Why are gemstones associated with Eastern astrology?

Why are gemstones associated with Eastern astrology?
but not given much thought in Western astrology?

Suggestion by Mystic
Gemstones are associated to vedic astrology, as once upon a time, they people who could afford an astrologer did want to be more successful. Stones, in itself have their own properties of energies. Astrologers then would recommend what stones would work best. With western astrology, the approach was not as mystical, in fact by the 1800′s it was evolving into more psychology of a chart. There are stones for western astrology, but they are different than vedic. Two reasons for that. One geographical, what stones were available in the area and were assessable. Some astrologers were also magi’s who would also include a magical aura about them.
Sadly, here in the western world, jewelers got into the mix. In the late 1800′s and early 1900, they realized that they were missing a market. So jewelers created their own chart for stones for birthday months, then for zodiac signs. Knowing NOTHING about astrology, just what they could get and sell. Until recently, their charts were thought to be accurate. Some Jewelers organizations did take some ideals from Vedic astrology.
Nowadays, there are some good books to dismiss all of that. Remember, it is not just the Sun sign stone one may wear.

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What is Free Will in astrology?
Your definition and your own experience? You overcame? You took control? Isn’t it just a theory to distinguish western astrology from traditional fatalistic approaches, such as in parts of Indian astrology?

from:

http://www.astroknowlogy.com/questions/how-does-free-will-work-in-astrology

Suggestion by aspicco
Just a theory? Hardly…

Society grows, evolves & changes. Free will has always existed but rulers and religions have always sought to take it away from us.

We are not victims. We create our reality all the time.

Suggestion by Markab
The fate vs free will argument has been around a long time and it doesn’t just include astrology. Free will implies we make our decisions without outside interference or we can do that. Fate in its most extreme form means that we’re little more than puppets being guided along by forces outside ourselves, and our lives our more or less mapped out for us and our destiny determined at birth due to circumstances (the sociologists’ view), our psyche (the psychologists view) or just mapped out by supernatural forces and written out for us in the cosmos.

Churches are big on free will. Christianity teaches that we must love God in order to achieve salvation and eternal happiness, and that love has to be given freely. Without free will, salvation is a joke, and then who needs Churches? This is The Roman Catholic problem with astrology, among other things.

Astrology is fatalistic to one degree or another. It is not and never has been 100% fatalistic, although there are 100% fatalistic astrologers. There is no point in prediction if you can’t avoid the consequences of fate. Contemporary astrologers like to claim that modern psychological astrology is not fatalistic, but delineating personality from an astrological chart is just as fatalistic as delineating the number of children you will have or how long you will live. The emphasis is changed is all. And how this is different from delineating a personality from an ink blot or an MMPI or other psychological tests is beyond me.

We cannot logically deny fate. People born with congenital diseases are fated to live a certain way. People born into poverty are fated to live a certain way and in the vast majority of cases they learn a particular viewpoint. Schopenhauer said “Man has a free will, just not the will to use it.” Couple that with a remark by a man whose name escapes me: “Poverty is not just having little money. It’s a state of mind.”

He’s right. A man can be born into poverty and inherit a worldview as a result and never get out. Or he can inherit a different worldview in the same state and work his way out. He is exercising his free will. Those who choose to stay impoverished (barring serious physical or mental impairment) are the ones Schopenhauer had in mind. We can argue endlessly if either is exercising free will.

The astrological chart shows the state (not necessarily the socioeconomic conditions) we are born to. It can show our strengths and weaknesses. It can also show the best way to use what we’ve got and maybe the best time to initiate activities. It will not necessarily show our long term successes or failures. It shows potential. That’s the fate. What we do with what we’ve got shows the free will.

The best example is probably from Shakespeare. Macbeth is to be king, predicted the witches. But he didn’t sit around and wait for it to happen. He did something about it. If a chart shows great success in business and the native never gets a job, the chart isn’t wrong. The native has not exercised his free will to produce the predicted results. We have to do something with our lives.

This is what drives me nuts about women and their “soul mates.” When will I meet my soul mate? Never if you don’t get your butt out the door once in a while and I don’t need a chart for that prediction.

We have a free will. We can exercise it within certain limitations. The chart can help with that. That’s it in a nutshell.

Suggestion by ChainLightninG⅜
If we can ignore the evidence (or lack of evidence) against astrology and still believe it, why can’t we also believe in astrology but choose to ignore it? 70% of the US don’t bother with it and they seem to be able to live full lives. The prediction parts fail anyway so take a chance and live without it.

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