Astrologer Pat Harris, PhD, reports that a system based on ground-breaking research she completed for her doctorate thesis at the University of Southampton, UK, is in the early development stage. The research, titled Applications of Astrology to Health Psychology: Astrological Factors and Fertility Treatment Outcomes, successfully demonstrated that certain angular relationships of Venus and Jupiter to planets in a woman’s natal birth chart can identify those years in a woman’s life when she is more likely to bear children.

The research makes it easier for interested patients and clinicians to incorporate astrology into fertility treatment plans. Women can now find optimal dates for successful conception – with or without assisted reproductive technology (ART).

Dr. Harris is Editor of Correlations, a journal published by the Astrological Association of Great Britain (AA). She also earned a masters degree in health psychology from the University of Southampton, and has been a consulting astrologer for more than 30 years.

“I have clients who have been with me for more than 20 years who keep returning for life management advice. Some would ask if they would marry and have children and when this would be. I used traditional astrology to locate the years when there was a strong likelihood of these events happening in their lives.

“Astrology didn’t let me down as I had considerable success with these forecasts for natural conceptions,” she said.

Dr. Harris says a decision to look at astrology and fertility treatment outcomes was made because the treatment process is stressful and invasive as well as being expensive. And because the rate of success is poor – only one in four in the UK.

“If a new method could be found to reduce the number of treatments needed to succeed this would be invaluable in every way to women who hope to have children through assisted reproductive technology,” she added.

In an interview with the Astrology News Service (ANS) Dr. Harris provided the following insights:

ANS: Can astrology bring you a baby?

Dr. Harris: Based on my research I believe the answer to this question is a very clear yes. Clinicians may wish to consider use of astrology to select dates for embryo implantation because of its potential to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome. However, it is very important that the patient understands that astrological indicators do not guarantee success. My research shows only that attempts to conceive during optimal times have an increased likelihood of success (the birth of a live baby) compared with attempts made when the indicators are not present. It should also be made clear to patients that the absence of favorable astrological indicators means only that the chances of succeeding may be lower and does not portend a failed outcome.

ANS: When and how was your research carried out?

Dr. Harris: Between 2000 and 2002 I collected data from woman volunteers in the U.S., Australia and the UK who had undergone fertility treatment and were willing to let me explore their outcomes. I looked at the volunteers’ birth charts and the dates at which they underwent embryo transfers, including IVF (in vitro fertilization); ICSI (intra-cytoplasm sperm injection); IUI (donor insemination); and other forms of treatment, such as GIFT (gamete intra-fallopian transfer) and ZIFT (zygote intra-fallopian transfer).

For the study I used a very sophisticated statistical model called logistic regression. With this model, different variables can be considered together to see if any of them might account for the apparent significance of another. With this model I was able to consider many different variables like age, belief in astrology, location of clinic, experience of depression, levels of anxiety and reproductive health problems together with astrology to see if any of them had an impact on any significant finding regarding astrology and treatment outcome.

The first exploratory study looked at 114 treatments and found that astrology, clinic location, and family history (reproductive health problems) all had significant associations with success and failure of outcome.

Between 2003 and 2005 I gathered new data from women patients attending to National Health Service (NHS) clinics and one private clinic for a replication study that was intended to test only the factors found to be significant in the first exploratory test. In the second study I examined 55 treatments and ran the model developed for the first study. This time, only astrology was significant with a 94 percent likelihood the result was not a chance finding.

ANS: What astrological methods did you use?

Dr. Harris: I developed the astrological model by referring to authors such as Ptolemy and William Lilly (17th century), who had described particular associations of astrology with times in a woman’s life when she was likely to have children. Using these and other sources for information on ancient astro-fertility associations I divided the 114 treatments from my exploratory group into two treatment outcome groups: successes (resulting in the birth of a live baby), and fails (a live birth not achieved). I checked the astrology for each group using the women’s birth charts and time of embryo transfers. To be determined was the absence or presence of astrological transits or secondary progressions that, traditionally, are believed to be present when children are born.

By carefully assessing the differences in each group I was able to build up a picture of a collection of astrological contacts that were significantly more likely to be present at embryo transfers for a successful outcome compared with embryo transfers that resulted in failure.

