Evolutionary Astrology

What Is Evolutionary Astrology?

Astrology, like any art or science that has lasted thousands of years, creates its own history of evolution. Some fundamental assumptions and precepts remain constant—others change radically in order for the practice to remain viable. With the discoveries of planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, for example, astrology was challenged to integrate new symbolism into its seemingly closed system. Some resisted, and do to this day. Others embraced, and found a whole new dimension of astrology that is commonly known as transpersonal, a dimension which takes astrology in a decidedly psychological and spiritual direction.

Similarly, across the millennium, astrology has utilized the twin tools of description and prediction. Description of the birth chart. Prediction of the future. Nothing was missing. But it is the nature of evolution to create newness where once there was seeming completeness. It is the nature of evolution to create deeper openings, deeper gifts than we once knew to ask, or even long for.  

The deepest gift of astrology is no longer description, no matter how accurate or impressive. Description, after all,  tells you things you already know: You have a gift with children. You are secretly shy--though your cover is so convincing that you manage to keep it a secret. You can smell something rotten in Denmark or Denver without ever going ashore (you sleuth, you). And while it may be enormously comforting, affirming or confronting to hear such news from a stranger—it isn’t really news. 

Neither is prediction now the deepest gift of astrology, no matter how uncanny or timely. Prediction, in contrast to description, tells you what you don’t already know, but want to know. Or think you want to. How badly do you really want to know on January 2nd that it’s going to be one of the most difficult years of your life? You paid for this?! What you really want to hear is that it’s going to be a banner year in which your ten-year goal or your new-found dream is going to be realized. Love is going to land on your doorstep, and lease with an option to buy. Or, at the very least, that things are going to get Absolutely, Unmistakably Much Better financially. But even if you are the grinning recipient  of the “good year” announcement, there is that niggling matter of accuracy. No astrologer has a perfect record.

Description and prediction remain valuable tools in the hands of an astrologer whose skills are matched by integrity and heart.  But it’s becoming evident that there are deeper gifts available in the name of astrology--gifts that speak not only to the potential growth of the person, but to the evolutionary work of both person and soul.

The first of those gifts is astrology’s ability to take what you already know about yourself—the descriptions--and pose scary, enthralling, missive questions about them. Questions that begin to reveal the purpose underneath the obvious. Let’s say you were born a Gemini Sun. The Reader’s Digest condensed version of a Gemini Sun ranges from “talks a lot, is curious, interested in a wide range of topics” TO “has a gift with words, has teaching  or speaking ability, can be a networking wonder, is a walking hard drive of information.” Now here come those evolutionary questions: “Why would you be born with a talent for communication? Since the Sun represents the source of personal energy, what particular forms of verbal or written expression will vitalize and energize you for a lifetime? Why is a focus on the development of the “voice” so crucial to your development? What is the message (or messages) that are yours to embody and proclaim? What do you have to communicate—and to whom--if you are to die happy?

A second gift astrology has to offer: turning prediction into invitation. The nature of  prediction, as traditionally practiced, doesn’t include the consciousness and sacred momentum of the person as part of the mysterious equation.  More often, it speaks of likely events: you will meet someone, you will very likely move soon, it will be a good year for business, you could have a major health challenge, or family matters will be emphasized.

Fleshed out with some details that fit your frame of reference, all of this can be worth knowing. But can it go deeper?  Can you and your soul become a participant in what’s unfolding, helping to shape it as it goes, making choices that are conscious and alive, however difficult or desired?  Instead of declarations that may leave you waiting for certain events to manifest, an evolutionary approach lays out the nature of the energetic forces present and arising. What is the spectrum of ways this weather might manifest? And more importantly, what is the agenda driving this time of storm, or dawn of opportunity, or changing tide? Why does it come now, and what is it asking of you? What will a wise response tend to look like? What will a poor one look like—and what will it be likely to cost?

Let’s say that the planet Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, is going to spend three years getting to know that aforementioned Gemini Sun. (More like the Sun getting to know the nature of Pluto, truth be told.) Depending on what part of the chart that Sun inhabits, predictions could include depression, an identity crisis, the end of a relationship, a time of personal empowerment. All potentially true. But from an evolutionary standpoint, none of these possibilities is set in stone, and none is the heart of this passage.

To get to the heart, we have to return to what astrologer Steven Forrest calls “the root prediction”.  And that means revisiting the nature of that Gemini Sun with its evolutionary necessity to find and disseminate its message through teaching, speaking, writing, publishing or educating, and other related functions. We know the nature of this assignment in even greater specificity from the Sun’s position in the chart and from the various pressures and support systems that bear upon it. 

Knowing that, we take up the matter of a Pluto visitation. Pluto’s agenda, wherever it goes, is to transform—but not the spinning-stardust Disney version. Pluto transforms through eliminating that which no longer serves the goal and deepening that which does.  When Pluto arrives, the Gemini Sun stands at a critical juncture with its evolutionary assignment. Deepening can be scary business, however much we tout its virtues. Elimination of things we’ve grown attached to is something for which there are few volunteers.

But Pluto keeps its eye of the prize: the unearthing of the message, the soulful deepening of the talent, the rebirth of the voice, the empowerment of the teaching style, the healing of an old insecurity that has stood in your way. A strong response to this process puts the evolutionary gift in your care at the end of the time—there is more to you than when you began.  A weak response will leave you feeling oppressed, possibly bitter, and worst of all, empty-handed.  Whether or not Pluto visits isn’t up to you. Who you are when Pluto takes leave is almost entirely up to you.

Evolutionary astrology, with its focus on the relationship between the person and the soul, invites you to be a willing volunteer in a grand experiment. It invites you to take a particular pattern of energies that bear your name, and treat it like a map of the most satisfying life possible for you. Like evolution itself, this approach implies gradual change over a long period of time. Not the breakthrough of one weekend workshop (as blessed and significant as that can be), but the breakthrough of becoming the workshop.

Evolutionary astrology takes much the same view as my first mentor, astrologer Judah Betz, who used to look me in the eye and say, “You have your whole life to work on this.” And, I would add, my whole life—and your whole life-- to play with it too. To experiment. To make worthwhile mistakes and outrageous discoveries. To listen not just to the descriptions of your chart, but to the themes and sacred instructions that lie beneath those descriptions, recruiting them for the larger cause. 

Astrology continues to evolve, and perhaps the deepest gift of its evolution is this: its burgeoning ability to be an ever-present ally in your own evolution.