| Times have changed! How do astrologers think today? | | | | vertical thinking. |
| Not much differently than they've always thought. But | | | | Horizontal thinking uses the concept of cause and |
| they could be better understood. Learn more .... | | | | effect and relies on a linear relationship between |
| Russians think of their country as Aquarius ruled, | | | | events in time and space, i.e., first this happened and |
| according to Johnson's "Russia List". Johnson's List is a | | | | then this happened as a result. The ineffective |
| daily e-mail newsletter with information and analysis | | | | conclusion of World War I caused World War II. |
| about contemporary Russia from a wide range of | | | | Here's a day-to-day example. I'm drinking this diet coke |
| sources. Maybe this is why they are so open to | | | | because I am thirsty. (I got thirsty and that caused me |
| astrology. Aquarius is also the ruling sign for | | | | to drink the diet coke.) Or I'm drinking this diet coke |
| astrologers. | | | | because my grandmother introduced me to them on |
| I was reading about some predictions Russian | | | | hot afternoons in Texas when I was a kid. Therefore, I |
| astrologers were making for the year 2002 in an | | | | always drink cokes when it's hot. You see, hot |
| article written at that time by Kevin O'Flynn for | | | | weather causes me to drink diet coke. |
| Johnson's "Russia List" entitled "Stars Aren't Smiling | | | | Vertical thinking is different. It associates events by a |
| Down on 2002". | | | | meaningful relationship which is sometimes subjective |
| O'Flynn, who quotes Russian astrologers like Yury | | | | (the meaning is in the reality of the beholder) and |
| Longo, Sergei Bezborodny and Alexander Zarayev, | | | | sometimes by a system which describes invisible but |
| doesn't seem to put much store in astrological | | | | not imaginary patterns and relationships such as music |
| predictions himself but he notes that "even several | | | | or astrology. |
| current and former Russian and U.S. leaders and their | | | | For example, it might also be that the reason I'm |
| wives have shown an interest in astrological | | | | drinking this diet coke today is because something |
| predictions". I don't know what Russian leaders he's | | | | triggers me subconsciously to reach for one every |
| referring to but it is thought that President and Mrs. | | | | time I run my tongue over the roof of my mouth in a |
| Reagan consulted astrologers like Sydney Omar, | | | | certain way I've been doing since childhood. This |
| Jeanne Dixon and Joan Quigley. | | | | subconscious conditioning is personal and subjective |
| The comment that caught my attention in the article, | | | | but rubbing my tongue over the roof of my mouth |
| however, was this: | | | | does not "cause" me to drink diet cokes. |
| "Perhaps the most pessimistic of the astrologers doing | | | | Or I may do this because it's 3:20 pm and that's when I |
| the rounds in the Russian media was Alexander | | | | used to wake up from my polio-prevention nap as a |
| Zarayev. He predicted in "Argumenty i Fakty" that | | | | kid and be handed a cold diet coke by my |
| Russia would see a bumpy ride between February 28 | | | | grandmother on the way to the swimming pool. |
| and March 12 and an even worse time after July 27, | | | | Something "reminds me" around 3:20 every afternoon |
| with problems in the Middle East and other hot spots. It | | | | that it's time to "reach for a diet coke". That's personal |
| will be similar to the [ruble] default in 1998," said | | | | and subjective and an association that the |
| Zarayev, who, like many astrologers, was short on | | | | subconscious mind is making but childhood naps did not |
| details [emphasis mine]. | | | | "cause" me to drink this diet coke. |
| Many writers who cover astrology interviews and | | | | Naturally when looking for vertical connections, we |
| predictions don't understand or like astrology and cover | | | | roam backwards and forwards in time. Actually in |
| it with thinly veiled ridicule. | | | | astrology, the childhood diet cokes and the adult diet |
| There is a reason astrologers are "short on details" | | | | cokes would be siblings. The parent is something else |
| and that is what I would like to explain in this article. It | | | | entirely and that something is the mother lode. |
| has to do with the way our predictions are made and | | | | There is a third element in vertical thinking and that is |
| the way we think. | | | | an invisible but discernible quality to a particular time |
| Astrologers don't associate events by cause and | | | | that attracts events to it by appropriateness. |
| effect. They associate them by analogy, much as | | | | Before I go too much further with this, here's a |
| poets do. | | | | day-to-day example of the "quality" of a time. Every |
| There are two reasons they use analogy. First, we are | | | | morning upon first awakening, I go for a five mile walk. |
