As students of predictive astrology, you have been counseled from the beginning of your studies that the learning or astrology should give you knowledge. In this regard, expertise in prediction, the ability to predict is a portal through which you must pass and we do our best to guide you trough.However, this is not to say the prediction is the end goal. Beyond Knowledge lies wisdom. And perhaps it is alone, the avenue to wisdom, that made astrology so importance in ancient cultures, in ways that now days most can, only dream of.
This concept of knowledge and its relationship to wisdom goes to the root of astrology. When you practice astrology, your aim must firstly be to pas on knowledge. In prediction, this is foreknowledge but knowledge just the same. Therefore, you must at an early stage learn to recognize this knowledge and to distinguish it from belief, illusion, and the uncertainty that is borne of false intuition. You must also understand the confines of foreknowledge, to learn to know yourself and strike the balance. These latter issues we will address another time, as our present concern is to understand the manne of prediction as it relates to astrology.
The above is not to imply that all those who study astrology will be or are capable of being astrologers. In reading [Astrology and Wisdom] you will see that indeed, very few really can be. Nevertheless, this does not stop the loquacious and ignorant from proclaiming themselves astrologies and conversing loudly
Many of you have tried to address their misunderstanding only to find yourself subject to their personal reproach or praise, both being equally inconsequential. It is perhaps now better that you desist in these engagements. Instead,the time may more profitably be used in the more pressing task of developing.
In all your relations with fellow astrologers. It is requested that you distinguish those who are true to the Art from those who are not. Please, do this by examination of their deeds rather than from the eloquence of their words. Where the words what they claim they can do, and the deeds; what they actually can do, do not match there you have found charlatan.
Please also bear in mind, that any person who attacks anothers character or steals the ideas of another and proclaims those ideas their own or who promotes him/herself as a leading authority in Predictive astrology but fails to make consistently accurate predictions, show by such deeds that s/he is not really an consistently astrologer at all. Moreover, and this is the greater tragedy, too often these same people are in equal measure as furious and insane towards others as they are ignorant of themselves, which is why they can present themselves as practitioners of a sacred Art. They are now better ignored.
Being an astrologer requires transcending ones own ego. As you learn and study, the need for this becomes increasingly apparent. More than this, unless you use astrology for the good of others you achieve nothing but the emptiness of hollow vanity.
Predictions must be clear unambiguous. They must convey practical advice that can be acted upon.
This applies to both natal readings and deliberations on mundane matters. In natal: unless people leave the consultation with both increased knowledge about themselves and some firm practical information they can use as a guide for the future then they have not had an astrological reading at all. In mundace: ideally, someone reading the prediction should be able to act on it. This paper only address mundace prediction. Matters specific to natal be discussed another time.
>Behind prediction lie complex philosophical questions that have occupied some of the greatest minds. These questions include the nature of Divinity, the interrelationship between fate and free will the place of man in the cosmos. It is the primary pur pose to direct us towards questions.
However,for the moment we are to stop a little further down the path at the place where knowledge resides. Therefore, this paper will only be concerned with the secondary purpose of mundace predictions the passing on knowledge that gives a practical understanding that may be acted upon.
