I think that Western Astrology should add more elements to it's mix. I would consider adding: plastic, wood, glass, metal, electricity, light, blood, flesh, stone, thought, to name a few. Maybe as new planets are discovered in our solar system, the need for new elements may become apparent. This is purely theoretical. There may even be a place for new signs which reflect current society, and people. There may even be a place for new gods, much like past mythology, which would rule the new signs. This is food for thought. Any thoughts on this?
I dunno, but they need to stop naming all the new planets such boring names!! 51PEG?? Does that sound anywhere near as eloquent as the planets within our solar system?? I think not!! >__< *goes off on a planetary tantrum* 9_9
some of the things you mention can be accommodated within the existing four elements i think: wood, glass, stone, and metal all derive from earth, though there's probably a case for adding metal to the elements in its own right, like the chinese do. i read eric francis the other day and he reckons metal can already be equated with taurus. but if you had a fifth element then you'd also need a fifth direction b/c the two things correspond. i don't know much about the chinese system but don't they have up and down as legitimate directions? anyway, electricity and fire are usually equated with light, and thought with air. it's not a perfect system but it's not bad either. there's neat correspondence also between the four astrological elements and the four basic chemical elements of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, seen as the basis of all universal matter. can't help feeling if u create more signs you'd upset the mathematical balance. but then there are plastics, and god knows where you'd put them in the current system
The Chinese use wood as a fifth element, and may use up and down as a direction. I am not well schooled in Chinese Astrology so I can't comment really on direction. Maybe the new direction could be like the Fool in the Tarot, not having a direction at all. The old Astrology works fine for me too Q. It is not perfect, but it is a beautiful thing. I also agree that there is a naturalness to the old Astrology. Some say obey nature, and some say manipulate it, thus plastic. Good or bad, life is becoming more complex and eventually we may need more complicated sytems. For now the classical Astrological system works very well. It probably always will. It is evolving actually and there are always new things to learn and add. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are all relatively new additions. New observations need new interpretations. The base has always been there. Outer plantets work in the charts of people born before the planets were discovered. The only way to know what symbols mean is to study them. The ancients watched the signs all around them, and eventually saw the meanings that they carried. Maybe friendly aliens gave us some knowledge of sign interpretation eons ago. They built the pyramids didn't they? Anyway just some food for thought.
how about the scientifically made? forgot the names, but the last ones on the element chart, plus plasma, gases
according to chinese astrology online their 5 elements are: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth, so both wood and metal are added and air is subtracted. see http://www.chineseastrologyonline.com/chineseastrology.htm sounds like me on a bad day :H anyway i did some cursory research and found: "to fit the four directions, north, south, east, and west into the system it was necessary to take the concept of "the center" and correlate it with the "earth element." see http://www.capital.net/~phuston/fiveelements.html i must admit i have issues with the directions myself but for different reasons. living in the southern hemisphere we look north towards the sun, and not south. this one simple fact disturbs the old euro-centric system (and it effects more than just the direction of the sun, too: the moon is particualrly effected because of the hemispherical change and waxes and wanes in the opposite direction to the north. i also hold a view that the nodes of the moon may need to be reversed for ppl born in the south). there was a lot of debate here about if we should, dare even, change the ancient system and replace it with common sense. i had no debate myself. being uranian, i went ahead and called north fire and south earth, water east and air west and that's the way i would cast a circle now. i think intuitively i've always considered the centre a kind of direction. b/c i've got absolutely no earth in my chart i'm very conscious of the need to regularly ground myself to time and place with both feet thus making that direction uppermost in my mind. i think b/c of the new aquarian age approaching we have licence to experiment. i mean, what u said earlier about new planets is true. taurus and gemini still lack principal planetary rulers if you hold to the old view about rulership and these two signs could be greatly enhanced and probably better understood as well if they were to be given over to new planets. the problem with that argument of course is new planetary discoveries are likely to be trans-plutonian meaning they take us deeper into the unconscious underworld than we already go with pluto and the newest discovery, yet the two signs, taurus and gemini, are both symbolic of self, sensation, mind and consciousness. so there's a complication there. u wonder sometimes tho', don't you? the rich and complex knowledge systems shared between societies completely disconnected is a good argument for the friendly aliens thesis. it's so long ago in the memory now i'm not sure we'll ever remember.
