Category: Psychology

Letting Death Back In

Modern astrology, like much of our modern culture in general, does not welcome open talk about death. It is sometimes even taboo to use the word.

Never mention death when delineating a chart – some astrologers consider that immoral to mention – obscene might be a better word.

Always say something positive!

Death is a strong word, and a strong, emotionally charged topic, and yes we need to proceed with care and concern when we discuss it.

But – leave out talking about death – and you are excluding people who are dealing with, or have dealt with, the death of a loved one.

There is a pain in their heart they are not allowed to talk about, which adds a sense of isolation and even uncleanness to the hurt.

In earlier posts in this journal – for instance, this post on my two saturn returns – I mentioned that my wife died of cancer in November 2009, so I know this hurt and isolation firsthand.

I need to talk about Death here, out in the open.

Continue reading “Letting Death Back In”

Second Saturn Return and the Velveteen Rabbit

I just had my Solar Return last month; I turned 63. I am just starting to seriously move into the part of my life where I increasingly deal with the reality of aging, decline, and eventual death.

This is a post-second-Saturn-Return kind of process.

Our youth-oriented culture has very few or no good role models for navigating this part of life well. Too often aging is a dirty secret that is denied, kept hidden or unspoken for as long as possible. Old people become increasingly invisible – I can see and feel that already. And death… people don’t die anymore, they make their transition, or go home, reunite with God or the Soul – anything to avoid admitting the stark reality of the cold, dead body lying there in the bed.

I think I found a useful metaphor for a graceful aging and death. It is from a children’s book called, The Velveteen Rabbit.

Continue reading “Second Saturn Return and the Velveteen Rabbit”

Aspects and seeing

Aspects in astrology deal with the relationships between the planets. In modern astrology, the aspects are all degree based, and there are what are called major aspects (conjunction, sextile, square, trine,opposition) and a large number of minor aspects based on different numbers of degrees between planets.

Traditional astrology views aspects differently. Continue reading “Aspects and seeing”

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 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”