ZodiacAttack

ethereal-mysterium:

“Of all the arts which have originated in ancient magian wisdom, astrology is now the most misunderstood. No one believes any longer in the universal harmonies of Nature and in the necessary interconnexion of all effects with all causes… The restoration of astrology to its primitive purity would be, in a sense, the creation of an entirely new science…”

Eliphas Levi, wrote these words perhaps a century and a half ago in a book called Transcendental Magic. At that time, intellectuals were diligently pricking the balloons of mysticism which had been blown up into ridiculous shapes by centuries of charlatanism.

Since then, Western thinkers have been more and more zealous in their rejection of anything that smacked of the occult. We have evolved philosophies of determinism. We have discovered psychiatry. We have developed technologies which leave us gasping, sometimes with horror, at our own achievements. And all these innovations have led us straight back to the need to believe in the universal harmonies of Nature. We are beginning to realize that the so-called occult sciences are not playthings for the idle and credulous, that behind the claptrap and the tinsel, the knavery and the gullibility, there may be something worth investigating.

Right now, we are involved with a fad of occultism, most of it bogus, almost identical to that which swept Parisian society in Eliphas Levi’s day. The reason is the same. A detached, rationalistic approach to life is too chilling for mortal bones to bear. The more scientific “common sense” we hear preached at us, the more we yearn to warm ourselves by that spark of Nature’s fire which only the poets and the magicians have remembered how to kindle.

Even though not many people today understand astrology any better than Marie Antoinette and her little group of serious thinkers did, it’s not hard to see why we’re becoming so widely involved with the subject. It has a direct personal appeal. It has a wealth of pictorial imaginary. It has new information coming along every day. And it can be reduced to a rigid formula.

There’s more to astrology than you find in the “My Stars” column in magazines. Although pablum for the masses can also nourish the thinking individual.  Astrology can be a crutch, yes; but it can also be a handy probe with which to reach your inner self and lever you into a more viable relationship to the larger reality. It can be a halter to lead you blindly around and around the same old treadmill, or an alpinist’s rope by whose aid you can scale peaks you may have seen from a distance or only hoped might rise above the clouds that block your view.

Properly understood and used, astrology is neither risky nor transitory in its effects. It does require a great deal of concentrated effort, however. In order to enjoy the real benefits of astrology, you have to acquire a knowledge of how it works. Practical training in astronomy is not necessary, but you must have some conception of cosmic order. You have to think in terms which transcend terrestrial boundaries. You must be able to posit the concept of never-ending life which is capable of renewing its tangible forms. 

Of course we all accept this principle in fact, or we’d never try to plant a garden or make a baby. Since the Atomic Age has made us familiar with the laws of thermodynamics, we can accept the theory of spiritual immortality and physical reincarnation far more easily than could the intellectuals of our grandparents’ day.

We realize now that all matter is composed of energy. We have learned that energy, though it can exist in any imaginable destructible form, is in itself indestructible. We are aware that mental energy and physical energy are one and the same, and that both forms of this force are equally important to the process of existence. We can’t move a finger without first sending a mental impulse through the nerve to the muscle which preforms the act.

We know that bodies can be destroyed, not only by violence but by the very process of living. We accept the fact that we begin to die at the same moment we begin to live, and that some day our cherished mortal coils will have to be shuffled off.

But what happens to the energy which has been operating the body? What becomes of the spirit which impelled us to keep making the motions of living, to train our muscles and enrich our minds by developing skills and acquired knowledge?   What is the result of our lifelong search for understanding of ourselves and our relationships with people and things outside ourselves?

What about all the ideas, the emotions, the sense of being part of something vast, all the stored memories, all the experiences we have tried during our span of years to weld into more satisfying concept of that entity which now becomes just another name in the obituary columns? What does the mind do with its aquired knowledge of how to build and use a physical body? Did we stop making cars when Henry Ford died?

Is it possible to prove to you beyond a shadow of doubt that you are in essence a continuum potentially independent of your present physical structure? Can you see an atom? Can you be sure the man at the bank won’t run off with your money, or that the food you buy won’t poison you, or that the laws of gravity won’t suddenly be repealed and send you flying into the void?

We live by faith, all of us, all the time. No matter what great sceptics we fancy ourselves to be, we trust. We believe in the orderly workings of Nature even when we do our worst to disrupt them. We expect certain effects to follow certain causes. The more we learn about how things work, the more skilled we become at predicting outcomes. A gift of prophecy is no special distinction. We are all prophets. Some of us may see a bit farther than others, that’s the only difference.

Astrology is not fortune telling. It is neither an implacable ruling force nor a conjuring toy. It is a technique for visualizing and understanding our personal relationships to the cosmic laws by which the Life Force operates. It is a tool which can help us to remodel our inner minds and bodies into vehicles that can perform the work of the spirit.

(Source: )

ilovecharts:

nationalpost:

The evil of Aries: How astrology can be sign of future jail time
Police in Chatham-Kent, Ont., announced Wednesday that, of 1,986 people arrested so far this year, 203 were Aries, whereas just 139 were Sagittarius.

It is the first time the municipality has ranked its crimes by Zodiac sign. Aries were the most arrested, with Libras in second at 189 arrests, and Virgo third at 183. The least criminal were Sagittarius (139 arrests), Aquarius (142) and Taurus (146).

“You can’t really read too much into it,” says Const. Michael Pearce, a police spokesman, who used an Excell spreadsheet to classify the data. “I don’t comment too much on the Zodiac stuff because I don’t want any backlash about it. I am not drawing any conclusions about it.”

Still, Georgia Nicols, who writes the National Post’s horoscope, said that the results in Chatham-Kent make some sense.

“Aries is the sign of the warrior,” said Ms. Nicols, speaking from her home on Bowan Island, off the coast of Vancouver. “Aries rules the military. Aries jump in head first, and love adventure. A lot of people in the newsroom are Aries.”

Sagittarius stays out of the crime stats, she suggests, because “They don’t get caught. They are smooth. They can talk anybody into anything.”

Being on the Pisces/Aries border has never seemed so dire.