What Do You Want to Become?
What opportunities are disguised as challenges?
Who do you want to become in the coming months? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? Will there be opportunities disguised as challenges?
EXPLORE THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE
with my Expanded Audio Horoscopes for the Second Half of 2022.
How can you exert your free will to create adventures that'll bring out the best in you, even as you find graceful ways to cooperate with the tides of destiny?
To listen to my IN-DEPTH, LONG-TERM AUDIO FORECAST for YOUR LIFE during the next six months, go here, then register and/or sign in:
After you log in through the main page, click on the link "Long-Range Forecast for 2nd Half of 2022."
You can also listen to your short-term forecast for the coming week by clicking on "This week (July 5, 2022)."
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The Expanded Audio horoscopes cost $7 apiece. There are discounts for the purchase of multiple reports.
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MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS
Greetings. I am Master of the Obvious. I will start these proceedings by naming which institutions in our culture do bad and self-serving things: every one of them.
The institutions that do bad and self-serving things are corporations, religions, governments, the media, big science, medicine, the pharmaceuticals, academia, publishing, the film and art and music industries, the big tech companies, professional sports, and every other system I neglected to name.
Here's what we masters of the obvious do: Toward all the bad and self-serving institutions, we develop a discerning skepticism, based on accurate evidence. We criticize them. We do what we can to reform them. And we acknowledge that many of them also do some good and helpful things that we're grateful for.
So we go forward, holding in our minds a poised understanding of their contradictions, as intelligent fools do. We cultivate an awareness that everything on earth is flawed and imperfect, and that many imperfect and flawed things (not all) also have value and beneficence.
We meditate on the psychological concept of co-emergence, which postulates that every beautiful, useful thing is intertwined with some challenging problem; that every challenging problem has some inspiration and education to offer us.
We meditate on what my daughter said when she was five years old, "There's nothing in the world that is either all good or all bad."
Important PS: At this juncture, the Supreme Court is one of those pathologically ignorant and irredeemably flawed institutions that is utterly corrupt and unworthy of any respect—a rogue band of six authoritarian theocratic thugs perpetrating ruin and havoc on a mass scale. They are an exception to the rule I articulate here.
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words by Agatha Christie
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THOUGHT LEADERS
During the emergency chaos we are now embedded in because of the Theocratic Takeover, I highly recommend you regularly read two brilliant thought leaders:
Rebecca Solnit
https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.solnit
and
Heather Cox Richardson
https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson
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Rebecca Solnit writes:
The vile majority in the court likes:
--school prayer
--dirty fossil fuel
--guns, guns, guns, and guns
--the death penalty
Dislikes
--women's bodily self-determination
--addressing the climate crisis
--Native American jurisdiction on Native American land
--refugees and migrants
--prisoners' rights
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The Supreme Court’s six tyrannical theocrats are a threat to the planet: https://tinyurl.com/52mhf79t
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CULTURAL CRISIS
We are in a cultural emergency—as well as a life-and-death emergency for many people. Here's my compilation of abortion resources from last week: https://tinyurl.com/FightAndHeal
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PRONOIAC ANGER
Some readers have been surprised by the fact that I'm heartbroken and outraged about the Supreme Court's theft of a basic human right and its further desecration of the environment. "It's not pronoiac to be so sad and angry," one person said.
To correct that misunderstanding, here's a relevant passage from my book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia:
Pronoia is fueled by a drive to cultivate happiness and a determination to practice an aggressive form of gratitude that systematically identifies the things that are working well. But it is not a soothing diversion meant for timid Pollyannas strung out on optimistic delusions.
It's not a feel-good New Age fantasy used to deny the harsh facts about existence. Those of us who perceive the world pronoiacally refuse to be polite shills for sentimental hopefulness.
On the contrary, we build our optimism not through a repression of difficulty, but rather a vigorous engagement with it. We understand that the best way to attract blessings is to grapple with the knottiest enigmas.
