Sacred Activism Is . . .

a reverence for the divine and a passion for justice

I enjoy speaking to you about your personal struggle for liberation and your efforts to express your soul's code with ever-more ingenuity and completeness.

But I also like to shift the emphasis and address your sacred obligation to give back to life for all that life has given to you.

I hope to nudge you to ruminate on how you might engage in activities to help your community, heal the environment, and work for the benefit of those less fortunate than you.

There are, of course, selfish benefits for you to do so. Your long-term, personal well-being depends in part on your efforts to cultivate practical acts of compassion.

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DISSATISFIED RENEGADE AND EFFERVESCENT LOVER OF LIFE

Can you be a dissatisfied renegade and effervescent lover of life at the same time? Can you identify all the things that are wrong without losing your amused tolerance?    

I think you can. You’ll have few role models to draw from, though, so you’ll have to trust your intuition and the following advice: Be a happy bitch! A playful protester! A sweet-tempered complainer!     

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PAY HOMAGE TO THE BOTTOM

One of the best ways to stay on top is to keep paying homage to the bottom. So whenever you are in a position to harvest your good fortune, I suggest you express your gratitude for the painful experiences that have taught you how to thrive.

While basking in the glow of people’s praise and attention, recall the parts of you that are still unripe. When you come home after a day of radiant success, take out the garbage.

If you are wealthy and successful, be grateful and proud that the taxes you pay fund services for people less fortunate than you.

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HOW DIFFICULT ARE YOUR PROBLEMS?

You are not scrambling to survive in the rattled mass of bloody chaos that is South Sudan or Syria or the Congo.

You don’t have to walk five miles a day with a jug on your head to fetch the water you need.

You won’t be thrown in jail or sent to a work camp if you criticize your government.

Do you have a problem that seems almost as difficult to bear as those?

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IN PRAISE OF VIRTUE SIGNALING

Some rightwingers fling the clichéd term "virtue signaling" as if it were a bad thing. Personally, I am all in favor of virtue-signaling.

I love to see people making full-bodied expressions of how much they care and what they want to do to make the world a better place.

It's even fine with me if a part of their motivation is the desire to be loved by the rest of us virtue-signalers.

So yes, please feel free to flaunt your virtue-signaling in front of me. I will applaud and appreciate.

If for some reason you don't like my virtue-signaling, you have my authorization to go in search of people who who prefer to engage in vice-signaling and selfishness-signaling and I've-got-mine-and-fuck-the-rest-of-you sgnaling.

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MY BRAND OF MORALITY

I really do believe that my brand of morality is a superior form of morality to those whose morality consists of touting the holiness of guns and flags and money. Mine emphasizes caring for the well-being of people less fortunate than I and the beleaguered natural world and people who are hounded and victimized because they are Black, Brown, Asian, Jewish, LGBTQIA+ or women.

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SYNERGIZING YOUR GENIUS AND YOUR GIFT-GIVING

What if there's no contradiction between being your idiosyncratic self in love with your life and serving others with the best gifts you have to give?

What if exploring your inner world to activate your personal genius dovetails perfectly with fighting to recreate the soulless culture we're embedded in?

What if working on your own salvation makes you a more effective force in liberating others from their suffering?

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WHY TALK ABOUT POLITICS?

Nato Green says:

I have a lot to say about politics. Some people don't want to talk about politics.

They say, why do you got to talk about politics?

What do politics have to do with me?

I'm not an immigrant or a Black person or a Muslim or a Jew or a gay lesbian bisexual transgender or a woman or an old person or a young person or a student or a union member or artist or journalist or scientist or public employee.

I don’t breathe the air or drink the water. I don't live in a coastal region that will be affected by sea level rise or an arid region that would be affected by drought or fire.

I don't like chocolate, wine, or coffee or other commodities that will no longer be available due to climate change.

I'm not mentally ill, pregnant, disabled, or currently being shot at.

So what do politics have to do with me?

Wach Nato Green deliver this rap: https://tinyurl.com/NatoGreen

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WE MUST BE INTERESTED IN POLITICS

Novelist and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn observed,

“People often say, with pride, ‘I’m not interested in politics.’ They might as well say, ‘I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.’”

Gellhorn added, “If we mean to keep control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.”

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THERE IS ALWAYS SOME WAY TO HELP

There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well.

And while I don't expect you to save the world, I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.

—author Nikki Giovanni

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SELF-IMPROVEMENT AS A BASIS FOR ACTIVISM

I’m passionate about doing whatever I can to make the world a better place. How boring and sad it would be if I only thought of satisfying my personal needs.

But I also keep in mind Aldous Huxley’s words: “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”

Even if you have mad skills at healing and fixing everyone whose life you touch, Huxley’s reminder is good for you to honor. Sometimes the place most in need of transformation—and where you’re most likely to be successful—is within you.

