Human beings have always been curious to know their future. Whenever someone is in difficulty and cannot easily come out of it, he wants to know whether the days of his misery will come to an end at all. And if yes, then when? When one invests a great deal of time, effort or money into some project, it is natural to wonder whether that investment will bear some fruit. There have always been people around who have successfully predicted future events. Their methods have been different - some people can simply look into the future, some use tarot cards, some draw up an astrological chart which we call horoscopes, some read the lines in the palms of people. One cannot deny that future has been accurately predicted many a times and by many a people. Each successful prediction proves that it is indeed possible to correctly predict future.
In the ancient times, astrologers were held to be in great esteem by the people. There was no difference between astronomers and astrologers. In fact, astronomy and Astrology were not considered to be two different subjects. Many will be surprised to know that most of the renowned scientists of the past, including Sir Isaac Newton, were astrologers too. In ancient India Astrology was known as "Jyotish Shastra" which included predictive Astrology as well as what we know as astronomy. Needless to say that the astrologers of that era were all great mathematicians too. An accomplished astrologer was called "Trikal-darshee" : one who could see past, present and future. It would perhaps not be an exaggeration to say that Astrology was considered to be the foremost branch of science.
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It is a fact of life that people emulate successful, popular and respected persons. Seeing the social status enjoyed by astrologers, charlatans started masquerading as astrologers. They learnt a few tricks of the trade and started duping gullible people. It was and still is a very lucrative business. An astrologer earns money by making predictions while giving no guarantee that any of his predictions will turn out to be true. There is no money back guarantee :-). Once an astrologer sets up shop, people start coming to him in the hope that may be he will be able to foresee their future correctly. The astrologer is in a wonderful position. For example, he may make predictions about ten persons, getting only one prediction right. The nine persons, about whom he predicted wrongly, will never come back to him. But the tenth person, about which the astrologer was able to predict correctly, will not only come back to him again but also refer many other persons to him, citing personal experience. In this way, the business of an astrologer always flourishes, no matter how he himself fares in his trade. But the downside of this was that astrologers, as a group, started being seen as a lot of dubious persons like politicians of the modern age. Once such impression started gaining ground, Astrology as a subject no longer remained attractive to intelligent persons. People, who had talent, started to pursue other fields of knowledge. Over a period of time, the inevitable happened. No talent, worth its salt, chose to pursue Astrology as a vocation or a hobby and the outcome of this is for everyone to see in the present times.
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There was one more very important reason for Astrology becoming one of the lesser fields of knowledge. It was the decline of India, the fountainhead of human civilization, and its loss of status as the repository of all the knowledge of the ancient world (see How India lost its Glory). The Islamic hordes, who attacked and looted India many a times and later ruled that country for hundred of years, had no respect for priceless works of art, the magnificent architecture and the other exalted areas of human endeavor. They destroyed most of the ancient temples, burnt down libraries like Nalanda and Takshshila and permanently took away innumerable books of infinite wisdom from the future generations of humanity. A great amount of recorded knowledge was lost, astrological books included. This loss proved to be irreparable, as the then Indian society became engaged in ensuring its survival and a constant struggle against the aggressors. The few people, who had some invaluable texts and scriptures with them, were hard put to preserve the remaining works of ancient sages. That is why, when one studies Astrology , he feels as if some vital links are missing. With the Hindu philosophy losing its ground it was natural that Astrology would lose its prominent place too. As the modern science developed and the scientific temperament gained ground, with the dearth of genuine astrologers, Astrology started fading into oblivion.
Astrology is scoffed at by people for two main reasons. First, of course, is that the predictions made by astrologers often goes wrong. Secondly, if one takes his horoscope to different astrologers, they make different predictions. They even make different horoscopes given the same set of data regarding the birth of a person. These facts force people conclude that Astrology is not a science and that it is only a means to befool people for the astrologers' benefit.
One cannot deny that the reasons cited above are valid. Nonetheless, there is some element of prejudice against Astrology which also plays some part in the denigration of this science. Let us take an example to illustrate this point.
A man falls sick due to some disease. He goes to his neighbourhood doctor. The doctor advises him to go for some tests. After seeing the results of those tests and considering the patient's symptoms, the doctor concludes that the man has contracted some particular disease say, Sickosis . He prescribes some medicines and the patient goes home in the hope of getting rid of the sickness as soon as possible. After taking the medicines for next two days, the patient finds that the medicines are not working the way they were supposed to work. He goes back to the doctor and the doctor changes the medicines and the person starts responding to the second set of medication immediately. Within a few days, the person is back to his old healthy self.