The Astrologer, the King and the Fool: When will Astrologers be Invited to the Party?

A recent article raised the question, why are the presence and opinions of people like the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Nelson Mandela and Deepok Chopra regularly included in important world conferences on peace and global community while Rob Hand, say, and Liz Greene go without invitations year after year. For the uninformed, these are two of the world’s greatest living astrologers. Rob Hand practices out of Reston, Virginia and can be visited at www.robhand.com/consult.htm. Liz Greene, also a Jungian analyst, is a founder of Astrodienst in Switzerland and can be visited at www.astro.com.

Or for that matter why isn’t Jeanne Avery being asked to head up a committee to explore peaceful resolutions to the conflict in the Middle East or Deborah Houlding among those advising Tony Blair on national policy? Why isn’t Rebecca Trents speaking at the United Nations? Again, for the not-so-well informed, Jeanne Avery is an astrologer for the rich and famous who can be visited at www.jeanneavery.com. Deborah Houlding is a world-class “classical” astrologer in the UK who can be visited at www.skyscript.co.uk . Rebecca Brents an astrologer and editor of Enchanted Spirit, one of the most successful metaphysical ezines on the internet which you can visit at www.enchantedspirit.org .

This question is worth contemplating. Why aren’t astrologers being included? I am not inclined to a powerless, exclusionary or conspiratorial interpretation as if these talented and capable people were sitting at home by the phone waiting for it to ring. On the contrary, I would rephrase the question and reverse it. Why don’t the world’s leading astrologers “get” themselves asked to high profile conferences on global matters? They could, so I guess the answer must be that they aren’t pursuing opportunities. Why, then?

I think this has something profound to do with the nature of astrology and astrologers, and perhaps with their tacit understanding that this is “not the way”. Before I explain what I mean by this, let me set the stage for you.

Astrology and its practitioners are ruled by the planet Uranus and the sign Aquarius. Aquarius is opposite the sign Leo, which among other things represents the ruler or the king. Aquarius also represents “everyman” or “the common man”, as in a brotherhood of equals and also represents a revolutionary force opposed to the king or more correctly, opposed to the mythical heroic image of the king. We might understand from this that astrologers find themselves or put themselves at opposite “ends” of the spectrum from the hierarchy. This polarity worked well through many centuries of history. For example, at some times in our heritage as human beings the astrologer was the natural opposing companion of the king, not unlike the Fool, the king’s other stalwart companion. The Fool is ruled by Uranus as well.

We see many fools in Shakespeare’s play, the most famous being the one in “King Lear”. To get a little Shakespearean on you, then does this mean that the astrologer is a Fool? Certainly not! Or, wait a minute, does it?

How are the Fool and the astrologer one and the same? The Fool told the king true things that those close to him sometimes wanted to keep him from knowing, out of fear of repercussions or because they were fawning for favors. Here’s an example from Barbara Tuchman’s book, "Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century". It is the year 1340 and the French have just been soundly defeated in a naval battle at the port of Bruges. No one wants to tell the king. Back then, sometimes even the messenger of bad news got killed. “Jester” is another name for the Fool. Tuchman states, "No one dared tell the outcome of the battle to Philip VI until his jester was thrust forward and said, ‘Oh, the cowardly English, the cowardly English!’ and on being asked why, replied, ‘They did not jump overboard like our brave Frenchmen.’ The King evidently got the point. The fish drank so much French blood, it was said afterward, that if God had given them the power of speech they would have spoken in French.” [pg. 7, “Distant Mirrors”]

The purpose of the Fool is to -- and the power of the Fool is derived from -- standing permanently outside the circle of power so that he is immune both from punishment and from temptation or corruption. This way he is “allowed” to tell the truth. It creates a pure, idealistic Uranian environment. Uranus at its very best! The “real truth” about some important things seems to come from a very far away place and is often so simple as to sound like it came from a fool.

