Reading the Collective
In order to set up the idea of an Astrological reading, I want to compare it to a normal visit to the doctor. What is similar is that we are using a set of functional elements to explain and understand the overall health of the client. At the doctor's office, this would mean understanding your internal organs or other aspects of your body like your muscles, skin and bones. Most people take their knowledge of the details of their own bodies for granted - because it is such a important issue to each of us, we learn it even if we never go to school. Even though most people tend to have some general knowledge of their sun sign, in the future I hope it will be more common that people would be familiar with all of their 10 Astrological planetary energies, the interplay of these energies represented by their geometrical relationships, known as aspects, and the 12 stages of the cycles these planets go through, represented by the signs of the zodiac.. For the moment, assuming you are new to the basic concepts of Astrology, we will bring you up to speed.
Let's continue with the metaphor of the doctor visit to clarify some basic concepts. The division of the body into parts and organs is primarily related to their functional significance to us. If a given body part or organ can affect our basic concerns - beauty strength, dexterity or overall health, then we care about it enough to give it a name that everybody knows. My arms, my legs, my eyes, my stomach or lungs - these are parts of my body that all would make a significant impact on my ability to function if anything happens to any one of them. Internal organs such as my kidneys, liver or immune system, are not as well-known to most people until they have some issue with one of these. So this is the point that I want to make about the Astrological archetypes: a healthy person doesn't have to be too knowledgeable about all the parts of their psyche because they work.
At this point I want to ask you to reflect on which end of the following metaphorical spectrum you fall regarding Astrology. On one side is a young child who really rather be outside playing and needs a lollipop just to stay in the room for a few minutes and be examined by the doctor. On the other end of the spectrum is an experienced adult who has been to the doctor many times and wants to dialogue rather than get a standard prescription.
If your interest in Astrology is more like the young child, your best bet is probably to go find a professional Astrologer that you feel good about and let them use their knowledge to give you just what will help you to navigate your challenges and gain some understanding of your aptitudes and talents. You can always learn more about the subject later. If you are more like the adult who wants to understand the basis for any conclusion they are given, then learning about the archetypes yourself will help you to understand more about what you hear from an Astrologer as well as giving you an opportunity to judge how relevant it is to you.
So given that you are still reading we can assume you are more the latter - let's at least do a high level description of the core symbols of Astrology to get you oriented. The planetary archetypes are most like the body parts we were discussing above: each one represents a functional area of your life that if it is healthy will improve your situation and if it's not will noticeably cause challenges. The zodiac signs are most like the qualities of a given body part: if your arms are strong, it would be like having a planet in Aries, if your arms are beautiful it would be like having a planet in Libra. The planetary aspects (the geometrical relationship of their positions at the time of your birth) are like the relationship between the different parts of your body - if someone is a bodybuilder and has large muscles, they are likely to be less flexible than someone who does yoga or is a dancer. The strength or beauty or dexterity of one body part or functional system may work against or with another one - this is what the aspects between the planets in Astrology describe. Understanding these basic elements will at minimum help you to understand what an Astrologer or Astrological report is telling you to be able to make sense of it - or when you are ready, you can start learning these concepts for yourself. The one thing I will tell you is you have to be willing to get fluent in enough in this language of correspondence to be able to faithfully test the premise of whether and how it applies to you. It is definitely strange that the positions of planets in our Solar System at your birth can explain some very poignant truths about your life - I never lose sight of this. Yet it is no more strange than the fact that squiggles and lines on paper or electron-driven lighted screen could serve such a pivotal role in the formation and evolution of human culture and the fate of our planet.
This brings us to a question that often comes up in a reading: 'how real is Astrology?' To use the medical metaphor, if the doctor diagnoses you as having the kidney problem and either the medicine or the procedure he or she prescribes is effective, you will likely assume they are correct. If they tell you you have a kidney problem and whatever they tell you to do doesn't help you or give you a way to help yourself, you are less likely to accept their information as being valid. The real question is whether information is relevant to you and effective in your case. An extreme example of this in the medical profession is the diagnosis of certain kinds of cancers - the presence of certain cells forms the basis for a diagnosis that in some cases trigger treatments that can cause as much harm as the condition itself. Because the medical profession has had unprecedented success in dealing with numerous health conditions, many people just hand over the maintenance of their own health to a doctor. Maybe in the past, when your small town doctor was your friend for life and looked out for you, this was justified. But now with hospitals being large money-making operations, this kind of trust is ill advised.
The key in this discussion is that Astrologers and medical doctors tend to be on the opposite side of this trust equation. Most people are skeptical of Astrologers and trusting of medical doctors (with notable exceptions). Astrologers, for this reason, tend to be much more willing to discuss and explain their premises and the basis on which they are making their conclusions. Some doctors will be visibly offended if you ask them to justify what they are telling you, partially because they have to go through 4+ years of medical school to qualify to practice medicine. Many Astrologers have only done minimal preparation, in particular on the issue of how to counsel people. There are two main ways through this conundrum of figuring out how Astrology can be of benefit to you: first is to understand what it's good for in general and second is to figure out what would be its best use in your case.
So first, what is Astrology is good for in general? There are certain qualities and dynamics of the way energy moves for each individual that are different from everyone else's. Astrology has an uncanny ability to describe these energy dynamics - the rhythm and fluctuations of your moods, your motivation, when you are feeling like interacting with other people and when you are best able to handle social responsibilities. At times Astrology can seem to know things about you that you may not have even realized yourself - it does this for me on a regular basis. When I first experienced a dose of this insight, it impacted me to two reasons: it helped me understand myself and it gave me some faith in the order and organization of the Universe. Yet this order is complex, relational and fluid, not simple and static. Think of getting advice on how to get or hold a job from your parents, friends or guidance counselor. No matter what they tell you, there is almost certainly going to be someone else who will tell you the opposite. 'Work hard' will be balanced by 'work smart'. 'Be adaptable' will be balanced by 'be yourself'. To make sense of any principles or concepts, you have to be willing to learn enough to understand them, but reserve judgment as to their ultimate truth until you have a chance to try them on in practice. This is exactly how Astrology works.
