iVillage

Astrologers are not unlike their more psychic cousins, the psychometrists, who use objects to get in touch with various types of information. Instead on handling some object belonging to the person in question, we astrologers tend to use the available astronomical facts as a touchstone or pointer to whatever meaning we are searching for.

Much of modern astrology is concerned with our paying close attention to the observed facts as determined by the science of astronomy and astrophysics. Perhaps early in this century astrologers were a little fuzzy with regard to science, but nowadays most astrologers are interested in learning all they can about the hard facts of deep space, the planets and whatnot. My point here is that it seems that the more we understand the actual facts, the better directed we are to any inner meanings they may indicate or point to. The real facts of any situation are the ultimate talisman, or key to the meaning or directionality that may be involved. With this in mind, let us take a look at the very important phenomenon of planetary motion, in particular the fact that the planets appear to go forward and backward through the zodiac—the retrograde phenomenon.