Now what about the astrologer? Benjamin Franklin once said, “Courteous Reader, Astrology is one of the most ancient Sciences, held in high esteem of old, by the Wise and the Great. Formerly, no Prince would make War or Peace, nor any General fight in Battle, in short, no important affair was undertaken without first consulting an Astrologer.”

The astrologer, who read the horoscope of the king knew that the fate of the king “was” the fate of the nation. They were one and the same. He also stood outside the power circle and was expected to tell the pure truth, though often it was not with impunity. Some astrologers who gave bad news were dispatched(!) Emperor Tiberius, for example, used to hurl his astrologers off the top of a cliff.

In what way is the “truth” of the astrologer pure, like that of the Fool? Information derived from an astrology chart isn’t “psychic” or “intuitive”. It isn’t a personal impression or a counseling skill. It is based on a set of rules and a bunch of numbers and angles. It is mathematical. William Tiller, Stanford professor of physics, is quoted on astrologer Dr. Glenn Perry’s website as saying, “Mathematics has been and will continue to be the quantitative language of science, but astrology will become the qualitative language of the human condition.” Dr. Perry has a doctorate in clinical psychology as well as being an astrologer. You can visit his website at www.aaperry.com.

Thus we see that astrology is a “pure” or abstract experience like mathematics where the truth is being told sometimes from a great emotional distance and in terms of symbols.
The heyday of court astrologers was probably from the 15th to 17th centuries in Europe. Tycho Brahe served the Danish court. Johannes Kepler served the House of Habsburg (Austria) and Galileo Galilei served the de Medici family in Italy. As you know, these men were also pursuing interests in alchemy/chemistry and in astronomy. The subjects were not separated into right and left brain as they are today.

Slightly later, the skilled English astrologer William Lilley advised both Oliver Cromwell and King Charles 1 during the British Civil War, as well as predicting the Great Fire of London in 1666.

In more recent times, President Reagan was suspected of consulting astrologers such as Sydney Omar, Jeanne Dixon and Joan Quigley, through his wife, Pat. When Dixon refused to predict that Reagan would be elected in an earlier campaign for the presidency, she was replaced.
You can see that one of the reasons astrologers remain outside the establishment is to render greater service by detachment. They “oppose” the king, president and establishment in the sense that they are not under the direct power or authority of these entities and are expected to give a detached “outside” comment that can be really valuable because of its purity. Now, let’s look at the second reason.

Conferences, groups, referendums and other activities taking place today that address global issues are operating under Piscean Age protocols. (In the next paragraph, I will review the evolution of the “Ages” briefly.) At some level I think astrologers know these Piscean Age methods are antiquated and ineffective and at the same time they are not yet “called” to the fore as the priests and leaders of their own age, the Aquarian Age. As great as the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Nelson Mandela and Deepok Chopra are, they are in some sense relics of the Piscean Age and its spiritual rather than mathematical approach to worldview and they represent waning or cadent powers. Aquarian values are succedent, on the upsurge, very soon to become angular, cardinal, dynamic and directive.

The “ages” such as the Age of Aquarius and the Age of Pisces are based on an astronomical phenomenon called the “precession of the equinoxes”. Because of this heavenly condition (!), the constellation in which the vernal equinox takes place changes roughly every 2,160 year. It is part of a 25,920 year cycle, sometimes called an “eon”. The signs move backward from the perspective of earth and so the Age of Pisces precedes the Age of Aquarius. At the moment we are in a transitional period. By most reckonings the Age of Aquarius will not “really” begin until around 2060 but we are seeing signs of it everywhere. For more information about this, please visit my website for an article entitled, “The Age of Aquarius”.

In the Aquarian Age, astrologers and physicists may become “king” and the mythical heroic concept of the king may become the complimentary or opposing force. The subjective, feeling-based spiritual values of the Piscean Age may be replaced by the detached objective mathematical principles of harmony inherent in a paradigm such as astrology or in the known physical and metaphysical laws of the universe.

Boy! Party, party, party. Our phones will be ringing off the hook then!