Have you ever clicked on the Astrology, Spirituality & Alternative Healing by mistake?

[edhopper]

[arcane1]

1. I spend all my time in the Latest Threads page. Needless to say...

I often find myself where I would prefer not to be

[edhopper]

2. It's just that

when you go to the list of Religion & Spirituality forums, it's right above this one.


It appears Mercury is currently in retrograde.

[onager]

4. I hope they're not starting up the "Age of Aquarius" crap again.

The last time the ass-trologers promised us the Age Of Aquarius, we got the Age Of Nixon.

When the m-o-o-o-n is in the Seventh House,
And Jupiter aligns with Mars,
Then p-e-e-e-ace will guide the planets,
And l-o-o-o-o-ve will steer the stars!

Right...



ETA - yes, I've made the same mistake. I once helpfully suggested that the group shorten its name. Maybe to an acronym, combining Astrology, Holistics and Spirituality. The suggestion got a Hide, so I won't try that again.

[edhopper]

6. Yeah

but it was a great musical.

[AlbertCat]

13. but it was a great musical.

I was 11 when it came out.

I had to look up most the words in the song "Sodomy".... they weren't in the dictionary so I asked my mother (she was a nurse) and she told me their definitions. (Kinda cool).


I saw the national tour of the 2010 B'way revival. It was refreshing! It had people getting involved in what their country was up to and it had a lot of optimism.... most unlike today's apathy and confrontational posturing. It did sweeten it up a bit tho'. The original was not all flower power. It had a much more "Fuck you!" and "down with the man!" vibe to it.

"Frank Mills" is one of my all time fave songs from anywhere.

[mountain grammy]

17. I saw the original on Broadway in the early 70's

and the revival on tour in Denver a few years ago. Great show and music.

[edhopper]

23. I listened the original album as a kid

and saw the Broadway revival a few years ago.
It was very powerful as a play.
The finale "Let the Sunshine In" sounds like a happy anthem on the record, but on stage it is a mournful plea after Claude is brought back.

[Rainforestgoddess]

3. I trashed that forum (and a lot of others I'm not interested in)

So that keeps the accidental clicks from happening, and keeps it off my latest page too.

[edhopper]

5. I didn't know we could do that

thanks

[Rainforestgoddess]

16. Glad to help make du suck less. n/t

[Cartoonist]

7. Oy!

The Dos & Don'ts Of Surviving Mercury Retrograde
-
My first and last time there.

[AlbertCat]

11. The Dos & Don'ts Of Surviving Mercury Retrograde

DO... forget about it

DON'T... worry about it.

[AtheistCrusader]

18. Retrograde... from where? there's no fucking UP in space

[LiberalAndProud]

19. By way of explanation:

This happens three to four times per year, when the planet Mercury slows down, and appears to stop (station) and move backward (retrograde). It's an optical illusion, since there is forward movement, like speeding by a slow-moving train -- as it recedes, it appears to go backward.
http://astrology.about.com/od/advancedastrology/p/MercuryRetro.htm

===
Now you know. It's all an illusion.

[AtheistCrusader]

24. So, it's an earth-centric viewpoint.

That shit is dumber than I ever suspected.

[LiberalAndProud]

29. I'm sure it would be Jupiter-centric if we lived on Jupiter.

When an astrologer prepares your star chart, he/she will need to know the exact time and place of your birth because the affects of the movement of the planetary bodies on your life are just that specific.

Okay, it's bunk. But to be honest, it can appear to be more rational and more sciency than any one of the major Abrahamic religions currently in vogue.

[edhopper]

32. True

cause as Billo says, tides go in, tides go out, nobody knows why.

[LiberalAndProud]

34. See? You can't explain that!

[font color="gray"]"Read what my metal says, COURAGE; ain't it the truth, aint it the truth![/font]

[muriel_volestrangler]

36. There was the time when I had to explain that a 'professional' astrologer didn't know what it meant

They had based their discussion of Caroline Kennedy on thinking that 'retrograde' meant 'disappearing behind the sun'. This person even had a 'certificate' from some group that set itself up to 'certify' astrologers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6416319&mesg_id=6419946

It shows that the pseudoscience involved can be incredibly shallow. They don't actually bother to understand their own terms; they just let someone else declare 'planet N is now retrograde', and use that as an excuse to make up something about change. The more the number of astrological events, or angles, are declared as 'significant', the greater the chance of there being an astrological event that can be tied to something in the real world.

[bvf]

8. I have to admit to

having done so deliberately. Can't quite explain why, but it's fascinating in a way that is different from dealing with your average delusional.

[olddots]

9. this is the dawning of the age of asparagus

Steamed with alittle butter & lemmon .

I think they are harmless hopefully .

[LiberalAndProud]

20. Casting asparagus!

How could you? Is that even allowed?

[AlbertCat]

10. Have you ever clicked on the Astrology, Spirituality & Alternative Healing by mistake?

Is there another way to click on it?

[edhopper]

12. Yes

If it's in the Stars.

[LiberalAndProud]

14. Not by mistake.

I subscribe to the group. It's sort of a Cliffs Notes for me in understanding my daughter. [font color="blue" face="chiller"] Help! [/font]

[edhopper]

15. You have

My sympathies.

[LostOne4Ever]

21. Never went there till just 2 minutes after reading this thread

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Thanks a LUMP!

Though, one of the posters there I POd so much they publically put me on ignore...further proof that I was right for calling them out for their BS [/font]

[trotsky]

22. Someone help me out here, back in the old days, what was the group/forum that had all the woo?

Was it the "Meeting Room" or something like that?

