Retrograde, Schmetrograde · 26 May 2008

I propose the following: believe beliefs that are useful and uplifting, that keep you transforming and creating and happy.  

Drop the rest of the beliefs. Minimal belief systems are most elegant.

From Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 16, “Outwitting the Stars”

Astrology is the study of man's [sic] response to planetary stimuli. The stars have no conscious benevolence or animosity; they merely send forth positive and negative radiations. Of themselves, these do not help or harm humanity….

The message boldly blazoned across the heavens at the moment of birth is not meant to emphasize fate—the result of past good and evil—but to arouse man's [sic…& seq.] will to escape from his universal thralldom. What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place, and because he has spiritual resources which are not subject to planetary pressure.

Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets—which is to say, his past—by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter. The soul is ever-free; it is deathless because birthless. It cannot be regimented by stars.

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Categories: astanga yoga , esoteric shit , evolution , science , spirituality

Comment

1. Yeah, but when my laptop charger blew up the other day I checked and Mercury happened to be in retrograde!

   Posted by: V · May 27, 01:24 AM · #

2. My mom gave me one of those calenders where you tear away a top page every day once. It was astrology. I got addicted to it & even started planning my days around it. I’d look ahead, and if it said a day was bad for meetings, I wouldn’t schedule any critiques.

   I threw it away after a couple months.

   Posted by: boodiba · May 27, 04:53 AM · #

3. yeah, but nancy and ron believed!

   Posted by: eeyore · May 27, 06:48 AM · #

4. Yeah Eeyore, exactly.

   This stuff can be fun, especially because it keeps interesting archetypes in circulation and opens up frameworks for meaning and interpretation.

   But yeah, hold it lightly. The minute you get literal about it or let it KEEP YOU from doing things, seems a good moment to throw the calendar in the trash.

   No fear.

   Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets.

   The quotation is Parhamansa Yogananda’s Guru, Sri Yukestwar, talking to Parhamansa when he is but a wee yogi.

   Posted by: (0v0) · May 27, 08:15 AM · #

5. It seems that just about anything can become a foundation for superstition. I’d guess that happens because folks don’t drop all and start from scratch in developing their own elegant systems of thought. The tendency to assign authority based on primacy is pretty strong, and seems universal in people.

   A few weeks ago, I happened across a paper written on some research regarding how season of birth affects height people grow to. I thought: Well here’s a perfect example for the naysayers! Astrology can be REAL science! It’s better to keep thoughts like that to myself though because people will think I’m nuts. Just like Ron and Nancy were nuts. And if people were to come to know that I too love jelly beans, then they’d know for sure that I’m a nut of that same ilk.

   Posted by: Carl · May 27, 10:22 AM · #

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