Liberation and Inspiration

Give us this day our daily liberation and inspiration!

THE GREATEST GIFT YOU CAN GIVE YOURSELF

— excerpted from my book ASTROLOGY IS REAL

The greatest gift you can give might be the gift you yourself were never given.

Give that gift.

The most valuable service you have to offer your fellow humans may be the service you have always wished were performed for you.

Offer that service.

An experience that wounded you could inspire you to help people who have been similarly wounded.

Heal yourself by healing others.

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PS: Author Eve Ensler tells us, "You have to give to the world the thing that you want the most, in order to fix the broken parts inside you."

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WHAT ARE YOUR LIBERATING THOUGHTS?

— excerpted from my book ASTROLOGY IS REAL

Question: What are the most liberating thoughts you’ve ever had?

Possible answers:

• “If new evidence presents itself, it’s okay to change my beliefs.”

• “I get to choose who’s in my life and who isn’t.”

• “I am not my history.”

• “I can’t change things that have already happened, so I won’t worrying about them.”

• “I am not, nor will I ever be, conventionally beautiful.”

• “I don’t have to respond to people when they say stupid shit to me.”

• “I am not responsible for the happiness of others.”

• “I can choose the most uplifting interpretation of disturbing events.”

• “Life is an ever-changing experiment and infinite game. There is no single right way to live.”

• “Wow, I was totally wrong!”

• “What other people think about me is none of my business.”

• “To be alive in this moment is the only thing I really have to do.”

• “Nobody else cares what I look like while I’m doing this thing I enjoy.”

• “I can change the way I want to engage with the world whenever I want to.”

• “I will not continue working for an unethical or hostile boss. I will only work for people who are generous and kind.”

• “The world is not mostly about me.”

• “I am allowed to change my mind.”

• “We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening. To use our own voice. To see our own light.” (Elaine Bellezza said this.)

• “I am not obligated to play the character someone else has cast me as in their personal screenplay.”

• “What I feed will grow.”

• “I could be mistaken.”

• “Nothing ever happens the same way twice.”

• “People will show me who they are if I am paying attention.”

• “If I’m facing a seemingly impossible dilemma, it may mean both options are wrong.”

• “Boredom is a lack of imagination.”

• “I don’t understand.”

• “It is OK to be a legend in my own mind.”

• “Thoughts are not facts.”

• “My deepest, truest self underlies and predates the personality that I acquired in early childhood.”

• “I can’t get what I want if I don’t ask for it.”

• “I’m not responsible for how people respond when I’m standing up for myself and my health.”

• “I won’t compare my insides to other people’s outsides.”

• “I never signed a contract saying I would always be a nice person.”

• “If I don’t like who I am, I can change whenever I want.”

• “I am not responsible for the version of me that you created in your mind.”

• “I did the best I could do with what I knew at the time.”

• “Gratitude nullifies fear.”

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THE SURPRISING TRUTH

— excerpted from my book ASTROLOGY IS REAL

I subscribe to Robert Anton Wilson’s theory that information, by definition, must contain elements of surprise. If it doesn’t deliver ideas, feelings, facts, or perspectives we haven’t contemplated before, then it’s at least partially rhetoric or propaganda.

In my creative work, I assume that if I steadily come upon insights I have thought about in the past, I’m not working hard enough. I aspire to break down existing cultural forms, not embody and reinforce them. It’s my job to be surprised, confounded, scrubbed of certainty.

That’s why the use of language is so crucial. It’s the primary way we spawn new realities and evolve older ones. In the Biblical myth of Genesis, naming was the power of the first man, Adam. He created the world by naming everything.

But these days, the act of naming is largely corrupt. Who names? Mostly corporate sources, including entertainment and news conglomerates. And those who claim to be in rebellion against corporate sources are often naming in reflexive reaction to them—and are thus conditioned by them.

