Astrology has been with us for a very long time. Its roots extend far back into antiquity, with western-astrology emerging in Mesopotamia around 750 BC, and Vedic-astrology having roots thought to go back as far as 10,000 BC.
Astrology is an evolving system and art, and although we may still use methods of calculation (in modern western-astrology) originally used in ancient Greece, the quality, motivation, and character of interpretation has changed with the times. Today there are many approaches to astrology, and different styles, yielding different interpretive results.
My journey with astrology started when I was around 18 years old after reading Linda Goodman’s book - Sun Signs. A few years later I jumped in feet first with a copy of Alan Oken’s Complete Astrology; I was fascinated by the apparent coincidences that tied my character and orientation to astrological archetypes.
Evolutionary Astrology (EA) is relatively new in the world; it was ‘birthed’ in 1978 with the first lecture by founder Jeffrey Wolf Green in Seattle Washington, picked up momentum in 1985 with the publishing of the first book Pluto Vol 1, followed by the establishment of the School of Evolutionary Astrology in 1994. It has been expanding ever since. There are now several other EA schools such as the Evolutionary Astrology Network (EAN) founded by Kim-Marie and Le Roy Weimer, and the Pluto School created by Mark Jones in the UK, along with numerous books on the subject as well.
What drew me to EA was its orientation to karma and reincarnation, which makes it quite different than many other approaches. I wanted to understand why things happened the way they did, and why I was the way I was, so that I could optimize my life experiences, and unlike many other forms of astrology, EA was able to deliver useful and coherent information.
What’s the point of having a compass if it points in a different direction every time you use it?
Good astrology is reliable and useful; it has to be able to empower us with ideas, visions, stories, and perceptions that actually contribute to a better life. But not all astrology does this; we may be told a long list of characteristics aimed at who we might be, which may at the time be entertaining, uplifting, and give hope, but if in the end, it isn’t true it becomes a waste of time and energy.
In the astrology world, there is such a thing as ‘cookbook astrology’, referring to methods that specify fixed meanings for chart interpretation. For example, we may know that we have the Moon in Gemini, and then look it up in a book and read the section and see if it fits us or not; we may even let those ideas shape us in order to make it fit. The problem is though, that everyone is unique and much more complex, so a few short lines delineating what a planet in such and such a sign and house mean is going to be frustratingly inadequate.
Astrology then is a divided world: there are those practising who have a living experiential knowledge of the archetypes, and those who have a thin static idea of them, collaged together from all the books they have read.
Evolutionary Astrology starts with the Soul and builds a picture of meaning that is both empowering and liberating. Rather than just throwing together a long list of descriptive elements that through their complexity look impressive, as I have seen astrologers do, with the outcome that readings are difficult to assimilate and make sense of, EA doesn’t attempt to describe what we are or what might happen next but instead aims to establish a core life orientation based on natural spiritual laws, from which a deep understanding of our life manifestations can arise.
In modern Atheism, little or no attention is given to the perception of the soul; the sense within that we are in some way both eternal and timeless. Science materialism is often the main foundation, and as such a spiritual nature is explained away as either delusional or just random chemicals arising in the brain and nothing more. To live without the living perception of a higher ordering principle deeply rooted in nature, condems many to a useless, random, purposeless, and meaningless existence. With such a limited view of reality, it is no wonder that the world is in trouble. If life is meaningless and we're consigned to one body with too few useful years before we become worm-food, then, of course, the main drive is for sensual gratification regardless of cost and as much of a quantity of life as possible regardless of the quality.
Evolutionary Astrology is founded on the proposition that at our very core, we are immutable and eternal in nature; something innate to us continues after death and the body is no more. As such we are not born blank empty pages to be filled soley by social conditioning, we already have a predisposition toward something individual, that desires to learn and grow through the human experience; we have an innate evolutionary drive to continue on our journey, bringing with us previously earned capacities and unfinished business in the form of ongoing lessons. Through chart interpretation, it is possible to gain a wider more holistic perspective on one's life, and in so doing, learn to cooperate with the life we were born to live.
Evolutionary Astrology isn't limited by the idea of reincarnation, however. We don't necessarily have to believe in reincarnation to get benefit from the system. The archetypal patterns can also be framed within the notion of genetic memory and lineage karma.
Astrology when wielded well does not limit us with fixed meanings that try to tell us what we are, and it does not try to convince us that the movement of the planets somehow controls how our lives unfold. Instead, it helps us build a relationship with the cosmos to which we belong, and cultivates a proper alignment with natural law that empowers us to optimize whatever life situation we may find ourselves in.
Aquila Idha is an Evolutionary Astrologer, Self-Realisation Mentor and Tarot Counsellor