What experience, feeling, or situation do you want the most?

The more specific your goals, the better. The clearer you are in naming concrete intentions, the more likely it is you will actually make them happen.

Abstract, generalized aims are hard to visualize. This may result in a reduced expectation of realizing them, which in turn results in lower motivation to try and achieve them.

What specific experience, feeling, or situation do you want the most?

Read more.

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I began to study at an occult mystery school when I was 25, and have been doing so ever since.

I was surprised and amused when the first lesson of the first course, "Seven Steps in Practical Occultism," told me that the most important thing I needed to do first was to state WHAT I WANT.





ALWAYS BEGINNING

It's always the beginning of the world.

Even if you don't call yourself an artist, you have the potential to be a dynamic creator who is always hatching new plans, coming up with fresh ideas, and shifting your approach to everything you do as you adjust to life's ceaseless invitation to change.

It's to this part of you—the restless, inventive spirit—that I address the following: Unleash yourself! Don't be satisfied with the world the way it is; don't sit back passively and blankly complain about the dead weight of the mediocre status quo.

Instead, call on your curiosity and charisma and expressiveness and lust for life as you tinker with and rebuild everything you see so that it's in greater harmony with the laws of love and more hospitable to your soul's code.





BOTH ARE TRUE!

I am in intimate contact with supernatural creatures and non-material beings every day

and

I love the scientific method and use it every day
Both are true.





OUR BODIES ARE WILD

Gary Snyder says: “Our bodies are wild. The involuntary quick turn of the head at a shout, the vertigo at looking off a precipice, the heart-in-the-throat in a moment of danger, the catch of the breath, the quiet moments relaxing, staring, reflecting – are universal responses of this mammal body.

"The body does not require the intercession of some conscious intellect to make it breathe, to keep the heart beating. It is to a great extent self-regulating, it is a life of its own.

"Sensation and perception do not exactly come from outside, and unremitting thought and image-flow are not exactly outside. The world is our consciousness, and it surrounds us. There are more things in the mind, in the imagination, than ‘you' can keep track of – thoughts, memories, images, angers, delights, rise unbidden.

"The depths of the mind, the unconscious, are our inner wilderness areas, and that is where a bobcat is right now. I do not mean personal bobcats in personal psyches – the bobcat that roams from dream to dream.

"The conscious agenda-planning ego occupies a very tiny territory, a little cubicle somewhere near the gate, keeping track of some of what goes in and out (and sometimes making expansionist plots), and the rest takes care of itself. The body is, so to speak, in the mind. They are both wild."

—Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild





ORIGINS OF PRONOIA

In his book Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, J. D. Salinger didn't use the word "pronoia." But he had the character Seymour Glass write in his diary, "Oh, God, if I'm anything by a clinical name, I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy."

Then there was philosopher Terence McKenna, who said: "I believe reality is a marvelous joke staged for my edification and amusement, and everybody is working very hard to make me happy."

Philosopher Robert Anton Wilson uttered advice that also sounded pronoiac: "You should view the world as a conspiracy run by a very closely-­knit group of nearly omnipotent people, and you should think of those people as yourself and your friends."

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I have written the first and only book about PRONOIA: Pronoia Is the Antidote to Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

But I didn't coin the modern use of the term "pronoia." It arose in the mid-1970s, originated by Grateful Dead lyricist and co¬founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, John Perry Barlow. He defined it as the opposite of paranoia: "the suspicion that the universe is a conspiracy on your behalf."

The Scottish psychologist Fraser Clark revived the word in the 1990s. He referred to pronoia as "the sneaking hunch that others are conspiring behind your back to help you." Once you have contracted this benevolent virus, he said, the symptoms include "sudden attacks of optimism and outbreaks of goodwill."

Working with the Zippies, a group of gypsy ravers, Clark organized the Zippy Pronoia Tour to America in 1994. With a boost from a cover story by Wired magazine, the tour's parties and performances spread the word.

