Astrology is an ancient way of correlating what happens on the earth to the larger galaxy around us. The Emerald Tablet points out the connection between that which is "above" to that which is "below"¹, ie. a context between everything in the physical realm to the mental or spiritual realm as well as between the earth and the larger cosmos. We all know that the Sun affects the seasons and that the Moon affects the tides. Many people feel different around the New or Full Moons and throughout the ages, farmers have sown and harvested corresponding to the Moon's position. Astrology took this idea even further, and for well over 4000 years,² astrologers have followed the movements of the stars and planets and noted how they seem to mirror what happens on the earth. Whether it's through larger, social changes or personal and individual changes, the sky has been an astoundingly accurate mirror of what happens down below - for some examples of the larger context of this, I thoroughly recommend Dr. Richard Tarnas' book, Cosmos and Psyche.³ We may not know exactly how or why this mirror works, and I don't think it's something that can be proven in a rigorously scientific fashion such as how we can explain the effect of the Sun and Moon on the seasons and tides, but the correlation becomes clear as soon as you start studying it seriously. Each one of us then has to decide how we interpret this mirror and what, if any, meaning that has for our own lives.
Many astrologers have had to grapple with the following questions; if the movements of the planets affect or mirror our lives, and if we can accurately map that movement into the future, does that mean that our lives are fixed and predetermined? Do we have any control of our own destiny? And if we do, what if we take the "wrong" decision and change our future for the worse? Isn't it better to know nothing at all? Each person will have to answer these questions for themself, and it is true that astrology isn't necessarily for everyone. For someone who has a strong need to control every aspect of their life or gets anxious or depressed from either not knowing what will happen or regretting something that did, astrology can have a truly detrimental effect. Of course, it can also be helpful, but it will need to be approached carefully. Astrology has also been used as a tool for domination or control over people's lives, which is always morally reprehensible.
Personally, I believe that our ideas of destiny has become too polarised. Our society has somehow become stuck in this idea of a binary: either there's free will, which means it's impossible to predict the future in any way, or all our destinies are prewritten and set in stone, and free will is only an illusion. However, we make predictions about the future all the time, such as predictions about how man-made pollution will affect the natural world years into the future. We also know that by exerting our free will and making radical changes, we can affect that prediction. Astrology works in a similar way - we can see when there are difficult times ahead, and while we won't be able to change it so that there won't be any difficulty⁴ we can prepare ourselves so that they will be a lot more manageable. At the same time it's important to remember that we can't look at every single chart that will affect our life throughout that difficult time, which is why it's impossible to make 100% accurate predictions down to the smallest details⁵. Many astrologers talk about predictions or horoscopes as though they are weather forecasts, or astroweather. For those of us living in Iceland, we know well how quickly the weather can change and how difficult it is to predict the weather perfectly accurately, and we also know how important it is to have some sort of idea of how the weather is going to be when planning our travels. Unlike weather, which can have inaccurate timings, horoscopes can tell you pretty accurate timings, and accurate themes, but the astrologer's interpretation is where there can be inaccuracy.
Our birth charts show our innate patterns and how we intuitively react to the world around us. When we get acquainted with our chart, we're able to see these intuitions and patterns from a much more objective point of view than we're used to. This often helps us take more objective decisions in our life, to see how we can change our reactions and behaviour to suit each situation. The chart is a sort of mirror of the self, and because it is set up with geometry and numbers, this makes it more objective than if it had a face or a personality. Many psychological therapies use a mirror image, such as the inner child or personalising a past self or part of our psyche. This is why astrology can be such a helpful add-on to psychological methods⁶.
As an example, the sign of Gemini is symbolic for the need to ask questions, find information or talk things through, while its opposite sign, Sagittarius, symbolises a need for jumping ahead, simply doing things without talking for too long, and following the intuition more than the logical mind. That doesn't mean that Gemini is incapable of listening to intuition or Sagittarius to logic, only that these are the innate reactions that are likely to take over until we learn how to balance the signs out by working through them. When we know that we are innately more likely to go one way, we can learn to seek out the other direction to reach a balance, and how we can work with our innate patterns in more constructive ways.
