What Astrology Teaches Us

 

[The pity is nothing in this writing (understanding , brought over from the past , vibrationally connected , attitude, consciousness, ‘start blessing that which we are fighting against’, etc.) has anything to do with the title: “What Astrology Teaches Us”]  
Astrology is not meant to be a primarily predictive science.  It is meant to be for understanding ourselves and also for understanding other people [BS].  I've had a number of interviews recently where I was amazed [unqualified emotion of the deluded] that people thought it was fatalistic [true].  It's not -- absolutely not [unqualified assertion of the deluded and an ignorant fool].  There is nothing in a horoscope, that blue-print, that pattern, that you cannot change if you want to [ignorant assertion about astronomical facts].  I've seen this over the years [personal impression / anecdote is NOT evidence].  It's the stories of the cycles and rhythms you are going through, and what you have brought over from the past to work out.  It shows your character. [baseless assertions] You can read it the day a child is born; you can tell what they have brought over as a blessing and what they have brought over as a challenge [baseless assertions] that they have to change. [how?].  But that is only the personality pattern [what??!].  Behind the personality lies your real self [and how is it different from ‘personality pattern’!?], and you center yourself [!] in that essential thing.
 
A great while ago, an Eastern teacher taught me something and I've watched it work over the years.  We are vibrationally connected [most meaningless gobbledegook!] to everything that happens to us.  There is only one way we can change what we do in this life, and that is by changing our attitude toward it; this changes our consciousness. [true irrespective of Astrology!]  This is a cosmic law that few people know. [false! Everybody sensible knows this!]  By changing your attitude, one of two things has to happen.  Either person or the problem will be completely removed without any harm to anyone [wishful thinking], or that person or problem will change so much that you will be able to live with it very easily.  Now, in over thirty years, I've never seen it proved wrong in a person who changed their attitude, their consciousness.[attitude is not the same as ‘consciousness’]
 
This world of appearance is not the creative world [most meaningless gobbledegook!]; this is the world of manifestation that always changes. [true irrespective of Astrology!] We create our conditions inside us [baseless assertion] and if we want to change what is manifesting in ‘the world of appearance’ [denial of physical reality], we must change ourselves and our consciousness. [unqualified emotion of the deluded] That's how we change what happens. [Pure, unadulterated nonsense!] I've seen this verified over and over. [Repetition: personal impression / anecdote is NOT evidence] Never saw it wrong. [Repetition: unqualified assertion of the deluded and an ignorant fool]
 
When we change our attitude, we start blessing that which we are fighting against. 
[most meaningless gobbledegook!] [The pity is nothing in this writing has anything to do with the title: “What Astrology Teaches Us”] Hide full comment

 The problems with Astrology & Horrorscopes are manifold. Categorizing over 7 billion people in just 12 groups is the least of those! It’s perhaps less worse than ‘numerology’, one of the bastards of Astrology. The only thing 'scientific' in Astrology is the mathematical predictability of astral bodies (astronomy).
Over the millennia, conmen have made billions from this lone fact. Those who indulge in [mis]fortune-telling ‘for free’, have wasted their time …& misled countless others…, those who have done fortune-telling ‘for a fee’ have wasted both time & robbed their clients of money & misled them at worse or given false hope at best!
Being ‘free’ has never increased the value, or credibility of any advice/service!
 
Astrology (both Indian & Western --& in many other forms) has glaring faults:
 
In essence, astrology is a multi-storey SCAM: house of cards built with staggering absurdity.
 
The ground floor: The only true ‘foundation’ – Predictive astronomical calculations
·             Apart from the mathematically accurate predictability of the past positions & future movement of planetary bodies (determined by Astronomy), there is nothing ‘scientific’ about astrology.
 
