5 ms·

Ask HN: Help me learn astrology in 2020

One of my to-do in 2020 resolutions is to learn more about astrology and explore it and see if it is a predictive science. 1. I am learning Vedic or Indian Astrology which uses the sidereal and not tropical charts. 2. I have a software that does calculations 3. I have books. So. Many. Books. I want to be able to study it as a discipline and subject. I am not interested in proving whether it’s ‘science’ or an ‘pseudo science’. Maybe it’s is ..maybe it’s art..maybe it’s a game. The goal is to read the texts and follow the rules of analysis and predict. And then I want to record it, find patterns based on interpretations and see how it turns out. There has to be a pattern and it can’t be entirely random even if the predictions don’t pan out. How do I go about this?

mitasu-hachi 7y ago
Astrology is about trying to find what your target/subject wants and creating predictions around them. You should keep predictions vague, never "predict" specifics. It's basically the Mediumship-esque parlor trick, the difference being that you're observing stars and planets instead of communing with the dead, you have to probe and search to see what they really want. Ask leading questions, make educated assumptions, refine over time as you learn about them.
- mytailorisrich 7y ago
  They also tend to pass obvious or self-fulfilling advice off as 'prediction'. This is an actual prediction for Pisces about January 2020 that I've found on a British newspaper's website: " Splash out on some fashionable clothes or a new hairstyle on the 13th, when you're sure to be delighted with your new look. " Yes, if someone splashes out on new clothes and new hairstyle I'm sure that the probability of them being 'delighted' is very high even if, gasp, they do it on another day.
  - jelliclesfarm 7y ago
    I am not interested in that kind of astrology. I want to map out the whole rules of astrology and see if a pattern emerges.
    - mytailorisrich 7y ago
      I'm sure the astrologer who came up with that 'prediction' will be able to explain to you very seriously how (s)he followed the rules and observed the planets to discover that the 13th January has cosmic significance for Pisces and a pampering day.
      - jelliclesfarm 7y ago
        I understand that you don’t subscribe to astrology. There is no need to respond to this thread, no? I am not looking for someone to convince me or guide me. I have already decided to learn astrology. I want to use the right tools to be able to map it. It is the same if i want to learn astrology or predict human behavior. I guess thanks for your engagement, but you are not being helpful.
- jelliclesfarm 7y ago
  Do you have any suggestions to document it so a kind of visual map emerges as I keep adding modules to it? I am sure there is a psychology aspect to it and that’s why I am not interested in learning to predict for people...then it becomes a people pleasing thing. I want to connect to the mythology and the rules to understand why and how they emerge to form patterns
- jascii 7y ago
  While I personally do not believe in predictive powers of astrology, that is specifically not what the OP asks about. If you bother to read the question, you might notice the OP asks about ayurvedic (Hindu) astrology, and I don't think you can seperate the cultural relevance from the study.
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  That's what it is now, but Medieval and earlier, and in the same era Islamic and Indian astrology were well respected fields of study and scholars studied it seriously. Granted they had some very wrong headed ideas on many things, not just stellar influences -- every disease was a judgement of god, doctors checking horoscopes to decide treatment, treatments that were sometimes worse than the condition, etc. Though in those times Islamic and Indian treatments were far more based in fact than those in Europe -- who mainly wouldn't consider them as they were non-christian. :) Would be interesting to try and find a real pattern in any of it (by which I specifically don't mean the type you mention, or the 3 sentences of dross once found in daily newspapers)... https://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/astrology/astrologyhome.html https://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/astrology/astrologyho...
  - mytailorisrich 7y ago
    Astrology hasn't fundamentally changed. Our understanding of the world has.
    - NeedMoreTea 7y ago
      Which is not the point of OP's question.
