posted July 30, 2012 05:21 PM            

I did test astrology in other ways and it didn't always look good. For example, the library had old books and magazines of all kinds of prophecies, including those based on astrology (had old issues of like Mountain Astrologer, for example) and found it was far more accurate in retrospect than in actual prediction (that is to say they could explain things astrologically, but trying to predict things was a different matter, an extreme example being how an astrologer predicted September 2001 would be a boring month but after 9/11 there were all kinds of essays on the astrological reasons for it happening).

Just to be fair (I'm such a Libra), and because I was curious, I also then checked out expert predictions that even the skeptics respect and found them just as wrong. One old magazine had all the experts predicting Clinton would lose his 2nd term, for example, and were wrong time and time again what politicians and the economy would do. Even the books based on hard science turned out to be wrong again and again when they attempted to predict the future. And by happy coincidence I chanced upon an article of a test done on political & economic experts and they were pitted against a chimp that randomly picked up answers and the chimp had nearly all of them beat by A LOT. The couple that beat the chimp did so only barely (I think the chimp had about a 40% "success"). And I'd also read about how easy it was to fool experts (like getting one of the most respected art experts to declare a fake an authentic with just minimal bluffing). So with this I began to both question all knowledge and also forgive astrology (or, more accurately put, astrologers) for often getting the future wrong and/or not reading a chart right.

So I got a lot more interested in it. Besides, it was a good way to practice my math. And once I told people I was trying to learn I had a handful of friends ask (even beg) me to do their chart and every one of them was pleased with it, even the one who had a lot of contradictory placements (but I somehow managed to work through it intuitively).

And btw, I was once in a relationship where it was both wonderful & terrible, the sex was great but the relationship shaky, and a couples counselor only made things worse between us with his smug incompetence. So we went to an astrologer and she made our relationship work. Granted, it fell apart after a few years, but she told us that because of our charts it wasn't likely to work and we should more enjoy the fling and move on as friends rather than trying to make it work...and in retrospect I wish we'd have taken her advice. Astrology 1, Psychology 0.

posted July 30, 2012 08:11 PM            

Quite interestingly, I received an old paperback copy of Linda Goodman's Sun Signs from a friend of my mother's that same year, and on the flyleaf was inscribed by the previous owner: "Purchased in Montreal, September 2, 1989"-- I was born the very next day. That book has been my revered astro bible. I have since retired that copy and replaced it with a hardcover. I wore out that paperback cover to cover!