Introduction to the Archetypal Lens Blog (Part 2)
How Astrology and The Tarot Have Enhanced My Life in the 2020s
Since I came out of the astrological closet in 2020 by saying, “I’m studying astrology,” I’ve had some friends who couldn’t believe it.
“How could a smart, educated guy like you believe in astrology?” they asked.
First and foremost, I don’t divide the world into “things I believe” and “things I don’t believe,” with a strict wall against engaging with the latter. To this day, despite committing to becoming a professional astrologer, I still question how much I believe in it. I follow an open-minded yet skeptical approach to life. I neither believe nor disbelieve.
Some friends who have a scientific background but are open enough to engage with my work have told me that because they sense my earnest skepticism about astrology, it is easier for them to hear what I say.
So, there’s that.
Second, consider the following: Astrology is like psychological weather.
Just because a psychological weatherman, i.e., an astrologer, tells you that “a storm” is coming doesn’t mean you’ll have a bad day. It’s not deterministic like that. In all circumstances, we humans have free will. We have choices about how we’ll respond to any given situation.
In fact, I’m sure you pay attention to actual weather forecasts, right? And when one tells you that it’s likely to rain, what do you do? Do you instantly think, “Okay, I’m gonna have a shitty day”? More likely, you think, “Knowing that, I’ll bring an umbrella.” And then, knowing about the rain and preparing for it helps you relax more than if you didn’t, right? At the very least, it keeps you dry. It’s up to you whether you want to whine about it.
In the same way, paying attention to astrological forecasts can be a very helpful tool for navigating one’s life. At least it has been for me, and I know it is for many people.
You don't need to believe me, though. Nor do you need to believe in astrology to use its archetypes to enhance your understanding about things.
I’ll give you an example.
Using the planets in traditional astrology, there are two archetypal paths for intellectual pursuits: the path of Mercury and the path of Jupiter. Mercury is about breaking things into small pieces, deconstruction, and alchemizing. Jupiter is about taking a step back, gaining a Big Picture perspective, and bringing things to Wholeness. Both processes have benefits and weaknesses.
I’d argue that the Jupiterian path—at least at first—is a better way to begin studying something like archetypes or astrology, especially if you are skeptical. Jupiter is a magnanimous archetype; think Santa Claus. It’s not here to rain on any parades.
It’s the happy grandpa who listens eagerly to his grandchild’s stories about her dolls, even if he has no interest in them. And, by doing so, who knows, maybe he will develop an interest in them? Probably not, but because his motivation was to spend time with his grandchild, doing something she loves, I’d bet he’ll at least have a warmer place in his heart for dolls now.
Thus, if you're here to take the Mercurial path and debunk what I write, that's fair enough. Maybe you'll help me improve my discernment. However, you'll never "prove" to me that an archetypal lens isn't helpful or that astrology is bunk. It’s done too much good for my life for me to think that.
So, if you’re a skeptic, while you read this blog post, why not set aside that belief/disbelief dichotomy and join me for the rest of my biographical journey in wearing archetypal lenses? Why not don a Santa beard, join me on the floor, and play with me and my dolls? At the very least, once we’ve tidied up, you can then have some more information that you can use to make your final judgment about my sanity.
How I Navigated Divisive 2020 Without Killing Or Being Killed By Anyone
Do you remember how crazy people got in 2020? How so many people fought over who was right and who was wrong, what was true and what was false? And killed relationships in the process? Did you lose anyone that year because of those battles of belief?
Sadly, I did. Mostly, people left me because I wouldn’t join their tribal Group Think.
However, it could have been much worse if I had not taken the Jupiterian path to understanding astrology just before 2020. If I had gone the skeptical Mercury route, I would have given up on astrology before receiving two helpful orientations that helped me get through that divisive year with my sanity (mostly) intact.
First, as I wrote in part one of this two-part introduction to this blog, 2019 was a very transformative year for me, especially the summer and fall. However, I didn't know anyone going through a similar process then. Nobody else felt the strong intuition I had that 2020 was going to be very eventful collectively.
Introduction to The Archetypal Lens Blog (Part 1)
However, when astrologers started releasing their Astrology of 2020 videos later that fall, I heard my intuitions reflected in their commentaries. (A quick aside: I use "intuitions," but many these days use "downloads." I don't like that metaphor because I'm not a computer and my intuitions seem to come more from within than from without).
I didn't know it then, but 2020 had been on the minds of astrologers for decades because several powerful events were happening in the heavens that year.
Those were headlined by a once-every-40-odd-year Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Capricorn in early January that was accentuated by being in conjunction with the Sun and Mercury.
