On the Cusp? (Shown with pink Positano)
Astrology. You may love it, you may hate it, but it began cojoined to the science of astronomy. Many people still want to believe the world is Flat. Fine—happy sailing.
In the 1490’s Copernicus (vs. church philosophy) developed his hypothesis that the earth indeed revolved around the sun. Astronomical caluculations. Routes to India, Portuguese navigation was paying big. AstroNOMY (naming the stars) was considered less effete than AstoLOGY but there again, (I rant) there was no separation of the science.
Enter Galileo early 1500’s–he stared into the heavens concerned with the revolutions of the moon. Why? Because it paid. Emperors, Popes (yes, really, in fact, the Vatican has one of the world’s largest collections of the Arcane in their library), Kings. Big money if you could interpret what influences would be most fortuitous for the events at hand. Painful execution was often the flipside, so it served the Astronomer/Astrologer well to know his craft.
Of course, somewhere between then and now, the road forked. Bad astrologers, like bad dentists, doctors, writers, and plumbers are a dime a dozen and far overpopulate the field. Instant astrology—got a computer, get a programme, pay for the text rights. Voila. Astrology is viewed along the lines of tea leaf reading as a skill. Pity, but inevitable under the circumstances. Afterall, would you want a surgeon who was self proclaimed after a year of reading about knives and anatomy? (I think I may have personal experience with a few of them, actually.)
Gone is the understanding of the intricacies of hand cast charts based on tables of houses, longitude, latitude and Greenwich Mean Time (Universal Clock, baby). With that, went the time spent learning the nuance to synthesize the true meanings of planets in houses, signs by definition, aspects, transits and all those details that take more than twenty minutes to sort out……
Used well, astrology is a timing device that can at least let you know when you are most likely to have your car stall out in the middle lane of I-95—and when, yes, that check is lost in the mail (see Mercury Retrograde).
It can foretell a time period best not to do those deals (which you AND EVERYONE ELSE, will be itching to do under the transit)–Planetary Eclipses to a personal point (ie Moon, Sun, M, Nodal Axis) can spell failure to anything embarked upon ten days before and four days after the event.
Finally, it can guide you into understanding that wonderful world that is the ‘Void of Course’ (of course) Moon. Aka, the Moon is not making a direct aspect to any other recognized planet. Everything winds up in a Limbo for short periods of time each week. That translates as ‘Spinning your Wheels’ if you are actually attempting to accomplish something… ANYTHING…. As one of my favourite Astrologers states (see Debi Kempton-Smith’s Secrets from a Stargazer’s Notebook) Red Lights/Green Lights—it’s a shorthand for when to go and when, well, better stop.
We recommend Jim Maynard’s CELESTIAL INFLUENCES calendar as a guide. Of course, it helps to have a natal chart (remember-Placidus Houses for Psychological stuff, KOCH houses for transits) and someone who can explain the glyphs to you. Alas.
So, in the interest of all this jargon, Yumyumcherry welcomes you to Star Style.
Of course, if you do wish to contact us for chart information, we avail ourselves. Please email us for further information.