Everywhere You Look: Glory

Soaring roaring uproarious glory is our story

Aug 16, 2022

GLORY GLORY GLORY

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Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don't fully understand, you're still breathing and your heart is beating, even though you've been unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that's just right for your body's needs, as it was before you fell asleep.

You can see! Light of many colors floods into your eyes, registered by nerves that took God or evolution or some process millions of years to perfect.

The interesting gift of these vivid hues is furthermore made possible by an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually detonates nuclear explosions in order to convert its own body into light and heat and energy for your personal use.

Your hands work well. Your heart circulates your blood all the way out to replenish the energy of the muscles and nerves in your fingers and palms and wrists. And after your blood has delivered its blessings, it finds its way back to your heart to be refreshed. This wondrous mystery recurs over and over again without stopping every minute of your life.

You can smell intoxicating aromas. You can hear provocative and soothing sounds. You can taste a thousand different tastes. How is any of this possible? You can think thoughts any time you want -- big, wide, colorful thoughts or tiny dark burrowing thoughts. You can revel and wallow in great oceans of emotion. What colossal secret intelligence or improbable series of fabulous accidents conspired to bestow these superpowers upon you?

Language is another stupendous marvel. Millions of souls have cooperated intricately for untold centuries to cultivate a system of communication that you understand very well. Your ability to speak and read and write makes you feel strong and dynamic. It connects you with the world. It allows you to indulge in one of your greatest pleasures, which is to hear and tell stories.

Maybe this is the best gift of all: You have a staggeringly potent creative tool: your imagination. You use it to create mental pictures of things that don't exist yet and that you want to bring into being. Your imagination is the engine of your destiny, the catalyst with which you design your future.

Or maybe this is the best gift of all: You know that you are you. You are exultantly and extravagantly aware that you are alive and conscious and awake and unique. You have a million different feelings and fantasies about what it means to be you.

Do you remember when you were born? It was a difficult miracle that involved many people who worked very hard on your behalf. No less amazing is the fact that you have continued to grow ever since then, with new cells being born within you all the time to replace the old cells that are dying.

At this very moment, there are 50 trillion cells in your body, and each of them is really a sentient being in its own right. They all act together as a community, blessing you with their astonishing collaboration. It's just like magic.

Everywhere you look: glory

Every step you take: glory

Every breath you take: glory glory

Soaring roaring uproarious glory

is our story

This succulent burst of glory has been brought to you by the imaginary lightning bolts you can shoot out the ends of your fingers any time you want to.

"Glory in the Highest" excerpts material from a longer piece called "Glory in the Highest" in the book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings

The longer piece can be found online: https://freewillastrology.com/beauty

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BE YOURSELF?

You came into this world as a radiant bundle of exuberant riddles. You slipped into this dimension as a shimmering burst of spiral hallelujahs. You blasted into this realm as a lush explosion of ecstatic gratitude. And it is your birthright to fulfill those promises.

I'm not pandering to your egotism by telling you these things. When I say, "Be yourself," I don't mean you should be the self that wants to win every game and use up every resource and stand alone at the end of time on top of a Mt. Everest-sized pile of pretty garbage.

When I say, "Be yourself," I mean the self that says "Thank you!" to the wild irises and the windy rain and the people who grow your food.

When I say, "Be yourself," I mean the rebel creator who's longing to make the whole universe your home and sanctuary.

When I say, "Be yourself," I mean the dissident bodhisattva who's joyfully struggling to germinate the seeds of divine love that are packed inside every moment.

When I say, "Be yourself," I mean the spiritual freedom fighter who's scrambling and finagling and conspiring to relieve your fellow messiahs from their suffering and shower them with rowdy blessings.

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WE DIE DAILY

"I die daily" is one of our favorite formulas for success.

Here's how we apply it: What do we need to kill off in ourselves in order to tune in to the beauty that's hidden from us? What worn-out shticks are blinding us to the blessings that life is conspiring to give us? Which of our theories may have been useful and even brilliant in the past but are now keeping us from becoming aware of the everfresh creation that unfolds before us?

"I die daily" means that it's not enough to terminate our stale mental habits just once. The price of admission into joie de vivre and lust for life is a commitment to continual dying. We have to ask ourselves rude questions and kick our own asses again and again. Today's versions of beauty, truth, love, goodness, justice, and liberation will pass away.