      - jelliclesfarm 7y ago
        Thank you. Why did ancient people look up at the skies and try to make sense of it..they created charts and tried to figure out their paths. A lot of astrological concepts are certainly archetypes but if you strip all that down, at the core is an attempt to understand the traffic patterns of celestial bodies and it’s impact on us. I do see the impact of weather and climate and lunar cycles in my farm and plant growth cycles. One cannot work the soil and in nature and deny that there is some kind of thread that connects earth and the skies. Someone long time ago suggested that it affects human behaviors and motivations. Romantically I can say that we are made of water and stardust and hence of course, they affect us..but surely it can also be conveyed mathematically? That’s what I want to learn about..I am no mathematician..and that’s why any tools or thought process or module I can adopt to make sense of it will be enormously helpful to my learning.
nwrk 7y ago
Contact someone experienced who will be willing to give you guidance. If you are in positive spirit to adventure / travel you can find many traditional communities (off-path) and you can truly learn a lot. The books approach can be difficult to swallow as the learning outcome is limited by your own interpretation. Seeing is believing! Have fun
- jelliclesfarm 7y ago
  Unfortunately I am not able to commit fully due to time constraints but want to set aside at least 5 hours/week.
carapace 7y ago
Ah, metaphysics. I studied metaphysics in a practical way extensively in the late 90's. I was technically homeless but I lived by magic for about four and a half years. It was pretty intense. Anyway... I speak with authority in this matter: Astrology is a form of divination. All forms of divination work, depending on the operator. All forms of: Astrology, Numerology, Tarot, Dowsing by pendulum or rods, Palmistry, Reading of tea leaves or entrails (yuch!) or cracks in heated turtle shells or thrown reeds or coins, I Ching, omens and signs, etc., all of them, work by the same method. It's the internal potency of the operator that leads to correct knowledge (from "esoteric" sources.) Your own connection to source guides the interpretation. The format of the divination system is a conduit to bring semantics into concrete syntax. If you simply want reliable truthful information the "applied kinesiology" technique of Dr. Sir David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. [1] is the single simplest and purest methodology. It's so mind-blowing that even I can barely credit it. But I have never found it to fail. It's so spooky that I often "forget" to use it, and just bumble along as best i can. YMMV However, if you want to study astrology, you can just make up your own system. It will be more powerful than adopting someone else's system. Unless you feel drawn to a certain school or format, in which case that's important information for your personal path and you should likely study that. Spread all your books out, pick one at random, open it to a random page, and read the first passage your eye alight upon. (Bibliomancy, another form of divination, one of my favorites. I have a shelf with the Gita, Bible, Beezlebub's Tales to His Grandson, and others and still practice bibliomancy with them from time to time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomancy ) [1] Although he didn't invent it, his presentation and discussion of it are the only thing I'm talking about here: https://veritaspub.com/ https://veritaspub.com/ If you go look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_kinesiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_kinesiology there's a lot lot there that could be unpacked, but that's NOT what I'm talking about. I mean specifically the "Levels of Consciousness" interpretation of Hawkins.
- jelliclesfarm 7y ago
  Thank you. But can we codify it in a mathematical language that can be a visual map? I chose Vedic astrology because to a certain extent the astronomy and math part of it is pretty well documented and authored. How to extract the predictive pattern recognition aspects of it so the ‘intuition’ part of it can be understood?
onecommentman 7y ago
Don’t listen to the haters ranting against astrology. They are computer science types for the most part and are jealous, seeing that computer science itself sits somewhere between astrology and numerology, without the popularity of the former or the formality of the latter.

