Wednesday 19 October 2011

Show me the way

Last night, I dreamed that I was waiting for a bus in the town where I went to Uni. In the dream, I wasn't even sure if I was at the right bus stop. All I knew was that I wanted to get to the town centre. Thanks to my phone, I soon discovered that my destination was a lot closer than I first thought - close enough to walk there myself. As I was turning away from the bus stop, I began to soar into the air instead- in the direction of the town.

In a nutshell, my interpretation of this dream is that my reaching my goal is closer/easier than I think. And to get there, I need to think outside the box and look at it from a different perspective.

Besides delivering a subconscious message, this dream has also given me an insight into the workings of astrology.

In the dream, my initial uncertainty of my next step in life had led me to take a bird's eye view of the situation. While facing a problem or at a crossroad, don't we often wish that we could see into the future so we could select the best path? Some people turn to religion - they give their problems to God and have complete faith that the 'correct' decision will be made. Others turn to fortune-tellers, people who can see the overall map of the situation and advice accordingly. Unfortunately, as with all professions, there are bad seeds giving the rest of the profession a bad name. Astrology can be used as a forecasting tool but it doesn't provide a magic formula to all our woes, as I had found out very early on in my astro studies. However, if it was too clear, then God's insulting our intelligence and life would be no fun. My dream showed me that astrology is like an atlas - it shows the roads ahead but what you do on those terrains is entirely up to you - i.e. your freewill, though how you are likely to act can also be depicted from your birthchart.

Take Jupiter, for example, the planet of expansion, optimism and opportunities. If you know happy times are ahead in your area of work or relationship, you could take advantage of this energy. Life gives lots of goodies to us, but if we are not receptive to them, then they will pass us by, leaving us with nothing. We then complain and ask 'Where's my gift?' Some people are innately better at spotting goodies and grabbing chances than others, so I personally feel that knowing what kinds of cycles are ahead can help to maximise the chances of success.

On the other hand, if we see Saturn, the planet of hardship and restriction, in a particular area of our chart, then we can brace ourselves and get ready for a life lesson we have signed-up for when we first incarnated into this world. Think of this as a challenge and that we come out of this cycle feeling stronger and wiser - that is, if you are willing to face it.

With Uranus, you can expect some sudden changes, again, it's all down to the person whether or not these lessons are viewed as positive or negative. I like to see them as spring-cleaning. The Universe will not do anything to us that we are not ready for.

We might get a bit blurry-visioned with Neptune hitting a particular point in our chart. Ask lots of questions; try not to let the vagueness get the better of you, though it's hard to be objective when the fog of Neptune envelopes you...the plus sides are that your imagination and creativity are at their peaks.

Pluto likes to push hidden matters up to the light. This can either be painful, if you are unwilling to let go of any unwanted junk in your system, or it can be invigorating to release all that pent-up emotions/memories - think of constipation! Don't you feel good afterwards?

Thursday 13 October 2011

Why Astrology Doesn't Work

Since laying my eyes on my own birthchart almost a decade and a half ago, I have had a turbulent relationship with astrology.

I have learnt the keywords behind each planet, sign, house and aspect. I was aware that there could be more than one interpretation for each of those components, but as I began to notice cases where astrology 'didn't work', I started to ask myself if astrology was merely a limited tool - that it only works up to a certain point before it falls apart miserably.

Take myself as an example.

My Sun sign is Pisces. Yes, I have been told I'm shy, gentle, kind, quiet - all the keywords associated with this sign. Pisces' ruling planet is Neptune, a planet of no boundary, confusion and disorder. If my mother had read about the learning style of Piscean children, she would have been told that her Piscean girl will have difficulties in focusing on her academic work. She will daydream all the time and will find it hard to sit down to complete her school tasks. She will have poor organisational skills so do not expect her to take what she needs to school from day to day. Don't force her to write and read, she will prefer drawing, singing and dancing.

My mum would have thrown the book in the bin.

In actual fact, I was a conscientious student. My parents never pressured me but somehow, I have always been highly self-motivated to do my best at school. I loved reading from a young age; my mum couldn't drag me away from my books. I clearly knew what to take to school each day and I handed in my homework on time. I can draw but hated art. I would like to have been able to sing and dance but those areas never got developed in my life.

So what went wrong?

'Astrology doesn't work, that's why!' would've been the answers of skeptics. And I would've agreed with them if I hadn't delved deeper into my chart.

So what made me so grounded?

On closer inspection, my Moon sign is in Taurus, an earth sign, this significantly helps to stabilise my emotions and injects determination and stamina in what I do. But I think the main reason is that my Saturn is directly opposite my Sun, forming a 180-degree-aspect called an opposition. It brings practicality, discipline and order into my life.

I have also come across other examples where the Sun sign's traits appeared to be absent: a chart of a Scorpio who was naive and innocent. An Aries who was quiet and gentle and a Leo who was shy and extremely self-conscious.

So what went 'wrong'?

Nothing, is the answer, but merely the Sun sign cannot be take at face value. It turned out the my Scorpio friend had a Scorpio cluster in the 10th house (being in the public eye) all oppose Saturn. She told me that she couldn't stand conniving and selfish individuals. Clearly, she had disowned that part of her personality so it's being reflected to her through the people she met at work (she was struggling with her colleagues at the time). My Aries friend had the Sun, Moon & Mercury all locked away in the 12th house of Pisces, whereas the Leo had Capricorn rising so her chart ruler, Saturn, was giving her a solemn outlook on her life, not to mention that her Sun was at the apex of a T-Square with Uranus and Chiron.

If you are not typical of your Sun sign, there may be another part of your chart that is influencing your solar energy.

Basic Astrology: Planets


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