A friend called me this morning, looking for how to answer a friend’s question that “western astrology can’t work because of the precession of the equinoxes”. I got the giggles.
[The rest of this is in three sections. Part 1 is the technical stuff. Part 2 is the MEANING, which is (always) more important to me. Part 3 is the “how I’m dealing with it” part.]
Part 1 Yes, the difference between western (tropical) astrology and Indian (sidereal) astrology is that sidereal astrology is completely based on the positions of the stars. And tropical astrology isn’t. But tropical astrology is completely based on the positions of the equinoxes and solstices. So every spring equinox (when you can balance a raw egg on its point!) will always be Zero Aries in tropical astrology. Both of these systems are based on something physical, which has some kind of meaning to the mechanically minded, though the mechanically minded will not see how the physical leads to non-physical kinds of meaning. If we look again at the two systems, tropical and sidereal, we see that the sidereal system also lacks sky-map precision.
Astrology uses 12 constellations to create the 12 astrological signs. Each “sign” is 30 degrees of arc. But the constellations are NOT all 30 degrees of arc! Pisces is HUGE and overlaps with Aquarius a lot–which is why we are, IMO, right now, at the very end of the age of Pisces AND at the beginning of the age of Aquarius. Aries is a tiny little squirt. It happened before Pisces and Pisces overlapped part of Aries, too. So in neither system is astrology an exact sky-map representation of the sky. All the constellations are different sizes and shapes, and both systems of astrology simply say each sign is 30 degrees. Somehow this works. Not even astrologers can tell you why — if you’re asking from the physical level of reality.
Part 2 The reason it works…. Have you ever tried to discuss the esoteric meaning of your dreams with a surgeon? (My apologies to surgeons–I actually know one with whom that would be a natural discussion, but you get my drift here, I think.) Surgeons deal with the most physical parts of the physical world. Dreams come from somewhere else. The problem is that most people’s thinking has NOT caught up with science, which says that Physical Matter is only FIVE PERCENT of the universe. Many advanced physicists (and meditators, and others) say that each of us is a fragment of SOURCE, which is an unbreakable singularity. When something is entirely single, ALL OF EVERYTHING is a part of it. So SOURCE, of which we are a fragment, contains ALL of EACH of us, including the 95% that is NOT physical. In SOURCE, we are not separated from each other, we are not separated from the stars, we are not separated from ALL of GOD Itself.
It seems to me that astrology, which reaches way beyond the physical understanding of our own physical world–our own bones and sinews, our own plot of dirt on the ground–is a way of expanding our understanding of SELF (and physical world) that stretches us beyond our limited physical senses.
Funny thing here–we sometimes talk about “defining moments” or “defining experiences” in our lives. THE defining moment–the one with the greatest importance and defining power of all, is our birth into the physical world. So it makes all the sense in the physical world, as we reach for meaning beyond the physical, to use the omens and meanings of that moment to understand our Being in this physical world.
Part 3 So now I’m living in a world in which I know my physical body is only a tiny fragment of my larger self. I’m trying to reach out to my non-physical SOURCE self for an understanding of what’s going on in my life–cause things ARE going on. My birthchart is being powerfully impacted by Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. And all of these planets can be associated with Death. (Pluto, almost always makes us aware of death issues, but almost never does Pluto actually kill a person–though it may make you WISH it would! Pluto tends to kill identity, which feels like dying anyway.)
In the past 2+ months I’ve had email problems (server LOST days of email without ever sending them to me!), computer problems (my old one died and the new one took 2 months of tech support to work correctly) and recently I discovered my phone was telling everyone I wasn’t accepting calls (that’s fixed now, so please call). All of these things have tremendously affected my business–which is 100% astrological counseling. If people can’t reach me by phone or email, how on earth am I to counsel them?? So I’ve been experiencing a sense of death, closure, ending. I am VERY invested in astrological counseling. I love what I do. And from the present aspects to my chart and the results, it’s entirely possible that I love it too much. It has become my identity.
So I am in the odd position of trying to invite in the 95% of myself that does NOT exist on the physical to help me identify ways to exist in the physical world. Really an oddball balance. It’s really very hard to balance oneself physically while opening to something else entirely. But as a wise woman recently pointed out to me, not only is all the physical world really just vibration–energy, not matter, but a very slow vibration that appears solid to us… not only is that true, but the non-physical part is what creates the vibratory rates. And as we reach out to access the SOURCE-MIND, of which our own minds are a part, we can allow the creative to bring anything we want into this world.
I’ve never been into “The Secret”-like collages of wishes and dreams because I always suspect that my wishes and dreams are created by my limited 5% imagination. I am open to BIG energy shifts, of whatever GOOD type. (And all is good, but still I prefer that it feel good to me, and my astrological experience tells me that not resisting change is the best guarantee of good results.)
So I am opening my arms wide–welcoming all my beloved clients and knowing that even more wonder and joy is available if I don’t try to define it before knowing what’s available. A big YES to everything.