The second question is how Astrology could best be used in your case. Astrology can help you to problem-solve your challenges and develop your talents and gifts. So it is up to you define what you want help with. I would summarize it by asking 'where you would most benefit from improved functioning in your life?' Having at least a general answer to this question will put you in a good position to meet with a professional Astrologer or start researching on your own. Once you have convinced yourself there is value in proceeding, I would counsel you to include multiple sources of information and progress towards being able to build your own interpretations as quickly as possible. If I could, instead of teaching you one Astrological concept at a time like a grade school student, I would transport you to a community where the individuals are all fluent in Astrology. What you would hear right away is that each of the speakers would be using the words in a slightly different way. You would gravitate towards certain people who would motivate you to learn more and, most importantly, to express your own insights and opinions.
If it wasn't already obvious, I am one of those people who prefers to take care of my own health and rarely goes to see medical doctors other than in an emergency. In a similar way, I prefer to teach people enough Astrology to be able to at least understand their own archetypal signature and to become fluent enough in the language of Astrology to be able to figure out what they want to know and what they want to say. In its best form, Astrology is an opportunity to be creative about understanding yourself and your place in the universe. It can definitely help you to problem-solve challenges, but the healthy person doesn't wait for crisis to try to improve their life and live in an optimal way. I hope to see Astrology in the future be used more to figure out how to harmonize people and optimize our interactions rather than diagnose dysfunction.
So this is a long way of saying that we will try to give you enough information to be able to read the collective yourself. I am as good as most Astrologers at being able to boil down a complex set of factors to something more familiar, but I find when I do that the individual gets much less out of it. When it comes to reading the collective, this dynamic is heightened. You know just as much as I do or more about current events and particularly what you care about. So if you care enough about this to learn how to do it, you will gain knowledge that can help you understand collective events for the rest of your life. If I spoon feed you some conclusion or prediction, you will likely forget it a few hours, days or months later.
So here is the summary - use our planetary chart to find out what planetary energy is associated with the issue you want to find out about. Then learn enough about the zodiac cycle to be able to make a simple sentence in which the zodiac sign describes the quality of the way that energy is focused at the moment. If you are ambitious, start looking into what aspects that planet is making with other planets and you will go from a sentence to a chapter to an entire screenplay - one step at a time.
So here is an example: Jupiter is the planet related to current social strength, the energy that people are putting stock in. On an individual level, people reach their first Jupiter return (one cycle) at age 12 and their second return at 24. These are periods of expansion of social activities and increased participation in social groups. There is a quality of 'taking on the world', thinking big about what you might accomplish. In the collective this energy translates into which quality of energy is being most relied on when people are trying to rally other people in a positive sense to participate in social activities. Right now (8/19/17), Jupiter is in Libra until October of this year. People are impressing each other by how they present themselves, how well they track against social convention (even if that is convention in an alternative sense). Because Libra is the interpersonal air sign, the emphasis is on expanding interpersonal contacts, particularly through new people who open your mind to new ways of thinking. One of the best ways to study this energy is by looking at times in the past it has been at this position. In the case of Jupiter in 20° Libra, the last 4 times are 10/25/1969, 10/9/1981, 9/24/1993 and 9/7/2005. A few highlights:
Nov 22, 2005: Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor in Germany. The Libran association with the scales of justice and the practice of public debate give it a direct association with politics and it's rulership by Venus would favor the election of a woman.
July 28, 2005: The Provisional Irish Republican Army announces an end to the armed campaign it has pursued since Dec 1969, and orders all its units to drop their arms. - notice that both the beginning and end dates of the IRA are very close to this position in Libra. One of the ironies of Libra is that it's focus on efforts to bring peace can at times manifest as military action. The difference is that in Libra, these actions will be justified as attempts to bring peace and justice whereas in Aries, the opposite sign, actions will be justified as pioneering, setting a new direction.
Jan 3, 1993: In Moscow, Presidents George H. W. Bush (United States) and Boris Yeltsin (Russia) sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
March 11, 1993: Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States. Similar association with justice and women.
September 25, 1981: Sandra Day O'Connor takes her seat as the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Once you have the dates, a short trip to Wikipedia will give some very good raw material to work with. The above dates took me less than an hour to generate (with a good sense of common themes I was looking for). I was pleasantly surprised to find the immediate correspondence of 3 prominent women breaking ground in important political positions in 3 consecutive Jupiter in Libra periods. And yet, in 2016 with Jupiter in Libra and Hilary Clinton seemingly on the verge of continuing this pattern in a big way, another result occured, in this case more related to Saturn in Sagittarius, a backlash of socially conservative energy that favored Donald Trump. In the long run, the area of Astrologially based historical reasearch is a very fertile area for finding patterns and responding constructively to the way collective events unfold once we understand how to integrate all the factors. We are working in this area, so check back for more developments.
My point about this is that once you understand the archetypes, you are in just as good a position as any Astrologer to give your interpretation about how this is playing out in the collective. To me it is more interesting to hear about how others experience this energy in their own situations than it is for me to guess how it is happening. My goal is to explain the different energies clearly enough to allow you understand how to describe how they are playing out in your experience.