“Until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it Fate.”
That poignant message is a quote from Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist and psychologist Carl Jung. Learning how to read your own astrological birth chart is one method of gaining more conscious awareness of yourself and your place and purpose in the world. Everyone is born. Everyone inevitably has a ‘birth chart’, although not everyone may have access to an astrologer or astrology programs. But now more that ever, so many people have their birth data and can find access to a birth chart. Anyone with internet, a smart phone with apps, or a landline phone can, if interested, acquire a copy of their birth chart and learn from it.
Personally, I believe that at this day and age having your birth chart should be as common as having your birth certificate, drivers license, and social security card. What those other important documents don’t have that the birth chart does is all kinds of insight and adventures, if you work with it. By having more clarity and understanding of yourself and how you interact with the world around you, the more the light of awareness can push back the darkness of the unconscious- making the unconscious conscious. If you can clue into your patterns in relationships, for example, by learning what your birth chart reveals in this area of your personality and life, your knowledge will shed light on something that wasn’t so obvious to you. Like for example, why do you react a certain way around person ‘A’? Maybe you always get defensive with them. Why can you talk so easily to person ‘B’ yet find such difficulty trying to share your feelings or explain yourself with person ‘A’? And if both of those relationships are important, would you want to know how to iron out the rough spots or at the very least understand why it happens so you can embrace the relationship as it is, know why it is the way it is, and have a genuine ability to shift the way it is if necessary- if the relationships are that important to you?
Many people who are not familiar with the science of astrology fear it as a system of fortune-telling or ‘playing God’. They let their ignorance prevent them from having an open mind and the interest to bring astrological information into their everyday life. Perhaps a bad experience with one reading or growing tired of watching You-tube videos that don’t seem to hit the mark when looking for personal validation, confirmation, or insight has made people grow weary and so they dismiss the subject altogether. To that I want to say, if you attempted to bake your favorite cake and it came out so-so, would you never eat that cake again or never try to make it again? One less than stellar reading or too many You-Tube videos leaving you dizzy and unfocused should not define your opinion of astrology.
Next time you look up at the night sky and witness the Moon or the afternoon sky and feel the Sun warming your face, or glimpse the late afternoon sky and capture a sneak peek at Venus or Jupiter or any other planet that might be visible to the naked eye at the time… let them be reminders that you- that we- are all part of something larger than ourselves, that the planets impact our lives on this earth, that centuries of recorded observation has presented us with researched, documented knowledge of how the planets, Sun, Moon and its Nodes affect our lives. Even more than that, they are a part of us and there is meaning and purpose behind all of it, and that we all have a place and a purpose.
“Astrology should be choice revealing rather than choice making.”
That key statement is a quote from psychotherapist and Vedic Astrologer, Dennis Harness, PhD, and is a perfectly expressed understanding of the active power of astrological knowledge, and exactly why it shouldn’t be scary (for those who fear its potential predictions). While most people who have never studied astrology a day in their life continue to shy away due to their fear or doubt or ignore it because they believe it will tell them all sorts of things they don’t want to hear, what they’re missing out on is all of the wonderful and supportive information their chart can open them up to and all of the beneficial and valuable information they can use to enhance their lives by consulting the charts of their friends and family members.
I mention Dr. Harness’ quote as suggesting the “active” power of astrological knowledge. This is a reminder that the information you pull out of the chart is not stagnant. The information changes with each passing day, each Moon cycle, each planet’s transit, each major and minor planetary period and subperiod you’re living through. You have an itinerary of all of that available to you.
Your chart is living with you; it’s a linear two-dimensional picture of how our planetary system lives through you. It grows with you. It accompanies you throughout your life like a treasure map, a best forever friend, a blanket to wrap you in difficult times, a well-worn pair of jeans that you have the greatest of comfort in. And because it’s all of that, it doesn’t tell you what to do. It shows you possibilities. It encourages you. It points the way, but you need to do the walking. It offers suggestions for best outcomes. It holds your hand and gives you a shoulder to cry on when it reveals new understanding or closure you were looking for and needed.
Ultimately your birth chart is a pathway into your inmost self, an instructional manual that helps you connect your ego and personality to your Soul. It’s the planetary ‘how-to’ manual that can lead you to your divine essence to help you begin seeing the bigger picture, one that expands beyond your home, your town, your state and country, beyond the rest of humanity on earth, and into the realm of the Soul, if you work with it.
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Renate Maria Bell is a certified Vedic Astrologer, Jyotish Visharada, and approved teacher with the Council of Vedic Astrology. She can be reached at renatembell@aol.com
Image of Zodiac is an illustration from Sacred Heavens: Coloring Experiences for the Mystical and Magical, by Lydia Hess, illustrator; colored by Renate during the pandemic lockdown 2020 (no affiliation– just recommend a great coloring book for those interested)