When you say that you’re a Gemini or a Leo, what you are saying is that the sun was in that sign of the zodiac when you were born. The kind of popular astrology that people are familiar with from newspapers tells us that the signs change with the calendar. Capricorn is from December 22nd to January 19th, for example. But the real situation is a bit more complicated…

For one thing, the sun moves into each sign at a slightly different time each year with respect to our calendar. There are years when the sun enters Capricorn on December 21st, and years when it enters on December 22nd. And it doesn’t enter at midnight on those days, so it could be that if you were born at 11:00 a.m. on December 21st you would be a Sagittarius, while if you were born at 11:30 a.m. – just a half hour later – you would be a Capricorn

Let’s not forget time zones! If the sun enters Aquarius at 4:52 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, as it did this year, that would mean that it would be 1:52 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Cross the International Date Line, and things could get a bit complicated, with the sun changing signs on different dates.

Now, really, the sun isn’t moving through the signs at all, it’s just the way it appears from our planet. But it’s more convenient to say, “The sun is in Libra” than “Libra is the background of the sun from our perspective.” In fact, in the kind of Western astrology most people are familiar with, the sun doesn’t have the stars of the constellation Libra as a background, but a segment of the sky based on the spring equinox. The astrology most common in India does use the constellations, although even there the starting points of each sign are not based on the stars.

So, if you’re born in the middle of a sign, rest easy – you know what your sun sign is. But if you were born “on the cusp” you might need to do a little research to find out exactly what sign you are. There are many free sources for making a horoscope available on the web, and all you need is your birth date, time, and place. And in the process you’ll also get to see where your moon, Venus, and other planets were when you were born.

So, if astrology isn’t Sun-sign columns, then what is it?

“Astrology can tell you what, when, where, and how. However, something else will have to tell you why.” – Dr. Joseph (Deepak) Vidmar.

Astrology’s Ancient Roots

Astrology is inextricably interwoven throughout our social and cultural history. In fact, it’s part of the soul of culture – every museum, every city, in either its buildings or monuments has some Zodiacal representation. Museums the world over hold evidence in artifacts of the value society has placed on astrological symbolism since the earliest times of human history. Some remarkable physical remnants also remain, the most notable being Stonehenge in England, said to have been constructed in phases between 3,000 to 2,000 BCE. It may have had several functions, as a healing and sacred burial site, and also as a huge clock or celestial observatory to measure the Sun’s movement and interaction with the Earth, enabling its designers to precisely predict eclipses, solstices, equinoxes and other major celestial events.

Astrology initially developed as a symbolic language for understanding and managing various natural phenomena for agricultural purposes, and to elicit meaning from the contradictions of life. Observing celestial cycles, (most obviously the Moon traveling through its phases monthly) established early on the recognition that there is an inexorable link between the environment around us (including the space above us) and the patterns of our daily lives.

Real astrology is a much more complex process than the simplicity of sun-sign columns. Natal astrology, for example, involves a map of the sky at the time, place, and date of one’s birth. It includes analysis of a minimum of 10 celestial bodies and several other mathematical points derived from the calculations of one’s birth data. The logic behind this is that we are all influenced by the environments into which we are born, both physical and social.

Astrological Symbols Explained

Dane Rudhyar, one of the most respected astrologers of the twentieth century, now deceased, brilliantly explained astrological principles in this article from Horoscope magazine 1971:

“More simply stated: the astrologer observes the interrelated motions of the closest factors in the cosmic environment of a particular locality on the earth’s surface – i.e., the ten astrological planets – and having identified these planets with the most basic functions and drives in the total organism of a particular human being, he deduces from the interrelationships of the planets at a particular time what the interrelationships between the constituent parts of this human being will be…

“In other words, ten variables are considered sufficient to interpret and to attribute meaning to all past and present events and personal crises and to enable the astrologer to predict future developments. Moreover, the relatively simple formula which a birth-chart constitutes is said by the astrologer to define the very character of the “native” – even though human character is quite a complex affair! Obviously, it can only do so if the ten variables represent the basic qualities of existence which may manifest at any and all levels of human personality.

“We, therefore, are leaving altogether the scientific realm of quantitative measurements and in astrology we are operating in terms of the organic interplay between universal qualities or life rhythms. Each of these ten qualities – modified by their positions within frames of reference like zodiacal signs and natal houses – must, therefore, cover a multitude of cases.

“Astrology deals with individual persons; it is meant to help these persons to live a more harmonious and significant, a richer and fuller life. In pursuit of such a goal, quantitative factors are of little value, for what is at stake is the quality of each of the persons’ ten basic bio-psychic organic functions – the Sun function, the Moon function, the Mercury function, the Venus function, the Mars function, etc.

“The specific genius of astrology resides in the astrologer’s ability to relate every trait of character, every mode of behavior, every form of intelligence, every vital feeling-response to merely ten variables. The more complex human existence becomes, the more each of those variables has to be loaded with possible meaning – a process which seems to be in direct opposition to the ever more refined type of analysis developed by modern scientists so specialized that indeed they come to know more and more about less and less.”

Rudhyar clearly expresses what all astrologers know so well, that there are as many ways of measuring as there are of understanding phenomenon. The scientific, mechanistic way is not the only one, even though it professes to be and appears to have a firm grasp on modern society – I sense this loosening, as the times we are in demand that we take a deeper look at our place in the universe and what we have been led to believe.

It is the distinction and definition of measuring which caused astrology to lose its place of previous honor during the so called Age of Enlightenment, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the concept of a relationship to the divine or a holistic world view was seen by scientists as associated with religion and therefore rejected by the rise of scientific measurements. The words, astrologer and astronomer were one and the same until the advent of mechanistic science in the seventeenth century. After all, it was Galileo, an astrologer, who rocked the world with his theory, proven true, that the Sun was the center of the solar system and not the Earth. He was imprisoned for that discovery and made by the Catholic Church to recant it.

Astrology is a symbolic language and a testament to our humanity as it seeks not to divide but to harmonize and holistically understand the entire system we live within (earth and cosmos) and not only select parts.

World View Challenged

Bernadette Brady explains it well:

“You know how they [science] once thought that the planets’ orbits were circular – they had to be, because of the eight spheres. It was a whole world-view, which was a world-view of God as well; theological astronomy, really. If they weren’t perfect circles then they couldn’t have the eight spheres and the whole theology broke down; so there was tremendous resistance to changing the concept of the perfectly circular orbit…So the whole thing disintegrated with Kepler – and the whole theology had to go, the whole world-view had to change to incorporate the ellipse.

“That’s where we are at with orthodox science now – there are many band-aids stuck on in order to make things fit. I think what is going to happen – fifty or a hundred years from now, I don’t know the timing – is that the whole lot is going to collapse, and the major philosophy is going to be based on fractals and Mandelbrot theory – and the interconnectedness of everything, and the cyclic nature of everything – and how things are reproducing at many levels without scale, time or size.

“I think that then science as we know it will change and we’ll get a world-view based more on fractals; and when that happens, I believe astrology is going to be totally at ease. The big problem astrology has had is that it’s the only ‘science’ (in inverted commas) that couldn’t go over to reductionism. You couldn’t do it, because if you went over to orthodox science – well, astrology is destroyed if we break it into little parts. The very central standing stone of astrology is the interconnectedness of things, so it cannot be reduced to parts, you may be able to play around with positive coding for football matches but not a person.

“Astrology therefore could not go over and jump on the new bandwagon or reductionism, so when a philosophy can’t comply with the orthodox view it tends to be labeled as evil – but I think that’s going to shift, but maybe not in our life time.

“I therefore don’t think that astrologers have to go to science and prove themselves. I think astrologers just have to stand where they are, because I think science is coming to us.”

Paraphrasing Sir Isaac Newton – it’s important to research a topic, or at least delve beneath the surface veneer, before discounting its value or voicing an opinion. As it turns out, astrology is a rich symbolic language with a history that spans all of human existence from the very first time that mankind looked upward at the sky and observed changing celestial phenomena. It has much to offer to the discerning (and open) mind. Astrology is not a science but all its data is based on the sciences of astronomy and mathematics, the calculations of which are used for the interpretation of charts. The best way to determine the personal value of astrology is to experience a professional astrological consultation and then make your own informed evaluation.

Endnotes:
p. 1 – Dr. Joseph “Deepak” Vidmar from his article “Astrologer asks: What if astrology is real” posted on www.astrologynewsservice.com

p. 2 - Statistical Astrology and Individuality by Dane Rudhyar. First Published in Horoscope Magazine, 5/1971.

p. 3 – Bernadette Brady has a MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology from Bath Spa University, UK. Quoted from an interview by Garry Phillipson, 1998. Her newest book is Astrology a Place in Chaos.

p. 3 – From Wikipedia: Mandelbrot believed that fractals, far from being unnatural, were in many ways more intuitive and natural than the artificially smooth objects of traditional Euclidean geometry:

p. 3 – “Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.”
  —Mandelbrot, in his introduction to The Fractal Geometry of Nature

p. 3 – Mandelbrot has been called a visionary and a maverick. His informal and passionate style of writing and his emphasis on visual and geometric intuition (supported by the inclusion of numerous illustrations) made The Fractal Geometry of Nature accessible to non-specialists. The book sparked widespread popular interest in fractals and contributed to chaos theory and other fields of science and mathematics.

p. 4 – Sir Isaaac Newton reportedly said to Edmond Halley, “Sir, I have studied it, you have not.”

Animal oestrus (coming- on-heat) is cyclic, and yet traditions link animal fertility to the lunar cycle.  In the 2^nd century AD, the astronomer Claudius Ptolemy reported of the practical, hard-headed farmers of the Roman Empire that they notice the aspects of the Moon, when at full, in order to direct the copulation of their herds and flocks, and the setting of plants or sowing of seeds.  There is not an individual who considers these general precautions as impossible or unprofitable.

I have collected some years of data from a Thoroughbred stud farm, with dates of covering (bringing the stallion to the mare) plus recorded conceptions.  Mating takes place within just a few months in the spring of each year, which makes investigating the lunar cycle influence tricky.  Yet this data does clearly seem to show both increased fertility and increased coming-on-heat on the days around and just after the Full Moon.  If correct, this could have practical implications for horse breeding.

