Resources

The sky as an open window into the soul of the world

One of humanity's most ancient intuitions is the understanding that everything is alive and interconnected. Astrology applies that core intuition to the sky (the sky is alive) and to our relationship with the sky (our life is connected with the sky). The observation of the sky then becomes like a very special window that we can open when we feel like looking at life from the perspective of cycles of unfoldment. It is indeed like opening a lid into the soul of the world, the anima mundi of different traditions. 

Astrology’s timeless wisdom is based on an intuitive understanding of how the archetypal meaning of the lunation cycle resonates with multiple levels of reality, as reflected in the geometry of the solar system. It starts with the observation of the sky, and with the distinction between planets, stars and constellations. The cyclic movements of the planets around the Sun and through the sky can be seen as a cosmic dance. Our unique perspective from Earth creates the optical illusion of apparent retrograde motion, which increases even further the complexity and the beauty of this dance. 

Planetary cycles throughout history

Because it was the longest of the synodic cycles between the visible planets, the Jupiter-Saturn cycle was used since ancient times by mundane astrology in an attempt to understand history. Medieval Persian astrologer Masha’allah ibn Athari (740–815 CE) wrote a whole book about Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions where he speculated, among other things, about the biblical Flood, about Christ's nativity, and about the triplicity shift indicating Muhammad's birth and the emergence of Islam (Astrology of the World II: Revolutions & History, Benjamin Dykes, 2014). 

The successive discoveries of Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846 and Pluto in 1930 induced modern astrologers to develop a completely new approach based multiple cycles, such as Jupiter-Uranus, Saturn-Pluto, Uranus-Neptune, Uranus-Pluto etc... André Barbault's Planetary Cycles Mundane Astrology covers ten different cycles and focuses on world history, while Richard Tarnas' Cosmos and Psyche takes a broader socio-cultural perspective and covers four different cycles. The late Nick Anthony Fiorenza went futher by including a wider set of bodies, such as dwarf planets Eris, Haumea, Makemake; centaurs Chiron, Pholus, Nessus and Chariklo; and asteroids Ceres, Juno, Vesta and Pallas. See his article The 2020 ”Societal Reset” & “The Great Transformation“ 2020-2030. 

Astrology Tools

Astrology fundamentals

Astrology books

Astrology articles

Astrology podcast episodes

I recommend the following episodes of Chris Brennan's Astrology Podcast to enthusiastic "astrophiles" who want to dig deeper into astrology, its history and its four-fold system of planets, signs, houses and aspects:

History of astrology and ancient techniques:

Houses: