Astrology and Intuition

The Role of Feelings, Inklings and Hunches in Conversations about Astrology Charts

Article © 2014 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

Humans are blessed with two distinct brains with varied functions. Acting like I've got only half a brain—and practicing astrology that way—has always seemed like a no brainer to me—a bad idea.

Intuition was my partner in my astrology practice from Day 1. It’s important to remember that astrology is also a very left-brained pursuit with timing and grace notes as complex as any symphony. To make the best music requires playing with both precision—hitting of the notes exactly—made more beautiful by right-brained interpretation. The latter is nearly always emotionally evocative.

The Power of Feelings

Our emotions are where our quality of life lives. For me as an astrologer, feelings are also where the quality of my readings have always come from. A particular aspect pattern can be interpreted in any number of related but distinct ways. It’s only from “getting the feel” of how an individual “plays” his or her chart energies that the most meaningful dialogue can occur about the score. We literally say, “What’s the score?” when we want to know what something’s all about. Whether it’s a tricky transit we are confused about how to handle or a natal blessing we just can’t quite harness to our advantage, it often takes someone else’s “take” to get a new and more functional perspective.

The best astrologers are good listeners, especially to the feelings expressed by another. Music is played to be listened to.

Another—the astrologer—listens to the client’s life compared to the “sheet music” and gets a sense of how she makes her own kind of music or how he sings his own special song (an homage to the late, great Mama Cass Elliott and her classic, Make Your Own Kind of Music.)

Style

Gertrude Stein said, “Style is everything.” One of the funniest examples I ever saw was at the Oscars one year. Rather than the typical, boring drone of the rules of the Academy that are required public reading, someone did a song and dance number to the “lyrics.” It was funny, memorable and true entertainment. It was Saturn tap-dancing. The incongruity alone was a riot.

How we help others step back and watch their own musical involves our personal style—ours and theirs. In a sense, I think there’s nothing more important in an astrology reading than a good style match between astrologer and client. That doesn’t mean a pair of clones talking astrobabble. It’s two people who can switch roles back and forth as wise one and listener. No one’s wiser than the client about his or her own life. And the role both people need to share is learner. Readings or just discussing another’s chart between people who speak the lingua Astro are dialogues among equals, like any other great conversation.

How Your Intuition Helps

I had a tarot reading by a close friend the day I started writing this article. Like any good reading, it confirmed my own inklings while adding a few surprises. It was the classic example of that conversation between equals, something Deanna and I have enjoyed together for years. It’s your own intuition that “knows” whether a reader is right-on about something he or she sees developing in your chart, cards or life.

Always bring your intuition to any consultation and trust it.

If your consultant or an Astro-savvy friend is veering off course from the many possible interpretations within the reasonable range of meanings of your current astrological symbols, don’t be afraid to rein him or her into your own zone of where it’s at for you now. Speak up when something doesn't fit or if a possible interpretation doesn't feel right to you. The analogy I use often is that a set of astrological symbols will get you into the ballpark of meaning but finding the specific seat happens in back-and-forth conversation. Part of finding your seat without a ticket stub to direct you is by eliminating which seats can't possibly be yours. This relies on you, the person who "owns" the chart to tell the other person when you get that feeling in your gut of resonance--or not.

Joining both the reader’s and recipient’s intuition and the power of that practice is why my favorite astrology reading has always been the Astro-Tarot. The combination of the left-brained chart (the score) and the right-brained tarot images (the interpretation) is uncanny. I’ve had the deepest of all readings using these tools in combo. One client said it was as if I were peering into her soul, but in the gentlest way … and it feels that way to me as both reader and recipient. If you’re very Plutonian or Scorpionic, you may want to read the Astro-Tarot article and experiment with this yourself. It even works solo. (I’m a compulsive solitaire Scrabble player, and I know you can learn a lot all by yourself, especially from a computer opponent programmed from a dictionary!)

How to See Intuition in a Chart

As a life-long intuitive who knows both the joys and pains of being a highly sensitive person, I’m all for bringing the best of sensitivity to the realm of astrological interpretation. It has often come up in consultations that the person requesting the reading can use help in developing his or her own sensitivities. I assume this is why these clients were drawn to me, as I’m a graduate of this particular course in the School of Life. Recognizing intuition in the astrology chart is fairly easy. Here are some of the places you’ll most often find it:

Naturally, a highly emphasized Moon or Neptune play a big part. (If these two are in aspect to each other, a psychic Geiger counter would be making a lot of loud noises. Don’t worry if it’s imaginary. This person can hear it!)  

