Hasan Elias <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
At the end of the chapter “The influence of stars” of SAQ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said “this subject is worthy of examination”, but the guardian said that it is a waste of time “The friends should be encouraged not to waste time on such things as astrology”.My common sense says that any prediction of the “Horoscope” made by any crazy astrologer (especially diary prediction) is trash, but I wonder why some important books in our secondary literature such as Apocalypse unsealed (supposedly a tafsir) took the issue of Astrology as a source. On the other hand, if Numerology (Abjad system) is not important, then why Bahá’u’lláh gave same name values to believers as Nabil (Muhammad) and other crucial words maintain the importance of numerical value.We say that these “pseudoscience” has nothing to do with the teachings, but at the same time we (and scholars too) quote them or use them in some way. So, what’s the truth and real contribution of these things?I appreciate direct answers, thanks.
I think that Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi were using two
different definitions of "astrology".
I think that Abdu'l-Baha was referring to "the apparent
correlation between astronomical phenomenon and human events".
I think Shoghi Effendi was referring to popular astrology that
emphasizes signs and houses.
For the last 100 years, and especially the last 30 years, there
has been a lot of scientific research into astrology as I have
suggested Abdu'l-Baha may have been thinking. Among other
things, researchers have conclusively proven that signs, houses and
factors based on them have no identifiable predictive value. In
other words, sun sign astrology and therefore the vast majority of all
horoscope interpretations are exactly as Shoghi Effendi said.
At the same time, these researchers are finding some amazing
things. For example, the outstanding members of various
vocations tend to have certain aspects in common, aspects that are
ignored by most astrologers. I'm not referring to the common
conjunction/opposition/square/trine/etc, but micro-aspects derived
from division of the circle by odd numbers up at least to 125.
These aspects are considered operational only if their "orb"
is measured not in degrees but in minutes or sometimes seconds.
These researchers are using the latest in statistical techniques and
the computer to generate their findings. Recently a common
procedure is to use Foure analysis of not just a few friends or
clients, but 100's and even 1000's of individuals. I have not
been very involved in this community for 20 years, but I'll guess that
there are probably only a couple dozen individuals in the world doing
this type of work, and their progress is very slow. This type of
research, as with any serious research, is very slow and labor
intensive; and there's not a whole lot of money supporting it.
Of what practical use are their findings at the present time?
Not much. While very interesting, even their vocational findings
are statistical correlations. And while practically all
outstanding individuals in a field might have a particular
configuration, the fact that a young person has such a configuration
does not necessarily mean that they too will be outstanding in a
field. It is like any other psycho/social test of vocational
compatibility.
Don C
--
-.-.-.-.-
He who believes himself spiritual proves he is not.
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