Now here’s the trick ending: To the degree that you regenerate yourself, you will improve everyone around you. Your inner work will be contagious.

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REVERENT ACTS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history.

On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions.

Sacred activism is the fusion of the mystic’s passion for God with the activist’s passion for justice—creating a third fire, which is the burning sacred heart that longs to help, preserve, and nurture every living thing.

—author and philosopher Andrew Harvey

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Such power as I possess for working in the political field has derived from my experiments in the spiritual field.

―author and religious scholar Huston Smith

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Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don't go hungry, unschooled or sick without care.

Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth; justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance.

—author Bill Moyers

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DEFENSE AGAINST THE BRUTALITY OF PROFIT-DRIVEN CAPITALISM

In a time in which Communist regimes have been rightfully discredited and yet alternatives to neoliberal capitalist societies are unwisely dismissed, I defend the fundamental claim of Marxist theory: there must be countervailing forces that defend people's needs against the brutality of profit driven capitalism.

—author Cornel West

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RIGHTEOUS RAGE?

What's your relationship with anger and aggression and forceful energy? Are you skilled at harnessing those qualities so as to serve constructive goals?

Do you make them work for you in your efforts to change situations that need changing? Have you developed some mastery in your ability to fight fairly and wisely for the world you want to live in?

I hope so! The questions I just posed provide a reliable frame for evaluating your use of what astrology regards as the power of Mars: the fierce urge to defend and protect what you love; the strong-willed intention to create excellence and truth and justice and beauty; the determination to work tirelessly in behalf of your most noble and inspiring desires.

I bless your efforts to craft your share of the Mars force with grace and intelligence. I pray that you will be guided by your Higher Self and Guardian Angel to find glorious and effective ways to express this crucial aspect of your life force.

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“IF I CAN’T DANCE, I DON’T WANT TO BE IN YOUR REVOLUTION”

Emma Goldman (1869–1940) was a charismatic activist whose writing and speeches had a major impact on leftist politics in the first half of the 20th century.

Unlike some of her fellow travelers, she wasn’t a dour, dogmatic proselytizer. She championed a kind of liberation that celebrated beauty and joy. “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution,” she is alleged to have told a sourpuss colleague.

She’s a good role model. May she inspire you to infuse your transformations and uprisings with fun and funny elements.

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The urge to transform one's appearance, to dance outdoors, to mock the powerful, and embrace perfect strangers is not easy to suppress.

              —author Barbara Ehrenreich

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Black South Africans fought for 40 years to dismantle the oppressive system of apartheid. One of their most potent weapons was toyi-toyi, a militantly exuberant form of singing and dancing. It served to mobilize the energy of crowds at the large protest demonstrations that ultimately broke the will of the white minority rulers.

Imagine how confounded their authoritarian minds must have been when confronted by thousands of high-spirited activists passionately singing and dancing in unison.

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week beginning August 10

Copyright 2023 by Rob Brezsny

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Unless you are French, chances are you have never heard of Saint-John Perse (1887–1975). He was a renowned diplomat for the French government and a poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now he’s virtually unknown outside of his home country. Can we draw useful lessons for your use, Leo? Well, I suspect that in the coming months, you may very well come into greater prominence and wield more clout. But it’s crucial for the long-term health of your soul that during this building time, you are in service to nurturing your soul as much as your ego. The worldly power and pride you achieve will ultimately fade like Perse’s. But the spiritual growth you accomplish will endure forever.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique, and not too much imagination." Virgo author Christopher Isherwood said that. I'm offering his thought because I believe life will be spectacularly *not bad* for you in the coming weeks—whether or not you have a good physique. In fact, I'm guessing life will be downright enjoyable, creative, and fruitful. In part, that’s because you will be the beneficiary of a stream of luck. And in part, your gentle triumphs and graceful productiveness will unfold because you will be exceptionally imaginative.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "You know how crazy love can make you," write Mary D. Esselman and Elizabeth Ash Vélez in their book Love Poems for Real Life. "On any given day, you’re insanely happy, maniacally miserable, kooky with contentment, or bonkers with boredom—and that’s in a good relationship." They add, "You have to be a little nuts to commit yourself, body and soul, to one other person—one wonderful, goofy, fallible person—in the hope that happily-ever-after really does exist." The authors make good points, but their view of togetherness will be less than fully applicable to you in the coming months. I suspect life will bring you boons as you focus your intelligence on creating well-grounded, nourishing, non-melodramatic bonds with trustworthy allies.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "I don’t adopt anyone’s ideas—I have my own." So proclaimed Scorpio author Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883). Really, Ivan? Were you never influenced by someone else's concepts, principles, art, or opinions? The fact is that all of us live in a world created and shaped by the ideas of others. We should celebrate that wondrous privilege! We should be pleased we don't have to produce everything from scratch under our own power. As for you Scorpios reading this oracle, I urge you to be the anti-Turgenev in the coming weeks. Rejoice at how interconnected you are—and take full advantage of it. Treasure the teachings that have made you who you are. Sing your gratitude for those who have forged the world you love to live in. You now have the power to be an extraordinary networker.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The Tibetan term lenchak is often translated as “karmic debt.” It refers to the unconscious conditioning and bad old habits that attract us to people we would be better off not engaging. I will be bold and declare that sometime soon, you will have fully paid off a lenchak that has caused you relationship problems. Congrats! You are almost free of a long-running delusion. You don’t actually need an influence you thought you needed.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you’re like many of us, you have a set bathing routine. In the shower or bath, you start your cleansing process with one particular action, like washing your face, and go on to other tasks in the same sequence every time. Some people live most of their lives this way: following well-established patterns in all they do. I’m not criticizing that approach, though it doesn’t work for me. I need more unpredictability and variety. Anyway, Capricorn, I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will benefit from trying my practice. Have fun creating variations on your standard patterns. Enjoy being a novelty freak with the daily details.