| trying to explain things that are difficult to put into | | | | It's usually a fun and peaceful way to start the day. |
| words, like poets. The poet says,"my love is like a red, | | | | Two days ago, a dog harassed me for several |
| red rose" because it is hard to put into words what an | | | | minutes when I checked my mailbox on the way |
| intangible thing, feeling or experience like love is without | | | | home. A car almost ran me over. Then the bottom fell |
| comparing it to something tangible, of rare beauty and | | | | out of a bag of garbage I took to the trash. |
| ecstatic fragrance, like, for example, a rose. | | | | At that point, I replanned my day, figuring it was going |
| Secondly, we are arriving at our conclusions by | | | | to be the kind of energy where I should do as little as |
| connecting dots that are invisible to the untrained eye | | | | possible outside the house. The "quality" of the time |
| but which exist in our formulas and calculations and | | | | was not good. I didn't need to check my ephemeris to |
| lead us to our conclusions without physical evidence. | | | | know this (!) but perhaps there were some negative |
| This is why backing up some of our statements is | | | | aspects to the Moon for several hours that day. |
| difficult. We know two things are associated through | | | | Had I looked ahead, I might have known this but I don't |
| time and space but we ourselves are not exactly | | | | rely much on astrology for day to day matters, though |
| certain what they will look like on the manifest earth | | | | that may surprise you. This is because I feel that we |
| plane. That is why the Russian astrologer said, "It will | | | | must develop ourselves to the point that we can roll |
| be similar to the [ruble] default in 1998." | | | | with the motion of the inner planets in order to be |
| If I might qualify Zarayev's statement, which he himself | | | | effective adults. Inner planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, |
| was not allowed to do in this once-removed report of | | | | Venus and Mars dictate day-to-day matters and |
| his prediction, I would suggest that the events he | | | | changes that occur over a period of say, a few |
| describes are "similar" in gravity and scope, but also | | | | weeks.) Simple maturity dictates that we become |
| perhaps in "tone" and "texture" to the ruble default. | | | | capable in handling our daily affairs. We have had |
| Here's an example from something you may be more | | | | every inner planet circle our charts many times if we |
| familiar with. I could say that 911 was similar to the | | | | are over thirty and should be used to their energy by |
| Great Fire of London in 1666 and to the Galveston | | | | now. |
| Flood in 1900 (the deadliest natural disaster that the | | | | In times of crisis and transformation, or confusion and |
| United States has ever experienced) or the San | | | | discouragement, I study my own chart intensely and |
| Francisco earthquake in 1906 in scope because these | | | | often seek help from other astrologers and healers as |
| are all catastrophic events of almost unimaginable | | | | well. These times are ruled by the outer planets Saturn, |
| proportions. But 911 is more similar in tone to the | | | | Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Some of these planets will |
| bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the Viking raid on | | | | only visit a few houses of our charts during our entire |
| the Lindisfarne Monastery in Great Britain in 793 | | | | lives and we are unfamiliar with them to a degree that |
| because although these events were catastrophic | | | | can wreak havoc with our well planned lives. All of us |
| disasters they were also surprise attacks by foreign | | | | have parts of ourselves we do not know. |
| enemies on home soil. | | | | Important to note, however, returning to my morning |
| Here's an example of how this kind of reasoning is | | | | that got off to a bad start ... the dog did not cause the |
| carried out in event forecasting. Suppose I see that | | | | "cause" the car to almost hit me. The careless driver |
| Saturn is going to pass over your Moon in your fourth | | | | didn't "cause" the garbage bag to break. They were all |
| house. Astrology is a language. It is a way of | | | | things of a certain nature that clustered together at |
| describing energy. Now we try to come up with some | | | | one time and place. They were siblings, the parent of |
| events that are probable, given what we know about | | | | which might be of interest to an astrologer. |
| this energy. In some cases, we take the nature of the | | | | The Greeks had two words for time: chronos and |
| person we're reading for into account -- he could be | | | | kairos. Chronos refers to chronological time, the kind |
| an 80 year old man or she could be a 26 year old girl | | | | used for cause and effect reasoning. Kairos refers to |
| -- and also what we know of their character and life | | | | a quality of time being such that all events that occur |
