Astrology: A Different Way of Thinking.

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Dear All, The following article is from:http://www.trans4mind.com/personal_development/astrology/diffThinking.htmLove and regards,Sreenadh===============================Ken Ward's Astrology Pages

Astrology: A Different Way of Thinking.

 

 

 

 

It is true that studying any subject in depth is a form of

meditation. When we study a learned subject, we read books and look at words. Because

words are merely sounds or squiggles on paper they have no inherent meaning at all (look

at a book written in a script you do not understand, such as Chinese or Arabic if you

doubt the meaninglessness of written words and spoken ones too!).Interpreting these

words into something meaning, is the first piece of magic we need to perform.. For this

task, Mercury and Gemini skills are essential. Reading, writing, discussing and checking

things out with our friends and neighbours is an important first step, especially for

children..

We need, however, other skills for advanced study. To explain this, I will use ideas as

an example..

If you want to define the word or concept "idea" then you

may have some problems. Some people define an idea as a statement such as "Cats like

fish", which is a fact and a piece of knowledge. This is OK for Mercury and Gemini.

However, other people believe ideas are mental pictures. Some of these will claim to

actually see a picture in their minds.

Other people are not happy with this at all. These are the kind of people who use

expressions like, "I feel this is right", etc. In school, they

may have been corrected by their composition teacher, who might have said, "You

cannot feel something right. You believe something is right. right and wrong aren't

feelings or emotions!"

 

Of course, people sometimes use the word "feel" when they cannot verbalise

something. It doesn't always mean they speaking from a water perspective and actually have

a feeling.

 

Yet these watery writers insist on saying that they do "feel"

something is right. An idea to them is a feeling.

It is not a combination of words, or a mental picture, but something felt.

Yet other people will disagree. They say that "The cat likes fish" in Chinese

is the same as the expression in English. Ideas aren't words at all. Yet what makes the

two forms of words - the one in Chinese and the one in English - the same? Such people

claim that ideas aren't words, or feelings, or pictures, they are something else that

cannot be expressed in language. Inspiration, insight, and similar words :-), cannot be

fully expressed in any other form.

 

What is reported as a feeling might actually be an inspiration (fire), an emotion

(water) or something tangible (earth) which cannot be verbalised, like explaining how to

swim or ride a bicycle.

Similarly, when people report seeing a picture in their mind, it could be something

real (earth) or it could be symbolic (water).

 

Now back to study and meditation.

When we think about higher education and understanding we think of the

sign Sagittarius, and the influences of Jupiter and Saturn. In higher education there is

more than the sound of words, but the flash of understanding. For deep understanding we

may need Scorpio. And for learning at a higher level the fire of Sagittarius. We might

also need the practicality of Capricorn. There are depths beneath mere words and a fire

that burns above (or below) them. To understand at a high level, we need fire, earth,

water and air.

And the process of learning can enable us to develop through a kind of meditation. A

study of astrology, in a serious manner, can lead to greater understanding of ourselves

and others.

Astrology gives us a vocabulary and an understanding that enables us to better

understand ourselves and other people, and, indeed, other subjects. We can learn that

other people might view things differently from the way we see them. They may feel things

or fail to see how our views are of any use at all. By understanding these people, we can

not merely communicate with them better, but also increase our own development, by seeing

things in a different way (or feeling them emotionally as a way of knowing, feeling them

tangibly as a way of knowing, etc).

 

Earth people might justify something by saying it is "common sense".

Water people might justify something because it is "kind" or oppose something

because it is "unkind".

Fire people might just say, "Watch me as I do it first!"

Naturally, air people are better at justifying with words.

 

We should not be tied down by the horoscope. If a person acts and talks like a cancer,

they are a cancer type. Even if they aren't that type according to their chart. We can,

and part of our development requires that we do learn to think, feel, act, etc in a

variety of ways, or at least understand the other ways that others can think, feel, act,

etc.

Air signs and mercury are extremely important in our lives because they involve

perception and communication, two essential skills or abilities in life. People like Van

Gough and Helen Keller experience extreme difficulty with a lack of these elements (or

lack of mercury well placed). This is the age of communication and people well endowed

with communication skills can achieve more than those who lack these skills.

The point here is that modern become a place where words become more important than

truth or ideas, as other people might see it. For example, laws are more words than

justice. Mercury rules the words and Jupiter rules justice. The two are not the same.

Similarly, for all the modern science in our lives, we still need a plumber to mend our

heating system and a doctor to bandage our fingers. There is an illusory nature to our

modern communication society. For all the computers, we still have to go to work!

Astrology can teach us that there are many kinds of people.. Modern society might tend

to think of all people as the same. It might even recommend ways of doing things, which

suit only some people. Astrology teaches that there are many kinds of people, and each

kind does better when they do things in the way that suits them.

Using the simplest idea of the twelve signs, astrology suggests there are twelve basic

types of people.. this immediately implies that methods and techniques which claim to

apply to all people are extremely naive, and self-evidently wrong for some or even most

people.

This ancient wisdom within astrology can be used without recourse to the practice of

casting horoscopes, etc, and world events and personal encounters, etc can be analysed and

synthesised with this knowledge.

In the same way, the practice of astrology can be used with other knowledge bases. For

example, the work of Bandler and Grinder in NLP can be used within astrology practice

giving it an advantage of having a clearer therapy base. Of course this is only one

example, and Jungian theories have been used as an astrology knowledge base in the past.

Such are a few of the very interesting areas of development and expansion of astrology.

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