Astrology has been considered as one of the most controversial subjects throughout the history of mankind. Some approach it with reverence and devotion, some with skepticism and disbelief; in this article I am going to discuss some of the reasons why I think this has been the case:
1- Variations of Astrological schools: one of the most important reasons in my opinion is that not enough effort was made to make a complete, well defined system out of Astrology up to now. Astrology flourished in ancient Greek, Egypt, Babylon, Persia and the Arab world, its ancient-most roots are found in India at the time of sage Parasara, or even before that; it is really hard to decide when astrology was born as a science. The variations of astrological schools gave birth to different techniques and principles which made it confusing to people who are unfamiliar with astrology to make a sense out of it and brought more confusion as a result.
Fortunately a great effort is being made now by the great astrologer Sri K.N Rao and his institute which aims to refine and purify the system of astrology which can result in less confusion and more clarity in relation to the study of Astrology.
2- The simplistic approach to Astrology: the second most important reason why I think astrology continues to have a bad name is because most people approach it so simplistically.
One great manifestation of the simplistic approach is “Sun sign Astrology”, a system that started in 1930 by the astrologer R. H. Naylor, it is the form of astrology commonly found in newspapers and magazine columns which considers only the position of the sun at birth in the zodiac, this approach divided the whole of humanity into 12 categories and gave daily predictions accordingly, which obviously is not a realistic approach to begin with.
Astrology is meant to be a personal experience, the position of every planet at the time of birth makes up the astrological portrait called “The birth chart”. Each and every one of us has a unique birth chart, to approach Astrology scientifically the entirety of the birth chart has to be analyzed and not just the sun signs, to read more on the birth chart read this article.
3- Astrologers with low morals: a few weeks ago a friend of mine called me up and said I should turn on the T.V, he said an astrologer was making some live predictions for the year of 2016, I turned on the T.V and to my shock I saw one guy with a big sheet of paper in his hands full of names that he was predicting their death live on TV! I was astonished! The names he mentioned were those of celebrities but that does not grant him the right to predict the timing of their death.
Assuming the so-called astrologer was right with his predictions, he was not asked to by those individuals to make any predictions, besides that fact that these people have families and friends who must have been impacted psychologically by his predictions.
I cannot think of anything more inhuman. But I really don’t think he was right in his predictions, to calculate the longevity of an individual requires a lot of time and effort, let alone an accurate birth timing of the individual in question, which in my opinion is an impossible task to manage and requires a dozen of astrologers to cover the list of our astrologer friend!
Throughout history these people have existed and contributed a great deal of harm to the reputation of Astrology. Beware of any astrologer who gives negative predictions, I don’t care if he is a great astrologer; to me this is enough to make you want to escape.
4- Religions effort to demonize Astrology: At the time of earlier Christianity a great deal of effort was made to demonize Astrology especially at the time of St. Augustine. Madame Blavatsky and another theosophical astrologer Will Allen brought a good level of respect to Astrology in England.
Astrology flourished in the golden Islamic age, Muslim astrologers have made great contributions to the astrological studies. Some stars still retain their Arabic names given by Muslim astrologers, even in non-Arabic texts, more than 10.000 ancient astrological scripts are still kept until today.
In spite of the great contribution of Muslim astrologers to the study of astrology and the application of it within some of the religious practices, Astrology still seems confused with sorcery and magic, though there seem to be no connection, not to me!
In my mind I do not expect that everybody should have similar understanding and approach to anything, Astrology included. I do think that Astrology is not for everyone, many people are just not capable of grasping it and that is ok, many other do not see the need to utilize it and that is ok too. To me it is a wonderful tool, it can help the individual understand them self and provide insights into their life that can help them live a more fulfilling life.