More Quora Answers.

I have just received a very flattering message regarding the last email:

“Bom dìa Marcus!

Great post. That's the perfect format for me, concise, synthetic, clear information without all the usual blabbering.

Obrigado!!

S. “

Well, as no one wrote me to complain about it, it’s a 100% approbation rate as far as I’m concerned :).

So, here go a few more answers from Quora. This is probably the last e-mail in which I’ll post many of them; but I will be using them from time to time.

PS. Whenever I post an answer here, I delete it there. That is, in case you like to suffer and decide to get into this Quora site/app (pro-tip: not worth the trouble), and to check my profile there, you won’t find the answers shown here.

“How important is the progressed chart in astrology?”

First, it’s not a progressed chart. This is a common misconception.

Progressions are a technique in which we advance (progress) some planets (usually Sun, Moon, but also Mercury, Venus, and Mars) and points (usually Ascendant, Midheaven, and Fortuna, but other Arabian parts may be used) over time.

It’s not a chart and cannot be judged like one (for example, "the ruler of the progressed second house" is just nonsense).

That being said: they’re useful for "predictions" (for analyzing a certain period of time). I use them all the time, they are one of my go-to techniques.

“Is there anyone that changed astrology predictions in real life?”

You’re looking at the wrong end of the situation.

An astrological prediction is information regarding a certain are of life.

It helps you to take your decisions.

The situation sometimes can be changed, sometimes it cannot. You have to assess the concrete situation and see if there’s anything that can be changed, and how, using the information the astrologer gave you (and any other info you have).

That being said, yes, I have seen it.

“If astrology resonated with Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, why did scientists in these times refute this language of heaven?”

Well, “scientists” is a bit of a stretch.

I would say the "scientific community”, if someone made a poll, would have many more astrological nay-sayers than supporters.

But:

1. This is by no means unanimous. I even have clients who are scientists;

2. No scientific experiment ever "disproved astrology".

“What do you think about the Popular Science article concerning NASA's recalculating the stars titled, "You’ve Probably Been Reading The Wrong horoscope"?”

It’s silly. Ptolemy knew the difference between signs and constellations, two thousand years ago. One would guess it’s time “popular science” knew it by now.

“Is there a possible 15th and 16th zodiac sign? There's Ophiuchus (13th) and Cetus (14th) but both are unofficial.”

They are not unofficial, they are not signs. Ophiucus and Cetus are Zodiacal constellations, groups of stars near the Ecliptic. Signs are ideal divisions of the sky, not group of stars.

“Why is there a new Zodiac sign, and who makes the decision to change something astrological?”

There is not.

This is a mistake — based on lack of knowledge in astrology and in history — that media outlets keep recycling.

There is a constellation called Ophiucus which is roughly on the Zodiac. It has been known for millennia, but it keeps being an “astronomical novelty” by people who should know better.

More than that, constellations are not signs. Regardless of how many constellations are “discovered” or established (and they are more or less arbitrary, ancient texts lumped Scorpio and Libra as one constellation, Native Brazilians saw them as a totally different constellation, and so on), the signs are still the same.

“Did the astrological signs really change?”

[I first referred the asker to the answers of another astrologer, Michelle Young, on the same subject, and to mine - a couple of them can be seen above]

In short: no. Nothing changed. Ophiucus is a constellation, not a sign.

“Can you believe in astrology if you don't believe in reincarnation?”

I’m an astrologer and a Catholic, so, no, one doesn’t have to believe in reincarnation to practice astrology.

“Where are some of the most surprising applications of astrology in history?”

It’s hard for me to say it, because I’ve studied the subject for a while, and I’ve seen it used in a lot of different ways.

But one way that people not always remember: to determine the best moment for founding churches, castles, and cities.

For example, the Italian astrologer Luca Gaurico (famous for having predicted the ascension of three popes, and the death of a king) was employed by Pope Paul III to ascertain the best moment for beginning the construction of some buildings in the neighbourhood of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The city of Baghdad’s construction was also timed astrologically, by request of the Abassid Caliph Al-Mansur. His court astrologer, Nohbakht Ahvazi assembled a group of astrologers, including the then-young, later-famous Masha’Allah.

“How can believers of Western astrology refute Vedic astrology?”

Why?

“Why do people who claim to believe in science and in astronomy, also believe in astrology when astrology is easily disprovable?”

Well, maybe you should try and disprove it, then.

[* No, I have not received any comments from the asker on this one].

“What are the most common misconceptions that non-believers have about astrology?”

Unfortunately, many.

More unfortunately, most of them are shared with “astrology-lovers”.

Let’s see just three of them:

1. Signs are not constellations.

Signs are divisions of the Zodiac, which is a belt around the Ecliptic (the great ideal circle on which the Sun appears to move along the year). They’re not constellations, not even in Indian astrology. Their Zodiac (“sidereal”, because they use the position of one star to determine the beginning of the first sign, Aries) is different, their signs start in different points than Western, tropical, Zodiac, but they do not use the Zodiacal constellations (groups of stars what lie on the Zodiac) that have the same names as the signs.

2. Signs “do” nothing.

The “celestial agents”, or “actors”, are the planets. Signs are qualities that modulate them, or places where they move.

3. Sun-sign horoscopes are astrologically-related-entertainment, not astrology.

People who “love astrology” ask about everything (and more) about their “signs”. And I do mean everything: the best food, the best partner, the past, the present, the future, their finances, the compatibilities with other “signs”, the best career, etc.

This is nonsense. A birth chart does convey a big amount of info about the possibilities and impossibilities of a person (provided you understand that it’s not a blueprint, or a cosmic DNA), but their “signs” (technically, the sign the Sun was when they were born) means precious little.

Is astrology ever talked about positively in the Bible?

You do know the story of the three Wise Men following the Star of Bethlem until they found Jesus Christ, right?

…And here’s an exception from what I said at the beginning of the e-mail.

I think I will keep these two answers (the original and the one sharing it) for a while. And I will be tempted to go back to sports astrology for a while.

That’s it for now. Have a nice week, God bless you all!