What Astrology Is Not

On the associations

Astrology has nothing to do with things you see in social media bios like witchiness, magick, spirituality, healing, crystals, psychology, therapy, ze/zir, etc. Astrology also has nothing to do with incense, remediation, channeling, psychics, rituals, mitigation practices, chanting, mantras, or yogas. Astrology further has nothing to do with stoic fatalism, grim fate, mythology of roman Gods, Egyptian cat worship, or masonic degrees. All of these things are local religious practices of a cultural time and place, which are associated with astrology by the native habits of practitioners who apply their contemporary religious environment when attempting to understand astrological indicators. Astrology is itself a systematic, orderly calendar system that marks time and provides information about time, which allows one to infer about the events and themes that will take place, and local religious practice can be a natural lens through which to interpret and respond to it. Over time, these local religious practices are associated with astrological language and are carried forward by later practitioners. While occasionally useful and instructive, these things are not themselves Astrology and should be treated instead as the curious language of a culture. Astrology studies an infinitely complex universe that is far beyond the comprehension of any individual practitioner and no Astrologer can fully understand the information it provides, and as such they will commonly apply other systems of understanding to aid in that. Many astrologers through history understood this, and chose to frame their interpretation in language that could be understood by their audience by using references to contemporary religious understanding of how the world and life works. Additionally those astrologers were themselves captured by their contemporary cultural environment and their own human limitations are responsible for their association of astrology with such practices. The association of Astrology with beliefs and practices with which it has no direct relationship does not materially alter Astrology itself, it only informs about the mentality of the people of those times and places. As such if you seek to understand or practice Astrology, you must be systematic and disciplined about which information you are applying that derives from the system itself, and which ideas are influencing you from your surrounding environment. Few succeed at or even attempt this, but it’s not difficult if you enter your study with this in mind.