Becoming Your Own Astrologer - D.I.Y.

Rays of Wisdom - The Astro files - Be Your Own AstrologerLike all truly great ideas, astrology’s basic principles are very simple. Everything is wheels within wheels and cycles within cycles constantly repeating themselves. To my mind, there is no better instrument than the Divine science for getting to know our true self and learning to love it, and for doing the same for the companions on our pathway through life. As for my taste too much gobble-de-gook surrounds this subject, from the beginning of my writings my aim has been to demystify it. Besides, rather than feeding people by catching one fish for them, I prefer showing them where they themselves can find and catch the tastiest morsels.

I feel that astrology’s great beauty and basic simplicity can only reveal itself when one strips away all confusing non-essentials elements. I believe that only through simplifying astrology can and does the subject reveal its extraordinary beauty and usefulness. Instead of being something that is best avoided, because for ordinary mortals without specialist knowledge it is far too complicated, mysterious and – to some – downright scary, it soon becomes something to be relished as the precious gift it truly is to humankind. Knowing that the greatest gift the Universe can bestow upon anyone is simplicity, I endeavour to keep things as simple as possible and use language that hopefully can be followed easily by anyone.

In my view the best approach to astrology is D.I.Y. For this purpose I have added some simple instructions on how to find and interpret your Moon signs, as well as a few brief general notes about the role of the Sun and the Moon in the birthchart. In all my writings I hope to be able to do my share of dispersing the prejudices against astrology that to this day exist in our world. By showing how it can be used to find a better understanding of ourselves, each other and our world, I would like to assist those who come to my website, and especially the Astro Files, to overcome their fear of this truly amazing subject.

For those who stand with trepidation before the vastness of astrology my advice is: do not be discouraged. Never forget that not everybody is destined to become a professional astrologer. For many it is quite sufficient to learn more about the Sun signs and what they can reveal about their own and everyone else’s life lessons. My life has taught me how through a better appreciation of one’s own and other people’s little foibles and peccadilloes, one imperceptibly and almost automatically grows into a kinder and more tolerant person. Astrology has helped me in so many ways, but especially with this and I am convinced that it can do the same for you.

First and foremost astrology can be used for getting in touch with our inner, i.e. unconscious world of motivations, feelings and emotions, our soul. This does not require any great astrological knowledge or scientific approach. All you need to know is the position of the Moon in your birthchart. Ideally this should be by sign and house, but to keep things simple, we will forget about the house position of your Sun and Moon; for what we have in mind here they are not necessary. To give you a better idea of the role of the Moon and the Sun in your birthchart, here are a few general notes about them. In the normal course of events, the Sun would always come first. But, as we are focusing here mainly on the Moon, I have taken the liberty to tell you about it first.

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The Moon

The Moon is a symbolism for the earthly personality, its experiences and functions. It represents the psyche, the soul, which is the storehouse of the memories of the experiences of all our lifetimes, including this one. The Moon’s sign and house position in our birthchart indicate how we appear to other people and how we experience them and take them into account. The Moon is a reflection of the deepest, innermost essence of our personality; it is the mask through which our soul communicates and relates to the world around us. Because the soul cannot express itself in words, it communicates with us through the cells of our body and reveals its presence through our intuitive interactions with those around us.

The Moon’s position can tell us a great deal about the behaviour patterns we developed during other lifetimes, which during this one decisively influence our instinctual reactions. The Moon shows how we subconsciously react to our environment. It is also the symbol for the rich world of our innermost feelings, of sensitivity and unconscious motivations. It can be a pointer to how we make use of our imagination. I share the belief that the Moon can give us clues to which cycles of experiences we went through, during our most recent lifetime on Earth.

