Editor’s note: We continue to expand our ranks of Featured Astrologers with this fine Seattle-based astrologer Stephanie Austin. I’ve been posting her regular New- and Full-Moon columns, but I also wanted you to have a peek at her fine articles.

Decoding Your Birthchart
by Stephanie Austin

Life is a journey. And our birthchart is a map of where we want to go. It details the directions we want to explore, the challenges we’ll meet, and the gifts we’ll have to bring back to others.

At first the signposts can look quite intimidating. Planets, signs, aspects, houses are just the basics. Then there are asteroids, midpoints, rulerships, transits and progressions to add in and relocation, synastry, and numerous other techniques and applications. Where do we start? And where does it end?

The key to making sense of it all is to understand how everything is part of a cycle. When we see the components of astrology as part of a meaningful progression, the puzzle of seemingly disparate parts melds into a template of wholeness. This is the ultimate goal of studying astrology, to come into conscious relationship and wholeness–relationship between the different parts of ourselves, with others, and with the Universe itself.

The very shape of the birthchart illustrates this goal. The cosmic code of our life’s journey is framed by a circle, an ancient symbol of wholeness. Combined with the four directions, this forms a mandala, an archetypal symbol of integration. “Mandala” comes from a Sanskrit word meaning circle and center. Mandalas are centering devices, and reveal both our center of individuality and our connection to the Source, the Great Center.

The fundamental components of astrology (signs, planets, houses, aspects) are derivatives of this great circle. The twelve signs of the zodiac (Gr. for “wheel of life”) comprise an archetypal cycle of development….there’s more here!

© 2008 Stephanie Austin
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