Gerald has been teaching astrology and counselling astrology clients as a Professional Astrologer since 1972. He has a Master's Degree in Communications from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. YOU'LL FIND HIS ASTROLOGY SHAREWARE FOR THE MAC ON AMERICA ONLINE AND OTHER NETWORKS -- use keyword search for "astrology" with quickfinder on AOL.
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Curious about what an astrologer can do for you? What's involved in having an astrological reading done? What is the cost of a reading? What can I expect from a reading? This text file answers your questions:
========================TABLE OF CONTENTS=============================
1. ASTROLOGY SERVICES OFFERED by Gerald Baron M.S.
2. WHAT HAPPENS ONCE YOU SAY, "I WANT A LIVE ASTROLOGY CONSULTATION."
3. BIRTH DATA YOU NEED TO HAVE AN ASTROLOGY CONSULTATION (READING)
4. BENEFITS OF AN ASTROLOGY CONSULTATION
5. BECOMING AN INFORMED CONSUMER OF ASTROLOGICAL SERVICES
the reading
the horoscope chart
the natal horoscope
prediction
synastry (chart comparison)
horary astrology
electional astrology
mundane astrology
6. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ASTROLOGY (Internet alt.astrology) _______________________________________________________
1. ASTROLOGY SERVICES OFFERED by Gerald Baron M.S.
The consultations are done by phone at a convenient time for you. You call Gerald to set up an appointment. Mail Gerald the fee before the consulting process starts. The most popular consultation procedure is outlined below. If you want to discuss another way of doing the consultation, call or write Gerald.
- A brief conversation to determine what you want from the consultation.
- Gerald spends from 3 to 6 hours (depending on the services you want) drawing up the necessary charts and making interpretation notes.
- We have the consultation by phone for 1 to 2 hours depending on the services you requested.
- About a week later we have a brief follow up phone conversation. _______________________________________________________________________
3. BIRTH DATA YOU NEED TO HAVE AN ASTROLOGY CONSULTATION (READING)
If you were born in a hospital, your mother's medical record is a source of your accurate birth time. You can also try government (Bureau of Vital Statistics) and family records.
The more accurate your birth time is, the more accurate and personal your horoscope reading will be. The ideal accuracy is +/- 1 minute. You can get an full horoscope reading, howver, even if your birth time is unknown; it will be shared by everyone born any time that day. Discuss any questions or uncertainties you have about your birth time with your astrologer so he will know how accurate your birth time is.
Daylight Savings Time or Standard Time
______________________________________
Remember advancing your clock one hour at the end of April and then putting it back to normal at the end of October? The extra hour of evening daylight during the summer is called Daylight Savings Time.
You must be sure of the type of time (Daylight Savings or Standard) used when your birth time was recorded. The hour difference between daylight savings and standard time has a significant effect on which degree and sign you have rising in your natal horoscope. On the average a new sign rises every 2 hours. Your rising sign is as important as your sun sign (the sign your sun was in at birth, the same as the "signs" used in newspaper astrology).
Many places in the United States and Canada go on Daylight Savings Time from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October (before 1957 to the last Sunday in September). During WW II most of North America was on Daylight Savings Time year round.
Whether or not Daylight Savings Time was in effect for your birth time can be determined for sure by checking:
1) Trust the Astrologer to look it up;
2) City hall records;
3) Newspapers, railroads, radio, TV station records;
4) Family and friends memories.
If you are uncertain whether or not daylight savings time was in effect, say so.
Birthplace
__________
For most horoscope calculations you only need to have your birthplace accurate to within 60 miles. For example, if you were born in a suburb of Los Angles, then you could give your birth as Los Angles if you have trouble locating you actual birthplace on a map. Another example, you were born in a very small town that no long exists or can't be found on a map. If the town were with 60 miles of a city that is on a map, you can give that city as your birthplace. ______________________________________________
4. BENEFITS OF AN ASTROLOGY CONSULTATION
______________________________________________
- Gain insight into your own motivations and personality;
- Learn ways to improve relationships;
- Determine best time to take action;
- Get a psychological weather report for the next year;
- Hear about your life purpose through astrological interpretation.
We'd all like to know what we're going to get when we spend money for a service. In this section, I'll describe the general services traditionally offered by astrologers and questions to ask:
o THE READING
Essentially what you are paying for (you really don't care how many hours the astrologers takes to prepare for the reading since you only experience the reading itself), comes in different forms. A reading can be entirely in everyday language without any reference to astrological factors, or if you wish, tell your astrologer to include references to astrological factors in your horoscope. A reading can be done by an astrologer with no or limited contact with the client. The astrologer can prepare the reading on an audio cassette or write out the chart interpretation. You should ask if you will have the opportunity to discuss the reading after you receive it. A computer generated reading can be useful, but generally a reading done by a live astrologer is better than one done by a electronic/digital astrologer. Only a live human can synthesize the factors in a horoscope for you. Often with a computer generated interpretation, you only get disconnected blocks of interpretation.
The in-person live consultation is best, but not always possible. Telephone consultations work well too. Ask how long the consultation will be -- I'd be wary of "as long as necessary" (How focused is the astrologer, and how focused will you be as client if you are uncertain as to how long the consultation will be). Ask if a written or taped summary follows the consultation. Make a tape recording of the consultation. Ask about follow up consultations.
o THE HOROSCOPE
A diagram of our solar system at the time of birth (any event that has a time and place has a horoscope: opening a business, buying a car). Ask to see a sample of what you will get. The chart (planets, signs, and houses placed in a wheel -- no interpretation) can be hand drawn or computer generated.
o THE NATAL HOROSCOPE
Represents your basic nature and potential. Symbolically represents your career, marriage, health, goals, and purpose in life. No predictions are included in natal readings. Should include interpretation of of all planets, signs, and houses -- not piece by piece, but woven into the consultation.
o SUN SIGNS
The most popular form of astrology is Sun Sign astrology. Newspapers use Sun Sign astrology because it is easy to determine a person's Sun Sign. The sun returns more or less to the same place in the zodiac for a given day and month regardless of the year. For instance, between 23 September and 23 October for any year, the sun is in the sign of Libra. So, when someone says that they are a Libra because they were born 2 October (any year), they really mean their sun was in the sign of Libra.
