"Astrology Fact Sheet"

Astrology is almost certainly the oldest and most widespread of all
pseudosciences. Its origins can be traced back to the first half of the
Hammurabi dynasty in Babylonia about 3,500 years ago.

In its modern form astrology asserts that the positions of the solar planets
at the time an individual is born are somehow correlated with his or her
personality, activities, preferences, and even major life events (accidents,
marriages, divorces, etc.). There is no general agreement among astrologers
as to how or why this can be. Nor is there agreement as to precisely which
planetary positions lead to which specific traits or experiences. It is
almost certain that no two astrologers will "cast" an individual's horoscope
with precisely the same result. The predictions that do result are often so
vague that verification is impossible, anyway.

Astrology is best understood by learning how it began. Like most urban,
agricultural peoples, the Babylonians had a pantheon of many gods. They also
had a well- developed science of observational astronomy, which served the
highly utilitarian purpose of providing a calendar, times to plant and to
harvest, times of religious festivals, etc. In this observational scheme
each planet was important, and the priests whose task it was to make the
observations named the planets for the gods in their pantheon -- Marduk,
Isthar, Nergal, etc. By about 1000 B.C. there was an extensive Babylonian
literature of "planetary omens." Since Nergal (Mars) was the god of war, a
summer in which Nergal shone down brightly from the sky was a good time to
wage war (or a time in which risk of war was great). Since Ishtar (Venus)
was the goddess of love, a spring night in which Ishtar shone high in the
West after sunset was a good time to make love.

About 600 B.C. the Babylonians devised the twelve-sign zodiac: markers in
the sky along the path of the sun, moon, and planets, which roughly
correspond to the months of the year. The oldest horoscope that has been
discovered dates to April 29, 410 B.C. A horoscope is simply a crude chart
which indicates the directions in which the various planets lie, relative to
the zodiac, at the time of a person's birth. During the classical era
dominated by, first, Greece, and then, Rome, Babylonian astrologers (called
Chaldeans) set up shop in most large urban areas throughout the civilized
world. Greek astronomers scoffed at the Chaldean astrology as absurd, but
the Greek public embraced astrology as lovingly as they had embraced many
other bizarre or barbaric cults. Later, the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius
Cicero wrote, in 44 B.C., a devastating critique of these astrologers, which
is still worth reading today. A typical passage: "What utter madness in
these astrologers, in considering the effect of the vast, slow movements and
change in the heavens, to assume that wind and rain have no effect at
birth!"

With the coming of Christianity, the Chaldeans had hard going, since the
early Christians (like the Hebrews before them) were hostile to other gods
and pagan religions. Of course, there was no way to disguise the essentially
religious underpinning of astrology. During the early Middle Ages astrology
nearly became extinct in Europe, but was kept alive elsewhere by Islamic
scholars.

The Crusades brought astrology back to Europe where it co-existed uneasily
with Christianity until the dawn of the age of science. The explosive growth
of scientific astronomy from 1600 A.D. paralleled an explosive decline in
the fortunes of astrology. By 1900 a French encyclopedia accurately
described astrology as a vanishing cult with no young adherents.

Astrology made the strongest comeback in all its history after World War I,
when British astrologer R.H. Naylor invented the daily newspaper astrology
column.

The paradoxical result is that the heyday of astrology was not during the
benighted Middle Ages, when the average person was sunk deep in ignorance
and superstition, but rather in the 20th Century, when most citizens
presumably know the basic facts of astronomy and are aware that the planets
are worlds similar to the earth rather than god-fires in the sky.

Thus, at least 90% of all Americans under age 30 know their sun-sign. There
are more than 10,000 practicing astrologers in the U.S., and Americans spend
more than $200 million annually consulting astrologers. (In the U.S. there
are only about 3,000 professional astronomers, and only about $100 million
is spent on basic research in astronomy-- except in space probes.)