mitasu-hachi 7y ago

Astrology is about trying to find what your target/subject wants and creating predictions around them. You should keep predictions vague, never "predict" specifics. It's basically the Mediumship-esque parlor trick, the difference being that you're observing stars and planets instead of communing with the dead, you have to probe and search to see what they really want. Ask leading questions, make educated assumptions, refine over time as you learn about them.

mytailorisrich 7y ago
They also tend to pass obvious or self-fulfilling advice off as 'prediction'. This is an actual prediction for Pisces about January 2020 that I've found on a British newspaper's website: " Splash out on some fashionable clothes or a new hairstyle on the 13th, when you're sure to be delighted with your new look. " Yes, if someone splashes out on new clothes and new hairstyle I'm sure that the probability of them being 'delighted' is very high even if, gasp, they do it on another day.
- jelliclesfarm 7y ago
  I am not interested in that kind of astrology. I want to map out the whole rules of astrology and see if a pattern emerges.
  - mytailorisrich 7y ago
    I'm sure the astrologer who came up with that 'prediction' will be able to explain to you very seriously how (s)he followed the rules and observed the planets to discover that the 13th January has cosmic significance for Pisces and a pampering day.
    - jelliclesfarm 7y ago
      I understand that you don’t subscribe to astrology. There is no need to respond to this thread, no? I am not looking for someone to convince me or guide me. I have already decided to learn astrology. I want to use the right tools to be able to map it. It is the same if i want to learn astrology or predict human behavior. I guess thanks for your engagement, but you are not being helpful.
jelliclesfarm 7y ago
Do you have any suggestions to document it so a kind of visual map emerges as I keep adding modules to it? I am sure there is a psychology aspect to it and that’s why I am not interested in learning to predict for people...then it becomes a people pleasing thing. I want to connect to the mythology and the rules to understand why and how they emerge to form patterns
jascii 7y ago
While I personally do not believe in predictive powers of astrology, that is specifically not what the OP asks about. If you bother to read the question, you might notice the OP asks about ayurvedic (Hindu) astrology, and I don't think you can seperate the cultural relevance from the study.
NeedMoreTea 7y ago
That's what it is now, but Medieval and earlier, and in the same era Islamic and Indian astrology were well respected fields of study and scholars studied it seriously. Granted they had some very wrong headed ideas on many things, not just stellar influences -- every disease was a judgement of god, doctors checking horoscopes to decide treatment, treatments that were sometimes worse than the condition, etc. Though in those times Islamic and Indian treatments were far more based in fact than those in Europe -- who mainly wouldn't consider them as they were non-christian. :) Would be interesting to try and find a real pattern in any of it (by which I specifically don't mean the type you mention, or the 3 sentences of dross once found in daily newspapers)... https://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/astrology/astrologyhome.html https://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/astrology/astrologyho...
- mytailorisrich 7y ago
  Astrology hasn't fundamentally changed. Our understanding of the world has.
  - NeedMoreTea 7y ago
    Which is not the point of OP's question.
    - jelliclesfarm 7y ago
      Thank you. Why did ancient people look up at the skies and try to make sense of it..they created charts and tried to figure out their paths. A lot of astrological concepts are certainly archetypes but if you strip all that down, at the core is an attempt to understand the traffic patterns of celestial bodies and it’s impact on us. I do see the impact of weather and climate and lunar cycles in my farm and plant growth cycles. One cannot work the soil and in nature and deny that there is some kind of thread that connects earth and the skies. Someone long time ago suggested that it affects human behaviors and motivations. Romantically I can say that we are made of water and stardust and hence of course, they affect us..but surely it can also be conveyed mathematically? That’s what I want to learn about..I am no mathematician..and that’s why any tools or thought process or module I can adopt to make sense of it will be enormously helpful to my learning.

nwrk 7y ago

Contact someone experienced who will be willing to give you guidance. If you are in positive spirit to adventure / travel you can find many traditional communities (off-path) and you can truly learn a lot. The books approach can be difficult to swallow as the learning outcome is limited by your own interpretation. Seeing is believing! Have fun

jelliclesfarm 7y ago
Unfortunately I am not able to commit fully due to time constraints but want to set aside at least 5 hours/week.

carapace 7y ago

Ah, metaphysics. I studied metaphysics in a practical way extensively in the late 90's. I was technically homeless but I lived by magic for about four and a half years. It was pretty intense. Anyway... I speak with authority in this matter: Astrology is a form of divination. All forms of divination work, depending on the operator. All forms of: Astrology, Numerology, Tarot, Dowsing by pendulum or rods, Palmistry, Reading of tea leaves or entrails (yuch!) or cracks in heated turtle shells or thrown reeds or coins, I Ching, omens and signs, etc., all of them, work by the same method. It's the internal potency of the operator that leads to correct knowledge (from "esoteric" sources.) Your own connection to source guides the interpretation. The format of the divination system is a conduit to bring semantics into concrete syntax. If you simply want reliable truthful information the "applied kinesiology" technique of Dr. Sir David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. [1] is the single simplest and purest methodology. It's so mind-blowing that even I can barely credit it. But I have never found it to fail. It's so spooky that I often "forget" to use it, and just bumble along as best i can. YMMV However, if you want to study astrology, you can just make up your own system. It will be more powerful than adopting someone else's system. Unless you feel drawn to a certain school or format, in which case that's important information for your personal path and you should likely study that. Spread all your books out, pick one at random, open it to a random page, and read the first passage your eye alight upon. (Bibliomancy, another form of divination, one of my favorites. I have a shelf with the Gita, Bible, Beezlebub's Tales to His Grandson, and others and still practice bibliomancy with them from time to time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomancy ) [1] Although he didn't invent it, his presentation and discussion of it are the only thing I'm talking about here: https://veritaspub.com/ https://veritaspub.com/ If you go look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_kinesiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_kinesiology there's a lot lot there that could be unpacked, but that's NOT what I'm talking about. I mean specifically the "Levels of Consciousness" interpretation of Hawkins.

jelliclesfarm 7y ago
Thank you. But can we codify it in a mathematical language that can be a visual map? I chose Vedic astrology because to a certain extent the astronomy and math part of it is pretty well documented and authored. How to extract the predictive pattern recognition aspects of it so the ‘intuition’ part of it can be understood?

onecommentman 7y ago

Don’t listen to the haters ranting against astrology. They are computer science types for the most part and are jealous, seeing that computer science itself sits somewhere between astrology and numerology, without the popularity of the former or the formality of the latter.