All the planets (astrologers call the sun and moon planets) in your birth chart have a sign position, and they play a role in your astrological makeup. However, only the sun returns to the same place each year on the same day, so popular astrology is limited to sun signs -- the other planets have more complicated cycles that depend on the day, month and year and thus can not easily be used in the brief column used in newspaper astrology.
o PREDICTION
To determine how and when you will undergo crises of development, the astrologer will compare various post-birth planet positions to the planet positions in your natal (birth) chart. Some popular techniques of prediction are transits, progressions,and solar returns. They are used when a client wants to know what the upcoming year holds.
The horoscope records internal psychological and spiritual events. You have some control over how the changes manifest in the material plane.
o SYNASTRY
People are often interested in how a certain relationship can be improved. Whatever the relationship is (marriage, business, family, student-teacher, parent-child), the procedure of comparing two charts is essentially the same. First, each chart is studied separately to determine each person's attitude toward any relationship. After that, the charts are compared.
Pre-consultation questions to synastry clients
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a. What is your goal for this relationship: ease, peace, harmony, stimulation, excitment, challenge, etc. How do you see this relationship: parent-child, victim-savior, equals, friends, business, lovers?
b. What traits have the (wo)men you've been attracted to and established a relationship with had in common -- traits you've liked and disliked? What traits do you most dislike and like in people.
c. Describe the perfect (wo)man for you.
d. How do you think you present yourself to a potential mate (courting behavior)?
e. Describe your father and mother's relationship to each other.
f. Get a close friend or relative to answer questions 1 to 3 as they see you.
o HORARY ASTROLOGY
A very old and popular techniques. A chart is cast for the time the client asks the astrologer a question. The question must concern the client directly, for example, "Will I make money as a landlord if I buy this house in February?" The astrologwer intprets the horoscope drawn for the time of the question to determine the outcome. Although not necessary, the natal horoscope of the client may be consulted.
o ELECTIONAL ASTROLOGY
If you have a choice of starting times for a new venture (trip, marriage, business opening, etc.) ask your astrologer to do an electional study. He will cast charts for all of the possbile starting times to determine the appropriate time for the outcome you want. Your astrologer will also check the transits and progressions in your own chart to determine your internal state as you start your venture.
o MUNDANE ASTROLOGY
Study of the development of large groups of people (organizations, cities, countries, etc.). The horoscope used is based on the charter or constituion of the political or social group. Mudane analysis is of interest to business, academia, and politics. It's a fascinating study, but lacks the personal view of natal astrology.
????? 4) I was born on a day when the Sun changes sign.
Which sign is my Sun in?
Answer: Which sign your Sun falls in will depend on your exact time of birth. There are two ways you can find out where your Sun is in the zodiac. Since the Sun is only one of (at least) ten bodies to consider, and since the whole chart is needed for an understanding of the personality and the life, it might be useful to cast a complete chart, which would tell you the exact position of the Sun as well as the exact positions of all the planets and houses. This is easy to do these days because there exists astrological software for computing charts. The most accessible software is a programme called "Astrolog" which was written by Walter Pullen, a reader of the group. (See # 18 for details of how to get a copy of Astrolog. See # 17 for details of how to get information about other astrological software.)
If you do not want to calculate the chart yourself (e.g., with Astrolog), or if you have trouble doing so, another option is to order your chart from a chart calculation service. Some addresses for companies providing this service are listed in the alt.astrology resource list (see # 19 for details).
Alternatively, look in an "ephemeris," a book that lists the positions of all the planets (usually at midnight, sometimes at noon) each day. Ephemerides are available in the astrology section at occult ("new age") bookstores, or in some libraries in the astronomy section. They usually list positions for Greenwich, so you must calculate your time of birth in Greenwich Mean Time (e.g., if you were born under Pacific Standard Time, you add 8 hours to your time of birth to get GMT; Mountain Standard Time, add 7 hours; Central Standard Time, add 6 hours; Eastern Standard Time, add 5 hours; if you were born during daylight savings time, subtract one hour before adding [or subtracting if you were born east of Greenwich] the number of hours for the time zone in which you were born). Next, determine if the ephemeris lists positions at midnight or noon. Then work out the number of hours that passed between the time for which positions are given (midnight or noon) and your time of birth in GMT. (e.g., for an ephemeris that lists positions for midnight, if you were born at 4:30 pm GMT, the difference is 16.5 hours). Divide this difference by 24 to get the proportion of the day that passed before you were born. Next, calculate the number of degrees and minutes of arc that the Sun travelled through during that whole day. Multiply that amount by the proportion of the day that passed before the birth, and add the result to the position given for the start of the day (or noon if the ephemeris gives noon positions). The result is the position of the Sun at your birth.
????? 5) Which Sun-signs are compatible with mine?
Answer: Some people feel that, in a very rough way, people with Suns in the same element (fire, earth, air, water) or, to a lesser extent, in the same polarity (positive -- fire and air, or negative -- earth and water) tend to get along more easily. (The fire signs are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius; earth: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn; air: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius; water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.) But interactions among specific planets and houses in two charts are far more important in determining how well people will get along. Your best match may well be someone whose Sun is in a sign of a different polarity, and your worst enemy may well have his/her Sun in a sign of the same element!
