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The Shattered World
One of
the challenges for astrology is to find a meaningful place 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 low-tech lens 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 that 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 that 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,
the author, Titus Burckhardt, points out the high price we have paid
for Copernicus'
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 each 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) that 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.
Do Our Senses Deceive 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 that goes against the grain of our own
observations. These scientific truths are very useful for
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. 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 order in the universe that
corresponds with an order in us. It is a human science, one that
places us squarely in the middle of our lives and reestablishing 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 Our Power
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 that 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.
This
article was first published in the July 1995 issue of
The Mountain Astrologer.
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