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Picture a small child playing on a railroad track. A train is rapidly approaching. It is tearing down the track toward the child from a distance of one quarter of a mile away. If you want to, you can make a prediction. You can predict the death of the child. Will you predict the child's death, or will you do something about getting the child away from the track and save its life?
Some people tell us that the purpose of science is prediction, but that is the view of a particular group. It isn't necessarily the view of an inventor. We must admit that predicting the future is somewhat of an adult means of showing off. For thousands of years, people have been showing off by predicting the future.
The weather bureau predicts the future. Its predictions are not always accurate, and when they are accurate, people may not be paying attention. Hundreds of people were killed by a hurricane named Audrey in l957, because they did not take the prediction of the weather bureau seriously.
The most accurate form of prediction is that involving astro- nomical factors, planets, comets, etc. This accuracy has been possible since an astrologer, Kepler, discovered the three laws of planetary motion, and since another astrologer, Newton discovered gravitation. Both the work of Kepler and that of Newton involved design, cosmic design and the interrelation of various factors in the solar system.
A chemist can predict what will happen if you put two elements together. A nuclear physicist can predict what is going to happen when an atomic bomb is set off.
Over the last several thousand years, astrology has been looked upon as a method of prediction, as a means of showing off and impressing people, with the result that it has often lead to a doctrine of fatalism or predestination. The result has been that those who oppose a doctrine of fatalism are often found also opposing astrology because they believe it to be fatalism.
It is the purpose of the professional magician to amuse, entertain and mystify his audience, and too often, some professional astrologer has tried to be the magician in order to mystify his audience. Under these circumstances, the true value of astrology is often overlooked.
Because life is geared to the solar system, or more accurately, because life dynamics function in accord with the same mathematical design as the solar system, prediction by astrology is often possible to a degree unknown in any other field.
As a result of the work of John H. Nelson, RCA Communications Inc. is able to predict magnetic storms occurring on the earth with 90% accuracy from a study of planetary motion.
The art or science of prediction has its value but it is often misused. Prediction is often a means of determining whether a theory is right, wrong or inaccurate. If you make a prediction and it proves to be correct, the indication is that you are on the right track. You make more predictions to further test your theories. When you are right, you may cling to your theory. When you are wrong, you should readjust your theory. When you are proven to be wrong, your theory may need only slight adjustment. It is not necessarily wrong in its entirety.
Because astrologers of the past have frequently had difficulty in gaining recognition for their work, there has been the tendency to go all out in making predictions in order to gain attention. This has never proved to be a very successful procedure, because one wrong prediction can often completely nullify a dozen correct predictions. The friends of astrology will forget the incorrect prediction, while the enemies of astrology will forget all but the one incorrect prediction. Nothing is gained by either side.
In the case of RCA Communications, Inc., routes and frequencies of radio messages are altered to avoid predicted radio storm areas. The messages go through to their destination despite the predicted storms, and under these circumstances, prediction becomes very valuable.
In the case of astrology, prediction becomes valueless when a fatalistic attitude toward the subject is adopted. The question is, are you going to get that child off the railroad track before the train arrives to destroy it? You understand the situation. You must get that child off the track. The child's mother is not going to love you if you successfully predict the death of the child.
The subject of heredity is more fatalistic than astrology, even though both subjects are very complex. However, the real value of astrology lies not in predicting the future but in making the future to a better design. When you start any new venture that involves the interests of more than one person, you have tuned in on a planetary design. From that moment on, to some extent, the venture has a design of its own. It has characteristics, and those characteristics have to be understood if they are going to work in your favor or to the advantage of the group.
A client writes to an astrologer. He furnishes the exact time when he purchased a new automobile. Mars was exactly on the client's ascendent, and it was exactly square Uranus. The astrologer quickly dispatches a reply warning the client that this car can be accident prone. The letter arrives too late. The car is all smashed up in an accident.
The client followed his own inclination. He wanted that car so much that he did not consult the astrologer until after he had taken the fatal step and had invested his money in the car. Then and only then, did he become interested in knowing more.
The major portion of all human behavior is automatic. People follow their feelings. Human dynamics function mathematically, and because they do, a person has a certain feeling at a given time. His exclusive aim becomes the satisfaction of that feeling. He thinks no further. If there is danger, he is unaware of it.
