Down Home Astrology by Joseph Banks
Astrology is, by some accounts, humankind’s second oldest profession. Our ancient ancestors spent many nights gathered around small fires under a brilliant canopy of stars. Some of the lights in the sky moved around more than the others and these came to be called planets; from a Greek verb meaning “to wander”. If you put yourself in the mind of these early people, with life being one long wandering camping trip, it is easy to imagine how events such as births, deaths, raids on or by the neighboring clans became associated with certain patterns in the sky overhead.
As nearly as we can tell, from 4000 BC (some argue much earlier) to about 1800 AD astrology was concerned with events that affected whole groups of people, such as tribes or nations. Planting, harvesting, sacred festivals, holy wars were the events for which charts were cast. Occasionally the birth chart of the king or chieftain was examined. Astrology had little to do with the life of the individual.
In the mid 1800's some metaphysicians began to apply astrological principles to the lives of common folk. By the turn of the century the “Humanistic” movement in astrology was in full swing. More recently we have the humanistic psychologists, the “human potentials” movement, and now the transpersonalists using astrological principles to augment their psychological views. It is out of this rich soup that evolutionary astrology has arisen.
As I understand, we individuals are the expressions of our soul in this world of sunsets and apricots and tables. Our souls are evolving, as is everything else in the universe. The idea of reincarnation is central to this branch of astrology. The soul is not a static or perfect thing. Our souls are constantly changing as they evolve toward a more complete awareness of life.
One way the soul evolves is by sending out personalities to experience life here on earth. The passionate river of the soul’s desire to grow is contained in the cup of the individual person. The soul evolves in cycles, learning different lessons in each successive life. The particular lessons that our soul desires to experience are clearly indicated by a study of our birth chart. If we act in accord with our soul’s desire we are rewarded with personal growth and an idiosyncratic richness, which manifests in our life as experiences of synchronicity and joy. When we resist our soul’s intentions we suffer through our mistakes. This is characterized by a pattern where we find ourselves repeating the same mistakes over and over until we finally get it right. Then we move on to a new lesson.
To put it all together, by understanding the instructions in our birth chart we can come to know what it is that we are supposed to be working on this time around. Our soul rewards us with a sense of joy as we follow our life path. We suffer when we stray into self-destructive patterns. This suffering is not a punishment. It is simply an indicator that we are going off in the wrong direction. Astrology can also reveal how to break our habitual karmic patterns, which lead to pain. It is the job of the astrologer to interpret the chart as a ‘user’s manual’ so that we grow together with our soul towards the realization that we are co-creators of our own reality.
