Astrology: Part 2 — The Science Behind the Scam
In Part 1 of the series, I wrote what is Astrology all about. Why do scientists disagree with the whole practice? In this one, I will take you deeper into the world of prediction.
Imagine yourself traveling to a remote village in the middle of a snow-clad mountain where a lot of tourists come. What business would you establish there that is low-cost and easy to manage?
You sell sunglasses.
You didn’t need a prediction. You used your associative mind and churned the demand in the area.
Astrologers couldn’t prove that it’s not a science but they have their predictions talking for them. These predictions aren’t objective yet they keep on coming. Some turn out to be true. Some are not so.
Astrologers don’t care about the mathematical aspect of it. They don’t care that their practice makes zero difference in making the world better.
Why do they continue to practice?
If the whole process isn’t scientific why do these things are taught? How does this pseudo-science prosper?
People carry thousands of opinions. These opinions are derived from their experiences. Even though they think they are being logical, they are not.
Unless you categorically dissect any opinion into its fractal, go back to the first principles, and prove each fractal right, your opinion is nothing but a bias.
It’s the same with astrology. To be able to predict the future is lucrative. As a believer, you would want to spend money on it thinking you can influence your future. The person learning astrology wants to perfect it so s/he can create a business out of it.
When you invest a good and important part of your life into something, it’s hard to turn around and call it what it is — a scam. It’s possible but it’s tough.
It’s the same when you snap an expensive fitness device on your wrist thinking it will help you stay fit. You defend it by showing all the fancy features like heart rate, ECG, step count, pulse, your oxygen level but you cannot call out your bias.
We are emotional beings. People who are obsessed with astrology usually come from a place where scientific temper wasn’t appreciated. They operate from fear, not curiosity.
A little bit of curiosity regarding astrology is fine but I’m talking about obsessions like wearing rings, and pendants, doing things on a specific date, at a specific time, to judge the world based on zodiac signs. If you check their horoscopes, you will find narcissistic tendencies.
So, what’s causing what?
The predictions have caused havoc in many people’s lives. Bad at articulating your ideas? Must be the bad mercury. I am writing this piece where I’m pissing on the astrology but my Mercury has to be good.
How do they make predictions that occasionally come true?
The answer is — In hindsight, the vision is always 20:20.
If you go back in time and check the planetary positions during all the wars, you will find a pattern among all. Use astronomy and mathematics to find out when will the same pattern emerge and you have the time of the next war.
We are the victims of planetary patterns. This has been going on for centuries now. Once you identify planets and their position, you can impose them into your major life events. You will find a pattern.
There are a finite number of planets and an infinite number of events in our lives. Astrologers over the centuries have divided life and world events into finite events and attached planetary positions to predict the outcome.
When you find and attach patterns retrospectively you are not predicting, you are associating the movements of planets with life events.
That’s why the astrologer can predict your past, and your vague personality traits with authority, and often struggle to predict the future. The association works magically when we glance at the past. Astrologers often sound uncertain about predicting the future.
In India, most of the weddings happen during the winter. Coincidentally all the good planets align best in the winter. In the western countries where winters are harsh, they tend to marry in Summer. I’m sure all the good planets align for them during Summer.
The seasonal impacts are different relative to where you are on Earth but on the grand scale the planets like Jupiter, Mars, and others impact the whole earth, shouldn’t they? I am talking from an astronomical perspective, not from astrological.
Astrologers believe that the 7th house in your horoscope is a house of partnership. How many things are associated with a partnership? Marriage is foremost.
What if Mars, the god of war, is sitting in the house of partnership? What comes out of it? Conflict.
So, how do you nullify the impact according to astrologers? By marrying someone who has the same pattern.
They are suggesting putting two rabid dogs in one kennel and expecting a baby after some time.
Let me give you another example. The 12th house in your horoscope is often considered the house of suffering, self, something that is internal. Mars, the god of war, sitting in that house, what does that imply?
Conflict with the self. Conflict with the God. High emotions, too many thoughts raging inside. I can go on with the interpretation.
Well, here’s the red pill. Mars doesn’t give a shit about your life and your values. The relationship of your parents has a higher influence on your temperament and your relationship with your partner than the red giant.
Centuries ago, astrologers might have done a personality profile and discovered the common element out of all. They then measured everyone using those personality templates.
Let me explain to you with an example of how it could play out.
Imagine a room where you gather 100 people suffering from depression. Their horoscopes are made to find the common element. There are finite planets, there are finite constellations (at least in astrology). There’s bound to be a correlation.
They concluded that if this combination is present, it means the person will at some point in life be depressed. Before the mental illnesses were diagnosed, depression and anxiety were called Mubble-fubble. Schizophrenia was considered possession by demonic spirits.
Humanity today has made immense progress in medical science so astrologers started associating those “illnesses” with the planets instead of demons. Do you see their working style now?
If the astrologer is operating in the 21st century and analyzes the horoscope with mental illness combination the astrologer will advise to take care of the mental health.
If the astrologer was operating in the 18th century, the advice would have been mental asylum. They are using modern progress and associating it with the planets but back then they didn’t have the association.
Astrology has no answer whatsoever to any question unless it falls in their association matrix. So, if your life event is unique in the grand scheme of things, astrology’s finite observational matrix will have no answer to it. Or worse they will have the wrong interpretation for it.
You only need class five math to understand this circus.
My example above isn’t random. A similar exercise has happened where they compared the horoscopes of all the serial killers in America.
They did find the pattern. Unfortunately, the pattern didn’t turn out to be unique. That’s why they failed at identifying serial killers from the horoscopes or predicting autism because there is no finite pattern for such events.
The law of causality makes life infinite.
You are a victim of a mathematical game. They discovered correlation and convinced you that it is the causation.
Indian astrology goes a lot deeper than Western astrology.
There are 27 recognized constellations for astrology. The calculations are such that you are assigned one constellation and there’s a meaning behind each of them. Each constellation is assigned a lord, usually a planet. Then there are zodiac signs, they have their respective lord too, usually a planet. Then there are 9 planets (excluding Uranus, Pluto, and Neptune).
Then begins the game of permutation and interpretation. There are also friends and enemies among these planets.
There’s a whole circus.
Just because you share the same planetary pattern as a serial killer doesn’t make you one.
The ability to discover patterns out of nature and the universe is how humanity has strived. This begs the question of the latest discoveries we are making. We have now discovered 88 constellations. Are we going to see more back-tested patterns from astrology?
I am raising a concern because it has already happened.
Uranus and Neptune were discovered in the 19th century. Pluto was discovered in the 20th century.
So, how did these become part of the modern astrology?
They followed the same principles, where were these planets in say 1776 when America gained independence, or 1947 when India got independence? If these planets enter the same territory in the same pattern, it is assumed that something similar will happen.
What would you say if you see a boy spending the majority of his time in a bad company? The chances of him not focusing on his career increase manifold. He will not be a respected individual in his life.
Would you say that his friends are actively causing the boy’s downfall and he is blameless? Or is the boy making a choice and ergo facing the consequences? Or worse, the planets align in such a way that he is forced to choose between remaining in bad company and improving his life?
What’s causing what?
This takes me on a wild ride of imagination and corners me to answer the perennial question that has baffled humanity.
Both the parts of the series were inadvertently leading towards the same question. As a reader, you must have sensed it.
Without answering that question this series wouldn’t be over. My arguments would seem incomplete.
The question is Do we have free will? Do we have any choice at all? Is there a governing authority over all forms of life?
Is there a God?