Astrological Musings
I don’t know of too many astrologers in the US who are even able to make a living as an astrologer, much less become a multi-millionaire. But in India, where astrologers are highly sought after and given comparable status to physicians, a “leading Indian astrologer” who has evidently made millions in his astrological practice is accused of hiring a contract killer to murder a competing family of astrologers, who apparently had hired someone to kill HIS brother. It’s very convoluted and confusing and you can read more about it here and here are additional facts of the case. Apparently the feud was over Butham Govindu’s daughter to a son of the rival family and many additional gripes and grievances.
This kind of gangland murder is appalling on many levels, but most so because astrology is involved. I was unable to discover more about the “practice” of Mr. Govindu, but in India the practice of astrology is practically universal.
In India, the former director general of India’s Comptroller and Auditor General’s office is an astrologer.
“It’s a superscience, not an ordinary science, because it is extraterrestrial. It is extraphysical, it is superphysical, therefore supernormal. Right?”
Rao offers tea and a discourse on the 12 houses of the zodiac, the alignment of the planets, and the complexities of mathematics in his chosen profession. Rao has gone from a button-down bureaucracy to one of India’s premier schools of astrology. He now directs the Institute of Astrology at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, a charitable public trust, with as much rigor as his earlier accounting career. …
[Rao] says you go to an astrologer “to take intelligent advice. That is good.” But “if you go out of morbid fear,” he adds, “the astrologer will exploit you, cheat you, make money out of you. That’s what is happening all over India.”
Indian astrologers generally are unabashedly forthright in their claim to predict the future, whereas in the West (and certainly here on this blog) there is more of a view that free will plays a large part in how our future unfolds. In traditional Indian astrology one can “cure” a “bad horoscope” using gems, amulets and rituals. With so many people desperate to try to know their future, rather than create it, I can see where the idea that a life can be transformed simply by applying the right gem or amulet would be an attractive one.
Certainly there are plenty of scammers in the US as well, like this guy who calls himself an “astrologist” and mind reader (watch the video, it is hilarious).
To me the practice of counseling humans using astrological tools is a sacred trust and the idea that a practicing astrologer could be involved in this kind of behavior is shocking and sad. Fortunately it’s a rare thing and not something that is encountered very often.
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