The ultimate purpose of astrology is to help man to understand that  he can develop himself inwardly, so as to filter out the harmful influences, and make the best use of the beneficial ones. From understanding how the external universe affects him, he can gain greater insight into the manner in which his own, internal, universe of subtle energies affects him also. By learning to develop this inner universe, he can gradually be freed of dependence on the outer.

To study the influence of the sun signs is, as any real student of astrology knows, but the merest beginning to an understanding of this divine science. Yet it is a good beginning. It provides a few real guideposts which can be helpful to a seeker in his long search for self-knowledge.

One feature that stands out most clearly in the ancient writings is the emphasis that was placed on astrology as a guide to personal development, rather than as a mere statement of problems with no suggestion of a solution. Another feature of those writings is their emphasis on spiritual progress as the true goal of all human development. The use of astrology for purely mundane purposes was considered a lower, if still acceptable, application of this essentially divine science.

Astrology in its highest form was meant to help man to reverse the indignity that was imposed upon him at his birth. As he was, at that time, the more or less helpless recipient of an impersonal combination of objective influences, so now he can and must develop his own magnetic power, that its influence on the world around him become even greater than that of the powerful, but distant, planets. From being an effect, he learns to become a cause. Thus, the great souls of this world are able not only to guide their own destinies, but also substantially to affect for the better the destinies of people who come, even by mental attunement, within the range of their magnetic influence. It is said in Guru Stotra, one of the Indian Scriptures: "Even one moment in the company of a saint can be your raft over the ocean of delusion."

Astrology–Ancient and Modern

The position of the sun in your solar horoscope shows the outward manifestation of your sense of authority: how you seek to impose your authority on others. The sun's actual position relative to the constellations shows how you relate this sense of authority to more universal realities.

If, in your solar horoscope, your sun is in Aries, it will tend to make you outgoing, even aggressive in your dealings with others. But assuming you were not born toward the very end of Aries, your sun's actual sidereal position will be in the constellation Pisces. This will mean that your inner sense of universal influences, of authority from above, your particular brand of inner wisdom, will be Piscean. This Piscean sense, moreover, will no longer govern so large a part of your inner nature as Aries does, in solar astrology, your outer personality, for your sense of authority will no longer be the filter through which all the other planets must be judged. (They will be judged each on its own merit, instead, against the background of the constellations.)

One's outward personality does determine to some extent also how one approaches deep, spiritual realities, but there are many levels of consciousness in us all. On deeper levels, most of us are very different from the face we show to the world--not because we seek to deceive others, but only because those sensitive feelings which are at home in the depths of our mental seas would not survive at the surface. They are too deep to be verbalized.

The sun's placement in your solar horoscope, then, determines the way in which you seek to impress your authority on the world around you. The other planets, in this system, must be considered as each influencing especially this outward manifestation of your personality.

In fact, one cannot but note that Western astrology is a natural outgrowth of Western society, where man is exceptionally goal-oriented, where the traditional emphasis is on conquering nature rather than harmonizing oneself with it, and where chief importance is placed on the individual--not as he relates to his inner world or to universal realities, but rather as he relates to, and can stand in personal dignity before, his fellowman. Personality, not the eternal soul, has been the common concern of Western man. It has become more an more so, interestingly enough, the farther the sun signs have become separated, by equinoctial precession, from the constellations.

It is interesting to note, also, that the growing interest of Western astrologers in constellational astrology coincides with a growing interest, in the West, in the ancient philosophies of the East. Man's relationship to the universe is the special concern of those philosophies. It is in the East, also, where constellational astrology still continues to be practiced.

One reason Western astrologers are turning increasingly to the constellational system is that they are discovering, as their own mental horizons expand, that their system is too limited. Solar astrology serves well enough if all we concern ourselves with is human personality, and particularly with that aspect of personality which concerns our efforts to relate significantly to (in other words, to impress our authority upon) the world around us. But once our own view of life broadens, discrepancies begin to appear, and Western astrologers have found these discrepancies bewildering--until they turned for help to constellational astrology.

In predicting the future, for example, solar astrology is accurate primarily insofar as the future is determined for us by our own personalities. But people are becoming aware that there are deeper influences at work within us--subconscious impulses, old karmic debts and credits--that never rise so close to the surface as to become identified with our outward personalities. Western astrology, unfamiliar with these influences, yet growingly aware that such influences do exist, are beginning to feel cramped by a science that, in confining them to such a small segment of our galaxy--the solar system--succeeds also in limiting their understanding.

What I have done is seek to explore the familiar sun signs in order to see how they can be related to the broader, more ancient, insights out of which they have grown. Instead of writing yet another analysis of how people, born under the different signs, act and react with the world around them, I have sought to show how their personalities (so important to them, as Westerners!) can be used to help them--to help you--to develop a more universal awareness.

To discover on deepest levels who and what we are is to discover, literally, what the universe is, for we and it are both the manifestations of that same truth. Though sages have spoken of it by different names, they have recognized it as one: the still Ocean of Consciousness out of which all the waves of creation have appeared.

The highest purpose of astrology is to assist man on this inward journey. The true goal, then, of astrology is not to fascinate people with endless proofs of their subtle kinship to this universe, but to take them from outward theory to inward practices. This is the science of yoga, known since ancient times in India as the science of inner astrology.

But other cultures have been no strangers to this highest search. It is what Christians, among others, know as the search for God.