Can we take back the power of naming? The odds are against us. In the $26-billion pop music industry, for example, we seldom hear novel information that hasn’t been articulated countless times before. To be successful, a song must invoke well-worn ideas and emotions.

If it’s unfamiliar, if it expresses qualities of love or relationship that haven’t been previously named by authorities or celebrities, it’s unlikely to get heard.

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In Ursula Le Guin’s story “She Unnames Them,” Eve decides to reverse her mate’s work. She yearns to return to a primordial state when the misunderstandings caused by words no longer stand between her and the rest of creation.

So Eve unnames all the animals, from the sea otters to the bees. When she’s done, she marvels at how they feel “far closer than when their names had stood between myself and them like a clear barrier.”

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LOVE CUES AND CLUES: WRITE LOVE LETTER TO YOURSELF

— excerpted from my book ASTROLOGY IS REAL

Homework for all signs: I invite you to write a love letter to yourself.

Say unscripted and surprising words of adoration that fly into your soul brain. Be extravagant and uninhibited as you tally the qualities in yourself that are impressive and amusing.

Your recklessly affectionate appreciation could begin with an invocation like the testimony below.

"I love me with astonished blissful fury. I love me with senseless luminous alacrity. I love me with tender howling joy. Why? Because I am a ticklish, gorgeous, aching, enchanting Unknown—the raciest and spiciest and zestiest Unknown I could ever create.”

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Words by Charles Du Bos

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY For This Perfect Moment

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Unlike the Pope’s decrees, my proclamations are not infallible. As opposed to Nostradamus and many modern soothsayers, I never imagine I have the power to definitely decipher what’s ahead. One of my main mottoes is “The future is undecided. Our destinies are always mutable.” Please keep these caveats in mind whenever you commune with my horoscopes. Furthermore, consider adopting my approach as you navigate through the world—especially in the coming weeks, when your course will be extra responsive to your creative acts of willpower. Decide right now what you want the next chapter of your life story to be about. You can make it what you want.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries filmmaker Akira Kurosawa was one of the greats. In his 30 films, he crafted a reputation as a masterful storyteller. A key moment in his development as an emotionally intelligent artist came when he was 13 years old. His older brother Heigo took him to view the aftermath of the Great Kantō earthquake. Akira wanted to avert his gaze from the devastation, but Heigo compelled him to look. Why? He wished for Akira to learn to deal with fear by facing it directly. I think you Aries people are more skilled at this challenging exercise than all the other signs. I hope you will call on it with aplomb in the coming weeks. You may be amazed at the courage it arouses in you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “When a mountain doesn’t listen, say a prayer to the sea,” said Taurus painter Cy Twombly. “If God doesn’t respond, direct your entreaties to Goddess,” I tell my Taurus friend Audrey. “If your mind doesn’t provide you with useful solutions, make an appeal to your heart instead,” my Taurus mentor advises me. This counsel should be useful for you in the coming weeks, Taurus. It’s time to be diligent, relentless, ingenious, and indefatigable in going after what you want. Keep asking until you find a source that will provide it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson offered advice that's perfect for you right now. He said, "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not." Here's what I will add. First, you very much need to commune with extra doses of beauty in the coming weeks. Doing so will expedite your healing and further your education—two activities that are especially important. Second, one way to accomplish your assignment is to put yourself in the presence of all the beautiful people, places, and things you can find. Third, be imaginative as you cultivate beauty within yourself. How? That’s your homework.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I bet that sometime soon, you will dream of flying through the sky on a magic carpet. In fact, this may be a recurring dream for you in the coming months. By June, you may have soared along on a floating rug over 10 times. Why? What’s this all about? I suspect it’s one aspect of a project that life is encouraging you to undertake. It’s an invitation to indulge in more flights of the imagination; to open your soul to mysterious potencies; to give your fantasy life permission to be wilder and freer. You know that old platitude “shit happens”? You’re ready to experiment with a variation on that: “Magic happens.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): On February 22, ancient Romans celebrated the holiday of Caristia. It was a time for reconciliation. People strove to heal estrangements and settle longstanding disagreements. Apologies were offered, and truces were negotiated. In alignment with current astrological omens, Leo, I recommend you revive this tradition. Now is an excellent time to embark on a crusade to unify, harmonize, restore, mend, and assuage. I dare you to put a higher priority on love than on ego!

