Free Will Astrology : Beauty & Truth Lab


	Prayer for You Pronoia Therapy Prayer Warriors Standing By Listen to Rob's Expanded Audio Horoscopes, updated weekly.	Tinted Vertebrate Olfactoids By newsletter editor Gretchen Giles Rob recently met with a hard-nosed creative type who needed serious answers to a set of very serious questions. What color, she demanded, is Free Will Astrology? If it were an animal, she strictly queried, which species would it be? Should Free Will Astrology be so fortunate to offer a scent, she sniffed, what smell would arise? Sheesh. Well and um. We were happily stumped. And so we did what any Well-Ummers might do: We asked you to answer these for us. And my, what a wonderful lot of yummy goodness you returned with! Here's a sampling of our newsletter reader's responses. Thanks a big large bunch for the good fun! "I can tell you what Free Will Astrology is not," JAQUITH writes with assurance. "It is not tall and straight, with square shoulders and a stiff walk. It is not gray or taupe or black although there is black in it. It does not carry war guns, but may blast a can or two in a sunlit field after downing what was inside the cans. It does not have a red neck, thick and fat and sturdy and short, that protrudes out of a dirty white collar or broad, muscled shoulders. Its voice is raucous, but not harsh; brash, but not brutish; disciplined in its excesses not in rigidity. . . . Free Will Astrology crawls, flies, caws, crows, growls, grins, goofs off. It is a zoo without bars or cages, or perhaps it is a zoo complete with bars and cages in a world that would bar and cage ideas that don't conform, feelings that don't compute, steps that don't fall into a march with the other steppers." RON reasons, "Well, I think FWA is bright yellow, but that's probably because I look at the Web site every week. But I also think that it's a duck -- an amazingly adaptable creature equally at home on land, in the water, and in the air - - that smells like fresh pepper straight out of the grinder, because Rob gives us the seeds and we have to do our own work, turning the crank, to add them to our plate." And JAMIE writes, "Color: Soothing yet intriguingly sparkly turquoise. Animal: Very long, sinewy, silky-skinned snake with a head at each end. Smell: Warm baking yeast and chocolate." "Free Will Astrology is pink," muses ROSENDA, "a nice pale pleasant pink with a drop of loving chartreuse and fuschia in it, even if you can't see it. If it were an animal, it would be a cross between a cat and a rabbit: One nice and fluffy and independent and the other content to be nice and fluffy and hop around gleefully all day, and it would smell like that nice pink flowery green scent of that cool fragrance by Annick Goutal, Eau d' Hadrien. You know what that smells like?" "It is obvious, upon reflection, and timely, too, that Freewill Astrology smells like Thanksgiving dinner (turkey and stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc.)," sniffs EMG, "with just a hint of 'your house is on fire.' The smell evokes immeasurable comfort as it incites action. A phoenix rising up from the ash is the animal that represents FWA, as it causes readers (or listeners) again and again to re-birth themselves. Free Will Astrology is the color of pomegranates causing us to sink to Hades and return to the Spring/abundance of our lives and take joy in that returning." But it just keeps getting better. . . . KIYOTESONG responds, "FWA is the color of grass before someone tells you it's green; the sky before someone tells you blue; all the colors in the rainbow before someone mixes rainbows and leprechauns together. It's the color of 'wonder', as in 'I wonder what to call that soft tickly warm life under my feet, and what exactly is that expansive awesome vault over my head, the one that goes on forever and ever, filled with fantastical arches like bridges of shimmering light to Someplace Else.' FWA is kind of like the dog that taught me to walk -- to me it was simply a great black beast with legs and a broad warm back, something that was more present and dependable in my life than any two-legged animal. I could lay on it or hang on to the furry side for dear life as it walked slowly and carefully by my side, never once whimpering or snapping whenever I pulled too hard. And the smell of FWA -- at once randy and musky like the Capricorn's goat, full of life, mischief and