Student of Astrology

Tips On Astrology Interpretation

This essay was inspired by a question posed by one of my students, who asked for advice on interpretation in astrology. Aside from the technical question of knowing the range of meanings of the planets, houses and signs – which I will address later in this essay – there is the wider question of what constitutes clear and useful interpretation. I want to spend most of this essay on that point.

Here is some advice for learning to do clear and useful interpretation in astrology. In a larger sense these are all useful rules for ANY human communication.

It was a useful exercise for me to write this, as it helped me clarify my own thinking on the subject.

Avoid Jargon

Continue reading “Tips On Astrology Interpretation”

The Great Wake-Up Call

Late last year and earlier this year I saw more than a few astrologers talking about the wonderful coming days of a Great Awakening, or a Great Reset – always painted in golden tones as if we were on the verge of a Higher Consciousness and an era of true Peace, Equality and Love.

“This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius… “

After spending time examining the Ingress charts of the quarters of this year, and watching the news roll by – I think we might indeed be on the verge of a Great Awakening of a different kind.

It’s the kind of awakening you get when you wake up one morning and find out your spouse has been having an ongoing affair for years with your best friend. There is the horrible shock, the sinking feeling in your gut and sense of vertigo while your sense of security collapses, and that horrible realization –

“I’ve been lied to. The people I have depended on the most have been lying to me and have betrayed me.”

Something like that – except this time it’s not a spouse or a friend that betrayed and lied to us. That’s our coming Great Awakening – what I’m calling, The Great Wake-Up Call. It’s not pretty.

The Libra Ingress 2021

The observations I am making here are coming out of examining the Ingress chart for Libra this year. This is part of a larger project I am doing of reading ingress charts in a way that that applies to the whole world – leaving out the local Ascendant and Midheaven, and using the cardinal points, 0 degrees of the four cardinal signs, as being like axes or angles for the entire world. Continue reading “The Great Wake-Up Call”

Midpoints and Traditional Astrology

This post is an experiment.

Some things are more easily explained in a video, by showing and talking about them, then by a blog post. I want to try combining the two here.

I just posted a video that I titled, Midpoints and Traditional Astrology.

Here I want to briefly summarize the main points I make in the video. Continue reading “Midpoints and Traditional Astrology”

World Angles and the World Chart

The World Angles and the World Chart

In this post I want to share a train of thought I’m pursuing regarding the importance of the cardinal points as acting like world angles for a world chart. These are based on notes that I made as I was thinking this through. I will keep that order since I want to share my thought process here.

I want to make the case that what I am presenting here is not something new or modern, but goes all the way back to some of the earliest roots of our astrology.

This whole argument is based on two premises or points; everything else follows logically from these. Continue reading “World Angles and the World Chart”

Revisiting the Outer Planets

Those of you who have been watching my astrology work unfold over time know that I have gone back and forth about using the modern outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, and especially dwarf planet Pluto. Since I put together my book of texts on The Classical Seven Planets I have been leaving them out in my personal work for about a year.

This year I have been giving my astrology clients the choice to include them or not, and 95 plus percent ask that they be used. I still only pay attention to them when they are either right on an angle, or are in tight hard aspect with a personal planet. Most of the time they are just not important, and just don’t refer to them very much.

Until I saw this situation. Continue reading “Revisiting the Outer Planets”

Spiritual Support Systems – Bhagavad Gita

Spiritual Support Systems – Bhagavad-Gita

This essay is part of a series. The first is a post on the psychological effects of the lockdowns, and it is followed by this posts on Stoicism and a brief post on Stoicism, victimhood and empowerment. I want to start here by recapping the purpose of the entire series.

The past year and a half, with the covid pandemic, lockdowns and unprecedented civil unrest, are enormously stressful for most people. We went into an emergency threat mode at the start of the panic, and for many if not most people we are still locked in emergency threat mode.

At some point I think we need to turn our attention from external threats, and start to deal with the emotional and spiritual effects of the sustained lockdowns on our psyches. The first post talked about that effect, and how we are dealing with a collective trauma and shock. I see it in my own life, and I am increasingly seeing it in the lives of the people I work with as astrology clients.