These investigations don’t always support traditional folklore in this area, but they tend to suggest that there is something in it.  They are relevant to beliefs such as that some part of the lunar month is best for pruning trees, i.e., the waning half, while the waxing half if better for grafting; or that calves should not be gelded around the Full Moon.

Applying the Theories

Do seeds germinate better at some point of the lunar cycle?  My experiments with seeds grown at constant temperature tended to confirm the results published by Lilly Kolisko in the late 1930s, namely that seeds would usually germinate better if sown around the Full Moon, and especially on the day or two prior to it.

There were some experiments conducted around 1940 by the John Innes Foundation, reported in what was then the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), to test Kolisko’s claims.  My view is that their results did in fact support Kolisko’s findings, but the report averred the contrary, prejudice against such notions being rather strong at that time.  Kolisko, who had emigrated from Germany in the 1930s, became disillusioned with the negative response to her research.

The vital question of how final crop yield is affected by sowing date has been thoroughly investigated within the bio-dynamic movement. However, deep disagreement exists amongst experts in this area.  For some decades now, Maria Thun has been reporting her results in her yearly Moon calendar, which apparently show weight-yields in accord with the elements of the sidereal or star-zodiac.

We are here asked to envisage four steps of crop growth: first the root (Earth), then the leafy shoots (Water) then the flowers with their airy fragrance (Air) and lastly the summer’s heat dries up the crop, maturing the seed (Fire).   Crops can be viewed as belonging to one of these elements, depending on whether they are a root, leaf, flower, or fruit/seed crop.  From this it follows that there is a proper lunar timetable appropriate for each crop.  For instance, potatoes, as a root-crop, grow best when they are sown as the Moon is passing in front of earth-element constellations (in the astrological zodiac).

This is, the pragmatic may object, more like some alchemical mandala than a scientific theory.  It is indeed simple, but does it work?  Is it really worthwhile – or indeed practical – for farmers to organize their work schedule around it?

In 1975, together with a market gardener, I started to test the theory, by successive crop rows sown over a lunar month.  Since then, British experiments on the topic have involved about five hundred rows sown of diverse vegetables.  I have published many of these results, and have reviewed the researches of others.  My view is that the theory stands up, and that Empedocles could not improve on it.

Not Everyone Agrees

A weighty German Bio-Dynamic textbook makes skeptical references to the Thun-model: the stars do not affect crop yields they say.  In view of the diversity of opinion on this matter, and the diverging instructions given in the lunar-gardening guides now on sale, we should perhaps consider more how plant growth varies in accord with the green fingers and even the expectations of the sower.

The Secret Life of Plants by Tompkins & Bird wasn’t just a hippy pipe-dream of the sixties, and plants are sensitive in ways we tend not to give them credit for.  But folklore ends and science begins when results are obtained that are repeatable.  Replications of the Thun effect – the classic Thun and Heinze results published in the early seventies describing eight years of potato-yields (1964 -71) are in my view sufficiently substantial for some such claim to be made.

Each year about one hundred thousand copies of the Thun calendar are sold world-wide, in 21 different languages.  The aim here has been to introduce the notion that all living things, including us, respond to the motions of the moon.  For growers to use a calendar based upon the moon may be a sensible idea.

Long ago, at the very dawn of British culture, before even Stonhenge, there were two stone circles at the heart of Avebury.  Both a hundred meters across, one was comprised of 29 huge stones and the other of 27.  These signified the two fundamental lunar cycles, as used today in a lunar gardening calendar.  They turn against each other: the 27-day orbit period, and its 29-day waxing and waning cycle.  Did Britons learn to count from these cycles?  Other cycles too are woven into a Moon calendar, and we can feel the turning of the wheel of life by using it through the seasons.

True, he was fed up with establishment views in America and chafed at the fact that professional colleagues rarely shared his enthusiasm for astrology. But, he recently told a BBC journalist, the main reason he left his comfortable lifestyle and professional achievements behind was because this existence failed to make him happy.

He gave it all up to become Deepak, an ashram astrologer living in India in sparse and frugal surroundings. He sums up his passion for astrology with these words:

“Astrology is the most misunderstood subject of all human knowledge. It is not about knowing your future…it is about knowing yourself. It is about the journey of your soul through this world and what this is all about. And it is about the process of self-awareness and what is true for you,” he observes.

“Astrology can tell you what, when, where, and how. However, something else will have to tell you why,” he adds.

Although there are few worldly trappings in the living space he now calls home, Professor Vidmar hardly fits romanticized notions sometimes associated with disaffected societal dropouts. Among his meager possessions are books, papers and the computer that keeps him tethered to the outside world.

From time to time, he drops in to remind anyone who might be listening of the ways intellectual priorities in the western world continue to run amuck.

A Life or Death Issue…

A few years ago, for a major astrological journal, he wrote a scathing critique of the Shawn Carlson research study which, according to the researcher, purportedly proved that astrology doesn’t work. More recently, an essay published in the OxfordStudent newspaper synthesized his adamant views on how western science is dodging obvious astrological truths.

Dr. Vidmar’s OxfordStudent essay is published here in its entirety. He writes:

“What if astrology is real? It is not only a multi-trillion dollar question; it is a life or death issue. It is the missing element in all the fumbling disciplines of quasi-knowledge being taught in the universities today. Without this missing element, not only can the institutions not solve the current problems we are facing, they are actually creating them.

“Let’s be clear about what we are talking about. We are not talking about a mystic teller with broken teeth and dirty fingernails who will tell you your fortune. We are talking about a universal constant that shows its effects in every body of knowledge we possess today.

“Astrology is just a word made up from Greek roots in the 14th Century. It is many thousands of years older than that and has had many names and applications. It is better in this age to call it the ET Effect.

“As a licensed psychologist and professor of psychology for 20 years, I gave over 3,000 psychological evaluations. As an ashram astrologer in India for 20 years I have given over 3,000 sessions. The end conclusion is that the ET Effect in the field of personality is real.

“If the ET Effect is real in the field of personality, then it may be a real effect in other disciplines also. I have just spent 50 hour weeks for the past five years researching this question. The end conclusion is that the effect is universal.

“Take biology. We are not disconnected and isolated on Earth from the rest of the Universe. F.A. Brown is the classic researcher here and has found fiddler crabs, clams, potatoes, seaweed, etc. to be phase locked to cosmic frequencies of solar and lunar cycles. The whole phenomenon of exogenous biological clocks pertains but is unexplained.

“Chemistry also – Giorgio Piccardi has extensively tested that chemical reactions on Earth vary according to sunspot cycles. Maki Takata found flocculation of albumen in blood serum varied to sunspots and sunrise. A.M. Comunetti found electrical conductivity of pure water changed with cosmic factors.

“And even in history, the orthodox position of a linear progressive model is illusionary and not supported by the evidence. Instead, the flow of events is cyclical with ups and downs.

“Whilst I have mentioned just these fields, similar situations apply in economics, physics and medicine.

“If these results were in any other field but ‘astrology’ the evidence would have lead to more funding than LHC (the Large Hadron Collider). This is a culture bound prejudice since 1666 when science/society went psychotic thinking reductionism/facts (left brain) could explain anything, while pattern recognition (right brain) was ignored.”

More on the unique views of Dr. Vidmar can be found on his website http://www.astronlp.com.

Of course, as with the weather, we can be smart enough to know to go inside when it rains, and that smacks a bit of free will, and it’s what most people use astrology for – to know when to batten down the hatches or when it’s a good day for the beach. But astrologically, we can do even more: we can actually go to where it isn’t raining on our lives – or at least change the form of precipitation and where it’s likely to hit us. To a limited extent, we can actually derail destiny, fool around with fate – if, indeed, astrology has any more effect on either than do common and often critical daily choices.

That can be done, so far, in two different ways.

The Solar Return – Travel For Your Birthday

Every birthday, you get a celestial present that you may not know about, unless you’re an astrologer. And even if you are, you may not take sufficient advantage of it. It’s called a solar return – a horoscope for the instant the Sun returns to the exact place it was at the precise time of your birth. It happens every year or within a day of your birthday, so it’s a birthday present that both tells you a lot about the coming year and, if you handle it properly, gives you some extra control over how that year turns out.

The easiest, but most temporary, way to control outcomes is to choose well where we spend our solar (and to a lesser extent our lunar) returns. If your next solar return birthday chart has a nasty afflictor squatting right on the Ascendant (the Western horizon) no problem. Just take a trip and spend your birthday a time zone or two East of where you’d normally be, and that bad boy is tucked safely away in the hidden twelfth house, where it can do you less tangible harm for the year. Or, if it looks like your solar return Sun or Moon is going be trapped in the twelfth, a time zone or two of Western travel will roll it right up front into the first house, where it can really work for you all year.

It’s a good excuse for birthday vacation travel. And, If you really get into it, you can investigate all sorts of places that amazingly maximize benefics and minimize malefics for the year. I know so many astrologers and their clients who enthuse about the results – although you can’t compare what actually might have happened with what did in any year, whether you travel or not. But the tales of positive shifts, and their details, can be pretty compelling.

Since I’ve traveled a great deal for my solar returns, I’ve got a lot to tell, probably the most convincing about when I couldn’t make the needed trip because of happenstances and walked eyes wide open into a disastrous year involving events totally not of my own making but which night have been easily avoided with a plane trip. Like the year of a horrible twelfth house Sun with Saturn rising, Moon in the sixth afflicted by Neptune. Looked like illness for sure. As the solar return paints the picture of the new you for the year, that meant physical difficulty (Saturn on the Ascendant), the life-giving Sun tucked away in a dark corner (the 12th house) and confused feelings (Moon afflicted by Neptune, in the house of health). Not the picture of me I wanted for the year.

On a limited budget, a flight to a couple of small selected towns in the South would just beat it out, putting a more robust Sun right on my Ascendant. But tropical storm Fay came along at the last minute and all possible flights were canceled. I was stuck in New York with my dreadful return. My subsequent year was spent in and out of hospitals, drawn with pain, thanks to repeatedly misdiagnosed kidney stones (that Neptune-Moon 6th house affliction). Was this cause and effect, or just cosmic synchronicity? A bit of both, I expect…the illness was on its way and that, along with Fay, probably conspired with the cosmos at large to shoot down my travel plans. You can’t dodge the bullet with your name on it. And although they say if you are born to hang you’ll never drown, if you’re born to drown all it takes is a puddle.

