Originally published July 9, 2009
“Astrology is not a belief system; it is a language of the dynamic interplay between our interior life and the exterior world. The astrological language grants us access to the invisible realm it describes, and provides the vocabulary with which we can begin a detailed investigative exploration of the psyche.” —Caroline W. Casey, Making the Gods Work for You
In the summer of 2002, I found my way to Casey’s book on the astrological language of the psyche. At the time, I had been working as a Jungian Child Play Therapist, and my clients were abused children ranging from ages three to eight. Without the cognitive ability to fully articulate in verbal or written language the experiences they were having, these children explored and made meaning of their inner and outer world through play, using toys as their words.
As a result of further education in symbolism and myth and over many hours spent observing and interacting with these children, I saw the themes that emerged, and how certain toys were consistently used to express particular experiences. My understanding that the psyche organizes itself through archetypal energies became evident.
A lifelong intrigue and resonance with astrology began as a child and although I read books and took classes over the years, something was missing. Most of the time what I was exposed to felt trite and superficial. I was searching for something more meaningful with depth. Reading Casey’s book, and listening to her speak, I finally found what I had been looking for. Further reading of Jungian Analyst and world famous astrologer Liz Greene’s books, added to the richness and complexity my own psyche thirsted for. Eventually, I made my way to Shamanic Astrology, a blend of archetype, mythology, psychology, spirituality and experiential understanding through direct participation with cosmology in the “As Above, So Below” mysteries.
At the beginning of Casey’s book, she invites the reader to “Think of your life as a spiritual detective novel. Each aspect of your life…is a clue to your task, your destiny, and your gift to the world. Astrology invites us to see life as a web of myriad meaningful patterns. Those moments when we apprehend and perceive patterns give rise in us, to feelings of reverence and awe. Reverence, awe, and positive spiritual intrigue are the primary dynamic qualities the language of astrology seeks to awaken in you.”
In service to what she calls, “the collaboration with the divine in order to co-create the most interesting, ingenious, and loving world possible,” Casey offers her book as an invitation to “experiment, engage, and form alliances with forces that reside within our psyches. These forces connect us to very real corresponding external sources of support, which we will call gods.” She adds, “We need all the help we can get.”
Casey says true help is always reciprocal: whatever we help serves us. “The word therapy means “healing,” but its original meaning was “to serve the gods.” Similarly, the Mayan word for human meant “one who owes the gods.” We serve the gods, internally and externally, in a dance of reciprocal generosity. “When we work for the gods, they work for us.”
Casey posits astrology is at least threefold in its purpose and practice:
* Astrology is descriptive. Jung said, “Anything born at a moment of time has the characteristics of that moment.” Astrology provides a language to describe the characteristics of a person, event, or time.
* Astrology is instructive. Through astrology, we learn how to dance with the ch’i (life force) of the universe. We learn how to play the energies and perceive the patterns, and view them as instructions revealed to us by our intuitions.
* Astrology is celebratory. We only truly possess the power of an insight when we give it expression. Collectively, throughout time, the celebration of celestial order has been what gave a community not only its calendar, but also its story, its cosmology-a sense of intimate place in the vast design.
Casey’s focus is on “Visionary Activism.” She says that each of us has some crucial task to perform in the Grand Intrigue, a task that will not only transform us personally, but also transform the entire climate of culture. She says, “By responding to astrology’s invitation to participate consciously in evolution, we cultivate the infinite capacities of being fully human.”
The following Visionary Activist Principles are derived from her own years of “serious whimsy and musing:”
PRINCIPLE 0 (Zero). Believe nothing, entertain possibilities. Therefore everything hereafter is offered playfully.
PRINCIPLE 1. Imagination lays the tracks for the Reality Train to follow.
PRINCIPLE 2. Better to create prophecy than to live prediction. What makes us passive is toxic. What makes us active is tonic. This is the difference between predictions, which make us passive, and prophecy, which is active co-creation with the divine.
PRINCIPLE 3. The invisible world would like to help, but spiritual etiquette requires that we ask. Help is always available (operators are standing by).
PRINCIPLE 4. The only way the gods know we’re asking for help is ritual (in Shamanic Astrology, we would say ceremony).
PRINCIPLE 5. If something’s a problem, make it bigger.
PRINCIPLE 6. We only possess the power of an insight when we give it expression.
PRINCIPLE 7. Creativity comes from the wedding of paradox. We aspire to be disciplined wild people who are radical traditionalists.
Through “invocative essays” Casey’s book aspires to “expand your range of intimacy with the god-forces represented by the ten planetary bodies other than the Earth (including the Sun and the Moon).
© Holly Alexander at http://www.yourdivineblueprint, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Holly Alexander and http://www.yourdivineblueprint.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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