tin cans and someone's payroll check, sort of earthy like great expanses of cattle ranch and wheat fields, and sort of transcendental like a freshly opened package of Nag Champa incense, you know the one that comes in the blue and white box with spindly, splintery sticks." And AIMEE considers that, "FWA is an ultra-violet eagle wafting the rose-tinged scent of the winds of change. . . ." "A Portuguese Man/Woman-O-War-for-Good, of course," snorts ADRIANNE, adding, "any color you want, but definitely mutable!" And LORI thinks that "the color of FWA would have to be the rainbow, as [Rob and his] wisdom are as diverse as the many specters of a rainbow, and I feel like FWA would be a tiger attacking all of Earth's problems and then after having eaten all the bad, lies back contently and enjoys the full belly! Lastly, I think FWA's smell would be a combination of tall grass just cut and the hint of rain to come as you are one with the Earth always." KG responds, "FWA is striped in three colors. It's too complex to be one color, and stripes are more fun anyway. FWA's stripes are an exotic Prussian Blue, a deep, sultry burgundy, and a wild and free huntress green, in decidedly different diagonal directions like a plaid from a parallel universe. In the animal kingdom, FWA is a beloved housecat -- beautiful, warm, soft and furry, always loving and sweet, yet a good mouser, and exceptionally clever. . . . FWA smells like the pecan shortbread cookies with a good-sized whiff of vanilla that my Grandma Elena always made over the winter holidays. Unlike Grandma Elena's pecan balls, FWA is available year-round and won't make your clothes too tight if you have it every week. . . . If FWA made a sound, (as I musician, I would of course want to know what it sounds like) it would sound like both a Gibson Les Paul and Fender Telecaster jamming with a violin, viola, harpsichord, Uillean pipes, a treble recorder, and tambourine." VINCE briefly checks in with his list, writing: "Color: Deep blue greened with accents of hot pink and burning red. Animal: I dunno, but sometimes it sounds like a humpback whale. Smell: Like deep ocean when you sink in, like lilacs when you rise." DANIELLE thoughtfully supposes that FWA is "Purple of course -- the colour of spiritual energy and wisdom being channeled through you, filtered down to us through the crown chakra so our own truth mingles with the greater truth of our fellow co- conSPIRITors. What animal is FWA? A bird (what sort, I'm unclear on -- just not a caged one). Birds ride the winds of change, gliding gracefully on the air currents. They are free and migratory during certain seasons, and are nesters during others. They can also be messengers. What smell is FWA? I would have to say a flower scent such as lilac, lavender or jasmine. I am told that each master has a scent and I believe some of these scents carry the energy of love, compassion, and beauty. It would be a combination of these that I would associate with FWA." LUCYSKY sees the color as being "pink, as in Pink Farm, as in reclaim the feminine color for all to use, as in hearts of compassion and caring, as in exposed and raw and new." The animal as "a cat -- both the love bug and the hunter -- claws in and out, the yin and the yang all rolled into one. And smells, "a breath of fresh air like the warm wind wafting over, lifting the hair -- the feeling of free." And CATTAILS whips out that "FWA is colored a soft pink, for its warmth and encouragement. As an animal, it's a rat, for its intelligence and sociability. And FWA smells like the air after a thunderstorm, for its head clearing and thought-provoking abilities." SYLVIE from Australia believes that "FWA is a shimmering, rainbow-coloured butterfly, a pure embodiment of Beauty and Truth, as it flutters on a breeze of bergamot, ylang-ylang and hints of exotic vanilla." Um, yum! REV. STEVE sees FWA as a lion, and picks as a color the "multicolored gem stone the OPAL. For me it defines not only my beliefs about life as a blending and compromise of all the colors we are in the universe, but it describes you, for me as all colors infused, yet often recognizable in the Cosmos." And finally, as a scent, he mixes "a combination of lavender and sandalwood. The lavender, beyond having a great fragrance in all of its formats, has great healing properties at many levels, and lingers forever when its florets are crushed in the fingers