The Perils of Prediction
By Donna Cunningham, MSW
NOTE: The following is an excerpt from Donna�s
ASTROLOGY AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, published by Cassandra Press in
1988 and reprinted with permission.
Several points will be made here which may surprise
the newcomer. First of all, modern astrologers do not believe that Saturn
or Uranus are causing you any problems. YOU are causing your problems
through your short-sighted, emotionally-triggered, past-determined
behavior and thoughts.
People often talk as though a transit by Pluto caused
you to get pregnant or a transit by Uranus caused you to be fired. Not so.
You got pregnant in the usual way, and you did it quite deliberately,
albeit unconsciously. You got fired because you pushed your luck too far
with the boss. That's all. This particular point, thankfully, is no longer
controversial with astrologers. Fatalism is out, and psychology and
metaphysics are in. You, as students and clients, can thank your lucky
stars for that!
Second, astrology is not infallible as a predictive
tool--but neither is anything else, from Tarot to psychics to the Standard
and Poors Financial Index. Yes, astrologers make predictions (because
that's what sells), and, yes, a good many wind up being correct. My
clients insist I am highly accurate, and that it all turned out just the
way I said.
But we are also foolishly, embarrassingly wrong, and the more publicly and
the more arrogantly we predict, the more egg we find on our face. As the
Bible itself predicts, "The Lord will make fools of prophets."
Clients do seek predictions for seemingly more serious reasons--for
reassurance, mainly, that things are going to be all right. They want to
know that, without making any particular effort, their difficulties will
vanish. They will meet the right love, earn lots of money, and be
discovered. I, too, wouldn't mind paying someone to hear that, if they
could put it across with sufficient authority.
Of course, astrologers are not the only ones
predictions are demanded of. Doctors are asked how long the patient will
live, economists are asked when the crash is coming, psychiatrists are
asked whether the psychosis will recur, and scientists are asked where the
next earthquake will be. And, based on their expertise and experience,
they are just as crashingly wrong and possibly just as often as
astrologers.
There are two differences, however. First, forecasts
by these other professions are respectable rather than laughable, because
they're "real", not based on funny-looking symbols. And, second, doctors
and economists are not arrested for fortune telling the way a number of
astrologers have been.
Every expert is pushed to prognosticate. It's human to
want to know the future, and it's just as human for the astrologer (or
economist or doctor) to want to satisfy the client by giving The Answers.
This fits in very well with the Jupiter-related need to Be Right and to
Know. Yet, it is precisely when you become attached to predicting for ego
reasons that you're most likely to make a jerk of yourself. Furthermore, a
high degree of accuracy is not even DESIRABLE. If we can predict the
future, that means our clients aren't growing but are stuck repeating
nonproductive patterns. And if they're stuck, that means we're not doing
our job. Properly used, astrology is a tool for growth, and an astrologer
is a change agent.
I'm not saying astrologers can change people, any more
than therapists can. The only one who can change you is you. But
astrologers can be catalysts, stimulating the desire for growth and
pointing out avenues for it. And when the client changes, the future
changes. Therefore, I personally do not want to be accused of achieving a
high degree of accuracy. I would far rather be useful than RIGHT.
A major problem with forecasting by astrology is that
we don't know clients' level of evolution. Two people with Neptune
transiting their Ascendant could react very differently, depending on
whether they are on a constructive or destructive course. Even when they
have been destructive up to this point, we don't know when they've had
enough and are ready to turn it around.
The reading itself may be a catalyst for turning it
around. The strength of astrology, then, is not in forecasting but in
understanding. Its usefulness is in making sense of the process and the
possibilities that can come out of it.
This excerpt comes from Donna's ASTROLOGY AND
SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT.
�2001 by Donna Cunningham, MSW
www.donnacunninghammsw.com/
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