I am sitting down to write this article just after finishing an extended session of meditation and spiritual practice, one of my favorite things to do on the weekends as the civilized world around me enters a lull, giving me the space I need to spend hours in quietude away from the distractions of the world.
My mind is clear and alert. I feel my heart open as I write words and convey meanings from a centered space, and contract if I stray from my message, guiding me through creative, exploratory space.
And as I sit here and write, my body hums with energy. I feel it floating above the world in a cloud of peaceful knowing. The energy centers in my body are alive with heat and vibrational power. The light of the Sun, which I have worked with very intensely on this day, courses through my channels.
This state that I occupy now - where my mind is still, my heart open, and my body is radiantly alive - is the true aim of astrology.
Most people think of astrology purely in terms of examining natal charts. You find the time that someone was born, and you use certain interpretive techniques to determine their personality, fate, life purpose, fate, etc.
While astrology can do all of these things with extreme effectiveness and accuracy, they are merely steps along the way to much grander practices and insights. The actual goal of astrology is not knowing how to describe someone’s personality with a natal chart. Nor is it to predict someone’s future. Knowing yourself and your future are only the fundamentals - they are the first gifts and blessings for mages and spiritual practitioners.
Real astrology is a spiritual practice - a school of disciplines and techniques that acquaint you with astral energy, and then show you how to harness that astral energy for your own spiritual development and cultivation of magical power.
I understand that I am doing something fairly radical - I am offering a new, wider definition of what ASTROLOGY truly is:
Astrology is a school that trains aspirant mages to awaken themselves to their nature and purpose, connect with the energies of the planets and stars, and harness their power to transform their lives and the worlds around them. In short, to use the energy of the planets to create heaven on earth for all beings.
To many people, this may seem like an extremely foreign, even misguided notion. But this is only because contemporary natal chart analysis has been divorced from the rest of the spiritual practices that used to comprise the discipline of Astrology.
In fact, today astrology is almost never taught alongside spiritual practice and magical development, and so seekers and aspirants have grown accustomed to learning an astrology independant from its magical power. And now this sad state of affairs has become the new normal - the diminished status quo for the rich, layered practice of astrology.
Yet astrology has always been a spiritual practice - a magical discipline focussed on empowerment and manifestation. Only in recent times has the practice of chart-reading become isolated from the energetic, spiritual components. But traditionally, the mental, academic study of the stars were only the first steps on a journey to totally engagement with spiritual practice and magic.
I have always aimed to correct this with my own platform. From the very beginning of my career offerings readings, I have given people remediations, meditations, and magical practices to engage in as a practical way to help their spiritual development. I teach GNOSIS, a course specifically geared to teach the fundamentals of reading charts as the first steps on the way to becoming mages and adepts. This aim also guides me to write this article.
If this picture I am painting of astrology as a complete spiritual practice is new to you, then you may have a great number of questions. If readings charts is only the beginning of astrology, what else is out there? What comes next after learning the components of charts and coming to know the planets? What are these mysterious pieces of magic and spirirtual power that you claim I am missing?
I want to answer these questions in as clear detail as possible, and eliminate any confusion you may have. I want to paint a picture for everyone reading this article of everything else that astrology has to offer. I want to put chart reading in its proper place at the beginning of a magical curriculum designed to help you know thy self, know thy future, and know thy power.
I am going to walk you through the three gates that, in my mind, comprise the entire school of astrology. What all three of these gates have in common is the cultivation of mages who can use the power of the stars to connect to divine awareness, and manifest and a world of beauty and harmony. To develop mages who can harness the power of the planets to tend the celestial paradise of the Earth.
Throughout all three of these gates, the aspirant mage deepens their connection to all the astral energies, learning how to pull greater and greater amounts of astral light into themselves to transform the world around them.
As they progress, they move from competency in assesing the energies of planets in charts, to working with the consciousnesses of planets themselves, to harnessing astral light and power to become a totally awakened, attuned mage in the service of all other beings within this celestial garden that we call home.
