Why does Astrology work?
The question “Why does Astrology work?” has not been answered with certainty. Anyone who has taken the time to acquire a more profound knowledge of this subject has no doubt recognized the fact that there is indeed a correlation between the planetary positions in an individual’s birth chart and his or her personality and life events; nonetheless, an explanation for the exact cause and nature of this correlation, one which is able to withstand the rigors of scientific experimentation, has not yet been developed. However, there are two explanations that are often given by professional astrologers:
1)The “materialistic” explanation: “Cause-effect”.
According to this theory, the planets, the sun and the moon influence us through as-of-yet undetermined cosmic energies.
For example, gravity, or the light of the sun, sent to earth either directly or reflected from the moon or the planets – such energies might possibly, in theory at least, have some effect on human life, an effect whose “ebb and flow” could be measurable through the planetary positions at the moment of an event, such as a person’s birth.
2) The “Esoteric” Theory Those modern representatives of this line of thought often refer to the “theory of synchronicity”, developed by C.G. Jung together with the physicist Wolfgang Pauli.
The planets are not seen as “causes” of earthly “effects”, but rather, the cosmos is seen as an “entirety” in which each and every part has an intimate, mysterious relationship to every other part.
Any change in one part will always be accompanied by a corresponding change in another part.
Yet these changes do not follow each other sequentially in time – such a sequence of events would suggest “cause and effect”. Instead, the changes occur simultaneously (Synchronicity), and thus, do not fit the “cause-effect” model.
Astrologers who prefer this idea sometimes compare the solar system to a giant cosmic clock, which gives us coded information about the quality of each moment of time, without the said “clock” being the cause of the quality.
For example, a clock may indicate that it is 4 PM, but only a lunatic would maintain that it is (astronomically speaking) 4 PM because the clock says so!
Though C.G. Jung is normally considered to be the “father” of synchronicity, the idea is in fact hardly a child of the 20th century.
Towards the end of the 18th century, the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, without the aid of the discoveries of quantum physics, developed a theory which in many respects is almost identical to Jung’s synchronicity, at least as far as that which is of greatest interest to astrologers is concerned.
Leibniz called his theory “pre-established Harmony”:
“The soul follows its own laws, as the body follows its laws; both meet each other due to the pre-established harmony which exists among all substances, since all are emanations of one and the same universe."
In other words: the body (or any physical object) and the soul don’t actually “influence” each other, but rather, the “divine plan” created the world in such a way that there is and must always be a correspondence between the physical and spiritual (psychological, etc.) levels of existence; this correspondence creates the illusion of a “cause and effect” continuum.
An example: if one had two wound clocks on a table, which both show exactly the same time, there would be a perfect “correspondence” between the two, yet one could not say that one influences the other.
According to Leibniz, the only “cause” is the “highest power”, the “supreme being”, that is, God. That which we perceive as effects are in fact merely “correspondences” which owe their “synchronicity” to the perfection of the divine plan.
There are certain similarities between this theory and that of Spinoza, who speculated that all physical manifestations – people, things, energies, space, etc., are but “modalities” of a single “cause”: God, the creative force.
Personally, I believe that it’s quite possible that the two theories needn’t be mutually exclusive.
In practically all areas of our daily lives, science as well as direct personal experience has shown that the “cause and effect” model of reality “works”.
And isn’t this practical level of existence that on which we base just about everything we do? On the other hand, when we delve a bit deeper into the investigation of certain phenomena such as clairvoyance or telepathy, a sort of synchronicity does indeed seem to exist; thus the theory of synchronicity could well serve as one of the pillars of holistic astrology.
Reality may be observed/experienced from different vantage points, each of which may have its validity, even though it may at first seem to be in contradiction to other perspectives.
