AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In addition to food, air, water, sleep, and love, every human being needs stories. No one can psychically survive without the continuous flow of narrative through his or her imagination.

And just as there is a big difference between the physical nourishment provided by a salad or by a candy bar, so is there a wide range of quality in the stories you expose yourself to. Soaking up the adventures of über-playboy Hugh Hefner and his three girlfriends on the TV show "The Girls Next Door" will probably deplete your energy and lower your intelligence, while reading Tom Robbins' novel *Jitterbug Perfume* may enhance your mental hygiene and sharpen your perceptions.

What I'm saying here is always true, of course, but it's especially important for you to keep in mind right now. From what I can tell, you're ravenous for beautiful, uncanny, uplifting stories.

First of all, I fell in love with the phrase and ideal that survival is a condition best met with "the continuous flow of narrative through (my) imagination". Brought a smile to my face and a quickening to my pulse. Why? The words were sustenance to my soul's imagination. ;) Let me explain....

I know I've outed myself as "wordy" or "loquacious" or being "all about the wordplay" (Note: Kudos to Mr. Mraz!) On FaceBook, my bumper sticker is:

[caption id="attachment_64" align="alignleft" width="170" caption="Its what my daughter says when I begin to ramble"][/caption]

And one of my favorite quotes is this:

"I can't help but to immediately begin to shape sentences when I see something amazing. Its my way of feeling like I'm actually standing or lying here with someone. Its always been my best friend and counselor...its how I celebrate every aspect of my spiritual self. This is the reason I am on this adventure." (Jason Mraz)

All of this to say that when asked to attend a book party as my favorite author or character from a story (great idea too, c.a.!), after overt-thinking it quite a bit, I decided to go as Tom Robbins.

(Click to see the Literary Party Pics)

I love the way he uses his words (That's right - I sound like a pre-school teacher!! "Use your words, children") I love that his stories are full of words that while describing or painting a mental image, use all of the senses in the telling of their stories. Its like the stories he tells are rendered tangible in the playground of my imagination and I can immerse myself into the lines, one by one, as they weave their storybook magic.

So Mr. Brezsny's reference to my FAVORITE Tom Robbins' novel, Jitterbug Perfume, adds emphasis to the flow of his words and a fresh sense of anticipation for the coming week. I'm motivated to re-read Mr. Robbins in the certainty that when I do, I'll feel that creative spark of the Divine that inspires me.

The beginning of the newsletter also contains excerpts from other sources. The one that stood out to me was an excerpt from an Esquire magazine article Tom Robbins wrote in 1993. I'm paraphrasing in the spirit of less scrolling, but the title has a link to the whole article.

Enjoy!

Peace,

~me

Mental Bungee-jumping may not be your sport of choice, but there's a cerebral ledge that sooner or later each of us has to leap off. One day, ready or not,

we glance in a mirror, cuddle an infant, attend a funeral, walk in the woods, ... chance a liaison, wake in the night with a napalm lobster in our chest, read a message from the pope or the Dalai Lama, get lost in Verdi or lost in the stars - and wind up thinking about our soul.

Yes, the soul. You know what I mean.

If you need to visualize the soul, think of it as a cross between a wolf howl, a photon, and a dribble of dark molasses. But what it really is, as near as I can tell, is a packet of information. It's a program, a piece of hyperspatial software designed explicitly to interface with the Mystery. Not a mystery, mind you, the Mystery. The one that can never be solved.

To one degree or another, everybody is connected to the Mystery, and everybody secretly yearns to expand the connection. That requires expanding the soul.

These things can enlarge the soul:

laughter, danger, imagination,

meditation, wild nature, passion,

compassion, psychedelics, beauty,

iconoclasm, and driving around in the rain with the top down.

These things can diminish it:

fear, bitterness, blandness,

trendiness, egotism, violence,

corruption, ignorance, grasping,

shining, and eating ketchup on cottage cheese.

…More immediately, by waxing soulful you will have granted yourself the possibility of ecstatic participation in what the ancients considered a divinely animated universe. And on a day to day basis, folks, it doesn't get any better than that.

By Tom Robbins Esquire, October, 1993

Rob Brezsny, link in the sidebar

#2: Rob Brezsny is the most accurate, life-altering astrologer/poet I've followed with any consistency over the past decade. In his weekly "Free Will Astrology," Rob provides miraculously accurate (and always free) advice. Like this week, here's what he had to say to us Virgos:

"Dear Star-Reader Brezsny: You are the only wizard who can save me. I have a bad job -- just $72,000 a year -- plus a lover who's not all that cute and a home that's not worth as much as it used to be. My health is good but I hate my nose and ass. Can't afford a BMW or a vacation to Spain. My world is unraveling! Hope is fading! Please tell me what to do! - Virgo on the Verge." Dear On the Verge: I suggest that you temporarily suspend your strident yearning. This is one time when it's important to cultivate more appreciation for what you actually have. I urge you and all Virgos to turn your attention away from what you think you lack, and devote your psychic energy to loving what is."

Fucking brilliant.

"A final thought on Pronoia: while symptoms of Pronoia include sudden attacks of optimism and outbreaks of goodwill, the revived meme also included a caution. Pronoia, like paranoia, can cause dangerous irrationality if taken in massive doses... grounding and skill at surfing are key to making the most of an onslought of pronoia."//pronoia.net

PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA:

"I for one am no longer willing to tolerate the epidemic obsession with big bad nasty things and flashy trite empty-hearted things. I say it's time for us to re-consecrate and regenerate and lubricate and liberate and take back our imaginations. Here are my demands.

