Tracy Marks - The Astrology of Self-Discovery: An In-Depth Exploration of the Potentials Revealed in Your Birth Chart

Praise for The Astrology of Self-Discovery

One of the best of a new generation of astrology writers who emerged in the 1970s, Tracy Marks has won a wide circle of admirers through her rare combination of astrological expertise and literary skill. Astrology of Self-Discovery is about as fine a book on astrology as you'll ever encounter: intelligent, clearly written, a pleasure to read.

HOROSCOPE MAGAZINE

Every once in a while an astrology book comes along that is sure to be a classic. This is one of those books because it reaches across all levels from beginner to professional it bridges traditional astrology with contemporary psychologically-oriented astrology. The author does not hesitate to draw on her experiences with psychosynthesis, meditation and visualization, Jungian psychology and literature. Ms. Marks is a fine, enjoyable writer!

NCGR NEWSLETTER

To Alex Kronstadt,

Who stepped softly
Through the corridors
Of my soul,
Lighting candles.

Published in 2008 by

IBIS PRESS

an imprint of Nicolas-Hays, Inc.

P. O. Box 540206 Lake Worth, FL 33454-0206

www.nicolashays.com

Distributed to the trade by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

65 Parker St., Unit 7 Newburyport, MA 01950-4600

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2008 Tracy Marks

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Nicolas-Hays, Inc. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Special thanks to Stephen Arroyo and the staff of CRCS Publications who published the previous edition of this book, to Yvonne Paglia and the staff of Ibis Publishing for this revised, updated edition, and to my friend and astrologer Beverly Feldt of Camden, Maine.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Marks, Tracy, 1950

The astrology of self-discovery : an in-depth exploration of the potentials revealed in your birth chart / Tracy Marks. -- Rev. and expanded ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-89254-136-2 (alk. paper)

1. Astrology and psychology. I. Title.

BF1729.P8M37 2008

133.5-dc22 2008038723

VG

Cover and text design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Cover illustration by Meg Takamura, IZA Stock/Getty Images

Printed in the United States of America

12 11 10 09 08 07 06

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T he astrological chart is not merely a means for abstractly understanding ourselves as fixed entities in time, or for determining influences affecting our lives. The chart is also a map for discovering who we truly are and who we can become when we decide to take charge of all our disparate parts and all the internal and external energies affecting us. It is also a guide for aligning ourselves with cosmic influences, so that we may more effectively choose paths which help us live in harmony with the universe. Using astrology consciously, actively, constructively and responsibly, we can both discover ourselves and create ourselves in cooperation with universal forces.

This book advocates an active, dynamic, and transformative approach to astrology, one which involves experientially as well as intellectually contacting the planetary personalities within us. By proactively using astrology, we can discover our overall life purpose and current direction. We can commit ourselves to paths of integration which involve bringing our diverse and often conflicting personalities into dialogue, eventually creating a new synthesis.

Utilizing our natal charts in our evolutionary journeys, we can learn how to cooperate with the positive potentials of transits, progressions and synastry rather than passively react to external influences. As we allow our true selves to unfold and blossom, we are also likely to find viable means for making worthwhile contributions to the world in which we live.

The ideas presented in this book are an integration of depth psychology (including psychosynthesis, gestalt therapy, Jungian psychology and object relations), spiritual teachings and traditional astrology, with learnings derived from my own professional work, psychotherapy, and self-therapy through my adult life. I draw from my own experience, intuition, and the knowledge gained through study, inner work, and in-depth interactions with other people.

The original edition of this book was published in 1985. Although I am still an astrological counselor, I have been a psychotherapist and licensed mental health counselor now for nearly twenty-five years, and have counseled on an ongoing basiswith or without the aid of astrologymany clients who are committed to their personal and/or transpersonal development. I aim to utilize my transpersonal understanding as a means to help people contact their own inner guidance and to facilitate their process of growth and integration. This is also one of the primary purposes of this book.

The Astrology of Self-Discovery includes ten chapters. Five were originally published as separate booklets in the early 1980s, and were revised and expanded later in order to reflect my own evolving understanding. Four chapterson the Moon, Moon signs, lunar nodes, and the misuses of astrologyexpress ideas and experiential learnings which were an integral part of my development at that time, and which still influence me today.

The tenth and final chapter, written for this revised expanded edition, reflects understanding I have gained during the past two decades in regard to free will and fate, and the use of astrology both to maximize personal freedom, and more effectively cope with the ways in which we are limited and/or determined.

This book is not an all-inclusive text covering all facets of chart interpretation. Rather it is a guidebook to some of the facets of astrology of most importance to those of us attempting to integrate our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual natures, liberate ourselves from restricting past patterns, and awaken the inner spirit which can direct our own processes of unfoldment.

In The Moon: Reparenting the Inner Child, we will consider how we have denied the feminine principle and repressed the life-affirming energies of our inner child, and will discuss the often painful but usually enlivening process of reowning and reparenting that inner child. In Moon Signs, we will interpret our Moon signs in reference to discovering our needs, nourishing and nurturing ourselves, and engaging in the growth-promoting activities of internal reparenting.

In New Moon, Full Moon, we will assess the influences of the lunations upon our planetary personalities and how we can utilize that influence to fertilize seed beginnings possible at the new moon and expand our understanding at the full moon. Worksheets and an appendix listing new moons, full moons, and eclipses by degree of the zodiac (newly expanded to 2015) can enable us to determine lunations which have conjuncted and will conjunct our natal planets, so that we can better to prepare ourselves to take advantage of future aspects.

In Lunar Nodes: Our Life Purpose, we will take an in-depth look at the South Node as the pull of the past, and the North Node as life purpose, as well as the integration of both polarities. We will reflect upon the meanings of our own nodes, interpret the lessons of the nodal axes by sign, and consider the lunar nodes in relation to transits, progressions, and chart comparisons.