Every Lens is Useful where Birth Charts and Stories are Concerned

Most of the time, I practice Western Hellenistic astrology, meaning zodiacal signs aligned with the seasons (tropical astrology) with ancient understandings of planetary rulers. In other words, what most people here in the West think of when they think of astrology.

There’s a lot about ourselves we can learn from looking at our chart in Tropical astrology, arranged by Whole Sign houses.

But it’s not the only way.

I also love to look at Sidereal astrology, which is when the signs are aligned with the astronomical movement of the sun through constellations. On that note, sometimes I also like to consider Ophiuchus, the controversial thirteenth “sign”.

I love combining Sidereal astrology with the Placidus house system, which takes into account the latitude at which one was born. This provides more mathematically and astronomical accurate birth charts.

I love to look at the Draconic chart, which shifts where the houses begin to align the north node with 00 degrees Aries. I love this style chart because it can show us our karmic purpose in this life with more clarity.

I love looking at aspects, almutens, out of bounds planets if there are any. I love picking apart a birth chart in as many ways as I know how (and I’m expanding this always) to understand different facets of the self and our purpose in this life.

Because there is no “wrong” lens through which to look at astrology.

(What I don’t do is look at Sidereal birth charts compared to Tropical transits for example… if I am looking at transits [current planetary movements/positions], I stay in either astronomical or seasonal astrology for both that and the birth chart to avoid confusion.)

To sum up for anyone who doesn’t understand the details of what I wrote above:

Astrology has different lenses. They’re all informative and interesting. We are so much more than any one lens.

In the same way that we’re more than just our sun sign, we are more than one way of looking at our birth charts.

On the Hunt for Meaning

I used to be on the hunt for the one way that would feel most accurate, most authentic, for me. But as I’ve enhanced my astrological understanding, I love appreciating all these lenses of astrology. Because that’s what they are: Lenses. Jupiter in Scorpio (where my natal Jupiter is) is always going to be Jupiter in Scorpio. But how it shows up for me might look different from one lens to the next, and one of those might be the view that unlocks understanding of the challenges and opportunities offered by that placement.

That’s why astrology readings are best when they’re more like a coaching relationship, where the astrologer stays curious with the seeker, so that together they can unearth the lens that offers the necessary understanding for that moment.

In some house systems, Jupiter is in my 7th house. In others, it’s in my 6th, for example. I’m going to think differently about that Jupiter in each house system, even though its sign and degree and natal aspects (relational positioning with other planets and points in the sky) remain the same.

And one of those ways of thinking may just help me best understand what that Jupiter in Scorpio means for me, in my life.

The Need for Human Nuance

This kind of astrological thinking is deep, exploratory, and goes beyond a computerized report of a birth chart. I’m not saying those are bad. I enjoy them as much as the next person… but they aren’t going to be able to hold the same nuance as a human can. They aren’t going to look for multiple pieces of mathematic astrological data to support asking a seeker the exact question that may help them unlock a part of themselves.

It's like coaching or writing. The human element is key. A coach can help a writer see their story, their characters, their deep truth through multiple lenses until it feels right, until the story clicks and the writer experiences that red-carpet-roll-out epiphany.

When writing a story, it's that moment someone says something they don't think will have the biggest impact but it ends up being the thing that unlocks everything and helps you bring your deep truth to the page in the way it yearns to be expressed.

I had this happen for me recently. I was working with my book coach, the wonderful Stuart Wakefield, and he asked a question that ultimately led to me deciding I wanted my protagonist to be older... and suddenly her story came into sharper focus and so too did her truth.

This has led me to the main takeaway from all of this, which is:

This is why I do what I do. This is why I'm here. When I look at my birth chart through every lens, you know what's highlighted? Seeking deep truths, willingness to look into what's hidden. When I look at someone else's chart, I'm often trying to find evidence of their deep truths to help them embrace the gorgeous nuance of their own humanity.

In my stories, it is the deep, often uncomfortable, truths which help my protagonists live their identity with authenticity and find the belonging they seek. That transformation that happens on the page is exactly the same nature of transformation I seek everywhere in life.

And, when I look at what I love to coach, it's come to a niche I never would have expected or defined in this way – being a book coach of deep truths, helping writers excavate the beating hearts of their stories so they can connect more fully with their reader and so that their work can have the impact they seek.