In trying to define myself and my experiences, I have often tried to identify the context of various experiences. I grew up with Tarot cards, numerology, palmistry and tea leaf reading, but my hobby became Astrology. Over the decades, there are two themed responses that are often used to discredit Astrology: it isn’t a religion and it isn’t scientific.
I’m not sure why either position is relevant. Astrology, whether Hindu or Hellenistic or Indigenous, has been around since prehistory and has formed a major part of human societies through the millennia. More pointedly, I wonder how people have managed to develop their opinions when they’ve never heard of ‘natal chart’, let alone visited a competent Astrologer. So, I thought it is time I divulge my position regarding Astrology.
After a particular conversation with Sibling 5, it occurred to me that my attitude toward Astrology isn’t necessarily contemporary. Let’s face it, I’m not exactly a trend follower, so let’s get to it.
I consider the following points elementary:
1. People perceive within the context of their own perceptions.
Circular argument? I think not. The way I perceive myself changes with a mood, it changes according to my environment and also the people with whom I’m talking. It also changes according to others’ responses.
The key point here is this: Astrology changes my perceptions about myself and results in personally insightful and fulfilling experiences which ultimately raise my awareness. Altering my self-perception with this system has value to me and has repeatedly proven of similar value to others.
When in a psychological/scientific context, I often feel sorely lacking in knowledge, skills and comprehension and seldom find any solution to any issue I currently have. I’ve had more constructive numerology and palmistry sessions than any one counseling session.
When in a religious context, I feel it important to either change religions RIGHT NOW or to simply commit suicide as extending my life only results in more torment at the final end of it. Regardless of my personal views of religions and their fundamental obsolescence in the face of the Bill of Human Rights, the result for me with religions is that I do not and never will belong.
Neither science nor religion provide a context or structure within which I am able to reflect upon myself and raise self-awareness. Psychology comes close at times but is certainly inscrutable at others.
2. We all have a place.
Numerology tries to find a place for each of us which validates not only us but also those around us, but is fairly similar in its constricted framework to psychology, as far as I can tell. The fundamental mechanics of both systems are simply not sophisticated enough to detail the underlying factors in any given situation.
At no point am I saying that either system or their various styles of application are without worth. I am saying, however, that both have particular limitations that I believe have to do with a lack of development and application.
I expect that once psychology has been around for several more centuries it will begin to blossom and allow the people who become involved with it to gain insight with much greater efficiency. This blossoming, I believe, begins with validation and any system that effect validation within a personality must needs grow.
3. Use the right tool for the job.
There is no point in using faith to understand the world: the two are mutually incompatible, and I strongly believe that the two can safely and happily remain separate. Sadly, there are many with the over-zealous concept that faith overrides reality or realistic endeavors. I’m still not sure why such people are so unrealistic in their faith but deep insecurity seems indicated. Faith, therefore, is not the right tool for understanding reality.
The right tool for the job of global peace is the Bill; the right tool for the job of understanding the measurable universe is science; the right tool for maintaining faith, in whatever form, may be religion; but this is where I diverge from contemporary thought a little.
Astrology is the right tool for the job of acquiring answers when they are needed, which most often is immediate. It can take weeks of therapy with a skilled practitioner to self-identify key experiences but with Astrology I can identify the same points within a few moments of scanning the natal chart. I can’t help but notice the efficiency of the process.
4. Cause or effect, the result’s the same.
Astrology isn’t scientific, I’ve read and heard. I’ve never thought it was. Yet, I’m forced to notice the internal logic and just how functionally valid that logic is.
With the Symbolic Modeling branch of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a key point is to not change the language of the client, but to help the client continue developing it themselves. The fundamental theory goes like this: Every person has their own perception of the world, and we each have an internal method of detailing this reality. And, each of these internalised methods are valid, else it wouldn’t function for that person.
When I check other systems, such as cognitive-behavioural theory, or evolution, or string theory, I’m checking how the internal logic of these abstract systems work. I consider how well the different components each connect with the other components, and I also wonder how well the logic of one system works with the logic of a completely different system.
I don’t pretend to be any master of any system, just an interested observer. What I notice about Astrology is there are no conflicts with the internal logic of this system or with the existence of religion, empiricism, economic, social or political systems. Considering the amount of conflict in this world, I consider this remarkable.
How is it so? I’m not sure. Astrologers have been confronted with a huge array of new developments over the past few hundred years: socio-cultural changes, perceptual changes, new sciences and new religions, and not least of all, new planets! But each and every one of them somehow found a place inside the basic, yet not simple, pre-existing framework of Astrology.
The consequence is that the Astrology available today is a masterpiece compared with the more limited breadth of the seventeenth century or the fifth century BC. Astrology continues developing and growing, and the result is that we have a wealth of pseudo-psychological information at our fingertips for insight and raising self-awareness.
For me, Astrology is a system with internal functional logic that provides a way for each and every person to begin understanding themselves and their existence, their problems, health issues, faults and ways to deal more constructively with those things, if not heal them.
Astrology is a tool for reflecting back our own perceptions, and it works because the system is a combination of millennia of feedback and development through observation, and it also incorporates a basic human component: imagination. Imagination is an integrated part of the Astrological approach and of our internal lives.
Ultimately, I believe Astrology is more of a philosophy, an approach to existing. It is a philosophy. I only recommend, that before you begin to either apply or deride the system, that you study it first in your own terms.
In all of my experiences of Astrology, incorrect information for a chart has lead to question marks, and the correct information has lead to a sudden glow of self-confidence, self-realisation and self-actualisation that is completely unmistakable. These are the effects, and Astrology is the cause.
Further reading:
Anything! Read as widely as you can!
My favorites:
Dane Rudhyar
Martin Schulman
Tracy Marks
Margaret E. Hone
A.T. Mann
Nicholas Culpepper
Dr Marc E. Jones
etc etc etc
Bon Voyage!