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and the "superseded" worldview of the organic cosmos, which is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
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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
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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
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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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