Astrology is ambient. Like the latin meaning of the word ambient: it is all around.


🜄 water  🜂 fire 🜃 earth  🜁 air


Astrology is vast. Housed within this broad term are many systems and variants. There are many methods, approaches, and schools in astrology. It is as diverse as the earth’s inhabitants, and has been utilized in some way as long as we have been here. We look to the stars for patterns and cycles, noting these and omens on earth, seeing confluence, confirmation, synchronicities. This logos, a symbolic language, leads us to inquiries and insight.

At this time there is a massive astrological renaissance underway. It is an amazing time to be a student of astrology.

My approach to astrology is eclectic, nonlinear, one could say lunar. I am a poly astrologer. My practice is grounded in tradition while drawing on many astrological innovations (i.e. Uranian/Symmetrical methods, harmonics and divisions, newly found objects).

As a student of astrology, I work with it every day. I am deeply interested in its origins as well as its metamorphosis. Due to many recent translations of ancient texts we have available for the first time in history a plethora of teachings and techniques coming right from the source of our traditions. I believe interpreting and applying this knowledge in responsible, skillful, and meaningful ways is our task at hand. 

The purity of a tradition or idea must be tested if it is to have any life in it. Dead doctrines and faith never ensure belief. Tradition is fine, but to let it rule to the exclusion of new growth is a denial of the basic tenets of a living system.

some technical specifics:

I use the sacred seven planets as zodiac sign rulers, and I don’t subscribe to the very recent notion of modern rulerships: that the (invisible to us) outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto rule signs Aquarius, Pisces, and Scorpio. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn have been doing just fine as the domicile lords (rulers) of Scorpio, Pisces, and Aquarius for at least two thousand years. Even more importantly, there is an elegant symmetry to the original sequence of rulership which is totally lost when you hand over domain to these trans-Saturnian planets. Also sacrificed are layers of meaning inherent within. While there may be some associative similarities between outer planets and their proposed sign relationship, I think it is actually a disservice to try to limit these transpersonal bodies; to encapsulate and trap their meaning in a single zodiac sign feels forced, trivial, linear, mechanistic… See: A Conversation With Robert Hand - The Modern Astrologer With a Medieval Heritage.

I think you can and ought to read a chart with just the seven traditional (visible) planets, at least some of the time. Many modern western astrologers get hung up on outer planets, imo. You can always derive a tremendous amount of information from just the visible planets (the wanderers) ― especially via planetary configurations, house placement and house rulership, and so on. After establishing some structure with these essential points, moving on to the outer bodies (including asteroids, etc.) makes sense as they can offer quite specific additional information. 

I use a blended house system. Like Morinus, I use Whole Sign Houses along with a Quadrant system. Whether a planet is "advancing" or "retreating" around the actual angles is an important phenomenon that should not be overlooked. When a planet is rising, setting, culminating, or anti-culminating it is a physical/visual reality that helps to determine a planet's terrestrial strength (and quality). I sometimes use the Porphyry house system, which 2nd century astrologer Vettius Valens mentions using for specific techniques in his Anthology, and I experiment with intermediate house cusps as sensitive points in other Quadrant systems, like Placidus, Regiomontanus, Campanus, etc.

Sanctuary of the Great Gods - island of SAMOTHRAKI, GREECE

I use Indian techniques, though typically with the tropical zodiac, for supplementary timing and for divisional charts (which convey specifics around career, relationship, children, happiness, wealth, etc.). Also to assess planetary strength like with Dig Bala (the directional strength of a planet).

I use midpoints, the 360 and 90 degree dials, planetary pictures (lots), and some other Symmetrical (Uranian or Cosmobiological) tools and methods. This is atop a traditional Hellenistic, Persian, Early Medieval, and Indian (Jyotish) perspective. 

  • Note: the Lots (commonly called the Arabic Parts, i.e. the Part of Fortune) are one major unifying component between systems and astrologies throughout time. The Lots are older than Hellenistic astrology, probably Babylonian or Egyptian in origin, and utilizing them was of chief importance to Hellenistic and Persian astrologers. Modern astrologers too, due in large part to the lunation cycle work of Dane Rudhyar, employ the Lot of Fortune and sometimes the Lot of Spirit. The Lot of Fortune itself even offers an alternate Ascendant! Lots are planetary pictures―an important feature of Symmetrical astrology—and are expressions of planetary phase relationships. These sensitive symmetrical points are potent and mysterious, they marry astrological thought through the ages! To me they feel timeless.

I work with essential dignity as a framework but do not place extreme emphasis on it. I see many practitioners doing this these days and find it to be damaging and not even wholly accurate. I like to see how dignity might influence planetary interchanges through reception, management, and aspects.

I work with triplicity and trigon lords, bounds, antiscia, declination, parans, planets in phasis -heliacal risings and settings, and planetary stations.

Occasionally I work with asteroids, especially ‘love’ asteroids, as well as Transneptunians (TNPs): Cupido, Hades, Kronos and company. They are not imperative in my view but add embellishment and nuance, sometimes eerily describing character and situations. Outer planets are a bit like asteroids, imo.

I find the twelve letter astrological alphabet to be too simplistic and often misleading: i.e., Aries = Mars = First House, Taurus = Venus = Second House, etc. For a deeper understanding of the signs, houses, planets, aspects, and meanings associated within, I think it is best to begin your study with the Thema Mundi (the hypothetical chart of the world, i.e., beautiful teaching tool!) — or even consider the Chakras and their relationship to the signs.

* you might also consider symmetry in the sign-based decanates of the zodiac, reinforcing the significance of there being seven planetary rulers.

Recommended:
Articles via Seven Stars Astrology
Vettius Valens, Anthologies
Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra
Komilla Sutton online Library
The Planetary Joys and the Origins of the Significations of the Houses by Chris Brennan
Books
Astrology & the Authentic Self by Demetra George
The Combination of Stellar Influences by Reinhold Ebertin
The Houses: Temples of the Sky by Deborah Houlding (also see articles on Skyscript)
Introductions to Traditional Astrology and Traditional Astrology for Today: An Introduction by Benjamin Dykes, PhD


 

Preferred Timing techniques:

+++
Zodiacal Releasing (per Vettius Valens, 2nd c.e.)
Vimshottari & Rasi Dasas (from Jyotish)
Secondary progressions
Solar arc directions
Annual profection
Solar return
Transits
++
Ascensional timing
Planetary periods
Firdaria
+
Logic, Experience, Intuition

hilma af klint doves no. 2 1915

hilma af klint doves no. 2 1915