Article by Tilen Nikiforov (Slovenia)

Astrology is a dividing topic among many people. Some put total faith in it, while some are vigorously opposing it. Just recently I spoke to a colleague of mine, who mentioned his total dread of astrology. “Why are you afraid of astrology?” I asked him with a slight amazement. “Because I don’t want the stars to determine me. I want to be a free man, with my own decisions”, he replied.

His response made me realize that this viewpoint is not uncommon. I would dare to say, that many times this view dominates. Interesting thing is that many feel fear and not nihilism as one might expect. And fear comes out of doubt. We are doubting what happens if astrology actually does work? If it does, we will be forced to renounce a whole set of beliefs about human beings and ask ourselves if existence precedes essence, as Sartre claims. This forces us to re-evaluate our convictions about the existence of metaphysical.

It is convenient to believe that astrology doesn’t have a meaning since in the opposite case we would have to renounce our ego and admit there are forces in our universe which are stronger than us.

History tells us that many tried to explain the metaphysical by using astrology. Christianity is a good example, where around 17th century a rabbi named Bachai ‘drew the condemnation of the Christian world for placing the Son of God under the influence of the stars. He innocently worked out Jesus’ horoscope, thus bringing thousands of innocent erudite men and women to burn at the stake’.

In the ‘modern age’ where we live now, I find the fear of astrology unnecessary and its functionality can be easily showed through the allegory of wheatear forecast. Wheatear forecast serves us well since it can warn us of a coming rain, so we can prepare an umbrella. It can suggest we wear sunglasses since the sun will be ruling the sky. Whatever the case, it can help us get prepared for any type of wheatear conditions. Similarly, astrology should be looked as a wheatear forecast. Bad transits don’t necessarily mean we have to ‘give up’ and let the depressive and negative attitude rule. On the contrary, it can be a helpful tool to prepare. If we know rain is going to come, we will take an umbrella. If we know bad transits are coming our way, making us less energetic, more sensitive and general circumstances are looking more negative we know that there are astrological influences to blame. This knowledge provides us with a comfort that negative astrological influences will pass. We can still maintain our state of positivity and accept all as a learning experience and not give in the negative cycle.

Believing in astrology doesn’t exclude free will. It is still up to us what we will do with negative and positive astrological transits. The decision is ultimately ours and fear is unfounded.

Article by Tilen Nikiforov

Tilen is explorer of life; has devoted himself to theory and practice of life. Has already lived around the world – from Africa to Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belgium and Poland. He has seen many faces and many cultures, and finds the basic ‘human inprint’ the same wherever her goes. Although working currently in the business world, he is looking to expand his spiritual practice to more creative fields, striving to make that his life mission in the future.