Which Sources of Guidance Are Worthy?

Where do we get reliable info about how to shape our lives?

I invite you to compile a list of the sources you trust most to help guide your journey.

You might want to include: 1. people you love; 2. animals you love; 3. teachers you love; 4. inner resources like spirit guides or your higher self; 5. special parts of the natural world, like beloved trees or rivers; 6. your nightly dreams; 7. favorite authors, musicians, and artists; 8. your ancestors; 9. your past or future selves; 10. your intuition.

But remember that not even these radiant centers of inspiration and support offer infallible guidance 100 percent of the time. Acknowledge, furthermore, that healing and assistance may sometimes arrive from unexpected directions.

THE ART OF GETTING RELIABLE GUIDANCE

People who blindly deride astrology like to assert that consulting a horoscope or sitting for a reading is an unsound way to make judicious decisions about one’s life.

But the haters rarely follow that pronouncement with a detailed revelation of what the sound methods are. Do they know of some Bureau of Acceptable Life Information that issues official rulings on which sources of guidance are worthy and which are not?

I don’t mean to be glib. I am honestly puzzled by the apparent certainty that unambiguous methods exist.

Would the astrology haters approve of the guidance we’ve absorbed from our high school teachers? From our parents and relatives, our friends and colleagues? From the experts and authorities who fling their opinions at us from all directions?

Not one of them is an entirely reliable narrator. None can be trusted to deliver 100-percent accurate, unfailingly wise counsel on how best to conduct our lives.

And how about the lyrics of our favorite songwriters, the literature of Nobel laureates, and the films of Oscar winners? Is it a brilliant move to take on their influence—to let their art infiltrate our subconscious minds and skew and shift our attitudes? Or might we make foolish moves if we regard them as unfailing sources of smart guidance?

Or how about the philosophies of the Upanishads or Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel or Susan Sontag? The psychological ideas of Carl Jung or Clarissa Pinkola Estés or Erik Erikson? The writing of Joan Didion or Pema Chödrön or Ta-Nehisi Coates? The social science of Malcolm Gladwell? The economic theories of Paul Krugman?

Are they all foolproof, unimpeachable sources of sage tutelage that we can unconditionally rely on to steer our personal lives in a righteous direction?

Or should we be ruthlessly careful to draw our direction and inspiration only from paragons of rationalism and science? Should our night tables be stacked with books by Stephen Hawking and Charles Darwin and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and mathematician Terence Tao? Should we read passages from their teachings every night in the expectation that they will shape us into paragons of reason and unfailingly lead us to make prudent decisions about how to live?

I don’t think so. It’s fine if those tomes and others like them constitute part of our own personal Bureau of Acceptable Life Information. But we need to get an education from a variety of other sources as well—each of which, like Hawking and Darwin and Kasparov and Tao, is imperfect and incomplete.

It’s perfectly sensible to look to astrology as one of those sources, because astrology is a branch of psychology as well as an art form. It’s also a mode of storytelling that can inspire us as much as the marvelous tales told by Virginia Woolf, Ursula K Le Guin, William Shakespeare, and 10,000 other raconteurs.

Like ancient myths, our nightly dreams, and the folk tales of all cultures, astrology is designed to stimulate our imaginations as we ruminate on what it means to be human.

It’s an evocative mythopoetic system that helps us identify and transform our subconscious patterns, understand our mysterious soul’s code, and have fun speculating about the big picture of our destinies.

Self-anointed “debunkers” rail against astrologers’ predictions, acting as if speculating about the future were a crime against levelheaded thought.

Meanwhile, economists, meteorologists, sportscasters, trend analysts, and political pundits regularly churn out bad prognostications based on dubious data. They spread far more delusions and cost people more money than those of us who divine cosmic omens. And when it comes to weather, the failures can be measured in human lives.

Cliff Mass, a professor of atmospheric sciences, has spent years documenting how badly our forecasting machinery stumbles at moments that matter.

When Hurricane Patricia exploded into the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere in 2015, not one of the official numerical models—including the multimillion-dollar system the U.S. has invested in for exactly this purpose—came close to predicting its catastrophic intensification.

The following year, Mass showed that America’s flagship forecasting models trailed far behind their European counterparts in charting the track of Hurricane Matthew, the storm that went on to kill over 600 people.

These are life-and-death stakes, and the best-funded prediction machines on Earth get them wrong with regularity. Has any astrological prognostication ever carried consequences like that?

In the 13th century, for example, a brilliant Khitan scholar named Yelü Chucai served Genghis Khan as court astrologer, reading the heavens for omens. More than once he used his interpretations to talk the conqueror out of slaughter.