Shortly thereafter, a website devoted to pronoia appeared on the web. It has mostly been devoted to telling the story of the Zippies.





FAKE QUOTES

I love reading Fake Buddha Quotes, the website where a scholar with a discerning mind tracks down all the words attributed to Buddha that were not actually said by him.

In this section, Snopes tracks down fake quotes, including some attributed to Einstein.





BORN AGAIN

"Dear Rob: I was born on November 30, and am quite attached to having it as a birthdate. But there's a complication. While in Iraq in 2006, I was half-blown up by a bomb, and had a near-death experience. When I returned from my excursion to the land of the dead, I felt I'd been born anew. Which is why I now also celebrate September 24, the date of the bombing, as my second birthday. What do you think? Two-Way Tamara."

Dear Two-Way: I believe we'd all benefit from having at least one dramatic rebirth in the course of our lives, though hopefully not in such a wrenching fashion as yours.

In fact, a fresh rebirth every few years or so would be quite healthy. If it means adding additional astrological identities to our repertoire, so much the better.





DROPPING RIGID IDENTITIES

Continuously drop all your rigid identities. Personal history may be your greatest danger.

You can achieve optimal physical health if you're devoted to shedding outworn self-images.

—Arnold Mindell






Say to those you love: I have sipped the gusts of your dusky gaze, and so I am eternally mobilized.

—my rendering of a poem by poet Sohrab Sepehri





SUCCESS! Two weeks ago week, I upgraded the way I offer you my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES and Text-Message Horoscopes.

New machines! Fresh codes!

Amazingly, it all worked pretty well. Thanks for your patience and understanding, everyone!

Since I give away my written horoscopes for free, these two other services are key sources of income for me. I need them to work well.

Here's a detailed explanation of the new system.

If you do have any issues with the new system, please get in touch with my fabulous tech support team at freewillcs@gmail.com.

Access the EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES and Text-Message Horoscopes.





MIRABILIA

What are mirabilia? They're phenomena that inspire wonder, winsome curiosities, small marvels, eccentric enchantments. Here are a few:

* The National Center for Atmospheric Research reports that the average cloud is the same weight as 100 elephants.

* The average river requires a million years to move a grain of sand 100 miles.

* With every dawn, when first light penetrates the sea, many seahorse colonies perform a dance to the sun.

* A seven-year-old Minnesota boy received patent number 6,368,227 for a new method of swinging on a swing.

* Clown fish can alter their gender as their social status rises.

* In the Hindu epic the Mahabharata, the hero and heroine fall in love without ever gazing upon each other, simply by hearing tales about each other's good deeds.

* Twelve percent of the population believes that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.

* The closest modern relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex may be the chicken.

* Kind people are more likely than mean people to yawn when someone near them does.

* Singing Gregorian chants can cure dyslexia.

* All the gold ever mined could be molded into a 60-foot bust of your mom.

* The moon smells like exploded firecrackers.

* The most frequently shoplifted book in America is the Bible.

* Black sheep have a better sense of smell than white sheep.

* There are about 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. Every square inch of your body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.

* The seeds of some trees are so tightly compacted within their protective covering that only the intense heat of a forest fire can free them, allowing them to sprout.

* Anthropologists say that in every culture in history, children have played the game hide and seek.

* Robust singing skill is correlated with a strong immune system in songbirds. Male birds with the most extensive repertoire of tunes also have the largest spleens, a key measure of immune system health.

* In an apparent attempt to raise their volume above the prevailing human din, some nightingales in big cities have learned to unleash 95-decibel songs, matching the loudness of a chainsaw.

* There is a statistically significant probability of world-class athletes and military leaders being born when Mars is rising in the sky.

* Some piranhas are vegetarians

* In the pueblos of New Mexico, bricks still measure 33 by 15 by 10 centimeters, proportions that almost exactly match those of the bricks used to build Egypt's Temple of Hatshepsut 3,500 years ago.

