There are presently over 1.3 billion people in India, a country that has one of the longest continuous cultures in the world. Consider for a moment the variety of different approaches to Vedic or Hindu astrology, many aspects of which may not have been explained or popularized in the west. It is a tradition with fewer interruptions from its roots in Babylonian/Persian times. Contrast that to western astrology which was developed by Arabs, but borrowed by the Greeks who often did not understand what they were reading or being given, thus distorting it as they passed it north and westward. As to western astrology, there are over a dozen different house systems used for the tropical zodiac alone. So there is high contrast on some of these things even within one cultural approach, because each is not unified and singular. They are first and foremost just two different zodiacal metrics.
There is no rule about mixing various concepts if it is done skillfully and with wisdom, so no "should" or shouldn't either. Ry Redd is a western astrologer who uses Vedic and covered it well in his book Toward A New Astrology.
You do have a good point about cherry picking, however. This can be done for self-flattery or self-flagellation, or just with a superficial eye. That can be done just as much within one system.
Western astrology is much more prone to trends. For a while it was the asteroid craze. Then it was back to traditional astrology with its laundry list of rules and arcane terminology.
The problems I perceive in Vedic are most around the worn out non-empowering concepts of luck, fortune and misfortune, auspicious or inauspicious -- intrustions into something that can be about soul development and real empowerment. There is also not much use of declinations. Big gap there. But traditionally rooted systems like that in India have been uninterrupted by religious craze and paranoia over occult matters and fortune telling that have plagued astrology in the west. The key is not judging a measuring system (tool) by those who are using it. Both measuring systems are valid -- even if that seems contradictory. One astrologer can use both -- IF they do it knowledgeably and skillfully.
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Soul Stars Astrology - by the declinations guy
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