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This document is located at:
http://www.flex.com/~jai/astrology/info/alt.astrology.faq.html
NOTE: This document does *not* provide information about
Jyotish -- also known as Vedic, Hindu, or Indian astrology.
It appears in other documents.
ALT.ASTROLOGY NEWCOMERS READ THIS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Archive-name: astrology-faq
Last-modified: 13 January 1998
****** FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ******
Here are some questions commonly asked by new readers of
alt.astrology; the answers to each are given after the list of
questions.
1) For what sort of discussions is alt.astrology intended?
*** Requests for Services ***
2) Could someone please cast my chart and/or do a chart
interpretation for me?
3) I have no idea what to do with my life. Here are my birth
data. Can someone please tell me what I should do?
4) I was born on a day when the Sun changes sign. Which sign is
my Sun in?
5) Which Sun-signs are compatible with mine?
*** 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?
7) How can one predict the nature of a relationship using
astrology?
*** Questions About Learning and Researching Astrology ***
8) Can anyone recommend a good book on astrology for beginners?
9) What is the best approach to learning astrology?
10) How can I learn about astrology's history and ancient
techniques?
11) Where can I find scientific research on astrology?
*** General Questions ***
12) I have seen people born within days/hours of one another
whose lives are really different. How come?
13) What is the meaning of the term "the Age of Aquarius"?
14) How is it possible for astrology to work?
15) Does astrology control my future? Is it "wrong" to use
astrology to learn what the future holds for me? I'm scared.
*** Questions About Birth Data ***
16) 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?
17) I do not know what time of day I was born. Is there some way
to find out?
*** Questions About Astrological Software ***
18) Does anyone know if there is any software available for
astrology?
19) Where can I get a copy of the astrological freeware
Astrolog?
*** Questions About Alt.astrology Resources ***
20) How can I obtain a copy of the alt.astrology "resource
list"?
*** Questions About the Alt.astrology Ftp Site ***
21) How do I use ftp to get files from the alt.astrology ftp
site?
*** Questions About Offensive Postings ***
22) I enjoy many of the postings in this group, but there are
one or two people whose postings are offensive and/or there
are certain topics that just don't interest me. Is there
some way to avoid seeing postings by certain people or
concerning a certain topic?
23) Who is Dr. Jai Maharaj?
*** Questions About Astrology and the Law ***
24) Is it legal to practice astrology where I live, and, if not,
what can be done about it?
*** Questions About Astrological Forums, outside of USENET ***
25) I don't have access to USENET. Is there some other way I can
read articles in alt.astrology, such as having them mailed
to me?
26) Is there any other electronic forum for astrological
discussion?
*** Questions About Other Astrological Resources ***
27) Where can I find astrology stuff on the World Wide Web?
*** Questions Asked With Surprising Frequency by Disbelievers ***
28) Every sensible person knows that astrology couldn't possibly
work, so why are you people wasting your time?
29) 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?
30) 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.
31) Don't you guys know that no cause for astrological effects
is known? Therefore such effects cannot exist.
32) Don't you guys know that tests of groups of astrologers show
they do no better than chance? Therefore astrology does not
work.
33) 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.
34) 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.
35) Legitimate scientists (or educated people, etc., etc.)
universally despise astrology. Can such a weight of opinion
be wrong?
36) 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?
*** Questions About the FAQ ***
37) I have a suggestion for this FAQ list. What do I do?
****** ANSWERS ******
1) For what sort of discussions is alt.astrology intended?
Answer: Alt.astrology is intended as a forum for astrologers of
all levels of expertise, from beginners to advanced, to discuss
astrological topics.
Alt.astrology is *not* intended as a forum for disbelievers to
voice their contempt for astrologers or to harass astrologers
about their belief in astrology and demand of them scientific
proof. Groups discussing the scientific validity of theories are
prefixed with "sci." If you wish to discuss the validity of
astrology as a discipline (as opposed to the validity of specific
theoretical statements within the domain of astrology), the
appropriate group on which to post is sci.skeptic. Here is the
statement of purpose for that group:
"Sci.skeptic is for those who are skeptical about claims of
the paranormal to meet with those who believe in the paranormal.
In this way the paranormalists can expose their ideas to
scientific scrutiny, and if there is anything in these ideas
then the skeptics might learn something."
Sci.skeptic often contains long discussions of scientific
evidence for and against specific astrological hypotheses, and
such discussion is welcome in that group. Further, many members
of that group are qualified to evaluate scientific evidence. The
astrologers in this group who enjoy participating in such
discussion with skeptics read and post to sci.skeptic.
*** Requests for Services ***
2) Could someone please cast my chart and/or do a chart
interpretation for me?
Answer: A complete interpretation of a person's chart takes a
great deal of time and energy to prepare. Someone just learning
astrology might be willing to do a chart for you as practice, but
if you want a high-quality interpretation, you must either find
an experienced astrologer on the net who is generous enough to
interpret your chart without compensation, or, if that is not
possible, you could consult a local professional astrologer (look
in the yellow pages or look at ads posted in a local occult
bookstore; you might also write to people in the group in your
area and ask if they know of any good local astrologers).
Professionals are not supposed to use the newsgroup to advertise
their services, so you may not be able to tell which astrologers
on this group will interpret charts for a fee. (They are in the
minority.) Rather than bother non-professionals with requests for
charts, it might be safer to consult an astrologer who advertises
in your area. If there are no professional astrologers near your
place of residence, you might want to take your chances and
contact a member of this group if they appear sufficiently
knowledgeable to be a professional.
If you have a specific problem about which you would like advice,
you might find that astrologers in the group are willing to give
you free assistance if you post the question for everyone to
read. Readers are less likely to respond with free analysis to
requests for a complete chart interpretation. No amount of advice
can be given unless you provide complete birth data: day, month,
and year of birth, as well as the time of day and the place of
birth (town or city). If you know the time zone, whether daylight
savings time or war time was in effect when you were born, and
the latitude and longitude of your place of birth, provide that
information as well.
If you just want your chart cast, without any interpretation,
there is an automatic service available for this purpose. Anybody
with internet mail may access the Chart Erection Service,
maintained by Kelly Martin. This free service allows you to
e-mail your birthdata to a location, and have your chart e-mailed
back to you! The address is
chart-request@poverty.bloomington.in.us. For complete
instructions on the format of using this, send mail to the above
address with the word "help" on a line by itself in the message
body. (The subject is always ignored.) Questions about the
service itself may be sent to
chart-server@poverty.bloomington.in.us. The server uses Astrolog
4.10 to generate the charts, and one may access most of the
program's features as if they had it on their own system. The
service features the ability to automatically lookup the latitude
and longitude of cities on the Geographic Name Server (See # 16).
3) I have no idea what to do with my life. Here are my birth
data. Can someone please tell me what I should do?
Answer: Nobody can tell someone what to do with his or her life.
However by studying one's astrological chart, one can gain
insights into one's personality, and one can see areas of life
where there is harmony or discord. A reading of one's chart by an
experienced astrologer would be very valuable (see # 2). After
you have such a reading done, you could probably benefit greatly
from learning astrology yourself and studying your chart at
leisure. You can also look at "transits," the interactions of
planets in the sky with your chart across time. This tells you
when opportunities and difficulties arise in various areas of
life, and helps you plan your future. An astrologer can tell you
about current transits, or you could learn to read your own
transits. With a few good books from your local occult bookstore,
it's really quite easy. (See # 8 about books.) Interpreting
transits is much easier than reading a natal chart (which
involves a synthesis of many factors).
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 # 19 for details of
how to get a copy of Astrolog. See # 18 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 # 20 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 #
20 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.