Real compatibility can only be determined when the complete charts of two people are compared, or a special chart is constructed based on the two people's birth data. See answer # 7 for details.
*** Questions About How Astrology is Practiced ***
????? 6) Is the Sun-sign all that is important for assessing
personality and for prediction, or is there more to astrology?
Answer: The most common misconception about astrology is that it divides people into 12 categories, "Sun-signs" (and may subdivide them further by Moon-sign). This misconception comes from the popular practice of publishing "horoscopes" in newspapers and magazines for different Sun-signs, and the sale of popular books containing predictions for people of a particular Sun-sign. Unfortunately, all such horoscopes provide nothing more than entertainment. Valid predictions cannot be made on the basis of the Sun-sign alone.
In actual practice, astrology involves determining the exact position in the zodiac (not just by sign, but by degree and minute, that is, the specific part of the sky) of the Sun, the Moon, and 8 planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) at the time of a person's birth. The zodiacal degree of other points and bodies, such as the Moon's North and South Nodes, asteroids, Uranian points, and Arabic parts, are included by some astrologers. One also calculates the positions of 12 "houses" which are specific to the exact place and time of birth. The location of planets in these houses and the sign on the cusp of each house are important sources of information in chart interpretation. One also looks at the angular distances in the zodiac between each pair of planets; certain specific angular distances, called "aspects," are considered meaningful. All of this information is necessary to determine the astrological influences present at a person's birth and to formulate predictions for the future. The sign in which the Sun and Moon fall is only one very small part of the picture.
This does not mean that people who write horoscope columns necessarily just make things up out of thin air. They usually use certain astrological concepts, but the application of these concepts to sign positions of the Sun rarely produces valuable information. To see why, let us look at what typical "Sun-sign astrologers" might do. First, they assume that your Sun is roughly in the middle of the sign. They then look to see if any planets are making aspects to the Sun on the day/week/month in question, and they interpret these aspects. If your Sun is at the beginning or end of a sign, these aspects will be irrelevant in your case. In addition, there may be aspects to other planets in your chart that will affect you strongly, and some of them may even have an effect opposite to the effect of the aspects to your Sun. Sun-sign astrologers might also set up "houses" by assuming that the sign your Sun is in is the first house, the next sign is the second house, and so on. They then look to see if any planets are currently in each "house". A serious astrologer would calculate the positions of houses using data about the exact time and place of birth, and these houses rarely coincide with the Sun-sign astrologer's zodiac-sign "houses." So the Sun-sign technique will only work at all for people who happen to have the Sun and several other planets in the middle of one sign, and whose first house also happens to begin at 0 degrees of the same sign. Such people are extremely rare, so for most people "horoscopes" will be useless.
????? 7) How can one predict the nature of a relationship using astrology?
Answer: The most common technique for determining the nature of a relationship is called "synastry." This involves comparing the positions of all the planets in two people's charts. One looks to see where one person's planets fall in the other person's houses, and one compares the positions of planets in the two charts to see whether any pair of planets is separated by a number of degrees in the zodiac that is considered meaningful. (These meaningful distances between planets, e.g., 0 degrees, 180 degrees, 120 degrees, 90 degrees, and so on, are called "aspects".)
A couple of newer (and still experimental) techniques exist for studying the nature of a relationship. One is called the "relationship chart" (created by Ronald Davison); the chart is cast for the place in space and time that is exactly half-way between the two people's birth places and times. The second technique is called the "composite chart" (developed by Robert Hand). The Sun in this chart is at the mid-point of the two people's Suns, the Moon is at the mid-point of the two people's Moons, and so on for all the planets. For recommendations of books about all these techniques, see the resource list. (See # 19 for complete details about the list.)
The nature of the synastry technique to be applied depends on the nature of the relationship contemplated and also on whether the relationship is between male and female or people of the same gender.
If two people are contemplating marriage, the technique used is different than it would be if they were contemplating a business relationship. The technique is also different when evaluating a parent-sibling relationship or a superior-subordinate relationship.
As a simplistic example, for marriage, a Sun in Aquarius (female) is an excellent match for Sun in Leo (male) (Sun's position taken alone -- neglecting other planets for purposes of discussion), as long as the two people operate on a spiritual level. This has the potential for the highest type of marriage.
However, if it is a father-son relationship where the father has Sun in Aquarius and the son (especially the first born) has his Sun in Leo, they will cause each other frustration to no end.
????? 10) Where can I find scientific research on astrology?
Answer:
The most famous research is that of Michel and Francoise Gauquelin. Some of their findings have been the focus of decades of scrutiny by skeptics, and their results have held up under this scrutiny. Some of their studies have been successfully replicated with different samples and by independent researchers. The highly publicised CSICOP "failure to replicate" on an American sample for the "Mars effect" (the appearance of Mars in certain sectors with greater-than-expected frequency for eminent athletes) has been shown to demonstrate the effect when the athletes are ordered by eminence (see the article by Suitbert Ertel in the Winter, 1992 issue of the Skeptical Inquirer). After finding the Mars effect on their initial sample, the CSICOP researchers added in a large number of less eminent athletes so that their final sample included far fewer such athletes than did the Gauquelins' sample, and this washed out the Mars effect when the sample as a whole was considered (see Eysenck & Nias, Astrology, Science or Superstition, St. Martin's Press, 1982). When the athletes are divided into groups according to an objective criterion of "eminence," the Mars effect emerges among the most eminent. The Mars effect has been found in two other studies by skeptics' organisations, one in Belgium and one in France. The Belgian study by the Comite' Para appears in Nouvelles Bre`ves, Vol. 43, 1976, pp. 327-343. The study by the French skeptics remains unpublished after a number of years, but analyses of the data by Suitbert Ertel have appeared on the internet and bitnet. The effect has also been found in a sample analysed by a German researcher named Muller, and in several additional samples studied by the Gauquelins, bringing the total number of replications of the finding to eight (see Ertel, 1992). But the Mars effect is just one replicable finding in a large set of Gauquelin findings, including observed associations between various professions and the appearance of planets of related character in "key sectors" (parts of the sky near the points of rising, culmination, setting, and anti-culmination -- the "angles"), associations between the angularity of a planet and certain related character traits, and the "inheritance" of angular planets from one's parents when the birth is natural (i.e., not induced with drugs or occurring by C-section).
