An Interview with Indra author Bob Mulligan
Why did you decide to develop your report?
I decided to write the Indra because I saw the medium of a computer generated report has the power and flexibility to be of real help to people. However, the reports that were available at the time were terrible, and insulting to the field of astrology. I saw an opportunity to present real astrology in an intelligent and meaningful way to people to lots of people. I hate reading astrology reports that make astrologers look like idiots. Often the astrology is just bad. Many reports contain statements that blatantly contradict each other. Yet it is also true that people contain contradictions. In-person one can discuss the contradictions without sounding like you are hedging, but it is very difficult to do so in a computerized report.
Astrological reports can never integrate as many factors as a human astrologer, but I passionately feel that a computer-generated report can give lots of useful information to help someone better understand themselves. Computer reports are also outstanding ambassadors for the validity of astrology. You know that the results of the report come directly from your chart. There is no reading your body language, clothing or other clues. In this sense, these reports have a kind of objectivity.
I keep striving to perfect the craft of how those basic building blocks affect each other. I keep searching for ways to eliminate the inconsistencies in that inherently plague computerized reports. For instance, if a person has 10% fire and the chart and Mars conjunct the Ascendant, how do you describe the person's energy so that the part of the report that describes the lack of fire does not directly contradict the part of the report that talks about Mars conjoining the ascendant?
People have asked me to build other reports. I could make more money if I wrote a relationship and forecast report. But I have resisted moving on to other reports until I am satisfied with Indra. To date I have revised, edited, added to, and improved the whole Indra report ten times since its inception in 1988. It's my yoga. My meditation. I work on it every day. I will probably be working on this report for the rest of my life.
As you wrote each delineation did you have a particular intent or goal?
I wrote the text without referencing any textbooks. It was a synthesis of all I had done in astrology and demanded to come out right then. I was on a 24 hour plane ride back from India. I kept throwing paper under my pen as fast as I could. It then took months and months to edit what I wrote in that inspired 24 hour plane ride. I've rewritten the text ten times over the last 12 years since I first wrote the report.
In every delineation I seek to accomplish three things:
- to be inspirational
- to tell the truth
- to say something helpful
How do you like to explain difficult aspects?
I try very hard not to bring up a problem in the chart, if I don't have a solution to offer. Just being factual is not good enough for me. It is not enough for me that the reader say, 'Yup, I'm that way.' I want them to be able to see how they could possibly manifest their highest qualities. I try to say things that make a person more self-accepting and connect them to their essence.
What schools of astrology have made the most impact on you?
I read everything that was in print in 1973 when I started astrology. I was especially interested in the work of Alan Leo. He instigated all the major trends in modern astrology -- aspects are not good or bad, every planet had an emotional and psychological manifestation, etc.
Developing my own school has made the biggest impact on my understanding of astrology. I have learned the most by teaching astrology. Developing a four year curriculum in astrology has forced me to think through at a deep level how chart interpretation works.
In order for chart interpretation to work it has to be dovetailed into the culture. It needs to be kept up-to-date with the culture. It must apply to the lives of people now. The only way to keep astrology up-to-date is to keep rethinking the ways that the symbol system relates to society.
We have many cultures in our society segregated by age, ethnicity, etc. Nonetheless we are all moving toward one world culture. The dilemma in writing an astrological report is to be able to say something that is general enough in its symbolism to cut across the micro-cultures but also specific enough to relate directly to the person's life. I appreciate all the traditional schools of astrology, but I believe that the astrology that will be most significant is the one that focuses on a psychologically sophisticated culture.
The contribution of event-oriented astrology is that it has shown us how external events are correlated with the movements of the planets. What psychological astrology brought us is the understanding that the meaning of the event is more important than the existence of the event.
What did you learn about astrology by developing this report?
Astrology is my yoga. I do the basics of astrology like a musician does scales on a piano. It is a joy for me to sit down every morning and to work on these very basic building blocks. The stretch of changing the material with each new version has been so illuminating. For example between versions 1.4 and 1.5, I completely rewrote all the material relating to Jupiter because I had come to a much deeper understanding of the planet.
I gained a deeper appreciating for the intricacies and complexities of doing astrology. As someone who has taught astrology for 30 years I know the virtue of teaching something over and over again. When I wrote this program it was an opportunity for me to do something in written form that I had in my mind as a mental exercise for years.
