The journey of astrology

So it’s been a busy summer, which I suppose I could use as an excuse for my lack of presence here. I’ve been writing and reading and practising astrology plenty, it just hasn’t quite made it into these pages. I taught at the Faculty’s Summer School, a somewhat intense experience with a weekend course and then four sessions in the two days immediately following. But oh how wonderful to be gathered together, to talk astrology over breakfast and every moment possible, to meet with old friends and new. I met my online students, my distance learning students, my teaching colleagues.

The weekend course which I co-taught with the ever brilliant Carole Taylor (hello, imposter syndrome!) was about our journey as astrologers. What form that journey takes, where it leads us, what it means to become an astrologer, what kind of astrologer each of us wants to be. Because there are many kinds - and just for the record, it’s perfectly possible to be an astrologer and never do a natal chart reading or a forecast for anyone. An astrologer is anyone who works with astrology, engages with it, finds meaning in it, makes space in their life for it. Someone who allows astrology to open up their self awareness and perhaps does the same for others.

Try as we may to climb the mountain all at once, astrological time is cyclical time.

And that journey of becoming an astrologer is different for each of us, of course. We talked a lot that weekend about how our own unique journeys are shown in our charts. But there are some similarities perhaps, some waypoints which we all reach, sooner or later. Often at the beginning, the journey is one of intellect, of learning from books and websites, seeking knowledge of the glyphs and symbols. Astrology is a language, we’re very fond of saying, and beginning to learn a language by definition involves vocabulary, the basics of grammar, those tentative first sentences. But at some point, something clicks. We are taken deeper. From our initial fascination with Sun signs, we realise the power and symbolism of all of the other planets in the chart. From a need to understand a particular relationship, we understand a pattern in our own emotional being. From a need to understand the world around us, we become aware of the great collective cycles, the cosmic wheels in which we all turn. The great potential of astrology opens before us and we make an emotional connection, a perception that takes us beyond the intellect. We are jolted out of our worldview, our sense of self turned on its head, along with our understanding of how the world works. We don’t just learn some new astrology but our relationship with the cosmos is changed for good. We realise that we are part of it, not separate and objective as Western scientism would have us believe. Astrology demands a magical worldview, a participative worldview, a co-creative worldview. The symbols of astrology are not intellectual abstractions - they have life and energy. Once our astrological intuition is awakened, we can begin to work in partnership with them, to let them come to life and dance around the room with us.

And that’s when the journey really begins.