“Call The Midwife” (Sundays, BBC1, 8pm) has become essential viewing in our house. Based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, the programme is set in London’s East End during the 1950’s. It focuses on the friendship between a group of young midwives who share accommodation in a nursing convent.
The cleverly interwoven themes of birth, love, illness and death have made me both laugh and cry over the last few weeks and prompted interesting conversations with my 11 year old daughter (especially the episode where the main character was a prostitute and my daughter asked, “what’s that lady’s job?”) So how does this link to astrology?
There’s a branch of astrology called “electional astrology”, which specialises in “electing” a time or day for a big event in someone’s life. In essence this is traditional astrology which was used to plan the best date for a battle or a royal coronation. Kings and queens and political leaders have famously employed astrologers in the past to give them added insight that’s heaven sent.
Today, the most usual requests are to find an auspicious date for a wedding or the launch of a business. However, astrologers are sometimes asked to elect the best time for a caesarian birth and this arouses strong debate and rightly so. Personally, this is like someone asking me to “play God” and I believe there’s an ethical issue for declining such a request.
Astrology works on the simple premise, “As Above, So Below” i.e. what’s happening in the heavens mirrors life on earth. This is what electional astrology is based on and the astrologer is looking for a favourable pattern of planets that bestow happiness, good fortune and prosperity. It’s fun, although quite complicated to do.
On a very basic level, New Moons are perfect days for a fresh start and the Moon is the most important planet in electional astrology. It’s also said that when you first catch a glimpse of the crescent moon in the sky, make a wish and it will come true. Why not give it a try and see what happens.
So if you’re hoping for the successful birth of your child, I’d always suggest “Call the Midwife, not the Astrologer”. But if you are interested in electing the perfect date for a wedding or business launch or if you’d like a personal astrology consultation, then please do “Call the Astrologer” and email me at sally@sallykirkman.com.