Interactions with Mr. Rob Tillett

(Mr. Rob Tillett read my article on Astrology and started this short interaction)

Greetings

I am writing this because your feeback form generated an error.

I enjoyed your musings, especially on astrology. However, you are wrong in saying that the value of astrology is diminishing (in terms of service to mankind and number of devotees) and that people of genius no longer become astrologers. There are, as you point out elsewhere, levels of competence in astrology, just as in medicine and no-one says there are no geniuses in medicine, just because there are some charlatans and quacks. The issue really is one of the difference in worldview between the "official" intellectual elite and the "superseded" worldview of the organic cosmos, which is interpreted by astrology, as opposed to the empty atomistic universe of the materialists.
You should visit our website http://www.astrologycom.com.

Best wishes

Rob Tillett
Publisher
Astrology on the Web
 

Hello Rob

I wrote what I felt. I have studied astrology myself and have found that there are too many missing links. These missing links are so many that no astrologer in the world can predict a future event with guarantee. I agree that some predictions prove to be true and some to be wrong, but can one be certain of his/her predictions? Had there been even one astrologer of such class who could accept a challenge and predict an event in advance, Astrology would not have been classified as a fun activity or time pass. If you disagree with me (we can have a nice little discussion if you have time and/or inclination) just tell me about one such living astrologer. If one Kepler could change the face of astronomy so successfully, so can one astrologer provided he can prove critics wrong by predicting correctly again and again.

My heart is with astrology but I am sorry to say that presently there is no system studying which one can predict with confidence. If there is no certainty about one's predictions, it is impossible to refute a critic's contention that one needs no astrology to guess.

I visited your site just now. I must compliment you for a nice site like yours. I would explore it more thoroughly some time later.

Thanks again for writing.

Ashok
 

Dear Ashok

Well, time is precious, but I felt that it would be a good thing to contact you.

It is interesting that you mention Kepler, who was of course, an astrologer of great talent, even though he sought to reshape the astrology of his time to match more closely with certain mystical intuitions. His effect upon astrology, as well as astronomy, has been very significant. I heartily recommend the following article: http://www.skyscript.co.uk/kepler.html, at Deb Houlding's new site, SkyScript.

You would be pleased also to learn that Robert Hand and his colleagues at Project Hindsight have done a fantastic job of translating and organising ancient Hellenistic and Mediaeval astrological texts (Hellenistic astrology is quite like Vedic astrology in many ways). This provides many of the missing links that have dogged astrology in the West since astrology fell from grace with the rise of modern materialistic science. It looks as though astrology will receive a valuable restoration as a result of this work. You might enjoy http://www.projecthindsight.com/articles/index.html.

I have had an interesting exchange with my friend Ram Ramakrishnan on our site about fate and astrology. He is a fatalist. My view is that fate is not utterly set, at least, not for everyone. If it were so, then such things as astrological remedies would not work (unless of course you take the view that the use of the remedy was fated...) You might like my article on the Nexus of Probability http://www.astrologycom.com/nexus.html. In my view the universe is more like a mind than a thing.

Well I must now go to bed, since it is past midnight.

Best wishes

Rob
 

Dear Rob

I am certainly happy that you decided to contact me as it has provided me with an excellent resource.
Before replying to your mail, I thought of exploring your site a bit and was pleasantly surprised to find so many good articles. It will take some time to go through them all but I will do it. I would also like to interact with you more as and when time permits us.

I have gone through the links you sent me. Thanks. They are really worth good reading. I read your wonderful article too and was impressed with your insights. I totally agree with your views except for some fine points. I cannot resist the urge to raise one in my mail itself.

You say, "Astrologers have observed that the easiest way for most people to go through their lives is to accept the apparently random events that come into their personal space and to suffer or enjoy them as they come without seeming to be able to alter either the direction of movement, or the nature of these events in any significant way.", but I have an objection - it is not at all easy for most people to accept the events. I think, in fact, that most of the people cannot accept events as they occur and therefore they go on struggling all through their lives trying to change the course or nature of events in their lives. To accept everything in life, good or bad, with "peace" is one of the ways, suggested in Hindu scriptures, to salvation or Moksha. As long as one keeps trying to "do" things, it is inevitable that some efforts will be successful and others will fail. The successful endeavour creates the illusion that the person was the doer. This feeling of being a "doer" is defined as ego which is the only hurdle in attaining Moksha. It is only when one starts accepting all events one realizes that he is not the doer, he is only a witness. This realization dissolves the ego and one becomes pure consciousness which he really is. So, I think, it is wrong to say that it is easy; perhaps it is the most difficult thing in life. The word "Dhyana" means this only : to witness.

You must have heard of Gurdjieff. He was one of the greatest mystics of twentieth century. He used to say that human beings are born soulless and one has to develop his soul. I think this soul is nothing but consciousness. Normally, we are not conscious or that we have very dim consciousness. This consciousness is hidden or obscured by our conditionings. Moksha is nothing but freedom (literal meaning of Moksha is Freedom) from conditionings (It may be a very crude way of defining Moksha, but it is same more or less). Consciousness alone is free. It is freedom itself. So, as long as a human being is not fully conscious he cannot be free and everything about him can be predicted. There is no place for free will in an unconscious man. That is why it is said that everything is pre-destined.

You are very right when you say that we have choices or different probabilities but they are not there if the bug is sleeping. It has to be awake or conscious to make a choice. Human beings are normally fast asleep all the time. They keep on struggling all the time in their dreams. As long as they are in this state there are not aware of any choices for them. To an observer they seem to totally predictable and mechanical with no freedom or free will.

To tell you the truth ;-) when one wakes up he finds that there is really no question of any choices.

 

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