Hello everyone! I hope that these difficult days are not giving you too much trouble.
While it's impossible for many of us to relocate ourselves, we can't rely on the aimed solar returns technique but in this article I'd like to show you that living astrology the active way is still possible and "The Signs: Decode the Stars, Reframe your life" book (bought in its Italian version, "I Segni: Guida all'astrologia contemporanea", Giunti Editore, Firenze, 2019) by Carolyne Faulkner stands as a good tool to follow this path.
Borrowing the words from the author (the translation is mine): "The dynamic astrology combines the spiritual and astrological teachings with the contemporary behavioural studies in order to learn to live better. (...) Knowing the stars give you the chance to behave in harmony with their energy. (...) My mission is to increase the people's intuition".
I'll make a premise: my astrological school doesn't pay attention to the esoteric part of other teachings in this sector, thus it doesn't take into account karma (therefore it considers the reincarnation hypothesis groundless), lunar nodes, Chiron, etc. in the interpretation of the natal chart, and more generally in the astrological research field.
However, Carolyne Faulkner, even though she makes us know the she believes in the reincarnation myth, in this book of hers she has the merit of considering karma more like a law of retaliation while still alive; to wit, acting for the good or acting for the evil would always determine, in the universe around, a same-type, equal opposite reaction, that may happen sometimes, but that's inevitable nonetheless, according to the author.
I was forgetting an important thing: what's a natal chart? Maybe some of you already know what it is, at least by hearsay. With Carolyne Faulkner's words: "A natal chart is a 'photo' of the sky, just like a trodden scrawl in the space at the moment in which we were born. The birth date, hour and place of a person are used to get the position of the Sun, the Moon, and the other planets and to map how they fall in signs and houses". "The dynamic astrology" therefore "is based on the study and interpretation of the birth charts and on the use of practical strategies to improve those traits that are not profitable to us, while enhancing those that are".
Why did I underline the words "practical" and "profitable"? Because in these two terms there's a common ground with my school. Not surprisingly the author is English, and this pragmatic approach to the resolution of the people's real problems is very typical of the anglosaxon culture. Another typical element of that culture is the utilitarian philosophical vision: "profitable", that is to say, advantageous. The author on the basis of her experience defines a series of "good" and "wrong" traits for each zodiac sign and for each planet.
An example can apply to all: the wrong "Scorpio" would be: vengeful, manipulative, cruel, while the "amended" Scorpio would become: empathetic and indulgent. Through this right/wrong duality, Carolyne Faulkner invites us to reach the better side that the various signs and planets in our birth chart can express and this, in my opinion, was a successful operation indeed.
The book is packed with examples taken from the author's hands-on experience and you can find many illuminating insights for a more detailed interpretation of ourselves by the means of astrology.
At the same time, we shall remind that "The Signs" is a book for absolute beginners in astrology. If on the one hand it's absolutely successful in the difficult intent to explain the fundamentals of the birth chart interpretation to the inexpert readers with a fresh language and brilliant contents, on the other it's worth reminding that the book completely lacks a reflection upon the astrological aspects that the various planets constitute inside the natal birth chart of anyone of us, and how these (but in any case the planets in general, beyond the aspects) can react to transits: for examples, the reader is not told that a Sun in Scorpio can more easily express itself in an "empathetic and indulgent" manner when it receives positive transits, while it's way more difficult that its best spiritual endowments can emerge during a negative transit, for example, of Uranus squaring or opposing the Sun itself. Thus how shall we endure a tough transit when the receiving planet is the Sun, or the Moon? While active astrology could explain this to us, Faulkner's dynamic one apparently won't.
There's another important point for which the school I belong to distinguishes itself in a positive way from that of Carolyne Faulkner. My teacher Ciro Discepolo has been the first astrologer in the world describing the "intercepted signs", namely the power of the influence of the zodiac House that hosts the Sun in the birth chart which, according to our school, would be able to determine the interpretation of that Sun as belonging to the zodiac sign that corresponds to the intercepted House. As an example, a Sun in Scorpio in the Tenth House will have the subject behave like a Capricorn (Tenth House) instead of a Scorpio, and as such should be interpreted.
Having said that, I would highly recommend the purchase of Carolyne Faulkner's book because it's a work which is able to bring the novice readers closer to independently being able to interpret their birth charts, with really inspiring analysis, a rich set of practical suggestions and recommendations not only in spiritual terms but also for what concerns your behaviours in love and your decisions in the career's matter, together with a constant invitation to search for and to express the best side of ourselves, I dare say from a psychological, cognitive behavioural point of view, and not just merely spiritual.
For a more detailed birth chart analysis, if you want to get to know yourselves better, your strengths and weaknesses, I remind you that I give advice and that you can contact me by email or phone!
May the stars be with you in this difficult time, see you soon!
Affectionately yours,
Guido