“Astrology for the Astrologically Challenged” by Deborah Smith Parker

I thought I’d take a brief break from my analysis of Pluto’s involvement in the clashes of the masses with corporate and government powers to temporarily shift my focus to the stars in the heavens and simply wonder—also to wonder a little about how we astrologers talk about the stars.

My dad helped me a lot with my wonder of the night sky because he was enamored of the stars. He knew all the constellations along with the myths behind them which people were eager to hear because he was such a mesmerizing story teller. He made the gods come alive. Listening to him I could feel their presence as they rode their ancient chariots and lightning bolts right into our living room. He helped them set up permanent residence when he said that the stars were “the ceiling of our world and the floor of the gods.” How much closer could we get to the gods than that? They live upstairs from us in the same universal house! We share the stars—we are consciously in each others’ lives, the gods and us! I took this deep inside me and it has sustained me in ways I have not yet found organized in culture.

I expressed this in a poem about both of my parents’ influence—and that word will take on new significance in a few paragraphs—on showing me the power and magic behind the stars. That poem is the dedication to my book, Humanus Astrologicus. Here’s an excerpt about Dad’s role:

My father’s voice
stole thunder from the heavens
to tell of times when gods
first climbed down from the stars
to meet us on the same field of battle
and forever woke those gods
who slept inside of me.

There were many nights growing up in Wisconsin when it seemed that the entire starscape was visible from horizon to horizon, like thousands of diamonds glittering on a jeweler’s enormous spread of dark velvet. The stars called to me in a language I didn’t know how to reply to except to take a canoe out late at night, paddle toward the middle of the lake, and float weeping, flooded with a fullness I couldn’t then explain, that the poet in me still struggles to express.

It wasn’t until I started learning astrology that the stars and I had a breakthrough in communications. During those early lessons I regularly dreamed of the planetary glyphs in an astrological chart. They became animated and the glyph of Mercury would rise off the chart and take me away for my lessons for the night, which I wish I could tell you I consciously remember because I don’t, just that they occurred. I finally told this to my astrology teacher who replied that she wasn’t surprised since I was one who wasn’t learning astrology but was remembering it.

It was decades later, recently in fact, that I found something that explained that incredible influx of mysterious energy from the stars. I found it in the dictionary. I knew from high school Latin that the word influence means to flow in, but it doesn’t really explain the full meaning of the word, particularly its capacity to impact and change something. In my Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, the first two definitions of influence are: a. An ethereal fluid held to flow from the stars and to affect the actions of humans. b. An emanation of occult power held to derive from the stars. All I could say to that was WOW!

Many astrologers, most probably, practically trip all over themselves to apply the standard explanation that the stars don’t cause, they indicate. I’m no exception, but you know, I’ve never totally bought it. The gods got to me first, clumping around upstairs in my consciousness and teaching me in my dreams.

Yes, the stars indicate, but there’s more—and I think that “more” is influence. What do you think?

(Deborah Smith Parker is the author of Humanus Astrologicus available on this site.)

About author:

Deborah Smith Parker is re-writing the often impenetrable language of astrology into a much friendlier form. She has spent her 30 plus years as an astrological consultant, writer, teacher and lecturer freeing the rich astrological images and their descriptions increasingly buried under modern clinical and technological descriptions. Her additional work in public policy has provided many outlets for demonstrating her ability to break down highly complex systems into information that’s easily understood.

All entries by Deborah Smith Parker

7 Responses to “THE STARS: DO THEY INDICATE OR INFLUENCE?”

1. Anne Beversdorf says:

   July 24, 2011 at 6:00 PM

   This is amazing, Deborah! For an astrologer it’s actually life-changing!! Here you’ve said it: BY DEFINITION, the stars INFLUENCE–they don’t just glitter away up there!

   I’ve had conversations recently with another astrologer who is ALL about “process”, which I can’t disagree with, but she uses the concept of “process” to dance away from predictions. It’s very clear to me that when certain patterns crop up, you can absolutely predict something of an archetypal nature. The specificities, of course, depend on the ‘process’ of the individual and their willingness to embrace the influence rather than run from it.

   Yes. The stars INFLUENCE us. Categorically. I’m blown away by the dictionary! (and you).

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2. Jim Hennum says:

   July 24, 2011 at 7:25 PM

   I can’t remember now whether I read this somewhere else, or if it was in your book (which it’s probably time I re-read!) – but I think it was Thomas Aquinas who said (and I’m paraphrasing – and probably to some degree bastardizing it) the stars control those of us who do not make the effort to understand them and make room for their archetypes in our lives.

   My personal take has always been the stars are little “alarm clocks” we set before we incarnate to remind us of evolutionary growth in our souls we sought to experience in this lifetime. Whether or not we pay attention to the “alarms” the changes will come. It is the agreement we made before we entered this world. The difference between hell and growth is knowing when to stop fighting and go with the flow. And knowing which flow you’re going with!

   The changes may still be extraordinarily difficult, but if you understand their purpose, it makes them a little easier to bear. And knowing the timing – when this will end – makes a huge difference. Kind of like in high school knowing when the class you abhor (it was phys ed, for me) will end and you will have a few moments between classes to talk to friends and then make it to the class you really like (just about anything else, for me!).

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3. Sharon Hart says:

   July 25, 2011 at 8:09 AM

   Over the years, I’ve also pondered this question. I’ve arrived at a “Yes/And” answer. I suspect that the stars set the course for potential but we have the ability to exercise free will and re-direct the course. Sometimes it’s only a brief detour from the original “plan”, but ultimately the “intent” of the direction is still satisfied.

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4. Suzanne Streate says:

   July 25, 2011 at 9:05 AM

   Very insightful. We share the space and influence comes from everyone, everything and everywhere. So the question for each of us is “What do you want?” Be the change and think with your heart and honor the light in all beings.

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5. Jill Estensen says:

   July 25, 2011 at 9:12 AM

   Oh Deborah……my heart filled to overflowing out of my eyes. Such a grand way to begin the week….in humble gratitude, Jill

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6. AstroHerbalist says:

   July 26, 2011 at 5:57 PM

   What can I say Deborah? You have found a real jewel! While I had known that when people say “disaster,” that indeed, it literally means “against the stars.” I never knew until reading your blog post today that the word “influence” is actually aligned with the same principles! Our language is amazing, in that without consciously knowing, it “keeps” these tidbits of knowledge hidden until one is ready to truly see – thanks for sharing this!!

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7. Chris Brennan says:

   November 2, 2011 at 4:43 AM

   I don’t think that it necessarily makes sense to conceptualize the planets and stars as literally causing things to happen here on Earth. While it may be halfway plausible to entertain that viewpoint within the context of natal astrology, since we might thing of one’s temperament as being “influenced” by the stars in some way, this doesn’t make as much sense within the context of practiced such as horary or electional astrology. Are the planets influencing the stones in a building, or the thoughts in my head when I ask a horary question, or are they simply mirroring those things back to us in symbolic form? Also, in natal astrology the chart can indicate some weird things related to events that will occur both after and before the native’s birth, like events related to the person’s siblings for example. Does it make sense to think that the celestial ‘imprint’ of the stars at the moment of birth also somehow caused those events that took place prior to birth to happen as well? Seems like a bit of a stretch.

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