Ever since I was introduced to astrology, I’ve wondered: By knowing what I know about the stars, does it mean I am more influenced? Astrology is a double-edged sword, it seems. You know something, and then you cannot ‘unknow’ it, and can no longer avoid it.
I feel tethered to the stars every time I recall a planetary placement in my chart, and become aware of the need to express the impulse, which I cannot simply ignore.
But how much of this is true, and how much is of my making?
This raises a few obvious questions: Am I meant to know? Does it play a bigger role in my life as a result of knowing? In knowing, does it make it more so? Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Am I meant to know so I can manage it better?
If I fall and hurt myself, should I distract myself from the pain or stay with the feeling until it has passed?
I have come to realize the latter option is healthier in the long run.
The Jungian camp says, ‘when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate’. I want to know, of course. I want to make conscious all that is unconscious.
But do I want to tempt fate?!
Astrology is a double edge sword because when we know, we can no longer claim ignorance. By knowing, we must act responsibility. We know we shouldn’t be doing that thing we always do that gets us into trouble!
Yet we cannot help ourselves, or can we?
Mars Types
I’ve noticed over the years consulting clients, that a) more are female, much more, and b) less are male or ‘Mars types’.
Those strongly influenced by Mars feel they are more in control of their lives and their destiny.
Mars represents a part of us that does indeed have an influence on outcomes; the ‘courage to change’, but Mars- types often feel like they are in complete control, all the time, and do not want an astrologer to tell them any different!
I am a Mars type, as it is the strongest planet in my horoscope, but Venus and Jupiter are prominently placed in my horoscope too, so I can 'go with the flow'. Yet still, I wish to maintain some sense of control over my destiny because of the strength of Mars in my birth chart.
Mars is transiting its sign of exaltation as I write this (2018), and I find myself wishing to exert more control over my circumstances. I've taken up Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Mars is transiting in my 3rd house which is all about personal development. However, if I did not have astrological awareness, I might claim to have made this choice, all by myself, without any other influence. Of course, I know the influence is subtle, and the more subtle the influence, the more powerful!
I’ve been in many situations over the years where I’ve been asked to introduce the subject of astrology to an audience of Mars types: self-motivated individuals who do not want to hear that there are influences outside of their conscious control.
Mature Mars- types use astrology to better understand themselves, so they can control outcomes responsibly, while immature Mars types rally against what they perceive as a weakness.
We must reach a balance between both of these extremes; of feeling like we are making it all happen and feeling powerless in the face of change.
When Mars is very strong, as it is right now (May 2018) we may feel like we can change more of what we need to. And indeed we can. But to claim we are in complete control of all outcomes, is simply wishful thinking.
Let us be reminded that Mars is exalted in Saturn's sign, Capricorn, and Saturn is all about accepting our limitations so we can achieve all that is possible at any given time.
We must take responsibility for our lives and not hand over all of our power to someone else.
We may, at times, give our power away and ask someone else to make it all better; to make the pain go away, but this is not mature or responsible: two things we need to develop if we are to feel in control of anything!
Controlling outcomes may simply be a change in attitude, which eventually changes outcomes anyway.
How much free will do we really have?
I believe that whether we can change circumstances is not as important as how we feel about circumstances. This is why modern Vedic astrology has popularized the 'planetary cycles' as calculated from the Moon.
How we feel (a signification of the Moon) about anything is more important than what that thing is.
‘There are as many worlds as there are minds’. OSHO
We respond to our perception, not reality. This is one of the presuppositions of NLP.
Astrology offers us a way to see beyond our personal points of view. When all thoughts, feelings and beliefs are seen in the formation of the stars at our birth, one could argue that everyone is living their version of the truth, which has nothing to do with reality.
Saturn transiting sidereal Sagittarius until 2020 gets us to question what is true, while Pluto in Sagittarius has dug up many untruths since its ingress into Sagittarius in 2005. This is an important step in discovering what is false, and is an important consideration while Mars is exalted in Capricorn in 2018.
Any beliefs that are not useful must be relinquished if we are to achieve all that is possible. Once Saturn moves into sidereal Capricorn, along with Pluto in 2020, we must put those beliefs to the test.
In the meantime, fiction, and friction, must play a part in tearing down false beliefs; just as faulty thinking is removed by getting it wrong many times before we finally get it right.
OM TAT SAT