The first storey of astrological-house-of-cards built on the spec-of-universal-dust planet Earth!
·             Astrology is ‘speculative fad’ with no possibility ever of proving it right in 1 million years.
·             There is no proof behind the varied Predictions in Astrology (PiA), which hardly concur. (e. g., PK Atre anecdote, ‘Pot Pourri of universally-applicable & ambiguous ‘feel-good’ quips)
·             It’s perhaps less worse than ‘numerology’, one of the bustards of Astrology.
·             Predictions and calculations in Astrology (PaCiA) are earth-centric. Their ‘reference point’ is some inaccurate point on surface of earth, itself a spec of matter in the vast universe.
For the real scale of universe, go to: http://htwins.net/scale           & click on ‘play’.
·             PaCiA ignore the actual astronomical distances in the ‘constellations’ made of stars, which appear ‘close’ & related to each other from the earthly perspective. They would look a lot different even from Saturn …or Alpha-Centauri group, the nearest star from our solar system.
·             Human conception takes 40 weeks to birth & the process of birth may last from an hour to 20 hours! So the starting point of ‘time of birth’ is not a moment & it can never be accurate.
·             Same goes for reference points of ‘place of birth’. A birth area may be 100sq ft, but astrologers are a happy with names/ vague co-ordinates of cities! And Google-Earth maps record co-ordinates of a place to SIX decimal points of degrees of meridians!
·             Astrologers rate the sun (star), moon (planet’s planet) and Rahu-Ketu (imaginary bodies / comets) all on par & ignore, or are unable to include in their PaCiA Uranus-Neptune-Pluto!
·             We KNOW all astrological planets are either hot or frozen rock or giant balls of frozen gas with astronomical details of their movements, appearance, chemical composition, atmosphere, moons and accurate information about their other physical attributes.
·             Due to the vast distances separating us, all planetary bodies other than perhaps the moon, are unlikely to exert even their gravitational force on us with any significant effect; let alone affecting individual ‘human earth-beings’ ‘differently’ with relation to each other!
·             If ‘light’ and ‘cosmic radiation’ were the relevant factors, then our fortunes ought to be affected by quinZillions of stars in billions of galaxies whose light (& radiation) reaches earth. If they could have such effect, it is impossible to compute or predict the same in case of each individual [star or human] with any accuracy. [This is as impossible as some ‘god watching, recording &/or accounting for ‘what everyone of us [i.e., all beings that ever lived] did during their lives for the past 65 million years,  … is doing & will do…for eternity!’]
 
The second storey of astrological-SCAM!: Everything changes with time, always!
·             Even if one believes, for a moment, that the 9 planets as [ab]used by the astrologers do affect the fortunes of ‘human earth-beings’, the effect must be contemporaneous or momentary, i.e., ‘here and now’, like falling of sunlight, rain or snow. It is ludicrous to believe that these planets could have a ‘snap-shot’ effect on the future of each of the ‘earth-beings’ (humans, other living beings, trees(?!), countries, organisations & even companies!), simply because (i) planets continue to exist (& exert whatever ‘effect’) & (ii) people continue to live after birth (for the variable periods of their respective life-span). It would be quite outrageous to believe that one’s life-events are determined by the ‘snap-shot’ planetary position depending upon (vague time-place of) birth, or affected by the ever-changing interrelationship of the celestial bodies, that never remain static in this expanding universe!
 
The third storey of the astrological-SCAM house-of-cards!: Of ineffective remedy!!
·             The outrageous ‘con’ in astrology becomes obvious when a person with ‘bad planetary situation / prediction’ is told that it is possible to influence these all-powerful majestic fate-mongerers! One could alter, mitigate, avert or even cancel -- one’s ‘BAD situation’ only (i) by BUYing expensive gemstones & wearing them in GOLD rings on one’s fingers, often hidden in clothing and not the top of one’s head, where the planet’s light would logically fall’, or (ii) by performing some ridiculous rituals, always expensive and sometimes including charity, which, anyway no one is prevented from performing for its own sake!
 
·             Conclusion: Belief in Astrology is next to ‘belief in god-superstition’: Almost equally stupid!

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Very insightful to not get trapped into believing astrology is the final answer- that would simply wipe out the possibility of us making change every moment through the power of our contemplation and releasing of past limited patterns. I have gotten sucked into astrology and have held on to dates when my Saturn return will end, now I realize this has been very limiting. My unconscious mind has bought into the possibility of my life being the way the astrologer predicted, to some degree. What a limiting life it would be if all our lives unfolded in a cookie cutter model as predicted by our astrology, even the most skilled one.


I have stopped viewing astrology as a means to have hope. I have started consciously visualizing and manifesting what I want daily and I am positive this works. I set the intention I no longer need to be tied into the past limited experiences in my life and and that of others. I can now let go my beliefs to create a brilliant reality that has not been thought of before, or said in my horoscope.
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 Two transformational exercises

LOVE - recently I came up with the idea of feeling love in my heart towards all that I saw, this was a CHOICE  (had not considered it as such before), I had a wonderful day, more relaxed and open with everyone, and hopefully it was good for others too.

