In What Sense Is Your Life a Miracle?

What Opportunities Will Be Ripe for You in the coming months?

I invite you to explore the big picture of your life with my
MID-YEAR AUDIO PREVIEW of YOUR DESTINY for the REST of 2020.

My Expanded Audio Horoscopes explore themes that I suspect will be important for you during the next six months.

What new influences and experiences will be headed your way in the second half of 2020?

What fresh resources will you be able to draw on?

Would you like some inspiration as you imagine how to make best use of those influences and experiences and resources?

What questions should you be asking so as to create the best possible future for yourself?

To listen to your BIG PICTURE horoscopes online, GO HERE. Register and/or log in through the main page, and then click on the link "Long Term Forecast for Second Half of 2020."

You can also hear a short-term forecast for the week ahead by clicking on "This week (July 7, 2020)."

+

The in-depth, long-range Expanded Audio horoscopes cost $6 apiece if you access them on the Web. (Discounts are available for multiple purchases.)

They're also available for $1.99 per minute if you want them over the phone. For phone access, call: 1-877-873-4888.





Here's a link to my free weekly email newsletter, featuring the Free Will Astrology horoscopes, plus a bunch of other stuff. It arrives every Tuesday morning.

Read past issues of the newsletter.

Sign up here for your free subscription.





A good way to become more fearless is to cultivate tenderness. As you expand your capacity to feel compassionate affection, you have less to be afraid of.

That's the opposite of conventional wisdom, which says you become brave by toughening up, by reinforcing your psychic armor.





OUR CAPACITY TO BE ASTONISHED

Let's cultivate our capacity to be astonished . . . to be thrilled by every subtle mystery that sneaks into our daily rhythm . . . to make ourselves fully available for the unexpected riddles that life is always setting in front of us.





REVERENT JUSTICE

I hereby appoint you a dissident bodhisattva in charge of overthrowing the sour and crippled mass hallucination that is mistakenly called "reality," and replacing it with an authentic reality built on the principles of insurrectionary beauty, ingenious love, voracious curiosity, ecstatic gratitude, and reverent justice.

(Any other principles you want to add?)





THROW A PARTY FOR ALL THE PEOPLE YOU ARE

Throw a party for all the people you've ever been and all the different selves who live within you. Invite the teenager who once seethed with frustrated potential and the four-year-old who loved nothing more than to play.

Include the hopeful complainer who stands in the shadows and dares you to ask for more, as well as the brave hero who comes out every now and then to attempt seemingly impossible feats of happiness.

Don't forget any of the various personalities who have contributed to making you who you are, even the "bad" ones. Celebrate your internal diversity. Marvel at how good you are at changing.

(For extra credit, you could also invite all the characters you've been in past incarnations, like the Balinese puppet-maker and the Nigerian herbalist and the Chinese midwife and the African savannah elephant.)





AND TO THE BEAUTY FOR WHICH THEY STAND

I pledge allegiance
to the birds
of the United States of America
—and to the sky through which they fly

More





SAVED BY LOVE

"Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love."

—Reinhold Niebuhr





BIRTH BY FIRE

The seeds of the lodgepole pine and jack pine trees are so tightly compacted within their protective cones that they need flames to free them. It's only through the help of periodic conflagrations, then, that they're able to reproduce. Fire-dependent and fire-resistant, they can tolerate temperatures of 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit.





DO YOU REALLY NEED TO CHANGE THE SUNSET?

"When I look at a sunset, I don't say, 'Soften the orange a little on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple in the cloud color.'" Pioneering psychologist Carl Rogers was describing the way he observed the world. "I don't try to control a sunset," he continued. "I watch it with awe."

He had a similar view about people. "One of the most satisfying experiences," he said, "is just fully to appreciate an individual in the same way I appreciate a sunset."





BREATHING FREE

The New York Times writes: Over the past decade, at least 70 people have died in police custody after saying the same words — “I can’t breathe.”