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The Sun

The Sun in our birthcharts shows in which direction our spirit and soul’s Highest Self and inner Spirit will be pulling us throughout the whole course of our present lifetime. The Sun’s sign and house position provide pointers to our main life lessons, as well as the qualities that are waiting to be integrated into our character on our soul’s slow and gradual way back into the wholeness and perfection that is in God. As a spark and an integral part of the Great Light, the spiritual Sun beyond the Sun in the sky above us, each one is a soul dedicated to a pathway of evolution. At all times, the Great Spirit inexorably draws each one of us forwards and upwards, inviting and calling us to come home and be at one with it again, the way all human souls once were.

While all this is happening, the Moon is trying to do its best to hold us back in the past. To avoid remaining trapped in matter overlong, it is essential that we learn to respond as much as possible to the guidance we constantly receive from within our own hearts, where our inner Sun and teacher dwells. The ongoing struggle, friction and disharmony of past ages between the two parts, represented by the Sun and the Moon, were painful for the individual and the collective soul of our world. This has resulted in great soul growth, so that at long last humankind has reached the evolutionary level when harmony between within and without, conscious and subconscious is meant to be worked on and established by us.

It is up to us to each one of us personally to make every effort to look back as little as possible, so that we may move forward, the way the living spirit within tells us to do. As one becomes more aware of oneself and one’s inner motivations, it is important to always bear in mind that everything we find within that is not to our liking can be and indeed is meant to be changed, by us. That is our task if we wish to make the spiritual progress that is potentially ours, for this lifetime. We are here to learn to rise above all inner obstacles and to overcome the problems we ourselves have created during this lifetime and many before. Because this is extremely difficult, it is every soul’s birthright to call for the help of God and the Angels. This, however, will and cannot come on its own, but has to be asked for. Whichever way one turns, can you see how the greatest tool any soul can wish for on its journey through life is awareness. Truly, it is the key to unlock all doors – especially the inner ones.

The human spirit, as part of the Great Spirit, is enterprising and inquisitive, forward looking and thirsting for new learning, fresh experiences and wider horizons. As in contrast to this, the earthly personality is afraid of the unknown and the future, it tends to dislike changes and cling to the past. To help the spirit to grow and expand in consciousness, it must first become aware of itself. This it does through experiencing itself and the world around it, by learning about both of them. The spirit is a small spark of the Great Father of all life; its nature therefore is masculine.

The duty of every spark of the Divine is to evolve and grow, but it cannot do this on its own. Every spirit requires a feminine counterpart, a soul. In women and men alike the soul is the sensitive feeling side through which we experience and learn about ourselves and life, and in which all the memories of all our lifetimes are stored. Thus is comes about that slowly, in the course of many lifetimes, the human spirit begins to grow itself a world of feelings and becomes ensouled. The soul’s first impressions go back to the moment of spirit’s release from the Source, its true home and the oneness with God.

This state is known to humankind as Paradise and it is the true reason why human souls prefer to gaze back rather than forward. It looks at its present home and cannot help weeping and mourning for the one it lost. I know from first hand experience that when the poor earthly personality feels homesick, it may take an exceedingly long time until it can recognise that such feelings come from its soul and that in truth they are pointers in the direction of its real home.

Thus, for a long time the different parts struggle against each other.  And when the going gets tough, as it frequently does in Earth life, the personality – the ego, the small self – may feel a great longing to return to its parents. For as long as it lacks the awareness that its true needs are those of its soul, the two parts will continue to pull in opposite directions, busily creating ever more stress and suffering for each other. Meanwhile, the spirit stands by and rejoices, because it knows that this is the only way all parts together can find their way back home again. Although this may seem cruel, it is not; it is merely wise.

The greatest paradox of each one of our earthly sojourns always has been that our spirit and soul can only hope to get back into our true home by re-discovering and acting upon our true nature. Human progress, individually and as a race, has only ever been possible through steadfastly going forwards, without too much looking back. Responding to the pull of the Moon and the past is sure to get us nowhere. It may take our earthly self a very long time until we finally understand that the Moon’s pull has to be counteracted by following the Sun and by looking forward and moving towards the future. No matter what befalls us, in truth there is but one option for everybody and that is feet firmly planted on the Earth, whilst keeping heart, mind and inner gaze firmly fixed upon the Highest Star and Its aspirations.

