Why We Need Astrology and Another Way to Learn It

“Unlike most books and websites devoted to astrology, this website is not a classroom. I do not teach astrology directly nor do I justify its existence. Rather, I aim to use astrology as a lens, to identify, describe, explore, and hopefully, illuminate, certain personal, cultural and philosophical issues of our time.”--Ann K.

People often ask me, “Do you believe in astrology?” To which I respond: “Do you believe in English?” Astrology is not a belief system, astrology is a language. It is not something that needs to be proved, but something that we can learn to speak.

However, this does not mean that astrology is value-free. Like other languages, astrology shapes perceptions according to its own internal ordering of the world. In learning to speak this language, one cannot help but be changed. Indeed, astrology’s way of seeing the world is so inherently transformational that it reshapes our deepest assumptions about the way space and time structure experience.

As with any language, the vocabulary and grammar of astrology can be taught in a classroom (or a book, or a website), though what one learns there is of limited use when one goes to a country where that language is the vernacular.

Alternatively, one can learn a language by plunging directly into a world in which it is the primary means of communication. This way of learning astrology, while initially confusing, is to my mind more valuable. Indeed, the confusion itself is extremely fertile, if we allow it to germinate and build energy. For even a little bit of astrological understanding can throw new lights on old realities. Our changing perceptions will then open space for more energy. As energy circulates, we start to wake up; we become hungry, we want more.

Astrology is a symbolic language. Astrological energies are like gods, they are archetypes, they “seize” us and do with us what they will. Once started on this road, it is hard to stop. I warn anyone not willing to commit to your own evolutionary journey that this website is not for you.

In entering this website, the reader leaves behind the astrological classroom and walks into a larger world where astrological symbols are as real and natural as rain or animals or dreams, where symbolic reflection on the meaning of things is an integrated facet of the conscious examination of everyday life.

Though I do not aim to teach astrology directly, I pray that someday this language will be interwoven into the fabric of our lives. Astrology is relevant everywhere, it speaks to us all. As the one language which teaches both the uniqueness and the diversity of individuals and yet assumes the unity of the ever-changing harmony of the spheres, astrology embraces the paradox of life. As the one language which refers to the sky under which we all live, astrology grounds us all in the same universal experience.

Astrology places planet Earth at the center of an ever-widening context of affairs--and views that larger context as vital to any deeper understanding of that center. Moreover, the astrological birthchart for every individual makes one's own birth into a particular space/time location its sole focus. Thus, both the whole planet and each point on it gain individual definition and holistic integrity.

As we begin the 21st century, I think we can agree that on a deep unconscious level, humanity is seeking unity, harmony, a universal language through which we can understand one another, no matter how far apart we may be culturally or ideologically.

The scientific world gives us a technical language. But this language is utterly irrelevant to our current and pressing philosophical need to ask questions about the design and purpose of life on earth. For this we need a symbolic language, one which speaks to our depths and which rises from those depths, being anchored in the experience of millennia.

Unfortunately, it takes enormous long-term effort and concentration to learn astrology well enough to use it as a second tongue. The traditional scientific prejudice against debased forms of astrology coupled with the unusual difficulty of pure astrology have kept this extraordinary instrument for human understanding out of reach.

I propose that it isn't necessary to actually learn the detailed vocabulary of astrology to benefit from its wisdom. What is important is the shift in perception which occurs when we learn how to contemplate things from an astrological point of view. What is of value is the new--and most ancient--relativistic manner in which astrology works with multidimensional space and cyclical time. This way of perceiving and experiencing reality is analogous with the new physics.

If you have neither time nor inclination to learn astrology, but seek to understand life on earth from a deeper/broader perspective, this website will be of immense value.

If you do seek to learn the language of astrology as a set of instructions, see the many fine books and websites which aim to teach it that way, and use this website to help you to explore the many ways astrology can help illuminate human experience.

And if you are an astrologer, well then, welcome to this site! I hope that you too can benefit from my way of interweaving astrology with the many dimensions of our lives.

I have been publishing essays utilizing the language of astrology for the past fifteen years; many of them are archived on this site. The language of astrology is continuous and interwoven with everything I speak and know and yearn for. I use it to investigate certain realities with which we are all both familiar and fascinated. In moving through them we are immersed in this more ancient and universal way of living in the world. We begin to absorb the astrological language automatically, the way a small child does, when, wanting a cookie badly enough, he finally points to the cupboard and shouts its name.

Celestial Navigations started life as a printed newsletter available by subscription only. We wanted to reach a wider audience and to offer the opportunity for our readers to connect and interact with one another in real time as well as respond to the current issue of the newsletter. This is how the web site was conceived.

This site is open to everyone. We invite you to explore this site, read the essays and back issues of CN available in the Archives section of the site. All areas within this site can be accessed from the navigation menu found at the header and footer of every page.

Note: for those who wish to have Ann present a lecture or workshop in your town, please see Workshops.