In 1226, Chucai saved tens of thousands of lives. Genghis had ordered a total massacre of the Tangut people, but the sage insisted that a heavenly sign—a colossal planetary conjunction in Capricorn—was a clear omen not to proceed with the plan. Amazingly, Khan agreed.

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How about doctors? Are they skilled at offering forecasts? A systematic review published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE examined one crucial slice of that question: how accurately physicians predict the life expectancy of terminally ill patients.

That information can be vital for patients and families alike. How will a dying person spend their final days? How much time is left to do everything that still must be done?

The review pooled 42 studies and more than 8,000 individual prognoses. Its finding: Clinicians’ estimates vary wildly and are frequently inaccurate. No identifiable subgroup of “expert” forecasters reliably gets it right. Read the study.

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As for predicting financial futures, public-finance journalist Liz Farmer wrote an article whose headline sums up the consensus: “Why Economists’ Predictions Are Usually Wrong”

More: “Why economists can’t forecast”

The IMF macroeconomist Prakash Loungani studied the record directly and found that his fellow economists had failed to foresee 148 of the previous 150 recessions. “The record of failure to predict recessions,” he concluded, “is virtually unblemished.”

Shall I hazard a guess at how many human lives have been misdirected, sometimes catastrophically, by the erroneous counsel of financial forecasters?

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Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to read Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan’s book Economics: Between Predictive Science and Moral Philosophy. I have important decisions to make about the future of my family and the arc of my work, and I’m sure he’ll provide excellent counsel.

YES, I TRULY BELIEVE ASTROLOGICAL COUNSEL, LIKE PSYCHOTHERAPY, CAN BE HELPFUL IN GUIDING OUR DECISIONS, EVEN AS I ALSO TREASURE LOGIC AND REASON AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD.

I’ve been a bit arch and playful here in expressing my belief that astrological understanding can be useful in deciding how to live our lives. But I want to be adamantly clear that I think it can indeed be sublimely helpful.

Not all of it is, of course. Like every field, astrology has unskillful practitioners whose efforts are at best unhelpful and at worst detrimental. It’s crucial for us to be discerning as we call on astrological counsel. We should always regard ourselves as collaborators with those whose counsel we seek—participants in the process of getting to the root of our mysteries.

My own life is a testimonial to the uplifting and beneficently transformative potentials of astrological investigations. Since age 18, I have trusted my own natal horoscope to provide insight and guidance into the nature of my soul’s code. There are few days of my adult life when I haven’t ruminated on the meaning of my chart and what it tells me about my unfolding destiny.

So yes, I very much treat astrological wisdom as a key approach to understanding reality.

At the same time, I treasure logic and reason and the scientific method. They are essential in shaping my path, too. For me, there is no contradiction in relying on both modalities, and many others, as well.

Below, I provide links to four essays I’ve written on how and why we can seek astrological counseling for help in living our lives

Introduction to Soulful Astrology

Astrology Is a Mythopoetic Language

Astrology for the Soul

Theory of Divination

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week of October 1

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Let’s make Libran writer Ursula K. Le Guin your patron saint. She believed that any human arrangement, however permanent it seems, was made by people and can therefore be unmade and remade by people. The divine right of kings once seemed eternal and inevitable, she liked to remind us. Be like her in the coming weeks, Libra. Refuse to accept that the way things are is the way they must continue to be. Imagine more beautiful, more just, and more loving arrangements in every area of your life, including your relationships, your work, and your inner life. Then take three steps toward making it so.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Volcanologists distinguish between two different eruptions. In the effusive type, lava flows slowly and steadily, while the explosive eruptions eject material fast and hard. What does this have to do with you? In my astrological estimation, you currently contain building pressures that need release. Here’s the good news: You can maneuver yourself in the direction of effusive expression and thereby make the explosive kind unnecessary. So my advice is to find small, controllable outlets for what’s gathering inside you. Don’t wait until the only option is a massive, sudden discharge.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You’ll flourish in the coming years if you ask daring questions and befriend sweet ambivalence and welcome adorable uncertainty. You’ll stumble upon weird but interesting success and project potent authenticity if you let your curiosity lead you to situations outside of your cozy bubbles and velvet ruts. On the other hand, you’ll flounder if you cling to folk wisdom foisted on you by the algorithms, treat all your opinions as facts, or pretend you always know what the f*ck is going on in this dazzling mess of a world. Keep it generous and exploratory, Sagittarius. Seek out wide-ranging conversationalists and playful skeptics.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): A river delta is where a river finally meets the sea. Instead of arriving as one bold channel, it fans out into dozens of branching streams, depositing the rich silt it has carried for many miles. Deltas are fertile places because of everything the river gathered along the way and finally lays down. You’re approaching a metaphorical delta, Capricorn. All the experiences, emotions, and impressions you’ve been carrying are ready to be released and turned into fertile ground. Abundance wants to grow from all you’ve gathered.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the 17th century, Aquarian astronomer Johannes Hevelius mapped the moon with surprising accuracy. Yet he worked with funky homemade telescopes perched on a homemade observatory that he built on the rooftops of his three connected houses. I recommend you borrow his approach, Aquarius. You might feel tempted to postpone action until conditions are ideal, but I hope you’ll begin with what you already possess. Prediction: As you proceed, your tools and strategies will evolve. Momentum will become one of your key resources.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In traditional Chinese medicine, wei qi is a protective energy that circulates beneath the skin, forming a shield against harmful influences. To nourish it, you revel in sleeping and eating well. You work diligently, with tender discernment, to maintain healthy boundaries. How are you doing with that, Pisces? Is it possible you’ve been working so hard on your deep transformations that you’ve semi-neglected this outer layer of strength? I hope that in the coming weeks, you’ll nurture the subtle shields that prevent you from absorbing every stray particle of psychic weirdness in your environment. Think of this task not as building walls, but tending to your garden’s edges.

