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Maybe You Need More Kisses

What are holy kisses, anyway?

Rob Brezsny

Sep 20, 2022

The German word Nachkussen refers to the kind of kiss that compensates for all the kissing that has not been happening, all the kissing that has been omitted or lost.

If it has been too long since you've kissed anyone, you need Nachkussen.

If your lover hasn't kissed you lately with the focused verve you long for, you need Nachkussen.

If you yourself have been neglecting to employ your full artistry and intensity as you bestow your kisses, you need Nachkussen.

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ARE YOU FULLY WILLING TO BE LOVED?

Author Hélène Cixous wrote, "It is easy to love and sing one's love. That is something I am extremely good at doing. But to be loved, that is true greatness. Being loved, letting oneself be loved, entering the magic and dreadful circle of generosity, receiving gifts, finding the right thank-you's, that is love's real work."

How about it? Are you willing to expand your capacity to welcome the care and benevolence and inspiration offered by others?

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Doctor Who said it

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PLAY FOR A WHILE

Once, as an adult, psychologist Carl Jung took a break from work to stroll on a beach. As he meandered, he was overcome with a spontaneous impulse to build things as he did when he was a kid. He gathered stones and sticks and used them to construct a miniature scene, including a church.

As he finished, he was visited by a flood of novel insights about his life. He concluded that his childlike play had called forth these revelations from his unconscious mind.

That might sometimes be a worthwhile strategy for some of us. To access important information that our deep mind has sequestered, we could go play a while.

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PLEASURE ACTIVISM

Activist adrienne maree brown wrote the words in this post:

"Prevailing ideas around social justice activism tend to focus on 'doing the work,' putting in long hours, and facing challenges head-on. Activism is rarely associated with personal joy and pleasure.

"But can there be a deep connection between activism and pleasure? How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life?

"Pleasure activism is a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work.

"Drawing on the Black feminist tradition, I challenge us to rethink the ground rules of activism. Through connecting with our inner desires and needs—physical, mental, emotional—we can become better organizers, activists, and social justice workers. "

— adrienne maree brown

Her book is Pleasure Activisim: The Politics of Feeling Good

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Hear a musical meditation about why pleasure is your birthright: “The Experiment”:

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-5:13

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MY POETRY READING WITH MY DAUGHTER ZOE

Three years ago, my daughter Zoe Brezsny and I read poetry at the Strand Bookstore in New York. We were the opening acts for the fabulous poets CAConrad and Ariana Reines.

Here's a video of that evening. Zoe starts reading about 2:30 into the video, and I begin at 11:50: https://tinyurl.com/4ver6d44

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YOU'RE FREE!

It's a free country. You're free to desecrate nature and live without any thought for our descendants and forever and adamantly believe every borrowed idea that settled into your head when you were coming of age.

You're free to scarf down pesticide-laden junk food and memorize Ford truck jingles and vote for old white straight male millionaires.

On the other hand, you're also free to go on jubilant picnics in the wilderness using sustainable dishware and cleaning up after yourself.

You're free to formulate a master plan to achieve your own precious dreams in ways that will also serve our fellow humans and bestow blessings on our descendants.

You're free to radically revise your philosophy of life every once in a while to account for the ever-changing contours of your own destiny and the ever-evolving urgencies of our shared culture and history.

You're free—FREE!!!!—to care dearly about what foods you put in your body and regard advertising as a form of propagandistic brainwashing and do your part to increase the representation of women in political office to at least fifty percent.

I bring these thoughts to your attention because i'd love to encourage you to become a connoisseur of freedom and a master of the art of liberation. I'm hoping to kick your butt a bit even as I pique your excitement about a full range of emancipatory possibilities.

Hypothesis: To serve your ambitions most effectively, be more motivated by the desire to give your gifts and express your love than by the push to do your duty or the lust to attract approval or the hop to win money and prizes.

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WHAT IS SACRED?

What Is Sacred? Friedrich Nietzsche declared the sacred was anything that you cannot or will not laugh at.

We can’t believe he meant that. He must have been in a satirical mood at the time. We have the opposite view.

If we can’t riddle a fucking ruckus or crunk a lucky upthrust about a jumble-jamble we regard as holy, then it ain’t holy.

It’s got to have the power to convulse our gravity, tickle our morbidity, and cackle our bondage.

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CELEBRATE THE EGO?

