Is Astrology Real?

Of course it's REAL!

Oct 03, 2023

My new book is ready: ASTROLOGY IS REAL: REVELATIONS FROM MY LIFE AS A HOROSCOPE COLUMNIST

ASTROLOGY IS REAL is a blend of a memoir, oracles for readers, and essays about the art of astrology and mythopoetic intelligence. The eclectic tone ranges from pop to literary; from lyrical to philosophical; from searing critiques of hyper-rational, machine-style thinking to a celebration of the scientific method and soulful thinking.

ASTROLOGY IS REAL is a book you don’t necessarily have to read sequentially straight through from beginning to end. You can start anywhere in the book and read here and there, trusting your intuition to find exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.

There are EXCERPTS below.

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ASTROLOGY IS A MYTHOPOETIC LANGUAGE

Should I engage in conversations with people who long ago decided that astrology is nonsense? It’s not a good use of my time. Their minds are as irrevocably and self-satisfyingly closed as an evangelical Christian Republican who already knows forever there's no such thing as human-caused climate change.

But if an open-minded person agrees to consider my rational discourse, I begin with the thoughts below.

The majority of those who deride astrology with kneejerk derision don't know that four of history's greatest astronomers were practicing astrologers: Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Tycho Brahe, and Pierre Gassendi.

Most of the deriders haven't read smart astrological philosophers like Dane Rudhyar, Alice O. Howell, Clare Martin, Steven Arroyo, Richard Tarnas, Antero Alli, Keiron Le Grice, and Liz Greene. They aren't aware that pioneering psychologist Carl Jung cast horoscopes for all his patients and believed that "astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity."

The deriders don't know about astronomer Martha Maiden. She was a program executive at NASA for years and achieved such prominence that she now has an award named after her (https://tinyurl.com/MarthaMaiden). Martha is also an excellent astrologer. I know because she and I were friends who attended Duke University at the same time. We lived next door to each other in Durham and carried on an astrology study group with two other friends.

The closest approach that fraudulent "skeptics" often make to studying the ancient art of astrology is to glance at a tabloid or internet horoscope column. To match their carelessness, I might make a drive-by of a strip mall and declare that the profession of architecture is shallow and debased.

That's one reason why the ill-informed "skeptics" spread ignorant lies about the subject. For example, every few years, there's an uproar in the press when an astronomer falsely declares that there is a 13th astrological sign, not just 12, and that therefore all our personal horoscopes are different from what we think they are.

Those astronomers haven't bothered to do the most basic research about how astrology works. Their "rationality" is profoundly irrational. I've compiled more information about this subject here: https://tinyurl.com/IgnoreTheHoax.

Here's another gross misunderstanding by “skeptics” who have eschewed basic research. They say that all astrologers think the stars and planets emit invisible beams of energy that shape people's lives. The truth is, some Western astrologers believe that, but many don’t.

Science popularizer Carl Sagan provided an egregious example of this ignorance. In his TV series Cosmos, he portentously dismissed the straw-man notion that planets might impact a newborn baby.

He said, “How could the rising of Mars at the moment of my birth affect me, then or now? I was born in a closed room. Light from Mars couldn’t get in. The only influence of Mars which could affect me was its gravity. The gravitational pull of the obstetrician was much larger than the gravitational influence of Mars. Mars is a lot more massive, but the obstetrician was much closer.”

I’m still aghast that a scientist of Sagan’s caliber could have been so poorly informed.

Every single one of the many astrologers I respect agrees with what expert astrologer Richard Tarnas says in his book Cosmos and Psyche: The planets don't emit invisible forces that shape our destinies as if we were puppets. Rather, they are symbols of the unfolding evolutionary pattern. Just as clocks tell time but don't create it, the heavenly bodies show us the big picture but don't cause it.

I don’t want to provide space for every spurious argument made by unscientific scientists. But here’s one more howler. Several self-described rational skeptics have assured me that astrology is nonsense because it believes "our behavior depends on the positions of the stars."

