ASTROLOGY - BEGINNERS LEVEL

COURSE TAUGHT BY HAMIDA EUGENIA GABRIELLI

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS ASTROLOGY?

Astrology is a system to interpret symbols that correspond to human behaviour and the psyche. It is
a tool that allows you to “read” the order of the Universe and see how this order manifests on Earth.
The symbols that form the basic structure of astrology are the Sun, the Moon and the planets of the
solar system, the Earth (taken as a point of reference) and the backdrop from which we see the
unfolding of these symbols (the zodiac signs).

I like to define astrology as a way of perceiving reality. A lens that allows you to see connections
where upon first sight it would appear that there are none. Defining it as a perception allows me to
do away with proving or defending astrology as a science. In fact, it is not a science. Its scope is much
broader than the strict limits of modern science.

This approach to astrology allows you to glimpse its value as a tool for self-knowledge. A person’s
journey of consciousness begins with preconceived labels of who they essentially are: they are born
and their psyche is formed and defined in accordance with their family, social and cultural
background etc. A person continues to define and state “who they are” without integrating all the
aspects that make up their birth chart: they identify with some parts (those most in line with their
psyche and their sense of belonging) and the rest will be left in the shadow. Then destiny with its
events and interlocking networks will show us who we are.

What happens to us is part of who we are. It is said that “I am what happens to me”. Everything and
everyone around me is related to my energy network. Here the valuable contribution of astrology
which we will address is made clear: it is a key to understanding why we experience what we
experience. Furthermore, it broadens our consciousness by incorporating aspects of ourselves of
which are not aware.

Basic concepts of this astrological language

• The unity between heaven and earth

Astrology is underpinned by the observation that the Universe and consequently the solar system is
one unit. There are intrinsic relationships between human beings and the stars. A unity between the
heaven and the earth. In the solar system relationships between different elements are detected
and astrology captures these previously unnoticed relationships and associations.

Our usual way of perceiving things separates us from the outside world. Astrology, on the other
hand, allows us to experience the unity of the Universe. There is no separation between us and the
outside world.

• Knowledge-belief vs. Perception: ASTROLOGY IS PERCEPTION NOT KNOWLEDGE

We are not looking at astrology as a BELIEF, rather as a reality.

Astrology is not knowledge. It is to perceive reality in a certain way. To learn how to move into
viewing reality in a way that is profoundly different to what we are accustomed.

We are going to refine the way we look at things in order that an underground network of reality
appears before us so that we can learn to distinguish between energies through symbols.
ASTROLOGY - BEGINNERS LEVEL
COURSE TAUGHT BY HAMIDA EUGENIA GABRIELLI

• We are beings of energy, we are energy fields

As human beings we are not confined to our skins. We radiate energy and this energy creates
associations, links and situations. Our behaviours are based on vibrational energy and our most
stable and dense elements respond to this. However, we are not accustomed to accepting ourselves
as “BEINGS OF ENERGY”.

Superficial perception: To perceive everything as separate. This is the way in which we perceive
reality on a daily basis, it is a distorted perception. This habitual perception tells us that we are
separate parts with no connections except those that are visible.

Astrological perception: We are deeply united and IN EACH ONE OF US THERE EXISTS THE WHOLE
SOLAR SYSTEM IN DIFFERENT PROPORTIONS. That is to say that the whole of the solar system, all
its energies, are found within us arranged in a particular way.

Astrological perception states that the whole can be found in every part.
We will work on the enormous distance between the separation we habitually perceive and the
feeling of unity that astrology invites us to reach towards.

• HOLOGRAPHY: each part of the whole contains everything that there is.
What is holography? If I take a holographic photograph, each part of it repeats the entire
photograph. In a normal photograph each part has a certain colour, whilst in a hologram each part of
it has the whole thing within itself.

In holographic perception no part is separated from the WHOLE.