By the way, there’s a great deal more to the Sun sign than meets the eye, the same as always with astrology. If for example we were born on the cusp of Sagittarius/Capricorn, we shall not remain the same person throughout the rest of our present lifetime. Let me explain why this should be so. By progression our Sun moves forward one degree per year. Each sign has 30 degrees. This means that although you may have been born – say – into the 1st degree of Capricorn, by the time you reach age 29 your energies and outlook would be changing very profoundly, namely from cardinal Earth into fixed Air, Aquarius. The next 30 years you would be mostly under the influence of the energies of this sign, then you would be going through the changes from fixed Air into mutable Water, Pisces. And so on and so forth. Each time these changes happen, they do not occur like the flicking on of a switch, but gradually and imperceptibly in the course of several years. If you pay attention to these changes in your own life, you will be able to watch how it changes and the way it will continue to do so in the future.

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The Ascendant

God’s creative processes are constantly at work and life on all levels is at all times evolving, moving forwards and upwards in vast spirals onto ever higher ones. Nothing in the whole of Creation ever stands still, not even for the briefest moment. The Sun in the sky above us reflects this down to us on the Earth; it too never stops moving in its orbit. The same is true for all parts of God’s Creation where everything is wheels within wheels, and cycles within cycles. Bearing this in mind, the concepts behind astrology are basically very simple and can easily be understood by anyone. Astrology allows us glimpses into how everything is moving and why things and conditions on the Earth plane too must always change.

The cusp that marks the end of the twelfth house and the beginning of the first is called the Ascendant. Neither planet nor house, this part nonetheless is a vital one of every birthchart. Every two hours a new sign rises over the horizon and the sign that appears at the moment we draw our first breath is known as the rising sign or the Ascendant. The study of this sign reveals the colouring of our outer personality and gives valuable insights into the temperament, disposition, physical appearance and personality of us as an individual. The ascendant is one of the main reasons why several people, who could all have been born on the same day but at different times and places, show marked variations in their character and behaviour patterns. Knowing the time of our birth, as exactly as possible, is important. Without this it is impossible to tell in which houses the planets are operating and which aspect of our lives the transiting planets are influencing at any given time.

It could be said that in some way the Ascendant is the most important part of the birth chart, because it represents our outer personality and the mask we show to the world. One might think of it as a window through which we view the outside world and the way this world sees us. It is the filter through which all learning experiences of our present lifetime have to pass, to enable the inner self to assimilate and digest them. Through the daily experiences of the earthly self the psyche restlessly searches for enlightenment that can only be found in a better understanding of its own nature through the people and situations that are coming its way.

The Ascendant is the part of our being where the earthly self meets life head-on and sometimes collides with it. When this happens, it is helpful to bear in mind that this part of our being is but a mask and as such should at all times be worn lightly. The earthly self that identifies too much with its mask, i.e. its outer personality, runs the risk of forgetting who they truly are and what, one fine day are sure to be again. This true spirit and higher self, however, cannot be found by any earthlings who are as yet unaware of the existence of such a part. As ever, awareness is the key for unlocking this particular door to another aspect of human consciousness.

We are in this life to integrate the higher evolved aspects of all the signs that are accentuated in our birthchart, especially our Sun sign. However, the Ascendant is almost of equal importance, because if we insist on wearing the mask it represents too heavily – or worse still –act out too many of its negative aspects, the outer self can be in danger of suffocating the inner spirit and soul, and that makes any kind of spiritual progress almost impossible.