I laugh out loud when I hear such comically ignorant drivel. The fact is that Western astrology has nothing to do with any stars except our own: the sun. It's all about planets.

The "rational skeptics" make another fundamental error. The truth is that smart astrologers are not determinists, not dogmatists, not superstitious manipulators. They don't believe that our behavior is dependent on or controlled by heavenly bodies.

Many scientists deride astrology as being a "pseudoscience." In making such a fallacious claim, they reveal they have shunned the most basic principle of science, which is to actually investigate the subject they aspire to understand.

If these incompetents took the trouble to do research, they would have discovered that Western astrology's best practitioners don't claim that astrology is a science—which means that it can't be a pseudoscience!

The lyrical and practical truth is that astrology is a blend of psychology, storytelling, and mythology. As Carl Jung said, it's an aid in understanding and articulating how the psyche works. Like any language, it's both logical and messy; it's useful in making sense of the world, yet full of crazy-making ambiguities.

Astrology is a symbol system that, when used with integrity, engenders soulful approaches for deepening our connection to life's great mysteries—not predictions of literal events. It liberates and fertilizes our imaginations and encourages us to think less literally. It teaches us to visualize our destinies as mythic quests and deepens our connection to life's gorgeous mysteries.

Psychologist James Hillman spoke of the joyous work of learning our soul's code—the blueprint of our destiny. That's what astrology does best. To imagine that this can be done in a scientific way is irrelevant and delusional.

ASTROLOGY IS NOT A SCIENCE! Nor is storytelling, depth psychology, mythology, dream interpretation, or poetry.

It makes as much sense to criticize astrology for not being scientific as it does to deride Joseph Campbell treatises on the world's mythic traditions or Ursula K. Le Guin's science fiction novels because they don't explicate and illustrate the quantum field theory of physics.

The scientific method is a wonderful method for achieving some understanding of the world. But we can't use it to analyze the Indigenous Bororo people's myth, "The Bird-Nester's Aria." It's not a reliable strategy for uncovering deep truths about how a Beethoven symphony might alter the way we think about a problem we're having at work.

We profoundly need the scientific method and logical deduction and objective perceptions. They are crucial to being human. But we also need mythopoetic storytelling and art that moves us emotionally in mysterious ways and playful fun that frees us from our fixations.

Does it make sense to say that analyzing and working on dreams is "pseudoscience"? Of course not. You can't design a repeatable experiment to test your hypothesis about those slippery marvels. And yet, working with one's dreams, analyzing them to find subconscious patterns that affect our behavior, can be intensely practical.

Astrology is not designed to compete with scientists' logical analyses of why things are the way they are. Rather, it's meant to open our minds to the mythic elements that underlie the surface-level interpretations of what we're all about.

I can't imagine any intelligent person who would believe that the scientific way of knowing is better and more important than the mythopoetic—or vice versa.

DIVINATIONS FOR YOU #1

Here's a collection of divinations for you, dear reader. There are more batches later in the book.

Read your sun sign or your rising sign or both. Experiment with what works best for you.

ARIES: A martial arts competition on ESPN TV featured a macho dance-off, in which rivals took turns brandishing their high-octane warrior choreography. At one point the announcer waxed poetic as the eventual winner pulled off a seemingly impossible move: “And that was a corkscrew illusion twist rodeo spin!”

I invite you to use that phrase as an incantatory invocation in the regular pep talks you give yourself. Ask yourself every now and then, “What will be my next version of the Corkscrew Illusion Twist Rodeo Spin?”

TAURUS: Your body is holy and magical and precious. I advise you not to sell it or rent it or compromise it in any way.

I invite you to attend to your sweet flesh and blood and nerves with consummate care. Find out exactly what your amazing organism needs to feel its best. Lavish it with pleasure and healing. Treat it as you would a beloved child or animal.

I also hope you will have intimate conversations with the cells that compose your body. Let them know you love and appreciate them. Tell them you want to collaborate with them to create maximum well-being. Ask them for their counsel.

