Merry Christmas - Article "Cargo-Cult Astrology"

[Alain Stalder]

Just below a text-only version of my article “Cargo Cult Astrology”,
which I first published about a year ago on my website. Note that the
last sentence “In the end, [astrologers] were and are still primarily
responsible, not me.” does not judge whether the outcome was a “good”
or a “bad” one, neither for me nor astrologers nor the world. Anyways,
besides maybe this retrograde Mercury, I have moved on to maybe bark
up some other trees... ;)

https://www.exactphilosophy.net/cargo-cult-astrology.pdf

--

Cargo Cult Astrology

As of summer 2022, nothing I ever did in astrology really “landed” there
in the sense that it would continue to spur interest without my direct
involvement, even after almost 20 years and many articles and a book,
while just one article about the I Ching created more response. In the
following some thoughts “in spirals” as they unfolded since January
2022, slightly _polemic_ here and there, maybe; preserved here as
**Zeitzeugnis** of how things seemed in the world then…

*

Astrologers have remained 100% faithful to their multitude of views on
the world, not favoring any one of them more than individually their own
personal view, usually embedded into various currents in astrology and
usually including most of the mainstream, and essentially immune to any
arguments or “proof”, if only that some simplifications regarding how
things are connected would be of any worth, rather preferring to dream
on, of a connection with the “stars” or whatever they would fancy.

Since late August 2021, astro.com has a new slogan, “The Art of
Astrology”. This mirrors the approach to the world at astro.com and in
much of the self-proclaimed “cargo cult” life science astrology it
supports, as well as of many of astro.com’s customers, quite well: There
are no criteria regarding what gets attention in astrology except what
astrologers like!

In June 2002, I had not expected everybody to grasp and like what I
published, but I expected at least some to do so, including also Alois
Treindl, physicist and founder/CEO of Astrodienst AG (the company that
owns astro.com), and Liz Greene, psychologist/astrologer and then chief
astrologer at Astrodienst AG. I was thinking that, especially since my
model was directly derived from how Liz Greene described the star signs
(signs of the zodiac) and the two together had created the
computer-generated psychological horoscope, that they would see the
unique value in my simpler model, as a key to better and more
analytically understand the signs, and also that this would be a
door-opener for proving astrology, reaching out beyond the “ghetto” of
astrology.

It turned out differently.

In early 2005, AT told me that he had shown my original document to LG
at the time (2002) and that she had then deemed it “too theoretical”
while AT himself apparently even more underwhelmingly superficially told
me it was nothing new anyways, referring to a relatively old Swiss book
that, after I had ordered an antiquarian copy for about 100$, turned out
to simply describe the traditional attribution of elements to seasons,
in Aristotle’s circle, and later on AT also had the nerve to call me
eccentric and my choice of domain name “exactphilosophy.net”
exaggerated, which I guess means that he would be the center of it all
and that “astro.com” – covering both “astrology” and “astronomy” and
more by name – would reflect ultimate modesty. What
Astrodienst/astro.com is doing for the immediate needs and desires of
contemporary astrologers is not a problem, that is usually of good to
very good quality; the problem is what they evade and escape, along with
practically all astrologers.

But back to why astrologers love this and not that: In my general model
this would mainly be due to unconscious collective feedback that
manifests in feelings, in other words the Fates would apparently simply
not want people to look at my discoveries openly and more closely, at
least not yet, and there would be nothing in my power that could change
that as long as the Fates do not want it to happen, while, whenever they
would want to in the future, they could presumably do it in two shakes
of a lamb’s tail…

*

If you maybe think I exaggerated above with regards to how contemporary
astrologers view astrology, read the following quotes from the forum at
astro.com in January 2022:

*Waybread*:

: Astrology is basically a subjective art, anyway. I think a good analogy
: is with painting as a fine art. There are specific rules of perspective,
: color, and composition. But after that, the painter makes many
: subjective choices and the viewer subsequently decides whether s/he
: thinks it is a good painting or not.

