs. I survey giddy-wide horizons, from the river to the mesa and far beyond. I have a wealth of choices. Where to fly? What to hunt? Who are my allies? My thoughts breathe deep, like the slow explosion of sun on the morning lake."
How would you answer the same question?
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Throughout North America and Europe, there are hundreds of unused roads. Many are former exit and entrance ramps to major highways, abandoned for one reason or another. Some are stretches of pavement that used to be parts of main thoroughfares before they were rerouted. I suggest we make "unused roads" your metaphor of the week, Virgo. It may be time for you to bring some of them back into operation, and maybe even relink them to the pathways they were originally joined to. Are there any missing connections in your life that you would love to restore? Any partial bridges you feel motivated to finish building?
Somewhere there's a treasure that has no value to anyone but you, and a secret that's meaningless to everyone except you, and a frontier that harbors a revelation only you would know how to exploit. Why not go in search of those things? For inspiration, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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"If you bring forth the genius within you," said Jesus in the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, "it will free you. If you do not bring forth the genius within you, it will destroy you."
Is there any aspect of the genius within you that you're not bringing forth? If so, how can you fix that?
Libra (September 23-October 22)
Karma works both ways. If you do ignorant things, ignorant things may eventually be done to you. Engage in generous actions, and at some future date you may be the unexpected beneficiary of generosity. I'm expecting more of the latter than the former for you in the coming days, Libra. I think fate will bring you sweet compensations for your enlightened behavior in the past. I'm reminded of the fairy tale in which a peasant girl goes out of her way to be kind to a seemingly feeble, disabled old woman. The crone turns out to be a good witch who rewards the girl with a bag of gold. But as I hinted, there could also be a bit of that other kind of karma lurking in your vicinity. Would you like to ward it off? All you have to do is unleash a flurry of good deeds. Anytime you have a chance to help people in need, do it.
When they say "Be yourself," which self do they mean? Certainly not the self that wants to win every game and use up every resource and stand alone at the end of time on a mountain of pretty garbage. So which self is it? For guidance, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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I've written astrological oracles for much of my adult life. An early prototype of my work hatched in my previous incarnation as an 11th-century monastic scribe who made illuminated manuscripts. During my off-hours, I dabbled with planetary divination and created a parchment newsletter that got passed around the monastery.
In a later lifetime as a 16th-century Florentine alchemist, I further refined the form. The invention of the printing press meant my oracles could be seen by a larger audience, and as a result I got more feedback, which in turn helped me improve my service. The horoscopes I create today, then, have been in the making for a thousand years.
What about you? Is there anything you've been working on for many centuries? If your memory of your previous incarnations is fuzzy, make up a good story.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
As they lie in the sand, African crocodiles are in the habit of opening their jaws wide for hours at a time. It keeps them cool, and allows for birds called plovers to stop by and pluck morsels of food that are stuck between the crocs' molars. The relationship is symbiotic. The teeth-cleaners eat for free as they provide a service for the large reptiles. As I analyze your astrological aspects, Scorpio, I'm inclined to see an opportunity coming your way that has a certain resemblance to the plovers'. Can you summon the necessary trust and courage to take full advantage?
Take inventory of the extent that "No" dominates your life. Notice how often you say or think: 1. "That's not right." 2. "I don't like that." 3. "I don't agree with that." 4. "They don't like me." 5. "I'm not very good." 6. "That should be different from what it is." For help in retraining yourself to say "Yes!" at least 51% of the time, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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In his book Cosmos and Psyche, Richard Tarnas says the planets don't emit invisible forces that shape our destinies as if we were puppets. Rather, they are symbols of the unfolding evolutionary pattern. Just as clocks tell time but don't create it, the heavenly bodies show us the big picture but don't cause it.
Quoting Greek philosopher Plotinus, Tarnas writes, "The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together."
So it's not just the distant globes whose movements and relationships serve as divinatory clues. If you're sufficiently attuned to the gestalt of creation and pay close enough attention to its unfolding details, you can read the current mood of the universe in the arrangement of red onions in the grocery store bin or the fluttering of sunlight and shadow on the mimosa tree or the scatter of soap suds in your sink after you've finished washing the dishes.
Can you do it? Discern the signature of creation at this or any other perfect moment? Peer into the secret heart of the collective unconscious? Guess what the Goddess is thinking? Hint: You will have to switch on a dormant capacity, transforming your imagination from a mere fantasy-generator into an organ of perception.
