The recent proliferation of news stories related to cloning made me begin to consider some thoughts about astrology and cloning.

While it may be scientifically possible to produce a physical twin of a living (or even potentially long-dead) animal or human, what unknowns are contained in this Pandora's Box of potential?

The replicated individual may be physically indistinguishable from the original, but what about the non-physical or the metaphysical?

For this discussion, I'd like to focus on human cloning.  To the best of my knowledge, the theoretical possibility of human cloning was first introduced into the mainstream media with the book and then the 1978 movie, "The Boys from Brazil".  The sinister premise of this movie was the attempt to clone Adolph Hitler and revive his pursuit of world domination. 

Stop for a moment and consider how far-fetched the concept of cloning seemed 25 years ago.  Then fast-forward to the present day, where cloning of humans requires less of a stretch of the imagination and has been claimed  to have already taken place (but not authenticated).  Regardless, scientific research has made vast strides and the potential for creating mirror-image replicas of humans is a real possibility.  Whether or not it is a good idea is a much more complicated question.

So where does astrology come into this cloning discussion?  

The possibility of creating a "bio-duplicate" with all the same traits and characteristics of the original may now be within the realm of possibility, but what about the frame of reference for the newly-created individual?

Many astrologers agree that the moment of birth is the time that the first breath is drawn.  But, when considering a clone, is this really a new life or merely a prolongation of the "original" one?  After all, no interpersonal contact between the "parents" occurred to produce the clone.

If it is a prolongation of the "original" life, then would the original birth chart still be in effect?  Or would the original somehow represent the equivalent of both parents for this newly created organism with its own new natal chart? 

Then the question of environment comes into play.  It seems unfathomable that a lifetime of experiences, free-will choices, and all external factors could ever be duplicated (or even simulated) for the clone as the original experienced them.  We recognize the importance of these factors in the development of all individuals regardless of how similar the physical organisms may be.

So it seems to me that any attempts to create a clone of a tyrant or a saint would come with considerable inherent risks.  Even a genetically perfect match could conceivably turn out very different from the original.  This suggests an infinitesimally small chance of having an overall match.

For people who want to become immortal by being cloned, or those who might consider creating an army of body-doubles (a la Saddam Hussein) there may be little satisfaction in the end.  In Saddam's case, for example. perhaps each of the clones would have designs on his own ultimate power position, perhaps even attempting to do away with the original to accomplish this.

OK now that I've opened this astrological can of worms, I'll leave you to ponder the implications.  And we didn't even talk about whether the clone would posses a soul.

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