| events from information we request ahead of time. | | | | at that time are similar in some way. |
| Here are some of the images that are suggested by | | | | When I give my classes, which are usually small |
| this combination of energy, Saturn + Moon + 4th | | | | because they are geared toward gifted infp healers |
| house: | | | | who represent only 1% of the population, I like to ask |
| -- someone goes on an archaeology dig | | | | us to consider the quality of the time that would draw |
| -- someone's parent becomes very ill | | | | exactly these 5 or 10 people together out of the billions |
| -- someone breaks their leg and is laid up in the house | | | | of people on the earth. |
| for awhile, on the ground floor for convenience | | | | This is happening randomly throughout your day as |
| -- someone gets some long lost information about their | | | | well. Why did you wind up at the grocery store in line |
| ancestors for their genealogy project | | | | with those particular people? Why did your name |
| -- someone gets locked down in the basement by | | | | come up for an IRS audit at this time? Why did you |
| mistake or on purpose | | | | cross the intersection just in time to get hit by that |
| -- someone becomes a grandparent for the first time | | | | car? |
| -- someone contacts the cemetery to find out about | | | | These are rhetorical questions but they are actually |
| burial plots | | | | quite fascinating to an astrologer who will study such |
| -- someone is digging in their backyard (in Chicago!) | | | | things intently. For example, it might surprise you to |
| and finds a dinosaur bone | | | | know that when we look at the charts of a policeman |
| -- a very old tree falls on someone's house | | | | and a criminal, they are quite similar -- certainly more |
| As a matter of fact, if you can "connect the dots" and | | | | alike than the charts of policeman and a pianist. The |
| have a feel for what it is these items could have in | | | | same applies to victims and perpetrators of accidents, |
| common, you are in line to be a good astrologer. | | | | rapes, surgeries, etc. Slowly a pattern reveals itself. |
| I'll help you. | | | | It is the kairos time in your astrology chart that is |
| Saturn = something or someone very old, buried, long | | | | analyzed for information about your character which |
| forgotten | | | | will determine your fate or what amounts to fate. |
| Moon = long ago and far away, infantile, motherish | | | | "Character is fate." An excellent book on this topic is |
| 4th house = ancestors, deeply hidden, emotionally | | | | "The Challenge of Fate" by Thorwald Dethlefsen, an |
| meaningful | | | | extremely influential German metaphysician whose |
| We use intuitive thinking to interpret information | | | | books are not always available in English translation. |
| revealed by the numbers in our astrological calculations. | | | | Another phrase we use is this. "Your life is your birth |
| You might also compare this to the way a doctor | | | | writ large." The moment of your birth contains the |
| reads an x-ray. The x-ray shows a picture of | | | | energy which you will smear, so to speak, or spread |
| something but it really doesn't mean anything until | | | | across 60 to 90 years of time on the planet. Its flavor |
| someone who is trained to interpret x-ray pictures | | | | will trickle down over and through everything you do, |
| looks at it and tells you. | | | | creating ribbons of texture and pattern, making |
| When I try to help my astrology students develop their | | | | everything you do similar or familiar in some secret, |
| intuition, we do "drills" like this. I ask, "If you were a | | | | subtle way. If only you had eyes to see. It is easier to |
| flower, what kind would you be?" Then I ask, "If that | | | | discern this in someone besides yourself. |
| person over there were a flower, what kind would s | | | | It is even possible to see that the manner of your |
| he be?" Or a color. Or a piece of music. Or a body of | | | | physical birth is repeated time and time again across |
| water. My students get irritated with this sometimes, | | | | the length of your life in the particular outer events that |
| but it's like practicing scales (etudes) on the piano It is | | | | occur or cluster around your energy. It takes training to |
| building right brain or intuitive skills. | | | | see this. Also, most people are not familiar with the |
| As we've shown, when astrologer Zarayev says | | | | details of their birth. |
| "similar to the ruble default in 1998", he is making an | | | | If you plan to study metaphysics or astrology, a good |
| analogy - "this" -- something known -- is like "that" -- | | | | thing to do is ask your mother all about the details of |
| something as yet unknown -- based on three | | | | your birth so you have the information handy. It will |
| dimensional dot-to-dot, using geometric proportions and | | | | become more and more meaningful to you as your |
