Human ecology
People have asked me, if I love the sciences the way I do, why am I also an astrologer? Isn't that hypocritical or, at best, confused?
Not really. Most people -- including way too many astrologers, btw -- don't know what astrology really is. It's simply another way of mapping the way energy from electromagnetic radiation, chemical reactions, and the radioactivity of the rocks making up the Earth's crust and the Earth's interior moves through the living world, including every living organism in it. Astrology describes the pathways which energy most likely to take on its way to a state of maximum entropy. It is the ongoing, continuous, overall interactions of all the bodies comprising the Solar System, especially their combined effects on the Sun and the Sun's associated electromagnetic field, and the Moon's gravitational effects on the Earth and its life that determines the most likely pathways energy will take to try to reach a ground state, and that is what astrology maps.
All life on Earth exists within the Sun's electromagnetic field. The characteristics of that field change continuously as the flow of the plasma that makes up the body of the Sun changes. In turn, as the various bodies of the Solar System tug and haul on the Sun, the shape of the Sun, hence the motions of the highly ionized gases (plasma) making up the Sun, change in accordance. Since the motion of ionized gases is equivalent to an electric current and its associated electromagnetic field, this means that as the planets and other bodies of the Solar System revolve around their parent star the Sun's electromagnetic field changes both quantitatively and qualitatively in kind.
Every living organism on Earth consists of various materials containing or suspended in the watery fluids that make up the bulk of that organism. Throughout its life, the atoms and molecules making up those materials and that fluid are in continuous motion, passing through, within, and between the cells that make it up. As these atoms and molecules are in many cases themselves ionized, that means that electrical currents and an associated electromagnetic field flux are continuously present in the body of the organism and within its constituent cells. In the case of organisms with complex central nervous systems, beating hearts, and other organs that depend on those electrical currents and associated electromagnetic field flux for their functioning, any change in them induced from outside the body of the organism will impact that organism's overall functioning and the functioning of its individual organs, sometimes beneficially, sometimes otherwise. Since every such organism lives within the ever-changing electromagnetic field of the Sun, not to mention that of the Earth, that means that changes in the Sun's electromagnetic field will induce changes in the functioning of every living creature on Earth in ways that reflect the behavior of the Sun and, in turn, that of the bodies of the Solar System, for reasons outlined above. The changes may be small and inconsequential; but where individual neurons and myocardial cells are concerned, even small changes can have very significant effects on the organism and the functioning of its organs, because the behavior of organs such as the vertebrate brain and heart are by nature mathematically chaotic. Hence relatively small changes in the Sun's electromagnetic field due to the behavior of the planets and other bodies in the Solar System and their geometric interrelationships can have significant impact on the functioning, hence the behavior, of every living thing on Earth.
If this sounds ridiculous, consider that ham radio operators keep up-to-date ephemerides handy by their rigs so that they can always have a good idea of how the Heavyside layer is behaving at any given time. It turns out that when the Solar System's great Gas Giants, Jupiter and Saturn, as observed from Earth are in a square aspect or in opposition to each other in the sky, radio reception is generally bad, and transmitted signals often get lost somewhere in the Heavyside layer. But when they are in trine or trine aspect to each other, radio reception is generally very good, and radio transmissions are clear and easy to receive and interpret. A similar case holds true for the Solar System's Ice Giants -- Neptune and Uranus -- and their geometric interrelationships with each other and with the Gas Giants as observed in the sky from Earth. Radio operation is electrical in nature; what affects their operation will likewise impact the delicate functioning of the organs of living organisms, especially organs such as the brain and heart whose functioning is as much electrical as chemical in nature -- and which are far more sensitive to changes in ambient phenomena, with far more nuanced responses to them, than any radio ever made.*
And in fact it has been observed at population levels, living organisms, ourselves included, behave collectively in ways that track the aspects which the planets of the Solar System, as observed from Earth, make to one another and to the Sun. In a general sense, all other things being equal, it tends to work for individual organisms, including human beings, as well. I say "tends" because astrology is not, contrary to popular opinion, a determinative predictor of behavior and mind-set; it marks out likelihoods rather than certainties, and somewhere between free will and Eris living creatures manage to beat the odds all the time.
What astrology is, is an ancient version of human ecology, a real heuristic sort of science that our Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age ancestors used with an acceptable success rate to determine the best times to sow, tend, and reap their crops and breed, tend, butcher, and otherwise deal with their stock animals and work animals -- activities their very lives and the ongoing success of their socities depended on absolutely. They survived well enough -- that we are here today shows that -- so their use of astrology to regulate these and other critically important activities on which their very survival depended was successful. True, there are limits on its applicability, but when used the way it's supposed to be used, astrology is successful enough as a practical discipline to warrant interest in and study of it.
