This article can be read in full on the Cosmophilia website, where you’ll find Eric’s grand-slam readings for this year. You’re invited to comment here or on the Cosmo site. — Amanda P.
by Chad Woodward
Astrology can bring enchantment and connection back into everyday experience, helping us to reinvigorate the familiar axiom, “As above, so below.” Long before the advent of the scientific method, when only seven planets were acknowledged by ancient astronomers, human beings had derived this simple understanding of the universe that still pertains to this day.
Photo by Alan Fitzsimmons / ESO/A under Creative Commons.
This ancient hermetic axiom tells us something truly profound about our existence in such a delightfully simple way. It tells us that everything is connected, that the universe is a reflection of consciousness, and that the state of the external world communicates — it gives us messages and signs.
Astrology is just a sophisticated evolution of reading tea leaves, but the premise is still the same. The universe speaks to us. While our modern mechanistic worldview would snicker at such a notion, tainted by what astrologer and historian Richard Tarnas calls cosmological disenchantment, some part of us can’t help but feel a resonance with that truth. Why not? Why do we need to explain astrology through a concrete mechanistic principle for it to have validity?
This is not to say that such an explanation will never emerge or that it’s irrelevant to the conversation, but what’s wrong with entertaining the notion that the universe is a reflection of all existence? Modern science has pretty much come to the conclusion that matter is made up of empty space — that what we experience is pure energy. When Einstein proposed Relativity, he presented a new modern axiom: time is relative to motion. The stars that we perceive are in vibrational accord with our very cells. If true, the universe that we experience is one being, moving in an incomprehensible cosmic unity.
And so we’re back to what the ancients knew all along. When you ponder this, your existence makes perfect sense. You are an expression of that infinite cosmic dance. You are a piece of all existence, and your perceived separateness is an illusion relative to your speed of motion.
What’s so beautiful about life is that every nuance is significant because it’s an expression of the entire universe. Every seemingly petty and mundane experience has a deeper, metaphysical meaning beyond what it appears to be. If time is relative to motion, then we can surmise that human beings, encased in these fleshy bodies and inundated by fears, dreams, hopes and desires, have chosen for some reason to slow down, to stop and smell the roses and take in all the stars.
When I think about that, I smile inside. It makes the pain, suffering, joy and happiness all the more valuable. When I think about why I’m here, I just remember that I’ve chosen to slow down, to take in the now and glimpse the intimate moments of time and space — those moments that have such value for soul growth and the acquisition of understanding.
I didn’t always feel that way, and I still don’t on some days. I’ve always felt detached from the world and life itself. Astrology has brought me so much understanding about myself. So clearly and poetically astrology reveals my existential plight illustrated in the harmonics inherent to the universe. For whatever reason, I chose this experience. I’m here and I’ve decided that while I’m here I’m going to make the best of it.
Chad, what a beautiful phrase: “Your perceived seperateness is an illusion relative to your speed of motion.” Which of course is time and space–that which our soul has decided to manifest (that is occupy) for a human experience. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your piece, it had mysticism, reality and beauty wrapped all in one, you are a poet! Toward the end of your writing you urged us to slow down and observe (smell the roses and take in the stars) after all we are “human beings” but so often we get wrapped in the concept of “human doers” that we forget how important it is to just observe and be. I am finding this aspect of myself so important these days, which is antithetical from my upbringing (pretty much all of our upbringing–we live in a highly charged and competitive world). But when we focus on being, we bring creativity in its truest sense because we become attuned to whats important. The universe creates, we, too create. we are all vibrations. “To be” allows us to change our vibration. It permits us to tune into the universe’s vibration as opposed to the same hectic, competitive mechanistic vibration of our times. If we want to change the soul of the world, we need to learn to be and as you urge us here,” tune into the stars,” thank you for the beautiful reminder. Namaste’