You Can Re-Genius Yourself
The Healing You Need May Be More Available Than You Imagine
Who are the people in your life who've helped make you real to yourself?
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
GO WITH THE FLOW
When they say "Go with the flow," what "flow" are they talking about? Do they mean the flow of your early childhood conditioning? The flow of your friends' opinions? The latest cultural trends? Your immediate instinctual needs?
When they say "Go with the flow," are they urging you to keep doing what's easiest to do and what will win you the most ego points, even if it keeps you from being true to your soul's code?
Consider the possibility that there are many flows to go with, but only one of them is correct for you. Do you know which one?
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
TORRENTIAL PRONOIA THERAPY
Experiments and exercises in becoming a blasphemously reverent, lustfully compassionate, eternally changing Master of Transgressive Beauty
1. Is the world a dangerous, chaotic place with no inherent purpose, running on automatic like a malfunctioning machine and fundamentally inimical to your drive to find meaning? Or are you surrounded by helpers in a friendly, enchanted universe that gives you challenges in order to make you smarter and wilder and kinder and trickier?
Trick questions! The answers may depend, at least to some degree, on what you believe is true.
Formulate a series of experiments that will allow you to objectively test the hypothesis that the universe is conspiring to help dissolve your ignorance and liberate you from your suffering.
+
2. The primary meaning of the word "healing" is "to cure what's diseased or broken."
Medical practitioners focus on sick people.
Philanthropists donate their money and social workers contribute their time to helping the underprivileged.
Psychotherapists wrestle with their clients' traumas and neuroses.
I'm in awe of them all. The level of one's spiritual wisdom, I believe, is more accurately measured by helping people in need than by meditation skills, shamanic shapeshifting, supernatural powers, or esoteric knowledge.
But I also believe in a second kind of healing that is largely unrecognized: to supercharge what is already healthy; to lift up what's merely sufficient to a sublime state.
Using this definition, describe two acts of healing: one you would enjoy performing on yourself and another you'd like to provide for someone you love.
+
3. Are other people luckier than you? If so, psychologist Richard Wiseman says you can do something about it. His book The Luck Factor presents research that proves you can learn to be lucky.
It's not a mystical force you're born with, he says, but a habit you can develop.
How? For starters, be open to new experiences, trust your gut wisdom, expect good fortune, see the bright side of challenging events, and master the art of maximizing serendipitous opportunities.
Name three specific actions you'll try in order to improve your luck.
+
4. What is the holiest river in the world? Some might say the Ganges in India. Others would propose the Jordan River or the River Nile. But I say the holiest river is the one that's closest to where you are right now.
Go to that river and commune with it. Throw a small treasure into it as an offering. Next, find a holy sidewalk to walk on, praise the holiness in a bus driver, kiss a holy tree, and shop at a holy store.
+
5. "Creativity is like driving a car at night," said E. L. Doctorow. "You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
I would add that life itself is like driving a car at night. You're often in the dark except for what's right in front of you. At least that's usually the case.
But for a few shining hours sometime while you're communing with this book, I predict you'll be able to see the big picture of where you're headed.
It will be as if the whole world is suddenly illuminated by a prolonged burst of light; as if you're both driving your car and also watching your journey from high above. Write about what you see.
+
6. To many people, "sacrifice" is a demoralizing word that connotes deprivation.
Is that how you feel? Do you make sacrifices because you're forced to, or maybe because your generosity prompts you to incur a loss in order to further a good cause?
Originally, "sacrifice" had a different meaning: to give up something valuable in order that something even more valuable might be obtained.
Carry out an action that embodies this definition. For instance, sacrifice a mediocre pleasure so as to free yourself to pursue a more exalted pleasure.
+
7. Those who explore pronoia often find they have a growing capacity to help people laugh at themselves. While few arbiters of morality recognize this skill as a mark of high character, I put it near the top of my list.
In my view, inducing people to take themselves less seriously is a supreme virtue. Do you have any interest in cultivating it? How might you go about it?
+
8 "Two chemicals called actin and myosin evolved eons ago to allow the muscles in insect wings to contract and relax," writes Deepak Chopra in The Book of Secrets. "Today, the same two proteins are responsible for the beating of the human heart."
If you use your imagination, you can sense the connection between the flight of a dragonfly and the intelligent organ that renews its commitment to keeping you alive every second of your life. So use your imagination.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A SPELL TO RE-GENIUS YOURSELF
Although we are all born geniuses, the grind of day-to-day living tends to de-genius us. That's the bad news. The good news is that you have the power to re-genius yourself.
Here's a link to a ritual you can use to jump-start the process: https://bit.ly/ReGeniusYourself
Excerpt:
Gaze upward and stretch your arms out high. Say the following: "I am a genius."
Put your arms out to the side, parallel to the ground with palms up, and say this: "I am a lucky, plucky genius."
Swing your arms back and forth from behind you to in front of you as you say this: "I am a lucky, plucky, good-sucking genius."