• The principle of correspondence: “As above, so below, as inside, so outside”

Each one of us expresses the whole in a specific way. This perception was more common in other
eras. Perhaps you have heard of Hermes Trismegistro1: “As above, so below, as inside, so outside”.

While the sky takes certain forms, corresponding forms arise on Earth. The same energies are always
in the skies, but what changes are the proportions . This can also been seen in music: some notes
come together due to resonance and this increases their power, whilst others are left behind.

• Our world is not just any world

Being an energetic fabric, we can say that “our world” appears steadily, and it is not just “any
world”, rather it is a world that appears which corresponds to “our energetic makeup”, that is to say
our birth charts. Our energy structure is linked to other related energetic structures, not with just
anything.

• Astrology as a sacred language

We can consider astrology as a sacred language in that it is made up of certain letters that combined
contain the whole.

Astrology is a symbolic system which is organised differently to everyday language. It belongs to a

family of what we can call “sacred languages”. Other sacred languages include: Tarot, the Kabbalah,
the I Ching, SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS THAT COMMUNICATE THE EXPERIENCE OF UNITY.

1
Hermes Trismegisto is the Greek name of a mythical character who was associated with an amalgamation of
the Egyptian god Dyehuty and the Hellenic god Hermes, or the Biblical Abraham. Hermes Trismegisto is
mentioned primarily in occult literature as an Egyptian sage, similar to the Egyptian god Tot, who created
alchemy and developed a metaphysical belief system that is now known as hermeticism.
ASTROLOGY - BEGINNERS LEVEL
COURSE TAUGHT BY HAMIDA EUGENIA GABRIELLI

We are going to learn to see energy through symbols.

• Viewpoint from which we observe the solar system: from Earth

We are going look into astrology using the solar system as it is viewed from Earth. It is not that we
are pre-Copernicus (geocentrism), rather that this is the perspective that matters to us.

If we studied astrology from Mars our perception would be different, we would see another sky.
Mars would not appear and nor would our Moon, but Mars’ moons (Fobos and Deimos) and the
Earth would. This is something important to bear in mind.

WHAT IS A BIRTH CHART?

A birth chart shows how the sky appeared at the time of a person’s birth. It is a map with the position
of the planets in the sky, for the exact time and place of birth. This map is represented by a 360°
circle, through which the Sun appears to move throughout the year. It is the Earth’s orbital plane or
“ecliptic” around the Sun.

Each one of us is a “birth chart”, we are vibrations [of energy] and this is the vibration of the solar
system at the moment of a person’s birth.

We perceive energetic qualities, we do not carry out character profiling

The birth chart symbolises a person’s basic energy network. Thus, when we study astrology, we learn
to perceive energetic qualities, not to read character profiles. Energetic qualities would be possible
vibrational manifestations of an energy which can take different forms. Character profiling closes the
energy off making it stagnant, characteristics with no possibility of change, for example, “Aries people
are selfish, Taurus people are lazy”.

A person has certain energetic qualities from which certain behaviours will originate. If a person does
not understand their energetic qualities, their behaviour will be one way and destiny will bring about
certain events to complement their basic energetic structure. It will be different for one who is aware
of their energy field, who understands it and learns to synthesise these energies by creating their
own unique ways.

A birth chart is a photograph of the sky at the time of birth. In this photograph we are going to have
the Sun in a sign, Venus in another, the Moon in another, etc. This means that we all have everything
in different proportions. That is why, when you say “I am an Aries”, you are limiting yourself
energetically, as it would be more appropriate to say “I have the Sun in Aries, the Moon in Taurus,
etc. If not, it appears that you are only experiencing Aries and you limit yourself to this vibration.
When technically it would be your identity (which is what the Sun symbolises amongst other things)
that has the vibrational qualities of Aries but you could have your Moon in Taurus and your emotional
world would have vibrational qualities of that sign, whilst your identity remains Arian.

