Astrology

[porphyry]

I belong elsewhere to a discussion list devoted to certain aspects of Late Antique religion.

One of the other members--beisdes constatnly going out his way to mock me--constatly espouses a weird combination of half-understood facts with his grandiose and nearly psychotic syncretic, mystifiying interpretations.

The other day he admited that he is a professional atrologer (or at least that is his pretension, I have no idea what he makes from it--though, oddly enough one of my best 'freinds' on the list some years ago was another astrologer).

Once he revealed this, I had, of course, powerful weapons to use agianst him , since the debunking of astrology is a well-known procedure.

I limited myself to asking him two questions.

The first was an updating of Augustine's ship-wreck test: Everyone that died in the WTC on 9/11 perished from two single instanaeous events. How could this be when their natal charts must have contained a tremendous amount of variation.

His answer: How do you know their natal charts were all different? have you seen them? Look them up and then send them to me, and I'll explain it to you.

The second question was: of The inverse square law is not a principal of astrology (by which, for insance, light from more distant obects is dimmer than from nearer ones of the same absolute brightness). The moon and saturn have the same level of influece, and the stars count equally. So what about the problem of newly discovered classes of astronomical objecsts, such as galaxies and Kyper objects (Kyper objects, by the way, are large masses of rock and ice that circle the sun out beyond the planets--Pluto and Chairon are the nearest, and as far as we know the largest which is why they were originally msitaken for a planet; there are millions of these objects; colelctively they probably have more mass than the planets). Surely these must have a huge influence on the astrological radiation of fate, but they are never taken into account in astrological charts.

His answer: Kyper? Do you mean Kepler? What are you gibbering about?

Comments

[of-sugar.livejournal.com]

His answer: Kyper? Do you mean Kepler? What are you gibbering about

Hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha... ohmygosh. I haven't laughed this hard in a while. XD

The few astrologers I've met in person -- casually, or during workshops I have actually attended with my mother -- are full of it (I'm trying to be polite). There is always this air about them, like they know some big secret us lowly humans do not. They won't divulge it, but they'll give you hints for some nice sum.
It's really a shame, because despite every disillusioning experience I've had, I keep wanting to believe in that stuff very badly. :-/

[benicek.livejournal.com]

Astrology is up there with numerology and scientology at the top of the mumbo-jumbo league.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Quite so! All those Oriental fantasies! I put my trust in good-old sheep's livers!

[benicek.livejournal.com]

At least with augurs you can have a good barbecue afterwards.

[petrusplancius.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that your adversary really rendered himself vulnerable by stating that he practised astrology; an astrologist simply follows certain traditional procedures, and it is up to his customers to decide whether They place any faith in those procedures. I have personally only consulted an astrologer once, a gentleman who had an office in a back-street in Bristol; he was very earnest and must have spent about half an hour on his charts and horoscopes (or whatever they are), and he also swung a little crystal on a string above some sort of diagram. At the time I was a teenager and fancied that I knew very well what I was interested in and what I was good at, and what I would be doing with my life. After being told a whole a lot of things that contradicted my every thought, I and my companion had a good laugh at his expense after leaving him. For instance, I was studying natural sciences at the time and intended to become a scientist, while he told me that me I had an aesthetic bent and would turn to the study of antiquities. The funny thing is that he was absolutely right and the joke was on me. Not that it necessarily has much to do with the gravitational forces exerted by Saturn.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Of course it was not the gravitational force, but the radiation of melancholy.

I started out in Chemistry before switching to history and then followed the alluring siren-song of Classics. After reading Vettius Valens--which is a form of gibberish--I don't have much patience with anyone pretending to do readings today.

[benicek.livejournal.com]

Where was the fortune teller in Bristol? I lived there for years.