Jeff Brown says: "There is no way to dissolve the ego in its entirety. It is intrinsic to human functioning. This is why the ego bashing fundamental to the spiritual bypass community is so dangerous. They invite seekers to shed aspects that are essential in their daily lives.

"Instead, let's make a conscious distinction between the healthy and the unhealthy ego. When I think of the latter, I think of Trump. This is clearly not a man with a strong, healthy self-concept. This is a man in a perpetual state of self-hatred, so egoically depleted that no achievement will ever bring him peace.

"It is crystal clear that something happened to him in his early years, a hole so big that not even the Presidency can fill it.

"Perhaps never before have we been able to so clearly see into the inner world of a fractured, over-compensatory ego. And perhaps never before has it been more obvious that inviting humanity to dissolve the ego is as dangerous as shaming it.

"What we need instead is to support the development of a healthy, balanced ego. One that knows where it ends and the other begins. One that celebrates one's value, without imagining itself 'all that'. One that honors the self, without a need to dishonor others.

"A healthy ego is not the enemy of the sacred. It's the foundation that it stands upon."

—Jeff Brown is here: https://www.facebook.com/SOULSHAPING

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I have made it possible for subscribers to my newsletter to pay a subscription fee to me for my newsletter, BUT ONLY IF THEY WANT TO AND CAN AFFORD TO!

I have offered my astrology newsletter free of charge for the past 22 years, and I will continue to do so for the next 22 years at least.

If, however, you are sufficiently prosperous and feel comfortable about donating money to me, I welcome it. Please know, though: I am TOTALLY FINE if you don't donate.

P.S.: No pressure, though! I understand that some of you don't have enough money yourself, and it wouldn't make sense for you to give some to me.

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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:

For the first time in its history, the United States has a Native American, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian serving in the House of Representatives.

From Hawaii, Kaialiʻi (Kai) Kahele is serving his first term in Congress.

From Alaska, Mary Peltola is the first Alaska Native in Congress. She is a member of the Yup’ik people.

From Kansas, Sharice Davids has served in Congress since 2019. She is a member of the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people.

Sharice Davids is also the first openly LGBT Native American elected to Congress, the first openly lesbian person elected to Congress from Kansas, and one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress.

There are 58 African American Members of the House and 3 in the Senate. This House number includes two Delegates.

There are 52 Hispanic or Latino Members serving: 46 in the House, including 2 Delegates and the Resident Commissioner, and 7 in the Senate.

There are 21 Members (16 Representatives, 3 Delegates, and 2 Senators) who are Asian Americans or Pacific Islander Americans.

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 Amazon: https://bit.ly/Pronoia

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Louise Bogan said it

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week beginning September 22

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Tips for making the most of the next three weeks: 1. Be proud as you teeter charismatically on the fence. Relish the power that comes from being in between. 2. Act as vividly congenial and staunchly beautiful as you dare. 3. Experiment with making artful arrangements of pretty much everything you are part of. 4. Flatter others sincerely. Use praise as one of your secret powers. 5. Cultivate an open-minded skepticism that blends discernment and curiosity. 6. Plot and scheme in behalf of harmony, but never kiss ass.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Poet Mary Oliver wrote, "There is within each of us a self that is neither a child, nor a servant of the hours. It is a third self, occasional in some of us, tyrant in others. This self is out of love with the ordinary; it is out of love with time. It has a hunger for eternity." During the coming weeks, Scorpio, I will be cheering for the ascendancy of that self in you. More than usual, you need to commune with fantastic truths and transcendent joys. To be in maximum alignment with the good fortune that life has prepared for you, you must give your loving attention to the highest and noblest visions of your personal destiny that you can imagine.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Tips to get the most out of the next three weeks: 1. Use your imagination to make everything seem fascinating and wonderful. 2. When you give advice to others, be sure to listen to it yourself. 3. Move away from having a rigid conception of yourself and move toward having a fluid fantasy about yourself. 4. Be the first to laugh at and correct your own mistakes. (It'll give you the credibility to make even better mistakes in the future.) 5. Inspire other people to love being themselves and not want to be like you.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn poet William Stafford wrote, "Saying things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing." Those ideas are always true, of course, but I think it's especially crucial that you heed them in the coming weeks. In my oracular opinion, you need to build your personal power right now. An important way to do that is by being discriminating about what you take in and put out. For best results, speak your truths as often and as clearly as possible. And do all you can to avoid exposing yourself to trivial and delusional "truths” that are really just opinions or misinformation.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You are an extra authentic Aquarius if people say that you get yourself into the weirdest, most interesting trouble they've ever seen. You are an ultra-genuine Aquarius if people follow the twists and pivots of your life as they would a soap opera. And I suspect you will fulfill these potentials to the max in the coming weeks. The upcoming chapter of your life story might be as entertaining as any you have had in years. Luckily, imminent events are also likely to bring you soulful lessons that make you wiser and wilder. I'm excited to see what happens!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In a poem to a lover, Pablo Neruda wrote, "At night I dream that you and I are two plants that grew together, roots entwined.” I suspect you Pisceans could have similar deepening and interweaving experiences sometime soon—not only with a lover but with any treasured person or animal you long to be even closer to than you already are. Now is a time to seek more robust and resilient intimacy.