or used in oils or body products. . . .The sandalwood as an ancient fragrance is widely believed to bring a peaceful sense of attitude and thought to the user. Freewill gifts me, at least with the same sense, most often. . . ." ALLISON merrily hums, "FWA is translucent. FWA is human. FWA smells like something I want and get to have." And PETUNIA considers it "A translucent angel-monkey smelling of cedar." SK views the hue as "that neutral, distinct color of fog that only shows itself when floating between a white background and the gray sky -- awe-ing and alluring." "Hmmm, easy," murmurs KRISTI. "Multi-colored, lioness, and lavender." And CHARIS winks, "FWA is that colour you see when you squint your eyes so that they are only just open. It all has a lot to do with what you are looking at at the time, whether it be light/dark, bright/dull; something that is constantly changing. It is not something you can quite define with words, but you know what it is when you see it." SUE pauses, nose to the air, and reports, "My thoughts on FWA's symbolic colour/animal/scent conjure up a goldenrod/mustard-coloured friendly wolverine wearing a pair of red wax lips, and smelling vaguely of linden trees in full bloom, a curious bottom-note of starfish and sea urchins, and a nearby wafting of warm gingerbread cooling on an open window-sill." BIRD IN FLIGHT whirrs, "I think FWA is a lavender baby ferret. On its curious nose, twinkling tiny feet, and bushy tail it darkens to purple, much like a lavender point Siamese kitten, only its points are purple and its body is lavender. FWA (in its baby ferret incarnation) has an earthy smell, like when you run crazily through the forest or careen madly down the trails on an mountain bike and then stop somewhere and put your face to the ground and inhale all the life and sexiness of the earth. That smell." ELISABETH looks for color and sees black, as in "mood ring," black as in that "which distills individual emotions from each and every being who slips one on. Every color lies buried within the darkness, waiting and free to show itself!" As to the animal, easy: "DRAGON, BABY! (With a huge pearl of wisdom held delicately within his enormous and powerful jaws!)" And finally, smell? "This is a hard one, but I'd have to go with the smell of fresh, clean laundry. What human does not love that smell? Who does not connote that smell with happiness, and the promise of a fresh new day filled with welcome surprises and sniffs?" NANCY assures, "Free Will Astrology is definitely teal. Rich, deep teal. It smells like the sea and is deeper. It is an octopus reaching his long dangly tentacles in every direction. It spits ink sometimes and is difficult to decipher. Sometimes it's very clear and defined. This is how I experience FWA." TIGERLION stoutly asserts that "FWA is kaleidoscope of color -- bright white tinged with a multitude of colors depending on what part of the 12-tentacled octopus is being viewed. Its scent is that of mulberry, kissed with lavender, ylang-ylang, vanilla bean, amber, and chocolate. HUMMINGBEAR also squids wen he writes, "FWA is an octopus: many-tentacled (the better to engage you with, my dear), able to shift colors according to mood and circumstances. Theoretically, it should be a Dodecapus, with a tentacle for each sign, but that's not exactly an animal. Eight armfuls of loving suction-pads will have to be enough. As for the smell part, I don't know what an octopus smells like. But if I were trying to mix an incense that has the effects the FWA has, I guess I'd have to use Dragon's Blood (for other-worldly vision), Copal (for sacred euphoria), patchouli (for hipness), and rose (for cosmic love). And, as an afterthought, essential oil of orange, because it smells nice and helps the florals blend with the resins. But now that I've thought of that, orange is a color, too. Is FWA an orange octopus? Hmmm..." OK, now we're getting some synchronicity! CYNTHIA M. also zests the orange, and her entire answer is "Brought to you by the letter 'O' -- the circle of life, with no beginning and no end -- just perfect suchness in every moment." She opines that "FWA is oleander -- I don't know the scent, though I imagine hot, humid nights perfumed with unspoken meaning. FWA is orange-orange -- bold, brash, vibrant iconoclast that it is -- warm, soothing, healing light that it is. FWA is orangutan, because O is always for either