Astrologists.asia

In Chinese tradition, each person has an animal associated with the year of his birth. Every twelve years, that person’s animal year comes around again, in what is known as the ‘fate year’. It is a year of caution and avoidance of mishaps, as people should be especially careful and attentive.

Children in northern China, when they become twelve years of age, traditionally wear red undergarments. Adults in their fate years wear red girdles, as a precaution against accidents. Some older people receive red belts and red trousers to wear from their juniors, while many people nowadays just wear a red string around the hips, under the clothing. People facing a fate year may be advised to visit a temple and appease the taisui, the god of the current constellation.

Western astrology has twelve signs, one for each month of the year. In Chinese astrology, the twelve astrological signs are not only different, being all animals, but also represent not just months but years, months, days and hours.

The animals are the mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each animal matches one of the twelve Earthly branches (zi, chou, yin, mao, chen, si, wu, wei, shen, you, xu, hai), which are also used to designate the years. As well as the Earthly branches, there are the ten Heavenly Stems (jia, yi, bing, ding, wu, ji, geng, xin, ren, gui). Years are designated by the stem and the branch, so the first year is known as the year of jiazi (jia, stem, and zi, branch). This gives us the years yichou, bingyin, dingmao, wuchen, jisi, gengwu, xinwei, renshen, and guiyou. The next series of combinations starts with a combination of the first stem (jia) and the eleventh branch (xu). There are 60 different combinations, giving a cycle of 60 years, known as a jiazi. Within each jiazi, there are five cycles of twelve years; each year of the twelve year cycle is represented by one of the twelve animals.

Why were animals chosen to represent the twelve years, and why those particular animals? There isn’t a conclusive explanation for that. The animals of the Chinese zodiac are such an important part of Chinese culture, and have been for such a long time, that the original explanation has been lost. Ethnic groups in northern China first used the animals to represent the years, and the tradition spread from there during the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD). But even before that, the animals were used to represent the hours of the day. A bamboo slip dating from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) has figures of the twelve animals representing different times of the day. Almost 400 years later, the tradition of using animals for years had become widespread across the country.

One explanation for the use of animals for hours of the day was that each animal was active at different times of the day, so it represents the two-hour period in which it was most active. Other, more colorful explanations are found in Chinese folk tales. As the animals are used to label the hours of the day, Chinese astrologers use this fact to find a person’s secret animal, or truest animal, as this sign is based on the smallest denominator, a person’s birth hour.

Here’s a nice, round number to get us started on the topic of financial astrology: $700 billion dollars. Write that out in full, and we have: $700,000,000,000. That’s an astronomical number, and it is the sum that the American taxpayer is paying to bail out Wall Street and the banks.

For anyone trading in the stock market, these are tumultuous times. With the market swinging as wildly as it has been, how does one come up with a successful investment and trading strategy?

Stock trading is subject to something that is inherently unpredictable. Despite the assumptions of classical economics that people are rational actors, we have at least 700 billion dollars worth of evidence that they are not. Irrational and fallible people make irrational trading decisions. The consequence is an inherent unpredictability. So can astrology take the unpredictability out of stock trading? One man thinks so: Henry Weingarten, managing director of The Astrologer’s Fund Inc. His futures fund has been in business for 20 years, and is based on three basic market factors: fundamentals, technicals and astrology. “Astrological factors are moving the market,” Mr Weingarten said.

Talking to Investmentnews.com, he explained that they usually do their work in October for the whole year to come. Now I can imagine that having an investment strategy in place a year ahead, and then sticking to it, could make one somewhat resistant to the irrational aspects of trading and investing. Traders trade emotionally, from panic selling to exuburant buying, and the value of a company’s stock can rise and fall depending on the mood of ‘the market’. In these volatile trading conditions, anything that keeps one from being swept along in the panic may be an advantage.

As to whether the position of the moon and the planets really does move the market, I think it more likely that the market moves as an aggregate of rational and irrational decisions of thousands and thousands of fallible traders.

You can learn more about financial astrology here.

India has a long history of astrology. It has been an undeniably important part of Indian culture for centuries. But at what point does a cultural tradition come to be seen as an impediment to progress and development?

A visitor to Bengal in the 19th century wrote the following words*.

“The science of Astronomy is in Bengal, entirely subservient to that of Astrology; as it is the latter only which holds out any hope of pecuniary advantage to students, it is eagerly pursued, to the almost total neglect of the nobler science. There is no astronomical school in Bengal; the number of pundits who pursue the study of it is inconsiderable, and even among them it is studied for no higher purpose than to rectify their astrological calculations.”

