In "An Astrologer's Day," what does "tangles of human ties" mean?

But that was
not to be. He had to leave home without telling anyone, and he could not rest till he
left it behind a couple of hundred miles. To a villager it is a great deal, as if an
ocean flowed between.

He had a working analysis of mankind's troubles
: marriage, money, and the tangles of human ties. Long practice had sharpened his
perception. Within five minutes he understood what was wrong. He charged three pies per
question, never opened his mouth till the other had spoken for at least ten minutes,
which provided him enough stuff for a dozen answers and
advices.

The context (above)
of the quotation, "tangles of human ties," helps us understand what it actually means.
The narrator has just explained that the astrologer had to flee his village under cover
of night's darkness. We learn later that it was because he stabbed a man with whom he
had quarrelled while both were in a drunken fit. It is next that the narrator says the
astrologer had a deep understanding of "mankind's troubles" relating to "marriage,
money, and the tangles of human ties."

It is easy to understand the
trouble related to marriage and money as those are commonly enough spoken about or made
the subject of entertainment or literature. "Tangles of human ties" goes to the root of
troubles like marriage and money and specifies the complexities of human relationships,
also know as "human ties," that develop tangles. An example of a tangled human tie (or
relationship) is the astrologer's relationship with the youth he stabbed and left for
dead. They were undoubtedly friends, or at least acquaintances, or they would not have
been drinking and gambling together. That friendship suddenly got tangled when the
quarrel broke out and then tangled again when the impulse to stab and try to kill held
sway in the astrologer's frenzied and youthful mind.

The reason this
quote follows the passage about leaving home abruptly is that it serves to (1)
foreshadow the tangled human tie that is about to be revealed to us and to (2) provide
an example of what a tangled human tie is. Ironically, this tie becomes more tangled
that evening and then, miraculously as well as ironically, becomes untangled when the
astrologer falsely tells the revenge-hungry customer that his assailant of old died four
months ago when run down and crushed by a lorry (large commercial
truck):

"He
died four months ago in a far-off town. You will never see anymore of him.”
...
"I hope at least he died as he deserved."
"Yes," said the
astrologer. "He was crushed under a
lorry."