Depth Astrology

Richard Feynmann — famous physicist, womanizer and bongo player — said this in his renowned Feynman Lectures on Physics (Vol. 1):

“It is just a strange fact that we can calculate some number, and when we finish watching nature go through her tricks and calculate the number again, it is the same.” (source)

He was talking about energy. Basically, he was saying that whatever you have — a gorilla, say — is energy of a given quantity. If you add more energy to it — for example a hard push, a jog around the block or a pound of peanuts — the form may change. But the amount of energy, the calculation, remains the same. The gorilla is knocked over, more physically fit or a pound of peanuts heavier, but the calculation is still 800 pounds plus the energy of the push or the run or the peanuts.

What does this have to do with astrology? Everything. The birth chart represents the energy you were born with — that is, the natural tendencies to which your personality leans (notice I didn’t say “is enslaved for life”).

If you’re the gorilla, are you the one vulnerable to being pushed around by the rest of your tribe? Are you the one that gets up every morning for a jog around the block? Are you the one that can most often be found under a tree eating a pound of peanuts?

If you’re the bicycle, are you the one that prefers to amble down a country lane, stopping in the shade on occasion to pick flowers and enjoy the breeze? Or the one that blasts past the other competitors in the Tour de France? Or the one collecting dust in the garage?

It can all be read in your chart. You’re given certain tools — a body, a heart, a mind and more — a gorilla, perhaps — and your chart gives you certain energetic tendencies to apply to each one: working mind, sluggish body, perceptive heart, blocked instinct, dynamic persona… Knowing your chart can help you open up or change the energy, help you see how to bring different kinds of energy to apply to different tools when what you’re doing now results in unhappiness or worse.

In the end, the calculation will still be the same — you’ll still have a body, a heart, a mind and more. Perhaps even a gorilla. But the result will be different. If you shift from scattered energy to focused energy, your mind will look different. If you shift from me-energy to we-energy, your heart will look different. If you shift from thinking energy to doing energy, your body will look different.

And maybe you’ll be the fittest gorilla on the block.

George W. Bush drew much derision when he uttered his famous declaration, “I am the decider.”

In my reading, the derision wasn’t directed so much at the sentiment as at his phraseology. But his plainspeak was still intriguing. Who else but someone with six of ten planets in so-called “cardinal zones” — and most planets on the “I” side of the chart — would make such a statement? (Answer: someone with 7, 8, 9 or 10 cardinal planets on the “I” side!)

By contrast, certain web pages at my husband’s organization used to carry the words, “Maintainer: Alan.” Without violating his privacy too much, I will tell you, confidentially, that Alan does have a lot of fixed energy in his chart.

Myself? It’s all summed up in my About Me tagline (at right), which reads, “It changes every day.” (Believe me, I wasn’t thinking about my chart specifically when I wrote it; I was merely trying to identify the phrase that best captures my mutable personality.)

Cardinal, fixed and mutable are the three main motivational energies of the astrological chart. If you have strong cardinal energy, you forge ahead and envision the future, make decisions, initiate action. These are the folks people follow. Fixed types — the “maintainers” among us — consolidate what’s been achieved and make sure it is safe and secure. They’re the ones who will stick with you through thick and thin (whether you want them to or not). We mutable folk tinker with what’s there, trying to perfect it, preparing it for the next round of action. We make good editors, good housekeepers.

Of course, everyone has a mix of these energies within them; it is exceedingly rare to find someone whose insides are entirely populated with one type of energy. So there are areas of life in which we tend to initiate more, others where we prefer to sit back and enjoy what we have, others where we just can’t leave it alone. Sometimes we’re good at two of those modes or even all three of them in a single area of life: establishing, maintaining and refining strong relationships, for instance, or a thriving career, or a solid sense of self.

Do you know yourself well enough to guess whether your chart has more cardinal (decider), more fixed (maintainer) or more mutable (changer) energy in:

• Relationships?
• Security?
• Learning?
• Communicating?
• Community?
• Surviving?
• Other areas that are important to you?

Are there areas you’d like to be more energetic, relaxed or persistent about than you find you naturally are? Where do you want to be the Decider? The Maintainer? The Changer?