Scientists have been quite baffled by the growing popularity of astrology,
and a number of them have taken the time to carry out careful studies to see
if there is any actual correlation between planetary positions at birth and
any attribute of the individual in later life. No statistically valid study
has ever shown any connection that would give any validity to any
astrological concept-no matter how vaguely that concept has been worded!
There is no question about the simple fact that astrology does not work.

Nor is there any reason why it should work. In order to go from an
individual's horoscope to a specific prediction of what is in store for that
individual, the astrologer must consult a table. This table correlates
features of the horoscope (positions of the planets) with individual
attributes (intelligence, affection, physical strength, good health, etc.).
Where did this table come from? [Note that it is such a table and not the
horoscope itself that is the "guts" of astrology.] This table simply is made
up by whoever wrote the particular manual of astrology being used. This is
why two astrologers can arrive at different (even contradictory) predictions
from a single horoscope. There are numerous quite different "astrological
systems"; all different, all arbitrary, and all completely disconnected from
reality.

This arbitrariness is a characteristic of all pseudosciences, and results
because the origins of pseudosciences lie not in observation of nature, but
in accidental historical conventions of human culture. For example, the
ancients happened to call the second planet from the sun Venus and the fifth
planet from the sun Jupiter. If they had done it the other way, it would not
have made the slightest difference to astronomy. Venus would then be the big
planet with colorful belts and a red spot, while Jupiter would be a
hellishly hot planet about the size of the earth. But astrology would then
be totally different, because astrology depends entirely on the
characteristics associated with the name, not the actual planet! Jupiter,
chief of the gods, is a leader of men. Venus, goddess of love, rules the
emotions. Changing the arbitrary names would leave reality unaffected but
astrology, horoscopes, etc., would become totally different. It is
interesting to note that the Maya considered Venus the lord of death.

Another way to see this is to consider the zodiac. The Babylonians, with
their interest in the calendar, naturally had 12 zodiacal signs. But again
this is arbitrary. Other cultures used 28, for instance the Chinese and
Hindus. The Toltec cultures of Middle America used 20. The Babylonians
themselves used from 6 to 18 before settling on the "traditional" 12. Again
the arbitrary choice of number of signs (not to mention names of signs) is
obvious. As for the names, if a given group of stars were called "Aries, the
Ram," this arbitrarily chosen name then predetermined the "interpretation"
in the tables... for since Rams are aggressive and assertive, so will be
people born with the sun (or something) in Aries. How one distinguishes the
aggressiveness of the Ram from that of the goat Capricorn or the scorpion
Scorpio is another problem! If these groups of stars had been named "The
Chair", "The Writing Desk", and "The Castle", interpretations would again be
unrecognizably different.

As another example, consider the so- called "house system" of astrology. In
order to provide more tables with more characteristics to be looked up,
astrological lore has put forward many different (perhaps as many as 50)
house systems. These are arbitrary divisions of the sky in sectors, vaguely
like orange slices. The various systems differ in how wide these sectors
are, how many sectors there are, and how they are oriented in the sky
relative to the ecliptic, the horizon or the equator. There are two main
house division systems in use by modern astrologers, the Koch and the
Placidian. It is hilarious that in neither of these two systems does anyone
born above 66.5 degrees north latitude even have a horoscope! The stars have
nothing to say about 12 million people!

Another hilarious aspect of astrology is due to the astronomical phenomenon
known as the precession of the equinoxes. This was known to Greek
astronomers by 150 B.C. and may have been known much earlier. It completely
destroys the framework of astrology. The problem is that the early
astrologers, for whom the sun rose in Aries at the spring equinox, defined
the sign of Aries to be centered on the point of the spring equinox. But as
the ancient Greeks knew, the equinox swings in a great circle, taking about
26,000 years to complete its cycle. Thus, today, the sign of Aries is
nowhere near the constellation Aries! This detachment of the meaning of the
symbol from the random scatter of stars whose arbitrary name originally gave
the symbol its name and significance is ludicrous even to many astrologers,
who thus disagree with all other astrologers by keeping the sign fixed to
the constellation instead of letting it move with the equinoxes!

