Horoscope – A scope for horror!!

Now I will have to unlearn and relearn that only 8 planets exist in our solar system. Western Astrology will have to delete Pluto from their birth charts and books will have to remove passages that talk about the effect of Pluto on natal charts. We live in e-age and space-age today and we send Sunita Williams and crew to outer space and to other planets to study their ecosystem but our beliefs and outlook still remain in stone-age. We still believe in Ganesha drinking milk and Hanumanji shedding tears. For those Hindutva or the left wing people – this is Kali Yug, the yug of warfare, treachery, drought, poverty, barbarism.

Are we believing too much in astrology and succumbing to fate without exercising our freewill? This is point to be pondered, debated with logical reasoning.

Astrology is a branch of science that deals with the impact of astronomy on human psychology. Are we letting this science control our psychology and take away our confidence and free will?

We have two schools of people, one who swears and lives by astrology and one who denounces it. The present Chief Minister of Tamilnadu swore in on a Saturday and during Rahukalam. Tamilnadu has had copious rainfall in the past 2 years and touch wood there is peace and prosperity raining in the state. While the previous Chief Minister, a Leo and ruled by star Magham has had all her car numbers add upto 9 and drape her self in green, but all that prevailed in her regime was misery, drought and corruption. Now this raises a question on the belief and the science. Should I believe in my freewill more than the influence of planets?

The moment I utter that I am a Virgo, people blurt out my traits as predicted by Linda Goodman. Now I am criticized for being a Virgo and I am being analyzed for traits that I don’t carry. For those people I life of a Virgo and not my own. How lucky and how empowered, nah?

We live in a country where astrology is deep rooted not only in our culture but also in our minds. Pandavas wanted to begin the war on an auspicious day and hence Krishna played his trick to bring Sun and Moon together so they can start the war on Ammavasya day to ensure victory. But today our mind is like Ammavasya day, total absence of clarity and vision. Today every newspaper and magazine has an astrologer predicting the week based on sun sign and every channel offers forecast for the day based on the movement moon. We have a panel picking and choosing Tarot cards before India plays a match and we have newspapers running front page articles on Mangalik Ash’s what she can bring to a marriage. Have we lost confidence in our selves and on our Indian team that we seek an unproved and unscientific reasoning to placate our delirious mind?

We want to know what future has in store for us. Is it happiness or is it tears and Kleenex? Be it a simple job change, the impending promotion, buying a new vehicle, home or other financial investment or getting married we run to our family astrologer or a quack down the street to make sure our choice is the best. Their choice and advice definitely helps us to make the final decision. Then where is our free will? It is just limited to desiring and reaching an astrologers place? We seek them to make sure we succeed and if not make sure we blame them for their skills? Rather why don’t we play our game of live with confidence and optimism?

Lord Rama had all planets in exalted position in his chart, the best combination ever possible. But still he had to face enough obstacles in life and perpetrate enough crimes on Sita. All he gave Sita was misery by deserting her and sending her to the forest where she lived with her sons. Does astrology guarantee anything in life or does it vouch for a person’s character and success?

Birth stars seem to determine the nature and psychology of a person, thanks to astrology. Even prior to marriage we have lot of crimes being perpetrated on women and by women. If you have a sister in Moolam or Pooradam forget getting her married the arranged way. If you have a daughter in Magham then you will send 5000W through her future in-laws spine. How do I draw the line between being objective and not color blinded by the laws of astrology?

I have seen so many parents visit the astrologer to find out if their wards would make it to the B-School. Well there are only 12 houses in the chart and there is nothing specially for IIT or IIM. Rather than asking their kids to pursue their dream, parents take away their freewill. When these kids grow up they continue to live without the same freewill. How sad!!

Here is an incident that ruined a beautiful relationship. A friend was mine was in love with a girl from an orthodox Brahmin (filled with paradigms and prejudices) family. Her family lived by the laws of astrology and when they took the charts to their family astrologer for approval, he predicted doomsday. Separation and divorce was written all over their charts. My friend’s parents belong to the other school and they believed in themselves and their son. My friend and his fiancée visited other astrologers in the city to verify the same readings. I happen to meet them during their trips to one of the astrologers. I advised them to believe in themselves and build trust in each other rather than believing in a science which is beyond their control and reasoning. I chided them going around and collecting litter in their brains and cautioned them that it would only ruin their relationship.

The seeds of failure and sorrows were sown in their minds early on. On the contrary if they had gone against the astrologer and got married, the fear of divorce and separation will always operate in the back of their minds. The seed of fear would only grow into a weed and finally into a tree that nobody can fell. After meeting 15 or so astrologers in the city they have decided to call of their love and part as friends. The real doomsday was brought in their lives not after marriage but before marriage and by several astrologers. Astrologers have taken away the trust and faith in each other and their relationship but planting fear in the mind of the young wannabe couple.

We all have desires of many kinds and everybody wants to live a life brimming with prosperity, peace, good health and happiness. All mothers and fathers want to ensure their sons and daughter to be happy forever. But aren’t we going overboard by living what an astrologer says?


Here is another example,
A cousin of mine wanted to start a business and be on his own. But every time he visited the astrologer said he needs to wait for another year. But by the time he was given a go ahead he had turned 50. Though his mind was willing his body didn’t have enough strength. Are we missing the bus of fortune believing in quacks and their baseless predictions? Where did hard work go? If we all were made to live by our past Karmas then where is free will in this birth?

Astrologers seem to enjoy a more powerful status than God in the society. Most of the decisions in our lives are taken by them and we merely move around like powerless pawns without any choice. Astrology doesn’t seem to give any remedy or prescription for happiness, good health, peace and prosperity. For those who believe it only seems to bring their confidence levels down and create a disbelief in their freewill and cling tenaciously to their fate and past.

For some it is a simple job change, for some it is the promotion, for many unmarried singles it is about their better half and for the married ones it is about the arrival of the next member in the family. Nobody promised that life is a bed of roses. Why don’t we have the confidence in ourselves and our capabilities? Is it because we don’t want to take credit and responsibility of our failures and is that why we trust and believe astrology? Or it is that we want someone to point our fingers at and thus we turn to this science.

Gemology is another branch of astrology that swears to change fate by just wearing a piece of stone open set in gold or silver. Wearing a 3 carat Pukhraj (Yellow Sapphire) in the right hand index finger is believed to bring back good luck and ward off evil luck. I still wonder how stones can do wonders. Until we have junta who believe in others and not in them we will have such quacks flourish. It is the educated ones that fall in such traps more than the illiterate.

We all have fears and insecurity with our present and our future. We are better of visiting a counselor than an astrologer. May be a counsellor is much less expensive than an astrologer who charges by number of questions. A counselor makes you enjoy the present and nullify unwarranted fears, while the astrologer taunts you with the past karma and the unarrived future. An astrologer can paralyze your confidence, poison your hopes and imprison you in paranoia. Visiting an astrologer or a tarot card reader is like injecting a dose of hope or optimism for most and this become habitual too. Without putting in hard work we want the planets to collude and make honey and milk flow in our lives. Remember there is no short cut to success and there is no big sucker than an astrologer.

Is our freewill overridden by astrologers’ freewill and is our fate overwritten by his freewill and shoddy predictions? Where do we draw the line when it comes to an astrologer? Do we use them as a compass to show the direction or we use them as a wind wane? We can use them as compass or wind wane, but let them not be the wind that changes our lives and misleading compass. We will have to decide which direction we would like to travel. Learn to exercise your free will. There is lot of unlearning and relearning in life, now let us start with Pluto.