You Are Always at the Bginning

Nothing will tell you where you are. Each moment is a place you've never been.

—Mark Strand





WHO WILL YOU BE IN 2022? WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE?

I've gathered together all of the Long-Range, Big-Picture Horoscopes I wrote for you in the past few weeks, and bundled them in one place. Go here to read a compendium of your forecasts for 2022.

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In addition to these, I've created EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES that go even further in Exploring Your Long-Term Destiny in 2022.

What will be the story of your life in the coming months? What new influences will be headed your way? What fresh resources will you be able to draw on? How can you conspire with life to create the best possible future for yourself?

To listen to these three-part, in-depth reports, go here.

Register and/or log in through the main page, and then access the horoscopes by clicking on "Long Range Prediction." Choose from Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Each part is a standalone report, not dependent on the other two.

If you'd like a boost of inspiration to fuel you in your quest for beauty and truth and love and meaning, tune in to my meditations on your Big-Picture outlook.

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Each of the three-part reports is seven to nine minutes long. The cost is $6 per report. There are discounts for the purchase of multiple reports.

P.S. You can also listen to a short-term Expanded Audio Horoscope for the coming week.





YOU'RE A PROPHET
(Hear me speak this.)

Your imagination is the single most important asset you possess. It's your power to create mental pictures of things that don't exist yet and that you want to bring into being. It's the magic wand you use to shape your future.

And so in your own way, you are a prophet. You generate countless predictions every day. Your imagination is the source, tirelessly churning out images of what you will be doing later.

The featured prophecy of the moment may be as simple as a psychic impression of yourself eating a fudge brownie at lunch or as monumental as a daydream of some year building your dream home by a lake or sea.

Your imagination is a treasure when it spins out scenarios that are aligned with your deepest desires.

In fact, it's an indispensable tool in creating the life you want; it's what you use to form images of the conditions you'd like to inhabit and the objects you hope to wield. Nothing manifests on this planet unless it first exists as a mental picture.

But for most of us, the imagination is as much a curse as a blessing. We're often just as likely to use it to conjure up premonitions that are at odds with our conscious values.

That's the result of having absorbed toxic programming from the media and from our parents at an early age and from other influential people in our past.

Fearful fantasies regularly pop up into our awareness, many disguising themselves as rational thoughts and genuine intuitions. Those fearful fantasies may hijack our psychic energy, directing it to exhaust itself in dead-end meditations.

Every time we entertain a vision of being rejected or hurt or frustrated, every time we rouse and dwell on a memory of a painful experience, we're blasting ourselves with a hex.

Meanwhile, ill-suited longings are also lurking in our unconscious mind, impelling us to want things that aren't good for us and that we don't really need. Anytime we surrender to the allure of these false and trivial and counterproductive desires, our imagination is practicing a form of black magic.

This is the unsavory aspect of the imagination that the Zen Buddhists deride as the "monkey mind." It's the part of our mental apparatus that endlessly spins out pictures that zip around with the energy of an agitated animal.

If we can stop locating our sense of self in the relentless surge of the monkey mind's slapdash chatter, we can be fully attuned to the life that's right in front of us. Only then are we able to want what we actually have.

But whether our imagination is in service to our noble desires or in the thrall of compulsive fears and inappropriate yearnings, there is one constant: The prophecies of our imagination tend to be accurate. Many of our visions of the future do come to pass.

The situations we expect to occur and the experiences we rehearse and dwell on are all-too-often reflected back to us as events that confirm our expectations.

Does that mean our mental projections create the future? Let's consider that possibility. What if it's at least partially true that what we expect will happen does tend to materialize?

Here's the logical conclusion: It's downright stupid and self-destructive to keep infecting our imaginations with pictures of loss and failure, doom and gloom, fear and loathing. The far more sensible approach is to expect blessings.

That's one reason why I'm reverent in composing my messages for you. If I'm to be one of the influences you invite into the intimate sanctuary where you hatch your self-fulfilling prophecies, I want to conspire with you to disperse fear and invoke relaxation and joy.

(Hear me speak this.)





COMMUNING WITH TREES

Red K Elders writes: "People sometimes don’t believe that it is possible to commune with anything other than human. “I sat for an hour talking to a tree, and it didn’t say anything to me”, they tell me.

"I ask them what did they give to the tree? Did they make offerings of food or drink or bodily emanations? Did they play it music or sing it a song? Did they dance for it so beautifully or gently ask if they may lovingly touch or hold it? Did they even introduce themselves properly and share a delicate secret from their innermost being?

"Other-than-human relationships are like any other in this respect. We have to show our caring, dare to reveal ourselves and continually build trust with each other over time.

"And let go of expecting anything from the other. Go with the attitude of ‘what I can do for this tree today that will honour it, express my gratitude for all its whole beingness and support its growth?’ Go continually, answering that question for yourself, before you even start expecting any interaction or answers from the tree.

"Then one day, the tree may speak to you, but it may not be with words, and it may happen so quickly you’ll miss it the first few times. Slow your whole body and elongate it into tree-time. Go again like a child, playful and with reverence. Pay exquisite attention to every nuance of the entire scene with all your senses wide open."

