Most astrologers will have to deal with harassment from skeptics in their lives. If skeptics or trolls contaminate an astrologers website it is not pleasant but easily fixed, just delete and ban them.

What is more unpleasant and not so easy to deal with is skeptics slandering and ridiculing the work of an astrologer on their own website. We have less control over this situation. Should we react or let the public slander go unchallenged?

Historically astrologers have just copped the punishment. Most of the Celtic Druids were slaughtered on the Isle of Angelsey in AD 60. The Roman Catholic Inquisitions and witch hunts by other institutionalized lynch mobs put countless astrologers in prison or led to their torture and often death

. It’s not surprising given the 2000 years of persecution that astrologers tend to be a little defensive when faced with personal attacks from skeptics these days.

Astrology is no longer a heresy punishable by death. We are free to study our craft and If we chose we can make it our profession and try to make a living from it. In much the same way as a naturopath is free to study and make a profession out of herbal medicine. If a naturopath has a website as a shopfront to share information and solicit business, they would not take kindly to skeptics defaming their reputation on other websites, in a public forum.

In the last few days our website has been defamed and ridiculed by some skeptics. They linked to my blog about the oil spill so I became aware of it via the ping-back. I commented on that blog saying it would have been more polite for them to have commented on my blog. I debated with them for a while and invited them to comment on something specific about my work, on my blog, instead of trying to disprove astrology in general.

Should I have ignored the slanderous blog? Deepwater Horizon foretold by astrology!!! (Well, post-told). Well I did feed the trolls which has led to If it smells like Funk, it must be astrology and People braver than I with choice quotes like “astrology is so obviously ridiculous that I don’t think I’d have the patience to deal with the peddlers of such trash”, “obvious fakery” and “making shit up and dressing it up as reality”.

True it would not have escalated if I had not reacted. They are not burning me at the stake, but it is a psychological attack and it is also an attack on how I make my living. I guess that is why I reacted, I don’t want to lay down an take the insults. Astrology is a legitimate profession and we should be proud of our craft and our history, many thousands of years as an integral part of society in all cultures. Something strong inside me doesn’t want to let the skeptics get away with continuing the persecution.

That original attack on my oil spill was posted less than one day after the recent solar eclipse which fell right on my Descendant, ruler of one-to-one relationships which included close allies such as the partner, and also open enemies. Fortunately my Descendant is sextile Jupiter by just 6 minutes. The solar eclipse was sextile Mars in the sky, and Mars was conjunct my Jupiter. That explains why I went wanted to fight.