Learn About Astrology Readings from Astrologer D.K. Brainard
The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392). Credit: HubbleSite.org
Ask any ten astrologers how (or why) astrology works and you’ll get at least ten different answers.
Astrologers can be as dogmatic and divisive as religious fanatics. The different factions can be downright venomous in ridiculing and denouncing the other sects: traditionalists vs. moderns, those who insist astrology can be scientifically proven vs. the New Agers and psychological types.
In fact, there may be only one thing that truly unites astrologers: Our shared experience that it works!
In this article, I’m going to give my viewpoint on why and how astrology works. You may not agree with me, but I guarantee I’ll bump you out of your habitual perspective. And at least you’ll know where I’m coming from.
I’m also going to address what I feel are the most common pitfalls and misconceptions about astrology that beginners and old hands alike would do well to bear in mind.
Astrology does not equal fate.
This is perhaps the most tricky question, and is in my opinion the reason that fortune-telling and other forms of divination have long been proscribed by Christian religion. It’s tricky because most of us live according to very rigid programming in our mind and our DNA. What does this mean? It means that until you’ve started to meditate, taken up a serious and sincere spiritual practice, and opened your mind to ways of seeing the world that supersede the worldview of your parents and your early environment:
You have almost no free will.
At this low level of evolutionary development (where most of the people in the world continue to live), you operate completely from the programs that were implanted in the first several years of life. These programs include but are not limited to:
- Your parents’ fears and ego addictions, including the particular strains of fear and addiction passed down through the generations of your family
- The extremely limited and limiting beliefs about what is possible that you were taught in school, in church and by the people surrounding you in childhood
- The constant and scientifically-tested and proven stream of media programming that is specifically designed to keep you trapped in the Matrix of sickness, disease, scarcity, fear and self-doubt
While we are existing at this “herd state” of consciousness, we have very little free will. The great psychologist Carl Jung described the life of the human soul as a process of individuation –through self-reflection we become aware of what makes us unique, what drives us, what makes us different from our parents and our peers. The Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl described this process as an inherent search for meaning that lives within us all, but that few of us choose to fully activate.
We grow up with a tremendous amount of programming and emotional (and often physical) force directed specifically at keeping us locked in the undifferentiated or non-self-aware state, what Toltec shaman Don Miguel Ruiz calls “the dream of the planet”.
The more we are functioning at the herd level of consciousness, the more astrology will seem like fate. A challenging Saturn transit to someone in the undifferentiated state will likely bring a conflict with authority, the loss of a job, or money problems. A supportive Mars-Venus event may bring sexual gratification or the start of a new relationship.
The problem with using astrology in this fatalistic sense is that it discourages us from taking responsibility for our lives. If we believe that Saturn = bad, we will react to a Saturn transit with fear. Abdicating our personal responsibility, we will fail to learn the Saturn lesson that could have made us stronger, richer, and more viable in the long run. Similarly, if we believe that this week’s awesome Venus transit means we will either find true love now or have to wait another month/year/decade/lifetime, we are likely to enter into a relationship with a vibration of fear and neediness. Guess what that’s going to bring to both partners?
But, here’s where the game changes! As we begin to develop awareness, as we learn to use more of our mind than just the tiny sliver of ego-consciousness that controls the greater part of our fellow humans, as we begin to live in the stream of creativity that is our Divine birthright, we also discover the gift of free will. Now, we see that Saturn transit as an opportunity to take more responsibility for our actions. Rather than reacting to the job loss with despair, for example, we recognize it as the opportunity we have been asking for to expand what we are doing with our talents and move into more fulfilling work. Rather than manifesting the authority value of the Saturn archetype as a stern police officer writing us a ticket, we recognize our Saturn transit as the need to become our own inner authority figure. We learn to reparent ourselves, we learn self-discipline (becoming a disciple of the Self), so that we no longer need correction from outside forces.
Astrology is the system that describes the quality of moments in time.
In the words of traditional astrologer John Frawley, who has written more eloquently on this than I could:
“The single, fundamental assumption of astrology is too rarely stated. This not just why astrology works, but why it is, why it exists, and why people for thousands of years have bothered to try to understand it. The assumption is this: time varies in its quality. Everything else in astrology follows naturally from here. This is what we are doing in practicing astrology: assessing the quality of different moments.”