Some of the Gauquelins' research is summarised in the following books: Michel Gauquelin, "Cosmic Influences on Human Behavior" (3rd edition, published in 1985 by Aurora Press, P.O. Box 573, Santa Fe, NM 87504); Michel Gauquelin, "Planetary Heredity" (published in 1988 by ACS Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 16430, San Diego, CA 92116-0430); Francoise Gauquelin, "Psychology of the Planets" (published in 1982 by ACS Publications, Inc.).
A preliminary report of a study showing the relationship between inspiration in scientific discovery and certain angular separations of planets appears in a booklet entitled "The Eureka Effect," by Nicholas Kollerstrom and Michael O'Neill. It was published in 1989 by Urania Trust, 396 Caledonian Road, London N1 1DN. A complete report on this study and some additional data on inventions will appear sometime in the next few years.
A study that is currently attracting interest was conducted by Dr. Suzel Fuzeau-Braesch of l'Universite' de Paris-Sud. The study demonstrated that subtle differences in astrological charts for twins could be used to construct pairs of descriptions in which the twins were contrasted on a set of personality traits. For 238 pairs of twins, a parent or other family member was able to match the correct description (i.e., the one based on the correct chart) to each twin significantly more often than predicted by chance (p < .001). The personality descriptions were based on variables such as the proximity of a planet to the diurnal "angles" (point of rising, culmination, setting, and anti-culmination) -- variables whose values were unlikely to be known by the parents or other family members. This study appeared in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 13, No. 10, 1992, pp. 1135-1144. An attempt at replication is currently being carried out by Michael O'Neill.
A type of astrological phenomenon that has been observed in hundreds of experiments involves a change in the behaviour of metal ions when an aspect forms in the sky between planets associated with the metals involved. Here are some of the relevant references. Three of these appear at the ftp site (see # 20) in articles entitled "metals1," "metals2," and "metals3."
Faussurier, A. Conscience Ecologique et Cre'ativite' Humaine, Lyon 1975.
Fyfe, A. Uber die Variabilitat von Silber-Eisen-Steigbildern, Elemente der Naturwissenschaft, Vol. 6, pp. 35-43 (Easter 1967).
Fyfe, A. Moon and Plant, Society for Cancer Research, Arlesheim Switzerland 1967, pp. a7 b37.
Hammerton, C. Repetition of Experiment made by L. Kolisko in relation to Observable Effects in Salts of Metals Corresponding to the Planets, Astrology (UK), Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 46-48 (1954).
Kolisko, L. Workings of the Stars on Earthly Substance, Parts 1 & 2, Stuttgart 1928.
Kolisko, L. Das Silber und der Mond, Orient-Occident Verlang, Stuttgart 1929.
Kolisko, L. Der Jupiter und das Zinn, Mathematisch-Astronomische Sektion am Goetheanum (Doirnach), Stuttgard 1932 (available in English as Workings of the Stars on Earthly Substances, Part 4, Jupiter and Tin).
Kolisko, L. Gold and the Sun, Kolisko archive (published privately), Stroud UK 1947 (a study of the total solar eclipse of 20 May 1947; a study of the total solar eclipse of 29 June 1927 is given in Workings of the Stars on Earthly Substance, part 2; of 19 June 1936 in Gold and the Sun, London 1937; and of 15 February 1961 in Die Sonnenfinsternis vom 15 Februar 1961, Stuttgart 1961).
Kolisko, L. Spirit in Matter, Kolisko archive, Stroud UK 1947.
Kolisko, L. Saturn und Blei, Kolisko archive, Stroud UK 1952.
Kollerstrom, N. Astrochemistry: A Study of Metal-Planet Affinities, London: Emergence Press, 1984.
Kollerstrom, N. The Correspondence of Metals and Planets -- Experimental Studies, The Astrological Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1976, pp. 65-72.
Kollerstrom, N. Chemical Effects of a Mars-Saturn Conjunction, The Astrological Journal, Vol. 19, No. 3, 1977, pp. 100-105.
Schwenk, T. 1949, quoted in W. Pelikan, The Secrets of Metals, Anthroposophic Press, Spring Valley, NY, 1973, pp. 23-25.
Voss, K. Neue Aspekte, No. 5 (1965); summarised by R.C. Firebrace, Confirmation of the Kolisko Experiments, Spica, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 4-8 (1965).
The Astrological Association of London publishes a scholarly journal devoted entirely to astrological research. It is called Correlation. (See the resource list for the address and phone number of the Astrological Association; see # 19 for information about the resource list.) Prior to its first publication in 1981, research articles appeared in The Astrological Journal, also published by the Astrological Association. If you are in Britain, all issues of this journal are available at The Astrology Study Centre (396 Caledonian Road, London N1 1DN), the Oxford and Cambridge University libraries, the Scottish National Library in Edinburgh, the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, Trinity College in Dublin, the Warburg Institute, London University, the British Library in London, and the York University library. In the USA, these journals are available at the Heart Center library, 315 Marion Avenue, Big Rapids, MI 49307. Astrologers in your local area may have copies of these journals as well.
The International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR, Inc., P.O. Box 38613, Los Angeles, CA 90038-0613, U.S.A.) publishes the quarterly journal Kosmos, which contains reports of research. The journal is sent to members of ISAR.