ANS: What are transits and secondary progressions?

Dr. Harris: An astrological birth chart (or natal chart) is a map of planetary positions in the sky at the time, date and place of birth for any individual. But the birth chart isn’t static; it continually evolves or progresses over time.

As they orbit the sun transiting planets form new stressful and/or helpful alignments with the planetary placements in an individual’s birth chart. In the fertility study, the only significant transits observed involved transiting Jupiter aligned with or conjoined with either natal sun or natal Jupiter in the birth chart.

To find secondary progressions astrologers advance planets in the natal chart using a day-for-a-year formula. Simply, in the progressed horoscope, planets in the natal chart are advanced the exact number of degrees they have actually traveled in a single day, either forwards or backwards. For example, to find out how far planets have symbolically progressed by age 30 the astrologer counts forward 30 days from the date of birth and casts a new chart for that day using the time and coordinates for the place of birth for the original birth chart.

Progressed planets can form new angular relationships with either natal or progressed planets in an individual’s birth chart. In the fertility study a number of progressed alignments were significant when fertility treatment was carried out during the windows of time when these astrological progressions and/or transits were active. These included:

• Progressed sun and Venus making exact contact (a conjunction) within six months each side of the date when the contact became exact in the year or years being forecast..
• Progressed moon making exact contact with natal Venus within two weeks on each side of the date when the contact became exact in the year or years being forecast.
• Progressed Jupiter making contact with natal sun, moon, Venus or Jupiter. Or Jupiter contacting the major angles (ascendant ad midheaven) of the chart – all within three months on either side of the date when the contact became exact in the year or years being forecast.
• Progressed ascendant or midheaven making exact contact with Jupiter and Venus within six months on each side of the date when the contact became exact in the year or years being forecast.

ANS: What can we take away from your fertility study?

Dr. Harris: The research did not directly confirm ancient writings on fertility indications in astrology. But it did clearly support the association of Venus and Jupiter with fertility and an increased likelihood of having children.

My original research increased the likelihood of a successful outcome when fertility treatment was timed to coincide with my researched astro-fertility windows by 10 percent when the birth time was known to within half an hour and 14 percent when the exact birth time was known. Continuing research with new data has enabled me to increase that percentage to 21 percent and 23 percent respectively.

ANS: What does the future hold?

Dr. Harris: I’m currently working on additional data and with alternative healthcare professionals with the objective of further improving the model and its effectiveness as a diagnostic tool. Importantly, the data I’ve continued to collect in my practice has supported the original study findings.

A former U. S. Navy officer, Harris covered the 2003 Iraq War for CNN in a hair-raising stint as an embedded reporter with the 2^nd Marine Division.  Over the past three decades, he has covered virtually every news story of consequence for various news outlets.  For example, he is the Washington Post reporter who broke the story on the no-tell motel on Airline Highway where the Reverend Jimmy Swaggart often met with a prostitute while attacking other TV preachers for indiscretions of their own.  Following the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he traced several hijackers to the Atlanta motel and the local flight school they used to train while preparing for the attack, again for CNN. As part the team that won a first place National Headliner award for investigative reporting.

The veteran investigative journalist earned a reputation for digging and getting it right – and while he has not cast his investigative journalist’s eye on astrology, he has used respected members of our profession to delineate his chart and provide what he calls “a valuable reality check and sounding board for patterns in my life.”  He plans to share his ideas on how astrologers can win over his skeptical media colleagues when he participates in a panel discussion devoted to the subject at the United Astrology Conference (UAC) in New Orleans May 24.  More information on this program is available here.

In an interview, Harris answered the following questions for the Astrology News Service (ANS):

ANS: You’ve checked it out.  What do you really make of astrology?

Harris:  From childhood I remember reading the comics and Sydney Omarr’s astrology column was on the same page.  I’m not sure how I figured it out, but recognized that my birthday qualified me as a Pisces.  I was hooked – peeking at what he said the stars had to say about the day and how it would go.  I know, very shallow of me.  But the column and others,  however shallow, made astrology hugely popular on a very superficial level to millions of people.  Most don’t take it further or realize there’s much more to astrology than Cliff’s Notes or the fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant.

