Astrology is a language that can be interpreted in multiple ways, as it contains many possible nuances, with each factor either reinforcing or tempering another. In humanistic astrology, this is referred to as a “holistic interpretation”, to emphasize the absolute necessity of always considering the chart as a whole when analyzing it.
While each component can be studied separately and abstractly for purposes of “characterization”, it’s only by reintegrating every element into its overall context that its full expression emerges, and sometimes in ways that may even appear contradictory.
The astrological language is symbolic and analogical, and it is grounded in the principle of synchronicity between events.
The same event, the same set of facts, can be translated in many different ways, each one representing a particular facet of its expression.
This is what gives astrology its richness and complexity, but it is also what makes it so difficult to grasp and apply, and therefore one of the greatest sources of interpretative error.
“In astrology, every factor in the chart can be modified by another factor, which makes the study of astrology both so fascinating and so difficult.”
Hadès, The Book of Astrological Framings
Interpretative nuances…
The french astrologer Hadès often rightly insists in his books on astrological interpretation that the different predictive techniques in astrology, provided there is no error, should tell the same story, even if they express it differently. This is absolutely true, it is a fundamental rule that is not always respected by “astrologers”, either through lack of skill or sheer laziness (which amounts to the same thing).
At best, some base their so-called “predictions” on a single transit, without any further investigation.
In his book “Complete Manual of Astrology, Volume 3: Solar Returns, Directions, Progressions, Transits”, he gives the example of a man whose life period is examined: a journey, a romantic encounter, followed by marriage, and then divorce.
Through examples like this, it becomes fascinating to observe how the planets express themselves in human experience.
Astrology is a symbolic language to be decoded, often comparable to hieroglyphs that require a Rosetta Stone.
In matters of astrological interpretation, it ultimately always comes down to comparing two types of factors: “significators” and “promissors”.
In the example he provides, Uranus is a recurring dominant influence operating at every level and in all major events: the birth chart, progressions, solar returns, directions, transits…
Yet in each case, this dominance is expressed differently.
Sometimes through aspects (square, trine, sextile, etc.), sometimes through rulerships, configurations, framings, and so on, forming a myriad of possible combinations.
But the most striking point to grasp is that astrology truly reflects lived experience, that is, the individual’s evolving inner experience, their subjective perception.
In this example, Hadès notes the near absence of any major astrological signature in the man’s chart for… the divorce itself.
By contrast, the woman’s chart clearly shows a strong astrological configuration, notably involving slow-moving outer planets in conjunction to her birth chart.
Why ? Simply because they did not experience it subjectively in the same way. What’s commonly recognized in collective culture as “a hardship” was not perceived as such by the man.
His birth chart was not naturally inclined in that direction, and the chart activations did not point to anything of that nature.
In the chart for the year of the divorce, this Uranian man simply regained his freedom.
That same year, he initiated many other projects and entered new evolutionary cycles, so that the divorce occupied only a “single line” in the entire chapter of his life he was writing, a mere formality that did not stand out explicitly.
In such cases, we clearly perceive the reality described by humanistic astrology : that trying to predict precise events is pointless.
Astrology should instead be used as a tool to unravel the individual’s fundamental evolutionary process, their Individuation.
Timing nuances…
I have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the notion of “timing” when studying a chart and astrological cycles.
The potentials of the birth chart must unfold over the entire span of a lifetime, and according to different timeframes.
There is short-term, medium-term, and long-term analysis, which are complementary but sometimes contradictory, something that should never be forgotten.
In “The Practice of Astrology”, astrologer Dane Rudhyar offered a thought-provoking metaphor:
“All that an astrologer can reveal by studying an individual’s chart is the period during which that individual’s personal rhythm will be altered by internal organic transformations or by the consequences of their participation, and their conscious or unconscious openness, to energetic currents belonging to larger organic wholes of which they have become a part.
No one can predict the consequences; almost anything may happen once the relationship is established or broken.
The event occurs in a particular direction, but its precise nature, scope, consequences, and implications cannot be calculated by the astrologer.You open a dam between a small river and a great one. You expect a few cubic meters of water, but it may turn into a tidal wave… You were hoping for a trout ? Instead, here comes a shark !
Astrology, given the current state of knowledge, cannot determine which of the two will occur.
It merely indicates that you will want to open the dam at a certain time, and that you almost certainly will open it. From that point on, you do so at your own risk !”
It’s essential to understand these ambiguities inherent in astrological interpretation and to grasp their full significance.
Astrology describes a “celestial state” that is conducive to the expression of certain potentials, but it cannot specify the exact events that will result down to the smallest detail.
Returning to the metaphor above, a birth chart may indicate the long-term likelihood of “opening a certain dam” in one’s life.
Yet in the short term, the individual may not even be aware of it, they are busy fishing for a trout, and that occupies their entire attention… 😉
Ultimately, it’s far more useful to understand the deeper meaning of what we are experiencing than to focus on the events themselves.
Their outward nature may allow them to be classified into one category or another imposed by collective judgment, but it will never reveal their fundamental meaning, nor how they will be subjectively experienced at a given point in the cycles.