Preface

So you have decided to study astrology. Welcome. You are starting a journey toward self-understanding as well as gaining the ability to understand how the other fellow operates. Truly it is a spiritual science. It involves the relationship between the larger universe outside you and the personal universe within. The same energies that function in your personal universe function in the larger one ‘out there.' The blueprint we call the horoscope, or the birthchart, plots the energies that flow in your magnetic field. At the moment of birth you took into your body, with the first breath, the vibrations manifested on that day and time at that particular spot on earth. This basic pattern goes with you throughout life.

The birthchart shows our potentials and tendencies. One of our astrological teachers once said: “Man is not what he is because he was born when he was. He was born when he was because he was potentially what he is.” It is not because you were born at a certain place or time that you react to influences, but the influences of that moment and that place in space show your potentials that can be actualized in the future. Fate is earmarked in tendencies, not in facts. All anyone can see in a birthchart are tendencies that will become facts if one does not do something to alter them. None of us comes unbound into this livingness. We do not start here, and we do not finish our livingness here. Life is eternal. If we have it in front of us, is it not logical to believe we may have it behind us too? It is as though we have a built-in bookkeeping system. We have debits, and we have credits. Some of us come into this life with a great deal of capital in our spiritual bank books. This is earned income from a past life. Others come in with a depleted bank account. This is the difference between an easy life pattern and a difficult one. However, there is nothing to stop us from using up our capital and becoming bankrupt, or going to work to make up the deficit so we will have a surplus with which to function.

The horoscope is a blueprint of our character. Character IS destiny. There is nothing static in this universe in which we dwell. We can change by changing our attitudes and patterns of behavior. In so doing, we change our destiny. Yes, the blueprint or birthchart shows your character and your personality pattern—your human nature, but you are spirit too. The stars impel but do not compel. An understanding of planetary influences allows you to take your life into your own hands and intelligently utilize the planetary influences that will help you in your evolution if you but will.

Astrology deals with symbols. The signs of the zodiac are symbols of great and potent forces. The physical planets are but the outer forms through which soul energies manifest. It is these energies that affect us, not the physical planets. When you meet a person you are not affected by his physical body. Yet you respond to his character and personality to your benefit or detriment. So it is with planetary energies.

Let us consider your horoscope to be a roadmap. It shows the conditions you are going to meet in life. Some of the roads on which you will travel will be smooth and easy if you have built them well in a past that your personality does not remember. Some of the roads will be in poor condition and need repair. If you repair them and put them into good condition your vehicle will not break down and cause you difficulties and delays.

Always the idea of rebirth raises the question: “If I have lived before why do I not remember and know?” Your personality is new but not the soul. The soul is the unit of evolution. The personality is the unit of incarnation. When you become conscious of who you truly are—a soul using a personality through which to function—you will remember.

Another thought worth pondering is this one. “How much do I consciously remember oí what I have lived in this lifetime?” As you will learn later in your study of astrology, the knowledge is in your subconscious self. Your subconscious self has hidden in it the sum total of all your experiences to date. You will find as you study that you will be developing your intuitional facilities for you are dealing with powerful energies that will aid in your spiritual on-going. How much you get out of this study depends on how much you put into it. It is security invested in your spiritual bankbook upon which yau can draw in any crisis or experience where understanding is needed. If you have not studied for a long time the study of astrology will be a means of removing the rust from your brain, not only in one area but others as well. New pathways or grooves in the brain are made with every new study you take up. There is an actual expansion of dormant brain cells when you make new pathways of comprehension in your gray matter. The first part of astrological study involves the use of your memory. The signs and the planets that rule them must be memorized though I would like to add the word visualized. Dwelling on the symbols, pondering their meanings, meditating on these energies, will bring you in contact with the power behind the symbols. Remember: any knowledge gained through outer study takes you as far as your conscious mind. There is a Superconscious Mind beyond that area where you can gain direct knowledge from the source of your Being. That part of you already IS Understanding—IS Wisdom—IS Knowledge NOW. Astrology is one of the means of knowing that SELF. So let's be on our way.

Godspeed.