No
economist who values his well-being would break the ancient taboo and
investigate astrology, for it could cost his career, marriage, house,
car, etc. The taboo against astrology established by the early Roman
Catholic Church is still firmly in place.
"To suppose
that the planets up there in the sky have anything to do with economic
affairs down here on Earth is utter lunacy,"
an academic friend told me with the confidence of a pope discussing the
Immaculate Conception.
Such detractors
of astrology decline to examine the evidence. The evidence has been taboo
in Western Culture since the rise of the Roman Catholic Church coinciding
with the fall of the Roman Empire during a Neptune-Pluto
conjunction around 411.
Moreover,
astrology is not a quick study. Traditionalists used to say it takes a
student one transit of Saturn, about 30 years, to become proficient. Among
today's proficient astrologers is Robert Hand, who graduated from Brandeis
University with honors in History and did postgraduate work at Princeton
in the History of Science.
"It is not
politically safe in the sciences," said Hand, "to mention any kind of
correlation between terrestrial and celestial phenomena unless it can
be quickly explained in terms of known gravitational or other force-field
effects. Anyone who does so has to move quickly to avoid being branded
as a charlatan, while making all kinds of disclaimers that what he or
she is doing is not astrology. Often even that is not enough to save an
investigator’s reputation." (1)
No economist
who values his well-being would break the ancient taboo and investigate
astrology, for it could cost his career, marriage, house, car, etc. The
taboo against astrology established by the early Roman Catholic Church
is still firmly in place.
Astrology is a vast field, at once pre-scientific, scientific, unscientific
and trans-scientific, depending on which aspect
of astrology one is dealing with. It is definitely not superstition. Superstition
is based on ignorance; it is ignorance of astrology that gets it branded
as superstition. But can any aspect of astrology
ever be truly scientific?
Hand continues:
"We can do scientific-type investigations of astrology. The Gauquelins
(2) did. We can find things that are truly astounding. But I do not think
that we can incorporate astrology into the theoretical and philosophical
structure of the sciences without abandoning most of what constitutes
astrology. I believe that science will discover more and more that there
are correlations between planetary movements and terrestrial phenomena,
but...they will declare that this is not astrology, or that (theirs) is
the 'real' astrology, and that what we do is bogus."
Another contemporary
astrologer, Bruce Scofield, sums it up this way: "As a subject in itself,
astrology is both old and new. The old astrology, the astrology of the
founders of modern science, was squeezed out of the materialistic world
view that developed during the 16th and 17th centuries. A newer, more
psychologically sophisticated astrology is emerging as this materialistic
view becomes bankrupt. A broader view shows us that astrology persists,
it adapts to the times, and it weathers the ups and downs of intellectual
fashion." (3)
One way astrology
has adapted is by incorporating modern astronomy to more precisely chart
the positions and orbital paths of the planets. We can now look back thousands
of years to find correlations between planetary patterns and economic
ups and downs.
Yet the popular
impression of astrology is derived from those blurbs in newspapers that
read like fortune cookies. Those who have studied astrology understand
that such Sun sign entertainments are to astrology what a demonstration
of boiling water is to quantum physics.
Newspaper
Sun sign astrology supposes you were born at dawn's first light, with
no other planets in the heavens at the time. Thus, if you were born on
November 2 and you read what today's blurb says about Scorpios, the blurb
is interpreting a horoscope for dawn of October 24 when the Sun enters
the constellation Scorpio each year, with no specific location calculated
and no other planets found in the sky at the time. Given this popular
misconception, it's no wonder university professors chance losing tenure
by becoming curious about astrology.
If you consult an astrologer who has been studying this subject for two
or more decades, you'll get an entirely different impression of astrology.
Now that computers do the trigonometry and other calculations required
to erect a chart, 10 or 15 years and/or passing a qualifying exam is sufficient—not
the 30-year cycle of Saturn previously required.
The study
of astrology is not for everyone; it requires that you simultaneously
think symbolically and literally. You must be deeply familiar with the
areas of consciousness "ruled" by the various planets, named for the ancient
pantheistic gods. (The Roman Mercury is the Native American Coyote is
the Polynesian Maui, and so forth around the world.) The signs or constellations
designating "neighborhoods" in the universe beyond are also rooted in
"pagan" mythology. But you must simultaneously assess the various planetary
angles and cycles in a chart. Not every concrete thinker can simultaneously
think symbolically in order to both find pertinent angles and describe
combinations of influences. Astrological interpretations are at once mathematically
precise, symbolic, synchronistic and attuned to an individual.
Astrology
is mainly about the timing of upcoming challenges or opportunities. An
heiress and an orphan born at the same time and place are both going to
be impacted by harsh transits at the same time, but are not going to react
the same because of their different situations in life, their different
genealogical make-ups, educations and beliefs. A competent astrologer
can tell both when a climactic opportunity will arrive, but not how it
will manifest for each, nor how each will deal with it.
Most Ph.
D. economists are experts in econometrics, the mathematics involved in
measuring "inside the box"—inside the existing economic model. Few look
back in time more than a decade or two. Most economists are linear thinkers,
who believe the present bears little or no relationship to the past.
Astrologers,
by contrast, deal with cyclical time, looking for similarities between
then and now.
Endnotes:
1. What
Makes Astrology Tick?
by Robert Hand, or search Robert Hand's website.
2. Michael and Francois Gauquelin, French psychologists, did a statistical
study of the influence of the planets. Rob Hand also cites studies done
by others, such as the late John Nelson of RCA, who developed a method
for forecasting solar flares, Sunspots and geomagnetic disturbances, using
the heliocentric positions of the planets. A similar system was also developed
by Theodor Landscheidt, a former judge in the German court system.
3. Were
They Astrologers?—Big League Scientists and Astrology, The
Mountain Astrologer magazine. Scofield's article examines
the astrology of such scientific geniuses as Copernicus, Brahe, Galileo,
Kepler, Newton and Jung. It can be read at The Mountain Astrologer's
online
article archive.
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