Our fascination with future

It is said that those who do not remember the history are bound to repeat it. Still, most of us rather look forward to the future than look back and reflect. It is quite natural given our fascination with the future and the desire to know more and more about it.

There are various reasons why we do it. One of them is shortage of patience in our fast paced lives and the anxiety to find solutions to problems without really working hard for them. Another is the state of confusion we get into, where there is an expectation of guidance from that disaffected someone, who can look at the issues without really getting involved and point us to a way ahead. This usually happens when we are apprehensive about making decisions on our own. While it is not advisable, this can be perceived as a way of transferring our own responsibility to someone else. During these times of stress and distress, we turn towards a friend for advice and more often than not, turn towards as astrologer.

An astrologer therefore finds herself/himself in an extremely difficult situation. There is a burden of expectation that a miracle can be conjured to make things right and an expectation that she/he can come up with a quick fix gem/pooja/mantra that would ward off the problem to let us go ahead with our lives. While we can debate to what extent can an astrologer meet the expectation, one thing is clear - to be able to guide people, the astrologer always needs divine help that involves good memory, power of interpretation, reasoning, logic and a fair bit of intuition.

Astrologers are born with planetary combinations that bestow these qualities on them. Jupiter, the karaka of astrology, must be strong, free of afflictions and well placed in the chart. Moon and Mercury should be strong and a strong Mercury in second house to either Moon or Ascendant is considered auspicious. Fifth house should be strong to provide for intuition. Furthermore, ascendant should be free of negative influences such that thinking and judgement is not clouded. Astrology as a profession and a source of income happens when this combination involves the tenth house.

With this post, I complete two years of writing articles on this subject. Astrology has come a long way in these two years. Through half hour programmes on televisions, it has entered our living room and has become a topic of page three conversations. Through