Astrology is not, however, an explanatory science the way, say, many branches of medicine, biology, physics, and chemistry are. It describes behavioral likelihoods due to ever-changing physical phenomena, but when it comes to getting at the underlying reasons for those likelihoods, it fails miserably. Astronomy, physics, chemistry, and the biological and biomedical sciences, on the other hand, are superb at getting at those underlying causes, but ignore easily observable trends in behavior as related to the continuously changing geometry of the Solar System as observed from Earth, pretending they don't exist, because, frankly, there have been too many damned frauds calling themselves astrologers, alchemists, and other practitioners of such ancient dispcipline when in fact they are anything but for honest men and women to have any truck with anything those frauds discuss or practice, thank you very much.
At any rate, I study and practice astrology because I find it fascinating insofar as it gets at aspects of the interactions of people with one another, members of other species, and the environment in general that are missed by other disciplines. Up to that point, it is a success as a predictive discipline, at least as long as whole populations and societies of organisms are considered. It works as far as individuals go, as well -- but only up to a point, and only in terms of likelihoods, because, when you get right down to it, any organism with a given life-history and ancestry, when faced by a particular situation, will do exactly as it damned pleases, and throw everybody's predictions into a cocked hat. (Military analogue: "The moment the enemy appears, all your battle-plans go to shit.")
Have a great Memorial Day, everybody. XD
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*In fact, Earth's atmosphere and, to a great extent, also react to major aspects among the bodies of the Solar System. Like living organisms, the atmosphere is an inherently chaotic phenomenon, and like living creatures, it responds to changes in the Heavyside layer and the general electromagnetic ambient environment in ways that range from subtle to catastrophic. Storms form and unform, evolve and strut their stuff in response to fluctuations in that ambient environment; tornadoes and hurricanes and shindees and dust devils and lightning storms all reflect the behavior of the Sun in response to the ongoing evolution of the general gravitational field of the Solar System. In turn, the lithosphere responds to the birth, evolution, and death of every storm front, weather system, and other meteorological phenomenon, and the overall effect likewise mirrors the same phenomena astrologers work with. This perhaps accounts for the fact that event charts erected for the times, dates, and locations of earthquakes always show quincunxes, aspects interpreted by astrologers as signifying a need for adjustment among components of a system that are under strong tensions -- like, by the way, the various faults in the crust of an area in which an earthquake is about to occur. Astrology measures the behavior of chaotic systems in response to changes in the ambient electromagnetic environment in which they are located. The range of such systems include biological, geological, and meteorological systems, and astrology can therefore be applied usefully to them all as far as after-the-fact analysis of their behavior and its causes goes.
Not really. Most people -- including way too many astrologers, btw -- don't know what astrology really is. It's simply another way of mapping the way energy from electromagnetic radiation, chemical reactions, and the radioactivity of the rocks making up the Earth's crust and the Earth's interior moves through the living world, including every living organism in it. Astrology describes the pathways which energy most likely to take on its way to a state of maximum entropy. It is the ongoing, continuous, overall interactions of all the bodies comprising the Solar System, especially their combined effects on the Sun and the Sun's associated electromagnetic field, and the Moon's gravitational effects on the Earth and its life that determines the most likely pathways energy will take to try to reach a ground state, and that is what astrology maps.
All life on Earth exists within the Sun's electromagnetic field. The characteristics of that field change continuously as the flow of the plasma that makes up the body of the Sun changes. In turn, as the various bodies of the Solar System tug and haul on the Sun, the shape of the Sun, hence the motions of the highly ionized gases (plasma) making up the Sun, change in accordance. Since the motion of ionized gases is equivalent to an electric current and its associated electromagnetic field, this means that as the planets and other bodies of the Solar System revolve around their parent star the Sun's electromagnetic field changes both quantitatively and qualitatively in kind.
Every living organism on Earth consists of various materials containing or suspended in the watery fluids that make up the bulk of that organism. Throughout its life, the atoms and molecules making up those materials and that fluid are in continuous motion, passing through, within, and between the cells that make it up. As these atoms and molecules are in many cases themselves ionized, that means that electrical currents and an associated electromagnetic field flux are continuously present in the body of the organism and within its constituent cells. In the case of organisms with complex central nervous systems, beating hearts, and other organs that depend on those electrical currents and associated electromagnetic field flux for their functioning, any change in them induced from outside the body of the organism will impact that organism's overall functioning and the functioning of its individual organs, sometimes beneficially, sometimes otherwise. Since every such organism lives within the ever-changing electromagnetic field of the Sun, not to mention that of the Earth, that means that changes in the Sun's electromagnetic field will induce changes in the functioning of every living creature on Earth in ways that reflect the behavior of the Sun and, in turn, that of the bodies of the Solar System, for reasons outlined above. The changes may be small and inconsequential; but where individual neurons and myocardial cells are concerned, even small changes can have very significant effects on the organism and the functioning of its organs, because the behavior of organs such as the vertebrate brain and heart are by nature mathematically chaotic. Hence relatively small changes in the Sun's electromagnetic field due to the behavior of the planets and other bodies in the Solar System and their geometric interrelationships can have significant impact on the functioning, hence the behavior, of every living thing on Earth.
