Astrology as a model for consciousness evolution

1. Towards a Responsible Astrology of the Future
Our solar system as a model for consciousness development and a guide for co-creating
a positive future
With Pluto now firmly in Capricorn, the time has come for people in a position of authority to
use power wisely and responsibly. This applies to astrologers. We are in a position of power,
not necessarily because we want to be, but because clients often put us there. In this article I
want to offer suggestions on how we as astrologers are in a unique position to help co-create a
better global future.
Many see astrology as a belief system or a form of divination. My view on modern astrology
is that it is neither of those. Taking the divination aspect, astrology can be used to look at
which archetypes are active at certain times and can therefore be used as a tool to study the
future or the past, as Richard Tarnas does wonderfully in “Cosmos and Psyche”.1 The
archetypes provide a powerful model in the study of human nature including psychological
and spiritual processes.
However the astrological signs and planets can better be viewed not just as archetypes but as
holons, to use Arthur Koestler’s term2, as they include all forms of matter and non-matter. To
quote Dennis Elwell, a well-known British astrologer “...as well as the metal lead, Saturn was
associated with the skeleton, gravity, the ageing process, and many other things besides.” 3
The traditional view was that the planets were not merely planets, but “the whole area or
sphere enclosed by a planet’s orbit – what today we might call a field.”4 I would go further
and refer to them as the ‘morphic’ fields that the biologist Dr. Rupert Sheldrake5 has written
so eloquently about.
Astrology as a model of consciousness
The view assumed in this article is that astrology, like morphic field theory or spiral dynamics
(which will be discussed later), is not a belief system but a model, although certainly not a
simple one. However, although astrologers themselves often use what happens to a planet to
look at levels of consciousness, this is less well documented and therefore less well-known.
This idea fits best with the theory of ‘ Spiral Dynamics’, and I would like to expand on this in
this article with a view to using the depth of knowledge inherent in astrology to add to the
research being done with levels of consciousness.
We do have an effect!
One way to approach this is to use the idea that looking at something, affects consciousness in
the sense of awareness. Sheldrake’s experiments with ‘the sense of being stared at’6 suggest
1
Richard Tarnas, “Cosmos and Psyche, Intimations of a New World View”.
2
Arthur Koestler, “The Ghost in the Machine”.
3
Dennis Elwell, “Cosmic Loom, the New Science of Astrology”, p47.
4
Dennis Elwell, “Cosmic Loom, The New Science of Astrology, p43.
5
Rupert Sheldrake, “The Presence of the Past, Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature”.
6
Rupert Sheldrake, “The Sense of Being Stared at and other unexplained powers of the human mind”.

2. Towards a Responsible Astrology of the Future ©Faye Cossar June 2009
that our minds extend out and affect the objects of our focus. He sums this up with: “Our
minds reach out to touch everything we see. If we look at distant stars, then our minds stretch
out over astronomical distances to touch these heavenly bodies. Subject and object are indeed
confused. Through our perceptions, the environment is brought within us, but we also extend
outwards into the environment.”7
I take this to mean that when we observe something (or we are observed) our consciousness
changes. We are aware of something that we were not aware of before. We also change the
object of our focus, even planets.
Expanding our horizons
I want to use this idea in looking at the discovery of planets and other objects in our solar
system. As we have become aware of these objects, our consciousness has extended outwards
from the earth literally, but perhaps also symbolically. So the planetary system may be seen as
a model for the development of consciousness. I have even heard it said that in some people,
new aura layers are developing. Perhaps trans-personal planets are becoming personal.
The planets orbiting the Sun from Mercury out to Saturn have been used by astrologers for
centuries although it is unknown when the first men gazed upon them. However, the
generally agreed dates for the discovery of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are documented, along
with those for the newer objects Chiron, Nessus and Pholus, known as the Centaurs, and the
dwarf planets Ceres and Eris. There are more objects, but I need to draw the line somewhere.
The Uranus Field
One way astrologers determine planetary meaning is to look at what is happening in the world
at the time of a planet’s discovery. Taking Uranus first, the credit was given to Herschel in
1781 for the discovery. By this time the meanings given to the luminaries and planets as far
out as Saturn were pretty stable, so I will begin by looking at the Uranus field. In one huge
step, Herschel’s discovery literally doubled the size of the known universe, so applying our
model means that a huge jump in consciousness is required. The Uranus holon is given the
themes of disruption, independence, rebelliousness, authenticity, technology, computers,
change, individuality, lightning and awakening, to name but a few. The meaning has changed
over time8 and taking the idea of a planet as a morphic field, my view is that this field is now
becoming stabilised. The late 1700’s was a time of unrest. The declaration of independence is
around this time as is the French Revolution. There are big changes here in terms of science,
with a major shift happening from Newton onwards. In fact astrology becomes an outcast at
this date, along with anything that cannot be proven. The traditional science of today had
begun.
That the field has become more stable may be seen by the fact that things fought for then, are
now commonplace. The baby-boomers have done much to stabilise this field, and many of
them are now able to use Uranian qualities positively. Sheldrake himself is a good example of
someone who resonates with this field. He is a scientist who is authentic, not bending to the
old norms and values of the scientific group. He is attempting to change the world view by
being an individual and by being independent. He also uses technology to help him with his
research. He has a Promethean spark (many astrologers equate Uranus with Prometheus),
7
Rupert Sheldrake, “Seven Experiments That Could Change the World”, pp.106-107.
8
See paper Faye Cossar, ‘The Three Histories of Uranus’, at www.astrozero.uk.co.

