THERE IS ANOTHER WORLDWIDE BULL MARKET going on – and one that maybe as frothy as the S&P. It’s the interest in astrology.
Here, in Santa Fe, interest in astrology – already more robust than other places – is tracking more closely with Nasdaq and it’s hard to go coffee with someone without a reference to today’s astrological data.
There is also a rich history among the “elite,” who dismiss it as the lotus-eating province of the second-rate mind. Or worse. They prefer the belief that human beings are solely in control of how things happen and the world sits better with them. Look at the results.
For Darci – vulnerable, confident, brilliant – the atmosphere of skepticism started at home, as her father was an MIT-trained scientist. Though she started studying astrology as young girl of seven, she waited until she was 28 to tell him that this was what she did besides her other job as massage therapist. He understood and approved, to her surprise.
Though much of the discourse on astrology is jam-packed with bullshit, this is not. She is not. (Though, I suspect, the S&P is.)
You’re from a family of scientists.
Yes. I was studying astrology with a huge passion when I moved to Santa Fe. I sat in the art bookstore and pretty much just read everything in their astrology section. My intention was to answer the questions: Does this work? Why and how does this work? Can I explain it to my physicist father? So that meant I had to master the discipline, which is incredibly complex. I could answer the first question. Yes, it works. But then why does it work? That led me to be able to describe it from a more scientific point of view, which is why I’m good at it.
It was demonized during the Age of Reason, by the academic tradition and also the church. But it was once a part of astronomy; one who was an astronomer actually was also an astrologer. Before then, it was even part of medicine.
I was born into a family of extremely well-educated people, and I’m well-educated as well. I understand that it’s a big trigger for people who are well-educated. They were taught that astrology is nonsense at best.
I never planned on becoming an astrologer. It was something that unfolded because I was so intensely obsessed with it. I started doing readings. I’ve been doing readings ever since, just word of mouth, all over the world.
So, how did the parents take it?
When I told my parents, my mother at first thought it was witchcraft.
My father, his glasses fell off his face, his eyes widened, and he just got a huge smile on his face. He says, “Oh, my God!” and starts laughing. He was delighted. He could see I cared about this enough to want to explain it to him from his point of view. He then admitted to me that he’d been thinking about it himself. He was wondering if it mattered that he had been a C-section or not, whether his sun sign was a Scorpio or Sagittarius. He had been really thinking about it.
My family all wanted readings, and it carried on from there. My sister, an investment banker on Wall Street, said her firm asked her to call me for an astrological weather forecast. They actually did a study of a 100-year pattern I mentioned. They tracked the pattern and saw it created volatility in the market.
Is it a gift or knowledge?
Both. It’s based on astronomy and orbital physics. But we use an art that uses metaphor to speak about energy patterns. That’s frequency fields, resonance fields, vibrational frequency fields. Anything with mass has energy. Something as large as a planet has a subtle field of energy that could be thought of like a sound, a note of music. We’re continuously moving around the Sun. We’re speaking about patterns of orbits in our solar system. We’re talking about patterns in nature that correspond to these orbits, the first pattern being our seasons, as the Earth goes around the sun. Then, the pattern of the Moon cycle affecting our tides, our planting cycles, our fertility cycles. We’re telling stories about the pattern of every orbit of our neighbors in the solar system from our vantage point as we’re going around the Sun. These patterns of orbits all can be seen as a subtle, unseen weather pattern that we talk about in stories.
We use the rational and the non-rational to talk about the language of astrology. The rational is the placement, the astronomy, where the planets are located, how their orbit is moving, how we’re moving, where the moon is, where our relationship to the sun is to Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, out to Pluto.
The non-rational is the storytelling. It is the use of symbol of metaphor for archetypes. While we’re using the non-rational, the art, we can feel into the place in ourselves that is also non-rational. We can inhabit our life as a human being within both the rational and the non-rational, the science and the art, the logical and the mystical.
Implicit in all this is that there’s some external thing that challenges the idea of free will.
The right use of astrology is not to tell you what is going to happen, like fate.