*** Questions About Learning and Researching Astrology ***
8) Can anyone recommend a good book on astrology for beginners?
Answer: Recommendations appear in the alt.astrology resource
list. (See # 20.) Maggie McPherson posted some beginners' lessons
that describe some basic concepts used in western astrology; if
you would like copies of these, they are available by anonymous
ftp at Magitech.tcastle.is.net in the directory pub/astrology;
the file names are "lesson.int" (a general introduction to some
basic concepts) and "lesson.asp" (a lesson on aspects). If you
cannot use ftp on your machine, write for copies to Maggie at
lmpm@oldcolo.com.
A huge bibliography of astrology books (all levels) is available
at the ftp site in the file win.rowe.
9) What is the best approach to learning astrology?
Answer: If you can find a class offered in your area, that might
be the best approach. It is difficult for the beginner to assess
what is important in chart interpretation.
Two lessons on western astrology are available at the ftp site
(see # 21) in the files "lesson.int" and "lesson.asp". These
cover some basic concepts, but they do not explain how to cast or
interpret a chart.
See # 8 about beginners' books.
The most difficult area of astrology is natal (i.e., birth) chart
interpretation. It takes years to learn the art of synthesis that
allows for accurate readings of a natal chart. Beginners might
benefit from concentrating on transits (the movements of the
planets in the sky across time in relation to a natal chart),
which are relatively easy to interpret, astrocartography (changes
in the zodiacal positions of the 12 houses as one moves from city
to city), for which clear interpretations are available (e.g.,
from Jim Lewis' work), or synastry (evaluating contacts between
two charts to determine the nature of a relationship). When the
basic natures of the planets, signs, houses, and aspects become
familiar, then one can begin to study natal charts in earnest,
combining ("synthesising") the various factors wholistically to
achieve a meaningful reading. An article discussing transits and
providing brief interpretations for selected transits appears at
the ftp site. An article on astrocartography also appears there.
Both were written by Thomas David Kehoe, and they reside in the
directory pub/astrology/articles under the titles "transits" and
"astrocartography." (See # 21 about getting articles from the ftp
site.)
10) How can I learn about astrology's history and ancient
techniques?
A decent history of western astrology is given in Jim Tester's "A
History of Western Astrology" (New York: Ballantine, 1987).
If you want to learn about ancient techniques and the evolution
of western astrology, there are two organisations you should know
about. One is ARHAT, the Association for the Retrieval of
Historical Astrological Texts. They publish newsletters and a
journal, and they are now beginning a monograph series. For
information, write to Robert Hand, 217 Rock Harbor Rd., Orleans,
MA 02653, U.S.A. Of late, ARHAT has been largely overshadowed by
Project Hindsight, an heroic effort on the part of a small group
of scholars to translate into English every surviving ancient
work on astrology. The project is funded primarily by
subscriptions to series of booklets, each containing a
translation of an ancient work or a part of a work; purchases of
individual booklets also help fund the project. Each booklet is
$15 American. The booklets contain, in addition to translated
text, useful essays by the editor (Robert Hand) and the
translator that help explain the ancient techniques, practices,
and philosophy. There are currently three "tracks," each
producing a translation about once a month: ancient Greek,
medieval Latin, and the latest, the ancient Hebrew track. A
Sanskrit track should begin soon. Works translated and published
so far in the Greek track are: Paulus Alexandrinus's
"Introductory Matters"; Claudius Ptolemy's "Tetrabiblos" (Book I)
and his "Phases of the Fixed Stars"; "The Treatise on the Bright
Fixed Stars" by Anonymous of 379; Vettius Valens's "The
Anthology" (Books I-III); Antiochus of Athens's "The Thesaurus";
Hephaistio of Thebes's "Apotelesmatics" (Book I); "Teachings on
Transits" from Dorotheus, Orpheus, Anubio, and Pseudo-Valens; and
"The Astrological Record of the Early Sages in Greek."
Translations available in the Latin track so far are: Al-Kindi's
"On the Stellar Rays"; Hermes Trismegistus's "Liber Hermetis"
(Parts I and II); Johannes Schoener's "Opusculum Astrologicum";
Ramon Lull's "Treatise on Astronomy" (Books I-V); Guido Bonatti's
"Liber Astronomiae" (Parts I, II and III); Laurentius
Bonincontrius's "Treatise on Elections"; Masha'allah's "Book of
Nativities"; and Antonius de Montulmo's "On the Judgment of
Nativities" (Part 1). (Some of the Latin works are themselves
translations of Arabic writings.) Only one translation is
currently available in the Hebrew track: Ibn Ezra's "Book of
Reasons." To subscribe to a track or purchase individual
booklets, send your name, address and phone number, plus a list
of the booklets you want and/or the tracks to which you wish to
subscribe, to Project Hindsight, P. O. Box 002, Berkeley Springs,
West Virginia 25411, U.S.A., or call Ellen Black at 304-258-5873.
(Tell them you read about the project in the FAQ for the USENET
astrology newsgroup.) If you have a credit card (VISA or
MasterCard) and give them your card number, its date of
expiration, and your signature, they will bill you automatically
when a new translation is available in any track to which you
subscribe. You can also obtain from the same place monographs in
the ARHAT series. At the moment, there is just one, entitled
"Night & Day: Planetary Sect in Astrology," written by Robert
Hand ($11.50). You can subscribe to the monograph series, having
the charges billed automatically to a credit card. The material
available from Project Hindsight and ARHAT is scholarly,
exciting, and enlightening. It will change your view, and maybe
your practice, of astrology. Many ancient techniques have been
resurrected as a result of this translation project.
Some other translations of centuries-old work is available, such
as William Lilly's (1647) "Christian Astrology" (London: Regulus,
1985), Claudius Dariot's (1653) "Dariotus Redivivus: Or briefe
Introduction Conducing to the Judgement of the Stars" (London:
printed for Andrew Kemb), John Gadbury's (1658) "Genethlialogia,
or The Doctrine of Nativities Together with the Doctrine of
Horarie Questions" (London: Regular Publishing Co.), John
Partridge's (1679) "Mikropanastron, or an Astrological Vade
Mecum, briefly Teaching the Whole Art of Astrology . . ."
(London: William Bromwich), and William Ramesey's (1653)
"Astrologia Restaurata; or Astrology Restored: being an
Introduction to the General and Chief part of the Language of the
Stars" (London: printed for Robert White); Book V of Johannes
Kepler's "The Harmonies of the World" is available in Volume 16
of R. M. Hutchins (Editor), "Great Books of the Western World"
(Chicago: William Benton/ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.), which
also contains Ptolemy's "The Almagest" and Nicolaus Copernicus's
"On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres"; various bad
translations of Ptolemy's "Tetrabiblos" are also available (but
the Project Hindsight version is much truer to the original);
check libraries and bookstores.
Relatively inexpensive photocopied versions of out-of-print books
on the occult sciences are available from Ballantrae Reprint,
P.O. Box 92541, 160 Main Street South, Brampton, Ontario, Canada
L6W 4R1; telephone 416-450-7998. Among the older works on astrology
listed in their catalogue are: Placidus de Titus's (1657) "Primum
Mobile," Al Biruni's (1029) "Book of Instruction in the Elements
of the Art of Astrology," Abraham ibn Ezra's "Beginning of
Wisdom," John Partridge's (1693) "Opus Reformatum," Joseph
Blagrave's (1671) "Astrological Practice of Physick," Richard
Saunders's (1677) "Astrological Judgment and Practice of
Physick," Richard Ball's (1697) "Astro-Physical Compendium,"
Nicholas Culpeper's (1655) "Astrological Judgment of Diseases,"
Anthony Griffin's (1665) "Astrological Judgement Touching Theft,"
John Gadbury's (1659) "Nativity of the Late King Charls" and his
(1662) "Collection of Nativities," William Lilly's (1715)
"William Lilly's History of his Life and Times" and his (1644)
"England's Propheticall Merline," Ebenezer Sibly's (1790)
"Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology," William
Ramesey's (1653) "Introduction to the Judgement of the Stars,"
Henry Coley's (1676) "Key to the Whole Art of Astrology," and
Henry More's (1681) "Tetractys Anti-Astrologica." (Request their
catalogue for further information.)