The First Gate: Horoscopy
In the first level, the aspirant begins quieting their mind and connecting to their energy through meditation and spiritual disciplines. The power of the mage is always there, but the conditioning of the mind has made it difficult to access. Indeed, it has caused many of the channels and energy centers to stagnate and become blocked. Through gentle yet consistent meditation, the native slowly begins to unblock these centers and open them up.
In addition to learning to connect to their own energy, the aspirant learns how to connect to the energy of the planets. Our starry brethen constantly emit their rays down to the earth. To learn how to harness them and control them for manifestation and the cultivation of power, the aspirant must begin by learning how to feel them.
Many different approaches exist to effect this work. In GNOSIS, I teach formal and informal practices. The formal practices are open-eyed meditations meant to connect people to their own starry self and the energy that it emits. The informal practices are geared at reorienting the aspirant towards the truly important components of life and magic in their everyday lives.
At the same time, they learn how to read star charts - what I refer to as horoscopy, and what mostly people consider to be the sum total of astrology. This crucial step takes up the majority of the time and effort of the first gate. It has three purposes:
The aspirant learns how to determine their own reason for incarnating in this world - the work that they came here to do. In fact, the natal chart is the individual’s failsafe to ensure that they know why they are here, and what kinds of support and obstacles they will face as they engage in their work. This is the natal portion of horoscopy.
The aspirant learns to determine when in the future certain planetary energies will be strongest and the opportunities will arise to work with them most effectively. This especially applies to preparations for magical rituals and conjurations. This is the electional portion of horoscopy.
The aspirant learns to divine the future and determine what events and circumstances will shape all our lives, to chart the ebbs and flows of civilizations and cultures, and even identify and prepare for such things as natural disasters and immense changes in the natural world. This is arguably the most important piece of Horoscopy - as you cannot effectively tend this celestial garden unless you understand the ebbs and flows of that garden. This is the mundane portion of horoscopy.
Horoscopy involves a great learning curve and takes time. While they study, the daily practice of introductory meditations and spiritual practices ground the individual and prepare them for more intermediate practices. By the time that they have learned and integrated the fundamentals of horoscopy, they will be ready to move onto more intermediate practices within the second gate.
Horoscopy is itself a vast discipline, and the aspirants do not pass to the second gate because they have mastered it - they pass through it because they have gained noticeable skill in reading charts, have officially identified their own life purpose and mission, and have cultivated a sense of stillness and spiritual awareness that permeates their entire life.
The Second Gate: Theurgy and Alchemy
By the time the aspirant reaches the second gate, their meditative awareness has stabilized, and their mental studies of horoscopy have deeply introduced them to the energies and workings of the planets. They have earned the title astrologer - they know the energies of the planets and can read charts, and have thereby become official members of the school of Astrology.
Traditionally, the aspirant would not have begun engaging in conjuration of the planets until this stage was complete, but for various reasons I myself teach some of the fundamentals of the second gate alongside the first.
The second gate throws the astrologer into the myriad of planetary energies in the above and the below. No longer just connecting to the energy of the planets internally or within charts, now the aspirant connects with the planets as they are above, and their vast manifestations and instantiations within the material realm below.
The upward direction is theurgy - the conjuration of spirits and energies from the planets above into one’s life. In the first gate, they regained memory of their soul’s purpose; in the second, they pull in the spirits to help them fulfill that purpose. Through theurgy, the astrologer learns how to mechanically pull in vaster and vaster beings from the realms above to aid them in their work.
The downward direction is alchemy - the understanding of the planets as they reveal themselves in the entirety of the material world. They must master and understand the vast tables of correspondences between celestial energies and the plant, gemstone, and animal kingdoms, as well as the human body. They must also learn how to use these objects to heal and transform their own lives and the lives of those who come to them in need.
The test for the third gate involves the preliminary levels of external, material mastery - in order to move on, their spiritual cultivation and awareness must have some effect on the world. It must be externalized, they must show that their magic works in some concrete sense. In short, they must be visibly tending the garden. Have they cast spells through magic that worked? Have made their lives and the lives of those around them better? Can they heal others and themselves with the use of plant and mineral allies?
