What is an Astrologer?

[Guest guest]

At 01:33 PM 3/22/03 -0800, Alfonso wrote:

>

>In his reply Juan relies on the " work of brilliant astrologers " who had

worked positively with the Boyd chart as an argument for backing his

assertion.

>

>Well, for me a brilliant or just good astrologer is someone who sees the

future with the aid of a zodiac and not a person who reads and interprets

the past with astrological language, as what is frequently done in the

astrology books and lists.

(End of Quote)

 

Traditionally, the ability to predict is the mark of a true astrologer in

India. Anyone else who writes about astrology would have been called a

student or scholar, but not an astrologer. Modern day India is pretty much

like the West. Thousands of pages in magazines are devoted to arguments,

philosophy, hindsight view of events, or such vague predictions that all

possibilities are covered. If clear predictions are made, they are just as

likely to be wrong as right.

 

Many astrolgoers in the west claim that it isn't possible to see future

events. So the boards are filled with endless arguments and discussions of

theory while most of the practice is only via hindsight.

 

Once in a while I or someone else has offered a predictive challenge on the

boards, even so small a thing as asking for a few facts about a person's

life or psychology. If one or two people do take up the challenge, their

replies are not particularly accurate. But mostly astrologers won't put

themselves to the test. They will take some philosophical point of the

challenge and discuss that instead, especially on the Tropical boards.

 

Personally I believe at this time in history that Neptune is the ruler of

astrology. It should be Mercury/Jupiter. Jupiter for prophecy and Mercury

for the mathematical calculations and the ability to clearly communicate

concepts to other people.

 

But what are astrologers today? Well, we still don't belong to conventional

society, largely because we've never had the self discipline to do real

research. Each astrologer has his/her own bag of techniques that have never

been tested. Fun to banter back and forth? Sure. Productive? Maybe not.

 

There are a few people out there who can make accurate mundane and

political predictions, and sometimes their articles appear in such

publications as Geocosmic News.

 

But too many of us miss.

 

Therese

[Guest guest]

>Well, for me a brilliant or just good astrologer is someone who sees the

>future with the aid of a zodiac and not a person who reads and interprets

>the past with astrological language, as what is frequently done in the

>astrology books and lists.

>(End of Quote)

 

The way an astrologer sees his work, and what he or she thinks is the

nature of astrology, is a reflection of personality. Generally speaking,

" astrologer " is just someone who uses astrology as his main professional

tool. There are many types of astrologers.

 

The astro-therapist or astro-healer, for example, may discard altogether

pretensions of " seeing the future " as unethical and psychologically harmful

for his or her clients, and may concentrate heavily on a re-examination,

re-interpretation, and re-construction of the past and present reality of

an individual. This reconstruction is the foundation of certain forms of

psychotherapy, and may become an essential component of astrological

practice when seen from the psychological perspective. It allows to

strengthen the sense of (a higher) purpose in a person's life.

 

The key is this type of astrological work is being able to perceive (and

communicate) the organic nature of a life or biography, how the apparently

unrelated pieces scattered through time all fit harmoniously together and

illuminate themselves, shedding light on the darker parts and strengthening

the light of the luminous ones, identifying the main points of a biography

or a historical entity.

 

Astrological structures (e.g., birth charts, transits, etc.) provide a tool

for diagnosis and for the modeling and structuring of personal and

collective history. Working on a person's biography with the aid of

Astrology is a powerful healing technique, and " reading " or interpreting

astrologically the entelechy of a personality or of a set of circumstances

focuses the astrologer's work on the phenomenology of consciousness, which

can result in leaving behind any interest in foretelling the future.

 

In spite of what is often asserted by those confused by astrology's

predictive power, life is not a straight-jacket or a matrix of compulsions.

It is an open system of " coincidences " (or concordances) between the inner

and the outer, between consciousness and circumstance, between celestial

mechanics and the flow of things or the becoming. All this system of

relationships happens inside the mind, which organizes experience and gives

name and meaning to things, so that through imagination it is possible to

transform a person's reality.

 

To me, the stature of an astrologer is not his or her pretensions of being

able to " see " or predict the future, but his capacity to show the

possibilities that life always offers, emphasizing that the result of an

event or experience does not depend on " the stars " , but in what we make

with those events or experiences.

 

Juan