| a nonlinear thinking similar to physics and even music, | | | | studies progress. |
| which can seem vague. | | | | Getting back to kairos, sometimes kairos reveals itself |
| Many people believe that astrology is like being psychic | | | | best by going backwards across linear time. Most of |
| or prophetic. As a matter of fact, astrology is more like | | | | my personal projects as an astrologer involve looking |
| physics or music and not at all like intuitive and psychic | | | | back at transits throughout history to see what |
| ability, although astrologers can use both these skills to | | | | happened under similar transits in the past and what |
| enhance the information they give you from their | | | | connections I can make. |
| calculations. However, astrologers study intensely from | | | | For example, we had a rare, once in a lifetime |
| three to five years to learn their skills and most would | | | | astronomical event a few springtimes ago, a Venus |
| be insulted if you described them as a psychic or | | | | eclipse. I looked at all the times in the past when this |
| intuitive! Many astrologers are among the brightest | | | | event occurred , all the way back to 1 CE and |
| people on earth. (Not necessasrily so with psychics or | | | | discovered two interesting things: |
| intuitives.) | | | | -- a predominance of powerful women rulers or |
| Astrology is a branch of meta-physics. Physics | | | | activists; |
| explores the creation of the universe using the left | | | | -- emphasis on the Salic Laws |
| brain. Meta-physics explores the creation of the | | | | The laws of the Salian Franks, from whence |
| universe using the right brain. | | | | eventually sprang Charlemagne, forbid women to |
| Physicists use numbers and formulae in a quantitative | | | | inherit property and this became a major issue in |
| language. Astrologers use astrological symbols and | | | | Europe during later time periods. |
| formulae in a qualitative language. Musicians use notes | | | | Something that interests astrologers, these eclipses |
| and formulae in what is commonly considered the | | | | have been occurring in the first 15 degrees of Gemini |
| most universal of all languages. | | | | and Sagittarius for 2,000 years. |
| While clients may think that astrologers do nothing but | | | | Another of my pet projects is exploring Pluto transits in |
| predictions about people's lives, waiting patiently by | | | | Sagittarius. Somewhat unnervingly, I discovered they |
| their phone for the go-ahead on a chart (!), most | | | | are low periods for western Europeans and high |
| astrologers are fascinated with the inner workings of | | | | periods for the Arab world. We just concluded one. |
| the universe, like physicists, and spend hours doing | | | | When some newscasters and historians alluded to the |
| independent research, honing their skills on projects of | | | | fact that we were finishing up on the Crusades, an |
| their own that interest them. Ask your favorite | | | | astrologer could see the very alarming reality of this |
| astrologer what s/he's researching at the moment and | | | | statement mathematically and without emotion or |
| be ready for a surprise!. | | | | personal human opiniom. |
| What am I studying right now? The effect of Pluto | | | | Was I able to predict that 911 would happen? No. But I |
| transits through Sagittarius on the Arab world, the | | | | did predict -- in a paper I read at the "Better Worlde |
| history of the Middle Ages, music theory, and | | | | Galleria" in 1995 -- that this time period would bring an |
| advanced horary astrology. | | | | increase in terrorism, religious intolerance, difficulties in |
| Reading for clients often permits us to have the time | | | | travel, immigration problems, upsurge of asthma and |
| for these other pursuits -- we do love our clients! -- | | | | noise pollution and many other things that have |
| which are usually not lucrative in and of themselves. | | | | happened. Is this vague? Yes. Is it true? Yes. Is it |
| Astrologers compare notes among themselves | | | | helpful? Yes. |
| regarding their discoveries and present findings in | | | | One astrologer, the inimitable Rob Hand, did seem to |
| professional journals, at meetings and casually among | | | | predict 911 itself. Incredibly, an editor for "Mountain |
| friends with shared interests -- just like other | | | | Astrologer", our "trade journal", chose as an illustration |
| professionals. | | | | for his article, which appeared well in advance of |
| Let's explore further the way astrologers think. As we | | | | September 11, 2001, the symbol for the planet Pluto |
| discussed, astrology is a branch of metaphysics. | | | | (which among other things symbolizes, death and |
| Metaphysicians explore the creation of the universe | | | | mass destruction) across the Twin Towers. In my |
| using the right brain and something called "vertical" | | | | opinion, Michael Lutin, "Vanity Fair" astrologer, also |
| thinking. Here's the difference between horizontal and | | | | made the prediction. |