Opinions about astrological prediction are generally divided: "Mysterious! Magical!", say some; "Nonsense!", reply others. In fact, both of these views are based on a misunderstanding of the nature of how astrology really "works". In this article, I will use two stories to show both the true value of astrological prediction, as well as its limits.
Let's imagine that a girl named Ellen goes to an astrologer, who, after studying Ellen's natal chart in relation to this month's planetary positions (transits), tells her that next weekend, she will meet a fine young man with whom she will begin a relationship. And that's exactly what happens. Ellen exclaims to Sue, a friend of hers: "It麓s magic! Everything happened just like my astrologer predicted!" Sue, impressed by this, makes an appointment with the same astrologer. In her session, she is told that yes, she will indeed find that job she's been looking for, and will have it by May. Sue, delighted, goes home and waits for a response from the company to which she had applied, yet May comes and goes, and she doesn麓t receive a call from them. "What a fool I was!", she remarks when she sees Ellen, "I should have known: astrology is nonsense!"
Which one of the two girls is correct in her opinion? One might say that they both are, since after all, astrology seems to have "worked" for Ellen, yet not for Sue. Yet I think it would be more correct to say, on the contrary, that neither girl was correct in her conclusion, since in each case, that conclusion was based on the acceptance of a faulty idea of astrology, that idea being one which many people, both "believers" as well as "sceptics" share: namely, that astrology indeed purports to be able to reliably predict what will happen in the future.
At this point, many readers, both the believers and the sceptics, will be disagreeing with me: "Well, astrology DOES INDEED claim to predict the future, doesn't it?", you may say. And you are right in a way: many astrologers do claim that they can tell you what is awaiting you in the future. This is a claim which no "true believer" would ever dispute, and one that no self-respecting sceptic would fail to criticize, or even ridicule. Opinions on the subject thus would seem to be unreconcilingly polarized. The solution lies in distinguishing what many astrologers CLAIM from that which in fact astrology can really DO.
More than twenty-five years of experience as an astrologer has convinced me that
- astrology cannot make precise predictions about your future
- astrology can indeed reveal the tendencies of your future
And what is the difference? Well, if an astrologer tells you that next Tuesday you will be walking down the street, and will accidently trip and fall, breaking your left wrist as it cracks against a fire hydrant, that would be a pretty precise prediction, wouldn't it? But no astrologer I've ever known makes predictions of such a nature. More likely, an astrologer would say: "There is danger of an accident next Tuesday; try to be more careful than usual!" This is not a precise prediction, but a statement, based on astrological techniques, about an increased probability of a certain type of event occuring. This is the true strength of astrology: not to tell you what is going to happen (since that is beyond its capabilities), but to inform you about the probablilites of certain types of events happening.
Those of you who may be seeking to know just what's going to happen to you in the future might be disappointed by that last sentence, though I hope to show that in fact, it should make you all the more enthusiastic: after all, if the future were totally predetermined, and if it were possible to predict future events exactly, what would be the point? If something unpleasant were predicted for you, you麓d have to be living in constant dread, and if a positive event were predicted, you might just sit back smugly and wait for it to happen, and would thus be robbed of that sudden, wonderful sudden sense of amazement that you would have felt if you hadn't known it was going to happen!
But it's time to get back to Ellen and Sue, who will be the main characters of our second story also: one which will clearly point out the great value of predictive astrology in its true form:
Ellen, who doesn't have a boyfriend (and who thinks it麓s time she find one), is planning to go out for a night on the town next Saturday. She goes out to the mall and walks into a clothing shop, run by her friend, Sue. Sue shows her a dress which she immediately likes; she tries it on, and both are delighted: "Wow!, this makes me look great, doesn't it?", Ellen exclaims. "You bet it does! You look so sexy in that dress, you're guaranteed to find a guy this Saturday!"
Hmmm. it seems that Sue (though not an astrologer) has made a prediction: she "guarantees" that the dress will lead to Ellen麓s finding a boyfriend on Saturday. Okay, we all realize that this wasn麓t really a prediction, and is not really a guarantee, either. Ellen realizes that just as well as we do, yet nonetheless, she forks out a handsome amount of cash and buys the dress. Is she foolish? No, of course not! Naturally she knows that the dress isn麓t a guarantee of romantic success, HOWEVER. So it goes without saying that she's no fool for buying the dress; quite the opposite, if she's really serious about attracting men's attention this weekend, she'd be a fool if she DIDN'T buy the dress!
Well, Saturday hasn't arrived yet, so we don麓t know whether Ellen will meet a nice guy. If she doesn't, would she be justified in returning the dress to Sue's shop, accusing her of fraud for having "guaranteed" that she would meet a guy, when in the end, she didn麓t meet anybody? Of course not. She knew that there was a chance she wouldn麓t meet anybody, but she also knew that she麓d be more likely to meet a guy if she had the dress.
On the other hand, if she DOES meet a nice guy who eventually becomes her boyfriend, would it be reasonable for her to return to the dress shop, wildly happy, and start ranting and raving about how the dress is "absolutely magical! It attracted just the kind of guy I was looking for! It must have some kind of lucky spell on it!" Well, she may say this jokingly, but we'd have to question her sanity if she really believed it . The dress, after all, increased her odds for attracting a guy's attention, and that's what happened. A pleasant surprise, perhaps, but not necessarily "magic".
Correct astrological predictions are not "magic", either, but are in fact quite similar to Ellen's buying that dress. The serious astrologer, studying both his/her client's birth chart as well as the movement of the heavenly bodies on a day-to-day basis (the so-called "transits"), is able to see when it is most likely that a pleasant (or an unpleasant) event is going to occur. The astrologer then tells the client: "This Saturday, there is a good aspect between transit Mars and your natal Venus, as well between transit Jupiter and your natal Mars. Wearing that lovely dress can麓t guarantee it, either. But the positive astrological tendencies that will be in effect next Saturday make it much more likely that she will meet someone than if she were to go out tonight. Thus, if Ellen had indeed been trying to decide whether to go out tonight or to Vloer Lengte Avondjurken wait till next Saturday, her visit to her astrologer would have made it clear: go out Saturday, since your chances are greater then!
This is the true value of predictive astrology: showing you the probabilities so that you may take full advantage of the fortunate times, and also to warn you about the negative tendencies, so that you may have better chance of avoiding mishaps, overcoming negative thoughts, making the best out of unpleasant situations, etc.
Using astrology to find out when to expect the "ups and downs" will not only give you concrete advantages in many situations, but above all, it can help you vloer-length avondjurken A-lijn Avondjurken achieve a greater understanding of the intimate relationship which exists between our lives and the cosmic forces which are continually shaping them.
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