Debunking Astronomy
So I was talking with a client, and I was studiously avoiding the incessant pager, thinking between my replies, “I’ve got to set that thing to vibrate.” I missed call from a local FOX affiliate station, a reporter who wanted to do a piece about the alignment of the planets, supposedly visible for the next few days.
I’m not sure if I mentioned it because, the way I see it, it happens in not one but three signs. The planets are interspersed between Taurus, Gemini and Cancer. On an astrological level, this isn’t that big of deal. A big deal, to me, is something like the stuff that occurred in Taurus, at the beginning of May of 2000. Trying to prepare some sort of a ‘sound bite’ analysis of the situation, that proved to be a little more difficult. I’ve already written through this point – I’ve taken this “alignment,” as the mass media is calling it, into account for the scopes.
When I was chatting with an astronomer from UT, at a social function, he pretty much sneered at me, other than the fact that I could point out where what planets were, right after sunset. I could even point out where the planets were that we couldn’t see, too. So what are we looking at this time? Jupiter is in Cancer, the highest one up. Saturn and Mars are in Gemini, while trailing closest to the horizon will be Venus and Mercury.
My guess is that Venus would be the brightest, right after the sun sets, but Jupiter will be in the night the sky the longest, possibly visible for up to several hours. Get out your bible, look up the opening section of Matthew, second chapter, first couple of verses. Talks about the “wise men,” and that’s about it, guys following a star in the east. Sound suspiciously like astrologers to me. Only this time, it’s in the west, right after sunset.
Another astronomer I talked to, a guy who ran a planetarium, used to loathe the “Christmas Show” as he called it. If I recall, around 4 BC, there was some sort of alignment that’s similar to what we’re seeing now. Having seen comets before, there’s also that theory, for the “star in the east” thing. Realistically and astrologically speaking, how often does this happen?
I get sneered at and ridiculed by the so-called “scientific community,” as do many other folks in my line of work. I was mildly perturbed, not so very long ago, as I was seated next to an astronomy professor. What was the host thinking? Probably ruined the [Aquarius> professor’s meal, especially when the hostess started heaping praise on me for what I was doing.
Some years ago, I recall this with Bubba, we were cruising along on a New Year’s Eve, just after sun set, fixin’ to fire up cigars, I was going to do the weekly AOL chat I was doing at the time, and there was the Moon, Jupiter and Mars, all lined up. How does that lyric go? “When the Moon is in the 7th House, and Jupiter aligns with Mars….” So how often does this happen? I would suppose, the real question has to do with how often is it visible like this?
As a historical note, there are volumes of written material about Shakespeare’s astrology. Without firing up the software, I can’t recall exactly, but there was a similar line-up at the beginning of the 17th Century, Queen Elizabeth and all. As they stand, Jupiter & Saturn get up close and personal about once every 20 years, something I’ve noted from the 1960, 1980 series of charts I’ve looked at. Figure Mars and Venus get paired up about once every two years. Mercury, and the Sun? Always within about 40 degrees of each other, if I recall my astronomy correctly.
So when the news station calls me up and wants to do story about something that the scientific community doesn’t “get,” what’s my position? I’ve already spun the chart wheels around, looked that planet arrangement, and made my prognostications. The biggest problem is that the astronomy folks sometimes don’t see the influence down here in the empirical world. I do, but then, this is what I do for a living. I try to translate stellar influences into plain language.
I’ll stick to the mythology of astrology that I like. I was trying to figure a good place to do a “live shot” from, too. Good Western exposure? A high point? A little atmosphere? The bat bridge came to mind, as did the Lamar Pedestrian bridge. Been too cloudy to see much, though. So the reporter never returned my calls returning her call. Journalists are often like that – I’m not sensational enough.
