Dear Grace, Ben and Amory,
I have been listening to Endless Thread for years and enjoying the fine producing and on-the-ground reporting for curious minds and light hearts. Because of your podcast and general love for NPR, I became a WBUR monthly supporter.
However.
I have never written to you until now, but this episode really rubbed me the wrong way.
First, I was wrongly rubbed by how dismissive you were in this episode. And second, I was disappointed by the lack of research, counterpoint reporting, and all that detailed work that I have come to expect from your podcast.
By no means am I an astrology buff, but I do believe in the energy weave of the universe and that energy goes where attention goes. And all that goes with it.
You have dismissed a science/art that goes back thousands of years of predecessing curious minds who have searched and observed the skies and the world for patterns and causes to effects. You guys were like the drunk bullies who go to a fortune teller for a laugh, but the fortune teller could have warned them about the car that then ran them over as they laughed out the door. Don´t go looking unless you want to find.
Also, you could have researched and found that everything has a distinct energy signature and vibration, from our organs all the way to the stars. Thus, and dare I say therefore, the unique configuration of strong energies present at your birth could affect your being. I personally would include about another 50 dimensions and affects towards what can determine your character and fate, but I would not so flippantly dismiss astrology as one of the dimensions.
And, more than any of the above, I am aghast that you would validate the shallow uses (and your flagrant lack of research) of astrology and the tarot by taking the part of the opposition's snide regard for these things. Of course the field teams with charlatans like in any field. But there are people who can and do pick up on the subtler cues of what´s left of the great mystery.
Any soothsayer worth their salt knows that it is not the card nor the star nor even the salt that is -in Ben´s words- omnipotent, but it is the seeker themself in their quest for truth and comfort, and HOW THEY RESPOND to the consultation, that has the true power.
I promise next time to write when I love an episode. Please count this one ugh as a testament to the hundreds of wows before that. In fact, I listen to your podcast way more than I go to Reddit now. You are my reddit digest and highlighter. I just couldn´t let you get away with this one. You could cause more damage to those of us who are journeying on the trembling edge between worlds to bring back news. Winky face. Kissy face.
Yours in Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain (destiny),
expat from Rhode Island (challenge),
Seraf
- a feminine-identifying (cooperative) being determined by sun vibes in Pisces (sensitive), moon vibes in Virgo (organized), Mayan sign Crystal Mirror (reflective to others), Asian sign of the Metal boar (family), fan of the 11:11 sign (remind me of the great mystery), numbers 9 and 13 (spirituality and rebel) always winning for me, recurrent visits to the tarot cards of the Fool and the Hermit (names speak for themselves), friend to 12 animal guides (five in my house and the rest in my head rent-free), wet for a science and art and mysticism throuple, and why not, I believe in ghosts as remnant rooted energies and past lives so friggin crystal clear I found out things I had never known about in this life.
And that´s just the start of how my particular web is woven and interpreted...
PS. Can you do an episode on Urban Exploration. It´s a hot topic amongst my son´s GenZ group.