This brings us to the very important subject of awareness.
Few people are aware of what they are doing. They are aware only to a limited degree. Of course, 100% awareness is unknown to any of us, because there is too much about the universe and too much about life that we do not know. Astrology's greatest value lies in the fact that it can increase the degree of our awareness.
Police departments will tell you that the greatest cause of automobile accidents is excessive speed, and such a statement is based on statistics, but it is not necessarily true. The greatest cause of automobile and other accidents is lack of awareness. The police will also tell you that driving while under the influence of alcohol increases automobile accidents. Alcohol decreases awareness. To travel at high speeds requires good roads and awareness. High speeds are dangerous when you are not aware.
The writer can remember a sign which appeared on the outskirts of Lynbrook, L.I. when he was a boy. It read, "Incorporated Village of Lynbrook, Speed Limit, 8 miles per hour." Yet, today, cars travel over freeways through the heart of Los Angeles, past the tallest buildings in the business district, at 80 miles per hour, and it is not regarded as dangerous.
We knew a man who had a great prejudice against high speeds. He never drove faster than 29 under any circumstances. Yet, he was ultimately killed when he drove his car off the road, colliding with a saguaro (giant cactus). Prior to that time, he had been a subject for much irritation on the part of other drivers for blocking traffic with his low speed.
You may be under planetary aspects that would tend to cause an accident. If you are aware of these aspects, that alone will make a difference. It will be dangerous to forget. With a Mars-Uranus conjunction afflicting his chart, the writer found it necessary to drive 3000 miles in a hurry. Much of the trip was over wide high-ways little used and across desert where temperatures reached 118 degrees. Tubeless tires furnished an additional safety factor. A speed of 110 MPH was sometimes reached, but there was never a split second when the driver was not aware of dangers that existed. He never drove if tired. There were no accidents, but it must be said that he was superconscious of the dangers. One could not do this without good roads, without a reliable car, without the best tires, nor without complete awareness.
Thus, speed is not the real danger. Do not forget that the man who never drove above 25 MPH was killed in an automobile accident and no other driver was in any way involved. A farsighted driver has an advantage, because he sees things before others do. He sees them coming. He is better prepared to meet the future insofar as driving a car is concerned. Speed is relative. Danger is dependent on many other factors, but the chief factor is the degree of a person's awareness. This is true of everything in life. Thus, our aim should not necessarily be to predict the future but to be aware of the forces that can condition the future in order that we can make the future to an improved design.
There is nothing wrong with the student of astrology making predictions, but their chief value is to prove to the student the degree of his own accuracy and the correctness of his own judgment. If he is making predictions to impress others, he is wasting his time. People who have to be impressed in this manner are better by-passed. There is too much to do in the world. We should all be very busy designing the future for purposes of progress and improvement.
The astrologer is content to observe the average astronomer as reactionary, but a great many astrologers have been reactionary too, and have clung to the teaching of their forefathers. For hundreds of years, the world of astrology has been a static world. We have not experienced the progress that has taken place in other fields of science. We have clung to old theories in the same manner that astronomers have clung to theirs, and perhaps we have been almost as funny. Progress in the automotive field is demonstrated by the disappearance of those signs which used to limit our speed to 8 MPH. Planes cross continents and oceans in hours instead of in days and weeks. They will soon travel faster than the earth can turn on its axis.
It is very important to decide whether you are going to live a passive or an active existence. Are you going to live statically or dynamically? Are you going to create the future to a better design, or are you going to battle to protect the static design of the past? It is the inclination of the Water and Earth signs to protect the past, while it is the nature of the Fire and Air signs to design the future. This inclination can be altered by awareness. A requisite of designing the future is a knowledge of abstract cosmic design. Both astrology and mathematics are studies of abstract cosmic design. It is the airplane designer's knowledge of abstract cosmic design as it pertains to dynamics of motion that allows him to design ships of the air that will travel faster more safely. The modern Constellation travels faster and more safely than that plane of the Wright brothers or those early planes of Glen Curtis.
