According to science, quantum reality is made up of seemingly random combinations of oppositely-polarized pairs. According to astrology, each polarity represents a gap between two mutually opposing points of view, which manifest within the self as an inner world made up of sub-selves, with warring and appeasing personalities, ambitions, dreams, and typical modes of behavior.

The practice of astrology is to find a bridge that will not only connect all the opposing points of view, but ensure a way to meet the needs of each without denying the other. Astrology tells a tale of the unfolding of human history from our point of view here on Earth. The way it would look from Mars, say, or Pluto, is not considered, because point of view is everything in astrology. Astrology, and the natal chart, is based on the date, time and place of birth, or point of emergence into external manifestation. From our point of emergence, we look out at the sky. Our point of view is necessarily based on Earth, the place where we find ourselves.

The natal chart is a map of an individual's inner being, of their karmic history, preferences, denials, gifts, skills & talents, childhood traumas, parenting style, relationship style, public image and reputation, personality, dark side, hidden powers, buried feelings, still-smarting wounds and old damage. The potential for astrology's accuracy when used properly are undeniable.

What has prevented astrology from being used properly, and thus reliably, has been a failure in its structure. In its present form, astrology lacks symmetry and balance. The system is not flawed, but the structure is. In order for any mathematics to work, a certain logical order and sequence must be inherent. That is as true for astrology as it is for algebra; however, the logic of astrology is not the logic of science or mathematics.

Astrology has its own logic, self-sustaining and provable from the inside only. Astrology cannot be proved empirically through the sort of check-and-balance tests in scientific vogue today. Earth-based astrology attempts to redefine the structure of astrology according to certain obvious correspondences between the planets and signs, following the laws of symmetry. Everything must balance against something equal and opposite.

When that formula is followed, certain necessary changes become apparent. First of all, planet Earth must be included. The Sun is currently considered, and rightly so, to be the center of the chart, as it is the center of the solar system. Yet according to the laws of symmetry, the Sun must have a counterweight, a balancing force with the same subjective power and immediacy in our lives. Historically, the Moon has served as that balancing force.

The Moon is the personal unconscious, and rules an imprinted level of experience in which no choices take place, all is dark, mysterious, deep, beautiful and terrifying. This force has been seen to be the core Mother principle of astrology, as the Sun is the core Father principle. But when we look closer, does the Moon really fit the role?

The Sun is the fertilizing force. Where it touches, life becomes possible. We now know the Moon to be a lifeless ball of rock, unchanging. While its power and magic as a mover of tides and emotion are undeniable, no life happens there. The sun's fertilizing force has no mate in barren Luna. All she can do is reflect the sun's light to Earth, where it becomes her own light, tinged with her mystery, touching the deep dark feeling-places where no other light shines. Luna is magical and powerful, child and sister to Earth, but Earth is the true balancing force for the Sun.

Earth, Cradle of Life, All-Mother, Womb of Everything, must be the Mother principle in the chart. Is in Earth that the Sun's fertilizing power finds a mate. When viewed in context of Earth's presence opposite the Sun, the true identity of the Moon is daughter, sister, grandmother: not Mother. The Moon is a feminine principle, but she is not all there is to the female psyche.

On Earth there is a place, an ecological niche, for all forms of life. The planet is a marvel of uniquely various and unimaginable living forms. All four of the elements of astrology--fire, air, water and earth--exist on Earth in perfect balance. Earth, matrix womb of life, most immediate reality, is Mother, and the Sun, the great fertilizing life-giving power of Light, is Father. So we have the first and most important of the oppositions in the astrological system to consider: Earth and Sun.

For every quality we imagine Earth to have as a planet, Sol has a matching opposing quality. Earth in the chart represents the body, our immediate physical matrix, which has been considered only in the abstract, as a form or shape (the Ascendant), or as the energy which we are powered by (Mars). But the body itself has consciousness, needs and desires, and these are the attributes that can be understood by examining Earth's position in a natal chart.Point of view is everything in astrology. How Earth appears to us has drastically changed over the last centuries--from all-powerful Mother of Life to endangered planet--and astrology must evolve to reflect this shift. Earth is ruler of Taurus, he fixed earth sign which is balanced and symmetrical with the Sun's rulership of the fixed fire sign. Taurus gains a new complexity and truth when viewed through the lens of Earth's rulership. This places Venus in her right place opposite Mars as ruler of Libra, a polarity which also balances very symmetrically.

All planets except Earth and Sun are placed across from their polar force. Earth and Sun represent the basic duality, the yin and yang of the self. Together they occupy the whole fixed cross, and their opposing planets (Pluto, ruler of Scorpio opposite Taurus; and Uranus, ruler of Aquarius opposite Leo) represent their shadows, or hidden sides, since both are planets invisible to the naked eye. This is only true of the fixed cross, the stable foundation upon which the entire chart resides. The fixed cross represents inexorability, undeniability, power.