Astrology in the Year Zero - Softcover

Phillipson, Garry

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9780953026197: Astrology in the Year Zero

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0953026191 ISBN 13: 9780953026197

Publisher: Flare Publications, 2000

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Based on over 30 interviews with scientific researchers and leading astrologers, this landmark book examines the lives and work of contemporary astrologers and considers many of the issues facing this ancient art. It has won acclaim from both skeptics and astrologers for the thorough and unbiassed way in which evidence is sifted and facts are presented.

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About the Author:

Garry Phillipson graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1976, with honours in philosophy. By that point, he had grown disillusioned with traditional western philosophy, and consequently began an exploration of other paths and systems. The ones that proved to have the most enduring appeal were Buddhist philosophy and astrology.

Whilst this internal search went on, his external circumstances fluctuated regularly. The next ten years saw him working as: a carer in communities for the elderly; a lorry loader; an executive officer in a major bank; a bingo hall attendant; a computer operator; and a member of Part Form, the techno/dada band from Liverpool.

In 1986 he decided to devote time exclusively to the study of Buddhist philosophy and meditation, ordaining as a monk with the Aukana Trust (with whom he had been studying since 1983). He left the monastery in 1993, but remains actively involved with the Trust – as a trustee (the organisation is a registered charity), and as a meditation teacher and organiser of the Trust’s London Group. He now works as Resources Manager for a London-based software company.

‘Astrology in the Year Zero’ resulted from Garry’s continued study of astrology – in particular, from his investigation of the philosophy and assumptions which underpin the subject. His articles and lectures on the subject have appeared under the aegis of groups including the Astrological Association of Great Britain, the Company of Astrologers, the Urania Trust, the Standing Conference on Organisational Symbolism, the Mountain Astrologer, and Ascella.

Excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 1:

Astrology amazes everyone who thinks about it. Some see a universe in which the stars signal the quality and course of their lives, and find this amazing. Others see a superstitious minority, mired in beliefs from a medieval world, and find it amazing how gullible people can be.

These two kinds of amazement both suggest reasons why astrology is worth thinking about in the first place. If it really works as astrologers claim, there would (obviously enough) be good reason to study it. But if all the astrological work ever done has been pure fantasy, there would still be compelling reasons to learn more about it.

If astrology grew entirely from imagination, then it is a dream which humanity has dreamed, a collective myth which has been formed, sustained and developed by our race in an attempt to make sense of the world; an intellectual fossil whose form shows what we do when we try to understand the world and our place in it. This, together with the fact that a belief in the power of the stars has influenced humanity and its institutions through much of recorded history, means that the study of astrology – even if astrology itself is not considered objectively valid – can disclose new perspectives on this world and the way we relate to it. If we can decide what we are looking at, it will be worth looking – but, given the range of misconceptions about the subject, this seems to be easier said than done.

Astrology tends to polarise opinion. Sceptics frequently argue that astrologers are at best delusional, at worst frauds; many astrologers insist that their craft works so clearly, so reliably, that only prejudice keeps critics from embracing it. Such simplistic views commonly lead to intellectual deadlock between the two camps, with neither willing to concede an inch. This is in the interests of no-one: those who seriously investigate the subject and believe they have substantial evidence – either that astrology works or does not work - are denied a fair hearing, because of a common assumption that the case is already closed. And those who have no axe to grind, but might simply be interested to know the facts, find it difficult to penetrate through a fusillade of propaganda from both sides.

This Book’s Method and Structure

In an attempt to get away from misconception, to the core of astrology, this book presents what astrologers do, and why they do it, in their own words. The text has largely been assembled from thirty-three interviews recorded between 1996-2000 with some of the most eminent, and/or interesting, figures in the field. Amongst the contributors there are people who believe completely in astrology’s validity and accuracy, some of whom present compelling evidence of their subject’s scope and power. There are also scientific researchers who present evidence to show that nothing has been proved, that all conclusions are either partial or just plain wrong.

I have tried to present the issues, and the range of opinion, faithfully - so that readers may draw their own conclusions...

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