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Ethics, Astrology, and the Saturn-Pluto Opposition

Yesterday in my garden, I reclined upon a recently purchased lounge chair. Having bought it at a liquidation sale, it is a rather garishly bright pink colour. I was wearing a deep blue summer shirt. This was a fifteen minute respite, waiting for Canada Day guests to arrive. Suddenly, butterflies started flying around me, and then they began circling in closer and closer--beautiful, intricately-patterned Monarch butterflies. They were attracted to the bright colours--landing very close to me on the lounge chair. Finally, one butterfly landed on my leg, and rested there several minutes; another on the chair, barely inches from my hand. It was an intimate, special experience, having the butterflies come to rest upon me and near me. And then, they flew away, the Monarch butterflies, right into the air and over the rooftop where the ivy curls. Now the reader has thoughts of gardens, and summer, and Monarch butterflies--but what does this have to do with the upcoming opposition of Pluto and Saturn, in August 2001? And, how does this tie into ethics? I find around me in the astrological community an ongoing debate about 'predictive astrology' versus 'psychological astrology'. Who is right? One side or the other?

Let's think for a moment about Pluto, travelling through the sign of Sagittarius--ethics, use and misuse of power, psychological insight, philosophical and religious truths, rebirth, death, transformation, dying of old orders, a break with the past. And opposite Pluto, transiting Saturn is journeying through Gemini: How do we communicate? What do we have to say? How do we convey information and knowledge, from one person to another, from one discipline to another, one language, one culture to another? What form (Saturn) does our communication take? Mercury, in Greek mythology, was called Hermes. Hermes was the god of the crossroads, and of trade and commerce (sounds like third house activities!), but Hermes was also a psychopomp. In that last function, Hermes accompanied souls on their passage from the upper world, down to the nether world of Hades (Pluto's realm). Hermes or Mercury is the bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind; between direct communication and exchange of knowledge or information and that of intuitive thinking or knowing.

Now we return to the Monarch butterflies--in classical Greek the word for butterfly had more than the one meaning--the word also meant psyche, or soul. Psychology means psyche and word; or soul and logos. So that when we think psychologically, we are soul-thinking. When we speak or counsel psychologically, we are communicating using the psyche's words. Astrology, or star-thinking, is a way of communicating using the symbolic language of the cosmos, of the stars. And a logos involves shared thinking-i.e. communication that is a dialogue and discipline of thought, a discourse.

Mercury also invented the lyre, the earlier precursor of a violin and guitar. However, Hermes ended up giving the lyre he devised to his half-brother, Apollo, and in return Mercury became keeper of the caduceus. The caduceus became the symbol for the physician, and we often see it today on medical-dental buildings or on doctor's cards. The caduceus is a rod, with two serpents entwined, with wings attached. This magic, healing wand belongs to Hermes/Mercury. Part of The Physician's Oath, from Hippocrates (460-400 BC) includes swearing to abstain from all intentional wrongdoing and harm, as well as to maintain physician-patient privacy. Astrologers are not physicians but it seems that we would do well to begin our astrological consulting work from the same premise, and that is first of all 'to do no intentional harm' to the client, and also to maintain astrologer-client confidentiality. If we begin there, it becomes irrelevant, the debate between "prediction" and "astrology".

Of course, when we speak to an individual who has come to us for an astrological consultation, we are speaking psychologically: we are using a symbolic language of archetypes and energy patterns as a model for understanding human nature. We are speaking the soul's language, the psyche's words, communicating on a deep level to the client, from Pluto's realm of healing and regeneration. But this does not mean we cannot predict--by all means (i.e. by all techniques available) the astrologer makes predictions. We are the servants of Saturn, co-ruler of Aquarius. One of the things astrology does best is to work with time, and with timing--either of inner, psychological truths or of outer, concrete events. Astrology is a Saturnian discipline--mathematical, accurate, using time, date, place in an ordered, structured way to achieve a goal--that of reading the horoscope. If astrologers can't predict, who can?

It is not a question of either/or. Astrologers work with the psyche, with the individual's most intimate soul matters and life events; and, astrologers predict. However, remember for a moment that astrologers don't have the market cornered on prediction--the weather is predicted; stock market cycles are predicted; crop yields or prices are predicted; political surveys are predicted; school enrolments are predicted, and on it goes. We all "predict", in some form or another, just to get through our daily lives--which route to drive to work, what clothes to wear for the day, where to invest our savings. And what does the word "predict" mean? It means "to say beforehand, to foretell, give notice of, advise, to say or tell or announce beforehand." The art of prediction is the art of foretelling future events, it is the art of prophecy. Prediction has the quality of determining, affirming, asserting, regarding the future. The word prediction means, in some ways, to pre-digest. The archaic word for a preacher was related to the word for prediction. Vedic astrologer and author William R. Levacy writes: What draws people to astrology through the ages, I believe, is the desire to make the right decisions....Astrologers, as counselors, want to help their clients to positive outcomes and to help them build a psychology that naturally triggers life-supporting behaviours....Ultimately, the best way out of trouble is not to get into trouble to start with.

If we truly fathom even a small part of the mysterious connection between inner and outer, conscious and unconscious, human and cosmic, body and soul, then we are able to easily resolve the astrological debate of predictive versus psychological astrology. The answer is: both. The answer is that we pledge to do no intentional harm, that we keep confidential counsel with our clients, and that we are messengers for both Pluto (healing) and for Saturn (time). Carolyn Joyce, M.A., Montreal, July 2001