A student recently presented me with lemons and grapefruit that had been grown organically in her garden, and at the same time my mom brought back avocado pears that had been plucked from trees in her family's garden during her visit to KwaZulu-Natal. A variety of organic produce is not yet readily available in South Africa (in the shops) and you have to make the time and the effort to bypass your favourite supermarket to locate an organic market if you wish to eat these foods regularly. When you do, the pleasure that these foods, in their original and uncorrupted state provides, surpasses convenience shopping and you wonder why you don't invest the time to source them more regularly.

The Idea

I came to the conclusion some time ago that most food today, obviously of the same genre, tastes the same – even lamb is starting to taste the same a beef and the only fish (to me) that tastes different to others, is the fatty fish like salmon and sardines. I find food bland and generally tasteless and unless it is an ingredient that can be combined with herbs and spices, it doesn't provide much gastronomic satisfaction. The avocados that I buy at the supermarket are watery and extremely tasteless compared to the creamy sweetness that I recently sampled. Citrus bought in the supermarkets is either dry and juiceless or tasteless (or both). I eat it for the fibre and normally have to squeeze an entire lemon into a mug of herbal tea, whereas I recently used one or two slices for the same effect. Blame this on the cold chain, genetic modification, antibiotics, pesticides, and whatever else it is they do to food today to prolong its shelf life and make it aesthetically more appealing to the masses. As most of my life is viewed through an astrological lens – I think my entire identity is defined by the Tradition by now – I looked at this topic from that perspective.

The Essence

The more you tamper with the essence of something the further away you remove it from its original state. The essence of that object is then so distorted that it is barely recognisable anymore – or if it is still recognisable – an avocado still looks like an avocado - once you slice it open, the similarity ends. You expect to find an avocado behaving like an avocado; instead you find that it is missing all of its “avocado” properties: you experience a watery slime in your mouth as opposed to a creamy velvet texture with its undertones of the earth. So too with the essence of the planets, houses, signs and aspects in astrology. The glyph of a planet is identical in the Tradition to any other astrological discipline, but when you dissect it, you find a completely different structure within; the nucleus has been corrupted. This is confusing not only to astrologers but also to the layman, and that is why it is so hard to “compare” astrologers based on skill.

You can draw a comparison between astrologers of the same discipline who are able to apply uniform technical “fact” but these technical parameters have to exist in the first place. When it comes to that very strange breed that “dabbles” in astrology and throws their astrological lot into the same bag of tricks that encases their collective astrological party tricks, their numerology, crystal balls, tarot cards and psychic abilities, any basis for comparison is negated. With most disciplines of astrology it is very hard to question someone on why or how they reached a conclusion as most simply cannot explain or showcase their methodology. They seize the astrological glyph and then apply their genetically modified intuition to it as they do not have the technical skill because they never bothered to study its true essence.

The Comparison

I am by no means inferring that you cannot get a bland or rotten organic product, just as I am not saying that all astrologers of the Tradition are credible or have a 100% success rate; it is not part of our contract that we always have to be right. I do not know of any profession that has signed that contract - but at least if we attain an incorrect judgement, the steps can be retraced and the lessons learnt, which makes us better astrologers as we mature in the craft. The essence of the craft and its methodologies never change and thus these errors can be identified and the errors absorbed. It is very hard to ask someone to find their errors in a crystal ball or in their psychic realm, or to locate which specific factor was incorrect if they do not even know what astrology discipline they practice in the first place.

I do not negate that there are those who are legitimately psychic or who are well versed in the other esoteric arts – what I am opposed to is that they call themselves astrologers, if they haven't invested in the years of study required,  and thus demean this ancient and profound science. Far better that they label themselves according to their other specific tools or skills and do not endeavour to add astrology to their bag of tricks thus mocking those who are true practitioners of the craft. To become an astrologer who is even 'half-good' takes years of study and it is a craft that you will never master – I simply fail to see how anyone can add accessories to a craft of this magnitude.

The Conclusion

I am as bored with these multi tool “dabblers” as I am with supermarket foods, I find them equally unappetizing. I am weary of being compared to them and of having to defend the essence and efficacy of one of the oldest crafts in the world as a result of their inadequacies and distortions. Those seeking an astrologer should make the time and effort to locate an astrologer of the Tradition - there are fewer of us due to the in depth tortuous hours of study and the mindset which is required to explore and understand this craft; we change ourselves in order to understand the astrology – we do not change the astrology to suit ourselves. I intend to make more of an effort to source organic produce – I know, without a shadow of a doubt that the effort invested is well worth the trouble – once you have tasted the true essence of something, the bland substitutes simply do not make the grade.