WARNING: THIS IS AN EPICALLY LONG BLOG POST, GET COMFY, MAKE YOURSELF A CUP OF TEA FIRST.
For those of you who didn’t catch my last blog, my plan this year is to go underground and focus on writing, recording and producing songs in my new home studio. In order to fill my well of inspiration, I have committed to doing something out of the ordinary on a weekly basis and in turn, will flex my writing muscle by reporting about my discoveries and experiences here.
So, this week I went all out and took a journey to the stars. For the first time ever I thought it would be fun to go to an astrologer and have a reading of my birth chart. This is definitely out of the ordinary for me, as I’ve never been one to pay attention to horoscopes, in fact I can probably count on one hand how many times I have bothered to read a zodiac prediction.
Despite being a dreamer and a romantic at heart, my rational brain does keep me pretty grounded most of the time, so the stars have never really played a significant role in my life. Whenever I have read books that describe the personality types of the different stars signs, the one for mine (Aries), never seemed to fit me at all. If anything, Pisces descriptions were more in line with my personality. Because of that, I always regarded Astrology as a fun notion but something that had no solid foundation, or relevance to me.
A few years back, I had a short love affair with a guy who was totally into Astrology. He had complete faith in it, and considered it a reliable way to know a person and judge their character. As soon as we met, he wanted to know all the details of my birth so he could look at my chart. I remember him telling me things I didn’t understand, like ‘Your moon is in Scorpio, that’s why you’re so emotional’. I found it amusing at first, but, frankly, in the end, I was annoyed by it. He seemed to think he knew me better than I knew myself and I felt insulted that he believed he had an accurate insight into my character by looking at a map of the sky. If he wanted to get to know me, I felt he should show some genuine interest in getting to know me, by talking to ME, asking ME questions, having real conversations…Needless to say, that relationship did not stand the test of time.
The only other time astrology made an appearance in my life was during my famous trip to Europe, (the one that was the impetus for creating this blog.) On that trip, I had no plan, except to go to Paris and follow my heart and somehow I found myself at a yoga/meditation retreat in an ashram in the middle of Italy. Astrology was a hot topic of conversation there, and many of my new found yogi friends told me it was a shame when I decided to leave, because a Vedic astrologer would be visiting soon and giving free readings. All those who had seen him on prior occasions, reported it was an amazing and profound experience. I was intrigued, but at that point of my travel adventure, I was ready to move on.
When I started thinking about doing ‘out of the ordinary’ things, going to an astrologer was one of the first ideas that popped into my mind. I had no clue where I would find one, but as luck would have it, I bumped into an old friend, who happened to tell me that she had astrological readings regularly and she gave me the details of an Astrologer she highly recommended.
So, early last week, I arrived at the Astrologers door step. I felt a little nervous and sceptical, but mostly curious and open to anything she was about to tell me. She was a sweet, softly spoken, french woman. The chart reading took place at her apartment on Queen St East. She apologised for the chaos, as she was about to move to Quebec City and everything was in boxes. Aside from that, there was no idle chit-chat, we got stuck straight into it. I had sent her the details of my birth and answered a few other questions via email prior to my arrival. They were pretty straight forward questions like, what was the birth sign of my parents, what was my vocation, where was I born, was I in a relationship etc. Apart from the answers I provided, she knew nothing about me.
The first thing she did, which I wasn’t expecting, was to look at my palms. From the shape of my fingers and nails she deduced that I’m a very sensitive, intuitive person, quick to react to the energies around me. [True] And also that I was impulsive and get bored easily, sometimes to my own detriment [Very true]. From the lines on my palms she told me in this life I am still having to learn the same lessons from past lives [apparently I’m a bit slow to evolve, dammit!] She said all the lines crossing my Life line show I’ve had a very eventful life [Who hasn’t?! I actually think all those lines are more a sign of working in restaurants for too long! I’ve done my fair share of dishes and table clearing, my hands are starting to wrinkle!] The Mind line told her I was bright, quick, and deep but sometimes impatient and stubborn [the last two for sure!] Some obvious deviations in the Life and Mind line told her that I am going through a confusing period of transition right now and will do for a year or two. [Hello midlife crisis!] But she assured me I am going to come out of it strong [Phew!]. The Destiny line told her I’m a late bloomer, but that I am determined and won’t give up, in fact I will have success and will continue to do what I love until I die [Yay! Finally some good news!]