3. Towards a Responsible Astrology of the Future ©Faye Cossar June 2009
wishing to bring fire and light to the masses. Astrologers could do worse than to use him as a
role model.
Another major sign for me that we can ‘do’ Uranus in a more positive way is the winning of
the US Presidential fight in 2008 by Barack Obama. On that day, the day the two Gods
Saturn and Uranus confronted each other across the heavens, Uranus won the bout. Obama is
truly a symbol of a grown-up Uranus holon. The Uranus field is not only becoming stable;
we are seeing how to co-create positively with it.
The Neptune Field
Neptune, discovered in 1846, is associated with séances, spirituality, eastern philosophy
(Madame Blavatsky was an important figure around this time), hospitals, and later with art,
compassion, music or anything that relates to another realm. Negatively it is also associated
with addiction and victimisation. The link between all these is that they are areas where there
are no borders or boundaries. The way science is moving is an acknowledgement of the
Neptunian theme, the idea that we are all one. That things that we cannot see affect us, that
imagination and thoughts have an influence on us.
My view is that the generation being born now is the one that will stabilise this field. Our
generation may not have been able to reach the tipping point to change this field into
something we can use positively. Children today are all happy with computers, technology
and the fact that they have rights and are individuals. It could be said that they have Uranus in
hand. They are however suffering from our inability to provide schools for their sensitivity,
also a Neptunian characteristic. Many children have allergies, or are thought to have attention
problems, or are labelled borderline, perhaps because we don’t understand that they are on a
different level or are learning how to be part of a global world and to use skills such as
telepathy. Perhaps the levels of addiction amongst children will finally alert us to the fact that
we need a global twelve step programme, a programme that actually emphasises positive
Neptunian ideas of letting go and trusting in a higher power. Alert us to the need to
understand children in other ways and make major changes in our education system.
Unfortunately, to quote Einstein, “The significant problems we have, cannot be solved at the same
level of thinking with which we created them.” We need a new mindset or consciousness level.
Pluto and Beyond…
Pluto was discovered in 1930 and is therefore associated with gangsters, Hitler, atomic power
and control. Pluto is, to my mind, still a very unstable morphic field and we are mostly seeing
the negative side of power. There are few people with influence in the world who can use
power in an authentic and pure way. Mandela might be an example. Obama promises to be.
Even though Pluto is now deemed a dwarf planet, the morphic field is still strong and being
added to. The renaming is important because it puts Pluto on an equal level with the other
dwarf planet holons, but that will take time to stabilise. It could be said that the world values
the planets’ qualities more than those of the dwarf planets, and also that the dwarf planet
characteristics are equal in importance to each other – i.e. the Ceres holon is now just as
important as the Pluto one. It is therefore interesting that Ceres, known as a planet since 1801,
then an asteroid and now again a planet, albeit a dwarf, is on the same level as Pluto. Ceres, a
grieving mother, rules grain and has control over the seasons. She has a lot to teach us about
global warming and genetic manipulation of food. Perhaps we need to honour her as much as
power (part of the Pluto holon), in today’s world. Astrologers take note! Eris is more of a

