We are so excited to be partnering with our friend Rob Brezsny, who has for years championed a positive approach to life through astrology. His weekly wisdom is sure to enlighten your thinking and motivate your mood with ‘PROnoia’ instead of paranoia. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column that appears in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)
MERCURY IS RETROGRADE from late on October 13 through November 3.
Mercury retrograde does not mean communication snafus are inevitable. Rather, it tells you this is a propitious time to refine the ways you exchange information . . . and to concentrate harder on saying what you mean and meaning what you say . . . and to meditate on how to improve the ways you connect yourself to the people and resources you need and like.
Some people say that when Mercury is retrograde, it’s a bad time to begin anything new. During one such period a few ago, an acquaintance of mine decided to delay accepting a dream job offer as editor of a magazine. By the time Mercury returned to “normal,” the magazine had hired another applicant. I wish I’d have known, because I would have told her what I’ll tell you: Some of America’s biggest, most enduring Fortune 500 companies began when Mercury was retrograde, including Disney, Goodyear, and Boeing. The fact that their founders had great success in launching them during Mercury retrograde is a telling statement about these phases.
In my understanding of astrology, there’s no such thing as a bad astrological aspect. It’s true that some may be more challenging than others, but every one of them presents an opportunity.
HEALING MANTRA for the Week:
“Freedom is in the unknown. If you believe there is an unknown everywhere, in your own body, in your relationships with other people, in political institutions, in the universe, then you have maximum freedom.” – philosopher John C. Lilly
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week beginning October 15, 2020
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“The hardest thing you will ever do is trust yourself,” says Libran journalist Barbara Walters. Really? I don’t think so. In my experience, the hardest thing to do is to consistently treat ourselves with the loving care we need to be mentally and physically healthy. But I do acknowledge that trusting ourselves is also an iffy task for many of us. And yet that’s often because we don’t habitually give ourselves the loving care we need to be healthy. How can we trust ourselves if we don’t put in the work necessary to ensure our vitality? But here’s the good news, Libra: In the coming weeks, you’re likely to be extra motivated and intuitively astute whenever you improve the way you nurture yourself.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“You can’t learn anything when you’re trying to look like the smartest person in the room,” writes author Barbara Kingsolver. That’s a useful message for you right now. Why? Because you will soon be exposed to teachings that could change your life for the better. And if you hope to be fully available for those teachings, you must be extra receptive and curious and open-minded—which means you shouldn’t try to seem like you already know everything you need to know.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
You Sagittarians periodically go through phases when you specialize in stirring up fresh intuitions. I mean, you’re always one of the zodiac’s Intuition Champions, but during these special times, your flow becomes an overflow. You have a knack for seeking and finding visions of the interesting future; you get excited by possibilities that are on the frontiers of your confidence. From what I can tell, your life in recent weeks has been bringing you these delights—and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Take maximum advantage. Aggressively gather in the gifts being offered by your inner teacher.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn chemist Tu YouYou doesn’t have a medical degree or PhD. Yet she discovered a treatment for malaria that has saved millions of lives. The drug was derived from an ancient herbal medicine that she spent years tracking down. In part because of her lack of credentials, she remained virtually unsung from the time she helped come up with the cure in 1977 until she won a Nobel Prize in 2015. What’s most unsung about your accomplishments, Capricorn? There’s a much better chance than usual that it will finally be appreciated in the coming months.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
“Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting,” says author Gregory David Roberts. If that’s true, I expect that a surge of luck will flow your way soon. According to my astrological analysis, fate has grown impatient waiting for you to take the actions that would launch your life story’s next chapter. Hopefully, a series of propitious flukes will precipitate the postponed but necessary transformations. My advice? Don’t question the unexpected perks. Don’t get in their way. Allow them to work their magic.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Have you formulated wily plans and crafty maneuvers to help you navigate through the labyrinthine tests and trials up ahead? I hope so. If you hope to solve the dicey riddles and elude the deceptive temptations, you’ll need to use one of your best old tricks—and come up with a new trick, as well. But please keep this important caveat in mind: To succeed, you won’t necessarily have to break the rules. It may be sufficient merely to make the rules more supple and flexible.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Would you be willing to meditate on how you might become more skilled in the arts of intimacy? Would you consider reading books and websites that offer guidance about strategies for being the best partner and ally you can be? Are you receptive to becoming more devoted to practicing empathy and deep listening? I’m not saying you’re deficient in these matters, nor am I implying that you need to improve your mastery of them any more than the rest of us. I simply want you to know that now is an especially favorable time for you to make progress.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Entre chien et loup is a French idiom that literally means “between dog and wolf.” It’s used to describe twilight or dusk, when the light is faint and it’s tough to distinguish between a dog and a wolf. But it may also suggest a situation that is a blend of the familiar and the unknown, or even a moment when what’s ordinary and routine is becoming unruly or wild. Entre chien et loup suggests an intermediary state that’s unpredictable or beyond our ability to define. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose you regard it as one of your main themes for now. Don’t fight it; enjoy it! Thrive on it!
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
For 34 years, the beloved American TV personality Mr. Rogers did a show for children. He’s now widely acknowledged as having been a powerful teacher of goodness and morality. Here’s a fun fact: His actual middle name was “McFeely.” I propose that you use that as a nickname for yourself. If McFeely doesn’t quite appeal to you, maybe try “Feel Maestro” or “Emotion Adept” or “Sensitivity Genius.” Doing so might help inspire you to fulfill your astrological assignment in the coming weeks, which is to allow yourself to experience more deep feelings than usual—and thereby enhance your heart intelligence. That’s crucial! In the coming weeks, your head intelligence needs your heart intelligence to be working at peak capacity.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
A blogger named Dr.LoveLlama writes, “You may think I am walking around the house with a blanket around my shoulders because I am cold, but in fact the ‘blanket’ is my cloak and I am on a fantasy adventure.” I approve of such behavior during our ongoing struggles with COVID-19, and I especially recommend it to you in the coming days. You’ll be wise to supercharge your imagination, giving it permission to dream up heroic adventures and epic exploits that you may or may not actually undertake someday. It’s time to become braver and more playful in the inner realms.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
According to author Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell, “The body has its own way of knowing, a knowing that has little to do with logic, and much to do with truth.” I recommend that you meditate on that perspective. Make it your keynote. Your physical organism always has wisdom to impart, and you can always benefit from tuning in to it—and that’s especially important for you right now. So let me ask you: How much skill do you have in listening to what your body tells you? How receptive are you to its unique and sometimes subtle forms of expression? I hope you’ll enhance your ability to commune with it during the next four weeks.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
In his fictional memoir Running in the Family, Virgo author Michael Ondaatje returns to Sri Lanka, the land where he spent his childhood, after many years away. At one point he enthuses that he would sometimes wake up in the morning and “just smell things for the whole day.” I’d love for you to try a similar experiment, Virgo: Treat yourself to a festival of aromas. Give yourself freely to consorting with the sensual joy of the world’s many scents. Does that sound frivolous? I don’t think it is. I believe it would have a deeply calming and grounding effect on you. It would anchor you more thoroughly in the here and now of your actual life, and inspire you to shed any fantasies that you should be different from who you are.
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com –CC license)
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