Astrology and Medicine
July 22, 2005
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/july22.html
Hello Eric,
Your latest column states that "Jackie Robinson
suffered from diabetes, which is often about a lot of internalized anger."
As a registered nurse, this sparked intense curiosity about how I might
intertwine medicine and astrology for a better patient outcome. Is this
possible?
Thank you
Susi
Dear Susi
My observation about diabetes was not based on something I
read, but rather something I observed from working with clients, and sensed
energetically. It was not based on proper medical astrology but an observation
that rather more or less showed up over time. Listen to people enough and you
start to get a sense of what is troubling them and why. Sometimes it's useful
information, and sometimes it's not.
Health is one of the most important concerns people seek
advice about (astrological or otherwise), and I think that astrology has a lot
to offer, as does tarot. But you have to be careful -- very careful.
Health is an area of life where people are extremely open to
suggestion, susceptible to their deepest fears, and caught in a great many
beliefs that make astrology look sane and rational. Using astrology medically
takes training and practice, and requires a sensitive touch, and you really
have to know what you're talking about before you make a concrete statement. It
also helps to have some functional ability in a healing art.
According to the Jim Lewis "Encyclopedia of
Astrology," the great Greek physician Hippocrates is said to have required
his students to learn astrology.
There was a time when casting the horoscope for diagnostic
purposes was as commonplace as feeling a person's pulse. The horoscope, cast
for the time a person took ill (not the first symptoms, but either when they
took to their bed, or the time of the first diagnosis), was one of the most
trusted diagnostic tools, and from what I have read, through the Middle Ages,
doctors would consult the chart for guidance about both diagnosis and the
proper herbs to prescribe. In many ways, herbalism and astrology are the same
system, linked through many correspondences, and relying on something called
the Doctrine of Signatures.
This is a Medieval concept that says that there is a scheme
of nature; that the universe is holographic: that is, that there are many
images of the same thing presented in the natural world.
Medical astrology assigns astrological signs to parts of the
body -- starting with Aries (head) and down to Pisces (feet). These are parts
of the body where there is emphasis where a planet is in a sign and house.
To give an example, Leo is the sign of the Sun, which is
gold, and which is associated with the heart. Even in modern homeopathy, the
remedy aurum metallicum (gold) is used as a heart remedy. The many systems of
astrological birthstones are a holdover from this system of correspondences and
signatures, and many forms of using astrology medically (particularly in
In my own work, I would say that I've found astrology to be
moderately useful at sussing out medical issues, and I've seen that the chart
can significantly represent what is happening with a person health-wise beneath
the surface. But I am not specifically trained in this work, nor have I devoted
myself to it. (I've taken the more spiritual-psychological approach, at which
astrology truly can excel as a tool.)
In contemporary times, we can also use astrology to
facilitate awareness of the mind-body connection, which can be quite helpful as
a healing aid. This is also true of tarot.
One method I have found useful is to use the process to get
people to open up and discuss their problems and feelings; this alone is
therapeutic.
People who are normally reserved will divulge their inner
complexities when it's done over a tarot spread, and this can reveal something
close to the root of their struggle. For a lot of people, just having the
opportunity to talk is an aid in itself. For the practitioner, they will gain
insight as to what is going on inside the patient -- their thoughts and
feelings -- and thereby be able to give a more holistic advice.
By using tarot or astrology, a sort of distance is put
between the patient and his problem, so it is not so difficult to talk -- the
conversation is about the reading, not about him/her. Or you could say that the
divination tool allows the patient to shift their point of view and get another
perspective.
The help that this provides is not merely the placebo
effect. It is very often true that what is bothering us is emotionally at the
heart of what is bothering us medically. I think this is a pretty safe use of
tarot for opening up a discussion and getting a look at what's going on inside
a person's psyche.
Astrology can work the same way; I've written lots about
exploring the events and feelings of past transits, particularly Chiron
transits, and it's often true that when we check these events and experiences
that information arises in the course of the discussion that helps people get a
sense of what's really happening with them. We really need to never
underestimate the power of a person talking about what's troubling them. In
homeopathy, a branch of medicine for which I have great admiration, talking about
one's problems is the patient's whole contribution to the healing process.
I think these are the safest, most benign uses of astrology
and tarot in contexts where one is not a trained medical astrologer or at least
horary astrologer. But for those interested in the field, there are medical
astrology books listed here, with the most famous above.
And here is an article on astrology and homeopathy.
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