ON THE PATH OF KNOWING With good humor, Char took her work and her path seriously.
Any discussion of "knowing' must involve the concept of journey -- at least it must for me. Anything I can say I know is incomplete... Any system of knowledge to which I have access is incomplete... Therefore, to know, knowing, known, knowledge -- all are, in my mind, symbolically interchangeable with the concept of journey or process. I began my journey of "knowing" like everyone else held tightly in the arms of biological heredity and environmental conditioning. My environment includes nuclear and extended family, a certain socio-economic status and a cultural matrix in which I was born. I acquired language and began to learn the rules. My accident of birth (heredity) gave me a high intelligence and my environment shaped in me a strong need for approval. In other words, I was a quick study. I figured out what they -- parents, schools, etc. -- wanted and fed it to them. I had a good working persona. I received a lot of approval. But something was missing. I found the missing part in a high school biology class in my sophomore year. Eris, the goddess of discord, took notice of me and sent me a gift. I did not, however, think of Edith Curry, maiden scholar and true Socratic thinker, as a gift. Not at first. Not for many years to follow. She taught me how to think and provided me with two valuable tools for any intellectual endeavor: observation and inquiry.
I use her gifts constantly in my particular (and often peculiar) vocation. As an astrologer and Tarot reader I deal on a daily basis with a large cross section of humanity and am confronted with the tendency toward credulity -- my own included. Here the principles of observation and inquiry stand me in good stead. They support and refine my intuitive perceptions, my "gut" feelings about a person or situation. They enable me to look at a fairly complex set of symbols and equations and say something meaningful on a personal level without mumbling mystical mumbo-jumbo or making inane predictions (a vocational hazard for those who work in "metaphysics"). These tools help me to know (believe) that astrology and similar systems are based on at least ten thousand years of human observation and that it is an open-ended model, a symbolic language flexible enough in its grammar and syntax to grow and change as human consciousness grows and changes. Armed with this knowledge, I can face the religious fanatic who yearns to wrest my soul from Satan's fiery clutches and the simpleton who swallows everything from "Napoleon's Book of Fate" to the daily horoscope column in the newspaper. I can face them with humor and assurance in the coordinate systems of my own journey.

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copyright 1999 Z. Sharon Glantz