So what are we doing if we are not telling fortunes, predicting the future, laying down the laws of Fate? We are studying moments in time. Astrology tells us that this Monday (Moon-day) is not the same as any other. Although every Monday falls under the putative rulership of the Moon, a Monday when the Sun is in Cancer will have a very different quality from a Monday when the Sun is in the opposite sign of Capricorn. At the moment I’m writing this, Monday happens to be the Summer Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere. Not only that, but it’s a Summer Solstice on which the Sun in security-oriented Cancer is making dynamic, upsetting square aspects to Saturn (authority, restriction, fear), Jupiter (expansion) and Uranus (shock, revolution, upset, sudden enlightenment). The Sun is also opposing Pluto (the unconscious elements in the soul) in Capricorn, the sign of world systems today.
Tell me this Monday is like any other Monday that has ever been!
We can expand this same concept out to the level of decades, centuries, millenia, eons, or microscope it down to the quality of a given minute. What this allows us to do is study the way energy flows in our reality and to some extent predict the quality of any given moment in time.
I find this tremendously useful, just as weather forecasting is useful. If I know it’s going to freeze on Thursday, I’ll hold off on planting my vegetables until next week. Similarly, if I know the ruling planet of my 10th House of career is retrograde and square potentially foggy Neptune today, I’ll hold off on sending out that press release.
On a deeper and more fundamental level, what astrology teaches us is that life is cyclical. We have good times and we have bad times. Some days (or years) are made for pushing ahead, imposing our will on life, sowing seeds and reaping the harvest. Other days are best spent in contemplation, in quiet, in letting the ground lie fallow as we process the lessons of the last cycle and rest before the start of the next cycle.
When we know this – when we are in tune with the cycles of time – we can make better choices. We can also realize that this “bad” period won’t last forever. Rather than sinking into despair or fatalism, we can with the help of astrology accept the low times as well as the high times.
Everybody (and everything) has a chart.
The horoscope for a given person or event shows the nature of that person or event. One of the greatest gifts of understanding your own birth chart is the realization that you are the way you are for a reason. Each life has certain outstanding talents and qualities to be nurtured and each chart shows challenges to be overcome, certain factors to be endured, and lessons to be learned.
One of the most satisfying experiences I have with my clients is that “A-ha moment” when the client sees that the thing she has always hated about herself is as fundamental a part of her psyche in this lifetime as that talent that everyone values her for.
I recently happened to tune in to a Christian talk show on an AM station I never listen to. (I rarely listen to the radio and even more rarely to talk radio and I just happened to be waiting in the car and decided to flick through the channels…) The host was trying to prove astrology wrong; but the more he read through the descriptions of the signs and the more he thought about the key people in his life, the more convinced he became that astrology does indeed describe much of what it purports to describe.
His “Christian” callers
– I use the term loosely because the Bible makes a pretty big deal out of the fact that Christ’s birth was predicted by astrologers and that in fact the three foreign astrologers were the only ones who honored the Christ at his incarnation! –
agreed that astrology certainly seemed valid. Then they put themselves through the most strenuous and painful intellectual contortions to conclude that astrology must be from the Devil.
I do agree that treating astrology as pre-determined fate is a dangerous and slippery road. And that using astrology to curse others (“All Scorpios are manipulators and sexual deviants; Joe at the office is certainly addicted to Internet porn”) is indeed satanic in the Biblical understanding of that term. But it seems to me that choosing to remain in ignorance and ego-identification , choosing to remain willfully blind to God’s world and God’s creatures and to the rhythms God created is the more damning choice. When I understand that Joe was born under the fixed water sign of Scorpio, it becomes much easier for me to allow him to be stubborn and persevering (fixed energy) in his emotional need (water sign) to get to the bottom of why we disagree on our project (Scorpio, the detective of the zodiac). Whereas, knowing that Amanda is born under the Mercury-ruled Earth sign of Virgo helps me to be more patient with her compulsion to constantly scan the house and make checklists (Mercury = rational mind) of what needs to be fixed, cleaned, tidied, or organized (Earth = focus on the physical world).
Ultimately, astrology is a tool for understanding the Universe. Like any other tool, it can be used for good or for ill. I believe that all spiritual progress comes through awareness. I believe that awareness that every moment in time is unique and has a unique meaning and purpose can only inspire us with reverence and wonder for the awesomeness of Creation.
