Free Will Astrology : All Horoscopes (printer-friendly)

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Free Will Astrology
horoscopes for week of August 17, 2017

Aries (March 21-April 19)

"To disobey in order to take action is the byword of all creative spirits," said philosopher Gaston Bachelard. This mischievous advice is perfect for your use right now, Aries. I believe you'll thrive through the practice of ingenious rebellion -- never in service to your pride, but always to feed your soul's lust for deeper, wilder life. Here's more from Bachelard: "Autonomy comes through many small disobediences, at once clever, well thought-out, and patiently pursued, so subtle at times as to avoid punishment entirely."

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Need more whacks applied to your mental blocks? More caresses bestowed upon your growing edge? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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You don't have to tone down or apologize for your prowess, because you love it when other people shine. You exult in your own excellence without regarding it as a sign of inherent superiority. As you ripen more and more of your latent aptitude, you inspire the rest of us to claim our own idiosyncratic magnificence.

You're a star -- and so am I. My success encourages your brilliance, and vice versa. Your charisma enhances my power -- and vice versa.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Congratulations! I expect that during the next three weeks, you will be immune to what psychoanalyst Joan Chodorow calls "the void of sadness, the abyss of fear, the chaos of anger, and the alienation of contempt and shame." I realize that what I just said might sound like an exaggeration. Aren't all of us subject to regular encounters with those states? How could you possibly go so long without brushing up against them? I stand by my prediction, and push even further. For at least the next three weeks, I suspect you will also be available for an inordinate amount of what Chodorow calls "the light of focused insight" and "the playful, blissful, all-embracing experience of joy."

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Where do you want to go? Who do you want to be? For more clues, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Life is a vast and intricate conspiracy designed to keep us well-supplied with blessings. What kind of blessings? Ten million dollars, a gorgeous physique, a perfect marriage, a luxurious home, and high status? Maybe.

But just as likely: interesting surprises, dizzying adventures, gifts you hardly know what to do with, and conundrums that dare you to get smarter. Novelist William Vollman referred to the latter types of blessings when he said that "the most important and enjoyable thing in life is doing something that's a complicated, tricky problem for you that you don't know how to solve."

The Christian writer C. S. Lewis said: "I thank God that He hasn't given me all the things I've prayed for, because as I look back now I realize it would have been disastrous to have received some of them." Pronoia provides the boons and prods your soul needs, not necessarily those your ego craves.

Pronoia doesn't promise uninterrupted progress forever. It's not a slick commercial for a perfect summer day that never ends. Grace emerges in the ebb and flow, not just the flow. The waning reveals a different kind of blessing than the waxing.

But whether it's our time to ferment in the valley of shadows or rise up singing in the sun-splashed meadow, fresh power to transform ourselves is always on the way. Our suffering won't last, nor will our triumph. Without fail, life will deliver the creative energy we need to change into the new thing we must become.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

The coming days would an excellent time to celebrate (even brag about) the amusing idiosyncrasies and endearing quirks that make you lovable. To get you inspired, read this testimony from my triple Gemini friend Alyssa: "I have beauty marks that form the constellation Pegasus on my belly. I own my own ant farm. I'm a champion laugher. I teach sign language to squirrels. Late at night when I'm horny and overtired I may channel the spirit of a lion goddess named Sekhmet. I can whistle the national anthems of eight different countries. I collect spoons from the future. I can play the piano with my nose and my toes. I have forever banished the green-eyed monster to my closet."

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Would you like to hear me say some more about your ever-evolving destiny? Check out your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is 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're really listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold ever-more wonders."

-Andrew Harvey, The Return of the Mother

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Your education may take unusual forms during the coming weeks. For example, you could receive crunchy lessons from velvety sources, or tender instructions from exacting challenges. Your curiosity might expand to enormous proportions in the face of a noble and elegant tease. And chances are good that you'll find a new teacher in an unlikely setting, or be prodded and tricked into asking crucial questions you've been neglecting to ask. Even if you haven't been particularly street smart up until now, Cancerian, I bet your ability to learn from uncategorizable experiences will blossom.

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Need more help deciphering the riddles and enigmas that are fueling your amazing story? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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"To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that comes from those we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weakness -- that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things."

-Pablo Neruda, The Book of Virtues

Leo (July 23-August 22)

"If you love someone, set them free," said New Age author Richard Bach. "If they come back, they're yours; if they don't, they never were." By using my well-educated intellect to transmute this hippy-dippy thought into practical advice, I came up with a wise strategy for you to consider as you re-evaluate your relationships with allies. Try this: Temporarily suspend any compulsion you might have to change or fix these people; do your best to like them and even love them exactly as they are. Ironically, granting them this freedom to be themselves may motivate them to modify, or at least tone down, the very behavior in themselves that you're semi-allergic to.

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No one knows you better than you do, but maybe I can help you dig up even more self-knowledge. Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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"We live in a world of theophanies. Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb. Life wants to lead you from crumbs to angels, but this can happen only if you are willing to unwrap the ordinary by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure."

-Macrina Wiederkehr

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

In 1892, workers began building the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. But as of August 2017, it is still under construction. Renovation has been and continues to be extensive. At one point in its history, designers even changed its architectural style from Neo-Byzantine and Neo-Romanesque to Gothic Revival. I hope this serves as a pep talk in the coming weeks, which will be an excellent time to evaluate your own progress, Virgo. As you keep toiling away in behalf of your dreams, there's no rush. In fact, my sense is that you're proceeding at precisely the right rate.

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Wouldn't you love to learn more about who you really are? What better adventure is there than learning about your soul's code? For more hints, listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement . . . get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible. Never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed."

- Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jewish theologian and civil rights activist

Libra (September 23-October 22)

In accordance with the astrological omens, I hereby declare the next two weeks to be your own personal Amnesty Holiday. To celebrate, ask for and dole out forgiveness. Purge and flush away any non-essential guilt and remorse that are festering inside you. If there truly are hurtful sins that you still haven't atoned for, make a grand effort to atone for them -- with gifts and heart-felt messages if necessary. At the same time, I urge you to identify accusations that others have wrongly projected onto you and that you have carried around as a burden even though they are not accurate or fair. Expunge them.

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I hope the oracle above provides you with the inspiration you need to do what you've got to do and change what needs to be changed. But if you need more clues, listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE, where I go further in exploring your mysteries.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is 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 whole world is a series of miracles, but we’re so used to seeing them that we call them ordinary things."

- Hans Christian Andersen

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

How many countries has the United States bombed since the end of World War II? Twenty-five, to be exact. But if America's intention has been to prod these nations into forming more free and egalitarian governments, the efforts have been mostly fruitless. Few of the attacked nations have become substantially more democratic. I suggest you regard this as a valuable lesson to apply to your own life in the coming weeks, Scorpio. Metaphorical bombing campaigns wouldn't accomplish even 10 percent of your goals, and would also be expensive in more ways than one. So I recommend using the "killing with kindness" approach. Be wily and generous. Cloak your coaxing in compassion.

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For more help in understanding your relationship with the game of life, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is 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 became aware of the world’s tenderness, the profound beneficence of all that surrounded me, the blissful bond between me and all of creation, and I realized that the joy I sought in you was not only secreted within you, but breathed around me everywhere, in the speeding street sounds, in the hem of a comically lifted skirt, in the metallic yet tender drone of the wind, in the autumn clouds bloated with rain.

"I realized that the world does not represent a struggle at all, or a predaceous sequence of chance events, but the shimmering bliss, beneficent trepidation, a gift bestowed upon us and unappreciated."

- Vladimir Nabokov

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

You know about the Ten Commandments, a code of ethics and behavior that's central to Christianity and Judaism. You may not be familiar with my Ten Suggestions, which begin with "Thou Shall Not Bore God" and "Thou Shall Not Bore Thyself." Then there are the Ten Indian Commandments proposed by the Bird Clan of East Central Alabama. They include "Give assistance and kindness whenever needed" and "Look after the well-being of your mind and body." I bring these to your attention, Sagittarius, because now is an excellent time to formally formulate and declare your own covenant with life. What are the essential principles that guide you to the highest good?

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Would you like further inspiration as you scheme and dream to make the most of life's sometimes puzzling opportunities? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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Aldous Huxley was the renowned 20th-century intellectual who wrote the book Brave New World, a dystopian vision of the future. Later in his life he came to regret one thing: how "preposterously serious" he had been when he was younger. "There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet," he ruminated, "trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly, my darling . . . Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply."

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

Here's a definition of "fantasizing" as articulated by writer Jon Carroll. It's "a sort of 'in-brain' television, where individuals create their own 'shows' -- imaginary narratives that may or may not include real people." As you Capricorns enter the High Fantasy Season, you might enjoy this amusing way of describing the activity that you should cultivate and intensify. Would you consider cutting back on your consumption of movies and TV shows? That might inspire you to devote more time and energy to watching the stories you can generate in your mind's eye.

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What exactly are you looking for? How would you describe the experiences you want more than anything else? It's possible my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE could give you additional help in figuring that out.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is from my book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.
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You don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be. You don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations. There’s no need to strive for a kind of perfection that’s not very interesting to you. You don’t have to believe in ideas that make you sad or tormented, and you don’t have to feel emotions that others try to manipulate you into feeling.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

In 43 cartoon stories, the coyote named Wile E. Coyote has tried to kill and devour the swift-running flightless bird known as the Road Runner. Every single time, Wile E. has failed to achieve his goal. It's apparent to astute observers that his lack of success is partly due to the fact that he doesn't rely on his natural predatory instincts. Instead, he concocts elaborate, overly-complicated schemes. In one episode, he camouflages himself as a cactus, buys artificial lightning bolts, and tries to shoot himself from a bow as if he were an arrow. All these plans end badly. The moral of the story, as far as you're concerned: To reach your next goal, trust your instincts.

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Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that may be influencing your life? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is 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're an aspiring master of pronoia, you see the cracks in the facades as opportunities; inspiration erupts as you careen over bumps in the road; you love the enticing magic that flows from situations that other people regard as rough or crooked.

"That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal," wrote poet Charles Baudelaire, "from which it follows that irregularity -- that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment -- is an essential part and characteristic of beauty."

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

You temporarily have cosmic permission to loiter and goof off and shirk your duties. To be a lazy bum and meander aimlessly and avoid tough decisions. To sing off-key and draw stick figures and write bad poems. To run slowly and flirt awkwardly and dress like a slob. Take advantage of this opportunity, because it's only available for a limited time. It's equivalent to pushing the reset button. It's meant to re-establish your default settings. But don't worry about that now. Simply enjoy the break in the action.

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To further explore the ripening blessings and interesting challenges in your life, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT. The oracle below is 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 phrase "new roses" can serve as an antidote to neurosis -- as a kind of magical spell. You might invoke it when you're in danger of getting undermined by either your own neurosis or someone else's.

If you notice, for instance, that your subconscious mind is spiraling down into a sour fantasy stirred up by one of your habitual fears, you could mutter a cheerful round of "new roses, new roses, new roses."

If your allies slip into the same compulsive behavior that they tend to get stuck in whenever stress overflows, you could chant "new roses, new roses, new roses" in a tuneful, affectionate tone.

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