Sep

18

Why I Love Being An Astrologer

Filed Under Pisces, Saturn, new moon, virgo | Leave a Comment

When I was in my early 20’s and fresh out of college, I trained as a river guide with a non-profit outdoor organization. I came to spend most of my weekends on the wild rivers of California, navigating white water and leading groups of inner city youth through nature’s twists and turns. It was a scary and exhilarating responsibility, assessing the rapids and making judgment calls based on nothing but my training and my instincts.

Though I haven’t been on a raft in nearly 17 years, I am reminded of these times now in my work as an astrologer, as I assist my clients in navigating the rivers of their lives. Giving a reading is a bit like moving through a rapid, as I guide people through  turbulent areas, but also point out possibilities for growth or new opportunities or  direct them to the calm resting periods of their lives, when it’s time to just take a break.

The people I work with trust me with their vulnerable places, their secrets, their dreams and their hopes for the future. They also gift me with stories of their success and I’ve had the privilege to witness many of my long-term clients blossoming through the years, growing more fully “into themselves” as they embody the story of their natal astrological charts in their own perfectly individual but perfectly wonderful ways.

I love the excitement of a reading, knowing that we’re going in a general direction, with a point A to a point B, but not knowing exactly how we will get there. Like my time as a river guide, with readings, I depend on both my training and my intuition, watching for signs of which path to take with a client, pulling back if there appears to be danger ahead, and sometimes taking a bold leap forward, pushing through a challenging place with them and arriving together on the other side, exuberant and alive.

Both river rafting and astrology involve reading and interpreting the stories that the natural world offers up to us. These stories are a gift from the earth, the stars and the sky, a sacred gift that teaches  us how to navigate the challenging areas of life, learning to move with the energy of the natural world rather than against it. These stories  also help us to maximize the opportunities and possibilities that exist in life, learning to time our actions with the cycles of nature.

Today’s New Moon conjunct Saturn in Virgo and opposing Uranus in Pisces is a reminder of this “earth gift”. Awakening our attention towards the “hands in the dirt” practicality of Virgo, we can grow more attuned now to not just our individual bodies, but also the body of the planet. This lunation raises the question: How can we maintain the health of both of these two forms of life that are so irretrievably connected? Uranus in Pisces simultaneously reminds us of the realm of spirit, flow, trust and compassion. Can we also dare to dream and imagine a heart-filled future, rooted in an awareness of our inter-connection?

The Saturn/Uranus opposition highlights both ends of the spectrum, reminding us that service to each other is also a service to ourselves and service to ourselves has the potential to serve others.

This planetary configuration shows up by transit in my own chart along my 6thhouse/12th house axis and conjunct my nodes in Virgo/Pisces, so this has been very much a time of questioning for me, as I look at how I serve and how my service serves me back. The quiet Saturnian light of the Virgo New Moon has reminded me of why I love being an astrologer, focusing my attention on the rhythm that beats at the heart of my work.

The ongoing and continuously unfolding story of the earth is the story I want to tell, the story that feeds and enchants me and keeps me motivated to keep exploring the wild rivers of the soul. Every person I work with is a unique manifestation of this story, a thread in the greater tapestry of life, and listening to and articulating these stories serves me, allowing me to flow into and merge with that great Piscean stream that makes us not just wonderfully divine, but also simply human.