Research in Astrology: Pondering Upon Some Issues by Rohiniranjan, Crystal Pages, Ottawa
There definitely has been a significant change in the types of articles and books that are being published recently and the kind of exploratory work that is being done in astrology. With a larger number of individuals demanding more streamlined reports and with automated tools for calculating and presenting the astrological data and information as well as for writing reports becoming increasingly available, a new degree of approach towards astrology is emerging. It is also notable that people from many disciplines, including the sciences are being increasingly drawn towards astrology, though some of o f these are arguabl a rguably y indivi individuals duals that have been long-term practitioners/students practitioners/students who have only recently started started comi c oming ng out of their closets, encouraged by evolution as society continues to open its collective mind wider. Jyotish, the Indian system of astrology, has experienced this renaissance somewhat more vigorously in in recent times than its western wester n counterpart and this is noticeable noticeable through t hrough the type of material that is currently pouring forth from pens across the globe, with a larger variety of techniques being being tested, t ested, utili utilized zed and presented than was the case earlier. earlier. Research Re search is is not a dirty dirty word any longer! As one browses through material that is available, one might encounter hopefully feeble voices that are raised against any change with fundamentalist opinions unwilling to accept anything new without seeking confirmation for it in ancient and to a large extent fragmentary texts (which is somewhat oxymoronic!). Some of these voices that were confusing validity of a tenet with its ability to survive through times (in hiding or overtly) are increasingly growing marasmic and despite their ominous fingershaking eventually are going to fade due to the influx of new blood into the current jyotish scene. However, a cautious and conservative note must continue to be sounded that not all that is new and glittering is necessarily of a higher quality. Prudence and discretion in one’s acceptance of novel or traditional material remains essential in astrology. The proverbial baby is still wet behind its ears and not entirely entirely out of the bathwater. Typically, traditional texts in jyotish (Vedic astrology, Hindu astrology or "joytish" as some call it) represent collections of Sanskrit (and sometimes even vernacular) verses, which define astrological tenets or planetary combinations and describe their effects. These tomes of inherited knowledge are nearly devoid of any illustrative material, in the form of actual horoscopes or charts. Often considered to be extremely concise, precise and highly organized enough to be able to express very complex thoughts into language, these giants of yore who penned the available texts have left nearly no specific trace of their times and estimates vary considerably regarding the historical periods during which these words were written in. Further complicating the issue is the fact that most of these astrological gems were probably originally originally transmitted transmitted t hrough oral o ral tradition (teacher to disciple, disciple, father to t o son) for generations before before they t hey were written written down. It perplexes me considerably considerably to thi t hink nk that a peo ple who were so advanced as is evident from the complexity of their thought processes and literature and who had the ability to scribe and record thoughts on media that has survived centuries did not leave behind
any trace of the horo scopes that they utili utilized zed as jyotish evolved, evolved, was practised and taught t aught to students. Where are these horoscopes, these workbooks and examples of the yogas that are outlined in in the texts most of us learn jyotish jyotish from? The only only horoscopes that we see are the ones that form the small branch of jyotish known as nadis; in many ways quite removed from the mainstream traditional jyotish. Paradoxically, the principles underlying nadi astrology are obscure for the most part but the horoscopes are there. On the other hand, the principles of the mainstream astrology, the tenets of Parashari and Jaimini traditions are recorded in impeccable details but the horoscopes are missing in toto. This creates a rather intriguing enigma for the contemporary learner. The stage is therefore set in the discipline of jyotish for conducting re-search in the true literal sense of the term. The need for re-testing principles that seemingly have survived the ravages of time in a country and culture that had been repeatedly overcome and plundered by centuries of alien rule is a no-brainer. This coupled with a general absence of significant indigenous efforts or resources to preserve what has survived through times, all for well-justified reasons and circumstances, does not make matters any better. This situation raises the urgency that all citizens of this world who feel drawn towards jyotish and who think that