Tuning in to the Good News

Tales of triumph, liberation, pleasure, and ingenuity

Experiment: Seek out the GOOD news at least as often as you seek out the BAD stuff. Regard tales of affliction and mayhem and corruption and tragedy as no more interesting or worthy of your attention than tales of triumph and liberation and pleasure and ingenuity.

Here are sources of GOOD news to get you started:

David Byrne’s excellent website, Reasons to Be Cheerful: reasonstobecheerful.world

Good News Network: goodnewsnetwork.org

Reddit Uplifting News: reddit.com/r/UpliftingNews

Yes magazine: yesmagazine.org

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A PREVIEW OF YOUR DESTINY IN 2025

Want to get a head start on your future?

This week my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES offer you a sneak-peek at some major themes I think you'll be working and playing with in 2025.

Start dreaming and scheming about who you're going to be in the new year. Enlist my help as you energize your quest to become your best self.

To access the Expanded Audio Horoscopes, go to

https://RealAstrology.com

Register and/or log in through the main page, and then click on the link "This week (Dec. 24, 2024)."

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The cost for the Expanded Audio Horoscopes is $7 per sign. (You can get discounts for multiple purchases.)

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Beginning with next week's EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, I’ll devote three weeks to an in-depth discussion of your long-range outlook for 2025.

Part One of my BIG-PICTURE FORECASTS FOR 2025 will be available beginning Tuesday, December 31. Part Two will be available on Tuesday, January 7. Part Three will be available on Tuesday, January 14.

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abigail.rose.clarke writes:

Hey algorithm, connect me with people who are able to hold nuance, who understand that life is always full of paradox, who weep at violence no matter the optics, who move slowly enough to let context inform their choices, who don't try to make things unnecessarily complex to avoid an uncomfortable truth, who also don't make things implausibly simple to fit a narrative.

Connect me with people who are willing to feel the grief of centuries, and who are still, somehow, able to love the world.

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Read about the abundance of very good news in 2024: tinyurl.com/FixTheNews2024

Angus Harvey wrote all the reports on the good news below:

Gallup's annual global survey of people in 142 countries revealed that negative emotions declined for the first time in a decade, and positive emotions reached their highest level since before the pandemic, with an uptick in people feeling more well-rested, experiencing more enjoyment, and smiling or laughing more.

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Between 2000 and 2023, the number of children and adolescents not attending school fell by nearly 40%. Eastern and Southern Africa achieved gender parity in primary education — 25 million more girls are enrolled in primary school today than in the early 2000s. Since 2015, an additional 110 million children have entered school worldwide, and 40 million more young people are completing secondary school.

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Between 2015 and 2023, over 200 million children gained access to improved water, sanitation, or hygiene services at school.

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In one of the largest Indigenous-led conservation efforts in the world, 22 First Nations governments in Canada signed a ten year, $375 million funding agreement to establish new protected and conservation areas.

The African Union ordered the Democratic Republic of the Congo to hand back parts of the giant Kahuzi-Biéga National Park to the Batwa people.

In the United States 31,000 acres was returned to the Penobscot tribe in Maine, the largest land transfer without restrictions in the country's history.

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The story of the Klamath River might be our favorite thing that happened this year. After decades of activism by the Karuk and Yurok tribes, the river was finally freed of four huge dams, ahead of schedule and on budget. More than 400 miles of water reopened, and within one month of completion hundreds of salmon had returned to the river to spawn.

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2024 signaled the end of some of the world’s cruelest animal abuse. Romania became the 22nd European country to ban fur-farming, Columbia ended bullfighting, Chile became the 3rd South American country to abolish cosmetic testing on animals, and 11 states in America have now banned the practice of caging hens.

South Korea made dog meat illegal, while efforts to ban the trade of dog and cat meat ramped up in Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and China. South Africa made the historic decision to phase out the captive breeding of lions and rhinos, and Belgium banned the import of hunting trophies from endangered species.

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The US government secured lower prices for ten costly drugs.

The US had the largest ever recorded drop in overdose deaths.

Minimum wage increases went into effect in 25 states, over $180 billion in student debt relief helped nearly 4.8 million Americans, teen smoking hit an all time low, incarceration rates were 11% lower than in 2019, and historic investments in manufacturing led to the first full recovery of manufacturing jobs in 30 states since the 1970s.

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60 countries around the world have made their abortion laws more liberal in the past 30 years. Only four have made them more restrictive.

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Much, much more good news from 2024: tinyurl.com/FixTheNews2024

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Get your minimum daily requirement of Earth’s beauty:

tinyurl.com/OurBeautifulEarth

Wetumpka Falls, Moore County, Tennessee. Photo by Chuck Sutherland

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At the Cloud Appreciation Society, see the gorgeous art that Gaia creates on a regular basis: cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/

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Many gorgeous images of birds here: instagram.com/cherylmedow

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Beauty is not a luxury but a strategy for survival.

—Terry Tempest Williams

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17 Great Sites to Download Free Books: tinyurl.com/FreeBooksReady