The average client who comes to an astrologer lives a static existence.There are exceptions to the rule, but most of the clients are static. They are waiting for something favorable to happen. They are doing nothing about making it happen. They are attempting to employ astrology to help them with their wishful thinking. Such a person used to go the rounds, calling on all the astrologers he could find. He had but one question. He put the same question to each astrologer. He put it to one astrologer at least once a week. The question was, "Will you look at my chart and see if you can see where somebody is going to die and leave me some money?"
This man had already inherited a good deal of money. He claimed he was not interested in money for its own sake, He felt he was very philosophical when he would say, "I only want what it will buy." When he would inherit money, there would be a spree until it was gone. In all his life, he never performed one constructive act. His was a static existence.
Here is a lady who writes a letter of complaint to the Better Business Bureau. She wanted a trip to Europe and was willing to pay an astrologer ten dollars to be told how to get the money for a trip to Europe. She complained to the Better Business Bureau because the astrologer did not provide the funds for a trip to Europe. The Better Business Bureau handled the matter in a very routine manner and wrote the lady that she had no legal claim in the matter, whereupon, the lady wrote another plea to the astrologer for funds for a trip to Europe.
To a great many people, astrology would merely be a means of wish fulfillment. It should be something akin to the magic lamp. It should bring a fairy prince for the wishing. It should pipe in money to make effort and thought unnecessary.
If you are going to start a new venture, it can make all the difference in the world when you take the final and fatal step, when you make the move from which there is no return--like signing a check.
You nay have a good idea. It may have great possibilities, but it may not be the time. An idea may have a favorable reaction if launched at one time, an unfavorable reaction if launched at another time. You can unconsciously set off a chain reaction, which may be good or bad. We would like to give an example. For a year or more, the writer and his associates considered giving birth to the Institute of Abstract Science. The idea was discussed pro and con until it had taken definite form and a specific plan had been molded. Thereafter, a very careful study was made of future planetary conditions. There was no time during the next six months that was satisfactory from an astrological point of view. The final step was delayed. No definite action was taken for six months, but a definite date for the incorporation and birth of a new type of educational institution was very carefully selected. During the next six months, discussions with lawyers and others were continued. Here and there, an adjustment in the plan was made. Nonprofit corporations are not easily obtained. The lawyers expressed doubt that a charter could be obtained, and plans were made to convince the Corporation Commission that this charter should be granted. It was decided that the writer should appear before the Corporation Commission in person because he seemed best qualified to answer whatever questions might arise, and he knew best what the aims of the new educational institution were to be. The result was that the charter was granted and necessary signatures were all affixed after an interval of eleven minutes. The meeting began at l:00 P.M. and at 1:11 P.M., the charter had been granted.
From that day on, things began to happen. Many of them cannot be told here, but first came a process of elimination. Persons who did not seem to blend in with the design seemed to be eliminating themselves automatically. simultaneously clearing the way for progress. Other persons began appearing out of nowhere and fitting themselves into the proper places. Some invisible force appeared to be working. If you mix water and oil, the oil will go to the top. Everything was working just like that. Dynamics were operating and dashing to pieces anything that was static.
In a marriage, if one person is static while the other is dynamic, they will soon draw apart. They cannot travel at the same speed. If one moves while the other is stationary, they cannot remain together. If two objects move at different speeds, they cannot remain in close proximity.
Merely to employ astrology to predict the future becomes a static existence. We think of that power that controls everything as God, and we think of the creative power within ourselves as God. The most important decision that the student astrologer must make is that he is going to use the creative power within himself to change and improve things. Astrology is then going to become his guide. There is much that the student is going to learn only through experience, just as there is much that the physician is going to learn only through experience. When you travel, a road map is a great asset providing you know how to use a road. It is much more efficient than stopping to ask now and then whether you are on the right road to where you intend going. The road map will explain what town is next on your route. You pass that town and you go on to another that is also on the nap. The ephemeris is exactly like that road map. It forever shows you the planetary pattern of what lies ahead, It tells you in advance what human dynamics will be operating next, whether they may be harmonious or discordant. Change and progress are easier when there is an excess of planets in Air and Fire signs. On the other hand during those intervals when Earth and Water signs predominate, you can know that the past will have a strong grip and that it will be more than difficult to destroy the old patterns and designs. People will fear change and they will be reactionary. They will want to leave well enough alone. Conjunctions, sextiles, trines and oppositions all function to break down the barriers of the past and allow change and progress, while semisextiles, squares and quincunx aspects involve fear on the subconscious level and tend to prevent progress and change.