—Written by Red K Elders





STAYING IN TOUCH WITH THE DEAD

My father died in December 2019. We have had several interesting conversations since then. Recently, we shared a laugh about what different characters we are and yet how important we have been to each other.

This was not an experience we shared or could have shared while he was alive. Our relationship is evolving!

The exchange between us happened on a Thursday afternoon while I was doing housework—no special meditative state required!

I highly recommend staying in touch with the spirits of loved ones who have passed.





WILDNESS REVISED

In his book The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, Robert Bly says that to be wild is not to be crazy like a criminal or psychotic, but "mad as the mist and snow."

It has nothing to do with being childish or primitive, nor does it manifest as manic rebellion or self-damaging alienation.

The real marks of wildness, he asserts, are a love of nature, a delight in silence, a voice free to say spontaneous things, and an exuberant curiosity in the face of the unknown.






STARHAWK ON VACCINATIONS

Karyne Kuzawski writes: Many people in the alternative spirituality community are anti-vaccine. When Neopagan feminist Starhawk got vaccinated, she received a lot of negative feedback from people saying she was going against her values. Why wasn’t she letting/helping her healthy immune system take care of her? I loved her response:

Starhawk wrote: What about herbal medicine and natural methods? Hey, I drink ginger tea whenever I feel fluish, or chomp on turkey tail mushrooms, and that generally works fine for me. I have a good, strong immune system.

But Covid-19 is not the flu. It's something our immune systems have not yet evolved to deal with.

When Europeans arrived on this continent, the indigenous people of the Americas were amazing herbalists, incredibly skilled healers, extremely knowledgeable about all the medicines of the land, and they ate completely wild, nutrient dense organic food—but they had never developed immunities to European diseases and tens of millions died.

For that matter, the old Witches of Europe were damn good herbalists but that wasn't much help, either, against the bubonic plague. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm in their league, anyway.





But we have only begun
to love the earth.

We have only begun
to imagine the fullness of life.

How could we tire of hope?

—Denise Levertov





FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

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Read past issues of the newsletter from before May 12.

Sign up here for your free subscription.





INSCRUTABLE PRONOIA THERAPY

Experiments and exercises in becoming a tenderly objective, cagily candid, fanatically balanced Master of Iconoclastic Listening

1. I invite you to send out a big "Hey!" and "What's up?" to all the little voices in your head. Start with the still, small voice that's always ready to provide concise responses to the ingenious questions you come up with.

But please also consider acknowledging every one of the other little voices as well—even the crabby, reactive naysayer that's forever on the lookout for insults to your dignity, however tiny or unintentional; even the worrywart that wakes you up in the middle of the night to pester you with doubts and fears.

What would it be like to love all the little voices in your head? To celebrate their vitality, their persistence, their attentiveness?

Maybe you're lucky to have such a zealous group of advisors, even if all but one of them are off the mark some of the time.

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2. Fairy tales are full of characters who suffer loss and hardship for trying to be something they're not. If they ever change their ways and accept the truth about themselves, their luck improves dramatically.

It's interesting, then, to contemplate the fact that our culture adores film and TV actors, who get extensive training in pretending to be someone other than who they really are. We nurse a similar obsession with politicians, whose specialty resembles that of actors: Their vocation requires them to dissemble constantly.

Are you one of the enthralled? Do you share our collective entrancement with people who lie about themselves for a living? If so, experiment with what happens if you wean yourself. Try being cautious about exposing yourself to influences that might encourage you to be something you're not.

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3. In The Book of Embraces, Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano writes, "The fishermen of the Colombian coast must be learned doctors of ethics and morality, for they invented the word sentipensante, or 'feeling-thinking,' to define language that speaks the truth."

Describe a time when you pulled off the feat of thinking with your heart and feeling with your head.

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4. Many of us don't always know what we feel. We may have a vivid sense that we feel something, but we're not sure what it is. That's why musicians, writers, actors, and other creative people play such a crucial role in our emotional lives. Their work can help us articulate the enigmas fermenting within us.

But here's the problem: A majority of the artists who are easiest for us to find aren't exceptionally smart or original; they specialize in expressing hackneyed feelings.

Many of the very best creators "remain in relative obscurity because of their resistance to formula efforts," writes journalist Alan Cabal. "Mediocrities latch onto whatever hits and repeat it endlessly in pursuit of cash or celebrity or both." If we look to the latter for illumination, we're cheated.

Your assignments: Get tough with the lazy or wounded part of you that is drawn to the mediocrities.

Compile a roster of virtuosos who have developed a high level of proficiency in extracting esthetically exciting meaning from the fascinating chaos around us.

Expose yourself exclusively to their work, devotedly avoiding the mediocrities' stuff, for a given period, say 100 days. Describe how this transforms you.

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5. "The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something," wrote art critic John Ruskin in his book Modern Painters. "To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one."

Proposed experiment: Lay aside everything you think you know, suspend your reflex to impose your beliefs on every situation you encounter, and behold the world exactly as it is.

Assume that by doing so you can change everything you see into a more beautiful version of itself.

