Laurence Hillman - Can Anyone Predict the Future?

Collectively, we have developed what might be called a prediction addiction. Many respected professionals are paid six-digit salaries to predict the future. Economists, stock brokers, hurricane experts, futurists and fashion designers all predict the future. Tune in to the weather channel and somebody is making predictions around the clock. Nobody questions these professionals or their methods. However, when an astrologer makes a prediction, there is uproar or polite silence.

Nobody can predict the future

Making a prediction means describing an event that will take place in the future. In the past this was often called a prophecy. Most people who make predictions use the same tools: past trends, patterns, cycles, some intuition and some luck (though many would dispute this). The fact remains, no one can make accurate predictions consistently. Hurricanes suddenly veer off, stocks tumble because the CEO has a heart attack, the economy turns because of some unexpected jitters in the oil market and so forth. For astrologers too, the fact remains, we cannot be accurate all the time. No one can.

The art of creating a model

So how do economists do it and often get it right (though many of them argue and have vastly different views too)? I like to compare this to weather predictions. If you know what is coming, based on experience and science, you can make a model of what will occur: "Based on the storm that is 200 miles south east of us, we will be under the weather on Thursday morning." Yet remember, with all the sophisticated equipment available to the weather people, they are still often wrong.

What this means for astrologers

If you are racing down a steep road on a bike with no brakes and you are just about come to a busy intersection, it does not take an astrologer to tell you that you will crash. That is common sense. In that simplistic sense, anybody can predict your future based upon your current behavior and be reasonably accurate. However, new, precise and unexpected things such as, "You will meet the love of your life on June the 15th," "Watch for chest pains on May 23d," "Buy a lottery ticket on January 12th" are all completely bogus.

If we could predict accurately

Let's take 9/11 as an example. With thousands of professional astrologers in the US you would think that one of us would have predicted 9/11 exactly. None of us did. What astrologers did do well at the time was speak of the dark times that were upon us then. Astrology is very good at describing the kind of time we live in. Long before 9/11 astrologers were aware of what was going on in the heavens. For instance the Mountain Astrologer was full of dire forecasts during the summer of 2001. We were unable to predict the event, but we were not surprised when it happened.

Staying tuned in

Animals are tuned in to nature in a way that we humans no longer are. Farmers know to watch for their animals to lay down before the rain comes. People who live in earthquake zones report their pets being extraordinarily nervous long before an earthquake hits. Astrologers are tuned in to nature in a similar way, the way most people used to be. We know when things are coming, good and bad. Astrologers believe that there is a natural order in nature, a natural order to things. When we “read” the planets, we are reading this natural order, this natural unfolding of the universe.

A season for everything

If you come to see me as your astrologer, I will politely say "No" to any request for me to predict the future for you. I do not believe that anyone can predict your future. What I can do for you however, and what astrologers in general can do for you, is tell you about upcoming "seasons." For instance, I might say, "This coming spring is a much better time to start a new business than now." Or, "New love is indeed on the horizon, but not until late summer." The fact is, just because there is an opportunity for new love, does not mean that you will take it. If I could predict your future, you would have no free will.