A complaint I have with intellectuals, particularly science-loving intellectuals, is their outright rejection of things like religion and astrology. Scientists and fundamentalists often make the same mistake of rejecting (or accepting) complex ideas by process of oversimplistic reductionism.

Both groups (religious fundamentalists and science fundamentalists) want simple, easy-to-understand answers, but for different reasons.

The problem is, when approaching topics like religion, both groups are denying the wisdom of five to ten thousand years of principles being passed on through metaphor, stories, myths, and allegory. Often I notice science fundamentalists will take a mythical story or bible story and reduce it to its "logical" points, and try to secure a true/false statement. This approach often misses the more subtle and deep meanings of the characters and circumstances of the stories that are being told.

Likewise, religious fundamentalists are often trying to secure information that supports their missions of conversion or self-preservation, and tend to reduce religious stories to very surface, actionable logic without considering the deeper message of the stories.

I have disdain for both approaches! I find both approaches to be arrogant and self-serving. Arrogant, in that fundamentalism is a less-than-100-year-old movement, and yet they feel so confident in their conclusions to throw 10,000-year-old-babies out with the bathwater. Self-serving, in that religion and astrology both have served humanity very well for thousands of years, yet are outright rejected (in the case of science) or outright accepted (usually in part) if their distilled messages match the motivations of the group.

Can't wait to dive into my astrology certification program this summer. It has already added so much richness to my life and I am excited to learn more about the ancient ways.