Astrological research appears occasionally in academic journals of psychology, although the work published in these journals is usually by non-astrologers and has little to do with traditional astrological theory. A literature search (e.g., of the database "Psychological Abstracts") for articles containing the keyword "astrology" or "astrological" (or "astrolog?" where "?" is a wild card) would turn these up.
Because of the difficulty in publishing astrological research (or any unorthodox research), much remains unpublished. Among such studies are those described in postgraduate dissertations on astrology. A list of these (up to 1981) appears in the December, 1982 issue of Correlation. For more recent dissertations, check Dissertations Abstracts at a university library. (Our very own Mark Urban-Lurain did a multivariate analysis of the birth data of members of Alcoholics Anonymous for his Master's thesis at Michigan State University.)
*** General Questions ***
????? 11) I have seen people born within days/hours of one another
whose lives are really different. How come?
Answer: Even a few minutes difference in the time of birth or having a different birth place can change the chart substantially. Obviously people who have just the same birthday will have different charts. Since Earth is the only planet that makes a trip around the Sun exactly once a year, all the other planets will be at completely different positions in a different year. But even if people are born on the very same day, their charts can differ quite radically. The Moon moves about 13 degrees in a day, and the astrological houses, which are an extremely important element of the chart, move through the entire zodiac in a 24-hour period! And their positions are affected by latitude as well. In addition, even if two people's charts are identical (which is rare), other factors may influence the way the chart is expressed. Some people operate on a material level, some on a mental level, and a few operate on a spiritual level. The same chart can be expressed on any of these levels. An astrological chart does not show the "fate" or "destiny" as such. The person always has a choice, and the free exercise of the will determines how the influences indicated in a chart manifest themselves.
????? 12) What is the meaning of the term "the Age of Aquarius"?
Answer: Due to the precession of the equinoxes as explained in question # 30, the Vernal Equinox enters a new sign in the sidereal zodiac about every 2160 years. According to output from Astrolog, at the Vernal Equinox in 1992, the Sun will be at 5^ Pisces 22' in the sidereal zodiac. Because of this, the current age is called the "Piscean" age. The Vernal Equinox will not actually occur in the sign of Aquarius in the sidereal zodiac until the year 2377. Some astrologers, however, believe that the equinox is close enough to the cusp of Pisces that we will begin to see some of the effects of the Age of Aquarius, hence the "Dawning of the Age of Aquarius." Opinions also differ regarding the exact boundaries of the constellations and the length of an astrological age.
????? 13) How is it possible for astrology to work?
Answer: There are at least two schools of thought. One common explanation is synchronicity, an acausal connecting principle proposed by Carl Jung. The general idea is that events on earth of a certain nature coincide in time with astronomical events of a similar nature (according to the symbolic significance of the planets and their relations in the heavens). Although synchronicity operates throughout the universe, the planets might have special significance because they are part of collective experience (that is, we can all see them or know about them) and so they can take on a collective meaning -- they can speak to the "collective unconscious." But Jung's synchronicity principle is still hypothetical and still not well understood.
Jung's idea is similar to the ancient hermetic idea of resonant bonds of sympathy between "similars" (which share a common essential design) in the microcosm and macrocosm. This was the ancient explanation for the correspondence between cosmic and mundane events.
A less popular explanation is that there are unknown and currently undetected forces or energies emanating from the planets that affect life on earth, perhaps something akin to Rupert Sheldrake's "morphic fields." (This type of explanation is unpopular among those physicists who believe that all the forces in the universe are already known.) Biological evidence showing a harmony between celestial rhythms and biological rhythms suggests that known or unknown planetary forces operate on organisms at a material level, sometimes through changes in the pattern of solar radiation. Such biological effects might alter psychological processing and thus human action and the events that arise from it.
Whatever explanation is offered, it is evidence from experience and research that convinces people that astrology does indeed work. The rich descriptive theory that has evolved over thousands of years provides for a deep understanding of human nature and the capacity for prediction of the type of circumstances that will prevail during specific time periods. As with most areas of inquiry, the correct explanatory theory to account for the structure of the descriptive theory awaits its discoverer.
????? 14) Does astrology control my future? Is it "wrong" to use
astrology to learn what the future holds for me? I'm scared.
Answer: In Western astrology, it is not believed that the cycles associated with the planets control your future; it is believed, rather, that YOU have ultimate control over your future through the exercise of your will. The planets only indicate some of the tendencies inherent in your personality and the conditions that surround various areas of life. One cannot determine in precise detail exactly what will happen in one's life from day to day and moment to moment, but only what kinds of influences will be present. There is a famous saying: "The stars incline, they do not compel." Within the situational and psychological context described in a chart, you are free to act and react according to your will, which is in turn guided by the wisdom you possess and your stage in your spiritual evolution. As for good and evil, there is nothing "wrong" with learning what sort of conditions will exist in your life. It may be to your advantage to foresee these influences so that you can be prepared and control your actions to better work in harmony with the celestial cycles.
*** Questions About Birth Data ***
????? 15) I notice that I need to know the time zone used in the place
I was born and the latitude and longitude of my place of
birth in order to erect a chart. How can I find such information?
Answer: To find the latitude and longitude of your place of birth, you can estimate from a map (which is not really very accurate) or look them up in a reference book such as Thomas G. Shanks "International Atlas" or "American Atlas" (which also provide information about the time zone and the use of daylight savings and war time for each city/town); these are usually available in the astrology section of occult bookstores. Time zone information is usually available in a reference book at your local library, but if you think you might have been born when daylight-savings time or war time was in effect, you must either check a reference book such as Shanks' or phone the state/provincial archives for your birth place and check with them. Note that some cities changed the time zone they used at some point in their history, so it is *always* best to check with a reference such as Shanks or phone the state/provincial archives. A difference of one hour changes a birth chart radically!
