Is Astrology Socially Acceptable Where You Live?
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at
7:28 pm
If not, how do you try to maintain your interest in it? Do you have anyone you can share it with?
And last but not least, what are the consequences of openly admitting your interest in it?
Thanks in advance for your answers.
Tagged with: Acceptable • Astrology • Live • Socially • Where
Filed under: Astrology
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Yes astrology is widely believed, for sure. In India, matrimony websites explicitly ask the account holders to upload their horoscopes. In my experience, atleast 90 % of the parents prefer the horsoscopes of bride and bridegroom to match while checking for horoscope compatibility before they give their final consent ( They want to be safer ). It is offered as a two year M.A degree programme in Sastra University, Tanjore, TamilNadu, India through distance education mode.
What is distressing is the fact that this holy, divine science has not got the respect it deserves from the society, especially the film industry and magazines, which use astrology to frame jokes or cartoons. They are fond of vituperating and mocking at this science. Listen what these people say with one ear and let it out through the other ear. They are not wise enough to understand the ultimate truth, the ‘ theory of karma ‘ which is inexorable in punishing us for the sins comitted in previous births and rewarding us or confering happiness in return for the meritorius deed done. Astrologers may err but not the antiquity of astrology or the underlying theory. I am firm in my resolve to take up the astrology course in a few months and serve people in grief and despair free of cost(by giving predictions) through yahoo answers. Thanks for your question.
Last but not the least, you may be surprised by the fact that even countries, political perties, companies have horoscopes like human beings.
Interesting Q!
I give interpretations from tarot and astrology and they “believe” what i feed them.. They even thank me and think it was useful. But i mostly like to discuss about astrology only with pros and other students.
? Hmm not actually really. Because then i have to explain everyone where astrology is based and all basic knowledge and that it doesn’t mean 12 personality types and newspaper fortune tellers, it takes a long time and i’m busy. I’ve never really had objection to my hobby with astrology.
I travel a lot and i live around the world, i’ve noticed that astrology exists in almost every culture but approach to it is very different.
India and many Asian areas in general are tolerant to astrology, it’s almost like official science. Russia and baltic countries are not so. Europe and USA are in the middle, astrologers and horoscopes are entertainment and nonsense but tolerated. There is many regional differences in Europe; Norway, France, Netherlands, Denmark are very compliant countries, Germany, Finland, Italy not so. Middle east is not tolerant at all with astrology, either they have many believes that are close to astrology.
I personally can share it with my family and friends but i do not. They don’t understand completely and they are curious but not serious. But of course they don’t even have to be
Do i admit my interest to it in public
It’s not really socially acceptable where I live now. I used to live on the east coast, and it was widely known in my community there, and I was sought out by my colleagues for readings. Here, were I deal with people from people from all over the US and the world, there is actually very little acceptance of such. It’s considered “flaky”. But I’m still popular inside my group of friends and get plenty of practice.
Sometimes I don’t maintain my interest at all. When I read something from some supposed expert that doesn’t live up to my standards, I get pretty disgusted. But I ride it out…eventually my curiosity gets the better of me and I start looking for answers again.
Consequences? Sometimes if I mention my hobby in front of people they look at me funny and I can see “flake” on their foreheads.
But I don’t dwell on it, nor do I keep yapping on about it. Eventually someone will come to me privately and begin asking me questions. If one person asks me to do a reading, eventually, I’m doing several.
Go figure.
to maintain interest i read
and then i make horoscopes of celebrities and then compare what’s happening in their life with what i predict.
there are no consequence to admitting your interest in it, as long it is shown as fun, and not something to die for thing.
We’ll I love being “punk” and “weird”… so this is what usually happens. I’ll be having a normal conversation with someone, and, since I think about astrology nearly 20 hours out of the day, often I wind up mentioning something astrological in reference to whatever we are talking about. At that point… the person OFTEN will laugh as if I was making a joke, “yeah, the stars are going to determine when you get paid by that guy, righ!?!?” sarcastically… Then I will say, “I’m a professional astrologer, dear.” To which they will usually snap to attention (i love that part!)
Then I will explain astrology to them in about 10 minutes in a rational fashion and they will have this totally revolutionized look on their face. God, I love it! =) heheh
Anyway… it’s ACCEPTED as being (a) psuedo-science mainly, or (b) something you read about in a newspaper or magazine – - – but there are very few places in the world where it is accepted as a real science with full validity and respect, and with veneration for capable astrologers.
Probably the one place it is most accepted and well practiced today is India.
In Japan too there is good levels of respect for their original systems of astrology.
In the west it’s really been demoted to a joke, mainly from (a) organized ridicule and (b) actual astrologers making fools out of themselves by reducing astrology to a sun-sign tabloid thing.
=)
pS – oh wait i have another great story…
OK I am moving to japan, and right before that I have my whole band over my house because we are starting a small tour. So due to the move I am selling just about everything I ever owned, and due to the tour I have all these scarey weird (awesome) dudes at my house. So some guy wants to buy my bass amp. He comes over in the morning. None of these sketchy looking dudes really phases him, I don’t think. He buys the amp. He plays in church, etc. On the way out… he says,
“I looked at your website.”
Me: “which one?”
him: “the one at the bottom of your email” – then it occured to me that I keep the same signature on all my emails, so he got the link to my astrology site.
Me: “OHHH, my astrology site!”
Him: “Yes. I have to admit my wife and I were really nervous to come out here. We thought you might cook us and eat us.” – in a very serious tone of voice, not a joke.
Me: “No, we already ate before you got here. And we are vegetarian.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaaaaa that was fun, “cook and eat us” because you are into astrology. Love it!
pps – eliza, i love your capricorn avatar.
I wouldn’t say it’s socially unacceptable, people here just don’t know what it is.
The only people in my school who I think are really into it are my friends who would hang around me while I was studying it.
Without internet, I don’t know how I’d maintain my knowledge and interest.
My family basically disowned me because of it, except for my mother and brother. Since then I’m very private about it.
Edit: Oh…maintaining knowledge and interest; I read and re-read books. I’m actually waiting for a few books to arrive from Amazon now. Then I’ll probably disappear from Y!A for a few weeks, until I run out of stuff to read.
Yes, widely accepted.
Yes very much so