Читать книгу Astrology: The only introduction you’ll ever need - Charles Harvey - Страница 44

What will happen to us? What is our destiny? Astrology can never answer these questions in absolute terms. The astrologer looking at a chart cannot see ‘events’ and people written on it. The astrologer sees in a chart combinations of energy and patterns of ideas which experience has shown are likely to manifest in certain ways. By studying the chart it is possible to see the kinds of issues that are likely to arise in a person’s life. If the astrologer knows how an individual has responded to certain kinds of patterns in the past, and also knows the current circumstances, it becomes more possible to make reasonably reliable inferences about the way that things may develop.

By the same measure, knowing the kind of energies which will be to the fore at a particular time, the astrologer will suggest ways in which they can be most constructively be directed. Thus planetary patterns which an astrology textbook might associate with the breakdown of a relationship may in practice express themselves as a ‘breakthrough’ which transforms rather than breaks the existing relationship. Ultimately, how the chart expresses itself is not preordained but a matter of individual consciousness and choice.

Almost everyone who decides to consult an astrologer wants to know what will happen to them. But destiny is, in fact, simply another expression of character. To the astrologer, they are one and the same thing. To take a simple example, a person with the planet Jupiter prominent will tend to be optimistic. Because he is cheerful, people will like him. This jovial type will tend to see the opportunities in any situation and people will be inclined to help. Thus he appears to be ‘lucky’ as ever-new vistas open up for him. By contrast, someone with Saturn in a dominant position at birth will be inclined to pessimism. The saturnine type will focus on life’s problems and may spend much time and energy defending against ‘what may happen’ and in becoming self-reliant. In the longer run, the eternal optimist may start too many ventures and finish none of them, take too many risks and waste his resources. By contrast, Saturn’s disciple, who has carefully put aside resources for a rainy day, and who has finished each project as it comes along, may well end up as a person of substance who has made a real tangible difference to the world. In each case, however, character has led the way and an astrologer merely reads the signatures of character and its implications.

Astrology cannot ‘foretell the future’ as such. It can, however, look at the qualities of a particular period and, like a weather forecaster, make intelligent conjectures about the kind of issues we are likely to be facing.