Well, FWIW, I may not be your younger self, Adam (in fact, I’m older than you if we’re simply using number of solar returns to count), but your articles, and your podcasts, always speak to me, and I’m always grateful when your voice catches my attention (as it just did now by way of a Substack notification, one of the only apps I allow notifications for, appearing at the top of my phone just as I was wrapping up my pre-sleep round of Duo Lingo language learning).
Anyway, I share your concerns about the poor quality of LLM’s for being a true sub for us human astrologers. I feel like the few times I’ve asked one an astrological question, it gets the first answer wrong in some very obvious way and I then spend my time correcting the darn thing.
For example, just this weekend, I asked for a list of Jupiter-in-Gemini transits using tropical astrology dating from 1960 to 2030 and, after it made a preliminary comment about how Jupiter takes about 12 years to go through the Zodiac, it listed the current transit and the previous one correctly, before listing the one before that as sometime in 2008! When I pointed out that 2008 was not, by any standard form of counting 12 years before the 2012-13 transit, it apologized and said that the only sources it had used which were reliable were for the current and 2012-13 one!
Perhaps the bright side is we’ll be able which astrological content creators are merely spitting out what these apps are feeding them and we can then, in honor the Virgo archetype, easily separate the wheat from the chaff.
Anyway, for the time being at least, I’m reasonably sure you are still a proper human with astrological accuracy, depth and wisdom!
thank you Bryan. And yeah, you can't ask it anything about cycles are when planets were in certain places, which is weird, because all it needs access to is an ephermeris. I guess they haven't trained them to read it. There's two apps already using Ai Costar and Kundali and they are both shit. It's going to be a mess. We gotta hold down the old ways.
Speaking of holding down the old ways, when I was in jail last spring, one common way I passed the time was by “tracking” planetary cycles in my head, using data points I knew (for example, Mars entered Taurus on that fated day of January 6th 2021). Of course, I had no way to check my accuracy, but I found that doing those “astro puzzles” not only helped me stay somewhat sane through that ordeal, they made me better able to understand the cycles once I got out.
I may have to write a blog post on this experience and topic. Even beyond the uses for us astrologers, I think remembering our innate skills devoid of technological hand-holding is going to be more important moving forward. After all, events can happen that may suddenly take these tech tools from us. And, if not, such activities are good exercise for the brain!
damn Bryan, Japanese jail? Nice to hear that you were doing that to pass the time. I can imagine I would do the same. Memorize the ephemeris, play rounds of golf, and try to track all my past lives. What else to do...
Yeah, there was basically that and six hours per day where I could journal. And “read” Japanese comic books that I only partially understood and novels that I didn’t. Fortunately, we were able to get them to loosen the ridiculous rules regarding English-language reading so I got a Bible and a Haruki Murakami novel. Oh, and I invented the games of Thread Ball and Bread Ball where I balled up small threads from clothing or blankets or tiny pieces of bread from breakfast and flicked them across the room in what became a rather hilarious, elaborate daily tournament in which I kept standings and wrote game reports. 45 days I waited just to get bail, but I realize many more suffer much worse and much longer. The ordeal only made me more of anti-Statist anarchist.
Anyway, I wrote almost 100,000 words in those journals and one of my 2024 plans is to get them ready for some sort of publication by next spring!
I suppose when you have Saturn in the 12th House natally and you ask him to “guide your ship” for a year, one thing me might do is put your ass in serious isolation! Having said all of that, the experience definitely deepened my sense of gratitude for the many little things in life, and increased my sense that we all have so many more innate resources than we usually imagine ourselves to.
Wow. Thanks for sharing your Saturn in the 12th tale Bryan. Intense. I hope you get those words published. I'm sure some interesting ideas showed up in that isolation. Turn the curse into a blessing!!!
Did you write this for me? 😂 I actually did a reading last month without any research or outside sources. I had to becuase I had the wrong birth date (10-9 is 9-10 some places in the world and you'd think that would be obvious to me but it slipped my mind). Truth be told, it was the best error I've ever made because I discovered that I could do it. She loved the reading and my confidence in my reading skills took a big jump.
With my moon, IC and sun all in Jupiter's steamroller path through Gemini, my challenge this year is to go with less to combat Jupiter's more. I can feel how important this will be already. It's not like I don't do the meditation, the sitting with my own thoughts, reading real books etc... I just do too much of all of it and am always feeling like I should "read one more article" etc. This will be my year of practicing a new approach. One less...
being a double Gemini, the Rx for you may need to be adjusted Cami. At least you did the reading without any sources though. That's huge. Well done. And I should have added to stay away from articles written for internet minds, like the one you sent me yesterday, and dare I say how Jamie Wheal writes on his Substack. I don't like it. It feels manipulative.
there are 3 key ways: paragraphs that are a sentence long; multiple fonts for effect; punchy titles. It's all meant to gear to our lack of attention and being click bait. I hate that Jamie does it. It takes from the brilliance of his ideas.
I love this (content and image!😆) and my choice in this space. It's in the carefully considered why, and in my increasingly curated content that nurtures within and without, I am here, deeply appreciative of the exploration, thoughtfulness, creativity and humor that you share.
Well, FWIW, I may not be your younger self, Adam (in fact, I’m older than you if we’re simply using number of solar returns to count), but your articles, and your podcasts, always speak to me, and I’m always grateful when your voice catches my attention (as it just did now by way of a Substack notification, one of the only apps I allow notifications for, appearing at the top of my phone just as I was wrapping up my pre-sleep round of Duo Lingo language learning).
