Believe in Astrology

7/31/2019 Believe in Astrology

1/7

DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY?

By Michael Erlewine

I recently did four interviews during the UAC (UnitedAstrology Conference) in New Orleans, and one ofthem included the question When did you start tobelieve in astrology? or something like that.

My answer was that I dont believe in much ofanything. That is too much like what the great lamaChgyam Trungpa said years ago, Your guess is asgood as mine. A guess is a guess; a belief is justthat, a belief, not knowledge. I dont think I ever havebelieved in astrology or anything else for that matter.Perhaps I believe in life after death, and I am workingto make that experiential, probably all too soon for myliking. Anyway, somewhere way back then, I foundastrology to be useful. I use it because it is useful.

In other words, you dont have to believe inastrology to find it useful, to use it. I use astrology allthe time as one of my languages of life. I have otherstoo, like photography, music, dharma, and so on. Ispeak those languages and they speak to me. No one

asks me if I believe in music or photography, right?

I learned about the language of astrology a long timeago, in the late 1950s or at least by 1960 when I lefthigh school and hitchhiked to Venice West in SantaMonica to became a fine-arts painter. I lived in anabandoned walk-in freezer in the basement of thethen-famous Beat art gallery and hangout called the

Gas House right on the beach. Anyone out there everheard of that or am I just too old? Well, my life as a


2/7

painter didnt last long, but you could not have told methat back then.

When I first managed to get my arms aroundastrology it was as an alternative view of myselfcompared to the relatively sick labels that modernpsychology was passing around at the time, youknow: paranoid, schizophrenic, manic-depressive,etc. They had all kinds of labels and I cant rememberone of them that was a virtue or positive. They were

all negative, and that was a heck of a way to describeoneself. I didnt even know how bad an imagepsychology painted until something else came along,and that was astrology, which gave me a secondopinion as to who I was..

Astrology at least was balanced. It had good and badlabels, not just negative ones. Astrology gave me asecond opinion on who I was and where I might be

going in life, and I appreciated that a lot. Of course Ipreferred my astrological profile to that of the modernpsychology of the time and I was glad to know that Iwas not just some sick son-of-a whatever. You get theidea.

So, do I believe in astrology? I dont think so. And Idont believe in music or anything else. I love

astrology and I find it a useful language to knowmyself through and I use it to share ideas with peoplelike many reading this blog. Make sense? Do youbelieve in astrology?

RARE EVENT:VENUS TRANSITS THE SUN

The transit of Venus across the face of the Sun is oneof the rarest astronomical events. This coming transit


3/7

of Venus will take place on June 5-6, 2012 towardsundown, and is the last event of its kind this entire

century. The next will take place in December of2117. Why are Venus and this event so special? Thesecret to understanding the meaning of Venustransiting the Sun is to be found in the planet Earth.And the effect of Venus on us. It is we, here on Earth,who see this happening, not the other planets. Let meexplain.

The planets are placed at intervals outward from theircenter the sun, much like the esoteric chakras run upand down our spine, at least figuratively. If you wantto better understand this event, you might have torelax and let your mind rest. I will try to help you out.

We all live here on Earth, for us the heart and centerof our little world. I will put aside my evangelism aboutheliocentric astrology and the fact that the Sun is the

center of all life for us and that even our beloved natalastrology chart wheel is nothing more than a snapshotof the sun-centered solar system from Earths view. Iwill visit that thought another day.

For now I will give a key insight for you to consider asregards the planets in their order out from the Sun:Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

That key is this:The inner is always the key to the outer.

Always take from within. The key to the meaning ofany planet is always that planet whose orbit is thenext inside. For our Earth, that means Venus, soVenus is the key to life on Earth, forever and ever.

