Options
09/May/14 08:24
Ah, certainty.
We often seek it out, and sometimes people look to astrologers for it. Clients sometimes come in looking for certainty. Critics and skeptics of astrology chide us that we don't really offer it. Many astrologers beat themselves up trying to find it (or beat each other up for not having it).
There is, I think, a drop of certainty out there in the Cosmos. But it is only available to those who exist within very tightly prescribed boundaries. Shoehorn yourself into a culture, a belief system, or a dogma (religious or scientific) and certainty is much easier to find.
But then again, it's not so much that we can push ourselves into a more limited world (we can, all right, but it's not the easiest or best solution). It's more that we emerge out of our limitations into a world of options, as we increase our awareness. That tightly limited world feels like a warm swaddling blanket for a while, but sooner or later it becomes a straight jacket as we open up to new possibilities.
When people ask an astrologer for certainty, asking 'what is going to happen?', they are often in a state of anxiety, and the comfy if constricting world of limitations seems like the safest place for their consciousness to reside. To the extent that they are still within that world, it may very well be possible to offer some certainty. If they are running back into it, certainty will be harder to find.
Yet I don't think that encouraging certainty the best approach to take. I prefer to point out that there are options, a greater horizon of possibilities. Usually, with a little work we can expand the set of possible outcomes, and create a set of options. Having options means that a person can decide what to do at any point in a process of change. The outcome of one's actions are by no means certain, but no matter the outcome, there will be further options (at least until one runs into a truly end-game situation).
To me, it seems far better to use astrology to explore options, and to create new perspectives on situations, than to search for certainty.
We often seek it out, and sometimes people look to astrologers for it. Clients sometimes come in looking for certainty. Critics and skeptics of astrology chide us that we don't really offer it. Many astrologers beat themselves up trying to find it (or beat each other up for not having it).
There is, I think, a drop of certainty out there in the Cosmos. But it is only available to those who exist within very tightly prescribed boundaries. Shoehorn yourself into a culture, a belief system, or a dogma (religious or scientific) and certainty is much easier to find.
But then again, it's not so much that we can push ourselves into a more limited world (we can, all right, but it's not the easiest or best solution). It's more that we emerge out of our limitations into a world of options, as we increase our awareness. That tightly limited world feels like a warm swaddling blanket for a while, but sooner or later it becomes a straight jacket as we open up to new possibilities.
When people ask an astrologer for certainty, asking 'what is going to happen?', they are often in a state of anxiety, and the comfy if constricting world of limitations seems like the safest place for their consciousness to reside. To the extent that they are still within that world, it may very well be possible to offer some certainty. If they are running back into it, certainty will be harder to find.
Yet I don't think that encouraging certainty the best approach to take. I prefer to point out that there are options, a greater horizon of possibilities. Usually, with a little work we can expand the set of possible outcomes, and create a set of options. Having options means that a person can decide what to do at any point in a process of change. The outcome of one's actions are by no means certain, but no matter the outcome, there will be further options (at least until one runs into a truly end-game situation).
To me, it seems far better to use astrology to explore options, and to create new perspectives on situations, than to search for certainty.