The dead ranged in age from 19 to 65. The majority of them had been stopped over nonviolent infractions, calls about suspicious behavior, or concerns about their mental health. More than half were Black.

Dozens of videos, court documents, autopsies, and police reports show a pattern of aggressive tactics that ignored prevailing safety precautions.

In some of the “I can’t breathe” cases, officers restrained detainees by the neck, hogtied them, shocked them with a Taser multiple times, or covered their heads with mesh hoods. Most frequently, officers pushed them face down on the ground and held them prone with their body weight.

P.S.: Only a small fraction of these murderous police have faced criminal charges, and almost none have been convicted.





CHAMPIONING AND EMBODYING SPIRITUALITY

Here are practical ways I carry on the work of championing and embodying spirituality:

I regard relationships as being a crucible for spiritual work.

I think of the practical expression of kindness and compassion and ethical behavior as an essential spiritual practice.

I assume that a crucial element of spiritual practice is the consciousness and compassion we bring to the sometimes chaotic and messy and shadowy details of being human beings.

I understand that loving and caring for animals and plants and the Earth is the test of our spiritual intentions.

I understand that working to dismantle racism, misogyny, militarism, plutocracy, economic injustice, and all forms of bigotry belongs at the heart of our sacred practice.

I regard play and fun and humor as not diversions from “serious” spiritual work, but rather being at the center of it.

What about you? What are the practical ways you carry on the work? TruthRooster@gmail.com





DIVERSITY IS OUR DELIGHTFUL FUTURE

“The plague of humanity is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, mono-medicine.

"The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to humans: members of their own species, bent on ensuring their salvation, security, and sanity.”

—Thomas Szasz

+

"As a culture, we have wandered into a state of prolonged neurosis because of the absence of a direct pipeline to the unconscious. As a result, we have fallen victim to priestcraft of every conceivable sort."

—Terence McKenna

+

Why is it so hard for Westerners of the last two centuries to feel the intimate presence of the divine intelligences? Every other culture in the history of the world has had a more vital connection with the realm of spirit.

According to poet Gary Snyder, California's Yana Indians explained it this way: The gods have retreated to the volcanic recesses of Mt. Lassen, passing the time playing gambling games with magic sticks.

They're simply waiting for such a time when human beings will "reform themselves and become 'real people' that spirits might want to associate with once again."

+

"Your body belongs to your ancestors, your parents, and future generations, and it also belongs to society and all other living beings. All of them have come together to bring about the presence of this body. Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos — the trees, the clouds, everything."

—Thich Nhat Hanh





LIBERATION MUSIC

Check out this glorious rendition of the song "Stand Up" (from the movie Harriet), with images from the Black freedom struggle. Sung by the grandchildren of Civil Rights legend Rev. Dr. Jesse Douglas.





GO BOTH WAYS

The image I posted here shows how I spent the first half of my birthday last week:

researching occult and hermetic resources about how best to foment a culture that is more thoroughly permeated with justice, broadmindedness, actual (not fake) beauty, and practical compassion.

The second half of my birthday was spent with a roundtable of very earthbound yet visionary activists who provided me with inspiration on the same subjects.

I'm at my best when I go both ways!

(The off-white suit and stetson hat I wore was provided by the spirit of Dziadzio Raymond, my Polish grandfather)





OUR SPIRITUAL DUTY

It's our spiritual duty to remember the African Americans who have been murdered by cops—to grieve them as our kin, to honor them, to invoke their tragic deaths as we apply pressure to prevent the police from perpetrating other such mayhem in the future.

Here's some of the story of Elijah McClain, killed by Aurora, Colorado police last August.





A SLAVE-OWNER WROTE "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER"

Recently, protestors toppled a statue of Francis Scott Key in San Francisco, near where I live. You may know Key as the composer of the "Star-Spangled Banner," America's national anthem.

