Explore The Beat Of A Different Drum With Shamanic Astrology…

There are many wonderful types of astrology in the world today, for example Esoteric astrology, Jyotish or Vedic astrology, Kabbalah astrology and many, many more.

You might well find yourself wondering

What Is Shamanic Astrology?

Well, don’t you worry! I’m here to offer a very simple guide with an introduction to this particular strand of ancient wisdom…

I discovered Shamanic Astrology on my travels – My Big Phat Astrology Adventure! It would seem that the forces that be really are smiling on me because as luck would have it the founder of Shamanic Astrology, Daniel Giamario, was passing through Ubud in Bali at the same time as me. I spent the afternoon with Daniel, hearing what he had to share about Shamanic astrology…

Go On, Give Me The Short Version

Typically, an astrologer will consider the Sun, Moon, rising sign or ascendant and perhaps the midheaven signs in the chart to begin with –  or he might take into consideration the shape of the chart as a whole. Then, taking the planets as they fall within the chart, including the houses of the chart where they appear, he’ll consider the aspects and angles between the them.

It really is a very individual and organic process, unique to the astrologer that is doing the interpreting.

Shamanic astrology first considers the Moon and its orbit or node. It then refers to the Venus and Mars sign, and finally the rising sign and again back to the Moon’s nodes. These components are the building blocks in Shamanic astrology interpretation, although again, it does consider all the planets in the Solar System.

With the Shamanic system, the emphasis is not on the Sun sign, which most people are familiar with. Sun sign astrology is common because it’s the easiest sign to work out due to the Sun’s steady and reliable transit.

Nearly all astrologers agree that the Moon and other factors in the chart are of equal or more significance than the Sun sign.

OK, Now I’m Interested! Tell Me More…

A student of astrology since the 60s, Daniel has taken ancient and modern techniques and set up the Shamanic Astrology Mystery School in Milwaukie, Oregon, although he travels the world-over to teach and lecture.

Through the Moon’s position, Shamanic astrology explores lineage – the particular ancestry of a person and where they’ve come from – what ‘tribe’ they’ve descended from in this incarnation.

In traditional astrology the Moon represents ‘mother’, where we come from, how we feel we should nurture ourselves etc. Shamanic astrology distills this notion further and beyond this, tells you what role you were likely to have played within your tribe, for example a healer, defender or communicator. Read More About The Moon In Astrology Here.

A point of difference to emphasise is that Shamanic astrology works with archeytypes and is driven by these points, not the aspects in a birth chart.

Shamanic astrology also aims to break down the notion of gender that we’ve assigned to the zodiac signs in traditional astrology.

Typically you would alternate the masculine and feminine principles to the twelve archetypes: Aries, masculine, Taurus, feminine, Gemini, masculine, Cancer – feminine, so that all Fire and Air signs are masculine and all Water and Earth are feminine.

Usually, astrologers stress that these masculine / feminine attributes aren’t labelled as ‘bad’ or ‘good’, but rather they’re indicative of the qualities of the sign.

For example Aries is masculine and Cardinal, and women born under this sign can sometimes be misconstrued as being overly dominant or assertive.

The Shamanic system empowers the Aries woman as an Amazon goddess, and offers male and female interpretations for all the zodiac signs. This means that there are 24 gods and goddesses in total, across the twelve zodiac signs.

As a woman, your Venus sign shows you what kind of goddess you’re here to explore in this lifetime, likewise the Mars sign for menfolk. A woman can consider her Mars sign as what she looks for in a man, although it’s not necessarily what’s going to work well for her!

So Why Is It Called Shamanic Astrology?

Traditionally a shaman is a priest-doctor and a medium to the spirit world, who will practice sorcery for healing or divination. Shamanic Astrology uses the term, however doesn’t literally consider its trained astrologers ‘Shaman’s’.

They do however perform rituals, for example ceremonies when Venus is conjunct the Moon, and this strain of astrology really encourages the individual to get in tune with the energies of earth and natures rhythms.

The wonderful thing about astrology is that concepts and theories all feed our understanding of interpretation. I learnt a lot in the short time I had with Daniel, and only hope I get to meet him again in the future – preferably at his Hawaiian school!

For more information about Shamanic Astrology visit the Mystery School or invest in the Shamanic Astrology Guidebook, available on Amazon here.

You can read more about Daniel Giamario here.