In addition, Jupiter would travel with Saturn through Capricorn, and they would meet for their once-every-20-year conjunction in the first degree of Aquarius on the winter solstice of 2020.
Last, we can't forget Mars, which met Jupiter in Capricorn and Saturn in Aquarius in March 2020 before doing a rare retrograde in Aries, the sign it rules, for the second half of 2020.
Now, if you don't speak astrology, don't worry; I can sum that up: 2020 was a rare year of extremely challenging, difficult astrological energies. Knowing this softened the psychological impact the historic events of 2020 had on me.
No, I'm not saying it was an easy year—far from it—but having in my mind that there was an astrological explanation helped me take things less personally. It also helped me remain compassionate toward others who were, from my perspective at least, losing their shit.
Last year, I went back and re-read my blog posts from 2020 and was pleased to find that I'd remained in a good-hearted place throughout, mostly cheerleading readers with light-hearted reflections.
Astrology’s second major gift arrived for me in April. I heard from an astrologer about an important cycle—the approximately 18-month-long movement of the Moon's nodes through opposing signs (North Node in one, South Node in the other)—and the orientation she gave me was probably the best advice I got to handle the remainder of that challenging year.
In short, she said to stay in a curious Beginner's Mind, to ask questions, and to avoid falling into self-righteous traps of certainty (and then preaching about it).
Do you remember how so many people acted in 2020? It didn't matter what their political orientation was; so many people responded to being tossed into the Seas of Chaos by grasping onto a Rock of Certainty and then yelling from those rocks that they alone had found the answer, and those still stuck in those churning waters were idiots for not joining them.
Do you remember how many people yelled "wake up" at others then? I never did get around to writing a blog post that occurred to me during that time: sometimes people need to sleep, need to dream, and yelling wake up at them—even if you feel you are saving them from a burning building—isn't the right way to go about helping them. After all, maybe what for you is a burning building is, for them, a cozy fire.
In addition, going back to our previous metaphor, there were a few problems with how those people behaved from those Rocks of Certainty.
First, the Seas of Chaos had other Rocks of Certainty (not to mention various forms of watercraft) for people to climb onto. Thus, it wasn't true that they alone had the answer that would save everyone. All they had was what was working for them. For others, those rocks might have been too slippery to offer any kind of safety.
Second, they didn't notice that the sea was rising. Eventually, if they stayed on those rocks, they would drown.
Meanwhile, unlike those of us who choose to stay in the water (maybe occasionally taking breaks on passing watercraft or even some of those rocks), those who grasped onto certainty in 2020 seem now in 2024 to be in more significant trouble. After all, those years setting up camp on those rocks have caused their psychological muscles to atrophy. Knowing only the safety of their certainty, they've lost the psychological adaptability that living in uncertain times calls on us to develop.
I'd also argue that those of us who have gotten used to the water—in other words, to go with the flow and become adaptable—are now better able to discern where the tides might be taking us. One thing I'm perceiving about the energy we are swimming in is that the very nature of the Seas of Chaos has changed from 2020 to 2024. In 2020, they were steady, swallowing, and downward focused. If one spent too much time in them, one could get sucked under, weighed down by their heaviness.
In 2024, the Seas of Chaos are more jolting and topsy-turvy (and, if I'm reading the signs correctly, they are about to intensify through April). Thus, if you've spent the past four years very sure of yourself, I pray that you've found yourself a rock that can float on water. In other words, adaptability is a crucial survival (and growth) skill for these times.
One of my fears about 2024 is what those who have been so sure will do if their reality shatters or to finish the metaphor when their rock goes entirely underwater. What, then? Those on passing watercraft may feel tempted to help them—and don't let me stop you from extending compassion whenever you can to those struggling—but such people may, due to their psychological instability, be a real drag on those they cling onto next.
Perhaps I've taken my love for that metaphor too far for this article, but I hope you get the point. While it's a human psychological tendency to respond to chaos by seeking the security of certainty, in times of serious change, this leaves us less able to cope with emerging realities. And the more we cling to that certainty, the harder we'll fall if our world crumbles. The Tower Card from the Tarot seems an appropriate symbolic metaphor for this process.
How about you? What was your experience of 2020 like? Could you find psychological comfort and safety amidst the chaos of the world? Did you become too certain, only to have those certainties drowned by new realizations later? Let me know in the comments.
Making Tarot Cards a Part of My Daily Routine
This brings me to the final pair of archetypal lenses that helped me in 2020 (and beyond): Tarot cards.