11) Where can I find scientific research on astrology?
Answer: Brief summaries of a few scientific studies (written by
Thomas David Kehoe) are available at the ftp site (see # 21) in
the files "gauquelin" and "jung.synastry," which can be found in
the directory pub/astrology/articles.
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 a weak 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 (for physicians) 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.).
For a summary of the Gauquelins' findings and a description of
the debate about their work and the controversy over the "Mars
effect," see the article by Ken Irving that is stored (in various
forms under filenames that begin with "marscont") at the ftp site
(see # 21) in the directory /pub/astrology/articles. This article
is also available through the Astrology RT of the GEnie online
service.
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.
Because events are much easier to "measure" (or record) than
constructs of personality (for a review of some problems in
personality measurement, see S. T. Meier, "The chronic crisis in
psychological measurement and assessment," San Diego: Academic
Press), the most successful astrological research examines the
relationship between events and astrological variables (e.g.,
aspects between planets). Kollerstrom and O'Neill's research on
moments of scientific discovery through inspiration is a good
example. These same authors were also able to demonstrate the
presence of a relationship between the planet Uranus and
inventions; aspects to Uranus were found to be elevated at the
moments when inventions first worked (see N. Kollerstrom & M.
O'Neill, "Invention moments and aspects to Uranus," Correlation,
11 [2], 1992, 11-23). Another example of research in which the
record of an event was the dependent measure is Sara Klein's
doctoral work (see S. Klein, "Astrologically predictable patterns
in work related injuries," Kosmos, XXII [3], 1993, 21-30). She
found a highly significant relationship between work-related
injuries (as reported in Workers' Compensation claims through
attorneys) and hard aspects (conjunction, square, opposition)
between the transiting Sun and its natal position.
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 #
21) 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 (Dornach), Stuttgart 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 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 # 20 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. There are dozens of such articles,
most of which describe tests for correlations between Sun signs
and some arbitrary paper-and-pencil measure of some personality
construct. No researchers have yet set out to create measures of
personality constructs specific to astrological theory, ones that
might be sensitive to astrological distinctions such as that
among Sun signs.
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 ***
12) 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.
13) What is the meaning of the term "the Age of Aquarius"?
Answer: Due to the precession of the equinoxes as explained in
question # 36, the vernal equinox enters a new sign in the
sidereal zodiac about every 2160 years. (The sidereal zodiac is
one with the same divisions as the tropical zodiac -- see # 36 --
but its position relative to the "fixed" stars remains fixed, so
that it precesses with respect to the equinoxes.) According to
one set of calculations, 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
phrase "The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius." Some people feel
that the ages should be determined with reference to the
constellations, not with reference to the sidereal signs.
Opinions differ regarding the exact boundaries of the sidereal
signs and the constellations, and thus about the length and
timing of an astrological age.
The notion of a Great Year (i.e., precession through the whole
zodiac of constellations) or of an aeon or astrological (or
precessional) age based on the precession of the equinoxes
depends on a belief in the simultaneous validity of the tropical
zodiac (which is based on the equinoxes and solstices) and a
constellational or sidereal zodiac (which is based on the fixed
stars). If one claims that the tropical zodiac alone is
meaningful, then the movement of the constellations with respect
to its starting point should have no meaning. (I owe this insight
to Pete Stapleton.) Likewise, if one claims that the sidereal
zodiac, or the constellations, are meaningful and the tropical
zodiac is not, then the equinoxes should have no meaning, and so
the precession of the stars with respect to them should be
meaningless. The ancient Greeks appear to have used both a
tropical zodiac and the constellations (not a sidereal zodiac,
per se), using each for different purposes. A belief in the
validity of both types of system is necessary for the notion of
an astrological age to be meaningful.
14) How is it possible for astrology to work?
Answer: There are at least two schools of thought. One common
explanation is a principle similar, in some ways, to
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 and the related
one that is applied to the astrological question are still
hypothetical and still not well understood. (Another related idea
is Kammerer's seriality.)
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.
15) 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 ***
16) 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."
17) 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 About Astrological Software ***
18) Does anyone know if there is any software available for
astrology?
Answer: See # 19 about Walter Pullen's "Astrolog" freeware. Other
freeware and shareware astrology programs are available at the
Magitech.tcastle.is.net anonymous ftp site in the directory
/pub/astrology/software. Information about some commercial
software is available in Michael Bulmer's "resource list." See
# 20 below for details on getting a copy of that list.
In addition to the Magitech ftp site, a selection of PC astrology
shareware and freeware may be found at the SimTel locations, such
as oak.oakland.edu (and mirror ftp sites) in /SimTel/win3/entertn
and /SimTel/msdos/entertn. For example, John Halloran's Astrology
for Windows, Neiki's Astrology Tool Kit, and the Astrolog
files/source code, may be found here.
Among the programmes available at the Magitech ftp site is the
Astrologer's Assistant. Walter Pullen wrote the following about
it: "This is the Astrologer's Assistant version 3.00. It's a
reasonably decent chart generator. It has a good interface with
menus, a readme, a 200K text manual, and online help. You can do
most astrological functions and it has file support. There are
some graphics, such as a wheel charts and even a graphic
astro*carto*graphy chart (like Astrolog). Astrolog is much more
extensive and customizable, but this has an easy user interface,
and some things such as 9 Uranians and sidereal formats." There
is a programme for the Atari ST in a file called Astro22.lzh.
Nancy (hurn@cup.portal.com) describes it as follows: "While not
as sophisticated as many of the MS-DOS packages, it draws a nice
(fast) graphic chart on the screen (screen dump if desired), and
will print out or display cookbook (user configurable)
interpretations of planets in signs, houses (three house systems)
and aspect. Both hi-res and medium-res programs are included in
the archive. Extra modules are available from the author for
progressions, midpoints, synastry, GDOS and a "Toggle Facility"
(update screen displays in preset time increments or decrements
for rectification work)."
People with a home computer and modem may access a large
selection of astrological software programs at the BBS Astro
Net-1 at US phone number 414-481-8876. All downloads are free
(except for any long distance charges), and the site has some
tarot, biorhythm, and related programs as well. It only has
software for PCs, but does have the complete set of Astrolog
files and most of the programs that are at the Magitech ftp site.
19) Where can I get a copy of the astrological freeware
Astrolog?
Answer: Walter Pullen posts new versions on alt.astrology as they
are ready, presently about once every two to six months. The
latest version is 4.40. If you missed the most recent posting,
you can get the latest version by anonymous ftp at the following
site: Magitech.tcastle.is.net; the files for Astrolog are in the
directory pub/astrology/astrolog. See the README.440 file for the
contents of the various files in this directory. Note that you
may have to type "binary" before you use a "get" command to
transfer a copy to your account. Older versions of Astrolog have
also been posted to comp.sources.misc and are therefore available
at the various ftp sites which archive this newsgroup, such as
ftp.uu.net. Version 4.10 can be found in the directory
/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume42/astrolog in twelve compressed
Unix shell archives. (Older versions are in volume37, volume30,
and volume28.) If you cannot use ftp on your machine, write to
Walter at astara@u.washington.edu and ask him for a copy of the
programme. (When making a request, be sure to specify what files
you want, such as PC executable, Unix source code, etc.) Astrolog
can easily be compiled and loaded on UNIX, PC, or Macintosh, and
it is very easy to run. The latest versions have great screen and
printer graphics and accurate formulas.