jyotish is a noble cause to be preserved must approach this body of knowledge in the spirit of scientific curiosity and cautiously proceed to test the t he tenets. Cautiously, Cautiously, because many of the rules and links links between islands islands of knowledge have become somewhat loose or even may be already lost, perhaps driven into wilderness and paramparaic (family traditions shrouded in secrecy) mystery through pragmatic reasons, making it likely for a hasty and superficial researcher to be tempted to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And, there are a lot of babies and quite a lot of bathwater there! Much of the research conducted conducte d in jyotish, jyotish, to date, da te, has been less than rigorous rigorous,, or perhaps more truly, is characterized by varying degrees of rigour. Claims, sometimes rather strong ones are made made and without without questioning questioning their validity validity one must must acknowledge acknowledge t hat most of o f these astrogems have not really been subject to peer review or to public scrutiny. This has been for a variety of reasons, including, territoriality and turf-related issues, fear of plagiarism, lack of resources, lack of adequate knowledge of research techniques techniques and too ls or of rel re levant background, schol s cholarshi arship p or o r experience experience in astrol astro logy or research methodology and in many many cases also a near-total n ear-total absence of pooling of intellectual resources and sharing of information between individual researchers or groups of researchers. Obviously many a wheel had been reinvented and some in more ways than one. And then there is the 'large' body of anecdotal research dangled tantalizingly before us from time to time. Very little of substance, if any emanating from such, in terms of solid techniques or clearly demonstrated principles has been placed out in the public domain under real or imagined pretexts of the tamasic world of scoundrels running off with jyotish secrets and the Devil ruling this world of ours through jyotish (as if that is not already happening without the help of stolen astrology secrets, thank you!). The fundamental differences existing in some of the basic parameters used in jyotish, namely, the precessional corrections (ayanamshas), different ways of calculating the divisional charts, use of house divisions, etc. do not make things simpler. Furthermore, while individual elements and tools that are in use in much of jyotish seem to be quite specific and surgically-discrete, the end product, namely namely the reading and predictive predictive output out put emerge from a synthetic process that involves involves a certain amount of art or at least is not entirely entirely well-understood well-understood , even by the jyotishi jyotishiss that t hat generate some of these brilliant readings. The gap or inadequately understood link that exists between the
logical and paralogical domains domains in the jyotish jyotish process proce ss is intriguing intriguing but essential essentia l. Over the last few decades, research has almost become the siren-song in the academic jyotish scene these days and comprises a range of generally well-meaning individuals that includes weekend explorers who love to test existing tenets coming down the line of tradition against against contemporary real charts, as well as the rare ra re pioneers who are out there to discover new grounds or o r to find a new application application for something that already exists in the known body of jyotish. Neither of these is superior to another, it must be emphasized, emphasized, as there is plenty of territory that needs t o be cultivated cultivated and some so me that could co uld use a bit of judicious judicious surgical debridem debridement, ent, as well. we ll. It is good to see s ee at least least one surgeon who is interested in jyotish (Dr. Charak from Delhi)! When I was starting out on my jyotish path a few decades ago, even the relatively simple task of calculating calculating charts could prove to be a major speed bump. In the 60s and early early 70s, all I had were ephemeris and tables of proportional logarithms as well as a table of ascendants. Even a calculator would have been appreciated while I juggled time between a study of astrology and other pursuits that would eventually keep me fed and sheltered. The scene is very different now for the beginner in jyotish, with many choices available in terms of programs that can calculate in the batting of an eyelid what used to take almost an entire day of hard work. All persnickety griping about inaccuracie inaccuraciess and variations between the software aside, one woul wo uld d have to be extremely extremely ungrateful not to recognize the wonderful boost of life injected into astrology by the fine software introduced introduced since early early 80's, that we take t ake for granted now and some that we even banter against (please read on!). The accolade aside, some of the available jyotish software have made available 'research' options, all of which depend on "pattern recognition". This is essentially the basis of the