It was fun watching a new post every week come up about "the shift" that evidently is ALWAYS just moments away from arriving.

[mr blur]

25. Can't remember, but these days it's GD, isn't it?

[trotsky]

26. ...

[onager]

28. HA! That might've been Pyramid Guy's hangout.

"Pyramid Guy" because he posted long-winded screeds about "astrally projecting" himself to famous ancient sites all over the world.

One of the most hilarious: he and his friends all astrally projected themselves and had a meet-up inside the Great Pyramid at Giza.

But wait, there's more! His girlfriend projected herself too. And the pair of them - or at least their Astral Projections - made love inside the Great Pyramid! Wow, just wow, I can't even...

Since I've lived in Egypt and been to Giza many times - I asked him what awe-inspiring ancient site stood directly across from the Sphinx and Pyramids. But he ignored me.

The answer:

[opiate69]

38. Can't help but think of the "Idiot Abroad" Egypt episopde.

Funny stuff...

[Act_of_Reparation]

30. Yes. And had to pull one of these:

[EvolveOrConvolve]

31. I hate when I run into liberal woos in real life

They're like "OMG, you're a LIBERAL too???!!!!! You should totally check out my colonic ass crystals, they'll totally feng shui your chi! OMG!!!"

If I can't handle them in real life, I definitely don't want any interaction on the intertubes unless it's about politics or something non-woo.

[Cartoonist]

33. So how does one regard Kepler?

The soul of the newly born baby is marked for life by the pattern of the stars at the moment it comes into the world, unconsciously remembers it, and remains sensitive to the return of configurations of a similar kind.'
Kepler, Harmonics Mundi, chapter 7
-

I guess he's like someone who believes in God but is still a nice person.

[LiberalAndProud]

35. Depends what he meant by soul. Since we can't ask him,

I'll forgive him.

[mr blur]

37. Bonkers people can be nice people too!

Look at Jebus....

[Manifestor_of_Light]

39. Kepler and Newton were astrologers.

Astronomy grew out of astrology. So in prior times, several outstanding scientists and mathematicians were astrologers. Newton also was an alchemist, which has been discredited scientifically.

Another astronomer, poet and mathematician, Omar Khayyam, had to give advice to the Sultan in astrological terms so he would accept it.

[Cartoonist]

40. Kepler was a true believer

Newton may have messed around with astrology, but probably only was interested in it for its astronomic properties. He would have abandoned alchemy after a lack of scientific progress. He was definitely a Christian. I know you had to be back then, but I think he was sincere.

[onager]

42. Newton was also obsessed with Bible numerology

I think he wrote more about that subject than he did about science. IIRC, one of his projects was calculating the exact dimensions of Heaven. Paradise-Heaven, that is, not Celestial-Heaven.

Israel's National Library has 7500 pages of Newton's theological writings in his own hand, and digitized/uploaded them a couple of years ago:

http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/Humanities/Pages/newton.aspx

Newton had some funny religious ideas for his time. He seems to have been some sort of an Arian (Christ wasn't divine). That's probably why he never publicly talked about those ideas while he was living.

Be warned that searching on "Newton numerology" brings up thousands of woo-riddled pages. My eyes glazed over somewhere around the stuff about the Divine Cubit proving Stonehenge and the Giza Pyramids had common roots. The answer seems to be something about Isaac Newton and space aliens.

Which seems to call for one of Newton's famous quotes: "I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."

[PassingFair]

41. Atheist Confession: I love Tarot cards.

I love the atavistic symbolism of them (only the Rider deck)

I use them sometimes to help me see the bigger picture around me.

Sometimes I get so bogged down and myopic about my situation
that I fail to broaden my vision.

The cards help me to do that. Just seeing the symbols and trying to
work out their meaning leads me to think beyond my immediate
problems.

[edhopper]

43. Do you think

the predict things, or is this just an way of organizing your thoughts.

[PassingFair]

44. A way of thinking of other factors....

I don't think they predict anything.

For instance....I get wound up in my own worries sometimes...usually
WORK related.

When I lay out the cards, the symbolism creates connections to other things in
my life and helps me to see the bigger picture.

I get so bogged down in money worries that my emotional and creative well-being
gets overlooked.

The symbols and iconography of the cards can bring forth images, remembrances, ideas and personalities around me
that my anxieties have pushed away.

[edhopper]

45. That's cool

like a form of meditating or free association.

[PassingFair]

46. Found this passage that explains it...

Projecting

Some say it all boils down to your subconscious mind. Arguably, how we perceive things relies heavily on our subconscious, and there are those who believe that with Tarot, the subconscious projects its own interpretations on the Tarot cards. As a person receiving a Tarot reading, your interpretation of the cards is a result of the factors in your life that shape who you are and what you are about. The questions you have about your life (usually the reason for consulting the Tarot in the first place) are projected onto the pictures, so you divine answers from what you see. In this way, the Tarot is useful in helping us to tap into our subconscious to find answers that we might never consciously think of. The Rorschach inkblot test uses a similar principle to look into the subconscious. Whether you believe that Tarot cards hold any power or ability to shed light on your life, your problems or your future might depend on how easily you can open you mind to the idea of it.


On Edit: Don't think that my husband and my daughters don't make fun of me when I get the cards out...
as an outspoken atheist and materialist, they see this as a silly, uncharacteristic indulgence of mine. I have never had my cards "read". I only look at them myself.

[FiveGoodMen]

48. "Nothing inherently wrong with symbols"

Unless people confuse the symbols with the things they represent.

Obvious example: People would take away the right to, say, burn a flag. The flag represents freedom, which we would take away to preserve the symbol.