A Medicine Woman's Prayer

As an art form and symbolic language, astrology has illuminated the path for humanity’s evolution in consciousness for eons. However, as we evolve, so does astrology and the way we engage with it. We now know that the observer affects what is being observed, revealing how all things are interdependent. This understanding dramatically shifts how we work with astrology in our lives. 

The interdependence of our ability to acknowledge and observe affects how we approach the lens through which an archetypal approach to astrology helps us make sense of our world and our place in it. We’re no longer beholden to the idea that the ‘planets out there’ are governing our lives. But instead, we are invited to establish a relationship with these archetypal forces. We’re now empowered and called to step up to the plate of deepening our viewpoint while assuming more responsibility for our place in this cosmic dance.

Instead of being passive receivers of an astrological reading, we’re now invited to be engaged participants in this cosmic dialogue. As a result, we can approach our birth chart not as an immutable force of fate but as a landscape to be acknowledged and understood with the many layers of meaning that inhabit it. 

For many, myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. Or it’s viewed solely as a traditional story involving supernatural beings or events, which helps explain some natural or social phenomenon. 

Now for others, myths and fairy tales are testaments that we’re more than homo sapiens; we’re homo storytellers. Stories, be them myths or fairy tales, serve as a bridge between the personal, the universal and the cosmic. Stories help us reimagine the journey we’re on while informing our sense of what is possible and enabling us to cope with the challenges on the path. Moreover, stories help us engage with the world around us and experience it more richly and colorfully. 

The lasting power of myths is due to the archetypes that inhabit every weave of its story. A simple definition of an archetype is that it’s a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art or myth. For the Swiss psychoanalyst C.G. Jung, archetypes bridged the inner world and the outer worlds of the humans (individual/collective) and the outer world (earth/cosmos.)

The word archetype comes from the Greek archetypos, which has two root words: arkhe (archai), meaning first and original, and typos, meaning model or type. As the original types or models, archetypes can be understood and seen as mythic gods/goddesses, Ideas or Forms as Plato taught or as psychological patterns in the Jungian perspective. 

Thus approaching astrology from a mythic perspective invites us to activate our imaginations and ways of seeing beyond simple definitions. It acknowledges the multi-layered nature of this ancient symbolic language and how it speaks to the landscape of our psyche. 

Depth psychology can be understood as a ‘way of seeing and being in the world.’ Its emphasis is on exploring what lies beneath the issue presented via working with imagination, dreams, images and stories as a way to see what’s underneath the structure of our lives. It draws on literature, mythology, philosophy, history and the arts as an interdisciplinary modality. 

As for archetypal astrology, which is a branch in the fruitful tree of astrology, it’s heavily influenced by depth psychology, mythology, and contemporary spirituality. Its focus is on studying the connection between the planetary movements, the archetypal patterns and our human experience. It’s a bridge between the ‘astrology out there’ and our world in and down here. Its drive is in seeing the underlying unity between the psyche and the cosmos. 

One of depth psychology’s fundamental teachings is that myths are the stories of the soul. Thus, approaching astrology from this lens gifts us with a treasure trove of images to help us better understanding ourselves while helping us feel meaningfully connected to the world. 

A more creatively expansive perspective is to see the archetypal underlying order of the cosmos, with myth as a way to explore it, both in our inner and outer worlds. As such, we can work with myth as the entry point to see how the archetypes show up in our lives and our culture and world. 

The mythic approach to our lives and how we engage with the Astrology of our birth charts can serve us as a therapeutic modality. It’s no coincidence that the roots of the word therapy come from the Greek therapia, and it meant attendance to the gods. 

Thus approaching our birth charts and what it says about our inner landscape and how it manifests in the outer world is a way for each of us to attend to how the archetypes manifest in our lives. When we do this, we no longer stay stuck ‘in the story’ we’ve been throughout our lives. As we evolve and widen our perspectives, so does the mythic thread of our lives expands and evolves. 

From this mythic perspective, the birth chart is approached as a metaphor, with the myths that arise from it reveal the underlying patterns of the psyche. It iss engaging with the mythic images that rise from the birth chart that transformation and understanding are evoked. Healing activation happens in the oral exploration of the story. 

We live in intensively creative and destructive times. Destructive because our old ways of perceiving reality are crumbling. The old stories are increasingly revealing their fault-lines and coming undone in front of our very eyes. Yet, at the same time, amid the destruction, we see the first shoots of the creation of new ways of envisioning our lives and place in the world.

Healing our connection to the larger world and cosmos is the beginning of a new myth for our human story. The archetypal forces, be them the gods/goddesses, as well as the planetary archetypes that live in our birth charts, live and evolve according to the relationship they’re in. They move and live through us. 

Understanding ourselves by exploring the archetypal landscape of our birth charts is one way to help create a more expansive life for ourselves and the world we belong to. Getting an ‘astrology reading’ is not a passive activity. It’s your doorway to exploring the archetypal dimension and hear its unique calling to you.