On the upside, every place I’ve successfully visited to get a better solar return has filled me with joy and mystery, even when (perhaps particularly when) it’s an out of the way place I wouldn’t think to go except for its momentarily convenient longitude and latitude. That’s a feeling I share with many of my clients who regularly travel to get a better year. A typical comment from a client who recently travelled from California to Niagara Falls:

“Everything about the journey had a mystical quality to it. As if, somehow, I found a portal to another dimension. And really my only regret is not staying longer.”

Often my feelings exactly, and the results of being in an unusual place at an unusual time can provide an experimental twist that may not entirely surface until years later, altering your life and taking your breath away when it does. Under the circumstances, it can’t hurt and is a great excuse to take a break and get out of town!

Relocation: Go There, Stay There

Of course, if going for a visit is so great, why not live there? That’s the other way you can actively change otherwise-ineluctable effects of the planets. A quick look at an AstroCartography chart showing where around the world your planets would be rising or culminating will tell the tale. You’ll be energized in spots where Mars, Jupiter, or the Sun are angular, slowed down by places where Saturn is the same. If you’ve traveled much, the map is a revelation, explaining a lot about why certain things tend to happen to you when you go certain places. It’s not a total replacement for your natal chart, but it can really put a spin on what’s available for you in different places.

Astrologers check out midpoints, which are points that equally divide (in degrees) the distance between transiting planets. With my Venus/Mars midpoint going straight over New York City, the Big Apple is just too sexy to escape from, for me, though for others it can spell misery. With Mars/Uranus culminating (directly overhead) in Poland, that country sets me on fire with instant fame, but also puts me in more danger than I’d like, with some close calls I wouldn’t like to repeat. But with mellow Mercury rising over Southern England I dream of spending my latter days near Glastonbury writing and letting the amazing ambience of the Old Straight Track suffuse my bones.

Futuristic Free Will A Possibility

Returns and relocations are for the moment the only ways you can take the celestial bull by the horns and wrestle it to where you want to go, simply by changing the houses (locations on the chart wheel) where planets occur. You can’t change the relations of the planets to each other – well, not so far. In a few generations, we will no longer have these restrictions. When you can go to the Moon (as our children or grandchildren will) you’ll remove the Moon itself in any chart you look at and replace it with a transiting Earth exactly opposite to its former position. Go further afield, once we’ve terraformed Mars (or at least learned how to make it a bit more friendly), and the entire set of aspects between all of the inner and middle planets will be totally rearranged as long as you are there. And so will the tropical signs themselves as Mar’s tilt and orbit creates a whole set of Zodiacal signs and seasons totally different from ours here on earth. You will be able to change everything – houses, signs and aspects – completely according to where you decide to travel.

That travel broadens one’s outlook is more than just a philosophical observation – it’s at the heart of exercising free will in an astrological context. The farther you go, the further you can go…
Will it ultimately free you to do anything you want? Probably not. Not anymore than I could escape the collusion of tropical storm Fay and my kidney stones. You can cut yourself a whole lot more slack by giving it your best shot than you ever could by simply staying put and accepting what comes.

This article originally published on the www.astrococktail.com website. It is reprinted with the author’s permission.

But where to go? I’d been thinking for some time about a historical site in South Dakota I’d read about years before, called Bear Butte. Of all the sites revered by the Native American Plains Indians, this one seems to hold a special importance — a 1,200-foot hill where 60-plus tribes from the United States and Canada still come to conduct vision quests and spiritual retreats. For some reason, something was calling me to this spot more than any other right now. So, late that following Friday afternoon after work, I headed out on the highway toward the northern Great Plains, the Black Hills fixed firmly in my sights.

Driving on just a little sleep, I managed to make it across the border of South Dakota sometime the next day, and eventually reached my destination. This whole area is rich in history, I came to learn, having played host to such iconic figures as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud. After climbing to the top of the hill and spending some time by myself, I made my way back down and spent the next couple of days exploring the area around Bear Butte, including Mount Rushmore and the nearby city of Sturgis. After two whirlwind days, I got into my car and drove on back to Chicago, feeling noticeably rejuvenated.

It was just a few days later, after settling back in at work, that an odd thing happened. While conversing with a few individuals, both in person and over the phone, I discovered that at least three other people beside myself had made the long trek to Bear Butte the same weekend I did, all completely independent of one another! That four different people would all be drawn to the same remote spot on the exact same weekend, and not even cross paths with one another, was startling, almost as though we were all pulled there by some unseen force. There’s even some small irony in the fact that Bear Butte is a proverbial stone’s throw from Devil’s Tower — the site where Spielberg filmed Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a movie about individuals mysteriously drawn to the same geographical spot by some unknown force. Irony, synchronicity — call it whatever you like.

I’ve had a number of experiences like this over the years, where I found myself attracted to a place or subject around the same time as others, in ways that were difficult to explain. Not impossible, just difficult. And every one of these times, I’ve been reminded of the “subterranean links” that synchronicity always seems to hint at, as though our lives have been choreographed in ways we can scarcely begin to imagine, with subtle connections drawing together seemingly disparate events and people.

Whose Thoughts Are These, Anyway?

And among other things, this has prompted me to wonder about the true nature of thoughts. What are they, really? And where do they come from? Are they simply generated by our brains, as most scientists claim? Or do we pick them up out of the ethers, almost like radio waves captured by a receiver? While still a teenager, I came across this intriguing quote attributed to anomalist Charles Fort (though its exact source is debated); it resonated with me then, and still does now:

“… ours is an organic existence, and … our thoughts are the phenomena of its eras, quite as its rocks and trees and forms of life are.”

That crystallized my own view precisely, since I’d already wondered even by that young age if my ideas might somehow be a product of my time and place, rather than something strictly personal to me. In that same spirit, I now had to wonder whether it was possible I’d simply tuned into the same “Bear Butte” wavelength those other three people had tuned into that weekend back in 1992. At the very least, it was food for thought.

Philosophers have a word for this sort of thing — zeitgeist, or “spirit of the age.” Throughout my life, I’ve noticed how different periods seem to exude distinctly different qualities or moods, and how certain ideas or achievements seem appropriate to their times. A shift in the group consciousness takes place, and suddenly a particular subject becomes all the rage or certain themes start popping up in different places independent from one another. Historians have long mused over the curious way parallel developments arise simultaneously in independent fields, like inventions appearing at the same time or theoretical breakthroughs being conceived by different people simultaneously, such as Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin both coming up with evolutionary theory, or Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton both conceiving of calculus.

This happens in the arts, too, possibly because creative types possess especially sensitive antennae for picking up on subtle trends streaming through the collective consciousness. I once read an interview with songwriter Paul Simon where he marveled at the coincidental way Paul McCartney composed “Let It Be” around the same time that Simon composed “Bridge over Troubled Waters,” since the two songs were so similar in tone and completely different from everything else being played on the radio at the time — yet neither he nor Paul was aware of what each other was writing then.

Astrologers Have Something of an Edge

Fortunately, astrologers have something of an edge in studying the zeitgeist, since they’re able to chart its various waves and shifting currents with some degree of precision. More often than not, that changing mental–emotional atmosphere seems especially connected with the interactions of the slower-moving planets — in particular, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, though Saturn and Jupiter are sometimes involved, too.

For instance, in his book Cosmos and Psyche, Richard Tarnas points out that the famed mutiny on the Bounty took place exactly as the French Revolution was erupting in France thousands of miles away. These two events were uniquely parallel to one another in significance, involving nearly unprecedented rebellions against authority, yet there was no way the disgruntled sailors could have known about the French uprising unfolding far away; it’s as if both groups were responding to the same revolutionary impulse streaming through the air at the time. But what was that, astrologically? Most likely, the result of a powerful opposition taking place between Uranus and Pluto, two planets traditionally associated with revolutionary energies whenever they join forces.

On that occasion, there was an opposition at work, stirring up turbulent feelings among people, but for many astrologers an even more profound agent of historical change is the conjunction between slow-moving bodies. During my own life, I’ve been lucky enough to witness two such exact pairings of the outer planets: the alignment of Uranus with Pluto during the mid 1960s and the conjunction of Uranus with Neptune during the early ‘90s. (And lest we take astronomical events like this for granted, keep in mind that there won’t be another such conjunction of these three outer planets during the rest of this entire century!)

Anyone who’s lived through these two periods will probably recognize what extraordinary times they really were in some ways — politically, scientifically, culturally. For instance, the ‘60s were a time of revolutionary fervor, when people around the world were exploring new ways of thinking about their lives and values. Men finally walked on the Moon, women and minorities were demanding their rights, and new artistic forms were breaking into consciousness. In popular music, Bob Dylan and the Beatles composed arguably their greatest work precisely as Uranus and Pluto joined forces in 1965 and 1966. Dylan came out with three of his greatest albums (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61, and Blonde on Blonde) within the span of those two years, while the Beatles produced Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver during those same years, with Sergeant Pepper following shortly afterward the next year. This was a period when many other musicians and songwriters were hitting their stride, too.

The Conclusion Seems Inescapable

The conclusion seems inescapable to me: The zeitgeist is especially rich and creatively potent at some times more than others. During such periods, emotions run stronger, inspiration flows freely, and powerful ideas present themselves like low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking. But once these periods have run their course, it’s as if a phantom spigot has mysteriously been turned off and those brilliant feelings and ideas are suddenly harder to come by. I once heard a yogi remark that the “truly great souls” choose to incarnate onto the Earth at powerful times in history, like the Italian Renaissance or Sophocles’ Athens, because of the opportunities those times present. Difficult as that may be to prove, it makes a certain reincarnational sense, when you stop to think about it. By analogy, would a budding world-class gymnast want to attend a strictly average athletic school or prefer to enroll in the best institution available? Likewise, would an Albert Einstein be more likely to incarnate into a period that’s totally out of sync with his abilities and skills or one that offers the optimal circumstances for developing his brilliant ideas?

Consider that the hugely successful author, J. K. Rowling, was born precisely as Uranus was conjoining Pluto in 1965 and penned works that spoke to millions of readers. (Note, too, that the Harry Potter character sports a Uranian lightning bolt–like birthmark on his forehead!) Likewise, Larry and Andy Wachowski, directors of the successful Matrix franchise, were born in 1965 and 1967, respectively, and created a film that reached audiences the world over. Going back further, consider how both Ludwig von Beethoven and Napoleon Bonaparte were born during the rare grand trine in the 1700s between the three outer planets — Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

In all of these cases, it’s as though these individuals’ relationship with the transpersonal planets provided them with a finger on the pulse of those generational streams that defined their era, for better (Beethoven) or worse (Napoleon).

