Determinist or Philosopher?
by Ciro Discepolo

Occasionally some astrologers, speaking about another astrologer, say: “He is a determinist!”.
Someone says it superficially. Others say it with contempt, as if to say: “He is a fascist!”.
Let us see.
Who is a “determinist” (in Astrology)? A “determinist” can be, in the negative meaning, an astrologer that “shoots” sentences.
Let us go back to an episode from the life of Kepler.
Kepler was an astrologer and an astronomer, a very good astrologer and a very good astronomer: he is my hero!
Once upon a time he studied, for money, the Natal Chart and the transits of a nobleman, the duke of Wallenstein. Kepler worked many days on this study and gave a detailed relation to his customer. The duke of Wallenstein liked a lot the work of Johannes Kepler, so much so that he requested a second study on his own person.
What did the astrologer write in these relations? He spoke a lot about philosophy, said everything and its opposite, he debated about the sex of the angels, about the furniture of Wallenstein castle, about how many dog races exist in the whole world, the pleasure to drink a good wine, etc.
No, I am joking.
Johannes Kepler, redacting the duke’s horoscope was strongly “determinist” and wrote about his horse incidents, his dangerous days for the war, his good moments to love or to construct alliances. In short, Johannes Kepler who was a very good astrologer and not a philosopher was politically incorrect and called a spade a spade, as an Israeli friend of mine says.
Then, I think, we don’t have to be afraid of words. I think that the most important thing for an astrologer is to be able to make exact previsions or not.
Now, if in my experience, I memorized that when Mars enters in the Fourth House, almost always we will have problems with our hard disk, why should I write “You are in a particular moment of your life in which you are testing if your spiritual growth is in a good position on the entire scale of your evolutive development of your existence…”. But, if I know that my hard disk will crash, why should I turn it all in philosophy?
At last the question is, in my opinion: are you able to make previsions? Yes or not? If yes, you are simply an astrologer, without the adjective “determinist” or “fascist” or “vegetarian” or “red-haired”.
I think that the colleagues that speak in this way are to be praised and not to be criticized. If we look at this matter with intellectual honesty we have to admit that the “determinist” astrologers risk every day because they work without the safety net while the philosopher astrologers, many times, speak only to exercise their lungs saying a lot of fried air.
By God, we currently live in democracy, at least in Europe and in the USA, and every scholar of Astrology can choose whether to refer to philosopher authors or “determinist” authors.
I think that, on this matter, it is not necessary to fight and that, peacefully, every astrologer can choose as he pleases.