Each time I went to meet Maurice, I emerged back to the world a bit different. It was so powerful that I moved from being a skeptic journalist to a skeptic astrology student. I was eager to learn the secret behind the knowledge that opened my heart to myself.

Soon, though, I had to face a very basic and puzzling fact. When an astrologer reads a chart (a drawing showing the placement of the planets in a specific moment), he or she can’t know if it is the chart of a man, a woman, a dog, a plan or a mosquito. It was bad news, because it meant that a chart can not reveal the most important piece of information – the specific individual. The good news was that it does reveal the essence. For example, you are going to face some financial problems and meet some friends you haven’t seen for long time, couldn’t be the script if we are talking about a young cute mosquito! Still, there are certain energies we’re all experiencing. When it is winter everybody will feel it, each one in a different way, and yet it will be wise to dress accordingly. If there is an earthquake, everybody will feel it but, likewise, will experience it in a different way.

I learned that Maurice’s astrology was based on the work of the famous astrologer, Jeff Green. I found it gives us a tool to discover who we are at a deep level and reveals the reasons for what we are going through. From the perspective that focuses on the evolution of the soul, it works like this: Let's say we gathered enough garbage in the trash can, and it is time to dump it. We can ignore the smell, and put off throwing the garbage until tomorrow, next year, ten years ahead, next lifetime or the coming lifetimes. As far as the garbage is concerned, it is willing to wait patiently until we are ready to empty it. We are completely free to choose whether to face the needed process of taking out the garbage or bearing the stench. At one point or another, this will take place: the can will be emptied, which will enable us to move to the next level of evolution. The same is true for the treasures we have been accumulating throughout the years in the shape of our talents and abilities. We can decide to use them and bring them out into the light, or to sit on them and realize them in the next round. This approach gives us an up-to-date, clear picture of the garbage, which is what we came to correct or to learn, as well as of the treasures, which are the abilities that will help us do the task. To sum this up, the whole idea enables us to understand what is happening to us, why it is happening, and what can be done about it.

From this approach, a process called “The Present” was created. I can’t understand how the planets reveal who we are on such deep levels, but I know that they do. Albert Einstein said that the problems we face can’t be solved at the same level of thinking we used to create them. We need to step back, widen our periphery, expand our awareness, and shift the context in which we think. That’s what I’ve found this form of astrology can do so well, for it helps us to understand our story. Once we understand what is going on, we can also change it. This is something that I find incredibly powerful!

Understanding who I am and why I am here gives me the strength to deal with whatever life puts upon my plate. When we find the ability to deal with the present, we can allow the adventures of the future to unfold easily, knowing that we’ll be able to deal with them when they become the “present.” This is one way in which astrology, which was for many years a tool to forecast the future, becomes a tool that allows us to give ourselves the present that The Present presents.