ST JEROME AND I

 ST JEROME AND I

It has been occurring to me that in writing my book The Medicine Wheel, I took the spirit, the essence of a tradition and reinvented it for our culture. Not only did I reinvent it, I added to the tradition. The Medicine Wheel is now something we can claim as our own, and not because of my book alone.

The book is easy to read and understand, yet addresses the underlying themes in their complexity and profundity. It is a book to be lived, as the Medicine Wheel itself always has been. The ideas are fully embedded in western culture in a way that only someone from this culture could achieve.

Gosh, this is a bit of a paean to myself, very un-English of me, and I hope you'll forgive me 🤣 There is worse to come!

In writing the book, the archetype of the translator was breathing through me. Not literal translation of one language to another, but the translation of the spirit of a tradition into a form that can be readily appreciated in another culture, so that it does not seem foreign. It is a weighty responsibility.

I began writing under a New Moon conjunct Pluto in Capricorn in the 10th, which has that kind of gravitas in the world. But I didn't start in a pre-planned way: one morning, I thought dammit, just start writing a book and see what happens. Very Mars Rising conjunct Aries Asc. At the same time, I had 15 years blogging behind me, books and books worth, which had served (unconsciously) as an apprenticeship. So the Capricorn emphasis could have reassured me that I knew what I was doing, I had earned the right to write a book!

St Jerome is the archetype of the translator in our culture. He translated the Bible from the original Hebrew into Latin. Up until then, translations from Greek into Latin had been used. OK, he didn't reinvent a whole tradition, but even in translating words you need a poet's mind, you need to grasp the spirit of what is being said and find an equivalent. Which cannot be literally exact, and adds new meaning, as well as losing some of the old.

So in this sense St Jerome was reinventing a tradition. Moreover, he undertook his translation next to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built on the spot where Jesus was said to have been born. Shamanically, you could say, the original essence of Jesus was flowing through and informing him as he did his work.

For me, there has also been a strange synchronicity. St Jerome had come to mind recently in relation to my work. The Medicine Wheel was published on 30 Sept 2022, which is the Feast Day of St Jerome. I couldn't believe it when I found that out. Yes, I am being told, we are both translators of something deep. And my book was published 23 years after attending my first course on the Wheel, and having been with it, one way or another, ever since. This was exactly the amount of time Jerome took to complete his translation.

I am not boasting when I write all the above. I have a reluctance, but there is a particular gravitas and significance to The Medicine Wheel that needs to be articulated. It enables us to claim this shamanic thing for our own, without the endless deferring to indigenous people that we often engage in, when it can be like the Pope has walked into the room. We can stand on equal terms, and that is something we need to do for our shamanism to reach maturity.

There are various depictions of St Jerome. I chose the one with the lion, that references the popular belief that he tamed a lion by healing its paw. The union of animal and human, as well as healing, are central to the Shamanic endeavour.

NB If you buy my book and leave a (genuine) rating on Amazon, I will give you a free astrology (or tarot) reading😊 The same goes for my astrology book Surfing the Galactic Highways. I think that book has a similar spirit, of taking the astrological tradition and re-inventing it from my own grasp of it, again with 15 years blogging behind it. Writing my astrology blog from 2006 onwards shaped me more than any other single activity has.

 

 

THE ASTROLOGICAL UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

As astrologers, we can see shapes in the mist coming people's way, and that knowledge can help them orientate themselves. But what astrology also teaches us, ironically, is just how unpredictable the future is in terms of specific events. Otherwise, where is the openness and mystery that allows room for the spirit to do its work?

Humans are always trying to create certainties, for reasons of their own limited sense of existential security. We see this in public discourse, in the various crises that we always imagine ourselves to be in. They are based on ostensibly certain, or near-certain, outcomes of which we are terrified. Our job as astrologers is to shout from the rooftops, using the hard-won knowledge of all our wrong predictions, that the future is very undefined, and we certainly can't fix it, so just get on with your day-to-day lives and stay open to the callings from that Other place.

The bigger issues are in the hands of the outer planets. It is human hubris to think we can control the bigger picture: our vain attempts have some gods laughing, and some crying.

 

 

NET-ZERO and THE COMING URANUS-NEPTUNE-PLUTO ERA

The UK PM's move away from net-zero targets is culturally very significant. The UK will be the first country openly to do so. People vote with their pockets, and it will be the poor across the world who suffer most from net-zero policies. Rishi Sunak's move is the first sign of an emerging new climate zeitgeist, as Uranus moves into Gemini, Pluto into Aquarius and Neptune into Aries, turbocharged by a conjunction with Saturn, in the next 2 to 3 years. A whole new era.

This post is NOT about being pro or anti net-zero, it is just an attempt to describe what is happening, which is what astrology is about.

 

 

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THAT HAS SHAPED YOU?

I have been writing an astrology blog, on and off, since 2006. Its early period was probably the single most formative thing I have ever done. The blog re-invented me, gave me something I could be good at. It taught me how to think originally; to write simply and engagingly; and was the means by which I forged my own understanding of astrology. All under the aegis of tr Neptune conjoining my Sun.

I never went on courses or read books: instead I wrote, and did readings, and learnt astrology that way. Which was as it should be for 5th House Mercury in Aquarius opp Uranus. Where is your Mercury, and how do you learn best?

I have kept about 500 of my blogs, and I think there are many interesting pickings to be had if you scroll through on a Sunday afternoon. Here is the link to my trove.

 

 

PLUTO AND NEPTUNE AT THE EDGE

What is it that qualifies us to be an astrologer or a healer or anything of that nature? I propose it is that we have been taken to the edge where our life and its conventional values no longer works. And there we are faced with something from beyond; we hear the whisperings from another world. And when we have looked and listened, we can no longer be the same. We have that look in our eye, much like the Ancient Mariner, and we will tell whoever can listen.

When people come for an astrology reading, it may be because they are at that edge, which is where major Pluto and Neptune transits often take us. They are initiators. There is new life to be seen and claimed and lived, but the old has to go to make way for it. Our job is to hold their hand and tell them they are not going nuts, and that it would be a good idea to take that step forward, which is always solitary. We can offer perspective and faith, on behalf of the universe. If we have been there.

Here is a poem by Mary Oliver that describes this edge. Or should I say seeming precipice :)

THE JOURNEY

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice -

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life !”

each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But, little by little,

as you left the voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do -

determined to save

the only life you could save.

By Mary Oliver