This post is part of the #DIGNITYBABES campaign.
If you've heard of traditional astrology, but you're not really sure what makes it different from modern astrology, this post is for you. We're going to talk about the main differences between modern and traditional astrology, what each one is the best for, and yes, which one is right.Let's start broad.
There are both technical and philosophical differences between modern and traditional astrology. It's important to understand both of these to wrap your head around each kind of astrology. Here's a table to help:
Why is it important to understand this at all? Because understanding where astrology came from and why it is like it is helps you use it better. You can get a lot out of astrology just by consuming content about it, but the real magic happens when you start to learn it.
Outward With The Old, Inward With The New
The MAIN overarching difference between modern and traditional astrology is that modern astrology has a psychological focus, and traditional astrology has a fate/circ*mstance focus. Modern astrology focuses on the inner world, traditional focuses more on the outer world.
It might seem weird to imagine an astrology that isn't about personality and psychological tendencies. What would be the point of that? Kinda sounds like fortune telling, right? Well, that's because it is. The civilized amongst us prefer the term "divination", though. And I hate to break it to you, but looking at an omen for the moment you're born (a birth chart) and asserting things about your future personality and psychological makeup is, in fact, prediction via divination. But that's another article!
Let's get back to this inner vs outer world discussion, though.
The truth is, no one was taking personality tests 2000 years ago. The cultural context was WAY different, and what people needed and wanted from astrology was way different. The only people with the luxury to think about things like personality traits were rich and important enough to be MORE worried about things like their favor in the eyes of the king, whether or not their children would survive past infancy, and chances for advancement in the political sphere.
Furthermore, sky-priest-astrologers were so important that it was common for astrology to be ILLEGAL for anyone other than the king or other important people. It wasn’t for “common folk” to get a hold of their destiny… that could threaten the power structure.
Needless to say, we are in a much different context in the 21st century. Most will live past infancy, you're unlikely to be imprisoned for googling you birth chart, and knowing more about your personality and potentials CAN help you advance and survive in life.
All this to say: the cultural and societal context of traditional astrology informs the way the actual techniques were documented, and how they're taught and used. It's important to keep this context in mind when you look at the technical and practical differences between the two.
It may seem obvious to say something like, "If the context was so different back then, why would we use an astrology from back then? We need to address modern day concerns, not appeal to historical authority." Glad you asked! The cool thing about symbolism is that it's timeless. Astrology is a symbolic language. The symbolism itself is where the juice is, and you can apply that to whatever context you like. The symbolism in traditional techniques build elegant, symmetrical frameworks from which the essenceof the symbolism can be distilled and applied.
In simpler terms, traditional techniques still work. Really well. You just have to shake off the old language and context, and import them into modern day. Not the easiest task, but
incredibly
doable, viable, and important.
Let's look at some of the technical differences between modern and traditional astrology in practice.
RULERSHIPS
Modern rulerships include the outer planets, and highlight association through similarity, affinity, and resonance. Traditional rulerships use only the 7 traditional planets, and indicate literal rulership: responsibility, resources, hospitality, and circ*mstances.
You see, rulership and similarity/affinity aren't the same thing, and that's the main difference between the why's of modern and traditional rulership. Neptune may be similar to Pisces, and have an affinity for Pisces; but rulershipis about ownership and responsibility.
Aries is like Mars BECAUSE Mars is the ruler of Aries, not the other way around. In the traditional conceptualization of rulership, the portion of celestial real estate we call Aries was given to Mars to rule over, and he designed it as one of his abodes. Same with Scorpio. Aries is like his desert home, Scorpio his water home.
Mars made each abode to his specifications using the resources available in that celestial real estate: Aries is a hot, dry, fiery land, so he made it a house of conquest, competition, vigor, and victory. Scorpio is a cool, watery zone, full of vulnerable things like emotions. So Mars made Scorpio with a thick skin, a mind for strategy, and defenses to protect what is vulnerable. You'll die trying to make it through the mysterious labyrinth of Scorpio, because Mars made it that way to protect what's at the center. The god of war is not only a brawler, but a tactical genius who knows how to arise as victor in more covert ways.
