For the Modern Mystic: Why Study Astrology?
In this day and age of science, why would anyone venture into the study of astrology?
While science is helpful in allowing us to know the universe, astrology is helpful in allowing us to know ourselves.
As a mystic, self-knowledge is the most important knowledge we seek.
There are many tools that we use for self-knowledge–yoga, meditation, tarot, to name a few. But, the tools of astrology offer insights far beyond these others. Through astrology we look into past, future and present. We unlock our soul’s code and map our destiny. We see where we are stuck and why. We also become smart about how to use certain energetic signatures to amplify our life and spiritual practice.
But, let me begin with the very first thing my very first astrologer told me:
Astrology confirms free will.
Sounds strange to think that if astrology is so predictive that we have any control over it, but we do. Our astrological blueprint (also called a natal chart), acts similarly to our DNA. Though we are born with certain things encoded in our DNA, our life, experiences, attitude, and condition all influence the expression of this inherited structure.
Like DNA, our astrological blueprint shows us our tendencies. It reveals where our strengths and weaknesses lie, and learning about them gives us the opportunity to enhance or soften them based on our choices. Though we are “born with it,” our astrological imprint does not determine our destiny. Astrology shows us what kind of energy we were born with (usually thought of as the soul’s agreement; what our soul said “yes” to working with in this lifetime). Understanding this agreement provides a lot of clarity as to why things were the way they were in our childhood, with our family, and with our inherited circumstances.
This by no means places us in the role of the victim of our circumstances. Far from it, when we see our historical markers, then, as the saying goes, “hindsight is 20/20.” We see perfectly that everything was exactly as it needed to be to optimize our soul’s growth and bring us to where we are today. That, in addition to knowing our habits, patterns and tendencies through our astrological blueprint, gives us clues as to how to soften our karma, dull the sharp edges of our personality, look out for pitfalls in our interactions, and most importantly:
Astrology shows us how to mine our own shadow for the gold of the self-knowledge that we seek.
Without the astrological blueprint, where do we even begin? Seeing our stars all mapped out makes the journey less of a haphazard one, and more of a conscious journey. We come into accord with the energies of the universe and stop resisting the life we want. Instead, we live our best lives, in synchronicity with the stars.
