Q. I was brought up a fairly strict Christian and yet am attracted to astrology because I feel some important truths are found in it despite its apparent polytheistic worldview. How can I reconcile the differences between these two belief systems?

A. This is a great question on so many levels, as astrology as a field and its practitioners have suffered much from various forms of ignorance and misunderstanding. Mention the words astrology and Christianity together and the word “inquisition” just seems to be the next one to pop into one’s mind. 

You are right in mentioning its apparent polytheism because even though the planets and asteroids are named after the old gods and goddesses, inherent in the system is the same unifying principle of oneness. The map, the birthchart is a circle, the universal symbol of wholeness, in which all signs, planets etc are all aspects of the whole, of the one. The symbol of the Sun has a dot in the centre of another circle representing the individual ego at the centre of something far greater, of which its is in the slow process of becoming, of realizing its divinity, that the spark of our individuality is also the spark of the divine, that we are all forms of god. The chart just tells us which particular ingredients of god/goddess we are made up of this time around…click ‘Read More’ to continue…

Astrology is a powerful system and it is easy to see why it was treated as heretical, as did anything else that challenged the authority of the patriarchal church. There is evidence that astrological references, like reincarnational ones, existed in early Christian texts and depending what you read, that Christ himself was born into a Jewish sect called the Essenes, who included great healers, mystics and astrologers. It is said that much of this was deleted by the 4th century AD but nevertheless astrology continued within certain Christian communities through the centuries. I have met committed Christian astrologers even now who’ve made it work for themselves, like any other subset in the field.

It is a mistake though to see astrology as a religion, although you will get its own brand of fundamentalism with lots of quasi-religious overtones. It is brilliant in so many ways. One of the greatest effects of having a birthchart reading is that it can help us understand our place in the bigger scheme of things and that everything we attract has meaning. This is tremendously reassuring but in the long run astrology is still a man-made system, however divine its initial sources are. At some point you have to leave the limitations of the system, to go beyond to the ultimate source, whatever you call it.  It’s the same with any belief system, the very essence of what we seek is beyond the beliefs, whether we call it the Christ within, Great Spirit, Krishna or Allah.