Astrologers...and Asstrologers...

As many who know me will attest I do not watch TV at all. In fact I do not have a TV connection. I find it a source of extreme negativity which plays in to the the basest fears and emotions of people. People generally (perhaps including me!) I feel, have a tendency to keep a story running in their minds. The story has absolutely nothing to do with reality, but it is extremely vivid. While a few people are the hero/ heroine of this schizophrenic narrative, a vast majority picture themselves as the victim. While being under any sort of delusion is plain stupid, the ones under this 'victim' delusion' are the worst. And TV plays into these people narratives. Anyway, more on this on some other date.

I was at a relatives house for Ganesh Chaturthi today and ended up watching about 30 minutes of TV. Since my relative knows I am a student of jyotisha, he put on a regional TV channels where a 'royal' astrologer was expounding on anything and everything. Political fates to the stock market. The entire piece was a pile of stinking bull crap. Heres a sample of what he said: 

"Mars and Saturn are in conjunction, this is very bad, very very bad. This suggests terror attacks. Ganesh festival is a prime target. I hope the home minister of India and the chief minister of this state should listen to me. <Ganpati 1> and <Ganpati 2> are in risk of attack (he named the two MOST PROMINENT) and the police should be careful. The attack can even come from the coast line. This Mars and Saturn is very bad, very, very bad." (am paraphrasing here)

Of late, several of those who ask me for my jyotisha view used to inform me of transits of planets. Personally, I follow stellar principles and as such these random transits mean nothing to me. But this 'royal' astrologer was spouting so much ridiculousness that I decided to examine what he said in an objective manner.

The simple principle of science is that an experiment is repeatable. Now I understand astrology is not a science (its not...get over it). Though I may have referred to it as such a few times, it is only because of the phrase 'science of jyotisha' being imprinted in my mind. But even adjusting for its "more art than science" persona, readers would have noticed a remarkable similarity in the method I use to analyse charts. I give my method in detail and then check if I got it right or not. That is the most scientific that I can be. If I'm right, I'm right, if not, then I will learn.

Anyway, coming back to this 'royal' astrologer. He mentioned Mars+Saturn conjunction has caused increase in terror activity, so its bad for India. Ok. The biggest and most audacious attack India faced was 26/11/2008. Were Mars and Saturn Conjunct then? No. Saturn was in Leo and Mars was in Scorpio. Ok, maybe this missed. What about the infamous 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai (12 March 93)? Mars was in Gemini and Saturn was in Aquarius. What about the dastardly 9/11 attacks? Mars was in Sagittarius and Saturn was in Taurus. Bali bombings of 2005? Mars in Aries and Saturn in Cancer. I could go on.

This is the problem with so-called Vedic or traditional astrologers. What they say makes no sense whatsoever. I am being harsh, but the truth often is. If I am wrong, I have a method that I can retrace and then tweak to see if something else works and where I went wrong. Traditional astrologers feel absolutely ZERO need to ever correct themselves. You know why? Because they are never wrong! :) Seriously. Everytime a prediction goes wrong, they will have some aspect or 'yoga' that explains why it went wrong. So they don't need to correct it. Like I remarked to someone the other day, "Vedic astrologers can always predict an event accurately, after the event has already happened"

I am reminded of this other jyotisha on FB who keeps writing random stuff. Sample this:

"Jupiter and Venus parivartana...separation from Partner" 

After giving several such nuggets (I am putting just one here), He ends this 'discourse' to us lowly humans with:

"My note...if these are not found correct...just forget and don't waste time in commenting"

Wow. Imagine if a doctor said this to you. I think you have T.B. but if you dont think its correct, dont ask me, just forget about it. While I do not hold astrologers (including myself) to the standard of doctors, just imagine the massive ego and conceit of this statement this venerable jyotisha put.

He doesn't want to know if the principle he is likely using to advise clients is wrong! I would welcome something which I did not agree with so that I could learn. I recently had a discussion with someone on my comments in one of the posts. I put my view and explained the basis for the same, I left the comment of the other person there and  requested to let me know if I was wrong. This is the attitude of a student, not that "my way or the highway approach"

How can any combination be a blanket good or bad? That itself is ridiculous. Lets take this famous Sa+Ma conjunction. Lets say this causes an enemy to execute a successful attack on a country. Ok. So its bad for the country. But isn't it a good combination (however sad) for the enemy? Since these combinations happen for the world as a whole, how can an astrologer take two random planets and say this is bad?! He can say it is bad with respect to one native.

This is the superiority of stellar methods over these so-called vedic 'astrologers'. A good stellar astrologer will never say, Jupiter is good for you. He will say, Jupiter is good for your career. Lets say Jupiter strongly signifies the 4th house. Then we can say Jupiter is good for education or property purchase. But since the 4th house is 8th from the 9th house of father, the same planet will be bad for the natives father. This is life. Its good with the bad, its rough with the smooth, it is give and take! Jyotisha is life, it is not removed from it. So how can one planet be a blanket 'good' or 'bad'?!

What else did he say? He named every possible type of attack! Were terror attacks not happening when the conjunction was not there? Should we ask our soldiers to rest the rest of the time, i.e. when Mars and Saturn are not in the same sign? (Mars takes about 1.5 years to go through all the signs, whereas Saturn is on one sign for 2.5 years). He named the two most prominent 'pandals' of Ganpati in Mumbai. They have been targets for years! What prediction has he given?! Nothing. And this joker has people eating out of his hands! Wow.

It is people like him who have brought disrepute to the 'science' of jyotisha. Mark my words, most 'vedic' astrologers will ONLY SCARE YOU. Everyone who goes to find out date of son's marriage comes back with the knowledge that the son is 'manglik' or the son has kaal-sarpa dosha or a paap-kartari yoga or guru chandal yoga. So then this astrologer will say you have to do this or that puja or shanti for this negative to go. So the parent came back with a Rs21,000 bill for a puja that will do nothing, and not to the answer to his question which was when will my son get married! Why did this happen? Because these 'vedic' people have zero predictive ability they will never answer questions that can be tested. They will only scare you.

There is a saying, the happy go to the jewellers, the sick go to doctors and the sad go to the astrologers. The astrologers was meant to provide context to these sad people. If (and its a big If) some remedy was possible then he would suggest a remedy. It was meant to teach people acceptance. If there were remedies for everything, then why would anyone in the world be sad?! And astrologers would have been the richest people in the world. Think!

I have no personal animus with these 'vedic' astrologers. But just from my experience I know...they know nothing. Absolutely nothing. Like the young yuppie who hides his stupidity behind jargons and acronyms, these guys will come up with impressive sounding yogas and combinations. They will have colourful names. PanchMahapurusha Yoga, Raj Yoga, Gaja Kesari Yoga, Paap Kartari yoga, Vipreet Raj Yoga, Raj Bhanga yoga..blah blah blah. They are fooling you. I realise how much they were fooling me now that I know a bit of jyotisha. 

There is no single way to test these guys. And there is no need to, I know they are incapable based on my experience. But you can ask simple Qs like: 1) What is the meaning of ayanamsa? or 2) What is the difference between a 'house' and a 'sign' in a birth chart. At least check if this person you are seeking life advise from knows at least the basics!

Use an astrologer as one of the inputs in your decision making process, if you feel so inclined. Do not use ass-trologers.

This is just my opinion.