Although some periods may indeed be more energetic or truly revolutionary than others, it’s important to point out that all periods have their own unique qualities and set of possibilities. Every era witnesses the rise of individuals who are preternaturally attuned to the potentials of their time, whether constructively or destructively, with one decade witnessing the rise of Michael Jackson and Mikhail Gorbachev, and another one seeing the ascent of Lady Gaga and Barack Obama — and on it goes.

But in more modest ways, even the most obscure individual is a creature of their particular zeitgeist, their thoughts and drives reflecting the necessities of their era. Is there any way to tell more precisely how someone is aligned to the zeitgeist? One method is to look at whether you were born close in time to any configuration involving the outer planets. Did you arrive in the midst of Uranus square Saturn? If so, then take a moment to reflect on how your life has been concerned with reconciling traditional versus unconventional values. Or were you born when Saturn was conjoining Jupiter? If so, then how has your life been involved in grappling with systems of religion, law, or morality?

Having said this, it’s important to realize that though we’re all shaped by our times, we’re not necessarily confined by them. That’s because in a certain sense the zeitgeist is whatever we make of it, in terms of utilizing its resources for either constructive or destructive ends. You can hand some people the most expensive art materials and they’ll still manage to create inferior art, while others working with the most meager of materials will still manage to concoct masterpieces. Likewise, a great soul can do wondrous things with the planetary potentials offered by their era, just as a less balanced mind can abuse or squander them. The famed yogi Paramahansa Yogananda once implored students to “rise above the age in which you are born.” I’d suggest a slightly different variation: As long as we’re here and now, why not make the most of it?

Adapted and abridged from a longer article in The Mountain Astrologer magazine; reprinted by permission.

One of those planets is Saturn, who is most popularly known for restriction, limitation, frustration and delay. Even in His most likable form, Saturn is discipline, determination and durability; virtues, true, but still not the life of the party.

Beyond such dreary adjectives, though, bottom line, it’s Saturn’s job to balance the dynamics of the sign through which He is transiting, and He does this by bringing out the best and the worst of the sign until the job is done.

Because His ultimate task is balance, what better sign for Him to transit than Libra, the sign represented by the balanced scales of justice! This sign allows Saturn to do His job most effectively.

Since, in the early days of Saturn in Libra this time, namely between November ’09 and October ’10, He was interacting with – or in aspect to – Pluto in Capricorn, we have to tease His effects out from the other.

For instance, the blow to Tiger Woods’ marriage as well as his squeaky clean image is the work of Saturn in Libra, but the sex addiction is Pluto.

Pluto, by the way, is not one of the sweet little dwarves who whistled while they worked with Snow White. Pluto is a War Lord, the god of transformation. Yes, transformation is a wonderful thing – when the experience of transformation is over. Until then, it’s war, and not the honorable kind, but rather guerilla warfare.

His time in Capricorn is wearing away the world of capitalism, and eventually, He will recreate a new socio-economic system. In the greater process, he is also wearing down many old men, the individuals and institutions that represent the old world order, or in other words, the world of Capricorn.

Here’s another example of teasing out one symbol from another. Saturn in Libra represents the controversial Nobel Peace Prize to our President Obama, but within a matter of weeks, Pluto’s symbolism is seen in the ramping up of our war effort in Afghanistan.

The Release of Pressure Makes For Tragedy

As for the astrological symbolism of Haiti’s tragic earthquake in January 2010 – just pick something. So many dramatic symbols of traumatic passages were at work in such a concentrated moment of time. Saturn’s station, His square with Pluto, the Solar Eclipse, the station of Mercury, the retrograde of Mars, Jupiter’s transition from Aquarius to Pisces – so much imagery of passages had to make tragedy happen somewhere in the world.

For more detail, a station begins or ends a planet’s retrograde phase, and therefore intensifies the planet’s meaning. The square between Saturn and Pluto is the aforementioned aspect, which signifies the build-up of pressure, until only an explosion can release it. And when a planet leaves a sign to enter a new one, it rallies the qualities of the previous signs like a swan song. In a humorous instance, we might say the song that is associated with Jupiter leaving Aquarius is “Shake, Rattle ‘n’ Roll.”

The images of Saturn and Pluto are in the volcanic ash explosion of the mountainous volcanoes of Iceland too. Pluto, obviously, is the ash that came from the depths of the volcanoes, but Saturn represents the mountains and overall geography of Iceland.

In September 1923, when Saturn was in Libra and separating from a square to Pluto in Cancer (with Uranus in Pisces, by the way, and on a Solar Eclipse), there was the greatest earthquake in Japan’s history. It leveled Tokyo and Yokohama, and killed 300,000 people! (The tragic earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, is an astrological lesson for another day).

Libra As Not So Strange Bedfellows: Politics and Marriage

On the political side of Libra, Saturn symbolizes the teetering of the balance of parties in Senate, in large part due to the loss of the Democratic seat of Massachusetts. Pluto in Capricorn, i.e., the fall of the Old Order, signifies the end of the “Kennedy” name in Congress now that Senator Edward Kennedy is gone and Patrick Kennedy is not running for re-election in the House.

Ironically, John F. Kennedy went to the House of Representatives in the 1940s, but it was when Saturn was in Libra in 1953, that he made his important move from the House to the Senate, and positioned himself for the Presidency.

By the way, Jackie and Jack Kennedy were married in 1953, when Saturn was in Libra, and it was called the wedding of the decade.

Another royal wedding, literally, of course, took place when Saturn was in Libra in 1981, namely, Charles and Diana. Interestingly, Elizabeth was crowned Queen on the previous transit of Saturn in Libra in 1953.

Ironically – or perhaps aptly – with Saturn half-way through Libra this time, Prince William took Kate Middleton to the altar.

And on this side of The Pond last summer, just when Saturn was making His last ingress to Libra, we saw Chelsea Clinton’s royal wedding – American style.

Conversely – and this is an excellent example of Saturn’s balancing act – we recently saw the break up of another kind of royal couple, that is, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.

And speaking of divorce, shortly after Saturn entered Libra last year, the New York Times reported that divorce rates are down, not because of love; but rather, because of the economy. Couples can’t afford to get divorced any more!

Gay marriage is the phenomena of Pluto in Capricorn, i.e., the fall of conventional social institutions, but Saturn in Libra represents the recent setbacks for the issue, such as the surprising loss of support from New York State. Similarly, the increasing popularity of polyamory is a similar foe to the traditional institution of marriage.

Saturn in Libra often makes for breakthroughs for women. (See headlines below). For instance, Kathryn Bigelow won the Academy Award for Best Director for “The Hurt Locker,” a small independent film. Not only was that the first time in Oscar history for a woman, but more to the point a la Saturn in Libra, she was in competition with her ex-husband, James Cameron of “Avatar,” a huge Hollywood money-maker, who was expected to go home with the award.

Libra As Sophistication and Intelligence

Saturn’s emphasis on the intellectual side of Libra in the 1920’s saw the publication of some of the greatest written works of the century, i.e., “Ulysses” by James Joyce, “The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot, and “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse. F. Scott Fitzgerald became the voice of the Jazz Age with his first two novels, W.B. Yeats won the Nobel Prize, and Eugene O’Neill received the Pulitzer Prize for “Anna Christie” and notoriety for “The Hairy Ape.”

Saturn in Libra in 1951 brought the publication of “The Catcher in the Rye,” but Pluto in Capricorn in 2010 made for the death of its author, J.D. Salinger, another example of “the fall of the iconic old man.”

Astrology in the Headlines – For Those Who Do Learn From the Past

Economically, astrologers were transfixed by the T-square of August 2010, while it was approaching, as well as on its infamous earlier incarnation, the T-square of the Great Depression. However, we could also look back to 1922-23, when the square from Saturn in Libra to Pluto in Cancer signified the fall of the German mark, Hitler’s rise in influence, and Mussolini’s Fascist march on Rome.

For those not in the know, a T-square is a more powerful form of aspect, i.e., relationship between planets. It’s a grouping of aspects between three or more planets in the shape of a ‘T’, which complicates and heightens the stress that challenging aspects cause. Suffice it to say for our purposes here, a T-square is an aspect of thwarted energy, in search of a release.

In short order, the best way to learn about the future is to review the past. So, here are a few headlines from Saturn’s previous journeys through Libra in the last century. Look for the cyclical themes from one to another to another to current events.

September 1980 – November 1982, and May 1983 – August 1983:
John Lennon Taken by Fanatic
Iran Releases Hostages
Jean Harris Guilty of Doctor’s Murder
Mae West Dies
Carol Burnett Wins Libel Suit with The Enquirer
First Woman Named to Supreme Court
Soldiers Murder Sadat
Door Opens in China; Private Sector Wider
AIDS, a New Plague, Identified First Time
Washington Settles AT&T and IBM Cases
DeLorean Car Plant Is in Receivership
Von Bulow Tried to Kill Wife, Jury Finds
Argentina Invades Falkland Islands
Princess of Wales Has Her First Child
4,150 Married by Reverend Moon in the Garden
Automobile Wreck Kills Princess Grace
Brezhnev Is Dead at 75
First American Woman Sally Ride’s in Space
Thatcher Sweeps to Victory in Britain

November 1950 – March 1951, and August 1951 – October 1953:
George Bernard Shaw, Preachy Playwright, Is Dead
U.N. Forces Halt Red Drive in Korea
The Inventor of the Permanent Wave Is Dead
Porche, Designer of Rear-Engine Auto, Dies
British King Gets His First Pay Raise
US Presidency Is Limited to Two Terms
Rosenbergs Found Guilty
Hearst, Flamboyant News Tycoon, Is Dead
Truce Reached and Lines Drawn in Korea
G.M. Offering Cars with Air Cooling
Eva Peron Dies at 33; Argentina Mourns
Sex Operation Make Mr. Jorgenson a Miss
Joseph Stalin Succumbs to Stroke
Hillary Scales Mount Everest; World Applauds
First Woman Breaks the Sound Barrier

October 1921 – December 1923, and April 1924 – September 1924:
Valentino Stars in “Sheik” and Makes Fans Swoon
Female Freedom Can Lead to Divorce
French Bluebeard Sentenced to Die
Southern Ireland Becomes Free State
Communist Party Organized in China
A Little Magazine: The Reader’s Digest
Gandhi Imprisoned for Civil Disobedience
Highest Altitude Reached on Everest
First Flight by Woman across US
Aimee Semple McPherson Opens Temple
Sarah Bernhardt Is Dead
Health Forces Lenin to Quit
KKK Imperial Wizard Opposes World Court
Teapot Dome Scandal: Daugherty Ousted
Major Film Merger: Goldwyn and Mayer
Anguished Author Kafka Dies Young
Germany Introduces Currency Reform

Libra, The Sign of Class and Style – And Not

A clear example of Saturn bringing out the extremes of a sign is seen in the dichotomy of these two news stories.