I believe that knowing the qualities of the moment in time when you chose to incarnate here is one of the most powerful tools we possess for understanding who we are as aspects of the Divine and for taking responsibility for living with integrity and purpose.
That’s how astrology works.
Learn About Astrology Readings from Astrologer D.K. Brainard
Learn About Astrology Readings from Astrologer D.K. Brainard
The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392). Credit: HubbleSite.org
Ask any ten astrologers how (or why) astrology works and you’ll get at least ten different answers.
Astrologers can be as dogmatic and divisive as religious fanatics. The different factions can be downright venomous in ridiculing and denouncing the other sects: traditionalists vs. moderns, those who insist astrology can be scientifically proven vs. the New Agers and psychological types.
In fact, there may be only one thing that truly unites astrologers: Our shared experience that it works!
In this article, I’m going to give my viewpoint on why and how astrology works. You may not agree with me, but I guarantee I’ll bump you out of your habitual perspective. And at least you’ll know where I’m coming from.
I’m also going to address what I feel are the most common pitfalls and misconceptions about astrology that beginners and old hands alike would do well to bear in mind.
Astrology does not equal fate.
This is perhaps the most tricky question, and is in my opinion the reason that fortune-telling and other forms of divination have long been proscribed by Christian religion. It’s tricky because most of us live according to very rigid programming in our mind and our DNA. What does this mean? It means that until you’ve started to meditate, taken up a serious and sincere spiritual practice, and opened your mind to ways of seeing the world that supersede the worldview of your parents and your early environment:
You have almost no free will.
At this low level of evolutionary development (where most of the people in the world continue to live), you operate completely from the programs that were implanted in the first several years of life. These programs include but are not limited to:
While we are existing at this “herd state” of consciousness, we have very little free will. The great psychologist Carl Jung described the life of the human soul as a process of individuation –through self-reflection we become aware of what makes us unique, what drives us, what makes us different from our parents and our peers. The Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl described this process as an inherent search for meaning that lives within us all, but that few of us choose to fully activate.
We grow up with a tremendous amount of programming and emotional (and often physical) force directed specifically at keeping us locked in the undifferentiated or non-self-aware state, what Toltec shaman Don Miguel Ruiz calls “the dream of the planet”.
The more we are functioning at the herd level of consciousness, the more astrology will seem like fate. A challenging Saturn transit to someone in the undifferentiated state will likely bring a conflict with authority, the loss of a job, or money problems. A supportive Mars-Venus event may bring sexual gratification or the start of a new relationship.
The problem with using astrology in this fatalistic sense is that it discourages us from taking responsibility for our lives. If we believe that Saturn = bad, we will react to a Saturn transit with fear. Abdicating our personal responsibility, we will fail to learn the Saturn lesson that could have made us stronger, richer, and more viable in the long run. Similarly, if we believe that this week’s awesome Venus transit means we will either find true love now or have to wait another month/year/decade/lifetime, we are likely to enter into a relationship with a vibration of fear and neediness. Guess what that’s going to bring to both partners?
But, here’s where the game changes! As we begin to develop awareness, as we learn to use more of our mind than just the tiny sliver of ego-consciousness that controls the greater part of our fellow humans, as we begin to live in the stream of creativity that is our Divine birthright, we also discover the gift of free will. Now, we see that Saturn transit as an opportunity to take more responsibility for our actions. Rather than reacting to the job loss with despair, for example, we recognize it as the opportunity we have been asking for to expand what we are doing with our talents and move into more fulfilling work. Rather than manifesting the authority value of the Saturn archetype as a stern police officer writing us a ticket, we recognize our Saturn transit as the need to become our own inner authority figure. We learn to reparent ourselves, we learn self-discipline (becoming a disciple of the Self), so that we no longer need correction from outside forces.
Astrology is the system that describes the quality of moments in time.
