Asia pushes my buttons and I speak! (Details at eleven)

The birth of a Blog: The odds and ends of my brain need to be put to use for some great good... hopefully, but I was not thinking of writing a book or even an article on anything... these days I do things more than sit and ponder them. Fortunately for me, I have friends who remind me of all the things I have pondered at some time. Asia is a good friend who makes me feel like my brain must be very useful indeed, and here is the conversation which led to the birth of this blog, "Smartass Sage, Sonja Speaks!"

(I felt the need to explain the blog this way so you could better decide if it is a reading choice for you.) 

September 6th, 2012

Asia - Sonja, you have a gift for explaining and teaching so I'm curious if you'd be able to explain to me why a bunch of stars and our date of birth tie together into prophesies about our individual futures? I mean it's a cool concept, but I don't get it's origins or genesis, why it all works, and what makes people believe in these things...posted t

Sonja - Here is how I see it in a nut shell... and there are bigger shells of communication that can be dug into at a later date... 

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  Put quite simply, human brains are built with the capacity to expect unexplainable events to be explained. They try to solve the mystery. 
  
  When science was established, scientific method did this in a more streamlined manner. Before modern science, there were rules that were accepted in various disciplines. So astrology is a pre-modern science to explain things according to something that seemed very regular, the patterns and behaviors of the starry sky throughout the year.

  
  
• Asia -  Thank you, I really like that - I'm glad I asked you - your tiny nutshell is so different than what google generally offers on the subject. Ever thought of writing a book?

  
  
• Sonja - No, but I'll keep you around to build up me ego and make me glad I have be helpful... <hugs!>

  
  
• Sonja - Maybe you could outline with questions and I could provide some answers and it could be a "book" of sorts.

  
  
• Sonja - I was thinking you and I could share a blog... we could work it together, you are pretty brilliant too, you know, right? :)

  
  
• Asia - That'd be wicked!!! Yea, let's do it! I could def. come up with questions.

  
  
• Sonja - My answers don't look too good without your super-duper questions - LOL!

  
  
•  Asia -  Sonja the Smartass Sage, I love it hahahahaha.

  
  
•  Sonja -  Yeah, I might have to have a bibliography or something if I act too serious! :P  We could do interviews too...
• Asia - Yea! Alright this first question might sound lame, but I'm genuinely curious how accurate you generally find astrology to be?
• Sonja - Astrology? I think it is all in how you look at it. As applied to myself, it seems very accurate sometimes, but at other times very weird, like it is not me at all. 
  
  I figure it is an inaccurate "science" of how stars and the energy of that "time" and "place" of ones birth affect "personality". Ultimately, definition of "likes" and "dislikes", "strengths" and "weaknesses", etc. are such variables anyway, I start to imagine that maybe I really DO like to take risks, even though in my heart of hearts, I'm a little nervous about it.... so I throw it back and forth in my head until I find an example of a "risk" I took. "A-ha!" - perhaps I am a "risk taker" in certain situations!
  
   For example, I am not afraid of making a fool of myself up on a stage speaking to a crowd... It's not like gambling in Vegas.... that scares the living daylights out of me... but it is a little risky by other people's standards! 
  
  The tricky part of doing a full horoscope with all the houses and details fills out the picture with so many little nuances and those details add further depth. After a while, it appears pretty accurate and can be helpful if you want it to be so. 
  
  My Dad said that his horoscope matched who he was when he was young but as he aged he changed who he was. In other words, the horoscope is a snap shot of a blueprint that arrived at your birth with a story of plausible "you" in the moment delivered by an ancient inexact science that I believe originated in India if I am not mistaken. 
  
  It is not "you" by any stretch of the imagination. The information might help you get ideas about what you REALLY like, dislike, are talented at and so on. The information gives you something to bounce off of, mull over, and react to.... in the end, you have complete control over your life. You are your life's author each time you grapple with a choice before you.

  
  
• Asia - o0o0o0o I love this!!! We.Must.Blog. I feel it would be such a waste of a great mind to leave it hidden on fb, where it will increasingly ebb into the older entries for only the most stalkerish sorts of your friends list to stumble upon. lol
• Sonja - So to make this as easy as possible, what do we do next? I'm not a young savvy Internet expert...