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Orchids may lure pollinating insects with ingenious illusions rather than nectar. Some mimic the look or fragrance of other flowers. Others resemble female insects so convincingly that hopeful males unknowingly assist with pollination. From this, we might conclude that nature can be as duplicitous as humans. But rather than being bummed out by the facts of life, let’s use this as a lesson for you to wield in the coming days. Appearances can be deceiving—for both better and worse. If a situation initially seems disappointing or confusing, linger before drawing conclusions. Likewise, if something looks irresistibly attractive at first glance, investigate further. I predict your intuition will be extra skilled at distinguishing authentic richness from glamorous distraction.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I propose we make 93-year-old Taurus musician Willie Nelson your patron saint and role model for the foreseeable future. Earthy, unflappable, and unhurried, he has kept making his distinctive, soulful music for over 70 years, devoted all the while to the land and the people who work it. He has never pushed to sound like anyone else; he has patiently, inexorably become more fully himself. It’s your birthright to live like Nelson, Taurus, with a steady, sensual, enduring devotion to what you love. In the coming weeks, I invite you to tend to your deepest roots.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I may be preaching to the choir here, but there’s a fun kind of magic that thrives when you decline to be consistent. You Geminis are least likely, of all the signs, to exhaust yourself in trying to maintain a unified self-presentation. Like the Gemini poet Walt Whitman, you’re often pleased with the fact that you contain multitudes. It’s a potential superpower! The you who loves solitude and the you who craves connection can both be true. The skeptic and the mystic can coexist in the same nervous system. Your assignment: Honor three contradictory impulses without trying to make them coherent. You’re boisterously excused from having to make too much sense.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In certain caves, like the Cave of the Crystals in Naica, Mexico, crystals grow to astonishing sizes. Why? Because the environment remains stable for thousands of years, with steady temperatures, minimal disturbances, and slow mineral flow. Under these stable conditions, ordinary molecules assemble into lavish structures. I believe you’re cultivating a similar sanctuary, Cancerian, as you invoke the powers of steadiness and devoted dedication. Even if progress appears slow, the underlying process is gradually generating a beautiful strength and/or lasting treasure. Now’s a good time to redouble your faith in your good work.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The cosmic powers have granted you a license to be magnificent. Not arrogant, please note, but majestic, resplendent, and marvelous. You know the difference, right? Arrogance is parasitic, demanding that everyone reflects your glory back at you. Magnificence is expansive, making everyone feel more vital and attuned to their own splendor. The second option is far more nutritious and delicious for you in the long run. In the coming eons, and especially now, I hope you’ll be lavish with your praise and generous with your attention. Glow and dazzle in ways that inspire others to glow and dazzle.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A Zen teaching says, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” But being the post-Zen teacher I am, I protest and say, “No, the chopping and the carrying ARE the enlightenment. There is no separate ‘after.’” The sacred is ALWAYS lurking in the mundane, disguised as ordinary tasks. And you Virgos are potentially the zodiac’s supreme master of this controversial truth. Others may chase after astral bling and transcendent glitter, but you know that divinity lives in the earthy details that are right in front of you. That’s how you transmute seemingly unremarkable stuff into the sublime. It’s time to wield your superpower to the hilt, please!

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