I wouldn't normally wish to quote former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, but for once:
...And follow with an edited version of my post from 2007 touching on mysterious unknowns.
A one-to-one consultation with an astrologer, in person, is something I haven't experienced, having never been in the right place at the right time. I have visited tarot readers on one or two occasions over the years, and had my hand read by fortune tellers. I've attended spritualist meetings, even dabbled in a bit of basic magic. Mysteries such as these have intrigued me for as long as I can remember.
The search for evidence and answers has often been disappointing. Astrology has been consistent in providing me with evidence that "something" is going on, though nobody knows what it is. This is the reason I've chosen to persist in trying to understand when astrology works and when it doesn't. It's a known unknown. The reason why astrology works, when it works, may well turn out as an unknown unknown - something we haven't yet discovered, a factor of which we have as yet no concept at all.
Many consider astrology to be in the same category as fortune telling, tarot, magic and mediums. I don't. Any evidence proving that those other areas of mystery "work" has been scant. A few scattered incidences over a very long period, have been just sufficient that I can't quite close the door, and my mind, on the idea that there is something else going on too.
The scattered incidences:
1 ~~~ A tarot reader, who was probably also a medium in the 1960s, in Devonshire, UK, told me that someone was speaking to her, and that he had a peculiar way of using the expression "it was real" in his conversation (meaning that something was very good). I immediately recognised this person. He wasn't anyone close, simply an acquaintance, but his idiosyncratic way of using the word "real" always used to amuse me. He had died in a car accident some years before. I hadn't even thought about this person much, but was very surprised to recognise him immediately from the reader's description.
2 ~~~ Many years ago (1970s), I persuaded my late partner to accompany me to a spirtualist meeting. The speaker there pointed to him during the meeting and said, "Do you know Peter, wearing RAF uniform?" He gasped, "Yes". "Well, he is saluting you", the speaker said. I knew already that my late partner had had a close friend called Peter, in his youth, during WW2, in the Royal Airforce. Their plane was shot down over France and they escaped together. Sadly, Peter's wife had been unfaithful while he was away in the forces, and he commited suicide just after the war ended.
3 ~~~ Many Moons ago, when I was still a young teenager, a fortune-teller told my mother that I would marry someone "from over the sea, and end my days abroad". That wouldn't sound too unusual nowadays, but in the 1950s before air travel was common, computers still unheard of, it was extraordinary! Anyway, the prediction has been vindicated three times. The second time wasn't a marriage, but a 33 year relationship. # 1 husband was from Italy. # 2 from Northern Ireland. # 3 current husband is American. And here I am, ending my days abroad (hopefully not too quickly). I'm pretty sure that this incidence wasn't what's known as "a self-fulfilling prophecy". I did harbour thoughts of retiring to Spain, which might have been seen as such. I never could have envisioned what actually happened!
4 ~~~ A fortune teller told me, back in 1973 or thereabouts, that there would be 3 men in my life. I was already aware of two - an ex-husband and a current partner. This prediction worried me for a long time. I took it as a sign that I'd somehow lose my partner. I did, but not for another 30 years! Then # 3 appeared.
I can find no logical explanation for any of these instances. They may be manifestations of some magical mystery - an unknown unknown, a mystery beyond anything we are at present capable of understanding.
"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."
...And follow with an edited version of my post from 2007 touching on mysterious unknowns.
A one-to-one consultation with an astrologer, in person, is something I haven't experienced, having never been in the right place at the right time. I have visited tarot readers on one or two occasions over the years, and had my hand read by fortune tellers. I've attended spritualist meetings, even dabbled in a bit of basic magic. Mysteries such as these have intrigued me for as long as I can remember.
The search for evidence and answers has often been disappointing. Astrology has been consistent in providing me with evidence that "something" is going on, though nobody knows what it is. This is the reason I've chosen to persist in trying to understand when astrology works and when it doesn't. It's a known unknown. The reason why astrology works, when it works, may well turn out as an unknown unknown - something we haven't yet discovered, a factor of which we have as yet no concept at all.
Many consider astrology to be in the same category as fortune telling, tarot, magic and mediums. I don't. Any evidence proving that those other areas of mystery "work" has been scant. A few scattered incidences over a very long period, have been just sufficient that I can't quite close the door, and my mind, on the idea that there is something else going on too.
The scattered incidences:
1 ~~~ A tarot reader, who was probably also a medium in the 1960s, in Devonshire, UK, told me that someone was speaking to her, and that he had a peculiar way of using the expression "it was real" in his conversation (meaning that something was very good). I immediately recognised this person. He wasn't anyone close, simply an acquaintance, but his idiosyncratic way of using the word "real" always used to amuse me. He had died in a car accident some years before. I hadn't even thought about this person much, but was very surprised to recognise him immediately from the reader's description.
2 ~~~ Many years ago (1970s), I persuaded my late partner to accompany me to a spirtualist meeting. The speaker there pointed to him during the meeting and said, "Do you know Peter, wearing RAF uniform?" He gasped, "Yes". "Well, he is saluting you", the speaker said. I knew already that my late partner had had a close friend called Peter, in his youth, during WW2, in the Royal Airforce. Their plane was shot down over France and they escaped together. Sadly, Peter's wife had been unfaithful while he was away in the forces, and he commited suicide just after the war ended.
3 ~~~ Many Moons ago, when I was still a young teenager, a fortune-teller told my mother that I would marry someone "from over the sea, and end my days abroad". That wouldn't sound too unusual nowadays, but in the 1950s before air travel was common, computers still unheard of, it was extraordinary! Anyway, the prediction has been vindicated three times. The second time wasn't a marriage, but a 33 year relationship. # 1 husband was from Italy. # 2 from Northern Ireland. # 3 current husband is American. And here I am, ending my days abroad (hopefully not too quickly). I'm pretty sure that this incidence wasn't what's known as "a self-fulfilling prophecy". I did harbour thoughts of retiring to Spain, which might have been seen as such. I never could have envisioned what actually happened!
4 ~~~ A fortune teller told me, back in 1973 or thereabouts, that there would be 3 men in my life. I was already aware of two - an ex-husband and a current partner. This prediction worried me for a long time. I took it as a sign that I'd somehow lose my partner. I did, but not for another 30 years! Then # 3 appeared.
I can find no logical explanation for any of these instances. They may be manifestations of some magical mystery - an unknown unknown, a mystery beyond anything we are at present capable of understanding.
