Everyone Is Potentially a Healer and Teacher
Receptivity Is a Superpower
FEMINIZATION
Here are some practical ways I champion and embody the Divine Feminine:
I regard relationship as a crucible for spiritual work.
I think of the practical expression of kindness and compassion and ethical behavior as an essential spiritual practice.
I assume that a crucial element of spiritual practice is the consciousness and compassion and empathy we bring to the sometimes chaotic and messy details of being human beings.
I proceed as if loving and caring for animals and plants and the Earth is the test of our spiritual intentions.
I regard play and fun and humor as not diversions from "serious" spiritual work, but rather being at the center of it.
I aspire to cultivate receptivity, listen well, and regard everyone as potentially one of my teachers.
What about you? What are practical ways you carry on the work of loving Goddess?
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
CONSEQUENCES
Nancy Qiualis-Corbett writes: “When the divine feminine, the goddess, is no longer revered, social and psychic structures become overmechanized, overpoliticized, overmilitarized.
“Thinking, judgment, and rationality become the ruling factors. The needs for relatedness, feeling, caring or attending to nature go unheeded. There is no balance, no harmony, neither within oneself nor in the external world.
“With the disregard of the archetypal image so related to passionate love, a splitting off of values, a one-sidedness, occurs in the psyche. As a result, we are sadly crippled in our search for wholeness and health.”
—Nancy Qiualis-Corbett, The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspect of the Feminine
+
“Living without the full feminine for so many centuries, we don’t know what it would be like to live within a society where the feminine voice is not repressed, women’s bodies are not distorted, controlled or sold, and where both men and women live with balanced psyches.
"It’s as if humanity has lived with one side of its body atrophied. The return of the feminine may be the most significant development of the new millennium. Although there have been steps to begin this process it would be naive to think the reintegration is by any means complete.”
—Lama Tsültrim Allione
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
BOTH MANLY AND WOMANLY
The words below are mine, from an interview I did with Amanda Yates Garcia. (More from Amanda: https://www.instagram.com/oracleofla/)
My happiness comes from the fact that I know my happiness is meaningless unless I'm working in some way to foster the happiness of others.
I also think my happiness thrives to the degree that I'm not just manly, but also womanly; in other words, to the degree that I incorporate what I understand to be the divine feminine principle and bring it into my life in really practical ways.
So that means valuing emotional intelligence, listening well, not being a know-it-all, being willing to be humble and empty, and curious and expressing cared compassion.
And not just thinking those things, but every day questioning how can I do thse things anew, afresh? How can I do them better than I did before?
I feel equally manly and womanly. And for those aspects to be working together in me seems to be key to my ability to enjoy life.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
AWAKENING TO THE DIVINE FEMININE
Merlin Stone's book When God Was a Woman is a good text that has spurred the reawakening of the divine feminine. Some others that come to mind:
The Body of the Goddess, by Rachel Pollack
Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness, by Marion Woodman and Elinor Dickson
The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, by Starhawk
The White Goddess, by Robert Grave
The Once and Future Goddess: A Sweeping Visual Chronicle of the Sacred Female and Her Reemergence in the Cultural Mythology of Our Time, by Elinor Gadon
Others you would recommend?
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
RE-EMERGENCE
Tom Robbins: "What really interests me about the Goddess is the fact that while she was beloved and honored by our ancestors, was the central spiritual archetype and prevailing deity all over the globe for thousands of years, she has been so successfully eradicated by revisionist patriarchal spin doctors that most modern Christians, Moslems and Jews are totally ignorant of her massive and dominant historical presence.
"If someone or something of that enormous scope can be so thoroughly concealed from the masses, it can't help but call into question everything we've been taught by our various institutions.
"The subversion and repression of the Goddess is the Big Lie of the past two millennia—and as the dumbing down of America gains momentum, the duplicity is strengthening its grip.
