The stars lose their charm to the advantage of the eastern variant of destiny.
This year the word Karma won the Sanremo Festival. A sign that times are also changing in terms of superstitions.
According to a British poll, half of the people, including our compatriots, believe in this eastern variant of destiny. What happens to us is, after all, what we deserve.
By comparison, only 16% of the sample said they had faith in astrology.
The discipline that reads the future in the stars has a thousand-year history. But it has lost its appeal in the age of the internet. How long will the boys continue to ask themselves "what sign are you" ?, immediately after wondering the name?
One thing is certain: YouTube's Paolo Fox doesn't exist yet. Channels dedicated to the topic attract few subscribers. Solid statistics on believers of the Zodiac do not exist, also because the dry question does not measure well the attachment to beliefs. More than being rooted, they are often overheard.
The Zodiac is consulted for fun, without being taken seriously
This too is an element of contemporaneity. What was once a form of knowledge is now a pastime. Given that health matters little to young people while finding work is too serious a business, attention inevitably focuses on couple affinities.
Divertissement makes beliefs that are contrary to science more socially acceptable and downplays everything.
Last year, NASA published a post titled "Astrology is not astronomy" recalling that the constellations of the Zodiac are thirteen, not twelve. The revelation generated some flare-up in online comments. But how many are really shocked at the idea that the signs would slip on the calendar if theOphiuchus?
From magical thinking to Karma
Magical thinking has ceased to aspire to universality in order to become individual. Everyone is free to choose what to believe.
As society changes, beliefs change. Spiritism exploded in the 1800s because it seemed like a more scientific alternative to religion. In the 900s parapsychology spread and the faculties of the mind stole the scene from the supernatural.
More recently came the New Age, the Age of Aquarius, the success of ancient philosophies.
It comes to Karma. The term "Karma”, Which in Sanskrit means“ accomplished action ”, is now very widespread even in the West, although not everyone knows its origin and relatively few individuals embrace this theory.
Il Karma, basic concept ofHinduism, is none other than the universal law of cause and effect applied in a spiritual sense, the concept underlying reincarnation, of which it represents the essential factor.
It is often mistakenly considered as a deterministic law that leads to fatalism and resignation. But in reality Karma depends on us, on our choices, and can obviously change over time according to the principle "what is sown is reaped". How? Following the Dharma, that is, living according to one's true nature, which will be progressively harmonized with the universal Dharma.
Individuals thus conquer the freedom from the ego, from the accumulated desires in the course of previous existences, to realize the immortal Self.
The cycle of death-rebirth is called, in Sanskrit, saṃsāra: man cannot escape it but must go through it by reincarnating in numerous bodies, not only human, at least from a Hindu point of view.
The ultimate goal is liberation from this cycle.
