What It Means To Be A Public Astrological Intellectual

7:19 AM 1/29/06 Sun

I frequently get emails and other communications from
colleagues and astrologically interested persons, as
to the nature of my writing; why I state the things
that I do. As one might guess, some of it is
favorable, offering additional insights that they
think I might be interested in, and a large part of
the replies are sent with a harsh tonality of
criticism behind it. This I don't mind, in fact, I
live for the debate of ideas, and this plays a huge
part of why I write what I do.

I don't think it was an accident that someone like
myself - a young, African American, Muslim male,
inner-city born and bred - would be interested in
Astrology. Over the years, I could have made a mint of
money for everytime I heard from someone upon meeting
me face to face saying, "you don't look like an
astrologer". While I'm sure all those people meant
well, the implication is explicit enough - the world
of Astrology is in the main, dominated by a certain
archetype - White, middle-aged, usually female,
usually suburban, often liberal college educated. And
while these days it's not nice to give any stereotype
anywhere any creedance, I think it safe to say that
all such stereotypes come with them at least a grain
of truth.

Like other astrology enthusiasts, I read all the
extant modern literature by all the "name" astrologers
of our time: Hand, both Green(e)s, Forrest, Braha,
Cunningham, March & McEvers, Tyl, Zondag, you name it.
And so very much of it sounded so very distant to me,
so far away removed from what my world looked like,
sounded like, smelled like. This isn't just a
statement of the "personal" - I know there are many of
those same "well wishers" I spoke of earlier who are
chomping at the bit to tell me that it's all in my
head - but that there was a serious disconnect in what
I read and what I actually saw being played out around
me, in the lives of everyday working and living and
breathing folks.

Many of my detractors like to pithily point out that
Astrology is "blind" to such trivial mundane matters
as race or class, ethnicity or sex/gender; this
supposed superiority raises the astrologer above the
fray of political debate and serious sociological
inquiry. But again, that keen analysis falls apart in
the real world, where real things happen to real
people.

This is what lead me onto the path I'm now on today,
that of being what I like to call a Public
Astrological Intellectual.

As the name infers, I take my cue from other public
intellectuals in other fields - sociology, the
humanities, history, economics, politics - and apply
the tools of the Astrological Academy to real life
conditions being played out on the world stage, to get
underneath the issues and points of view that inform
us all.

I take a hard look at many of the things that so many
of us here in the astrological community either just
don't think about - or, and I think this is more like
it - simply don't want to involved with. Take the
issue of Class, for example - what does astrology, and
we astrologers, have to say about that? Aren't the
bulk and mass of us interested in "humanistic"
pursuits? What about Sexual Politics, and the
drastically shifting landscape socially, between men
and women, it has left in its wake?

IS there a such thing as a "blue state/red state"
divide in our ranks? Has the astrology community, both
in terms of its mindset and the very real fact that so
many of its adherents and "members" are women, become
feminized?

Should astrologers merely be "soothsayers" - people
who divine the oracle as it were, and leave it at that
- or are we to be advocates for a particular cause, a
certain way of life?

Like so many astrolgers who have gone on before me -
Marsilio Ficino immediately comes to mind - I aim,
through my writings, to take a hard look at the State
of Our Art at the dawn of a new Millennium. And like
Ficino, who's Saturn is prominent in his horoscope, my
own drives me to ask the hard questions - and to get
at some tough answers.

In the past year, I have written at length and in
detail about such issues as Abortion and the
seachanges afoot at the US Supreme Court; the very
real issue of Class (and its close cousin, Race) with
regard not only to the Katrina crisis but as well, to
the question of "interdating"; I dealt with the topic
of the Working Poor, of the unintended consequences of
the Sexual Revolution, of the hard choices regarding
the War on Terror that have to be made, perhaps the
challenge of our time - only to name a few.

I took up the issue of Stanley "Tookie" Williams from
a decidely different point of view, when so many other
colleagues went the other way; dealt with pop
cultural, and as it turns out, eternal themes by
putting the "Goldigger" into astrological context, to
say nothing of the treatments I gave to pop culture
figures such as Dr. Phil, Terrell Owens, Ron Artest,
and TV programs like "Commander in Chief".