GEMINI: Of all the people in the world, you Geminis are the best at skipping, scampering, springing, capering, hustling, and hippety-hopping.

You are also incomparable when it comes to twirling, pivoting undulating, gyrating, and rub-a-dub-dubbing. Bonus! No other sign of the zodiac has such an extravagant capacity to rumble, romp, rollick, cavort, and zip-a-dap-doodle. Congratulations!

On the other hand, few of you Twins ever develop an expertise in shuffling, drooping, mumbling, and wallowing. You’re most likely unskilled at the low arts of dawdling, sniveling, pigeonholing, or pussyfooting.

But that’s a good thing! Congratulations again!

CANCERIAN: Why are Australian sand wasps so skilled at finding their way back home after being out all day?

Here’s their trick: When they first leave the nest each morning, they fly backwards, imprinting on their memory banks the sights they will look for when they return later.

In addition, their exiting flight path is a slow and systematic zigzag pattern that orients them from multiple directions.

The sand wasps remind me of you Cancerians. One of your key lifelong tasks is to keep finding your way back to your spiritual home, over and over again.

LEO: You are destined to become a genius of controlled burning. It’s your birthright to be skilled in the fiery arts: to kindle and illuminate and energize and warm.

With each passing month, you know more about when it’s smart to turn the heat up high and when it’s right to simmer with a slow, steady glow.

You’re a student of luminosity: learning to wield your flames with discernment and compassion rather than with pride or rage. You practice and refine your talent for the creative destruction that burns rot and dross.

VIRGO: By the time my Virgo acquaintance Cal was seven years old, he was lit up with a desire to know how things work.

Sometimes that caused problems. When he dismantled the toaster to examine its innards, for instance, his parents reprimanded him. In a working-class family of 12 kids, losing a valued appliance caused a financial crunch.

But Cal kept taking things apart to understand them better. In time his research led him to develop a skill for putting things back together again, often in better shape than they were before he got a hold of them. That is the mark of an evolved Virgo.

P.S. As an adult, Cal creates interactive robots that perform in shows all over the world. He's a skillful builder.

LIBRA: You’re like an estuary, where the salt water of the sea mingles with the freshwater of a river.

Your power spots are the boundaries where cumulus cloud and blue sky join; where the grey-brown oak trunk joins the brown-grey earth; where your shadow overlaps your companion’s shadow in the rich double darkness.

Rejoice twice! Life authorizes you to brandish and celebrate potent dualities. You thrive on being two-toned and bicultural. You’re a synergized fusion of the yes and the no, the give and the take, the lyrical and the well-ordered.

In the description of poet Robert Frost, you’re not confused, you’re well mixed. In the words of the midwife muse in my dream of your rebirth, you’re both the reflection of the white rose in the mirror and the rose itself.

Do you agree but also disagree? Excellent! That’s you being true to yourself.

Your assignment is to be a humming juxtaposition, not a jagged contradiction. If you do your sacred duty, you’ll never get crushed by the squeeze of opposites because you’ll be faithfully massaged by oscillating complements.

SCORPIO: In the TV science-fiction show Doctor Who, the title character lives in a Tardis, a time machine that is also a spaceship.

From the outside, it appears to be barely bigger than an old-fashioned phone booth. But once you venture inside, you find it's a spacious chateau with numerous rooms, including a greenhouse, library, observatory, swimming pool, and karaoke bar.

This is an excellent metaphor for you Scorpios. Anyone who wants your love or friendship must realize how much you resemble a Tardis.

They’ve got to understand that you’re far bigger on the inside than you seem on the outside. If they don’t, it’s unlikely the two of you can have a productive relationship.

As a public service, I invite you to make sure everyone you're involved with knows this fact.

SAGITTARIUS: Walk your wisdom walk, Sagittarius. Talk your wisdom talk. Dream your wisdom schemes and stream your wisdom memes.

Excite us with your wisdom uproars and your wisdom surprises. Gaze out at our broken world with your wisdom eyes. Play your wisdom tricks and risk your wisdom jokes and erupt with your wisdom cures.

