Down With Robots: Self-understanding, Creation & Growth With Astrology
In my experience, people learning astrology have a suspicion somewhere below their skin that tells them that it’s useful for self-transformation. What they find when beginning their study, though, might not seem to support that suspicion.
What I’d really like to say is that people are not as stupid as most of the teaching of astrology seems to assume they are.
While astrology employs many lists of data, those data are not the heart of astrology. Those coming to astrology bring their hearts usually before their heads (if you wanted simply to be seen as smart because you can master teachings, astrology with its entrenched & widespread misunderstanding by the culture won’t likely be your first choice), and such a study is a great way to work with that heart and understand what it means to have and create meaning in our lives, a fundamental issue for any human seeking self-knowledge.
Again: The heart of astrology is not sets of data. Every astrologer needs to have learned the lists of data, but not at the expense of creative thinking and the urge to connect with soul that drives so many of its students to find it.
People are not ever truly convinced at the soul level that they’re the robots that traditional astrological teaching and analysis with its emphasis on clear-cut delineations of planets in signs and houses, etc., indicates, and we should stop trying to believe that we are.
I know in my bones that no one truly wants to believe that he or she is a robot (and that a transiting square from Saturn to a planet in the 1st or any other nonsense interpretation will result in the development of arthritis), but the alternatives can be hard to identify and approach.
Over the last few days, a vision of my work, what I’ve been developing for over three years, has begun taking shape. I should say a clearer assignation of words to the feeling of inspiration I have when doing astrology either as a counselor for deep transformation or initiating students to the evolutionary, growth- and choice-oriented approach I practice.
The bottom line of that vision is my conviction that not only is no human a robot, but that anyone can learn to use astrology to understand and change his or her life. If you accept astrology as something that tells you what and who you are, you embrace a view that’s based in an absolute lack of imagination. If you buy into it, you will be confronted with the option of numbing yourself by attempting to fit yourself into little boxes created by organizing lists of data that were never meant to take into account your complexity - your humanity.
Personally, I love how truly complex you are. No matter how you see yourself, I can’t see you as a robot…because you’re not. You’re just not. You’re not the product of lists of data, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t make it true. No one can.
My vision of this work centers on the fact that anyone wishing to understand his- or herself better can learn a rudimentary approach to astrology that will serve as a profound tool for discovery and understanding of self. Beginning to learn the language of astrology by getting a grounding in the grammar of it.
No matter who you are, if you’re willing to look at your life in order to make it more reflective of your divine complexity, your magnificent conflictedness because you’re spirit temporarily tied to matter here on this wet, beautiful orb, you can learn to use astrology to transform your life.
I spoke with an old friend today on the telephone, someone who always inspires me to bring forth my vision…whichever one I’m harboring at any time we speak. She has this precious effect on me for which I’m perennially grateful. I told her about some of the stuff I’m working on these days, and she reminded me that people are hungry for meaning. And the only way to have meaning, I chimed in as I remembered my work with Albert Camus’ version of existentialism for my college thesis, is to create it.
You have the choice each day to create something, to be creative. Whether its art, music or literature or social change, an easing of suffering or a more ordered or beautiful world, you have this choice each and every day. The purpose and the meaning you have in your life you must create. Camus makes the statement that the only serious philosophical problem is that of suicide: So many of us can’t find a meaning to this whole life thing, and all we have to do is understand that up to us to have meaning at all.
(One reason I like this format is that when I stray from a point or dive into what seems like a tangent, you’re saying to yourselves, “Well it IS only a blog.” And you probably already have dreadfully short attention spans, polished blue hot dogs in cellophane shoes.)
My lord, finally a closing: No, no closing.
(It’s just a blog, after all.)
http://www.tdjacobs.com
One Response to “Down With Robots: Self-understanding, Creation & Growth With Astrology”
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July 22, 2007 By Tom Jacobs
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Yup, deinately on side here. The beauty of astrology is the infinite possibilities it awakens one to, of life, of existence, of symbols that have personal meaning. The use of another ‘language.’
Something I am always thinking of these days…personal symbols, collective symbols… Thanks for your work
-Chrispito