If this sounds ridiculous, consider that ham radio operators keep up-to-date ephemerides handy by their rigs so that they can always have a good idea of how the Heavyside layer is behaving at any given time. It turns out that when the Solar System's great Gas Giants, Jupiter and Saturn, as observed from Earth are in a square aspect or in opposition to each other in the sky, radio reception is generally bad, and transmitted signals often get lost somewhere in the Heavyside layer. But when they are in trine or trine aspect to each other, radio reception is generally very good, and radio transmissions are clear and easy to receive and interpret. A similar case holds true for the Solar System's Ice Giants -- Neptune and Uranus -- and their geometric interrelationships with each other and with the Gas Giants as observed in the sky from Earth. Radio operation is electrical in nature; what affects their operation will likewise impact the delicate functioning of the organs of living organisms, especially organs such as the brain and heart whose functioning is as much electrical as chemical in nature -- and which are far more sensitive to changes in ambient phenomena, with far more nuanced responses to them, than any radio ever made.*
And in fact it has been observed at population levels, living organisms, ourselves included, behave collectively in ways that track the aspects which the planets of the Solar System, as observed from Earth, make to one another and to the Sun. In a general sense, all other things being equal, it tends to work for individual organisms, including human beings, as well. I say "tends" because astrology is not, contrary to popular opinion, a determinative predictor of behavior and mind-set; it marks out likelihoods rather than certainties, and somewhere between free will and Eris living creatures manage to beat the odds all the time.
What astrology is, is an ancient version of human ecology, a real heuristic sort of science that our Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age ancestors used with an acceptable success rate to determine the best times to sow, tend, and reap their crops and breed, tend, butcher, and otherwise deal with their stock animals and work animals -- activities their very lives and the ongoing success of their socities depended on absolutely. They survived well enough -- that we are here today shows that -- so their use of astrology to regulate these and other critically important activities on which their very survival depended was successful. True, there are limits on its applicability, but when used the way it's supposed to be used, astrology is successful enough as a practical discipline to warrant interest in and study of it.
Astrology is not, however, an explanatory science the way, say, many branches of medicine, biology, physics, and chemistry are. It describes behavioral likelihoods due to ever-changing physical phenomena, but when it comes to getting at the underlying reasons for those likelihoods, it fails miserably. Astronomy, physics, chemistry, and the biological and biomedical sciences, on the other hand, are superb at getting at those underlying causes, but ignore easily observable trends in behavior as related to the continuously changing geometry of the Solar System as observed from Earth, pretending they don't exist, because, frankly, there have been too many damned frauds calling themselves astrologers, alchemists, and other practitioners of such ancient dispcipline when in fact they are anything but for honest men and women to have any truck with anything those frauds discuss or practice, thank you very much.
At any rate, I study and practice astrology because I find it fascinating insofar as it gets at aspects of the interactions of people with one another, members of other species, and the environment in general that are missed by other disciplines. Up to that point, it is a success as a predictive discipline, at least as long as whole populations and societies of organisms are considered. It works as far as individuals go, as well -- but only up to a point, and only in terms of likelihoods, because, when you get right down to it, any organism with a given life-history and ancestry, when faced by a particular situation, will do exactly as it damned pleases, and throw everybody's predictions into a cocked hat. (Military analogue: "The moment the enemy appears, all your battle-plans go to shit.")
Have a great Memorial Day, everybody. XD
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
*In fact, Earth's atmosphere and, to a great extent, also react to major aspects among the bodies of the Solar System. Like living organisms, the atmosphere is an inherently chaotic phenomenon, and like living creatures, it responds to changes in the Heavyside layer and the general electromagnetic ambient environment in ways that range from subtle to catastrophic. Storms form and unform, evolve and strut their stuff in response to fluctuations in that ambient environment; tornadoes and hurricanes and shindees and dust devils and lightning storms all reflect the behavior of the Sun in response to the ongoing evolution of the general gravitational field of the Solar System. In turn, the lithosphere responds to the birth, evolution, and death of every storm front, weather system, and other meteorological phenomenon, and the overall effect likewise mirrors the same phenomena astrologers work with. This perhaps accounts for the fact that event charts erected for the times, dates, and locations of earthquakes always show quincunxes, aspects interpreted by astrologers as signifying a need for adjustment among components of a system that are under strong tensions -- like, by the way, the various faults in the crust of an area in which an earthquake is about to occur. Astrology measures the behavior of chaotic systems in response to changes in the ambient electromagnetic environment in which they are located. The range of such systems include biological, geological, and meteorological systems, and astrology can therefore be applied usefully to them all as far as after-the-fact analysis of their behavior and its causes goes.