cthia wrote:JohnRoth wrote:
You've gotten the background on Platonism, Neoplatonism, a dozen other Classical Greek philosophers, and learned that the reason the Greeks restricted themselves to straight lines and circles in their geometry was because they were perfect and hence as close to God as they were going to get?
I'd have loved to sit in on those discussions. Without that, all you know is a pale shadow of the art, and anyone who argues against it without knowing the background is simply displaying their ignorance. Not that most professional astrologers know the intellectual history of the art.
Not that it has much to do with whether or not it works; I just dislike people pontificating from a smug position of unrecognized ignorance.
From someone who could have become a professional astrologer if I'd been willing to compromise a few principles, I'd advise either forgetting the sun sign junk or learn some real astrology. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Hey, I'm with you that I don't know a damn thing about astrology! I hope I didn't imply that I did.
The gist of my knowledge begins and ends with knowing my own sign and the signs I am supposed to be compatible with.
The
why and the
how, completely escapes me!
My fiancee doesn't know much about it either.
She just hates that it says we're not supposed to be compatible!
I am sure you know much...so show us some, and tell me what some of the characters may be. I sure can't!
Except Elizabeth, she seems to be Taurean for sure!
I think I said why I wouldn't, but I suppose it needs a bit more explication. While it's possible to transfer part of the framework (signs and houses), it isn't possible to transfer the rest of the framework (exact locations of stars and the mythic framework behind the constellations). Even if you could, they'll just sit there staring at you until you insert the actual drivers: the sun, planets and moons. We don't know enough about any of these to draw a horoscope for any of the characters, nor do we know enough about the planetary symbology. Neither of these can, even in principle, be determined until you're on the ground there and working with them for some time - meaning at least 50 years or so.
A different, and for me a significantly more cogent reason, is that until recently (late 19th century to be exact - that's recent for an art that was invented in the 2nd or 3rd cent BCE,) astrology didn't render opinions about a person's personality. Why should it? You knew who they were.
Most of that was invented in the late 19th century to keep "Alan Leo" out of jail for fortunetelling, the rest in the 1950s. Prior to that, astrology was always about events, never about personality. The only time people worried about personal compatibility was for marriages, and then astrologers used the same tools they used to divine the success of any other proposed endeavor. I did that for my own marriage. It said: Bad Idea. We went ahead. Result: really bad idea! I'm still recovering fifteen years after the divorce.
Astrology, together with magic and several philosophical schools people are only dimly aware of today (Stoics? Epicurians? who they?,) had a bit to do with spiritual growth. That went underground when Christianity claimed a monopoly on the area and wasn't shy about toasting anyone who disagreed.
(though off earth they'd be imports, not native).
