astro logia a telling of the stars

astrology is ambient, like the Latin meaning of the word : it is all around

Astrology is vast. Housed within this broad term are many cultures’ systems and variants. Multitudes of methods, approaches, and schools exist.

Astrology is as diverse as the earth’s inhabitants and has been utilized in some way as long as we have been here. We look to stars and cycles to see patterns and meaning. It is a symbolic language, a starry logos. We see correlations, confluence, and synchronicity, as above so below. We ask questions. We listen.

Maybe you have noticed there has been a massive astrological renaissance underway for some time. It is an incredible time to be a student of astrology. There have been many translations of ancient texts in the last few decades, and so we have available for the first time in history a plethora of teachings coming right from the source of our traditions. I believe interpreting and applying this knowledge in skillful and responsible ways is our task at hand. 

As a lifelong student of astrology, I am deeply interested in its origins — as well as its metamorphosis. My approach is eclectic and integrative, nonlinear and structured. My approach is lunar, while honoring a solar axis. I’m a ninth sphere astrologer, a poly astrologer, a punk astrologer. This means I practice many forms and I don’t subscribe to hierarchies or hegemonies. I love tradition, but I am very wary of dogmatic, supremacist, essentialist, colonial thinking. I draw on and learn from many cultural traditions, innovations, and ways of approaching this practice and material (e.g. visual, mundane, Uranian /symmetrical, Hellenistic, Jyotish, BaZi and Chinese astrologies, harmonics, newly found objects, different zodiacs, lunar mansions, etc.). It all works.

🜄 water  🜂 fire 🜃 earth  🜁 air

some technical specifics:

I typically use the seven sacred visible planets as zodiac sign rulers, and I don’t subscribe to the very recent notion of modern rulerships: that the (invisible to us) outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto rule signs Aquarius, Pisces, and Scorpio. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn have been doing just fine as the domicile lords (rulers) of Scorpio, Pisces, and Aquarius for at least two thousand years. Even more importantly, there is an elegant symmetry to the original sequence of rulership which is totally lost when you hand over domain to these trans-Saturnian planets. Also sacrificed are layers of meaning inherent within. While there may be some associative similarities between outer planets and their proposed sign relationship, I think it is actually a disservice to try to limit these transpersonal bodies; to encapsulate and trap their meaning in a single zodiac sign feels forced, trivial, linear, mechanistic… See: A Conversation With Robert Hand - The Modern Astrologer With a Medieval Heritage.

I think you can and ought to read a chart with just the seven traditional (visible) planets, at least some of the time. Many modern western astrologers get hung up on outer planets, imo. You can always derive a tremendous amount of information from just the visible planets (the wanderers) ― especially via planetary configurations, house placement and house rulership, and so on. After establishing some structure with these essential points, moving on to the outer bodies (including asteroids, etc.) makes sense as they can offer quite specific additional information. 

I use a blended house system. Like Morinus, I use Whole Sign Houses along with a Quadrant system. Whether a planet is "advancing" or "retreating" around the actual angles is an important phenomenon that should not be overlooked. When a planet is rising, setting, culminating, or anti-culminating it is a physical/visual reality that helps to determine a planet's terrestrial strength (and quality). I sometimes use the Porphyry house system, which 2nd century astrologer Vettius Valens mentions using for specific techniques in his Anthology, and I experiment with intermediate house cusps as sensitive points in other Quadrant systems, like Placidus, Regiomontanus, Campanus, etc.

I use techniques from Jyotish, Indian astrology. Although I typically work with the tropical zodiac. Jyotish is remarkable for supplementary timing and divisional charts (which convey specifics around career, relationship, children, happiness, wealth, etc.), and to assess planetary strength like with Dig Bala (the directional strength of a planet).

I use midpoints, the 360 and 90 degree dials, planetary pictures (lots), and some other symmetrical (Uranian and Cosmobiological) tools and methods. This is atop a traditional Hellenistic, Persian, Early Medieval, and Indian perspective. 

• Note: the Lots (commonly called the Arabic Parts, i.e. the Part of Fortune) are one major unifying component between systems and astrologies throughout time. The Lots are older than Hellenistic astrology, probably Babylonian or Egyptian in origin, and utilizing them was of chief importance to Hellenistic and Persian astrologers. Modern astrologers too, due in large part to the lunation cycle work of Dane Rudhyar, employ the Lot of Fortune and sometimes the Lot of Spirit. The Lot of Fortune itself even offers an alternate Ascendant! Lots are planetary pictures―an important feature of Symmetrical astrology—and are expressions of planetary phase relationships. These sensitive symmetrical points are potent and mysterious, they marry astrological thought through the ages! To me they feel timeless.

I work with essential dignity as a framework. I do not place extreme emphasis on it. I see many practitioners limiting their judgements to essential dignity alone and I find it can be damaging and not wholly accurate. I like to see how dignity might influence planetary interchanges through reception, management, and aspects. Dignity must not be over-personalized. Damning judgments cause harm and people internalize them.

I also work with triplicity and trigon lords, bounds, antiscia, declination, parans, planets in phasis, heliacal risings and settings, and planetary stations.

Occasionally I work with asteroids and Transneptunians (TNPs): Cupido, Hades, Kronos and company. They are not imperative from my viewpoint but add embellishment and nuance, and can eerily describe the nature or quality of character and situations. Outer planets are a bit like asteroids, imo.

I find the twelve letter astrological alphabet to be too simplistic and often misleading: Aries = Mars = 1st House, Taurus = Venus = 2nd House, etc. For a deeper understanding of the signs, houses and planets, and meanings associated within, I think it is best to begin your study with the Thema Mundi (the hypothetical chart of the world. A tremendously beautiful teaching tool!) — or even consider chakras and their relationship to the signs.

* also consider the symmetry in the sign-based decanates of the zodiac—reinforcing the significance of the seven planetary rulers.

Recommended:
Articles at Seven Stars Astrology
Vettius Valens, Anthologies
Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra
Komilla Sutton online Library
The Planetary Joys and the Origins of the Significations of the Houses by Chris Brennan
Books
Astrology & the Authentic Self by Demetra George
The Combination of Stellar Influences by Reinhold Ebertin
The Houses: Temples of the Sky by Deborah Houlding (also see articles on Skyscript)
Introductions to Traditional Astrology and Traditional Astrology for Today: An Introduction by Benjamin Dykes, PhD
(I need to update this list.)