Nourish Your Essential Desires
YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT
My first invitation: Weed out the wishy-washy wishes and lukewarm longings that keep you distracted from your essential desires.
My second invitation: Refuse to think that anyone else knows better than you what dreams will keep your life energy humming with maximum efficiency and grace.
Third invitation: Say this out loud to see how it feels: “I know exactly what I want. I know exactly what I don’t want. I know exactly what I kind of want but I won’t waste my time on it because it sidetracks me from working on what I really want.”
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WILD AND KIND by me I kick my own ass and wash my own brain. I push my own buttons and trick my own pain. I burn my own flags and roast my own heroes. I mock my own fears and cheer my own zeroes. Nothing can stop me from teasing my shadow. I’m full of empty and backwards bravado. My wounds are tattoos that reveal my true beauty. I turn tragic to magic and make bliss my duty. I honor my faults till they become virtues. I play jokes on my nightmares till I’m sure they won’t hurt you. I sing anarchist lullabies to lesbian trees and love songs with punch lines to anonymous seas. I won’t accept gifts that infringe on my freedom. I shun sacred places that stir up my boredom. I change my name daily, pretend to be nobody. I fight for the truth if it’s majestically rowdy. Gravity fucks me and I fuck it back. The sun is my sex muse, the moon smokes my crack. I pump up my conscience with idiot laughter. I’m living happily, in love ever after. I brag about what I can’t do and don’t know. I take off my masks for those I oppose. I’m so far beyond lazy, I work like a god. I’m wild and kind; in fact that’s my job.
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Art by Janet Golder Kngwarreye / Women’s Dreaming
More art by Janet: https://tinyurl.com/Kngwarrreye
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PRIMAL APPRECIATION
“Some people have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy.”
—Abraham H. Maslow
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FIND WHERE YOUR GIFTS OVERLAPS WITH YOUR SERVICE
Figure out exactly how the universe, by providing you with abundance, can improve the lot of everyone whose life you touch.
Seek the fulfillment of your fondest desires in such a way that you become a fount of blessings for others.
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DAILY PRAISE
Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is really worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you.
Look at each person’s face as you pass them on the street: Those faces are for you.
And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people.
Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky.
It’s okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.
—Miranda July
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This is from @Kshamicamd: https://www.instagram.com/kshamicamd/
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CLAIM YOUR RIGHTFUL PLEASURES
"When you die," says the Koran, "God will call upon you to account for all the permitted pleasures you did not enjoy while on earth."
The Talmud offers a similar idea: "A person will be called upon to account, on Judgment Day, for all the permitted pleasures he might have enjoyed but did not."
Are there any such pleasures in your life?
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GETTING EVERYTHING YOU WANT
If I ever produce a self-help manual called The Reverse Psychology of Getting Everything You Want, it will discuss the following paradoxes:
a. People are more willing to accommodate your longings if you're not greedy or grasping.
b. A good way to achieve your desires is to cultivate the feeling that you have already achieved them.
c. Whatever you're longing for has been changed by your pursuit of it. It's different from what it was when you felt the first pangs of desire. To make it yours, then, you'll have to modify your ideas about it.
d. Be careful what you wish for because if your wish does materialize it will require you to change in ways you didn't foresee.
e. You're more likely to fulfill your desires if the fulfillment of your desires serves and helps other human beings and creatures.
Review your own life and identify experiences that exemplify these four principles.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning May 11
Copyright 2023 by Rob Brezsny
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A famous football coach once said his main method was to manipulate, coax, and even bully his players into doing things they didn't like to do. Why? So they could build their toughness and willpower, making it more likely they would accomplish formidable feats. While this may be an approach that works for some tasks, it's not right for many others. Here's a further nuance: The grind-it-out-doing-unpleasant-things may be apt for certain phases of a journey to success, but not for other phases. Here’s the good news, Taurus: For now, you have mostly completed doing what you don't love to do. In the coming weeks, your freedom to focus on doing fun things will expand dramatically.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Most of us have an area of our lives where futility is a primary emotion. This may be a once-exciting dream that never got much traction. It could be a skill we possess that we’ve never found a satisfying way to express. The epicenter of our futility could be a relationship that has never lived up to its promise or a potential we haven't been able to ripen. Wherever this sense of fruitlessness resides in your own life, Gemini, I have an interesting prediction: During the next 12 months, you will either finally garner some meaningful fulfillment through it or else find a way to outgrow it.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Many of us Cancerians have high levels of perseverance. Our resoluteness and doggedness may be uncanny. But we often practice these subtle superpowers with such sensitive grace that they're virtually invisible to casual observers. We appear modest and gentle, not fierce and driven. For instance, this is the first time I have bragged about the fact that I have composed over 2,000 consecutive horoscope columns without ever missing a deadline. Anyway, my fellow Crabs, I have a really good feeling about how much grit and determination you will be able to marshal in the coming months. You may break your own personal records for tenacity.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Why do migrating geese fly in a V formation? For one thing, it conserves their energy. Every bird except the leader enjoys a reduction in wind resistance. As the flight progresses, the geese take turns being the guide in front. Soaring along in this shape also seems to aid the birds’ communication and coordination. I suggest you consider making this scenario your inspiration, dear Leo. You are entering a phase when synergetic cooperation with others is even more important than usual. If you feel called to lead, be ready and willing to exert yourself—and be open to letting your associates serve as leaders. For extra credit: Do a web search for an image of migrating geese and keep it in a prominent place for the next four weeks.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I boldly predict that you will soon locate a missing magic key. Hooray! It hasn't been easy. There has been luck involved, but your Virgo-style diligence and ingenuity has been crucial. I also predict that you will locate the door that the magic key will unlock. Now here’s my challenge: Please fulfill my two predictions no later than the solstice. To aid your search, meditate on this question: "What is the most important breakthrough for me to accomplish in the next six weeks?”
