Astrology
I wrote about it on the old forum. But let me sum up an overview on how I perceive astrology. I'd prefer to skip the common knowledge on astrology and focus on things rarely touched.
Generally, the Earth is obviously a very small planet in the galaxy, and without cosmos around us, there was no life, no existence at all. While there are big cycles which are interesting mainly for astronomers in the universe, astrology refers mainly to our closest cosmic environment, i.e. the solar system. Astrological knowledge is very ancient, and its complex inter-dependencies can be found in such old texts like Vedas. The astrological thought is so abstract and advanced in old sources that it can be considered to be a prove that it didn't come from primitive people living like 3 or 5 thousands of years ago. Not directly, but indirectly it is clear that this knowledge has been passed by someone who really understood the principles of the universe (whether they are of terrestial or extraterrestial origin - I'm not certain, but I'm certain that some ancient knowledge came from ancient forms of channeling). The same is with other sciences of the ancient world, such as mathematics, which - if to rely only on the archeological evidences - typically display a direct applied methods (such as solving geometrical problems), but they didn't explain the essential knowledge itself.
While we have now officially the mathematical knowledge, and we can say: yes, ancient people were incredibly smart (as it is often admitted in the scientific circles), at the same time we don't have understanding of the astrological influences (cosmos, or solar system, influencing human beings), so no one says in this case: whoa! why they were so smart, but believed in planets being the causes of events on the Earth?, but says something like: while they were very insightful about such abstract disciplines as mathematics, they were also very dumb believing in such stuff and creating such complex astrological systems. :)
In past I was inspired by some researchers, such as writers of old esoteric traditions, to get knowledge on how the universe, being the context to everything on this small planet, affects living beings, and hidden in the astrological "equations" - quality and quantity principles, as opposed to pure math which relies only on the quantitative aspect? I was surprised how much philosophy and complexity there is hidden behind such simple principles as dark (negative) vs. light (positive), 5 planets, the idea that a "gods" messenger - Hermes or Mercury (astrologically the small planet Mercury) - is an intelligent and swift supplier of the "will" (note the reference to Egyptian tradition saying about the ultimate trinity - consciousness, will and power, later adopted by such occultists as A. Crowley) etc.
The idea of the astrological concepts, therefore, is very universal, is grounded essentially in actually all the thought traditions on the Earth (such as vedic or taoist traditions, to name just two of many), and thus goes way much further than a divination techniques as used by the commons. However, it is an abstract thought that was not conveyed to common people, so they were given mundane references to have a working understanding and could imagine the idea, such as the head and the tail of a snake (representing astrological concepts), closed in eternal circle - a cycle, one of many cycles in the solar system.
Once this knowledge was not that fragmented as it is today, for example people understood that astronomical cycles, such as the daily cycle (the Sun position deciding whether it's light or dark), monthly cycle or yearly cycle (yes, months and even weeks, and calendars in general, are very ancient). But these are most explicit cycles for a common person, easily recognized by e.g. a shape of the moon on the sky. There were much less obvious cycles which ancient scholars also referred to.
To me, at this point, cycles, planets, divisions of the sky, such as zodiac (12 equal areas) or houses (also 12 areas - typically not equal) are the reflection of much more general cosmic principles and projected into the Earth, our planet. These principles are part of a universal system, and reflect the ideas that the ultimate identity of a person, represented by the Sun, conveys its will through the mean of expression, identified with Mercury - the messenger, and notifying all the other "parts" of personality, such as those represented by Venus and Mars (both on the opposite sides of the Earth: Venus being closer to the Sun - the inner self, while Mars being placed in the opposite direction - to the outer cosmos) and other planets. When I'm thinking of all the idea inherent in the design of the Solar system, with the Earth, the home of human race, having only one Moon (not many as other planets), it seems like the philosophy inherent in astrology couldn't be ultimately conveyed to ancient people in other way than from the extra-terrestial sources - so I view astrology that we know as just a fraction of THEIR (extra-terrestials) knowledge on the universe. I mean, forget about the divination systems, which can and probably are practical if they're applied properly (to me it's like with medicine - some doctors are better than others, the same is with astrologers), but instead I'd put attention on the essentials of the concepts behind astrology, often combined also with alchemy, herbal knowledge, medicine, and many other disciplines, and having in its root principles mathematical and geometrical dependencies, such as mentioned division to 12 elements, geometrical aspects such as conjunctions, squares or triangles, references to 4 elements and 4 world directions, 2 tropical circles etc. All of them have a significant cosmic meaning, but typically it is overlooked by people, even by astrologers - who today pay attention to the Moon's phases, or even whether it's day or night in other than practical sense? :) No one cares - unless they face the mundane necessity to go to sleep every single night because of feeling tired :) However, what I'm thinking here, is having the idea about something more than the "need to go sleep" because "it's late", like why do physical bodies have this daily cycle (or the Sun cycle within the 24 hours) synchronized with the solar system - we could sleep not once every 24 hours, but say 10 hours, or 36 hours - but no, this is not the case :) These are things typically overlooked by people: the cosmic environment surrounding our planet, the cycles, astronomical/astrological influences etc. In Ancient Greece people called planets the "astral travelers", and I think they have much more to the astral level than to the physical level in the astro-logical sense. :)