Compassion - This helped me recently totally change the impact of a difficult relationship I had.  There is an amazing exercise in Buddhism called Taking and Giving (Tonglen in some traditions) where with pure motivation and compassion (this is crucial otherwise it will not work) we imagine all the suffering of others (this can be one specific individual you care for or are having problems with, a group of people such as people suffering from specific illness or problem that YOU may also be suffering from). Then having developed compassion for them we imagine and breathe in the suffering (anger, depression, illness, bad fortune....) in the form of Black smoke into our own heart center (with the belief that this dissolves our own self-centered attitude which is very strong when we are unwell or are having problems AND eradicates the suffering of the other). Then we imagine that we breathe out White smoke which is full of blessings and completely fills their bodies making them healthy and happy.  We then meditate on this sense of joy:  Our own relief from self-centered attitude and their relief from suffering.  This is extremely powerful - it is impossible to have problem with people that you care about by creating compassion towards them. How can you be angry or have problems with someone that you cherish, and this is all down to you!!!! By doing this exercise YOU take control in being happy and develop better relationships.  Initially this may be challenging as:  we may not want the other to be happy!!!  or worry about breathing in the Black smoke.  However if we do not want the other to stop suffering, we will suffer as we are in relation with them and are exposed to the results of their suffering (bad relationships, anger, depression, etc) so effectively by increasing our compassion we are protecting ourselves too.  The black smoke can not harm us as we are taking it with a pure motivation of Compassion and we are directing it at our self-centeredness (self-cherishing) which ironically tends to cause lots of problems in the first place.  This is all down to practicing a mental exercise focused on virtue of Compassion, we do not have to keep repeating the attitudes that can be customary  around us like choice-less individuals, this however will take some practice but then dealing with any unhelpful habit does require a little effort. Good Luck 


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  "What tools (including but certainly not limited to astrology) have particularly helped you to understand your blessings and challenges?…
 
Many modern scientists believe that the world is a three dimensional, holographic projection of a two dimensional surface. In Vedic Astrology, this layer of consciousness is termed ‘Akashic records’, where ‘all’ information about past, present and future, is stored in a field of consciousness, similar to an Internet.  This information is ‘downloaded’, based on a pointer from an astrology chart and a  ‘noise free’ intuition. Even though the accuracy of prediction is sometimes ‘miraculous’ and better than a mathematical probability. Many, like me, find it inconsistent therefore unreliable.
 
The Layer of ‘Akashic’ consciousness or ‘one-ness consciousness’ appears to be real, when savants and autistic persons access it to perform ‘miracles’ beyond the speed of brain-mind or when we see ‘sixth sense’ in some animals. Also, in Japanese Bushido, some samurais can achieve ‘super human’ speeds and accuracy, consistently, based on a Zen meditation to develop the sixth sense or intuition……………..
 
How do you center yourself in that essential thing that lies behind your personality?….
 
I believe that my personality is based on my emotions. My emotions are created when my desires and fears (ego) interact with love - the source of all life, emotions and creation. To stabilize emotions, I meditate on the feeling of love in my heart……….
 
 
Can you share a personal story of an attitude change that shifted your consciousness to allow you to "bless that which you are fighting"? "…..
 
The ‘fight’ was between the consistent sense perception (ego and rationality) and the inconsistent intuition (Self ?). When, for a short moment, I was able to surrender my ‘ego’ to my ‘Self’ (or to Love), an experience of ‘one-ness in Love’ happened, followed by a change in my attitude. 'The Self’ blessed my ego…………. Hide full comment

 One half of our being is inside and the other half outside. Both these are dynamic, they keep changing, evolving. We can get a picture of these two using various tools. Astrology is one of them.
Having said this we need to see how an individual holds them and their relationship  in his mind.

If they are seen as static then the person would be fatalistic and helpless, would be resigned to fate. Such a person is likely to fall a prey to charlatans who offer esoteric solutions. Such a person would make a horoscope at birth and live condemned by it. Such a person would also give too much importance to the situation at birth (silver spoon etc.) and would give very little importance to the process of growing up.

If they are seen as dynamic then the person would play an active part in shaping his/her life. He would revisit his plans, goals and values and make changes in them as he went along in life.

If one of the halves is seen as real and the other as an illusion, then the person would live a confused, fragmented life, would swing from end to end like a pendulum.

If the two are seen as adversaries, then the person would be aggressive, would be in the fight-flight mode most of the times. He may be nice and friendly while winning. Mostly however he would be a bad wiinner and a bad loser.

If the two halves are seen as friends or lovers at play, the person would take life as an adventure and enjoy every moment of it. Hide full comment

 Thanks for the opportunity to respond. It seems that Isabel is rather certain and I am cautious about that. Frequently, when I'm looking for an answer. I find that which I am  looking for is that which is looking. When I became a Zen Buddhist, my attitude changed. Previously I would kill woodchucks in my backyard. As I mentioned, perhaps once before, now I merely growl at them when they are coming near my house. I also take little harmless bugs and spiders gently outside from my home when I find them there. If they are large and dangerous, I still kill them, unfortunately. While the question of" how do you center yourself in that essential thing that lies behind your personality" is a useful question, it implies a duality. When I stop to think about it, I am but a speck in a large united universe, and I find that I am personally better off  when I am compassionate to myself and others. My early experience with astrology leads me to believe that it is a myth which has not been useful to me. Warm and kind regards to everyone. .I'm' glad Xiaoshan liked the piece. I didn't. Hide full comment