Astrology and News
A Member of Parliament who believes in astrology?
I doubt any British Member of Parliament could get away with believing in astrology, but there’s a Slovak MP who would appear to take some horoscopes seriously, at least according to SME, one of Slovakia’s leading newspapers.
The MP’s name is Rafael Rafaj. A grave looking man with a goatee beard, he’s a member of the SNS, a nationalist party that’s part of the governing coalition. Rafaj hit the news a few weeks ago when it got out that he’d been covering for his party leader, Jan Slota, by forging his signature on an attendance sheet.
That seems a helpful thing to do. Apparently Slovak MPs must clock up a minimum attendance to qualify for their monthly salary, and Jan Slota was otherwise engaged. So in his absence, Rafaj was able to sign him in. Though I’m not sure if this was really necessary, at least from a financial point of view. Slota’s well off, and the monthly salary isn’t much more than $5,000. But I suppose in these uncertain times every bit counts, and no crime was committed.
As for Rafael Rafaj, he’s a man of diverse interests. Being an MP he’s obviously interested in politics and philosophy. And his interest in history is also not surprising, given his membership of a nationalist party. How can any patriotic Slovak forget that their country was ruled by neighbouring Hungary for a thousand years? Aside from that, he’s interested in a healthy lifestyle, yoga, spiritual subjects and downhill skiing. And he’s also a vegetarian, who lists Mahatma Gandhi as one of his role models.
I don’t know what Rafaj thinks of Nostradamus, but he’s done an esoteric analysis of the Slovak national anthem, Nad Tatrou sa blyska - ‘Lightning over the Tatras’.
The Tatra mountain range, the east-west spine of Slovakia, is a powerful symbol of the Slovak nation. Maybe dark, Wagnerian archetypes are lurking in the mists of these mountains, waiting to be unleashed?
Incidentally, the SNS recently supported a campaign to have the Catholic priest Andrej Hlinka made a ‘Father of the Nation’. Hlinka, who died in 1938, was a nationalist politician, with a disdain for democracy, who laid the ideological foundations of the anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi regime that ruled Slovakia during the Second World War.
On the subject of astrology, SME quotes Rafaj as saying, translated into English, ‘I know how to prepare for certain decisions, for crisis situations. I read quality long-term horoscopes…’
I suppose this raises the inevitable question, of whether or not he predicted the furore about the forged signature. But at least we know when Rafaj was born - October 19 1959. This makes him a Libran, like Andrej Hlinka. Librans put a premium on harmony and they’re usually eager to please, so it’s not surprising that he’d be prepared to help his party leader out with his attendance record.
My overall advice to Rafaj is to make a greater effort to tune into his spirituality. It’s great that he’s vegetarian, and admires Gandhi, but forging a signature doesn’t strike me as being a particularly worthy thing to do. Spiritual people have to set a very good example, especially if they’re in the public eye.
Rafaj should also consider the possibility that spirituality and nationalism are, in some respects, contradictory. Slovakia might be a nice place, it might even be the greatest country in the world, but one day it’ll no longer exist. Shouldn’t spiritual people be looking beyond the physical and the transient, and instead be focusing on the eternal?
Furthermore, if one’s tempted to align one’s country with one’s spirituality one is, in my opinion, treading a dangerous path. As Jesus famously said, ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s’.
In the mean time, Rafaj is going through his Jupiter mahadasa. So far so good, in the sense that his political career is prospering. But to maintain his luck, he’d be advised to fast on Thursdays (the day of Jupiter), if he doesn’t already. And on Thursdays he should engage in charitable activities, that cost him time as well as money. He might also want to intone an appropriate mantra, that’s connected to Jupiter. But maybe he’s a devout Christian, and that’s out of the question?