Poem in meme by Antonio Machado, translated by Robert Bly

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

For the Week of December 26

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Since 1985, musician David Gilmour has led Pink Floyd. The band has sold over 250 million records. He's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in both the UK and the US. But my favorite thing about Gilmour is that he's a passionate activist who has crusaded for animal rights, environmentalism, poverty, and human rights. A few years ago, he auctioned off 120 of his guitars, raising over $21 million for an environmentalist charity. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose we make him one of your inspirational role models in 2025, Capricorn. May he mobilize you to use your stature and clout to perform an array of good works that are of service to your world.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian author Virginia Woolf extolled the virtues of cultivating a supple soul that thrives on change. She pledged to be relentless in her commitment to be authentically herself and not succumb to groupthink. I recommend you make these two of your featured themes in 2025. To inspire your efforts, I will quote her radical perspective at length: “Movement and change are the essence of our being; rigidity is death; conformity is death: let us say what comes into our heads, repeat ourselves, contradict ourselves, fling out the wildest nonsense, and follow the most fantastic fancies without caring what the world does or thinks or says.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 1992, two friends promised each other that if either of them ever won the lottery, they would share it with the other. Twenty-eight years later, that's exactly what happened. In 2020, Thomas Cook bought a ticket that turned out to be the winner of the Powerhouse jackpot in Wisconsin. He called Joseph Feeney with the good news. After paying taxes, both men were $5.7 million richer. I am not predicting the exact same sequence for your future, Pisces. But like Cook and Feeney, I expect you will glean pleasing rewards generated from seeds planted in the past.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In 2025, I would love for you to specialize in making new connections and deepening your existing connections. I hope you will summon extra creativity and panache as you regularly blend your beautiful energies with others’ beautiful energies. I predict you will thrive on linking elements that should be linked but have never been before. What do you think, Aries? Does it sound fun to become a playful master of mixing and combining? Would you enjoy generating splashy unifications that serve your dreams?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “Confidence is 10 percent hard work and 90 percent delusion,” declared Taurus comedian Tina Fey. But I believe you will disprove that assessment in the coming months. The work you do will be unusually replete with grace and dynamism. It will be focused and diligent work, yes, but more importantly, it will be smart work that’s largely free of delusion. That’s why I’m inclined to revise Fey’s formula for your sake. In 2025, your brimming levels of confidence will be primarily due to your fine, conscientious, effective work.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the 1960s, a Swedish journalist tried an experiment. He wanted to see if art critics could distinguish between abstract paintings made by skilled artists and those created by a four-year-old chimpanzee whose pseudonym was Pierre Brassau. Surprise! Many of the critics treated all the paintings with equal respect. One even gave special praise to Pierre Brassau, describing his strokes of color as having "the delicacy of a ballet dancer." I'm authorizing you to unleash your inner Pierre Brassau in the coming months, Gemini. Be an innocent rookie, a newcomer with great instincts, an exuberant amateur who specializes in fun experiments. Do you know what beginner's mind is? You approach every experience with zero assumptions or expectations, as if you were seeing everything for the first time. For more, read this: wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin

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START EXPLORING YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE

This week my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES offer you a teaser, sneak-peek look of some major themes you'll be working and playing with in 2025.

Who do you want to be in the coming year? What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? Your destiny is more wide-open than you might imagine. You have a lot of power to shape the flow of events.

I hope to inspire you to take advantage of the possibilities!

The cost is $7, with a discount for multiple purchases.

To get your sneak peek of some of 2025's major themes:

1. Go to RealAstrology.com

2. Register and/or log in

3. Then click on the link "This week (Dec. 24, 2024)."

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Meme by Amber Ibarreche

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ohio’s Cuyahoga River used to catch on fire regularly. The cause was pollution. For a hundred years, industries had poured their wastes into the waterway. The surface was often dotted with oil slicks. But after a notorious river fire in 1969, the locals decided to remedy the situation, aided by the newly established Environmental Protection Agency. Today, the Cuyahoga still isn’t 100% clean, but it’s far better. It hosts kayaking, fishing, and paddle boarding. I propose we use its rehabilitation as a symbol for you in 2025. You will have welcome opportunities to clean up messes that have lingered for far too long. Please take full advantage of these cosmic invitations to sweep karmic debris out of your life.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Steve Jobs, founder of Apple computers, said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” I propose that you make this one of your mottoes in 2025. More than ever before, you will have exceptional power to transform the environments you share with others. You will have an enhanced ability to revise and reinvigorate the systems and the rules you use. Don’t underestimate your influence during the coming months, Leo. Assume that people will be listening especially closely to your ideas and extra receptive to be affected by you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I will give you four related terms to describe your key motif in 2025: 1. Your Soul’s Code. 2. Your Master Plan. 3. Your Destiny’s Blueprint. 4. Your Mission Statement. All four are rooted in this epic question: What is your overarching purpose here on earth, and how are you fulfilling it? The coming months will be a time when you can make dramatic progress in formulating vivid, detailed visions of the life you want to live. You can also undertake robust action steps to make those visions more of a practical reality. I encourage you to write your big-picture, long-range dreams in a special notebook or a file on your tech device. Keep adding to the text throughout the coming months.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): People in India were the first to discover diamonds buried in the earth. Most historians believe it happened in the 4th century BCE. For the next two millennia, India remained the only source of diamonds. Finally, new stashes were found in Brazil in 1725 and in South Africa in the 1870s. Let’s use this 2,000- year gap as a metaphor for your life. I suspect that far too many months have passed since you have located a fresh source of a certain treasure or bounty you crave. That will change in 2025. Here come long-delayed blessings!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In my vision of your life in 2025, you will dramatically enhance how togetherness works for you. Below are four questions to help guide your explorations and breakthroughs. 1. Is it feasible to change yourself in ways that enable you to have a more satisfying relationship with romantic love? 2. Will you include your intimate relationships as an essential part of your spiritual path—and vice versa? 3. What work on yourself can you do to heal your old wounds and thereby make yourself a better partner and collaborator? 4. Can you help your best allies to heal their wounds and thereby become better partners and collaborators?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In Japanese, the word for “frog” sounds similar to the word meaning “to return.” That’s one reason frogs have been lucky in some circles of Japanese culture. They symbolize the blessing that occurs when travelers return home safely, or when health is restored, or when spent money is replenished. I bring this to your attention, Sagittarius, because I suspect 2025 will be a time when satisfying and enjoyable returns will be a key theme. Consider keeping the likeness of a lovable frog in your living space.