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6. The factor most likely to drive us to addiction or illness is a lack of intimate contact with spirit. We all need a daily dose of vastness.

Paradoxically, many of us would also benefit from more microscopic vision. Because we're so deprived of divine connection, we're half-dreaming all the time; our unconscious pining for the eternal source distracts us from the vivid little glories that are splayed out around us.

And so we miss the Divine Wow from both directions.

Try this: Prime your connection with spirit by focusing your attention on tones and shapes you usually miss: reflections in windows, the sky between the oak tree's branches, the shadows on the water, the two different emotions in a friend's eyes and mouth.

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7. To the ancient Chinese, pigs were sacred because they could eat anything and turn it into energy. The creatures were regarded as masters of transmutation. Nothing, not even garbage, was unusable to them.

The Chinese aspired to be like pigs in the sense of being able to learn from and derive benefit from every experience, not just the tidy, tasteful ones.

Borrowing this strategy, name two garbage-like experiences that you could turn into fuel for your growing urge to be a pronoiac co-conspirator.

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8. Is it really healthy to have a shrill, 25-words-or-less opinion about everything, as radio and TV talk shows seem to imply?

Would anyone object if now and then you served as a compassionate witness about the hot-button issues? Is it conceivable that you could simply sit on the fence in the midst of the wars of words and beam articulate sympathy at both sides?

Yes, you can. You have the rebellious resourcefulness to be a freedom fighter without hating anyone. Go out and prove it. Document your success here.

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9. "You may enjoy this movie if you shut down enough brain cells. I turned off all except the ones needed to remember where I parked my car."

This observation comes from a critic's evaluation of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, but I've read similar comments in many reviews of other films and entertainment.

Indeed, it's an approach that many intelligent people employ routinely in response to the shiny slop our culture offers up.

What about you? Do you assume you have to make yourself dumber in order to have fun? Has the well-crafted inanity of the world caused you to shut down your sensitivity? Work to reverse this trend. You'll receive help from unexpected sources if you do.

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10. There is a proverb from the American culture of the 21st century that I'd like to run by you: "Never reveal all you know, confess everything you feel, show how much you care, or give all you have."

Prove this proverb wrong. Cultivate power by revealing all you know, confessing everything you feel, showing how much you care, and giving all you have.

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11. Oceans are not exactly teeming with life. In fact, they're mostly barren, and could rightly be called "wet deserts."

Likewise, not all your emotions, even those that come in floods, are fertile. Some are automatic reactions that have discharged thousands of times since they were first programmed into you many years ago.

They're often negative, and are not organic but mechanical, being inappropriate to the events that seem to stimulate them. They became fixtures when you were a very different person than you are now.

Identify these.

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12. In her book Vodou Visions, Sallie Ann Glassman argues that Vodou (the preferred spelling among its practitioners) is an authentic religious tradition worthy of respect.

She acknowledges that some of its beliefs may seem unusual. For instance, Vodou's calm, gentle, sweet spirits are not always forces for good, while some of its hot, turbulent, revolutionary spirits are not necessarily bad.

Although not a practitioner of Vodou, Raymond Chandler had some related counsel: "The disease of niceness cripples more lives than alcoholism."

Borrow this meme. Monitor the calm, gentle, sweet spirits in your life for the possibility that they may act as agents of deception or passivity.

Be inspired by the creator gods and goddesses of ancient myth, who playfully forged millions of beautiful things using wind, mud, tears, and lightning.

Tap into the fiery aspect of your nature that drove you out of your mother's womb and into this world in the hour when you were born.

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13. For 24 hours, call everything by a name different from the one it usually has. Example: Call the TV a "hyacinth," call the refrigerator a "cloud," and call a chair an "electric knowing."





IS PRONOIA JUST FOR RICH, COMFORTABLE PEOPLE?

All of creation is conspiring to shower us with blessings. Life is crazily in love with us — brazenly and innocently in love with us. The universe always gives us exactly what we need, exactly when we need it.

But wait a minute. What about all the people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Arab world, and Oceania who don’t have enough to eat and a comfortable place to sleep?

How about the victims of war and epidemics, and the oppressed who live under the rule of tyrants, and the innocents whose lives are distorted by bigotry? Where’s their glory in the highest? Why should they feel grateful?

For my ideas about this subject, GO HERE.


Here's an excerpt:

In calling attention to some of the surprisingly good news about the world, I of course don't mean to imply that paradise is at hand.

My recognition of the underreported progress and miracles is not equivalent to an endorsement of evil-doers. And I trust that after reading these words you won't go numb to the suffering of others and stop agitating on their behalf.

Just the opposite: I hope that you will be energized by the signs of creeping benevolence and waxing intelligence.

As you absorb the evidence that an aggressive strain of compassion is loose in the world, maybe you will conclude that activism actually works, and you'll be motivated to give yourself with confidence to the specific role you can play in manifesting the ultimate goal: to create a heaven on earth in which everyone alive is a healthy, free, self-actualized, spiritually enlightened millionaire dedicated to living sustainably.

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For more about PRONOIA, GO HERE

AND GO HERE.