Thursday, November 28, 2013

Leo, Leo Burning Bright

I want you all to take a little mental expedition with me for a second. Picture in your mind the word FLAMBOYANT. Now picture someone walking up to that word in coveralls that identify him as a Cosmic Graffitti Artist. He pulls out some cans and starts spraying the F in purple glitter, a couple more letters in zebra stripes and leopard spots, a couple more in tie dye, one in platinum, sets the whole thing alight in an unconsuming fire and proclaims "I AM HERE!" as loud as he can while Beethoven's 9th symphony, whale songs and the first drum beat swell to a crescendo in the background. Got that picture? You just met the mental image I have of Rob Brezsny, Free Will Astrologist and professional Pronoiac.

Pronoia is loosely defined as the opposite of paranoia. Phillip K. Dick played with the concept as did Paulo Cohelo in The Alchemist. It was defined by John Perry Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as "the suspicion that the Universe is a conspiracy on your behalf." That eleven word definition was both echoed and dwarfed by the title of Brezsny's 2005 book Pronoia Is the Antidote to Paranoia: How the Whole Wide World Is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings. How can you not love that as a concept?

Brezsny is one of those writers who I have to be in a certain frame of mind to absorb all at once. Normally I'm not there so I just let his delightful imagery pass through my head knowing that something is going to stick itself in my subconcious. He's the dude behind Free Will Astrology, the totally not run-of-the-mill horoscope column in alternative newspapers and he also has a conciousness-expanding website that you can find if you Google the words Free Will Astrology. There are other fabulous pages, including the Beauty And Truth Lab, but the horoscopes are the big draw.

Did I say not run-of-the-mill? You won't find any mealy mouthed "Libra you strive for balance but the Sagittarius in your life wants adventure" here but he can be scary accurate. I've known people who've said they dreaded reading him because for six weeks or so in the middle of a crisis they were having he was completely if wackily dead on.

His weekly horoscopes run from Wednesday to Tuesday so a new one came out yesterday and I read all of them because even if they're not meant for Libras they're all interesting. When I got to Leo I couldn't stop laughing. Go to the site to read the whole thing but what set me giggling was the very first line, "Your levels of personal magic are high." Really? Hmmm, we don't know any Leos around here, do we? Any recent events that might test that prediction? Like I said above the week runs through Tuesday so Monday December 2 falls in that timeframe. What might be going on then? It's sticking in my head for some reason.

Good luck and happy stargazing to any of you headed to any of the premieres this time around. For those of you new to the fandom, some of the bloggers have screencapped in the past and probably will be again this time. Twitter is always a party. If you normally lurk you're more than welcome to join in the goofy delicious fun but if you're more comfortable hanging back that's cool, too. This will probably be my only post about it because, you know, I'm not really an Armitage blogger. Have a great weekend and I'll see you all soon.

6 comments:

  1. Terrific way to start a day! *giggling* Thank you so much for the point in that direction. I feel like I've been smacked with a "positive attitude stick"! The site is permanently bookmarked.

    Oh, and the bit about any Leos with whom we might be acquainted ... Wow. Divine or otherwise ... ;)

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    1. Seriously I laughed for a good five minutes after I was done reading it.

      As for Brezsny, I love his insights about joy being just as much a teacher as sadness.

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  2. yeah, that site. I'm not even gonna say. It's usually too much for me to absorb.

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    1. He can be too much for me to handle but I love that he sticks to his authentic too-muchness, you know?

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  3. The Leo does seem timely for a certain someone, as the does the advice for me. So timely it's scary. Too much positivity usually makes me roll my eyes and if I were my normal self I think I'd get a huge kick out of the site. However, I'm in a bad, bad place right now and I think I need all that positiveness to keep going.

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    1. The timely thing? Yeah, for real. As for you I got a pocket full of virtual hugs with your name on them, all you have to do is ask.

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Thanks for commenting!