ANS:  At what point in your life did you realize there might be more to astrology than sun-sign columns?

Harris:  When I moved to San Francisco to write for the San Francisco Examiner and freelance for Rolling StoneI rekindled an interest in Eastern religions and other spiritual pursuits, even tracked down an ex-NFL linebacker to an ashram in India who said meditation took away his anger and violent streak in a profile for the Washington Post.  Intrigued by the icons from the hippie days, I was able to interview the late (“tune in, turn on, drop out” guru)Timothy Leary and poet Alan Ginsberg.  And I  became friends with the late gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson.  When I broke the Jimmy Swaggart hooker story, Hunter sent a fax to CNN declaring me to be “an evil, chrome-dome, scorpion…with more skeletons in his closet that Pol Pot.”  It was during this period that I decided to get my astrology chart done to see if it could be useful in helping me figure out just what those skeletons were rattling around in my closet.

ANS:  What did you learn?

Harris:  I found the readings to be valuable as a reality check and sounding board for patterns in my life – what to look for and look out for.  And I learned that an astrological chart is not a crystal ball that describes what will happen but a road map that can offer perspective on how the road might wind.

ANS:  What’s the best advice an astrologer has ever given you?

Harris: Our astrologer (David Railey of Atlanta) helped my wife Carol and I pick an auspicious wedding date, November 11, 2000.  And now, 12 years later, I can say we’re still going strong.  We also asked David to look at a favorable window for my back surgery in 2007 and it was a big success. Carol  gave my sons readings for birthday presents this year and says “they were blown away.”

ANS:  What’s far and away the most interesting story you’ve ever covered?

Harris:  Impossible to say, but stories where power, ambition, sex, greed, murder, money, religion and politics are in the mix – and certainly riding with the 2^nd Marines during the Iraq invasion.

I remember Swaggart lusting after Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s powerful TV satellite that beamed religious programs across the country, and he used Bakker‘s tryst with a babysitter to get him defrocked.   What a window on America.  These were the same powerful TV preachers courted by Presidents for their clout.  I  called them “Godfathers of the Gospel,” televangelists in search of ratings and market share who were bumping each other off, not with bullets but sex scandals.

The last race of Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, who later went to prison on federal corruption charges, stands out. When I interviewed him he was flying high , leading in polls that also showed voters believed he was a crook.  How can that be? I asked him. “Cher, lemme tell you,” he said in his charming Cajun lilt.  “I ain’t never been caught in bed with a live boy or a dead woman.”   That made headlines!

But for sheer drama I’d say true crime stories like Atlanta’s missing and murdered children case and the conviction of the first African-American serial killer.  Covering O.J. Simpson’s murder trial for CNN and Michael Jackson’s molestation trial are other examples.   And in between was investigating the death of Princess Diana in Paris, the Oklahoma City bombing and covering domestic terrorists like bomber Timothy McVeigh.  There also was Atlanta’s convicted  Olympic Park bomber Eric Randolph, who hid from the FBI in the rugged mountains of North Carolina for five years. Who knows, maybe they should have used a criminal astrologer, if there is such a thing.

ANS:  What was it like being an embedded reporter with the 2^nd Marine Division?

Harris:  While writing about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden I volunteered to be an embedded journalist for CNN and wound up riding shotgun with a light armored recon unit during the Iraq invasion.  Nothing as exhilarating as getting shot at, except getting shot at and missed.  At a low point I had to break the tragic friendly fire story of a U.S. Air Force A-10 that mistook a Marine unit for enemy Iraqi troops and unleashed rockets and 20mm cannons.  Eighteen Marines died  in the crossfire and my story sparked the Pentagon to re-open the investigation.  I was later invited to speak to the Army War College and showed video I’d shot in Nasyria, a pivotal battle and one of the bloodiest in the Iraq campaign.

Out of all that, what I value most are the close bonds with the young Marines who kept me safe and trusted me to tell their stories, brave guys not much older than my own sons.  During lulls in the fighting, they lined up to use my sat phone, and to play ghost writer on my laptop, sending missives to wives and girlfriends back home.

