I do not believe in astrology because ...

 

I do not believe in astrology because ...

... A couple of months ago I ignored my horoscope and that is precisely why  I tripped on the third of the six steps that leads from the street to the corridor in the apartment building in which I own an apartment and live in.

I will visit this incident later in this write-up.

In the astrology chart (to be called the almanac in this write-up) that South Indians (particularly TamBrahms) use, we have two non-planetary planets (no, that is not an error) that have a say in how a life proceeds. Only those who know how to use the positions of the nodes in the calculation of the details of the almanac can calculate/attest to the veracity of what it predicted for each individual. It is the above prediction that I do not believe in.

 The nodes are given the names Rahu and Kethu in the almanac and they are positioned precisely–and I mean, precisely–at 180^o, not a second less or more, to each other. This positioning is fixed and is of utmost importance in positioning the real planets. Both Rahu  and Kethu do walk around the different houses in the almanac always apart by 180^o. There is a reason for this, and not the one given in Hindu mythology, but the one through astronomy.

The apparent orbital plane of the Sun is projected onto the celestial sphere (there is a celestial equator on this sphere, which for an observer on the earth is also the equatorial plane of the earth itself) and the points of intersection with the celestial equator are the nodes mentioned earlier. That is how these nodes become the reference points for the motion of the planets between the various houses.

Planet Saturn is a slow mover, takes some thirty years to make one complete revolution around the Sun.­ The orbit of the earth, from the perspective of Saturn which is so far away, is piddling, and for all practical purposes, a point. That is why Saturn shifts from one zodiacal House to another every seven and a half years (approximate).

Now, Hindu astrologers found a way to make money through the ordered transition of Saturn from one House to another. The idea was to locate who ordered movement. Of course, one of the myriad Gods! The astrologers said, and today’s astrologers continue to say, “If Saturn resides in the house (astrological) you were born into at the time of your birth, then, you would suffer a lot, the first time. The next time round, it could be the opposite (note the indefinite “could”; hedging, the one thing the Hindu priestly class, to which I nominally belong and who has transformed himself into a native-gone-astray, is expert at). Divide 30 by 2.5 and what do you get? 12, the number of constellations (astrological signs) in the Zodiac! You cannot be tortured enough in two and a half years. Then, extend the duration of misery from the time Saturn enters the house prior to the one in which you were born to exits the one next to the same. That is, period of misfortune is trebled at two strokes. You get seven and a half years of misery!

Looking out into the cosmos from the earth, Saturn is visible and our astrologers, aided and abetted by our path breaking astronomers (some astronomers made themselves also as astrologers, merely to put food on the table!), also saw that Saturn sometimes take a retrograde motion, visiting the previous House ever so briefly. This is the worst harbinger of bad times. On and on ...

If you countered astrologers’ arguments on planets affecting any individuals life journey, you are posed the following: “Your science (it is always in the possessive, “Your science”, as though the interrogator has invalidated her science) says that ocean tides are due to the attraction of the moon over the waters, then why can the planets and stars not have similar effects, only more as the planets are surely bigger than the moon?”

My counter to that is, “Does the moon create a tide in a glass of water? Say the moon is in the eastern sky. Does the level of water in the glass tilt towards the moon?”: the implication is that the water level must be inclined in the glass! I need say no more.

Yet, let me say more. The tidal height in the Mediterranean Sea is not more than 10 cm. This indeed was the reason the Greeks, very far away from the Atlantic Ocean and with the narrow opening to it through the Gibraltar Strait, never did realize the phenomenon of tides, or even if they realized it, the variation in the sea level posed no danger to their seafarers (not ocean farers). Perhaps similar non-concerns (though not to the same extent, as the Persian Gulf is not aligned East-West as much as the Mediterranean Sea is), affected the shore dwellers along the Persian Gulf (the Strait of Hormuz, the point of entry).

If you wished to watch tides rise and fall, go to Haji Ali in Mumbai, go to Hazira particularly on the side of the Gulf of Khambet, in Gujarat and other places. Even Chennai beach offers a lesson on this.

It is for the readers, if they have not cottoned on to how tides are caused, to reach for some elementary school text books on geography.    

That Saturn is shifting/has shifted Houses–this is like shifting houses when you do not take the effort to remove cobwebs in one’s house this year, 2025 CE. And, that is a bonanza for the priestly class. Yes, Astrology classes are galore on the so-called spiritual channels!

And we boast that we are a people with a bullock-cart load of scientific temperament. Let us reach our destination, before Saturn shifts House next, Saturn’s interregnum extending for approximately two and a half years, or seven and a half years, choose your fancy.

Now, to return to the opening lines, I did not consult my horoscope before I went out and no wonder I hurt myself on the steps. Today, I would not be making that mistake.

Raghuram Ekambaram