The first astrologers in the very ancient past discerned and investigated the astral world and compiled a data-base of knowledge pertaining to the soul, planets and zodiac.
They called their knowledge – the science of the soul and stars – and in response to impending cataclysmic change dispersed it to Egypt, India, Crete, Peru, Mexico, China and Chaldea where it was gradually altered and remodeled by time and place.
Throughout the ages, as humanity’s spiritual intelligence gradually coarsened, the original knowledge aka mysteries of the soul, was safe guarded, often at grave peril, by small numbers of initiates.
Today the ancient wisdom is called astrology – a word derived the Greek word ‘astro’ meaning star and ‘logy’ meaning study. It is properly defined as the science of the influence of the stars on living things.
And today, in the Age of Aquarius, the branch of knowledge known as astrology has reached a level of awareness, interest and popularity never before seen in human history. But it has never been so misunderstood.
The new age internet is jam-packed with astrology websites. Ask anyone: what’s your sign and they’ll tell you. Dating websites consider a person’s sign essential data. The Sun-sign fortune-tellers provide daily and weekly forecasts. Analyzing the same meaningless celestial data they foretell the same future for almost 700 million people.
From its ancient beginnings as a sacred science, which explained the soul’s character development and mysterious connection to the universe, astrology has descended into silly, ridiculous fortune-telling.
Astrology in the internet age
Today, on the all knowing web, Wikipedia states: ‘astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscience since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects’.
And the encyclopedia Britannica reckons that ‘astrology is a type of divination that involves the forecasting of earthly and human events through the observation and interpretation of the fixed stars, the Sun, the Moon, and the planets’.
It explains that astrology ‘was often regarded as a science throughout its history, but is now widely considered to be diametrically opposed to the findings and theories of modern Western science’.
These historical observations may (or may not) be accurate but they do reveal that the knowledge that was taught and practiced by the first astrologers has become seriously misunderstood.
Astrology is best defined as an umbrella term that covers a bundle of systems, traditions and beliefs that are all grounded in the idea that celestial bodies influence human affairs.
The word divination that keeps cropping up is the art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge usually by the interpretation of omens or the aid of supernatural powers.
In regard to astrology the omen of prophetic significance is a celestial body and astrology is regarded as a predictive method of fortune-telling.
The encyclopedia Britannica defines fortune-telling as the forecasting of future events or the delineation of character by methods not ordinarily considered to have a rational basis. And that there’s evidence to indicate that forms of fortune-telling were practiced in ancient China, Egypt, Chaldea, and Babylonia as long ago as 4000 BCE.
Today the most popular systems of astrology are standard (natal) astrology, modern western astrology, modern (psychological) astrology, western (traditional) astrology, Uranian astrology, cosmobiology, Vedic (Hindu-Indian) astrology, Chinese astrology and Kabalistic astrology.
And with so many systems all claiming to do the same thing it’s safe to conclude that astrology has become seriously misunderstood.
Standard (western) astrology has 6 specialist branches – natal astrology, mundane astrology, horary astrology, electional astrology, relationship (love) astrology and medical astrology.
Fact-check: Natal astrology is not divination. It’s an exact science, but horary astrology – a branch of astrology that depends upon a chart calculated for the time of a mental reaction to a condition that exists in the high-speed world of astrological energies – is not an exact science but a method of divination.
From Sun-sign to birth chart
Astrology today is the result of a campaign that commenced over 100 years ago.
Back in the 1890s English astrologer, Alan Leo, popularized Sun-sign astrology and during the 20th century Sun-sign astrology was gradually cemented in the public consciousness.
The Sun-sign is determined by the birth date. It’s easy to work out – anyone can do it – but a growing number of people are now becoming aware that an assessment of their character involves more than one zodiac sign.
It involves a birth chart or horoscope that’s calculated for their time, date and place of birth. The chart is actually a two-dimensional diagram that displays the apparent positions of the planets in relation to the zodiac and it apparently provides much more detailed life-data than a Sun-sign.
The birth chart is central to standard (natal) astrology and in the 20th century computer technology transformed its calculation.
Using precision astronomical data computer programs now calculate and construct birth charts and perform complex calculations pertaining to a chart’s progression through time. They’ve made an accurate birth chart available to anyone and everyone and there are many websites that provide a chart calculation service but the chart’s true function and purpose still remains seriously misunderstood.
There are also computer programs that interpret birth charts but they’re programmed with generic interpretations that provide reports that are simplistic and worthless. They reveal that their programmers seriously misunderstand astrology and allow unscrupulous people, who know nothing about chart interpretation, to pretend they do.
Computer technology has greatly benefited students and practitioners of astrology but it hasn’t enhanced their understanding of astrology and it hasn’t eliminated the fakes, frauds and incompetents.
Feuding about misunderstood astrology
There’s been a running battle going on for years between the proponents and opponents of popular misunderstood astrology.
