Questions about Astrology

[Splungeman]

I quote you, in post #7:

I'm done with this conversation.

You got me there.

I mean to say that I'm not trying to make anyone mad with the questions. It seems though that I have. My comment about being intentionally difficult was referring to the last comment I had made, not about the questions. Poor wording jotted off in a hurry, I confess. I'm very sorry to have offended. I didn't think anything I said would have been construed as a personal attack that would drive someone away in anger.

Frankly, I had no idea this issue was quite so personal.

 

[Hooked on TdM]

How do the stars and planets "influence" behavior?

I know nothing of astrology, however, how does the moon influence the tides and women's menses (and hence their emotions?) How about the sun? If we don't get enough of it (Vitiam B? D? can't remember which one) we can become depressed and even ill.. We even have SAD that people need special lights for! That is proven and isn't it the same thing?

Hooked

 

[Splungeman]

Modern Western Astrologers rush to put an interpretation on it and to try and get hold of epemerides. The 'planet' then turns out to be something else.

There is no reason why new symbols have to be added to a symbolic language. Personally I don't use many of the entities that have been discovered since the invention of the telescope. I use Uranus and Neptune very sparingly if at all and Pluto is some evidence for the point above. Generally, for planets, if I can't see it then I don't use it.

Now again that's a very personal point of view but is in line with both traditional Astrology in the West and Vedic Astrology. For me, there are already sufficient symbols to work with, I don't need to have new ones, of doubtful (if any) meaning, forced on to me.

If others do wish to incorporate such objects into their symbolic langage then that is their choice. As I said in a previous post Astrology has many different expressions.

Just a thought. But when we use Tarot cards, we look at an image and use that image to get impressions of fate, past, present, etc. Could astrology be similar? When the planets align in certain ways it creates an image that opens up our psychic ability similar to the way an image on a Tarot card does? For example, the image in the sky of Mercury appearing to be moving retrograde (though only an optical illusion) would equate to a Tarot card or oracle card that pictures...I don't know...say an arguing couple. That is to say would it inspire that feeling? Is astrology divination more about images in the sky influencing us subconsciously when we see them or more about actual heavenly bodies exerting some kind of influence upon us by forces unknown?

 

[Splungeman]

I know nothing of astrology, however, how does the moon influence the tides and women's menses (and hence their emotions?) How about the sun? If we don't get enough of it (Vitiam B? D? can't remember which one) we can become depressed and even ill.. We even have SAD that people need special lights for! That is proven and isn't it the same thing?

Hooked

I don't know about menses but I do know as a nurse that more women seem to have babies during full moons. Nobody really knows why. My theory is that you are more apt to take a walk on a full moon when things are more brightly lit and beautiful, and sometimes walking for a while can begin labor.

I know more crimes are also committed during full moons, though this also may have to do with visibility. It's easier to break into someone's house at night when you can see better.

Who knows.

 

[Minderwiz]

There may be some who can look at a chart and have a psychic insight. However virtually all the Astrologers that I know and every authority that I hav e read, past and present, learn Astrology as a discipline of rules and their conclusions are based on analysis.

Indeed the Astrological Association of Great Britain has argued that Astrology has nothing to do with magic, psychic phenomena, or fortune telling, when it has challenged broadcasting rules that treat it in the same category as the former. They also argue that anyone with the right training can be an Astrologer, in the same way that you could be taught to be a lawyer or a doctor.

 

[Splungeman]

Why are the Greek/ Roman pantheon constellations so prominent in astrology? Surely other cultures had different names for the constellations? How important are the names of the planets, constellations, and stars to the meanings behind their arrangement?

 

[Hooked on TdM]

I don't know about menses but I do know as a nurse that more women seem to have babies during full moons. Nobody really knows why. My theory is that you are more apt to take a walk on a full moon when things are more brightly lit and beautiful, and sometimes walking for a while can begin labor.

I know more crimes are also committed during full moons, though this also may have to do with visibility. It's easier to break into someone's house at night when you can see better.

Who knows.

Women's menses (28 day cycle?) go with the cycles of the moon sames as tides.. I don't know why but they do...

Only a complete idiot would go B&E'ing in the full moon because it's bright out! Everyone can see you! Less moon means better skulking around... lol

 

[Splungeman]

Women's menses (28 day cycle?) go with the cycles of the moon sames as tides.. I don't know why but they do...

Only a complete idiot would go B&E'ing in the full moon because it's bright out! Everyone can see you! Less moon means better skulking around... lol

True...Though criminals are not usually admired for their intelligence.

Interesting point about the moon. I wouldn't know much about that obviously. Once I blundered into the Red Tent thread but didn't stick around long enough to learn anything. My wife doesn't discuss it much with me either.

Well anyway. Perhaps the moon does have some influence on physiology. It was present during our entire evolution as a species after all. I wonder if any studies have been done, not just on humans but other mammals as well. Curious. Very curious.

 

[Hooked on TdM]

True...Though criminals are not usually admired for their intelligence.

Interesting point about the moon. I wouldn't know much about that obviously. Once I blundered into the Red Tent thread but didn't stick around long enough to learn anything. My wife doesn't discuss it much with me either.

Well anyway. Perhaps the moon does have some influence on physiology. It was present during our entire evolution as a species after all. I wonder if any studies have been done, not just on humans but other mammals as well. Curious. Very curious.

Hehe you got me there, being a criminal in and of itself is stupidity at it's finest! lol

I actually shouldn't talk either.. HEHE I'm an it due to a hysterectomy at the tender age of 23. So it's not like I'd notice anymore anyways.. What the hell is a red tent (do I want to know?)

You have me curious too... As that would back up at least some theory of Astrology (but don't quote me.. I do suck at this subject.)

Hooked

 

[stefficus]

i'm with you, splungebob. how'm i ever supposed to tease things out and get to the really interesting heart of the matter if i don't devil's advocate all over creation? how do i clarify things if people won't discuss them with me and point out problematic parts of my system? how'm i supposed to know when i've crossed the line from "discussion" to "arguement" if I'M still having fun and being genuinely interested?

actually, i find when that happens, people tell me...

it happens to me a lot. *grin*

you're clearly not a Skeptic. some of what you say may be skeptical, but that isn't the same thing, and that's not merely a matter of semantics. for some of us, these kinds of questions are a learning technique, not an attack. we just... wanna know.

this whole thread has been highly entertaining, AND informative. it's got a lot to think about in it... but no one has yet said anything about what it sounds like you're really wanting to explore. not know once and for all!!!1!, not debunk, not ridicule... just... look at the bones of it.

maybe astrology isn't about the mechanics of the way the planets influence us, but rather about the correlations that astrologers the world over, through years of necessity, observed about human behavior. not the symbols imposing on people, but explaining tendencies IN people and being associated with certain planets, stars, etc. maybe it's heading down the wrong path to discuss whether jupiter is a god or a ball of gas... it demonstrably IS, in fact, a ball of gas, but we associate spirit with everything from trees to the earth herself, so why not a quasi-divine being generated by/associated with jupiter? it's just that it isn't JUST a god to us anymore, and that's makes it no less fascinating from an astrological point of view. maybe the influence isn't gravitational, but magnetic or the deflection/attraction of solar winds and radiation or... or maybe it's the key to the actual mechanism of things like the collective subconscious and THAT'S how the planets influence human behavior but we won't know more about it until the scientists uncover some of the secrets of hyperspace.... or...

i really have no idea. i'm not an astrologer. but i see what you were getting at, and i'd love for someone to bestow some insight about that or just throw out some theories, but from a viewpoint of having actually studied astrology.

troublemaker. =p