Astrologers have a reputation, which we ourselves and our forbears have propagated, of being able to foretell the future. If you run a Google search for “Can astrology predict the future,” the very first article is from a well-known astrology site titled “Predicting the future with astrology.”
The hunger to know the future is not, of course, limited to astrology. Climatologists, stockbrokers, economists – all are paid to predict the future. All fail miserably.
In our personal lives we long to know the outcome of our personal situations. As one client brilliantly wrote me in frustration that astrology could not provide a clear map for him, “It is difficult for me, who feels blind about many things in life, to see a possible path to the answers, and that I feel on the edge of great personal discoveries, without the ability to really obtain them.” I have certainly experienced those same feelings, and for many years I studied every aspect of my life through an astrological lens, hoping to find a clue to the future.
It’s not possible to know the future because we are on a journey of self-discovery. Religious people have a hard and fast belief system that tells them what their future holds, and for many that blind faith offers comfort. I am a person that needs to experience things to believe them, and what I CAN tell you is that after over 30 years as a student and practitioner of astrology I have learned to really trust the planets. The painful changes that we are forced to make under a Pluto transit can be seen through the eyes of hindsight as having been extremely beneficial. The hardships of a Saturn/Sun conjunction are later seen as having developed great resilience. If we pay close attention, we begin to see a pattern that each experience unfolds with purpose and leads to a future that we are more ready to face and embrace with trust.
This trust of the planets is echoed in a letter I received from a client a couple of years ago which I made the centerpiece of a blog post. The planets are only a reflection of the greater Wisdom of the Universe that supports and facilitates all life and all experiences.
For me, the observation of the planets on behavior, which after all is what astrology really is, has given me a closely personal experience of that Wisdom and a trust that the unseen celestial allies and teachers are guiding me through what sometimes seems to be a blind morass of decisions over which I have no control. These teachers instruct from within – they are that voice that says “Follow your heart. Do not be afraid.” The voice that we so often disregard and later realize was the correct one. Whether you think of this voice as being from a god or from your spirit guides, or your guardian angel or your spirit allies – it is the voice of your higher self that is always with you, providing assistance along the path.
So when we feel that we are on a path that is twisting out of control, and feel blind and powerless to control the outcome, seek out that inner voice and see what it has to tell you. We are here to succeed on this journey and while we may make mistakes along the way, it’s the journey itself that provides the answers.