If we are to create, if we are to have progress and change, it is to our advantage to have it as quickly as possible, but that does not mean that we can always have it immediately. The planetary pattern may indicate subconscious blocks, and it is unwise to try and break down barriers at the wrong time, when negative factors predominate. There are many occasions when you can start later and reach your destination earlier. If you get started at the wrong time, there are blocks and barriers that are never overcome. A business may fail and go bankrupt just because it is started under a planetary pattern involving barriers that are impossible to overcome.
On the other hand, there is no time that is not useful. The very periods that are filled with subconscious blocks and barriers are necessary from the point of view that they allow us to clean up routine and get the work done. It is our big aim and the aim of science to find ways and means of having nature do our work for us, but there is always need for supervision, and as soon as we have nature successfully doing our work, we create anew and there is new work of a different kind that must be accomplished. Our homes are filled with automatic devices for doing the work, but we were never more busy than we are now. We have to have more education because there are so many more things that we have to know to exist within an ever more complex form of society.
In using astrology creatively, however, it is not necessary that we conform to any of the old social designs. A new group can always go on by themselves. When the Morman's left orthodox society behind and traveled to Utah, they created one of the wealthiest groups that exist within our American society today. It is true that they later agreed to conform to principles of the country as whole, but that was only a trade when they decided they wanted to be a state within the US Nevertheless, when you create, there is nothing to stop you from completely bypassing all of the old designs. It is not necessary that you copy anybody, but most people think only in terms of copying the designs that others have established before them. This procedure is habit and lack of mental initiative, but it is also the way that Earth and Water, semisextiles, squares, and quincunx aspects tend to manifest. It would appear that when some principles, like those associated with Neptune, Pisces and the quincunx aspect operate, patterns which may be thousands of years old come forth to operate again. The jungle intrudes in our music, behavior becomes mysterious and unexplainable, and it is possible that insanity and mental illness is somehow involved with such phenomena.
Using astrology creatively involves employing the superconscious rather than the subconscious, living in the future rather than in the past, utilizing precognition rather than memory.
Forecasting by astrology often involves the principle of cyclic recurrence. Cycles do repeat themselves, but they never repeat themselves exactly. Even in this recurrence, there is always some change and adjustment. The cycle of one planet will repeat itself, but all of the other planetary positions will be different when it does. Winter and summer are cycles that repeat themselves, but we have not left matters there. We have provided shelter and heat for the winter, and we have provided air conditioning and swimming pools for the summer.
Perhaps a student might ask an astrologer whether he is about to pass an important examination. It is possible that the astrologer might be able to answer this question with one look at the horoscope and its transits, but this would probably be an extraordinary example. Much would be dependent upon how much effort the student had put into the job, on how anxious he was to pass the examination. If all of his interest was elsewhere, it would make a difference. If extraordinary aspects of Jupiter happened to be involved, it is probable that the student is passing through an interval when he learns and absorbs very easily. Here is a particularly good example. Here is a student who passes with all of his marks 97 and above. In addition, he simultaneously wins many scholastic honors plus a scholarship of great importance to him. We find that in his birth chart, Neptune was in his Tenth House. Transiting Jupiter has been stationary for some time, and exactly on that Neptune in his Tenth House. In addition, he has a very intellectual chart at birth. Air and Fire signs predominate. Further significance of Neptune in the Tenth House is seen in the fact that at this same time he receives a telegram telling him that the government has granted his license as a private pilot. This becomes interesting because astrologers have been inclined to associate aviation with Neptune. Is this because aviation is merely repeating the old pattern of the bird?
Prediction by astrology, or by any means that involves cycles, can be successful only to the extent that behavior is automatic and unconscious. Unfortunately, this involves a very great part of human behavior today, but the more we become aware, the less possible such prediction becomes and the more the future will become something that we consciously create ourselves. Instead of repeating patterns and designs that have existed in the past, we will consciously create our own patterns and designs of the future, and it is probable that this process has a great deal to do with what we call religion. There are infinite patterns and designs that have never been used. The abstract world is filled with them. Modern airplanes are not merely a copy of the bird; they are an improvement in design. They can fly faster and farther. They can carry great cargoes.
