Jerry Astrology

I will always remember these words by my astrology guru – “Good for who? Good for what?”

He mentioned this rather early on in our classes. At that point of our studies, us students often pester Guruji with questions like, “If this planet is in this house, is it good?” or “if this house lord is in this other house, is it bad?” Exasperated, he threw our questions back at us – “Good for who? Good for what?”

Our mistake was interpreting the planetary placements in the birth chart using only words like “good” or “bad”. In fact, behind our judgements of “good” and “bad” were our ignorance about what that placement actually meant. 

Let’s say we have a birth chart where there are malefics in the 5th house of children, with both the 5th lord itself and Jupiter being under affliction. Put together, these are strong indications that the native is unlikely to have children. But is it good or bad? To a person who wants to have children and form a family, this is terrible. But to a person who does not plan to have children and instead prefers to focus their energy on career or travelling around the world, this may be wonderful news. 

Guruji’s lesson for us was to always interpret things within the right context. For us astrologers, the right context is given by the person sitting in front of us during a reading, and not by our (the astrologer) own preferences and beliefs. 

By focusing on what each planetary placement means, and moving away from “good” or “bad”, we create space for our clients to arrive at their own judgement and decision.Of course as astrologers, we have our duty to advise our clients, and I think this process should focus on the “cause and effect” of taking certain actions based on the birth chart.

Coming back to the person who wants to have children but doesn’t have the best birth chart to support it. If, after sharing our interpretation of the birth chart, the client is still clearly adamant about wanting to have a child, then our duty is to support our client in their decision. 

After all, every decision we make is shaped by our prior experiences up to that point in time. While we can all relate with or empathise, I am not sure we can truly understand someone else’s experience, no matter how well they describe it. 

Perhaps to that person, the attempt to have a child, even though it might not succeed, could bring an important closure to a prior experience. So, who’s to really know what’s good or bad? As Gandalf says to Frodo in the Lord of the Rings – “Even the very wise cannot see all ends.”