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Losing something we value may make us sad. It can cause us to doubt ourselves and wonder if we have fallen out of favor with the Fates or are somehow being punished by God. I’ve experienced deflations and demoralizations like that on far more occasions than I want to remember. And yet, I have noticed that when these apparent misfortunes have happened, they have often opened up space for new possibilities that would not otherwise have come my way. They have emptied out a corner of my imagination that becomes receptive to a fresh dispensation. I predict such a development for you, Libra.
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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
Register and/or log in through the main page.
The cost is $7 per sign online. (Discounts are available for bulk purchases.)
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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Kissing is always a worthy way to spend your leisure time, but I foresee an even finer opportunity in the coming weeks: magnificent kissing sprees that spur you to explore previously unplumbed depths of wild tenderness. On a related theme, it's always a wise self-blessing to experiment with rich new shades and tones of intimacy. But you are now eligible for an unusually profound excursion into these mysteries. Are you bold and free enough to glide further into the frontiers of fascinating togetherness?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) worked at a variety of jobs. He sold cloth. He was a land surveyor and bookkeeper. He managed the household affairs of his city’s sheriffs, and he supervised the city’s wine imports and taxation. Oh, by the way, he also had a hobby on the side: lensmaking. This ultimately led to a spectacular outcome. Leeuwenhoek created the world’s first high-powered microscope and was instrumental in transforming microbiology into a scientific discipline. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose we make him your inspirational role model in the coming months, Sagittarius. What hobby or pastime or amusement could you turn into a central passion?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I wonder if you weren't listened to attentively when you were a kid. And is it possible you weren't hugged enough or consistently treated with the tender kindness you deserved and needed? I'm worried there weren't enough adults who recognized your potential strengths and helped nurture them. But if you did indeed endure any of this mistreatment, dear Capricorn, I have good news. During the next 12 months, you will have unprecedented opportunities to overcome at least some of the neglect you experienced while young. Here's the motto you can aspire to: "It's never too late to have a fruitful childhood and creative adolescence."
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): As I've explored the mysteries of healing my traumas and disturbances over the past 20 years, I've concluded that the single most effective healer I can work with is my own body. Expert health practitioners are crucial, too, but their work requires my body's full, purposeful, collaborative engagement. The soft warm animal home I inhabit has great wisdom about what it needs and how to get what it needs and how to work with the help it receives from other healers. The key is to refine the art of listening to its counsel. It has taken me a while to learn its language, but I’m making good progress. Dear Aquarius, in the coming weeks, you can make great strides in developing such a robust relationship with your body.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Can we surmise what your life might be like as the expansive planet Jupiter rumbles through your astrological House of Connections and Communications during the coming months? I expect you will be even more articulate and persuasive than usual. Your ability to create new alliances and nurture old ones will be at a peak. By the way, the House of Communications and Connections is also the House of Education and Acumen. So I suspect you will learn a LOT during this time. It's likely you will be brainier and more perceptive than ever before. Important advice: Call on your waxing intelligence to make you wiser as well as smarter.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): All of us are always telling ourselves stories—in essence, making movies in our minds. We are the producer, the director, the special effects team, the voice-over narrator, and all the actors in these inner dramas. Are their themes repetitious and negative or creative and life-affirming? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to work on emphasizing the latter. If the tales unfolding in your imagination are veering off in a direction that provokes anxiety, reassert your directorial authority. Firmly and playfully reroute them so they uplift and enchant you.
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Homework: What’s the most fun experiment you could try right now? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
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Love! 🐬🌈