ASTROLOGY AND SYNCHRONICITY

Astrology works through synchronicities, the biggest one being the fractal correspondence between the microcosm of human life and the macrocosm of the universe. “As below so above, and as above so below” runs the piece of ancient wisdom carved on the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. It’s the touchstone that explains how astrologers can use the visible sky above to reveal the invisible contents of the human psyche below. ´As above so below!’

The courses of our outer experiences in the world and the continuum of our inner thoughts and feelings run like two parallel rivers side by side along the whole length of our life path. The first presents us with ever-changing situations to deal with in space and time and triggers the actions we take in the world, and the latter represents our inner stream of consciousness – a babbling brook of surface thoughts, disturbed by deeper eddies and whirlpools of feeling that surface from its dark unconscious depths. It accompanies us most of the time we´re awake, and continues to flow in our dreams.

A canny astrologer, when he looks at our chart, will be able to see the symbolic significance of our outer and inner experiences in our lives at any point in time within the framework of the astronomical time cycles. And, by placing our experiences within wider contexts of archetypal meaning, he may go even further and offer us explanations of their significance in relation to our life path.

In this life I’ve spent over four decades working as a consulting astrologer, during which time I´ve had the privilege of interpreting the charts of hundreds of clients. Thus I ´ve experienced the synchronicities of ‘as-above-so-below’ daily, and it never got boring! Each chart is unique and so hearing how it played out in the life of a client can become a source of new learning also for a seasoned astrologer.

The reactions of my clients (especially those who said before their first session they didn’t believe in astrology) have proved to me that experiencing the marvel of synchronicity in the context of an astrology reading can be mind-blowing, even sometimes life-changing. The shock effect of it can shake people out of their usual mental groove and also be very moving, which is why I always had a box of tissues close at hand.

Today astrology remains my own most important tool for living. I’m always opening my ephemeris to check what the planets are doing, and to relate their current positions to what’s happening in my life. Especially in times of mental stress and physical illness a knowledge of astrology soothes us by helping us to understand the current life lesson. And it’s such a comfort to be able to look ahead into the near future and see when the planets that are testing my patience so sorely will have moved on.

However, I prefer not to work with predictive astrology and don’t foretell the future in my sessions. I believe that the only certain thing in life is change, and that each moment is unique and will never return. The circular paths of the planets round the sun may suggest eternal return as the basic cosmic principle, but in life there are no repeats. And although every year on our birthday the sun returns to the same degree in the zodiac that it was on the day we were born, it´s not the same sun. It has moved since then thousands of miles forward on its course round the centre of the galaxy and so is now in a different energy field. You can’t step into the same river twice, as the philosopher Heraclitus wisely said.

What I can do for a client however who is navigating a bad patch, is point to some future tendencies, knowing that some outcomes are more likely than others. I personally see it as a good thing that the future is not set in stone. This would mean that we have no free will, whereas, when standing at a crossroads in life, we´re challenged to make a choice of direction, and to exercise our free will later when there are the consequences of that choice to deal with. We grow in self confidence that way.

The reason why astrology is often rejected outright by intelligent people is they cannot conceive of the universe being alive and conscious. Their thinking is stuck in the old materialist paradigm whereby we live in a universe composed of purposeless matter and ruled by chance and necessity that lacks any intrinsic meaning. Astrology and its synchronicities prove the opposite is true. We live in a meaning-laden and purposeful universe, a cosmos coherent with our deepest spiritual and moral aspirations. Synchronicities would not occur if the universe were random and purposeless as many still believe.

Phoebe Wyss 2023