Astrology, the language of the soul

This website is primarily about the interactions between people, nature, and plants – about herbs and healing and about eco-psychology. The reason I have added Astrology to the mix is that Astrology is so fundamental to our earliest cosmologies the annual ceremonial calendar which still governs our calendar of religious festivals.

For many millennia Astrology provided a cosmological framework that served as an ordering principle. It served as a way to interpret chaotic natural phenomena and to derive meaning from seemingly haphazard events. But in time, Astrology has evolved into something far more complex than the interpretation of the heavens to determine the best times to plough or to plant, favorable times for sacrificial offerings, or to predict the moods of the Gods.

The truly remarkable fact is that despite all the scientific and technological advances that have swept over the modern world ever since the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, Astrology is still around. Why?

There are probably many answers to this question depending on who you ask. My take is that it offers a unique perspective or lens through which to view the world.  It uses a universal code of symbolism that is predominantly phenomenological, ie it is concerned with ‘meaning-making’ based on personal or collective experience. Astrology speaks directly to and from the deeper levels of the psyche. By contrast, science is concerned with the cause and effect of phenomena and dismisses their deeper or symbolic meaning as irrelevant. Things are ‘just so’ because A causes B to act in this or that way, and that is all there is to it.

But our experience of the world is subjective and phenomenological. We are psychologically wired to see the world in terms of relational patterns and meanings. That is the language of the psyche, and astrology, like no other system, speaks that language.

In this blog, I will not elaborate too much on the subject. If you are interested in Astrology, please visit my other website, https://astro-insights.com and subscribe to the mailing list if you would like to receive regular posts on the subject. The reason I have included this section here is that there is a lot of overlap between astrology and mythology, and ancient plant lore. I regard Astrology as a valuable tool for eco-therapy and a fundamental aspect of eco-spirituality.

There is also an ancient and direct link between Astrology and early medical practice. Until the early Modern Age, every self-respecting doctor of medicine was also an astrologer. Astrology informs our symbolic understanding of the essential nature of individual herbs and the correspondences in the human body.

While I don’t consider Astrology as an adequate replacement for medical diagnosis, it can cast additional light on the interpretation of health and disease as well as enrich the understanding of medicinal herbs and their actions on the body. It is predominantly on these matters that I will be writing here. For more psychological aspects of astrology, please visit astro-insights.com.