On Saturn’s last leg in Libra in 1924, the New England Association of Retail Clothiers and Furnishers met in Boston. After much deliberation, the group issued this selfless resolution: “Whereas it has been abundantly proved that proper attire aids in success; therefore, it is resolved that this association commends the efforts being made to stress the importance of pride in appearance.” A motion for Congress to repeal all current excise taxes was also carried.

In September 1952, when Saturn was deep in the conjunction with Neptune in Libra and square to Uranus in Cancer, then-Senator Richard Nixon declared, “I am not a quitter,” in a televised address in which he defended the existence of $18,000 political fund and vowed to stay on the Republican ticket as Eisenhower’s running mate. In his speech, Nixon also said that his wife, Pat, doesn’t own a mink coat, “but she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat.”

Once again, astrology is often as illuminated in the small news stories as it is in the big events in the collective.

Astrologer Paul Westran has a tested theory about relationships that unfold in this way. In a rigorous, eight year study involving 1,300 couples, he examined the correlations between planetary alignments and real events in people’s lives and came up with some surprising results.

Curiously, Westran’s research failed to support the popular idea that certain sun signs are more compatible (with each other) than others. But he did find evidence that Venus, the planet astrologers have traditionally identified with the principle of attraction, appears to impact personal relationships in predictable ways.

His research supports the idea that angular alignments between planets, what astrologers call aspects, appear to work the way astrologers say they should.

He also found statistical support for the method astrologers call synastry, which compares the angular alignments between planets in compared natal birth charts or horoscopes. Most commonly, this technique is used to evaluate compatibility potential between couples.

Surprisingly, Westran also showed that planets that are progressed or moved ahead using the technique astrologers call “secondary progressions” are significantly more involved at the start-up of relationships than previously suspected.

Why Relationships Wax and Wane

In the study, favorable aspects between the sun and Venus turned up in the compared synastry charts of couples a lot more frequently than expected by chance. This was an important finding for astrology, but Westran had other questions. For example, is there a better astrological explanation for why intensity levels in relationships tend to wax and wane the way they do. Can astrologers more accurately determine not only who might be attracted to whom but how the relationship might progress over time? What role, if any, do progressed planets play in the unfolding drama?

Normally, secondary progressions are used to help time events in individual birth charts. Astrologers calculate how far the sun, moon and planets have progressed around the horoscope wheel using a day-for-a-year formula. For every year that passes, planets in the progressed horoscope are advanced the number of degrees they have actually traveled in a single day, either forward or backwards (if retrograde). To find how far planets have progressed by age 30, the astrologer simply counts forward 30 days from the date of birth and casts a chart for that day.

In a progressed chart, the sun advances about one degree per day, but the progress of the moon and planets is uneven with planets closer to the sun in tighter orbits typically moving around the wheel more swiftly. In this race, Mercury and Venus are usually track stars when compared with foot-dragging Jupiter and Saturn. And the earth-orbiting moon moves with lightning quickness.

Westran believes the major finding emerging from his study is that progressed synastry aspects are powerful indicators of how relationships will evolve over time. He likens natal synastry to a photograph or a message fixed in time. Progressed synastry aspects are more like a movie with a beginning, middle and definable end.

In a couple’s natal synastry chart, Venus may not be forming a major aspect with the sun. But this may no longer be the case 30 years later when the couple meets for the first time. With progressed synastry, aspects can be observed dynamically forming, conjoining and subsequently moving out of orb (outside their range of influence) at the end. In his study, Westran was able to show that progressing synastry aspects dynamically reflect or correspond with romantic developments in the lives of real people.

Sun/Venus Aspects Obvious Immediately

From his home in Perth, Australia, Westran runs a successful astrological consultancy with clients on four continents. He is a former crime analyst and forensic software expert and explains that the astrological research activity began as “exploratory analysis.” Almost immediately, Sun/Venus aspects stood out and were showing up between progressed horoscopes with great regularity as well.

For the research, Westran needed accurate birth data and confirmable biographical information. The only option was to use public figures and celebrities, which meant relying extensively on well researched products like the AstroDatabank celebrity database. However, each personal history needed to be carefully checked before trying to determine whether the astrology agreed with the couples’ personal stories or not. At first, he created research matrices and counted aspects manually but eventually developed software to calculate the aspects. However, for years it was a laborious manual process.

The major aspects astrologers consider are the conjunction, which occurs when celestial bodies are closely aligned in the same sign, and the opposition, which occurs when planets are roughly 180 degrees apart in opposite signs. Also considered are the compatible 120 degree trine, the stressful 90 degree square, and, to a lesser extent, the helpful 60 degree sextile. Among the progressed synastry aspects considered in Westran’s study were natal sun and natal Venus, natal sun and progressed Venus, progressed sun and natal Venus, and progressed sun and progressed Venus.

Convincingly, the study confirmed that sun/Venus synastry aspects, both natal and progressed, turned up more frequently than expected at the start of relationships. When taking into account all of the possible sun/Venus synastry connections, the odds that positive synastry aspects would turn up as often as they did at the start of relationships were 900,000 to one against chance, or substantially greater than needed to demonstrate statistical significance. Although less impressively, certain synastry alignments of Venus with Venus and Venus with Mars presented at the start of relationships with statistical significance as well.

Based on a careful evaluation of every natal and progressed synastry chart collected, Westran is convinced that progressed synastry aspects are more powerful and intense than natal synastry aspects. In arriving at this conclusion he was aided by the unique format he created to graphically illustrate and track progressing synastry aspects. In his book, When Stars Collide, the author presents page after page of documented case studies and uses what he calls “collision charts” to dynamically show correlations between progressed synastry aspects and events unfolding in the lives of real people.

For example, Westran says Prince Charles and Diana had a “hugely illustrative” set of progressed synastry aspects working during their time together, including the example above which shows Charles’ progressing Venus forming a trine to Diana’s progressing sun. The aspect helped define the early years of the relationship, but the storybook romance started to unravel after the progressed aspect became exact and started to wane. The marriage was officially over by the time it was no longer operative (in orb).

The newest Royal couple, William and Kate, caught a celestial break with a rare, long-lived progressed synastry trine aspect involving Kate’s progressed Venus and William’s natal Venus. The aspect is long-lived because Kate’s progressed Venus was retrograde (traveling backwards in the heavens from our earth-bound point of view) when then couple met in 2000, and only began moving slowly forward in 2004. At its current pace, the progressed synastry aspect will not separate until 2030, at which time the couple will be able to rely upon other helpful aspects in both their natal and progressed synastry charts.

Westran believes progressed aspects provide a fertile field for future research efforts. For example, a promising new study looks at dynamic connections between the sun and Mars in the progressed charts of world leaders. Historically, the years 1922 and 1949 were significant for Stalin and Mao because they came to power in the USSR and China as progressed Mars advanced to form a conjunction with their natal sun. But a Mars/sun connection also was in play when Churchill, Truman, both Castro brothers, Mussolini and others came to power in their respective countries.

Additional tables and charts specifically related to this article are posted at www.positiveastrology.com/ANS.asp.

On the www.positiveastrology.com website, visitors can access a database that will enable them to produce their own progressed and natal synastry reports.

Notes

Secondary Progressions were possibly first alluded to by Johannes Kepler, but described in detail by Placidus de Titus in his book Primum Mobile in 1657. Placidus was influenced by Kepler and he referred to quintiles in his work, as aspect which was introduced by Kepler.

Henry Coley quotes Placidus’ method of progressions being used in about 1690.

Secondary progressions were so named by Placidus because he regarded another (much more complex) method known as Primary Directions to be the pre-eminent way to advance a birth chart and that his method was simply an adjunct to use as a check after having directed the chart.
What this means is that we know more-or-less where secondary progressions originated; however we can be less certain about the other earlier methods of direction and progression which came down from antiquity. What this tells us is that Secondary progressions are likely to have been studied a little prior to their acceptance while the earlier methods are likely to have been accepted as received wisdom by later astrologers.

While Kepler had a collection of 800 horoscopes, we can’t be certain that any astrologers prior to the 20th Century did any scientific experimentation with large enough data samples to derive good rules of thumb. We also know that none had databases able to create data models and graphic depictions of astrological patterns.

We are still waiting for a study of Primary Directions that will allow them to earn the pre-eminence ascribed by Placidus and those admirers of his that followed. As it stands the far simpler and more intuitively fractal-like Secondaries occupy this position both in experimental astrology and in common practice.

There is an astrological rule introduced by Charles Carter which states that “no direction (or – we assume – progression) can bring to pass what is not shown in the nativity”. This is absolutely not the case for secondary progressions and this is evidenced over and over again in the cases featured in When Stars Collide.

Bibliography

The following books describe secondary progressions in such a way that it is easy to take the necessary next step to applying them to synastry:
Laurie Efrein, How to Rectify a Birth Chart, Aquarian Press, 1987
Bernadette Brady, Predictive Astrology the Eagle and the Lark, Weiser, 1999
Nancy Anne Hastings, Secondary Progressions Time to Remember, Weiser, 1984

The following books mentioned the possibility of progressions and synastry:
Fred Gettings, The Arkana Dictionary of Astrology, Arkana, 1985. The author writes: “synastry…may be extended from ordinary radical chart interpretation to the study of progressed charts.”

Marion D. March and Joan McEvers, The Only Way to Learn about Relationships Volume 5: Synastry Techniques, ACS, 1992 by has a section entitled Synastry by Progression

Robert Blaschke, Astrology: A Language of Life Volume I – Progressions, Earthwalk School of Astrology, 1997 includes a section on Synastric Progressions.

