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#1 19 Jun 2010 23:20
- chicoan
- Member
- Registered: 19 Jun 2010
- Posts: 7
why astrology works?
Hi, I'm new here. 
I'm not sure if this is an acceptable forum topic or not, and I used the search but didn't find much about it. What I am most interested in, is why astrology works? There seems to be so many inter-related mechanisms at work: on the one side, symbolism, archetypes, consciousness, observation, psychology, etc.; and on the other side, the actual motions of physical planets in real physical space, not to mention our own motions on our own planet's surface and things like our environments and genetics. It seems to touch on chaos theory, the science of information, and all sorts of other areas. I know it is probably a speculative subject in the astrological community, but no science would ever advance were it not for speculation, right? Is this something that has ever been discussed here before?
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#2 20 Jun 2010 00:33
- Paula
- Moderator
- From: Tennessee
- Registered: 30 May 2005
- Posts: 2424
Re: why astrology works?
Welcome to the forum. I believe that there might be as many answers to this question of yours as there are people who would try to answer.
In my mind, it works in a mysterious and fantastic way. Sometimes I can see things that I wouldn't see or understand without astrology. Yet, it is so complex. There are so many ways to look at a moment. So many ways to go about studying, interpreting.
And then, one might ask, WHY study astrology? Why try to know anything in advance, or understand the energy of what is?
Me? I like to know the energy that is at work in a day. I like to know what planets are where, but sometimes I have had enough and I look away and do not want to know. As if the parts of the puzzle that are incomplete would make me happier to stay incomplete. Sometimes I have seen things coming that make my heart beat faster, and perhaps I miss the energy of right now because I was looking at tomorrow. But, I always come back. I like to meditate on what it means for a planet to touch a place and connect with this, that, or whatever.
Probably most of us would say it works for us because of so many varied reasons! Whatever I post in response to your post, someone else will likely come along and say something totally different.
I think astrology works because the mechanics of it are true. They are real. They move on in an unchanging manner. We cannot stop the procession or change the cycles. We are visitors and observers. We can experience, taste, touch, rejoice, cry, scream, laugh. But we can't mess with the stars. We can choose how we respond to the energy, but we can't fix the energy to be how we want it to be.
Some say the soul chooses to be born at a time that meets the needs of the soul. We all have different needs, different choices. I don't know if that's true, but I can picture it. I can picture my soul choosing the difficult things in my life, being willing to live this life. Yet sometimes I think a person would have to be absolutely crazy to choose the time I was born!
So....why do you ask this question? I'm curious. Does it work for you?
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#3 20 Jun 2010 06:42
- chicoan
- Member
- Registered: 19 Jun 2010
- Posts: 7
Re: why astrology works?
Thank you for such a good reply! I agree that its workings are mysterious and fantastic, but that's all the more reason why I am interested in the mechanism of it. People used to think that nature and the human body were mysterious and fantastic, and they still are, but now we know much about why the way they work, and if anything science has only increased the fantastic qualities of nature. That's kind of how I look at astrology - that maybe at some point we will piece together some working hypotheses that are empirical and testable.
I tend to get bothered by some of the "new age" explanations of astrology, though maybe those are going out of fashion by now (things like "cosmic rays" and etc.). In an age where science understands so much about the way physical reality works, isn't it really just a small step to start bridging the gap from what we do know to what we don't, while staying true to scientific rigor?
As for me personally, I have never had much of a clue about why it works for me, only that it works uncannily and has ever since I first started learning about it over 10 years ago. I have a few hunches about the mechanism, but they either sound absolutely batsh*t, or involve determinism, which as we all know is extremely unpopular in most places! I guess, though, the reason I ask is because I have always been that way - I have always wanted to know how and why things work the way they do. Of course you don't have to understand engines to be able to drive a car or circuitry to operate a computer, but personally I prefer to have at least some understanding of mechanisms like that. One, it makes fixing things a lot easier (DIY as much as possible is my ideal), and two, understanding something and putting in the work it takes to understand it feels more like I own a bit of it, like I have a bit of a right to use it with confidence. I always wonder what using a computer is like for someone who understands machine-code, and I guess I wonder the same about astrology and its mechanism - how much more lucid it would feel if we could grok the physical mechanics.
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