Exegesis V3 Issue #13

Exegesis Volume 3 Issue #13

From: John Reder
Subject: Re: Exegesis Digest V3 #8

Exegesis Digest Fri, 06 Feb 1998

Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 22:07:28 -0500 (EST)
From: John Reder
To: Exegesis
Subject: Re: Exegesis Digest V3 #8

At 07:47 PM 1/28/98 GMT, you wrote:
> Exegesis Digest Wed, 28 Jan 1998 Volume 3 Issue 8
>
>
>
> Contents
>
> -----e-----
>
>
> From: Matthew Wilson
> Subject: Re: Exegesis Digest V3 #6
>
> From: "Joanna M. Ashmun"
> Subject: Re: Exegesis Digest V3 #7
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 19:08:20 -0000
> From: Matthew Wilson
> To: Exegesis
> Subject: Re: Exegesis Digest V3 #6
> Message-ID:
>
> 2) It cannot explain itself. It cannot define and
> describe its own basis. So it had, and still has, no defense against
> those would-be dictators who claim without refutation that
> the basic tenets of astrology are illusory and invalid. With no
> defense, those who would develop it stepped away, leaving it to
> charlatans and tricksters.
>
>
> The problem seems to be that every astrologer acts in an almost unique way
> and no two astrologers will come up with the same reading from the same
> chart. Whilst charlatans and tricksters certainly abound, astrology has
> often relied on the religious or philosophical system of its practioner to
> provide it shelter: thus Mesopotamian astrology was bound up with the cult
> of Inanna, Valens and Ptolemy with Platonism and the pantheism of ancient
> Greece, Jyotish with Vedantism, and even early Western astrology with
> Gnosticism, Hermeticism or the Catholic Church. Today Osho followers have
> their own astrology, Maharishi or TM followers have theirs, Mandaeans (whose
> astrologer priests must be the longest practised tradition still alive in
> the world today) whilst in the West we seem to have alligned with the cult
> of Jung !! The fact is that as a supernatural phenomena astrology seems to
> require a spiritual home to align itself to.
>

Now that I have seen Issue #8, I see what this "supernatural" thing was all about. This isn't about natural vs supernatural, this is about showing the natives the "magic fire stick" and getting into a position of power, because you know how to make magic. This kind of religion is 99% power politics and 1% spirituality. This is using knowledge to foster a superior class and making the masses subservient. I don't think astrology needs to have a guru or a master. You don't need to raise up a leader because he know how to do logarithms. Most things that are mystified are done so for the sake of gaining power over others with the illusion of divine knowledge. What hurts the study of astrology, tarot, whatever, is the people that try to form a religion or a philosophy of divine anointing out of it for their own power trip. The study of astrology should be about passing on the ability to use it and not proselytization of a philosophy. It is far more important to pass on "HOW" it works instead of "WHY". Which is something this list could do a bit more of. It's all philosophy and no technique. A little more sharing of technical detail would be far more instructive.