Though I have been
practicing as a medical astrologer
for almost thirty years, it only recently occurred to me that what
is so obvious to me is not at all understood by my colleagues.
Of course, I did know that it was difficult to explain what I do
in one sentence at a dinner table, but I did not quite realize
that this was equally true at banquets at astrology conferences!
To the best of
knowledge, astrology and medicine
were not, even in the West, regarded as two separate disciplines
until some centuries ago. Before that, all educated persons were
broadly acquainted with astrology, philosophy, and medicine.
Interestingly,
whereas astrology was generally considered to be a reputable
occupation,
medicine seldom was. It is only in modern times that medicine has
come to acquire the status that it now enjoys.
Part of the regard
attached to medicine is its
identification with science. Most of us today would probably find
this alliance so natural that it would not occur to us that in
earlier times, medicine was far more clinical and less scientific.
What does this mean?
Science requires
the examination of parts isolated
from their wholes, quantifiable studies, blind and double blind
tests of hypotheses; and it requires credentials. A person without
proper qualifications cannot have a voice in academic science.
At first glance, this may seem proper; however, what it also means
is that a patient cannot determine whether or not his health is
improved by the treatments rendered. So, what has happened is that
research is now quite isolated from clinical results. At this point
in time, the public seems largely faithful to science, however,
disenchantment has been mounting—and it is my opinion that
part of the image problem with science is its sterility.
It is, however, a
two-way street. Holistic medicine,
not to mention astrology, has its critics; and this will continue
to be the case so long as only doctors with the right degrees can
assess treatments and so long as such persons remain more or less
laboratory based rather than clinically involved with patients.
What is not so well
known outside of academia
is that professors in medical schools are not physicians, that
they do not see patients or perform medical procedures, nor do
they work with human subjects. Research, therefore, tends to involve
cultures or animals that are exposed to single, repeatable measures.
Often as not, the animals used were rendered "ill" in
some artificial manner. In other words, the conditions studied
in the laboratory often did not arise in the normal course of life
but rather were induced in some inhumane manner in order to make
observations. Likewise, the substances studied are usually isolated
from their wholes. Either active ingredients or synthetic substitutes
for organic medicines are utilized in order to hold variables to
a minimum.
What has ensued
from such practices is a state
in which each study tends to revolve around a single basic hypothesis,
a hypothesis which is narrowly defined so as to assure scientific
control and opportunity to profit should there be a positive
outcome of the tested hypothesis; however, the hypothesis is
often as not viewed outside of the context in which the particular
condition studied actually arises "in the real world."
Laboratory
Trials versus Clinical
Results
The
real world is clinical. This means
that in the real world, real people with real problems consult
practitioners who recommend or prescribe particular strategies
that either do or do not shift the illness. Each "case" is different
and hence quantification of results is virtually
impossible—and
research is therefore also not possible since clinical practices
do not consist of uniform groups of carefully matched trial and
control subjects. The medicine and medical conclusions that arise
from such practices are hence not scientific but anecdotal.
Basically, this is
the major difference between
holistic and modern medicine. A vaccine may be licensed and marketed
because its manufacture parallels similar tests conducted for entirely
different viruses. This is not quackery, but science. However,
a product used successfully in clinical practices for generations
or millennia is neither licensed nor credited with validity if
it was never tested scientifically.
I am not describing
these matters so as to present
my own work, but rather in order to clarify certain misunderstandings
that I felt while speaking at the UAC gathering in Monterey.
Astrology
is Clinical
My
own practice has always been clinical—and
so it is with all astrologers who offer consultations to clients
or patients. As time has progressed, I have refined my insights
and polished my protocols. However, each "case" is really the story of
an individual, not a sterile
trial. The problems people describe in their sessions arise in
the real course of life, and these problems result in suffering.
My job is to unfold inner understanding of the circumstances
surrounding
the disease and to shift the conditions from a state of disease
to health.
With time, I was
completely overworked. I opened
a clinic, hired assistants, and offered courses to train others
so as to have a referral network. In the clinic, I tended to see
mostly people with very serious illnesses, usually life threatening
ones that had already been unsuccessfully treated by allopathic
means. Statistically, if even a single person recovered from such
conditions, the result would be significant. However, it would
not be "scientific." Nevertheless, I have tried to summarize some of my
understanding
in the form of lectures and publications. For this, I have received
a number of awards, including several degrees, in countries where
the schism between the laboratory and clinic is not so great. I
am not saying this to precipitate controversy but rather to illuminate
the world of medicine and medical practice—for medical
astrology
does not exist apart from medicine. However, medical astrology,
as I practice it, is clinical. At various times over the years,
I have actually applied for grants (not successfully), but the
truth is I have more faith in the cures that ensue from profound
inner work than I do in treatments that address symptoms rather
than causes.
