Absolute Anime

Basic sunsign astrology you see in newspapers and magazines is superficial at best. But when you get deeper into it with rising signs, moon signs, ruling houses, planatary aspects and shuch, it really gets uncanny. I've not done enough work to do the predictive sutff, but I can get scary close with personality stuff. Still, it is not something to live and die by, but rather a guide to making choices.

Can you tell us about some of the stuff you are talking about?

You seem to have done some research into the subject.

Well, yeah. It sort of ties back to the blood type thing in a way.

Actualy, what I was thinking about was how often you see Tarot Cards, which are decidedly European in origin, in anime. They play heavily in Visions of Escaflowne in particular, but I've seen them in others ... most recently Sol Blanca.

Hmmm .... give examples of astrology here .... I may need to think about how to do that for a while. In the meantime take a look at http://www.astro.com/

Just click on the free stuff. You can get plenty info that way. There is no need to buy anything unless you really, really want to.

It is rather uncanny how someone can take a sign from the stars and bloodtypes and even the chinese zodiac and figure out there personality with marginal error, you have to figure in the human factor. i wonder how many years it took to perfect systems like that. anyways does anyone know for sure which of these systems started first?

I would say both astrology, and the zodiac started around the same time, just in different parts of the world.

Astrology is practly prehistoric and the Babylonians were quite good at it.

that's true. it really is incredible that something that old can still be used this day in time.

It wasn't until after Gallelao's telescope that outer planets like Uranus and Pluto were discovered adding to the overall accuracy. A couple astroids have been added even more recently but I am not as familiar with how they work.

It's an interesting thing to think about, definitely. Predestination has always been perhaps a subconscious pursuits of man.

And indeed, there are plenty of different devices in existence (still, it's interesting how things like the Tarot and Astrological alignment attracted the Japanese eye to the point that they were used in anime).

Another thing that comes to mind is I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes. It shoudn't perhaps be considered a device of divination, but it's still a very fascinating work of wisdom.

Actually, the I Ching is a collection of philosophy as well as a book of divination. I really like it. The traditional method involves throwing coins three times to determine a heads and tails pattern that eventually determines which passage you will read. I generally just flop the book open. The passages are designed to cause introspection that allows you to chose the most correct action. You can pretty much do the same ting with the Bible.

I don't know that I have run across the I Ching in anime, but there certainly are a lot of Christian themes, sometimes a little skewed. Wise Krauss comes to mind Cronos Crusade ...... Drat. there are a bunch more, but I'm drawing a blank.

OK, Who Wants To Know, wonder if we can come up with a list of anime involving divination or Christian Mythology. (Christians, don't get mad, I know Jesus isn't a myth.)

Well, Evangelion, of course. That one tended to draw on the apocrypha a good deal (the stuff that wasn't exactly according to the Scriptures).

Fullmetal Alchemist uses a number of Christian ideas cratively as part of its world.

My mind draws a blank for the most part, too. But then, it's trickier to find the connections. The Japanese are able to take the Christian ideas more philosophically because its presence in their home country isn't very strong compared to its majority presence and history in America.

i haven't seen chrono crusade personally yet, but i thought it was more catholic than christian. and if you don't take into account just christian religions but all of them, then a lot of anime have some hint of religion.

One season of Rurouni Kenshin had some christian situations, and fanatics.

And, right about here is where my knowledge comes to an end.

YOU p*ss ME OFF, MAKE ME CRY, SO I HIT ZOO IN LE EYE.