To keep abreast of the latest developments—to cultivate tomorrow's versions of pronoia—we have to immerse ourselves regularly in the waters of chaos. Our relationship with pronoia has to be a never-ending improvisation.

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HEALING FROM THE LIES

Take a day to heal from the lies you've told yourself and the ones that have been told to you.

—poet and activist Maya Angelou

Take 55 days to heal from the lies you've told yourself and the ones that have been told to you. Or 200 days. Or 439 days. No more than a thousand, though.

—mash-up of me and Maya Angelou

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IDIOT MEMORY

Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano defines "idiot memory" as the kind of remembrances that keep us attached to our old self-images, and trapped by them.

"Lively memory," on the other hand, is a feisty approach to our old stories. It impels us to graduate from who we used to be.

"We are the sum of our efforts to change who we are," writes Galeano. "Identity is no museum piece sitting stock-still in a display case."

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CARING ABOUT INJUSTICES SUFFERED BY OTHERS

I started rebelling against this cultural defect when I was six years old, and have kept at it ever since. I regard it as one of my primary life goals to fight against the injustices that happen to other people.

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

First Effective Treatment for Back Pain Changes How Brain and Back Communicate. https://tinyurl.com/4uk4k5pu

Smartphones ‘Can Boost Memory Skills’ by Freeing Up Our Brains to Remember Other Things. https://tinyurl.com/yc32wj8m

This Tortoise Attacks All the Black Shoes That Come Near Him- WATCH for a Laugh. https://tinyurl.com/ypsrh9y2

Tigers in Nepal Come Back From Brink of Extinction With Historic 190 Percent Increase. https://tinyurl.com/2p9hfvw5

For a lot 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.

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week beginning August 18

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): "I've swung from ancient vines in the caves of Jamaica," exults Hoodoo priestess Luisah Teish. "I've danced with delight around totem poles and pressed foreheads with Maori warriors. I've joked with the pale fox in the crossroads, then wrestled with the jaguar and won. I have embraced great trees between my thighs and spoken words of love to thunder while riding lightning bolts." I offer Teish's celebratory brag to inspire you as you formulate plans for the coming weeks and months. What exhilarating adventures will you give yourself? What expansive encounters will you learn from? What travels outside of your comfort zone will you dare? The time is right for upsurges and upturns and upgrades.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In his poem "The Pupil," Virgo-born Donald Justice speaks of how he spent "a whole week practicing for that moment on the threshold." I advise you to do the same, Virgo. The goal is to be as prepared as you can be for the upcoming rite of transition—without, of course, being neurotically over-prepared. It's fine and natural to honor the tension of anticipation, using it as motivation to do your best. One other thing: As you get ready, please have as much fun as possible. Visualize the sense of accomplishment you'll feel when you've reached the other side of the test.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "One is always at home in one’s past," wrote author Vladimir Nabokov. But I encourage you to rebel against that theory, Libra. For now, find a way to NOT feel at home in your past. Question it, be curious about it, re-evaluate it. My hope is that you will then be motivated to change how your history lives in you. Now is an excellent time to reconfigure your life story, to develop a revised relationship with its plot twists and evolution. Revisit and update some of your memories. Re-evaluate the meanings of key events. Enchanting healings will materialize if you do.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Of all the signs in the zodiac, you Scorpios are most likely to regard that old pop tune by the Animals as your theme song. "I'm just a soul whose intentions are good," croons lead singer Eric Burdon, "Oh, Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood." But you may have less motivation to express that sentiment in the coming weeks, dear Scorpio. I suspect you will experience record-breaking levels of being seen and appreciated for who you are. For best results, do this: 1. Inform your deep psyche that you have no attachment to being misunderstood. 2. Tell your deep psyche that you would very much like to be well understood.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "Unless we are creators, we are not fully alive," wrote Sagittarian author Madeleine L'Engle. She was referring to everyone, not just people in the arts. She believed that to be soulful humans, we must always make new things, generate fresh possibilities, and explore novel approaches. The restless urge to transform what already exists can be expressed in how we do our jobs, our parenting, our intimate relationships, and every other activity. You are now entering a phase, Sagittarius, when this initiatory energy will be especially available, needed, and valuable.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In her poem "Valentine," Capricorn poet Carol Ann Duffy tells a lover she won't give her a "red rose or a satin heart." Instead, her token of affection is an onion, a symbol of multi-layered complexity. "Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips," Duffy writes, "possessive and faithful as we are, for as long as we are." She adds that the onion will "blind you with tears like a lover." OK. I understand the tough attitude expressed by Duffy. Romance isn't a relentlessly sweet, sentimental romp through paradise. But I don't recommend that you imitate her approach to your love life in the coming weeks and months. Appreciate the sometimes shadowy and labyrinthine convolutions, yes, but don't make them more important than beauty and joy and love. How about invoking the symbol of a pomegranate? It represents fertility and rebirth out of the darkness.