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Finding Your Moon Sign

This is easy because there are sites on the web where you can do this free of charge; http://www.astro.com/ is one of them. Although I know of it, I am in no way connected with it. Because a friend recommended it some time ago, I tried it and was surprised how good the information was that came forth. But see for yourself. And as soon as you have found out from one of these free sites where your Moon is, a pathway opens for you to discover more about yourself and especially about your subconscious motivations. I promise you that you will find the study of the Sun sign that corresponds to the one your Moon is positioned in highly revealing. The negative expressions of your Moon sign are of particular interest, as the Moon tends to bring them out more than the Sun in the same sign.

As the Great spiritual Sun, whose spark each one of us is, always tries to guide and move us in a forward and upward spiral, it is much easier to integrate the positive aspects of our Sun sign than those of our Moon sign. When you find this difficult, do not despair. Becoming familiar with the negative expressions can be very beneficial, because our knowledge can help us get in touch with the unconscious destructive thought and behaviour patterns we have brought with us from previous lifetimes. If there are any subconscious character flaws somewhere within us, it is necessary to become aware of them before we can consciously start to work on changing them.

As an astrologer, for me the progressions of the planets have a special magic of their own, and especially those of the Moon. The orderly and precise fashion in which they proceed – not only in the skies, but also in the way they show up as affecting everybody’s life never ceases to amaze me. When one observes how strongly the energies of the planets influence all human experiences, as each lifetime unfolds, one cannot help marvelling at God’s great foresight and wisdom. Witnessing how we all respond to the Cosmic influences, mostly without having a clue why we are being drawn to certain lessons at different times as we move through our lives, gives me a warm and secure inner feeling.

This is the kind of thing that constantly renews and builds up my trust in the goodness of the life our Father/Mother Creator has provided for us. It serves as a constant reminder of how we and our world and everything in it rest safely in the hands of God and the Angels. It is very difficult and almost impossible to share such feelings, but I am trying nonetheless because that more than anything else is the message I would like to convey with all my writings, the Stargazer’s Astro Files and ‘Be Your Own Astrologer’ in particular.

I do not believe that these feelings can only grow inside those who are willing to study not just one or two but every single one of my interpretations of the Sun signs, as well as many as possible of the other Astro Files. I recommend that you take your time and imbibe them sign by sign, maybe over the course of one whole year, as the Sun moves through the zodiac. By the way, I believe that you are likely to gain most if you take a printout and sit with it somewhere quietly, rather than in front of your computer screen. To benefit as much as possible from your studies, before you start reading, try to tune into the energies of the Sun sign in front of you. Maybe you will be able to feel and sense them while you are reading. When you put your sheets down, take a moment to reflect on how the energies are affecting you and your life.

You alone can tell where you are on your pathway through life at present. And you are the only one who can tell which of the negative characteristics of the various signs still have to be shed by you and which of the positive ones are waiting to be integrated and developed by you, so that they can becomes permanent feature of your character. The next step is the application of any knowledge you are finding, as much as possible, first to yourself and then to those around you. Given time and if you persevere, the same warm inner feelings are likely to slowly develop within you. And you too will gradually get to know that sense of security and the knowledge that you are safe in the loving hands of the Great Spirit, Father/Mother.

Take it from me, observing humankind through the eyes of an astrologer is delightful! And as your knowledge of this subject increases, you quite likely will come to the same conclusion. In fact, the more you find out, the more you will appreciate how humankind is kept sheltered and safe on our small and beautiful planet. It seems to me that, in Cosmic terms, we have been isolated to stop us – in our ignorance – from doing too much harm to the rest of Creation; and that until we are spiritually sufficiently evolved, we shall not be allowed to become ‘fully subscribed’ members of the vast family of all life in the Universe.

Recommended Reading:
Astrology for the New Age – An Intuitive Approach’ by Marcus Allen.
To my mind, the best astrology that has ever come my way.

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The above is a chapter from ‘The Astro Files – Technical Aspects’.
If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:

‘The Astro Files – Technical Aspects’

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