How astrology works (and why you should stay away from it)

A friendly acquaintance of mine (you know: more than an acquaintance, but less than a friend) emailed me a "tweet" from a famous astrologer. The astrologer was chirping excitedly about May's promises. "You will LOVE May!" said the astrologer, adding that it would be one of the best months of this year.

As I said in an earlier post, I don't really believe in predictive astrology. None of us here do.

Before you hasten to email us that we have to read our ascendant (or rising) sign, too, in order to get an accurate forecast, let me tell you: that's what we've been doing for YEARS now. Reading our ascendant forecasts - only secondarily our sun sign predictions.

But that's a moot point, anyway. This May was "supposed" to be lovely for most signs.

Imagine my friendly acquaintance's nasty surprise when a few days into the merry month of May she was hit with a bill for 1500 + Euros for some debt she did not know she had.

Another friend (different sign) was suddenly faced with a divorce. Just like that - like a bolt out of the blue, her husband asked her for a divorce.

My May days also have been troubled by unexpected setbacks.

I also doubt that Maria Shriver is loving this May. Or Arnold Schwarzenegger, for that matter.

Ot Seve Ballesteros' family.

Or that Gunther Sachs did. An "iconic" figure of the merry 1960s jet set and ex-husband of Brigitte Bardot, he committed suicide on May 6th.

I am mentioning Sachs because astrology was among his more abiding interests. He founded an institute for the study of astropsychology, to find out whether there was any truth in the assertion that sun signs influence character traits.

It turned out there was. At least that's what he claimed in his book The Astrology File: Scientific Proof of the Link Between Star Signs and Human Behavior.

(For some critical observations on the method, see this article, from a good sceptically oriented site on astrology research.)

I believe him. For some obscure reason, there really seems to be a correlation between the position of planets and personality, especially when you take into account the ascendant and other planetary influences, not just the sun sign. I have noticed it many years ago. There are personality traits, predicted by my astrological chart, that are so specific that they cannot be ascribed to pure chance or coincidence.

But how is it possible? How could planets influence a person's behaviour and character?

The truth is, nobody knows. But - to some extent, at least - they do.

One of the most common misconceptions about astrology is that it's the actual, physical planets that influence us. It is not. What seems to be happening - this according to ancient astrologers - is that planets have a sphere of action, of influence, that is immeasurable with ordinary sensory equipment. Just like there is a "subtle heart" in addition to out physical heart, there are also "subtle planets", so to speak (this is my expression, so don't blame the astrologers of yore if you find it silly). And THAT is what is influencing our personalities here on Earth - not the physical, visible and measurable, plane of the planets.

For some reason, however, this does not seem to work for predictive astrology, i.e. astrological forecasting of future events and happenings.

For example, Jupiter in one's sign rarely, if ever, seems to bring the joy and happiness and success that many astrologers like to chirp about; nor is Saturn nearly as ominous as they say (but many people pay a lot of attention to unfortunate events, and since Saturn is always somewhere, in some house, they attribute whatever it is going on to that planet's influence).
No, predictive astrology does not seem to work.

Which is just as well. If you are really interested in the "co-creation" of your life, as the obnoxious but basically accurate expression goes, then forget about astrology. Either you decide what's going to happen - or you don't. You cannot use predictive astrology for "support" because there's always going to be some "negative aspect" lurking somewhere; and your mere awareness of it will, without a doubt, undermine the determination you absolutely need to materialise what you want. 
(And if you're counting on some rare overwhelmingly "positive" aspect, it will likely make you feel an anxious urge to make it happen while the aspect lasts. But creation does not run on ordinary timetables.)

Predictive astrology is at odds with a creator's mind and will. THAT is why all the Christian churches (as well as other major religions) are against astrology. Not because of some obscurantist desire to keep Prometheus shackled - it's the opposite: to give Prometheus the strength to shed his shackles. The lingo they use to explain this may be off-putting to some; but that's the essence of the negative stance on astrology and other predictive methods. Your freedom. Your unshackled WILL, coupled with the fire and light of a heart turned towards good.

When it comes to "co-creation", it's all or nothing.

No wonder so few succeed.

IF YOU LIKED THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:  

The Answer