
In my second newsletter of the new year, new decade, I would like to share another longer passage from the introduction to the book that I am writing on the nodal axis of the Moon; The Destiny Line. This passage refers to one of the most problematic areas, conceptually at least, within the field of astrology: what is the level of meaning that astrology itself rests upon? I focus on, what to me, seems obvious: that the individual person is more important than their natal chart. However, I observe that many of the ways astrology is actually utilised or related to within the astrological community, betray a series of attitudes wherein this does not seem to be the case:
“Astrology is a portal then to the potential of a human life; a window to the soul. Astrology is a symbolic language that works in service to life; in service to the journey of the individual through life. I would make a crucial philosophical distinction that clarifies my sense of the role of astrology. In Philosophy, ontology is the philosophy of being. I would say that astrology has a tendency to express an ontological categorisation error, in that it can unconsciously ascribe ontological reality to the natal chart – i.e. it can give the chart a life or being of its own. In my view this is not the case. The individual whose chart it is, they have life. The individual soul has being and therefore has an ontological priority above that of the natal chart. The natal chart is a symbolic expression of that life. Like a poem written by the pattern of the sky at the moment you were born the natal chart expresses in symbolic language potentials that you may, or may not, realize within your life. All complex philosophical language aside – the quality of the individual life, the nature of the individual soul is more important than the natal chart. The natal chart exists to serve that life.
That the individual is more important that their chart might seem obvious, yet some of the tacit assumptions we make about the power of astrology consistently undermine this distinction. There is nothing in your chart that can supersede the nature of your life. As astrologers we serve life most acutely when we listen to its complex expressions and allow the nature of life itself to shape our astrological insights.”