Hello,
My name is Raimo A Nikula, I' am professional astrologer living, loving, working, suffering and having my nose bleeding in Finland. Somehow you have managed to get into my homepages - lucky you. Ups! Is that possible, astrology in the Arctic? Yes, it is. It is my purpose to give You, dear reader, some glimpses into Finnish scheme of things. I' am not prepared to translate all my WebPages (135 at the moment) into English - there is enough basic astrology in the Web already.
Instead I will give some information and facts about astrology in Finland.
1) HISTORY: As you may guess, astrology is a very recent phenomena in Finnish culture - or is it? We have traces of astrology going back to renaissance times 16th century. By that time there was a learned man called Sigfrid Forsius (1550-1637), who practised astrology, made predictions on a grand scale and was therefore very unpopular man among the clergy. During his life he was facing few times official accusations of practising magic and was sentenced to lose his position as a vicar and he was forbidden to make predictions. This persecuted doctor was a man of many sciences: he studied theology, physics, mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. He was entitled to print calendars containing usually a large section of Prognosticon - meaning astrological predictions on weather, natural phenomena and the like.
But it was not until early 20th century under the protection of theosophy that astrological knowledge was reintroduced into Finnish terrain. Only few practitioners were doing charts and readings and none of these worked as professional astrologers. It was more a pastime hobby. This situation went unchanged decades. There was a growing interest in astrology in the sixties when Finnish Astrological Association was established in 1964 by Mr Olavi Asikainen. Ever since the membership in association has grown steadily. At the moment it is 620. Large majority of the members are women (85%).
2) RECENT ADVANCES: Astrology as a profession in Finland is still a rarity and no wonder because the possibilities of getting along with this curious profession are not easy. Therefore we have about twenty professional astrologer. There are only two national organisations, Finnish Astrological Associations and Astrologit ry. The latter is a league of professionals advocating better understanding of astrological principles, professional standards and putting some effort to bring the message home in the media.
3) CUSTOMERS ARE ALWAYS...CUSTOMERS: I have made a modest survey of my own customers during the 90' s. It shows clearly that most of the customers (90%) are middle-aged women who has experienced a personal crisis by the time they contact astrologer. I guess this pattern is universal. There is a also a clear division as to local interest of astrology: Helsinki and it's surroundings are overemphasised and the rest of Finland comes far behind. Customers tend to be rather well-educated but I' don' t have accurate data on that.
4) CULTURAL RESISTANCE: As everywhere else in the Western countries, astrology is not well received by the establishment in Finland. There is the semiholy scientific liturgy against it and there are few crackpot scientists specialised to outroot it from the Finnish society altogether. Finnish press gives denigrating articles on astrology and media uses astrology as a part of the great "entertain yourself dead" -project. Scientific community and Lutherean church have both something against the truth. Scientific and religious truth are diametrically opposed one another, but in regard to astrology, they have unanimous hostility towards it. Sometimes we have seen in Finland sort of mental hysteria spreading among the academics when astrology is named.
5) FOREIGN CONTACTS: We have had very few contacts with the astrological megaworld. Astrologers do not visit often our freezing cold latitudes...we have had some notable astrologers in the 90' s such as Noel Tyl, Alan Oken, David Meadows, Adrian Duncan, Maggie Hyde & Geoffrey Cornelius, John Alexander, Derek Seagrief and Sue Tompkins. We hope to improve our economics so that we can offer more international interchange in the future. At least you can say that there is potential interest in astrology slumbering behind the diffident facade of finno-ugrian race...
6) CONTACTS:
S.A.S, (Finnish Astrological Association) Chairman Raimo A Nikula, Address: Pengerkatu 23 D, 00500 Helsinki, Finland, tel.358+09-7260026, E-mail: rnikula@welho.com homepage: http://www.netti.fi/~astrolog
Astrologit ry. (Professionals), Maarit Laurento, tel.358+09-6221430, E-mail: maarit.laurento@astrobar.fi homepage: http://www.astrologit.net
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