Those who study history know other facts about him. Like: He owned slaves. Writing in *The Smithsonian*, Christopher Wilson says ,"Key was a slaveholding lawyer from an old Maryland plantation family, who thanks to a system of human bondage had grown rich and powerful."

As a lawyer, Key represented the legal interests in court of men trying to recover their runaway slaves.

As District Attorney in Washington DC, Key defended slavery, and suppressed and attacked abolitionists. He referred to Blacks as "a distinct and inferior race of people.”

Christopher Wilson writes: "Key sought to crack down on the free speech of abolitionists. For example, he prosecuted a white doctor for possessing abolitionist pamphlets—in fact, sought the death penalty for him. In the resulting case, Key proposed that the property rights of slaveholders outweighed the free speech rights of those arguing for slavery’s abolishment. Key hoped to silence abolitionists, who, he charged, wished to 'associate and amalgamate with the negro.'"

Abolitionists ridiculed the lyrics he wrote for the "Star-Spangled Banner," saying that instead of "home of the brave" he should have written "home of the oppressed."

Read more.





GEORGE WASHINGTON AND SLAVERY

Facts About George Washington & Slavery, from a longer piece.

1. George Washington first became a slave owner at the early age of eleven, and remained a slaveholder for 56 more years.

2. At the time of George Washington’s death, the Mount Vernon enslaved population consisted of 317 people.

3. George Washington's marriage to Martha Custis significantly increased the number of enslaved people at Mount Vernon.

4. In his later years, George Washington believed that harsh and indiscriminate punishments could backfire and urged overseers to motivate workers with encouragement and rewards. Still, he approved of “correction” when those methods failed. Mount Vernon’s enslaved people endured a range of punishments depending on the alleged offense.

5. The enslaved people at Mount Vernon practiced diverse religious traditions and customs

6. On numerous occasions, people enslaved by the Washington household ran away in an attempt to regain their freedom.

7. People at Mount Vernon also resisted their enslavement through less noticeable means.

8. With little free time and control over their everyday life, Mount Vernon's enslaved population attempted to exert some free will and choice when it came to their private lives.





PRAYER by poet Aurora Levins Morales

Say these words when you lie down
and when you rise up,
when you go out and when you return.
In times of mourning
and in times of joy.
Inscribe them on your doorposts,
embroider them on your garments,
tattoo them on your shoulders,
teach them to your children, your neighbors, your enemies,
recite them in your sleep,
here in the cruel shadow of empire:
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

Imagine winning. This is your sacred task.
This is your power.

Imagine every detail of winning,
the exact smell of the summer streets
in which no one has been shot,
the muscles you have never unclenched from worry,
gone soft as newborn skin,
the sparkling taste of food when we know
that no one on earth is hungry,
that the beggars are fed,
that the old man under the bridge
and the woman wrapping herself
in thin sheets in the back seat of a car,
and the children who suck on stones,
nest under a flock of roofs
that keep multiplying their shelter.

Lean with all your being towards that day
when the poor of the world
shake down a rain of good fortune
out of the heavy clouds,
and justice rolls down like waters.

Defend the world in which we win
as if it were your child.
It is your child.
Defend it as if it were your lover.
It is your lover.

When you inhale and when you exhale
breathe the possibility of another world
into the 37.2 trillion cells of your body
until it shines with hope.
Then imagine more.

Imagine rape is unimaginable.
Imagine war is a scarcely credible rumor
That the crimes of our age,
the grotesque inhumanities of greed,
the sheer and astounding shamelessness of it,
the vast fortunes made by stealing lives,
the horrible normalcy it came to have,
is unimaginable to our heirs,
the generations of the free.

Don’t waver.
Don’t let despair sink its sharp teeth
Into the throat with which you sing.
Escalate your dreams.
Make them burn so fiercely
that you can follow them down
any dark alleyway of history and not lose your way.
Make them burn clear as a starry drinking gourd
Over the grim fog of exhaustion,
and keep walking.

Hold hands. Share water. Keep imagining.
So that we,
and the children of our children’s children
may live