Those of you who may have read an article I wrote for the New Zealand Journal of Astrology exploring symbols of earthquakes for New Zealand/Wellington in the coming few years may have registered the significance of the first few months of 2019, with its eclipses and various other astrological omens.
Although I didn’t come out with a prediction of an earthquake on a specific day or tight period of time - in my opinion not really technically possible in a useful way, and therefore probably unethical - I am becoming more critical of many astrologers’ reluctance to acknowledge astrology’s predictive core. I like to challenge myself and my students to make careful and well-justified predictions. I find it very much hones our skills as well as faces us directly with ethical and philosophical questions.
However, though I still hold that the signs are remarkably strong for a significant shake-up in 2019, especially in the first half of the year, I also am aware that a) this may manifest figuratively (eg. politically or socially), and/or b) just as individual human consciousness can shift the level at which something is encountered - the physical, the emotional, the relational, the spiritual etc. - so, too, do human collectives have the freedom and capacity to shift levels of expression of an ‘event’ such as might be symbolised astrologically. Theoretically this ‘shift’ can be done intentionally, but I suspect in reality is more accidental, or perhaps even - unfashionable as it might sound - a function of collective moral health or development.
Interestingly, right near the end of last year I was offered a deck of omen cards to draw from - something I do seldom and only with respect (Barry Brailsford’s Wisdom of the Four Winds omen cards). I drew only a single card: Earthquake. And whilst this clearly signals something significant in my own life, it immediately confirmed my hunch that the research for, or the writing of, the above article may have been to some - or a large - extent influenced by my own unconscious; the deep knowing that the stream of my own life was moving toward ‘earthquake’. This is not to imply that the article has no objective value (and to a large extent I find the arguments for an actual earthquake compelling), but was also a reminder of the inevitable intertwining of personal and collective, and the challenge for me - for astrologers and anyone working in this way - to stay always mindful of our place in the Anima Mundi, the world soul, that contains and connects all. There is always a good deal of ourselves in all the work we do - from individual to more ‘worldly’ predictions.
Along these lines, in preparing for a natal reading with a client I will locate possible symbol/s for myself in their chart. This might be planets on the Descendant or in the 7th and/or the ruler of the 7th, for example. I find it particularly useful - revelatory even - when working with long-term clients. Solipsistic it might sound, but whether it yields no other information the process of doing this reminds me that I, Graham, am reading their chart, and what arises is a function of our coming together at this moment in time. We enter into the mystery together.