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

Astrology is an algebra, a symbolic language which enables us to read the contract, understand the plot, and imaginatively view that unique picture on the packet of seeds which is our life. By engaging imaginatively with the gods within us – the miniature cosmos – we are better equipped to inform the ‘matter’ of our lives, to grow up and blossom in the way that is best for us. In an essay entitled ‘Civilization’, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) expressed a sentiment very close to the idea that astrology encourages. He wrote:

Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labour, to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods themselves. That is the way we are strong, by borrowing the might of the elements … If we can thus ride in Olympian chariots by putting our works in the path of the celestial circuits, we can harness also evil agents, the powers of darkness, and force them to serve against their will the ends of wisdom and virtue.

Time is the flowing image of the Eternal.

PLATO, TIMAEUS

Time and space define the field of our existence. They constitute the dual matrix of our astrological calculations. Astrology’s perennial questions are: When and where were you born? When and where did this happen? Paradoxically, the astrologer plots out a picture of the cosmos for a particular moment of space-time in order to study the pattern of the primary and eternal archetypes for the moment.

One image that conveys a sense of the relationship between the temporal and the eternal is the phenomenon of a video tape. The tape contains the whole picture, complete with soundtrack, special effects, the lot. It is all there. But in order to experience the video, we have to unfold it frame by frame at a particular speed. Time is the medium through which we experience the unfolding of what is already all there. The big difference is that the cosmic video (i.e. your life) is unfolding potentialities for each moment. It is for us to express and experience those potentialities. The more conscious and aware we become, the deeper and richer and wiser will be that expression. So yes, there is a strong element of predetermination about this model. But no, it is only the music that is predetermined. How we dance to it, in and through time, is up to us.

The birth chart has been described as ‘a map of the soul’, so a grasp of the concept of soul, or anima , is crucial to understanding the position of astrology. Soul is often used interchangeably with spirit; in fact, the two are quite different concepts. To put it simply, spirit is undifferentiated essence, that eternal ‘god-stuff’ which substands the whole world and everything in it. Opposite to spirit is matter, the temporal stuff which is ‘informed’ by spirit and which we see coming in and out of manifestation throughout our lives, e.g. bodies are born and die, forests grow and then burn down (but yes, as Einstein told us, matter is indestructible – it just changes form). But between spirit and matter there is soul, that mysterious principle that brings something to life and personally animates it. The soul is the guardian and channel of our individuality. As already mentioned, the late astrologer John Addey referred to the horoscope as the ‘soul’s contract with time and space’, which emphasizes the uniqueness of each individual life, and that uniqueness is bestowed through soul. The poet Keats spoke of our life on earth as ‘the vale of soul-making’, which illuminates and makes realizable the precious potential with which we are each born. The birth chart, for those who learn to read it, is an encoded image of every detail of that specific potential. And it is the soul that brings it to life.

The whole world is en-souled; that is, it is alive, growing, dying, and being reborn, all creatures within it being in relationship with and influencing each other. But man is en-souled in a quite unique way, for via the soul he is endowed with the powers and virtues of the whole cosmos. Through soul man forges an individual relationship with the gods and makes a journey through life discovering what he is. Through soul, man has choice and becomes the protagonist in his life drama.

The planetary gods are the main actors in the great mythological stories and in our own life dramas as well. They are the characters that keep the energy and the plot moving along. Each god or planet has distinct attributes, needs and personality. Every chart contains all of them, although the particular way that they appear in each chart is what reveals our uniqueness. The planets of our solar system, with the Sun at the centre, are Mercury, Venus, our Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Between Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid belt which includes hundreds of smaller bodies. In addition, there are various other bodies, such as Chiron between Saturn and Uranus, and the Centaurs which circle out beyond Pluto. Some of the planets, such as Earth, also have Moons.

Down the ages the planetary principles (which in Plato’s view were ‘the first born thoughts of God’) have collected many different identities. They are:

the gods of the different world mythologies;

the Forms or Ideas of Plato which in-form matter and consciousness;

the Archetypes of contemporary psychology, the primary templates that shape our psychological growth and relationship with the world;

the chrono-crators (time-markers) of all historical, philosophical, religious and political movements which inspire, shape and dissolve cultures, nations and empires;

the hopes and fears of business and economic cycles;

the movers and changers of the ‘flavours of the month’ and what is ‘in vogue’ in the world of art, fashion and the media.

Whether we call them gods or archetypes, forms or ideas, these principles are the fundamental formal causes which weave the tapestry of living Creation out of the passive potentiality of matter. They are the diverse instruments which sound out the cosmic symphony of life in all its harmonic and dissonant subtleties. And they are in us. And the more we come to know the gods in ourselves through understanding our astrological make-up, the more can we make sense of the hopes, the fears, the themes and the events of our life story.

Astrology has no unique claim to understanding these universal formative principles. The patterns of these same ideas are expressed and explored in all the mythologies and theogonies of the world, in fairy tales and dreams. Myth and astrology share the same early origin. Myths express the nature of these archetypal forces in story; astrology maps out their ordered cycles in time. Studying the mythologies of ancient cultures will enrich your understanding of the planetary gods.

Equally, these principles are the basis of all forms of divination by which the underlying processes and purposes of the Cosmos may be approached and glimpsed, such as in numerology, the I Ching, the kabbala and the tarot. Where astrology is unique, however, is in its identification of the way in which the movements of the bodies of the physical solar system mirror, or plot out as on a huge cosmic clock, the moment-to-moment processes of life. Armed with this fundamental insight, astrologers over the centuries have been able to develop a remarkable science and art for studying the creative potential of any moment of space-time, be it past, present or future.

Plato tells us in the Timaeus that the planets are ‘the instruments of Time’, the heavenly bodies whose circular journey around the solar system unfolds the workings of fate like ‘clockwork’. A cycle is defined as ‘a series that repeats itself’, indicating the sense of completeness, as in a circle, as well as a sense of infinity, for once completed the cycle repeats again and again. However, when a planetary cycle repeats, it will never be the same again in relation to the other planetary cycles. Hence, we have a continual unfoldment of cyclical patterns which together weave the loom of Creation.