Beauty & Truth Lab

taboo justice. unauthorized healing. reverent insurgency. sacred transgression. spiritual anarchy. sweet apocalypse. sublime convulsion. outlaw sacraments. friendly shocks. generous danger. dissident enlightenment. joyous upheaval. orgiastic compassion. insurrectionary beauty. illegal truth. divine subversion. Founder of the Beauty & Truth Lab, I write the syndicated weekly horoscope column Free Will Astrology. I've authored three books: Astrology Is Real Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings The Televisionary Oracle I've also created a lot of music, some of which can be found here: The Sacred Uproar

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July 29, 2026 at 12:53PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbY6TfPklKQ/

[freewillastrology]

I protest and reject this quote, usually attributed to Rumi. The notion that silence represents pure, undiluted divine communication, while all other forms of expression constitute degraded approximations, strikes me as weird, wrong, and pretentious. . This quote proposes that the Divine Source, which I personally call the Goddess, speaks most authentically in the void between sounds. . Everything else is somehow inferior, a corruption of the original silent message: the cry of a newborn, the song of a mockingbird at dawn, the crash of waves against rocks, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the “I love you” between partners. . I reject this mystical elitism. . The ranking of silence over sound rests on a dualism I distrust, in which spirit is purer than matter and the ineffable outranks the effable. . Nope. This is the old transcendence trap, the notion that we must escape the messy, noisy realm of embodied existence to access authentic spirituality. . Read more here: tinyurl.com/SilenceNotAlwaysGolden . July 28, 2026 at 12:32PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbWTECqD_Xj/

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July 27, 2026 at 11:03AM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbTkHLZmLjK/

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Read what I’ve written about Uranus in Gemini: tinyurl.com/UranusThroughGemini July 26, 2026 at 04:02PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbRhjZMDz3O/

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July 26, 2026 at 01:36PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbRQ29vEthp/

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You Reading This, Be Ready - by William Stafford . Starting here, what do you want to remember? How sunlight creeps along a shining floor? What scent of old wood hovers, what softened sound from outside fills the air? . Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right now? Are you waiting for time to show you some better thoughts? . When you turn around, starting here, lift this new glimpse that you found; carry into evening all that you want from this day. This interval you spent reading or hearing this, keep it for life–– . What can anyone give you greater than now, starting here, right in this room, when you turn around? July 25, 2026 at 10:15AM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbOVAuQlBxI/

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July 24, 2026 at 12:27PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbL_XhDjx4A/

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July 23, 2026 at 01:44PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbJjTx8knCq/

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July 21, 2026 at 08:32PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbFIdEJFEbi/

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I lifted this from @think_and_exist July 21, 2026 at 03:54PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbEom9DD8fd/

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July 21, 2026 at 10:16AM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbEB9-HFHCf/

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July 20, 2026 at 05:23PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbCOE6emNVZ/

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July 19, 2026 at 09:48PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DbAHiUlFIY0/

[freewillastrology]

Rebecca Solnit has provided the definitive understanding of the term “mansplaining.” It refers to when a man explains something to a woman in a condescending, overconfident way that assumes she knows less. It’s often about a topic she already understands or is expert in. . It’s not just ordinary explaining; the defining features are the patronizing tone, the presumption of female ignorance, and the gendered power dynamic embedded in the interaction. . Here are 10 more related coinages. . 1. Mannotation When a man adds needless comments, footnotes, or “corrections” to what a woman has said, as if her words require his editorial approval. + 2. Manterjection When a man inserts himself into a conversation with abrupt, unsolicited opinions that derail or dominate the flow. + 3. Manspeculation When a man confidently theorizes about women’s experiences, bodies, or emotions despite having little or no lived knowledge. + 4. Manvocation When a man invokes his status, credentials, or “logic” to shut down a woman’s perspective rather than engage with it. + 5. Manoffense When a man takes performative offense at feminist or critical comments, reframing himself as the real victim to recenter the discussion on his feelings. + 6. Manstigation When a man subtly goads or provokes a woman into an argument, then criticizes her for being “too emotional” or “overreacting.” + 7. Manversioning When a man rewrites events or conversations to cast himself as more reasonable, knowledgeable, or innocent, sidelining a woman’s account. + 8. Manclosure When a man declares a topic “settled,” ending dialogue once his own view is aired, regardless of whether others have been heard. + 9. Manchoring When a man positions his perspective as the fixed reference point—the “objective” center—against which all other views are judged as biased. + 10. Mancision When a man makes or imposes decisions affecting women without consulting them, assuming he knows what’s best on their behalf. July 18, 2026 at 10:05AM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/Da8SVK4FIwb/

[freewillastrology]

Some rightwingers fling the clichéd term “virtue signaling” as if it were a bad thing. Personally, I am all in favor of virtue-signaling. . I love to see people making full-bodied expressions of how much they care and what they want to do to make the world a better place. It’s even fine with me if part of their motivation is the desire to be loved by the rest of us do-gooders. . So yes, please feel free to flaunt your virtue-signaling in front of me. I will applaud and appreciate. Maybe you talk the do-good talk 70% of the time and walk the do-good walk 30% of the time. In my eyes, that’s WAY preferable to those who walk the do-good walk 0% of the time. . Funny how the people who mock virtue-signaling never seem to worry they’re engaging in apathy-signaling or cruelty-signaling or I’m-afraid-of-my-own-heart signaling. The accusation itself is a kind of signal—a cynicism-signal, a “too-cool-to-care” signal that broadcasts moral disengagement as if it were sophistication. . And let’s not forget: What they dismiss as “virtue signaling” has always been how social change happens. Abolitionists, suffragists, and civil rights marchers were accused of the equivalent of virtue signaling. . The term changes but the reactionary impulse remains the same: belittling public expressions of conscience because those expressions might actually inspire action. And action is what terrifies the reactionaries most. . Because underneath the cynicism about “virtue signaling” is often terror of moral obligation. If we acknowledge that others are suffering and that we could help, we might actually have to do something. Better to preemptively mock anyone who cares, so we can preserve our comfortable numbness. . If for some reason anyone doesn’t like my own personal virtue-signaling, they have my authorization to go in search of people who prefer to engage in vice-signaling and selfishness-signaling and I’ve-got-mine-and-fuck-the-rest-of-you signaling. . The author of the prayer in the meme is unknown. Art is by Michelle Possum Nungurrayi. July 17, 2026 at 12:49PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/Da6AU1-D3Y5/

[freewillastrology]

This image is from Ephemera, Inc. July 16, 2026 at 03:42PM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/Da3vTgaD8fE/

[freewillastrology]

Art by James R. Eads . Meme words by Alice Walker July 16, 2026 at 10:14AM via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/Da3JwUuCZVc/