"The good news is that a significant minority has recently become informed about the Goddess, and that has both revealed the essential spiritual foundation of feminism and inspired a growing distrust of traditional dogma and the meatballs who've propagated it."
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
RECOVERING FROM PATRIARCHY
Tara Anura writes: "Patriarchy affects everybody differently. Many patriarchy survivors continue to improve over a long time, sometimes over a number of years. Recovery from patriarchy involves making changes in the physical, social and, emotional aspects of your life. You will make changes to prevent additional patriarchy as well as to facilitate your life-long recovery.
"It is normal to feel angry, anxious or depressed after patriarchy. You may feel worried about work, money and relationships, and the tiredness caused by patriarchy can make things worse.
"Rehabilitation is about getting back to normal life and living as independent a life as possible. It involves taking an active approach to ensure that your life goes on. This can mean learning new skills or relearning old ones. It may involve adapting to new (limitless freedom). Or it can mean finding new social, emotional, and practical support to live your best life post-patriarchy.
"With good care and rehabilitation, there is life after patriarchy."
Sculpture by Conchita Hernandez
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
FIERCE COMPASSION
Lama Tsültrim Allione writes: "I was at a lunch with the Dalai Lama and five Buddhist teachers at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. We were sitting in a charming room with white carpets and many windows. The food was a delightful, fragrant, vegetarian Indian meal. There were lovely flower arrangements on the table.
“We were discussing sexual misconduct among Western Buddhist teachers. A woman Buddhist from California brought up someone who was using his students for his own sexual needs. One woman said, ‘We are working with him with compassion, trying to get him to understand his motives for exploiting female students and to help him change his actions.’
“The Dalai Lama slammed his fist on the table, saying loudly, ‘Compassion is fine, but it has to stop! And those doing it should be exposed!’ All the serving plates on the table jumped, the water glasses tipped precariously, and I almost choked on the bite of saffron rice in my mouth.
“Suddenly I saw him as a fierce manifestation of compassion and realized that this clarity did not mean that the Dalai Lama had moved away from compassion. Rather, he was bringing compassion and manifesting it as decisive fierceness. His magnetism was glowing like a fire.
“I will always remember that day, because it was such a good teaching on compassion and precision. Compassion is not a wishy-washy ‘anything goes’ approach. Compassion can say a fierce no!“
—Lama Tsültrim Allione, from her book Wisdom Rising
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
UNLEASH YOURSELF
Even if you don't call yourself an artist, you have the potential to be a dynamic creator who is always hatching new plans, coming up with fresh ideas, and shifting your approach to everything you do as you adjust to life's ceaseless invitation to change.
It's to this part of you -- the restless, inventive spirit -- that I address the following: Unleash yourself! Don't be satisfied with the world the way it is; don't sit back passively and blankly complain about the dead weight of the mediocre status quo.
Instead, call on your curiosity and charisma and expressiveness and lust for life as you tinker with and rebuild everything you see so that it's in greater harmony with the laws of love and more hospitable to your soul's code.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
MAKE THE INVISIBLE DARK FORCE BEAUTIFUL
Make the invisible dark force beautiful. Create a song out of your moans. Brag about your wounds. Dance reverently on the graves of your enemies. Sneak a gift to your bad self. Dissolve the ties that bind you to hollow intelligence.
Train yourself in the art of unpredictability. Play forever in time's blessing. Lift up your heart unto the wild sun. Distribute your favors to the little ones who can never pay you back. Fall out of love with fear. Make beautiful messes in the midst of ugly messes.
Anything I missed?