None of us is made up of a single sign or a single angle, although sometimes it does feel like that.
ASTROLOGY - BEGINNERS LEVEL
COURSE TAUGHT BY HAMIDA EUGENIA GABRIELLI

COMPONENTS THAT MAKE UP ASTROLOGY

SIGNS, PLANETS AND HOUSES

Astrology is made up of three components: Zodiac Signs, Planets and Houses. These three
interconnected components are what we analyse when we look at a birth chart.

THE ZODIAC

First in the birth chart is the zodiac: the basis of astrology. Everything else is figured out from this.
The zodiac is derived from the constellations of stars that pass through the ecliptic and it allows us
to access the level of perception that is furthest away from us. This is what will symbolically give us
access to the sky.

In astrology we work with angles and proportions that exist between the Sun and the Earth, so the
zodiac is a SYMBOLIC SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONS. If you have ever seen a map of the constellations in
the sky, you will have seen that it is difficult to judge where they begin and where they end. Some
are bigger, some are smaller, others overlap. However, we are going to measure all of them as being
30° and with a clear division of where they begin and end. These are the signs of the zodiac (Aries,
Taurus, Gemini, etc).

So, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SIGNS AND CONSTELLATIONS? The signs are these 30°
divisions, these distances starting from 0° of Aries, as seen from Earth. 0° of Aries marks the vernal
point: and it reoccurs every year on 21st March in the Northern Hemisphere and on 21st September
in the Southern Hemisphere. This has to do with the mathematical distances from the Earth, its
inclination and its rotation which means that on this day, day and night are of equal length. We trim
the zodiac down, which is not strictly astronomical, so that all the signs are quantified the same way.

Around 2500 BC, astrologers (who were also astronomers), looked up at the sky and noticed that
behind the vernal point the constellation of Aries or the “Ram” was visible, and so they attributed
the vernal point to 0° of Aries as this was the constellation it was in at the time. With the passage of
time, these stars (which appear to be fixed but are not, because nothing is fixed in the cosmos,
everything is moving), slowly began moving. And so with the years, if someone looked up to see
what constellation was behind 0° of Aries, it was no longer the Aries constellation they saw, rather
the constellation of Pisces was beginning to appear and this kept on moving along to the point that if
we look up on 21st March now, the constellation in the background is Aquarius. This phenomenon is
known as the “precession of the equinoxes”.

What does this symbolise? That the constellations that are in the background, and their movement
lead to changes in Ages. What are Ages? They are periods of time of approximately 2160 years,
arising from the precession of the equinoxes.

Ages are related to this “backwards” movement of the stars, which change the backdrop of the sky.
When astrologers began to decode the sky on Earth, the constellation of Aries was behind 0° of
Aries, that is why they gave the first sign this name. Then Pisces slowly began to appear and
nowadays the vernal point is in Aquarius. That the vernal point is in Aquarius does not mean that
astrology does not work. The constellation is still what is seen in the background and as mentioned
before it marks Ages. On the other hand, the sign is a distance, a proportion. We work with the
distance and we give this distance the force of the energy. We are the sum of organised movements
ASTROLOGY - BEGINNERS LEVEL
COURSE TAUGHT BY HAMIDA EUGENIA GABRIELLI

and astrology works with this principle: there are movements that create life, like spring, summer,
autumn, winter. They are organised movements which correspond to a certain order on Earth. This
is what we study in astrology.

Astrology does not maintain that that there is something radiating from the stars that “sends us rays
and causes something to happen within us and condition us”. This has nothing to do with astrology.
It is a widespread misunderstanding that is important to clear up. Let me repeat that we work with
proportions and organised distances that generate qualities and have an order.

ENERGY SPIRAL: Each sign has an energy which can manifest on different levels. In musical terms we
could say that there are higher octaves of an energy. Likewise, energy can manifest more “heavily”
or more “subtly”. For example, a person who has Aries energy, could manifest Aries more heavily,
and so be a victim of robberies, crashes and bursts of anger. Or they could manifest Aries on a higher
octave and be a good leader, a self-motivated individual, with a lot of courage who takes risks for a
greater cause.