It's funny, while I've always been an open-minded person who doesn't look down upon the things other people find interesting, I'm pretty sure if I could go back in time and tell my teenage self over breakfast that I'd be writing articles in my 50s about how I've used Tarot cards successfully to guide my life, that adolescent self would have spit up his bowl of Captain-Crunch and its disgusting orange milk. (Then again, it makes me laugh that I regularly ate Captain Crunch, so we really do live more than one life if we live long enough, eh?)
Anyway, starting on May 21, 2020–the beginning of Gemini Season–I began a practice that I have continued to this day: Drawing Tarot cards to help guide my day.
Looking back on this, I find the timing fascinating. After all, because I’d learned about the cycles of the Moon’s Nodes in early May 2020, I’d learned the Nodes would shift from the Cancer-Capricorn axis to the Gemini-Sagittarius one. The North Node would be in Gemini, and the South in Sagittarius. The North Node is where we orient ourselves for the best growth potential, while the South is the karmic stuff we must face, work with, and release.
Gemini's positive, growth-oriented aspects are all of those things I wrote about before–curiosity, open-mindedness, questioning, flexibility–and Sagittarius' Shadow is self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and fighting. It's the thought that you've got it all figured out.
The same astrologer who gave me that information about the nodes also helped me understand the story of the Zodiac as being connected to the story of human life. With this understanding, I connected Gemini to the toddler years into early childhood (maybe ages 3-7).
So, entering that May with this understanding from astrology that the Moon's nodes were inviting me (us) into something akin to a child's mind of open curiosity–not the mind of an "expert" in some ivory tower–I find it fascinating that I decided to begin my deep dive into Tarot at the start of Gemini Season.
Four years later, the Tarot is one of my favorite archetypal tools.
First, I use it daily, drawing one card and asking, "What should I focus on today?" After reflecting on the story of the card I draw, I write a journal entry about it. In addition, I keep those themes in my head throughout the day.
Second, I sometimes draw Tarot cards for Zoom calls or other "events" in my life. I can't tell you how often those draws illuminate aspects of those events I might not have seen and how sharing some of those insights also helps others. I will write about some of those in this blog going forward.
But going back to 2020, every day, I would draw a card and read about its meaning on a website called Biddy Tarot. Every one of the 78 cards of the Tarot tells a unique story, and when you include the ability to draw "reversed" (upside down) cards, there are 78 more lenses through which to view the world. The lessons of these stories were very useful guides for the events I went through in 2020.
In fact, when the year ended, I knew I would continue with that practice. Now, it’s early April 2024, and I've drawn cards and written about them every day since. I've gotten to the point where I can draw a card and have a pretty darn good idea about the story it's telling and then, in thinking about what I'm doing in my life, use those stories to shed light on my situation.
Having said that, there are rare days when I draw a card and can't connect it to what I'm experiencing (or what I expect to experience). Still, I note what the card says and then pay attention. Sometimes, something will happen that brings the card back into my awareness, and I can use its wisdom to help me with the situation. Other times, I get to the end of the day wondering why I drew the card.
In Conclusion: I’m Grateful For My Archetypal Lenses!
To move this post to a conclusion, in 2021 and 2022, I upped my astrology game, joining two online astrology communities and deepening my understanding of astrological archetypes by participating in weekly Zoom meetings and talking with students in the community.
However, in the fall of 2023, I decided to commit more seriously to my studies to become a professional astrologer in the next few years. As a result, I joined a school with a four-year curriculum and am currently doing year 1, "Ancient Astrology for the Modern Mystic." There's a lot I want to say about what I've learned, but I have to leave some material in the queue for upcoming posts!
For now, I'm grateful to myself for trying on these archetypal lenses and hope that, by writing this blog, I'll encourage you to see what happens when you wear them.
For that to happen, you’ll first have to read the posts. Then, when you feel called, engage with the questions I’ll raise. It shouldn’t be too hard. In fact, my goal, not only for you but for myself in learning and applying these archetypes is that if it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.
Okay, let me know in the comments if you have any feedback or questions. I’m continuing to make a vow to engage with those who engage with me! Until next time!
Thanks for reading! You can support me simply by sharing my stuff, by buying me a coffee, by linking to me on Twitter or Facebook , or by listening to my 2024 podcast, The Daily Bryan Podcast. I’m having a good time over there and hope to “see” you!
You can also check out my epic novel of magical realism set in the momentous years following 9-11, “The Teacher and the Tree Man.” You can find that book in full here, or broken down into four shorter books (book 1, book 2, book 3 and book 4) or you can listen to it for free.
Last, I have two old works of media: a blog from 2011--2018 and a podcast that was active from 2020-2023.