In 1825, while the astronomers of Europe were revealing the secrets of the cosmos, astronomy in India was languishing. As the writer points out, there was money in astrology. People that studied astronomy could look forward to a career casting horoscopes.

It was obvious back then, at least to that observer, that astrology was holding back the nation of India and the study of astronomy. Writing of the astronomy students of the time:

“They appear most fully to have imbibed the opinion which was held by one of our English Astrologers, that Astronomy was of no utility but as it gave aid to astrology; and that to acquire the names and laws of the stars, would be a waste of time without understanding their language. Thus one of the noblest sicences within the compass of human pursuits, is thoroughly debased by its unholy alliance with a study which every nation throws aside, as it makes progress in knowledge and civilization; and thus is the country deprived of all the assistance which mathematical and astronomical pursuits never fail to bestow. There can be no genuine progress in astronomy, unless it be altogether dissevered from the puerile art of astrology.”

Could the author have imagined that, 183 years later, India would have a space program? How did it happen? At least in part because as a nation, India began to focus on scientific pursuits and to reward its adherents. With the luxury of looking back on almost two centuries of achievement in Indian sciences, these words appear prescient:

“It would be conferring a real boon on India, to establish an astronomical class, the students of which should possess every facility for pursuing the track of our European astronomers, even in their sublimest flights. Such a body of men, could not fail to attract notice, and to acquire renown, and all renown acquired in the puruit of genuine science, is so much gain to the best interests of society. The numerous astronomical errors of the Shastras they would detect, and undoubtedly oppose. Astronomy would thus, after the lapse of so many centuries, be pursued.”

In 2008, India launched Chandrayaan-1, a lunar exploration mission. There is a pleasing symmetry in thinking that the early tradition of astronomy, as undertaken by Aryabhatta, Bhaskar I and Varahamira in the 5th to the 8th centuries, has once again come to preeminence. The Chandrayaan mission will provide the first extensive 3-dimensional topological map of the moon. Just as the early Indian astronomers opened up their world for navigation and trade, Chandrayaan will help to reveal the surface of the moon.

ooo0ooo

*The Friend of India. Published by the Mission Press, 1825

In 2008, the Olympics are scheduled to start at 8:08pm on the 8/8/08, and there’s a reason for that. Ostensibly, the early August date was chosen so as to avoid scheduling conflicts with the US Open tennis and American baseball later in the month. However, the specific choice of the 8-heavy date as opposed to any other was not a matter of enjoyable alliteration, or picking a date that would be memorable: Chinese numerology, and the superstition that the number 8 is lucky, also played a role.

Eight is considered a lucky number in many Asian cultures, because it sounds similar to the word “prosper” or “wealth”. People will pay a premium for a telephone number with many 8s, or an address or car license plate with that number. In contrast, unlucky numbers contain the number 4, which sounds like the word for death, so expect to see apartment buildings that are missing the floors 4, 14, and 24.

Organisers of the Beijing Olympics marked the days leading to the Olympics with a countdown clock, counting down 800 days to 8/8/08. As well as being the start of the Olympics, many couples will be marrying on that date, counting on its auspiciousness and meaning. To cope with demand, Beijing has been accepting advance reservations for three times the usual number of ceremonies.

Particularly lucky this year, and casting an auspicious eye on proceedings, is the IOC Honorary Life President Juan Antonio Samaranch, who will be 88 years old for the 2008 Olympics. The organisers of the Beijing Olympics chose not to cover the main stadium, leaving the matter of rain on the opening ceremony to chance. At least, chance, the selection of an auspicious starting date, and cloud seeding in the days before. Outside of China, other cultures also consider the number 8 lucky. Banthoom Lamsam, an Olympic torchbearer in Thailand, had the good fortune to run the 8th section of the relay in Bangkok. “8 is my luck number,” he told Xinhua.

So how about for the athletes, competing at this years games? Athletes can come up with all manner of superstitions and rituals to ensure that they repeat a good performance and avoid a poor showing. For Chinese athletes, competing on home field, with the good will of their nation behind them, an auspicious date can only be in their favour. Look to see if the Chinese rowing eights outperform their rivals, if their soccer midfielder (traditionally wearing the number 8 jersey) does unusually well, or if the runner in lane 8 gains a psychological edge. Although in a distance race, where runners are staggered along inside and outside lanes, the number one is in fact the most auspicious lane. The athlete is closer to the starting gun, and can gain a 150 millisecond head start over the runner in lane 8, which can mean a 1 metre difference by the end of the race.

Now there’s a good test to see if lucky number 8 holds true.