Metaphysics of Astrology(Jyotish)

[Metempsychosis]

After a series of personal experiments with Astrology and I have obtained some data regarding what exactly is true as far this science is concerned.Here,I mainly deal with Hindu Astrology also known as Jyotish and it's relation with respect to Hindu/Buddhist Philosophy(Advaitic ones in particular).I take the position of soft astrology also known as Compatabilism. Following paragraphs will provide some my conclusions:

Astrology is both true and false.Astrology has one leg in the physical and one leg in the metaphysical hence there a always a confusion regarding it's truth.Astrology is true in the sense that it can be used to predict some of the major events in life,provided you have a expert astrologer and accurate birth-data with you.But,things are much more complicated than that.Astrology is directly related with Karma and this is of course directly related to Reincarnation.Astrology and Reincarnation are thus very closely related. Abrahamic Religions demonize astrology and therefore strongly deny reincarnation.More interestingly from my observations,past can almost certainly be found out accurately whereas future is always fluid.The reason for this is that,the series of causes for a past event has been already been determined and hence the past is always there to see.But,the future is based not just on past events - it is also dependent on the Free will of the individual and the Divine will.There are also environment factors which determine the future.Interestingly,the birth-data can be obtained from the finger prints itself if you can find the right person(diviner).Hence,there is some relation between palmistry and astrology.Here,it is important to note the person's physical characteristics and personality traits can also inferred by the same methods.Most important conclusion is that Astrology itself points mutual relation between souls and the world- Dependent Origination (Praticcasamupada) as the buddhist might call it.This mutual relation as the Hindu can infer is based on all pervasive metaphysical principle-God..

Now,as why Astrology can not be relied on:
1.Astrology shows only one set of influences.Free will is usually much more important.
2.Bad intuitive powers of the astrologer.
3.Wrong Birth data
4.Planets are hieroglyph in the sense that they record the actions and are not the causes.Planets themselves are also under similar causal laws whose source can be traced to the absolute or God.Hence in Hindu pantheon the planets are demigods.

Further,as the Hindu view explains a person loses the three sheaths on death:Gross,Subtle, and Mental .But the Psychic layer or the soul undergoes the influences of the previous actions even though the personality itself changed on re-birth.So,you cannot blame a person for his past actions-instead try to help him!
Following extracts show what some leading philosophers have said on this subject:
Buddhist View:

As in the principle of dependent origination, within the functioning of karma, every fruition is said to depend upon multiple causes and conditions. Sogyal Rinpoche explains:[20]
The results of our actions are often delayed, even into future lifetimes; we cannot pin down one cause, because any event can be an extremely complicated mixture of many karmas ripening together.
Bhikkhu Thanissaro emphasizes the same point; he states:
...one of the many things the Buddha discovered in the course of his awakening was that causality is not linear. The experience of the present is shaped both by actions in the present and by actions in the past. Actions in the present shape both the present and the future. The results of past and present actions continually interact. Thus there is always room for new input into the system, which gives scope for free will.

Neo Platonic thinker plotinus espouse the following View:

Plotinus in his Enneads ridicules astrological technical doctrine for what he sees as a belief in the direct causality of the planets and stars on the fate of the individual. He also finds offensive the attribution of evil or evil-doing to the divine planets. However, he does believe that planets and stars are suited for divination because they are part of the whole body of the cosmos, and all parts are co-breathing (sumpnoia) and contribute to the harmony of the whole (2.3.7). The planets do not, then, act upon their own whims and desires. The diviner, however, has no place in calling them causes since it would take a superhuman effort to unravel the series of concomitant causes in the organism of the living cosmos, in which each part participates in the whole.

