Article - The New Age of Astrology - The Atlantic, magazine
Last year I meant to post about the above article link; but as my blogging habit has been less than consistent lately, it has sat in my drafts without any action. It is a thoughtful article, the sort of reporting The Atlantic does well. Unfortunately, it doesn't really say anything that moves me to comment. And BTW, the voice reading they offer on the page makes the whole article sound a little snarky when the article itself is somewhat neutral, so I don't recommend listening to it unless you want to encounter the general snark, which might be due to the editors.
What I can report is that my exploration into astrology continues. I've been encountering the Hellenistic Tradition more and while it is criticized as curiously fatalistic and for the most part lacking a definite argument in favor of "free will", it remains compelling to me because in fact, neither of those things are true when you delve deeper into it.
So much has changed in all this time since I began this blog and while I thought initially I would be contributing to it regularly, my inability to make friends and find mentors to interact with about astrology has dampened my enthusiasm. I primarily listen to podcasts these days, track my own transits and worry I've let down the few friends who did offer support to me on the outset of my education.
This worry is because I've moved away from Natal delineation in my study as my confidence for doing such work is shaken by learning this power I wield. There is responsibility in giving advice and the consequences for doing so, lightly, are profound; but we are all free agents. Since beginning my education nearly twenty years ago with promises to friends who shared their birth data with me, I've sorely produced little more than charts (which is easy in this digital world) and no real delineation, a lot of verbal words with little substance.
Some of that is due to attempting to figure out what I believe is most effective with astrology. There are so many different approaches that picking one is perhaps the most difficult aspect. In laying out my education, I realize I have a real connection to Jungian psychology, but not finding psychology compelling enough to satisfy my thirst for knowledge. Events too have shown me how pathetically shallow is my understanding of the symbology of the planets.
I could mention the passage of Pluto through my personal houses, but then you'd have to be talking to me very intimately to really understand or be a practitioner of the art as well. Strangely, even that and Saturn's passage through the same houses haven't always been vile or brought doom usually reserved for traditional malefics. I've since purchased a home and married my life partner in that time, which could be observed as symbolic of these planets, Pluto representing authority and Saturn representing structure.
These two events both came at a time in my life when benefic planets were also prominent in my personal chart. Still, because Pluto and Saturn are slower moving "outer" planets, I think most people would agree with me the past two decades have been more challenging and difficult than the previous ones. And in turn, I've primarily found myself taking my own counsel and not always being very free and easy with my outlook, which is a change from how I operated in my twenties and thirties. The few times I have not taken this self-counsel, have more often than not ended with misunderstanding, confusion, and procrastination: things for which I am not proud, but sometimes cannot be avoided.
Perhaps another mistake is limiting access to this blog. I have on occasion had strangers and acquaintances comment on previous posts. Usually, the ones that have easy to grasp concepts and one or two essays that have approached a particular chord found their way in the collective consciousness. These have not satisfied my eleventh house Scorpio Moon which wants close friends, but mostly to share secrets with, thus my finding it challenging to make friends of strangers and casual acquaintances. (Having now adopted whole sign houses, I will have to revisit this. NK 02/2021)
I've even mellowed my attitude about prediction although my opinion still remains that it is a tool best left to people versed in such things, which again is not to say that I have given up my ambitions to learn astrology to the point where I can help others. In fact, one technique which has captured my imagination over recent years is "Zodiacal Releasing". Chris Brennen has been promoting this technique as he understands it through his book, "Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune", published in 2017 and an article published in "The Mountain Astrologer" magazine.
Astro.com has been reprinting articles from "The Mountain Astrologer" on their website because it has been some time since the articles were first published and the information, while quite ancient is still quite applicable today. Additionally, the website has begun to incorporate Hellenistic techniques into their reports, so you can easily access your own data and extrapolate the technique without much trouble. It has opened a whole new branch to my study and while the amount of information is daunting and a bit overwhelming, I hope it can bring me back to my initial promise to my friends.
Please forgive the confessional tone. I remain excited about interest with astrology increasing in society and those few people I've interacted with successfully have given me hope that I could find my place within this discipline. "ZR" suggests my peak career time is still ahead of me, and my life up to this point is just preparation for that moment.
In the meantime, I go back to my notes and re-attempt to formulate personal delineation. What can I say that is helpful and not harmful? Am I doing this to help as I believe or is this just a projection of my egoic mind? Perhaps my perspective is permanently warped and I will always be limited by my fundamental lack of understanding.
Then again, I am only human and perception of my own flaws will always be with me, while friends see me with their own unique viewpoints. I can only hold faith that they will only seek the best of me and forgive me for my flaws. Astrology reminds me of what those are, so in most cases, I could get out of my own way, if I only apply my mind and ethics to the issues at hand.