In 1955, French psychologist and statistician Michel Gauquelin, in his book The Mars Effect, claimed to have found above average correlations between the position of Mars in the charts of eminent sports champions. And since then other studies claim to have supported or refuted his findings.
Other research studies, conducted by fortune-tellers of unknown astrological expertise, claim to have found statistical correlations for character traits, attributes, accidents and personal and mundane events: but the scientific community always argues that astrology fails to demonstrate its claims in controlled studies.
In the very smart 21st century proponents of misunderstood astrology are likely to see it as a symbolic language that is applied to the positions of certain celestial bodies as an art, science or form of divination.
Well educated individuals and scientific groups malign and ridicule zodiac-sign pop-astrology. They see it as superstitious nonsense that can’t be supported scientifically but the general public, who have taken the time to read the characteristics associated with each of the signs, have noticed that contrary to rational thought they are uncannily accurate.
But the conflict situation involving the proponents and opponents of astrology becomes really weird and bizarre when neither is aware that the subject they’re feuding over is seriously misunderstood.
Astrology in the age of DNA
Astrology today coexists with modern biology.
Back in the 19th century Louis Pasteur linked all forms of life with one kind of chemical structure and this linked evolution with chemistry. And today modern biology proposes that Pasteur’s master chemical DNA has eliminated the need for any mysterious, ethereal life essence.
The human genetic code provides instructions for building a human body and now the mighty brain that’s created by DNA has made the awe-inspiring soul that’s created by God redundant.
But with all this talk of genes and DNA pop-astrology is reaching new heights of popularity. It seems many people see themselves as more than biological-chemical processes and prefer an astrological connection to the universe.
It’s a situation that bewilders the rational scientist who’s absolutely certain that there’s nothing occult or supernatural influencing life. And indicates that while people are aware that their eye and hair color are genetically determined they’re also aware that they have characteristics and behavior traits that are clearly explained by the zodiac signs.
Browsing misunderstood astrology
If you’re a brave browser in the age of misinformation you’ll learn that astrology aims to explain the natural world, is primarily concerned with foretelling the future and that practitioners use charts and rules to make predictions.
You’ll learn that astrology’s basic premise is that people’s lives or earthly events are influence by heavenly bodies — the Sun, Moon, planets, and constellations – and that its central focus is the zodiac signs which correlate with the constellations of the same name.
You’ll learn that many ancient astrological practices and concepts are accepted without scientific testing and astrology’s knowledge-base has expanded to include recently discovered planets along with countless asteroids and fixed stars none of which have been tested to confirm their validity.
You’ll learn that some astrological ideas are testable and some aren’t and that two practitioners looking at the same chart can explain the same event by referencing two different celestial factors. And that astrology, which is so misunderstood, is rife with individualism and untested ideas.
You’ll learn that practitioners work alone so they have little opportunity to discuss or publish their theories or findings and what they do is never peer-reviewed or critically scrutinized.
And you’ll learn that most practitioners don’t rigorously test and examine the astrological ideas they believe and accept – ignore any evidence that contradicts their ideas – and argue that the success they have working with clients on a daily basis is the best validation for what they do.
Astrology in the age of scientific testing
While the astrological teachings of the first astrologers have been seriously misunderstood for maybe thousands of years the central tenet of astrology remains epitomized in the ancient Hermetic axiom ‘as above, so below’.
It implies that what’s occurring in the sky above influences what happens on the Earth below and this breathtaking assertion requires a scientifically acceptable causal mechanism to explain how it’s done and today many proponents of pop-astrology who are unable to discern the mechanism believe there isn’t one.
Instead they focus on the accuracy of their observations and the real-life events they forecast using feelings, hunches and psychic impressions to validate astrology and argue that astrology doesn’t need the support of any theory or mechanism.
Others reject the feasibility of validating astrology through scientific testing, and some have rejected the application of the scientific method to astrology almost entirely.
But without a causal mechanism there is no way of validating astrology through scientific testing and this means the celestial bodies in the sky are reduced to signs or portents of events.
So, in the age of science, when astrology – as taught and practiced by the first astrologers – is seriously misunderstood, there’s an urgent need for a valid causal mechanism, evidence-based astrological information and data measurement.
And Hermetic astrology delivers on all three counts.
It’s a standard system of natal astrology that uses a birth chart calculated for your time, date and place of birth. The chart displays the Sun, Moon, 8 planets of our solar system and the zodiac and is consulted to assess your character, intelligence type, life story and cosmic destiny.
At a time when belief-based teachings, misguided notions and silly superstitions have turned the spiritual wisdom of the ancients into fortune-telling by the stars Hermetic astrology provides natural law facts, other truths supported by modern orthodox science, research-based data and measurement to address the major knowledge failure that has resulted in astrology being so misunderstood.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
