Feeling Good Is a Marvelous Teaching
Pleasure Is a Spiritual Practice
In this bonus newsletter, I offer a free excerpt of my book ASTROLOGY IS REAL above the paywall — and an excerpt from my upcoming trilogy of novels below the paywall.
First, here’s an excerpt from ASTROLOGY IS REAL. These oracles are not like my regular weekly horoscopes. Rather, they are lyrical meditations on the natures of the signs. ASTROLOGY IS REAL has 15 additional sections like this one.
FORTUNES FOR YOU #14
✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞✯∞
ARIES: "Love is a fire," declared Aries actor Joan Crawford. "But whether it's going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell."
I disagree with her conclusion. There are practical steps you can take to ensure that love's fire warms but doesn't burn. I believe it's your sacred duty as an Aries to know about them.
Start with these strategies:
• Suffuse your libido with compassion.
• Imbue your romantic fervor with empathy.
• Instill your animal passions and instinctual longings with affectionate tenderness.
• If you notice your sexual urges driving you toward narcissists who are no good for you, use all your Aries-style forceful willpower to redirect those urges toward emotionally intelligent, self-responsible candidates.
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TAURUS: During regular hikes along my favorite trails, I’ve gotten to know the local boulders.
Maybe it sounds daft, but I’ve come to love them. I’ve even given some names. Slow Blast is one of my confidants. Soul Waker and Tremble Story and Memory Song are old friends. There are many others.
They symbolize stability and constancy to me. When I gaze at them or sit on them, my resolve grows stronger. They teach me about how to be steadfast and unflappable in all kinds of weather. I draw inspiration from the way they are so purely themselves, steadily true to their own nature.
I recommend this practice to you Taureans. You were born into this life to be a Taurus so you could gain prowess in qualities like these.
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GEMINI: Generation Kill is an HBO miniseries based on the experiences of a reporter embedded with American Marines fighting in Iraq.
Early on, before the troops have been exposed to any serious combat, they are overflowing with trash talk. A commanding officer scolds them: "Gentlemen, from now on we're going to have to earn our stories."
Although your life is less volatile and risky than theirs, my advice to you is the same: Earn your stories! If you talk big, act big. Make promises and entertain dares and issue challenges only if you're geared up to learn how to be a sovereign of your own destiny.
The good news is that you have substantial potential to do that. It's a Gemini birthright.
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CANCERIAN: According to the oracular priestess at the ancient Greek shrine of Delphi, whom I consult in my dreams, "luminous shadow" and "hidden light" are code phrases that are of special use to you Cancerians.
Here are possible interpretations of her message: What dark places in your life may have the potential to shine forth with radiance? How do you help the people you love find redemption in their difficult experiences? What can you do to track down and reveal the secret beauty that aches to be found?
Can you think of any other probing questions?
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LEO: A reader scolded me, telling me that none of us should ever answer the question "Who am I?" We should always leave it an open question, he declared, and never speculate on what the definitive answers might be.
I said, "I don't agree. It's fun and useful to come up with provisional answers to the question 'Who am I?", knowing that no answer is the final one."
He said, "Wisdom has nothing to do with fun."
I said, "For me, wisdom and fun are inextricably related and inseparable."
I said, "I get new answers to the question 'Who am I?' all the time, and will continue to do so forever."
I invite you to try my approach, Leo. It's especially propitious for you.
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VIRGO: One of your wonderful qualities is your aptitude for helping people. It's also the part of your nature that is most likely to be abused by charming narcissists and charismatic manipulators.
But I predict that in the coming years, you will have a growing knack for freeing yourself from these oppressors. More and more you'll spot potential new ones from a distance, and you'll know how to break the hold that the old ones have on you.
Take this pledge now: "I will serve only the smart, effective people who also serve me."
LIBRA: For a bald eagle in flight, feathers are crucial in maintaining balance. If it inadvertently loses a feather on one wing, it will purposely shed a comparable feather on the other wing.
I think this strategy has metaphorical meaning for you. Do you want to soar with maximum grace and power? Would you like to ascend and dive, explore and scout, with ease and exuberance? Learn from the eagle’s instinctual wisdom.
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SCORPIO: You can be a connoisseur of temptations if you want to be. It's your birthright to cultivate a knack for attracting and playing with allurements and enticements.
You can also develop a sixth sense about the distinction between good bait and bad bait—between provocative temptations that serve your charmed dreams and debilitating traps that dissipate your integrity.
Here's the payoff: When you focus on the ennobling temptations, they will conspire with you to bloom your soul.
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SAGITTARIUS: "The soul should always stand ajar," wrote Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson. Why? Because "if the heaven inquire, He will not be obliged to wait or shy of troubling her."
My translation: Keep your deep psyche in a constant state of readiness for the possible influx of divine inspiration or unexpected blessings.
Then you're likely to recognize the call when it comes and respond with the alacrity necessary to get the full benefit of its offerings.
This strategy is a key element of the Truth and the Way for you Sagittarians.
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CAPRICORN: "When I look at a sunset, I don't say, 'Soften the orange a little on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple in the cloud color.'"
Capricorn psychologist Carl Rogers used these words to describe the way he observed the world. "I don't try to control a sunset," he continued. "I watch it with awe."
He had a similar view about people. "One of the most satisfying experiences," he wrote, "is just fully to appreciate an individual in the same way I appreciate a sunset."
I invite you to aspire to cultivate this perspective. It's good medicine for you Capricorns.
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AQUARIUS: Some spiritual teachers say you're most likely to succeed at meditation if you sit still in the silence of a sanctuary. They believe you need to retreat from the mundane world to develop compassionate objectivity about life.
The 18th-century Zen Buddhist teacher Hakuin Ekaku had a different view. His motto: "Meditation in the midst of activity is a billion times superior to meditation in stillness."
My opinion: Both approaches can work. Of all the signs in the zodiac, you Aquarians are potentially the most talented at Ekaku's approach.
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PISCES: "I have come to be fascinated with the messiness of desire," writes novelist Ashley Warlick, "with the ways people fit themselves together, take themselves apart for each other, for want of each other, for want of some parts of each other."
Your assignment, Pisces, is to celebrate the messiness of desire; to not just grudgingly accept it as an inconvenience you must tolerate, but marvel at it, be amused by it, and appreciate it for the lessons it provides.
Your motto could be, "I bless the messy largesse of my longing." It's potentially a Piscean specialty.
Below the paywall is chapter 63 from my upcoming trilogy of novels, collectively called Love Stories for the Earth: Holy Rivers, Lucky Storms, and The Other Real World.