Predicting the Past
Jan. 24th, 2012 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
my_starzEven before I started looking at astrology seriously, I had the idea in my head that if you looked back at previous predictions and found them to have come true, there was potentially more validity to future predictions within that system. It seemed to me that if you were actively expecting something to happen, you'd find a way to put a spin on things that would make it come true in one way or another. Somehow, it seemed to be more objective to look back and see if something had actually happened, while anticipation seemed subjective and prone to the creation of self-fulfilling prophecies. This was one of the tests I used on daily horoscopes: if I read them the day after the fact, I felt I was less prone to subject the reading to spin, and would thus have a better sense of their accuracy. For what it's worth, none ever passed the test.
As my study of astrology became more focused, I began to learn about more than just casting natal charts. One of the next techniques I discovered was called "progressions": this is the principal form of predictive astrology, in which one essentially re-casts a natal chart, advancing the date one day for each year one wishes to cover. So if one wanted to have a glimpse at the year in store for a 20-year-old, cast a chart for the birth date plus twenty days, and the relationships on the new chart would be indicative of what was in store. My astrology bookshelf, by this point, had expanded considerably, and included at least half-a-dozen ephemerides: collections of charts and tables providing a daily position of all of the luminaries, each containing ten years worth of such data.
I was travelling a fair amount during this period of my life, and had acquired the habit of carrying with me several of these collections, covering the most likely birth-years of folks I was likely to encounter. This gave me the opportunity to pick up a bit of quick cash from time to time, by doing very quick charts for the curious with money to burn. One such occasion stands out in my experience, even without the perk of any cash having changed hands, and it involved using the techniques of astrological progressions to, in effect, predict the past.
I was visiting with an out-of-state community of members of a particular Faith, which at the time I happened to share. To put what I'm about to describe in a proper context, I need to mention that becoming a member of this Faith is always an act of conscious will and deliberate choice: whether one converts from some other path, or is raised within a family already practicing, one has to formally enroll to become a member. That enrollment process is known as "declaration", and for most followers of this Faith, it is a significant and memorable event. On this particular night, there was a fairly small group gathered: I can't remember exactly how many, but at least 8 or 9, certainly no more than a dozen folks. Of these, I knew two or three of them fairly well; the rest I had just met.
As is often the case with newly-acquainted members of such communities, we'd been sharing "declaration stories": how it was we'd come into this system of beliefs from our varied original backgrounds and upbringings. And then somehow the conversation turned to astrology. I suddenly got an idea into my head, and pitched it to the group: "Tell me your birth date and I'll see if I can tell you when you declared. Here's my premise: the planet Neptune is the ruler of all things spiritual; I'll track its movements day-by-day from your birth date, and look for a strong aspect (angular relationship with some other luminary) to occur. Counting each day as a year, the number of days until such aspect should be a year in which some significant spiritual experience occurred, and I'll bet it's your declaration."
Of everyone gathered there that night, I nailed all but one of their declaration years on the first try. For the one that I missed, the first aspect to Neptune marked the year she discovered the existence of the Faith, but she hadn't formally enrolled 'til years later - at the second favorable aspect to Neptune in her progressed charts. We were all amazed -- stunned might actually be a better word for the collective reaction. There was no possible way to misinterpret what I'd done; nothing at all vague or generalized that might apply to almost anybody under some circumstances. Each prediction was for a specific individual, and clocked out against a significant event in their own individual lives. And frankly, in some ways it scared the heck out of me.
Natal charts, which provide personality outlines, rarely contain anything truly unknown. An observant person, or any mental health professional, can make reasonable assessments of someone's personality just by spending time with them; an astrological chart just shortcuts the processing time. But this was different -- if the techniques could predict the past so effectively, there was no longer any room for doubt that they could, to some extent, predict the future. And I really didn't think that the future was something I wanted to have written out for me before the fact.
To this day, I've never done another progression, and I'm still not sure I ever will.
Please feel free to discuss this in the comments -- as it's something I'm still sorting through decades after the fact, I'd appreciate your insights! Thanks, and see you again soon.