*** Questions About Alt.astrology Resources ***
20) How can I obtain a copy of the alt.astrology "resource
list"?
Answer: You can get a copy via anonymous ftp at
Magitech.tcastle.is.net; the list is in the directory
pub/astrology/info. If you do not have access to ftp from your
machine, write to Michael Bulmer (the creator of the list) at
bulmer@hilbert.maths.utas.edu.au and he will send you a copy. The
resource list provides recommendations for books on astrology,
addresses of astrological associations and organisations,
information about astrological software, addresses of chart
calculation services, and other useful stuff.
Michael's resource list will eventually be incorporated into a
new resource list that Sandra Rozhon has created. Look for her
postings of the new list on alt.astrology.
*** Questions About the Alt.astrology Ftp Site ***
21) How do I use ftp to get files from the alt.astrology ftp
site?
Answer: For many sites (but check with the systems people at
yours), you type "ftp Magitech.tcastle.is.net"; when connected to
the ftp site, type "anonymous" and then enter, as a password,
your e-mail address. Once into the account, type "cd
pub/astrology" to get into the right directory. If you wish to
see which files are present in that directory, type "ls", which
will show the files there and the names of subdirectories
containing additional files. If you want to transfer a file
(e.g., the file README) to your account, type "get README";
repeat for however many files you wish to transfer. (Note that
commands are case-sensitive, so type the file name just as you
see it in the directory listing, i.e., in caps or lower case.)
When you are done, type "bye" and you will be disconnected.
Note that the old ftp site hilbert.maths.utas.edu.au
(131.217.60.3) no longer has astrology files on it, as they have
all been moved to the new Magitech site. The ftp.u.washington.edu
mirror location no longer has astrology files either.
*** Questions About Offensive Postings ***
22) I enjoy many of the postings in this group, but there are
one or two people whose postings are offensive and/or there
are certain topics that just don't interest me. Is there
some way to avoid seeing postings by certain people or
concerning a certain topic?
Answer: Occasionally some unpleasant, boring, or obnoxious person
will discover the group and begin posting material that you may
find offensive or uninteresting (e.g., anti-astrology "flames"
and harassment, apparently unjustified attacks on individuals,
insulting or bigoted material, or self-promotion and thinly-
veiled advertising for astrological services in violation of
USENET policy). You may want to avoid even seeing postings by
such people. (For the sake of the group, please resist the
temptation to reply to such people with criticism or "flames";
they are more likely to leave the group if they are *ignored*
completely.) You may also find that certain topics are boring or
annoying. Fortunately, you can edit your "kill file" for the
newsgroup so that when you come to read the group, the newsreader
will mark as "read" all articles by a certain person or with a
certain subject heading. You won't even see those articles as you
read through the group.
The instructions given immediately below for altering the kill
file are for those people using the "rn" newsreader on a UNIX
system only. If you use some other newsreader, please ask a
consultant at your site if you can use kill files and, if so, ask
for instructions on editing the kill file for a given newsgroup.
Alternatively, get an informational file from the rtfm.mit.edu
ftp site (see the end of this answer). Instructions for VAX
systems appear later in this answer.
First, a word about kill files. Whenever you read a newsgroup for
the first time, the newsreader creates a kill file for that
group. The first line in the kill file shows the number of the
last article read and instructs the newsreader to take you to the
first article after that number. It says something like "THRU
###" (where ### is the number of the last article you read). This
line is updated each time you leave the newsgroup. Additional
lines can be added by you (through executing certain commands;
see below) so that articles by a certain person or with a certain
subject heading are marked as read before you begin reading
through articles.
If you come across a "thread" (i.e., a series of articles with a
certain subject heading), that you do not want to read, simply
type Shift-K (shift key and "k" pressed simultaneously) while you
are somewhere in the body of an article in that thread. The
subject heading will be automatically added to your kill file.
If you wish to mark as "read" all articles by a certain person,
you must add a line to your kill file that will instruct the
newsreader to search the header of all articles for the person's
name (or address) and "kill" (i.e., mark as "read") all articles
containing that name (or address) in the header. To edit your
kill file, type Ctrl-K (i.e., press the Control key and the "k"
key simultaneously) while reading the group. Alternatively, you
can edit the kill file with your system editor while outside of
rn. (It most likely appears in a subdirectory of your News
subdirectory called alt/astrology and in a file called KILL.) Add
in a line, anywhere after the first line showing the number of
the last article read, which reads as follows:
/name.user@computername.institution/h:j
replacing "name.user@computername.institution" with the person's
address or name (if the name appears somewhere in the header of
the person's articles). The "h" after the "/" tells the
newsreader to search the header only. If you wish to have whole
articles searched (e.g., if you want to avoid reading articles
that mention a person's name, as in the case in which the person
is the focus of flame wars), use "a" instead of "h". The "j"
tells the newsreader to "junk" (i.e., mark as "read") all
articles containing the string that appears between the slashes.
(The ":" is just a separator.)
You will find that a properly updated kill file increases your
reading pleasure substantially.
If you are on a VAX system, try the following procedures (as
described in a posting by Julie): "The KILL facility allows the
user to filter through all messages of a particular newsgroup -
the read/new command will mark them as read without displaying
the text of the item and move on to the next unread item.
"It is possible by doing this to filter out all postings from a
particular sender within a newsgroup. The KILL command adds
entries to the kill filter list. Removing entries from a kill
filter list is done by the CLEAR KILL command. Editing the
existing kill filter list may be done with the MODIFY KILL
command.
"The KILL command has three qualifiers: /subject, /from, /header.
The /subject qualifier directs NEWS to add the current item's
subject line to kill filter set, and the /from directs NEWS to
add the current item's FROM: line to the kill filter set. The
/header qualifier allows you to specify any other header line you
wish to use to define the filter. The command will prompt to what
newsgroup you want the KILL applied to. The default is the
current news group * so if you don't wish to delete NAME from
another forum, you need not worry about this one. Other
newsgroups may be specified at this point by using the VAX
wildcard character ('*'), an asterisk, or a list of newsgroups.
"When reading any item from NAME, merely type in KILL/FROM at the
bottom of the screen prompt, if you work on the VAX mainframes,
and that will do it. You must be currently reading a message to
invoke this command, and then it will go permanently to all
subsequent messages containing this user address.
"In addition, the command KILL/HEADER="string" as in the example
KILL/HEADER="From: *@node.*" will do the following: add a pattern
to match against all headers into the kill filter. For example,
the above command would kill ALL postings from a particular node.
So if NAME is posting under more than one location, computers from
several places, for example the KILL/FROM will do it. But if it
comes from more than one name or is written by more than one
person, the command listed above will kill ALL users who sign on
from a particular node.
"Again, you must be currently reading the message for this to
work. And then it goes permanently into your personal kill file
for this forum."
Directions for using kill files are also available by ftp,
according to Sridhar Venkataraman: "Those directions (for nn, rn,
trn and probably xrn on UNIX) are available from rtfm.mit.edu by
anonymous ftp (login: anonymous; password: your email address):
"rn, trn & xrn: /pub/usenet/news.answers/killfile-faq
nn : /pub/usenet/news.answers/nn-faq
"If you can't do anonymous ftp, try sending mail to:
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with (either one of)
send usenet/news.answers/killfile-faq
send usenet/news.answers/nn-faq "
23) Who is Dr. Jai Maharaj?
