Author: Charlie Obert

Astrology as a Divine Path

I have been practicing astrology for many years now, and it has become an integral part of my spiritual path. I feel an increasing need to place astrology within a coherent philosophical and spiritual context, a way of thinking about astrology that makes sense of my entire world. This involves re-thinking the nature of reality from the ground up, since the normal kinds of assumptions we make in 21st century world culture have no place for astrology to make any sense.

In its origins astrology was part of a larger worldview. For practitioners, the study of astrology was part of an overall disciplined way of life. Here in the 21st century we run into trouble when we take astrology by itself, out of context, and plunk it down in the middle of our fragmented and materialistic modern world.

Astrology is neither superstition nor magic; it is part of a coherent universal order. If astrology works then we need to come to terms with that order. I think that astrology as it is currently practiced largely lacks a coherent philosophical basis, so we end up trying to explain our work by borrowing concepts from the world around us without understanding their implications.

Whenever we work with astrology we are working with the Gods, living spiritual intelligence. I want to meditate on what that means for our practice and for our lives. The is my attempt to get at the spiritual underpinnings of working astrology as a spiritual path, as a way of life, and as a way back to divine union. Continue reading “Astrology and Theurgy”

This is the kind of stuff that keeps astrologers awake nights.

Whenever there is any sort of major event, one of my very first instincts as an astrologer, is to ask – do we have an exact time? Can we get a timed chart of that?

One of the main rules of astrology timing, is that any major event should show multiple significant correlations pointing at the event, and the more major the event, the more correlations there should be.

Another main rule is that the angles – the Ascendant and Descendant, Midheaven and IC – are the places of action, so that an event timing should show significant planetary triggers at angles.

These correlations should not be subtle – they should be significant, redundant, and tight. In your face.

With the mass shooting that took place in Las Vegas last Sunday, we have a very exact time – news sources say that the call to the police dispatcher was at 10:08 pm, so the shooting must have started a few minutes before that. I am using 10:05 pm.

Yesterday, word came out that we have a reliable timed birth chart for the shooter, Stephen Paddock. The astrodienst site gives his birth time as April 9, 1953, at 11:05 am in Clinton, Iowa, and cites reference to a birth certificate, which is considered the highest level of reliability.

What I want to share here is just a couple of the most striking of the correlations that I found, analyzing this data in the light of the traditional timing techniques that I use. In the last couple of charts that I will present here, they are tight enough to be kind of spooky, and I felt shivers down my spine when I saw them.

Continue reading “Timing the Shooting”

One of the most useful things I have learned from studying astrology is contained in the following simple but powerful insight.

Thinking has shape.

Our entire reality, both the physical world around us, and the mental world of our consciousness, shares a single basic structure, a structure that can be expressed in terms of mathematics and geometry.

Traditional astrology is all structured on the basis of the symbolism of the first four numbers – 1,2,3,4 – their corresponding geometric shapes – point or circle, line, triangle, square – and the energy dynamics they represent. The elements, the planets, the signs, the houses, the aspects – the basics are all there, contained in the meaning of those four numbers, and everything else in astrology builds on their foundation. (More on that in future posts – much, much more.)

The structure of astrology, including the geometry, is a way of mapping the structure and dynamics of human experience, including our thinking. Once you really understand those basic numbers and structures, you can use it to make sense of the different dimensions of human life – including politics.

What is the shape of our thinking? And, how is that shape playing out in the politics of the current situation here in America? That is the question I want to explore here.

Continue reading “Astrology, Geometry and Politics”

This is my first blog post since back in March, when I decided to take a couple of months off from writing about astrology. My birthday is in early March; in astrology terms, this year I have transiting Pluto conjunct my natal Ascendant in my Solar Return chart, and that will continue for the next couple of years.

Pluto, the Cosmic Roto-Rooter – major change, major cleanout, major transformation – it kind of feels like the psychic equivalent of having one of those drain cleaner thingies shoved up my butt. I think of myself as being Closed for Renovations this year. Along with some major shifts in diet and lifestyle, this includes my needing to re-think my attitude towards astrology, how it works, and how it fits in the world today, in this period of global instability and national decline.

Putting in bluntly – why bother studying and practicing astrology in the first place? How do I make sense of astrology in a 21st century world, and what good does it do?

I have don’t the answers down yet, but I do have a sense of direction and where to look, and I have a sense that I am being guided in my search.

In this post I want to start to define the questions, and give you an idea of where I am looking for the answers.

Continue reading “Return to the Source”