|
Astrology can be formally defined, as
“the study of the positions and energetic
inter-relationships of the moon, planets and stars to say
how they may influence human affairs and terrestrial
events”.
Not solely as a means of predicting the future but also of
honouring our personal pasts and widening our free will
choices in the present.
Astrology too can be a practical guide to everyday life, a
tool for gaining self-knowledge and something that reveals
us to be part of a far greater, all-encompassing Grand
Organised Design (GOD).
In contrast, your brief Sun Sign from the newspaper,
magazine or radio is ‘astrology’ in the same way as telling
someone where you live is just giving them the name of the
city you live in. A complete astrological birth chart,
however, gives them your street and house number, describes
the house itself, inside and out, and tells them what it’s
like to live there with you!
As a sign of their enduring resonance, the world of today
has many astrological names and references in use on a daily
basis, from tennis star Venus Williams, to Jupiter’s Casino,
the Mars Bar, Kambrook Aquarius kettles, Libra Fleur
products, to Ford Taurus and Holden Gemini cars, the Tropics
of Capricorn and Cancer and Cap Gemini Consulting.
References to astrology’s power are also contained in the
Bible, Shakespeare’s plays and the writings of Plato,
Goethe, Dante, Byron and Carl Jung. Among history’s great
figures known to have regularly consulted astrologers
includes Alexander the Great, Queen Elizabeth I, Botticelli,
J.P. Morgan, Adolph Hitler, Charles de Gaulle, Winston
Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Boris Yeltsin and Princess Diana.
(Benson Bobrick, 2005)
Astrology is also converting ancient myths “… something that
never was, but is always happening”, (Joseph Campbell, 1987)
into modern, usable, symbols.
As one vivid example of the power of this, here are four
common astrological “glyphs” as they’re called.
Pluto on the far left is the planet that
symbolises powerful, transformative events, including, in
extreme cases, revenge; Sagittarius, the small glyph next to
it, is the Sun Sign that symbolises air travel; Gemini,
third, is the Sun Sign that symbolizes a message; and
Saturn, fourth, symbolizes a lesson that someone, somewhere
believes you need to learn. This exact combination of
planets and signs was directly in the sky above New York
City on the morning of September 11, 2001.
Doesn’t it also look eerily like the airplanes crashing into
the twin towers of the World Trade Centre?
Beyond any specific events though, large or small, astrology
is about symbolically pushing on into spiritual realms
waiting to be explored, as poets and artists frequently do.
Clearly, many of our institutional religious, political and
economic structures are more interested in perpetuating the
institution than in the transformation of life. And anything
that can affect the transformation outside the surveillance
of these institutions is anathema to them.
The world always appears to be dark to those who are holding
on to the structure of something that can’t fully explain
what’s happening now.
Astrology, then, is ultimately dedicated to the idea of
independent decision-making on a personal level. Also to
honouring one’s connection to that part of the world that is
eternal, perhaps making it less likely that you’ll die with
the music still in you.
|
