When divination fails. Astrologers, horoscopes and errors
Résumé
What happens when astrological counselling does not work? This paper will analyse the way
astrologers and their clients deal with wrong predictions and inefficacious therapies. The analysis will
be based on fieldwork conducted among astrologers in Banaras (1995-2005). It will be shown that
errors and mistakes, instead of being an incidental aspect of astrological counselling, play an essential
role in the divinatory and therapeutic process. They are used as a means for asserting the truthfulness of
horoscopes both in a scientific, empirical way, and in a religious, transcendental one. Horoscopes and
predictions that do not match with people’s perceptions, instead of disputing the legitimacy of
astrology, generate doubts about the way people perceive the reality. Clients are thus asked to
reformulate problems and to actively involve in the therapeutic process.