Can Astrology Answer the Question Who Am I? Astrology is the oldest
method of answering the question WHO AM I that I know of but can it contribute
to creative personal growth? It has gone through times when it has been very
fashionable and times when it has not.
I would like to quickly dispel two myths.
is not just Sun Signs.
So often today we hear people still asking whether there could possibly be only
12 different kinds of people in the world. The world would certainly be boring
and we would all be predictable if this was the case. An astrological chart is
very unique. No one else will have one exactly the same as yours. People who
mockingly criticise astrology tend to be people who have not studied it and who
believe our Sun sign is all there is to it. As far as I know, Sun sign astrology
was introduced as a bit of fun after Princess Margaret was born.
Astrology is fatalistic so how can it have anything to do with personal growth?
This of
course is an excellent question and in the past it has indeed been very
fatalisus, from outside, as fate... It now is very much more about
understanding yourself than fate. It is a tool that we can use to gain
in self awareness and use to change.
If you
have read the articles on this site on Freud, Jung and Carl Rogers, you
will notice that they argue that who we are is not necessarily who we
think we are. Astrology appears to highlight the particular challenges
we will face and the areas in life which we will meet with ease. How we
address this will have a great deal to do with the results we will
achieve from it. In the past, many people believed they had a rigid
fixed self, what Buddhists call ego. You can look at your Astrological
chart in this way. People have been known to excuse themselves in this
way, the reason they say they act in a particular way is because of the
positioning of the planets in their charts. In previous times,
particularly in the West, we did tend to believe we were these fixed
beings and given that, our attitude towards Astrology could be said to
be fatalistic. However, particularly due to Jung's own interest in Astrology which has been further developed by many others and the influence on Astrology of Rogerian Counselling Astrologers have grown in their understanding of themselves and their subject. Rather than seeing the Natal Chart as the identity of the person, they see the Natal chart as the particular situation into which the individual is born.
It is an
ongoing investigation. Our Natal chart of course is not the end of the
matter. From the moment we are born we will be experiencing the effect
of the planets as they move around the sky and come in contact with our
Natal chart (transits). Now, in the past, this was very much taken to
be an indication of fate, and it very often was, and would still remain
so today, if we believed in fate and acted as though we could do
nothing to change things.
What
Astrology can offer on a level conductive to growth is knowledge of our
basic energy's and impulses. We can use that knowledge to fix ourselves
into habitual patterns or we can use that knowledge to transform
ourselves. This is in no way to say that having particular planetary
combinations may not cause us
some difficulties, even severe difficulties but a careful look at
anyone's chart will usually also reveal ways which can help us to work
through our difficulties. Our chart belongs to us, we are the person
who needs to deal with any difficulties in it and nothing in an
astrological chart is now seen as fixed ,
everything is an opportunity to grow. We are involved in an ongoing
journey. Our Natal chart is not the end of the matter. We will be
continutally affected by our transits. Astrology viewed in this way,
far from presenting us with a rigid self condemned to fate, provides us
with a fluid sense of self, capable of change and by the very nature of
the challenges from our transits, real and sustained opportunities for
growth.
Astrology is fatalistic so how can it have anything to do with personal growth?
