The Foundations of Prediction

Claire Chandler

This is an expansion of the opening session of the Prediction Day given at the Astrological Lodge of London on 9th October 2004 and was first published in Astrology Quarterly Winter 2004.

The title of this talk is "The Foundations of Prediction" and most of the material should be relevant to most astrologers most of the time. This isn't delivered with me wearing a particular hat. Traditional, psychological or other, it applies to all of you equally. That's why I wanted this material to form the foundation for the rest of the day.[1]

The points I'd like to bring attention to are the unspoken assumptions which are present whenever we predict or forecast. Too often we dive into the various predictive techniques without giving due consideration to the natal chart or to what we're trying to do and the best way of doing it.

If you take home nothing else, take this "Good, accurate predictions will come from thorough and accurate delineation".

We must start with delineation, that means going to the Natal chart. For the moment, forget whose chart it is. Some astrologers would say that if an event isn't shown within the natal chart then it isn't going to happen. Now I know that some astrologers dispute this and have collected evidence to demonstrate this, but lets agree on this: whatever your various predictive techniques show up, they're acting on and you might say from within that natal chart. An apple pip becomes an apple tree. If your Venus is in questionable shape, then Venus themed periods of your life might not be as brilliant as the text books may make out.

Similarly, taking transits of outer planets as an example, different planets may be experienced very differently, depending on the nature of the natal chart. Someone, and lets just talk about people for the moment, who has a very Saturnine or earthy chart may stroll through a transit of Pluto, but the same person will have terrible trouble with Neptune. Likewise, a creative type may enjoy Neptune transits but Uranus doesn't go down so well. Likewise a transit to the IC for someone for whom home looms large, will be very different from the experience of someone with a ninth house focus who is more interested in ideas and learning. Similarly, taking transits of outer planets as an example, different planets may be experienced very differently, depending on the nature of the natal chart. Someone, and lets just talk about people for the moment, who has a very Saturnine or earthy chart may stroll through a transit of Pluto, but the same person will have terrible trouble with Neptune. Likewise, a creative type may enjoy Neptune transits but Uranus doesn't go down so well. Likewise a transit to the IC for someone for whom home looms large, will be very different from the experience of someone with a ninth house focus who is more interested in ideas and learning.

Analysis of temperament is also useful here. What is the stuff of which this individual is made? Different from element balance, connected to physical entity. Fine lace, course linen? The more obvious planetary aspects may look quite different when on different fabrics. John Frawley likens it to embroidery. Same stitches but on different cloth.

Once you've looked at this, consider who the chart is for. Male, female, an idea, a concept or an institution?

Once you've got the astrology straight, then start thinking how it will manifest through its particular container. What is the nature of the vehicle through which this particular moment is manifesting?

How old is the chart? This will give you big clues as to how the future may unfold.

A toddler or young company: a couple of years old. Going through major growth changes. A baby will meet huge amounts of new things and challenges every day. Lots of scope for change but an immature vehicle to carry it.

A young adult or institution: starting to establish its identity, structure is established but still good potential for change and innovation.

Middle Age: change becomes more difficult as there are more obstacles to overcome

Old Age: less potential as circumstances can keep you in the same place

The younger you are the less structure there is to support changes. The older you get the less potential there is for change without effort.

When predicting, we need to take things like this into account.

We talk about benefics and malefics – well the more traditional of us do – and we have a lot of baggage which comes along with these words. One of the problems we, and by that I mean everyone, not just astrologers, have is that we tie ourselves up with the language we use.

I'd like to put this idea to you.

Malefics and hard aspects: Saturn, Mars, squares and oppositions represent times when adjustment is necessary, change is necessary. We usually perceive this to be unpleasant. Hence the ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". But think of this as an example. If you are driving and you come to a T-junction, you need to turn the wheel to take the car round the corner and probably change gear and apply the break. This is not a crisis as we might usually think of it, but it is a necessary adjustment.

Benefics and soft aspects: Jupiter, Venus, trines and sextiles do not bring an impetus to move. Like a very cold Gin & Tonic in a lovely shady spot in a beautiful garden on a hot day, you don't want to move. You may need to move but you certainly don't want to. There is no itch which there certainly is with the malefics.

We don't like change much, we like things to be nice and safe. When predicting or forecasting it's much more likely that things will be broadly the same than they will be radically different.

Again, back to the natal chart. What Saturn sounds like or feels like will be different from chart to chart.

Now, part 3. We also need to have a ponder about what we're actually doing and the tools we use to achieve these aims.

We use the words Prediction and Forecasting pretty interchangeably. There's a different feeling about these words.

Prediction seems more specific. Perhaps a few more tall, dark strangers within a prediction?

Forecasting, like the weather forecast, seems to be a more general description of a period of time.

Saturn transiting your Mercury: Forecast - a time when your ability to communicate could be blocked, difficulties getting your message across. Prediction - your computer and mobile phone will be stolen.

Which is more useful to the client? Depends what you're doing and what you want to achieve.

Maybe we should be more rigorous in the language we use. When we say prediction, do we mean specific, measurable events? I think we should.

I think we should distinguish between what I've just described as Prediction and Forecasting. Now this brings us back to what we want to achieve. Some astrologers don't want to predict, they are happy with a forecast and vice versa. Some, myself included, think that being able to have both would be kinda cool.

Now the examples I've used fit nicely into the approaches used by psychological astrologers and those using more traditional methods. I've done this deliberately as these are the approaches which usually spring to mind when you're talking about these things.

Both of these approaches have merit and I don't think that either contradict the other. But they do different things and in order to use each to the best of its and your ability you need to appreciate the strengths and limitations of each.

The metaphor I've come up with for this is to think of each set of techniques as a toolbox. There are many things in each toolbox and they work with the other things within the same toolbox and have specific uses. The toolbox of a plumber and that of a carpenter may look similar but will be different. And these will look different again from the toolbox of the IT Technician.

My point is this: know what your toolbox is for. Psychological astrology has fine tools for introspection, personal development and the like, but its predictive tools are general and non specific. More properly forecasting techniques? Medieval astrology has intricate and specific predictive technique but its analysis of personality is less so.

I am not saying that you cannot own many toolboxes, but I would strongly caution using tools from one on problems better dealt with by another and I definitely avoid using a random selection of tools from many toolboxes.

There is no astrological sonic screwdriver. [2] No catch all technique which will get you out of all sticky situations. To finish, I'd like to make one last point: There is no such thing as the future, or the past, only the current moment. It is the only thing we have. The past is gone, the future not yet formed.

Creative interaction with the moment is the only way to enact true change. To get to the future, we have to start from here.

References

1. For those that did not attend the seminar, the other sessions were centred around case material and technique.

2. The tool which got Dr Who out of all kinds of scrapes and tricky situations.