If we imagine each zodiac sign as a Venn diagram of symbols and characterisations, it quickly becomes obvious that many of the sets overlap. If we add diagrams of the planets as well as the houses, the overlaps become more convoluted. Astrology is all about being able to see these overlaps within each chart and interpreting them in ways that make sense for the life of the person whose chart it is. Being able to see the relations and overlaps in ways that make sense needs a ton of practice, and being able to communicate those things in ways that make sense to other people needs more practice still.⁷ To be able to read an astrological chart it is imperative to look at the chart holistically without focusing on only one part of it. That is why so-called recipe books (astrology books that list interpretations for each placement in the chart or for each aspect within it) are, while useful while you're still learning, not really helpful as the end-all be-all in learning how to read a chart, as they always focus on each placement within the chart without being able to see holistically how it all relates together. In the last century or so, astrology that focuses on the Sun sign, or Sun sign astrology, has become so popular that many people think astrology is only about the Sun sign. That would be like reading the blurb on the back of a book, then claiming you know everything you need about the book! The Sun sign is an important, and sometimes obvious, part of the chart, but there are so many things that can dampen its influences or make it so that another sign becomes much more dominant in the person's character.
Moral ideas about good or bad, right or wrong, are not really applicable within astrology, and it's important to be able to go beyond that sort of binary thinking. Our society often puts things up in binaristic ways and so it's understandable that people apply this to astrology. This can make people feel excluded or that assumptions make people feel pressured to behave a certain way. One popular example is the idea that Libras are simple, pretty dolls that can't make decisions on their own; or Scorpios as sex-addicted weirdos with an obsession with death. These are hurtful and greatly exaggerated stereotypes that only focus on one part of the signs and blow it out of proportion. Usually these ideas say more about the person sharing them, or at least about the part of that person's chart that is in those signs. Each and every chart has all of the signs, all of the planets, and all houses, and each chart has infinite possible ways to work through their own individual set-up of those things in unique and interesting ways.
The planets don't signify purely good or bad things, but they can tell us about difficult times or hurdles coming up. What's even more important is that it can show how we can react to those hurdles individually. The chart shows our instincts, possible triggers and unconscious behaviours, and if we are able to study those things, we can learn new ways of stopping ourselves, reacting more consciously and avoid getting triggered. Difficult aspects in the sky will also manifest differently, so while they may be especially difficult for one person, they might show happiness and prosperity for the next, depending on how they affect the individual charts.
One common example of this is retrograde motions, as the internet can get people up in a fright about those. For example, the general rules for Mercury retrograde are to avoid signing binding contracts (and if you must, to read everything over thrice), be prepared for delays in transport and generally issues with communication. But for someone who has Mercury retrograde in their chart, the effects can be reversed and they might finally be able to communicate clearly and easily. It can also manifest completely differently depending on the sign Mercury is retrograde in, because then it will be in a different house, aspecting different planets - and for the people around you, it will again be different.
I hope this post has had you thinking about astrology a little bit differently than before. Each birth chart is unique with infinite possibilities that give each of us different ways of seeing life, our selves and the world around us. If you have any questions around any of this or if you want to know more about your own chart, feel free to contact me through the contact page here.
¹ The whole sentence is usually translated as “That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above” - but it's better known in its shortened version; “As above, so below”.
² The oldest sources we have of a developed system looking at the stars in the sky are presumed to be from over 4000 years ago (Kelley, David, H. and Milone, E.F. - Exploring ancient skies: an encyclopedic survey of archaeoastronomy) but there are ancient artifacts showing that our ancestors have been following the Moon and its phases and aspects for at least 25,000 years (Marshack, Alexander - The roots of civilisation: the cognitive beginnings of man's first art, symbol and notation).
³ The series Changing of the Gods were published in 2022, but they are largely based on Tarnas' book. The series shows the societal mirrors of planetary transits that Tarnas goes into in-depth, in an accessible way and are also able to go into the ways planetary transits were mirrored during the start of the C-19 pandemic, which the book couldn't as it was published in 2006.
⁴ A favourite example of this is the story of the astrologer John Varley, who once noticed a difficult transit for himself from the planet Uranus. Since this was shortly after Uranus was discovered, Varley couldn't tell what the transit would mean for him, so just to be safe, he cancelled all his appointments and locked himself inside his house, impatiently waiting for what was to happen. Right around the exact transit, his house caught fire - thankfully no one was hurt, and Varley was actually really happy because this meant he had learned something important about the nature of Uranus! (Patrick Curry - A Confusion of Prophets: Victorian and Edwardian Astrology.)
⁵ We may see a transit in our own chart pointing to a difficult event relating to our parent, and from our own chart we can probably see the nature of the event - but we don't know what other charts will affect us, or our parent, that will have an effect on the event.
⁶ Many psychologists and therapists have used astrology alongside such therapies, including Carl Jung, who drew up a birth chart for each of his clients and used information derived from the chart to help him in his work. (see for example Jung on Astrology - ed. Safron Rossi and Keiron Le Grice)
⁷ This is why I always recommend that if you're learning about astrology, you should find your peers and talk with them. If you see a transit or an aspect that you're having difficulty synthesising, being able to send someone the aspect and talk with them around it can be more helpful than reading a whole book just about that aspect.
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