From Plato:
One of the best peeks into the cosmological views of Plato and reincarnation is contained in the final chapter of The Republic and the "Myth of Er."Here every soul in after life chooses a life(control over which is dependent on his past actions) and spins a spindle which becomes his birth chart!Aristotle thus explains thus the gods control the men through the stars

When the souls had all finished choosing their lives, they approached Lachesis in the order the lottery had assigned them. She gave each of them the personal deity they’d selected to accompany them throughout their lives, as their guardians and to fulfill the choices they had made. Each deity first led its soul to Clotho (zodiacal signs), to pass under her hand and under the revolving orbit of the spindle, and so to ratify the destiny the soul had chosen in the lottery.

Then, once a connection has been made with her, the deity led the soul to Atropos (planets) and her spinning, to make the web woven by Clotho fixed and unalterable. Afterwards, the soul set a fixed course for Lady Necessity’s throne and passed under it…”

Advaitic Hindu View from Sri Aurobindo:

The Life Divine, Book 2, Part 2, Chapter 22 "Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, The Soul and Immortality" - page 809
There must therefore be two elements, Karma as an instrument, but also the secret Consciousness and Will within working through the mind, life and body as the user. Fate, whether purely mechanical or created by ourselves, a chain of our own manufacture, is only one factor of existence; Being and its consciousness and its will are a still more important factor.
In Indian astrology which considers all life-circumstances to be Karma, mostly predetermined or indicated in the graph of the stars, there is still provision made for the energy and force of the being which can change or cancel part or much of what is so written or even all but the most imperative and powerful bindings of Karma. This is a reasonable account of the balance: but there is also to be added to the computation the fact that destiny is not simple but complex; the destiny which binds our physical being, binds it so long or in so far as a greater law does not intervene. Action belongs to the physical part of us, it is the physical outcome of our being; but behind our surface is a freer Life-power, a freer Mind-power which has another energy and can create another destiny and bring it in to modify the primary plan, and when the soul and self emerges, when we become consciously spiritual beings, that change can cancel or wholly remodel the graph of our physical fate.
Karma, then, - or at least any mechanical law of Karma, - cannot be accepted as the sole determinant of circumstances and the whole machinery of rebirth and of our future evolution.

From Yogananda Paramhansa

Charlatans have brought the stellar science to its present state of disrepute. Astrology is too vast, both mathematically1 and philosophically, to be rightly grasped except by men of profound understanding. If ignoramuses misread the heavens, and see there a scrawl instead of a script, that is to be expected in this imperfect world. One should not dismiss the wisdom with the 'wise.'
"All parts of creation are linked together and interchange their influences. The balanced rhythm of the universe is rooted in reciprocity," my guru continued. "Man, in his human aspect, has to combat two sets of forces—first, the tumults within his being, caused by the admixture of earth, water, fire, air, and ethereal elements; second, the outer disintegrating powers of nature. So long as man struggles with his mortality, he is affected by the myriad mutations of heaven and earth.
"Astrology is the study of man's response to planetary stimuli. The stars have no conscious benevolence or animosity; they merely send forth positive and negative radiations. Of themselves, these do not help or harm humanity, but offer a lawful channel for the outward operation of cause-effect equilibriums which each man has set into motion in the past.
The message boldly blazoned across the heavens at the moment of birth is not meant to emphasize fatethe result of past good and evilbut to arouse man's will to escape from his universal thralldom. What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place, and because he has spiritual resources which are not subject to planetary pressure.

A quote from Arthur Schopenhauer on Compatibilism:

Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills

So,the more closer a man is towards self-realization,the greater is his control over the nature.The more control he has over the environment,the less true will astrologer be for him.(or)In a theistic view,the more a man submits himself to the divine will,the lesser will planets be of influence to him.

 

[Metempsychosis]

References:
Sri Aurobindo on Astrology
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy XXXV : Winter 2008: Winter 2008 - Google Books
Hellenistic Astrology*[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
Outwitting the Stars, Chapter 16 - Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramhansa Yogananda – Crystal Clarity Publishers - Crystal Clarity Publishers - Yogananda inspired Books and Music
Dependent Origination
So What Does Plato Say