*Linda Harris*:

: Meanwhile, USE your system. And if it works, what do you care who else
: uses it? I don’t think the job of an astrologer is to change the way
: other astrologers do their work or the way they are comfortable doing
: that work. It’s my point of view that we are here to be of help to those
: who don’t speak the language of “human behavior” in the way that we do…
: to be part of their “solution” and not part of their “problem”.

*zed234* (after reading my article “Elementary Star Signs”):

: It’s an interesting discussion about the origins of the signs and how
: they relate to each other. But as a counseling astrologer, it’s simply
: too simplistic for me to use in any way as a tool to assist a client. I
: have a several books on the history and development of astrology, and
: I’ve seen this discussion or in several related to it several times.
: Very interesting. But not very useful to a practicing astrologer. But
: maybe I’M NOT GETTING THAT. If so, perhaps you could show me how it
: would work in analysis.

You might think that the last two sentences would be an opportunity, but
note that what I had written in the article, in the thread and in what
is publicly readable of my book of the same name (to which I had also
posted a link) did not ring any bells, and it even appears that he
completely misunderstood even basic things, like “about the origins of
the signs” or that he would have “seen this discussion or in several
related to it several times”, plus he commented on Linda Harris’ post
with “nice post, Lainie!”. At some point you simply have seen enough to
still sustain hope, even in the more and more unlikely case that
anything I could do would make any difference in my lifetime, except
maybe if I used the most powerful weapon in the world, the mirror,
namely that I just let things rest, then astrologers would be only faced
with themselves…

*

To be fair, three of the six reviews of my book “Elementary Star Signs”
in 2018 did in fact grasp the basic idea (Christoph Schubert-Weller,
Victor Olliver and Jutta Stemmer), even though almost certainly nobody
grasped the potential, while at least Jutta Stemmer told me by email in
early 2019 that~she does recommend the book as lecture to her pupils at
her astrology school in Munich. But coming back to the beginning: My
core idea is not centered on astrology, so if I simply go by doing that
where my heart is, there will at most be (if at all) one more book about
astrology that briefly teases with many ideas I have about astrology,
but without interest and sustained support by astrologers, unlikely
further attempts to promote my “elemental zodiac signs”.

One important reason behind that decision is also that what I wrote
about elemental star signs may not be perfect, not yet Hollywood-style
accessible to everybody – but I expect some basic abilities and
knowledge from astrologers, and those were overall clearly
lacking—short, I do not see it as my fate/destiny to fight Idiocracy,
obstacles that are *purely imagined* by contemporary astrologers, where
if fact there are practically none at all, even if it was me who might
have unknowingly created those obstacles by the way I write.

I just realized something via a post to the same thread as quoted twice
above, namely that psychological astrology would be mainly water/fire,
while scientific theories are mainly air/earth, going back to an idea
from the 2002 discoveries document, which would, of course mirror, quite
a bit of my past experiences and I probably underestimated how much
energy would be needed to bring such things together, and I might have
done better than I imagined.

For example, regarding Astrodienst/astro.com it would thus make sense
that the company was founded by and lead by a physicist (AT) and would
have “service”/“serving” in its name, as it would be air/earth in a
serving role to astrology, providing the tools for doing astrology
(water/fire), collective watery streams and individual fiery sparks of
pet theories, and it would also explain why AT delegated judgement of my
discoveries document of 2002 practically exclusively to LG who judged it
“too theoretical”, in other words too much of the element air in it,
hence does not fit into astrology. I am finally relieved.

As of the evening of 20 January 2022, still some interesting things have
evolved at the astro.com forum and maybe I will still present my posts
or a selection from them at some point in time, maybe even already by
the time you are reading this. A bit later tonight there will be an
exact opposition of Saturn in transit to my natal Sun in Leo (the only
one for this Saturn cycle), and one of the results of that might be a
broader view by me of the element Air, in a nutshell that maybe I will
see it (besides much logic) also as something social, inspired by Robert
Pirsig, not unlikely also because I myself have no Air in my chart, so
this seemingly tiny bit of information might be helpful in the future
and maybe also shortly worth a lead in the core content of my web site.

Ah, at least something, always beautiful to find out new things for a
researcher in physics.

