ASTROLOGY Your bridge to the stars Christopher Harwood

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Astrology, a Magnetic Attraction

 The way that astrology works has been the subject of endless debate for millennia with astrologers and sceptics often being at loggerheads. The scientific community in general dismisses astrology as superstitious rubbish while at the same time millions of people around the world connect to their ‘stars’ on a daily basis via the media. The problem is that many astrologers themselves seem to be at a loss when it comes to the fundamental question of how planetary influence works. They know that it does and they can show that it does but there are no adequate explanations of how it does.

Simulated three-dimensional structure of Earth's magnetic field

 In recent times attempts have been made to raise the subject of astrology to academic status and it has come under even closer scrutiny with a greater need to have an answer for the sceptics. This has given rise to a debate within astrology regarding presentation. Many astrologers, particularly those at academic level badly need to maintain their tenuous acceptance by the academy and have to disguise astrological studies under a variety euphemisms. Many now openly refute the idea that there is any connection either direct or indirect between what goes on in the heavens and astrological effects perceived on Earth. In other words their view now seems to be that astrology is just a concept, symbolically reflecting a memory of ancient sky gods and star patterns viewed as Jungian archetypes. Many more are content just to use the phenomenon of astrology as a means of investigating the psyche and as a method of divination. The fact that it is no longer deemed to have any scientific basis is not seen as a problem.

 In recent times attempts have been made to raise the subject of astrology to academic status and it has come under even closer scrutiny with a greater need to have an answer for the sceptics. This has given rise to a debate within astrology regarding presentation. Many astrologers, particularly those at academic level badly need to maintain their tenuous acceptance by the academy and have to disguise astrological studies under a variety euphemisms. Many now openly refute the idea that there is any connection either direct or indirect between what goes on in the heavens and astrological effects perceived on Earth. In other words their view now seems to be that astrology is just a concept, symbolically reflecting a memory of ancient sky gods and star patterns viewed as Jungian archetypes. Many more are content just to use the phenomenon of astrology as a means of investigating the psyche and as a method of divination. The fact that it is no longer deemed to have any scientific basis is not seen as a problem.

 Indeed when considering current astrological thinking it somewhat resembles a tree with branches and leaves, but with no base or roots. The branches bend, the leaves tip and twist in the wind. Meaningful considerations are drawn from their patterns and their relationships to one another but that which gives them any true meaning is entirely absent. Ironically, part of the blame for this divorce between the science and the art of astrology can be found in the use of computers to produce charts.

Astrological Tree

A generation of students has come into astrology via computers to whom using an ephemeris and table of houses is merely an historical anecdote. The fact that an ephemeris gives exact astronomical information of real bodies in the sky is no longer seen as having any particular significance. It is just a means to identify their positions within the zodiac and their aspects. However, since the positions of heavenly bodies and the angles they make to one another are physical facts, then a chart however calculated must surely reflect those facts and not just feed a discourse on symbolism.

Structure of IMF

 Many hypotheses concerning planetary influence have been considered but because of the immense distances involved, the idea that individual planets can influence the Earth directly is dismissed. However, space physics has moved on a great deal and much more is known about solar wind for example and how it drags out the Sun’s magnetic field to encompass our whole system and beyond. This combination of solar wind and the magnetosphere of the Sun is known as the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) and extends far into interstellar space, engulfing the whole solar system. Several planets have large magnetic fields of their own, as does our Earth but Venus has none while the Moon and Mars are patchy, both being considered to be largely non-magnetic.

 However, even non-magnetic planets as they move in their orbits are affected by and react to the ionised plasma of the solar wind, which produces large electric fields around them that are conductive and cause disturbances in the IMF. This can be viewed in the same manner as a ship leaving a wake behind it as it ploughs through the water. Indeed, the similarities are striking. As a planet moves in its orbit through the cosmic ocean of the IMF, just like a ship it creates a bow wave called the ‘Bow Shock’ and similar to the wake of a ship leaves a long trail of resonant disturbance in the field behind it called the ‘Magneto Tail’

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