Both of these disciplines take decades to master, and their work does not conclude when the astrologer passes through the third gate. Many astrologers choose one of these disciplines as their speciality even after moving on to the third gate, while others gravitate towards unravelling the deeper layers of horoscopy and star charts.
The Third Gate: Mageia
After the astrologer has passed to the third gate, they have gained a solid understanding of the energies of the planets within the world around them. They know how to call down celestial spirits. All the while, their meditative awareness has continued to stabilize and deepen. Because their inner practices have external results, they have earned the title of adept. They are no longer purely in training - now their magic can measurably work some kind of concrete change in the world around them.
At this point, adepts are ready to begin learning real magic - harnessing the energy of the planets and stars purely within themselves to effect great, sometimes immediate change within the world. While they have been learning about real magic and preparing for real magic all along, now they are ready to begin training with it directly.
In real magic, the adept learns how to manipulate and control their own energy centers and energy field to mechanically pull in energy from above, and then emit that energy to create change within the world. This happens through the use of the mind in tandem with the energy of the body - the whole person of the comes together to powerfully tend the garden of the earth.
An analogue to the difference between second gate and third gate styles of magic is the difference between outer tantra and inner tantra: the former works through altars, incantations, mantras, and material implements and tools of all kinds to call in the desired energy; the latter uses none of those things, as the adept has learned how to bring that energy in without the use of anything external.
A byproduct of this is thaumaturgy - or miracle-working. At this point, the adept’s mind can become so centered and calm, and their energy so exceptionally well-directed, that they can effect the miraculous in the world outside of them with the use of their energy in tandem with their will.
If an adept is able to do such a thing, they have earned the title mage. The will, mind, and body have come into such a level of integration that they have an effect on the world which can only be described as magical in the most fundamental, original sense of the word. The most profound way to use this skill is in the profound healing of the earth and its inhabitants.
This skill takes decades and decades to master. Members of the school of astrology shall spend the rest of their life deepening and perfecting this skill.
This kind of ability is in fact the end goal of the school of astrology. I recognize that this flies in the face of the wisdom of other spiritual traditions. But in this school, pursuit of this power recognizes our ultimate reason for being upon this earth, echoed in the ancient hermetic writings: human beings have descended from the stars above to this world to tend the garden and make this world ever more beautiful.
Human beings did not come here to work through karma, or pay a debt, or out of misguided desires for cookies and sex. We came here as divine beings to be of service to each other and to the Earth. Thaumaturgy is a necessary piece of that.
Conclusion: Real Magic and Real Astrology are the Same
In the image I have accompanying this article stands a mage - the final conclusion and end result of the path of Astrology.
There is a reason why the western unconscious has linked wizards and magicians to the power of the stars: we know deep down that those people who study the stars and work with starlight have the power to effect concrete change in the world that no one else can. It is their responsibility and work to use their understanding and power over starry energy to transform the world around them for good.
But now, the explicit terminus of the astrologer as the mage has been forgotten. We no longer even see these disciplines as related. The farthest that many astrologers go is to the second gate. Indeed, Western Esotericism and all its schools and traditions almost never go beyond the second gate. And I am providing that “almost” simply to be charitable - in all my studies and exposure to these traditions I do not know of a single one that teaches what I am describing here.
This is my advice to you: instead of seeing your studies of natal charts as concluding with life descriptions and a rote understanding of the planets, I welcome you see the mastery of real magic as the culmination of the study of natal charts. Horoscopy is only the beginning. And astrological magic and summoning planetetary beings is not conclusion.
What all these things bring you towards is the total mastery of your magical power. And once you have reconnected yourself towards that, you can start doing the work of your spirit, of creating powerful, healing transformation upon an earth who so desperately needs your power right now.
And this is why I tell all my students, all my classes, again and again:
Own your power.
Not just for you, but for everyone else here who is waiting for miracles to happen.
-Merlin