In Glastonbury, England (like
Sedona, Arizona!)
Now that I have your attention!
This post has been rumbling around inside me for a long time because, well,
it's a big part of my life since my 1990 divorce.
Through a friend from work at the time, I started learning about astrology
and natal charts in particular. This had been forbidden territory in my
conservative preacher's home since forever, in spite of the fact that my maternal grandfather was one of America's premier astrologers of his day. He had his own
magazine, published books, a pen name Wynn, and a Hollywood following.
But I knew I was NOT to touch it with a ten-foot pole.
The things we were taught or somehow absorbed by osmosis in our family
upbringing...don't you wonder where they came from? Where is it written
that sex is dirty, for instance...or that certain things like astrology are
just a bunch of hogwash, if not straight from the Devil?
At the same time, 1990, I started a massage-therapy course at one of the
most reputable schools in the country to augment my then-single income.
Interestingly, massage therapy at that time was 10 years behind chiropractic in
mainstream acceptance. Whenever someone mentioned I was a masseuse, I had
to correct them (sex is dirty, remember?). Today both chiropractic and
massage therapy are part of most health insurance plans. But not back
then.
Where is it written that the Western way of viewing life systems is better
or more intelligent than Eastern practices we can hardly pronounce, let alone
understand? Did you know that most of these ancient modalities take years and years of apprenticeship for mastering:
Acupuncture. Massage therapy. Chiropractic. Tai Chi.
Yoga. Crystal Therapy. Chakra Balancing. Astrology….
I've heard that most of them take about 16 years. Why wouldn't we
believe in them? Or why do we pick and choose the ones we will keep while
throwing the rest away?
I am an amateur photographer. I am also an amateur astrologer.
There, I've said it. Most people can accept the first but not the
second. Trust me, I know. I have to be careful about when and where
I say it. But the more I love and accept this part of who I am, the more
fun it becomes for me, just like photography. I have top-of-the-line
natal-chart software every bit as good as PhotoShop, which I love figuring
out. How could I possibly split it off from myself and segregate the
different hats I wear without diluting who I am as me, myself, and I.
It's all who I am, making up the whole.
With the rise of China and India as super powers that may eventually
over-shadow both America and Europe, it might well behoove us to start paying
attention to Eastern philosophies and practices that are older than dirt…but
not dirty. Yes?
Maybe it's part of becoming world citizens? It's so easy to be
ethnocentric and believe our way is the only way. To what end? To
the ostracism of our next-door neighbors, probably. And to a narrow
world-view that diminishes us.
But then some of you already know this about chatty Gemini me with a
Sagittarius ascendant. All you have to see is the two planets in my 9th
House and smile. The rest of you can just roll your eyes and say
"There she goes again!"
