posted May 24, 2004 12:19 PM              

In a culture overshadowed by Christianity, traditional astrology has been largely Sun centered. However, the Wiccan/Pagan revival of recent years calls for a Moon centered astrology and greater emphasis on the female-male dynamic. This book uses the symboism of a Wiccan coven to present such an astrological view. Written for pagan divinatory studies, it has much to offer astrologers of all belief systems.

Modern covens are dedicated to self-knowledge and the expansion of awareness that naturally arises out of it. Each serious student of Wicca must learn some method of discovering information and/or guidance from extraordinary sources through a divination technique. Like the ancient prophets, and the Babylonian Magi, many have discovered Astrology. Both an art and a science, Astrology is popular because it naturally leads consciousness in new directions. When the mind learns to think in nonlinear ways by working with a circular chart, it begins to experience life outside the ruts of more conventional belief systems.
This book is designed to convey meaning through image and metaphor. In it, we have pictured the human personality as a coven. Using the planets as symbols for its parts, we have viewed them as persons within that coven. Each coven has its own character, derived from the persons in it. Our birth horoscope presents a picture of the inner coven in each of us. That picture gives us a blueprint for the whole being.
The Pagan approach differs from traditional, Sun-led astrology in making the Moon the most significant planet. Wicca is a religion dedicated to the humanistic viewpoint. It centers on our relationship to our physical being and to our Mother Earth. It directs our inner growth toward unfoldment more of the soul than of the spirit. When soul makes progress, the effects will naturally be incorporated into spirit.
We define the soul as that pattern, mold, or imprint which directs spirit into form. It empowers the spirit to accomplish its goals in form. We define Spirit as the energy-essence that is the source of life and that which takes whatever pattern Soul gives it. Body will be a physical manifestation of the process. We use the analogy of Sun as spirit, recognizing him as often being too "hot" and too "bright" to be worked with directly, so we filter his rays through the Moon. She "takes the heat" and the light and modifies or transforms it, stepping down the intensity as needed to make the processes of enlightenment and enlivenment more comfortable and understandable for physical beings living on Earth.
As described in a natal horoscope, all planetary energies are reflections of the Sun's emanations. Each is shaped and colored by the individual planets that reflect these rays. It is the Moon that re-gathers these modified rays and directs them into physical form on the earth. We might say that we are conceived and gestated by her. Having arrived on earth, we begin to look to our new mother, Mother Earth. This may explain the feeling, in certain highly evolved souls, of having originated somewhere other than the earth.
Two planets lie between Earth and the Sun. These are Mercury and Venus, the "administrators" of light and of love. They give definition and separation to the two types of solar emanations that are the primary "causes" or principles of human life. Lying just beyond earth is her "twin," Mars, the masculine polarity to her feminine nature. As the Earth is an adoptive mother to the lunar offspring, so Mars is an adoptive father to the solar component of that offspring. As Earth signifies form, so Mars signifies energy, the urge to move out, to seek individuation, to reach for emancipation.
Next come the solunar reflectors, Jupiter and Saturn. We have traditionally regarded Jupiter as Male but she is not. Hers is the principle of conception, of generous permissive bounty, of joy and laughter. She can only be a secondary mother figure. We might call her a daughter of the Moon or the Goddess of Multiplication. Saturn has been linked with Chronos as Father Time. He is that and more. Traditionally, he has been responsible for setting the limits on how far Earth-children might go, and when. He stands guard over the evolutionary process to keep it in balance. We might also call him the God of Cycles.
Beyond Saturn lie those planets that we commonly call trans-personal. We should probably call them trans-human. These are the representatives of the universal forces that call us to be more than mere members of a coven. They call us out to be High Priestess and Priest, then to merge into oneness with the Goddess and the God, and finally to dissolve into the essence of life.
First comes Uranus, the great changer and higher vibration of Mercury. As Mercury keeps the records of the coven work within one lifetime, so Uranus holds the records of all the past and future lives. He is the keeper of the Akashic Records. Then comes Neptune, the great dissolver of limits, the homogenizer. She is the love-bringer and the higher vibration of Venus. As Venus bonds individuals together, allowing individual human auras to blend, so Neptune bonds group auras into consciousness groups, blending people of different races, beliefs, and cultures into greater and greater wholes.
Out of the intercourse between Uranus and Neptune comes Pluto, who is the avatar of the next age or phase. Walking in power, she is the culmination of the mating of form and formless. She can be either or neither and she signifies the end of the "human" phase of development and the beginning of the trans-human phase. The ultimate sorcerer, she can speak her word and bring universes into being.
As a special bonus, the outer planets have been delineated out to the end of this century. Our guides helped here, and some interesting information was given relative to the future.
We intend this book, in true Wiccan fashion, to be read playfully and for fun. Do not take it for a super-serious metaphysical study. Instead, play with it. Enjoy it. Let any lessons therein be learned in the pleasant way of childish simplicity. So mote it be. Let the reader have fun!
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A Coven of Planets: Price is $12.00 postage paid. Order on the web using PayPal or send Money Order by mail to: Alice Miller, Lot 65, 17190 Mt. Vernon Rd. Golden, CO 80401
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Alice Miller has been a practicing professional astrologer in the Denver area for the past twenty-one years. Healing the human condition through astrology is her commitment and calling. Along with a catalog of books and professional services, she offers instructive articles, a Q&A service, and a free newsletter .on her website www.lifeprints-for-living.com.