For the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to write a blog around modern astronomy and ancient astrology. I thought I had a clear idea on what I was going to write about and even tried to jot down my thoughts not once but twice.
Then I had to scrap those drafts. I felt, they did not convey the thoughts in a compelling yet interesting manner for the readers.
Issue was two fold, first I was struggling with a multitude of thoughts on how to write without offending sensibilities and second I did not possess the subject matter expertise to express my point of view with authority and conviction.
Here is my third attempt to write my view on the disconnect between what we have on paper versus what is out there in the cosmos.
It started off as an Aha moment as I was reading about The James Webb Space Telescope and its quest to find the origins of our universe. In the past hundred years we have measured beyond reasonable doubt distances between us and stars, constellations etc., We have taken pictures of a blackhole, we have proof of bending of light and gravitational wave hitting us from the origins of the universe. All this information is easily accessible to all of us and to astrological experts, alike.
The James Webb Space Telescope would further expand this horizon. It is believed we would get to learn new insights about the big bang and ever expanding universe.
Now coming to the two dimensional paper widely used in India, called as horoscope or janma kundli or jathagam. Most house holds have it and parents get it done from a family astrologer or from one of the online horoscope making website. Most families use this for determining which is the right career path or who will be the right match etc., We are all conditioned to accept this as this part of our sub culture.
However, some sections in our society use this to make every day decisions. They check what is it like for their Zodiac Sign and their specific star before embarking to do much less tasks.
I am a believer of an omnipotent higher power and its influence. There are things which is beyond our comprehension.
Having said that, I would not refer or blame all or some of my professional or personal issues to planets, moon, stars and constellations. The reason is we have enough data about these celestial objects and we have acquired new insights and knowledge about our own physiological, emotional and interpersonal issues. We could either consult a doctor or a coach, mentor or a counsellor to help resolve. It would be fair to say, most of today’s astrologers with yesterday’s two dimensional knowledge are not equipped to give us objective help.
Most people are ignorant about the recent progress we have made around astronomy and we are still referring to old books and assumptions.
Therefore it occurred to me, our astrology play book needs to be upgraded.
Here is the basis for my argument.
It was not until late 19th and early 20th century particularly around astrophysics, we discovered new insights and have observable proofs. Most of these new data have not been factored into our two dimensional horoscope.
A small section of people still believe that the moon is grabbed by some kind of celestial body during lunar eclipse for a certain period of time. During this period certain zodiac signs are going to be negatively impacted and hence they have to be very mindful.
Then there is another section, perhaps the same section of people, also praying to Saturn to be kind to their birth star during the transition from one zodiac sign to the next.
As a child we are conditioned to believe this without questioning. Most people did not have data to refer to.
The sad reality today, instead of increased awareness, we have increased ignorance, thanks to hundreds of YouTube channels and other social media platforms.
They are propagating more ignorance by exploiting the gullibility and fear of people.
Have we factored all the new variables we have learnt about the universe into our calculations? When was the last time we upgraded our prediction algorithm?
Let me try to expand and lay out my case.
How can someone who is on Planet Earth get impacted when our neighborhood planet, say, Saturn transits from one star to the other or one zodiac sign to the other. Or how can we be so sure that a person with this birth star will need to wear a particular stone to ward off certain unknown effects?
To help relate to one of the above, I have captured the 2022 data on Saturn transition from a website.
Let us go with the flow and not challenge the veracity or the accuracy of the below but using this to just ask some questions.
“Saturn enters Dhanishtha Nakshatra on 17th Feb, 2022 06:35 pm
Saturn enters Aquarius on 29th Apr, 2022 07:52 am
Saturn starts moving retrograde in Aquarius on 5th Jun, 2022 03:05 am
Saturn enters Capricorn on 12th Jul, 2022 02:48 pm
Saturn starts moving forward in Capricorn on 23rd Oct, 2022 09:07 am”
Let me try to expand on the first point from the above.
We are one of the seven billion people going about our life on Planet Earth.
Saturn is situated 1.6256 billion km from Earth, and is about 95 times bigger than earth and is typically orbiting around the sun at about 9.68 Km / second.
Dhanishtha (Tamil: அவிட்டம்), (Malayalam: അവിട്ടം), (Telugu: ధనిష్ఠ) and (Kannada: ಧನಿಷ್ಠಾ) (Devanagari: धनिष्ठा) is a small constellation with five major stars in it. The brightest star among these five is at about 215 light years away and the next brightest is about 100 light years away.
When we say Saturn enters Dhanishtha on 17th Feb — what does it mean and why we should believe someone telling us, for instance, that it will have a positive impact on me and negative impact on someone in my family? How can it be true? What is the scientific basis? Is it an electromagnetic wave or gravitational wave or some other kind of energy disruption caused just above my head and not on someone who is two meters away from me?
It would be believable if we were told that the whole of earth will undergo something terrible or favourable due to this transit. Even then the question remains how can an object like Saturn which is a planet revolving around the Sun have an impact on a constellation of stars situated 100 light years away. Do we realise it will take 100 years for energy to reach Saturn from the star and Saturn has no mechanism to transmit any form of energy over to the star. Only energy producing entity in our Solar system is the Sun.
All our ancient astrology, almanac and horoscope has not tried to upgrade itself to this new understanding of our universe. It is still living in a two dimensional universe and making all of us believe that Saturn can enter Capricorn and it can exit Aquarius at its will and it can cause different impacts on different people based on their birth charts and stars.
These can be taken as fun and entertainment, just like how we watch a movie or a show.
If we start taking these things seriously and take life decisions based on outdated and outlived concepts we are to be blamed, not fate or stars or the planets.
Perhaps time has come to call out our most knowledgeable astrological experts to factor all these new understandings into their equation. Then draw out a plan to include 3rd and 4th dimension to their 2 dimensional horoscope. That would open up new ways of interpreting people’s lives. World needs a brand new astro-prediction-operating-system. That would open up new avenues in the metaverse bound world. Who knows that would, perhaps, help humanity to find and live in lasting peace !!!
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