Fundamentals of Astrology
by Barbara Hand
Clow
Imagine knowing in advance the timing and form that a major life
crisis might take. That knowledge could help diffuse the "crisis" nature
of the circumstances and create the possibility of understanding the experience
while it was happening. And what if that "crisis" was the major crossroad
of mid-life passage?
Identification of the true source of this crisis -- transformational powers
rising spontaneously from within -- helps us to focus on demanding inner
needs instead of concluding that outside events are the cause of the difficulty.
And, knowing the exact timing of the intensity levels of the crisis creates
very accurate observation of its processes plus the awareness that it will
eventually end.
Uranus Opposition pushes the flow of kundalini energy to its peak
during mid-life passage, and the timing of this maximum-pressure cycle can
be determined in advance. The key is astrology, the study of individual
life in relation to planetary patterns. This chapter presents some fundamental
ideas of astrology that, though basic to any useful employment of astrology,
have been distorted and misunderstood as a result of Western culture's attachment
to a Newtonian concept of the universe. Curiously, now that we as a culture
are more aware of the limitations of Newton's model, scientific explanations
and acceptance of astrology are beginning to emerge.
During the last four hundred years of Western civilization, roughly
equal to the rise of science as the model for how to think, all fields of
scientific and metaphysical thought, including astrology, have been very
influenced by the Newtonian mind-set, named after Sir Isaac Newton. Newton's
work on physics was the basic scientific model during this period. Grossly
simplified, the Newtonian universe is a gigantic clock that has specific
and identifiable parts that do precise and predictable things according
to patterns that can be calculated.
The Newtonian climate created a very predictive and deterministic
form of astrology until the twentieth century, asking astrologers to forecast
specific events that were to come to pass because of the placement of the
planets, a task for which astrology is only moderately equipped. Since the
worldview of astrologers is always influenced and shaped by cultural paradigms,
many astrologers have fallen into predicting events based on Newton's clocklike
concept of the universe and his mechanistic view of the lives of individuals.
Furthermore, individuals seeking the advice of astrologers have often conceived
of themselves as cogs in a turning wheel, and their personal needs and questions
have reflected their own concepts of self.
In recent times, the simple Newtonian mechanistic cause/effect theory
has been increasingly subject to challenge. First, science continually realizes
that it does not have all of the information or perception necessary to
determine the scientific principles that rule cause-and-effect relationships.
There is a growing awareness of subtlety, of dimensionality, of the possibility
of larger and more complex systems operating.
Secondly, and more importantly, other theories that are generally
acknowledged as valid -- Einstein's theory of relativity, for example --
don't fit simply within Newton's model. Regarding the field of astrology,
Percy Seymour of Great Britain, an astronomer whose text Cosmic Magnetism
was highly received in 1986, has put forth a new theory that grounds astrology
in science!
A fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a principal lecturer
of the Plymouth Polytechnic Institute, and the director of the William Day
Planetarium in southern England, Dr. Seymour stunned both astrologers and
astronomers with the recent publication of his book Astrology: The Evidence
of Science, which bases astrology on magnetism, a universal force as significant
as gravity. Seymour's theory holds that astrology is not mystical or magical,
but "magnetic." Dava Sobel, who wrote about Percy Seymour in the December
1990 edition of Omni magazine, commented:
Astrology can be explained, he [Seymour] says, by the tumultuous
magnetic activity of the Sun, churned to a lather by the motions of the
planets, carried to Earth on the solar wind, and perceived by us via the
Earth's magnetic field while we grow inside our mother's wombs.
In fact, Seymour contends that the horoscope can actually identify
some of the genetic characteristics of the individual.
According to Seymour, the moment of birth is synchronized by a set
of magnetic fluctuations. The fetus is influenced by the geomagnetic field
but is sheltered from external sensory stimuli. Activation of the fetus's
sensory apparatus at birth causes a fusion of the geomagnetic coding and
the sensory apparatus, and that is why the birth chart is so critical. As
the fetus begins to respond to its environment during the first three months
of life -- the time of the first "solar square" -- the magnetic field imprint
is exceedingly intense. Seymour notes that one of his students demonstrated
that changes in the magnetic field of the Sun correspond to certain aspects
or angles between the planets that astrologers deem significant. To be specific,
these aspects include oppositions (180-degree angles between planets as viewed
from Earth), squares (90-degree angles), and conjunctions (0-degree or close
angles), all of which create momentous shifts in people's lives.
Western astrology starts with the birth chart or natal chart, which
maps the basic energy field of an individual. That energy field encompasses
environmental influences, genetic tendencies, and past-life history. The
natal chart is the description of a seed or a new bud, reborn after a journey
into other dimensions. After analysis of the birth chart, the advanced astrologer
observes the inner unfoldment of the client's basic energy field through
time by studying progressions and the outer unfoldment by means of planetary
transits.
The use of progressions is a complex diagnostic technique similar
to observing plant growth by means of time-lapse photography. The original
bud -- the birth chart -- is time-lapsed through a lifetime by the astrologer,
and the mysterious unfoldment of the birth energy field can be observed through
time. We can image the progressions as a rose or lotus, which is a compact
bud at birth that gradually unfolds and opens into its encoded exquisite
flowering.
This subtle inner opening of the individual to the cosmos, as seen
by the study of natal progressions, has always been one of the most accurate
and mysterious astrological tools, and Dr. Seymour's magnetic theory offers
the first scientific idea on why it works. During the first ninety days
of life, there is much shifting in the solar magnetic field: there are three
lunar cycles; Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars move great distances, and
the slower-moving planets move slightly. This shifting sky makes a pattern
imprint on the individual that continues to mature through time. These concepts
are based on the belief that a created form contains seed patterns that
will unfold according to patterns, just as an acorn will eventually become
a gigantic tree if it is planted, is watered, and receives sunlight.