I think it is time to own responsibility for our interior spiritual and emotional well-being. That is a big part of what I try to do with my clients, and what I am wrestling with in my own life. Putting my life on hold until a return to normal that may never come is just not a satisfying and meaningful way to live.

There is an overall point to all of the spiritual systems I am covering in this series: To really be able to deal with the stress of sustained bad fortune, trauma and stress, just having some tricks or peppy sayings to put yourself in a better mood is not sufficient. You really need a way of looking at the world – a philosophy, a religion, a spiritual system – as an overall framework to make sense of your experience. Continue reading “Spiritual Support Systems – Bhagavad Gita”

Language, Honesty and Power

The name of Krishna is nondifferent from Krishna. Speaking the name Krishna makes Krishna present. Chant the name of Krishna and Krishna dances on your tongue.
– Sri Prabhupada

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
– Hebrews 4:12

And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
– Genesis 1:3

This essay on language ties together a lot of issues I have been thinking about for a long time. The immediate trigger that inspired me to put this together was a sentence I saw in an online comment, claiming that, “The English language was not created to tell the truth”.

I humbly disagree – not just about the English language, but about language in general.

Here are the points I wish to make in this essay.

There is a connection between language, truth, reality and power. Words point beyond themselves.
Astrology is one of many sacred languages. The symbols have power and embody living realities. The symbols point beyond themselves. Therefore we must be careful how we use them.
We have a sacred obligation to tell the truth. If we do not, it robs our words of any power, and is ultimately self-destructive.
You can tell the difference between true and false language, real and empty language.
If you are going to work with a sacred system like astrology you are well-advised to take a vow to speak the truth, and to be careful with how you use language.
Philosophies and movements that view language as an arbitrary construct to gain power are ultimately self-contradictory and self-defeating.
It is a very good idea to spend time considering the meaning of words, to define words carefully, and to look into the etymology of words you use.

Continue reading “Language, Honesty and Power”

Stoicism, Victimhood and Empowerment

This is a short sequel or postscript to my previous essay on Stoicism. In that essay I talked about the tools that the stoic system gives for dealing with difficult times. In this essay I want to talk about how Stoicism is a kind of natural antidote and corrective to a tendency in some political circles for people to view themselves primarily as victims of an unfair system or of other groups.

When you understand stoicism, it is obvious that people with such a victim mindset are giving their power away.

That is what I want to consider here. Continue reading “Stoicism, Victimhood and Empowerment”

Spiritual Support Systems – Stoicism

In the previous post in this series about dealing with effects of the lockdowns, I looked at some of the psychological and spiritual effects of the lockdown measures on us – not covid, but the lockdowns. I think it is time we become aware of and own these psychological effects so that we can start to heal from them.

This post will be the first of several looking at what I am calling spiritual support systems – ways of looking at the world that give us mental and spiritual tools for dealing with bad fortune, or situations that are outside of our control.

In this essay we will look at Stoicism.

—
Stoicism is a school of philosophy that goes back to our Hellenistic and Roman heritage. It has been very influential, and its teachings have had a profound affect on what came after, including a formative influence on the young Christian tradition. Some of the writings of the early Church Fathers sound like they could have been taken straight out of a Stoic manual. It is a useful philosophy and set of psychological techniques for dealing with misfortune, or better, for the ups and downs of fortune.

The modern cliche of stoicism, as a hard and unfeeling philosophy that is all about gritting your teeth and bearing with pain and not allowing yourself any pleasure, is a misleading caricature. Done correctly, stoic techniques can help you maximize positive states of mind, including pleasure and good fortune, and minimize the effects of misfortune by taking control of your reaction to it.

I want to recommend some classic Stoic writers and texts that are well worth researching and learning from. Continue reading “Spiritual Support Systems – Stoicism”

Astrology and Politics: Drawing the Line

“In matters of truth the fact that you don’t want to publish something is – nine times out of ten – proof that you ought to publish it.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

This post is inevitable, and I have seen it coming for a long time. I’d really rather not publish this, but I think it important that I do.

I need to make clear where I stand on the issue of mixing astrology and politics – or, to be more precise, of astrology being taken over and forced to follow a political and social agenda. I think this will corrupt and ultimately destroy traditional astrology, and I won’t let that happen.

This post is where I draw the line. Continue reading “Astrology and Politics: Drawing the Line”