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MAYBE JOY AND BLISS ARE CATALYTIC SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES

Assume that pleasure and happiness doesn't interfere with your spiritual growth, but may in fact stimulate it.

Proceed on the hypothesis that cultivating delight and wonder might 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 HOROSCOPES. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the current state of your destiny.

To listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to https://RealAstrology.com

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

"I always come away from listening to your audio horoscopes with greater clarity about what's best for me to give my attention to next."

—Jada Washington, New York

"I love how your audio horoscopes stimulate my idealism and also help me think about the practical actions I can take to support my idealism."

—Rita Mashner, Tampa

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AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Be extra expressive with the people and animals you care about. Be even more amusing and generous than usual. Dare to be abundantly entertaining and engaging and empathetic. Make it your goal to draw out your allies' dormant potentials and inspire them to love themselves even more than they already do. I'll tell you about the endearing terms that author Vladimir Nabokov called his wife. Consider using them with your dear ones: "My sun, my soul, my song, my bird, my pink sky, my sunny rainbow, my little music, my inexpressible delight, my tenderness, my lightness, my dear life, my dear eyes, kittykin, poochums, goosikins, sparrowling, bird of paradise."

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Sometimes, you may feel you're under the influence of a debilitating spell or hindered by a murky curse. Pisceans are prone to such worries. But here's a secret. More than any other zodiac sign, you have the power to escape from spells. Even if you have never studied the occult or read a witch's grimoire, you possess a natural facility for the natural magic that disperses curses. From the depths of your psyche, you can summon the spiritual force necessary to cleanse the gunk and free yourself. Now is a perfect time to prove to yourself that what I've said here is true.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky wrote, "All my life, I've been going around waiting for something—as if I were waiting in a railway station. And I've always felt as if the living I've done so far hasn't actually been real life but a long wait for it—a long wait for something real." If I could speak with Tarkovsky right now, I would cheerfully tell him that his wait will soon be over. I'd say that in the coming months, Aries people who have been postponing and postponing, who have been standing by and holding on and biding time, will have an excellent chance to begin inhabiting their full, rich destiny. I invite you to imagine what that will feel like.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus poet Sherko Bekas wrote, "Each joy I wear, its sleeves are either too short or too long, too loose or too tight on me. And each sorrow I wear fits as if it were made for me wherever I am." With this as our starting point, Taurus, I'm pleased to report some good news. In the next three weeks, you will have zero sorrows to try on and wear like a garment. And there will be at least three joys that fit just right. The sleeves will be the correct length, and the form will be neither too loose nor too tight.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Tips on how to get the most out of the coming weeks: 1. Create a big spacious realization by weaving together several small hunches. 2. Keep a little angel on your right shoulder and a little devil on your left shoulder. Enjoy listening to them argue, and don't get attached to anything they say. 3. Do the unexpected until it becomes expected. Then abandon it and try a new, unexpected experiment. 4. Meditate expansively on the question, "How many careers can I have in one lifetime?" 5. Enhance your home so it feels even more comfortable.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Be fluid and flexible while still being rooted and sturdy. Be soft and sensitive even as you are also firm and resolute. Be mostly modest and adaptable, but become assertive and outspoken as necessary. Be cautious about inviting and seeking out challenges, but be bold and brash when a golden challenge arrives. Be your naturally generous self most of the time, but avoid giving too much. Got all that, Cancerian? Carrying out the multifaceted assignments I just described might be nearly impossible for most of the other signs of the zodiac, but they are in your wheelhouse. You are a specialist in fertile complexity.

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Homework: What injustice are you most motivated to correct? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

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Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter

Everywhere You Look: Glory

Soaring roaring uproarious glory is our story

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