“What’s her name, son?” I asked one.

“Judy”

“What do you want to tell her?”

Just say, I’m fine and miss her.”

He showed me her photo.  “Don’t you want to say you miss her beautiful blue eyes,  her soft white skin and the beautiful curve of her neck?” I asked?

“Yes sir, write that!”

ANS:  Is it fair for the media to refer to astrology as entertainment?  What might a more accurate description be?

Harris:  First, it is entertaining. To hear an astrological explanation for why a politician keeps getting caught with other women, or why a celebrity can’t stay out of jail, or rehab is entertaining.  But a more serious forecast about the way an election might turn out – or what the economic outlook will be – should generate more interest in the media and maybe even more respect for astrology in the long run.  Especially if you can back up stories with studies that link stars to science and certain patterns to public peccadillos of politicians and others. Venus on the loose?

ANS:  Is there something astrologers can or should be doing to change the public’s perception of astrology?

Harris: The more the community is able to attach its message to breaking news the better.  Keep doing studies, making forecasts about major events, profiling newsworthy personalities and offering insights into why certain things have happened the way they have.  Also, predict what might be new on the horizon.   Then go back and take credit or blame for getting it right or wrong. Being transparent and not taking yourself too seriously can work wonders.

But the biggest sin in the media is to be wrong and boring, not necessarily in that order.

Rapoza interviewed financial astrologers Ray Merriman, Robert Gover and Grace Morris, and produced a balanced overview on financial astrology for the uninitiated: Can Planets Affect Your Portfolio? He also wrote a sidebar piece: Lucky Guess or Lucky Stars, Astrologer’s Top Stock Picks Beat the Market.

Some observations by the astrologers interviewed:

“Astrology is not some fortune cookie bullshit.” — Robert Gover.

“This is a crossroads year. It’s not the end of the world for the U.S. economy and the planets tell us it’s going to be a good first half for U.S. stocks.” — Grace Morris.

“With Saturn moving into Scorpio later this year it will be a time of reckoning and not only for the U.S. but for Japan and also Europe.“ — Ray Merriman.

The Astrology News Service (ANS) asked the Forbes reporter the following questions:

ANS: Are you a Forbes staff writer or freelancer?

Rapoza: I’m a contracted employee, which is one step above freelancer, one step below staffer. I write for them daily and am one of the top 10 international news writers in terms of traffic.

ANS: How did this article come about?

Rapoza: Intellectual curiosity really. Plus, I personally know Robert Gover (one of the astrologers featured in the coverage).

ANS: Business magazines appear to be more open to covering this topic than head-in-the-sand scientific publications. Why do you think this is so?

Online Forbes article illustrated with stock image of crystal-ball gazing fortune teller.

Rapoza: I think because a financial and business publication — especially a mainstream one like Forbes — has more room to at least “appear” to be tongue in cheek than a professional journal of science. Although I was not poking fun as financial astrologers in any way, I used an image that was more mainstream in order to attract a more general audience — a woman reading a crystal ball.

I would also say that for a mainstream business magazine like Forbes, or even a weekend article in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, that people might be curious to know about the subject as they would be curious to watch any “out there” type program on The History Channel; such as Decoded or Ancient Aliens. It interests people. And on the investment side, people want to look at the data — see just how well your stock picks have worked using financial astrology at least in part to make those decisions to buy or sell. Investors, both retail investors and licensed professionals, know how to judge whether an investor’s calls are working or not: is the stock going up, or has it gone down? In the examples I gave from Grace’s large cap stocks, they have all gone up. Of course, lots of stocks have gone up this year, but still, people interested in investing would be curious about how that call was made. Lucky guess? Or lucky stars? I don’t think you’re going to get away with that in a scientific journal.

ANS: Do you or your broker utilize astrological methods when timing/picking stock investments?

Rapoza: No.

ANS: What answer do you give those who ask for your honest opinion about astrology?

Rapoza: I’ve never been asked that question. I would say that I have personally used astrologers in my personal life. In fact, I plan on seeing one next week! Not for stock picking though.

ANS: Is there anything else you think we should know?

Rapoza: I think that’s it. I’m glad people (in the astrological community) liked the article.