She then went on to tell me that all of this was reflected in my natal chart. The chart, she explained, is a mirror of ones soul and life, it is a tool used for personal, emotional and spiritual growth as well as a support to create the right relationship with self, family and society. The premise behind astrology is that the position of the sun, moon and planets, with regards to the stars at the time of your birth, will have an influence on your personality and life events. (eg. at the time of my birth the sun was in alignment with the constellation Aries, the moon with Scorpio etc) Everything is energy and, much like the moon having an influence on ocean tides, astrologers believe every celestial body in the sky has an influence over our energy; our thoughts, emotions and actions.
Interestingly enough, when I was born, Mars was in Pisces, so apparently, although I’m an Aries, this means I have a lot of Pisces character traits, especially with regards to how I react to things and the actions I take. She told me the top interests and natural abilities of Pisces is Music [bingo!]. I’m not going to go into too much detail about what she talked about. If it had no relevance to me, I’d be happy to share it with you, but because it did, divulging the information here would be a little too confessional for my liking…(I’ll leave the public confessions to my song writing)…But I will tell you that in general she focused on pointing out some flaws in my character, ones that I would benefit from working on, she made some recommendations about things I should be focused on right now and tried to put certain events that I’m experiencing into the context of a bigger picture that relates to what she regarded as the purpose of my life. She also pointed out the importance of using life challenges as a mirror, and to try to see difficult experiences as tools for personal evolution.
I found myself nodding in agreement to a lot of what she said, I couldn’t help but acknowledge that her descriptions were true and her predictions felt relevant to me. When I told one of my friends about it afterwards, he pointed out that the things the Astrologer referred to were vague correlations and most people could connect that same information to themselves. Even so, I was intrigued that the issues she picked out of the air, were the very same things I had been meditating on and thinking about lately, it felt very specific to me. She also made some interesting predictions about my future that I haven’t shared with anyone yet, but if those events do come to pass I will be sure to let you know.
The whole experience really sparked my curiosity and sent me down a rabbit hole of historical research. I realise this blog post is starting to turn into a lengthy essay, so I’ll let you know some of what I discovered in point form:
• The art/science of Astrology is believed to have developed in the 3rd Millenium BC in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) by the Babylonian and Sumerian civilizations.
• Horoscopic astrology developed around 6century BC, Ptolemy having a large influence – he believed it was one of the many things that influence a persons character and life.
• The oldest surviving horoscopic chart pertains to an individual on 29 April 410 BC in Babylon
• There was a borrowing of Astrological ideas between Mesopotamia and ancient Egyptian civilization – interestingly enough some of their ideas were already in alignment with each other.
• With time these ideas spread to ancient Greece, Rome, more of the Arab world and then central and Western Europe.
• Ancient Indian, Chinese and Mayan civilians had their own distinct traditions of Astrology.
• It was originally developed as a Calendrical system that helped predict seasonal shifts and a way to interpret celestial cycles as a sign of divine communication. It was especially helpful with predicting the moons effects on tides and rivers to help societies better organise and prepare themselves.
• The position of the stars became more important with the advent of agriculture, as the changing seasons had a direct impact on farming practises.
• It was considered a scholarly tradition right up until 17th Century, with kings and emperors often having their own court Astrologer. Nothing was done without consideration of the events in the sky.
• It was developed out of the geocentric model (the earth as the centre of the universe)
• At some points in history, largely instigated by the church, astrology was prohibited
• In 1st Century AD Rome, one political character ‘Publius Rufus Anteus’ was charged with magic and treason because he was found to be funding a banished astrologer and had requested a chart reading for himself as well as for the King Nero. He was punished by Nero, who forced him to commit suicide.
• Astrology started to lose its academic validity in 1700’s at the end of Renaissance period around the time of the Enlightenment when Heliocentrism gained popularity ie the sun as the centre of all things
• Although it lost its validity in the scientific world it still plays an important role in many peoples lives, so much so that most newspapers around the world still consider it relevant enough to employ a resident astrologer.