Answer: Dr. Jai Maharaj is a Jyotishi, Vedic, Hindu Astrologer.
His web sites are located at
http://www.flex.com/~jai
http://members.aol.com/Jyotishi
*** Questions About Astrology and the Law ***
24) Is it legal to practice astrology where I live, and, if not,
what can be done about it?
Answer: In many states, provinces, and municipalities, the
practice of astrology is illegal. The Legal Information Committee
of the Association For Astrological Networking (AFAN) is active
in having repealed those laws that forbid astrological practice.
For information about existing laws, their application, and
action against them, and for advice about what to do if you find
yourself in legal trouble, see the following set of files, which
are at the ftp site (see # 21) in the directory
/pub/astrology/Legal:
LAW-AST.TXT - "The Law and Astrology," a comprehensive review of
astrology's legal status, court decisions and legislative action
regarding astrology, and other similar issues. Provided by AFAN.
STATUTES.TXT - A summary of U.S. state and local laws which deal
with astrology. Prepared by AFAN, based on information contained
in the book "Astrology and the Law," by Walter Coleman.
AFANLIC.TXT - A summary of the activities and services of the
Legal Information Committee of AFAN.
OPTIONS.TXT - Proposed alternatives to making astrology illegal,
prepared by AFAN.
CRISIS.TXT - "What to Do in a Legal Crisis," prepared by the
Legal Information Committee of AFAN. Document discussing what to
do, who to contact, etc., if you are arrested for practicing
astrology.
RTS-RESP.TXT - "Rights and Responsibilities," a series of
articles by Jayj Jacobs, Chair, AFAN Legal Information Committee.
Originally published in the AFAN Newsletter, distributed
electronically with the permission of the author and AFAN.
*** Questions About Astrological Forums outside of USENET ***
25) I don't have access to USENET. Is there some other way I can
read articles in alt.astrology, such as having them mailed
to me?
Answer: Alt.astrology used to have a mailing list, so that you
could receive articles in your electronic mailbox. But with a
current average of 60 messages a day, your mailbox would get
filled up in a hurry; for this reason, the mailing list was
discontinued.
There may be other ways to receive alt.astrology postings by
mail, though -- or even to post to the group by mail. I received
the following information from Andrew Brennan (but I have not
tried any of these news mail servers, so I do not know if one can
actually access alt.astrology this way; let me know what happens
when you try):
"From Yanoff's list of Internet Services:
News Mail Servers
mail news-group-name@cs.utexas.edu
mail news-group-name@news.demon.co.uk
mail news.group.name.usenet@decwrl.dec.com
mail news.group.name@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
mail news.group.name@nic.funet.fi
Offers: Post to Usenet news via e-mail. (Note: not all newsgroups
supported)
mail listserv@blekul11.bitnet with body: /nnhelp
mail listserv@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be with body: /nnhelp
Offers: Read newsgroups via e-mail, it sends list of articles you
can choose.
I don't believe the decwrl.dec.com gateway is still operational,
but the cs.utexas.edu gateway should work. If the mailing list
were configured such that replies automatically went to
alt-astrology@cs.utexas.edu, the mailing list users would be able
to `post' list anyone else reading with a newsreader."
26) Is there any other electronic forum for astrological
discussion?
Answer: There is an astrology mailing list for general
discussions of astrology, and some alt.astrology regulars post
their articles both to alt.astrology and to that list. It is
called ASTROL-L, the Forum for Astrological Discussion, and it is
a BITNET listserv. To subscribe, do the following:
If you are at a BITNET node, SEND an on-line message to
listserv@brufpb.bitnet with the message:
SUBSCRIBE ASTROL-L your name
You should get an e-mail message from the listserver asking you
to confirm your subscription request.
Otherwise, you might want to try sending your message to
Listserver@brufpb.bitnet; as BRUFPB has a very slow link,
however, you might instead try using your local LISTSERV and
letting it forward your message via BITNET.
An address that works for some people is: LISTSERV@earn.brufpb
One final alternative is to e-mail the list's co-owner, Mel
Erskine: merskine@ACACIA.ITD.UTS.EDU.AU
The Psychological Astrology Mailing List is a specialized forum
for those who are interested in discussing the synthesis of
astrology and psychology. This list is moderated.
To subscribe, send a blank message to:
subscribe@psychological.astrologer.com
The subject and body of the message will be ignored. The
administrator of the list is Dermod Moore, who can be contacted
at:
admin@psychological.astrologer.com
Some astrological discussion can be found on commercial online
services in America (GEnie, CompuServe, America OnLine, etc.).
(If you know of astrological forums on commercial networks in
other countries, please send information about them to the FAQ
maintainer; see # 37.)
Some discussion of astrology can usually be found on all of the
major commercial online services. Look in the "Religion," "New
Age," or "Entertainment" sections of these services for bulletin
board topics and/or files relating to astrology.
GEnie is the only major commercial service which has formally
devoted a section exclusively to astrology. GEnie's Astrology
RoundTable, managed by professional astrologers, contains the
most extensive astrological BBS and file library of any
commercial network.
For information on some American commercial online services'
rates and offerings, contact:
GEnie: 800-638-9636 or e-mail astrology@genie.geis.com
CompuServe: 800-848-8990
America OnLine: 800-827-6364
*** Questions About Other Astrological Resources ***
27) Where can I find astrology stuff on the World Wide Web?
Answer: There are several World Wide Web (WWW) locations one may
browse that have astrology information and files and often other
things of a related nature. Some URL addresses are:
http://spirit.satelnet.org/Spirit/Astro/Overview.html
(Spirit-WWW Astro area)
http://www.dircon.co.uk/networks/stars.html
(Horoscopes by John James)
http://www.teleport.com/~ronl/horo.html
(Humorous Horoscopes)
http://www.deltanet.com/users/wcassidy/astroindex.html
(Asian Astrology)
http://www.primenet.com/~alex/
(Links to other astrology sites)
http://www.indirect.com/www/maddie/index.html
(Links and software files)
http://www.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~ukmc/
(Astrolog software files)
http://www.astrologer.com/
(Contains over fifty website listings, as well as the
Metalog Yellow Pages, the online directory of consulting
astrologers, associations and schools.)
*** Questions Asked With Surprising Frequency by Disbelievers ***
28) 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 # 11.)
29) 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.)
30) 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.
31) 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.
32) 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
# 11.) 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.
33) 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.
34) 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.
35) Legitimate scientists (or educated people, etc., etc.)
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.)
36) 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. About 10 percent of astrologers in the world (tropical
astrologers, most of whom are in western countries), base
their work on a zodiac with sign boundaries determined by the
equinoxes and solstices 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 and solstices is called the "tropical
zodiac." (A zodiac based loosely on the constellations, which is
called the "sidereal zodiac," is used primarily by Hindu
astrologers. The first sign contains the constellation Aries, and
the zodiac has 12 equal signs of 30 degrees each, like the
tropical zodiac, but the position of this zodiac is determined
with respect to certain marker or "fiducial" stars.) The
equinoxes are precessing backwards with respect to the fixed
stars 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 sidereal sign of Aries
(perhaps around 217 C.E.).
