Experiential Astrology: Bringing It Alive!
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Experiential Astrology: Bringing It Alive! by Barbara Schermer This article is an excerpt from the Experiential astrology can be done Once you have made your plan- author’s book, Astrology Alive! (currently in groups, but frequently, for many of etary imageboards, find an open space out of print). It was originally published us, getting together with others is not and place them around you on the floor in the June 1994 issue of The Mountain so easy. There are experiential tech- in the order they appear in your chart. Astrologer and is reprinted here with niques you can do yourself, which Sit in the center (Ascendant/Descen- minor editorial changes and by permis- include artistic techniques such as mak- dant and MC/IC axes) and face your sion of the author. ing imageboards for the planets; creat- Midheaven (MC). Now, take up each ing an astrological mandala, a planetary imageboard, moving around the circle When I can’t find words to express what mask, or a healing image of your chart; from planet to planet. Are there any that I mean, I get up and dance it. or more active techniques like dancing you’re feeling out of touch with now? — Zorba the Greek (Nikos Kazantzakis) your planets. Which of them feel less accessible? What planets being activated by transits In the beginning, astrology was Using Imageboards to or progressions are affecting your cur- alive. Our ancestors had a relationship to Explore Your Chart rent life circumstances? What planetary the natural world, and the contemplation Making personal imageboards of energies give you problems right now? of the heavens was a vital, primal com- your own planets will give you a new Which ones help out? What effects have munion that brought meaning to life. tool for self-study, contemplation, and you been noticing … or ignoring? How Today in the West, we have an ritual. These colorful, symbolic picture are you feeling about them? impoverished relationship to the heav- displays can become a visual exten- First, focus on the planets that are ens, weakened by a too-strict adherence sion of your chart, giving you a means your greatest strengths. Use a piece of to the Newtonian–Cartesian scientific to arouse thoughts and feelings and paper and a crayon or marker to draw worldview. We who have an interest in deepen your inner process. what these current strengths look and astrology have been carried along with Begin by creating an imageboard feel like. Talk with these planets. What the technological tides of our times, for each of the ten planets in your horo- do you have to say to each of them? often to our benefit, with new methods scope. Cut appropriate pictures, words, What do they have to say to you? How of computation and research, but also to or phrases from magazines, or draw can they come forward and help you to our detriment in that we have forgotten or paint whatever evokes your plan- achieve the balance you’re seeking? that our original encounter with the ets, their signs, and house positions. Now, focus your attention on a heavens was immediate, direct, and For a conjunction of two or three plan- current problem and note any planets alive. ets, make an imageboard that blends affecting you in a disruptive way. Take Experiential astrology seeks to rem- all energies. I have one imageboard for out a piece of paper and draw what edy this by putting us back into direct my Sun–Uranus conjunction. It’s yellow the problem looks and feels like. If it’s contact with our horoscopes. With with a radiant sun, lightning bolts, and a transit of Saturn conjunct your natal means such as images, metaphor, story, spiraling galaxies, images of computers, Mercury, put those two imageboards myth, ritual, music, and dramatic and books, words, a television, used plane directly in front of you. Imagine that a artistic expression, we can move into tickets, weird Aquarian-looking people, specific archetypal image is standing more direct contact with the planetary an office desk with the word “Serve” behind each imageboard. For example, archetypes and, in so doing, rediscover above it, a woman deep in thought, and Mercury might be Hermes the messen- the depths of ourselves. Astrology then the words, “Soothe your nervous sys- ger, and Saturn might be Father Time, becomes not just a tool for intellectual- tem,” “Focus your energy,” “Breathe,” Chronus, or a wise old crone. izing, but a way of self-knowledge and a and “Learn to be patient.” I look at this Try speaking with these images, means to vital, primal communion with whenever I need to remind myself of allowing yourself to give your own inner that which is beyond. what my Sun–Uranus means to me. archetypes a voice. What do you have 72 www.mountainastrologer.com to say to Saturn? to Mercury? What Become aware of the planetary does Mercury have to say to Saturn? forces on the periphery of your atten- What do they have to say to you? Ask The only limits tion. Which planet do you most notice? each what he or she can do to help you to the power Focus your attention on it. What col- feel more balanced. How would these ors, words, phrases, and images come two planets affect each other if they of astrological to mind? If your Moon is in Virgo, you were in trine instead? In what ways can archetypes are might begin by coloring the house it you act as if your difficult conjunction sits in green. You might draw a large were a trine? Reaffirm your control with those imposed by moon and include a photo of a mother the planets that are now your strengths. and children, or anything that seems to Acknowledge each planet you have the consciousness evoke this planetary energy. When you interacted with, giving thanks for what using them. finish, turn your attention to another they’ve shown you. Treat them as you planet that calls you until you’ve rep- would any valued relationship. This resented each planet in the horoscope. may seem like a silly exercise, but expe- Don’t think too much about what you’re rience will prove that it isn’t. It is a good crowned by the supreme attribute of doing. Add whatever feels spontaneous way to establish a more conscious rela- reflective consciousness.”1 and right. Put your mandala in a visible tionship with your inner voices. Since time immemorial, the man- place and contemplate what you have The only limits to the power of dala has been depicted as a circle with drawn. Perhaps you can ask friends astrological archetypes are those a centerpoint. The horoscope, a cir- for feedback. What do they see in your imposed by the consciousness using cle with a centerpoint, is your personal mandala? This contemplative, artistic them. Each astrological symbol is a mandala and can be a living and vibrant process will elucidate the current work- living organic entity within you that is tool for contemplation. Symbolically, the ings of your psyche. bottomless. By consciously entering centerpoint is the point of intersection Try drawing a birth mandala each into this life-enriching symbol and its through which all life flows. Maintaining year near or on your birthday. You will mystery, you are interacting, expand- contact with the center helps us to keep concretely observe your psyche unfold- ing, and deepening your relationship our psychic equilibrium. ing as it changes through time. It will with it. You no longer live out its energy To make your birth mandala, you’ll reveal much to you about the feeling, in an unconscious and perhaps compul- need a large poster board (30" x 40"), depth, and direction of your inner pro- sive way. a pencil, felt-tip markers, colored con- cess from year to year. If you’re having trouble getting a struction paper, magazines, perhaps planet to talk with you, this planetary photos of yourself and of people impor- Making Masks to energy is probably the one you are most tant to you, and a glue-stick. To set the Experience Your Chart suppressing from your awareness. If you mood, you might want to play some Mask-making can be a fun way to feel anger or discomfort toward any of soft, meditative music. Then, clear your experience your chart in three dimen- them, this, too, may signal conscious or workspace of distractions and place sions. Alone or with a group, masks unconscious suppression. To return to a your poster board in front of you. Now, move you into more intimate contact sense of wholeness, these planets may use your pencil to draw a circle two feet with the pure planetary archetypes. Mer- be the most crucial ones to learn in diameter. This gives you the basic cury in Gemini might wear a fluorescent to relate to. form you’ll need to make your mandala. yellow mask with pipe-cleaner anten- Next, focus your attention on the nas. Scattered across the mask’s surface Your Horoscope as centerpoint and become aware that this are words and phrases: Study, Learn, an Artistic Mandala is the focal node through which your life Write, Teach, Speak, Move, Travel, The mandala is a universal expres- force comes. It is the vital living part of Do, “Give me more data,” “I love to sion of wholeness that arises from the you that moves out in ever-widening learn,” “When do we go?” And pictures integration of the human psyche. Natu- waves toward the perimeter of the — of books, libraries, universities, bicy- ral mandalas appear around us in the chart.