In the words of traditional astrologer John Frawley, who has written more eloquently on this than I could:
So what are we doing if we are not telling fortunes, predicting the future, laying down the laws of Fate? We are studying moments in time. Astrology tells us that this Monday (Moon-day) is not the same as any other. Although every Monday falls under the putative rulership of the Moon, a Monday when the Sun is in Cancer will have a very different quality from a Monday when the Sun is in the opposite sign of Capricorn. At the moment I’m writing this, Monday happens to be the Summer Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere. Not only that, but it’s a Summer Solstice on which the Sun in security-oriented Cancer is making dynamic, upsetting square aspects to Saturn (authority, restriction, fear), Jupiter (expansion) and Uranus (shock, revolution, upset, sudden enlightenment). The Sun is also opposing Pluto (the unconscious elements in the soul) in Capricorn, the sign of world systems today.
Tell me this Monday is like any other Monday that has ever been!
We can expand this same concept out to the level of decades, centuries, millenia, eons, or microscope it down to the quality of a given minute. What this allows us to do is study the way energy flows in our reality and to some extent predict the quality of any given moment in time.
I find this tremendously useful, just as weather forecasting is useful. If I know it’s going to freeze on Thursday, I’ll hold off on planting my vegetables until next week. Similarly, if I know the ruling planet of my 10th House of career is retrograde and square potentially foggy Neptune today, I’ll hold off on sending out that press release.
On a deeper and more fundamental level, what astrology teaches us is that life is cyclical. We have good times and we have bad times. Some days (or years) are made for pushing ahead, imposing our will on life, sowing seeds and reaping the harvest. Other days are best spent in contemplation, in quiet, in letting the ground lie fallow as we process the lessons of the last cycle and rest before the start of the next cycle.
When we know this – when we are in tune with the cycles of time – we can make better choices. We can also realize that this “bad” period won’t last forever. Rather than sinking into despair or fatalism, we can with the help of astrology accept the low times as well as the high times.
Everybody (and everything) has a chart.
The horoscope for a given person or event shows the nature of that person or event. One of the greatest gifts of understanding your own birth chart is the realization that you are the way you are for a reason. Each life has certain outstanding talents and qualities to be nurtured and each chart shows challenges to be overcome, certain factors to be endured, and lessons to be learned.
One of the most satisfying experiences I have with my clients is that “A-ha moment” when the client sees that the thing she has always hated about herself is as fundamental a part of her psyche in this lifetime as that talent that everyone values her for.
I recently happened to tune in to a Christian talk show on an AM station I never listen to. (I rarely listen to the radio and even more rarely to talk radio and I just happened to be waiting in the car and decided to flick through the channels…) The host was trying to prove astrology wrong; but the more he read through the descriptions of the signs and the more he thought about the key people in his life, the more convinced he became that astrology does indeed describe much of what it purports to describe.
His “Christian” callers
– I use the term loosely because the Bible makes a pretty big deal out of the fact that Christ’s birth was predicted by astrologers and that in fact the three foreign astrologers were the only ones who honored the Christ at his incarnation! –
agreed that astrology certainly seemed valid. Then they put themselves through the most strenuous and painful intellectual contortions to conclude that astrology must be from the Devil.
I do agree that treating astrology as pre-determined fate is a dangerous and slippery road. And that using astrology to curse others (“All Scorpios are manipulators and sexual deviants; Joe at the office is certainly addicted to Internet porn”) is indeed satanic in the Biblical understanding of that term. But it seems to me that choosing to remain in ignorance and ego-identification , choosing to remain willfully blind to God’s world and God’s creatures and to the rhythms God created is the more damning choice. When I understand that Joe was born under the fixed water sign of Scorpio, it becomes much easier for me to allow him to be stubborn and persevering (fixed energy) in his emotional need (water sign) to get to the bottom of why we disagree on our project (Scorpio, the detective of the zodiac). Whereas, knowing that Amanda is born under the Mercury-ruled Earth sign of Virgo helps me to be more patient with her compulsion to constantly scan the house and make checklists (Mercury = rational mind) of what needs to be fixed, cleaned, tidied, or organized (Earth = focus on the physical world).
Ultimately, astrology is a tool for understanding the Universe. Like any other tool, it can be used for good or for ill. I believe that all spiritual progress comes through awareness. I believe that awareness that every moment in time is unique and has a unique meaning and purpose can only inspire us with reverence and wonder for the awesomeness of Creation.
I believe that knowing the qualities of the moment in time when you chose to incarnate here is one of the most powerful tools we possess for understanding who we are as aspects of the Divine and for taking responsibility for living with integrity and purpose.
That’s how astrology works.
Learn About Astrology Readings from Astrologer D.K. Brainard