Astrology has grown from a trickle to a stream over the past 30 years.
I’ve been privileged to watch a generation of practitioners go
from idealistic hippies to conscious professionals supporting their families
and serving their clients. The seminal work of Dane Rudhyar and Marc Edmund
Jones gave rise to a new generation of psychologically trained astrologers
who have added depth, meaning and modernism to our field. Computers have
eased the way for exploring new techniques, while reducing chart calculation
times more than ten-fold. In one cycle of Saturn, astrology has dusted
off centuries of neglect and begun a long, slow return to respectability.
Over the
past few years, astrologers have begun the extraordinary work of reclaiming
our history through translations of Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic texts.
A growing community of astrological scholars is bringing knowledge of
history, philosophy, science and mythology to reconnect our severed academic
roots. Kepler College in Seattle is in its fourth year as a degree granting
institution. Our educational profile is up.
Organizations,
the Internet and Astrology Books
Organizations
such as NCGR, ISAR and AFAN have expanded the reach and services of older
associations like the AFA and AA (Great Britain). Educational and ethical
standards, media outreach and legal rights for astrologers are pursued
more aggressively than in the past. National groups exist in most industrialized
countries. Regional, national and international conferences continue in
popularity, although no U.S. gathering has matched the number of attendees
of the 1976 AFA convention in San Francisco.
The Internet
is playing a significant role in the current development of the astrological
community. Web sites, mailing lists, chat rooms and email are connecting
astrologically inclined people all over the world. An individual needn’t
join a local organization for his or her astrology fix. One doesn’t
have to buy a book to read new ideas and opinions. The Net has its paradoxical
effect on astrology, as it does with everything else. It publicizes existing
sources of information (groups, books, publications), contributing to
their growth, while reducing the need for them, inhibiting their growth.
Astrologers promote their services and attract new clients while computerized
chart reports written by the same astrologers compete with them. The Net
seems to be a uranian accelerator, creating and destroying, shaking old
forms and making new ones. Yet, on the whole, I believe that the Net is
contributing to the growth of astrology. Access to ideas and people are
blurring the boundaries of time and space. An enormous amount of information
is suddenly available in your own home.
The world
of astrology books has changed considerably during the past three decades.
I remember when I’d enter a book shop and furtively whisper, “Do you have
any occult books?” Since those days, a large number of metaphysical bookstores
have opened that display a wide array of astrology books. Today, mass
market giants like Borders and Barnes & Noble have clearly marked shelves
of astrology books. Typically, these behemoths threaten the existence
of the specialty stores and have less diverse selections of astrology
books. The market monsters get material out to the masses, but also reinforce
big publishing’s pattern of supporting big sellers while killing off less
popular books. This pattern of publishing Darwinism is apparent when major
houses stopped printing excellent astrology books by Debbie Kempton Smith,
Alan Oken, Steven Forrest and others. Unfortunately, smaller specialty
publishers are struggling, leaving less outlets for writers of serious
astrology books. Even with these problems, however, the number of books available
to astrologers is greater than ever before. Yet, in spite of the brilliance
of many of our authors, no astrology book has remotely approached the
mass market success of Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs
published in 1968.
Growing
Public Acceptance
Public acceptance
of astrology clearly has grown by leaps and bounds. Belief in astrology
in the U.S., according to Gallup polls, doubled from about 17% to 34%
within the past 30 years. Sun sign columns continue to be a staple of
newspapers, magazines and, now, web sites. Yet, even these venerable tarts have become more sophisticated with mention of real planetary transits becoming more common. The superficial horoscope reader is more likely to have heard of Mercury retrograde or Saturn in Cancer now than in the
past. With thousands of counseling astrologers in the U.S. alone, the
sheer number of people exposed to natal astrology is significantly greater
than ever before. Web sites offering free chart calculations, mini-interpretations
and transit services continue to bring astrology to those unwilling or
unable to pay for it, or without access to a counseling astrologer.
Religious
and scientific resistance to astrology haven’t changed much since
the early 1970s. Fundamentalists of both camps are as vigorously entrenched
in defending their turf as before. Kepler College’s existence has
stirred some in the academic community to rise up against astrology but,
in a battle for student dollars, I wonder if the motivation isn’t
economic, as much as it is philosophical.
Astrology
has made virtually no headway in the scientific arena since Michel Gauquelin’s
“Mars effect” research was published in 1955. Debate
on this work continues today. Astronomer Percy Seymour’s
book Astrology: The Evidence of Science appeared
in 1989, but has not had obvious impact in either scientific or astrological
circles. In fact, the very notion of astrology as science is opposed by
many astrologers who find its validity in practice, symbolism, mysticism
or other non-materialist models.
