In the mid-1990s, I found myself transitioning from a life lived for four years in the bustling enormity of Tokyo to rural Cambodia. I was moving to be with my Japanese boyfriend at the time, who’d been assigned as a United Nations Volunteer in Siem Reap. That then-sleepy town – the one closest to the majestic Angkor monuments – became my home for a year. Living within the Japanese expat community, I spent ten months translating archaeological documents from French into Japanese, until I finally felt ready to return to the U.S. for grad school.
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Memories of this time in my life came flooding back to me the other day, as I dug out old pictures (yes, this was pre-digital cameras!) and prepared to share stories with a friend embarking on a Southeast Asia adventure. It reminded me of the profound ways we interpret our surroundings – and ourselves – through languages both spoken and unspoken.
And that reminded me of an encounter I’d recently had at a local cafe.
I was standing at the community bulletin board about to pin up a flier for my upcoming astrology event. A man seated nearby asked to see it. When I showed him, he waved his hand and declared, "Oh, I don’t believe in Astrology." My response, light yet earnest, sparked a curious exchange. "Do you believe in French, or Spanish, or Japanese?" I asked, equating astrology to the languages that had so deeply shaped my understanding of the world. “What?” He looked at me dumbfounded.
Astrology is a language. A symbolic language. Just as I, as a native-English speaker, had to do when learning Japanese – to learn how to read the symbols of the Japanese written scripts, vocabulary, sentence structure, etc. – I had to do the same when learning Astrology. Whether I’m translating a Japanese document into English, or an astrological birth chart into English, my brain is working in the exact same way. Astrology is a language rich in grammar and vocabulary, capable of translating the celestial stories into personal insight.
Though it's experiencing a significant resurgence in mainstream popularity, particularly among younger generations, Astrology is still greatly misunderstood. More often than not, it’s diminished to mere sun-sign frivolity. (Those of us who remember camera film rolls that had to be sent off to be developed probably also still remember the newspaper horoscopes that predicted, in a few brief sentences, what your day or week would look like based on the month in which you were born.)
But Astrology is so much more than that! Its complexity mirrors that of any language. Mastery of it takes learning its symbols, rules, and nuances. Like learning French or Japanese, delving into astrology unveils a structured, mathematical, and deeply symbolic system. It's about interpreting a rich tapestry of celestial influences in a systematic, precise manner. There is depth and rigor involved in its practice. (And my serious, dedicated study of it has felt like grad school all over again!)
In fact, astrology is one of the oldest studies known to humankind – records dating back four to six thousand years. Historically, astrology held a place of reverence among the greatest minds and academic circles. Its decline in prestige is a relatively modern phenomenon. I offer this historical context to counterbalance the simplistic views that cloud its perception today.
My aim is not to convert skeptics. I’m far too busy and passionate about the work I’m already doing with clients and students. But I do like to share my journey in mastering this complex language to help debunk persistent myths that astrology is something one “believes” or doesn’t.
Just as I once translated texts from French into Japanese for those Waseda University scholars interested in knowing what archaeological work had predated theirs, I now seek to translate the celestial sphere's language for those interested in the insights it may offer into their own personal lives. Astrology, to me, is another language through which we can explore the human experience from a different vantage point. I still consider myself a translator.
In embracing astrology, I invite others to view it not as a matter of belief but as a language waiting to be understood. Its symbols and configurations offer narratives and insights, much like the words and sentences of any spoken language. By considering astrology through this lens, we open ourselves to a rich, symbolic dialogue with the universe, expanding our horizons and deepening our understanding of the world and ourselves.
