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New Zeland: Solace System

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Bianca
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« on: May 26, 2009, 08:46:47 am »










                                                     S O L A C E   S Y S T E M





Mary Longmore
dompost.co.nz
The Dominion Post
May 14, 2009

Go on, admit it - who secretly hasn't kept an eye out for that tall dark stranger promised by the weekend's horoscope, or been quietly cheered by predictions of an ecstatic love life just around the corner?

To most, astrology is a bit of fun, to be taken with a heap of salt.

But star-gazing is also a serious business, and never more so than in a recession.

Kapiti astrologist Gigi Sosnoski has seen a "steady increase" in clients over the last year - from mothers wanting their newborns' charts read to people setting up a business and pensioners looking for love.

In times of uncertainty, she says, people need to feel more in control.

"People always want to get some clarity regarding their future. Things to look forward to, how they can best plan ahead."

Los Angeles-born Sosnoski uses one of several sophisticated software packages to calculate the planets' positions at time of birth and plot the chart, delivering readings by phone to clients around the world.

And seminars on "challenging" planetary forces by Lower Hutt astrologist Graham Ibell have proved popular here and in the United Kingdom.

Be warned; he predicts the chaos will last until 2012 and cause levels of social unrest not seen since the 60s, the last time the planets were in such disarray.

A trained scientist, Ibell worked as a biologist at the Department of Conservation before becoming hooked on astrology, quitting his job to head to London's Centre for Psychological Astrology.

"I was just finding myself becoming more and more disillusioned with science. It didn't nourish me, I was looking for something soul-filled. Science didn't provide that," says Ibell.

Along with the seminars - on everything from business astrology ("it's a powerful way to get ahead of the market") to stoking your love life - he also runs a three-year course.

His first students include an accountant, a musician and a mother. Ibell takes his chosen craft seriously. He condemns those who use horoscopes to "put people in a box", arguing they should be liberating.

"It just opened me up, I started to see life in more of an interconnected way. We are not all separate individuals; it gives me a spiritual perspective on life."

His readings are also computerised, but the art is in the interpretation. He explains he can teach the science, maths and astronomy, but students need intuition to read the charts.

"It requires a great deal of engagement with the imagination . . . a very different way of thinking than scientific thinking."

While he has struggled to be accepted here - he says New Zealand is more materialistic and less spiritual than the UK - a drift away from organised religion has seen more people turn to astrology.

Ad Feedback "I think it's people's emptiness. People are looking for answers, it's not just enough to go shopping for bathroom taps on a Sunday. I think astrology, like any other spiritual discipline, can help out with that in some way."

But can planets millions of kilometres away really influence our lives?

Ibell concedes it sounds ridiculous and he doesn't know how it works. One theory he favours is that when two neighbouring particles are separated by an infinite distance they can still influence each other.

Victoria University psychology lecturer Marc Wilson is sceptical planets' alignment can influence our lives, but says astrology is lent power by believers.

"The scientific research on this says there is essentially no relationship between a horoscope and what actually happens to people. But many people who see an astrologer might benefit from the placebo effect."

Believers number more than you might think. A survey last year by Dr Wilson of 6000 Kiwis found 40 per cent believed that some people could predict the future.

Believers tend to be overwhelmingly female, he says, and part of a group who lack control over their lives or social status.

"The people who believe in these sorts of things, tend to worry about things happening around them. People look to places for a source of control. If the world's all peachy, you don't need to worry about why it's like that."

Hence, he predicts a boost to fortune-telling from the current downturn.

One of Ibell's students, Kapiti homeopath Tracey Bonnington, finds astrology "incredibly relieving".

"If people can understand and see a reason for what they're going through in life, then they don't battle it so much, they can ride it out."

More than ever before, people were seeking personal fulfilment not expected by the stoic post-war generation, she says.

"Our desire is to be more aware of ourselves and our lives.

"I think there are a lot of things we don't understand about the world yet, and I think some of these therapies are ahead of their time ... and at some point science will catch up."
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Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.

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