Robert Blaschke, Astrology: A Language of Life Volume IV – Relationship Analysis, Earthwalk School of Astrology, 2004, expands upon this earlier section.

Paul Westran When Stars Collide Why we love who we love and when we love them, O Books, 2006 – this book is the first dedicated solely to progressed synastry and details the scientific nature of progressed synastry aspects using a study of 1300 public record relationships. It introduced the collision graph.

Articles:
Paul Westran, Why Do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts? The Mountain Astrologer, September/October 2003 introduced the progressed synastry matrix.

Paul Westran, Reclaiming the Mars Effect for Astrology. The Mountain Astrologer, Mercury Direct, August/September 2010 introduced the idea that progressions solve problems raised by Gauquelin’s Mars Effect.

What do money and astrology have in common?

The public has been misinformed about the true nature of both. Public concern is focused on money as a valuable commodity itself, when in reality money’s true function is as a means of exchanging things of value. The public is likewise “educated” to mistake sun sign astrology—those fortune-cookie blurbs in newspapers and magazines—for what astrology is, when in fact astrology is much more and much more complex than that.

According to Wikipedia, sun sign astrology in print media began in 1930 when astrologer R. H. Naylor is said to have predicted the crash of a British airship named R101. Forty-eight people were killed when R101 crashed in France October, 5, 1930, a loss of life greater than in the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. Naylor was urged to come up with a simplified system of astrology suitable for a newspaper column. It proved so popular, print media has been carrying like columns ever since. Some of these columns are written by non-astrologers, much to the chagrin of accomplished astrologers.

The privatization of the USA’s monetary system likewise distorted our relationship with money. That privatization was accomplished by Congress on December 23, 1913 when the Federal Reserve was created as America’s central bank. Given the name federal, the public believed this new central bank was another agency of the federal government when in fact it is owned by a private cartel of bankers. In effect, this made the nation’s money the private property of these bankers, to be loaned out to everyone else at interest, including the federal government.

Deceptions Stubbornly Persist

Both deceptions have persisted despite objections to sun sign astrology by hosts of accomplished astrologers and objections to the Fed by a variety of politicians, economists and citizens—and the lament years later of President Woodrow Wilson, who had signed the bill. The sun sign scam has become so popular that even Nobel Prize winning scientists believe it is all there is to astrology. And the Fed has become so firmly established that even some Ph. D. economists assume it’s a government agency.

Most of the money used by the federal government is borrowed from the banks of the Federal Reserve by selling Treasure Bonds and Bills. The debt is transferred to taxpayers, at ever-compounding interest, and this constitutes the national debt. Interest payments on the national debt now account for about half of each annual federal budget.

We are taught to disdain anything that is not scientific, yet the study of money and monetary systems is so lost in the mists of banking distortions that, like astrology, it does not lend itself to scientific verification. The true nature of money cannot be understood without exploring its origins and its varieties of modern forms. Likewise, astrology cannot be proven or disproven by the conventional scientific method. Both the money system and astrology can be understood only in terms of their own paradigms.

More To Money Than Paper Bills

There are worlds more to money than the paper bills and coins in our pockets. Likewise there are worlds more to an understanding of astrology than reading your sun sign blurb for the day. Focusing strictly on sun sign astrology is like assuming that dollar bills and coins are all there is to money, when in fact dollar bills and coins constitute less than 3% of what we call money.

Both money and astrology have evolved and changed tremendously over the millennia. The historical origins of both are so remote and so lacking in reliable records that we are likely to learn more about both from archeological digs than from the recorded history of either. Astrology was developed by priests and scholars, many of whom were renamed astronomers after the Renaissance, i.e., Kepler, Galileo, Newton. Money systems were developed by ancient and medieval moneychangers, the precursors of today’s bankers.

There are both practical and theoretical components to both money and astrology. What monetary theory a society applies to create and distribute whatever it chooses to use as money determines whether it will prosper and grow, or flounder in conflict and disintegrate. When money is presumed to be the private property of the few and loaned to everyone else, economic imbalance eventually distorts that society. Where money is issued by government in response to needs and balanced between demand and supply of goods and services, society prospers.

As for astrology’s practical and theoretical sides, the two most dominant theories today are the Vedic tradition from India and the Western tradition from Babylonia. But there is also the ancient Chinese astrological mapping of the heavens, and the ancient Mayan calculations of planetary and other celestial movements. Although the ancient Chinese and Mayan map of the heavens appears very different from the Western or Vedic, all these traditions agree about the basic tenets of astrology. All ancient peoples around the world discovered the same astrological phenomena, but each symbolized it differently.

Just as ancient astrologers in different cultures developed different ways to map our celestial surround, ancient societies developed different forms of medium-of-exchange money. Five thousand years ago, Egyptians used cattle and grain seeds as money. Eighth century BC Sparta used iron ingots for coins while eighth century Rome used bronze coins. Although gold and silver became preferred in Europe and the Middle East, China avoided gold and silver, and the Inca of ancient Peru used gold religiously but not as money. The Inca may have used a system something like the Medieval English tally sticks (2) to keep track of who owned whom how much. When the British Crown outlawed the creation of money in the American colonies, colonists came up with paper bills or IOUs. Ben Franklin is sometimes called “the father of paper money,” but it was actually the Chinese in the 12th Century who first used this form of money.

Theoretical Conjuring and Speculation

How money works is as esoteric as how astrology works. Both are the subjects of endless theoretical conjuring and speculation. The Moon’s gravity is what is presumed to account for such phenomena as ocean tides, but this does not explain the Moon’s effect on a variety of other earthly things, including female menses. Nor does it account for the noticeable effects of other planets. More than 97% of what falls under the category of today’s money is really credit to banks and debts to a variety of borrowers, including those unwitting borrowers called taxpayers, stuck with the debt for money borrowed by governments.

Financiers are probably the most open-minded about the true nature of both money and astrology. J. P. Morgan famously quipped that millionaires do not use astrology, billionaires do. Of course Morgan was not speaking about sun sign astrology; he was referring to in-depth readings from his personal astrologer.

Some scientists believe astrologers invent their readings as entertaining fictions, and presume that our money system is reality-based. The truth is that bankers conjure money from thin air using very loose criteria called “fractional reserves,” (1) which can be expanded or contracted at will.

Astrologers combine mathematically accurate astronomy with the ancient myths of the gods and goddesses in their attempts to “read God’s newsletter.” The planets were named for the gods and goddesses in ancient pantheistic traditions, so that the Mercury of the Romans is the same planet as that named by Native Americans for their god Coyote. Thus the names of the planets can be translated from one culture to another by the names of ancient pantheistic deities. The same deity is depicted uniquely by each culture, however, which baffles many moderns seeking standardization. Depictions of the Egyptian Thoth looks nothing like the Roman Mercury, yet both are the symbolic personifications of the same quality of the energy science tells us is all at various rates of vibration.

While the currencies of different nations can be exchanged for one another, the modern world has something of a schizophrenic split about the true nature of money. While privatized central banks lend money to governments in the West. the government-owned and operated central bank of China lends money to private banks. India, Brazil, Russia and other nations have adopted the Chinese system, or a version of it, and created government-run central banks which no longer burden their populations with national debts. This has caused some Western ideologues to call the Chinese system “autocratic state control.” The banks of the West, controlled by private individuals, are no less autocratic.

Ironically, all money is created out of thin air, whether in China or the USA, while astrological readings are based on precise astronomical calculations combined with the ancient deities each planet’s influences personify. In this regard, monetary systems are far more fictitious than astrology. For astrologers rely on ancient pantheistic mythology which is universal, while modern bankers are free to improvise reasons and justifications based on momentary whims, wishes or rationalizations.

You want to build a McMansion in the Hamptons? Convince your banker that you can resell it for more than the cost of its construction and your banker’s fingers will hit the keyboard to write in the numbers of dollars requested, and transfer that sum to your account with the click of a mouse. No such conjuring from thin air is possible in astrology. When certain planetary patterns form, we know from past history what types of events are likely to manifest.

Trillions of Digitized Dollars

What is now called cyber money or digitized dollars exist in unimaginable trillions. The Fed justifies lending these trillions of abstractions at low or no interest to big multinational banks, while constricting credit to taxpaying citizens. Why? Well, bankers are birds of feather who flock together and feed on the productive output of hard-working people. That’s their game—they’re in business to make profits. In fact, they are legally obligated to make profits for their shareholders.

Most astrologers work alone and are paid fees by clients, and hope they can earn enough fees to pay their bills and stay in business. Astrologers are among the masses whose production and consumption of goods and services feed the profits of the multinational bankers. The product produced by a worthy astrologer helps clients in various ways, including making decisions that increase each client’s ability to earn more money, and thus pay more taxes—with 40 cents of each tax dollar going to pay interest on the national debt created by the Fed’s system of lending to government at ever-compounding interest.

Astrology offers logical explanations for intuitive hunches. The money system is counter-intuitive and counter-logical.

Any astrologer can erect a chart for the creation of the Fed on December 23, 1913, at 6 pm, and see that the Fed-run money system’s days are numbered. An astrologer could have deduced this decades before the financial collapse of 2008, which was created by the Fed-run, debt-creating money system.

Congress responded to the collapse by rewarding the beneficiaries of this system, throwing more money at the crumbling financial infrastructure, on the illogical grounds that these corporate entities were “too big to fail.” Too small to succeed in this system were millions of taxpayers who lost their homes, had to declare bankruptcy, saw their pensions greatly diminished or evaporated, or wound up jobless in an economy that had shipped their jobs to cheap labor markets overseas.

Steeped in Faith-Based Theory

Most modern economists who theorize about money systems are too steeped in faith-based theory to deduce that rewarding monetary criminals for wrecking a society is socially destructive. Yet any astrologer—be she or he ever so ignorant about how the money system works—can read the upcoming transits of the Fed’s natal chart and see that it is in for some horrendous transformation, or possibly a complete disintegration.

Debunkers often accuse astrologers of practicing a superstition that has not changed since medieval times. Actually, there have been dramatic developments in astrology due to computers and telescopic explorations of the universe. Today’s astrologer can take into consideration the seven visible planets or yore, plus Uranus, Neptune and Pluto visible through telescopes, and a host of asteroids, each with an interesting history of influences.