* Bees perform a valuable service for the flowers from which they steal.

* Revlon makes 177 different shades of lipstick.

* Scientists believe they'll be able to figure out why cancer cells are virtually immortal, and then apply the secret to keeping normal cells alive much longer, thereby dramatically expanding the human life span.

* Thirty-eight percent of North America is wilderness.

* There are about nine million people on earth who were born the same day as you.

* Your body contains so much iron that you could make a spike out of it, and that spike would be strong enough to hold you up.

* Very few raindrops are actually raindrop-shaped. A far greater number take the form of doughnuts.




UNEXPECTED REDEMPTION

Beauty and Truth Lab researcher Firenze Matisse traveled to Antarctica. On the first day, the guide took him and his group to a remote area and left them alone for an hour to commune with the pristine air and unearthly stillness.

After a while, a penguin ambled up and launched into a ceremonial display of squawks and stretches.
Firenze responded with recitals of his favorite memorized poems, imagining he was "engaged in a conversation with eternity."

Halfway through his inspired performance of Thich Nhat Hanh's "Please Call Me by My True Names," the penguin sent a stream of green projectile vomit cascading against his chest, and shuffled away.

Though Firenze initially felt deflated by eternity's surprise, no harm was done. He soon came to see it as a first-class cosmic joke, and looked forward to exploiting its value as an amusing story with which to regale his friends back home.

Beauty and Truth Lab researcher Michael Logan was the first person to hear Firenze's tale upon his return from Antarctica.

"You might want to consider this, Firenze," Michael mused after taking it all in. "Penguins nurture their offspring by chewing food -- mixing it up with all God's enzymes -- and then vomiting it into the mouths of the penguin babies.

"Perhaps you weren't the butt of a cosmic joke or some Linda Blair-esque bad review, but in fact the recipient of a very precious gift of love. Who knows?"

Now Firenze has two punch lines for his tale of redemptive pronoia.





CAN THE IMAGINATION SAVE US?

Feminist philosopher Susan Griffin relates a story that exemplifies the possibility of envisaging solutions that defy conventional logic. The story is below, all in Griffin’s words.

Along with many others who crowd the bed of a large truck, poet Robert Desnos is being taken away from the barracks of the concentration camp where he has been held prisoner.

Leaving the barracks, the mood is somber; everyone knows the truck is headed for the gas chambers.

And when the truck arrives no one can speak at all; even the guards fall silent.

But this silence is soon interrupted by an energetic man, who jumps into the line and grabs one of the condemned.

Improbable as it is, Desnos reads the man's palm. Oh, he says, I see you have a very long lifeline.

And you are going to have three children. He is exuberant. And his excitement is contagious. First one man, then another, offers up his hand, and the prediction is for longevity, more children, abundant joy.

As Desnos reads more palms, not only does the mood of the prisoners change but that of the guards too. How can one explain it? Perhaps the element of surprise has planted a shadow of doubt in their minds. If they told themselves these deaths were inevitable, this no longer seems so inarguable.

They are in any case so disoriented by this sudden change of mood among those they are about to kill that they are unable to go through with the executions.

So all the men, along with Desnos, are packed back onto the truck and taken back to the barracks.

Desnos has saved his own life and the lives of others by using his imagination.

The story poses a question. Can the imagination save us?

Robert Desnos was famous for his belief in the imagination. He believed it could transform society.

And what a wild leap this was, at the mouth of the gas chambers, to imagine a long life! In his mind he simply stepped outside the world as it was created by the SS.





LIFE IS WRETCHED AND GLORIOUS

“Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected.

“But if that’s all that’s happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction.

“On the other hand, wretchedness–life’s painful aspect–softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody’s eyes because you feel you haven’t got anything to lose–you’re just there.

“The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We’d be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn’t have enough energy to eat an apple.

“Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.”

- Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living