How Do You Celebrate Life?

What Beautiful Things Have You Done and Made?

HOW TO CULTIVATE A VIBRANT RELATIONSHIP WITH ME

• Disagree with me in respectful ways, using clear language and offering interesting ideas.

• Agree with me in unpredictable ways, using clear language and offering interesting ideas.

• Expand my perspective, change my mind, and teach me things I don’t know.

• Delight me with your unpredictability, your lyrical reverence for the Great Mystery, and your joie de vivre.

• Reminisce about the fun times we had together in the past or the fun times we could enjoy in the future.

• Turn me on to books, music, websites, movies, videos, TV shows, and people that have animated your sense of wonder and might do the same for me.

• Tell me some good news you have discovered that would be uplifting for me.

• Describe to me how you celebrate and love life.

• With mercy and patience, suggest to me how I might become a better writer and thinker and feeler. Show me how I might become more of the person I want to be and a more complete human being.

• Point me in the direction of the beautiful creations you have made or helped to make.

• Describe to me how the world would need to change for us to feel it's more like a paradise than it is now.

THE ENTREPRENEUR AND I

While I was at the Burning Man festival, an entrepreneur approached me with a proposal:

“Your work should be getting out to a bigger audience. People are starving for the message you’re putting out. That’s why you need me. With my marketing machine, your name could become as recognizable as Deepak Chopra’s. Let’s build an entertainment conglomerate and hawk a hundred Rob Brezsny-style products.”

“Nah,” I said. “People come to me seeking sanctuary from hype. They know I won’t smack them upside the imagination with relentless sales pitches.”

I turned him down. He was puzzled.

Meanwhile, for many years I have gotten regular inquiries from marketers who want to pay me money for putting advertisements in my Substack newsletter, on my other social media sites, and on my website. I always say no. I have turned down well over $500,000 in ad revenue.

I launched my website in 1995 and have never had a paid ad on it. I’ve offered over 1,500 of my weekly Free Will Astrology columns for free on that site.

The newsletter you’re reading is free if you want it to be, though I love it if you are a paying subscriber. I have never put ads in it, as many Substack writers do.

I freely give away two hours’ worth of my music on SoundCloud. I don’t make any money from my YouTube videos. I give away large sections of my books Astrology Is Real, The Televisionary Oracle, and Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia.

Have I been naïve? Overly idealistic? Too pure? Maybe, but what’s more important is that I have long been ecstatic that people are interested in my work and that I have the means to provide it to them.

And the good news is that many newspapers have published my column weekly for years. They pay me! Amazing!

I also offer my Expanded Audio Horoscopes and Daily Text-Message Horoscopes, which cost money. Some people who draw inspiration from my free written horoscopes choose to pay for these two other services. Hooray!

My Substack newsletter is free to everyone who wants it, but I also encourage financially comfortable readers to contribute a subscription fee if they feel so moved. Many do!

Then there are my books

Of course I’d like to earn more money than I do. The number one reason is that I self-publish my books and music, and that’s expensive. For my books, the costs of editing, design, artwork, and the logistics of publishing are substantial. It can take years before sales are sufficient to recoup my investment.

I currently have 17 future books in the pipeline, due to be published in the next two to three years. Twelve are astrology books, one for each sign. Four are novels, and one is poetry.

I might have wished that my muses had figured out a way for me to produce one book at a time over the past decade, but instead they have chosen to have me work on all of them at once!

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As a younger adult, I lived below the poverty line for many years. I was chronically unemployed and earned an average annual salary of less than $7,000. On the bright side, I had abundant free time to develop my skills as an astrologer, poet, novelist, musician, essayist, activist, and dreamer.

Ultimately, my well-honed aptitude for going constructively out of my mind catapulted me free of destitution. Learning the fine art of being an unruly artist turned out to be a wise career choice.

But I must also express deep gratitude for the social safety net. During my long stint as a pauper, the government graciously helped keep me alive by giving me food stamps and Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicaid health insurance.

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DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ALL MY FREE STUFF? Below is a list.

