On our last little drive-about trip, in Texas I picked up a second-hand book: "The Night Sky" (The Science and Anthropology of the Stars and Planets) by Richard Grossinger, Doctor of Anthropology. The book was originally published in 1981. I don't pretend to have read it from cover to cover - yet. I have rifled through the index though and read Chapter 22, on Astrology. It was a relief to realise that, although Dr. Grossinger doesn't exactly "endorse" astrology, he doesn't try to discredit it either. He puts it into context. He has a pretty turn of phrase too!
A couple of quotes which particularly appealed to me:
"Astrology is patient and long-standing. It tries to coordinate large dynamic blocks of time, space, and personality. It is an attempt to say the impossible, a system for measuring the immeasurable. If it fails, it fails in the biggest task of all: to define the simultaneity of life, thought, creation, and space time. It is better to attempt such a measurement than to pretend it could have no relevance at all."
And after explaining about the two zodiacs, sidereal and tropical (or, in his terms Constellation Astrology and Zodiac Astrology) he writes:
"The zodiac stays within Earth history and tries to hold onto its meanings, but the sky rushes ahead into new time. Eventually, though, the Earth "adjusts" to its actual place in the heavens, and the two astrologies pull together. The continuous pattern of pulling away and pulling together produces a moire pattern of effects, so that the truth of any situation lies somewhere between the two, depending on how true a given culture or era of history is to its absolute meaning in an objective perspective in the stars."
"The Night Sky" is the kind of book you can open at random, start reading and become immediately engrossed. Good readers (of which I'm not one) would start at page 1 and read steadily through to page 412, then read all the 35 pages of notes. I feel certain they'd be well rewarded.
Dr. Grossinger's final word on astrology:
"Astrology is our rune on the hollow surface of infinity, or we are the shadow play of astrology upon the dream of cosmic night".
Beautiful!
A couple of quotes which particularly appealed to me:
"Astrology is patient and long-standing. It tries to coordinate large dynamic blocks of time, space, and personality. It is an attempt to say the impossible, a system for measuring the immeasurable. If it fails, it fails in the biggest task of all: to define the simultaneity of life, thought, creation, and space time. It is better to attempt such a measurement than to pretend it could have no relevance at all."
And after explaining about the two zodiacs, sidereal and tropical (or, in his terms Constellation Astrology and Zodiac Astrology) he writes:
"The zodiac stays within Earth history and tries to hold onto its meanings, but the sky rushes ahead into new time. Eventually, though, the Earth "adjusts" to its actual place in the heavens, and the two astrologies pull together. The continuous pattern of pulling away and pulling together produces a moire pattern of effects, so that the truth of any situation lies somewhere between the two, depending on how true a given culture or era of history is to its absolute meaning in an objective perspective in the stars."
"The Night Sky" is the kind of book you can open at random, start reading and become immediately engrossed. Good readers (of which I'm not one) would start at page 1 and read steadily through to page 412, then read all the 35 pages of notes. I feel certain they'd be well rewarded.
Dr. Grossinger's final word on astrology:
"Astrology is our rune on the hollow surface of infinity, or we are the shadow play of astrology upon the dream of cosmic night".
Beautiful!
a dream of cosmic night...very nice
ReplyDeleteHello Poetryman - thanks for the visit and comment. :-)
ReplyDeleteHe does have a nice turn of phrase doesn't he ? As well as being incredibly knowledgeable.