THIS is the traditional concept of Rulership, otherwise known as
. It's much more than similarity. And if you thought the above examples were cool, google the Thema Mundi and prepare to have your mind blown by how badass the traditional rulership scheme is. Every planet has a a story like this.
HOUSES
The way the houses are delineated is another major differing point between modern and traditional astrology.
A modern approach sees the houses as layers of your psyche, parts of yourself, or how you experience parts of life. A traditional approach sees the 1st house and it's ruler as the only part of the chart that signifies the native─ the other houses/rules signify circ*mstances outside the native, and literal other people in the native's life.
This is a good time to remember the contexts here: even something like marriage or partnership was often transactional or political two thousand years ago, where as now we have conversations about the 7th house and projection. Big differences!
In a practical sense, what we get from the difference between a modern and traditional house interpretation is a delineation of inner experience (modern), and a delineation of outer experiences (traditional).
Modern astrology excels at describing inner experiences, and traditional astrology excels at describing experiences that come from outside you, having to do with circ*mstances beyond your control.
For example, modern astrology is really good at looking at the 7th house and telling you what your experience of partnership is like, what you tend to project on others, and what you look for in a partner. Additionally, what partners bring into your life that you may lack yourself.
Traditional astrology is really good at looking at the 7th house and its ruler by sign and house, and *literally* describing partners, down to what they look like, what they do, and where you meet them.
The traditional approach carries with it a fateful flavor. You can't really control who walks into your life, and a traditional approach does a great job of describing patterns you continually run into in relationships, even if it's something you don't necessarily want. This is because from a traditional perspective, the 7th and it's ruler isn't what YOU want from a relationship, it's literally your relationship partner[s].If this seems like its taking the power away from the individual, consider this: the first step in shifting your reality is accepting where you are now. Traditional techniques excel in describing your exact predispositions and circ*mstances, so you can choose how to engage with them.
But there's more we could say about the relationship between the inner and outer experiences.
Fate, Free Will, and the Overlap
Who says your outer experience and circ*mstances AREN'T in your control? What if your mindset and perceptions affect your reality? What if your inner experience actually informs your outer circ*mstances?
All very good questions, and their implications are part of what allow me to comfortably blend a modern and traditional approach in my astrology. I think their inner and outer worlds are extremely connected, making a modern and traditional approach more compatible than not.
Philosophically, the inner and outer experience reflect one another. To quote the favorite maxim, "That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above, working the miracles of one."
It's always working both ways; both between spirit and matter, the stars and the earth, the inner and outer worlds.
Traditional astrology gives us incredible tools for sussing out exactly what the circ*mstances of our lives will be. Modern astrology helps us understand this and metabolize it internally. BOTH are SYSTEMS that help us understand ourselves and our worlds from different angles.
A rising tide lifts all boats, unless your boat already has holes in it. You don't have to trash one kind of astrology to prove yours. You just have to keep asking the right questions about the symbolism you're using. Strong symbolism and conceptual structures = leak free boat. Stay curious.
The Eternal Wheel
I leave you with the following analogy:
Imagine the task of reinventing the wheel. A contemporary human looks at the very first ancient wheel, and says, "Ridiculous! It's round, yes, but the material it's made of is archaic. Totally ridiculous─ wouldn't last 2 seconds on pavement. We should find a new way to smoothly move smoothly across a surface that reduces the amount of effort needed to do the moving. But not a round thing, something else. Because the wheel is old and dated. We've evolved. It's time to leave old concepts behind.”
This is kind of how it sounds to me when I hear people say that ancient astrology techniques are outdated, and we should move forward with new astrology techniques we create ourselves.
The concept of a wheel is a sound one. It's round. It can be used with an axle and another wheel or two or three to create a device that drastically minimizes the labor it takes to move objects from one place to another.
Sure, we have much more advanced materials now than stone and wood, but the concept of the wheel is alive no matter what you build it out of.
That's how ancient astrological techniques work, too. We can allow the ancient techniques to animate machines made of modern materials. And when it's done right, innovation will be an ally of time tested techniques, not an enemy.
Again, it's about the integrity of the symbolism. That's what keeps your boat afloat, and that's how we rebuild conceptual structures with modern materials and integrate them into our world.