My free weekly newsletter: tinyurl.com/LoveLettersToYou

My website: FreeWillAstrology.com

Audio Horoscopes and Daily Text Message Horoscopes: RealAstrology.com

Excerpts from my book Astrology Is Real: tinyurl.com/BraveBliss

Excerpts from my book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: tinyurl.com/FreePronoia

My entire book The Televisionary Oracle: freewillastrology.com/books/oracle

My music: soundcloud.com/sacreduproar

More free music: freewillastrology.com/music/listen

My three Facebook pages: bit.ly/BrezFB and facebook.com/rob.brezsny and the Italian page, facebook.com/oroscopobrezsny

Instagram: instagram.com/robbrezsny/

YouTube: tinyurl.com/BrezsnyYouTube

Interviews: tinyurl.com/InterviewRob and tinyurl.com/RobNewDimensions

Wikipedia page about my band: tinyurl.com/WEWwiki

Homepage for my band: freewillastrology.com/music

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My audio offerings:

The blasphemously reverent “Prayer for Us” is here: tinyurl.com/PrayerToUs

Do you dare gaze into the abyss of happiness? tinyurl.com/GazeIntoAbyss

Shadow Blessings: tinyurl.com/ShadowBlessings

All of us are born geniuses, but most of us have been de-geniused by the grind. Want to re-genius yourself? Guidance: tinyurl.com/ReGeniusYourself

Thousands of things go right every single day. Listen: tinyurl.com/GloryInTheHighest

Welcome to the Beauty and Truth Lab: tinyurl.com/BeautyTruthLab

Celebrate Unhappy Hour, a ritual that gives you a license to whine and howl. Go here: tinyurl.com/HealingSadness

How much of the world can you love? tinyurl.com/WorldKiss

Want to get married to yourself? The ritual’s here: tinyurl.com/YouCanMarryYourself

Meditate on why this is a perfect moment: tinyurl.com/PerfectTrueMoment

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“You are the Hidden God” (above) meme is written by The Whores of Goddess Scientists

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

For the Week of July 31

LEO: In ancient China and ancient Greece, the lion was not the king of beasts, but the guardian of gates. The threshold keeper. The one who asked, “Are you ready?” Now is a good time to bring this aspect of Leonine symbolism to your attention. You may soon feel a surge of leadership radiance, but not necessarily the stage-commanding kind. It will be more like priest and priestess energy. Gatekeeper presence. People and situations in your orbit are on the verge of transformation, and you can be a midwife to their transitions—not by fixing or moralizing, but by witnessing. So I invite you to hold space. Ask potent questions. Be the steady presence ready to serve as a catalyst.

VIRGO: The love-fakers and promise-breakers and delusion-makers are no fun, but I think you will ultimately be grateful they helped you clarify your goals. The reverse healers and idea-stealers and greedy feelers are perilous to your peace of mind in the short run, but eventually they will motivate you to create more rigorous protections for your heart, health, and stability. In conclusion, Virgo, it's one of those odd times when people with less than pure intentions and high integrity can be valuable teachers.

LIBRA: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is built into a Norwegian mountain near the Arctic. It’s humanity’s backup garden. It stores over a million seed varieties from all over the world, serving as a safeguard for biodiversity. In accordance with astrological omens, Libra, I invite you to imagine yourself as resembling a seed vault. What valuable capacities are you saving up for the future? Are there treasures you contain that will ensure your long-term stability and security? Which of your potentials need to get extra nurturing? Bonus: Now is a good time to consider whether you should activate any of these promises.

SCORPIO : There’s a myth in Gnostic traditions that Sophia, the Goddess of Divine Wisdom, split herself apart and dispersed into the material world. She became embedded in every stone, plant, and drop of blood. And she’s still here, murmuring truth from within every part of the material world. In Sophia’s spirit, Scorpio, here is your message: Wisdom isn’t elsewhere. It’s embedded in your body; in your grief; in the wood grain of your table and the ache behind your eyes. More than ever, you have a mandate to celebrate this gift. So for now, refrain from thinking that spirituality is about transcendence and ascendance. Instead, greet the sacred in the dust and mud. Listen for Sophia in the ordinary. She speaks in sighs and sparks, not sermons.

SAGITTARIUS: When I do tours to promote the books I write, the range of encounters can be wide. On one trip, over 300 people came to see me at a bookstore in New York City. They listened raptly, posed interesting questions, and bought 71 books. In Atlanta three days later, I was greeted by nine semi-interested people at a small store in a strip mall. They purchased three books. But I gave equal amounts of energy at both gigs. The crowd in Atlanta got my best, as did the audience in New York. I invite you to regard me as a role model, Sagittarius. Proceed as if every experience deserves your brightest offerings. Express yourself with panache no matter what the surroundings are.

