Astrology is a language of symbols. Symbols are metaphors for invisible realities.

The material world provides us with the pictures we need to describe more subtle levels of experience: “A solid discipline” is only solid metaphorically; we understand perfectly what it means because we have a direct and physical experience of solid things.

Language is packed with metaphors. If you need to take a break, you are not going to literally break anything. Work is hard, so it breaks, like a branch of dry wood or a piece of glass.

Symbols may at times suggest idioms that poets have not rendered familiar yet. If an astrologer tells you about “liquid daily routines” the expression sounds nonsensical, but what if the symbols suggest just that? How about a sixth house with Mercury in Pisces in it?

In this example, a word with a watery root like “fluctuating” could save us from being too surrealist to be paid.

“Flexible” could be relevant as well. The word “flexible” makes us think of a branch of green wood. Dry wood can’t be bent, it breaks. “Flexible” doesn’t apply to liquids but it implies a certain degree of humidity, literally and metaphorically. We may expect rigidity from an excess of the Earth element, flexibility from a good balance between Earth and Water and laxism or indulgence from an excess of Water.

If we wonder about the connection between Water and emotions, we can remember the expression: some people are emotional sponges. Liquid daily routines then may involve some emotional availability on a daily basis.

Language reveals a lot about the meaning of the elements. Once, as I was searching for inspiration for things to tweet, I thought: if the four elements are valid to describe life - or at least to describe the way we experience life subjectively - then they must be reflected in the structures of language. How about punctuation? I had the idea of tweeting:

Fire! Earth. Air? Water…

Language can reveal a lot, but we should become able to get the meanings beyond what is revealed by language, like children who, one day, become able to ride their bicycle without the little wheels.

We can perceive the metaphorical value of the essential qualities - dry, wet, hot and cold - independently of whether or not words or idioms reveal them to us. If nobody had ever had the idea of saying “I am an emotional sponge”, we would need to say it for the first time. It would be weird, but still make sense.

When reading astrological charts, we have to come up with evocative words to translate the pictures. Our work is poetry. It takes inspiration.

Breathe well!

Jean-Marc Pierson

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