Anyway, I share your concerns about the poor quality of LLM’s for being a true sub for us human astrologers. I feel like the few times I’ve asked one an astrological question, it gets the first answer wrong in some very obvious way and I then spend my time correcting the darn thing.
For example, just this weekend, I asked for a list of Jupiter-in-Gemini transits using tropical astrology dating from 1960 to 2030 and, after it made a preliminary comment about how Jupiter takes about 12 years to go through the Zodiac, it listed the current transit and the previous one correctly, before listing the one before that as sometime in 2008! When I pointed out that 2008 was not, by any standard form of counting 12 years before the 2012-13 transit, it apologized and said that the only sources it had used which were reliable were for the current and 2012-13 one!
Perhaps the bright side is we’ll be able which astrological content creators are merely spitting out what these apps are feeding them and we can then, in honor the Virgo archetype, easily separate the wheat from the chaff.
Anyway, for the time being at least, I’m reasonably sure you are still a proper human with astrological accuracy, depth and wisdom!
thank you Bryan. And yeah, you can't ask it anything about cycles are when planets were in certain places, which is weird, because all it needs access to is an ephermeris. I guess they haven't trained them to read it. There's two apps already using Ai Costar and Kundali and they are both shit. It's going to be a mess. We gotta hold down the old ways.
Speaking of holding down the old ways, when I was in jail last spring, one common way I passed the time was by “tracking” planetary cycles in my head, using data points I knew (for example, Mars entered Taurus on that fated day of January 6th 2021). Of course, I had no way to check my accuracy, but I found that doing those “astro puzzles” not only helped me stay somewhat sane through that ordeal, they made me better able to understand the cycles once I got out.
I may have to write a blog post on this experience and topic. Even beyond the uses for us astrologers, I think remembering our innate skills devoid of technological hand-holding is going to be more important moving forward. After all, events can happen that may suddenly take these tech tools from us. And, if not, such activities are good exercise for the brain!
damn Bryan, Japanese jail? Nice to hear that you were doing that to pass the time. I can imagine I would do the same. Memorize the ephemeris, play rounds of golf, and try to track all my past lives. What else to do...
Yeah, there was basically that and six hours per day where I could journal. And “read” Japanese comic books that I only partially understood and novels that I didn’t. Fortunately, we were able to get them to loosen the ridiculous rules regarding English-language reading so I got a Bible and a Haruki Murakami novel. Oh, and I invented the games of Thread Ball and Bread Ball where I balled up small threads from clothing or blankets or tiny pieces of bread from breakfast and flicked them across the room in what became a rather hilarious, elaborate daily tournament in which I kept standings and wrote game reports. 45 days I waited just to get bail, but I realize many more suffer much worse and much longer. The ordeal only made me more of anti-Statist anarchist.
Anyway, I wrote almost 100,000 words in those journals and one of my 2024 plans is to get them ready for some sort of publication by next spring!
I suppose when you have Saturn in the 12th House natally and you ask him to “guide your ship” for a year, one thing me might do is put your ass in serious isolation! Having said all of that, the experience definitely deepened my sense of gratitude for the many little things in life, and increased my sense that we all have so many more innate resources than we usually imagine ourselves to.
Wow. Thanks for sharing your Saturn in the 12th tale Bryan. Intense. I hope you get those words published. I'm sure some interesting ideas showed up in that isolation. Turn the curse into a blessing!!!
Did you write this for me? 😂 I actually did a reading last month without any research or outside sources. I had to becuase I had the wrong birth date (10-9 is 9-10 some places in the world and you'd think that would be obvious to me but it slipped my mind). Truth be told, it was the best error I've ever made because I discovered that I could do it. She loved the reading and my confidence in my reading skills took a big jump.
With my moon, IC and sun all in Jupiter's steamroller path through Gemini, my challenge this year is to go with less to combat Jupiter's more. I can feel how important this will be already. It's not like I don't do the meditation, the sitting with my own thoughts, reading real books etc... I just do too much of all of it and am always feeling like I should "read one more article" etc. This will be my year of practicing a new approach. One less...
being a double Gemini, the Rx for you may need to be adjusted Cami. At least you did the reading without any sources though. That's huge. Well done. And I should have added to stay away from articles written for internet minds, like the one you sent me yesterday, and dare I say how Jamie Wheal writes on his Substack. I don't like it. It feels manipulative.
Sorry... I thought it was an interesting perspective. How do you suss out an article written for internet minds before you read them?
there are 3 key ways: paragraphs that are a sentence long; multiple fonts for effect; punchy titles. It's all meant to gear to our lack of attention and being click bait. I hate that Jamie does it. It takes from the brilliance of his ideas.
That makes sense. I'm so "old school" that I've never thought about it. Clearly it's not in my wheelhouse but I see what you're saying.
it's not the worst thing on the internet, just something i find annoying =)
Oh flipping heck, I’m feeling overwhelmed already. Thanks anyway x
bring a book to the woods?
I love this (content and image!😆) and my choice in this space. It's in the carefully considered why, and in my increasingly curated content that nurtures within and without, I am here, deeply appreciative of the exploration, thoughtfulness, creativity and humor that you share.
that's the approach my friend! And I'm happy that I've made it into your curated feed. Not easy to do these days. So thank you.