Astrology’s Archaic Truths
by Jeff Jawer
First Published in The Mountain Astrologer, July 1995
One of the challenges for astrologers is to find a meaningful place for
astrology in our modern world. In this so-called scientific society of
ours, astrology often looks like a rube, an ignorant fool left over from
some bygone era. Astrology may seem quaint as it attempts to describe
reality through a world view that has been surpassed by the scientific
discoveries of the past 500 years. Our Ptolemeic earth-centered view of
the universe is seen as naive at its best and downright charlatanism at
its worst. But, once we step back from the dogmas of modern science we
can rediscover astrology's truths, truths which are essential to the
healing of our shattered world.
The expression "shattered world" may seem melodramatic, but what else
can we say about our civilization? We have broken with nature, we have
synthesized and automated, sped up and electrified ourselves out contact
with the planet on which we live. It is not simply our technology that
has contributed to this, but the underlying philosophy of science which
has wrenched us out of our senses into a reality far different from our
direct experiences.
In the book Mystical Astrology According to Ibn 'Arabi (Beshara
Publications), the author, Titus Burckhardt, reminds us of the price we
have paid for Copernicus's heliocentric revolution. By placing the Sun
in the center of the solar system, where none of us lives, our very
sense of reality has been dealt a damaging blow. We are taught that what
each of us experiences daily is not true. We are told that we are not
the center of the solar system, but simply the inhabitants of a
relatively small and unimportant planet. A result of this statement is
that we have become alienated from our senses. We see the Sun move
through the Zodiac throughout the year, we feel ourselves to be on a
solid, stationary planet, but that is not the truth. Science conflicts
with experience and we pay dearly for this. We become alienated from our
senses, which we can no longer trust, and we are distanced from our
bodies as they become unreliable sources of information. It is this
disassociation (or cognitive dissonance in psychological terms) which is
crazy-making. No wonder we are destroying species and landscape at an
extraordinary rate. No wonder we use our technological riches to push us
to work harder and harder with less and less satisfaction. There can be
no sanity when our senses lie to us.
Each day we see the Sun, Moon, and planets rise in the east and set in
the west, but we've learned that this is not the truth. The truth is
that the earth is rotating on its axis, creating the illusion of rising
and setting bodies. Once again, science shows us an objective truth
which goes against the grain of our own observations. These scientific
truths are very useful in understanding Our universe, but we as
individuals, and humanity as a whole, are left with less power. Power
comes from trusting ourselves, from having a grip on reality and being
able to move through different layers of experience with confidence in
our sensory equipment. When truth comes from external authorities,
scientific or otherwise, and does not coincide with our internal
experience, we lose power in our lives.
Astrology, then, is a means by which we can reclaim our power. (Of
course, as I've written elsewhere for TMA, astrology has its
disempowering elements as well.) It is a system that reflects the
reality of our direct experiences. It tells us that our senses are not
damaged and that there is an order in the universe which corresponds
with an order in us. It is a human science, one that places us squarely
in the middle of our lives re-establishing the sense of belonging, which
is essential to our mental health. The vast, unknown cosmos is brought
into order, the earth having its proper place in the center. This is
what healing is all about.
Reclaiming the power of subjective human experience from objective
scientism will promote a return to balance. Astrology is not some silly
old thing, a superstition or pseudo-science, but a real science of human
experience. Its symbols leave room for the vagaries of human behavior,
that which can never be reduced to simple and absolute formulae. This
very humanness of astrology threatens the bloodless, soulless order so
treasured by conventional science. If astrology is true then no
experiment can ever be perfectly replicated because the skies are always
changing. Such a dynamic universe does not easily fit into today's
scientific order. The very notion of cycles is something so basic to
human experience, but not part of general scientific education.
The point here is not to make a devil out of science, but simply to
remind us that astrology stands on its own merits, and that trying too
hard to fit it into the present scientific model is not necessarily a
great idea. It is not astrology that has to change to fit into the
modern world, but rather the modern world which can benefit by including
astrological ideas in its reality. Returning us to the center of our
universe brings cohesiveness to the psyche, soothes the soul, and
produces an order of a higher kind. Alienated humans, like miscalibrated
instruments, will make distorted measurements. Alignment of the inner
and outer selves, the objective and subjective, is not only possible,
but is necessary for our evolution and survival. If you think it
contradictory to include two such different perspectives, I'll remind
you of what the great poet Walt Whitman once said: "Contradict myself,
of course I do. I contain multitudes." Whitman was a Gemini.