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| Tuesday, 5 August 2003 |
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A matter of stars The Moving Finger by Lionel Wijesiri A friend of mine, a US-based scientist now holidaying in Sri Lanka, asked me a simple question two weeks ago. "What do you think of Astrology? " I thought for a while and realised that I do not really know much of the subject to talk about. Later in the evening, coming to grips with the question I became conscious that every country has its own traditional ways to solve personal problems- big or small, and we Sri Lankans have a unique system of our own. In all personal matters, depending on the type of problem, most of us use astrological predictions, calculations or divination. To determine the good or unfortunate events which will occur during our lives, we cast a horoscope based on each individual's personal details. For adults, there are charts to determine the compatibility of a marriage partner. The active role of our typical astrologer in his own community is featured especially during three important life events : the birth of a child; the time of marriage; and when an illness does not respond to regular treatments. Astrologers are also consulted during other times of change such as moving from one residence to another and beginning an important project or journey. It seems that - the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in our solar system have a mystical "correspondence" with the internal makeup of the human psyche. Planets Why this is so - I'm honestly clueless... I suppose that is a mystery to be destined to remain unknown, unfathomable mystery. As I proceeded my thoughts further, more questions began to bother me: * Why do celestial objects exert their influence over our personalities and lives at the moment we emerge from our mothers? Doesn't it make at least as much sense for this influence to happen at the moment of our conception? Indeed, why must it occur all at one moment - why isn't it a process which happens throughout gestation? Or throughout childhood until puberty? Or during the course of puberty? * Traditionally, a great deal of importance has been attributed to the 12 constellations which make up the zodiac. It is worth wondering, however, why this should be so. We know that these constellations do not exist as independent groups of stars: instead, they are patterns which we create in our own minds. These stars are very, very rarely close to each other - if we were to go around to the side, we would see completely different patterns of stars. If these groupings are arbitrary human constructions, how could they possibly have any impact on human personalities and human lives, much less the very specific effects which astrology traditionally attributed to them? * Another matter which astrology is supposed to be able to predict is a person's fate. What is in store for them in life: fame and fortune or despair and destitution? Fortunately, as with predictions about a person's character and personality traits, this is also something which can be empirically examined to determine just how accurate such predictions really are. So, just how likely is it that all of the people who died from the Maradana or Pettah explosions, actually had the same fate, predictable by their horoscopes? How many horoscopes for the people read "stay at home today"? How many horoscopes for the people working in the Central Bank said "don't go to work today"? * The question of twins also poses a number of problems for astrology. When identical twins are conceived, they share the exact same DNA with one another. Because twins are born at essentially the same time, astrology would predict that they would lead very similar lives - and, when raised in the same household, that is indeed true. However, a similar prediction is made by genetics, so how should the two ideas be differentiated? History According to historians, the earliest records of astrology dates back to the Babylonian Empire in the 19th century BC, when people were attempting to correlate events like famine and war with other events they observed in the skies. Babylonian priests were regularly called upon to use their connections with the gods to predict the future, and their two principle means of doing this were inspecting the liver of a specially sacrificed animal and reading omens in the sky. The oldest known astrological texts are dated to the first half of the Hammurabi Dynasty, around the middle of the 18th century BCE. These are primarily records of omens based upon the moon and planets. Efforts at reading the sky eventually developed into something like the astrology we have today, but not until around the sixth century BC. Between 612 and 539 BC, the sky was divided to twelve sections of thirty degrees each, constituting the twelve signs of the zodiac. Once mathematical astronomy developed under the Persians (539-331 BC), it became possible to calculate some of the motion of various planets and the moon, allowing for the development of horoscopes similar to what we see today. The oldest known horoscope is dated at April 29, 410 BC, and is a natal horoscope not unlike the kind created by astrologers in our own century. They say, that there is not much left of the original tablet, and all we can read of the prediction itself is essentially, "things will be good for you." This system was later sent West to Egypt and Greece, where the latter added a number of important refinements. The Greeks developed it further and essentially limited the scope of astrology to particular areas of a person's life, like the best times to get married or have children. Fatalistic astrology would later return to prominence under the Romans where some emperors literally lived their lives according to the "dictates of the stars." Astrologers Probably a two-third of our population believes in astrology to some extent, and a project done two years ago shows that about 40 per cent of Sri Lankans believe astrology is valid. Upwards of 50 per cent of people have described themselves as "open minded" about the veracity and usefulness of astrology. Astrology can also have an impact upon political events. It has long been known that all our politicians and the aspiring ones regularly consulted astrologers. Most national newspapers in Sri Lanka carry horoscope columns. So the total picture is clear. A week later, when I met my friend once again, I gave him my conclusion. "Traditionally, we Sri Lankans always need guidance in all the major transitions of life. Whether right or wrong, scientific or not, they are likely to consult a traditional astrologer for guidance. In this way, astrology and astrologers will continue to occupy an important role in most of our communities, in much the same manner as they have done for thousands of years." |
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