Understanding the Natal Chart

Esoteric Astrology, properly defined, is the astrology of the Soul. It is not person-centred, and it is not at all what most people want when they are still in personality consciousness, and suffering and unfulfilled because of it. It is not the Soul that causes us problems, but the layers of personality consciousness that impede Soul expression. Far more practically useful to us is conventional person-centred astrology with an esoteric orientation, that uses the natal chart as a way to acquire understanding about ourselves and how to engage with the world. Purpose - understanding it and living it out - is now a potent spiritual idea, and the key to soul-personality alignment. Again, this key has not come from astrology; it has come from where answers and keys have ever come, and that is from the spiritual plane. Astrology itself cannot give answers. It deals in explanations. That is something different. The answers come from beyond the level of consciousness of the average man at any one time, and supplying those answers is the job of our spiritual teachers, philosophers and poets. Astrology, however, may be able to incorporate those explanations and help them enter consciousness. It is a system of explanation that can be made to disclose much. But it is important to understand that astrology itself says nothing and natal charts do not speak any more than a flute that is not blown can play music. They are both instruments and they both need operatives - and they are both man-made. So, coming back to natal charts, if they are to help us understand how to live better and develop potential then they have to be read in a certain way, working from certain assumptions, with a certain understanding and observing certain disciplines. And it is this process that we are embarking upon in this work.’