For this reason we cannot judge some of the zodiac signs as being better than others, because they
are dependent on a person’s level along the energy spiral. It is a common mistake to say that Aries is
more primitive than Pisces, because Aries goes after their desires, and it is clear and direct in its
manifestation. However, we could come across a Pisces who is vibrating low on the spiral and they
will be someone who is confused, always playing the victim, and who cannot separate their
emotions from that of others.

This is why when we talk about a sign WE ARE NOT GOING TO CARRY OUT CHARACTER PROFILING,
what we are going to do is define an energy that can be manifested on different levels. The
manifestation will depend on several factors (level of consciousness, the person’s environment etc).

The zodiac has its own order, we will discover this order from the classification of the signs and their
detailed study. We will address each sign of the zodiac from different levels, from the most abstract,
to the most heavy. In this way we will see the energetic level of each sign, the archetypal
manifestation, the psychological manifestation (how the psyche tends to react to this energy), until
we reach more heavy and concrete levels (stones, minerals, people that represent the energy etc).

For now, we are only introducing each of the signs and the symbols used to represent them.

THE ZODIAC WHEEL

ASTROLOGY - BEGINNERS LEVEL
COURSE TAUGHT BY HAMIDA EUGENIA GABRIELLI

PLANETS

The second component we are going to work with is what we call PLANETS, although not all of them
are. Technically, the Sun and Moon are not planets, they are luminaries, but we can place them in
this category. They would be celestial bodies that are included in the solar system. This component is
more tangible than the zodiac signs. If we look at the sky we can see each one of the planets, they
are there, they are a body. The signs are more distant, more abstract.

Planets have a physical (solid), functional presence: they are seen and not seen, they appear and are
hidden (from our geocentric perspective). For this reason, in astrological interpretation they are
related to action, to “what we do”. They represent functions within a system. They are the active
forces which have the capacity for movement and action, so they will be a lot easier to identify for
our psychological perception.

On a purer energy level, the planets are functions within the solar system, however due to the
principle of correspondence, these functions in the macrocosm correspond to functions in the
microcosm. The planets represent psychological functions within human beings, for example:
Mercury is how we think, Venus is how we complement ourselves, etc. Likewise, they also represent
functions within the human body (Mercury, the lungs, Venus, the kidneys, etc.)

SYMBOLS CORRESPONDING TO EACH PLANET

NB: Pluto has two possible symbols, the one on the right is more common.
ASTROLOGY - BEGINNERS LEVEL
COURSE TAUGHT BY HAMIDA EUGENIA GABRIELLI

HOUSES

As we have said, signs are energies and vibrational qualities that shape the whole universe, they are
the colour palate which paints everything in different shades. The planets, on the other hand, are
closer and more concrete, they are the functions within a system, which on the psychological level
would be psychological functions. Mars for example, is to do with assertion and action. Venus with
complementing, balancing. Saturn with organising, maturing.

We can define planets using verbs and the signs which the planets are in will modify or “colour”
these verbs with specific energetic qualities. For example, Mars could manifest in an Arian manner
and so would be determined, impulsive, etc or in a more Libran manner where it would be more
indecisive, etc.

Houses are the areas of experience where the planetary functions of a particular person are
displayed. They include life areas, relationships and events that happen on Earth. They allow us “to
bring the sky down to earth” and give it a tangible form.

To conclude, planets show us what is happening, the signs show us how it happening and the houses
where it is happening. Working with the components that make up astrology means going from sky
to earth and understanding what order there is in the sky according to the signs and the planets
positioned there, and how the relationship between signs and planets manifests on Earth.
 ASTROLOGY - BEGINNERS LEVEL
COURSE TAUGHT BY HAMIDA EUGENIA GABRIELLI

COMPONENTS OF A BIRTH CHART

House component Sign component

Planet component
BIRTH CHART OF SIGMUND FREUD
6-5-1856, 18:30
Pribor, Czech Republic