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Maridel

Maridel Bowes, M.A.
www.evolvingjourney.com


In This Issue
What's the Real Story?
My Astrology
A Special Offer


























































































Lavendar


 Pop vs. Pro
 
I attended the inaugural meeting of the Roseville Blue Thong Society this week. Contrary to the image your brain might conjure up in response to the name, it's a national social, networking and philanthropic women's organization. It's for those of us who are a decade or two away from donning a Red Hat, yet still think of ourselves as  hot -- just not Red Hot. (If you like what you see on the website, contact director, Patrea Bullock.) After a heartening first meeting, my colleagues Michelle, Cynthia and I decided to linger in the lobby of the Courtyard Marriott for a fireside chat. And in the course of that conversation, I remembered again why I love what I do for a living.
 
Sitting alone in my office, in front of a tape recorder, I speak into the microphone. The person I'm talking to isn't physically present, but a map of the sky at the moment of their first breath is. And so, in reverence of that moment, I speak to the person intimately, as if she were sitting there with me -- including an involuntary stream of hand gestures. I speak to each person honestly, sometimes playfully, often deeply, about the talents, challenges, callings and deep desires of their lives. I illuminate the high ground of each part of the self and point out the potential pitfalls of the same. I always marvel. I sometimes weep. I often smile. I'm an astrologer - and after 15 years, I've never read the same chart twice.
 
One of the main topics of our fireside chat was the difference between what I call "pop" or mainstream astrology, and the genuine, ancient article, which I call "pro."  Pro is the professional practice of an art as old as the civilizations that had only the big screen of the night sky to entertain and enlighten them once the sun went down. 
 
What's the Real Story?
 
 
1. Pop astrology is based on "sun signs." But just as the physical sun is only one piece of a planetary story, so the astrological sun is just one piece of your story. This "pop reductionism" is what the  newspaper and magazine columns are all about. Here we are asked to entertain the idea that millions of people (the world over, mind you) are having exactly the same kind of day, month or year because they were born in the same set of 30 (give or take) days.
 
Real astrology gives the sun its proper place in the sky of your life. It's central, but still just one part of a grand schema. And it's not limited to a sign. The Sun is the "Hero" of the chart, but depending on where it's placed and what its relationships to other planets are, it can be a born hero - or a disguised, insecure or beleaguered one. In real astrology, we bow to the kind of complexity that makes one-sign-fits-all labeling impossible. Charts can change significantly in the space of a single minute. The infinitesimal odds are that you will never meet another walking version of yourself.

My friend, Sharyn, tells people, "Reading the newspaper horoscope and concluding there's nothing to astrology, is like reading Dear Abby and concluding that there's nothing to psychotherapy."

2. Pop astrology is not only limiting, but most of it focuses on the negative. You've heard the role call. All Leos are self-centered. All Scorpios are sex maniacs. All Aries are hot-heads. All Geminis are air-heads. All Virgos are perfectionists. Yada. Yada. Yada. Virtues are few. Liabilities abound.

Real astrology offers the spectrum of every sign energy. What is the high ground of Aries? What are its gifts? Its glories? And by contrast, what's the low ground? Its default settings and wounds? Once the range is known, it's all about choice. How are you living that energy? Care to evolve? You're stuck with nothing but your own choices.

3. Pop astrology suggests that there are certain sun signs to avoid (like some star-infested plague) and others to seek out as heaven-sent mates.

Real astrology remembers that the sky (and thus, your chart) houses two luminaries (sun and moon), eight planets, four angles and a map of all the relationships between the planets. (And that's the simple version.) That is to say, it remembers that people are made up of many parts. And when they meet, complexity meets complexity. Their suns may even be "at odds," but their charts can still connect, support and inspire in a hundred other ways. Most of the deep challenges between people have little to do with their suns. 
My Astrology
 
The philosophical roots of astrology go back to Hermes' statement: "As above, so below," or restated, "the microcosm always reflects the macrocosm." But I think eminent Swiss psychologist Carl Jung says it best, "Whatever is born in a moment of time bears the qualities of that moment."

Yet even with its philosophical underpinning, the thing I admire about astrology is that it asks you to believe in nothing. It simply asks, "Does it work?" For you?"  And by "work," I mean calling up the visceral response of tears, laughter and inner confirmation that only truth can evoke. 
A Special Offer!
 
New clients who sign up for a birth chart reading betweem Jan. 20 and Feb. 19, 2009 will receive a 25% discount (see my website for a full reading description and client testimonials). For more information,  or to set up a reading, e-mail  [email protected]

� 2008 Evolving Journey. All Rights Reserved. Contact Maridel Bowes at [email protected].



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