Charles Harvey - Astrology - The only introduction you’ll ever need

Some people are natural self-analysers. Others will benefit immeasurably from the experience of psychotherapy where someone else analyses and, over time, teaches you to self-analyse. Add astrology to this activity and you suddenly have a much more powerful experience of understanding what is going on. In this way, astrological insights can help us work through negative conditionings and to see that when it comes to forming our inner attitude, there is a choice.

When the astrologer moves from giving descriptions of personality to relating energies in the chart to the actual personal experience of the individual, the astrologer is also acting as a counsellor. Increasingly now, astrologers undergo some kind of therapeutic training which enables them to listen effectively and to manage the emotional responses of clients, rather than just impart information. If you wish to work more deeply with astrology as a tool for self-awareness, it is important that the astrologer you choose has experience and training in counselling. The Faculty of Astrological Studies offers a two-year Counselling Within Astrology course, and the Centre for Psychological Astrology offers a broad base of knowledge in psychological theory and requires students to be in individual therapy for a minimum of one year.

Some astrologers are beginning to work with astrology as a framework for longer-term therapeutic work. C.G. Jung’s daughter, Frau Gret Baumann Jung, was a great pioneer of this approach. Each of her therapeutic clients was given an introductory book on astrology and asked to study the basic principles so as to be able to work within that archetypal framework. She believed that the value of inner work was greatly enhanced by astrological symbolism, and that it encouraged within her clients both a sense of responsibility and a desire for self-knowledge. Astrology’s ability to enrich the meaning-making process makes it a central tool for all people who seek a greater experience of freedom in their lives.

What will happen to us? What is our destiny? Astrology can never answer these questions in absolute terms. The astrologer looking at a chart cannot see ‘events’ and people written on it. The astrologer sees in a chart combinations of energy and patterns of ideas which experience has shown are likely to manifest in certain ways. By studying the chart it is possible to see the kinds of issues that are likely to arise in a person’s life. If the astrologer knows how an individual has responded to certain kinds of patterns in the past, and also knows the current circumstances, it becomes more possible to make reasonably reliable inferences about the way that things may develop.

By the same measure, knowing the kind of energies which will be to the fore at a particular time, the astrologer will suggest ways in which they can be most constructively be directed. Thus planetary patterns which an astrology textbook might associate with the breakdown of a relationship may in practice express themselves as a ‘breakthrough’ which transforms rather than breaks the existing relationship. Ultimately, how the chart expresses itself is not preordained but a matter of individual consciousness and choice.

Almost everyone who decides to consult an astrologer wants to know what will happen to them. But destiny is, in fact, simply another expression of character. To the astrologer, they are one and the same thing. To take a simple example, a person with the planet Jupiter prominent will tend to be optimistic. Because he is cheerful, people will like him. This jovial type will tend to see the opportunities in any situation and people will be inclined to help. Thus he appears to be ‘lucky’ as ever-new vistas open up for him. By contrast, someone with Saturn in a dominant position at birth will be inclined to pessimism. The saturnine type will focus on life’s problems and may spend much time and energy defending against ‘what may happen’ and in becoming self-reliant. In the longer run, the eternal optimist may start too many ventures and finish none of them, take too many risks and waste his resources. By contrast, Saturn’s disciple, who has carefully put aside resources for a rainy day, and who has finished each project as it comes along, may well end up as a person of substance who has made a real tangible difference to the world. In each case, however, character has led the way and an astrologer merely reads the signatures of character and its implications.

Astrology cannot ‘foretell the future’ as such. It can, however, look at the qualities of a particular period and, like a weather forecaster, make intelligent conjectures about the kind of issues we are likely to be facing.

Relationships make up a crucially important part of most people’s lives. Indeed, the world’s literature, film and media industry, not to mention the work of psychotherapists and psychiatrists, would shrivel to almost nothing without the challenge of human relationships. So, not surprisingly, there is a whole branch of astrology devoted to the study of the way people are likely to get on with each other.

Known as ‘synastry’ (literally ‘combined stars’), this branch of astrology provides a powerful means of studying the dynamics which are created in all kinds of relationships, be it between lovers, teacher and pupil, business partners, parent and child, and so on.

By comparing and combining the different birth charts, the astrologer can provide valuable insights about the way in which people are likely to get on with each other and the kind of dynamics which will probably emerge in the relationship.

This type of comparison goes way beyond the grossly over-simplified sun sign ‘compatibility’ charts, beloved of popular articles on astrology. Whilst different sun signs can be more or less compatible with one another, the comparison of charts is much more complex. In fact, a compatibility of moon signs is usually much more important than sun signs for a long-term relationship of any kind. Likewise, the idea that different astrological types will have different kinds of relationships is essentially sound.

Whether it is our relationship with a lover or a colleague, with our parents, our brothers and sisters, with friends, employers, fellow workers, our own children or with society at large, astrology will have something to say. The principles of astrology can be used to understand the kinds of things we will seek in a relationship and the kinds of issues that relationships are likely to bring up for us.

We can also learn why different relationships bring out different sides of our personality, why we feel upbeat and optimistic with some people and down or awkward with others.

Astrology can be an invaluable adjunct to helping decide the kind of work or career someone might find most suitable and rewarding in relation to their innate skills. The birth chart cannot say that someone will be a musician or a social worker or an accountant. It can, however, indicate that, say, music or the care of others, or the effective and creative handling of resources, are likely to be things they will enjoy and at which they have a good chance of finding personal satisfaction and success.

Equally, the birth chart can indicate areas of work and finances which are more likely to bring problems or upsets. The individual in whose chart Uranus features strongly may find it difficult to work in a subservient position and find themselves constantly at loggerheads with authority figures. The strongly Neptunian type may be drawn by their deeply compassionate nature to helping others, yet find it difficult to look after themselves and protect their own boundaries and resources.