Astrologers using the tropical zodiac do not do so out of
ignorance of the precession. Knowledge of the precession is very
ancient, and possibly predates the creation of the tropical
zodiac. Precession was discovered thousands of years ago in
Bharat (also known as India). Later, 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. Also, the
Egyptians had a succession of cults that adopted symbols (e.g.,
the bull, the ram) associated with the concurrent precessional
age (see # 13). (See, for e.g., E. C. Krupp, In Search of Ancient
Astronomies, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977.) (Note that early
Christian symbolism was dominated by fishes, the symbol
associated with Pisces, which is the constellation that defines
the precessional age that began around the birth of Christ; see
C. G. Jung, Aion, translated by R. F. C. Hull, 2nd edition,
Princeton: University Press, 1959; modern-day Christians in
America sometimes use a fish symbol to signal their Christianity;
the fish symbol is often attached to their car or place of
business. So perhaps an attraction to a symbol associated with
the astrological age in which one lives need not be accompanied
by conscious knowledge about the age and the precession that
defines it.) The ancient Greek astrological writers (e.g.,
Ptolemy) were very explicit in distinguishing the tropical zodiac
they used from the fixed stars and constellations (see below).
This distinction is still made among modern western astrologers
who use the tropical zodiac.
Why do the tropical signs have the same names and symbols as the
constellations with which they were aligned 2000 years ago?
Aren't the zodiacal constellations 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 of spirituality, selflessness, imaginativeness,
capacity for inspiration, femininity, and idealism 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 meanings from the zodiacal
constellations; it is possible that the nature of the tropical
signs suggested a symbol to associate with a constellation (since
most of the symbols look very little like the pattern of stars we
associate with them). Much depends on which was established
first, the tropical signs or the zodiacal constellations. When
did the tropical zodiac and constellations appear? The tropical
zodiac may have been around a long time. The Sumerians and the
Egyptians had a tropical (luni-solar) calendar by the early part
of the third millennium B.C.E. (see below); given the direct and
transparent relationship between the signs of the tropical zodiac
and the months of the solar year, they may have had a tropical
zodiac as well, although we have no direct evidence of this.
Tropical calendars in the form of standing stones (e.g.,
Stonehenge) date from 1000-5000 B.C.E. in Northwest Europe, so a
tropical zodiac might have existed there. Unfortunately, the
preliterate people of these cultures left no records behind.
Martin Seymour-Smith (The New Astrologer, New York: Collier,
1981) claims that some sort of zodiac, possibly sidereal, with 12
equal signs of 30 degrees, existed in India in 3000 B.C.E. He
claims that 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, and as in classical Greek astrology). Unfortunately,
Seymour-Smith does not cite any references or explain how the
dating of the manuscript was arrived at. If the dating is
correct, then the existence of a tropical zodiac may predate 3000
B.C.E., given the likely origin of the sidereal zodiac in a
tropical zodiac (see below). However, this dating is suspicious,
given other information suggesting that the zodiac was
transmitted to the Indians from Babylonia through the Hellenistic
Greeks (e.g., the fact that the Indian names of the signs are
either corruptions of the Greek names or translations of them;
see W. M. O'Neil, Time and the Calendars, Sydney: University
Press, 1975). It is more likely that the zodiac was imported to
India in the first half of the first millennium B.C.E., when a
calendar based on the passage of the Sun through the signs was
instituted (O'Neil, 1975). Though the calendar (and the zodiac)
was initially tied to the equinoxes and solstices, the signs were
allowed to precess, with the Aries point becoming fixed, relative
to the stars, between 285 C.E. (The Indian Ephemeris and Nautical
Almanac for the Year 1967, Calcutta: Government of India Press,
p. 389) and 450 C.E. (R. Sewell & S. B. Dikshit, The Indian
Calendar, London: Swan Sonneschein, 1896, p. 9).
The origin of the modern constellations is somewhat obscure, so
it is very difficult to decide whether all of the zodiacal
constellations were around to lend meaning to the tropical signs
at the time when the tropical zodiac was created (especially
because we cannot be certain when the tropical zodiac appeared).
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.E. Some of the zodiacal constellations are clearly
older than this, although there is no evidence that they
collectively formed a zodiac, per se, in earlier periods. Some of
them were used, though, as markers for decans (one-third
divisions of the month); their heliacal risings coincided, during
a certain era, with decans; see below. This fact has led some
authors to the conclusion that the Babylonians originally had 36
zodiacal constellations, but it is unlikely that the Babylonians
themselves thought of their decan markers in this way; many of
the markers (or fiducials) are individual stars. S. Langdon
(Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, London: Oxford
University Press, 1935) provides a list of the marker stars and
constellations used for the decans after 1100 B.C.E.; these
provide evidence for the existence, at that time, of the
following zodiacal constellations (and I include only those that
had the same symbol as the modern one): Taurus (the Bull of
Heaven), Gemini (the Great Twins; possibly just Castor and
Pollux, rather than the whole constellation), Cancer (the
Destroyer/Crab), Virgo (or at least Spica, depicted as a maiden
holding an ear of corn), Libra (the Scales), Scorpio,
Sagittarius, Capricorn (the Fish Goat), Pisces (the Fish Cord or
Tails). (Leo was "Water Dog," and Aquarius was "Fish Man,"
although it may have been a water-bearer pouring water towards
the Southern fish, as opposed to a man who is part fish. Aries
was "The Hireling"; the Babylonians did not see a ram in the
heavens; see Langdon, 1935.) We can be certain that the modern
constellations of the zodiac existed by about 30 B.C.E. because
they appear very clearly on the ceiling of the Temple of Hathor
at Dendera in Upper Egypt (although the Crab is replaced by the
Scarab Beetle). An earlier representation of the zodiacal
constellations appeared in the temple at Esna in Upper Egypt,
which is thought to date from 246 B.C.E. or later (see Krupp,
1977).
Although the time of creation of the tropical zodiac is unknown,
it has very clear origins in ancient calendars. By about 3000
B.C.E., the Sumerians had a calendar with twelve months, one for
each of 12 cycles of the Moon (from the first appearance of the
New Moon after sunset to its last day of invisibility) in one
solar year. (See Langdon, 1935.) The Egyptians also had twelve
months, each of which began on the day after the last visible
crescent Moon before the sun rose (see R. A. Parker, The
Calendars of Ancient Egypt, Chicago: University Press, 1950).
Note that the word "month" is related to the word "Moon." For the
Sumerians (and other peoples of later cultures), the year began
at the New Moon nearest the equinox. The Sumerians estimated the
length of the Moon's cycle to be over 29 days, and so they
allotted 30 days to each month. (The Egyptians determined, on a
monthly basis, whether a given month would be 29 or 30 days in
length; this practice was also observed in Babylonia and Assyria,
at least in later periods; see R. C. Thompson, The Reports of the
Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon in the British
Museum, London: Luzac and Co., 1900; the Egyptians later adopted
a solar calendar, their civil calendar, with 30 days in each
month; see Krupp, 1977). This calendar, with 12 months of 30
days, was translated, at some point, into a zodiac with 12 signs
of 30 degrees. This system of division is used for the sidereal
zodiac as well, suggesting that it has its origins in a tropical
zodiac or calendar. The Sumerians, like the ancient Greeks,
always counted in discrete units; units could not be divided. As
a result, the Moon's cycle had to be 29 or 30 days, with the day
as the basic unit of counting; it could not be 29.5 days.
Similarly, the year could not consist of 12.4 cycles of the Moon
(the next largest unit of time), so it was made to consist of 12;
the days left over in the year were used for a New Year festival;
sometimes an intercalary (extra) month was inserted between
months when the months began to cross too far outside the
boundaries of the solar year (see O'Neil, 1975; the Egyptians did
the same at one time; see Parker, 1950). The Sumerian tropical
calendar is thus an idealisation of the yearly, monthly, and
daily cycles of the Sun, Moon, and Earth respectively, such that
the shorter cycles fit into the larger ones an integral number of
times (i.e., 30 days in one month; 12 months in one year).
