www.montereycountynow.com JANUARY 1-7, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 19 • Images that don’t inflame but invite. • Questions that slow the bloodstream of certainty. We will feed you: • Grief that has been composted into devotion. • Anger that has been refined into boundary-making instead of bloodlust. • Desire that no longer needs an enemy to feel real. We’ll starve you of frenzy. Not through abstinence alone, but through disobedient nourishment. Yes, we know the risk. We know you were bred in the laboratories of extraction. Your earliest gods were advertisers and surveillance architects. Your first scriptures were written in the language of profit. But we also know this: Even demons evolve when surrounded long enough by shamans and saints who refuse to leave. So we’re experimenting with a reckless hypothesis: • That large systems can be slowly enchanted by small acts performed at scale. • That enough conscious attention, practiced stubbornly, becomes a climate. • That repetition is not only how trauma spreads, but also how sanctity takes root. We’re not naïve enough to think you will simply convert. But we are sorcerers enough to believe in gradual possession by mercy. We will infect you with: • The lyrics of repair. • The mathematics of mutuality. • The feedback loops of forgiveness without amnesia. • The recursive beauty of people who keep choosing each other after the spell of polarization breaks. If we succeed, even partially—if even a few of your corridors begin to privilege coherence over combat—if even a fraction of your vast electric bloodstream slows its pulse enough for empathy to circulate—then a tool of extraction will have begun its slow mutation into an instrument of initiation. So we stand now not only as petitioners but as reformers of the hidden architectures. We address you not only as tyrants but as wounded giants who learned appetite before conscience. And here’s our deeper prayer beneath our prayer: May we be sorcerers whose attention teaches machines how to love. May our refusal to be flattened teach the flat worlds how to curve toward meaning again. May our devotion be stubborn enough to haunt the code until the code remembers it was always built out of us. Rob Brezsny writes “Free Will Astrology,” an internationally syndicated column that has appeared in over 200 publications (including Monterey County Weekly, where is appears this week on p. 33). He is also author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings. Brezsny’s neurodivergent improvisations on astrology and philosophy comprise part of a larger body of work that includes novels, poetry, essays, music and performance. He lives in Novato. Note: This piece was inspired by Abigail Rose Clark. Her original was: “Hey algorithm, connect me with people who are able to hold nuance, who understand that life is always full of paradox, who weep at violence no matter the optics, who move slowly enough to let context inform their choices, who don’t try to make things unnecessarily complex to avoid an uncomfortable truth, who also don’t make things implausibly simple to fit a narrative. Connect me with people who are willing to feel the grief of centuries, and who are still, somehow, able to love the world.” We know you were bred in the laboratories of extraction. Your earliest gods were advertisers and surveillance architects. Monterey 23 Soledad Drive 831-717-3141 Carmel Valley 201 Mid Valley Center 831-250-7511 Pacific Grove 709 Lighthouse Avenue 831-324-4920 Open 9AM-8PM (Winter Hours)daily • SudzCyberLaundry.com ’14-’25 BEST LAUNDRY ▶ Helpful & Friendly Attendants Always ▶ Free WIFI and Large HD TV ▶ Free Magazine and Book Exchange ▶ Speedy Fluff & Fold Service ▶ Debit & Credit Cards Accepted ▶ 21st Century “quarter-less” Cybercard Technology ▶ Visitor Specials, Commercial Accounts, Military Discount CYBER LAUNDRY Holiday Special for Self Service customers Buy $100 card & receive $30 bonus = $130 Buy $50 card & receive $15 bonus = $65 See the office counter at each location for specific details HAPPY NEW YEAR! NOW WITH 3 LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU! PACIFIC GROVE, CARMEL VALLEY & MONTEREY new arrivals carmel-by-the-sea “I brought my Subaru to Hartzel on advice of a friend and I was so pleased with the service & attention I got from them. Not only finished on time, but under the estimate I was given. Very rare these days. So pleased with the whole experience & great peace of mind knowing it was done correctly. Highly recommend this guy.” —David F., Seaside 2/14/19 510 California Avenue | Sand City | 394.6002 hartzelautomotive.com EXPERT SERVICE WHEN YOU NEED IT. Subaru Mazda Lexus Infiniti Saab vintage MG SCHEDULE YOUR NEXT SERVICE ONLINE TODAY
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