Astrology
Now, I wish to
return to the theme of this article
which is, "What is Medical Astrology?" I have begun by showing that
medical astrology and modern allopathic
medicine have evolved to the points they are today from rather
different roots. Not only are their practices different, but their
vocabularies do not even express the same understanding of illness
and cure. Nevertheless, to understand medical astrology correctly,
one must first understand medicine and astrology. I have given
a brief overview of medicine and shall now do the same for astrology.
So, what is
astrology? Basically, the horoscope
is a map of celestial patterns whose influence catalyzes terrestrial
experiences. The patterns mapped in the horoscope are "alchemical" in
the sense that energies combine in infinitely various ways so that
each instant is different from every other instant. Time is hence
inseparable from "event". The Chinese have profound ways
of addressing this concept. Each moment is an event. The memory
of events is contained in the vast subconscious vaults of the divine
feminine. Memories are reactions to experience. What we call therefore
call "experience" is really a memory. Together, memories
have patterns, but their patterns are different from the celestial
patterns.
Archetypal
Patterns
Celestial
patterns are archetypal. They
map Divine Idea and represent Intent or Destiny. Experiential
patterns are personal. They are karmic.
Fate—what
happens in any given moment of Time—is a mixture of destiny
and karma. Ideally, in a perfectly balanced
individual,
the personal would resonate as a response—as opposed to
reaction—to the Divine. The Chinese describe the ideal
interaction
of celestial and personal patterns by a human being suspended
between Heaven and Earth, a person acting as an intermediary
between the two realms of existence.
In the horoscope,
experience is represented by
the Moon and its condition by sign, house, and aspect and other
factors. Soul intent is portrayed by the Ascendant and its ruler,
destiny by the Midheaven. The individual is the conscious being
living, likely as not, unaware of the unconscious forces that determine
the Fate that occurs in each moment.
Interestingly, the
unconscious forces, the patterns
of celestial and personal energies, exist outside of Time. Time
exists in the manifested world where incarnational experiences
are taking place. In other words, the personality, the Sun, is
ephemeral—as are the moments we perceive as linear Time. The
subconscious, or realm of personal memory, is built of reactions
to moments which we call experience. It is entirely idiosyncratic
and formed out of the past. Thus, if one were to dwell in the
subconscious,
the past would reverberate and give the impression, emotionally,
that it is repeating. This is what is called karma
and why,
on a personal level, it is very difficult to create new experiences.
If one were instead
to become soul conscious,
one would see destiny as a state of beingness, not unmanifest and
waiting to happen, but complete. It is only in the personality
that we think that the future has not yet happened. Likewise, from
the vantage point of the soul, the past is not entirely real. Reality,
for the soul, is the expression of the soul’s truth which
is, as noted, complete in its "mind".
What does this have
to do with astrology?
To the extent that
astrology is a tool used to
guide individuals through their lives, it is important to recognize
the forces which shape the moment. This does not mean that astrology
is fatalistic, rather that Fate itself is born of the commingling
of destiny and karma, the proportions of which
differ according
to the instant and the individual.
Health
Health is
essentially perfect balance. Balance
between what and what? We have many ways of answering this question.
Balance is ultimately an intimate issue that differs from person
to person and moment to moment. Since each moment is different,
part of the capacity to remain in balance depends on adaptability.
In its turn, adaptability is the ability to be responsive to
inspiration
or destiny and to utilize this inspiration by the personality in
an active and fulfilling way. If the response is inadequate or
resistant, part of the energy is deflected or detoured. This creates
disharmony with the moment — which, in turn, gives rise to
imbalance.
Balance cannot
therefore be viewed from a material
angle alone. Balance is alchemical.
In medical
astrology, balance on the physical
level is most easily determined by the elements. The elements are
constituents of the manifest realm which blend with each other
to produce both form and chemical reaction. For instance, fire
is found in the caustic chemicals of the digestive system. Without
these chemicals, digestion would be incomplete. This, in turn,
would result in fermentation, bloating, gas, and metabolic residuals
which clog the system.
