Why Astrology Is Essential For Nurses?

TheAstroEnthusiast

May 8

What nursing and astrology have in common is they are both an art and a science. As an art, both require creativity, empathy, and eloquence when dealing with and helping patients or clients. As a science, there is a tedious technical, practical (they are evidence-based), and ethical considerations in the practice of both professions. While I may not be practicing as an RN today, as a student of astrology, I have a lot of realizations on how astrology can help nurses in many aspects, and this blog lists those insights. Please note that I define astrology as not limited to western tropical astrology.

Theoretical Foundations of Holistic Nursing: Martha Rogers and Carl Helvie's Energy Field Theory

As I was pondering on how astrology is useful in nursing, I reviewed nursing theories that support the use of astrology as a nursing intervention. There are two nursing theories which stood out that supports the use of astrology and they are from Martha Rogers and Carl Helvie.

Before we look at the theories, we will explore what astrology is all about. Astrology is looking at the correlation of events according to the quality of the placement and alignment of the planets relative to the background signs and stars. Through determining the activation of the cycles rooted in one's nativity and of the future course and alignments between the planets, the astrologer can also prognosticate future events. With horary astrology, the chart cast once the astrologer understood the question shows the current position of the planets and their future condition gives an insight to the problem and answers the potential outcomes to the question. To explain the rationale of why astrology in relation to these energy field nursing theories is relevant, let us look at the theoretical mechanism of the action of astrology.

What's up with energy and astrology? The planets, with each of them having a distinct frequency (hence, they rule a specific area in life), influence us energetically. To better visualize how the planets influence us, imagine a canvass (in this case, the earth and the solar system) that is electrically charged. With us as a part of that canvass, the movement of the planets and their alignment can alter the electric gradient of the field. Therefore, influencing us. The electric activity from the change in electrical gradient translates to events unfolding.

Marth Rogers's theory perceived nursing as a science of unitary human beings. The theory supports astrology as a nursing intervention basing on the following assumptions of that theory [1]:

Man is a unified whole possessing his own integrity and manifesting characteristics that are more than and different from the sum of his parts. Astrology, through the nurse, helps the patient to identify his own strengths and weaknesses. Having the knowledge of the patient's astrological chart or with the horary chart cast also helps the nurse in understanding the patients better and creates a care plan that is tailor-fitted to the patient's actual and potential needs.
Man and the environment are continuously exchanging matter and energy with one another. The application of Feng Shui to nursing care is the best example for this, where the practitioner looks at the patient's current cycles and organize the environment (may it be in the patient's home or in the health care facility) to avoid the directions with the evil stars, and taking advantage of directions that have the beneficial stars. In traditional western astrology, horary astrology identifies (perhaps prognosticate) the exchange of energies between the querent (the person asking) and the environment from the chart cast at the moment the practitioner understands the question.
The life process evolves irreversibly and unidirectionally along the space-time continuum. The assessment of the astrological cycles can help identify the life's crucial junctures. Identifying the life's critical moments through the astrology (natal or horary) chart enables the nurse to prepare for the crisis and implement preventative, immediate, and/or palliative nursing interventions. Alternatively, through electional astrology, the nurse can also identify fortunate cycles and take advantage of them to facilitate healing or recovery.
Pattern and organization identify the man and reflect his innovative wholeness. In traditional astrology, the root of the nativity is everything - there are things promised or not promised in one's natal chart (please note that promises in one's natal chart can be good or bad). Explaining what the natal chart promised helps the patient understand what is unique to him or her. The nurse, having that knowledge, can also empower and/or set limits to the patients under his/her care. Similar to the predispositions based on one's genetics, the natal chart provides supporting testimonies to such predispositions and offers an insight into when they become manifest.
Man is characterized by the capacity for abstraction and imagery, language and thought sensation, and emotion. The natal chart gives an insight to the nurse on the approaches to implementing nursing interventions as some patients may like the straightforward approach but some patients may find the creative approach more appealing.

Dr. Carl Helvie's energy field theory [2] is for those in the alternative healthcare. Unlike Martha Rogers's theory, Dr. Helvie's theory focuses on the surrounding energy (physical, biological, chemical, psychosocial, and community subsystems) influencing the individual and its ability to adapt through the exchange of energies. The imbalance or blockage of energies, where the individual cannot entirely pushback the energy from its environment or there is an obstruction to its natural flow, result in stress or illnesses because of the inability or impaired ability to adapt. It is from that where there is the need for the intervention of the health care provider.

