Successful Astrology Study Replicated

Favorable progressed Sun/Venus aspects continue to smile on celebrity couples in follow-up test

Sophisticated computer software programs with the potential to guide individuals towards more harmonious romantic relationships and marriages may not be as far into the future as it seems.    

“The good news is there is solid scientific evidence supporting claims about celestial patterns astrologers have traditionally linked with romantic liaisons,” says Australian research astrologer Paul Westran.

He says ongoing research continues to agree in outline with what every astrologer from Ptolemy to Linda Goodman has maintained over the centuries. That is, favorable Sun/Venus aspects turn up more often than expected in romantic relationships and marriages, presumably because they are accompanied by mutual feelings of attraction, harmony and ease. 

In an article for Correlation magazine, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Astrological Association of Great Britain, Westran describes the successful replication of  his  ground-breaking 2005 study that found progressed synastry  aspects (alignments) involving the Sun and planet Venus showed up prominently at the start-up of relationships in the progressed  birth charts of 1,300 celebrity couples.

Statistical Significance

In the 2005 study the astrologer calculated the odds at 900,000 to one against the likelihood that major Sun/Venus alignments occurred by chance at the start-up of relationships.  And this number spiked wildly as the results were replicated years later in 2019.

Westran explains that synastry aspects are the aspects formed between the Sun, Moon and planets in the compared natal birth charts of couples.  Progressed synastry aspects are formed when planets in the natal birth chart are advanced over time using the day-for-a- year formula astrologers call secondary progressions.

“The salient difference in our study is the compared horoscopes we observed were not fixed natal charts but progressed synastry charts that were moving and changing.  Just like people do,” he said.

“Because the Sun, Moon and planets travel at different apparent speeds across the firmament, a true horoscope is a moving and changing entity. Our replicated study supports the view that the horoscope begins at the moment of birth but doesn’t end then,” he said.

To create a progressed birth chart the astrologer counts the number of years that have passed since the individual’s date of birth and casts a new progressed birth chart for this day. Due to the difficulty involved in keeping track of all the possibilities, astrologers do not routinely consider progressed synastry aspects in their delineations, but this may be about to change.

Westran says both natal and progressed planets form the major astrological aspects astrologers call conjunctions, oppositions (180-degrees), trines (120-degrees), squares (90-degrees), sextiles (60-degrees), and the 150-degree quincunx.  Predictably, in both the initial and follow-up studies, Sun/Venus trines, conjunctions and oppositions showed up in statistically significant numbers at the start of relationships, but challenging squares and quincunx aspects were conspicuous by their absence.

 “In our studies we observed progressed synastry aspects moving into and out of orb (their range of influence) in sync with romantic developments in the lives of celebrity couples.  Venus may not be forming a major aspect with the Sun in a couple’s compared natal  synastry charts but this may no longer be the case 30 years later when the couple meets for the first time,” he observed. 

Aspects Considered

Among the progressed synastry aspects considered in the study were natal Sun and natal Venus, natal Sun and progressed Venus, progressed Sun and natal Venus and progressed Sun and progressed Venus.  Although less impressively, synastry alignments of Venus with Venus and Venus with Mars also presented at the start of relationships with statistical significance.

Westran started his ambitious research series late in the last century.  Since then he has compared a total of 2,600 progressed celebrity charts with a control simulation of 2.6 million false progressed charts for nonexistent couples.

“This research would not have been possible were it not for the accurate birth data and confirmable biographical information about public figures and celebrities posted on well researched products like the online AstroDatabank celebrity database,” he said.  

The researcher initially compared progressed synastry charts manually but ultimately automated the process.    An important development was creation of the technology he calls collision graphs, which in graphic detail show correlations between progressed synastry aspects and events unfolding in the lives of real people.

The system graphically depicts aspects forming, becoming exact and moving out of orb (their range of influence) as personal life events unfold.  For example, relationships that begin with a prominent Sun/Venus aspect may need resuscitation when the aspect wanes and the Sun/Venus aspect moves out of orb.

Westran says the graphs were revealed by following the scientific method.  Simply, they were peaks in a dataset that were investigated further.  The outcome of the study is explained by clarifying the properties of astrology, which leads to a theory of astrology. 

In Correlation magazine he describes his theory of astrology in this way: “Astrology does not describe events in nature; it describes events n consciousness.  Just as physics and astronomy enable us to describe and measure events in nature, so astrology enables us to describe and measure events in consciousness. For the horoscopes to have this explanatory and descriptive power it must begin at the moment of birth but not end then.”

Riddles Solved?

“Because it has been confirmed by repeated observation, it’s possible to put forward ideas based on the underlying hypothesis.  We can make predictions based on data populations that are similar to the ones used in this experiment.  And we can predict that other types of aspects may have other types of effect.

 “If the results of this experiment can only be explained by astrology this answers some riddles that have stood for centuries,” he said. 

Westran says astrologers are now able to plug couples data into a computer system to learn how astrology may support or fail to support a relationships based on the angular relationships of progressed synastry planets.  For access, astrologers join a progressed synastry Facebook group and download a free Windows 10 desktop app that produces graphs, matrices and a report.  Or they can go online at http://positiveastrology.org/signup.login.php  to obtain free reports. The Facebook Group is https://www.facebook.com/groups/150348472313100. 

“If we modify already existing software it should be possible to enable online dating sites to calculate real-time astrological compatibility.  Adding GPS to notify people when a compatible Sun/Venus trine is nearby is another possibility,” he said.