Water signs are known for their intuitive abilities. Uranians have those flash insights and Aries has the best of that thing you learn about taking tests—go with your first hunch. Aries' speed and ability to capture the moment, even for just that second, enables him or her to “get” what’s happening. The trick is to try to be present and listening during the instant of Aries’ aha. I have a stellium-in-Aries friend with Venus in Pisces who is like an emotional tape recorder. She drinks in all the feelings and psychological content of everyone around her, and the replay is often very unhinging to those who don’t like the auditory version of a personal mirror. (Wouldn’t you know, Aries would be one of signs that can have issues with tact while at the same time, being the most capable of giving this kind of clear feedback.)

And since this is The Radical Virgo blog, let’s not leave out the Virgo penchant for hypersensitivity. How many Virgos do you know that just can’t get to their goals for fighting overwhelm or their latest psychosomatic illness? I’m not saying the illness isn’t real, only that it is psychological in origin. The busy, empathic, serving Virgo mind records his or her sensations in the physical body.

Separating the wheat from the chaff only works well when the psyche offers the complementary information needed to augment the facts of any situation. Whether something is ultimately good or bad for you, the bottom line is about how you’ll feel in the end.

Anyone can develop his or her intuition to the maximum. Some of us are already wired with almost too much of it. Learning to use it as a pendulum in assessing hunches you or others have about your chart is vital to uncovering your truth of the moment. How wonderful that we have a built-in mechanism for steering us in the right direction, often with a little help from our friends. We just have to learn to trust it. For me, that has been a lifetime evolution. I do things based on intuition now that I would have thought insane in my foolish youth. Emphasis on foolish.

The Mountaintop View: Retired from Readings

Now that I’ve been retired from doing readings professionally for a year, I feel I can view my experience with them more objectively from the mountaintop of yesterday. The feeling aspect still stands out as a strong and necessary component of how I’d ever work with mine and others’ charts, even in conversation among astrologer peers.

Stronger is the sense that astrology as a tool is enhanced by other symbol systems, as well as other kinds of experiential astrology tools. I’ve already mentioned the power of the Astro-Tarot reading.

Other tools I’ve discussed in previous posts continue to prove worthy complements. Thanks to a local astrologer colleague, Linda Kaye, I learned the tip about using AstroDice as a final oracle in a reading. I’ve experienced the addition of a whole new piece of information that the reading did not elucidate. Quite fun and startling to leave on a really meaty end-note of an additional slice of the Astro-pie. It was almost like getting a 13^th House, but in this particular case, the issues were about friendship and the 11^th.

© AstroTheatre: Jupiter in Gemini

Recently, I bought the AstroTheatre Astrocards app for my new iPhone. (Only $0.99!). Not only is it a great way to visualize any planet and sign in your chart with its groovy dressed-up characters; there’s a random spin option to use it as an oracle. Anytime during the day that I feel a need for the universe to speak to me, I just pop open the AstroTheatre app and ask for guidance.

Example: I just asked, "Are there any wrap-up ideas I need to share before closing this article?" I drew Jupiter in Gemini and the keywords: fortune, mobile and mutable. The biggest blessing we can be, while exercising the privilege of helping another find meaning in his or her chart, is to be flexible, communicative—as much a big listener as a big talker. Fortune is in our flexibility, because like the stars themselves, the  energies and issues of human beings are always shifting, the speed depending on the planets involved. These constant evolutionary shifts invite us to welcome the next improved version of ourselves.

An attitude of shared learning is easily portable like the mobile phone in this image. It goes with us wherever we go. One of the things I love about astrology is that very few people in the astrological community consider themselves experts. Most of the rest of us, given the vastness of the sky and the unfathomable depth of astrological knowledge, see ourselves as life-long learners. With everything constantly changing, both Above and Below, that’s the only thing that makes sense to me. In fact, Jupiter in Gemini is a good image for the perpetual student of the sky. To get the higher education Jupiter symbolizes—in this case in astrology—we gather intell on many astrology-related facts and facets of life, tapping that Gemini mutable curiosity to "taste everything" along with the urge to share it and communicate about it with other star-gazers.

