Episode 288 features a discussion where an astrologer tries to explain what astrology is about to two people who are curious about the subject but somewhat skeptical.
Last week Ian and Shaye from the comedy podcast Camp ReEducation reached out to me to see if I would be on their show, where they do interviews with people from different fields and try to familiarize themselves with new topics and reexamine their preconceptions.
I agreed to do it as long as I could also release the recording as an episode of my podcast, and it ended up being a good discussion about trying to figure out how to explain astrology to a couple of non-astrologers who are skeptical about the subject but willing to listen and ask questions.
Figuring out how to communicate what astrologers do to the general public has always been one of my interests, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try doing that with them, and I think it ended up being a great discussion.
You can find out more info about Ian and Shaye and their podcast at:
This episode is available in both audio and video versions below.
Watch the Video Version of This Episode
Here is the video version of my talk with the guys from Camp ReEducation:
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Transcript
A full transcript of this episode is available: Episode 288 transcript
Listen to the Audio Version of This Episode
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:20:39 — 128.8MB)
What a great ambassador you are for astrology Chris, thanks so much for doing this!
Hi Chris,
I listened to your podcast last night on talking to people who don’t know anything about astrology. You really laid yourself bare in your experiment to talk with two professional skeptics who asked about your expertise. I believe you tried to give your all for astrology’s scientific foundation and what astrology really is. I especially appreciated your vulnerability at the end as you explained your life choice to follow astrology. I also thought you gave a very good mental picture of a gigantic clock working automatically and rhythmically through time, repeating cycles in days, months and years; 20 years, 200 years, 2000 years. Forever repeating the pattern set in motion interacting with each planet and star in the sky.
I’m new to the study of astrology although I’ve believed in it since I was in the third grade. And now I’m even way past my second Saturn return just finally finding out about all the beautiful rhythms of the stars. To me, astrology, especially my birth chart, is how I fit into the universe. It’s all different cycles made to fit by God. It’s God’s miracle, the patterns of the universe and how it affects all life. Just like tides come from the moon, each planet has its own tides and trends that affect each other. And because I was born into this pattern on a certain day at a certain minute in a certain year, I’ve had a pattern stamped into me that is affected by the patterns of the planets now in motion. I have free will, but I live in an environment of energies and trends that affect me in the most intimate ways.
I am part of God’s creation and I wander in this great time clock journey until the end. As does every other human and living being on this earth. So, we move through our space, our universe and feel its pull as we live our lives. Studying astrology just gives me a “heads up” on what’s coming. It’s a road map to make life easier as we travel through. But we’re the ones traveling and making choices and learning more about how to live our lives in harmony or discord. And we’re also interacting with every other life form on this planet who is doing the same thing. It is our choice. We have talents and energies to live within this universe. Plus, who we really are is a soul in a human body living in this earthly realm. I am a soul incarnated into a body that has talents and trials according to the time it was incarnated into the flesh. And my soul, in its other realm before Earth, chose which body, which family it was going to be born into. We all incarnate for the sake of our soul, our destiny and development and for the sake of Mother Earth and a pledge of responsibility to God’s plan.
I could get more “woo woo” than this but you probably couldn’t have said any of those things to these two gentlemen. I want to thank you Chris, and every other astrologer, for working so diligently towards finding out more about how astrology works. Everything you teach, all this knowledge you share, helps other people on Earth learn how to read the star map. You are helping every person who follows astrology in their efforts to find their talents and pass through their trials and tests as they live on Earth.
Thank you!
I’m a regular lister but I really loved this podcast. Good questions from Shaye and Ian but most of all such intelligent and thoughtful answers from Chris. He really delved into what astrology is and what it means to be an astrologer in the modern world. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris, for an intelligent explanation of what astrology is, along with a broad view of its historical lineage — and complexity.
Great episode! About halfway through you mentioned a book that came out awhile back where someone uses astrology to explain historical events. What was the name of that book?
Cosmos and Psyche, by Richard Tarnas. I interviewed him about the book in episode 84 to mark the 10th anniversary: https://theastrologypodcast.com/2016/07/25/richard-tarnas-on-cosmos-and-psyche/
Great job, Chris, but I don’t think either Ian or Shaye should consider their investigation into astrology complete until they each have a personal reading with a reputable professional astrologer.
I tend to agree, but I think that they already moved on shortly after this episode was released, so it may have been a missed opportunity. It is something I’ll keep in mind for the future though.
Hi Chris,
By far, I feel, as an educator, the best podcast yet. I feel what author and health practitioner Eileen Day McKusick is doing in VT is the closest I’ve seen yet to discovering a causal mechanism in natal astrology. Her furthering of the human biofield/torsion field, as hinted by Ray Grasse’s article in The Mountain Astrologer years back about the chakras and the traditional planets, hints as this. Where she practices, researches, and writes about the use of tuning fork therapy, the concepts of the luminous body in nature from Carlos Casteñeda’s novels and related occult beliefs, the human energy field is measured and and manipulated in this manner, and she has documented that there seems to be from gestation/birth (farthest out tuning fork work can sense) to where the physical body begins phenomena where traumas have occurred that seem to support correlations to the native’s relationship with the transit aspects in life to the natal chart. I had written to her posing this theory, and received a supportive response, and I feel this route may be something that may benefit Ian and Shaye in their journey.
Could you please share the questions that you received from Ian and Shaye, if that’s ok/allowed?
What do you mean?
[…] some ways it is a continuation of a similar approach that I took in episode 288, which was titled Explaining Astrology to Non-Astrologers, and if you enjoy this episode then I’d recommend checking that one out as […]