Astrology...useful tool or absolute bunkum?

Answer 1

Useful bunkum.

Answer 2

Real astrology is a useful tool. Newspaper columns only deal with sun signs and are for entertainment purposes only. Horoscope charts are not used just to predict the future. they can be useful tools in understanding the Psyche. What makes a person tick, their likes, dislikes, compulsions, abilities and talents. Astrology is the study of cycles. The planets to not decide the future for you. The future is not ordained, we have freewill. The options may be presented, what you do with them is up to you. It is useful to know what kind of cycle is coming up in your life to help make choices and decisions. Like when is the best time to start a business, look for a job, move etc. If you time events when the cycles are favorable you have a better chance of acquiring a successful outcome.

Garret-B must not have been paying attention in that class he took at the town hall. Anyone can throw a few astrological terms out there to sound like they think they know what they are talking about. Astrology is vast and very complicated and most real astrologers study for many years before acquiring the knowledge of a professional astrologer and some people never quite get it.

Answer 3

Bunkum. The stars in the "star signs" formations when viewed from earth are not usually within even a few light years of each other. So whats the importance of the shape? Little, they just happen to look like that when viewed from our (unspecial) viewpoint.
The light we see when we look at them, could have left them at the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs, or when a fish first crawled from the ocean, dependent on the distance of the particular star. Little chance of having anything to do with anyones particular birthday.
Astrology columns in magazines etc are usually given to a junior member of staff to make up as they are so easy to do, not someone with any particular training.
The readings are so general, they cover most people, most weeks for most things.
Our minds automatically search for relevant statements, dismissing the irrelevant. Any seriously wrong predictions are dismissed as flukes. We do not usually read other peoples columns and notice how easily they too could "fit" us.
Human beings do not break down easily into 12 groups of personalities covered by two lines of "type of person" text.
Scientific studies have found none-tiny statistical correllation between birth sign and personality, the little correllation there was, was easily explained by a few members of the surveyed population so schooled in their own sign they acted a little more like how they were expected to act.
And in other scientific studies on astrologers themselves? to quote my source "Different astrologers , after all, presumably have access to the same books", " the reliability coefficient for astrology was a pitiful 0.1, comparable to the figure for palmistry (0.11), and indicating near total randomness. However wrong astrologers may be, you'd think that they would have got their act together to the extent of at least being CONSISTENT. Apparently not. Graphology (handwriting analysis) and Rorschach (inkblot) analyses aren't much better."

think that just about covers it.......

Answer 4

Bunkum

Answer 5

Bunkum

Answer 6

I studied Astrology under Fritzi Armstrong at San Francisco's Metaphysical Town Hall, so I can do horoscopes properly. One needs a big delineator book that shows what all of the positions and aspects of planets and houses mean; tables of houses; and ephemerides that show precise positions for all planets. One can buy these for a year, a decade or a century. One must know the exact time, date and location of the birth of a person whose horoscope is to be done. The Sun Sign has only a small influence, so the stuff one sees in newspapers, magazines or books at drugstores is ridiculous. As for me, the Sun, Moon, Venus and Jupiter are in conjunction (a strong favorable aspect) on the cusp of Cancer and Leo and Taurus is ascending in my chart. As you should see, I can speak with authority when I tell you that Astrology is sheer nonsense. It is difficult to balance all of the contradictory data one finds and to determine which indications are strongest. Indeed, it is impossible! Believers see only the parts of horoscopes I do for them that seem somewhat correct while ignoring many more that are totally wrong. Oh well, believers in anything see only things that tend to confirm their beliefs, however feebly, while ignoring strong evidence against them. I could become wealthy by doing horoscopes, but there are more honest ways to gain wealth.

Answer 7

It is hard to take the idea seriously but many years ago I met a girl and in casual conversation we discovered that we had been born in the same maternity ward on the same day. Our mums must have seen each other. We spent the next half hour comparing our likes, dislikes, books, films, etc. and it was surprising how similar we were.
Whether this has anything to do with Astrology or not I don't know, but it certainly seemed to confirm, rather than deny, it.

Answer 8

right here goes, i believe that the attributes of different signs have some truth in them depending on where the planets were aligned when you were born

but ( and theres always a but)

the stuff thats printed in daily newspapers and magazines is a load of bunkum. i read tarot cards and find this a much more usefull form of personal divination.

Answer 9

Astrology has been used for centuries and features a lot in the Bible, in Ancient Egypt, Aztec and Inca civilisations. It can tell a lot about a lot - but the daily horoscopes in the papers are what most peole think of and they tend to be somewhat vague to put it mildly! Get an in depth personality chart for your date and time of birth and see how accurate it is - then you'll have an idea of how useful the topic is!!!!

Answer 10

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