isthmus nekoi said:
... But I also find I've had to junk a lot of traditional stuff b/c it doesn't apply to modern society as I'm in a totally different world of multiculturalism, changing gender roles etc. As for the modern stuff, I've seen Pluto's transits correlate with external events in people's lives too many times to write Pluto off, but then I've also cringed at a lot of the modern astro writing that imo, totally bastardizes Jungian theory. Anyways, in the end, the bottom line is to find techniques that aid you best and are consistent and reliable.
In one very real sense the tradition is multicultural, with important contributions from Babylonians (Iraqis) Persians (Iranians), Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, Indians and Western Europeans - indeed to call it 'Western' is something of a misnomer.
There are clear problems with using it though. Much of it comes from societies and cultures that were highly agrarian, where survival was a day to day issue (e.g no rain = massive starvation) and needing to consult your therapist about why you are still depressed after purchasing your 27th cow was not really an issue. Many of the real day to day issues in our society were obviously not addressed.
Secondly the approach to life and indeed writing was very different. It seems that the use of over exageration to make a point was quite common. Thus people who we might regard as 'academics' often described things as 'evil', 'wicked', or 'malefic' in the way teenagers today use these words for effect. Thus we need to tone down the way that we take much of these writings but look for the underlying methodology. If these are statements that don't rest on apparantly clear astrological thinking, then they are of little use to us - at least till we find the relevant texts. Worse still, they often assume a familarity with their methods that we don't have - no explanations are given and we have to try and puzzle out meaning.
Thirdly the Astrologers concerned come from a patriarchal society where the role of women was seen as subordinate but vital - no children = no comfortable old age and no one to continue the farm/estate/craft. There are few examples of work devoted to women's issues. Indeed if women featured at all in Astrological issues they were either Queens, duchesses, etc in their own right or they were the object of questions relating to marriage, childbearing, or the provision of doweries.
Given that it is noteworthy that some of the foremost traditional Astrologers of today are women - people like Lee Lehman, Bernadette Brady, Deborah Houlding, some of whom live lifestyles that would have scandalised their male predecessors all those years ago.
As you say, there is also a lot of rubbish spouted by modern psychological Astrologers - indeed in reading a work by a well known Astrological 'Counsellor' I nearly set fire to the book! The task we are faced with is to try and challenge what is said (whether by modern or ancient Astrologers) in order to know why we practise Astrology in the way that we do and to get a method that works for us. Trying to understand why Saturn is regarded as a malefic, or why Mercury is strong in Virgo but not in Pisces or why to change the reading of a chart if the native was born at night helps us understand what we are doing. Yes we might discard some of these ideas or realise that they are not quite what we think they are.
In the same sense we should ask why Pluto represents transformation or why it is related to sex and see if the reasoning holds up. Why is Uranus associated with revolutions and the unconventional? Why is Neptune related to the transcendental - is it simply because that is the 'received wisdom' or is there a sound Astrological basis for the belief?
If you don't know why you are doing it then there will inevitably be a limit to your progress. I certainly feel I need to know and understand more in order to continue to make progress.