• Ancient astrology was the stepping stone for the modern day science of Astronomy.
All my research has led me to develop a bit of a soft spot for the ancient astrologers. Although there is plenty of evidence out there to debunk the validity of Astrology as a science, the experience has left me feeling nostalgic about the good old days, when we were so much more intricately connected to our environment and had more respect for the earth and sky. Those ancient astrologers were connected to the natural world in a way that we can't comprehend now, and I cant help but wonder if there might be some truth in their observations. My guess is that for a long time in human history the sky was the internet of the times. People were probably as obsessed with it, as we are with our phones. Instead of turning to Google for answers, people turned to the stars, instead of defining themselves through social media platforms, their identities were linked to the sky and the knowledge of Wise men.
In today's world, people barely take the time to look at the sky, and often when we do, the brightness of the city drowns out the light of the shining planets and twinkling stars. We take night and day and all the seasons for granted and forget that all the environmental changes happening around us are linked to the fact we are on a massive, spinning, spaceship-like planet that orbits a giant sun, which in turn is the centre of a relatively tiny solar system, that belongs to a small galaxy we’ve called the Milky Way, one of zillions that exist in an infinite universe. We seem to have forgotten all about our mysterious place in the sky, and instead walk around as though WE are the centre of the universe, in control of all things. So much so, that we take the elements for granted and destroy the very planet that gives us life...sigh...
I remember reading once about the mystery of bird migration. Scientists know why birds migrate but they still haven’t completely figured out how. Birds seem to possess an intricate system of navigation that relies on the position of the sun and the stars, and the earths magnetic force, as well as depending on the instincts locked into their cells and their intuition. They’ve done all sorts of experiments to try to confuse the birds, like putting them in planetariums and shifting the position of the stars and transporting the birds by plane and releasing them in a totally random places…somehow the birds are still able to navigate their way back to the place that will ensure their best chance of survival, but we still can’t explain it.
In the light of my chart reading, this makes me wonder… If a bird can look to the sky to navigate their lives, maybe the sun and moon and planets and stars do have some reign over our lives to. And maybe we've just lost our connection to it. When you think about it, and look at the REALLY BIG picture, the stars are actually our real ancestors. “We are star dust” as Joni Mitchell sings in one of her songs. All the atoms in our bodies, are simply the remnants of the explosion of a massive star. So maybe looking to them for some advice is not such a crazy notion after all!
Going to an Astrologer was a great first ‘out of the ordinary’ experience. And it has certainly filled my well of inspiration and sparked my curiosity. Whether, the information the astrologer relayed to me was true or not, or simply vague enough that anyone could apply it to themselves, doesn’t really matter to me. I met her without any expectation; if anything I was pretty sceptical, but I think I got something very positive from the experience. I came away with a new sense of purpose, a renewed focus and a restored hope in my future. Anything that can do that, seems like a worthy cause to me!
I thought I’d leave you with the lyrics of a song I wrote when I was about 20, many moons ago! The song never saw the light of day, but it came back to me when I was thinking about all of this. Perhaps I have more in common with the ancient astrologers than I was consciously aware of...
Until the next adventure!
Natasha Nouveau xx
SILVER MOON
Sitting in an empty room
Sipping blood coloured wine
Staring at the silver moon
In the black velvet sky
Wondering what
The future holds
Giant crystal ball
Tell me everything you know
Listening to the whistling wind
As it rattles past the window pane
Remembering there’s so many things
Invisible, That no one can explain
Most things that matter to me
Can never be seen,
Just like the love that exists
Between you and me.
I will miss you when we’re gone
But I promise you I will wait
If I make it to the other side
I will wait for you
Watching all the distant stars
Light from millions of miles away
Wondering about the different worlds
That might exist
Under this endless sky
I know some things
I will never understand
All my days will come and go
With still some secrets
Left untold
I will miss you when we’re gone
But I promise you I will wait
If I make it to the other side
I will wait for you
Do you remember that night I couldn’t sleep?
You kissed me softly on the cheek
And whispered ‘Darling, close your eyes,
Imagine you can fly, and that you’re high above the trees,
You can do anything you want,
If you only believe”
I will miss you when we’re gone
But I promise you I will wait
If I make it to the other side
I will wait for you
