Astrology as superstition
Some men have thought, and even now think, that astrology is superstition, blind faith. To a great extent this seems to be true. Those things that it is difficult to find a scientific explanation for seem to us to be based only on blind faith. But astrology is very scientific. The meaning of science is the investigation of the relationship between cause and effect. Astrology says that whatever happens on this earth is not uncaused. However, we may not be aware of the causes. Astrology says that the shape which the future will take cannot be isolated from the past but must be joined to it: what you will be tomorrow will be joined to what you are today; what you were until today is joined to what you will be tomorrow.
Astrology is a very scientific way of thinking. It says that the future will emerge only out of the past: your today has emerged from your yesterday; your tomorrow will emerge from your today. Astrology also says that whatever will happen tomorrow is in some subtle way present even today. Now try to understand a little about this.
Three days before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln dreamt that he had been murdered and that his corpse was lying in a special room in the White House. He even noted the number of his room. At that point his sleep was broken, and when he woke up, he laughed. He said to his wife, ”I dreamt that I was murdered and that my body was lying in such-and-such-number room, and in such-and- such wing of the White House” – he was sleeping in that wing of the White House. ”You stood at my head, and such-and-such people were standing all around”.
It was a joke, a laughing matter to him. Lincoln and his wife went back to sleep. Three days later Lincoln’s assassination took place. Three days later his body was lying in that number room, in that very place, and in that sequence people were standing around his body.
If what was to occur three days later had not in some fashion already occurred, then how could such a dream have taken place? How could the dream resemble, in such detail, what actually took place? Such a glimpse is given in a dream only if in some way it is already implied in the present moment. Then only can we get a glimpse of what will take place in the future. If we open the window of the present, then we will be able to see that the future is just outside this window. It is the thesis of astrology that the future is simply our ignorance – so, it is, “the future.” If we were to see, then the future would not be a ”happening” for us – we would know it is already present here and now.
Astrology is a very scientific way of thinking. It says that the future will emerge only out of the past: your today has emerged from your yesterday; your tomorrow will emerge from your today. Astrology also says that whatever will happen tomorrow is in some subtle way present even today. Now try to understand a little about this.
Three days before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln dreamt that he had been murdered and that his corpse was lying in a special room in the White House. He even noted the number of his room. At that point his sleep was broken, and when he woke up, he laughed. He said to his wife, ”I dreamt that I was murdered and that my body was lying in such-and-such-number room, and in such-and- such wing of the White House” – he was sleeping in that wing of the White House. ”You stood at my head, and such-and-such people were standing all around”.
It was a joke, a laughing matter to him. Lincoln and his wife went back to sleep. Three days later Lincoln’s assassination took place. Three days later his body was lying in that number room, in that very place, and in that sequence people were standing around his body.
If what was to occur three days later had not in some fashion already occurred, then how could such a dream have taken place? How could the dream resemble, in such detail, what actually took place? Such a glimpse is given in a dream only if in some way it is already implied in the present moment. Then only can we get a glimpse of what will take place in the future. If we open the window of the present, then we will be able to see that the future is just outside this window. It is the thesis of astrology that the future is simply our ignorance – so, it is, “the future.” If we were to see, then the future would not be a ”happening” for us – we would know it is already present here and now.