If we are merely to consider astrology as a means of predicting the future, then we are going to continue to repeat all the errors of the past. So long as we are content to worship old designs there will be little progress. Too often, religion itself has been the principle of worshipping the old designs. This is evident in all ceremonials.
Don't wait for something to happen. Make it happen, but DO wait for the right planetary set up for the purpose involved. Don't wait for somebody to die and leave you some money. Go forth and create the piece of machinery that is going to produce money by supplying what is needed by society. Concentrate on living a dynamic rather than a static existence. Whenever it is necessary to accomplish your objectives, bypass all the old patterns, designs, institutions and so-called authorities. You do not have to recognize authorities in the academic and scientific fields. If you rid yourself of your subconscious fears, you can be independent and you can design your own future, but you can never get away from the past unless you are willing to let go of it. If, on the subconscious plane, the past is synonymous with security, you can't move forward. The past is not really security. The only real security is that which exists within yourself.
The individual who prays for the vitality and guidance to go on creating the future to a new design seems to gain what he seeks, but it Is doubtful whether the man who patiently waits for somebody to die and leave him some money is going to gain such ends through prayer, and if he does get the money in this way, it will do nothing to alter his static existence. His dependence on material things will increase and not decrease.
There will be intervals, and they may be long intervals, when the planetary conditions themselves are static, and when attempts at progress are almost futile, but you can go on planning the design. You can have your plans ready, and you can execute them when the right time arrives. The important thing is to have a plan and to be ready. When you begin a venture at the right time, progress itself becomes an automatic procedure. The necessary vital forces are there. They will operate. The pieces will begin to fall into place by themselves. Much of the work is going to be accomplished for you. At other times, sentimental attachments to the past will often prove barriers. The child who has been overly sheltered finds it a very sad experience to leave his parents for the first time. It does not seem safe to leave one's parents. They are security. Old designs are too often erroneously identified in our minds with security. We are too anxious for material security. We are too slow to recognize the real security that lies within ourselves. We don't recognize it because we don't know it is there. Yet, all the teachings of Christ were aimed at demonstrating that security that comes from within.
Compared with the rest of society, a strange being is the inventor. Charles Kettering has told us that the greater a man's education the less apt is he to become an inventor. The inventor is quite apt to be a product of the Fire and Air signs. He does not copy old patterns. He creates something that is entirely new. He tunes into cosmic designs of the future. He is there ahead of time. He sees what others do not see, because he sees it in the abstract. His first vision may be neither clear nor accurate. It may need much in the way of perfection. He has not seen the whole picture but he may have grasped a good part of the principles involved. We think of inventions mainly in the mechanical field, because that is where the greatest progress has occurred in recent times, but there can also be invention in social and economic fields. Socrates invented a pattern for a community. It does not seem so ingenious when we read it today, when large corporations design and build complete towns including schools and theaters before hiring employees or starting their operations. Unfortunately, such towns are likely to be on the monotonous side. Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright are doing much to eliminate monotony from community life. Wright is an inventor when it comes to buildings.
We changed and altered our social pattern a great deal when we tossed aside the idea that women are inferior to men and allowed them to vote. Changes are occurring in the old pattern of the marital institution. The woman has more to say about it. She is given or is taking greater freedom. She is allowed to work at a job of her own. It is probable that nowhere is there more room for improvement than in the old design of the marital institution. We have broken away from the old European design that allowed parent to select a husband for a daughter. Young people seldom marry for money today. Frustration is no longer viewed as a virtue. People who make mistakes are allowed to correct them in the divorce courts. Yet, one of the chief reasons that people run to astrologers and psychiatrists is because our conception of the marital institution remains filled with defects.
