By “horoscope” we mean a two-dimensional chart that describes how the known Universe was arranged at the time when a person was born. Through complex, and thoroughly scientific, astronomic calculations (for instance, I use ephemeredes provided by the NASA), it is possible to “fix on paper”  the expression of the Energy that emanates from the planets in connection with the Signs in which they transit at the precise moment when the child is born.

For this reason, knowing one’s time of birth is essential: if it is not absolutely precise, the horoscope will be useless. More importantly, it will not reflect the child’s life and growth.

Horoscopes are tremendously useful, as sooner or later each one of us asks him- or herself the questions that have always teased human consciences: who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?

This is why Astrology – serious, scientific Astrology – can help those who find themselves facing one of those existential storms that bring constant unrest to sensitive Souls.

There are different types of reading, different profiles on which we can ground a natal chart: from traditional approaches to evolutionary astrology, from medical readings to karmic horoscopes.

As to what concerns medical astrology, it is important to highlight that no serious astrologist would ever try to replace healthcare professionals. In the course of history, however, several doctors, especially psychoanalysts, sought advice from Astrologists to work out more precise diagnoses. The most outstanding personality that paved the way to the integration of Astrology (the oldest science in the world) into traditional medicine was Carl Gustav Jung, who, beside writing highly influential essays on this issue, employed Astrology as a useful means to explore his patients’ problems. For instance, Jung maintained that a good in-depth examination of a patient’s natal chart could in fact lead to discovering the roots of that patient’s psychological problems some 15 sessions earlier than with traditional methods alone.

By karmic astrology, on the other hand, we mean the in-depth study of the transit of the Soul’s Power as it passed from its last incarnations to the current one.

The fundamentals of this study are the Luminaries or Lights (the Sun and the Moon), the Moon’s Nodes (the Dragon’s Head and Tail, respectively) and the interaction between their energies and those which emanate from other Planets. A wise person once said: "Nothing is lost  in nature", thus confirming Lavoisier’s law that "Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed". Nothing is lost, then, not even the consequences of our actions, that are etched in universal memory, and keep coming back to us.

I have mentioned Universal Memory, which we can better define as the World of Akasha. It is in Akasha that all the universe’s thoughts concentrate, forming an aura that might well be the foundation of what Jung has termed as humankind’s Collective Unconscious. Looking at it from a reincarnation perspective, this collective unconscious is made of the vast number of thoughts of all the men and women who inhabited the Earth before us. Each one of us can enter it to seek one’s own roots.

The astrological chart presents such karmic roots as in an open book.

Understanding the ways in which destiny reveals itself, in which we are guided and led by instincts, desires, and fears that are not the result of our present lives, but come from ancient times, is in itself a way to recreate one’s space, to get ready to grow up.

It is only after this realization that we can really speak of free will, a will that is no longer bound by an unconscious that was there before we were born. It is only then that we can move on to the terra incognita of our future.

The tests and experiences we are faced with in this life fall into perspective when we realize that they are mere chapters of the endless story of the ongoing growth of our undying Souls.