  
  Asia - choose a blogging platform that you like - maybe blogspot or livejournal - those tend to be the most widely used, I believe. Basically you sign up for the site of your choice
• Sonja - which would you prefer...
• Asia - Yup - well since you're the real writer here and I'm just the student it makes more sense for you to choose a platform of your preference, design choice etc. You might want to sign up for more than one so that you can choose the one you like best and feel most comfortable working on. I'll be back in a bit - have to run out and do a couple things, won't be long tho
• Sonja - I am looking into Wordpress right now....
• Sonja - Blogger "Sonja, Smartypants Sage, Speaks!"
• Sonja -  Maybe Smartass is better... ? I can't decide... :P I don't swear so Smartass somehow sounds not like me... but if I am going to be irreverent, and someone sees that, it might fit better LOL!!!
• Sonja - Well, I started to add you to a blogger thing... it is going to take some time for me to figure it out... I'll keep you posted. Good night!
• Asia - Eek, sorry ended up doing stuff with my dad and he added a few more things to the list, then I had to get to bed at some hour this morning. Smartass is not a swear word! It doesn't even have four letters :P It's just has a negative connotation because it's typically reserved by authority to cut down those who challenge that authority - and that's exactly what you're doing with these fantastic insights! I will google this after I come home from work :) xo so exciting!
• Sonja - So I was a smartass to think "smartass" was a swear word, Ha-ha!!!!
• Marilyn - You two are cracking me up. Sonja the Smartass Sage has a great ring to it. ;-)
• Asia - Lyn makes a great point - cracking people up while being a smartass makes for a great learning environment - everyone loves a wisecrack :P OK OK, first blogging question: What's up with numerology? Is it tied to astrology? How is it relevant, if at all, and do you believe in it?
• Sonja - Okay, Marilyn, I'll take a walk on the wild side and be a Smartass Sage.... I am also doing things out of order because I have been stumbling around on blogger trying to start a blog and add you in, Asia, So I guess I'll have to cut and paste once I figure Blogger out.... which could take a while... 
  
  Just like with Astrology, (and Chinese Astrology which is very different from the "western": astrology), numerology is used to explain the unexplainable using it's own rules or it's own science. 
  
  The Greek teacher, Pythagoras, who is well known in math class for the Pythagorean theorem, liked to teach Math, [to both men and women, which was kind of shocking since the "magic of Mathamatics" was considered a dangerous thing to teach women... since it contained "magic"... you know, those math tricks that helped you learn the times tables and "magic boxes" which you could do for extra credit if you forgot your homework, etc.] and he taught numerology. 
  
  There are several types of numerology but Pythagoras developed a modern-time version (in 590 BC or there abouts) which is the one that is still popular in many numerology circles today. But his system is modern. I believe that almost every idea we have regarding numerology started in India. Almost everything we "do" or "play at" [Card games of all kinds, including the game with what we call tarot cards, chess, checkers, but not Monopoly... as far as I know) seems to begin in India. 
  
  Even the time Jesus was not having his life written about in the Bible... there is an idea that he traveled to India and I would not put it past him. Jesus was super amazing, and still is, I believe. 
  
  Anyway, getting back to numerology. I love numerology. My favorite use for it is when lighting birthday candles. It gets harder every time you get older to find enough candles for the ceremonial cake! And it is embarrassing too! So if I was to turn 59 years old... should I live to that ripe old age, I would need that many candles. But if we did it "numerology style", we would add 5 + 9 = 14 and then add 1 + 4 = 5..... I am 5 years old, not 59!!!! Awesome! ...I know, I know, it looks suspiciously like subtracting, but it is about going in a numerical circle. Each number is kind of like it's own personality, not an actual "value" numerically speaking. 
  
  All I know about how astrologers use numerology is that each planet is assigned a number and each zodiac sign is assigned a number and each house of the zodiac reflects that number so the numbers have their own personalities... it just adds more layers of possibilities. "Texture"... maybe. 
  
  You can study what each number is about. The number 2 is supposed to be peaceful. Even though we hear a lot about war, this is historically one of the most peaceful eras we have lived in... hard to believe but I read it on the Internet so it must be... LOL! .... or not true...but Steven Pinker, linguist, has a short interesting lecture on the topic.http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html
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  Steven Pinker: The surprising decline in violence | Video on TED.com

  www.ted.com
  

  TED Talks Steven Pinker charts the decline of violence from Biblical times to th...See More

  
  
• Sonja - What do I believe about numerology? I am not a number lover like my oldest daughter. I want to interview her about math someday. She reads a lot about the history of math. People who look for definitive answers like math. Perhaps I was more interested in numerology when I was younger. At that time I did not have the desire to explore it. The concepts seemed too vague from my perspective. Reading about it in a book is kind of dry... especially because it is about numbers, not people or animals or something alive with a birth, coming of age, and the struggles for insight and peace... numbers just don't go there for me... not yet at least! :-/ Perhaps reading about Pythagoras, or other even MORE modern mathematicians would give math and numerology  more life for my blatantly biased mind!