However, it is not
sufficient to diagnose a person
as "low fire." One must also know why a person rejects
or suppresses fire. An individual may be constitutionally deficient
in fire and able to compensate by taking supplements that augment
hydrochloric acid and enzymes or which promote the secretion of
bile. However, someone with very similar superficial symptoms may
have suppressed fire (rather than low fire) because expression
is viewed by the unconscious as undesirable: likely to provoke
antagonistic reactions from others, reckless, dangerous, or otherwise
inappropriate. Fire may also be deflected.
If, however, the
moment requires the expression
of a certain quota of fire and the individual does not express
the fire, the fire will act upon him or her from without and function
as a malefic. One might view this as a sort of unwritten law, a
law that stipulates what a given moment will contain. If, in this
case, expression is suppressed or diverted, fire is not allowed
to function in its natural way. Usually, this gives rise to symptoms
of depressed fire — apathy, malaise, and so forth —
or
to the victim experience. With a victim, the fire is expressed
outside, by someone else whose use of fire is greater. This person
raises his voice, becomes bossy or arrogant, or has temper tantrums,
aggressive fits, or accidents.
In a balanced
expression, there are no malefics
or benefics, just adequate and complete responses to the moment.
In such instances, Mars does not give rise to temper or fever,
but rather to decisiveness, initiative, action, self confidence,
and courage. Mars is then a catalyst, a prod to movement, directed
and focused movement. It is neither reckless nor brave, malefic
or benefic, merely the signal for the Time for action.
Where there is
imbalance, the energy is not utilized
in the intended manner. This is a deflection of cosmic intent,
usually in the form of blocking of energy so that the energy is
suppressed or deflected. Using the same Mars example, suppression
might give rise to symptoms of toxic fire: blood impurities, rashes,
feelings of despair and futility, indecisiveness, fear of the future,
etc. On the other hand, deflection tends, as mentioned, to draw
the Mars energy in the form of another individual and to result
in a "poor me" drama that suggests that others have more strength
and power than the one deflecting Mars.
Medical
astrological counseling has to take into
account both the symptoms and the cause of problems. The advisor
must understand the individual and his or her reasons for reacting
as he/she does.
For example, a
person with a Capricorn Moon may
value caution, preparation, and thoroughness more than spontaneity.
These behaviors may feel safer and hence whatever is sacrificed
by deflecting Mars is viewed as a smaller loss than whatever might
be risked by embarking upon enterprise at the expense of
predictability.
Such a pattern might be deeply entrenched if past impulsiveness
has been met by criticism, reprisals, loss, and disaster; for the
memory of past experiences of unskillful uses of Mars tends to
reinforce the psyche in such a way as to perpetuate the resistance
to Mars.
For purposes of
health, what is sought in each
moment is adequacy of response, and this, in the example cited,
requires some utilization of Mars -- regardless of the
individual’s
affinity or lack thereof to the energy stimulating response.
Medical
Astrology
In my various
attempts to describe medical astrology,
I have often remarked that the horoscope is a map of Time and energies.
It is not a microscope. It does not describe pathologies. Many
people are disappointed that I think this. They feel that their
efforts to differentiate typhoid from hepatitis through astrology
will not succeed if I am right. I would not go so far as to suggest
that such a differentiation is impossible. However, I am convinced
that it is highly unlikely and perhaps also irrelevant.
In my practice,
most people already know that
they are ill, and most come to me already knowing what their allopathic
diagnosis is. Some even come with a grasp of at least some of the
ways they might have participated in the creation of the disease
or condition. Many have some insight into the patterns that might
be contributing to their lack of health. They come seeking additional
understanding, insights which go deeper and enable them to address
their problems on a more causal level.
Patients almost
never expect me to diagnose their
conditions nor even to offer a prognosis. I work energetically
and generally attempt to describe patterns and alternate ways of
managing energies. So, my job is first of all to facilitate deeper
insight and secondly to relieve suffering through whatever interim
management of symptoms is possible. Where insight is concerned,
I am functioning more or less as any other skilled astrologer might
except that my special ability to focus on the body-mind connection
often exceeds what those not so grounded in medical astrology might
see or say. Where relief is concerned, my motivation is compassion
for suffering and my repertoire of treatments is entirely
energetic—and
old-fashioned—for I am concerned with the pacification of
excess and stimulation or fortification of deficiency. In holistic
parlance, this is really detoxification and tonification, but this
in the broadest sense of psyche and body. The result, it is hoped
will be a lessening of pain and increase of proper flow of vital
force. This is what is medical about my own practice or medical
astrology, but I stay well within the realm of my own expertise
and do not cross the fine line of practicing medicine without a
license, for what I do is not medical. In the modern age, medicine
is usually defined as the prescribing of pharmaceutical drugs,
surgery, or delivering of babies—and I do none of these.
