Pluto, God and Traffic Jams

A friend is mine is deeply into astrology. I don't mean the simplistic newspaper horoscopes, which rarely seem to sing from the same hymn-sheet - or do I mean star-chart? Today, for example, I am being told that I am "well-equipped to handle other people's deep emotions." As a body psychotherapist I'm very relieved to hear this. Elsewhere I am told that I am feeling tired and that I need to indulge myself with rest. Strangely, immediately below this advice I am invited to click on a link labelled 'Should I take breast enlargement pills?' Now I am very comfortable with bodies - in my work I see all shapes and sizes - but as I'm happy in my skin I think I shall decline this offer. Even more strangely, yet another horoscope warns that colleagues may try to convince me to take up a silly cause. Ermm, like taking moob pills?

No, this friend is into the serious stuff. And the other day she informed me that Pluto has gone retrograde, so until September the astrological forces at work will be highlighting "the desires of the soul which are not working anymore." You have been warned.

Now much as I love my friend, we do disagree on astrology. She regards it as an essential tool for managing her life, something that gives her forewarning about the influences and tendencies surrounding her. In that sense it's like traffic information for drivers. There are roadworks on the M4, Reading FC are playing at home today and there are speed traps between Swindon and Chippenham; so if you're driving from London to Bristol, allow extra time for your journey.

The problem for me is that the traffic information is based on a reality that I can understand. Workmen have put cones up on the M4. The police have parked a white van on a motorway bridge in Wiltshire. Reading FC fans are driving towards Madejski Stadium... My paths will cross these things in the near future. That is a reality I can comprehend. It impacts my life, and awareness of these facts gives me options - choices about how and when I travel.

But Pluto going retrograde is a wholly different matter. My friend would say that this too impacts my life, and awareness of the fact gives me choices. But I'm uncomfortable with it. Even more uncomfortably, often the things she mentions turn out to be accurate. I haven't made a scientific study, but I've registered enough 'coincidences' to feel unable to reject it all out of hand. Is it really so very different from traffic information or a weather forecast? I don't know. But I do know that it feels different.

It's like the question about God and free will. God, being omniscient, knows what we're going to do. But if he knows right now - before we've even done it - then our future actions and choices are apparently already made. I can do nothing other than what I am going to do. In which case, do I really have a choice? And if I don't have a choice, how can I be responsible for my actions?

Philosophers and theologians continue to grapple with this debate. Better minds than mine have failed to win the argument one way or another. So what is left?

I feel that if we do not have free will then the lives we lead do not make sense, the society we live in is a collective fantasy - no, a complete sham. If I do not have free will, then who - and what - am I?

For myself I have to assert that we have free will. I'm not sure if that is true - but I choose to believe it. This is not denial - denial is a defence mechanism in which people unconsciously refuse to acknowledge painful thoughts, feelings or realities. I am fully aware of the both the reality, the possbilities and my own feelings. Knowing the uncertainties I choose to act. And I act knowing that maybe it's all a huge cosmic joke.

But then that's life. We navigate our way between dreams and reality, hopes and fears, joy and pain, on an uncertain road leading... somewhere. Don't worry about Pluto, God and traffic jams; fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.