Keys to Self-Mastery: The Transformative Potential of Astrology
When I first began my spiritual journey in earnest, about three years ago now, I was given a very strong message that I needed to find myself a key. Give yourself a key. Give yourself a key to open the door.
Around that time I was very into Jungian personality stuff. This was because, as the case is with most people who begin their spiritual journey, I had no idea who I was. I had no idea what I wanted from my life. So I turned to personality assessments, which were very helpful up to a point. But at some point they failed to tell me about myself and what was unique to me – and I started learning about the theory behind them – which was how I got into Jung.
And ultimately, how I found astrology.
Jung himself was a believer in astrology, so perhaps because an academic figure that I admired was interested in astrology, I allowed myself to be curious about it. I allowed myself to believe that maybe it was true, and see what I could learn from it.
What I didn’t know when I first started exploring astrology was that it was going to be the key, the key that I had been told I needed to find.
Astrology is an infinitely useful system for understanding the energies that are at play in our life. When I looked in my chart what I began to see were certain energies there:
I saw my intuition.
I saw my emotional self.
I saw my rational, thoughtful self.
I saw my creative energies.
I saw my inner warrior.
I saw my ability to love.
And more importantly than that, I saw how these energies had been throwing me around. I saw because of how I did not own my intuition, how I didn’t own my emotions, how I didn’t own my assertiveness or my need to change my life or let go of things or create new things – how in not owning them – they had owned me. By suppressing or ignoring the energies within me, only a few things had really happened: the energies got projected outwards and onto other people; they got released when I had a bit too much to drink (and not in a terribly pleasant way either); they lead to me unconsciously sabotaging myself when I did things that weren’t true to me.
And looking at my astrology chart, I saw all of these things. And I saw how I could transform them. I saw how I could become master of them. I saw how by creating space in my life for the positive aspects of these energies – ways to creatively express my emotions and learn from them, ways to harness my intuition and discern what thoughts and feelings were mine and what were other peoples, ways to set boundaries and fight for myself when necessary, ways to express my love and gifts to the world – I could empower myself to create my own life. I could empower myself to feel in control of my destiny.
We come into life with certain energies we are learning to work with – and these energies are unchangeable. There is no running away from them; there is no real place to escape to. They are just you. The only thing we can do is own them, and transmute them to their highest form. What seems like over-emotionality can turn into a deep sense of feeling and experience of life, as well as a sense of compassion for other people. What seemed like anger and impulsiveness can be turned into assertiveness and the ability to fight for justice. What seemed like a tendency to daydream or use food, alcohol, or drugs to numb life can be turned into a deep connection to spirituality, to other people, and to God.
Everything, everything, can be transformed with awareness and acceptance.
And astrology is a tool which allows us to find that awareness and acceptance.
