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Paper short abstract:

The presentation will discuss the recent anthropological fieldwork data collected among professional astrologers in Kolkata, India. I will show that such divination practice with its diagnostic and predictive functions is not accompanied by any kind of ontological or cosmological elaborations.

Paper long abstract:

The anthropological perspective often overlooks the crucial aspects of astrological counselling, especially those dealing with the increasing person’s awareness of their experiential situation and promoting the proactive psychological attitude. Prediction’ or ‘fortune-telling’ is only the apparent activity of diviner, he is acctually engaged in a heuristically motivated hermeneutical procedure in which destiny is not only revealed, but also negotiated and adjusted.

This presentation is based on the recent fieldwork among professional astrologers in Kolkata (India). Among other questions, I wanted to know where and how did they learn astrological practice? What astrological systems, methods and techniques do they mainly use, what sources or schools do they rely on to interpret for their clients? Which approach is emphasized in the consultation - fatalistic, deterministic or proactive, based on "personal choice"? What role does the religious worldview of clients play in counselling process, and what are the specific remedies prescribed?

I argue, that astrological divination constructs a new narrative of life and dealing with “negotiable fate” affirms the active and pragmatic coping with obstacles and reintegration of the individuals within the society and cosmos. In a context of doubt and uncertainty, astrologers' clients are more interested in the outcomes of consultations, regardless of their symbolic or cosmological significance, or "calculatory ontology". (W.Matthews 2021) It seems that astrological practice with its diagnostic and predictive functions is not accompanied by any kind of systematic ontological elaborations. We should focus instead on the semiotic patterns, the aesthetic elements, the dramaturgical features and the transformation processes that take place in the divination ritual. It is by recognizing the fixed part of their destiny that people can appreciate their responsibility in managing strategically the part that is up to them, often by resorting to specific cultural practices and selected experts.