Thread: Astrology Revisited

In this thread I'll be analyzing three concepts

1. Personalities cannot be examined using absolute classifications
2. Astrology cannot be invalidated based on the absurdity of extra-planetary influence
3. The complexity and subtlety of reality invalidates the simplistic astrological model, and also invalidates criticism of astrology based on these parameters. Astrology must be navigated with the parameters inherent to this type of study.

1. If you look at personalities in a very categorical way, you're bound to find mountains of evidence to disprove any particular identifier. Neither modern psychology, with their checklist style analysis, nor modern astrology, with its disposition of confirmation bias, could possibly satisfy any sort of causal investigation. Personalities simply cannot be analyzed categorically, no matter what parameters are being used. It is as impossible to properly classify people as schizophrenic and not schizophrenic as it is to classify the exact place where red becomes orange on the color spectrum. All we can classify are inclinations, or as I like to call them, orbits.

When considering identifications like a solar system, only our sun is the sun and no planet can reside within that specific classification. The planets and other objects within orbit around at multiple degrees of relatively. Relating that to psychology, a mercury leveled schizo would be far easier to identify than schizos orbiting around the Oort Cloud. In the same way, you cannot pick out a single shade of red and call it the perfect example of red. It will practically always fall on either the purple side or the orange side to some degree or another. You cannot pick a specific location on a wave and call it the trough or precipice, it is always inclined on one side or another. Rational Integers are practically impossible to select in the Real World.

To conclude, it is not worth the trouble attempting to analyze astrology is a causal way. So saying "You're a capricorn, therefore you're a work-a-holic" is as fallacious as saying "I'm a capricorn but not a work-a-holic, therefore astrology is wrong"

2. To assess astrology properly one has to presuppose that there is a possible influence on our world and personalities by the stars and planets in the sky. Claiming one must prove how this influence works first before we can properly analyze it is like claiming we have to map out human genetics before we can study traits and behaviorism. It is not worth it to say we don't know exactly how molecular genetics works when one is trying to study the heredity of red hair, for instance. In the same way, even if we cannot understand exactly why astrology works, that doesn't mean there's no value in studying personalities using an astrological model. Conversely we cannot claim that just because we can prove there is an astrological influence on personality types, it is therefore not valuable to analyze how this mechanism could work. The two studies work synergistically, just as analyzing molecular genetics aids the study of traits and vice versa. The reason both studies are necessary in genetics is because it enables them to discover what is a genetic influence and what isn't. Astrology would work the same way, through proper analysis of the mechanism through which it works we could understand exactly how it influences our lives.

3. The Strawman critics of astrology most favor in attacking is as much the fault of believers of astrology as skeptics. Believers in astrology were the first to regard the study in a causal manner. In the same way, psychologists impudently diagnosing their patients are as much at fault for Scientology as "Dianetics." The only reason the misconstruction exists is because the majority of practitioners adhere to it. For us to properly analyze astrology, first we have to remember what astrology isn't. Astrology is not the presumption that planets and stars have a causal effect on earth. Astrology is the study of a correlation. It is not a means to identify personalities, it is a means to identify influences on personalities. While the organization of astrology into houses and signs was necessary to map it out, the manifestation of these influences is still subject to the complexity of reality.

It is as fallacious to say astrology is false because you love dreaming but aren't a Pisces as it is to say the Law of Attraction doesn't work because you wanted a car and it didn't magically appear. To understand this, I also need to properly explain the way the Law of Attraction works. When you think of a desire, this desire creates a feeling inside of you, this feeling can be very specific and very well knotted to the thought of that specific desire, or it can be very broad and generally make you feel excited or depressed, secure or fearful, etc. The manifestations that come into your life are going to match the feeling you broadcast, not the thoughts. And on top of that, it's going to match the feelings you generate most of the time, so you have to form the habit of sustaining that specific feeling so that you feel it (and are therefore broadcasting it) most of the time. Most of us simply do not know how to tune into such specific feelings that they can give us exactly what we want. Most of us are left with generalized, often surprising manifestations of our feelings. This means if you want a car and it makes you excited, you'll start getting all sorts of circumstances in your life that you make you feel excited in general, not just a car. If you want a car and it makes you feel anxious and doubtful, your circumstances will begin to justify that feeling as well.

Astrology would theoretically work the same way since we're dealing with correlations that would presumingly not be related to Newtonian physics. This means the way an astrological influence manifests in your life can be very broad, as long as it mirrors the type of energy that influence represents. Now remember we map out astrology in a categorical fashion but that doesn't mean the energies represented by the planets are going to represent the words we use to describe the energy without fail. So just because Neptune represents the denied aspects of our personalities, that doesn't mean everything that comes to mind when you think of the word denied comes into play regarding Neptune's influence. The words incompletely translate the shade the energy actually is, and one has to get a complete understanding of the energy beyond the words that describe it to properly analyze astrology.

With the complexity of our environments, there are an infinite number of ways in which these energies affect us, and if one wants to investigate personality types they're just as well to assess the genes and environmental factors because the knowledge will be more practical for the human mind to understand. At first glance, there is little pragmatic value in analyzing similarities between two people born at the exact same time in the exact same place because the number of variations they'll encounter will be so vast that the manner in which their astrological influences manifest would most probably appear irreconcilable.

The only function astrology serves that a more grounded, causal personality analysis wouldn't be more equipped for would be based on patterns and changes outside the reach of rudimentary causality. This is most popularly divination, where one can anticipate the oncoming influences of their life. But because the influence can only be regarded as a shade of energy, and not as a list of specific concepts, the manifestations are still likely to be very surprising, inaccurate and only functional in retrospect where one could contend that confirmation bias is at work. A much less popular function is to assess one's life path as a whole. In other words rather than divine whether one can anticipate good or bad fortune in the upcoming week, they can divine what type of growth they're going to be experiencing. If you presume we grow in a spiral fashion rather than a linear fashion, you can also presume that we will encounter different types of difficulties at different times and revisit many old obstacles over and over again. Seeing growth as a spiral helps one realize that they're not actually stuck in a rut just because they encounter a similar problem they did a year ago. It is a chance to see how much they've grown since then, and astrology can prepare you by helping you relate different circumstances in your life to the patterns in the stars. This intrinsically requires the use of confirmation bias because one is forced to analyze what different symbols mean to them personally. And in this realm, there are no rules, one's own belief system becomes the bridge builder, the only question becomes whether or not they will find their way across the river. This makes astrology impossible to study using the scientific method, and puts the entire study in the same vane as Chaos Magic. But analyzing everything scientifically is like putting meat and ice-cream in a blender and claiming that the ice-cream tastes like shit. Attempting to rebuke the story of Noah by claiming he couldn't fit two of every animal on a boat is as fallacious as taking Noah's story literally to begin with. Myth must be analyzed using the proper tools to analyze myth, as must Scientific, Transcendental and Magical Studies.