We Are Earthlings: The Introduction to my New Book Skywriter: Notes on Modern Astrology

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“You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean.
You are not a stranger here.” — Alan Watts 

 
Astrology is a real experience. A lived sensation.

And yet.

Astrology spans so many centuries, so many cultures and so many schools or categories of knowledge, that often the student of astrology is confused by —and distanced from — this simple fact. And yet: astrology is a lived experience.

Sidereal astrology or tropical astrology? Perhaps spiritual astrology — or evolutionary. Or maybe archetypal, Jungian astrology. But maybe the Hellenistic school is truer. And what about Vedic astrology?

What these schools or different approaches represent are collections of rules and laws based on a particular nomenclature unique to each school but always involving the same underlying principle. Namely the manner in which human beings have anthropomorphized the planets in the solar system to mirror or echo the human psyche.

Although I practice what would be considered psychological-spiritual astrology — I recommend to students that they invest the time to explore the different schools, find one that’s a fit and then — once immersed — let it all go — so as to develop his or her’s own unique astrological experience.

In much the same way that, say, after mastering French you wouldn’t go to Paris and continue to spend all of your time referencing grammar, syntax, and spelling. You would simply talk to people and do things. This is how astrology works best.

You learn the language and then set is aside. There is always time to study and learn more — but it’s best to acquire astrology’s basic codex and then just jump in.

Astrology is a lived experience. In the same way that your relationship with your husband or sister is a lived experience. The rules and laws of astrology — what does the 5th house represent, what’s the central drive of Gemini, what does the square connote between two planets? — those impressions are sketches. Hints. Segues towards your lived experience. They are not ‘etched in stone’ absolutes anymore than the color red should only be used in one specific way in every painting that you will ever paint.

As a skeptical mystic, I constantly reconsider what I learned as a student. I’ve abandoned a lot along the way because I developed my own relationship to the Zodiac, the Sun, the Moon and the planets. The essential nature of those forces are hardwired into my mainframe.

This is the gift of living astrology — if you practice it long enough, the self is forgone for a comprehensive, full-bodied experience of the universe’s playing field. One actually lives the cosmic view instead of reading about or conceptualizing it.

Do you remember when you learned to ride a bicycle? That moment when suddenly — wow — you were in harmony with gravity and your bike went forward and you traveled the neighborhood freely. That’s what it’s like when the student of astrology comes to the place where he or she lets go of the tradition he’s aligned with and begins to simply experience astrology.

We are Earthlings. We are living extensions of the planet Earth. Our planet is in an intricate relationship with each of its creations-occupants, as well as a reciprocal exchange of energies with the Sun and the Moon. And the Sun and the Moon are in a relationship to the other planets in the solar system. Our Sun in rapport with other Suns in other galaxies.

This is the foundation of astrology. Astrology is a participatory exchange within the dispersion and oscillation of light — and light’s life-giving properties — throughout the solar system.

The Earth receives light from the Sun and transmutes that light into various forms of food, various forms of life that thrive on the planet. Earthlings contribute back into this process too — this reciprocal exchange.

Ultimately, astrology has nothing to do with discovering if a Leo is a good match with a Pisces. I understand the charm of typologies, but all of the signs of the Zodiac are in harmony with one other, in the same way that your lungs and your heart work in a precise complimentary manner.

I offer these insights at the start of this collection to suggest the ground from which the essays were nourished. Too, a cross-section of my astrological knowledge would reveal many years of working one on one with clients — and the delineation and experiencing of thousands of birth charts. There is no other way to learn astrology — one brings her lived experience into the exchange with her client. And a transmission occurs.

The essays in this first volume are taken from my website AstroInquiry.com. Over the past ten years these essays proved the most popular with readers. Several of the essays step outside the parameter of astrology and involve, more specifically poetic or pop cultural themes.

My approach to astrology has been greatly influenced and informed by the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, Chogyam Trungpa, Tarthang Tulku, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Maria Lousie von Franz.

When asked by students which astrological material they should explore I suggest he or she book a session to inquire into the components of her unique starcraft and how it is fashioned — its gifts and affinities.

Many different astrologers have unearthed many different schools and techniques and the most extraordinary of those astrologers — regardless his or her tradition — lived astrology as an experience and made the art her own.

You can too.
 
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