We need you to be a radiant cascade of irresistible wisdom. We ask you to conjure a restless flow of wisdom exploits and wisdom interventions. What are your wisdom mistakes? Your wisdom aches? We want those, too.

And please note: You don’t have to wait until the wisdom is perfect. You shouldn’t worry about whether it’s eminently practical. Your job is to trust your wisdom body, to unleash your wisdom wails, to revel in your wisdom resurrections.

CAPRICORN: "Most humans have an absolute and infinite capacity for taking things for granted," declared author Aldous Huxley.

That's the bad news. The good news is that you Capricorns are the least likely sign of the zodiac to fall under that bad spell.

If you choose to develop your natural potential, you can make it a habit to regularly renew your passion for and commitment to all your familiar pleasures and fundamental supports.

You will be consistently aware of the everyday miracles that allow you to thrive. You will express your appreciation for the sources that nourish you so reliably.

AQUARIUS: More than any other sign of the zodiac you have a knack for collecting and making savvy use of ah-ha! moments. Why?

I think it's because you have an extra willingness to periodically drop your fixed beliefs about how everything works. You're more likely to respond to surprises as welcome catalysts rather than annoying inconveniences.

No one else has a greater inclination to say, "I love to get my curiosity spiked, my hair mussed, my awe struck, my goose bumps roused, my dogmas exploded, and my mind blown.”

PISCES: The Japanese term wabi-sabi refers to an interesting or evocative imperfection in a work of art that makes it more beautiful than if it were merely perfect.

Duende is a Spanish word referring to a work of art that astonishes and thrills its viewers because it's so emotionally rich and unpredictably soulful.

One of your special potentials as a Pisces is to be a work of art exuding an abundance of these two qualities. Notice that in the last sentence I suggested that your life itself might be a tour de force masterpiece.

Your wabi-sabi gives you the je ne sais quoi to free yourself from hyper sleekness and excessive refinement in the quest for unruly beauty.

Your duende provides you with the lyrical ingenuity to be a maestro of surprise and creative flair.

Free Will Astrology

For the Week of October 5

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Take a few deep, slow breaths. Let your mind be a blue sky where a few high clouds float. Hum your favorite melody. Relax as if you have all the time in the world to be whoever you want to be. Fantasize that you have slipped into a phase of your cycle when you are free to act as calm and unhurried as you like. Imagine you have access to resources in your secret core that will make you stable and solid and secure. Now read this Mary Oliver poem aloud: “You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves."

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): An Oklahoma woman named Mary Clamswer used a wheelchair from age 19 to 42 because multiple sclerosis made it hard to use her legs. Then a miracle happened. During a thunderstorm, she was hit by lightning. The blast not only didn’t kill her; it cured the multiple sclerosis. Over the subsequent months, she recovered her ability to walk. Now I'm not saying I hope you will be hit by a literal bolt of healing lightning, Scorpio, nor do I predict any such thing. But I suspect a comparable event or situation that may initially seem unsettling could ultimately bring you blessings.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): What are your favorite mind-altering substances? Coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, or tobacco? Alcohol, pot, cocaine, or opioids? Psilocybin, ayahuasca, LSD, or MDMA? Others? All the above? Whatever they are, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to re-evaluate your relationship with them. Consider whether they are sometimes more hurtful than helpful, or vice versa; and whether the original reasons that led you to them are still true; and how your connection with them affects your close relationships. Ask other questions, too! PS: I don’t know what the answers are. My goal is simply to inspire you to take an inventory.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In his book Meditations for Miserable People Who Want to Stay That Way, Dan Goodman says, "It’s not that I have nothing to give, but rather that no one wants what I have." If you have ever been tempted to entertain dour fantasies like that, I predict you will be purged of them in the coming weeks and months. Maybe more than ever before, your influence will be sought by others. Your viewpoints will be asked for. Your gifts will be desired, and your input will be invited. I trust you won’t feel overwhelmed!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): William James (1842–1910) was a paragon of reason and logic. So influential were his books about philosophy and psychology that he is regarded as a leading thinker of the 19th and 20th centuries. On the other hand, he was eager to explore the possibilities of supernatural phenomena like telepathy. He even consulted a trance medium named Leonora Piper. James said, "If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, it is enough if you prove that one crow is white. My white crow is Mrs. Piper." I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I suspect you will soon discover a white crow of your own. As a result, long-standing beliefs may come into question; a certainty could become ambiguous; an incontrovertible truth may be shaken. This is a good thing!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): If we hope to cure our wounds, we must cultivate a focused desire to be healed. A second essential is to be ingenious in gathering the resources we need to get healed. Here’s the third requirement: We must be bold and brave enough to scramble up out of our sense of defeat as we claim our right to be vigorous and whole again. I wish all these powers for you in the coming weeks.