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
Are you sure you have enough obstacles? I'm afraid you're running low. And that wouldn't be healthy, would it? Obstacles keep you honest, after all. They motivate you to get smarter. They compel you to grow your willpower and develop more courage. Please understand that I'm not taking about trivial and boring obstacles that make you numb. I'm referring to scintillating obstacles that fire up your imagination; rousing obstacles that excite your determination to be who you want and get what you want. So your assignment is to acquire at least one new interesting obstacle. It's time to tap into a deeper strain of your ingenuity.
How's your fight for freedom going? Are you making progress in liberating yourself from your unconscious obsessions, bad habits, and conditioned responses? For assistance and inspiration, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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"When you die," says the Koran, "God will call upon you to account for all the permitted pleasures you did not enjoy while on earth." The Talmud offers a similar idea: "A person will be called upon to account, on Judgment Day, for all the permitted pleasures he might have enjoyed but did not." Are there any such pleasures in your life?
Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
In 1937, physicist George Paget Thomson won a Nobel Prize for the work he did to prove that the electron is a wave. That's funny, because his father, physicist J. J. Thomson, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906 for showing that the electron is a particle. Together, they helped tell the whole story about the electron, which as we now know is both a wave and a particle. I think it's an excellent time for you to try something similar to what George did: follow up on some theme from the life of one of your parents or mentors; be inspired by what he or she did, but also go beyond it; build on a gift he or she gave the world, extending or expanding it.
Assume that your drive to experience pleasure isn't a barrier to your spiritual growth, but is in fact essential to it. Proceed on the hypothesis that cultivating joy can make you a more ethical and compassionate person. Imagine that feeling good has something important to teach you every day. For inspiration in practicing this approach, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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The information you seek is available in the library of forbidden knowledge, the damp autumnal loam you dreamed you were buried in, and the song you learned before you were born. When you find that information, you will be able to answer this question: What are the three miracles that are most likely to happen to you?
Aquarius (January 20- February 18)
You have been a pretty decent student lately, Aquarius. The learning curve was steep, but you mastered it as well as could be expected. You had to pay more attention to the intricate details than you liked, which was sometimes excruciating, but you summoned the patience to tough it out. Congrats! Your against-the-grain effort was worth it. You are definitely smarter now than you were four weeks ago. But you are more wired, too. More stressed. In the next chapter of your life story, you will need some downtime to integrate all you've absorbed. I suggest you schedule some sessions in a sanctuary where you can relax more deeply than you've allowed yourself to relax in a while.
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." So begins Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield. I'd like to inspire you to write a story of your own that begins like that. For help, tune into your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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One of my favorite memories is gazing into my daughter Zoe's face just moments after her complicated birth. She had been through a heroic ordeal that scared the hell out of me, and yet she looked calm, beatific, and amused.
"She's part-Buddha and part-elf," I thought to myself as I held her in my arms. Gazing back at me, her shiny face blended two states I had never before witnessed together in anyone, let alone in an infant: elegant compassion and playful serenity. This revelation imprinted me like a blood oath and has informed my life and my work ever since.
Do you have a comparable memory? A time when a key to your destiny was suddenly laid bare? A turning point when you got a gift that has fueled your quest for years? Revisit that breakthrough. Then ask life for another one.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
You have the power to shut what has been open or open what has been shut. That's a lot of responsibility. Just because you have the power to unleash these momentous actions doesn't mean you should rashly do so. Make sure your motivations are pure and your integrity is high. Try to keep fear and egotism from influencing you. Be aware that whatever you do will send out ripples for months to come. And when you are confident that you have taken the proper precautions, by all means proceed with vigor and rigor. Shut what has been open or open what has been shut -- or both.
I invite you to keep a running list of all the ways life delights you and helps you and energizes you. Describe everyday miracles you take for granted . . . the uncanny powers you possess . . . the small joys that occur so routinely you forget how much they mean to you . . . the steady flow of benefits bestowed on you by people you know and don't know. What works for you? What makes you feel at home in the world? For inspiration in this noble effort, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is excerpted from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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My old philosophy professor Norman O. Brown would periodically interrupt his lectures, tilt his head upward as if tuning in to the whisper of some heavenly voice, and announce in a puckish tone, "It's time for your irregular reminder: We're already living after the end of the world. No need to fret anymore."
The implication was that the worst had already happened. We had lost much of the cultural riches that had given humans meaning for centuries. All that was going to be taken from us had already been taken.
On the bright side, that meant we were utterly free to reinvent ourselves. Living amidst the emptiness, we had nowhere to go but up. What remained was alienating, but it was also fresh.
Working from the hypothesis that you're living after the end of the world, what are you free to do that you weren't able to do before? Who are you free to be?
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