Over the many years
that I have been interested
in healing, I have studied a truly wide range of approaches to
health. Among these, Ayurveda has played a major role, but astrology
still provides the major insights—and music therapy the bulk
of the significant cures.
Health
Assessment
Occasionally, I am
consulted by people who have
an awareness of their symptoms but no names for their conditions.
Either they do not wish to consult a medical doctor who performs
such diagnoses or they have encountered doctors who remain baffled
by the symptoms and are not able to render an opinion. In such
cases, I have sometimes been asked if I could diagnose. My answer
is always the same, "No." This does not, however, imply
that I am unable to impart useful advice. It merely suggests that
I do not perceive astrology as a diagnostic tool in the sense they
have in mind. I could as easily say, "Does it matter what
the name of the disease is if the treatment will be the same?" This
surprises a few people. I usually then go on to explain that all
diseases have patterns, that the patterns of imbalance will usually
go back to very early in life, that uncorrected patterns will become
more and more complicated (symptomatically) as they remain untreated,
and that likely as not, the symptoms will begin retreating when
the right balancing measures are applied. In this way, I am stating
a philosophy of medical astrology and healing as well as setting
a conscious limit on what can be expected of me.
In fact, I prefer
to work this way because names
have powerful thought forms built up around them, most of which
are quite demoralizing. For instance, it is seldom constructive
to mention a so-called incurable disease by name because the thought
forms of despair and hopelessness are often as not stronger than
my more positive views of what might be done to bring about balance.
If, however, I
were to say that all medical astrology
can do is offer conjectures about general causes underlying symptoms,
I would be doing medical astrology and myself deep injustice. In
fact, I believe medical astrology is a potentially powerful holistic
approach to health. I simply believe that its proper use needs
to be understood, and much of the preliminary presentations to
clients and patients needs to differentiate what can be expected
from a medical astrologer as opposed to a physician.
By what has thus
far been said, it must be quite
obvious that I do not think that medical astrology and modern medicine
have much in common. Medicine, as it is practiced today, essentially
subscribes to the view that disease is pathological and that it
needs to be destroyed or removed. It does not see disease as arising
from imbalance but rather as entering from without due to invasion
of microorganisms whose power for havoc is estimated as immense.
To destroy these little germs, lethal treatments are used that
undermine not only the vitality of the germs but also the patient.
So long as disease
is viewed as dangerous, such
measures will be tolerated. There is great historical evidence
for the views which sustain modern medicine: fearful epidemics,
dreadful suffering, and disfiguring results of disease. The plague,
leprosy, poliomyelitis, and now A.I.D.S. are just a few examples
of the reason for the posture of modern medicine. Posture is one
matter, premises another. There is actually nothing in the annals
of modern medicine that addresses the issue of imbalance . . .
and, simply for the record, there is no one in holistic medicine
so foolhardy as to suggest that there is no such thing as an invisible
organism capable of causing infection. We no longer live in the
Dark Ages, but if we did, we might find some medical tenets worthy
of posterity.
The whole point is
that nothing about astrology
renders it fit to attack a germ. Even if one were able to identify
typhoid in a chart, there is no vaccine that emerges from the alchemy
of the planets to treat typhoid. What one sees instead is a
constitution
weakened by imbalances which render the individual unable to protect
himself or herself from the ravages of disease.
If balance is the
crucial issue, then the treatment
must ensue from the premises. In this case, balance will correct
the imbalance. In such instance, the logical treatment will not
be the destruction of the germs but rather the strengthening of
the weaknesses. Modern medicine has a few concepts that border
on this, but I often as not find their thinking rather blurred.
For instance, laboratory tests of blood may measure red and white
blood counts, but the treatment that follows is often illogical.
A better example would be that of reproductive hormones. If a
woman’s
estrogen level is high, she is sometimes given testosterone. This,
to me, is absurd. It suggests that there is some vague understanding
of balance, but it is seen as a kind of male-female issue whereas
in reality a woman’s reproductive system is cyclical and
estrogen
is balanced by progesterone, another female hormone not by Jane
trying to become Tarzan.
In other words, I
do not think the concept of
balance is well anchored in modern medicine. However, it is intrinsic
to Chinese, Tibetan, and Indian medicine. It is also crucial to
medical astrology.
The
Elements
My system relies
heavily on several key factors:
stress, the role of the unconscious in illness, and the elements.