types of searches that are possible possible in Parashara's Light, Astrodatabank Astrodat abank Astrosignatures, and other simil similar software. Almost all of these generally lack truly essential research tools that permit statistical testing and even fail fail to provide a r obust interface between the software so ftware and a spreadsheet or an independent statistical package (through exporting of o f output, for instance). Use of statistical statistical software without understanding why the remark was made caustically by someone on the similarities between statistics and bikinis (“both reveal what seems to be very interesting while hiding what is vital!”). Perhaps as more stat istically istically-- and research-oriented astrologers/programmers astrologers/programmers enter the scene, appropriate products prod ucts could co uld emerge. emerge. Developmental Developmental costs are also a problem that might be holding holding back those who are already in the field and quite capable of developing these products from the point of view of knowledge of research statistics and programming skill. I can only hope that the future holds some promise in in this this area. While While recognizing patte patterns rns and frequ frequencies encies of param para meters ete rs such as planets in a given sign, house, or star and combinations, combinations, associations, aspects between astro-variables are all very good first steps; however, much of the jyotish delineative process deals with looking at complex combinations and connections between different planets in a horoscope. A planet can have a variety of roles assigned to it in the same horoscope, for instance by virtue of its rulership over a house, or by its being an intrinsic significator of an area in life or an individual in life, as well as it being a temporary or chart-specific significator. Putting together all of these different 'roles' together, quite an intricate interpretive skein can be weaved out of the minimum and limited limited number of houses houses and astrofactors that a neophyte n eophyte astrologer has access to in an individual's horoscope. The most useful way in which astrological data-providers and programmers can serve the need for research is to make available not only the above mentioned processing tools, but also by allowing significant flexibility and open-endedness in their search engines, as opposed to imposing their somewhat limited paradigms and parameters on the
research user. To cite a specific example, Parashara's Light from Geovision, my personal favourite – a fairly hefty package in its own right allows one to create search strings from a list of possibilities that can then be applied to a collection of charts to discern similar patterns existing in the set. For doing this, it uses a c oding system that that is used by the program for the pattern-searche patt ern-searchess and elsewhere in the software to identify classical yogas or combinations in a single chart. How difficult would it be for the program to allow the user to define a search string using these very codes (rather than a simplistic pull down menu of limited options). This would allow one to customize customize a search that can be a lot more co mprehensiv mprehensivee than t han the keywords provide pro vided d by the program in the multi- chart search mode. Such a user-defined search strategy would be definitely more sophisticated (and seriously useful!) than the two level search now allowed. What I described is perhaps a case of a potentially powerful but hobbled software, in so far as research is concerned. Unholy Kaliyuga! (Speaking of kaliyuga, Parashara's Light finally in its version 6 has added the prastarashtakavarga, a crucially vital view in the drama of human karma reflected in the cosmic patterns, now if it only allowed one to select a bunch of charts for comparison comparison in one keystroke instead of loading them one by one, had the upgraded upgrade d usercustomized search I’ve been pestering them about since the time when I had a head full of hair, ya-di-ya-da-yada...!). Other jyotish software has similar and other additional problems and all suffer from an inability to output data in a more useful or user-friendly way (which can be imported imported into standard spreadsheets, databases). databas es). It is unfortunate that less resources and energy are devoted to the research area when when developing astrological astrological software because the consumer base rarely uses it and so it is not a high priority area for the programmer during updates. In their defence, there are only so many resources available to the programmers in the relatively limited area of astrological (even more more so s o in the case of o f jyotish) jyotish) software. The Astrodatabank software (Vedic version) from what I have heard holds some promise, although quite frankly its cost (not value!) is going to reduce its accessibility for many research astrologers. Development costs of such programs tend to be quite high so the authors cannot be really blamed blamed for chargi c harging ng enough to at least break even. Many astrologers have their own personal collection