How did the ancients get from a calendar to a tropical zodiac?
Presumably via marker stars. (See O'Neil, 1975.) For each one-
third of a month (or "decan," a 10-day interval), the Sumerians
identified a bright star or a constellation that rose heliacally
in concomitance with the onset of the time period. (To rise
heliacally means to rise with the Sun, Helios, or rather several
degrees before the Sun, so as to be just visible before the Sun
rises -- having just emerged from a period of hiding in the Sun's
rays.) It is a fairly small (though profound) conceptual step
from stars/constellations that heliacally rise at a certain time
of year to divisions of the heavens demarcated by those
stars/constellations. Positions specified in terms of tropical
signs would readily permit the computation of arcs between
planets or points; the zodiacal system may have been adopted by
Babylonian astronomers for that reason -- although they continued
to specify positions of planets with respect to bright stars and
constellations (both zodiacal constellations and extrazodiacal
ones, such as Orion; see, e.g., O. Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences
in Antiquity, 2nd edition, New York: Dover, 1969, pp. 102-103).
The calendaric origin of the tropical zodiac is evidenced in
classical Greek thinking. Plato, in the Timaeus (39), describes
the day (i.e., the diurnal cycle, or what he calls motion in the
"circle of the same" because of the constancy of the day-night
cycle, the daily cycle of the Sun) as the basic unit for
measuring the movements of the planets along the ecliptic; this
shows a conceptual link between a day and a degree. One of the
few predictive techniques used by the ancient Greeks was the
technique of primary directions; this technique equates a degree
of right ascension with a year in the life, where the degree of
right ascension is computed on the basis of the ascensional time
of a sign (i.e., the time it takes for a sign, projected onto the
celestial equator, to cross the meridian). By making use of
ascensional times, which are fractions of the diurnal cycle, this
technique rests on a unit that is tied to the daily cycle, the
basic unit of the calendar. Further, many Greek astrologers
directed against the order of the signs, in keeping with the
direction of motion observed in the diurnal cycle. (See R.
Schmidt & R. Hand, Project Hindsight Companion to the Greek
Track, Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind Press, 1994, p. 17;
Paulus Alexandrinus, Introductory Matters, translated by R.
Schmidt, Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind Press, p. 76, footnote
by Rob Hand.) The use of a day, versus a degree (1/360 of the
zodiac), as a unit of measure persists into modern times in the
use of a predictive technique known as "secondary progression";
in this technique, one day after the birth is taken as equivalent
(symbolically) to one year in the life.
Scholarly estimates of the time of the creation of a tropical
zodiac range from 700 B.C.E. (B. L. van der Waerden, "History of
the zodiac," Archiv fur Orientforschung, 16, 1953, 218-230) to
400 B.C.E. (Neugebauer, 1969). Such estimates are not terribly
out of line with the prediction one can generate from the
hypothesis that the zodiac has its origin in a luni-solar
(tropical) calendar. If the tropical zodiac arose initially out
of a sidereal zodiac with signs demarcated by the old decan
markers, then this zodiac, when created, would have the vernal
point (i.e., 0 Aries in our tropical zodiac) at about 15 degrees
of Aries; this is because the decan marker stars would be 10-20
degrees behind the Sun when they heliacally rose to signal the
beginnings of decans. There is, in fact, evidence that the first
zodiac had the vernal point at 15 Aries (see, e.g., J. Lindsay,
Origins of Astrology, 1971). Further, various ancient authors
give the vernal point as 15 Aries (Neugebauer, 1969, p. 188),
though some give 8 Aries (indicating, perhaps, an adjustment in
the value based on later observations; by around 150 C.E.,
Vettius Valens was still giving 8 Aries as the vernal point, so
such adjustments appear to have been infrequent). With precession
occurring at a rate of about 1 degree in 72 years, this gives an
interval of about 1080 years between the creation of the zodiac
and the time when the sidereal and tropical signs came into
perfect alignment. That occurred, according to Cyril Fagan, in
221 C.E., giving a time of creation of the zodiac of 859 B.C.E.
The scholarly estimates are also reasonably plausible in that a
sign sharing a name with a constellation would be sufficiently
close to coincidence with the constellation in the first
millennium B.C.E. that the signs could plausibly take their names
from those constellations.
The fact that the names of the months were not assigned to the
signs suggests a real shift in thinking from a division in time
to a division of the heavens. But one would be hard pressed to
argue that the signs got their *meaning* from the constellations,
when the signs originated in months, and the months originated in
the age of Taurus at the very latest. If the meaning attributed
to a constellation and a sign happen to coincide, this could be
explained by the fact that the first associations of meanings
with stars and constellations were tied to heliacal risings and
settings. Robert Schmidt argues that the Sun was believed, at
least by the Hellenistic Greeks, to "give signs" (episemainei)
when a star (or constellation) was heliacally rising or setting,
not when it was in conjunction with the star(s) (see his preface
in Ptolemy's The Phases of the Fixed Stars, translated by R.
Schmidt, edited by R. Hand, Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind
Press, 1993). A star or constellation that is heliacally rising
has its eastern edge at a point that is behind the Sun; for the
brightest stars, heliacal rising occurs when the star is about 10
or 12 degrees behind the Sun (see Ptolemy's Almagest and The
Phases of the Fixed Stars), and for other major stars, about 15
degrees; but dimmer stars, such as those in the Pleiades of
Taurus, may be more than 20 degrees behind the Sun when they
heliacally rise (see O'Neil, 1975; a star or constellation may
even be 30 degrees behind the Sun when it heliacally rises; see
Krupp, 1977). For purposes of discussion, let us assume, contrary
to fact, that each zodiacal constellation coincides in length of
arc perfectly with a sign in the sidereal zodiac. We don't know
if a constellation was said to be heliacally rising when the star
at its western edge rose heliacally, when the first bright star
in it rose, or when the whole constellation was visible. Let us
assume that stars in the whole sidereal sign, the whole 30-degree
slice of the sky overlapping with the constellation, were visible
at the time of heliacal rising, and that the eastern boundary was
at least 20 degrees behind the Sun. Now, a 20-degree gap between
the Sun and a pattern of stars that is heliacally rising has an
interesting implication: At a time one third into the age of
Taurus (i.e., at the one-third mark of the period from around
4100 B.C.E. to 1940 B.C.E., when the equinox occurred while the
Sun was in the sidereal sign of Taurus), or around 3380 B.C.E.,
at the beginning of the first month, when the Sun was near zero
of our tropical Aries, the western edge of the sidereal sign
Aries in which the constellation Aries resides would be at 10
Aquarius in our tropical zodiac, and the eastern edge would be at
10 Pisces, so that the constellation would be heliacally rising
at the equinox, and so that the sidereal sign containing the
constellation that later came to be known as the Ram would be
overlapping with our tropical Aquarius and Pisces. In the age of
Aries, at the time when the tropical zodiac was created, the
constellations that rose heliacally at the beginning of a month
during the age of Taurus would be beginning to move into
alignment with the tropical signs that share their name, reaching
perfect alignment around 221 C.E. (according to Fagan). So the
meanings of the months that had been fixed during the age of
Taurus could have been projected onto the constellations whose
heliacal risings coincided with the months during that era, such
that the constellation Aries, which was heliacally rising during
much of the age of Taurus, could have taken on the character of
the first month of the tropical year. That constellation could
then, in turn, lend its acquired character to the tropical sign
with which it overlapped during the Aries period.
