An Astrological Case Study

 Some 25 years ago I made a serious study of astrology and found, beyond any possible doubt, that it is a true science. I use that word but in reality astrology is a mixture of science and art which is why the materialistic scientist will always have a problem with it. A horoscope requires interpretation which is not to say that anything goes, but astrology is a symbol system and symbols can work out in more than one way depending on the subject. However, anyone who seriously engages with astrology on the more than rudimentary sun sign level will find that it offers a genuine description of many aspects of reality. The branch I found most interesting was that which describes an individual's personality based on the position of the planets at his birth, otherwise known as psychological astrology. Thus you have the Sun, Moon and various planets in the solar system all representing different aspects of human nature, and their position in the sky in the various constellations tells us what form those aspects will take. There is a lot more to it than that and I won't go into detail here. I will just say that of the many birth charts I studied not one was inaccurate as a map of the concerned individual's psyche, and many people expressed surprise that I had described them so well. This was not down to any skill of mine. I just said what I saw in the chart. Knowing my own birth chart has also given me greater insight into and understanding of my own character, and this, I think, is the most useful part of astrology. "Know thyself" is the old maxim. Astrology is one of the best ways to do just that.

I never had much interest in predictive astrology. For one thing, I don't think the current state of astrological knowledge is far enough advanced to be very helpful in this regard but, more importantly, I don't think God wishes us to know our future except, possibly, in the vaguest of terms. And I have no time for the fatalistic, superstitious side of astrology but that is not the fault of astrology itself. It is ignorant, self-seeking human reaction to it. You may as well blame love for jealousy.

Having said that, I certainly do think astrology can be used as a predictive method, and sometimes I have looked at the astrological significators after a particularly momentous event to see if the event could have been foreseen or, better put, was described in the planetary pattern. In my book Meeting the Masters I related how the solar eclipse of 1999 coincided with a heart attack and subsequent death of a friend of mine whose Jupiter was right on the point of the eclipse. More recently I was involved (peripherally) in an incident which also brought out the profound interconnection between the signs in the heavens and events on Earth.

A person I know  was involved in a bad accident. He was cycling round a roundabout when a car drove straight into him and knocked him over. The driver, who was a woman in her 90s (surely, incidentally, such people should not be allowed to drive or, at the very least, have to take regular tests?) was completely at fault. The right of way was his. She had been stationary, waiting for a car to go round the roundabout and presumably didn't see the cyclist directly behind that car and just drove right into him. The person's injuries were considerable. He had to be airlifted to hospital where it was found he had broken his ribs, collarbone, shoulder, femur and hip and in addition his spinal column was severely damaged. He was placed in an induced coma for 48 hours, underwent several operations, one of which lasted for 9 hours, and his chances of ever walking again are slim.

I happened to know this person's horoscope, having once done his chart. It occurred to me that something as life-changing and dramatic as this should be shown in the chart so after it was clear that he was beginning to make some kind of recovery (it would not have seemed decent to do so before) I looked at the progressions and transits for that day to see what they indicated. If astrology had any kind of substance to it they would surely have indicated something. Even with my limited knowledge it seemed obvious that Mars should be involved.

And it was, heavily involved. Before I describe exactly how I should briefly go over just what progressions and transits are for the uninitiated. These are the two main methods of prognostication. Transits are simple. You just compare the current position of the planets with their positions in the natal chart. On your birthday every year the sun makes a conjunction with where it was when you were born as should be obvious since we have a solar calendar. But every planet will have some sort of angular relationship with all the other planets in the birth chart at any given time. The most important are conjunctions (same place), squares (90 degree angle), oppositions (opposite or 180 degrees) and trines (120 degrees). Some of these are harmonious and some challenging but that also depends on the nature of the planets. It is also important to realise that the ways in which interactions may work out often depend on the person and how well or badly he or she is able to handle and channel the energies involved. This is one reason why the same thing will work out differently for different people. Every soul is unique and no two souls react in quite the same way to the same thing.