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Almost More Good Luck Than You Can Bear
The rise of modernity served many extraordinary purposes: the rise of democracy; the banishing of slavery; the emergence of liberal feminism; the differentiation of art and science and morality; the widespread emergence of empirical sciences; an increase in average life span of almost three decades; the introduction of relativity and perspectivism in art and morals and science; the move from ethnocentric to worldcentric morality; and the undoing of dominator social hierarchies."
—Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
IS YOUR SOUL READY?
The soul should always stand ajar,
That if the heaven inquire,
He will not be obliged to wait,
Or shy of troubling her.
—Emily Dickinson
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
"The psychic health of an individual resides in the capacity to recognize and welcome the 'Other,'" writes poet and translator Rosanna Warren.
"Our word 'idiot' comes from the Greek diotes, whose primary sense is of privacy or isolation."
With this warning, Warren builds her case for the virtues of reading literature that has been translated from its native tongue.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
INCREASING FEMALE EDUCATION LEVELS
"There is a strong current of thought in the field of development economics that the single most important factor in improving a variety of outcomes in the developing world—whether it be overpopulation, economic growth, violence against women, public health—is increasing female education levels."
—Andrew Leonard, Salon.com
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
GIFTS
If you'd like to donate to my well-being:
1. 1. Visit my Gift Page — https://paypal.me/GiftsForRob — and contribute to me via the "Send to someone you trust" option.
2. You can also contribute by buying the Expanded Audio Horoscopes I create every week. These forecasts are different from the written horoscopes I provide here.
They're my four- to five-minute-long ruminations about the current chapter of your life story. They're available at https://RealAstrology.com
3. I also write daily horoscopes, available as text messages sent to your phone. They're shorter than the weekly 'scopes, but more frequent. You can get these regular bursts of inspiration for 67 cents a day if you sign up for a subscription.
Go to https://RealAstrology.com . Register or log in. On the new page, click on "Subscribe / Renew" under "Daily Text Message Horoscopes" in the right-hand column.
4 Commit to offering me a regular donation through my Patreon page at https://Patreon.com/FreeWillAstrology
5. Finally, 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 21 years, and I will continue to do so for the next 21 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.
Sign up here: Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
+
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.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
After Using Tools, Crows are Happier and Behave More Optimistically: ‘The pleasure of accomplishment’. https://tinyurl.com/32xkvyap
Solar Microgrids Bring Power to 80,000 in Sierra Leone, Some of Whom Have Gone Without for 60 Years, https://tinyurl.com/57pph4u4
Earliest Prehistoric Art Discovered –And it Turns Out to Be Hand Prints Made by Children 170,000 Years Ago. https://tinyurl.com/2ffebj44
+
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 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
+
Please tell me your own nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES: Truthrooster@gmail.com.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning December 2
Copyright 2021 by Rob Brezsny
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "All my days I have longed equally to travel the right road and to take my own errant path," wrote Norwegian-Danish novelist Sigrid Undset. I think she succeeded in doing both. She won a Nobel Prize for Literature. Her trilogy about a 14th-century Norwegian woman was translated into 80 languages. I conclude that for her—as well as for you in the coming weeks and months—traveling the right road and taking your own errant path will be the same thing.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author Susan Sontag unleashed a bizarre boast, writing, "One of the healthiest things about me—my capacity to survive, to bounce back, to prosper—is intimately connected with my biggest neurotic liability: my facility in disconnecting from my feelings." Everything about her statement makes me scream NO! I mean, I believe this coping mechanism worked for her; I don't begrudge her that. But as a student of psychology and spirituality, I know that disconnecting from feelings is, for most of us, the worst possible strategy if we want to be healthy and sane. And I will advise you to do the opposite of Sontag in the coming weeks. December is Stay Intimately Connected with Your Feelings Month.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In some small towns in the Philippines, people can be punished and fined for gossiping. Some locals have become reluctant to exchange tales about the sneaky, sexy, highly entertaining things their neighbors are doing. They complain that their freedom of speech has been curtailed. If you lived in one of those towns, I'd advise you to break the law in the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, dynamic gossip should be one of your assets. Staying well-informed about the human comedy will be key for your ability to thrive.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "Originality consists in thinking for yourself, and not in thinking unlike other people," wrote Piscean author James Fitzjames Stephen (1829–1894). Another way to say it: Being rebellious is not inherently creative. If you primarily define yourself by rejecting and reacting against someone's ideas, you are being controlled by those ideas. Please keep this in mind, dear Pisces. I want you to take full advantage of your astrological potential during the next 12 months, which is to be absolutely original. Your perceptions and insights will be unusually lucid if you protect yourself from both groupthink and a compulsive repudiation of groupthink.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): It's a favorable time to get excited about your long-range future—and to entertain possibilities that have previously been on the edges of your awareness. I'd love to see you open your heart to the sweet dark feelings you've been sensing, and open your mind to the disruptive but nourishing ideas you need, and open your gut to the rumbling hunches that are available. Be brave, Aries! Strike up conversations with the unexpected, the unknown, and the undiscovered.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A Tumblr blogger named Evan (lotad.tumblr.com) addressed a potential love interest. "Do you like sleeping, because so do I," he wrote. "We should do it together sometime." You might want to extend a similar invitation, Taurus. Now is a ripe time for you to interweave your subconscious mind with the subconscious mind of an ally you trust. The two of you could generate extraordinary healing energy for each other as you lie together, dozing in the darkness. Other recommended activities: meditating together; fantasizing together; singing together; making spiritual love together. (PS: If you have no such human ally, sleep and meditate with a beloved animal or imaginary friend.)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
PRAYERS FOR YOU
An interviewer once asked me if there's any special ritual I do before writing my weekly horoscopes. I told her that I say a prayer in which I affirm my desire to provide you with these three services:
1. that what I create will be of practical use to you;
2. that it will help you cultivate your relationship with your inner teacher;
3. that it will inspire you to tap into and use the substantial freedom you have to create the life you want.
