posted October 11, 2009 09:44 PM         

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Explaining that people hold a large amount of their destiny in their own hands leads some to the conclusion that either astrology is useless, or that the reading has been "watered down" to make it universal and thusly applicable to just about anyone. Which is heart breaking, actually, because it's exactly that elusive, "do with this what you will" overtone that has drawn me to astrology as a life study beyond passing, superficial interest. I can look at my natal chart and think, "here are the tools and materials I've been given, now it's time to go build a life with them."

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Beautifull written, Aerial. I've been thinking about this so often lately, and having studied astrology deeply for years (although I'm not an astrologer)--and I guess that ultimately, I'm not really sure I believe it accurately shows the tools and materials we've been given...I kind of think it can give people who are brilliant at analyzing human interactions, personality, and behavior a helpful metaphorical funnel for their intuitions. Used more deterministically than that, it seems way less accurate to me than careful psychological analysis.

I don't mean formal psychotherapy--I mean that a brilliant, intuitive, insightful person who has studied astrology who's never met you might be able to offer some insight on your relationship by checking out your natal, synastry, transits, progressions, composite. But having thought about it a whole lot, for years, I think the same person could offer more, better, deeper, more detailed insights and even more accurate predictors of behavior by spending 11 hours with you, observing you, meeting your guy, watching you two together, and talking to you in depth about what you want, need, and value.

I think astrology is way, waaay more useful if someone uses it in combination with talking to the querent about what's actually happening in her life than reading it blind, with no connection to reality. The combination is wonderful, but if I had to throw out a tool for relationship analysis, I would ditch astrology and I would keep intuition, intellect, conversation, and observation of real behavior.

Especially after reading this site for such a long time--I can't tell you how many times I've seen people post about their "soul mate" connection, and certain astrologers here validate it, and then when it turns out the guy doesn't like them they come back with a new "soul mate" the next month, and everyone pretends the last thing never happened--and then it all gets RATIONALIZED with, "Oh, well but you are soul mates, just not meant to be together in this lifetime." WHATEVER. If I ask someone for insight about a relationship or connection, I kind of want information that's relevent to what's actually manifesting in our lives and what we actually want!!! The best way to get that information is to check in.

I think that's why some of the readings I've gotten don't really resonate--because blind chart-reading outside of an interaction with the person that reveals what they want and need tends to be realllllly inaccurate and irrelevent. (Like the reader who told me last year that I would get married and have kids within the year. If he'd bothered to ask, he would've learned that I don't believe people's sex and love lives should be a matter of state interests, and that I really, really don't want a child anytime soon and I am taking great care not to have one. AND that I am hoping to find a passionate fling, not another LTR for a while.)

I guess I think if astrology (or science) really accurately showed "here are the tools and materials I've been given", we COULD use those toolkits in place of free will. Neither astrological determinism nor biological determinism is very accurate, IMO.

What I really hate around here is that people want to have their theoretical cake and eat it too. There's all this rationalization for why it doesn't really work. And that just annoys me. And I think the rationalizations run so deep that people really believe them. I'm not sure whether using astrology is actually helping these people's lives. I think perhaps using astrology to understand personal psychology is more constructive than using it to work with relationships, but either way, the determinism is a huge bummer, and a huge INACCURATE bummer.

On the other hand, if I meet someone and spend ten minutes with them in person, I can guess their Sun Sign (I never get Moon or ASC, just Sun...I don't so much use cookbook interpretations to do it, I just tune into who they most remind me of in essence that I've met before, and guess that person's sign.) I place high stock in sun sign astrology--I can use it with incredible accuracy--not as a predictive tool, obviously, but I can guess people's signs and then guess, accordingly, how they're secretly feeling and how they'll behave. The other, more refined astrological tools I think are more interpretive. And that's not out of ignorance--I've been studying them for years.