Very often, when I tell people what I do (ie use Astrology to help you gain an understanding of what your life is all about) I get the response “I’m skeptical”. My reaction to this is “skeptical is good, cynical is bad”. For me, someone who’s skeptical means they’re not convinced of something but given an explanation and an experience they’re willing to change their attitudes and ideas. Being cynical, on the other hand, means I’ve made up my mind and you can’t convince me to change it. Skeptical is “I’m not convinced but am open to evidence.” Cynical is “I’m not interested, don’t bother me with proof.”
After experiencing one of my readings, people who’ve identified themselves as skeptical are often amazed at how accurate it is and have commented; “I don’t know how this works, but clearly it does.”
So, just how does Astrology work?
As I see it, the Universe is a single entity. As such, anything that goes on in one part of the Universe impacts the rest of it. Just like, if you cut your finger your whole body reacts. Obviously, when it comes to the Universe we’re talking about incredibly subtle effects, which we don’t yet have the technology to measure or even observe. (See my previous post called Praying For Yesterday.)
However, when we get closer to home (the Solar System) we have been observing it since the beginning of human beings. (It may have even been earlier than that but if we go there now we’ll end up in some very weird places so let’s keep that conversation for another time.)
Since we’ve been able to observe our local system we’ve noticed that when certain things happen in the sky there’s a correlation to things that happen on Earth and with people.
Consequently, the planets represent or symbolise the energies which make us. As human beings we are unique combinations of particular drives, needs, urges and so on. This mix has been defined in many different ways based on the various cultural perspectives we have. There’s the yetzer hara and the yetzer tov, chakras, chi, the conscious and subconscious minds, archetypes and an unlimited array of other ways to define who we are. While all these are valid (well most are) and often helpful, I personally, find Astrology to be a very effective tool to understand ourselves.
One of the big questions is “how can a lump of rock which is millions of miles (or kilometers) away affect who we are?” I don’t think there’s a direct causal relationship between the heavenly bodies and our personalities. I think it’s a symbolic relationship.
An example is a bus timetable. Let’s assume for a moment that the bus you catch to work always runs on time (remember we’re being metaphorical – I know buses don’t run on time). So, every morning, when your watch says it’s 7.30 your bus comes around the corner. After observing this for a while we could then predict that when the watch shows 7.30 the bus appears. One way of interpreting this evidence is that your watch is causative ie when your watch reaches 7.30 this CAUSES the bus to appear. Now we know that’s not the case. What we understand is that there’s a synchronous relationship between the watch and the bus ie something is going on where the watch and the bus are part of the same experience but there isn’t a direct relationship between the two events.
Similarly, when the heavenly bodies are oriented in certain ways we understand (because we’ve been observing it for a very long time) that certain things will occur on Earth and that energetically this configuration will have consequences which we can understand and respond to.
Thus, the planets work in a profound and subtle way much like your watch does in the bus example above. While the watch only tells us about the impact of time an astrological chart shows a profoundly more complex relationship. It shows us the energetic makeup of that moment in time at that location in the Universe. The challenge is then to be able to interpret what this cosmic clock is saying.
In the same way as a child who isn’t yet able to tell the time by looking at a clock can eventually learn to do it, so too can people learn to read the cosmic clock of the heavenly bodies. That’s what astrologers do (or at least this one does – I can’t speak for everyone else).
Over the next few weeks I’ll continue this outline and explanation of how I see and use Astrology.