5. A question

I have a question. How does your theory or system define an individual when there are other circumstances such as disability that can be a driving factor of personality formation? Kerry

Kerry,

Thanks for your interesting question. Briefly, the TO8 looks at people in terms of what they share rather than in terms of what sets them apart from others. Traditional astrology tries to describe what's unique about someone, which is where I find it unsatisfying, since I find it impossible to believe that it can discover things that are special and personal to the lives of individuals, and which may have occurred by accident. Every person is different, of course. They are a mix of genes, upbringing, special circumstances, but that is not what the TO8 is looking at. It looks at what people born around a certain date share.

Looking at the underlying things that are common to groups of humans has a better chance of describing the way individuals finally behave than trying to establish their unique nature. After all, it is what makes us belong to the general case that enables society to function.

The Theory of Eight is derived from Nature and uses a few basic axioms from which everything is derived. It's stimulus was an idea of how Mankind evolved. It has nothing to do with stars and planets and ancient myths, and cannot talk about events in your life that are special to you. What it can do is talk about how a person might react to or deal with a particular type of circumstance, or upbringing. It can talk about the mental and emotional tools you have to act in the world. It won't tell you if a horse you backed is going to win.

You suggest that a disability might be a driving factor in the development of personality. Certainly it will play a part in the way an individual can express himself or herself. But our personalities are not derived from our bodies nor from our intellects nor from our emotions. In the Theory of Eight the foundations of personality are thought to be created before any of these these things can have an effect on the mind. After all, who we are as individuals does not come and go depending upon current physical, mental or emotional states of being. Our identities are responsive to these things but not determined by them.

ank
 
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