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mercurytrinemoon · 9 days ago

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Astrology: fate vs free will

Does astrology leave room for free will? Oh the heated debate that I always love to get into. To answer that question we need to first go back to the ancient times…

ANCIENT TIMES AND THE GENESIS OF ASTROLOGY

About four thousand yars ago, the people of Mesopotamia started connecting celestial phenomena with earthly events. Their observations weren’t too complex as they could only study what was seen with a naked eye: eclipses, halo around the Moon or comets. This is how they started making predictions related to folk and those who rule. For example, it was common to believe that an eclipse heralds the king dying (that’s why they used to get a decoy substitute king for the eclipse seasons! So that the wrong “king” dies instead). These symbols written in the sky were treated like omens send from gods: a heavenly script, which you can read and interpret. That is how astrology was born.

Around 5th century BCE, the study of astrology was developed enough to use it in a context of an individual. It is from this period that we find the oldest natal horoscopes. They were quite simple and limited: a reading like this would state that someone’s life will be long, prosperous and great. Or that said person will always have an advantage over their enemies. These horoscopes were purely divinatory.

If we jump forward in history, to the Hellenistic times, we’ll find out that astrology has blossomed tremendously. It’s mainly thanks to scholars from that time that we owe how astrology looks like nowadays.

Paralelly to astrology the stoic philosophy was developed and both were strongly connected. It made sense because, assuming the astrological prophecies talked about things innevitable, that stoic approach to life (which is accepting the life that is destined to us and not displaying any resistance towards it) was pretty complimentary and they were both supporting each other. According to stoics, worrying about negative fortune was just a waste of time because no one could help the bad stuff. That eliminated useless emotions and happiness was reached through acceptance and inner peace.

Let’s look at a quote from one of the hellenistic fathers of astrology, Vettius Walens:

“Those, who engage in the prediction of the future and the truth, having acquired a soul that is free and not enslaved, do not think highly of fortune, and do not devote themselves to hope, nor are they afraid of death, but instead they live their lives undaunted by disturbane by training their souls to be confident, and neither rejoice excessively in the case of good, nor become depressed in the case of bad, but instead are content with whatever is present”.

Ancient astrologers believed that studying the stars is a system, which allows studying fate. Some referred to it as “learning the law of fate”. Walens called astrologers “soldiers of fate” as well as guides and prophets.

It was clear as a day then that every person was born with some sort of fate assigned to them. Birth charts are even reffered to as stamps that are imprinted on us at the time of birth.

But even in the ancient times, astrologers didn’t fully agree on some things. This is where we introduce the concept of determinism – the complete lack of free will and the presence of destiny. Hellenistic scholars were arguing on whether some things are able to be controlled and if yes, then to what extend. Debates were heated. Roman astrologer Manillius believed that absolutely every. single. step of one’s life was predestined and the moment of birth already determined the moment of death. That’s on the extreme side of the spectrum but that was definitely an opinion that was out there. On the other hand, partial determinism was backed up by Claudius Ptolemy, who thought that a human’s doings can improve or worsen that, which was already fated and that not everything is written in stone. That’s a pretty balanced approach I’d say.

WAYS TO “HACK” DESTINY?

Astrological messages were taken for granted so much that is was popular and pretty common to use techniques that predicted the length of life. Not much of the records that talked about these techniques survived though and what we have now are just vague guidelines. What’s also interesting – and pretty fun – is that astrology implemented some magic as well! So you might know what an electional (or inceptional) astrology is about as I talk about it often (and you can get an electional reading from me as well *wink wink*). So just like a person has a birth chart, everything else does too: the moment you register a company, the moment you sign papers, the moment you marry, the moment you create something or release it, the moment you meet someone for the first time or the moment you send something into the world – all of that has its own chart. And why is it considered magic? Because that is a way to kind of steer your life in the direction you want – that gives you some control over your destiny. Of course, you can’t force something that isn’t meant for you, just like you probably can’t fully avoid what is meant for you. Funnily enough, astrology seems to always be two steps ahead of us, which means that even if you are not aware of astrology, if something is supposed to work out, you do it during an auspicious time. And if something’s fated to fail, you will probably unknowingly do it during unfavorable astro weather. So, astrology is somewhat deterministic but if you’re aware of it, you can help yourself out a bit. You know, there’s a saying that goes: “stars govern the fool ones, while the wise ones govern the stars”.

DEATH OF DETERMINISM

Okay but going back, what happened with stoicism and determinism in the context of astrology? Modern astrologers rarely talk about it. Well, during the period of christianity spreading across the world, religious priests “bribed” people by telling them that if they get baptised, they will be freed from their destiny and will be granted the gift of the free will. This is how predicting the future slowly transformed into a “set of tendencies”. Catholic prejudice againts deterministic thoughts was still strongly present even in the 20th century. In 1917 astrologer Alan Leo was convicted for divinatory practices (he was fined so nothing too bad ahah). At this time psychological astrology was slowly gaining in popularity and nowadays it’s more common to read about people’s personalities rather than predicting a specific events in their lives.

There are plenty of modern astrologers who do practice prognostic astrology and who still prove that you can predict the fate of a human by looking at his birth chart. Predictive methods like progressions or just simple planetary transits and solar returns are still fairly popular but we also have a revival of ancient techniques like profections or zodiacal releasing, which can be extremely powerful and extremely on the nose.

There was this Polish astrologer, Leszek Szuman, who predicted people’s deaths. He didn’t just outright tell them though, he would put possible dates into envelopes and seal them so that they would be checked again after these people passed away. And he was correct. I’m not sure if he was correct every single time. He also famously predicted his own death. I have no idea what techiques he used but somehow he managed to do it.