*

Last night, most likely already today in the early morning, I had the
following dream:

[Usenet: In the post and the article the text was “saffron-colored”.]

: I was at Astrodienst, but it was a different place in the dream, sort of
: a large loft, just one large room, maybe 20m x 25m, and there was a
: woman, a bit like Dolly Parton, even if I did not see her precisely, in
: other words very intelligent and also funny [she was like Dolly Parton
: because of that, there was no defined hair color nor a specific body
: shape besides clearly female in the dream], and we walked to one end of
: the room, or rather almost a corner, and there was also the founder/CEO
: of Astrodienst, in some rather comfortable office chair, leaning back,
: almost lying already, and the woman gave me a present, an envelope that
: was maybe 2x the size of US letter, brown, and inside there was a yellow
: pullover, with a v-neck and squares of about 2” or a bit less stitched
: onto it, both not really my kind of pullover, and behind that about 3
: yellow shirts, with buttons and so, all not really my kind of clothes
: (that would rather be round necks and t-shirts), but I was very happy
: about the present in the dream, and AT in the chair “mumbled” something
: like that giving me the present would be exaggerated, and that was I
: think because I am not working at Astrodienst, but then he said nothing
: any more, and then the woman was again walking across the room,
: astonishingly in the same direction as before, and this time clearly in
: a yellow dress [all yellow clothes in the dream were sunny and warm, not
: like citrus], quite a special, beautiful one,
: with stitched ornaments…

In the West, yellow is Fire, in China Earth (Saturn), the middle (hence
also China itself), and the color of emperors, and it also reminds of
the sun, Psyche’s second task and the golden fleece (clothes, reminding
also of Vesta), and presiding over white-red-black it is also the
elusive color chlōrós of the Great Goddess (of many names) herself, this
time in a hue that evokes honey, and maybe since the dream played at
Astrodienst also alluding to something more Greene… in any case, there
seems to be recognition by the Fates. (And, of course, this mirrored the
transit of Saturn in opposition to my natal sun.)

(In retrospect, seen from June 2022 almost exactly at the summer
solstice, see the maturity initiation ritual to Artemis as a she-bear at
Bauron where young girls (and apparently sometimes also boys) wore
[saffron]saffron-yellow[/saffron] short skirts (that had replaced bear
skins earlier in history) that were possibly dropped at the end of the
ritual. [saffron]Saffron-yellow[/saffron] was quite exactly the color in
the dream, and I even think to remember that I accidentally first wrote
‘skirt’ instead of ‘shirt‘ in the post with the dream at the astro.com
forum, which in retrospect may have been an Artemisian Slip… And ‘V’ in
v-neck might stand for Vesta/Hestia…)

Possibly it was my Saturn return of 1996 in Montréal (late in the 5th
house, trine late Cancer MC and trine Pluto in early Sagittarius in the
2nd) that created lots of ideas (and was lots of work since close to the
cusp of the 6th) but also apparently does make them seem not relevant to
the public (10th) – maybe(!) also because the south node then was where
my moon was at birth, in the 10th house about 5° ahead of my MC? At
least the first return of three in 2025/2026 would have Saturn in the
10th house (with Ceres, n.node and Neptune), assuming I would then still
be at home “on my island of Ithaca” in Adliswil, Switzerland. The book
ELEMENTAL I am preparing on and off since early January 2019 would
indicate that the first of these three returns might be most relevant
for the 29 years after that regarding things of eventually public
interest in my findings—maybe?

(In retrospect, seen from June 2022, it seems much more like a return
influences quite strictly the period to the next return, so the third of
three would be the one to look at for the about 29 years that might
maximally follow, and that one would have interestingly houses almost as
at my birth, which had then only lasted until then next return in
February 1967, which had then placed my Saturn in the 11th house, likely
fitting well with my studies and work integrated into mainstream physics
at the time.)

