Probable Realities - I
The theory of probable realities can provide us with a good intuitive idea of how astrology works, and what its limitations are. The idea of probable realities, if not the term itself, has become a common theme in popular culture in recent years. For example, the novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman and the films The Family Man, Sliding Doors, and Déjà Vu can be considered allegories for how events happen to the same protagonist in different probable realities.
Gary Zukov’s book The Dancing Wu Li Masters summarizes the theory of probable realities as follows: “The orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics is that only one of the possibilities contained in the wave function of an observed system actualizes, and the rest vanish. The Everett-Wheeler-Graham theory says that they all actualize, but in different worlds that coexist with ours! …“According to the Everett-Wheeler-Graham theory, at the moment the wave function ‘collapses,’ the universe splits into two worlds. … There are two distinct editions of me. Each one of them is doing something different, and each one of them is unaware of the other. Nor will their (our) paths ever cross since the two worlds into which the original one split are forever separate branches of reality.”1
It might be argued that even if probable realities do exist on a level of subatomic particles, that doesn’t necessarily imply that they exist for humans – at least not in any consciously accessible or meaningful way.2 However, this is precisely what astrology is all about. Astrology doesn’t seek to examine and measure accomplished events (although sometimes it can do this) so much as tendencies and potentials. Probable realities are not a question of the size of the particle involved. Rather, they are a question of the nature of time itself. Time is not how we perceive it to be in our normal, everyday consciousness.3 Although human perception and cognition make sense to humans, the universe itself doesn’t make sense in a way that humans believe.Where materialistic science sees time as linear, astrology sees time as rhythmic, as an emanation consisting of birth – death – rebirth. What we see as linear time is but one way of apprehending this emanation, which is useful for certain purposes but is a terrible distortion of what time really is. We apprehend time as linear because our thinking is linear, and we are constantly thinking-thinking-thinking from the moment we wake up in the morning until the moment we go to sleep at night. Animals and human babies don’t apprehend time in this fashion, and neither did ancient human hunter-gatherers. Time is not linear, but to see this directly one has to stop thinking.
Materialistic science measures points and intervals along a well-ordered continuum, whereas astrology measures cycles upon cycles. The moment of birth can be viewed as a point along a linear continuum, as it is in materialistic science; or, conversely, it can be viewed as a stage in the unfoldment of potentialities on various levels – i.e. as the intersection of many different interpenetrating cycles, as it is in astrology. Astrology can identify decisive points in which things could go – or could have gone – this way or that.
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NOTES
1 Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Bantam 1980 page 832
3 Our normal, everyday consciousness is a highly distorted view of how things actually are. Our sense of the passage of time, for example, is a socialized phenomenon, whose distortions become apparent when we enter altered states of consciousness. Indeed, the slowing down of time is a good definition of “altered state of consciousness.” For example, in life-threatening situations, such as while we are having an automobile accident or during a big earthquake, time slows way down. We can see everything that is happening with great clarity, in great detail, as if it were unfolding in slow motion. This slow motion perception of time is closer to the truth. It is closer to how babies experience time: more like dream time perception and less like our adult, gloss-over-things-quickly-and-superficially-and-not-pay-much-attention-to-what-is-going-on-around-us perception of time. However, we are incapable of acting in the normal way in this slow motion perception of time because we can’t think. If we are going to act or react in this frame of mind, we can only do so on intent, on our gut-level instinct, not on thought. Therefore the slow motion perception is not as useful in performing all the humdrum tasks of everyday life as is adult time perception.