I agree somewhat on rectifications of charts. A good test would be to
give an astrologer a birth chart which has an accurate birth time and
have them rectify. A really good astrologer might say "I think the
birth time given is accurate."
I was "blue baby" at birth and since my birth certificate time makes me
an early Libra due to my technical interests had some amateur
astrologers believe I was a late Virgo. This is ALL jyotish mind you as
I don't pay much heed to tropical astrology. However the pros said I
wouldn't have an older sister (which I do) if I was a Virgo.
The problem with many westerners in astrology (both tropical and
jyotish) is they become too infatuated with minutia. I like to tell the
story of Hart DeFouw putting up a chart in one of his classes and asking
for an interpretation. He got all kinds of stuff back based on the
nakashatras but what he wanted was a reading just based on the planetary
positions. Another astrologer friend from India came to one of our
study sessions and some folks in the group started asking questions
about nakshatras etc. He paused for a moment and said, "actually many
successful Indian astrologers just use simple methods."
Many amateur jyotishis forget that jyotish means "science of light."
Some think that planetary periods are binary. One minute you are in one
dasha and the next minute another. But it's more like a fadeout and
fade in. Same with infancy in old age in a chart. Planets don't become
weak because they are going between houses and signs. Instead the
meaning of that house and sign is waning (fading out) while the next
sign is waxing (fading in). This gave mixed results for astrologers.
Still I wager that astrology is far, far better than any WAG (Wild Ass
Guess). There has been research into effects of births at different
times of the year and even interest in researching births at certain
times of the day. Of course OMG that might validate astrology.
Bad astrologers give astrology a bad name not astrology itself.
On 11/03/2013 08:47 AM, [email protected] wrote:
---In [email protected], <sharelong60@...> wrote:
Astrologers have methods for determining if the TOB recorded on the
birth certificate is accurate. For example, by one's gender. Also by
details of one's life. For example, a jyotishi looked at my birth time
and asked if I had known my Dad's mother. I said yes and by using
details of her life, he was able to determine my accurate birth time.
Which was a few minutes before the time on my birth certificate so
that made sense to me. I've been told that nurses back then, 1948,
stepped out of the delivery room to record the time.
I do not believe this has ever been tested, so it is a supposition
that an astrologer, usinging whatever methods they use, can discover
an actual birth time that is recorded inaccurately. My hypothesis is
that rectification of times is a dodge developed to counteract the
discrepancies that arise when astrology fails to predict events. By
adjusting the time, the chart then 'works better'.
If we had documented evidence of births with accurately recored times,
then a double-blind study of astrologers trying to find those times
when that information is withheld in various ways would be possible to
see if they can really do that. My bet is they cannot because
astrology is largely a matter of delusional thinking.
Notice that the TMO has never published any study showing the
scientific validity of astrology. There have been very few
double-blind tests of any astrological system that have been well
designed. There was one done at UC Berkeley some 25 years ago with
Western astrology, and all the work was done by professional
astrologers, and the result came out no better than chance. That study
dealt with personality characteristics, which are difficult to define.
The astrologers in that test were matching horoscopes with a
standardised personality inventory. Documented evidence of birth times
was required for the participants. The result was published in Science.
Jyotish, which seems more event driven, would be easier to test. But
because it has the same delusional underpinnings as Western astrology,
I do not see how the results would be any better.
There are questions here which seem impossible to parse. Why, for
example, would the sex of a child have an effect on the birth time?
What laws of nature would be invoked and how do they function?
