What Do I Mean by Cosmic Cartography?
Forecast for the next lunation and musings on applied astrology
One of my favorite books of the last several years is Gordon White’s Star.Ships, which he calls “A Prehistory of the Spirits.” It’s a breathtakingly intricate explication of human history that includes multiple layers of evidence—archaeological, linguistic, genetic, mythological—within which the names of human stars from different cultures play an important role. Fascinatingly, a picture emerges that coastal and island communities are some of the oldest cultures on earth. They hold stories that predate the narrative structure wherein the world has a beginning and end, such as the stories of the Bible (which are by no means unique to the Abrahamic traditions) and the names of particular stars, who are also spirits and deities, are strikingly common across different island communities. But how did these people get to these islands, sometimes hundreds of miles away from other islands, without compasses and advanced sailing technologies? Well, they oriented themselves with the stars. They had such an intimacy with the sky and sea to know when and how to sail for vast distances.
It’s hard to get a full appreciation of this intimate relationship with the elements and the sky in today’s light-polluted world. We only have remnants of it, though—a twelve-month calendar reckoned according to the rhythms of the Sun and Moon and holidays such as Easter, which happens on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. We kept the ancient names—personifications—of the planets and stars (used in pseudo-devotion by brands), and we’ve plumbed deep into the wells of mythology as we have named new discoveries. We still certainly hold a primal awe and reverence of space and the night sky, as excitement around phenomena like eclipses shows.
And Astrology certainly carries a legacy of what intimacy with the heavens can look like, not just in an abstract and fluffy sense but in definite, well-structured ways. The planets and stars still form one of our best soul-orientation devices. Astrology connects us to a view from above, where relationships between disparate points become clear, and things become whole. For me, Astrology is an antidote to the linear approach to time that has intensified with our technological separation from the elements and from spirit. This separation is illusory—we are still connected to the rhythms of the sky. Light pollution is not just a blotting out, it’s a layer of fuzzy distortion to be pierced through.
Piercing through this layer of distortion is not just a vacation, an escape. In the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, it says that “the One only thing” “ascends from the earth to the heavens and again it descends to the earth.” Through Astrology—one of the three Hermetic arts—we connect to the heavens, and our earthly matters are transformed.
For me, this often looks like connecting to a compass in moments when I’m perplexed. Without fail, Astrology provides orientation. If the subtle story at play isn’t clear, then at least there’s a nudge towards a next step, a focus for my attention. In these moments, I remember the value of foresight and planning; thus, this practice of charting my map and setting my schedule ahead of time: cosmic cartography. Astrology can chart these small, fine-grained details as well as the large contours of life—the forces outside of our control and the overall shape of a biography. Indeed, a lot of the magic happens in this interplay between the small and the large.
It’s interesting how much the metaphors of seafaring still hold up in resonating with our soul’s journey. We might find ourselves navigating through tight straights, finding ourselves distracted by sirens or phantasms, wondering where our buried treasure might lie, stranded on a desert island, or figuring out when the winds and tides will be on our side. We feel the need to get in touch with our guiding stars and orient towards true north. We wonder where our power spots are or a refuge. We might find ourselves embarking on a voyage or at the end of one. In our souls as on the sea, we feel ourselves at the mercy of something higher. Just as the water reflects the sky and stars, we can see their effects more strongly in the watery currents of our soul than in dry, unreflective matter.
This Saturday (the 14th), we have one of those events that are circled on many people’s maps, regardless of whether or not they are into Astrology—the “Ring of Fire” Solar Eclipse, which will be visible to some extent throughout the United States and fully visible in Central Texas. I’ve found conflicting information about when exactly it will be—NASA says it will be exact at 11:54 a.m. CST, but timeanddate.com (a favorite resource for astronomy stuff) says 12:59 pm CST. Regardless, you’d probably like to devote some space for reverence around midday on Saturday.
Last month, I spoke about the Chandra Symbol for the degree of Libra at which the Eclipse is occurring: An ancient glass vial perfectly preserved. This makes me think about our living connection to the ancient spirits. The reference to Astrology and intimacy with the sky was not intentional in this regard but is one example of many ways ancient spirits are still alive today. It might be great for you to pluck some strings that connect you with the past, your ancestors, or an activity you engage in that’s endured through the ages. It’s easy to think of ourselves as “modern beings” and distinguish ourselves from humans in earlier periods of time, but can we find the threads that weave from the past into our future? An interesting way to do this might be by knocking on the doors of your past lives - here’s a link to my favorite regression meditation.
Aside from the eclipse, the weeks ahead will have some more pretty intense astrology. Just before the Sun enters Scorpio, they will square Pluto. Mercury will really zoom through Scorpio, taking in a lot of information on difficult, deep subjects in a way that might be hard to process. Saturn will station direct, depicting a desire to move forward on deep, spiritual, and soul matters. Venus will mostly be in Virgo, providing extra scrutiny on aesthetic details and relationship matters and experiencing extra satisfaction when all is in order. Along the way, there will be quite a few power-packed days of intriguing alignments, as well as a few open and spacious ones.
Zooming out at all of this, the connection between the Fall and the Lungs in Chinese Medicine came to mind for me. It’s thought that this season is about centering, cleaning, and discerning. There’s a connection with smell and the breath that’s important. It’s associated with the element of metal. Ideally, we feel sharp and clear, distilled around what is valuable and essential.
Below is the play-by-play for my wonderful paid subscribers. Aside from that, I’m always available to help in this process of charting your cosmic cartography and breathing through things to get to clarity if you want to reach out for a reading.
Warmth,
Charlie