The elements are the easiest part of the system to teach because
they relate clearly to symptoms, and many treatments are logical
corollaries to the astrological information. For instance, sticking
with our low fire example, if it is known that a person suffers
from low fire, one can render simple but highly effective advice
about ways to increase the fire through diet, herbs, and psychotherapy.
The diet, if correctly implemented, will result in immediate cessation
of the primary symptoms of indigestion. It will therefore usually
help to prevent the imbalance from worsening. If a person overdoes
the diet, he or she will eventually create a condition of the opposite:
high fire. It’s logical. If an obese person dieted until
reaching
a normal weight and then persisted past this ideal point with the
same diet, he or she would become emaciated. Likewise, if a corrective
protocol achieves the optimal state, it should be adjusted so as
to maintain that state rather than continued until it overcorrects
to the point of folly.
If such a strategy
is used, all symptoms can be
gradually controlled, over a period of time. However, if the underlying
causes are not addressed, the old condition will reassert itself
if the corrective measures are discontinued. This may take days,
weeks, or years; but it is certain that the patterns will eventually
produce similar results if the patterns are not themselves changed.
So, therapy is
designed to correct the patterns
and eliminate thereby the causes of disease. This takes far more
skill, more patient participation in the cure, and usually more
time and practice. If one has a habit, an old, old habit, one can
hardly expect to break it the first time one tries. Even if mind
managed matter, it would take vigilance to prevent relapse and
lots of skill before the adequacy of the response was satisfactory.
I sometimes use the
example of my mother who learned
when she was in her fifties that she was repeatedly the victim
of Mars. When she first began to explore the use of Mars, she did
not circle the globe on a surfboard or astound anyone with her
heroism or militancy. She simply taught herself to be more physically
active on days when Mars was more arousing. She did quite practical
things around the house, Mars in Cancer, like cleaning cupboards,
garages, and filing cabinets. She even taught me some things about
astrology such as that it is easier to throw things away when the
Moon is in Scorpio!
Years went by
without her being a victim of Mars.
With this came a gradual increase in self assurance and many other
pleasant side effects that had been lacking earlier in her life
when hot tempers seemed to flare up all around her.
In simple terms, it
is not necessary for every
Mars to become a shining knight, athlete, or pioneer. It is, however,
necessary for every Mars to find some expression.
Ancient
Medical Astrology
Ancient medical
astrology used many tools that
have gone out of fashion in the West but are still highly regarded
in the East. Various precious and semiprecious stones were prescribed
along with metals or alloys of metals to pacify strong planets
or strengthen weak ones. Likewise, herbs were all classified according
to their planetary rulerships as well as energetic properties such
as hot, cold, wet, dry, etc. A cold condition was treated with
warming herbs, and a fever was treated with cooling herbs.
Every food has
similar classifications, and this
is part of what makes a system of medicine "energetic." Modern medicine
is not energetic. It barely
recognizes constitutional types and differences. All people with
the same pathological conditions are given the same treatments
regardless of their responses to the treatments; and people are
taught to eat from the major food groups as if all bodies metabolized
foods in the same way.
This makes no
sense whatsoever to someone trained
in any of the many branches of energetic medicine. However, it
must be understood that just as modern medicine looks naïve to
practitioners of energetic approaches to health, it possesses
formidable
powers of diagnosis which are much sought by patients.
What I would like
to propose so far as medical
astrology is concerned is that its history has probably never been
separate from the history of medicine itself. Moreover, the schism
I have described in medicine today is not new. There have always
been empirical and clinical approaches to health. There have always
been surgeons and herbalists, those who employ toxic medicines
and those who use only benign remedies. What is new is the tremendous
sway the one school of medicine has over the modern mind. What
is new is the political and economic power of a school of medicine
representing but one possibility in many.
There is no need
for astrologers to embroil themselves
in debates, but there is a need for astrologers to be realistic
about what can be seen in a horoscope and then to develop the skills
to apply the information in healing ways. Personally, I see herbs
as the simplest natural adjunct to astrology, diet as somewhat
more reliable in the long run and also more delicate, and psychotherapy
of various types as the most labor intensive and insightful use
of horoscopic information. Counseling skills evolve with proper
use and attention to feedback and results. They are never born
overnight nor handed to anyone on a silver platter. I can teach
the fundamentals of my system in two-to-three years, but I have
never been able to force anyone to put into practice what they
learned. Some people apply new ideas instantly; others wait years
before putting their toes in the water. It’s individual, but
one should expect that expertise, whether of the patient or
practitioner,
grows with practice.
In the meantime, I
would suggest following the
advice of the ancients: heal thyself!
Copyright by Ingrid Naiman
2000, 2001
