September 26th through the 28th I was at a first-of-a-kind astrology conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Hosted by the American Federation of Astrologers, it was completely dedicated to traditional astrology.
Author: Charlie Obert
Asking Questions with Horary Astrology
Most people think of astrology in connection with reading the chart of the time of your birth, called a natal chart.
There is an older form of astrology that is gaining popularity, called Horary Astrology, which is designed to give answers to specific questions. The word Horary is from the Latin word for hour, and it answers a specific question by interpreting a chart for the time of the question.
William Lilly’s Cheate Sheete
William Lilly’s Christian Astrology is the most famous and influential work on astrology in the English language.
Like most famous books, it is mentioned and revered much more often than it is read and studied.
There is a table in that book, which is labeled as, A Ready Table Wherefore to examine the Fortitudes and Debilities of the Planets.
This scoring system has become well known and is often copied, and computer programs that ‘score’ the planet’s dignities often use this table of values. So, the modern astrologer can enter a chart, print out a page, and there are all the scores already tallied.
Which is completely missing the point. Continue reading “William Lilly’s Cheate Sheete”
It is astrology that knows
“It is vital to remember that you do not know; it is the astrology that knows.” – John Frawley, in The Horary Textbook
“It’s not that I am that good; it’s that astrology is that good.” – Heather Roan-Robbins
No kidding. Continue reading “It is astrology that knows”
Good, Evil, Positive, Negative
Older astrology is sometimes criticized as being overly negative, or fatalistic, or judgemental.
Maybe.
It seems to me that some modern astrology has gone too far in the other direction – in the name of being ‘positive’ it can become unrealistic and unbalanced.
It might be true to say that there are no ‘good’ or ‘evil’ planets, or transits, or aspects.
Invoking the Planetary Energies
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of watching a presentation by a fine local astrologer, on the current transits and the state of world events. As she talked, I noticed something interesting.
When she talked about a planet’s effect, she was invoking, and embodying, the energy of the planet she talked about. Continue reading “Invoking the Planetary Energies”
Astrology and Rational Order
Part of my study of astrology has been a quest to find, and understand, the philosophy or world-order that makes sense of it.
Most modern astrology that I have seen does not clearly address this issue. Implicitly, the question is dealt with in a number of ways.
1) It’s ignored. That doesn’t work, since astrology makes no sense within the context of the current scientific – materialist mainstream worldview.
2) It tries to make astrology ‘scientific’, by weeding out all that is ‘superstitious’ about it, and working with analytic tools like statistical studies. Continue reading “Astrology and Rational Order”
A Gracious Attitude
You remember that lovely song by Paul Simon, called, Tenderness?
I know you see through me,
but there’s no tenderness
beneath your honesty.
That comes to mind a lot lately, as I watch interactions in the community of astrologers I work in here.
Astrology is not a single monolithic discipline. As Donna Cunningham put it, there are hundreds of ways of doing astrology, and they all work. Continue reading “A Gracious Attitude”
Astrology and Re-Enchantment
Like most people brought up in our American urban industrial culture, I grew up in a world that assumes a disconnect between the inner world of my thoughts and feelings, and a meaningless, dead and random outer world. The outer world is ‘scientific’; it has no inherent meaning or significance.
That’s painfully obvious to me when I walk in a neighborhood where there are mostly factories or business buildings. It is obvious that the landscape was ripped up and re-ordered with no sense of aliveness, or reverence, or meaning. There was a job to be done, and the land here was Meaningless Stuff to be moved around and re-arranged to get that job done. Continue reading “Astrology and Re-Enchantment”
On Reading a Chart
I have been looking at a lot of astrology charts, and reading for a lot of people this past several months. While I’ve been doing that, there is another part of me that is sitting up in observer position and just watching the process. Here’s what I’m finding out about how I read.
I think of a chart as a tuning device – hand me a chart and you’ve said something like, check out this radio station – 97.6, KAYZ – so I go to my radio and tune to those letters, do a bit of fiddling with the fine tuning… and in comes the music. Continue reading “On Reading a Chart”