In relation to astrology, the practitioner can identify the acute imbalance or blockage of energies through medical horary astrology. Once the practitioner identifies the imbalance, with the physical assessment supporting it, and the results of diagnostic tests confirming it along with the collaboration with the other members of the medical team, the nurse can craft a holistic care plan with a tailor-fitted nursing interventions. The astrological timing helps in identifying periods with energies harmonizing to that of the patient. From Dr. Helvie's theory, the harmony of energy between the patient and the environment leads to homeostasis. Knowing the auspicious timing helps the nurse in the efficient implementation of the care plan.

Branches of Astrology Helpful to Nursing

Medical Horary Astrology: Learning horary astrology and levelling up to doing medical horary is imperative for nurses. Since medical horary astrology is a medieval and renaissance period diagnostic tool, I put it on top of this list as the most helpful. It is especially helpful to those practicing community health nursing (especially in developing countries), where there is the lack of access to modern diagnostic tools in far-flung areas and an openness to alternative treatment modalities. In clinical settings, medical horary astrology is helpful in casting a decumbiture where the practitioner casts an astrology chart upon the admission of the patient in a facility. A decumbiture chart is helpful in identifying the imbalance, determining the initial prognosis, and forecasting the critical periods for those experiencing severe acute crisis where there is a need for intensive care that involves close monitoring. In forensic cases, a horary chart may identify the probable flow events leading to the incident.
Natal Astrology (Western - Traditional, Hellenistic, Modern, etc. and Eastern - Vedic, Ba Zi, etc.): The likely application of natal astrology is in the fields of nursing dealing with the human behavior such as psychiatric nursing, occupational health nursing, and the human resource aspect of the nursing administration and education. With psychiatric nursing, the patient's natal chart enables the nurse to determine the traits and predispositions. By looking retroactively, the natal chart delineation aids in identifying and correlating it with the patient's established psychodynamics. From that, the nurse can detect patterns in the chart and establish strategies for the effective implementation of the psychiatric nursing care plan. In occupational health nursing and human resource aspect of nursing administration and education, natal astrology helps the nurse-counselor and nurse-administrator in empowering the patient and their subordinates in actualizing their potential. They can also provide realistic expectations, where they can guide the patients and employees to avoid falling into the figurative quagmire. In the human resource aspect, knowing how to read the chart enables the nurse-administrator and educator to hire and profile culture and skill-fit employees and students.
Electional Astrology: As advocates for patient autonomy and independence, we want to maximize the care we render to the patients by providing them with options. Electional astrology, as applied to medical astrology, just does that, as it helps the patient further by fine tune their choices by guiding them with the correct timing. The Nurse having the astrological knowledge can appropriately choose the most auspicious date from scheduling to the most beneficial and safe day for surgery to giving counsel to a couple in taking advantage of the planetary cycles that want to conceive a child or prevent pregnancy.
Feng Shui: If we put it simply, Feng Shui is organizing the space to make the flow of energy harmonious, making one's life fortunate. We can also say it is an art (and science) of making the space-energy ergonomical. As mentioned earlier, the nurse having this knowledge helps the patients recover by positioning them in an auspicious direction (to maximize the energies needed to fully recover) and putting them away in directions containing the unfortunate stars (which could hinder or slow down recovery and might further complicate the illness).
Mundane Astrology: This is the branch of astrology that I find very interesting. While this is more applicable to those in politics and finance, as someone in the medical field, I have prepared for the crisis and opted out of profession before the onset of the COVID crisis and its aftermath. This branch of astrology is helpful for nurse-entrepreneurs and nurse-administrators as they can get an insight of world-events (especially with the outbreak of pandemics and the situation of the economy) for the period and prepare for them accordingly.

In a Nutshell

The Nursing profession is unique because of its wide scope. While the cold scientific approach limits other medical professions, the Nursing profession, because of its recognition of the holistic approach to healing, makes it versatile and open to alternative healing modalities. From that, astrology as a tool will extensively help the nursing profession, where there is an application of the branches of astrology at each stage of the nursing process (assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation).

References

Gonzalo, A. G., BSN, RN. (2023). Martha Rogers: Science of Unitary Human Beings. Nurseslabs. https://nurseslabs.com/martha-e-rogers-theory-unitary-human-beings/
Helvie, C. O. (1995). A Theory for Alternative Health Practitioners. Complementary Health Practice Review, 1(1), 15–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/153321019500100105