I write the weekly column Starcodes on The Edge website to help people make the most of their week by resonating with the astrological cycles. I wrote the book Starcodes: Navigate Your Chart with Choice-Based Astrology to give my clients and all astro-interested a solid, available but not simplistic, entrance ramp into their chart… It gives students an empowering philosophical framework and a clear foundation to build upon. I hope they whet their appetite for further studies.
I designed the Astro Oracle deck to work as both as a useful oracle deck using astrological symbols to access intuitive advice – as a painless way to learn astrology’s beautiful language. I’ve found many non-astrologers find the language of astrology intimidating, give up after a quick visit – and this was my attempt to solve that problem. it is now available in 11 countries.
Astrologers could just pull a card and wouldn’t need the accompanying booklet to get the multi-dimensional meaning inherent in a symbol, though they might be interested in my read on the symbols as medicine. Those with no astrological background can use it as an oracle deck and learn a new term, in its complexity, every time they pull a card.
The Starcodes book takes the same choice-based approach to astrology as the deck, gives it a solid spiritual and astrological framework, deepens it, and makes it personal. The book is structured to mirror the deck to make it easier to move between them. It also adds meaning to the cards for those that use the deck. I hope to empower the reader to comfortably walk in and explore the magic of astrology and the potential in their chart.
Astrology is based on the concept that what we see above maps what happens below; we notice a relationship between the dance of the planets around our Sun and the energies we feel here on Earth. Each of those planets symbolizes a personality, a multidimensional archetype that resonates throughout the world’s mythologies as well as deep in our soul. They play out their archetypal dance in our lives. Stories of the Sun and Moon, Venus and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, though they go by many names, echo through most every culture. The Greek and Roman versions are the most familiar and accessible, but each mythology can deepen and broaden our understanding.
The astrological signs act like filters on the world’s stage lighting. The personality of each planet shines through the lens of a sign and takes on its tint and hue. The planetary personalities interact with each other in clear geometric patterns, or aspects – they argue, support, challenge, or energize one another.
How does astrology work? Astrologers differ on their philosophies. I work with the theory that planets do not make you do anything; rather, they are influenced by the same pulse, the same universal patterns, that you are, and are easier to read.
Think of it this way: Imagine you’re walking down a road along a fence, and you see sharp horns swaying over the top. You might not want to put your feet beneath that fence. The horns won’t hurt your feet, but the hooves that might stomp your toes are being moved by the same great mysterious force that shifts those horns. The stars and planets dance above us, above the separation between us and the cosmos.
The planets are always moving through time and space. When you pop in, when you take your first breath, you imprint that moment of your birth, and the planets keep on moving. As the planets move they set off harmonics, symphonies in your natal chart; they activate it, but you can choose how to respond.
For example – and here we run ahead, just to give you a peek – imagine you have a meeting scheduled with a feisty ex-spouse and see that defensive Mars and electrifying Uranus are about to conjunct near your natal Moon. This is an astrological version of seeing sharp horns over the fence. It might be hard on your tender heart. Mars and Uranus won’t start a fight between you, but they signal a pulse or pattern that could turn up the heat. Once you understand the symbolic meaning of Mars and Uranus, you can choose to direct this energy in a good way rather than have it ignite a fight. To work with this moment, you can choose to change a meeting date to a calmer time, and instead of wrangling that contentious gathering, you might head to the gym or launch a business and put that heat to good use.
These astrological patterns echo on all levels. They show the symbolic connection among us all. And importantly, they contain choice: choice among our interior metaphysical experience, the concrete realities of our everyday life, and the pulse of the practical, political, and mythic world around us.
You may become aware of an interesting subtle spiritual shift growing within you as you notice these symbols echoing on all levels of your life: how you spill your coffee or love your beloveds, what you see in political headlines, and how you experience your soul’s progress. You can track these astrological patterns in so many dimensions; this can only happen if indeed those levels are all interwoven. This points to a deep symbolic interconnection through all beings, all worlds, and all events. It is a flexible, hopeful connection – one shaped by the universal patterns interacting with both divine grace and our free will.
Astrology is one way that we can listen to Spirit, to those great universal patterns, and feel connected to the One. Each of us is a unique, independent being, and, at our core, we are all connected to all living beings, all our relations under the wide horizon of the sky.
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