Astrology: A Door to Religiousness by OSHO

Astrology is an investigation into the possibility that whatever is happening anywhere in the universe also affects man.

OSHO

But it is not as easy to investigate the body of man because it cannot be cut open like a tree. To cut open a human being is a very delicate and dangerous affair. And because man has a mind, it is not the body which registers events in this way but the mind. The tree has no such mind, and so its body has to register the events.

One more point is also worth noting. Just as there are radioactive storms on the sun every eleventh year, there is similarly another periodic rhythm of ninety years on the sun. This has only come to light recently, but it is a scientific fact, and it is as surprising as the periodic rhythm occurring each eleven years. Astrologers do not mention anything about this, but I am telling you to make it easier for you to understand astrology in a scientific manner. There is a cycle of ninety years which has been experienced, and its story is quite amazing.

Four thousand years ago, an Egyptian pharaoh told his scientists to keep a record of how often the water in the River Nile increases or decreases, and by how much. The River Nile is the only river in the world with a "biography" four thousand years old. A record has been kept of when the water level in the river increased or decreased by even one inch. This record runs from the time of the pharaohs, four thousand years ago, until today.

"Pharaoh" is the name given to an Egyptian emperor, and in the Egyptian language it means the sun. There was a belief in Egypt that a continuous dialogue exists between the sun and the River Nile. The pharaohs, who were devotees of the sun, declared that a complete record of the Nile should be kept. They said: "We know nothing about the sun at present, but we will some day, and this record will be useful."

So for four thousand years everything about the River Nile has been recorded: the increase in the water level, when there were floods and when there were none.... And one Egyptian scholar, Tasman, compiled its history. Some things that were not known in the times of the pharaohs are now known, and everything that has happened in the Nile has been compared with events on the sun. A ninety-year rhythm has been clearly indicated to relate to happenings on the sun. These events are quite similar to what we call birth and death.

Understand it this way: the sun is youthful for forty-five years and then begins to decline, to age, for forty-five years. For forty-five years the energy flow within the sun increases towards a peak of youth. After forty-five years there is a receding flow of energy, as within a human being. After ninety years the sun becomes very old. During the latter forty-five years, the Earth is struck with earthquakes. Earthquakes are related to this ninety-year cycle. At the end of the ninetieth year, the sun again starts to become youthful.

This is a very important cyclical occurrence.

There are such immense changes happening on the sun that it is also natural for the Earth to be shaken. When a body as huge as the Earth becomes shaken by earthquakes because of changes on the sun, how can the small body of man remain unaffected? This is the question astrologers have been asking. They say it is impossible for the body of man to remain unaffected. Children that are born during the forty-five years when the sun is growing, in its youthful phase, are wonderfully healthy. But children that are born during the forty-five years when the sun is growing old cannot be in sound health.

The condition of children born during the period when the sun is on the downward path is like that of a ship that has to travel east when the winds are blowing west -- a great deal of physical effort is needed to move the oars. The sails do not work, so the helmsman has to work harder. It is like swimming against the current. The sun is the vital energy source for the whole solar family. So whenever the sun is on the decline, whosoever is youthful must swim against the current. He has to undergo a great strain.

And whenever the sun is on the incline, the entire solar family is filled with energy and is moving toward its peak. Whoever is born then is in a ship that is sailing in the direction of the wind. No effort is needed; neither the oars nor the rudder have to be moved. The sails have only to be opened and the ship is moved by the winds. During this period the least number of diseases is prevalent on the earth. And when the sun is on the decline, we get the maximum number of diseases. So for forty-five years on Earth there is an increase in diseases, and for the next forty-five years there is a decrease, and so on.

The River Nile's historical record of four thousand years shows that there is an increased amount of water flowing in it during the forty-five years when the sun is in its youth. Whenever the sun is on the decline, the water level in the Nile drops and its current also becomes less strong and more sluggish.

Reproduced from http://www.oshoworld.com/osho_talk/talks/hidden06.asp