Cycles of Life: Understanding the Principles of Predictive Astrology - Softcover

Rod Suskin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0738706590 ISBN 13: 9780738706597

Publisher: Llewellyn Publications, 2005

Synopsis

Change is an inevitable part of life. Major life changes can propel us toward exciting growth or painful setbacks. Astrologer Rod Suskin provides a cosmic roadmap that predicts these developmental phases and offers advice for using these times to our advantage.

Cycles of Life describes how the planets are implicitly connected to important transitions in our lives. Easy-to-follow tables and worksheets help readers track planetary cycles and interpret the results. From there, individuals can gain a new understanding the past and begin preparing for future life changes. The author also shares how the planets affect many aspects of life, including relationships, money management, business, and daily living.

About this title

About the Author

Rod Suskin (South Africa) has been a professional consultant for fifteen years. He has a radio program and often appears on national television to talk about astrology. In addition to writing for journals and magazines, he writes a daily astrology column for Cape Town's largest newspaper. He was commissioned by the official publication of the South African Parliament to create and interpret an astrological chart for the newly democratic country.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Was life simpler before? We live in a world of so much freedom and choice compared with our ancestors, especially in choosing our beliefs about life, but along with this freedom comes a great deal of uncertainty. While the freedom to pursue and believe our own spiritual truths offers us a great opportunity to find fulfillment, the lack of sureness allows change to surprise us, makes us feel that unlike previous generations we have little certainty of what to expect from life.

Perhaps our ancestors never really had a much simpler time than us; perhaps they knew something about the rhythms of nature and of life itself that made things seem more certain to them.

Predictability does not consign us to the limitations of fate but rather offers us an opportunity to take charge and steer our choices and actions in a direction that will help us fulfill our goals more easily. Ultimately, you will understand the present moment in a way that makes it easier to "live in the now."

Using a simple set of numbers firmly based in the well-established techniques of astrology, you will be able to predict when changes will happen in your life, what they will entail, and what are the best strategies to deal with them. Although some knowledge of astrology will be helpful, you will be able to grasp the method with only the most basic 5 understanding of astrological principles. Should you study astrology further you will be more easily able to grasp the complexities of predictive techniques when you finally get to that exciting stage.

Cycles Equate to Changes

Astrologers observe ten major cycles in our lives, how they work and when they change. Each cycle is associated with different events, issues and experiences. These associations are not merely superstitious beliefs; they are observations that have accumulated over thousands of years. The cycles also interconnect and "cross over" to describe more detailed changes.

These are the same cycles astrologers use to make their detailed predictions using the ten planets. They are called transits, and they describe the movements of the planets through time compared with where they were at the subject's birth, shown in the natal chart.

As our earth sciences show, some of the most powerful cycles we know are those of the Earth itself. With your birth time and place, an astrologer can locate the start of your cycles and pinpoint fine details about your cycles using your natal chart. It's likely that once you have a grasp of this system, you will eagerly and easily learn more advanced principles of prediction.

Creating Your Life Worksheet

Each of the cycles is associated with one of the planets, and a set of tables is used to quickly find your own starting points for each of the planets. The tables represent the planets' positions in a way that allows you to identify four-stage cycle used in this book.

The cycles have a simple four-stage rhythm. You will create your own "chart" of numbers to indicate when cycles change and when they interact with each other. A special worksheet is provided to make the task simpler. Once you have created your worksheet, the rest of the book will show you how to read it and become the master of your own destiny.

A Guide Through the Stages of Life

In each chapter we'll examine some of the cycles that unfold as we grow. We'll see how the length of a cycle explains many age-related experiences. We'll also look at what happens when you divide a cycle into its four main stages-the real heart of our method. You'll learn strategies to work with the cycles and how to cope with the changes, when to expect them, and when to make some changes yourself. More than anything, this method can become a strategy for your success in all areas of life, not simply a "weather report." Later you'll use the cycles in combination and in analyzing your relationships.

To illustrate the effects of the cycles, we will look at the chart of singer-actress Madonna, on page 12. Since she is an iconic figure for her generation, her well-publicized life events epitomize much of the best and worst of life's changes.

You're not required to believe anything here; you can match everything to your own past experience and test the system for yourself before you make any big life plans based on it!

Astrology Is about Cycles

Astrology is really the study of our relationship with time and with the cycles of nature. It works because we are cyclical creatures bound in the web of time, like all other living things. Astrology is not merely a way to describe our personalities and not a magical belief system. It is the study of cycles and the art of understanding just how we fit into them.

The Cosmic Clock

In the same way that we correlate the movement of the hour hand and the minute hand of the clock with the passing of time, so too we correlate the passage of the Sun and Moon through the sky with the passing of time. With only two hands on a clock we have accurate information about time, although we know we can add a third hand and be more precise. We can do the same with the sky clock of Sun and Moon.

Astrology Is a Way of Describing Time

Astrology is like a vast cosmic clock. By adding the other planets, it gives us more hands for our clock. By correlating ten cycles with human events, we form a detailed picture of natural cycles in our activities. Astrologers correlate periods of time with the movement of the planets around the zodiac.

Astrologers have learned to read a ten-handed clock (ten cycles of ten planets) that has been correlated for 6,000 years with human experience. The planetary cycles are not the cause of events any more than the hands of a clock cause time to pass. They simply describe the event, as one o'clock describes lunchtime rather than causes it to be lunchtime.  

Edition details

• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0738706590
• ISBN 13: 9780738706597
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 264