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a quest for meaning - II

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Zodiacal Man, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry The Spiritual Value of Astrology One of the main problems facing astrologers in their attempts to make astrology officially recognized as a legitimate and wholesome pursuit is not only the recent vulgarization of some of its most general and questionable aspects, but the vagueness and ambiguity of the way in which the very substance and purpose of astrology are defined.       It is probable that most people, if asked what astrology is, would say — in one way or another — that astrology deals with the influences of the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars upon human beings, and indeed upon all living organisms and such social "organisms" as nations, business firms, etc. They would add that the purpose of astrology is to ascertain the basic character and the future development of such persons and organizations in terms of definite expectable events. Very likely a great majority of astrologers would claim that ast

a quest for meaning - I

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M. C. Escher (1898 - 1972) Astrology is an attempt to bring order, consistency and meaning  to the series of usually confused and conflicting happenings which constitute our life experience. The "basic scientist" likewise, as he tries to discover "laws of Nature," seeks to reduce the complexity and seeming chaos of natural phenomena to simple, regular and predictable patterns. Order and simplicity are the two foundations of "predictability"; and the sole business of the scientist, at the level of applied science, is to predict what will happen when. A law of science is a formula of predictability. It states that this will take place when such and such things occur together under such and such conditions. Where astrology essentially differs from modern science is, first, in making certain assumptions about the universe and man; secondly, on the basis of these assumptions, in seeking to discover not only the "order" inherent in the even