if you do not have a firm foundation in the logic and philosophy of astrology, you're not going to understand it.
There's about 5,000 people on this forum who might benefit by writing that statement 100,000 times.
If it were possible to 'intuit' a chart, then all those maths wouldn't be necessary. I grant that when you know the concepts well enough sometimes you 'get' something from a chart before your conscious mind is quite aware of how you get it, but you'll still find it in the chart if you look. And if you don't - then your intuition is worthless.
That isn't intuition, that is rote learning.
After reading a few thousand charts you begin to see patterns, signatures and themes based on Planet placement, aspects and Signs. That isn't intuition, that is training and experience. That is why Lily (and others) said you should write out your judgments, because that's the fastest and best way to learn, since writing reinforces what you see.
I've really wondered about the anti-intellectualist movement in astrology over the past some decades, and I don't understand why it's so prominent. Yet - it is.
That's the generational Planets talking. It's more prominent in the US, but people in other countries can be affected, too. They are into expediency and taking short-cuts and they have no time and don't want to be bothered learning craft or "paying dues" or "putting in the time." They want everything handed to them on a silver platter and they are constantly in search of the "Magic Silver Bullet Formula."
You see that all the time, especially on this forum.
People ask about the promise of marriage in a natal chart, you explain the Houses, Signs and Planets involved, and then they start frothing and foaming at the mouth,
"What? You mean I actually really have to spend an hour of my time looking at the chart and I have to interpret the Planets, Signs and Houses involved?
Um, yeah, that's exactly what you have to do, so you better get started.
My favorite is,
"I know the names of the most of the Planets, now I want to learn Horary."
Yeah, right, that's like someone who just learned how to count from 1 to 10 asking to learn differential calculus. Then they get offended because they don't like your interpretation: "
But my significator is trine." Yes, and it's also Cadent, Retrograde, Peregrine, in Detriment, in a Welled Degree and not received (and of course they have no idea what you're talking about because they still don't know the difference between a Cadent House and an Angular House).
Astrology is a lifetime study, and then some.
Of course. Even if you specialize or concentrate in one area of astrology, there's always something new to learn.
C0rnholio said:
Do not forget that we as humans have such thing as Free Will.
Well, no, actually you don't. You have limited Free Will. You can choose what to eat for breakfast or dinner, and a few other banal, trivial and inconsequential things, but that's about it. Your life is predetermined.
When the end is known, you will have done everything the Planets said you would (or would not) do exactly for the reasons the Planets divined, and the Primary Directions, Profections, Secondary Progressions and Transits will bear that out and prove it beyond any doubt.
If that was not true, then there would be no point in studying astrology.