The Essence of Astrology
Astrology is the one of the oldest areas of knowledge, that could reach our time. It appeared simultaneously in many cultures: in the ancient Egypt, China, in India and (in the later period) at the Middle East. Now it is impossible to trace it's origins. Historical knowledge allows us to assert that even in the ancient Egypt astrology existed already as a fully formed system of knowledge. It is striking that astrology has existed throughout the whole human history and has not lost it's relevance up to the present day. Many sciences were using the knowledge, that was opened by astrology, for example, Hippocrates said that the doctor, who did not mastered the astrological knowledge well, could not be admitted to practice. Politicians and generals were never starting any more or less serious affair without the advice of an astrologer.
The consciousness of our ancestors was very different from ours: any phenomenon, any process, they were inclined to consider in a deep connection with the rest of the world. People knew that everything is interconnected and that the phenomenon happening at one same level (say, in the human body), is similar to the phenomenon, that is taking place at the same time at another level (for example, in the sky or, say, in the given country). Our consciousness, for our misfortune, is arranged differently. We are the children of the so-called progress and the science behind it. We mostly have the scientific style of thinking and a tendency to separate things from each other. We have a massive amount of sciences, which describe the diverse world from different sides, but we can not see the world as a whole. Astrology offers us the way to see our world as it, probably, is!
Let's part for some time with our prejudices and try to expand our worldview, let's talk about what can give us this most ancient of sciences.
Knowledge, which was opened by astrology was intimate, and therefore it was not available to the masses, otherwise it would have been instantly simplified and, therefore, distorted. This exactly division we can observe nowadays. On one hand there are the so-called "newspaper horoscopes" or horoscope for everyone, which should be seen as some kind of fun, along with the crossword puzzles. There are a lot of books that can make a simple person acquainted with the basics of astrology. Even from those simple books one can gather a lot of useful information that will help him to understand himself and learn to better understand the others. And there is - still remaining in the shade - the other astrology - the one that can not be opened widely and not because it is some kind of mystery, but because you need to spend a lot of effort and time to become at least slightly familiar to this area of knowledge.
For many readers it will probably be a revelation to say that the "popular horoscopes", which they read in the newspapers and magazines are the same different from a professional astrology as a primary school mathematics are different from the university course. The fact is that the "popular horoscopes" are based only on the position of the Sun in the Zodiac. While actually there should be considered horoscopes, compiled by the year, month, day and the exact time (preferably to the nearest minute) of your birth, as well as by the place of your birth (location ). Here the professional astrologer will be using all known planets, sun, moon, and some fictitious heavenly bodies, 12 signs of the Zodiac, minor planets - asteroids, stars and some of their configurations. Into account also must be taken the orientation of the sky in it's relation to the local horizon. In general, it turns out as a very complicated picture. And on the basis of the totality of these data there is based graphical figure of the sky in a place where the event occurred - this is called a professional horoscope. Further, this figure can be deployed in time in a very different ways, describing the development of the process.
It becomes clear that astrology has a certain approach - not to the average person, but very individual. Horoscope of one person will never be exactly repeated by the horoscope of another, even the horoscopes of twins differ from each other - they are born at different time (maybe only for a minute, but different). It is difficult to find another science that would be taking a person so individually.
In what areas of life, you can use the astrological information? Astrology is a tool and the range of an application of this tool is dependent on the person. So, astrology can be successfully used in psychology, medicine, politics, business, even in meteorology. The greatest value of such knowledge is in the fact, that it is helping people to better understand themselves, to learn how to understand everyone around them - and it is a huge deal. Understanding your own children, realizing that the child comes into this world already having some qualities, and certainly this is not a white sheet on which we (adults) are free to draw whatever we think is necessary. Looking into the soul of a newborn baby, understanding, seeing those qualities that need to be developed and those, that should not be stressed in any case - probably astrologer is the only one who can actually do it. Indeed, you will not make your baby to answer the questions of psychologist, for him to draw a psychological portrait of the individual.
Using astrological knowledge, you can consciously adjust yourself and your own fate, for example, deliberately choosing a place of work or an area where you would like to live. It's no secret that every location has a certain energy or speaking scholarly - the energy-structure - which has a definite influence on the objects, that are situated there, whether it would be a person or a company. It is clear that in an ideal case, the location should meet the energy of a person who lives there, or of any company that is working there. For the normal functioning of the enterprise, it is also important, that the horoscope of the business was not in a conflict with a personal horoscope of it's founder. And this (note it) is something new. Sometimes it happens that the company is discharging the personal problems of it's head, for example the principal can throw off, without knowing it, his personal problems, family or health problems at the school, at the same time, things in this school will not go the best way, the school will simply begin to fall apart, both: literally and figuratively.
A lot of useful information can be obtained by composing the horoscopes for the people around you. Horoscopes of the spouses will resolve the compatibility issues between partners, with the quite high accuracy (87%) you can predict the sex of the unborn child, and even solve the problem of infertility, of course, the application of astrology is not limited to this issues.
The scientific world is often calling Astrology "a pseudo science", but it can be argued that according to the methods of research that are applied in a modern science, astrology is no science at all, it is now closer to the art than to the science (however, the laws at the basis of astrology are not absurd, apparently science has yet to discover the laws of reflection and symmetry - and not only of the direct physical exposure - now the references of those laws can be found in philosophy). The conclusions found by astrology are not quite trivial, for example, astrology can with a grace and ease bring us to the understanding of the multidimensionality of time, respectively talking about the reversing of time, moreover, argue that the person lives (ie responds only by subconscious, without bringing it into consciousness) in all these rhythms that are a result of compressing or stretching of the "real" time, and in the reverse of all these variations, including the "real" time.
You can establish a correlation between some of the processes on earth and in the community, for example, between climate and the formation of countries (consolidation of the society) or collapses (stratification).
Astrology uses science for calculations, but in fact here the modern science ends, followed by the interpretation of the drawn horoscope - and this is a pure art, dominated by the subjective factor. For example if several people will describe the same picture, the descriptions will be generally similar, but they will still differ from each other, although the picture is the same, just everyone will see it by his own eyes and from his own points. The same way the astrologer, interpreting a horoscope, as a rule, is highlighting those facts, that are more clear for him, relying on his own self.
So what exactly is astrology? The answer is not so easy to give, let's try to do this through the analogy. This ancient knowledge is similar to mathematics, which works with numbers. And what is the number? It is an abstraction and it is a symbol. Science uses mathematics as a language. The same way astrology is using a language of symbols to describe reality. The symbol is infinitely deep, it can be treated in different variations and at the different levels: at the domestic, psychological, or some other, depending on the level of the consciousness of interpreter. It is quite remarkable that everyone is understanding the symbol at the level at which it is available to him. So it depends on the skill of the interpreter, and this is already a gift.
Nevertheless, the astrological symbolism is extremely convenient, as each character describes the different levels of being, and therefore there can be made very interesting analogies. For example, people of a sensible type have big lips and they love sweets, because the world of feelings, lips on the face, and sweets are symbolized by the same planet - Venus. On the contrary, aggressive and pushing people have a big noses and they love spicy food, as these qualities are related to Mars. And this is only the most basic generalizations, astrology allows us to make a much more profound parallels.
To understand and describe any phenomenon more deeply, we need the appropriate language - a system of certain concepts. For example, it is difficult to describe by the language of mime the essence of house devices, and by our common language, that is used in everyday life, it is difficult to understand the global multi-level processes. That is why there is a need for the language, having a broader conceptual apparatus. And there is such a language - the language of symbols, the language of astrology.
