When the Edgar Cayce readings spoke about astrology, the view was far different than those of traditional astrologers who saw astrology as a method only used to describe fixed traits and destinies. It is only in the past 20 years that the greater astrology community has caught up with Cayce’s perspective. Cayce explained how astrology could be used as a tool to gain self-understanding. His view of astrology was that its goal was for us to gain soul growth from understanding the use and direction of our free will in expressing our drives, goals, and energies.
Astrology is a way for us to see that we are an integral part of the ecosystem within our solar system. In 1936, in a life reading for a woman from Canada, Cayce clearly explained astrology’s objective in relation to our own soul experience, “Considering then life, a soul, an entity as a continuous stream of experience—and the activities in the earth's plane as a lesson that is learned by the entity—the experiences through the astrological sojourns become rather as a digesting or an assimilating of that which has been experienced or gained in the lesson.” (Edgar Cayce reading 1230-1)
An astrological birth chart then becomes a useful and active tool of learning and guidance when an astrologer interprets the chart from this vantage point. An astrologer trained in this method offers others a reason and a goal for understanding their life purpose. A trait of short-temperedness shown by a planetary aspect from Mars to Uranus, for example, as seen from this perspective gives the native an insight on why their soul chose this energy to experience, and from that conscious realization, they then have an active role in deciding how to work with anger in their current life. Through exercising free will this individual may choose to consciously work on directing their anger into productive channels, or may decide to do nothing at all, and thus meet the events of daily life with ever a short temper.
Cayce consistently reiterated that we control our own destiny because of free will. In one of the first readings Cayce gave on the subject of astrology in 1923, he stated: “…but let it be understood here, no action of any planet or phases of the Sun, the Moon or any heavenly bodies surpass the rule of man’s will power, the power given by the Creator of man, in the beginning, when he became a living soul, with the power of choosing for himself.” (Edgar Cayce reading 3744-3) It is within this statement that Cayce presents us with the blueprint of our existence: when we choose to live actively self-aware, we acknowledge our relationship with the Creator, and consequently we approach our potential for the expression of our creativity and will.
Reflecting Cayce’s view on astrology, in recent years there is an ever widening circle of astrologers whose focus is to ensure that an astrological chart is interpreted from the understanding that the human soul is eternal, and thus the current life is but a chapter within its experience, and that the soul exercises free will. Astrology is a language of the subconscious mind where its symbols reflect the tendencies and drives of the person, but it is in no way rigid and fatalistic in its interpretation. British therapist and astrologer Mark Jones eloquently states this in, Healing the Soul, “The natal chart is not a cage from which we must be released. It is not a reality imposed upon us from without. The natal chart is the symbolic expression of the infinite field as it has been translated into human form and it is the expression of our karmic potentiality as held within that field. That potentiality emerges from the nature of who we really are.
When you choose to use your astrology chart as a means for self-discovery, make sure that the astrologer reading your birth chart adheres to the two basic principles that Cayce instructed us on astrology: a guide for soul growth and free will choice. In the weeks after the reading, allow time for your insights and understanding to surface into your consciousness. Take the information and guidance from your chart analysis, and then actively apply it to your life.
