I agree with all of this.adventurepants_ wrote:the OP has it all wrong. The ableton forum can turn any pointless thread into gold! go you crazy alchemists.
im still reeling from those pictures, i may never recover.
as far as astrology goes, i always explain it in terms of pattern recognition. Human beings are incredibly good at extracting patterns (real or not) from meaningless samples of noise. This can and has been shown countless times in Psychology experiments. Its a evolutionary strategy that has helped us survive, being able to interpret and predict what might happen in the world around us.
The problem is when we start seeing patterns in what is meaningless noise. if you look at this photo, do you see a face?
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/45/13778 ... 73.jpg?v=0
then youve been punked by pattern recognition. I think exactly the same thing goes on with astrology. Its meaningless noise, but we are desperate to see patterns and meaning in it because thats what we do.
But i still don't think that that negates Astrology, or indeed any form of symbolism.
I think as humans we do react to symbols, we then add pasterns to how we react to those symbols. Then from there we build a system around those reactions and symbols to help explain this concepts to others. Its my opinion that Astrology is as valid a form of information on this level as any other. I think a part of why astrology can be seen to work is also in the idea that humans are motivationally driven, so if these symbols can be arranged to form some kind of positive goal then we will pursue that goal unless diverted from it buy some greater goal.
I think this thread is also in danger of confusing what are, in my mind at least, two different topics. I think the first topic is about the effect that nature, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial, has on human behavior (and i just know that has opened the door to any number of space alien jokes
) in this area i am in little doubt that we are as affected as any other aspect of the biosphere and environment that we move through and share. A part of this is being able to recognize shapes and other symbols and associate them with danger or safety. This is kind of how archetyple thought works. The second topic is about the validity of astrology as a form of personality profile or divination.For me there is some value in this aspect as at this point the two topics converge in so far as astrology uses symbolism to explain and give some kind of substance to the concept of the first point. I don't, however, buy into its value in and of it's self I see it simply as another language tool.
dont fancy that job
