Last Words

"It is our custom to say that someone is "lucky" or "unlucky" if they meet with fortunate or unfortunate circumstances, respectively.  It is however, too simplistic to think in terms of random "luck." [….]  We seem to call "luck" that factor which overrides external conditions to bring about a positive situation.  But that too is a cause; it is an inner cause, which we call "merit."

— from HH Dalai Lama, Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists.

“The signs of the stars gives prophesies and presages. They point out the force of supernatural things, and put forth true judgments and disclosures in … astral sciences. [….] But the visible stars have no *causal* influence, their power lying in the heavenly coordination and correspondences between objects and phenomena.”

— Paracelsus, 16^th century astrologer, physician, alchemist, philosopher and mystic.

“What could be more conducive to well being, pleasure and satisfaction than this kind of forecast, by which we gain full view of things human and divine?”

— Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 2nd century