KNOWLEDGE AS AN ADVANTAGE

So, if you ask about my opinion, I think it’s hard to believe in free will while believing in astrology (that’s why I’m also not into manifestation techniques). It can be daunting, especially if you do study astrology and see a bad period incoming. I’m faaaar from being stoic but there is one thing I appreciate about that deterministic approach: you may know negative things are about to happen… but that also brings knowledge of when those things will end. And of course, you’re able to pin point the positive period and use it to your advantage. It also helps get rid of some level of regret or guilt: I’m sure everyone went through an experience (or more) where they thought to themselves “damn, WHY didn’t I do this earlier? Or differently?” or “WHY did I have to go through this, I could’ve avoid it”. Well… and what if I told you it was supposed to be like this? Would that ease out your worry? There’s time for everything, if you tried to do something earlier, even though you might now think you could do it just like that, it probably wouldn’t work out. Timing is everything in astrology.

On the other hand, if we look at the good side of destiny, as an astrologer, it’s extremely joyful to watch people give up on something that was important to them only for that something to magically work out either way. Cause you look at these charts and say “that is meant for you”, even if that person doesn’t believe it. But again with timing, just because something is meant for you, doesn’t mean you will get it right way.

And bad experiences that seem useless? When you made a decision and then you had to pull away from it? What if that was your destiny? It’s okay. Most of the decisions are reversible, even though that might be a pain in the ass. That was just a part of your journey.

There’s a myth that talks about souls drawing lots before incarnating. These lots contain a scriped destiny and each of the souls is assigned to a daemon that makes sure that destiny is fulfilled. So, some of that script surely does seem random and seems like it does not carry a lesson. It is literally like a lot: you get this and you get this and also, let’s throw in this just for variety and… fun?

I’m not sure if all mistakes and missteps have purpose, are they meant to teach us something? Maybe they do, after all modern astrology does talk about lessons quite often. But then again, if as a kiddo I had transiting Saturn opposite my Mercury and I slipped in my living room and broke my hand… what lesson was that supossed to be? (wear non slip slippers lol idk?) It was just a random event but certainly timed when you look at astrology. Situations like this definitely make you think that stuff are just written in the stars and you can’t help it. And lastly, things may seem unpredictable but only for those who do not know astrology.

#mercurytrinemoon #astrology #astro notes #astrology notes

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mercurytrinemoon · 1 month ago

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A must-read case of planetary triggers: repeating transits coinciding with the same events

I decided to write down some of the transits that coincided with events and news that caused massive setbacks, heartache and meltdowns that I experienced throughout the last 5-ish years. I did this as an example and study for you guys to see. Pay attention to how close the orbs were and think about how accurate astrology is. Especially with repeating transits from Saturn/Neptune: when it went direct over my planet, retrograded and then direct again about a year later, causing literally the same circumstance (also yes, when they squared my planets during the retrograde they did nothing, interestingly)

Astrology sceptics would have a hard time arguing with this because these events were completely out of my hands, I was almost *kind of* just an observer in all of these situations.

Note: all of these events relate to the exact same issue (!) yet different natal planets were involved.

Saturn square natal Moon (0°03’ orb)

Saturn opposite natal Jupiter (0°04’ orb, it was almost stationing rx) + Pluto square natal Moon (less than 0°05' orb)

Saturn square natal Mars (0°15’ orb) 1st transit when direct

Saturn square natal Mars (same degree as my Mars, applying, can't remeber the exact day) 3rd transit when direct

Neptune square natal Mercury (0°05’ orb) 1st transit when direct

Neptune square natal Mercury (~0°05’ orb) 3rd transit when direct, kinda echoed back when it went exact about 1-2 weeks later

Mars+Uranus quincunx natal Mercury (0°20’ orb) + Sun opposite natal Saturn (1° orb)

Saturn square natal Venus (0°25’ orb) + Mars opposite natal Saturn (0°15’ orb)

Mars square natal Moon (0°17' orb) + Venus square natal Venus (just entered the same degree so ~0°50' orb) + Sun square natal Moon (0°28’ orb)

*squares to my Moon also mean oppositions/conjunctions to my Chiron cause I have a tight natal Moon-Chiron square. Also the first Saturn square Mars and the first Neptune square Mercury took place within a couple of weeks so actually both were active at the same time.

I'm almost bummed that some of the incidents weren't as pronounced when it comes to transits (I didn't include them): yes, I had negative transits but they were from planets like Mercury or Sun or a bit wider in orb.

Also, a question that has been brewing in my mind for a few hours and it finally crystallized: these transits are so exact and look almost like a planned personal attack that I'm wondering: if my issue didn't exist, would these events even occur?

Because these transits are so specifically aimed at your weaknesses that it definitely looks like the higher planetary powers are pushing people to (unknowingly) act in a way that will hurt you and create circumstances that will be negative to you (and not necessarily to other people).

Idk, some food for thought.

I hope you're just amazed at these transits as I am. I won't lie, I definitely DO NOT like going through these meldowns and the repercussions of these transits are so consistent that it makes me terrified of bad transits, but at least I can have my good astrologer moment. Also, seeing something like this, no one can argue with me that astrology is bogus.

#watch me form a band and call it bad transits #you know... like bad omens...#bad joke #idk just came up with that #high five if you've read all of it #also i wrote this over a month ago but was waiting if all the squares from late pisces to my mercury will harm me again #luckily that retrograde cluster spared me #astrology #random #mercurytrinemoon

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