May your Astro-flexibility and your intuition ever expand.  I chose the opening photo for this article because of the key ingredient that keeps both those qualities flowing—the wonder of a child. Believe in what the sky tells you and trust that you know how to fly—how to navigate it.

~~~

Photo Credits: © Konstantin Yuganov - Fotolia.com; ©AstroTheatre - Jupiter in Gemini

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Oracular Spectacular

A Primer on the Use of Tarot and Other Oracles

Article © 2013 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

 You’re not seeing double! The last post introducing this series included the first part of this article. Here’s the article in its entirety.

Q: What do tarot cards, fortune cookies, astrology, dreams and meaningful coincidences all have in common?

A: All can be used as oracles.

Oracle has many meanings from hokey to holy. I am most interested in #5 in the Dictionary.com definitions, namely a divine communication or revelation.

Oracles are symbol systems or tools that bridge your intuition and the creative, manifesting forces of the universe. Oracles strictly follow the orientation of the seeker.

When you open yourself up to divine inspiration, the Holy Spirit, your Higher Self—however you see good guidance according to your personal beliefs—those are the forces that will shine through when using these symbols. If you are fearful, or if you want your “fortune told,” where you have no power or spiritual backbone to co-create your own dreams in divine partnership; don’t be surprised to find negative energy in a tarot reading or other symbol system consultation.

Toolbox

Like any tool, oracles can be used for higher good or dubious intent. Think of a knife. In the hands of a skilled surgeon or premier chef, this tool can perform miracles of healing or nurture. In the hands of a serial killer—not. Like all tools, oracles run the gamut of agony to ecstasy. Again, the difference lies in the hands of the user.

With oracles, the seeker often uses a medium—a consultant—rather than consulting the cards or other symbols directly, although people do both, of course. That’s why choosing a consultant is especially important if you use one. The medium is the message.

Let me start with a couple of bad examples. I once worked with a woman who consulted a well-known, local astrologer on all her investments and life decisions. This was in the 1970s, but I swear, if ATMs were in operation back then, she’d have consulted her “friend” before she made a $20 cash withdrawal. That’s how addicted she was to her direction.

You can probably predict what I’m going to say without an astrology chart. Ultimately, my workmate lost her shirt by turning her power over to this woman’s predictions. It was a stark lesson about making a god of either the symbol system or the medium. Ironically, the astrologer also worked herself out of a job. They both lost. After all, how could my workmate continue to pay her astrologer for advice after she’d lost everything?

The most horrible story I ever heard involved the same astrologer, a reading where she predicted the exact date and time of a client’s death—and he died exactly when she predicted! It happed many years ago, and the astrologer is late now herself. Yet I’m still appalled and feel she literally scared him to death.

Few people would want to know this information. To ask for it, is—well—asking for it! This is an example of power abuse, no matter how unwitting. Astrology can be (pardon the pun) deadly accurate, but an astrologer would have no way of knowing his fate for certain. Many aspects can be opportunities to leave the planet or to transform into a new life while still embodied. (I heard recently that we each have a good seven-eight opportunities in any incarnation as to when we cross over.) Even if his astrologer did suspect this man would opt to check out, “pronouncing” it took away any personal power he had over the outcome, which was not necessarily sealed.

Did the astrologer contribute to her client’s death? Depressing thought, but I think it explains why these tools have sometimes had a terrible reputation. It’s all in how they’re used. Fortunately, in general, they tend to be used for higher good by most people I encounter nowadays. This is a heartening trend.

Positive Outcomes

Examples: As a consultant, I have helped people out of thorny dilemmas and have foreseen the potential for happy marriages later realized in tarot or astrology readings. I use oracles directly for myself on an ongoing basis, and now with years of practice my use of them is refined. I am able to see new angles to problems and personal tendencies I want to change. Symbols never cease to amaze me with their simple wisdom.

How Does It Work?

My theory is that oracles work like a symbolic mirror and magnet. Symbols have strong universal meanings. A complex of information is contained within their simple patterns, and more importantly, the person who seeks guidance will fill in the blanks with the personal details needed to make the symbols meaningful.

The magnet part: Everything on earth has an energy field; every person and thing resonates. When we seek guidance, we are drawn to the energy (or it is drawn for us through the reader) that matches the frequency of the issue on which we want guidance. When you shuffle a tarot deck, for example, and put the energy of your question into the cards, the right cards fall into the layout that will “speak to you.” Magical!

