| Recognizing
the Beauty Within
It always seemed to me that if I couldn't explain
an idea to my young sons, I hadn't understood it properly myself.
So my book, 'Soul Purpose Astrology', is as simple as I can make
it while including the philosophical ideas that give life meaning
for me. Also I learn better from books that are illustrated - and
short.
During the twenty seven years I have been teaching
astrology, I have been asked many times to write it all down because
my students couldn't find a book that expressed it quite the way
I do, bringing the spiritual aspects of life into practical every
day use. Traveling round the world listening to the people whose
charts I read, I have heard many different ways of experiencing
any aspect of a birth chart, so I am always expanding my understanding
through others' experience of life.
'Soul Purpose Astrology' presents astrology in its
simplest and broadest form. The four elements each having three
ways of being expressed explains simply the basis of the twelve
Zodiac Signs, yet when the twelve signs are followed in order they
describe the journey of humanity in twelve steps from the virgin
spirit of archetypal Aries to quiet mastery through Pisces.
The planets can be seen as a rainbow of colours from
white light, a spectrum of the uses to which we put life energy.
The Sun, Moon and planets out as far as Saturn can be related to
seven of the energy centres in the body, describing the inner experience
of being human, yet the fact that each planet can be in one of twelve
signs shows clearly our differences from each other, even though
we have the same basic system.
The broader concerns of human life - freedom, spirituality
and transformation of the human species - are introduced as messages
from the outer planets as great guides. Chiron is one of those guides,
even though it is so small. On a personal level, I see Chiron as
the healer in each of us, as well as the wound that never quite
heals, and my book offers questions you can ask yourself to discover
Chiron's meaning for you.
Life goes on all around us. While we endeavour to
interact with what we perceive, we are generally looking at it all
through our own surrounding space. That space is full of our memories,
expectations, fears, assumptions, and so on, which tend to colour
or obscure what might really be there: it requires quite a mental
stretch to see anything that doesn't conform to what we already
know. I have described the astrological 'houses' as our 'windows'
on life and they show us, by the signs on their cusps in our birth
charts, how each aspect of our daily life is affected by our feelings
about it.
It makes more sense to me that the vibration of life
is powered by purpose, and that each one of us has our own personal
thread of that purpose - our spiritual direction through this incarnation.
There is a direction across the middle of the birth chart, facing
the North Node of the Moon, which gives clues to this spiritual
direction. The dates of the Nodes' sign-changes are given in the
book, so that you can see the Nodal signs at your birth date, and
read about the clues to your own spiritual direction.
Books written about astrology offer the views of the
writer and I have written my views. In addition, throughout the
book 'exercises' are offered in question form to suggest ways you
might like to explore your life developing your own views as well.
Every view is valid from the position of the viewer in that moment,
and every experience adds to the sum total of human experience,
changing the whole in the process.
In order to feel the love from our spiritual source,
we need to accept ourselves as we are and learn to appreciate our
uniqueness and inner beauty. Soul Purpose Astrology shows how every
planet in any sign represents the potential for a spiritually beautiful
energy to flow through. Once we recognize the beauty within, it
is a small step to increasing the beauty in the lives of those around
us. My chosen task - one that fills me with pleasure and satisfaction
- is to help in recognizing the beauty within.
Book
Review by Chris Lorenz in 'Horoscope' magazine USA, November 2002
issue.
Book
Review in 'Prometheus' No.10 June 1999 by Sue Asquith.
My book, published by Llewellyn, can be bought
from all good bookshops
Llewellyn Publications, PO Box 64383,
St. Paul, MN 55164-0383;
2002, paperback, 210 pp. 15cm x 23cm (6" x 9"), $14.95,
ISBN 0-7387-0221-8 |