Each person is unlimited and unique, as a being and as a soul. What I’m describing with astrology is rather an energy pattern that’s continuously moving, continuously evolving, continuously unique in its patterns of orbital physics.
We are creative beings who are evolving just like nature. These movements from our orbits are part of our nature, part of our evolutionary journey. All we can do is speak about patterns of energy. And with that understanding, we have tools to make better choices, understanding the pattern.
What happens when you see things someone doesn’t want to hear?
I don’t think my job is to tell people something that is not useful. I pray that my communication can be in service to their highest and most good and can be helpful. My approach is to tell people what the energy pattern is rather than to suggest actual occurrences. I think that would be deeply foolish and unethical. It is much more helpful to describe their journey with the patterns and what the mythological, metaphorical implications of the energy are. That individual can choose how to move with that energy the way that they want to, for their own use or their own benefit. It’s their own choice. I believe in free will.
Do you think there’s more bullshit than muscle in this field?
It’s misused in that many people who are into astrology do not see the importance of having it to be exactly correct to the astronomy. They don’t understand that we’re speaking about orbital physics. Many people think that we can say whatever we want about astrology, we’re just projecting our own human foibles onto the sky.
We can make it sound as sensationalized as possible. That gets everybody really excited. We get more followers, and we can sell more. That’s not at all what I do. So there are those who are skeptical about it, for good reason. But those who are skeptical of it because they’ve been academically trained, they’re also behaving in a somewhat prejudiced manner that is very unscientific – to not even open up a reputable book of astrology and learn what the Zodiac is.
It would be (at least at some level) easier if you were an accountant.
Absolutely. I’m a weirdo. I’ve had to be in the closet as an astrologer. In some situations, I am celebrated and welcomed; other situations, not so much. In many ways, I’ve been hiding out. Santa Fe is a great place for me to do what it is I do. Here in Santa Fe, I’m normal. What I do is considered normal.
You see these things in terms of individuals. What happens when you take the broad view?
It’s interesting to track these patterns throughout what is happening on the earth at large. In 2021, the major pattern that we’re traveling with is a 90-degree angle between Saturn and Uranus. That’s kind of similar to a half moon, from Earth’s perspective. Saturn represents tradition and reality as we know it: the building blocks of our life, the focus, the rules, the structure, the history, the tradition. Uranian energy is a shocking change – innovation and new forms.
At a 90-degree square, it is a crisis. It can feel like we’re living on an earthquake zone. It is chaotic. It has a lot of upheaval. It’s very exciting but it can feel like there’s a jackhammer going off outside and everything is falling apart and building at the same time.
Astrology is particularly popular with the younger generation…
A lot of them were born with a very interesting energy pattern that would make them curious and open-minded. A lot of my clients are the younger generation: those especially born in the first half of the 90s. In 1992 and ’93, we had an alignment with Neptune, Uranus and Capricorn. Last time they came together was when Walt Whitman was born. Uranus can represent higher consciousness or esoteric information. Neptune is expansive. The watery world of oneness, a source, a kind of the dream of life. So, it’s expanding the idea of esoteric information, also at the highest level of Earth. Capricorns, they all are infused with this creative and spiritual gift. Some of that gets expressed in an interest in astrology.
You also do massage work.
My job is to listen and be present with whomever it is I’m working with and be able to meet them where they’re at in a way that feels good and supportive and helps them to feel safe so that they can get in touch with themselves in a way that’s helpful for them. I’m there to help them feel good but also to assist them to let go of things they are holding that may not feel good that they want to move through and come to a more comfortable place. With bodywork, I help them unwind, not just knots but maybe even patterns and feelings that are located in the body so that they feel more comfortable.
I can only do my job from a place of detachment. I’m in service as I’m working with you. I approach the relationship from being open to channel an energy that’s helpful for them and being present with them in a way that’s caring, kind, compassionate, and empathetic but also detached so that I can be present in a conscious and a helpful way.
Learn more at DarcyAliceNicholson.com
Photo Mary Moon
