--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "hugheshugo" > <richardhughes103@> wrote: > > > > The idea that planets can go "retrograde" is all due to the > > ludicrous maths involved in making the earth appear to be > > the centre of the solar system, it really isn't. > > It sounds a lot like the math involved in saying > that one's spiritual teacher is "the best," or > that one's spiritual path is "the best." Those > beliefs are based on the person who thinks that > appearing to be at the center of the universe, > too. :-) > > Personally I think that astrology is hogwash, > *except* as tricksterism. That is, some people > whose intuition and "seeing" skills are present > but latent can *trick* themselves into utilizing > their latent ability to "see" by gazing a chart > of the position of the planets. > > For other people, it's tarot cards. For still > others, reading tea leaves. None of the trickster > mechanisms do anything or mean anything; they're > all equally bogus. *But*, if they allow someone > to get past their own disbelief and trick them- > selves into utilizing previously-unused abilities, > they work like gangbusters.
Interesting idea, I'm sure the unconscious mind knows far more about what's going on than our "higher" faculties ever could. And with good reason, there has to be a filter between them or we would be so swamped with information we couldn't get anything done. Maybe these ancient ideas like tarot or the I-ching with their evocative imagery speaking directly to our symbolic deeper selves could maybe side-step logic and get to our real awareness, which would be where the intuition comes from. Carl Jung said that if he had his life again he would devote it to the study of the I-ching, he thought it opened a conduit to the collective unconscious. He obviously had more luck with it than I did! > Basically, I see astrology and all other "predic- > tive technologies" as the Dumbo's feathers of the > universe. Remember Dumbo, from the Disney cartoon? > When he held the feather in his trunk, he could > fly. The feather didn't do diddleysquat; Dumbo's > belief that it did was all that mattered. IMO, > that's the only reason that astrology appears > to "work." > > For that matter, that might be the same reason > why *any* technique of Self realization appears > to "work." Self has always been present; all that > the techniques do is trick the seeker into real- > izing what has always been present. >