CAPRICORN: In ancient Egyptian cosmology, ka is the vital essence and the double of a person that lives on after death. But it also walks beside you while you live. It drinks, eats, and dreams. It is both you and more than you. Dear Capricorn, I invite you to tune in to your ka in the coming days, and any other spiritual presences that serve you and nourish you. Be alert for visitations from past selves, forgotten longings, and future visions that feel eerily familiar.

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If you would like to support my work, please consider:

buying my Expanded Audio Horoscopes and Daily Horoscopes

and/or

becoming a paid subscriber to my Free Will Astrology Newsletter

and/or

donating at my Paypal site: paypal.com/paypalme/GiftsForRob

(contribute as Friends and Family)

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AQUARIUS: "Dear Rob Brezsny: I wonder what you are like in person. Sometimes I get a Gen X vibe, like you wear vintage t-shirts from obscure bands, are skeptical but not cynical, and remember life before the internet, but are tech savvy. Other times, you seem like a weird time-traveler visiting us from 2088. It's confusing! Are you trying to be a mystery? When's your next public appearance? I want to meet you. —Aquarian Explorer." Dear Aquarian: I'm glad I'm a riddle to you. As long as I avoid being enmeshed in people's expectations and projections, I maintain my freedom to be my authentic self, even as I continually reinvent my authentic self. By the way, I recommend you adopt my attitude in the coming weeks.

PISCES: In Norse mythology, the god Odin plucked out one of his eyes and hung himself upside down from the World Tree for nine days. Why would he do such a thing? The ancient stories tell us this act of self-sacrifice earned him the right to learn the secret of the runes, which held the key to magic, fate, and wisdom. You don’t need to make a sacrifice anywhere near that dramatic, Pisces. But I do suspect you are primed for a comparable process. What discomfort are you willing to endure for the sake of revelation? What illusions must you give up to see more clearly? I dare you to engage in an inner realignment that brings metamorphosis, but not martyrdom.

ARIES : For many bamboo species, nothing visible happens for years after the seeds are sowed. Beneath the surface, though, the plants are developing an extensive underground root system. This is referred to as the “sleep” or “creep” phase. Once the preparatory work is finished, the above-ground growth explodes, adding as much as three feet of stalk per day. Dear Aries, I sense you have been following a similar pattern. Soon you will launch a phase of vigorous evolution and expansion. It might feel unsettling at first, but I predict you will come to adore it.

TAURUS : You are very close to uncovering interesting information about yourself—some new, some forgotten. But you will have to be brave and strategic to actually find it. If you manage to pull off this demanding-but-not-impossible trick, a series of breakthroughs may stream your way. Like what? Here are the possibilities. 1. A distorted self-image will fade. 2. An adversary’s hex will dissolve. 3. An inhibition will subside, freeing you to unite with a fun asset. 4. You will knock down a barrier that has been so insidious you didn’t know how strong it was.

GEMINI: In medieval music, “organum” refers to passages that feature two voices. One is sung in long, sustained notes, and the other performs intricate, faster-moving melodic lines above it. This is an apt metaphor for the roles I invite you to take on in the coming weeks, Gemini: both the drone and the melody. One way to do it is to hold steady in one realm as you improvise in another. Another is to offer your allies doses of stability and inspirational dreams. Welcome the duality! You are capable of both deep-rooted rhythm and visionary risk; both fortifying truth and playful fun.

CANCER: Cancerian author Ernest Hemingway had a reputation for bravado, but he was adept at wielding the protective, self-nourishing skills your sign is renowned for. He was sensitive about his works-in-progress, refusing to discuss unfinished stories. He understood that raw creative energy needed to be sheltered from kibitzing until it could stand on its own. "The first draft of anything is shit," he said, but he also knew that defending the right to write that mediocre first draft was essential for him to thrive. Hemingway's ability to channel his emotional vulnerability into moving prose came from establishing firm boundaries around his generative process. I recommend you do all that good stuff in the coming weeks, dear Cancerian.

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