Thursday, May 31, 2012

When the stars align...


On June 5th, there will be a transit of Venus.

This means that the planet will be visible in silhouette as it crosses the face of the Sun.  With Venus, these transits occur only in pairs…with more than a century separating each pair.  You can check out this page from NASA to see areas of visibility for this astronomical occurrence.

This represents a rare occasion to observe the intricate ballet that is the workings of our solar system.  But this alone wouldn’t be impressive enough, would it?  No, there must be some paranormal, nay…astrological significance to this, doesn’t there?

At least that’s what this poorly written article asserts.  After all, Nostradamus predicted this transit would happen.  No really, he wrote it down and everything.  More than that, the transit of Venus represents a change coming in the eyes of astrologers.  The article explains this with what is in my opinion, an absolutely hilarious lead-in sentence:

“Other than the rational descriptions and viewing…”  Really?  Are there any other ways to view this occurrence?  If you’re not rational then what are you?  Perhaps, “irrational?”  But I digress.

“Venus is about love.  Love is about emotions.  Though great poems have been written about love, the bottom line is that words do not completely convey the feeling.  If love were verbal, and something of straight line linear thinking, it wouldn’t be love.”

The fact that the planet is named after a goddess of love is a purely human projection.  In reality, Venus has a dense, choking atmosphere that is 95% carbon dioxide and surface temperatures so hot that life as we know it would not last very long in its environs.  Hmmm.  Doesn’t sound too hospitable to me.

And if that’s anybody’s idea of love, they can count me out.

Astrologers argue that the significance of the transit pair lies not in the physicality of Venus, but in the shape generated by the transit itself.  When drawn, you supposedly get a pentagram.  Not only has this shape held meaning for occultists and mystics, the number five has long been associated with love.  Or so it is said.

I get really tired of this sort of thing.  Yes, I’m a weirdhunter.  I would like nothing more than verification of aliens or another Fortean claim but I need to see it done intelligently, professionally, and upon a great deal of evidence.  There are people working hard at NASA and elsewhere to further our understanding of the universe, both in how it works and our place in it.  Then astrologers, operating from their haimish storefront enclaves where they will offer you your destiny for the low low cost of only $40 per reading, peddle this pseudoscience that alleges human behavior is somehow tied in with the alignment of stars.

Right.  That and the month in which you are born determines your personality and tendencies.  How?  By the stars?  Hate to break it to you but a baby is bathed with far more radiation at birth from the lights in the maternity ward than from stars.  This is perpetual buffoonery.

“But emotions rule the world.”
That’s funny.  I could have sworn it was the base levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.


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