But how about then just leaning back instead, and have faith that people
will come, both attributes of Pisces, and maybe even more so if at the
end of Pisces, plus Saturn likes minimalism, and then simply wait… until
people come who would then finally be able to “see Saturn in the 10th
house”, augmented by Ceres with gentle growth, with a refreshing
Hollywood-style early Aries cardinal halo of Neptune to dream of, and
boosted by the n.node? Might my dream of being able to just watch things
grow simply come true by waiting, having faith and helping out here and
there? Wish me luck, since my discoveries are very beautiful, rich and
useful/helpful, for almost anybody, at least in the future.

(Seen again from June 2022, maybe a Saturn in the 9th might mirror
mainly just waiting, while maybe also dropping a few things here and
there, quite well, and even for that return, Neptune would be just a
little bit ahead in early Aries, so there might be Hollywood, also since
the 9th house would fit, too, in several ways. Maybe what is already
public would just do and perception change?)

*

In conclusion, the Uranian split of the world into “astrology” and
“astronomy” is – in retrospect not astonishingly – deeper that I naively
assumed, and since currently nobody really suffers from this “division
of labor”, there is little immediate pressure to change anything in that
regard. So, why should I worry all too much? Que sera, sera…

Does all not exclude maybe some other book about astrology some day, or
at least still archiving my posts, but any of that rather just to
preserve some things than to promote them. I guess because I have no Air
in my birth chart, there is no Earth as a goal for me (see my model of
the elemental changes in the star signs), so no urge to literally
manifest things in the world. But a few seeds that start to grow would
still be nice, since at least Ceres and 1969 Alain are in Gemini (Air
sign), which also hints at written publications. And so on.

Just in case: After almost 20 years, in my feeling the overall response
by astrology has been _inexcusable_, and individually also at least by
Alois Treindl, Liz Greene and Robert Hand, while at least some others
may have simply lacked the ability and context to grasp much of what I
present, but overall there is simply no explanation in which all of
these people would have been genuinely nice and open towards me, no
matter how clumsy my attempts may have been*. Accordingly, I do not feel
like I owe astrology anything, if anything it owes me. (But, of course,
a change of mind there would still be welcome…)

*

Going in circles… It is just so sad that nothing took on, nothing
started to grow among astrologers. In 2002 I really expected that most
likely Liz Greene and Alois Treindl would invite me to Astrodienst so
that I could show them my model of the star signs and that from then on
it would take off, would start to grow, they would tell others about it
and many people would start exploring, so that relatively quickly also
some attention outside of astrology would emerge. But instead… see
above.

There comes a point, when people just tell you to do this or that, each
time you have invested some work to present something, to invest even
more work, that you start to think that they are wrong. And likely they
are. Some additional work may really still make sense. But overall,
given the fears and discomforts my stuff seems to stir unconsciously in
people, less is more. So, again back to maybe one day collecting some of
my posts, or maybe not, and maybe still one or two books related to
astrology, but maybe more likely not, and rather one or two other
things, but maybe hardly more. Or maybe something different…

A lot of all the things I did over the years are beautiful. I do not
want to become famous, just would have liked to see some of the things I
found grow. Maybe the latter is too much to hope for, maybe best to just
enjoy the former, things for what they are instead of what people see in
them today.

*

Hey, today, 29 January 2022, someone at the forum, Phoebe, wrote that
she is trying to “make headway” with my “Atomic Model of the Zodiac”,
but also needs “more time to absorb and digest”, which is more positive
feedback than maybe ever regarding the model. (As of late July, I have
not heard anything since then, unlikely that anything evolved there,
like so many times before.)

Maybe just some more faith that things will just turn out well and a bit
more patience, are all that is needed. Liz Greene told me “You have
time.” at the brief and only encounter with me in 1998, just after a
talk by her about Saturn at which I had handed her my chart for
interpretation during a break before. My Saturn is at the end of Pisces,
plus retrograde, and rather slowly so. Maybe simply my moon in Aries in
the 10th house and still at the MC (5° ahead of it) is too impatient;
not always being frustrated because of that might be healthier, also for
my digestion, maybe.

