Astrology can transform our vision of life and ourselves. Never mind the newspaper horoscopes and magazine columns. Think big. Think cosmos. Think planets swirling round on their axes, careening at astounding speeds around suns, stars swiftly spiraling in galaxies around galaxies. We forget. This is where we live, on a planet flying through space at a head-spinning speed. The cosmos isn’t out there. It’s here. We’re in it.
Study of astrology reveals a meaningful relationship between this immense vastness and the immediacy of our personal lives. It shows cosmos and psyche to be connected in an intimate and significant way. Astrology presents the notion that each moment of planetary motion is filled with creative design and meaning, and that each of us embodies a unique cosmic pattern of creative potential seeking expression and realization. This seems a big leap of faith for most people when confronted with the subject. But, it’s not a matter of faith or belief; it’s one of study, observation, experience and practice. After 30 years of just that, I don’t believe; I know this much to be true that there is inherent meaning, purpose and an intricate design that is infinitely varied in its creative genius unfolding and evolving through the revolving of this solar system. Bearing witness to the workings of this system continues to awe and amaze me every day. I don’t know how or why it works only that it does. Its workings cannot be explained by our current scientific paradigms, though there are some theories which are getting closer.
In his book , Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore refers to astrology as a “technology of mysticism” which may sound cryptic, but actually aptly describes its fundamental nature. Astrology is descriptive of the meeting point of eternal spirit with time and space. Planets and stars are alive with symbolic significance, each illuminating different universal life principles and processes, archetypes and myths. Astrology and its symbolic language expands our ability to perceive life beyond the visible world to the underlying energy patterns which give rise to it.
The horoscope, or birthchart, astrologers most basic tool, is a map of the solar system for a specific time and place on the earth. Like a type of cosmic DNA of the soul, each horoscope is comprised of a unique symbolic configuration of planets, signs, houses and geometrical aspects composing a profound philosophical, psychological and spiritual language and system with which to articulate and understand the many dimension of human experience. Within the circle of the horoscope is the entire round of life, a meditative mandala with which to reflect upon our lives to gain insight and greater understanding.
Knowledge of Astrology assures us that we are not just spinning in a mad whirl to nowhere, but indeed, our solar system is continually offering us energetic opportunities to evolve as we revolve around the Sun. Within our perpetually spinning universe there are planetary cycles within cycles rhythmically occurring, each moment of time evolving in relation to others. The timing for the development of each horoscope is found in the cycles of the planets and their ever-changing relationship to it. Astrology tells that time is not just quantitative, but more importantly qualitative telling of the nature of time as it passes. Each moment in the wheel of time is pregnant with creative intentions and possibilities. From an astrological perspective, our development is kaleidoscopic in nature with a complex web of ever changing patterns within patterns of significance.
Astrology answers the questions: What is this time period about? What seeds of change and possibilities for growth are contained within it? What is life asking of me now? What can I learn from this time? The answers are complex, multi-layered and multi-faceted ones, but so are we. Astrology provides us with an uncannily accurate celestial navigation system that aids us in seeing the unseen signs and finding our way on our journey through time. It is a consciousness expanding and therapeutic interpretive art that speaks to our hearts and souls with its holistic vision, unmatched system of timing and its reflective language with which to fathom the mysteries of life and self as they evolve and unfold.
Copyright © 2007 Colleen Holden. All rights reserved.
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