Artful Astrology Q&A: The Validity of Astrology for Non-Believers
Q
How do you explain the validity of astrology to non-believers?
Answer
Astrology is an art and a science, both systemic and intuitive, codified and wildly mystic. I don’t try to convince astro-skeptics of its validity, in part because (yes, I’m going to say it) – I don’t think belief figures too heavily into the astro-equation. Hear me out. In order to gain insight into yourself via a chart reading, you simply need be interested in the stars – curious about the correlation between our bodies and celestial bodies. Note here that correlation is not causation. No, the planets don’t necessarily cause things to happen.
Looking into your natal chart while sitting with you (virtually or in-person) is an honor and falls somewhere between reading poetry and solving a mathematical equation. There are angles, shapes, astronomical qualities, and interactions both cozy and difficult. There is also the art of the thing, which for me, resembles poetry for its bodily, rhythmic, and intuitive hits. The poetry of a birth chart and the constant movement of the current celestial bodies over and within that chart offers a layered, specific, and intuitive story — one that must be both calculated and felt.
While Pluto didn’t make you break up with your partner, the location of Pluto in your chart at the time of your breakup may have synchronistic and psychologically revealing (for don’t we project our collective psyche onto the cosmos?) meaning. Astrology is real and meaningful if it’s real and meaningful to you. I experience this practice as a real and meaningful art-science, one that we are privileged to have access to. Astrology gives language to our most intimate experiences, feelings, and interactions that are often difficult to find names for, offers lightyears of perspective, and connects our small bodies to those rotating celestial entities way out there, way up there. It’s a powerful tool, language, and ancient system for repairing our modern dilemma of separateness. At its most exalted, astrology connects us to the universe and so too ourselves via geometrical lines and intuitive impulses.
About the Author
Emmalea Russo (she/her) is an artist, writer, and astrologer. After her whole system got shocked by her first grand mal seizure at age 19, she started to wonder how the stars and planets influence our minds and bodies. Her interdisciplinary work focuses on edge spaces in human consciousness, art, and epilepsy. Her books, which combine visual art and writing, are G (2018) and Wave Archive (2019). She received her MFA from Pratt Institute and has been an artist in residence at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and 18th Street Arts Center. She has taught classes and workshops on the creative process at RA MA Institute, Parsons School of Design, The Art Institute of Cincinnati, and elsewhere. She writes about astrology, art, and culture at The Avant-Galaxy Journal and hosts The Avant-Galaxy Podcast. She lives between the New Jersey shore and Los Angeles. Book a chart reading or astroplanning session with her here. A version of this piece first appeared on Emmalea’s journal, The Avant-Galaxy.
