Minderwiz said:
I like your analogy with Australian Cricket, but consider the situation where cricket becomes identified with the one day game and not the four or five day variety... The one day game can actually damage the five day game unless you take clear and coordinated action to stop that happening.
Sure., but a clear and co-ordinated effort is not a group of 5 dayers refusing to sully themselves by interacting with the 1 day riff-raff. What is needed is a way to engage people at the level they are at and grow things from there. If the astrological "community" decided to cut ties to those with less developed knowledge than they, the only outcome will be the end of serious astrology as the 1 dayers have already won that match. I don't think its possible to claim any kind of high road, when the world at large already thinks we're deluded nutters.
Despite any individuals perspective on the value of traditional astrological practice, or its role in the world, even from the most sacred of perspectives, we can't forget that astrological practice is a commercial entity. It can only be sold in our secular world as such, and if we don't understand and use that to our advantage, then again, game over. The heyday of astrology will never come again, as we no longer live in a society that understands things in a way that is complementary to astrological practice. Other divinatory arts are lucky in a way as they are more approachable, and so have a wider base of practitioners (of various levels) which means there is a pool of people who will go on to some degree of mastery. Until astrology learns to sell itself in small pieces that will appeal to dabblers enough that it may encourage further interest in a minority, then it won't grow (and I'd suspect will continue to decline and again die).
To use a different analogy, it's like writing a column on health matters that suggests that if you feel unwell you should take an aspirin and go to bed or that all illnesses can be cured by taking some antibiotics. There's a grain of truth in both of those statements but if the 'remedies' were followed in practice they would often end up in disaster.
I can relate to that, as a natural health practitioner that is the reality of my profession. And thank god for it. If there weren't constant reminders to people about the wonders of Vitamin C, folks wouldn't be thinking about us at all. A rule of marketing is people need to hear things (I think 7 or something) multiple times before they would pursue it. People will still buy watered down fluff which I would never recommend and it will fail, but it keeps the industry in the awareness of many who would not consider it otherwise, and that is reflected daily in my new patient bookings. I don't like much of the over the counter rubbish that is for sale out there, but I'm much more scared of it not being available (which is an increasing reality in many countries and is the death of the profession).
I used to share your point of view and I'm sure your friend does as well and is operating from the best of intentions. Ask her what would happen if she suggested to her newspaper that she wrote an article a week and dropped the 'Horoscopes'? Over a couple of years she could write over 100 articles that could build into a brief course and back numbers of which might be downloadable from the net. Now that COULD have a real effect. I just wonder if the Newspaper would dare to take it on.
Well she's not a friend, I don't even know her. She just writes the astrological column in the largest national weekend newspaper and I read it each week. And she does write a column each week, its right there beside the horoscopes. And without the horoscopes no one would read it, and I'm sure her articles would be canned. And after reading each horoscope, it is clear that there is more to astrology than just a sun sign, which appeals to those who are interested to find out more. For those who are not interested the horoscope will be there again next week and maybe after enough repetitions some more will be interested enough to find out more. If not, they go on thinking astrology is a bit of dribbly fun, and nothing was going to change their mind on that anyway, so no harm I reckon.
