Astro Update - Issue #18

Welcome to Llewellyn's astro e-newsletter. Ancient astrologers observed planets and stars without fancy telescopes and GPS gadgets. Astrologers also observed both the routine and extraordinary acts of people and, based upon what they saw repeated over many generations, they drew conclusions about the correlation between human behavior and planetary movements. The Ancients concluded, for example, that the Sun ruled over the heart in our bodies, and we still accept that premise because we continue to see the connection.

While the Sun-heart connection seems well established, I wondered whether or not the Sun is also the heart of the horoscope. Such questions defy absolute judgment, but we ask anyway because to question is in our human nature.

If the Sun truly is the heart of the horoscope, what does that tell us about our responsibility to those whose charts we read? After all, in a symbolic sense, we are handling a human heart when we do a reading. Where do we find answers to such questions? (I have only a few decades, not hundreds of years to spend searching!)

The author of Power vs. Force, Dr. David R. Hawkins¹, an American psychiatrist, mystic, author, and spiritual teacher who lives in Sedona, Arizona, says "We have at our fingertips a means of accurately distinguishing truth from falsehood . . .." Hawkins is referring to muscle testing², which he studied in great depth over several decades. Muscle testing is based upon the premise that energy impulses within the body control our muscles and muscle strength, and those impulses are weakened by anything that is inferior—fear, lies, and even poor quality food. Muscle testing responses parallel what practitioners in the East have discovered about the human body and its energy meridians: that the energy flow is detectable and, when impeded, the decline in muscle strength is immediate.

How does the body detect truth (or positive energy) from falsehoods (or negative energy)? We know on a subconscious level in the same way we sense danger before we can see it, because we are connected to universal consciousness that contains knowledge of all that is.

Hawkins and others have done the fieldwork and recorded their methods and findings, which we can use. I tested the question: does the Sun represent the heart of the horoscope? The answer is: yes. That is a powerful piece of information. Consider this: when we hold the horoscope of a person in our hands and look at it, when we dissect and discuss with a person the details in their chart, we are no less responsible for our actions regarding that client than is the heart surgeon.

1. David Hawkins' Wikipedia entry

2 There are many applications for muscle testing, with most pertaining to health and energy balance in the body. Muscle testing does have other applications as well. See www.healingsymbols.co.uk or johreiki.net.

The mind of man is capable of anything - because everything is in it, all the past as well as the future.

~Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Most people think of the brain and the mind as being one and the same thing. Doctors, scientists and other highly trained persons share this belief. People from all walks of life use the words "brain" and "mind" interchangeably.

In reality, they are two separate and distinct creations. The brain is a biochemical organ - a part of the human body. The mind, on the other hand, is a psychic organ that is attached to the human soul. Both the soul and the mind are connected to the Creator and the heavenly realms.

"Anne Massey's detailed analysis of charts, insightful observations, and careful research combine to make Venus a book that almost anyone, from beginner to professional, will benefit from reading . . . there are so many gems in this book."

—David Cochrane, founder of Cosmic Patterns Software
and author of Astrology in the 21st Century

"This book fills a black hole in the astrological literature which has generally been overlooked: the Lady of Love. This book has something for everybody. The Goddess is smiling on this one!"

—Diana Stone, astrologer and author of
The United States Wheel of Destiny

"A monumental work on Venus and its amazing magical cycles that you will not only read but want to study for its finer intricacies. Its cyclic power points add additional interpretive enrichment not usually considered."