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Miraculous Mosquito Hack Cuts Dengue Disease Rate by 77%. https://tinyurl.com/an7ny2r5
Celebrate Black Music. "Many of the people who were abolitionists pointed to the profound music we had created here as a sign of humanity and one of the reasons they argued that we were not to remain enslaved.” https://tinyurl.com/yzkbdbyd
How 8 Tiny Island Nations Outsmarted the World’s Biggest Fishing Fleets.Tired of being overfished by wealthier countries, they stopped competing and started collaborating. https://tinyurl.com/55up6znk
+
For more pronoiac resources and ideas, read my book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Available at Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/548hp8y8
Available at Powells: https://bit.ly/PowellsPronoia
Available at Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/PronoiaBN
Available at Amazon: https://bit.ly/Pronoia
A free preview of the book is available here: https://tinyurl.com/PronoiaPreview
+
Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES: Truthrooster@gmail.com.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning July 29
Copyright 2021 by Rob Brezsny
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo poet Renée Ashley articulates a perspective I recommend you adopt. She writes, "I’m drawn to what flutters nebulously at the edges, at the corner of my eye—just outside my certain sight. I want to share in what I am routinely denied, or only suspect exists. I long for a glimpse of what is beginning to occur." With her thoughts as inspiration, I advise you to be hungry for what you don't know and haven't perceived. Expand your curiosity so that it becomes wildly insatiable in its quest to uncover budding questions and raw truths at the peripheries of your awareness.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "There are many things in your heart you can never tell to another person," declared Virgo actor Greta Garbo (1905–1990). "It is not right that you should tell them," she concluded. "You cheapen yourself, the inside of yourself, when you tell them." I presume Greta was being melodramatic. My attitude is the opposite of hers. If you find allies who listen well and who respect your vulnerability, you should relish telling them the secrets of your heart. To do so enriches you, deepens you, and adds soulful new meanings to your primary mysteries. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to seek this wise pleasure in abundance.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Now is a fantastic time to seek out effervescent socializing and convivial gatherings and festive celebrations. If you surround yourself with lively people, you'll absorb the exact influences you need. May I suggest you host a fun event? If you do, you could send out invitations that include the following allures: "At my get-together, the featured flavors will be strawberry chocolate and impossibly delicious. There'll be magic vibrations and mysterious mood-enhancers. Liberating conversations will be strongly encouraged. Unpredictable revelations will be honored. If possible, please unload your fears and anxieties in a random parking lot before arriving."
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio author Andrew Sean Greer writes, "As the Japanese will tell you, one can train a rose to grow through anything, to grow through a nautilus even, but it must be done with tenderness.” I think that's a vivid metaphor for one of your chief tasks in the coming weeks, Scorpio: how to carefully nurture delicate, beautiful things as you coax them to ripen in ways that will bring out their sturdiness and resilience. I believe you now have an extra capacity for wielding love to help things bloom.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Suggested experiments to try soon: 1. Remember a past moment when you were touched with the sudden realization that you and a person you'd recently met were destined to fall in love. 2. Remember a past moment when you kissed someone for the first time. 3. Remember a past moment when someone told you they loved you for the first time or when you told someone you loved them for the first time. 4. Allow the feelings from the first three experiments to permeate your life for five days. See through the eyes of the person you were during those previous breakthroughs. Treat the whole world as expansively and expectantly as you did during those times.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn poet Kenneth Rexroth was shirtless as he strolled along a rural road. To his delightful amazement, a fritillary butterfly landed on his shoulder, fluttered away, landed again, fluttered away—performed this dance numerous times. Nothing like this had ever happened to him. Later he wrote, "I feel my flesh / Has suddenly become sweet / With a metamorphosis / Kept secret even from myself." In the coming days, I'm expecting at least one comparable experience for you. Here's your homework: What sweet metamorphoses may be underway within you—perhaps not yet having reached your conscious awareness?
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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.
+
The cost is $6 per sign on the On the Web. (Discounts are available for bulk purchases.)
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888. The cost is $1.99 per minute. Each forecast is 4-5 minutes long.