Transits -- when planets return to form significant angles in relation
to the birth chart -- are the key to prediction of human response patterns
to outside events. Beginning with the moment of birth, transits of the planets
continuously "set off" life events when they return to conjunctions, squares,
oppositions, and less critical angles to birthchart positions. I like to
image them as beacons of light that shine into key parts of the birth chart,
activating events for predictable periods of time. Like the forces triggering
the growth of an oak tree, these transits are seasonal and are large patterns
related to the energy of the Sun that creates weather patterns and electromagnetic
fields.
The key transition growth points occur at the return of Saturn to
its original position in the birth chart at age 30 (conjunction); at the
opposition of Uranus to its position in the natal chart at age 38 to 44;
and at the return of Chiron to its natal position (conjunction) at age 50.
If one lives to age 84, Uranus returns to its natal position, and this conjunction
is the completion of the evolution of consciousness, just as Saturn Return
is the completion of structural evolution. Notice how these aspects creating
the key life passages are also the aspects that have the greatest impact
on the solar magnetic field.
What about astrology's potential to accurately predict things in
our lives? Before we get deeply into the power of astrological influences,
let us explore just exactly what astrology can reveal. Astrology can offer
a very specific energy analysis of trends, the quality of possible outcomes,
and the nature of events likely to occur based on transit patterns. An astrologer
can be strikingly accurate with a specific prediction by using some general
information about energetics, and then can take a potshot at the nature
of an event to come and even guess its outcome. For example, if an individual's
chart shows that he or she will be experiencing financial loss, a comment
about the loss of someone's house or business might turn out to be true.
But the overall influence and tendency -- the nature of the energy field
-- is what is really important.
Astrology as Energy Potential
When
Ellen came to me, she was 38 years old, divorced, and the mother of two
small children. All she wanted was a husband. I saw a Venus transit to the
7th house of her natal chart coming up in eighteen months, indicating that
"the love of her life" would manifest. Normally, I would have explained to
her that she was going to have some significant growth of her receptive potential,
which would possibly attract another being who could learn with her while
she deepened. But, because she was a single mother and I felt sorry for
her, I allowed her to hear that the love of her life was going to appear.
I didn't say it would be a man, but I knew she heard it that way.
Eighteen
months passed. After having an affair with a person who seemed to be useless
as a potential mate, Ellen gave birth, lonely and unmarried, to a baby girl.
And it was this little girl -- not the man who impregnated Ellen -- who became
the love of her life! This little girl, who was born prematurely and weighed
less than five pounds, opened her mother's heart.
With this example, we can see what astrology is and is not. Not
a parlor game for predicting mechanics and events, astrology is a complex,
synchronistic science, a science of coalescing energetic fields. Astrology
can predict the quality of energies presented by general future patterns
that appear likely to occur, and by observing a person's reaction to specific
planets over time, a good astrologer can tell what the person is, and will
be, struggling with.
Astrology predicts upcoming energetic forms, and in order to read
natal charts on that basis, the astrologer must develop very good descriptive
powers. But to narrow those energetic forms to anything less than the energy
form itself -- to focus on the form that energy might take, for example
-- drastically reduces potential growth by limiting possibility. By helping
their clients to see the "energy" of what is coming, astrologers offer them
the opportunity to (1) prepare themselves, (2) have a very broad view of
what is going on as it starts to happen, (3) be able to realize the patterns
and synchronicities that make life more subtle, and (4) avoid deep trouble
during a tough transit.
If astrologers fix the upcoming phase into specifics, clients are
robbed of the very gift that astrology actually can offer them: the information
needed to live life consciously. More insidiously, prediction of the form
a particular energy might take involves judgments by an astrologer about
a client's future possibilities. Such judgments can be dangerous. On the
positive side, a reading of a chart for energetics, instead of specifics,
may help us get beyond fear.
Transit phases last from days to years, depending upon the length
of a planet's orbit. For example, Venus transits might last only a few days,
but Pluto and Neptune transits last for a few years. The transit has a beginning,
middle, and end. During this time, certain issues are likely to arise that
will correspond to particular phases of the transit. There is usually a
beginning point, when we realize that a change needs to happen and what that
change might be; a middle point, when we do the integration work required
for the shift to occur; and an end phase, when we absorb the deeper spiritual
meaning of the change. If we can "do" the transit phase -- absorb the full
meaning and personally integrate the lesson -- we are on our way to becoming
much more conscious.
Most importantly, the astrologer can advise when it will all end!
Fear starts to take us over when we feel lost in the deep forest of the
night -- the subconscious mind. We panic when we feel like we are falling
into an endless pit dug by chaotic events around us. Knowing that there is
an end to the crisis can help us not to become unbalanced or even suicidal.
The astrologer can also chart exactly when the energy will be the
most intense so that an event that might seem to be irrational actually
has an identifiable basis. This also makes it less likely for a person to
attribute an inner change only to outside forces, thereby losing the chance
to learn the lesson of the transit. For example, someone who is mugged and
whose astrologer had warned of the presence of a Mars/ Pluto aspect, which
indicates a lesson about violence and the underworld, might choose to learn
about what violence brings up for him or her rather than move to another
community based on a decision that crime had become endemic in their first
location.
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This article is excerpted from "Liquid Light of Sex" by Barbara Hand Clow. http://www.InnerTraditions.com
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About the Author
Barbara Hand Clow is an astrologer, spiritual teacher, and publisher. She
is the author of Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets;
Eye of the Centaur; Heart of the Christos; Signet of Atlantis; and the bestselling
Pleiadian Agenda: A New Cosmology for the Age of Light. This article is
excerpted with permission from her book "Liquid Light of Sex" published
by Bear & Co.
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