Each fresh puzzle is a potential source of future bliss -- an exciting teaching that may usher us to our next breakthrough.
Do you want to be a pronoiac player? Blend anarchistic rebelliousness with open-hearted exuberance. Root your insurrectionary fervor in expansive joy instead of withering hatred.
Enjoy saying "no!" but don't make it the wellspring of your vitality. Be fueled by blood-red yeses that rip against the grain of comfortable ugliness.
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Listen to my spoken-word song, "Shadow Blessings":
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YOUR HEALING POWER
Here’s a fun hypothesis: Absolutely everyone in the world has the power to heal someone else.
At one end of the spectrum are the doctors and shamans and therapists who can summon the means to cure lots of people.
At the other end are individuals with the power to improve the health or smooth out the distortions in just one other person.
Wherever you fit in this range, you can decide right now that your healing mojo is now at a peak. I invite you to invoke it in all of its intensity and point it in the direction of whomever can benefit.
At this moment of grave crises, we need you.
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YES, There Are Important Differences between the Two Main Political Parties
and
YES, Voting Is a Matter of Life and Death for a Lot of People.
Didn't vote in 2000, or decided that Earth-in-the-Balance Al Gore wasn't green enough?
George Bush picked two Supreme Court justices.
Didn't vote in the 2010 or 2014 midterms?
That helped throw the Senate to the Republicans so they could steal Scalia's seat.
Didn't vote in 2016, or just didn't like corporate Hillary and her emails?
Trump picked three terrible goons to be Supreme Court justices.
Now the Supreme Court is putting a Christian Fascist Theocracy in place and does what the coal industry wants.
We had many, many chances to stop this.
The evidence is overwhelming: Voting is actually a matter of life and death.
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REAL CHRISTIANS
As we reel from the tragic actions of the fake Christians who have seized control of the Supreme Court, let’s remember and celebrate the justice-loving Christians who've embodied Jesus Christ's actual teachings as they've worked in behalf of progressive ideals:
including Harriet Tubman
César Chávez
Martin Luther King Jr.
the Berrigan Brothers
Archbishop Oscar Romero
Dorothy Day
Ralph Abernathy
Sojourner Truth
Fred Shuttlesworth
Desmond Tutu
Kim Bobo
Frederick Douglass
Thomas Merton
Sister Joan Chittister
Anna Howard Shaw
Frances Willard
Helen Keller
and John Lewis . . .
. . . all of whom are REAL Christians who cared about poor and marginalized people, unlike evangelicals and fundamentalists, who are the antithesis of everything Christ taught
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Jesus's ministry brought women greater liberation than they would have typically held in mainstream society.
Jesus taught that, in the imminent kingdom of God, there would be a reversal of roles and those who had been oppressed would be exalted.
According to Bart Ehrman, this idea would have been particularly appealing and empowering to women of the time, such as Mary Magdalene, who may have felt oppressed by traditional attitudes to gender roles.