EXTRA HELP

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’ve been doing interviews in support of my new book Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle. Now and then, I’m asked this question: "Do you actually believe all that mystical woo-woo you write about?" I respond diplomatically, though inwardly I’m screaming, “How profoundly hypocritical I would be if I did not believe in the ‘mystical woo-woo’ I have spent my adult studying and teaching!” But here’s my polite answer: I love and revere the venerable spiritual philosophies that some demean as “mystical woo-woo.” I see it as my job to translate those subtle ideas into well-grounded, practical suggestions that my readers can use to enhance their lives. Everything I just said is the prelude for your assignment, Aries: Work with extra focus to actuate your high ideals and deep values in the ordinary events of your daily life. As the American idioms advise: Walk your talk and practice what you preach.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I'm happy to see the expanding use of service animals. Initially, there were guide dogs to assist humans with imperfect vision. Later, there came mobility animals for those who need aid in moving around and hearing animals for those who can't detect ringing doorbells. In recent years, emotional support animals have provided comfort for people who benefit from mental health assistance. I foresee a future in which all of us feel free and eager to call on the nurturing of companion animals. You may already have such friends, Taurus. If so, I urge you to express extra appreciation for them in the coming weeks. Ripen your relationship. And if not, now is an excellent time to explore the boost you can get from loving animals.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Chuck Klosterman jokes, "I eat sugared cereal almost exclusively. This is because I’m the opposite of a 'no-nonsense' guy. I’m an 'all-nonsense' guy." The coming weeks will be a constructive and liberating time for you to experiment with being an all-nonsense person, dear Gemini. How? Start by temporarily suspending any deep attachment you have to being a serious, hyper-rational adult doing staid, weighty adult things. Be mischievously committed to playing a lot and having maximum fun. Dancing sex! Ice cream uproars! Renegade fantasies! Laughter orgies! Joke romps! Giddy brainstorms and euphoric heartstorms!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian comedian Gilda Radner said, "I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn’t itch." Let's use that as a prime metaphor for you in the coming weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will be wise to opt for what feels good over what merely looks good. You will make the right choices if you are committed to loving yourself more than trying to figure out how to get others to love you. Celebrate highly functional beauty, dear Cancerian. Exult in the clear intuitions that arise as you circumvent self-consciousness and revel in festive self-love.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The amazingly creative Leo singer-songwriter Tori Amos gives this testimony: "All creators go through a period where they’re dry and don’t know how to get back to the creative source. Where is that waterfall? At a certain point, you say, ‘I’ll take a rivulet.’" Her testimony is true for all of us in our quest to find what we want and need. Of course, we would prefer to have permanent, unwavering access to the waterfall. But that's not realistic. Besides, sometimes the rivulet is sufficient. And if we follow the rivulet, it may eventually lead to the waterfall.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Do you perform experiments on yourself? I do on myself. I formulate hypotheses about what might be healthy for me, then carry out tests to gather evidence about whether they are. A recent one was: Do I feel my best if I eat five small meals per day or three bigger ones? Another: Is my sleep most rejuvenating if I go to bed at 10 pm and wake up at 7 am or if I sleep from midnight to 9 am? I recommend you engage in such experiments in the coming weeks. Your body has many clues and revelations it wants to offer you.

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