If you were born in the United States of America, there is another method for finding latitude and longitude: through the database server located at port 3000 at martini.eecs.umich.edu; this is accessed by the command "telnet 141.212.99.9 3000"; if this command does not work, type telnet, and, at the prompt, type "martini.eecs.umich.edu 3000". Once you are logged in, type in the name of any U.S. city, followed by the abbreviation for the state (e.g., Seattle, WA) and the programme will display the longitude and latitude. To end the session, just enter "bye."
????? 16) I do not know what time of day I was born. Is there some way
to find out?
Answer: To find your exact time of birth, talk to a parent (who may have the time written down somewhere) or contact the hospital where you were born; sometimes the time appears on a birth certificate. If the time cannot be found, some astrologers claim to be able to determine the time through a technique called "rectification" which involves looking at astrological influences present when major events happened in the life, such as meeting a future spouse, marriage, birth of children, death of parent/sibling/spouse/friend, and so on.
If no time is known, and if rectification of the time is not possible, some information about the person can still be derived from a chart. The position of the Moon, which moves about 13 degrees per day, will be inaccurate, and the positions of the planets in the astrological "houses" will be unknown. But the relations among the planets will be roughly accurate, and the sign positions of the planets (except perhaps the Moon) will be correct.
*** Questions Asked With Surprising Frequency by Disbelievers ***
????? 22) Every sensible person knows that astrology couldn't possibly
work, so why are you people wasting your time?
Answer: It is impossible to rule out astrological phenomena on _a priori_ grounds. Current understanding in scientific circles does not shape the actual structure of the universe. Science involves research. No mere mortal is omniscient, and so none can predict infallibly which effects would show up in research and which would not. What is currently known is not all that will ever be known. It is a mistake to buy into the current way of thinking as if it was an accurate and complete picture of the universe. Dogma is antithetical to true science.
_A priori_ arguments are not the final word in science, which was designed, after all, as a means of discerning nature's secrets by actually examining nature, as opposed to just thinking about it the way Aristotle and Descartes did. (For sources of scientific research into astrology, see question # 10.)
????? 23) How could planetary forces, of whatever nature, act upon an
infant when it is outside the mother, but not when it is a
fetus in the womb? Why should the forces only have effect at
the moment of birth?
Answer: Given that we do not yet have an explanation for astrological phenomena, we cannot assume that astrological correspondences are due to some "force" (e.g., gravity) that can travel through a mother's body as easily as it can through the walls of the hospital.
One research finding might be relevant to this question. The Gauquelins found that one of their results, the "inheritance" of angularity for specific planets (i.e., the child of a parent with an angular planet tends to have the same planet angular), was only present when the birth was natural. This finding suggests that it is not exposure to air per se that produces the astrological effect. Rather, the baby is "destined" (for unknown reasons) to be born at a certain time, and to retain the astrological character of that time. Unnatural births (e.g., C-section, or drug-induced labour) prevent birth at the "correct" time, and so the child fails to "inherit" its parent's planetary angularity in its own chart. (No studies have been done looking at the effect of the type of birth on any factors in actual chart interpretation, so the Gauquelins' finding does not speak to the issue of astrological charts in general; if future research fails to find an effect of the circumstances of birth on the validity of the birth chart, then the reason for the child's absorption of the character of the time of birth will not be able to be accounted for by destiny.)
????? 24) Don't you guys know that astrology depends on a geocentric
astronomy? Copernicus blew it away. Astrology can't work
because it depends on the view that we are at the centre of
the universe, which we clearly are not.
Answer: This is an argument that never occurred to Copernicus, who practiced astrology. Heliocentric versus geocentric is a method of calculation, and it is easy to postulate astral forces indifferent to the current interpretation of orbital mechanics. In any case, as the answer to the next question will show, demonstration of the possible causation of astrological effects is not clearly relevant to showing the existence of these effects.
A force exerts the same influence whether the position of the body exerting it was calculated using Ptolemaic, Copernican, Keplerian, Newtonian or Einsteinian orbital mechanics. And, of course, astrology was originally practiced using observation, before astronomy was sufficiently advanced to allow highly accurate prediction of the positions of the planets. So the ancient theories about the relation of Earth to other bodies in the solar system had no effect on the estimates of bodily positions used by the astrologers of the time.
Regardless of what one views as the "centre of the universe," the positions of celestial bodies relative to a person are obviously the only positions relevant when considering any possible effects of those bodies on the person (e.g., any influences that might pertain to astrological phenomena).
The whole concept of a centre of the universe seems meaningless until it is proven that the universe has edges. And astrologers' use of geocentric coordinates certainly does not imply that they think Earth is at the centre of the universe! By analogy, a physicist can compute the gravitational effect of Earth on our Sun without adopting the belief that the Sun orbits the Earth.
????? 25) Don't you guys know that no cause for astrological effects
is known? Therefore such effects cannot exist.
Answer: There are quite a few variations of this very popular fallacy. A common variation is to point out that the hands of the doctor delivering a baby exert a far stronger gravitational pull than any planet could. Again, the reasoning here goes, "no cause, therefore no effect." If there ever is a cause advanced for astrological effects, it may well not involve gravity.
All sorts of sciences are based on empirical evidence alone, with no explanatory theories available. Genetics was accepted as part of science before the discovery of DNA, and, even now, the complete mapping from genetic factors to amino acids is far from complete. In psychology, the principles that govern the organisation of vision and audition (i.e., that determine the boundaries and content of separate "figures," "objects," or "streams" of sound) are well established, but researchers have no idea why perceptual processes follow these particular principles.
