"In everything give thanks"

For me, the Thanksgiving Day is one of the most beautiful American holidays. My first Thanksgiving was last year, and I was still crawling in my process of adaptation to the American habits. But, from this year on, the day definitely joined my personal calendar: my child will be born by this time. It's very close now, and naturally I am flooded in anxiety. The sincronicity about my baby's birth is sort of curious. First, the name we've chosen for her: Isobel, which means "consecrated to God". Second, the sign: little Isobel probably will be born under a Sagittarius Sun or Moon, which is a sign related to the religious things, ruled by Jupiter, the father of gods. Of course we had no idea about that, it was pure coincidence. Or, better saying, pure sincronicity.

I'll have much to thank for in this Thanksgiving Day.

In fact, I've been always more a thankful than an "askful" person. And since a long time I've learned to recognize how much I have to thank for, although in life we're always in need of something else... And I also recognize my selfishness for feeling miserable due to little things. There was a time I was really involved with assistance jobs to the ones in need, a straight (and rich) contact with the deprivation of the minimum, which helped me to open my eyes to the fact that we all have, always and everyday, reasons to be thankful.

And that it be clear: giving thanks to everything does not mean a sterile resignation. My opinion is that we deserve always the best, when "best" means a fair thing. But not having the best does not mean we can't feel privileged, mainly because there will always be somebody to whom things will be always a bit more tough.

It's important to thank even for the bad paid job, when there's so many living with no perspectives of an income, as low as it be.
To thank for the bad meal, when many ones haven't even the basic to survive.
To thank for our children laughter.
To thank for the sunny day.
To thank, specially, for being able to thank for.

"In everything give thanks"
1 Thessalonians 5:18

imagem: Corbis

Astrology - science or art?

In my astrology learning, I've faced different approaches and ideas, some more "spiritual" or esoteric, other more rational or even "scientific". Many astrologers claim that astrology has the right to be considered a science, since its technique is based on mathematical calculations and its mechanism, on the magnetic or gravitational influence of the celestial bodies over us (idea that makes science people kick up like spoiled children.) Although I think the magnetism theory makes some sense, I am not part of its defenders group.

The issue astrology/science is old and never seems to be clarified. I don't really believe in astrology as being a science – at least you want to consider it as a human science, like philosophy or psychology, which is a possibility. Ok, astrology is based in statistics and observation, in something "real" - we need astronomical data to set up a chart. However, it's not of my interest to use scientific arguments to justify astrology for the skeptics. Much was already written. There's nothing to prove – and astrology, in spite of its oppositors, has continued to grow in popularity. I know that astrology "works" – I have seen it. How it happens, I, as an astrologer and not a scientist, really can't explain. My job is to identify and interpret how the positions I see in the sky can affect us. When the science people finally open their minds to the astrological reality and start their researches in this direction, possibly we'll know in a not distant future what makes astrology to be what it is.

Astrology is as an art. Each astrologer takes the symbols he sees and interprets them according to his own vision and understanding of the world. It's like to create music, or a painting. Give the same tools – brushes, paints, canvas – and the same theme to different artists and you'll see arise different artworks. Same with astrology. It has a material body – techniques, calculations – and a spiritual one – our own vision of how the symbols interact and compose a life’s scenario. Symbols have a singular way to communicate, and you not always can read them verbally. It is necessary some degree of sensitivity, or intuition. Intuition is not a supernatural thing; is when you know what a thing "is" without having defined it rationally. Take an astrology handbook and you'll learn that Neptune means fantasy, confusion, escapism. But to know these meanings it is not enough. It's necessary to see Neptune around you, to sense and recognize it. Talk to Neptune. He can be in your dreams, in the sea smell, in transparent veils, in the morning fog. In everything mysterious and magic, in everything you cannot see but try to guess with your imagination and heart. Nobody else will see Neptune the way you do. And this is what makes each astrologer unique.

Sensing astrology is the best way to understand it. In the nature around you, in the people, inside you. Astrology is something profoundly human, and like anything human, does not present exact responses, it cannot be measured. People are not machines, they are life and movement.

image: Hope, Takamura Megumi (Corbis)

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