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OUR COLLABORATION

I feel that you're with me as I create the horoscopes. In a sense, you're my assistant. Our telepathic connection is palpable and practical.

The hopes and questions you project my way stream into my higher mind, coloring my psychic environment and enriching my desire to give you what you need.

If you ever want more inspiration generated in that same collaborative spirit, keep in mind that I also offer 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.)

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Even when your courage has a touch of foolhardiness, even when your quest for adventure makes you a bit reckless, you can be resourceful enough to avoid dicey consequences. Maybe more than any other sign of the zodiac, you periodically outfox karma. But in the coming weeks, I will nevertheless counsel you not to barge into situations where rash boldness might lead to wrong moves. Please do not flirt with escapades that could turn into chancy gambles. At least for the foreseeable future, I hope you will be prudent and cagey in your quest for interesting and educational fun.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In 1946, medical professionals in the UK established the Common Cold Unit. Its goal was to discover practical treatments for the familiar viral infection known as the cold. Over the next 43 years, until it was shut down, the agency produced just one useful innovation: zinc gluconate lozenges. This treatment reduces the severity and length of a cold if taken within 24 hours of onset. So the results of all that research were modest, but they were also much better than nothing. During the coming weeks, you may experience comparable phenomena, Taurus: less spectacular outcomes than you might wish, but still very worthwhile.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Here’s a scenario that could be both an invigorating metaphor and a literal event. Put on rollerblades. Get out onto a long flat surface. Build up a comfortable speed. Fill your lungs with the elixir of life. Praise the sun and the wind. Sing your favorite songs. Swing your arms all the way forward and all the way back. Forward: power. Backward: power. Glide and coast and flow with sheer joy. Cruise along with confidence in the instinctive skill of your beautiful body. Evaporate thoughts. Free yourself of every concern and every idea. Keep rambling until you feel spacious and vast.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I'm getting a psychic vision of you cuddled up in your warm bed, surrounded by stuffed animals and wrapped in soft, thick blankets covered with images of bunnies and dolphins. Your headphones are on, and the songs pouring into your cozy awareness are silky smooth tonics that rouse sweet memories of all the times you felt most wanted and most at home in the world. I think I see a cup of hot chocolate on your bedstand, too, and your favorite dessert. Got all that, fellow Cancerian? In the coming days and nights, I suggest you enjoy an abundance of experiences akin to what I've described here.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): For 15 years, Leo cartoonist Gary Larson created The Far Side, a hilarious comic strip featuring intelligent talking animals. It was syndicated in more than 1,900 newspapers. But like all of us, he has had failures, too. In one of his books, Larson describes the most disappointing event in his life. He was eating a meal in the same dining area as a famous cartoonist he admired, Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family. Larson felt a strong urge to go over and introduce himself to Addams. But he was too shy and tongue-tied to do so. Don't be like Larson in the coming weeks, dear Leo. Reach out and connect with receptive people you'd love to communicate with. Make the first move in contacting someone who could be important to you in the future. Be bold in seeking new links and affiliations. Always be respectful, of course.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "Love your mistakes and foibles," Virgo astrologer William Sebrans advises his fellow Virgos. "They aren't going away. And it's your calling in life—some would say a superpower—to home in on them and finesse them. Why? Because you may be able to fix them or improve them with panache—for your benefit and the welfare of those you love." While this counsel is always relevant for you, dear Virgo, it will be especially so in the coming weeks.

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Homework: Fantasize about an adventure you would love to treat yourself to in the spring of 2023. Testify: Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

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