Vast areas of sciences that *do* provide causal explanations make specific predictions that cannot be derived directly from the believed cause but are based on empirical evidence and descriptive theories that capture the structures inherent in the data. Tide tables, for example, are calculated empirically. Although physicists know enough about the relevant physical processes to make it plausible that there should be two tides a day, even though the earth revolves only once a day, mathematical formulae directly relating this cause to the observed tides do not exist.
To tread but briefly on philosophical ground, the notion of causality itself is not well grounded, and is considered by many to be a function of human perception rather than a property of the universe (see, for example, David Hume in "A Treatise of Human Nature" and Immanuel Kant in "Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics"). As the empiricist Hume discovered, humans make an attribution of "causality" when they have certain types of perceptual experience (e.g., when A is perceived to precede B in time, B is always perceived to be preceded by A, and so on, then A is perceived to "cause" B). The famous psychologist Albert Michotte did many studies in which he examined the factors that give rise to the impression of causality (see "La Perception de la Causalite," 1946, or the English translation, "The Perception of Causality," 1963). He showed, for example, that animated dots on a screen are perceived to be involved in a causal interaction, with one dot "causing" movement in another, when the timing relations of their movements and the relative direction of their movements fall within a certain range. (Of course no "causal relation" was ever actually present, since the movement was due to animation.)
Even so pragmatic a scientist as Sir Isaac Newton argued that an appeal to cause is unnecessary because the type of laws he discovered, which are purely descriptive in nature (e.g., the relation f=m*a among the theoretical constructs force, mass, and acceleration), are sufficiently powerful to predict events and account for all the available data. He believed that physical theories are what the physicist Pierre Duhem called "the economic condensation of phenomena" (see "The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory"):
"To tell us that every species of things is endowed with an
occult specific quality by which it acts and produces
manifest effects, is to tell us nothing; but to derive two
or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and
afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all
corporeal things follow from those manifest principles,
would be a very great step in philosophy, though the causes
of those principles were not yet discovered; and therefore I
scruple not to propose the principles of motion above
mentioned, they being of very large extent, and leave their
causes to be found out." (Optics, Query XXXI at the end of
the second edition.)
So the descriptive theories of astrology, the relations that have been discovered and exploited over a period of thousands of years, may not lend themselves to an explanation in terms of causes any more than Newton's laws of motion do. The human mind seeks "causes" (at least in the West), but Nature herself may be indifferent to them. The Eastern vision of an harmonious universe with all its interconnected parts dancing in unison may be more in line with reality.
????? 26) Don't you guys know that tests of groups of astrologers show
they do no better than chance? Therefore astrology does not work.
Answer: The same is said of investment managers. From the Economist for March 7, 1992, p. 81: "Numerous studies suggest that `exceptional' investment managers do not exist. In any given period, each has no more than an even chance of doing better than the market index; moreover, a manager who does well one year is no likelier than others to do well in the next. A few funds may beat the index for, say, three years running, but these are no more common than chance would predict. Give a sample of coin-tossers three coins each. If they obey the laws of probability, one in either will toss three heads."
Does this mean there is no such thing as good investment advice?
The question of the standard of practice in the profession and of the validity of the discipline are not the same, and should not be confused. Do the best astrologers participate in such tests? Given that astrology is not a closed profession, can testing groups of people where the only criterion for selection is that they say they are astrologers really say anything about astrology? Given these sort of ground rules for the test, would a good astrologer decide to participate?
Even if highly qualified astrologers agreed to participate in a study, did the specific test administered give the astrologers a fair shot at accuracy (e.g., if they are asked to match charts with people, are they allowed to get to know the people well and learn about their lives and personal history in detail, or are they allowed just a brief chat with the people)?
It would be very hard to answer any of these questions with an unqualified "Yes." The talent of practitioners and the validity of the discipline they practice must not be confused. And scientific tests conducted by those attempting to "debunk" astrology must be evaluated with as much critical attention as any other scientific study. The tests must be fair. The conditions of the tests must be conducive to finding an effect if any is possible. They must not be arranged so that finding an effect is impossible simply by virtue of the experimental design.
One must be very careful in drawing conclusions from a *lack* of evidence (either because of negative findings or because no studies have been conducted). The failure to find an effect does not mean that the hypothesis is false. It just means that one hasn't found evidence in favour of it. Nothing more, nothing less. But if one *does* find an effect, then one has evidence in support of the hypothesis (and any other hypothesis that would make the same prediction, whether or not that hypothesis is currently available). So there is an asymmetry that is rarely recognised: evidence (data) can support an experimental hypothesis, but a lack of evidence cannot refute it (even if the lack of evidence is in the form of failure to find a predicted effect, e.g., a difference between samples). The possibility always remains that our experimental design is flawed and/or our measurement techniques are inappropriate and so they fail to capture the effect. In psychology, where measurement is often very difficult and indirect (as it is in much astrological research), one can fail to find evidence to support a particular hypothesis even after years of experimentation. Then some clever researcher invents a new measurement technique, or creates a new experimental design more favourable for the emergence of the phenomenon of interest, and the predicted effect emerges!
Note that many scientific astrological studies that do not focus on the ability of individual astrologers (e.g., to match charts to people) have found positive results that are replicable. (See # 10.) The elements of subjectivity and interpretive ability are missing from these studies because they concentrate on objective measures (e.g., the presence/absence of a planet in a certain area of the chart for a certain group of people) and so effects are easier to observe. As any experimental psychologist will confirm, subjective judgments are fraught with error, and the unreliability in such measures vastly reduces the success rate of experimental studies.
????? 27) Don't you guys know that astrology makes an infinity of
claims? You could never test them all. Therefore we can
dismiss it out of hand.
