Like many of you, my day began today with the news of the death by suicide of Anthony Bourdain. I was a fan of his work and I’ll miss him.
For whatever reason, I was particularly flooded with a wave of request by friends and clients and readers to write about this. There have been many times when a famous person has died or something terrible has happened where I have turned immediately to the astrology and outlined in detail the birth chart factors and transits that led to tragedy. It’s not something I’m afraid to do.
This time, however, I want to do something that I think may be much better and more important than cataloging all the fine astrological details of what went terribly wrong in Anthony Bourdain’s life. Rather: I want to share with you today my experience and my perspective on these things not through the lens of astrological technique, but rather through my eyes as an astrologer.
Yes, there is a difference between the two. Astrology is a practice much like medicine or engineering or accounting or plumbing. However, being an astrologer involves the application of astrological principles to individual lives. It is a skill set above and beyond simply knowing the difference between a trine and a sextile, or which planet rules what. Being an actual astrologer requires a grasp of the human condition that goes above and beyond the details of the chart and the transits.
In Sanskrit, astrology is called jyotish — the science of light. On the one hand, this expresses the idea that astrology is a study of the lights in the sky, and how they interact with us and each other. On the other hand, to me at least, it implies much more: bringing the light of compassion and understanding to the lives of the individual owners of those birth charts and transits.
What I’m trying to say here is that there are other astrologers who will be discussing the birth chart and transits of Anthony Bourdain and/or Kate Spade, and you can feel free to read them. I am sure that some will do an excellent job of describing the astrology that led to them feeling like there was no way out of their darkness other than death.
But, speaking not merely as someone who knows astrology, but as an actual astrologer? Today that approach seems inadequate, and in fact is missing the larger and much more important point.
The point is that astrology may indicate times of happiness or sadness, darkness or light. But no matter what the planetary conditions in either your birth chart or your transits, you still have the power to take action. And if you find yourself in more darkness than you know how to deal with, please do me a favor and get help.
It is difficult enough being a human here on Earth. Please do not leave a hole in our existence that would be made by your self-directed departure. There is help and there is hope. Please reach out. Please talk to someone. We need you here more than you know.
Curious about how my new e-book: “Saturn Trine Uranus: Playing With Power” can help you work with this energy to get maximum benefit? Feel free to write me about it!
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