+
"Your expanded horoscopes get more personal and intimate with me than some of my closest friends. Thanks for the loving reflections." —Ari Schlectman., Ann Arbor, MI
"When I listen to your audio 'scopes, my free will lights up." —Alex Denares., Los Angeles
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "Each time we don’t say what we want to say, we’re dying." Aquarian artist and singer Yoko Ono said that. I will add a further nuance: Each time we're not aware of the feeling or experience or situation we want, we’re dying. And these will be key themes now that you've entered the "I KNOW WHAT I WANT AND I KNOW HOW TO ASK FOR IT" phase of your cycle. The most healing and vivifying thing you can do during the next six weeks is to be precise about your desires.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 1829, Piscean author Victor Hugo began work on his novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He had other projects, though, and by September 1830, he had made scant progress on Hunchback. Growing impatient, his publisher demanded that he finish the manuscript by February 1831. In response, Hugo virtually barricaded himself in his room to compel himself to meet the deadline. He even locked his clothes in a closet to prevent himself from going out. For the next five months, he wore only a gray shawl as he toiled nonstop. His stratagem worked! I recommend you consider trying a somewhat less rigorous trick to enforce your self-discipline in the coming weeks. There's no need to barricade yourself in your fortress. But I hope you will have fun taking stringent measures.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): What does it mean to *feel real*? Some people have a hard time doing that. They have such false ideas about who they are that they rarely feel real. Others are so distracted by trivial longings that they never have the luxury of settling into the exquisite at-home-ness of feeling real. For those fortunate enough to regularly experience this treasured blessing, feeling real isn't a vague concept. It's a vivid sensation of being conscious in one's body. When we feel real, we respond spontaneously, enjoy playing, and exult in the privilege of being alive. After studying your astrological potentials, Aries, I suspect that you now have an enhanced capacity to feel real.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): When she was a child, author Valerie Andrews visited her secret sanctuary at sunset every day for seven years. She lay on the ground among birch trees and aromatic privet plants, feeling "the steady rhythmic heartbeat of the earth" as she basked in the fading light. I'd love for you to enjoy the revitalizing power of such a shrine. The decisions you have to make will become clear as you commune with what Andrews calls "a rootlike umbilicus to the dark core of the land." Do you know of such a place? If not, I suggest you find or create one.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I suspect that your immediate future will be a patchwork of evocative fragments. You may be both annoyed and entertained by a series of flashing attractions, or an array of pretty baubles, or a hubbub of tasks that all seem at least mildly worth doing. Chances are good that they will ultimately knit together into a crazy-quilt unity; they will weave into a pattern that makes unexpected sense. In the spirit of the spicy variety, I offer three quotes that may not seem useful to you yet, but will soon. 1. "Isn't it possible that to desire a thing, to truly desire it, is a form of having it?" — Galway Kinnell 2. "It is not half so important to know as to feel." — Rachel Carson 3. "Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what's out there without knowing yet if we have the courage to face it." — Pema Chödrön
CANCER (June 21-July 22): A Tumblr blogger named Cece writes, "The fact that you can soak bread in sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla, then butter a pan and fry said bread to make a meal is really liberating." I agree. And I share this with you in the hope of encouraging you to indulge in other commonplace actions that will make you feel spacious and uninhibited. You're in a phase of your astrological cycle when you'll thrive on doing day-to-day details that excite your lust for life. Enjoying the little things to the utmost will be an excellent strategy for success.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Homework. Send descriptions of your wildly hopeful dreams for the future. newsletter@freewillastrology.com
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
NEED TO CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?
To join or leave the email list for this newsletter, or to change the address where you receive it, go to:
https://freewillastrology.substack.com
If my newsletters don't reach your inbox, look in your "Bulk Mail" or "Junk Mail" folder.
P.S. I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your address to anyone.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter or in response to "homework assignments" may be published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion, including but not limited to newsletters, books, the Free Will Astrology column, and Free Will Astrology website. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, style, and content.
Requests for anonymity will be honored. We are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative material.
Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright 2021 Rob Brezsny
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +