THE SPIRIT OF THE ASTROLOGY PROJECT
The Astrology Project is a collaboration exploring the many dimensions of astrology. It ranges through the wide context of the subject’s identity, history and philosophy, including many sociological facets. Traditional technical and symbolic components of astrology will be investigated, both in theory, and in practice as an applied craft.
Horoscopic astrology is a long term demonstration of the archetypal drive to construct systems of meaning and understanding. It is a curious Art which has threaded through humanity, in and out of a vast historical and cultural span.
Since the late 20th Century, an international movement has developed which continues to recover core information on the subject. A richer contemporary environment offers insight into genuine principles which lead to further research and sounder practice.
___Heritage, Integrity, and Humanity___
The Astrology Project has three central conceptual terms underlying the impulse to work on astrological understanding and application.
These core ideas are ‘heritage’, ‘integrity’, and ‘humanity’.
Heritage: Inherent in this word is the implication of a prior existence, preserved or conserved from one generation to another. There is a descent of respectfully inherited ancestral properties. For it may be said that without heritage, something may otherwise be nothing.
Astrology possesses a heritage spanning millennia, over many cultural zeitgeists, and many individuals, some of whom will never be known even if notable in their time. This Project respects that such inheritance exists, however mysterious and knotty it can appear.
With its unique past astrology possesses a history worthy of excavation and realisation. There are good reasons for paying attention to the why and how of its various developments. Concepts regarding foundations and evolution are paramount. Investigating when and where astrology formed and grew becomes crucial. Who was involved and what was contributed require exploration. As always there is the biggest query – why astrology at all?
Integrity: Integrity embodies the principle of being whole, entire and undiminished. Ideally something is intact and in sound unimpaired condition. This includes honesty as to identity and expression. Astrology has become elusive in this regard, hard to succinctly define after such an antiquitous beginning. Not only has it suffered much permutation, but interpreting what it actually is also has.
The integrity of astrology is most challenging to question, given it has been subject to many projections and distortions over centuries and cultures. There are reasons for this, too numerous to digress upon. Simply note that attempts to recover astrology’s lines of origin and development are essential. This a gargantuan task.
Humanity: The condition of being human and studying a ‘humanity’ unavoidably intersects with astrology. For it is a system trying to negotiate material existence and divine a numinous commentary. Civilized development appears to naturally create this kind of paradox, provoking a search for real philosophical ground. All individuals require some form of ‘meaning’, whatever that may be.
Astrology represents a striving to make sense of the world and circumstances – to make sense of being. It attempts to uncover possibility and glimpse potential, to grapple with fate and free will. People are complicated, individually and collectively. Accordingly, to mirror this complexity astrology is not simplistic in symbolism and technique, yet always holds a natural elegance. In this way the Art itself indicates what a peculiar irony and curiosity there is in human existence.
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