orange or orangutan." GENA has many smart reasons why FWA is both orange and a native animal such as the possum. As for smell, well it sniffs "distinctly of baking-soda toothpaste, that stuff that I use to maintain the useful life of my teeth so that I can continue to effectively nourish myself for the rest of my days. It's a stimulating, piquant aroma, and it makes me feel awake." And ALANA's there, too, smelling "sulfur with a hint of orange blossom, beaver, red-orange banana skin gone bad or maybe I'm wrong -- rain-wet gingko trees in Tokyo, harmless garden salad snake, the color of the sky at 5:22 on summer solstice standing on a red-rock mesa in Arizona . . . did I say beaver?" HAWAII BUTTERFLY flutters the brevity of "A fire-opal pole- cat that sprays night-blooming cirrus musk." And SKYE's the one who envisions "nothing less than a black panther in heat." So, sort of, does MERMAID, who splashes, "Free Will Astrology is a sleek jaguar with royal purple and deep garnet glowing from its shiny black body with an exhilaratingly musky freesia/violet scent and rich vanilla/praline taste." MILES briefly suggests: "color -- chartreuse; animal -- armadillo; smell -- baby's skin." While KAREN hails, "You are, in my book, a purple Jabberwock reeking of camphor." And FLY buzzes past with "FWA is a iridescent, emerald green, winged serpent who is at once terrifying and fascinating -- smells like sage burning as the sun rises." PANCE pounces on the notion that, "if Free Will Astrology were a colorful scented animal it would be a glow-in-the-dark green colored ferret that smells like Nag Champa. And if it's not that, then it would be a question the color of lugubriousness that smelled of tomorrow." AJ is certain that "FWA is flaming indigo -- rich royal blue inward, to cooler hue green, to yellow warm at the edges. Animal: flamingo -- colored by what it eats. Smell? Smoky oranges." MISHA assures that "I'm not on anything" when he or she writes, "When I think of FWA, I get a vision of a hyena jumping up in down in a swimming pool making waves and laughing hysterically at a bar of cr�me colored soap bobbing in the artificial waves." REMI responds, "Color: opalescent peach (think Tiffany glass and aurora borealis). Animal: Small water dragon with catfish- type whiskers and inquisitive rub-colored eyes. Smell: a boardwalk between the ocean and a pine forest with cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon cookies baking." SASSY BREEZE blows, "I think FWA would be a bright yellow, orange, and lime-green swirly psychedelic fluid gazelle emitting the scent of myrrh and musk. These colors irritate the eye and stimulate the mind, causing most people to exclaim 'My god, that is the most fabulously ugly thing I have ever seen. I have to have it!' The gazelle is fleet, beautiful, free, lyrical, and edible. Myrrh and musk? You can't get more down-home exotic than that." SISTAH cogently replies, "I think FWA might best be described as a psychedelic Picasso Trigger Fish (also known as a Humu Humu), a superbly balanced floater who, with a big eye on each side of its body, appears to be perpetually startled by the panoramic view such vision affords. Oh, and it has lovely puckering lips which may be prepared to lay a benevolent kiss upon its next visitor, or are gently pursed to hold the contents of an entire packet of lemon-flavored pop rocks, continuously fizzling within its cheeks. Or both. Lemony fish kisses anyone?" Yes! SARAH wades into the stream (of consciousness) with: "It's raw umber spilled on seaweed. It's a brown bear at dawn. It's variegated English ivy twined 'round an optical mouse. It's a wreath of rosemary on a flaking Mexican door. It's cherry blossoms on volcanic ash. It's persimmon with ginger ketchup. It's an orangutan with finishing school. It's the breath of Josephine Baker's cheetah after the banana dance. It's the blush at the end of a singing guru's toes when rubbed over the edge of a Dacron plaid divan." And finally, EM envisions a happy melting pot of colors, animals, and smells, evoking rainbows and Noah's Ark. But she quickly cuts to the chase: " What of the other senses? Touch? What would FWA feel like? Like petting a puppy's soft belly? What would FWA Sound like? Taste like?" Hmm. She's right! Perhaps we'll fool around like that in the future. Thanks again for all the great words.

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