Traditional Astrology: A Manifesto

I'm just not feeling it.

Oct 22, 2024

You’re reading WOODRUFF. I cover the convergence of pop culture, psychology, and astrology. Join my entourage of subscribers—you’ve been missed.

ABOUT THREE YEARS AGO, I started using social media as it had been using me. That is, I no longer engaged with it as a living person. I was more like a bot that swoops into Facebook or BlueSky or whatever and—like throwing spaghetti against a wall—drops a promo post into the feed—and then hopes for the best as I flee back into the ‘real’ world.

But the other day on Facebook, a post from a woman in a quandary caught my eye, and despite my vow to no longer ‘engage’ on SM, I took the bait and responded.

Here’s a look at how that debacle unfolded. She had posted this placard:

ME: “Let go of all of these nonsensical rules about this or that planet or light. It's all antiquated and not relative to humans living in a complex century like ours. There is indeed resonance between certain signs and planets, but this shit about 'dignities' and 'falls' and 'cursed degrees' is ultimately harmful. Just do astrology without the guardrails. Learn to wing it and trust your knowledge and its relationship to your intuition.”
IRRITATED FACEBOOK USER’S RESPONSE: “I see, so just rely on your own intuition, discounting centuries of observations and learning? Well, you do you. For me, I like standing on the shoulders of ancestral (of choice) astrologers. My ability to modernize my knowledge depends on the ancient ones.
ME: “Whatever. I’m not interested in cults.”
SECOND IRRITATED FACEBOOK USER: “Your critical and aggressive approach does more harm to astrology than the traditional scheme it proposes. Accept or reject It [sic], nothing more. Same as religion.”
ME: “I don’t follow any religions, so that’s a sterile analogy. I don’t believe in things you’re required to believe in.”
SECOND IRRITATED FACEBOOK USER: “Of course, your fire choleric temperameent [sic] won’t allow it, what do you do with your aggressive wording?
Finally, astrologer Maurice Fernandez stepped into the fray and wrote:
“Dignities are controversial in astrology. Not just for the Moon but all planets…I mean, fiery expressive Mars exalted in slow and steady Capricorn? My sense is that the problem lies in the terms, that an exalted planet is expected to be ‘trouble free’ while when in Fall it brings failure and misery. This can easily be disproved , but the myth is ingrained. If we rebrand them perhaps as ‘heightened’ or ‘intensified’ versus ‘loosened’.. it can make more sense. Think about the nurturing qualities of the Moon in a resource-rich sign of Taurus; we drink the milk of our mother (Cancer) and the milk of cows (Taurus). Mercury can be intensified in Virgo and loosened in Pisces. My 2 cents.”
Me: “This is very good, Maurice. Half of my lights and planets are in detriments and falls, and my life has been—and is—rich and rewarding. Jeffrey Dahmer’s chart was filled with exaltations and dignities—and he ate people.”

Mic drop. At that point, when I last checked, the thread went crickets.

Over the years I’ve practiced astrology, I’ve remained muted about the traditional/Hellenistic school and its online hegemony. I’ve dropped occasional comments in my writing here on SS, hinting that I’m divorced from its system when it comes to natal interpretations. For horary, those erstwhile rules often work like a charm. However, finding a lost wallet differs from the complex web of impressions comprising the human psyche.

My friend, the late great rogue astrologer David Roell, once told me,

“I wish the Hellenists would read charts rather than discuss theory. It would not surprise me if the quest for really ancient Hellenistic astrology accidentally uncovered the fact that the late medieval astrologers were really what we wanted all along.”

I’m betting the incomparable librarian and Medieval astrologer Jenn Zahrt will appreciate David’s insight.

Here’s the thing. When you’re intimidated by a horoscope and admit it, who isn’t? You can do one of two things: release your sense of control and allow the chart’s mandala to interact with your knowledge and intuition—to touch and blend with the imaginal realm that astrology, over time, seasons. Or you can fall back on the scores of traditional astrological guidelines and rules that must be applied to a chart before announcing your ‘judgment’—sort of like writing a string of computer code.

This assumes that the person you read the chart for is as one-dimensional as all those encrusted rules and theories. This also confirms that many traditional astrologers can’t delineate a chart from a humanistic angle and have little command of the psychological lexicon—a necessity for an astrologer to confer with a client meaningfully.

A while back, I booked sessions with several different traditional astrologers, all of them ‘established’ names in the field (that 90% of you would recognize instantly). How were the experiences? Uhm, ‘uninspired.’ These were the driest, most leaden consultations I’d ever experienced. And they were expensive.

The one astrologer who employed Zodiacal releasing not only confounded me but wasted a chunk of our time consulting tables that, in the end, confused me more and—after the fact—held no relevance as to the various phases of life I was destined to experience going forward, as each of these planetary rubrics ‘released’ (I’m paraphrasing). Oh, brother.

I’m a magpie astrologer. My inspiration comes from both obvious and untraceable influences. Some astrological, some philosophical, and some metaphysical. Some are from pop culture, and some are from deep diving into the origins of consciousness.

I’ve been in some form of therapy or counseling or engaged inquiry since I was in my mid-twenties. You can’t beat paying a therapist or counselor to sustain the temenos1 created during a session. Friends shouldn’t be made to bring their attention and focus it forward like a good shrink can. Those experiences greatly influenced my style of consultation.

45+ years of work with clients have shown me the power of dialectic (with the chart as the touchstone between us). More than listening to my monologue about their chart, most of my clients appreciate the opportunity I provide to invite Mercury—astrology’s overseer—directly into our exchange. Mercury buzzes, spins, backtracks, unearths memories, reevaluates, and crafts the revelations into a meaningful tapestry.

But this is me. As that irate person on Facebook responded, “You do you.”

And, yes, right! This is the only way an astrologer can claim authority over the art. But art is an unnerving realm to navigate because, to be an original conduit, one eventually hops over the safety of the guardrails that trained them and goes where others have not ventured. This is how something fresh, original, and pristine is created within the moment of astrology—for both the astrologer and the client.

Love,

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?

Traditional Astrology: A Manifesto

I'm just not feeling it.

Opening image: Satan descends upon Earth, engraving. Gustave Doré (1832 - 1883)

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?