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The Value of Retrospective Research 
June 26, 2008 |
| Vedic
Astrology Diary Archives |
By Vaughn
Paul Manley, M.A.
As astrologers we have the great advantage of learning how to
predict events through retrospective research. There's no limit
to the number of charts with accurate dates of past events that
you can collect and study. Simply studying the significant events
in your own life can be extremely valuable learning experiences.
To see karma unfolding, even if it's a difficult karma in your
own life, through the dashas and transits is fascinating. My
standard suggestion to students, once they've learned the basic
principles (which is no small task!), is to study their own
charts and at least five others. The charts of close friends,
family members, professional colleagues, or popular celebrities
can all become rich research laboratories for studying Jyotish.
I particularly like the Astrodatabank software program for this,
which gives you the birth data and biographical histories of
thousands of celebrities. However, if they're people that you
are in regular contact with then you have the opportunity to
see events as they happen and can practice making predictions.
Of course, there's no better chart than you're own to work with
since you know all the subtle details and can follow it on a
daily basis.
The hardest thing for students to acquire is experience. If
you're giving a reading and a client wants to know definitively
whether they're going to get promoted at their job don't you
think you should have studied at least 10 examples of job promotions?
100 would be even better. When you do a lot of retrospective
research on events and you continually see the same patterns
repeating it strengthens your predictive abilities. I like what
Marc Boney says about this, "Do retrospective research
enough with your own and the charts of other people, and it
will give you that 'saturated experience' that enables you to
eventually see events prospectively." For example,
in my own research I've seen that people often move in Saturn-Moon
or Moon-Saturn dashas.
This is especially true if transiting Saturn is also aspecting
the natal Moon, like in the 4th house from the Moon. I've seen
this enough times retrospectively, for instance, when clients
give me a list of previous events, that it has now become useful
for prediction.
For instance, this is a chart of a woman who recently moved
to a foreign country to try it out while in her Moon-Saturn
dasha. My explanation of why Saturn and the Moon are a common
dasha sequence for moving is because the Moon is the karaka
of the 4th house of home, while Saturn is the karaka of two
dusthana houses - the 8th house of change, and the 12th house
of loss. In this woman's chart Saturn also happens to be the
8th lord from the ascendant, Moon, Sun and dasha lagna Moon.
Saturn also aspects her 4th lord Mercury. While these factors
reinforce a move during her Saturn sub dasha, I don't believe
that they're necessarily the cause of her move. Just being in
a Saturn-Moon, or Moon-Saturn dasha could be enough.
A great way to do retrospective research is simply to ask a
friend, who has an accurate birth time, for a list of the dates
of important events in their life and then look up what dashas
and transits were in effect at the time. Better yet would be
to do this with a friend who's also studying Jyotish. You could
quiz each other on events in each other's lives, or other people
that one person knows well. "What's this person's main
character traits? What's their profession? etc" Or pick
a date of an event that you know about the person and ask, "Can
you tell me what happened to them on ____?"
Of course there's the argument about retrospective research
that hindsight is always 20/20,
and that it just teaches you to justify past events however
you see fit. What we need to avoid is what Andrew Foss, creator
of Sri Jyoti Star software, calls, "The one
a half effect." This is the creating of one's own
theories based on just seeing something in their own chart (1x),
and kind of seeing it in someone else's chart (1/2x). What you're
left with is your own half-baked theory that may not work a
majority of the time. This can be a problem, which is why it's
always best to have some training with a tutor or at least cross
check with someone who has more experience, in order to confirm
that your interpretive logic is correct.
Copyright 2008. Vaughn Paul
Manley. All Rights Reserved. |
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