About Astrology - Reprise

I've been going through the archives of the old Esther & Son website, pulling pieces together to set up some basic info for this site such as a section on the Signs pulled from Mom's Books.

I found the following, which I wrote for the the Esther & Son site several years ago that says a good deal about how I approach astrology. I thought I'd just drop it in as a post to keep it around.

Tis the Set of the Sail -- or  -- One Ship Sails East

But to every mind there openeth,
A way, and way, and away,
A high soul climbs the highway,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth,
A high way and a low,
And every mind decideth,
The way his soul shall go.

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1916

We are not victims.  Humanity is evolving very rapidly right now, becoming more and more aware of the forces that push us in various directions, whether or not that awareness also includes an understanding of Astrology.  The better we see, the more effective we become.  Astrology is only one of the tools we can use to shed light on what we are doing. We can also be blinded by Astrology if we fail to relate it to the knowledge of how the real world functions. It can be used to reinforce your own prejudice rather than to broaden your own objectivity.

It is of paramount importance that you understand  how humanity as a whole can live together in peace and harmony in order to escape the devastating effects of running head long into a destructive blind alley. Every psychological pattern which fails to meet our needs, results in a corresponding physical problem. Every planetary position in every chart can be used positively and constructively or negatively and destructively. You can destroy yourself with too much luck and protection. You can stubbornly direct yourself to worthless goals. But you can also find ways to "use lemons to make lemonade," rise above circumstance and navigate out of danger.

If you are clever and objective, Astrology will help you to know which way the wind is blowing and how to use it to control your own life. Some of us learn by experience. Others continue to sell ourselves a worthless bill of goods about what brings happiness and what does not. For centuries it has been: "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne", but we live in a time when much more information is being revealed and it is up to us how to make use of it.

What we have failed to realize is that even those in power have not achieved what really enriches life.  So often, we bind our self to the tread-mill by compromising with evil, saying "I had no choice" or "Someone made me do it". No one escapes the responsibility for their own actions. It is simply not possible to shift the blame. You reap what you sow just as surely as the sun rises each morning.

BTW, here's another Ella Wheeler Wilcox poem,  The Law ("You are your own Devil, You are your own God. . ."  -good stuff!)