Or this could again be something that leads practically nowhere, just
another illusion, with a trine between Neptune and my north node
currently (and also still with my natal Neptune around there). Then
again, Neptune is likely an important planet also regarding public
waves, Hollywood, so maybe…

*

Venus, also related I guess a lot to Hollywood, is just about to go
forward again today, after having been retrograde since 19 Dec 2021,
which is incidentally also quite exactly the period in which I first
created the “noindex” part of exactphilosophy.net with old webs,
discoveries documents, all my Usenet and I Ching posts, as well as
(earlier versions of) this text, without the actual astro.com forum
posts, at least not yet for this Venus retrograde phase.

Feels like a good moment these past weeks until today, also reminding of
the second task of Psyche (“Venus/Pisces”), Water, patience, waiting for
the right moment. And also again would seem to fit maybe well with
Saturn at its next return for me 14 May 2025 in the 10th house together
with Ceres (“gentle growth”) close by, plus north node, too, as well as,
already in early Aries Neptune (“Hollywood”). I just hope that things
will turn out well regarding these things in the world if they start to
grow, that they would grow gently and create more good than bad, both
initially and in the medium and long-term future.

(Again in retrospect from June 2022, more likely the third return will
matter for a longer time, but who knows what maybe also a short period
could change, if maybe I would get the book ELEMENTAL out then, will
see…)

I just read that the daughter Nala of famous German-speaking singer
Helene Fischer was born two months early (but is perfectly healthy and
well now), 18 Dec 2021, hence just before Venus went retrograde (just 1°
ahead of Pluto), and this was announced in the media today, when Venus
will go direct again.

Well, a day later, with Venus direct again, hopes for anything by me
“landing” in astrology have once again been delusional dreams; for all
that it appears, astrologers are back to their “daily businesses”, just
doing what they fancy.

Maybe I will just do “as above, so below; as below, so above”? In the
future only say something if there is specific interest into my
contributions and otherwise let things mostly rest? Or maybe just do
something else, or more of the same? Que sera, sera… Just so very sad
for me this outcome after almost 20 years, maybe just post for fun and
ignore the fate of the “world”? Maybe just do what Odysseus did in
Kafka’s parable “Das Schweigen der Sirenen” and once more trust the
“Anhang” given there?

* Es wird übrigens noch ein Anhang hierzu überliefert. Odysseus, sagt man,
* war so listenreich, war ein solcher [safran]Fuchs[/safran], dass selbst
* die Schicksalsgöttin nicht in sein Innerstes dringen konnte. Vielleicht
* hat er, obwohl das mit Menschenverstand nicht mehr zu begreifen ist,
* wirklich gemerkt, dass die Sirenen schwiegen, und hat ihnen und den
* Göttern den obigen Scheinvorgang nur gewissermassen als Schild
* entgegengehalten.

* By the way, a codicil to the foregoing has also been handed down.
* Odysseus, it is said, was so full of guile, was such a
* [saffron]fox[/saffron], that not even the goddess of fate could pierce
* into his innermost core. Perhaps he really noticed, even though this is
* beyond human understanding, that the Sirens remained silent, and held
* up to them and to the gods the aforementioned dummy activity merely sort
* of as a shield.


Adliswil, 8 February 2022 at around 12:40 noon

[horoscope image]

(even looks a bit like a shield…)

August 2022: A sabian oracle this spring was an old sea captain rocking
(13° Leo), reminding also of Odysseus’ choice+lot at the end of Plato’s
_Republic_, and maybe, just maybe, I will still tell you some stories
about some of the ‘islands’ I discovered on my virtual journeys…

To be fair, all I ever wanted is to be with her, just have her around me
in everyday life, live together, found a family, the usual, this is why
I tried astrology, because she had made a presentation about astrology
in school, the rest was not so important, including this here.

* Epilogue (March 2023): Around the closedown of the forum at astro.com,
I realized via some closer contact that the proponents from the
generation with Pluto in Leo would really have heavy deficits when it
comes to perception, some kind of inability to perceive things outside
of the own predator focus. Seemed only fair to point this out for once
relatively directly. And still in the end almost infinitely sad,
considering also that the people who continue it are younger.

* December 2023: In the end, they were and are still primarily
responsible, not me.

--

PS: “bark up some other trees” :)
https://www.artecat.ch/space-time-elements.html