As my study of astrology became more focused, I began to learn about more than just casting natal charts. One of the next techniques I discovered was called "progressions": this is the principal form of predictive astrology, in which one essentially re-casts a natal chart, advancing the date one day for each year one wishes to cover. So if one wanted to have a glimpse at the year in store for a 20-year-old, cast a chart for the birth date plus twenty days, and the relationships on the new chart would be indicative of what was in store. My astrology bookshelf, by this point, had expanded considerably, and included at least half-a-dozen ephemerides: collections of charts and tables providing a daily position of all of the luminaries, each containing ten years worth of such data.
I was travelling a fair amount during this period of my life, and had acquired the habit of carrying with me several of these collections, covering the most likely birth-years of folks I was likely to encounter. This gave me the opportunity to pick up a bit of quick cash from time to time, by doing very quick charts for the curious with money to burn. One such occasion stands out in my experience, even without the perk of any cash having changed hands, and it involved using the techniques of astrological progressions to, in effect, predict the past.
I was visiting with an out-of-state community of members of a particular Faith, which at the time I happened to share. To put what I'm about to describe in a proper context, I need to mention that becoming a member of this Faith is always an act of conscious will and deliberate choice: whether one converts from some other path, or is raised within a family already practicing, one has to formally enroll to become a member. That enrollment process is known as "declaration", and for most followers of this Faith, it is a significant and memorable event. On this particular night, there was a fairly small group gathered: I can't remember exactly how many, but at least 8 or 9, certainly no more than a dozen folks. Of these, I knew two or three of them fairly well; the rest I had just met.
As is often the case with newly-acquainted members of such communities, we'd been sharing "declaration stories": how it was we'd come into this system of beliefs from our varied original backgrounds and upbringings. And then somehow the conversation turned to astrology. I suddenly got an idea into my head, and pitched it to the group: "Tell me your birth date and I'll see if I can tell you when you declared. Here's my premise: the planet Neptune is the ruler of all things spiritual; I'll track its movements day-by-day from your birth date, and look for a strong aspect (angular relationship with some other luminary) to occur. Counting each day as a year, the number of days until such aspect should be a year in which some significant spiritual experience occurred, and I'll bet it's your declaration."
Of everyone gathered there that night, I nailed all but one of their declaration years on the first try. For the one that I missed, the first aspect to Neptune marked the year she discovered the existence of the Faith, but she hadn't formally enrolled 'til years later - at the second favorable aspect to Neptune in her progressed charts. We were all amazed -- stunned might actually be a better word for the collective reaction. There was no possible way to misinterpret what I'd done; nothing at all vague or generalized that might apply to almost anybody under some circumstances. Each prediction was for a specific individual, and clocked out against a significant event in their own individual lives. And frankly, in some ways it scared the heck out of me.
Natal charts, which provide personality outlines, rarely contain anything truly unknown. An observant person, or any mental health professional, can make reasonable assessments of someone's personality just by spending time with them; an astrological chart just shortcuts the processing time. But this was different -- if the techniques could predict the past so effectively, there was no longer any room for doubt that they could, to some extent, predict the future. And I really didn't think that the future was something I wanted to have written out for me before the fact.
To this day, I've never done another progression, and I'm still not sure I ever will.
Please feel free to discuss this in the comments -- as it's something I'm still sorting through decades after the fact, I'd appreciate your insights! Thanks, and see you again soon.
Thoughts
Date: 2012-01-24 08:08 pm (UTC)You are SUCH a hobby-scientist. You laid out your premises and hypothesis before conducting the experiment.
>> And I really didn't think that the future was something I wanted to have written out for me before the fact.<<
The universe is both holographic and fractal: each small part contains an image of the whole, and the patterns repeat in infinite variations. This is why certain types of prediction work; they are observations of those repeating patterns.
What astrology can predict is the type of event most likely to occur for a person (or really, a group of people sharing certain background traits) within a particular time range. It's kind of like going to college: you are going to take some classes, but what they are and whether you pass depends on your choices. Astrology can predict that in a given year, you're likely to have an important spiritual experience; one or more opportunities will be presented, and you'll be more open to them than usual. But it can't necessarily predict what religion(s) that will involve or how you will choose to respond. If you're a devout atheist you might just *hmf* and ignore the whole thing. The point is that the universe got you to think about "spirituality."
The broad strokes are what make the pattern of the universe, part of what connects each tiny piece to everything else. The details are what make us conscious spirits moving through the cathedral of time and space, our individual choices defining the unique path we take through the opportunities presented to us.