The moral is that when one has a system based on randomness and arbitrary
convention, a shuffle or mixup of the system is undetectable. Astrology is
just a random-word generation, and mixing up the procedure by which the
random word is generated is not detectable, since the output words remain
random with any genuine further mixup. The puzzle is how anyone could not be
aware of this randomness, of the mindless conventions that crucially
determine the nature of astrology's "predictions".

The question of why people believe in astrology is more interesting than the
details of the horoscope. Psychologists have shown that customers are
satisfied with astrological predictions as long as the procedures are
individualized in some rather vague way. For example, if the astrologer asks
for a great deal of personal information before providing the prediction,
the individual is much more satisfied with it than if the astrologer asks
few questions (and provides the same prediction). The predictions themselves
are nearly always very vague and universal in applicability; they might
accurately describe nearly anyone.

Astrology relies on an illusion in thinking called personal validation. This
depends on the selective nature of memory. If we believe something is so, we
tend to remember the events that support it, and for get those which don't.
The result is a growing feeling of conviction. We remember the part of the
spiel that fits us and forget about the parts which don't. Influencing
people this way is called cold reading, and there is a considerable
psychological literature on the subject.

Modern science has undercut the basis for astrology at every turn. The
individual is formed at conception; not at birth. The gravitational force
exerted on a newborn baby by the earth is more than a million times greater
than that of any celestial object. The tidal force exerted by the mother and
the hospital building is, likewise, a million times greater than that of any
celestial body. The electromagnetic radiation falling on the baby from the
sun or room lights is a million times more intense than that from any other
celestial object. Changes in environment during early development have much
greater effects upon the developing person than the events at the time of
birth. Also, the time of birth can be altered, to some extent, by the
actions of a physician. What are the astrological implications of a
caesarean section or forced delivery? Another important point to make is the
established role of genes in a person's nature. Suppose two unrelated
persons are born at the same time in the same hospital. Will the
astrological forces outweigh the genetic ones? The science of genetics has
shown the answer to be 'no'. There is nothing whatsoever in all of nature as
we have explored it to date, or in any of our other experience that gives
any credibility to any astrological idea.

Nevertheless, millions of Americans, from Ronald Reagan to many minimum-wage
earners, continue to regulate their daily schedules (to some extent) in
accord with the arbitrary and potentially harmful advice. Why? It is
essential to remember that a belief doesn't have to be true to be useful.
Astrology has flourished because it is a framework within which people can
discuss and look for meaning in their lives. Viewed as a social support
system, astrology is somewhere between a religion and a psychotherapy.

This fact sheet is substantially based on material prepared by Prof. Rory
Coker of the University of Texas at Austin, in cooperation with the Austin
Society to Oppose Pseudoscience.

Suggested Reading:
a.. Abell, G.O. and Barry Singer (Eds.), Science and the Paranormal.
(Scribner's, N.Y., 1981) See articles "Astrology" and "Moon Madness" both by
Abell.
b.. Carlson, Shawn, "A double-blind test of astrology," Nature, 318:419,
Dec. 5, 1985.
c.. Cohen, D. Myths of the Space Age (Dodd, Mead, New York, 1967.) Chapter
II.
d.. Culver, Roger B. and Phillip A. Ianna, Astrology: True or False? A
Scientific Investigation. Prometheus Books, 1988.
e.. Dean, G., "Does astrology need to be true? Part I: A look at the real
thing," The Skeptical Inquirer, Winter 1986-87, p. 169.
f.. Dean, G., "Does astrology need to be true? Part II: The answer is no,"
The Skeptical Inquirer, Spring, 1987, p. 257.
g.. Gauquelin, Michel, Dreams and Illusions of Astrology. Prometheus
Books, 1979.
h.. Hyman, Ray, "Cold reading: how to convince strangers that you know all
about them," The Zetetic, Spring/Summer 1977, p. 19.
i.. Lindsay, J., The Origins of Astrology. Barnes and Noble, 1971.

Good info dawn thanx.

10x for the information but I have a question.If you belive so hard for something to happen and it happens will your beliefe sitem have an explanation for it?

the information is very enlightening