4. Towards a Responsible Astrology of the Future ©Faye Cossar June 2009
worry. With her discovery we are bringing a bloodthirsty woman into consciousness. She is a
powerful feminine archetype who loves war. Being new she has a very unstable field, but the
parallels in the world can clearly be seen in our apparent lust for conflict and war. We need to
find the positive side of the powerful feminine.
Where are we?
It seems to me we have a number of people at different consciousness levels. Astrology has
no way of identifying these. If we look at a chart we don’t have any idea about where
someone is in terms of what might be called spiritual development. This is why I found the
model called Spiral Dynamics very exciting for astrologers. It was named by Don Beck9 who
used an original idea from Clare Graves. Ken Wilber expands on the model, which shows
levels of consciousness, in his book “Boomeritis”10, sometimes very humorously. There are
now colours for the levels which unfortunately don’t seem to have any significance. The
model itself, however, is very interesting. Although it is used mostly for business purposes at
the moment, it can also be applied to many other areas. By combining astrology with a model
that is being taken seriously, we may be able to give astrology more credence, better press and
a higher profile. I think that Spiral Dynamics can be taken as a metaphor for our solar system
with the planets related to levels of consciousness.
The Spiral Dynamics model
Firstly let me describe the model. There are two tiers containing different levels (memes). The
model maintains, as do many other systems, that we are at the stage of a major consciousness
leap. The idea is that there is a certain percentage of the population at each level. Research
has also been done11 to find out what the percentage of world leaders is at each level. In
Figure 1, the colours of each meme are given with their names and qualities (very briefly as
they each contain a lot of information that matches better with the holon principle). The
Population/Power column gives the percentages of population at each level and an estimate of
how many leaders are at that level of consciousness. The Years column shows an estimate of
how long the level exists, and the planet column shows my attempt to match each level with a
specific planet.
1st Tier Population/ Years Planet
power
Beige - Survival Sense .1 % / 0 % 100000 Moon
Instinctual
Purple - Kin Spirits 10 % / 1 % 50000 Venus
Harmony and safety
Red - Power Gods 20% / 5% 10000 Mars
Egocentric
Blue - Truth Force 40% / 30% 5000 Saturn
9
Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan, “Spiral Dynamics, mastering values, leadership, and change”.
10
Ken Wilber, “Boomeritis, A Novel That Will Set You Free”.
11
Outside the scope of this article.

5. Towards a Responsible Astrology of the Future ©Faye Cossar June 2009
Order and Purpose
Orange - Strive Drive 30% / 50% 1000 Jupiter
Strategise
Green - Human Bond 10% / 15% 150 ( around Uranus
Communitarian year 1850)
2nd Tier
Yellow - Flex Flow 1% / 5% 50 (around year Neptune
Integrative 1950)
Turquoise – Whole View .1%/1% 30 ( around year ?Chiron
Holistic 1970)
Figure 1 – Spiral Dynamics model with suggestion for planet for each meme12
This table has since been updated to the table shown in Figure 213:
Spiral Don Beck Describes Dominates
MEME Dynamics update Most People the Planet
(1996)1 (2002)2 (2003)3 (2003)4
BEIGE 0.1 % 0.4 % 8.6 % 6.2 %
PURPLE 10 % 12 % 12.5 % 20.0 %
RED 20 % 18 % 24.6 % 14.0 %
BLUE 40 % 30 % 30.3 % 20.6 %
ORANGE 30 % 27 % 18.8 % 35.2 %
GREEN 10 % 9% 2.7 % 1.1 %
YELLOW 1% 3% 1.7 % 1.6 %
TURQUOISE 0.1 % 0.6 % 0.8 % 1.3 %
TOTAL 111.2 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
1. D. Beck & C. Cowan, Spiral Dynamics: Mastering values, leadership and change, Blackwell, 1996, p. 300-301.
2. Email communication Don Beck, 29 Jan 2002. (Corrected for 100% total)
12
Spiral Dynamics Model – Don Beck from the original idea from Clare Graves. Percentages from “Spiral
Dynamics”, pp300-301. The years from “Spiral Dynamics”, p50.
Descriptions for colours taken from Ken Wilber’s ideas on Spiral dynamics model “Boomeritis”, pp23- 30
Numbers for population and people in power at each level and number of years from Don Beck, “Spiral
Dynamics”, pp 300-301
13
www.integralworld.net/meme-data.html

