Part Seven: How I tried to handle the astrologers

I thought I’d captured most of the highlights, or actually lowlights, of how I tried to deal with astrologers, specifically RAP triumvirate believers (reincarnation, astrology and “psychics”), but then I remembered one other very important set of events and attempts by me to be positively subversive to share. So here goes with “another chapter” in a time that really should have been spent with people finding their way back to God instead of pulling my chain.

I spent a lot of time counseling a friend who I met through the message board and I don’t regret any of that time, even though I know she was lying to me. This is because this was hands on restoration of sanity work that I knew people could observe and learn about how I do things (the right way). That’s no brag, just fact. And so we did a lot of work on what we called her bipolar and attention deficit issues. It went so well that at one point she suggested that we write a book together about the bipolar treatment techniques that we used in our conversations. And also, of course, I thought of us as friends, though being entirely through email, it had its limits. We also decided to have an astrology website that could encapsulate my teachings. Hmm. While promoting astrology was not at all in my interest, or the Lord’s, like I’ve explained, the situation on earth is so dire that I long ago realized I had to go into their lingo, their values, and try to teach them to be the best that they could be even within the vile philosophies they have chosen. Jesus explained this when he was challenged why he had sinners to his table, using the doctor analogy, that the healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick do. So I decided to hold my nose and create an astrology site, but to use it to be positively subversive. I mentioned this concept in a previous posting in this blog series. Subversion means to undermine something from within and underneath it, but not to ruin it (that is sabotage). Positive subversion is to undermine the negative components from underneath and subtly replace them with positive components. And so I started my “Doris Day” and “Little Mary Sunshine” toned astrology daily web site. Here is what I did to try to teach and subvert.

1. I monitored the daily movement of the planets, sun and moon, and taught a lot of math about how they moved but rather than emphasizing the math for “forecasting” as astrologers do, I was reintroducing people to the reality that these are hunks of rock moving through space. So I used math and physics ostensibly to monitor astrology body movement, but instead intending to make this more about astronomy than astrology. I felt the more people saw the boring trudging of dumb bodies of rock through space day by day the more they would regain a realistic grip on the non-numinous nature of science and just plain old reality of matter and energy in space over time.

2. Every planet, every aspect (angle or position) and every hour of every day was a good time to do something! Ha ha ha, no bad times of doom on my web site. Day after day my “fans” would have seen “Great time to do something creative!” “Great time to do something charitable!” “Great time to have an important discussion!” I never “predicted” trouble and I never made it look like someone should avoid doing something due to stupid planets humping along in their stupid orbits. Every day was sunshine, lollipops and rainbows no matter what the planets were “doing.” Lord, did the “fans” think I was dumb and naive!

3. I discovered that RAP philosophy (not to dignify it) also included a demented method of “interpreting numbers” called numerology that was also as depressive, counterintuitive and anti-reality thing as I had ever seen. So I did an interpretation of the “daily number” that was always, well, you guessed it, a good day to do something no matter what the number was. Numerologists are stupid morons on a good day. I’ve blogged about this before so I won’t hammer it again in this posting. But understand that my web site was a way to subvert another stupid and wicked practice once I read up on it enough to understand what harm it was causing.

4. In an effort to get people to stop looking at the sky and their own butt holes, I introduced a daily quote from a poet or author. I’d use the pretense of looking up famous births for the day, but instead of focusing on celebrities (don’t even get me started on that) I kept a number of sources to look up birthdays of poets, artists, authors and historical figures. I would post snips of their poems, for example. I never said moronic things like “Oh look, what a typical Gemini thing to say.” Subversive.

5. I wrote essays that were analogies and parables. They were basically analogies and parables that starred astrology concepts. For example, a man would try to build a house, and wise old Saturn, who he meets in town, is the one who kept the man from building on a floodplain. I wrote about towns that have as their mayor a Zodiac sign. I tried to make them funny and imaginative. My purpose was to reintroduce people who were looking at imaginary or real hunks of rock and their own butt holes to looking at human nature and possibilities, and the incredible range of behavior and choices that people have. So these people were named signs of the Zodiac and manifested their stereotyped qualities, but I was trying to be subversive in introducing people to a realistic, funny and charitable view of humans as they really are, not robots in some mean and stupid imaginary karma A-hole machine.

Anyway, I hated doing it because like I said, it’s all part of the waste of years of humanity in chasing the occult and coveting power, control and wealth, and I don’t like writing about the unreal. But I don’t regret the success that I did have in subversion, because I know that while at first people dismissed me as being a particularly fat and dense ignoramus who just can’t seem to take a hint about the “wisdom” out there about “who I really am and who everyone really is” (boo hoo hoo, puff and snort), over a period of time they had to start wondering why I was so unchanging. I do think the time and pain that I spent on it was probably the only way to get them to hear the clue phone ringing.

I would occasionally do a “for pay” reading, usually less than $50. Why is this? Because in the real world of the institutional church, there is a secular misunderstanding that somehow people “with spiritual gifts” should “give them away.” That is part of a demonic temptation that seeks to withhold cold hard cash funding from Christians, to be honest. The words of Jesus are often twisted by those who seek to undermine Christians to make it sound like people should give away their services for free. Yes, religion is free. But a man who presides over a wedding should get a fee, since he sits there and prepares services for you; he’s not just sitting by you while in free prayer. So when this subject came up, I, in my secret thoughts, weighed whether to not accept payment and that way not seem to endorse that anything RAP is worth paying one plugged nickel for, versus another chance to realign these people’s thoughts properly, which is that Christian preachers, for example, deserve financial support, but not because religion is being bought or sold.

I illustrated it when my friend told me she no longer had money to pay me for my counseling. I continued to do it, gladly, and accepted in payment the occasional photograph that she took of roses. Barter is something I strongly believe in and that is a great return to the foundational church where the Apostles preached in return for room and board, food and clothing. I have an overall plan of “how I would do things” that includes a huge network of coop, barter, guild and charitable swap of services. The balance is to recognize that the members of the institutional church deserve compensation for services, and that is not the same as “selling the faith.” However, money corrupts, there’s no question about it. So I tried to answer the RAP fee question by demonstrating service has value, but religion is free, and that mutually charitable swapping that does not involve money is the best where at all possible. One priest whose blog I read has a wish list on Amazon and I think that is a GREAT idea, and I’ve bought him items from his list. It is a way that people can support him for his service (the enormous time he puts into education and sharing of news on his blog) without trying to discern “a price” for his service AND without forcing him to be distracted from his religious calling by having to do unnecessary money handling and accounting for his needs.

Well, so there is more from the memory bank, and what a not fun and wasteful ride it’s been.