Atypical: Astrology and Autism

Atypical: Astrology and Autism

Watching a Netflix show called "Atypical" seemed to help tonight, yet it also made me more depressed. Am I autistic? I can identify with some of the problems of the autistic character. (He is fictional and much less affected by it than the severe cases.) Is astrology as I study and write it an escape into an autistic world where everything is planned, mapped out ahead of time? That is one of Sam's problems. "I like rules" he said. He needs rules to regulate his search for a girlfriend and makes ridiculously inhuman mistakes in the way he speaks to them. I have often thought that astrology, as some practice it, can be an illness--but so is medicine (yes, medicine can be an illness), for some, or Pilates, or anything which becomes obsessive or "anal" in the Freudian sense. Some astrologers I have known do seem unbalanced, almost unhinged, believing in superstitious forms of astrology which I have already seen through. I am very careful to verify everything I "believe" in astrology over and over again, with multiple tests, which is why I consider myself a scientist. Others may make fun of that or say I have not done enough statistical research for the validity of my conclusions. I can only tell them that I trust my own mind more than theirs or the minds of so-called "scientists" who are not really scientific but scientistic. Yes, I trust my own mind, people! That is a wonderful thing the study of astrology can do for someone who is serious about it--show him that his own mind is safe and sound and can arrive at sound conclusions through experience, trial and error, without consulting "authorities" of any kind. The freedom of the human mind is gained and reinforced through phenomenological astrological research of a personal nature. Looking up the horoscopes of interesting people, and people you know; watching the daily, monthly, and longer motions of the planets as they coincide with events and experiences of one's own or of "the world." It is no more a harmful obsession than is stamp collecting, which looks awfully "anal" and peculiar to me, or reading murder mystery novels, which looks positively evil to me. Why would one want endlessly to read and think about murders, which are the unthinkable? Astrology is a very healthy use of the free human intelligence, if one studies it in a good, sincere, honest, careful manner. It does not restrict the mind but expands it, over and over again and in amazing unexpected ways. *** The Hermetic Epochs are something I may go down in history as the discoverer of. I am convinced that they are the best way of measuring human time on our little planet. They are remarkable. I have expanded and refined the method, over the past week, to include a single chart for each two-month (approximately) period, whether a Dark or a Bright Hermetic Epoch. Such charts seem to reveal almost everything about what goes on within each epoch. And "epoch" is a word I chose after careful consideration; they are longer than one month and they feel almost like a lifetime while they are going on. The question is whether I can make this real to people. I would have to write a book or mini-book to make it all clear, and even then it would be only a sketch of the methods, not a full-blown exposition of them. And, frankly, I wonder how many people are serious enough about careful study to wade through all that and consider it honestly and thoroughly and see the magical reality of it? Not many. Not many have appreciated the writings of C.E.O. Carter or Grant Lewi or Marc Edmund Jones, to mention only three older astrologers. (The older ones are the best.) It really is a matter of thoroughness. Most so-called "students" of astrology are dilettantes. That is their privilege, but then they are missing its utter reality and playing around in scattered drops of water sprinkled from its fountain of truth. Autism is an important corrective to astrology, that is, considering "Is astrology autistic?" is a good question for each individual studying it. That would be true only if it actually stopped one from appreciating people in an open, easy, spontaneous manner rather than studying rigorously their horoscopes. But I do not find that happening with me. I can relate to people smoothly, in most cases, without knowing their horoscopes or mentioning astrology to them. And their horoscopes, when I do know them, do not make me less able to appreciate them, but more. It is a free open inquiry with endlessly fascinating and helpful results. It is because I have studied the horoscope of someone I love deeply that I am able to look beyond her or his small peculiarities or weaknesses and know the deeper self beyond that. Astrology deeply understood releases one into wider, more comprehensive understanding of the loved one and therefore deepens the love.

Hugh