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MY REQUEST TO YOU

DEAR READERS: I was born under the sign of Cancerian the Crab. One of the potential weaknesses of our tribe is that we can tend to be almost pathologically self-sufficient. Some of us may find it challenging to ask for help and support. In my continuing effort to overcome this inclination, I'm asking for your support!

If you would like to contribute to me and my ongoing work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter:

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If you’d rather make a one-time donation to me, visit my Virtual Tip Jar at Paypal: https://paypal.me/GiftsForRob

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You can also contribute to my well-being by buying the Expanded Audio Horoscopes and text-message daily horoscopes I create every week.

These forecasts are different from the written horoscopes I provide here.

They're available here: https://RealAstrology.com

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AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In July 1812, composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a 10-page love letter to a woman he called "My Angel" and "Immortal Beloved." He never sent it, and scholars are still unsure of the addressee's identity. The message included lines like "you — my everything, my happiness . . . my solace — my everything" and "forever thine, forever mine, forever us." I hope you will soon have sound reasons for composing your own version of an "Immortal Beloved" letter. According to my astrological analysis, it's time for your tender passion to fully bloom. If there's not a specific person who warrants such a message, write it to an imaginary lover.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): At age 32, artist Peter Milton realized the colors he thought he used in his paintings were different from what his viewers saw. He got his eyes tested and discovered he had color blindness. For example, what he regarded as gray with a hint of yellow, others perceived as green. Shocked, he launched an unexpected adjustment. For the next 40 years, all his paintings were black and white only. They made him famous and have been exhibited in major museums. I love how he capitalized on an apparent disability and made it his strength. I invite you to consider a comparable move in the coming months.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1 is a hollow globe of aluminum launched into Earth orbit in 1965. Fifty-eight years later, it continues to circle the planet—and is still doing the job it was designed to do. It enables ground-based radar devices to perform necessary calibrations. I propose we celebrate and honor the faithfulness of this magic sphere. May it serve as an inspiring symbol for you in the coming months. More than ever before, you have the potential to do what you were made to do—and with exceptional steadiness and potency. I hope you will be a pillar of inspiring stability for those you care about.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "Live as though you're living a second time and as though the first time you lived, you did it wrong, and now you're trying to do things right." Holocaust survivor and author Viktor Frankl offered this advice. I wouldn't want to adhere to such a demanding practice every day of my life. But I think it can be an especially worthwhile exercise for you in the coming weeks. You will have a substantial capacity to learn from your past; to prevent mediocre histories from repeating themselves; to escape the ruts of your habit mind and instigate fresh trends.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Jamie Zafron wrote an article titled "To Anyone Who Thinks They’re Falling Behind in Life." She says, "Sometimes you need two more years of life experience before you can make your masterpiece into something that will feel real and true and raw. Sometimes you’re not falling in love because whatever you need to know about yourself is only knowable through solitude. Sometimes you haven’t met your next collaborator. Sometimes your sadness encircles you because, one day, it will be the opus upon which you build your life." This is excellent advice for you in the coming months, dear Gemini. You’ll be in a phase of incubation, preparing the way for your Next Big Thing. Honor the gritty, unspectacular work you have ahead! It will pay off.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You’re entering a phase when you will generate maximum luck if you favor what’s short and sweet instead of what’s long and complicated. You will attract the resources you need if you identify what they are with crisp precision and do not indulge in fuzzy indecision. The world will conspire in your favor to the degree that you avoid equivocating. So please say precisely what you mean! Be a beacon of clear, relaxed focus!

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