Astrology and prediction go hand in hand, but it does not always turn out the way one would want. After predicting the election for Kamala and then watching her lose to Trump, it was time for me to do a little self-reflection. I expected that Kamala Harris would win the election using many ancient and arcane techniques, but I was wrong, specifically I used transits, progressions, Firdaria, and Zodiacal Releasing in my analysis to anticipate her victory. you can read it here: I really wanted her to win, because I believed she would uphold democratic values better than Trump. Being wrong in the outcome I have done some reflection on the value of astrology. I thought to share the soul searching thoughts of the last week.
First, I apologize for any way my astrological forecast may have contributed to anyone’s hopes for results they thought would be good and pleasurable for the Nation. Having one’s hopes crushed by the karmic fates of the nation is always painful. It was indeed so for me. Predicting an event is not easy. One has many techniques to choose from, multiple charts to consider, and even more daunting, one’s own underlying hopes and fears to navigate. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes not, and as far as I have studied, and indeed having studied a lot, no astrologer gets it right all the time. If we get it right, 70% of the time, we are burning smoking hot! even 52% of the time is way above the statistical average and will make you rich, given enough time at the slot machine.
In this particular case, I used five distinct techniques and looked at Kamala and Trump’s chart. There are, however, hundreds, if not thousands, of techniques spread across the world of those who practice astrology. What I did not look at, which I found relevant, were the chart of the United States (Neptune is in the same place it was during the Civil War in that chart, gulp.) and Elon Musk’s chart (which is very good for him and far better than Kamala’s or Trump’s chart.)Also, there are areas that are subjective calls, Does Jupiter retrograde over Trump’s Sun and North Node give him more juice than Jupiter Retrograde over Kamala’s North Node and Ascendant? That is a judgement call.
Prediction in Astrology
As I looked around on the web, roughly 70% of Western astrologers were predicting Kamala would win. The number may be as low as 60%, but still, a significant number of us allowed our cultural, emotional, and philosophical biases to help craft our prediction about Kamala. A number of people, though, did predict Trump winning, and to what should be no one’s surprise, most of them were ideologically predisposed to Trump and his form of politics. A high number of these people got there predictions wrong in 2020. I am sure you can imagine why.
Astrology is held to a very high standard in the predictive world. We live alongside Economics, Statisticians, Political pundits, Sports analysts, and sociologists who all make predictions, and indeed get them wrong regularly, but no one takes them to the woodshed with as much vehement anger, as astrologers are taken to the woodshed based on getting a prediction wrong. Why is this? Perhaps because those professions are class protected by University Institutions? Perhaps it is for other reasons. Astrologers do no favor to the craft when after a major event they go around and disparage other astrologers for getting it wrong. All they are doing in such cases is reinforcing negative cultural stereotypes for their own egos satisfactions and ultimately denigrating their own professions societal value.
Society recognizes the value of those other professions is not in getting every prediction right but in that they provide a narrative for understanding that people can follow. This is true for astrology and is its best use.
The Best use of Astrology
OPA, the organization for professional astrologers, of which I am a member, discourages astrological prediction because it is such a fraught undertaking. It is, however, a honey-like pleasure, and the feeling when you get it right is so sweet. But alas, I do not believe it is the best use of astrology, for it reinforces Hope and Fear in the mind. From the perspective of one of the schools of Buddhism, I adhere to, the Chö lineage, hope and fear are the enemies of the mind because their inherent emotional qualities create dualistic experiences of suffering, as the hope for good experiences and fear of bad experiences drives the intrinsic anxiety of dualistic mind.
What, then, what is the best good of astrology. I see it as follows in order of importance:
- Crafting a rich narrative that helps us understand the context of our lives and the history we are living through
- Self-understanding through studying archetypes of one’s own mind and soul. (Natal astrology)
- Living in harmony with the energies of the times (Theurgic astrology)
- Understanding the narratives of history (Mythic historical astrology)
- Understanding the narratives of one’s personal history and how they shape our habits (Natal astrology)
- Understanding future trends as distinct from exact events (Mundane astrology)
- Percieving into the nature of an event (Horary astrology)
- Timing events for the best outcomes (Electional astrology)
- predicting events for an individual (easier than predicting events for a collective), (Mundane astrology).
- and finally, predicting events for the collective. (Mundane astrology).
Yes, I still put predictions on there. I have had good success with prediction, especially in sports betting markets, political events, and stock indexes. I just do not see them as the ultimate good of astrology but rather a sub-art that should be understood in the context of its risks. The ultimate good of astrology is the top sentence on the list.
Astrology is a rich symbolic language that provides a bridge across belief systems and a way of understanding our place in the Universe.
What this points to is something that Richard Tarnas tapped into with his groundbreaking exploration of the outer cycles and cultural transformations. Astrology has a profound capacity to create a meaningful narrative that the human psyche can use to understand its own permutations and the historical movements of society and history. It is perhaps one of the best tools available to do that with its rich language and defining archetypes that cover the whole of the human experience in 12 signs, 12 houses, seven traditional planets, and endless outer bodies, asteroids, hypothetical points, midpoints, lots, and stars.
Astrologers who understand this may make predictions, and will get some right, but will also get some wrong, but will always be adding value to their clients and their own life. In essence the Universe is not a perfect clock that can be gamed to the point where there is no experience of wonder or randomness. To even attempt to do so would be to kill the human spirit that gives meaning to the Universe. If there are astrology techniques that will accurately predict any given outcome with 100 percent success, they will be the domain of AI and not humans.
AI however can not craft human meaning, that is up to humans to do, and astrology, as mentioned is a superior way of doing that and has been for over 5000 years of writing history, if not much longer in unwritten oral history. If we understand this, and see astrology for its vast richness, rather than judge it on the ups and downs of the cultural judgements we impose upon it, or others impose upon us for practicing it, then its light will shine tremendous value into our lives. How could it have survived this long if it were not just as I say here?
