What can astrology do for you, have you ever wondered?
Last, month, I gave you an insight into the origins of astrology and what astrology is. We looked at how astrology has evolved into understanding and interpreting meaning from the celestial bodies and how the interpretation is applied to our Soul intention, character, our personalities and our behaviours, giving us a greater understanding of ourselves. The cycles of the planets are intricately and subconsciously echoed in the cycles of our own lives.
C.G. Jung …. Astrology is a sophisticated tool which can be used to mirror the processes of the unconscious and which can also be used as a guide through the unexplored realms of expanding consciousness,
Probably the biggest question we ask ourselves in our lifetime is, why am I here, or what am I supposed to be doing, what is my Soul purpose? I love how, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the Universe, and everything was calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years. Finally, the much awaited answer was given -The number 42. This shocking answer resulted in the construction of an even larger supercomputer, named Earth, which was tasked with determining what the question was in the first place. As current inhabitants of Earth, we are eternally asking that question and seeking the answer, Astrology can give us an answer to these questions.
This time, we will explore further and look at how astrology can help us individually. In the years I have been studying and applying astrology, through my own experience, and those of my clients, I have found it to be an accessible and invaluable system that can be used by everyone for self-knowledge and spiritual growth. The more I learn, the more I understand about myself, my unconscious cycles and patterns and the more conscious I become. In fact, the more I have understood myself, the more I understand about other people and their unconscious programming and scripts, and the more accepting and tolerant of others I have become; now that can’t be a bad thing!
As I mentioned before, there are many branches or areas of specific interest within astrology, but the basis of all astrological study is an astrology chart, and for personal study we create a birth, or natal chart, using our birth date, place and time, if known. In simple terms, this chart shows the position of the planets at the time we were born and therefore what sign they were in. You might already know your Sun or zodiac sign, you might describe yourself as an Aquarian or a Pisces. This means, that the Sun was in that sign on the day you were born and this gives you vital information about your core personality. As well as this, our birth chart gives us the position and the sign that all the other planets were in. So, in addition to Sun in Aquarius, we might have, for example, Moon in Leo, Mercury in Pisces and Mars in Virgo, and so we begin to build up the different layers of the personality, and we can see that, although we share traits with people with the same Sun sign as us, the placement of the other planets are what make us different and unique.
How can astrology help?
Our natal chart, being as unique to us as our fingerprints, is a valuable tool for psychological understanding, for spiritual knowledge. Exploring our chart gives us pieces of our own personal jigsaw puzzle of self-knowledge that we continue to add to throughout our lives. We can start simply, by ourselves, armed with our own chart and with the aid of some of the excellent books and articles we can readily find these days. We can easily find out our Sun and Moon signs and look at the interpretations for these. More pieces of the jigsaw come through adding the other planets which give other facets of the personality such as our emotions, how we react to situations and to others, how we relate, how we love, communicate and think.
Going deeper
If we want a deeper understanding of ourselves, we have to look into the chart deeper, and for this, we might need the help of a professional astrologer. Our chart not only shows personality but also our Soul intentions, karmic strengths and challenges and the Soul potential we have in this lifetime. A skilled astrologer can interpret the language of an astrology chart and help to unravel the threads of this life, giving it understanding and meaning and help us to discover our treasures. They can act as a guide on our journey, helping us to understand the past and helping us to see our way forward.
My special area of expertise is karmic, or as I like to call it, Soul astrology. This comes from my belief, or understanding, on a spiritual level, that we are eternal Souls who choose our lifetimes to help us evolve as Souls, although. most of us have no memory of our Soul planning meeting. Earth is one of many choices but considered to be quite a brave choice, because of the range and depth of emotions and experiences. In spirit, without any bodily form, we are pure light and, while emotions are experienced, there is little or no contrast. I often quote the saying “If you were an all-white person in an all-white room, how would you know you were white?” This is how we learn, through the contrasts in our lives. We cannot know love without hate, courage without fear, kindness without cruelty or compassion without indifference or criticism. Through difficult experiences, we learn and grow, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Without knowledge of our Soul planning meeting and our Soul intentions, navigating our human life can feel as if we are trying to find our way blindfold around a city we have never been to, and where people don’t even speak the same language as us. Astrology, and a skilled astrologer can act as your interpreter, guide, companion, torch holder and map reader on your spiritual journey.
Generally, we choose a life, and the life challenges that we are likely to experience, with the specific purpose of working on our Soul growth, of growing emotionally. In past lives, we have been working on certain emotional challenges. Some we will already have achieved, others we are still working on, and will be for many life-times to come. You might be wondering what you experienced in past lives and what you have chosen to work on in this lifetime. What are the key themes that will reoccur for you? What skills have you already attained, what positive karma can you draw on?
This is where karmic astrology comes in. It can reveal information on past lives, karmic wounds, the karmic lessons we are working on in this lifetime, the strengths and challenges we have to draw on, and our Soul intentions and purpose.
In future articles, I will be exploring some of the key Soul purposes that we often see in a chart such as balancing male and female energies, developing self-worth, nurturing and Mothering issues, the Karpman triangle, and emotional independence.
One of the biggest frustrations we can experience is of repeating patterns in our lives. These are an indication of a repeating karmic pattern from past lives which will keep recurring until we get the message! Our chart can not only reveal these patterns but can give us an understanding of why they reoccur. Then we can explore these energies and also those that we are looking to develop, to create a new, more productive and positive pattern.
