Astrological Good Practices

While the answers to many of life’s problems can be found in the houses of a birth chart, the real objective of astrology is not to outsource your self-awareness.

However, not all our problems arise from planetary disharmony. Sometimes the kitchen, the bedroom, the phone in your hand, the traffic outside, or the habit you you know you need to correct can be the reasons for many of life’s mundane problems such as:

• A disturbed sleep cycle.
• Out of character irritability.
• Emotional exhaustion.
• Clutter around the home.
• Avoidable arguments.
• Wasteful spending.

As an astrologer, my view of astrology is that it should not make us more dependent on astrologers. It should make us more observant of ourselves, our surroundings, our relationships with living and non-living things, and the energies we create around us. Think of it as a metaphysical first-aid kit.

Astrology is not a replacement for doctors, therapists or other professionals. It is not a magical shortcut, just a way of noticing small imbalances, and responding consciously before every little disturbance becomes a crisis. The method is simple:

• Observe
• Decode
• Correct
• Ritualise
• Escalate when necessary

And sometimes, the first correction can be a remarkably ordinary action.

Understanding Planetary Balance

Understanding and harnessing the energies of each of the nine planets is a good practice that we should all adopt in our routine lives. This mitigates many problems before they start to have an effect.

• The Sun ⊙ & Moon ☽: Begin With Yourself
If the Sun speaks of vitality, the Moon accesses the mind and emotional rhythm.

Assign a fixed time to sleep and awake. Give yourself adequate morning sunlight. Let some natural light enter your home and workplace. Your body has a biological clock, and it appreciates consistency far more than our chaotic modern schedules suggest.

There is another Moon lesson we may have forgotten. We have become extremely conscious of our own emotions. Every feeling must be analysed, processed, discussed and occasionally posted online. Perhaps sometimes we should look outward. Take care of someone, feed someone, help someone. Be mindful of other people's wellbeing.

The Moon is not only about receiving care. It is also about learning to give it. Nurturing is also a form of nourishment. Eating an ice cream may make you happy for a few minutes. Bringing one to someone who genuinely needs a little kindness can create a very different kind of satisfaction. Start with someone who cares for you.

• Mars ♂: Not every battle deserves your energy
A warrior who fights everything eventually has no energy left for the battles that matter.

Mars is strength, courage and action. Its disturbed expression can appear in constant conflict: with partners, siblings, colleagues, neighbours, strangers in traffic, or through impulsive decisions that later become debts, disputes or other complications.

The remedy is not to simply “control your anger.” It is to learn where your energy deserves to go.

Traffic is a perfect example. You cannot command the road to become empty because you are late. Change the route, leave earlier, calculate the delay or accept it. Every situation is not under your control. Adaptability is also a strength.

Give Mars a constructive outlet. Exercise, walk, play a sport. Build physical discipline into your routine.

• Mercury ☿: Your company and your words are investments
Mercury grows through curiosity, not unnecessary information.

Choose your company carefully. People influence how we speak, think, behave and even what we consider normal.

Be even more careful about how you choose your words. A sentence may cost nothing when spoken, but a great deal later.

Keep learning. A new purchase may entertain you temporarily. A new skill can increase what you are capable of for years. Learn something. Teach something. Help a child grow. Stay curious. And if you need to satisfy your curiosity, try learning instead of indulging in unproductive activities.

• Jupiter ♃: Expand the frame
Guide someone. Teach someone. Help another person grow.

Jupiter is associated with wisdom, knowledge, growth and abundance. But, here’s a different take on Jupiter’s influence.

Before making an important decision, pause. Think. Evaluate. Look beyond immediate profit. Ask what is ethical, sustainable and beneficial in the larger picture.

Keep your physical environment reasonably open and well ventilated. Fresh air and daylight are practical necessities, while symbolically they remind us not to let our environment or thinking become stagnant.

Share what you know. Sometimes abundance expands not because one person's luck becomes enormous, but because more people begin to grow through your knowledge and effort.

• Venus ♀: Filter before you consume
Venus asks us not merely to have beautiful things, but to develop the ability to appreciate and value them.

Venus is not only luxury and romance, it is also value, appreciation, relationship and enjoyment.

Filter what you consume be it food, entertainment, attention, relationships, purchases, conversations. Respect others without making yourself smaller. Value yourself without making everyone else insignificant.

Add beauty to your life, but remember that beauty does not always mean decoration. It can mean giving attention to what you are already doing. Whatever you engage in, be it speaking, working, cooking, do it with care.

Also, create something of value and maintain your relationships.

• Saturn ♄: Act now and avoid a crisis later
Saturn reminds us that no system functions because of one important person.

Saturn represents discipline, responsibility, patience and structure. Appeasing Saturn is fairly simple. Be systematic, respect time, fulfill obligations, follow the rules, be humble and stop postponing everything in the pursuit of perfection. Sometimes “I want to do it properly” is simply procrastination wearing respectable clothes.

Respect the smallest part of the system too. All subordinates, assistants, junior partners, or the invisible worker are all a part of the structure supporting your life.

• Rahu ☊: Lifting the fog
Be passionate, not possessive.

Rahu reminds us that excess eventually leads to imbalance and a distortion of reality. This could be too much speculation, too many shortcuts or being too obsessive. In modern times this could also mean being too involved in the virtual world and having too little association with real people or real relationships.

Thoughts need movement. Turn an idea into an action, even if it is a tiny one. Use technology without allowing it to consume your attention. Breathe, remain in the present.

Stay open to new ideas and unconventional methods, but don't confuse novelty with progress.

• Ketu ☋: Life is not a scoreboard
Effort and outcome are not the same thing.

You can control your preparation, sincerity and action. You cannot control every variable that determines the final result. So work sincerely. Learn and improve. Then launch your plan or objective obsession at a time and manner that will lead to success.

Ketu asks us to connect inward and understand ourselves rather than constantly measuring ourselves against an external scoreboard. Success may not arrive in the form you expected. Your responsibility is to make an effort. The universe will decide the reward.

The Five Question Principle

Astrology becomes meaningful when it directs us towards reality, not away from it. If resolving a problem exceeds your capabilities, seek the right professional help.

A ritual can remind you to change. A planetary principle can help you understand what needs attention. But we are still required to make corrections to our life. So before you ask, “Which planet is troubling me?”, ask yourself five questions:

1. What am I ignoring?
2. What am I repeating?
3. What am I wasting?
4. What am I avoiding?
5. And what can I change today?

Then make that change. Don't rush to find someone who can explain your life to you. First, become curious enough to fully understand your own life. That may be the most practical astrological remedy of all.