We all know that Venus has to do with love,

appreciation, values, and (along with the Moon) alsowomen. Is it not true that for all time the bards, poets,


4/7

and sages have told us that love is the key to lifehere on Earth love, love, love. Another way to say

this is that Venus or love is the key to life on Earth.In other words, if you want to better understand thisearthly life (and your natal chart), look at how Venusis configured in your chart because Venus is the nextplanet inside Earths orbit. Cant you tell mine is inLeo?

And you can do this with any two planets. Let me give

you just one more example, but you can do this withany pair of planets from the Sun out to and includingSaturn. As for the metaphysical or outer planets(Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto), well, they dance toanother tune, which could be another blog if some ofyou ask for it. Here lets look at the planet Saturn.

Saturn represents time (Chronos) and the laws that

hold this Earth together. Saturn also can representthe obstacles and obstructions in our life, all that wehave to go or pass through to live and knowourselves. And the key to Saturn?

You guessed it, Jupiter. Jupiter is the next planet justinside Saturns orbit, so knowing Jupiter in your chartwill give you the key to handling your particularSaturn. I am not going to go into great elaboration

about this here, but just consider a few of theattributes od Jupirwe. The word for Jupiter in Sanskritis Guru, so Jupiter has to do with guidance, ourvocation or life path, literally the way we go throughlife, continuity the way or path through which wecontinue.

Jupiter is the Key to Saturn because through our

Jupiter we can traverse the maze of laws that Saturnpresents to us in life. For example, Jupiter istraditionally connected to lawyers, and lawyers handle


5/7

the law (Saturn). Get it? Jupiter is the Key to Saturn,our guide or guru through the obstacles that time

(Saturn) challenges us with. Jupiter is the planet justinside the orbit of Saturn. That is how to use thissimple planetary key: the inner is the key to the outer.Now back to Venus.

Venus is one of the few planets we can frequently seein the morning or evening sky, because it never getstoo far from its companion, the Sun. It goes where the

Sun goes. So we see Venus in the sky a lot.However, we dont see Venus against the Sun, as itrarely crosses or transits the Sun. And unless wehave very special sunglasses to protect our eyes, weare not going to see this Venus transit at all.

Yet we all will experience this event. This is not aneclipse of the Sun by Venus. The planet Venus is waytoo small to eclipse our massive Sun, so that is not a

realistic factor as some might suggest.

Venus does represent love and also women, so thelove of women and women on an ascending curvewould be a fair interpretation IMO. The sleeper ofthese modern times is the ascendancy of women, notonly to power and not only the love of woman, butmore importantly womens love and compassion in

the world, which includes their love of men.My own view, which I am sure I will get some flak for,is that the remedy for an excess of the dominant malepatriarchal energy is not more aggressive feminism,but just the reverse. It is women remembering thattheir love, like that for their child, is unconditional.Men have no such capacity, in general. Women havethe power to love men unconditionally, andunconditional love is something men are helpless inthe face of. They melt.


6/7

In other words, the way to handle men is not to riseup and give them a taste of their own medicine, which

they well deserve, but rather to love them as only thefeminine power can. Women have perhaps forgottenhow powerful they are with love. There is no force likelove and women show love where there is none.

In this coming transit of Venus across the face of theSun, please consider this: Mankind is supposedlymore civilized than Mother Nature, and mother nature

is inexorable in its laws. We dont break the laws ofnature; they break us. In fact, if you search through allthe world of nature for kindness and compassion, it isnot to be found anywhere, with one lone exception,the compassion and unconditional love of a motherfor her child. The Tibetan Buddhists have endlesslytold us that every sentient being has been our motherin a previous lifetime. This is where unconditional love

and compassion can always clearly be seen, amother with child.

The power of women is that sleeping force that is nowawakening. Remember all bodies, including malesenter the world only through the feminine. The transitof Venus plus the Full Moon eclipse on June 4thherald the love of women but more importantlywomens love and compassion for others, startingwith the child and radiating outward. And should theyremember their ability to love, the world wouldchange.

That should get you started considering this Venustransit across the face of the Sun.


7/7

Documents

Believe in Astrology