That's transits. Progressions are slightly more technical but not complicated. The theory behind progressions is that the greater is contained in the lesser and cycles repeat themselves. Thus, in the most usual form employed, every day of your life starting from birth has the same basic pattern as the equivalent  year. So one day after you are born contains the pattern for the first year of your life, the second day contains the patterns for the second year, the third day for the third year and so on. To see what is going on in your 50th year you would look at the chart for 50 days after you were born. Then you would compare that chart to the birth chart or else to the transits for the time in question, what the planets are actually doing now, or else subject it to internal analysis to see how the planets are interacting between themselves in the progressed chart. It would have been quite time-consuming to draw all this up before the advent of computers but now it is very simple even if I believe all would-be astrologers should certainly know how to draw up a chart themselves by hand using an ephemeris. That will give them a better insight into the mechanics of the thing. That, at any rate, was my experience when I started.

Another predictive technique is to use what are called solar returns. This is to cast the horoscope for that time when the sun returns to its natal position, i.e. your birthday, and use that as a forecasting device for the ensuing year. I've never used this before but when I applied it to the present case it did have something interesting to say.

I looked at the progressions for the time of the accident and the first thing I saw was that Mars was indeed very active. It formed an exact (less than 1 degree of difference) opposition to the progressed Sun. Standard interpretations of this would point to a time of anger, irritability and conflict on the one hand and, externally speaking, a tendency to suffer accidents and danger of injury on the other. What makes this worse is that both these planets are square, again to the degree, to progressed Jupiter which would have the effect of blowing up and exaggerating any of these tendencies, Jupiter normally inflating what it touches. In this case, with the 90 degree angle, negatively. The precise placements are Sun at 25 degrees Aries, Mars at 24 degrees Libra, less than a degree off the Sun, and Jupiter at 25 degrees Cancer. This makes a very tight T square, as it is known, which is regarded as one of the most challenging configurations in astrology. 

Now, one has to be careful. In terms of the progressed chart which, let us recall, moves one day for each year, this very close configuration will have been in place for a couple of years and it has another year to run. It may have been even tighter a few months ago. But this just means that psychologically the subject may have felt an inner anger and frustration. I believe this was the case though it wasn't expressed and that may have been the problem. What is bottled up and suppressed (which is quite different to controlled) has a tendency to burst out and manifest externally. But why, if this configuration had been in operation for almost 2 years, did it express itself with such violence on the day it did?

The answer again lies with Mars. I mentioned transits. On the day of the accident Mars was at 24 degrees of Libra making an exact conjunction with progressed Mars and therefore an exact opposition with the Sun and square to Jupiter. This triggered the whole thing and you could not ask for a more dramatic demonstration of the truth behind astrology. Astrologer Robert Hand in his book Planets in Transit says of Mars conjunct Mars that that any repressed aggressive energies, which will be running high at this time, will out "either physically through an accident or by projection: that is, you will experience the energy through another. This means that you may have to endure another person's aggressive acts, which may bring you harm." Another work speaks of violent acts and tendency to suffer injuries. The point could not be more clear. This is just what one would have expected to see. Astrology is not always so precise but here it reveals itself plainly.

Earlier I spoke of the solar return, that being the chart cast for the ensuing year on one's birthday. When I looked at this what jumped out was an exact (to the degree again) conjunction between the Sun and Saturn and, with less than 2 degrees of separation, another between the Moon and Pluto. This speaks without the slightest ambiguity of hardship and trial in the year ahead with deep emotional upheaval and upset involved. It could not be more plainly stated that there will be suffering in the year to come.

Possibly some readers will not be interested in the subject of this post. Some may even disapprove of it. But if the heavens declare the glory of the Lord they also show his wisdom. Astrology is not a substitute for religion or spiritual understanding but it can be a very helpful adjunct to it. The signs displayed in creation are ways to help us engage with it and understand it on a deeper level. At the very least, they can show us that there is pattern and purpose. In this case, the person involved is not a believer in astrology. Indeed, he specifically rejects it as superstitious nonsense, and from a scientific rather than religious point of view. However, it is possible that if, somewhere down the line when he has come to terms with what has happened to him, he engaged with it then it might help him see his new situation in a slightly different light and be able to find a positive aspect to an otherwise wholly negative experience. I hope so while recognising the enormous challenge anyone in this position would face. May God bless him and help him recover from his traumatic experience both physically and emotionally.