Say what you will of me or my writings, but I think it
safe to say that few if any others in our field have
levelled such a close and keen astrological eye at
some of the people, issues and themes of our Times, as
I have.

I personally think, when I get the emails and rants
from the detractors, that there is just a weebit of
Hater-Aide seeping through between the lines.
Afterall, I don't hesitate to stomp on toes and roll a
few sacred cows on the spit. I'm uber critical of some
of the most hallowed voices, ideas and concepts of the
Western Modern (or Post-Modern, I should say, LOL)
Astrology Movement, again much of it coming from my
particular circumstance as one who does not fit the
demographic, experience or worldview of the current
community of astrologers, and at least of much of it
coming from my intimate experience with, and knowledge
of, other systems of astrological information, namely
the un-retouched Vedic astrological model. I put it
that way because, as has been the case with a large
part of Western astrology, Vedic astrology in the West
has mutated into something that many continental
Indians would have trouble recognizing. I've been
doing Vedic astrology since 1998, have many Indian
born clients, and have NEVER once had one of them
coming to me for "the meaning of life" session. Most
Indian clients, in my experience, have concerns that
are much more mundane and to the point. The whole
business about the spiritual dimensions of Vedic
astrology are at best overblown in reality, an
American/Western innovation, dreamt up by and
profferred to middle class White folks who have a bit
too much time and/or money on their hands.

I have long held the view, that so many in our
community are living in a socially, ethnically,
politically, "spiritually" hermetically-sealed bubble,
where they only have to come into contact with others
like themselves; I have believed, and this belief is
reinforced day by day, that the vast majority of my
colleagues simply could not do my horoscope - that is
to say, that they wouldn't be able to take the funny
looking symbols looking back at them that is my chart,
and be able to put it into context of what my life
actually is. The reasons for this is simple, and
should by now be apparent, it's because so many of my
colleagues simply have no understanding of life for
most African Americans. Because our community is also
top-heavy (pardon the pun) with middle-aged women,
many of my colleagues wouldn't know how to relate to
me as a man. Because so many of my colleagues in the
field are old enough to at least be my parents if not
grandparents, most of them wouldn't be able to deal
with topics and themes relevant to the times in which
I live and have to confront. But I know I could do any
one of their charts, and in fact, my experience in
Astrology over the past decade and a half has borne
witness to this - for every one Black client I have, I
have as many White, Indian, and so on. Because of my
"marginality" I'm able to see things that so many of
my colleagues either can't see - or, don't want to see
(take a wild guess which one I think is more true?).
The "bubble" syndrome extant in our astrology
community today, is something that we have to be
serious about confronting if we want astrology to be
around in the years ahead. Much of my writing to date
has been centered around this issue.

But I guess more than anything else, I strive to make
astrology meaningful and relevant to the average Joe
and Josie on the set, as it were; I try to winnow away
flowery talk and new-agey asides about the Arkashic
Records, because for the many people whom I come into
contact with, they might as well have bought a real
record and played it for all the difference it would
have made. The Public Astrological Intellectual works
to make astrology accessible to the masses of folks,
by taking matters that actually means something to
said folks, and brings astrological insight to it, by
applying to tools of the Astrological Academy. And
yes, I do take stands on the issues - Astrology is,
afterall, a Human endeavor - it means nothing if the
Human is taken out of it. This is why my position has
always been, that attempts to dehumanize Astrology by
making such pithy remarks as "the horoscope doesn't
determine male or female" are largely disengenuous and
intellectually dishonest; such proponents would do
better to simply say that they are in full agreement
with Gay Marriage rather than to try to put the Old
Jedi Mindtrick on one of their own. Mine is a rather
new effort, but one that I hope to contribute
something meaningful to, for the benefit of new
astrologers to come.

Salaam,
Mu

Mu'Min M. Bey
Western and Vedic Astrologer
Incisive Astrological Analysis & Commentary: muminspeaks.blogspot.com
Checkout The Website:
muminbey.tripod.com
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AOL IM Screen Name: JediMu
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