Aquila
Muse
- Joined
- May 30, 2006
- Messages
- 632
Recently an astrologer well known in the astrological community named Richard Nolle predicted (sort of) the recent earthquake in Chile:you can read it here:
http://www.astropro.com/forecast/predict/2010-all.html#86
He has also made several vague predictions of other world events in the magazine Dell Horoscope. I don't think that Nolle is going to claim the million dollar challenge prize, if it still exists, and before you all get hot under the collar, yes, I know his prediction could be the subject of Confirmation Bias (Chile is in an earthquake zone and there have been 14 earthquakes there in the past 30 years or so), but the interesting point is not whether his prediction was accurate, but how he did it.
As more empirically-minded astrologers are pointing out, Nolle actually made his prediction using science, rather than "magic". It was based on what he calls "SuperMoon" theory, which is in turn based on perigee, the point at which the moon is closest to the earth in its cycle.
As we all know, the earth-moon cycle has an effect on ocean tides, and from what I have been hearing, scientists are now speculating that it also might have an effect on all liquids on earth, such as, for example, magma beneath the earth's surface. This might in turn influence the movement of tectonic plates.
So far, this is just science, but where the astrology comes in is that Nolle then used the position of the planets using a method called astro-locality, where aspects are plotted on a world map for certain times. For example, we could take the date and time of one of recent solar eclipses, pick a place on earth to erect a horoscope, and then map this horoscope using astro-locality and see where major conjunctions, oppositions and squares of the planets are conjuncting the cardinal angles (the ascendant, IC, descendant and MC) of the horoscope. According to astrological theory, these angles are very sensitive.
Nolle looked at major planetary aspects occurring now, for example, there is a much talked about square between Saturn and Pluto, merging into a T-square shorty with Uranus (July 2010). There is also a separating triple conjunction of Neptune, the asteroid Chiron and Jupiter. These aspects will appear on the angles of horoscopes set up in certain regions of the world, and in hindsight, an analysis of the longitude of the Chilean and Haiti quake shows that when a chart is set up for 73W (Chile and Haiti) the latter conjunction appears on the IC of the chart - a strong point).
"Reverse engineering" this process, would of course be a predictive tool for forecasting. Astrology is not very good at forcasting human events, because we have free will (or the appearance of it) and have the freedom to adapt our behavior to circumstances, but does seem to be rather better at predicting mundane events, and sometimes political ones. An astrologer named Liz Greene, in the 1970s, predicted the collapse of the U.S.S.R. based on the its early 1900s horoscope.
I realize that much evidence for astrology "working" can be criticized for being too vague. Certianly, the thousands of reports of "it worked for me" can all be dismissed because they are subjective, rather than being objective
evidence that empirical science requires, but if we compare this sort of subjective evidence with the methods of Experimental Psychology, or even modern medicine, we find that subjectivity is not necessarily dismissed; as long as subjective reports can be quantified and analyzed statistically, they can in fact give useful information.
An example would be research into pharmaceutical drugs. This is based on reports by subjects on how they feel (happy, sad, depressed, manic), not anything directly measurable. Similarly, if we look at reports on astrology forums, we find thousands of subjective reports about how people feel (and often what happened in their outer world) while going through certain astrological transits.
My point here, is that I think that much of the "magic" and "correspondence" of astrology is gradually being replaced by sound empirical principles. Astrologers were the first astronomers, and conducted a primitive form of science based on observation. Their primitive science has now of course been replaced with empiricism, and the next step for astrologers, I would like to think, would be the replacing of the "gods" (Jupiter did it) with a cause-and effect mechanism.
One such cause-and-effect mechanism is the Sun-Moon-Earth system. Gravity, and the seasonal effects of the Sun, due to the earth's tilt, explain much of the natural world. Since we are influenced by our environment, I think that they could also be linked to our personality. For example, our hormones, and all the water and liquids in our bodies could be affected by the gravity of the moon. Our brains and senses have evolved to detect different spectra of light. The planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets would, in this system just act as markers in the big solar system clock, simply telling the time.
