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From www.astrology-and-science.com 5m 50kb Home Fast-Find Index Why the study of astrology Prize-winning essay from Alan Leo's Modern Astrology 1907, 4, 5-7 Abstract -- Gives 33 reasons presented in 1907 why the study of astrology should be encouraged. Some of them (such as showing "whom to admit as equals") might be unacceptable to many astrologers today. The rest reduce to: Because astrology has attracted great minds, is a better source of knowledge than science, reveals our place in the world, prevents many mistakes and misfortunes, is a speedy cure for profanity, gives good guidance on health, marriage, friends, travel, employment, where to live, in fact on all things, will revolutionise the world, and has never been proven false. Seven similar reasons from a 1910 article are included. Most of the reasons are incompatible with modern research findings. Thirty-three reasons, supplied by E.T.Manderville, to whom a special prize of one guinea has been awarded. See The Astrologer's Annual for 1907, p.24. [One guinea was then roughly half the average weekly wage] BECAUSE 2. It appeals to the intellectual side of our nature and encourages the active use of mind and thought. 3. It invites and stimulates an honest enquiry into the laws governing the earth and its inhabitants. 4. It enables us to obtain a more correct knowledge of ourselves in our relation to the physical world than any other scientific system of enquiry. 5. It is the main entrance into a fuller and more complete understanding of the new psychology. 6. It clearly demonstrates to the average mind a wise intelligence behind the manifested universe, and reveals a perfect ordering of all things. 7. It denotes the place in evolution of each individual, and indicates the limitations imposed upon him for the purpose of learning the lessons that earth life has to teach. 8. It teaches us whom to respect as true superiors, whom to admit as equals, and those whom we have to help as inferiors. 9. It establishes faith in a Divine Ruler, and soon establishes the conviction that "we suffer from ourselves," thus confirming St Paul's teaching that we shall reap as we have sown. 10. It enables us to accept our environment, as the best for our immediate purpose, in which our energies may be fruitfully expressed. 11. It enables us to discover with whom we may make profitable acquaintance, and how to adapt and adjust ourselves to circumstances. 12. It shows where our affections may be safely placed, and also when and where they will be reciprocated. 13. It rationally explains our sympathies and antipathies, and why we are magnetically drawn toward some individuals and repelled by others. 14. It quickly proves that there is no such thing as chance or accident, and inspires us to see that all is designed for our eventual perfection. 15. It leaves no doubt as to character being destiny, and thus aids us to avoid careless censure of others, but instead produces a better understanding of their actions. 16. It helps us in knowing how to acquire command over our lower nature, and control those sensations and vapourings likely to hinder our higher evolution. 17. It enables us to trace consequences, events and happenings to their legitimate cause, and realise that it is not impossible to read the register of our motives. 18. It enables us to forecast the result of certain feelings, thoughts, and actions, and by the use of forethought to turn them to good account and future welfare. 19. It shows us in which direction to look for genius, how to use the creative faculties and in which direction to exercise our imagination. 20. It is the best means of removing ignorance from our path, and paves the way for much greater enlightenment than we had anticipated. 21. It is of inestimable value in the training, disciplining and educating of children. 22. It is a speedy cure for profanity, corrects irreverence, stops scepticism and cannot fail to encourage a true religious attitude of mind. 23. It brings into active use judgment, perception, discrimination, impartiality, right understanding, careful conclusions and many other mental virtues. 24. It is based upon a perfect symbology, handed on by those wise men who studied before us, in which are preserved universal ideas, illustrated by simple ideographs, metaphors and pictorial hieroglyphs. 25. It enobles all who are sincere and earnest in its study, and when understood its inner meaning broadens both mind and sympathies. 26. It leads to a cultivation of a loyal and faithful obedience to the law of love and harmony. 27. It cannot fail to produce the true spirit of self-reliance; it does away with servility, weakness and inertia and quickly awakens intuition, reason and intelligence. 28. Its universal study would undoubtedly revolutionise the world's thought and attitude, and it is foreseen that when the universal intelligence permeates all beings, that the time will arrive for its general understanding, and therefore human emancipation. 29. It would prevent many misfortunes, and lead to the avoidance of many calamities and enable individuals to act wisely and discreetly. 30. It would prevent many mistakes in marriage, and avoid linking unsuitable partners, thus doing away with separations, divorce and deceptions. 31. It would enable all to select the best legislators, and thus secure a wise administration of worldly affairs, eventually producing a perfect management of national affairs. 32. It would become an abbreviated method of obtaining knowledge of how to treat the body and maintain health, whom to marry, where to travel, the best place to live in, when best to unfold our spiritual nature, when to conserve and economise, in fact of all things, thus saving energy, time and waste of force. 33. It has never been refuted, and no one has succeeded in proving its story to be false, and even after a superficial study it has never failed to command respect and the conviction that it is a possible explanation of the mystery of life in all its various manifestations. Postscript From www.astrology-and-science.com 5m 50kb Home Fast-Find Index |