As for money, although bankers lending to government was established in 1694 (the Bank of England), the forms of money have greatly expanded since then. Trillions of dollars are routinely bet on price moves in derivative markets each day, via the electronic transfer of computer digits. There is nowhere near enough gold in existence to back these trillions of cyberspace dollars. Are they backed by reserves? Who’s counting?

If we define superstition as a belief not based on reason or knowledge, today’s debt-based money system is superstitious, for it is based on the belief that we must all borrow what we use as medium-of-exchange money from wealthy bankers, who conjure it from thin air, or withhold it, often as momentary whims dictate. And the belief in this system is so firmly embedded in us that we do not see it as absurd, even as we daily use money as a public utility.

By contrast, astrologers work in a realm where history repeats but does not duplicate. Uncertainty is ever present. For although astrologers can predict, based on past history, that a given planetary cycle will bring another time of travail, they cannot predict exactly what events will manifest to constitute this travail. Since the industrial revolution, for instance, every great depression (as measured by an economic standard) has occurred under a repeating planetary pattern, yet each great depression has manifested unique events. Planetary cycles recur in an ever-changing celestial context. No two moments in cosmic time duplicate. Likewise, history repeats but does not duplicate. This makes the practice of astrology an adventure in uncertainty very much like the study of quantum physics and its investigation of subatomic particles. There is no explanation for why these particles behave the way they do, nor why they are often idiosyncratic. Likewise, there is no explanation for why planetary patterns influence the way they do.

Matching Need With Resources

Nor is there an explanation for why we tolerate a monetary system that creates debt when the logical way to inject money into a society is the way Ben Franklin did it back in Colonial Pennsylvania—matching need with resources, demand with supply. Instead of creating a debt for taxpayers, this system generated enough interest income to relieve taxpayers. The irrational objection to this logical monetary system is that it is an affront to a divinely appointed aristocracy. When President Abe Lincoln used it to avoid borrowing from bankers to fight the Civil War—creating government issued “greenback” dollars—the London Times expressed outrage on behalf of the banking aristocracy thus “cheated” out of profiting from the war:

“If that mischievous financial policy which had its origin in the North American Republic should become indurate down to a fixture, then that government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without a debt. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.”

It was an outraged banking aristocracy that eventually led to the creation of the USA’s Federal Reserve and the national debt and deficit today’s pundits and politicians agonize over today.

Endnotes:

Fractional reserves means that a certain fraction of sums a bank lends must be kept on hand in case depositors wish to take out cash. What that fraction is depends upon the law, or the whims of bankers, or alternately both. For decades during the 20th Century, bankers were required to maintain 1/10 of all money on loan to borrowers. This requirement is intended to protect against panics when larger numbers of depositors demand their money back. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was formed with government insuring deposits up to $100,000. Recently that amount was increased to $250,000.

“A tally (or tally stick) was an ancient memory aid device to record and document numbers, quantities, or even messages. Tally sticks first appear as notches carved on animal bones, in the Upper Paleolithic. A notable example is the Ishango Bone. Historical reference is made by Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) about the best wood to use for tallies and Marco Polo (1254–1324) who mentions the use of the tally in China.” Wikipedia.

Skeptics get into trouble when they try to discredit astrology because they fail to keep things simple. All they have to say to astrologers is: “Please provide evidence to prove astrology works”. That’s all. The burden of proof is ALWAYS on the people who claim that something is true. The ball is now in the astrologer’s court and discussion can begin. Unfortunately, many skeptics try to go further. This is where problems arise because it is obvious that they know nothing about the subject. Not only that, some rush into print without bothering to check what they write for flaws in their logic. Here are some errors committed by two Ph.D.’s who should know better.

The first is Dr. Andrew Franknoi, a professor of astronomy, who came up with a list of “Ten Embarrassing Questions to ask Astrologers”. Personally, I think that most of the questions on this list should be included in a textbook on logic under the chapter titled “Errors in Logic and How to Avoid Them”, but examine the list yourself and see what you think.

Question 1: “What is the likelihood that one-twelfth of the world’s population is having the same kind of day?”

Answer: Well this one I agree with. Those so-called horoscope columns in the newspapers were designed as a publicity stunt to increase circulation. Unfortunately, that worked. As a result, most people think that all there is to astrology is to know about your “sign”. Absolutely untrue. Sun-sign columns are most emphatically not real astrology. I denounce them at every turn, and I do so again here. However, Dr. Franknoi would know this if he were familiar with the field.

Question 2: “Why is the moment of birth, rather than conception, crucial for astrology? …I suspect that the reason astrologers still adhere to the moment of birth has little to do with astrological theory. Almost every client knows when he or she was born, but it is difficult…to identify a person’s moment of conception…”

Answer: The reason astrologers use the time of birth is because birth gives us a completely formed human being. After conception, all we have is a fertilized egg. But notice the subtle shift here. The real issue is “Does astrology work and can the assertions of astrologers be tested”. Dr. Franknoi seems to change this to “Well, it doesn’t sound right so it must not be true”. When quantum mechanics was first proposed, it didn’t sound right either. It took years for it to be accepted. Opponents called it “Quacker Mechanics”. Whether something sounds right or not is not proof one way or another.

Question 3: “If the mother’s womb can keep out astrological influences until birth, can we do the same with a cubicle of steak?”

Answer: This is a complex question fallacy, the most famous example of which is the question “Do you still beat your wife?”. The question itself assumes facts not in evidence. Dr. Franknoi’s apparent procedure is to first ask why the moment of birth has an effect, and then to propose a ridiculous reason which he has no trouble ridiculing. So he is making a second error here as well: the strawman fallacy. Please notice that this question contradicts the previous one. If the moment of conception is important, then the mother’s body cannot act as a shield, and vice versa. The proper procedure is to investigate first and see if there is any effect at all. Then, if there is, one looks for a reason as to why. By reversing the order, Dr. Franknoi comes to the conclusion that astrology can’t work because he cannot think of a good reason why it should. For decades, no one could explain how bumblebees could fly. They seemed to violate all known laws of aerodynamics. Following Dr. Franknoi’s procedure, one would have to conclude that the bees really didn’t fly and it must have been some form of illusion.

Question 4: “If astrologers are as good as they claim, why aren’t they richer?”

Answer: Really Dr. Franknoi, doesn’t that sound like the question “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” that uneducated relatives always seem to ask college graduates at family gatherings? The answer is that knowing something valuable and making money off of it are two different skills entirely. You could ask the same question of economists and financial analysts. Not a billionaire among them. Bill Gates and Michael Dell, on the other hand, are dropouts. And by the way, this question is an ad hominum fallacy. If you can’t refute an opponent, slander them. The main questions are, I repeat, “Does astrology work” and “Can it be tested?”.

Question 5: “Are all horoscopes done before the discovery of the three outermost planets incorrect?”

Answer: Is all physics done before the discovery of relativity and quantum mechanics “incorrect”? Does the discovery of a new element invalidate all previous knowledge in chemistry? Yes, horoscopes in past centuries were less complete. Yes, some things were missing. No, they were not totally wrong. The knowledge that doctors have today dwarfs that of doctors 200 years ago. Are all the cures doctors achieved in 1800 somehow “wrong” because they didn’t know as much as we do today? Will all the cures doctors achieve this year be “wrong” if new knowledge is discovered in the future?

Question 6: “Shouldn’t we condemn astrology as a form of bigotry? In a civilized society we deplore all systems that judge individuals by sex, skin color, national origin, or other accidents of birth. Yet astrologers boast that they can evaluate people based on another accident of birth – the positions of celestial objects. Isn’t refusing to date a Leo or hire a Virgo as bad as refusing to date a Catholic or hire a black person?”

Answer: This is another clear example of the error called the argumentum ad hominum, or what can better be called the argument by insult. Does astrology work or not? Never mind that. Astrologers are BAD! Why they are just like bigots, so don’t listen to them. Tell me doctor Franknoi, can genetics be used to determine the probability of people getting certain diseases? Is that also not due to an “accident of birth”? Can this knowledge be used by insurance companies, for instance, to deny coverage? Why then, by the same argument, the doctors who perform those procedures should also be condemned as “bigots”.

Question 7: “Why do different schools of astrology disagree so strongly with each other? Astrologers seem to disagree on the most fundamental issues of their craft: whether to account for the precession of the Earth’s axis,…how many planets and other celestial objects should be included, and – most importantly – which personality traits go with which cosmic phenomena. Read ten different astrology columns, or have a reading done by ten different astrologers, and you will probably get ten different interpretations. “If astrology is a science, as its proponents claim, why are its practitioners not converging on a consensus theory after thousands of years…” (complex question fallacy again, Dr. Franknoi; you are assuming facts not in evidence). Scientific ideas generally converge over time as they are tested against laboratory or other evidence. In contrast, systems based on superstition or personal belief tend to diverge as their practitioners carve out separate niches while jockeying for power, income, or prestige.”

Answer: If that is the case, Dr. Franknoi, when a doctor tells you that an operation is needed, why bother to get a second opinion? Medicine is a science, isn’t it?

First of all, there are disagreements in every field. Secondly, the disagreements between astrologers are not nearly as great as you make them out to be.

Thirdly, there has been, until recently, no certification of astrologers. Anyone can call themselves an astrologer after reading a book or two, or even without any knowledge of the field at all. By way of contrast, imagine the chaos in the health field if anyone could call themselves a doctor and there were no way to tell the difference between a Harvard graduate and someone who just decided to hang up a shingle. This situation is slowly being remedied. There are now two astrological organizations, the AFA and the NCGR, that provide certification by examination.

As far as the differing opinions about “which personality traits go with which cosmic phenomena”, there is very, very little of that. I believe I talk to other astrologers more than you do, so I am most likely in a better position to know. Your comment about not “converging on a consensus” has been partially true only because anyone can call themselves an astrologer. That situation, as I have mentioned above, is changing.

That last part, however, about practitioners carving out “separate niches while jockeying for power, income, and prestige”, well it took me a while to think of an answer because I had to stop laughing first. Most astrologers work part time for little pay. Research is done for no pay at all (other than the small sums offered for magazine articles). Most of us work for the love of the field. If money were the first consideration, we would all start .com companies. And now, it is my turn to play skeptic and ask for evidence. Tell us Dr. Franknoi, based on the research you did in order to pose these questions, what are the names of these practitioners who are carving out those “separate niches”, and just how much “power, income, or prestige” are they achieving?

Questions 8: “If the astrological influence is carried by a known force, why do the planets dominate?

