Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Horscopy or the road to moronic marriages and crappy catastrophies Part II

Well.. in the last post I waxed eloquent on how the two forces of physcis gravity and electromagnetism would affect each individual on earth in precisely the same manner. I did not explicitly mention it but when I am saying the effects are uniform I meant uniform with respect to anywhere on earth. So this takes care of the latitude and longitude part ( hence the comment on distribution of heavenly bodies around the earth ). Also when I say that the effects are repeatable since the heavenly bodies follow precise orbits then I mean that uniform with respect to time of birth.So that takes care of how stars/planets affect us uniformly in both space and time.
Now we look at the next level of organisation of the heavenly bodies in astrology or horoscopy...
"Constellations"
Unfortunately there are many different schools of astrology and the only thing most of them agree with is the number planets in the sky that should affect us. The indian, chinese systems say there are 5 planets and the sun and the moon. The indian system also has two hypothetical heavenly bodies Ketu and Rahu that denote the points of intersection of the paths of the Sun and the Moon as they move on the celestial sphere.(Wikipedia navagraha) Now interestingly these are the points where eclipses will be caused since at these locations both the heavenly bodies would align as seen from earth. Indians were amazing astronomers, so were the chinese, so were the mayans and the egyptians. And they all found one thing in common. All the planets and the moon and the sun travel the heavens in exactly the same path every year. Now considering they had no knowledge of the solar plane ( almost all the planets in the solar system orbit the sun in a single plane except I think Uranus ) it was a very accurate and consistent observation. And this obviously must have helped in navigation since the directions of the passage of the sun and the moon are same. This helps tell the time of the year and therefore the weather ( in the days without pollution the weather would have been pretty consistent over the years ). So to remember the location of the sun and the moon in the sky people decided to use the only available reference. The stars in the background of the path of the sun and moon. Enter the zodiac... logical choice.. anyone of us would have done the same thing. But...
People decided to remember different shapes when they decided to trace the heavens. Well.. ancestors had a good imagination probably but for the life of me I CANNOT see any animals or serpents of hunters or maidens in the sky. for example.. (the constellation gemini to me looks like a capital 'V'). I am saying this just to point out that they ( our ancestors ) were just playing connect the dots in the sky. I will see a lion.. someone else sees a mongoose.. what does it matter ? It does not as long as we both remember 'a' shape and decide that it is the same time of year when the sun is in that shape. So basically a guide to remember the seasons became engrained in the minds of people. this is all fine and perfectly explainable but why oh why would it matter where the sun and the moon are in this particular track of the sky when anyone is born ? Why in whole wide universe would a game of 'random connect the dots in the sky' influence how my life is going to be if I am born when the sun is either superimposed over one shape or another ? . The only way stars/planets can affect us within the kknowledge that we currently have is through gravity and EM and that is independent of where we are on this earth and where they are in the sky. And basically the effect of all these heavenly bodies on earth will be more pronounced than their effect on us with a tiny mass standing on earth. Constellations are the same across cultures becuase.. face it people... the solar plane. the sun will travel the same path along with the planets because they are in the same plane and there will be NO change in its effect on earth ( except for seasons changing and tides )... and by consequence in the destinies of the people on the earth.
So does astrology really work ? Begs the question doesn't it ?

so now we turn to the only thing that would probably make believers out of disbelieving cynics like me, the saving grace of astrology .. statistics.. if only there are statistical patterns in astrology .. maybe.. maybe there is some sense in astrology.. that would be discussed in part 3.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

This has already been done! Dr. Jayant Narlikar led the studies, and Prof. Kunte did the analysis, and they found that Astrology is not relevant statistically!!

pooja said...

random connect the dots in the sky:) loved that. I can't make out any animals in the sky either!!

Unknown said...

u have done lot of referencing!!!! ha ha...waiting for part III! what more is left?

Ashwin Kelkar said...

I have not yet talked of moronic marriages and catastrophies... :D

Mukta said...

hmm... vachle donhi posts. pahilyatun tuza view exactly kay ahe hey mala clear navhta. ani malahi kadhich constellations madhle praani/jeeev dislech nahit. to each his/her own imagination. looking forward to your next installment :)

Scarecrow said...

Trivia: :D
The best result of the cosmic connect the dots:- Constellation Scorpio....Appears in summer...Its just perfect.

Try connecting the dots in the image below. Have fun!
http://mexicanskies.com/constellations/scorpius-jupiter.JPG

And, Ashwin, did you know that 2009 is the International year of Astronomy? Did that inspire these posts?

Unknown said...

well said ! u really can't see animals out der!one probable reason for assigning animals /objects i guess defines the nature of person.like a gemini for instance,always has two different views abt certain thing which explains 2 faces.
waiting fr sm more posts!

yogeshwar said...

2 comments.. not really about significance of astrology

1) why did people put animals and hunters in skies?
Probably as a tool for correct referencing to the same part of the sky irrespective of where you are, and who you are. Once you see the 'mriga' nakshatra, you will probably be able to spot it again..
a) in ancient times, that was probably the best way to identify a star or a collection of starts when you really need too.. you know, if you are a sailor or a nomad in a desert. you cannot imagine the ancient nomads talking like " let me take a look at my high-resolution star map... if star HHG667 is here and start 66GG is here, we must be going northwest". It provides the viewer with specificity.. same as a polymerase recognizing the promoter motif correctly.
b) If the nomads / sailors could not recorgnize clearly visibile motifs that are large enough to be discernable to eye, but small enough restrict themselves to a small part of the sky (and thus, define a certain direction.. probably occupying 3-4 degrees radially), they must have been lost.

The fact that astrological symbols spread to rapidly throughout the ancient world makes one thing that they must be very useful, particularly to the people traveling long distances.

yogeshwar said...

2) constellations are same accross cultures because they have a common origin.. no one is really sure where.. but the similarities are too striking for them to have arisen independently, given 'astronomical' number of possible constellations.

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just your regular guy who dreams too much. i read a lot don't remember it all though.. swim, trek, yoga.. think and read more.. that about sums it up..