DEMAND #1: I demand that Amnesty International launch a crusade against a form of terrorism I call the genocide of the imagination.

DEMAND #2: I demand that you periodically go on a media fast. For a week at a time, once a season, avoid all TV, movies, novels, yalk shows, newspapers, magazines, and Internet.

DEMAND #3: I demand that you learn to tell the difference between your own thoughts and those of the celebrities who have demonically possessed you.

DEMAND #4: I demand that People magazine do a feature story on "The World's Fifty Sexiest Perpetrators of Beauty, Truth, and Rowdy Bliss."

DEMAND #5: I demand that you wear underpants on your head and dance naked in slow motion whenever you watch movies on TV about tormented geniuses who create great art but treat everyone in their lives like crap.

DEMAND #6: I demand that you refuse to be entertained and entranced by bad news--by stories whose plots are driven by violence, abuse, terrorism, bigotry, lawsuits, greed, crashes, alcoholism, disease, and torture.

DEMAND #7: I demand that you seek out and create stories that make you feel that the universe is friendly and life is on your side. You could hunt down stories about how, for example, rising rates of intermarriage are helping to dissipate ethnic and religious strife worldwide; how the violent crime rate in America has been steadily declining for 30 years; how death rates from cancer are shrinking; the birth rate among teenage mothers is the lowest it's been in six decades; acreage devoted to organic farming is increasing rapidly; the number of refugees and weapons sales all over the world are way down from the level they were 15 years ago, and how the actual bare naked truth is that levels of literacy and education and political freedom and peace and wealth are steadily growing all over the world.

DEMAND #8: When you're too well-entertained to move, screaming is good exercise. Which is why I demand that you scream now and then whenever you're soaking up slick crap generated by the imaginations of people who are devoted to money, power, and ego instead of love, reverence, and play."//freewillastrology

1. During an intense half-hour rant, complain and whine about everything that pains you. Get a sympathetic listener to be your receptacle if possible, or simply deliver your blast straight into the mirror. Having emptied all your psychic toxins in one neat ritual spew, you'll be able to luxuriate in rosy moods and relaxed visions for a while.

2. Locate or create a symbol of your own pain. Mail it to us at the Angst Incineration Crew, P.O. Box 150628, San Rafael, CA 94915, USA. We will then conduct a sacred ritual of purification during which we will burn that symbol to ash. While this may not banish your suffering entirely, it will provide a substantial amelioration which you will be able to feel the benefits of within a month.

3. Eat a pinch of dirt while affirming that you are ready to kill off one of your outworn shticks -- some idea or formula that has worked for you in the past but has now become a parody of itself.

4. Using crayons, paints, scissors, glue, collage materials or any other materials, create a piece of large-denomination paper money, good for making a payment on your karmic debt.

5. Kick your own ass 22 times.

6. Brag about yourself nonstop for 10 minutes. Record it so you can listen back to it later.

7. Perform a senseless act of altruism, for instance by giving an anonymous gift or providing some beauty or healing to a person who cannot do you any favors in return.

8. Deliver a concentrated stream of praise about someone, either to that person herself or to anyone who will listen. Extra credit: Force yourself to think a kind and loving thought about someone you don't like or from whom you feel alienated.

9. Conjure up an imaginary friend and have an intimate conversation with him and her for at least 15 minutes.

10. Build an altar devoted to beauty, truth, and love in one of the ugliest places you know.

11. With a companion, watch a blank TV while making up a pronoiac story featuring plot twists that are rife with happiness, redemption, and good times -- yet not boring. You may either speak this tale aloud or write it down.

12. Compose and perform a ceremony in which you get married to yourself.

13. While making love, imagine that your physical pleasure is a carrier wave for a spiritual blessing which you beam in the direction of some person you know who needs a supercharged boost." //Rob Brezsny

- Rob Brezsny, link in the sidebar.

Sentite un po' cosa dice questa settimana il buon Rob a quelli come me, nati sotto il segno dell'Acquario:

"Un secolo fa l'aspettativa di vita umana era 47 anni, il limite di velocità sulle strade era 15 chilometri orari e il salario medio era 22 centesimi all'ora. C'era una vasca da bagno in una casa su sei e il telefono in una su dieci. Le donne si lavavano i capelli una volta al mese e spesso usavano come shampoo il rosso d'uovo. La Coca-Cola conteneva cocaina. Prevedo che entro il 2028 la vita sulla terra cambierà quanto è cambiata negli ultimi cent'anni. Gli Acquari sono nella posizione astrologica migliore per approfittare di queste trasformazioni. Come sfruttare a pieno il tuo vantaggio naturale? Fa' un piano decennale e uno ventennale, cercando di immaginare quello che farai nel 2018 e nel 2028. Le prossime settimane saranno il momento ideale per metterti all'opera."

Dopo una premessa di questo tipo, non posso fare altro che rimboccarmi le maniche e partire verso nuove e emozionanti avventure!

In ogni modo non sperate che pubblichi sul blog i dettagli dei miei piani decennali e ventennali. Troppo facile, sennò!