“If the effects of astrology can be attributed to gravity, tidal forces, or magnetism (each is invoked by a different astrological school), even a beginning physics student can make the calculations necessary to see what really affects a newborn baby. These are worked out for many different cases in Roger Culver and Philip Ianna’s book ‘Astrology: True or False’…For example, the obstetrician who delivers the child turns out to have about six times the gravitational pull of Mars and about two thousand billion times its tidal force…”

Answer: So who says that gravitation or tidal effects are the forces that are operational here? Yes, some astrologers have wrongly postulated that they are what makes astrology work. But the fact that they were wrong in identifying the source does not show that there is no effect. And this was done by individual astrologers, not “different astrological schools” as Dr. Franknoi suggests.

And once again, Dr. Franknoi is putting the cart before the horse. Instead of investigating to see if there is in fact an astrological phenomenon, he says, in effect, that there cannot be because he can’t think of a good reason why there should. In a similar fashion, Simon Newcomb, a famous mathematician, “proved” that a heavier-than-air machine could not fly. He, of course, was proved wrong by two bicycle mechanics who did not read his “proof”. Subjectivity like this has no place in science. The proper scientific procedure is to first check if something is so, and then to find a reason why.

Question 9: “If the astrological influence is carried by an unknown force, why is it independent of distance?”

“All the long range forces we know in the universe get weaker as objects get farther apart. But, as you might expect in an Earth-centered system made thousands of years ago, astrological influences do not depend on distance at all. The importance of Mars in your horoscope is identical whether the planet is on the same side of the Sun as the Earth or seven times further away on the other side. A force not dependent on distance would be a revolutionary discovery for science, changing many of our fundamental notions.”

Answer: I agree that such a force would be “a revolutionary discovery for science, changing many of our fundamental notions”. What is the point here Dr. Franknoi? Are scientists supposed to be afraid of this? Quantum mechanics overthrew fundamental notions too. Would you have advised Max Planck to back off publishing his results for that reason? Is the purpose of science to advance knowledge, or to defend “fundamental notions”? I would really like to hear your answer to this one.

Question 10: “If astrological influences don’t depend on distance, why is there no astrology of stars, galaxies, and quasars?”

Answer: THERE IS AN ASTROLOGY OF STARS, AND THERE HAS BEEN FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS! Furthermore, there are books on the subject in print. The fact that you even ask this question shows a lack of familiarity with the subject that you are criticizing. Please study first and criticize later.

Next is a list titled of statements titled “Why Astrology is Bunk” compiled by Terry Sandbek, Ph.D., a psychologist. “Here are some more reasons astrology is no more useful than stacking marbles on a football.

“Astrology has contributed nothing to our knowledge of the world, the planets or to human behavior. Information given by astrologers is worse than psycho-babble.”

“As old as it is, astrology has accomplished nothing of value in thousands of years. Science is only a few hundred years old and yet it has put us on the moon, found cures for illness, brought you radio, TV, movies and computers. When you compare the achievements of science and astrology, the latter becomes laughably insufficient.”

Notice again how Sandbek, like Franknoi, avoids the questions: “Does astrology work?” and “How may it be tested?” in order to indulge in ad hominums. “Worse than psycho-babble” indeed. Psycho-babble is complete nonsense. Exactly how does something become worse than complete nonsense? And wasn’t the term “psycho-babble” originally used to describe some of the more ridiculous pronouncements of psychologists? Could this be an example of “projection”?

First, of all, if astrology performs as astrologers claim it does, it would be as useful as a good psychological test as well as a predictor of future trends. Secondly, by claiming that astrology is “laughably insufficient” because it didn’t bring us such things as radio, TV, and computers, Dr. Sandbek is committing the error of comparing apples and oranges. Art and literature didn’t give us those things either. Neither did astronomy. And the science of biology made no contribution whatsoever to automobile production. Are we condemn these as well? Dr. Sandbek continues:

“Astrology only ‘works’ because the pigeon paying the money has the complete attention from someone who is attentive, warm, and apparently sincere. It’s called the halo effect.”

I can’t resist the temptation to indulge here in an error myself: the argumentum ad hominum, circumstantial. The exact same charge has been leveled at Dr. Sandbek’s own field of psychology. Carl Rogers showed this years ago. No matter what the therapist’s theoretical orientation (psychoanalytic, gestalt, etc.) the “cure rate” remains about the same. A psychotherapist (who shall remain nameless) once told me that his first patient was a hysterical woman who threatened suicide. He was terrified. Finally, he told her that she was “cured” and dismissed her. He checked up afterwards and found that she was “acting very cured”. An astrologer sees a client two or three times a year. Psychologists see them at least once a week. And shrinks usually charge more. Tell me Dr. Sandbek, is there a possibility that this is another case of projection? By the way, there are a number of psychologists who use astrology as an evaluation tool, and not just the Jungians. Dr. Sandbek once again:

“Your sign continually changes every 26,000 years because of the cosmological phenomenon called precession of the equinoxes (try asking an astrologer to explain that — any beginning astronomy student knows what this is). What it means is that everybody’s sign is off by one zodiac position. For example, if your astrological sign is Aries, then you were really born under the sign of Pisces. Funny, huh?”

This is an old red herring of a question. First of all Dr. Sandbek, signs shift about every 2,200 years, not 26,000. The 26,000 year figure is the time period required for the Earth’s orbit to completely precess around the Sun. Secondly, there are TWO zodiacs, the tropical and the sidereal. The vast majority of astrologers use the tropical. In that zodiac, the signs have not changed. Thirdly, constellations do not really exist at all. Astrologers know this. Constellations are used as place markers, nothing more. The next two assertions that Dr. Sandbek makes can be dealt with together.

“Marriages with incompatible signs have no more problems or divorces than marriages with compatible signs.”

“The Marines and Special Forces of all Armed Services have no more men with warlike signs than men with peaceful signs.”

This is another example of the strawman fallacy. Put words in someone’s mouth and then “refute” them. Astrology is based on the entire horoscope, not just the Sun-sign. As far as I know, no astrologer ever asserted that marriages have to be between compatible “signs” or that there should be more people from “warlike signs” in the armed services. And if they did, they would be wrong.

“Astrology readings are so vague as to be meaningless. Read one to a room full of people and people with different signs will tell you it belongs to them.”

If you are referring to those misnamed Sun-sign astrology readings, I agree with you 100%. Those are not real astrology readings and should be labeled as such. Real astrology readings name can name specific events and times. You are beating a dead horse here Dr. Sandbek.

“Astrologers have a ‘name-fetish.’ They actually believe that the names the Greeks arbitrarily gave to the planets mean something. How foolish. So if we find another (not entirely impossible) planet and give it the name of 1997 QB1, does this mean that people born under this sign will be mathematicians?”

First of all, how do you know that the names were given arbitrarily? Could it be that the ancient Greeks observed an effect first and gave the name later? Secondly, the planet Uranus was not named by the Greeks. In fact, for years, it was named after its discoverer, William Herschel. The procedure astrologers used to figure out this planet’s influence was to first calculate the position of Uranus in horoscopes and look for charts in which it was strongly placed (for examples of horoscopes with Uranus strongly placed, see the horoscopes of Lenny Bruce or Salvador Dali or Isadora Duncan). Uranus was then found to correlate with traits such as rebelliousness and increased originality. These are traits that are totally unassociated with Greek legends concerning Uranus. Incidentally, the planet Saturn is, according to astrology, to be the planet of conservatism, yet according to Greek myths, Uranus was the established power and Saturn rebelled and overthrew him. So much for astrologers having a “name-fetish”.

“The problem of twins: astrologers say that the time of a few seconds or minutes can make the difference in a person’s aspects.”

No, astrologers do not claim this at all. The degree of the sign on the Mid-Heaven changes about one degree every four minutes. There is a similar change for the Rising Sign.

“If this reasoning applies to homoziogot twins, then why are they so amazingly similar? In answer to this question (whatever it is), then why are fraternal twins so different?

No astrologer, to my knowledge, claims that the astrological effect is the be-all and end-all of everything. We do recognize that there are other influences on people, such as their genetic make up. If a kitten were born at the same time and place as a human baby, and the astrological factors indicated great communication ability, the human would talk and write. The cat would just meow. Again, what we have here is an avoidance of the main questions: Does astrology work? and How may it be tested. This is another instance of the lazy student syndrome. Some students will spend all their time and effort thinking up reasons why they shouldn’t have to study a subject instead of just doing the work. Now we come to James, the Amazing, Randi, a gentleman who truly lives up to his name. Mr. Randi, for those few of you who may still not be familiar with his work, has made exposure of fraud and stupidity his calling in life. He certainly has found no shortage of material. Randi is to be commended for his efforts to remind us all how easy it is to be fooled. He did a demonstration once with a bunch of college students. They were told that an “astrologer” was preparing a personal horoscope for each of them and that they were to evaluate it. Most of the students said that the “horoscope” fit them to a tee, even those who said that they didn’t believe in astrology. They were then asked to change “readings” with the person next to them. Of course, most were surprised to find out that they all had the same “reading”.

Doesn’t this “disprove” astrology? Not at all. Suppose each student were given a standard, accepted psychological test instead, and then given these same “horoscope readings” and told that these were the test results. Wouldn’t their answers have been the same? Would this have “disproved” a standard, accepted psychological test? Of course not. What Randi demonstrated here, as he has done so often, is that people are gullible and easily fooled. The results say nothing about the validity of astrology. Other researchers are not so careful. There was an article in in the July 1995 edition of Skeptical Inquirer magazine a few years back titled “Did the Moon Sink the Titanic”. The author, Richard L. Branham, Jr; examined the dates of several disasters at sea and found that the sign position of the Moon showed no correlation at all. Unfortunately for the author, no astrologer (at least to my knowledge) ever claimed that it did. Another strawman fallacy. Had the author taken the time to study some astrology, he would not have bothered to do the study.

Some years earlier than this, a study was published based on examination of thousands of cases. It was found that there was no correlation whatsoever between one’s occupation and their Sun-sign (although they did find that an abnormally large number of lawyers were born under Gemini). Once again, no astrologer worth their salt would ever make such an assertion. One more case of a strawman fallacy. The first step in evaluation of any subject must be to put in the effort to learn it. Only then may it be analyzed and criticized. Hopefully, the lessons on this website will get this get this process started.