Astrology: When the Universal Becomes the Most Personal

by Shelley Jordan

In many ways, astrology resembles a waking dream. Its system of archetypes and images comes from a different reality, far removed from the realm of the waking, the day to day. With astrology, we enter into a domain of mythology and images, where symbols shift and take on their relevance depending not only on their interconnections, but also on their personal meaning in the subjective world of the individual.
While we can say, generally, that for most of us Saturn represents maturity, responsibility, structure and achievement, how we each respond to those demands is a highly individual matter. We cannot determine from the chart whether someone relishes a challenge, rising to the occasion with ambition and self control, or if that person avoids responsibility and thereby endures the consequences.

According to India’s Health Minister, R. Ashok, there were as many as 176 babies born every minute throughout the world in 2006. Even taking into account differences of latitude and longitude, this means that many people share the same chart, the same transits and other astrological conditions. It is simply absurd to imagine that all these people have parallel lives and personalities. Without doubt another baby was born at the same time that Albert Einstein entered this world, and no doubt that baby was no Einstein.

As long ago as the 5th century, St. Augustine was arguing against astrology with the observation that it was clearly disproved in the case of twins. He was correct. While he did concede that there was probably some stellar influence on the physical world, two individuals born at the same time could lead completely different lives, in spite of having nearly identical charts.

The chart is not the person. It may tell us little if anything about the specific external conditions of someone’s life, their career, family, economics and health. What a birth chart can tell us is what if feels like to be that person. With a chart, we enter into the realm of interiority, the sphere of the subjective and the deeply personal. There may be some correlations between our internal world and the outside, but frequently, trying to match a birth chart to events and conditions in someone’s outer world can be an exercise in frustration.

Especially in the case of those who are in some way exceptional, either because of their gifts, such as genius, or their personal tragedies, we can run into astrological dead ends. Most of the astrological literature has lead us to believe that astrology will invariably describe the external world of events – fate. So indoctrinated are we with astrology’s prediction factor that to attempt to approach a chart without anticipating the exterior life of objective events and conditions becomes a process demanding the most extreme detachment. We have to let go of what may be years of study of charts and books in order to begin to peer into the inner depths of the human psyche, removed from outer circumstances of material and other concerns. If we succeed, we can understand what it feels like to be another human being, and in that way, have insight and compassion for that person.

While the planets and signs have certain general characteristics that we can assume to be active in most people, at a deeper level each astrological symbol takes on a highly personal meaning, like images in a dream. I might dream about puppies, and have my own personal set of associations with small, furry animals, but another person, who is allergic to or otherwise does not care for dogs, might have an entirely different associative response.

Likewise, in the birth chart we each have our own personal relationship to astrological symbols. As in dreams, where, if we study them over an extended period, we’ll develop our own personal lexicon of symbols, in astrology we have our own personal relationships to the various archetypal principles. If we are secure in our boundaries, and comfortable with intense emotions, we may have a perfectly easy time adjusting to plutonian conditions. If, on the other hand, intimacy and trust are difficult for us, then Pluto may represent challenges that require attention and adjustment. We cannot tell from the chart, only from knowing the person behind the chart.

This is why it is difficult to learn astrology from books. Books deal with generalities, not to mention the biases and blind spots of the authors and of the astrological tradition itself. Only by studying birth charts of people whose lives we have access to in some way, either because we know them or have read a good bit about them, can we understand how the drama of the personal relationship with archetypes will be played out. Each of us has our own particular and often private associations with astrological archetypes, and these can change and evolve over time.

Therefore, it is possible to have an astrology that is flexible and individualized, that is not based on rigid rules of practice, and that does not concern itself with traditional judgments about the conditions of a person’s life. These judgments, which still cling to astrology, usually stem from values that prefer health to illness, wealth to poverty and success to failure. And it is wrongly but frequently assumed that astrology can determine what one’s fate will be in these areas. Karma is now used as an excuse for the supposed suffering that comes from so-called ‘bad’ conditions in the birth chart.

If one studies enough charts, it will be seen that so-called bad conditions can appear at the most delightful times, or allegedly great planetary states can result in nothing at all. Astrology is not rocket science. It’s a symbolic method for interpreting meaning in life, and for gazing into the interiority of the human experience. Trying to use it to predict future earthquakes or political revolutions is a childish waste of a symbolically rich thought system.

No one can judge another person’s dharma, or spiritual lessons. The individual is at all times free to find value in all experience. Who is to say that in illness or suffering one will not develop compassion and understanding for others? Or a difficult event can’t lead to the most wonderful consequences? Even more important than releasing judgments about the life and lessons of another is to eradicate the expectation that these circumstances can be astrologically determined. They cannot.
In order to come to terms with the limits of astrology we need to ask ourselves “what can astrology tell us about the human experience?” The answer lies in each individual’s variable relationship with astrological symbols, and in astrology’s ability to allow us privileged access to the inner world of another person.