In studying astrology, it has crossed my mind that there are four distinct operative modes that we engage in when we dip our toes into the cool waters of this ancient art. The first is observational. The second is predictive. The third is psychological. The fourth is intentional.
Observational
The first is correlating astrological movements with events that help us enrich and understand what is occurring in the world around us from the perspective of archetypal movements. This is without a doubt a sublime form of astrology. Events in our lives and in the world seem random. To go back and look at how they correlate to the movements of planets is thrilling and oftentimes times relieving. We go from just being rag doll puppets thrown about by a washing machine of the uncaring universe to having purpose, the purpose of experiencing and witnessing the will of the Universe God, or fate. This form of astrology allows us to be historians and sociologist, gaining understanding of human meaning.
In Sumeria over a thousand years of clay tablets were kept observing how the Annunaki, the sky Gods moved, there interactions, and what the results were from their movements. Astrologers are doing much the same now. For every celebrity or political event we are posting our understanding based on the stars. Usually the results are really impressive, there is always a correlation that can be made. In doing so, we are not just proving astrology, but we are synthesizing living cultural events into the history of our society with insight that can not be gleaned from ordinary commentary.
Predictive
The ability to create a correlation between seemingly random life events and seemingly random movements of planets, stars, and asteroids is why the next path of astrology is born, the path of prediction. For if the past correlates so well with these movements, how could astrologers not leap into believing their art can predict the results of the movements? But a warning to all who go down that path, God is in the Details as William Carlos Williams said, and trust me, Mars can mean many things in a chart, it is not just an angry man, although it is an angry man too.
An astrologer should engage in the predictive but with a detached mind at peace for whatever he may see within the chart. The predictive is a difficult proposition and it is much like crossing a narrow mountain path as one can fall off at any point and hurtle thousands of feet to a bloody mass of flesh and bone. Saying a definite thing will happen in the future is powerful magic. It wins accolades from clients and other astrologers and oftentimes will bring fame to the Visionary Soul who peered into the void and pulled out a precise time and date when an event would occur. Even the master’s though will fail at predictions perhaps more often than accurately distill them. It is a function of the mind of those drawn to astrology that we quickly forget the failed predictions and remember with zeal the amazingly accurate forecasts.
Truthfully most astrologers are not dispassionate towards their powers of prediction, and there in lay a flaw of the art. For if we believe we can tell a person their future, do we then take a hand in shaping that future? This is a question I would like to address in the fourth topic of intentionality. For now, I would like to suggest, do not take what an astrologer says to be a law of fate, rather take it as a guide, for you are found to have the capacity to shape the world as you travel through it, in the details at least if not in the fullness. That being said, prediction in astrology is extremely powerful, for if you are coming upon a road that forks in two directions, most astrologers can lay out a parchment map before your feet and accurately describe the territory of each path, allowing you to decide your fate.
Psychological
To antidote the predilection for prediction and preponderance of trouble it has brought the astrological community over thousands of thousands of years Alan Leo adopted a new form of astrology that was a reshaping of an old form. This was probably precipetated by him being charged and convicted for the crime of fortune telling in England in 1914 and 1917. As a result, or perhaps encouraged by, he brought forth the form of astrology known as psychological astrology and it works with the ideas within the mind, the subjective experience of being a human.
The result is fantastic, as one can gain ever deeper insights into how one’s psychology works from this experience. This lends itself to not just a Leo loves attention, but whole fields of alchemy, as we use astrology to dive deep into our conscious and unconscious motivations. When I say it is an ancient way of looking at astrology, for here and there you can see the threads through the millennia where Astrology was a form of initiation into understanding the human psyche and the soul, even if the preponderance of writings are more akin to recipe books for prophesizing doom to poor clients in a world that is meant to eat them. Instead through understanding our minds by studying the archetypes of the planets and stars we begin to see the eternal within. To fully do this though we have to acknowledge our co-creative presence within our own world.
Participatory Astrology
This is the value of the next form of astrology. It is the art of being a conscious co-creator with the world and the waves or emanations that astrology symbolizes. This is my understanding of the Katarche that Geoffrey Cornelius points to. We come to understand that we are not just predicting and observing the world through astrology, we are playing a magical part in its co-creation of the world. Humans express the will of the stars, and the stars express the will of humans. This is how an astrologer making a prediction can become part of how the prediction comes to fruition.
By intentionally living our life in harmony with the cycles we are studying and observing in astrology we gain a rich meaning that fulfills and aids us in becoming whole. We act as cocreators of the world with God, the divine, buddha nature, or what have you. The principle is you act when it is appropriate and in an appropriate way. When you are meant to be grinding at the wheel of Saturn, you grind at the wheel of Saturn. When you are meant to delight in the lust of Venus, you delight in the lust of Venus. Taking everything appropriate for its time you are intentional in the delightful drama of life, through your mastery of understanding the cycles of time. The tools we have at our disposal for such mastery are Electional Astrology, Horary Astrology, and Natal Astrology. Learn them and use them or rely on one who has learned and used them. Life is calling.
This then is the fulfillment of astrology. All four aspects of the art are the sides of a square, this square helps us make order out of the universe. For as the great maxim of all esoteric thought expresses as above so below, as within so without. In astrology do not look at the motions of the planets and stars as an external event, nor look at them as an internal experience. They are the unfolding interdependence of consciousnesses interacting with the world of shapes and forms that arise without it.
