Thread by @KayqueGirao

The curious Thai Astrology. Follow the thread telling about it:

I tend to be very curious about the most diverse cultures that have absorbed astrology throughout human history. One that I find very interesting is Thai astrology. +

One of the reasons that motivates me to have this type of research, even if superficial, is to make literary comparisons with a more "academic" purpose. In the West Astrology was left and separated from local culture with the advent of industrial revolutions, +

+ ceasing to have its political-agrarian importance to be relegated as a non-scientific and bourgeois character. In the case of Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia known for its paradisiacal beaches, astrology is a popular subject and respected by most of the people, +

+ religious and government. Being an astrologer in Thailand is quite common, there are always open-air stools during festivities and holidays with consultations being carried out by professionals by means of a hand-held letter, a photo of the consultant and hand reading.

The main influences of Thai Astrology are Chinese Astrology, Vedic Astrology, Modern Western Astrology, Buddhism and popular beliefs of soul and shamanic content. This local shamanic content was the main spice in this cultural melting pot, as much of what religious +

+ traditions breathe are beliefs in the spirits of the dead, nature and the deities that came from Hinduism through the Buddhist current. reinterpreted under the local guise. Even the Chinese counting system is redesigned with animals of similar or different qualities.

For a large part of the Western public it seems strange that Buddhism takes on a role of soul significance, since - as it became commonly known - such a religion would not give importance to the aspect of immediate spiritual reality +

(considering it part of Samsara, the cycle death and rebirth, as well as impermanence and anatman). But the fact is that Buddhism at the folkloric level ends up acting in the same way as popular Catholicism, +

+ with its lay priests, local sorcerers and mandigueiro monks, astrological amulets, yak sants (talismanic tattoos), etc. What seems to me most impressive about this phenomenon is the fact that Modern Astrology, especially "Uranian Astrology" +

+ (which adds the so-called "generational planets"), without any strangeness to the professionals there, who work and take into account to such an extent that the culture and local population itself absorbed its presence in an animistic way, +

+ quite different from the western view of planets that act only on the personality or synchronicities of the worldly order of human events. In the view of this Asian astrology, Uranus is seen as "dao maruet ta yoo" (ดาว มฤตยู), +

+ with the first word being said "star" and the second from Sanskrit, "mṛtyu", whose meaning is death. In addition, the planet is seen as feminine, unlike modern Western convention. +

+ The planet is seen by Thai astrologers in this way after the coup d'état that overthrew the Absolutist Monarchy in June 1932, marked by the entry of Uranus into Aries (sidereal reference). +

Some sources of consultation:

Skyscript Forum: skyscript.co.uk/forums/viewtop…

A blog with introductory aspects: ipipek.blogspot.com/2015/07/1.html

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Thai Astrology (from Internet Archive):

archive.org/details/horasa…
archive.org/details/unset0…
archive.org/details/unset0…
archive.org/details/425100…
archive.org/details/625140…
archive.org/details/unset0…

(Much of the public material unfortunately in the same Thai language.)

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The Thai horoscope is peculiar, but similar to the Greek and Vedic in format. The numbers are used as planets / "grahas", so that astrologers unite the Celestial Chart with numerology and palmistry without any problem.

+ ดาวอาทิตย์(๑) Dao/Sun / 1, ดาวจันทร์(๒)Dao/Moon/2, ดาวอังคาร(๓)Mars/3, ดาวพุธ(๔)Mercury/4, ดาวพฤหัส(๕)Jupiter/5, ดาวศุกร์(๖)Venus/6, ดาวเสาร์(๗)Saturn/7, ดาวราหู(๘)Rahu/North Node/8, ดาวเกตุ(๙)Ketu/South Node and Fixed Stars/9, ดาวมฤตยู(๐)Uranus/0 +

A concept that I find interesting is that "agrarian stars" are chosen for each month related to the signs of the zodiac, revealing a deep connection with the natural cycles.

Another detail is that the zodiac animals used (of Chinese influence) are used differently, having different animals compared to Ba Zi astrology, for example. End of the thread. If there is more material and information, I will add it in due time :)