Ancestral patterning is an area of spiritual growth which is very prominent at the moment and seems to be one of the key areas we are being challenged to look at, in order to raise our energies. We are gaining an increased understanding and acceptance of ancestral patterning and programming and the impact it has on us. I am noticing more and more workshops, books, crystals and trainings emerging, aimed at helping us to clear old ancestral programming and our birth chart has many strong indicators of our family background and our relationship with our parents. We can spend a lot of our adult life understanding and healing the experiences of our childhood
.
There is a specific pattern, or aspect that appears in a person’s chart when they have chosen, in this lifetime, to be a lineage breaker, that is, they have the opportunity to break an old ancestral pattern in this lifetime. We can often dedicate a whole consultation to this one area of our chart, looking at what it represents and exploring how it has manifested back through the lineage.
So, if we take the belief that we choose our lives, and our birth chart represents what we have chosen to work on in this lifetime, we can see that studying the chart and exploring the information it can reveal, can only help us gain a greater insight into our lives, and their purpose. We can gain an understanding of deeper issues, what lies beneath the surface. Importantly, it can put us back in control of our lives, instead of feeling that we are unwitting victims of a series of events that happen to us.
Unfolding the chart
So once we have some knowledge of our own chart, how can that help us on an everyday level? Personal or Soul astrology doesn’t stop with the birth chart. In the same way, that our life begins with our birth and unfolds over the coming years, our chart unfolds too, mirroring and echoing the way we grow and evolve. Just to briefly use astrological terms, which I will explain more later, we can look at transits, our Progressed chart and Solar Return charts to help us on an everyday level and looking forward, as well as back. Standing in the present, we can look back for understanding and learning and look forward for guidance. One of the most empowering ways astrology can help us, is to follow the current astrology. The planets are influencing our lives in differing ways, all the time, with their own character, their own personality.
The birth chart is like a moment frozen in time, a snapshot of the cosmos at a particular moment, but the planets keep moving and in the current moment, we are experiencing the current astrology and how that astrology relates to us through our chart. Transits, describes the current astrology and that relationship. If the position of one of the planets at the moment, relates to something in our natal chart, it will trigger or highlight the energies of our chart and our personality. Whatever is happening now in the skies, we are feeling; how this feels, how we are affected, will be dependent on our birth chart, our karmic energies and Soul intentions, and our spiritual growth in this lifetime. If a group of people were sat in a room and someone came in, looked around without saying anything and walked out again, everyone would have their own way of interpreting what had just happened, based on their own experiences and personality. If we asked them to write about the experience, each account would be different, even though they would only contain the same 26 letters. Some would be short, some would be long, some in sentences, some only in descriptive words. So, in the same way, through our own individual filters, we experience the energies differently, although the core themes will echo the personality of the planets involved.
If we have an understanding of the current astrology, and how it is likely to affect us or manifest for us, it helps us to look at events and our feelings differently, to look beneath the outward event for the deeper meaning and Soul learning. As I write this article, the planetary energies are particularly strong, due to two planets preparing to go retrograde. (For more information on retrogrades visit )
As the two planets are Mars and Pluto, the planets of action and transformation, when they slow down, as they are doing now, ready to go retrograde, it can feel particularly heavy and our shadow side, related to the planets’ energies, is often highlighted. I was given an excellent example of this recently. As well as slowing, Mars, has been prominent in the last few weeks. The planet of action and assertion, Mars often manifests in frustration and anger. Someone told me how they were shocked at a stranger who had completely overreacted to a situation with a torrent of verbal abuse. Mars is the alpha-male energy, that of the warrior; soldier, fighting and wars. This male was described as having a voice like a sergeant major in the army, using his voice and large, muscly stature to threaten and intimidate. The recipient of this outburst, is a non-aggressive, peace-loving male, whose own Mars is in a passive sign and position in his chart. The aggressor, therefore, did not get an alpha-male challenge in response, but was shown the opposite, peaceful response, that did not rise to nor accept the challenge. Given the timing of the incident and the two opposite expressions of Mars energy, it would suggest that both men were being challenged to look at how Mars energy works in their lives, how they assert themselves and how they deal with anger. Having a knowledge of astrology and the current transits, would help them to look into the deeper meaning of this incident and what the self-knowledge and gift was for them.
In simple terms, our Progressed chart represents where we are now, in relation to our birth, where we started in this life. The natal chart is what we were born with, our Soul potential and the progressed chart shows where on our path we are now, how we have changed and grown. A simple analogy would be to say that the natal chart is our original software and the Progressed chart is the current update!
The Solar Return chart is our Birthday chart, when the Sun returns to its original position and represents the upcoming year for us. It is useful for seeing what influences are coming up. Both transits and the Solar Return chart are particularly useful for planning ahead. If we have something we want to do, we can use them to plan the best time to start a new project, move house etc., or avoid a time when difficulties might occur or we might not feel very strong, physically or emotionally.
So, there are many ways astrology can help us, whether it is to gain understanding of the past, ourselves and others, or in moving forward and planning ahead. The “ah-ha” moments that come along the way, when the pieces fit together and the bigger picture is seen, are empowering. and often cathartic, and always, ultimately, help us on our spiritual journey.
If you would like a copy of your own natal, progressed or Solar return charts, follow this link http://astrologywise.co.uk/store/c15/Order_a_chart.html
For more information on an astrology consultation visit my website www.astrologywise.co.uk
©Terrie Birch