Basic Routines of Study

A horoscope, is it a message to be decoded or bad fishing?

To what extent or to what degree do certain sky patterns at birth have it in them to assist or support basic handling fitness of a human? Can it delineate the character and circumstances of people and enterprises too, or be helpful in other ways?

To go for solid, fit inspection is supported by such as the Biblical "Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgement." (John 7:24).

And as Luke wrote long ago: "Since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you . . ." (Luke 1:3). There are many ways to investigate. In what orderor orders are orderly accounts formed? That depends on the material, on the scholar, his school or institution, and the readers or listeners (target groups) among other things.

Findings may for example be presented metaphorically by figures and by tales. Some prefer this, others that, and much else. Rudolf Steiner, originator of Waldorf education, says:

Let me therefore give you an example of something that can sink into the child's soul so that it grows as the child grows, something that you can come back to in later years and use to arouse certain feelings. Nothing is more useful and fruitful in teaching than to give the children something in picture form between the seventh and eighth years, and later, perhaps in the fourteenth and fifteenth years, to come back to it again in some way or other. . .

Now suppose for instance that we tell an imaginative story to a child of seven or eight. The child does not need to understand at once all the pictures contained in the story; I will describe later why this is not necessary. All [?] that matters is that the child takes delight in the story because it is presented with a certain grace and charm. . . .

Now if you tell the children a story of this kind they will most certainly listen, for they always listen to such things. But you must tell it in the right mood, so that when the children have heard the story they somehow feel the need to live with it and turn it over inwardly in their souls. This is very important, . . . but we must not be continually pumping into the children like a steam pump; there must be a variation . . . we should be able to see from the children's faces and gestures that they want to ask questions. We allow time for questions. (Steiner 1995, 57-60, passim)

This was to illustrate that orderly presentations may be in the form of imaginative stories told with a mood and adapted to the age of the receivers and the setting.

Growing persons and many others could benefit from getting figures of speech explained. The taxonomy of learning, further, shows how to build up figures of speech and symbols. [Stepwise]

One may study the figure on that page to make way down the stairs "down from the metaphor" to step 3 and 2 again so as to arrive at effective tales - maybe. Tried meanings that may be applied with a measure of success may thus be derived from the symbol, metaphor, figurative speech, regardless of other, possible meanings. Good grasps are had be doing things - "learning by doing" applies here (from step 3 to step 2 in the figure).

What we get when "cracking open symbols and metaphors" is like cracking nuts. Some have good kernels, others have bad kernels, and some have no kernels that matter.

Also, much depends on how we interpret figurative expressions.

A way of Buddha:

The Blessed One [Buddha] thought: "I have taught the truth . . . But simple as it is, the people cannot understand it . . . I must adapt my thoughts to their thoughts . . . Therefore, I will tell them stories." [in Carus 1915]

So he told parables. [Compare]

Astrology

Astrology is intertwined with stories. There are stories of gods and goddesses related to stars in the sky, star clusters called constellations, the sun and the moon and planets in the solar system. There are ancient stories of the planets, each found to be a god of Greeks of old, and others too. They appear to hover across a background of stars in the Milky Way - too.

The constellations are irregular polygons of varying shapes. There are 88 official constellations today. The sun appears to pass through 13 of them in a year. The thirteenth constellation is the Serpent Holder, Ophiuchus. There are old tales about older constellations, from many civilizations: Egyptian, Indian, Sumerian-Babylonian, Greek, and others. Various mythologies contain such stories, and what is more, they differ considerably. There is a problem there.

Which similar tales and which divergent variants are the best tale? Such claims are hard to justify, yet many ancient astrology-related tales may be entertaining in their own right.

Some Points

If one of your aims in life is to be welcomed and accepted among scholars, there is a chance you might get accepted more easily if you fail to study astrology. Or maybe you want to go to India, where astrology is accepted in universities.

Following a judgement of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2001 which favoured astrology, some Indian universities now offer advanced degrees in Hindu astrology. (WP, "Hindu astrology")

Astrology is also quite an art. Many seem to find refreshing benefits from dealing with arts, and some such "horoscopy artists' make money. Much depends on how we respond to and make use of tests and hardships.

Dreams at night are for one or more sound reasons, working for our good, Jungian psychology teaches also. (3)

Hindu astrologers claim their sorts of horoscopes can assist evolution - a birth chart might suggests inherent inclinations, some of which can be curbed, harnessed and given free play also. Maybe you are helped through such an approach; maybe not. As xx say:

Anyone can be a millionaire, but to become a billionaire you need an astrologer. - John Pierpont Morgan

We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. - Carl Gustav Jung