Answer: Any non-trivial field makes an infinity of claims. If you wished to refute physics you could not track down every prediction it makes. This does not mean physics is not a science. In verifying physics, you look at the basics. If they hold up, you consider it basically valid, and then attempt to replicate more abstruse claims. You will never be able to replicate every claim implied by physics.
????? 28) Don't you guys know that you can't really prove a negative,
such as astrology never working, anyway? Therefore we can
dismiss it out of hand.
Answer: That a negative cannot be proven hardly constitutes a refutation of astrology. The argument above reduces to "a negative cannot be proven, therefore all negatives are false". If you want to be strict, you must accept that all negatives must be taken as possibly true, forever. It is not legitimate to say, "a negative cannot be proved, therefore all negatives that seem weird to me are false." That is simply clothing a prejudice in pseudo-scientific language.
universally despise astrology. Can such a weight of opinion
be wrong?
Answer: Yes. Easily. Examples in the social sciences of educated opinion doing a total about-face are common. Racialist theories, now despised by almost all those in academe, were orthodox before World War II, as just one example.
In the health sciences as well, practices such as phrenology, acupuncture, hypnotism and chiropractic have all crossed in one direction or another the line that separates respected science from despised pseudo-science. If astrology does so too, it will definitely not be the first time, and probably not the last.
This question is based on an appeal to authority and, as such, is an example of a common fallacy in reasoning. Plausibility based on current world views is a poor guide to the nature of reality, but scientists, being human, are as fallible as the rest of us in embracing modern views with undue passion. (Humans have a deep need to feel they understand things. The unknown is a source of fear, so many choose to deny it. But the unknown is only unreal for those who are omniscient. For those of us who are less than omniscient, humility is in order in any discussion of the nature of reality.)
???? 30) Why don't astrologers consider the fact that when the Sun is
in the sign of Aries, it is not really in the constellation Aries?
Answer: This is due to the phenomenon known as "the precession of the equinoxes." The equinoxes are the points in time and space at which the earth, with its tilted axis, is positioned with respect to the sun in such a way that the length of day and night are equal. Most Western astrologers, with a few exceptions, base their work on a zodiac with sign positions determined by the equinoxes rather than the constellations. At the Vernal Equinox, which occurs on about March 20th of each year, the Sun enters into the sign of Aries in this zodiac. The signs are not defined by the constellations. The zodiac positioned with respect to the equinoxes is called the "tropical zodiac." (A zodiac based loosely on the constellations [with the first sign beginning at the edge of the constellation Aries, and with 12 equal signs of 30 degrees each], which is called the "sidereal zodiac," is used primarily by Hindu astrologers.) Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the equinoxes are moving backwards with respect to the fixed constellations by about one degree every 72 years. Approximately two thousand years ago, the beginning of the tropical sign of Aries was aligned with the beginning of the constellation Aries (perhaps around 217 A.D.).
Why do the tropical signs have the same names and symbols as the constellations with which they were aligned 2000 years ago? Isn't the sidereal zodiac the source of the meanings of the tropical signs? And so shouldn't astrologers take the meaning of a tropical sign from the constellation most closely aligned with it now? This argument is based on the presupposition that the meanings of the signs come from the natures of the symbols in the heavens that we call constellations. But clearly this is not the case. Some of the most dominant traits of Virgo are obsession with detail and an analytical and critical nature. How could these traits be derived from a picture of a virgin? How could the Piscean qualities "spiritual," "selfless," "imaginative," "inspirational," "feminine," and "idealistic" be derived from a picture of two fish? Few traits of each sign can easily be related to the symbol assigned to the constellation of the same name.
There is no necessity, given current knowledge, for the tropical signs to have received their meaning from the constellations of the sidereal zodiac; it is possible that the nature of the tropical signs suggested a symbol to associate with a constellation (since the symbols look very little like the pattern of stars we associate with them). Perhaps the constellations with which we are familiar came into being during the period in which the tropical sign Aries was aligned with the constellation Aries. When did the tropical zodiac and constellations appear? The tropical zodiac may have been around a long time. The Egyptians had a tropical (solar) calendar by the early part of the third millennium B.C.; given the direct and transparent relationship between the signs of the tropical zodiac and the months of the solar year, they may well have had a tropical zodiac as well. Tropical calendars in the form of standing stones (e.g., Stonehenge) date from 1000-5000 B.C. in Northwest Europe, so the tropical zodiac might have existed there as well. Unfortunately, the preliterate people of these cultures left no records behind. Some sort of zodiac, possibly sidereal, with 12 equal signs, existed in India in 3000 B.C. A manuscript (in Sanskrit) from that period shows that astrologers then used a zodiac, an equal house system, and aspects counted sign to sign (as in much modern-day Hindu astrology).
The origin of the modern constellations is somewhat obscure, so it is very difficult to decide whether the constellations were around to lend meaning to the tropical signs at the time that the tropical zodiac was created. Noonan (1976; Journal of Geocosmic Research, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 6-7) claims that the first zodiac of the constellations appeared around 500 B.C. The constellations are believed to have been assigned symbols by the Babylonians, but there were originally 36 constellations, and only some of them coincide with the modern sidereal signs. We know that some of the symbols used for the modern signs are recent, because the original symbols were all animals (the word "zodiac," derived from the Greek zo^idiako's, means "circle of animals"). We can be certain that the modern constellations of the zodiac existed by about 30 B.C. because they appear very clearly on the ceiling of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera in Upper Egypt. So was the tropical zodiac in use by then?
It might have been. The precession of the equinoxes was certainly common knowledge by then. Precession was discovered at the very latest in 200 B.C., when Hipparchus wrote about it. But Sir Norman Lockyer found that many very early temples in Egypt had been moved at different periods in history so that they lined up with a particular star as it precessed across the sky.
(See, for example, E.C. Krupp, "In Search of Ancient Astronomies," New York: Doubleday, 1977.)