—Bart D. Ehrman, Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend
—Michael Haag, The Quest For Mary Magdalene: History & Legend
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PRONOIAC RESOURCES:
Evanston, Illinois Is the First City to Offer Reparations to Black Residents. In “an extraordinarily commendable first step,” families whose descendants experienced housing discrimination can receive $25,000. https://tinyurl.com/b8cwwmx2
World’s Biggest Four-Day Work Week Experiment Begins. Thousands of British workers are about to start clocking out a little earlier. https://tinyurl.com/y8uz6yes
How Fog Nets Are Making Water Abundant in Arid Africa – And May Be Useful in California. https://tinyurl.com/mry596sm
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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
The hard-copy book is available at Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/548hp8y8
Available at Powells: https://bit.ly/PowellsPronoia
Available at Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/PronoiaBN
Available at Amazon: https://bit.ly/Pronoia
A free preview of the book is available here: https://tinyurl.com/PronoiaPreview
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning July 7
Copyright 2022 by Rob Brezsny
CANCER (June 21-July 22): As a child, Cancerian author June Jordan said, "I used to laugh all the time. I used to laugh so much and so hard in church, in school, at the kitchen table, on the subway! I used to laugh so much my nose would run and my eyes would tear and I just couldn't stop." That's an ideal I invite you to aspire to in the coming days. You probably can't match Jordan's plenitude, but do your best. Why? The astrological omens suggest three reasons: 1. The world will seem funnier to you than it has in a long time. 2. Laughing freely and easily is the most healing action you can take right now. 3. It's in the interests of everyone you know to have routines interrupted and disrupted by amusement, delight, and hilarity.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In accordance with the astrological omens, here's your assignment for the next three weeks: Love yourself more and more each day. Unleash your imagination to come up with new reasons to adore and revere your unique genius. Have fun doing it. Laugh about how easy and how hard it is to love yourself so well. Make it into a game that brings you an endless stream of amusement. PS: Yes, you really are a genius—by which I mean you are an intriguing blend of talents and specialties that is unprecedented in the history of the human race.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Novelist Lydia Peelle writes, "The trouble was, I knew exactly what I wasn't. I just didn't know who I was." We all go through similar phases, in which we are highly aware of what we don't want, don't like, and don't seek to become. They are like negative grace periods that provide us with valuable knowledge. But it's crucial for us to also enjoy periods of intensive self-revelation about what we do want, what we do like, and what we do seek to become. In my astrological estimation, you Virgos are finished learning who you're not, at least for now. You're ready to begin an era of finding out much, much more about who you are.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You need the following experiences at least once every other day during the next 15 days: a rapturous burst of unexpected grace; a gentle eruption of your strong willpower; an encounter with inspiration that propels you to make some practical improvement in your life; a brave adjustment in your understanding of how the world works; a sacrifice of an OK thing that gives you more time and energy to cultivate a really good thing.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): This might sound like an unusual assignment, but I swear it's based on two unimpeachable sources: research by scientists and my many years of analyzing astrological data. Here's my recommendation, Scorpio: In the coming weeks, spend extra time watching and listening to wild birds. Place yourself in locations where many birds fly and perch. Read stories about birds and talk about birds. Use your imagination to conjure up fantasies in which you soar alongside birds. Now read this story about how birds are linked to happiness levels: tinyurl.com/BirdBliss
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In accordance with current astrological omens, I have four related suggestions for you. 1. Begin three new projects that are seemingly beyond your capacity and impossible to achieve with your current levels of intelligence, skill, and experience—and then, in the coming months, accomplish them anyway. 2. Embrace optimism for both its beauty and its tactical advantages. 3. Keep uppermost in mind that you are a teacher who loves to teach and you are a student who loves to learn. 4. Be amazingly wise, be surprisingly brave, be expansively visionary—and always forgive yourself for not remembering where you left your house keys.
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BRAINSTORM ABOUT THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE
with my Expanded Audio Horoscopes for the Second Half of 2022.
In the coming months, what areas of your life are likely to receive unexpected assistance and divine inspiration?
Where are you likely to find most success?
How can you best cooperate with the cosmic rhythms?
What questions should you be asking?
To hear my LONG-TERM AUDIO FORECAST, register and/or sign in here:
After you log in through the main page, click on the link "Long-Range Forecast for 2nd Half of 2022."
You can also listen to your short-term forecast for the coming week by clicking on "This week (July 5, 2021)."
The horoscopes cost $7 apiece. Discounts are available for multiple purchases.
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"Your audio horoscopes are somehow both a balm for my soul and a call to action. How do you do that?"
—David G., Coral Gables, FL
"Your audio horoscopes fill in the gaps in my imagination. They wake up the fun plot twists that have been just on the tip of my ability to visualize."
