Astrology: How It Works, the Alarm Clock Theory On the surface of it, astrology should be balderdash, or as the character in the Big Bang TV series, Doctor Sheldon Cooper would say, “Hokum.” For example, the planet Neptune is impossibly far away and cannot possibly influence people here on Earth unless a mysterious undiscovered cosmic sort of ray or vibration is responsible, which is very unlikely. I mean, Neptune is about 2.8 billion miles out in space, for cat’s sake! It’s so far away in fact, that when Sir Isaac Newton discovered it with his telescope he thought it was a star. For verification, just ask any astronomer if he thinks Neptune affects people. He’ll take a deep breath, make a frowny face, and bellow, “Hokum!” And yet it DOES affect us dramatically and unmistakably. In a previous paper, “An Example of Transiting Neptune” posted on Astrolocherry March 13, 2014, there is an excellent account of the dramatic influence of this planet in a person’s life. In that article transiting Neptune left one life area and transited into another in the horoscope, which resulted in a dramatic shift in the person’s interests. But how? How can something so far away and as unrelated to our daily lives as Neptune affect us so powerfully? The answer is found in Jungian psychology through a phenomenon called “meaningful synchronicity.” This awful mouthful of verbiage is what I call the alarm clock theory. If you wind up two alarm clocks and set them to go off at ten minutes to five PM, they do so even though there is no connection between them. Now, if you wanted to be scientific (or as a friend of mine once said, “be all scientifical”) about it, you would want to observe hundreds of alarm clocks all going off and creating pandemonium at ten minutes to five, thereby establishing that they all seem to clatter loudly at the same time in spite of lacking connecting wires, lights, or anything else that could cause them to set each other off. Then, with appropriate ear protection, you might take one pile of clocks to Outer Mongolia and another to Eastern Sudan and see if they still rattle away at ten minutes to five, further demonstrating that they indeed do so without any connection between them. Of course, I’m being a little silly, but the point is the clocks are synchronized to dutifully clank away at the set time without any linkage between them. No clock says to any other clock, “Hey Bud. Time to start ringing.” And this is how I believe astrology works. There are two things going on, one outside and one inside; one material and the other non-material. The planet Neptune is synchronized with the person’s horoscope. And this is Jung’s “meaningful synchronicity” as related to astrology. But is this really true? I don’t know. But something is certainly going on and the alarm clock theory is the best explanation I’ve heard so far. Jon Hassinger
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 01:43:12 +0000