Stars, signs, and superstition

You had asked about numbers, whether they have any influence. Know that the influence lies not in the number but in what is numbered. For example, in the number twelve there is no influence, rather the influence lies in the apostles who are numbered thereby....

The available source contains an omission or incomplete wording; sentence boundaries need review.

For example, some have asked about numerology, and likewise about the elixir, and likewise about the poetry of poets and sayings of mystics, and the Supreme Pen has mentioned what should be mentioned and answers to all have been revealed. However, today these sciences are not and have not been beloved, for these sciences have been and will be the cause of delay and hindrance. Many who engaged in the elixir and numerology lost their minds from excessive delusion and reflection, and signs of madness appeared in them.

The deductions of astrologers - that is, deductions related to events of good and evil - have absolutely no authority. "The astrologers have lied, by the Lord of the Ka'bah!" However, technical deductions related to the movements of the stars, such as eclipses and the like, these have foundation and substance.

It was customary in the olden time - there was such great belief in astrology - to delay a christening until a fortunate time according to the astrological calendar, when the stars were in a fortunate position in the various constellations meeting each other fortunately in certain zodiacal signs. Then that was the time for the feast to give a name to a child, and sometimes they waited for two years before that time would come, until that fully fortunate time would come. Then they would have the christening. Now, as to your child, it is by chance that on the day that we are here, associating with you, a name will be given to him so that he will be very blest.

The words of the astrologers are for the most part doubtful and unreliable.

But the whole of creation is interrelated like the different parts of the human body which have a complete affinity from the toenail to the hair on the head. Every part is perfectly connected with the other. Similarly, the whole of creation forms a chain composed, as it were, of many links connected with each other. It is therefore obvious that they all greatly influence each other and are part of organized, regular cycles.

My meaning, however, is not that the deductions that the astrologers of old made from the motions of the stars and planets were true, for these were mere figments of the imagination which had their origin with the Egyptian, Assyrian and Chaldean priests, or rather stemmed from the idle conjectures of the Hindus and the superstitions of the Greeks, the Romans and the other star-worshipers.

As for what you wrote about astrology, what astrologers imagine today, that is, deriving future events from the positions of the stars, is definite fantasy. However, the existing principles of astronomy are established from other aspects, not the derivation of future events.

As for the question of beneficent and maleficent planets, ancient philosophers believed each of these planets possessed rational force and imagined they had spiritual influences. Thus arose the question of beneficent and maleficent influences. But all these beings are captive in the hand of power - the Sacred Essence is the Administrator and Ordainer of all, the Director.

Those persons who prognosticate or use numbers all of them try to concentrate their thoughts and from the excess of thought and concentration they deduce certain meanings and perhaps it may come to pass. But this is not from these numbers and prognostications, neither from stars but he things it is from them while it is the reality of man which discovers them.

Regarding your third question about fortune-telling and geomancy - what people practice is purely imaginary and has absolutely no reality.

But the superstitions contained in astrological books are absolutely not to be trusted.

And as for the matter of sneezing, it is pure imagination. This blessed Dispensation has removed such imaginings from our midst. Even mentioning it is not permitted.

Such suppositions regarding lucky or unlucky numbers are purely imaginary. The superstition concerning thirteen had its origin in the fact that Jesus Christ was surrounded by twelve disciples and that Judas Iscariot was the thirteenth member of their gathering. This is the source of the superstition, but it is purely imaginary. Although Judas was outwardly a disciple, in reality he was not. Twelve is the original number of significance and completion.

When thou didst inquire about divination (jafr), in truth this is not and hath never been the day for questions, even as the Primal Point, Who gave the people glad tidings of the Lord of the Beginning and the End, forbade all from asking questions in this Most Great Revelation.

Abdul Baha: These rules of the stars are from the ancient astronomers. They used to take the sun coming out of the Zodiac and from that they would take out other things, but they had no true ambition.

… In ancient times the king had a man who used to make these calculations especially for him. If the Shah wanted to make a journey, this man might say, 'Don't go. If you do it will be dangerous.'