The more I know about my own astrological chart, the more the patterns in my life seem to make sense. These are the kind of patterns which I keep finding in repeating motifs. For me some of these questions have been: Why do the people in my life tend to have addiction issues? Why has being a parent been a painful experience? Why do I not grieve? How did I turn out to be so conservative? Why am I more androgynous than the cultural standard for women? Why do people either like me, or despise/fear/loathe me? These question concern issues in my life that I spent many years trying to change (without much success) and/or trying to come to terms with.
All this might be explained by the amalgam of my genetic constitution, my childhood experience, and my cultural background, but astrology offers a much more concise explanation requiring far fewer variables and extemporaneous circumstances. Under the modern rational model, these patterns should be mutable and subject to change at will, but under an astrological model, these are issues reflecting immutable energy patterns and crises in consciousness in which my only real choice is the attitude with which I turn to meet my destiny. In its own way, an astrological explanation is quite parsimonious. Astrology wraps up the "stuff of life" that a more traditional viewpoint would label as random garbage and puts it in context. My problems, which previously were just the flotsum of life, are now true learning experiences. I use astrology to understand my life's meaning. In this incarnation, I get to be kind of an ascetic philosopher. I think if I learn to love that deeply repressed Dionysian part of me, I can find meaning in my relationship to the addicts and alcoholics in my family. I'm working on that instead of resenting my reality. Things pertaining to death, recycling, transformation, and other people's money are natural elements to me. I was hoping that by the time I was 40 my face would quit breaking out, but hey, if that is the worst Pluto has to offer, I can live with it. I have learned that power struggles over and with children can be avoided if I surrender my personal need for control, and just trust that life will work itself out.
I don't believe that the suns position in the winter sky caused me to spend my life in the halls of a university between long voyages to distant shores. I don't think the moon-uranus conjunction caused my mother to be so electric and my own home so eccentric. I don't think that the taurus rising motivated me to be a landlady or gardener. I don't think that the Chiron on the midheaven made me an environmentalist. Instead I think the patterns in my life correspond acausally to the same symbolic patterns that were up there in that starry winter sky. I fit those patterns well, but who can say just why?
What are the patterns in your own life? Probably the easiest way to understand your chart is to study the associated mythology. This is predicated on having a good chart based on an accurate time. If you don't have an astrological chart, you can probably talk me into producing one for you. Just ask. I will be most happy to consult with anyone about mythological patterns in their life in return for the learning opportunity. I am listing links to web information on mythology that might spark your imagination or give you a new insight. Yes, the format is rather deep, but any other format would be limiting. Astrology requires insightful interpretation.
My contentions clearly relate to an issue raised by Karl Popper, who wanted to differentiate "real-science" from "pseudo-science". Things like psycho-analytic theories, the Marxist theory of history, and astrology give people ways to interpret experience that aren't necessarily valid, but which allow interpretation and apparent verification for the observer. His point is important. We can't ever prove that something is correct, we can only refute it by showing where and when it isn't very predictive. So for me to say I believe in astrology because it is consistent with my life, is truly not totally scientific. I would be more objective if I had devised a test to see under what conditions does astrology make false predictions. The easiest way to gather a pile of false predictions is to send away for a computer generated chart interpretation. I have a file full of predictive failures about me. My considered conclusion is not that astrology has been falsified by them, but rather, insensitive interpretation of the astrological factors doesn't work. I end up falling back on the philosophically weak statement, "Well, astrology works for me!" As, you might guess, this is a philosophical problem that I like to think about and I plan to write more about.
Sun-sign pop-astrology is one of the worst things that ever happened to the scientific understanding of astrological effects. We don't just live by our sun-sign, it's so much more complicated than that. You sun sign only explains a small part of the potentials in your life, and for most people it will not be the most important factor in the chart. No wonder many people have a hard time believing in astrology, when they have only experienced a limited and distorted experience of its potential.
Finally, if you don't believe in something simply because you have been told you shouldn't, you are not being very scientific. I say put it to the test. Get the data and analyze it. If you find that astrology doesn't explain patterns in your life, then, indeed, you shouldn't believe in it!
Most of the references below are from Laurel Bowman's myth pages. Thanks, Laurel!
SUN Apollo Images Texts Artemis Images Texts Athene Images Texts
MOON Kali Info Gaia Info Demeter Image Text
MERCURY Hermes Images Texts Mercury in Culture
VENUS Aphrodite Image Text Hephastios Images Texts
SATURN Saturn Links Kronos Texts
JUPITER Zeus Succession Myths Images Texts
Jupiter Jehovian System Myths
URANUS Links Prometheus An Image Text