"Many are currently in a state of 'under construction' and are looking for a path for their soul," says the most famous Czech astrologer Antonín Baudyš Jr.
How do you think astrology has changed (if at all) since the Velvet Revolution? Are today's astrological interpretations any different from those made thirty years ago?
The progression of recent decades captures everyone and everything. Just as Czech society has been cultivated, so too has there been a cultivation within the astrological field. At the level of individuals and the whole community, at the level of working techniques, ways of thinking and approach to the customer. Astrology has reached a stage of purity. The field is based on people who have a legacy and something to say. We had and still have a huge amount of literature, added to that videos and experiences from abroad. As a field and its representatives, we are exactly where we need to be.
How important are new discoveries in astronomy, such as the discovery of dwarf planets, new planetary bodies or exoplanets, to contemporary astrology? Do these findings translate into astrological practice?
The tremendous speed of the development of society is accompanied by the emergence of other planets, which astronomy also refers to as plutoids. The designations are conventions, but the essence remains the same. The most important are the new planets, which bring hitherto untapped themes into the horoscope. We therefore have a little more work to do, but at the same time it is an educational adventure with a great deal of responsibility. Because how we set it, how we define it, is how it will behave in the future. So far, the major discovery beyond Pluto, the body called Eris, has brought out the theme of contradiction and discord in the horoscope with the contrast of great unification and overcoming these contradictions.
Astrologers use essentially the same terminology as astronomers. In your opinion, then, should astrology adapt as much as possible to modern astronomical knowledge, or should it cling more to traditional rules and historical interpretations?
We need both: astronomical knowledge and traditional rules, and we can't resign ourselves to either. Let us at the same time say that astronomy is not everything and one tradition has always been transformed for another interpretation. So far it is the case that we have been able to find astrological meaning for most astronomical knowledge. More accurately, it has always found itself through someone.
In your opinion, can modern space research completely change traditional astrological systems?
From our point of view, astronomy sees the universe as dead rather than alive, and what is called modern research is not free from the filters of human grasp and contemporary folklore. If anything has been much discredited in the last decade, it is science. I refer to the covid crimes sanctified by the priests of science. In addition, there has been an attempt by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency to break the zodiac by introducing the thirteenth sign of Haddon. The effort was worthwhile, it was essentially humorous, with the potential to shatter the zodiac into shards that no one could put back together. Basically, astronomy established the division of cosmic space and its contents. Attention in recent decades, thanks to the James Webb Telescope, has focused mainly on the moons of existing planets and objects beyond the solar system.
What is the biggest news or curiosity in astrology at the moment that has personally intrigued, shocked or inspired you?
It was the Fates of the Stars by the Hungarian pair of authors Czeizel and Greskó, which explains how the stars, both the key ones and the lesser-known ones, came to have their energetic nature and how they work in the horoscope. It is, by all accounts, as I suspected. Great stories have happened and continue to happen in the inhabited worlds of the universe, which in turn make the various worlds carry certain characteristics and are reflected in our individual natures and stories. Our galaxy has a history, and that has implications for the present.
Astrology is often criticized for not being scientific. But in your opinion, is there an area of modern science that somehow supports astrology or helps explain it to skeptics?
I've completely resigned myself to this area of interest, but I couldn't help but notice the analogy between the greatest highway traffic jam in history and planetary collisions on the same days. From August 14 to 26, 2010, several thousand cars were stuck in traffic on China's 50-lane National Highway 110. The cars were moving at the rate of one kilometer per day. In the sky, virtually all planets except Mercury were in collision (0-90-180° angles).
What topics or issues do people pay the most attention to when they come to you today?
First, I'll say what people in other fields say, which is that during the covid everything fell a bit, which is also true for all sorts of issues with atrologists. In some ways that's a good thing, because before covid many of us lived in an intensity to hecticness that was devastating. In astrology, since 2019, we have made great strides in internal communication, the whole industry is connected and in some form of collaboration, which was not the case before. People are clearly asking the most questions this year about the path for their soul. They are coming with something in front of them, but it is difficult for them to grasp it or to name it. Many are currently in a state of "under construction".
What areas of life do you think astrology can predict or influence best, and conversely, where are its limits?
It works differently. Astrology is not there as a blanket field for everyone - statistics, wham, done. Sample a thousand people, bang, done. It's only for some people and only sometimes. And at any given moment, it will do what it was meant to do. And then it disappears again, for a long time or forever. But otherwise, it shows unusually sharply phenomena such as moving, changing work environments, or new people coming into one's life. It also shows reliably when a person will be exhausted or frustrated. It shows when financial expenses will come up, when a person will replace their car, computer or phone. There is always a certain amount of work involved, but also a certain amount of recovery.
People often associate astrology with esotericism. In your opinion, are these two fields of human research really connected?
Astrology deals with invisible and immeasurable influences and is therefore classified as so-called hidden or esoteric knowledge. The rationalistic thinking that took hold in Europe in the first half of the 17th century enabled great progress in the natural sciences. This so-called positivist approach, on the other hand, stripped the world of its magic and mystery and plunged a large part of the human race into a kind of emptiness and futility. How we feel, how we treat our souls, and what we choose to give our attention to are all our responsibility.
Do you think astrology will ever gain respect or recognition even within the scientific community? What do you think might be the key that would bring it closer to that?
It will never happen. Besides, astrology doesn't need any such thing. Society already remains divided and is heading into two developmental, or time lines. The scientific community is not interested in us, and we are not interested in them. At least we're not wasting our time, energy and nerves on something hopeless.