Recent trends in astrology have seemed to place more importance on rediscovering
older principles and techniques than in creating new ones. The rising
interest in Vedic astrology, for example, seems to appeal to those seeking
both a more spiritual and more accurate predictive model than that of
psychological astrology. The potential for certainty in a more fate-oriented
system may be reassuring in the face of the relativistic, roll-your-own
reality of modern astrology. The same, too, might be said of the interest
in techniques coming out of ancient and medieval astrology. Humanistic
astrology blossomed in the creative days of the 60s and 70s, but perhaps
the uncertainty of these times has astrologers (and their clients) seeking
the comfort of predictability that has long been at the core of astrological
practice.
I’ve
wondered about the fact that today’s astrology, filled with bright,
creative people, has not launched one of us into the public eye. Not only
are we largely absent from mainstream media, but we have not even taken
a significant place on stage with our New Age siblings. It’s possible
to have a major event, like a Whole Life Expo, without a single significant
astrological presentation. None of us, not Rob Hand or Liz Greene, Tad
Mann, Michael Lutin or Demetra George, regularly sits on panels with Jean
Houston, Ram Dass or Deepak Chopra. It’s as if we, the modern astrologers,
are orbiting our own star, apart from the other lights of our time. Surely,
we help, we heal, we teach and touch millions, yet somehow we still remain
apart. Is it because of our incorruptibility, advanced spirituality or
highly developed intellects? In a world where Stephen Hawking and the
Dalai Lama are public figures the answer probably lies elsewhere.
This article
is not the truth. It is an opinion that is subject to change, like all
opinions. Please understand that what follows is not a criticism of astrology
as it is, but an idea of what it can become. The passion I feel is rooted
in my love for astrology in relation to the belief that humanity is in
trouble. Astrology has contributed to the awakening of individuals, but
so have psychology, meditation, tantra, shamanism and other disciplines,
old and new. Astrology reminds us of our connection to the cosmos, but
so does NASA.
Astrology's
Focus on the Individual
Perhaps astrology
is outside the mainstream because it is not fulfilling its own potential
and responding to our greater needs. Does the language of astrology need
to reexamine its roots, not to celebrate them and bring the past into
the future, but to renew them in forms appropriate to the present? Perhaps
the celebration of the individual by way of the natal chart has reached
the apex of its value. Untangling the knots of one’s own psyche
is useful work, but may not take us far enough.
The larger
question of who we are, not who I am, is one that keeps knocking at the
door of my consciousness. How is it that the rising tide of human awareness
is met by massive suffering for the planet at large? One million human
beings starve to death each month despite the healing effects of New Age
nostrums and old age medication. One would think that the growing consciousness
of meditators, yoga practitioners, astrologers and spiritual people of
all stripes would significantly contribute to the reduction of pain and
suffering on planet Earth.
As long as
astrology points to me, instead of us, its benefits will be supplemental,
rather than elemental. The core of who we are and what we’re doing
on this planet remains largely untouched by science without meaning, religion
for an afterlife and astrology for oneself. The astrological tradition
aims to increase gain and reduce pain. It’s largely a model for
managing the world as it is, rather than remaking it as it can be. Perhaps
I’ve been spoiled by astrology. It’s given me so much, yet
still I want more. I want to know how it can help us bridge the gap between
Pisces (religion) and Aquarius (science) in this perilous time of change.
I want it to show me how I belong, how we belong, who we humans really
are.
The secret
is that astrology is not about my chart or your chart, reinforcing the
temporary illusion of our separateness. The greater healing power of astrology
is showing that we are all moving through time and space together, connected
by cycles within cycles, living all the seasons together. In an emerging
Aquarian Age, individuality is the lesser (more local) truth. Like facets
on a diamond, we each have a perspective that is unique at the surface,
but not at the core. We may collect the data of experience in our individual
bodies and minds, but the DNA belongs to all of us. The culture belongs
to all of us.
The
Aquarian Question
This relationship
between the individual and the collective is the Aquarian question at
the heart of our identity dilemma. Crystals of consciousness can break
off and give rise to new ideas. Or they can harden in rigid choices that
constrict the flow of thought. Having the right answer usually means that
the game is over. Thinking stops. Feeling stops. But, astrology must never
stop if it is to serve the current needs of humanity.
The world
has changed, why shouldn’t astrology change? This isn’t about giving up
on the game of Me, My Natal Chart and I. (Sounds like a good
sitcom title.) It’s about integrating other perspectives, too. Individual,
collective. Cycles and spirals. Astrology’s antennae can be pointed in
many directions. Its voice can speak in many tongues. The stories we choose
to tell about ourselves and our world with astrology determine its influence
in our lives. Astrology is healing when it links the individual to the
collective. When astrology connects us to all the signs and seasons we
drink from its bottomless well of wisdom. We needn’t be frozen in our
natal charts, limited by the illusion of our separateness. When we dance
with the planets outside the limits of our natal charts we do not forget
who we are—we remember who the planets are. We reconnect with the astrology
of all of us, the astrology that was here before birth and will be here
after death. It is an Aquarian jewel of infinite facets through which
to shine our light upon the world.
This article
was originally published in The
Mountain Astrologer.
|
