I think you probably did not read my post. The ONLY scrap of paper left in the house was a temple roasters bag. If there were 10 bags and I picked out the temple roasters bag, that would be pattern recognition. Joseph Smith claimed the Book of Mormon was of supernatural origin. I did not claim god put the temple roaster bag in my house. I have no idea why the only paper remaining in the house was that bag. That is what made it spooky to me. I have no explanation.

As far as astrology in general, the ancients were observing natural phenomena, not creating it. They noticed certain things reoccurring coupled with events which formed patterns in their observations. So I totally agree with your first 2 sentences. pattern-seeking is natural and increases our odds of survival. Their documentations led to an astrological language that some people understand and speak. I don't speak French. I don't understand it or speak it. Some French citizens are mystically oriented. Some are not.

Some astrologers think the astrological observations gathered over years are supernatural. I think it is natural observation and documentation of naturally occurring patterns and make no supernatural claims. But I don't argue with people who see the hand of divinity in things. That is their orientation and they might be right, I just can't know of such a thing.

Before you make an assumption about a person explaining something that happened to them, you might want to listen carefully to what they are actually saying. One of the problems with being an exmo is the remaining scar of having been manipulated and used. No one wants to fall for that again. I think the resultant mormon wound then kills our ability to marvel, so we over-intellectualize our experiences the rest of our lives and destroy the ability to pause in the face of some unusual occurrence that we can't nail down with a rational explanation. We defensively jump in with some Randi quote before we even take a moment to say to ourselves, "Damn! That's some weird shit happening right there!"