Maazyaa Astrological Uchapati

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Ever since childhood... I like astrology... I always read the astrological predictions for the weeks in every newspaper that I get to read. And trust the one that is most favorable to my sign. kahi divasa poorviparyant hi paristhiti hoti.

Some days ago i was chatting with a friend. He was facing pressure for getting married.
Chat kartaa karta gadi "Patrika" ya vishayavar aali. Patrika hyaa prakara vishayee malahi
faar kahi mahiti navhate. So I trained my guns towards astrology...

First step was to get my own "Patrika" As usual..."Jai Google baba ki..." and a list of sites offering free natal charts was in front of me...
I was just trying to understand the explanation that came with the chart. I noticed that the moon was in Sagittarius....I thought it may be bcos I entered birth place as Vasai since it was the nearest available in the list of cities provided. So using Google earth, I found as accurate co ordinates of my birthplace (I mean Hospital) as I could. And prepared chart again using the actual co ordinates but still results were almost the same.

Wait... something is wrong. For Years i was being told that my moon sign is Scorpio. Mag saaheb ekade Sagittarius madhye kaay kartaahet? Kahitari chukatey... either this chart is wrong or the chart that was at home was incorrect....
This called for further study. Soon I found myself tackling terms like Zodiac... tropical... sidereal... celestial sphere...precession of equinox... ek naa don..hajaar bhanagadi.

Finally it turned out that there are two basic systems in astrology for predictions... first is the Tropical Astrology that is practiced in the western world and the second is Sidereal Astrology or Vedic Astrology or what we call as "Jyotish" The horoscope that we read in any English paper is the one based on "Position of sun in your chart that is prepared as per the principles of Tropical Astrology." on the other hand when we look at the horoscope in local papers then it is based on, "Position of the moon in your chart that is Prepared based on Principles of Sidereal Astrology" this means there are two factors affecting your "Bhavishya" first is the method and second is position of a planet.

Now it is very much obvious to think that why position can be different in two systems when everything is viewed from same planet at same time into same sky but sadly enough.... it is...

Ek simple example... we celebrate " makar sankranti" that is "Suryaacha makar Rashit pravesh" so if my birthdare is after 14 jan... than my Sunsign should be Makar or Capricorn.... isn't it? Now have a look at English paper...as per them if your birthrate is between 20 Dec to 19 Jan then your Sun sign is Capricorn. So if I m born 13 Jan or before then I have two sun signs Sagittarius and Capricorn... in two different systems and both claim to be valid. Now i refrain from telling the actual Astronomical dates... that is altogether different story...

So now I can have 2 different but valid charts showing planet positions at time of my birth and they can be interpreted by two systems. So I have 4 "patrika" giving different predictions... sounds great na?

Next... we say that there are 12 constellations... in the Zodiac... So we have 12 "Rashi's" named after each of them.
Ethehi popat....

There are 13 star constellations along the zodiac. Oops... there is one more constellation of "Ophichchus" between the Scorpio and the Sagittarius. Sun passes through it between Nov 30 and Dec 17. And Strangely enough both the systems don't recognize this constellation. So if u r born between these two dates...your sun sign is not really what is being told to u....
This also applies to all planet positions also... effect of a planet being in this 13th "rashi" is totally ignored. And funny thing is that this 13th “rashi” is much larger in size than Scorpio... now for what reasons our ancestors ignored this big constellation but considered the smaller one like Scorpio may very well remain a mystery...

Anyway... we go further... this Zodiac... what is it basically? As per dictionary,
“A band of the celestial sphere extending about 8° to either side of the ecliptic that represents the path of the principal planets, the moon, and the sun."
In normal terms celestial sphere means the sky. And ecliptic means the plane formed by the earth's path around the sun.
So, why it is only 8 degrees wide? May be because most of the planets are found within that belt for "most of the time"

Planets are found sometimes in other constellations to apart from the ones that are being considered. So, what about the planetary influence when they in some other "rashi's"?

There is one more Principle called "Ayanamasa" that affects the calculations and is highly debatable. Shit... I m trying to be as brief as I can.... but still size of post is increasing...

so many confusions... the more i read into details... more i doubt the very fundamentals of the astrology....But still we believe into astrology.. We feel that whatever is being told... that is fully applicable to us. Why this happens then? When the very system itself looks flawed why we tend to believe it?

Here I came across a new Psychological funda called "The Forer effect". It refers to the tendency of people to rate sets of Statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people.
And something called as "Selective Thinking" in which people pick the favorable evidence from a bunch while ignoring equally valid unfavorable evidence. For details on these... bolo jai Google baba ki...

I really feel weird... we put our important decisions like choosing life partner or Starting a new business under control of a system that has highly dubious fundamentals. In most of the arrange marriages first thing they check is "patrika"!!! The girl or boy who is sitting in front does not matter but the distant star does. If the system was so accurate then there would not have been so many unsuccessful marriages around. But when a marriage fails, no one blames the “Jyotishi”, but everyone blames his or her own “Nashib”. Shevati jar sarv kaahi nashiba pramane hote tar te tasech hou dyaayche na.... patrikecha gondhal ghalun nashibaat dhavala dhaval kashala karaaychi? Sounds logical..... Isn’t it?