Take it from me, astrology is a slippery slope.
I began my astrological studies out of curiosity to see whether or not I thought astrology had any merit. Here I am 40 years later - with my jaw continually dropped open as I match stories, headlines and timing of life-changing events to astrological charts and transits. My report? Yep! It works!
Even when I 'think' there is no astrological connection, there is. Sometimes it takes time for my knowledge base to catch up with the script written in the stars. As I become an older (and older) astrologer, I see that my real wisdom comes from the steady and constant study I've made of my chart, and many others: clients, events, culture, the famous, the dead.
Whenever I read an autobiography or biography, I read with the pertinent chart in hand and run progressions and solar arcs to the major events laid out in the biography. For instance, JRR Tolkien wrote a little book called The Hobbit which created a furor. He wrote it for his children (Sun in the fifth house) and their nanny took it to her uncle who was a publisher (ninth house where JRRTs Pluto and Neptune reside). She appears in his chart as another 'mother' of his children – fourth house (mother) from the fifth house (children & creativity) which is the ninth (publishing). So she also birthed his arrival in the world view through her knowledge of publishing as the midwife to the children of his creativity - his books and art. See! Astrology is amazing!
Tolkien wrote a trilogy which will resonate long after other trilogies written are dust on the shelves. Why? He tapped into a mythological story for a modern age rife with world wars that resonated in a generation and a new age, the Age of Aquarius, which came to birth in the 60's. The revolutionaries of the 60's hummed with his vision. Tolkien said there is no mythology intended in his writings. But our charts are a mythological mandala which we bring to life. And he did indeed bring his chart to life for all of us.
Tolkien's life looked quite mundane on the surface: a beloved wife (fortunate Jupiter in the seventh house of marriage), four children he told great tales to (Mercury of many words in the door of the fifth house where his expressive Sun reigned) and over the horizon, near the mid-heaven, bringing him to the attention of the world, Pluto and Neptune in Gemini in the ninth house of archetypal stories. Pluto and Neptune, I repeat, mythic images full of archetypal imagination and power, in the sign of Gemini, communication and writing. He took his humble Saturn in Libra in the first house of self and tended to the relationship of a fellowship – Venus in Aquarius. He dug deep to dark and ugly truths with Mars in Scorpion. After more than 20 years, he served up a story fit for his then adult children to ponder along with generations to come.
Tolkien used his linguistic skills (Mercury ruler of the chart, Moon in Pisces in the sixth of work, and Gemini at the mid-heaven) and created languages and mythologies, as well as drawings and paintings for orks and other enslaved races, elves, ents and eagles, dwarfs and dragons, Strider and his lineage, the hobbits and Gollum. No mythology intended, he said. No, just the Sun of Capricorn shining brilliantly in his creative fifth house of Leo expressing history and culture. Pluto and Neptune – our lowest urges and highest aspirations, like the gods of Olympus watching over all, at the mid-heaven, called him to reach deep and stretch high to create something worthy of the them that need to be awakened in us - starting in our imagination.
Yes, astrology is a slippery slope. And the most exciting aspect is knowing your own chart. It adds dimension to your life to reach high and search deep from within your own mandala to express all that you are. What does your chart say about your life mission? What would you think it might say...or what do you hope it says?
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