What do you think? Is astrology simply a clock for describing the effects of light and gravity?
http://www.astropro.com/forecast/predict/2010-all.html#86
He has also made several vague predictions of other world events in the magazine Dell Horoscope. I don't think that Nolle is going to claim the million dollar challenge prize, if it still exists, and before you all get hot under the collar, yes, I know his prediction could be the subject of Confirmation Bias (Chile is in an earthquake zone and there have been 14 earthquakes there in the past 30 years or so), but the interesting point is not whether his prediction was accurate, but how he did it.
As more empirically-minded astrologers are pointing out, Nolle actually made his prediction using science, rather than "magic". It was based on what he calls "SuperMoon" theory, which is in turn based on perigee, the point at which the moon is closest to the earth in its cycle.
As we all know, the earth-moon cycle has an effect on ocean tides, and from what I have been hearing, scientists are now speculating that it also might have an effect on all liquids on earth, such as, for example, magma beneath the earth's surface. This might in turn influence the movement of tectonic plates.
So far, this is just science, but where the astrology comes in is that Nolle then used the position of the planets using a method called astro-locality, where aspects are plotted on a world map for certain times. For example, we could take the date and time of one of recent solar eclipses, pick a place on earth to erect a horoscope, and then map this horoscope using astro-locality and see where major conjunctions, oppositions and squares of the planets are conjuncting the cardinal angles (the ascendant, IC, descendant and MC) of the horoscope. According to astrological theory, these angles are very sensitive.
Nolle looked at major planetary aspects occurring now, for example, there is a much talked about square between Saturn and Pluto, merging into a T-square shorty with Uranus (July 2010). There is also a separating triple conjunction of Neptune, the asteroid Chiron and Jupiter. These aspects will appear on the angles of horoscopes set up in certain regions of the world, and in hindsight, an analysis of the longitude of the Chilean and Haiti quake shows that when a chart is set up for 73W (Chile and Haiti) the latter conjunction appears on the IC of the chart - a strong point).
"Reverse engineering" this process, would of course be a predictive tool for forecasting. Astrology is not very good at forcasting human events, because we have free will (or the appearance of it) and have the freedom to adapt our behavior to circumstances, but does seem to be rather better at predicting mundane events, and sometimes political ones. An astrologer named Liz Greene, in the 1970s, predicted the collapse of the U.S.S.R. based on the its early 1900s horoscope.
I realize that much evidence for astrology "working" can be criticized for being too vague. Certianly, the thousands of reports of "it worked for me" can all be dismissed because they are subjective, rather than being objective
evidence that empirical science requires, but if we compare this sort of subjective evidence with the methods of Experimental Psychology, or even modern medicine, we find that subjectivity is not necessarily dismissed; as long as subjective reports can be quantified and analyzed statistically, they can in fact give useful information.
An example would be research into pharmaceutical drugs. This is based on reports by subjects on how they feel (happy, sad, depressed, manic), not anything directly measurable. Similarly, if we look at reports on astrology forums, we find thousands of subjective reports about how people feel (and often what happened in their outer world) while going through certain astrological transits.
My point here, is that I think that much of the "magic" and "correspondence" of astrology is gradually being replaced by sound empirical principles. Astrologers were the first astronomers, and conducted a primitive form of science based on observation. Their primitive science has now of course been replaced with empiricism, and the next step for astrologers, I would like to think, would be the replacing of the "gods" (Jupiter did it) with a cause-and effect mechanism.
One such cause-and-effect mechanism is the Sun-Moon-Earth system. Gravity, and the seasonal effects of the Sun, due to the earth's tilt, explain much of the natural world. Since we are influenced by our environment, I think that they could also be linked to our personality. For example, our hormones, and all the water and liquids in our bodies could be affected by the gravity of the moon. Our brains and senses have evolved to detect different spectra of light. The planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets would, in this system just act as markers in the big solar system clock, simply telling the time.
What do you think? Is astrology simply a clock for describing the effects of light and gravity?