6. Towards a Responsible Astrology of the Future ©Faye Cossar June 2009
3,4 Email communication Alan Tonkin, Chairman: Global Values Network, 18 Feb 2003. Based on QuickSCAN
survey of 639 respondents, 80% of which favour GREEN/YELLOW/TURQUOISE.
Figure 2 - Updated version of percentages at each level as of 2003
Since 2003, Coral (otherworldly and enlightened) and Teal (as distinct from Turquoise!) have
been added after Turquoise but little has been said about them other than they might be a
higher version of Red and Blue. The suggestion is that the system is open ended and will keep
developing as human consciousness develops.
This implies that only an estimated 2.5% (2003) of the population are at the second tier, i.e.
that the jump in consciousness necessary to take us to an integrated global, holistic view in the
world can be achieved by very few people. 6% of people in power are ready to do this. I
imagine Obama might be one of these. The highest proportion of the population and leaders
are at what I have called the Jupiter and Saturn levels of Blue and Orange, so I will
concentrate on these levels and above. However I will mention that the Red level is a good
match for Mars! One colour they got right. The Blue level is almost text book Saturn with its
good and bad properties. That we are still at this level can be seen by what is happening as I
write this (June 2009) with the measures being taken for the pandemic Mexican Swine Flu
(not to mention the global financial crisis). The fear that is being created and the slaughtering
of the poor pigs who are getting the blame, the isolation, the science, the restrictions on trade,
all show very strong Saturnian qualities. We are still operating under the auspices of this level
of consciousness.
The Orange level which I have associated with Jupiter is not such a good fit, but it does have
a lot of similarities with the planet. I think Green also has some Neptunian qualities as well so
if I had made the model I would have changed it slightly! Anyway back to Orange and
Jupiter. It should of course be as old as the Saturn level, although perhaps Saturn being the
most distant known planet for a long time, had more attention, and was therefore a bigger
field. The SD model is only a theory; perhaps we astrologers know better!
Am I Orange?
Ken Wilber in Boomeritis says of Orange “I want to achieve and win and get somewhere in
my life. I like to play and win and I enjoy competition. …Gather the data, build a strategic
plan, go for excellence.”14 We are still operating at this entrepreneurial level, striving and
driving for bigger and better things but perhaps on a personal level. The negative qualities
come to mind. Greed and judgment, religious stubbornness, scientism. And dare I mention
politics? Orange of course, like Jupiter, has some great qualities. Seeing the big picture,
global strategies, hope and faith and we are seeing these too.
Or maybe Green since I am an astrologer!
Green, Wilber associates with the Baby boomers, hence the title of his book. This is the
generation, I believe, tasked with getting to grips with Uranus, ready for the leap we are now
in. The dates do not fit well with the discovery for Uranus, however this is just an estimate
and I would suggest that a field takes a while to take hold. Wilber on Green: “We can all
come to understand who we are and how wondrous it is to be human if we will only accept
that everyone is equal and important. … Each spirit is connected to all others in our
14
Ken Wilber, “Boomeritis”, p 88.

7. Towards a Responsible Astrology of the Future ©Faye Cossar June 2009
community; … Groups of people working together are the best way to advance knowledge.”
His summary says, amongst other things: “Promote a sense of community and caring;
promote gender equality, children’s rights and animal welfare; basis of value communities.”15
Although some descriptions are a bit Neptunian (refresh spirituality and bring harmony to all
beings of Gaia), most sound pretty Uranian to me. Perhaps it is encouraging to think that 15%
of our leaders already operate from this level.
The leap into the Future
The second tier. Is this Neptune consciousness? Or higher? Or to quote Wilber again, “The
leap into hyperspace of integral awareness”? Yellow and Turquoise are combined in Wilber’s
book as holistic or integral. Second tier understands the Spiral and that we are operating at
different levels. Each meme is important and still relevant. It is a tier that “works for both the
enjoyment of self and the good of the entire Spiral of development” and “discovers personal
freedom without harm to others or excesses of self interest.” 16 It does sound like an
integration of Uranus and Neptune with perhaps a bit of Chiron thrown in. The date for
Turquoise does roughly match the discovery of Chiron. Holistic is a term often used in
association with Chiron or to quote Melanie Reinhart17, the Shamanistic ‘Soul Retrieval’ – to
become whole again (after something being cast out). Interesting in the myth is that after
Chiron arrives on the scene, Prometheus (read Uranus, read astrology) gets reinstated to his
rightful place amongst the Gods – some hope there…
So why is all this important for astrologers?
We know, as no other can, about the positive qualities that Neptune, Pluto and with increasing
ability, Chiron and Ceres, can offer at these levels of consciousness. Not only can we affect
these planetary morphic fields by what we say and write about them but also, if new science is
to be believed about where we place our attention, by what we think about them. Do we not
have a duty within the astrological community to negotiate with these heavenly bodies to get
the best out of them? To make the fields positive? Can we not help our planet by passing on
our unique knowledge with positive messages to our clients about how they too can use these
energies? This way we can co-create both with our clients and the heavens, a better world.
15
Ken Wilber, “Boomeritis”, pp 95-96.
16
Ken Wilber, “Boomeritis”, p 104-5.
17
www.melaniereinhart.com