answering astrology's critics

waybread

Well-known member
I had just prepared the following post to Io Pan's thread on signs and constellations, only to learn that he had been banned and the thread was closed. So I will start a new one for anyone truly interested in what I believe to be the foundational questions about why astrology should work, if it does; and why adjacent pie-sectors of the heavens should have radically different interpretations, despite points on either side of the cusps being separated by only a few degrees. There's probably another question about why a planet (like Jupiter) should have certain effects attributed to it.

There isn't a single answer to these questions, but several.

Io Pan mentioned architecture as his field a couple of times, so maybe we can reason from this particular field. My intent here is not to prove why astrology should work, but to address critics who fault astrology for its lack of scientific rigour. I think we have several comparables in other disciplines.

Architecture has components based upon science, math, and engineering: after all, we don't want a building to collapse or an air conditioning system to malfunction because the plans called for improper installation. The astrological analogy would be the ephemeris.

Architecture also has an artistic component driven by esthetic judgements and creative design. It has a social component where architects are required by planning and zoning to include handicap access, blend a new building with historic architecture surrounding it, or accommodate environmental considerations. The astrological analogy would be the more intuitive interpretive art of chart reading, and consideration of the very social lives of the human subjects. (I've met a number of Canadian architects, and my son is an architectural designer: my guess is that only 10% of them get into the field because they like the technical parts. The majority prefer the creative, artistic side.)

Again, by analogy, what takes the astrologer onto the technical side is reading the chart. (Prior to computer-generated charts, astrologers calculated them by hand, in a process they referred to as "chart erection" or "construction"-- very comparable to buildings.)

Today there is a design trend toward multiple-use, more open spaces. In a big loft apartment, we don't have walls dividing rooms into separate-use spaces, with a couple of exceptions like the bathrooms. However, the residents visually segregate different parts of the loft for eating, sleeping, home office, and so on.

By analogy with sign cusps, how do the loft apartment residents determine where to eat or where to have a seating area for conversation? Mentally they compartmentalize without objectively real boundaries, just as astrologers do when considering adjacent signs. The loft owners don't need lines on the floor to undertake completely different activities.

The loft dwellers' explanation might be traditions about uses of space and functions (we cook in the kitchen.) Same with astrology: we have traditions about how we carve up celestial space, and functions attributed to portions of celestial space.

What makes for good creative design? In architecture there are certain time-tested principles to follow: a sense of proportion as to important and less important themes would be one. "Form follows function" would be another. Colour theory would be a third. Similarly, in astrology, there are principles and guidelines to follow. (An initial focus on the sun-moon-ascendant triad would be one example.)

Yet in both fields, there is a subjective element. We know this about architecture because of changing fashions in architectural styles. There is modernism and post-modernism, to cite one example. So an architect critical of another discipline because of its subjectivity would have to look first at the subjectivity inherent in creative design.

One architect may swear by a particular style or construction technique, that is totally at odds with her competitor's "truths." Contextually, however, either or both could be correct. Similarly, astrologers can produce good results with any of the major divisions of astrology, even when they are at odds with their competitors' "truths."

Where does architectural creativity come from? We can't find it in the textbooks. There is no logical explanation for a Frank Lloyd Wright or Frank Gehry.

Why does one architectural design "work" so beautifully for its observers and users, and another one fail? Both architectural teams might follow the textbooks on design principles to the letter. The reason is because architecture is also a synergistic process. The same with astrology. In both cases there is a human intuitive and subjective interface with the technical aspects.

Astrology, like architecture has to do with human intuition and subjectivity, at the same time that both have their technical "specs" to consider. In the act of designing, these may become difficult to separate. The architect intuitively grasps what would make a beautiful design within the constraints of the building lot, budget, and zoning. The astrologer intuitively grasps what could make a worthwhile life in the context of the native's planetary placements in signs and houses.

In a building design there is a holistic complex system where bricks-and-mortar, creativity, form, function, occupants, and clients interact Perhaps the clients set a budget and a list of needs. Perhaps the design team's preliminary designs are based upon their past history with prior similar clients and occupants. Oftentimes the clients love one part of the preliminary design work while demanding changes to another, and an interactive feedback process begins.

Same with astrology. In gazing at the thousands of data bytes comprising a horoscope, a seasoned astrologer considers empirical evidence from past clients with similar charts. S/he combines core meanings of the data bytes in ways consistent with astrology's symbolic language.

Architecture, too, communicates through symbolic language. It communicates statements of power, comfort, innovation, serenity, tradition, or other variables through its design elements.

Astrology, like architecture is all about complex systems with multiple feedback loops. Does an architect "cause" a building, or is it the real estate developer? The role of the construction industry in the economy? The contractors?

The stars or signs don't "cause" anything in a holistic, interactive complex system. How could they? Similarly, we can't point to one "cause" when a new building is constructed.

Astrology is all about astrologers using their intuitive abilities to link human lives to the cosmos. In a complex holistic system, yes, people do influence the heavens in part. We and the stars are but interconnected parts of the cosmos that lies between our ears. Some cutting edge quantum physics is moving in the same direction.
 
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