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What to Expect
from a Session
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What is astrology?
Astrology is a
language of symbols. Astrological birth charts are maps of a person's life
purpose written out in this coded language. They are derived from the
arrangements of planets in the sky at the exact time you were born,
from the vantage point of the exact place you were born.
Translating the symbolic configurations of a birth chart into terms
the client can understand is the art form that the astrologer practices.
Just as Egyptian hieroglyphics refer to concepts far more complex than
a single word could convey, planetary glyphs and signs and the geometrical
angles between planets are rich with layered meanings.
What an astrologer can tell
you?
Using your birth
chart, which is generally what one starts with, an astrologer can
give you a non-judgmental overview of who you are; she can read your
potential strengths, challenges, inborn talents and identify places
where you tend to get stuck. The more spiritually inclined will speak
in terms of a soul purpose: themes in the chart which suggest why each
of us incarnated this time round.
In a transit or progressions reading an astrologer
can read the larger meaning of whatever is happening to you at the
time. She can see what the chart says your soul is trying to learn
during this phase of your life, this month, this week, or even this
particular day. What really motivates a job change, for instance. You
may assume it is financial; she may look at your chart and see an inevitable
emotional shift which would be occurring no matter what you were doing
or how much money you were making.
In a chart comparison an astrologer can help you see whether
your needs look anything like your new boyfriend's needs. Astrology
is very good at pinpointing a person's wants, tastes, beliefs and desires,
and contrasting them with another person's. Themes underlying a relationship
which might not have been obvious on the surface are thus revealed.
When you know where you fundamentally differ from someone and where you
are fundamentally the same, you have a lot of information to work with.
Astrology and the future
A common misconception
is that modern astrology makes predictions. In fact, centuries ago astrologers
did, and some schools of astrology still do, most pointedly in those
societies such as India where the predominating world view follows
a more fatalistic bent. It is psychology, however, rather than divination,
that underlies most contemporary astrology in the West.
It is true that there may be some precise and accurate images popping
out of your astrologer's mouth in the course of a reading, since astrology
is part geometry, part mystery. An astrologer may see in your chart
that a sudden shift towards elimination is coming up, for example. The
image of a garage sale may come to her mind; she may suggest it to you,
intending it as a metaphor, only to find you have an actual garage sale
scheduled for next week. But the planets themselves do not say what you
are going to do. They only say why you are going to do it. Knowing that,
you can more consciously participate in what happens.
Your birth chart is
a coded map, not a list of literal events waiting to take place. Most
astrologers believe that there is no such thing as "destiny" separate
from the human will. The wild card in all this is free choice, which
gets more and more free the more conscious a person becomes.
Does the chart tell who we are most compatible with? To the extent
that we attract what we are, it does. For example, each of us has our
own version of ideal masculinity, as shown by how the planet Mars is
placed in our particular chart. A chart with a bellicose Mars is more
likely to incline one towards marines, policemen and competitive athletes
than is a chart with an introverted Mars.
Your chart does not really describe outer reality at all. It describes
the state of your own psyche. A self-aware person with a fiery Mars
could manifest it as raw courage, and would tend to attract others who
manifested theirs that way.
An astrologer can help you understand your inner maleness (and we
all have a Mars, men and women alike), in terms of its highest potential,
acquainting you with its strongest and finest qualities. This puts you
back in touch with a part of your psyche that might have become estranged
or under-used, and increases the likelihood that you will encounter
male energy in this heightened form. Instead of bullies, you might begin
to attract heroes. The same goes for every other planet in your chart,
each of which would then tend to be reflected back to you in a more
creative way in the mirror of other people.
Can astrology tell when you will meet your soul mate?
Don't ask your
astrologer to tell you whether you will meet the love of your life this summer.
Your Aunt Phyllis might know; your astrologer does not.
What an astrologer does see is what issues will be up for you this
summer: whether the workplace will be a hot spot, whether old business
with your father is due to surface. Your soul mate is not in the chart
per se, though indicators of the potential for a love affair might
well be. Similarly, your spouse's changes are not in your birth chart,
but your attitude towards them is. An astrologer could see, for example,
an urgent need to be free from limitations in relationships. If that
attitude led to an actual shift in your marriage, it wouldn't be surprising.
All the chart shows for sure, however, is the inner event. The complex
cycles which operate underneath your functioning are what a good astrologer
can help you understand and prepare for.
Why go to an astrologer?
Astrology reveals your life path in ciphered form and
pinpoints where you are upon it. An astrologer can help you see the
mythic meaning behind unarticulated urges and intense yearnings, as well
as the everyday changes of mood and direction that may feel arbitrary,
confusing and embarrassing to you otherwise. She can show you how these
fit into the seasons of your lifetime as a whole.
It is a perspective that allows one to live
life with more grace.
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