Astrology: Destiny, Possibility, or Irrelevancy?

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There are those who treat
astrology as a science, those

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who believe that our fate is
determined by the stars, and

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also those who believe that
astrology is a pseudoscience

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with no real basis in anything
that can meaningfully either

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control our destiny or even
signify events in our lives.

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How can we understand what role,
if any, astrology has in

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providing guidance and direction
in our lives?

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If we accept the idea that
astrology rules our fate, then

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we are tacitly accepting the
sense of determinism and doing

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away with any role for free will
in the development of our lives.

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This position clearly runs
contrary to our innate sense of

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free will, which, even if not
absolutely correct, nevertheless

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expresses a deeply held
intuitive understanding in our

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human awareness.
At the same time, if we

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recognize that we live in one
coherent universal existence and

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all the parts are elements of
the whole subject to the

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vibrational patterns that occur
in the whole, and therefore

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there is and must be an
influence.

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Philosophers and certain
scientists have noticed patterns

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that occur in the macro universe
and in the micro universe.

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Fractals also repeat the pattern
to ever smaller values and

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fractals are represented
throughout the plant and animal

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Kingdom.
Clearly the sense of as above,

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so below has some real and
serious meaning in the world.

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This does not mean that we can
correctly interpret every

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perceived correspondence, but in
the main large patterns are able

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to express and signify for us
the influence of forces that

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work at the universal level and
impact individual lives.

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We then come to the question of
free will and the ability to

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change the pattern at the
individual level, despite the

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universal influence that may be
active.

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Sri Aurobindo discusses this
point at some length.

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Sri Aurobindo notes quote many
astrological predictions come

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true, quite a mass of them if
one takes all together.

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But it does not follow that the
stars rule our destiny.

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The stars merely record a
destiny that has been already

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formed.
They are a hieroglyph, not a

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force.
Or if their action constitutes a

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force, it is a transmitting
energy, not an originating

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power.
Someone is there who has

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determined or something is there
which is fate.

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Let us say the stars are only
indicators.

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The astrologers themselves say
that there are two forces, Daiva

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and Purusakhara, fate and
individual energy, and the

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individual energy can modify and
even frustrate fate.

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Moreover, the stars often
indicate several fate

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possibilities, for example that
one may die in mid age, but that

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if that determination can be
overcome, one can live to a

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predictable old age.
Finally, cases are seen in which

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the predictions of the horoscope
fulfill themselves with great

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accuracy up to a certain age,
then apply no more.

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This often happens when the
subject turns away from the

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ordinary to the spiritual life.
If the turn is very radical, the

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cessation of predictability may
be immediate.

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Otherwise, certain results may
still last on for a time, but

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there is no longer the same
inevitability.

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This would seem to show that
there is or can be a higher

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power or higher plane, or higher
source of spiritual destiny,

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which can, if its hour has come,
override the lower power, lower

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plane, or lower source of vital
and material fate, of which the

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stars are indicators.
I say vital because character

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can also be indicated from the
horoscope much more completely

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and satisfactorily than the
events of the life.

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The Indian explanation of fate
is karma.

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We ourselves see our own fate
through our actions, but the

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fate created by us binds us for
what we have sown, we must reap

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in this life or another.
Still we are creating our fate

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for the future, even while
undergoing old fate from the

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past in the present.
That gives a meaning to our will

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and action and does not, as
European critics wrongly

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believe, constitute A rigid and
sterilizing fatalism.

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But again, our will and action
can often annul or modify even

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the past karma.
It is only strong effects called

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utkata karma that are non
modifiable.

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Here, too, the achievement of
the spiritual consciousness and

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life is supposed to annul or
give the power to annul karma.

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For we enter into union with the
will, divine, cosmic, or

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transcendent, which can annul
what it had sanctioned for

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certain conditions, new create
what it had created.

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The narrow fixed lines
disappear.

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There is a more plastic freedom
and wideness.

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Neither Karma nor astrology,
therefore points to a rigid and

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forever immutable fate.
End Quote Reference Sri

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Aurobindo and the Mother, The
Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter

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One, Life Through the Eyes of
the Yogin, pages 13 to 14.