Astrology is a remarkable science. On one hand, we often hear about it in the media, mostly in the form of astrological forecasts; on the other hand, we know almost nothing about what it truly is, what it can offer an ordinary person facing current challenges—whether of a social, domestic, or spiritual nature.
To the question “What is astrology?”, someone might answer that it is the science of the stars, while another might clarify that it is one of the methods of predicting the future, enabling orientation within life’s space. Both are correct. Yet few realize that one should primarily turn to astrology in order to know oneself, to discover the inner causes behind external events occurring within one’s own personality.
Modern astrology does not view the horoscope as an unchangeable set of life circumstances that negates human choice and spiritual growth, but rather as a set of tasks received by a person at birth. Depending on how one approaches a given situation and what choices one makes, the external circumstances of life will unfold accordingly. The purpose of astrology is precisely to help a person understand the meaning of past and present events, as well as to become aware of the main vectors of development along their unique life path. Through this clarification of individual meanings, a person gains a new understanding of themselves and the surrounding world. This allows for a transformation of one’s behavioral patterns, thereby enabling the future to be changed for the better.
However, it would be incorrect to interpret astrology solely from a psychological perspective, reducing it to the study of personality traits. Every thoughtful person who studies this unique science inevitably arrives at astonishing conclusions, gaining deeper insight not only into themselves but into the world as a whole and their place within it. As the renowned astrologer Llewellyn George wrote, “Astrology, as an interpreter of Nature, shows that the world is governed in accordance with a well-developed plan, that everything is arranged in a marvelous order, properly executed in time with astonishing precision, and reveals an infallible accuracy.” The ability to perceive universal and general interconnections of earthly events was originally the driving force behind the development of astrology as a science. Indeed, it is the oldest science on Earth. It has accompanied the emergence of civilization. While practicing agriculture, humanity noticed the cyclicality of natural processes and the recurrence of events. It is known that by the beginning of the 11th millennium BCE, astrology was already established in ancient Assyria, Babylon, and India. Astrology did not bypass any known culture. We encounter it in Egypt, China, ancient Greece, and ancient Rome. It also gained widespread popularity in the Arab world. Astrology is not merely the oldest science on Earth; it served as a catalyst for the development of other sciences, functioning as essential tools for understanding both the surrounding world and, most importantly, humanity’s place within it. Among astrology’s adherents, we find such renowned scientific figures as Pythagoras, Plato, Avicenna, Al-Biruni, Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. In later times—Newton, the mathematician and philosopher Leibniz, Walter Scott, Stendhal, Byron, Shelley, and Goethe. Many 20th-century scientists also engaged with astrology—C.G. Jung, A. Einstein, his follower D. Bohm, and many others. Particularly interesting in connection with the aforementioned approach to astrology is the concept of the “Holographic Universe” proposed by one of the world’s greatest theoretical physicists, David Bohm. What exactly is the “Holographic Universe”? According to Bohm, the nature of the reality in which we exist is a unified, flowing movement possessing a holographic structure, in which every particle contains information about the whole. This flow has two fundamental aspects—explicate and implicate order. The explicate order is the external world, the universe of material space, time, matter, and energy. This is the realm with which science deals and how our traditional Western thought perceives the surrounding world. The implicate order, however, is a realm which Bohm describes as a wave-like informational field permeating every point in space and time. Always present at any point in the physical universe, the implicate order carries information about the rest of the universe. Moreover, it structures and organizes what is called the explicate. It can be envisioned as a world of archetypes, a spiritual world, or as the precursor to the manifested world. According to Bohm’s teaching, a human being is not merely a physiological entity “descended from an ape,” but rather a kind of holographic space potentially having access to the fullness of consciousness. Here we also find resonance with many religious and philosophical teachings. By going inward, we discover that everything is within us. Each of us is everything. Thus, returning to astrology, based on all the above, the proposed approach to its essence becomes clear and logical. An astrological chart is, on one hand, a reflection of the actual existing (i.e., physically perceivable) arrangement of planets and stars in the sky at a specific moment in time, linked to a particular event (be it birth, marriage, business opening, etc.), thus representing the explicate order. On the other hand, at the implicate level, it provides information about the spiritual world of values, meanings, purposes, and significance of that moment. Working at this level allows one to correct and structure the explicate order of the external world, thereby changing external circumstances and transforming them in one direction or another. Therefore, the manifestation of certain events is primarily connected to the spiritual level at which a person exists—how deeply they can comprehend what is happening around them, whether they are ready first and foremost to change themselves, rather than constantly complaining about unfavorable external conditions and making childish attempts to seek help from outside. No wonder ancient Chinese wisdom states that the single most difficult thing a person can and must do is not to remake the world around them, but to change and transform themselves—and then the world will change.
Author: Perestoronina N.M.