—Ani Kraft, Brattleboro, VT
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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you ever wanted to use the Urdu language to advance your agendas for love and romance, here's a list of endearments you could use: 1 jaan-e-man (heart's beloved); 2. humraaz (secret-sharer; confidante); 3. pritam (beloved); 4. sona (golden one); 5. bulbul (nightingale); 6. yaar (friend/lover); 7. natkhat (mischievous one). Even if you're not inclined to experiment with Urdu terms, I urge you to try innovations in the way you use language with your beloved allies. It's a favorable time to be more imaginative in how you communicate your affections.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Author John Berger described birch trees as "pliant" and "slender." He said that "if they promise a kind of permanence, it has nothing to do with solidity or longevity—as with an oak or a linden—but only with the fact that they seed and spread quickly. They are ephemeral and recurring—like a conversation between earth and sky." I propose we regard the birch tree as your personal power symbol in the coming months. When you are in closest alignment with cosmic rhythms, you will express its spirit. You will be adaptable, flexible, resourceful, and highly communicative. You will serve as an intermediary, a broker, and a go-between.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): People who don't know much about astrology sometimes say that Pisceans are wishy-washy. That's a lie. The truth is, Pisceans are not habitually lukewarm about chaotic jumbles of possibilities. They are routinely in love with the world and its interwoven mysteries. On a regular basis, they feel tender fervor and poignant awe. They see and feel how all life's apparent fragments knit together into a luminous bundle of amazement. I bring these thoughts to your attention because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to relish these superpowers of yours—and express them to the max.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): My readers and I have collaborated to provide insights and inspirations about the topic "How to Be an Aries." Below is an amalgam of my thoughts and theirs—advice that will especially apply to your life in the coming days. 1. If it's easy, it's boring. —Beth Prouty. 2. If it isn't challenging, do something else. —Jennifer Blackmon Guevara. 3. Be confident of your ability to gather the energy to get unstuck, to instigate, to rouse—for others as well as yourself. 4. You are a great initiator of ideas and you are also willing to let go of them in their pure and perfect forms so as to help them come to fruition. 5. When people don't get things done fast enough for you, be ready and able to DO IT YOURSELF.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I know three people who have told me, "I don't like needing anyone for anything." They fancy themselves to be rugged individualists with impeccable self-sufficiency. They imagine they can live without the help or support of other humans. I don't argue with them; it's impossible to dissuade anyone with such a high level of delusion. The fact is, we are all needy beings who depend on a vast array of benefactors. Who built our houses, grew our food, sewed our clothes, built the roads, and create the art and entertainment we love? I bring this up, Taurus, because now is an excellent time for you to celebrate your own neediness. Be wildly grateful for all the things you need and all the people who provide them. Regard your vigorous interdependence as a strength, not a weakness.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Bounce up and down when you walk. Express 11 different kinds of laughs. Be impossible to pin down or figure out. Relish the openings that your restlessness spawns. Keep changing the way you change. Be easily swayed and sway others easily. Let the words flowing out of your mouth reveal to you what you think. Live a dangerous life in your daydreams but not in real life. Don't be everyone's messenger, but be the messenger for as many people as is fun for you. If you have turned out to be the kind of Gemini who is both saintly and satanic, remember that God made you that way—so let God worry about it.
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Homework: Take a specific action to diminish the sadness you feel about your number one regret. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright 2022 Rob Brezsny
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Thank you so, so much for writing about our precarious situation. As Heather Cox Richardson has been saying, we are on the knife edge - will we have a democracy or autocracy. Thanks for including links to Solnit and Richardson. Thanks for clearly specifying what not voting has brought us. As an American by choice, I'm beyond sad and scared to see what this country has become and where it seems headed; I don't understand the (to me, childish, self indulgent) choice not to vote. How many have died so we could continue to choose who governs us? And thank you for clarifying that you don't advocate for inappropriate happiness - that happiness is the outcome of the right actions.
Hi, You might be interested in this interview with Krista Tippett:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/05/magazine/krista-tippett-interview.html