If you ever want more inspiration generated in that same spirit -- beyond the horoscopes you're reading here -- keep in mind that every week I also create EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for you. 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 $6 per sign online. (Discounts are available for bulk purchases.)
+
"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
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Chuck Klosterman writes, "It's far easier to write why something is terrible than why it's good." That seems to be true for many writers. However, my life's work is in part a rebellion against doing what's easy. I don't want to chronically focus on what's bad and sick and desolate. Instead, I aspire to devote more of my energy to doing what Klosterman implies is hard, which is to write sincerely (but not naively) about the many things that are good and redemptive and uplifting. In light of your current astrological omens, Gemini, I urge you to adopt my perspective for your own use in the next three weeks. Keep in mind what philosopher Robert Anton Wilson said: "An optimistic mindset finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable."
CANCER (June 21-July 22): An organization in Turkey decided to construct a new building to house its workers. The Saruhanbey Knowledge, Culture, and Education Foundation chose a plot in the city of Manisa. But there was a problem. A three-centuries-old pine tree stood on the land. Local authorities would not permit it to be cut down. So architects designed a building with spaces and holes that fully accommodated the tree. I recommend you regard this marvel as a source of personal inspiration in the coming weeks and months. How could you work gracefully with nature as you craft your future masterpiece or labor of love? How might you work around limitations to create useful, unusual beauty?
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author Melissa Broder wrote a preposterous essay in which she ruminated, "Is fake love better than real love? Real love is responsibility, compromise, selflessness, being present, and all that shit. Fake love is magic, excitement, false hope, infatuation, and getting high off the potential that another person is going to save you from yourself." I will propose, Leo, that you bypass such ridiculous thinking about love in the coming weeks and months. Here's why: There's a strong chance that the real love at play in your life will feature magic and excitement, even as it requires responsibility, compromise, selflessness, and being present.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo author Andre Dubus III describes times when "I feel stupid, insensitive, mediocre, talentless and vulnerable—like I'm about to cry any second—and wrong." That sounds dreadful, right? But it's not dreadful for him. Just the opposite. "I've found that when that happens," he concludes, "it usually means I’m writing pretty well, pretty deeply, pretty rawly." I trust you will entertain a comparable state sometime soon, Virgo. Even if you're not a writer, the bounty and fertility that emerge from this immersion in vulnerability will invigorate you beyond what you can imagine.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get 22." Author Dashiell Hammett said that, and now I'm passing it on to you—just in time for a phase of your cycle when putting two and two together will probably not bring four, but rather 22 or some other irregularity. I'm hoping that since I've given you a heads-up, it won't be a problem. On the contrary. You will be prepared and will adjust faster than anyone else—thereby generating a dose of exotic good fortune.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In her poem "Is/Not," Scorpio poet Margaret Atwood tells a lover, "You are not my doctor, you are not my cure, nobody has that power, you are merely a fellow traveler." I applaud her for stating an axiom I'm fond of, which is that no one, not even the person who loves you best, can ever be totally responsible for fixing everything wrong in your life. However, I do think Atwood goes too far. On some occasions, certain people can indeed provide us with a measure of healing. And we must be receptive to that possibility. We shouldn't be so pathologically self-sufficient that we close ourselves off from tender help. One more thing: Just because that help may be imperfect doesn't mean it's useless and should be rejected.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Homework: I invite you to send me your holiday wish list. What do you want? What do you need? https://Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
NEED TO CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?
To join or leave the email list for this newsletter, or to change the address where you receive it, go to:
If my newsletters don't reach your inbox, look in your "Bulk Mail" or "Junk Mail" folder.
P.S. I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your address to anyone.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter or in response to "homework assignments" may be published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion, including but not limited to newsletters, books, the Free Will Astrology column, and Free Will Astrology website. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, style, and content.
Requests for anonymity will be honored. We are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative material.
Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright 2021 Rob Brezsny
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +