Friday 6 January 2012: New Directions

Friday 6 January 2012

}New Directions{

In this holy season, the Twelve Days of Christmas, ending Thursday as I write (although Friday January 6 is the wonderful day of Epiphany), I am reconsidering this daily forecast and its place in my life---and yours. I hope it has been somewhat interesting and helpful to you. I believe that at this point it is time to reconsider the way I do it, as in fact I do every day---but more fully.

It has been an experiment from the beginning, which was in the summer of 1999. I have studied, observed, researched, and re-studied, re-observed, and re-researched, day after day, hundreds, thousands of days, not only as they occurred but important days in the past in my own life and others'. The project has taught me an enormous lot about astrology and about human beings.

That the forecasts would be imperfect was a foregone conclusion. Trying to perfect them, however, was a wonderful experience. The methods I have ended up with seem the best methods anyone could use for such a daily forecast, that is, a daily attempt to understand the astrological aspects of our solar system as they correspond with the experiences of human beings on the planet. Other methods there undoubtedly are, but these held up over trial and test better than any others known or hypothesized by me.

The question is not whether astrology works. It does. It is an amazing gift to the human race. The question is whether a report, filtered through one human mind, attempting to reflect the total experiences of beings on planet Terra, can be consistently illuminating and helpful to all the individuals reading it. Perhaps it can. And perhaps mine cannot, that is, perhaps I am not capable of that. There has never been any doubt but that other matters, in terms of astrology especially the natal (birth) horoscope of each individual, are also important in the daily mix of experience. Obviously I cannot look at those in a report meant for everyone. The question has been whether or not each individual can automatically adjust the meaning of each report, while reading it, to reflect his own horoscope and what is going on in his own life so that it will be helpful as a guide along his path.

There is no doubt that the aspects do apply to everyone. All you have to do is go to a public place while the moon is square Saturn, on one day, and then to the same place while it is sextile Venus, on another day, to see the difference. There is no doubt that |the difficult third of each week| is in fact, in most cases, |the difficult third of the week| as discovered by me many years ago and reconfirmed every week. I myself find this very helpful in my weekly planning. Others perhaps do not. Perhaps some are meant to ignore all such signs or signals and learn how to live without them.

One problem is that every astrological aspect and position has a multitude of meanings, within a given circle of meanings. Another is that there are so many aspects and positions each day. Knowing which are most prominent at a given time is difficult. Finding the right words to convey what they might mean is usually even more difficult.

Some day, probably, the statisticians will wake up to astrology, and they will discover amazing things. I am an informal statistician, as is every astrologer who ever lived (if he was worth his salt). And informal observers often have the edge on the formal ones with their peer reviews, because less hampered by clumsy and endless conventional research apparatus. My peers, from whom I learn, are the great writers on astrology, including Marc Edmund Jones, C. E. O. Carter, Grant Lewi, Isabel Hickey, Alan Leo, Robert DeLuce, Robert Pelletier, and others; and my personal teachers Eleanor Bach and Al Morrison. I salute them as bold adventurers into the mysteries of astrology, studying and working with very little pay for the sheer joy of understanding, who have given me an enormous gift.

For example, here is what Grant Lewi wrote about me before I was born: That is, about anyone who has the sun in Aries and moon in Pisces (one in 144 individuals if chance were to rule birth-times): "You express readily, having a facile flow of language, and you have a conviction that you know the truth of many matters which for some reason or other you cannot get across to your associates. This is a Cassandra-like position--a prophet who is very likely to be right but can't make anyone believe him." Yes, Grant Lewi, departed yet present brother in the brotherhood of astrologers, you explained something about me there which has been extremely helpful over the years.

The structures in individual horoscopes are as significant, and perhaps even more significant, than the structures in the sky every day. Both need to be taken into account, although I am convinced that someone who does not know the date of his birth can by studying astrology also learn how to navigate his way more successfully, from current aspects and other indications.

The reports take a great deal of my time and energy. And since the results are mixed, perhaps that energy is, at this point in my life, being misapplied. There are other things I need to do, both in astrology and in philosophic and spiritual research.

If this daily report continues, it may take an entirely different shape. Some of you may not be interested in the way it goes. It might be more personal, more philosophic and religious, more free-form. I may mention current astrological aspects now and then, but not in the systematic way I have been attempting. It might become essays rather than reports.

Or so it seems to me today. Thank you for being a faithful reader and thanks to those of you who have commented because all such comments have helped me.

We shall see what we shall see.

Happy Twelfth Night, and happy Epiphany tomorrow.

Hugh Higgins
Cosmic Piper