It’s no different with any of the other symbol systems. We are drawn to want an astrology reading when the vibration of the issue is creating internal pressure for resolution, so we seek out an astrologer when we have significant transits or activity in our astrology charts. (This, to me, is why horary works—casting a chart of the moment the question is asked to get the answer.)  Our subconscious gives us dream material, as does our internal synchronicity meter, our magnet for meaningful coincidences.

Once when I taught a dreamwork class, I spoke about encountering people I was thinking about or repeated encounters on a topic I felt were “signs.” A surprised participant said, “You talk about real life the same way as you do dreams.” Exactly!

When we have the eyes to see, the symbols and signs are all around us. Our subconscious is in constant dialogue with our conscious self, and when we pay attention, we can get limitless Higher Direction.

I Want to Try It. Where Do I Start?

If you haven’t done this before or haven’t done much of it, here are my suggestions, probably good for the seasoned oracle users, too:

1. What system appeals to you most?  Start there. If tarot fascinates you, go there first. If you can’t remember dreams, maybe you need a little more work on bringing the subconscious to waking awareness before you can use that one. Does the pendulum call you? Runes? The I Ching? If you don’t know, visit a metaphysical bookstore where you can look through many of the symbol sets or spiritual tools along with books on them. Let yourself be drawn to the images or system that calls you.

2. Approach oracles with the wonder of a child. These systems are completely about connecting guidance to your own inner tracking device, your intuition. Play with them and respect them with wide-eyed wonder. Their optimal guidance will flow through your openness.

3. Get trusted referrals for consultants. A personal referral from someone you know and trust who has seen a particular astrologer, tarot reader, or dreamworker is always best. The metaphysical bookstore or resource center is another referral point. Try someone at a local psychic fair, the one with the longest line. Reputation rules when it comes to trusting someone to work these channels with you. If someone “doesn’t feel right” don’t open yourself to that person. Another thing to consider: Some practitioners do more than one system or work them together, as I have done with my Astro-Tarot readings. That’s a two-fer, where you can get your needs met through more than one oracle by the same person, sometimes even in the same sitting.

4. Take what fits, toss the rest. This was the advice of my first mentor in all things intuitive, the late, great Betty Bethards, a San Francisco Bay Area psychic and meditation teacher. I have lived by this counsel with optimal results. No reader can be 100 percent accurate because his or her own experiences can’t help but influence interpretation, at least a little. That can be handy, if the consultant has like experiences and lessons to learn, or it can put you off track, if they don’t.

While most good readers do their best to avoid putting their own “stuff” into interpretations, the translation of symbols is a tricky business. The analogy I like to use is a ballpark. It’s easy to get into the right ballpark or neighborhood on an interpretation because of the breadth of content each universal symbol holds. That’s what makes them so powerful, like the oak tree contained in an acorn. However, to find the right seat in the ballpark really takes reaction, dialogue, and sorting from the seeker. If you don’t actively participate, you will suffer pronouncements instead of helpful insights … which brings me to the final point.

5. Be an active participant in all readings with a consultant. Ask questions. Give your opinion. Say when something feels right or when it feels off. Be sure you walk away getting your key concerns covered. It might not be quite as complicated as being a patient in an HMO system, but the idea is the same as navigating this bureaucratic form of medical care. You have to be your own patient/seeker advocate

The best readers will welcome you as a co-pilot on the adventure of going a layer deeper into your inner growth during your time together. You enter the sacred ground of your psyche in every session. Your reader needs to properly respect the inner sanctum, your needs, and the importance of your help to make it a meaningful journey.

Sealed with a Ms.

I thought it would be fun to draw a tarot card to seek Higher Guidance in wrapping up this article. At first when this idea came to mind, I thought, “Huh?” Using these tools has made me respect these inspirations, no matter how silly the light bulb over my head might seem at first.

Turns out, I’m also going to be able to illustrate how anything can become an oracle. I “got” that the words I should Google were tarot oracle. They led me to a new deck I hadn’t heard of, literally called the Tarot Oracle. Click on the link and look at the Magician Card, that Mystical Ms. She’s for us; I’m convinced of it! She’s juggling the stars and her key words are Intuition and  Taking Chances.

Take a chance on your intuition. Oracles will expand your sense of inner knowing and connection to All That Is.

