“Myth, says a Church Father, is what is believed always, everywhere, by everybody; hence the man, who thinks he can live without myth, or outside it, is an exception. He is like one uprooted, having no true link either with the past, or with the ancestral life which continues within him, or yet with contemporary society. He does not live in a house like other men, does not eat and drink like other men, but lives a life of his own, sunk in a subjective mania of his own devising, which he believes to be newly discovered truth. This plaything of his reason never grips his vitals. It may occasionally lie heavy on his stomach, for that organ is not apt to reject the products of reason as indigestible. The psyche is not of today; its ancestry goes back many millions of years. Individual consciousness is only the flower and fruit of a season, sprung from the perennial rhizome beneath the earth; and would find itself in better accord with the truth if it took the existence of the rhizome into its calculations. For the root matter is the mother of all things.” - Carl Jung, September 1950

Sensitive viewers may find it difficult to watch the The Cove, the documentary that exposed the slaughter of dolphins in Japan, but the tears shed are well worth it if it means that through creating awareness, something can be done to halt this atrocity.

It is a tragic and heart-breaking story which exposes one of the many consequences of man’s desire nature, filling you with a sense of shame that rocks you to the core; yet it is thought provoking and insightful and offers a glimpse into the ramifications of the senseless slaughter of innocent animals entrusted into our care by God.

The Mercurial thread that dominates these events cannot be ignored from an astrological perspective. The ruler of thieves and tricksters rears his ugly head throughout, and his rulership over speech, communication, the hands and the nervous system is highlighted in the diseases depicted as most likely to manifest in man as a result of the ingestion of dolphin flesh.

The quality of our minds, combined with our emotional natures, determines our outlook on life and our interaction with others. We are all predisposed to certain moods and conditions, be they upbeat or depressant, and using knowledge gleaned from the nativity, we can enhance the positive elements while securing assistance for the negative ones.

The word fertility is immediately associated with conception, but to an astrologer the term provides broader connotations as well as applications. There are many areas where fertility is applicable and understanding the basic astrological premise on which fertility is based is essential to its application: investments, careers, relationships and health are but a few examples.

Modern medicine happily dismisses this ancient knowledge - but if we think that our ancestors went to the doctor for remedies that consistently failed to work, we can only conclude that they were seriously stupid. Ancient tradition also views illness as necessary to burn off the bad humours which are afflicting the person, and illness is thus a form of alchemy, if seen in that light. It is with this mindset that the traditional astrologer approaches a medical chart, and this approach provides one of the reasons why the illness, which possibly cannot be determined by the physician, may be found.

“It is better to hide my pain from pretentious physicians, perhaps I will be cured from the ‘Treasury of the Invisible’.” The Persian poet Hafiz.

The ‘Treasury of the Invisible’ referred to in the quotation is with reference to the “Divine Order” where the archetypes of all manifestation are to be found. It also refers to the vertical cause in contrast to the horizontal causes with which the ordinary physician is concerned.  As we know natural medicine, just like astrology, is concerned with the vertical causes – “the inter relation between the domains of the spirit, the soul and the body”.  Two of the most well known remedies available to treat the body on a vertical level are the Bach Flower Remedies and tissue salts – both of which have a direct correlation to the craft of astrology.

The essence of true healing is not simply to remove the physical suffering; it is to assist the person to come to terms with the cause of the illness, on all levels of the vertical plane, and to understand the significance of the illness as a result. This is precisely what astrology offers – a natal chart in the hands of a qualified and skilled astrologer can yield insights relating to this vertical plane that very few other crafts are able to do.

The word stress is synonymous with modern times, so much so that we tend to forget that it is nothing new. Certain stressors may have changed over the centuries, we do not need to run away from the very animal that we are hunting for food, nor do we have to deal with constant exposure to the elements anymore, but these stressors have been replaced by more modern ones. There are two types of stress, identified by the endocrinologist Hans Selye, published in 1975 – that of eustress and distress. Eustress is the stress that enables us to react in a positive way, and is labeled as such when the stress enables us to function positively. Responding to deadlines, thus having to work that little bit harder and having to dig deep on a physical level when participating in a sporting event, are but two examples. Distress is persistent stress that is not resolved through coping or adaptation, and manifests in various ways both physiologically and symptomatically, such as in anxiety, high blood pressure, increased blood sugar, irritability, headaches and so on.

This is the branch of astrology that enables us to choose the best moment to act or to give birth to a venture. The underlying factor in electional astrology is that we can only apply this to all things that are possible – it then goes without saying that we cannot assess the best moment to act for that which is impossible. True electional methods are assessed using the natal (birth) charts of the individuals concerned – if it is not scripted in the natal chart that you will win the lotto there is no point in electing the best time to purchase a ticket. If you are about to launch your new web site or start a new business however, it is wise to consult an astrologer in order to elect the best time for the birth of that entity – this affords it the best possible chance of success. The premise upon which electional astrology is based is that everything that has a beginning (or birth) can have a natal chart – this applies to people, animals, business ventures, a marriage and to most major events that occur within the lifetime.

A number of medical organisations use the rod of Asclepius as their logo. This rod, which consists of a serpent coiled around a staff, is associated with astrology and with healing the sick through medicine. The staff symbolises the “good shepherd” who is a dignified person in a position of authority, and the serpent represents the homeopathic adage “nature can overcome nature”. What is not commonly known is that pre 1700 (the Age of Enlightenment) medical practitioners who were not qualified as astrologers, were not considered sufficiently skilled if they did not at least have an understanding of the sacred science. This knowledge was essential to their diagnostic skills as even the vulgar (common man) had a basic understanding of astrology - it was, in ancient times, the language of the people. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was himself proficient in the craft.

Modern man is removed from astrological time, yet still somehow senses that the same event that occurs at different times during the day has different flavours during each occurrence. Familiarity with astrological time is of the essence when embarking on the path of medical astrology, as each day and each hour in that day has a planetary ruler, and the efficacy of the medicinal plants ruled by those planets is improved when picked or ingested on a day and during an hour corresponding to that planet.

Monday is ruled by the Moon, hence the reluctance to get out of bed on a Monday morning as her essence is not conducive to haste and stress, Tuesday is ruled by Mars, Wednesday by Mercury, Thursday by Jupiter, Friday by Venus, Saturday by Saturn and a Sunday by the Lord of Light, the Sun. Astrological hours are not normally 60 minutes in duration – the time is calculated from sunrise – at the stipulated location – to sunset, and that period is then divided by 12 to determine the length of each hour.

The ruling planet of that day rules the first hour and the sequence of planets is then followed in strict order. Saturn is the first planet after the firmament, followed by Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and lastly the Moon. So on a Monday the Moon would rule the first hour, followed by Saturn, then Jupiter and the rest of the planets follow in order with the same principle applying to night time hours.