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ARE YOU THE HERO OF YOUR OWN LIFE?

"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 create a story of your own that begins with similar words. That's why I provide these free horoscopes for you.

If you'd ever enjoy getting even more assistance from me, tune into your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE, which I create for you each week. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.

To buy and listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to

https://RealAstrology.com

Register and/or log in through the main page.

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The cost is $7 per sign. (Discounts are available for bulk purchases.)

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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): My poet friend Jafna likes to say that only two types of love are available to us: too little and too much. We are either deprived of the precise amount and quality of the love we want, or else we have to deal with an excess of love that doesn’t match the kind we want. But I predict that this will at most be a mild problem for you in the coming weeks—and perhaps not a problem at all. You will have a knack for giving and receiving just the right amount of love, neither too little nor too much. And the love flowing toward you and from you will be gracefully appropriate.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): If the devil card comes up for me in a divinatory Tarot reading, I don't get worried or scared that something bad might happen. On the contrary, I interpret it favorably. It means that an interesting problem or riddle has arrived or will soon arrive in my life—and that this twist can potentially make me wiser, kinder, and wilder. The appearance of the devil card suggests that I need to be challenged so as to grow a new capacity or understanding. It's a good omen, telling me that life is conspiring to give me what I need to outgrow my limitations and ignorance. Now apply these principles, Libra, as you respond to the devil card I just drew for you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): A taproot is a thick, central, and primary root from which a plant's many roots branch out laterally. Typically, a taproot grows downward and is pretty straight. It may extend to a depth greater than the height of the plant sprouting above ground. Now let's imagine that we humans have metaphorical taproots. They connect us with our sources of inner nourishment. They are lifelines to secret or hidden treasures we may be only partly conscious of. Let's further imagine that in the coming months, Scorpio, your taproot will flourish, burgeon, and spread deeper to draw in new nutrients. Got all that? Now I invite you to infuse this beautiful vision with an outpouring of love for yourself and for the wondrous vitality you will be absorbing.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Behavioral ecologist Professor Dan Charbonneau has observed the habits of ants, bees, and other social insects. He says that a lot of the time, many of them just lounge around doing nothing. In fact, most animals do the same. The creatures of the natural world are just not very busy. Psychologist Dr. Sandi Mann urges us to learn from their lassitude. "We've created a society where we fear boredom, and we're afraid of doing nothing," she says. But that addiction to frenzy may limit our inclination to daydream, which in turn inhibits our creativity. I bring these facts to your attention, Sagittarius, because I suspect you're in a phase when lolling around doing nothing much will be extra healthy for you. Liberate and nurture your daydreams, please!

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "Education is an admirable thing," wrote Oscar Wilde, "but it is well to remember that nothing worth knowing can be taught." As I ponder your future in the coming weeks, I vociferously disagree with him. I am sure you can learn many things worth knowing from teachers of all kinds. It's true that some of the lessons may be accidental or unofficial—and not delivered by traditional teachers. But that won't diminish their value. I invite you to act as if you will in effect be enrolled in school 24/7 until the equinox.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The planets Mars and Venus are both cruising through Aquarius. Do they signify that synchronicities will weave magic into your destiny? Yes! Here are a few possibilities I foresee: 1. smoldering flirtations that finally ignite; 2. arguments assuaged by love-making; 3. mix-ups about the interplay between love and lust or else wonderful synergies between love and lust; 4. lots of labyrinthine love talk, romantic sparring, and intricate exchange about the nature of desire; 5. adventures in the sexual frontiers; 6. opportunities to cultivate interesting new varieties of intimacy.