collection of data and charts, often in thousands. If an efficient search engine could become available to them, it would help research quite a bit. Using existing database managers is an option, although a lot of extra effort would be required in setting up these. Importing Importing data from existing existing horoscope formats formats could be a minor challenge too since different programs use different formats and these may change over versions as well. Talking of research, I think it is premature to even worry about ... let alone claim callously whether astrology can measure up to be b e a science, science, soft, hard, medium, medium, quasi- or otherwi otherw ise. In order for it to t o even be considered a soft-science, soft-science, t echniques echniques of astrology would have to pass p ass the tests of validity, consistent and measurable reproducibility and technical rigour; the inter-astrologer variability would need to be tested and quantified, then reduced. It is simply not adequate to point at a few successful successful predictors and to u se them as proof of o f astrology being being scientific, particularly when half of them aren’t even interested in (or capable of) revealing their true sequence s equence of thinking thinking that led to t o the t he prediction. Unless Unless these t hese divinators/predictors divinators/predictors al a llow themselve themselvess t o be transparently scrutinized scrutinized as to how exactly they derived derived thei t heirr astro-deductive astro -deductive bottom lines in readings, there is no progress on this campaign. Many of these brilliant predictors when questioned questioned about the speci sp ecific ficss of their techniques techniques become tongue-tied or o r try to sound s ound
mysterious and hide behind some wall of paranoia against reckless sharing of their profoundly secret technique. That they are doing do ing a whole whole world of good go od through t hrough their predictions predictions is not being denied but their unwillingness or inability to share their techniques in full light and to transfer them to a large number number of astrologers a strologers is only going to hurt astrology in the long run. With the relatively small numbers of astrologers and believers in astrology being crowded on a small island, if they they do not hold on to and support each other, instead of clawing clawing at each other, t he island island will will gradually fall in pieces into the surrounding ocean and with the crumbs of the island will fall the astrologers and astrologophiles, astrologophiles, as well. In all fairness, though, the difficulty in sharing and transferring the techniques could lie in two areas: firstly, in discerning clearly how much of the astro-delineative process is conscious (and rational or logical) logical) and what fraction of the 'reading' process is para-conscious or sub-co nscious; nscious; secondly, secondly, it must be b e kept in mind mind that the th e process of generating a reading demands demands concentrati co ncentration on and centering and is itself susceptible to interference by the very process of observation, in a Heisenbergian manner (the act of observation changing the course of what is being observed). This is accepted by many astrologers as being true in their experience but causes problems in the process of validating astrological process as being scientific in nature. There is also the issue of the scope of o f a reading. Many, perhaps most most astro logers tend to use certain basic techniques and have a certain way of approaching a chart or the areas in the individual's life during a reading. However, the stream or flow of the reading can vary quite a bit from one nativity nativity to another, and the rigid rigid and uniform ‘test’ protocols prot ocols and paths often preferred in scientific testing and reporting may actually adversely influence the usefulness of the astrological reading during the 'test' situation. These are relatively significant problems and require consciously directed approaches while justifying and testing the scientific rigour of astrology (and astrologers). Little Little wonder, wo nder, then, that many many astrologers in o rder to t o remain remain effective effective pay little little attention to these scientific observational factors, which is fine as long as they do not fall prey to the need of claiming what they do as being scientific (without testing) or of astrology as being a science science (without being tested or o r demonstrated to t o be so). so) . Endeav E ndeavours ours such s uch as the "Hamilton "Hamilton Project" or other repeated public blind testing paradigms may need to be carefully employed and the resources or the will and energy for doing so on a wide and long scale seem to be missing, at present. The personality of the individual astrologer also plays a significant role, obviously. There is always something that remains for future exploration, of course. Rohiniranjan first written on May 8, 2000/modified a few times afterwards www.boloji.com/astro http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jyotish-vani/ (discuss jyotish with friends)