Almost any social change is viewed with fear and alarm by a very large proportion of the populace. This is particularly true of people who have more food than they can eat and more money than they can spend. They have an unfair advantage over less fortunate beings, and they do not want to risk giving up this unfair advantage, although they might be more secure within themselves if they did. They would rather weigh themselves down with responsibilities than risk finding happiness. Our strictest laws are those that protect the property of those who own property. Nobody ever stops to think that a newborn child of a family owning no property might possibly have some right to share those things like land that God and not man provided. It is a part of our social pattern that we must have laws that first protect the more fortunate. Laws that attempt to protect the interests of the little fellow or the unfortunate fellow have already been described in some quarters as immoral. The caste system has been difficult to abandon. It is very old pattern. It is deeply imbedded in our social setup.
It is hoped that the astrologer of the future is to become more of an inventor, an individual who is going to make the future rather than to merely predict it. It is not easy to introduce new patterns and designs to the populace as a whole, yet the individual who often gets things started in the right direction is the novelist. The science fictionist rides ahead of the world of science. The social fictionist rides ahead of society. His books are often banned because of his unhappy faculty of portraying life and society for what it is. Organized society does not wish to face reality. Life can be very vulgar, but it is regarded as a sin to admit it. Perhaps it is fortunate that the banning of a book creates a desire to read it. A lot of people are still curious, and that is an excellent omen for the future. What Henry Miller has branded "that fairy-tale called astronomy" has tried for centuries to ban astrology, but people are still curious, and some of them insist on investigating for themselves. This curiosity that drives men and women to peek beyond the borders of orthodoxy is one of the healthiest motivations of society as we find it today. Of all people, the astrologer should always be peeking beyond the borders of orthodoxy, but this is not always the case. The old astrologer is inclined to view with alarm the activities of any young astrologer who has no intention of adhering to any conceptions that are not substantiated. The old astrologer still seems to regard it as a sin to break away from the old imperfect patterns of the past. They are identified in his subconscious as security. He views the world as hopeless when they are being abandoned.
Of course, it would be folly for us to violate laws even if they are not good laws, but we must not overlook the fact that it is possible to change and alter them. It is true that we must be aware of our responsibilities to society. It is not necessary that we become so eccentric that we cannot communicate with society as it is. There are legitimate ways provided by law that laws themselves and the habits of society may be adjusted, but in most cases, before this can happen there must be education and good public relations. Large corporations sell new ideas to the public through advertising principles. The candidate for Congress uses the same methods to sell himself to the public. These methods are free to all. They can also be used to sell new inventions and ideas to the public, even when those inventions involve social and other standards. Many years ago, the Christian Science Church overcame overwhelming opposition by starting libel actions against any publication that abused it unfairly. Those high authorities who would abuse anyone who is bent upon revolutionizing the old patterns run to cover quickly when their own legal responsibilities to society are called to their attention by the service of papers. When they draw their swords to battle, it is on the assumption that no one is going to fight back. When they discover that risk is involved, their own desire for security causes them to run for cover. Critics of astrology would soon fade away if each were suddenly called to account for any false statements that might prove damaging to others. It is against the law to spread damaging false propaganda. Even the progressive thinker and worker is protected in this respect. In many instances, however, criticism of new ideas proves to be the best form of advertising. It has been noted that whenever the astronomers have attempted to condemn astrology publicly, curiosity has been excited and the circulation of astrology magazines climbed to new highs.
The message that we want to get across to the student is that the child must not be left on the railroad track. You must do something about it, and whenever studying an astrological chart you must not be content to describe the probable results if human behavior is allowed to be automatic. You must be intent on discovering means of improving the design of life ahead. It is not sufficient to allow a person to know what his natural characteristics are like. You must make him aware of those characteristics in a way that he can start improving them. You must teach him to overcome his weaknesses. Always, you must increase his awareness You must help him to see how things work on the unconscious level. To understand is to control. When you understand yourself you control and direct yourself, and you are on your way to creating a destiny of your own choosing. You must not be content to accept what nature is offering you. You must endeavor to tune into the superconscious whenever planetary conditions open the door, as they do periodically and cyclically. To predict is neither sufficient nor satisfactory. You must improve. In your own life, you must ever be alert and aware of opportunities to alter, change and improve the design of the future. Do not be content to live a static existence. Continually be conscious of ways and means of making nature's dynamics go to work at your command. There will still be static periods when progress is near impossible, but you can utilize those intervals for rest and attention to routine matters.
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