~~~

Photo Credit: Oracular Tools © sannevdberg - Fotolia.com

 

Astrology and Tarot: The “Astro-Tarot” Reading

© 2010 by Joyce Mason


#2 of 3 of the Astrology-Plus Trilogy

My post on Astrology and Dreams got a lot of nods from readers who like the interface between the stars and their night movies. As an eclectic practitioner over the years with a lot of different tools in her trick bag, I admit that my all-time favorite kind of consultation is the “astro-tarot” reading. (This photo reminds me of myself when I’m in full regalia with my mixed bag, because I often use a pendulum to dowse for flower essences—but that’s another post!)

Astrology in and of itself is a fabulous GPS on the Road of Life. In order to keep a client empowered with the full possibilities of the symbols, it’s often helpful to tap the unconscious of both the reader and seeker. Astrology can put you in the ballpark of the symbols, but tarot can sometimes pin down the exact seat of meaning. Astrology starts in a more left-brained linear way, as we have learned the various generic meanings of the planets, signs, and houses. I’ve found that by inviting Tarot to the party, a right-brained intuitive energy helps me hit a home run on accuracy. The best part is that my clients and I have so much fun with the process!

If you haven’t already read the article Oracular Spectacular or How I Read Tarot Cards on my Writer Joyce Mason website, check out these links! I love involving my clients in sorting out the symbols where we merge our intuition and often come up with guidance gold. I’m telling you, we tingle and laugh with delight over the surprises we discover together.

I find tarot to be especially helpful in giving a deeper understanding to transits. Let’s face it, with any symbol system:

We have to be careful we aren’t just being control freaks trying to predict the future to make life less risky and growy.

When we bring in tarot, dreams, or any other system that mines the subconscious, we are often getting at the stuff a client isn’t even aware is an issue, much less “the” issue. Tarot helps dig out hidden challenges, feelings, and relationships among events that’s tougher to do with astrology alone. So, the person is having a Neptune/Venus transit. What about that helps us find out the actual growth mission lurking beneath the surface of Neptune’s trip to our client’s Planet of Relationship? We have possibilities, but what if we had a way of discovering, together, the most probable lesson? The core information that will make a difference on how s/he acts?

It isn’t our job to impress the client with our psychic skills. It’s much more empowering—and powerful—to show her methods to discover the answers for herself.

The results of this composite way of reading are sometimes highly amusing. I love watching the expression on someone’s face when they “get it” and the insight is surprising. It’s even greater then they’ve helped pull out the hidden thread of meaning. I’ve seen things “pop out” in the cards that have nothing to do with traditional meaning but everything to do with the client’s undiscovered core issue around a transit or natal configuration.

I’ll repeat my all-time favorite. Once I was reading the Death card, which in the Motherpeace deck has a detail of notches in a tree with a snake and skeleton nearby.(My gag reflex has improved since watching Bones and the CSI’s.) My eyes went straight to those notches, and pretty soon, I heard a song in my punny mind, an old train tune, but with a slightly modified title: “The Notches and Topeka and the Santa Fe.” Of course, the actual title is the Atchinson, Topeka, etc. But the tune would not stop, so I asked my client if there was something going on that involved training or trains. After running it back and forth, I got intuitively that someone was trying to “railroad” her, make her do something she didn’t want to do. This actually turned out to be the final death knell of the relationship involved. The key to her ability to act on it was to grasp, completely, the battle of wills. Of course, there were both Pluto and Saturn transits involved, but how much more colorful and close to what she needed to know we got, thanks to the tarot card and the information it evoked.

Maybe I fell in love with the Motherpeace because the cards are round like horoscopes, but it’s very important, if you choose to experiment with this dual reading, to find your deck. (See discussion on A Tarot Blog of round decks.) My Oracles page on joycemason.com has a list of some of my favorites and places you can discover yours.

I would love to hear from readers regarding your experience either giving or receiving mixed media readings. How do you think they enhance astrological information? Are there other combos that work for you, too?

Until you comment, I think I’ll pull a tarot card to figure out why I’m asking you this question, just out of curiosity …


~~~

Photo Credit: Photosani @Fotolia.com