Langdon (1935) claims that the constellations were, in fact,
given a symbol that was related to the monthly myths and
festivals; the calendar originated in the same era as the myths
and festivals (i.e., from before 3000 B.C.E.). It is certain that
the symbol of the corn goddess holding an ear of corn, the symbol
that we have come to call Virgo, was related to the harvest month
in Sumeria (late July and August; see Langdon, 1935); Spica (`ear
of corn') in Virgo was heliacally rising in the harvest month
during the age of Taurus in which the relations between months
and constellations were established. The relation between a bull
and fertility, the quality that characterises Spring, is obvious.
In the month after the Autumnal Equinox, the Babylonians believed
that the dead and the living were judged and the fates were
fixed; this "weighing" suggested scales as a symbol for the
constellation rising at that time (Langdon, 1935). (The origins
of the monthly myths and festivals, and of the specific
attributions of characters to the months, are sometimes obscure.)
So, for at least a subset of the zodiacal constellations, a
symbol was assigned to them in accordance with the month of their
heliacal rising. For others, the gestalten we call constellations
may have received their symbols purely on the basis of their
appearance (e.g. the Crab, which the Egyptians pictured as a
Scarab Beetle).
Ptolemy, among other astrological writers of the classical
period, traced the natures of the tropical signs to seasonal
variations in the quality of the environment. The four seasons,
from Spring to Winter, are characterised, he argued, by the
qualities wet, hot, dry, and cold respectively. He then went on
to give an explanation for the zodiac beginning at the vernal
equinox: ". . . There being no single beginning of the zodiac by
nature as it is a circle, they postulate that the twelfth-part
starting from the spring equinox, that of Aries, is also the
starting point of them all, making the wet excess of the spring
be the initial cause of the zodiac, as though of a living thing,
and making the remaining seasons [the causes] for what comes next
[in the zodiac]. This is because the first age of all living
things, almost like the spring, has a surplus of wetness, being
tender and still delicate. And the second age, which is up to the
prime of life, has its surplus in the hot, almost like the
summer. And the third age, which is already past the prime and at
the beginning of the decay, already has its surplus in the dry,
almost like the autumn. And the last age, which is near
dissolution, has its excess in the cold, as does the winter"
(Tetrabiblos I.10, translation by R. Schmidt, edited by R. Hand,
Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind Press, 1994, p. 25). Here,
Ptolemy compares the zodiac to a living thing, and shows a
correspondence between the seasons and the phases of life, one
that is revealed through assignments of the qualities. (Note that
the four qualities, wet, hot, dry, and cold have meanings other
than their concrete ones.) The Greek word for a sign, "zoidion"
(plural "zoidia") means `living thing' (but also `image'; see
Schmidt's discussion of "zoidion" in the preface to his
translation of Paulus Alexandrinus's Introductory Matters,
Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind Press, 1993; see also Schmidt's
preface to his translation of Vettius Valens's The Anthology:
Book I, edited by R. Hand, Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind
Press, 1993). For the Greeks, the zodiac was literally alive, so
Ptolemy's comparison is not just a metaphor. Readers familiar
with Aristotle's ideas about transformations among elements and
their qualities (e.g., Generation and Corruption) will understand
that Ptolemy is claiming that the solar cycle is a chain of
causality between pairs of qualities. (Aristotle himself would
not have allowed transformations among isolated qualities, but
only among elements, which each had a pair of qualities;
transformations are driven by contraries, so there is no way to
get a continuous cycle of change from sequences of qualities
where they are not all contraries of one another, e.g., where hot
and cold are contraries, and wet and dry are contraries, but
where, say, hot and wet are not contraries.)
Ptolemy goes on to give seasonal reasons for the natures of the
three signs, one of each mode (cardinal/tropical and equipartite,
fixed/solid, mutable/bicorporeal), that make up each season:
"Now, the more general mixtures for each of them are analogous to
the seasons which arise in them, but some of their peculiarities
are also established from their congeniality with the Sun and the
Moon [i.e., their "sect," diurnal or nocturnal] and the [planets]
[i.e., their rulers, those exalted in them, etc.], which we will
recount in the following sections, setting first the powers of
the twelfth-parts themselves alone in their purity, regarded by
themselves and in relation to each other. The first distinctions,
then, are of the so-called tropical, equipartite, solid, and
bicorporeal twelfth-parts. Now, two are tropical, the first
thirty degree interval from the summer tropic, that of Cancer,
and the first from the winter tropic, that along Capricorn. These
have received their names from an accident [i.e., concomitant
property]; for, the Sun turns when he comes to be at the
beginnings of them, reversing in the opposite direction of his
latitudinal passage, causing summer in Cancer and winter in
Capricorn. And two are called equipartite, the first twelfth-part
from the spring equipartition, that of Aries, and the one from
the autumn equipartition, that of the Claws [i.e., Libra, the
Scales, which coincides with the claws of the Scorpion]. These,
again, have been named from an accident, since when the Sun comes
to be at the beginning of them, he makes the nights everywhere
equal to the days. Of the remaining eight twelfth-parts, four are
called solid, and four are called bicorporeal. And those
following the tropical and equipartite twelfth-parts are solid,
Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, since the wetness, hotness,
dryness, and coldness of the seasons that begin in those
preceding twelfth-parts bear down upon us more firmly when the
Sun comes to be in these twelfth-parts, not because the
conditions naturally arising at that time are more unmixed, but
rather after we have already continued a long time in them, we
also for that reason perceive their power more sensibly. Those
following the solid twelfth-parts are bicorporeal, Gemini, Virgo,
Sagittarius, and Pisces because of being in between the solid and
tropical and equipartite twelfth-parts, and, as it were, sharing
the specific natural characteristics of the two states of weather
at their ends and at their beginnings" (pp. 27-28). (If the
reader is confused by the description of Virgo as bicorporeal,
note that the ancient symbol for Virgo is a fruitful mother
goddess of the harvest; her fruitfulness is associated with her
motherhood, and she is often represented as a mother with her
child, as in late depictions of the Virgin Mary with her son. In
ancient Rome and Greece, Virgo was identified with Ceres/Demeter,
the corn goddess, and mother of Persephone. So the bicorporeality
is the mother and child, or the mother and an ear of grain as her
progeny. A Sumerian myth, "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi,"
includes a reference to Inanna, portrayed as a fertility goddess,
giving birth to grain: "I poured out plants from my womb.
. . . I poured out grain from my womb"; see D. Wolkstein & S. N.
Kramer, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth, New York: Harper &
Row, 1983, p. 40. Inanna was often identified with Virgo.)
Later, Ptolemy (Tetrabiblos, I.22) makes explicit the source of
the signs' meanings in seasonal phenomena: "But that it is indeed
reasonable to start the twelfth-parts and the boundaries from the
tropical and equipartite points -- that we will not omit, as it
happens to be worth dwelling over. This is both because the
writers [i.e., ancient authorities] in a certain fashion make
this clear, and especially because we see from the previous
demonstrations that the natures and powers and [planetary]
affiliations of the twelfth-parts and boundaries derive their
cause from the tropical and equipartite origins and not from any
other starting points. For, if other starting points are assumed,
we will either be forced no longer to use the natures of the
zoidia in prognostication, or else, if we use them, we will be
forced to make mistakes because of the overlappings and
separations of the intervals that secure the powers in them" (p.
45).
The bulk of the evidence suggests that the meanings, symbols and
names for the signs had their ultimate origin in the months of
the luni-solar calendar of the Mesopotamians (and, later, of the
Greeks), the precursor of the tropical zodiac. The tropical signs
are, then, the spatial equivalents of ideal months (i.e., months
equal to exactly 1/12 of a year, divided into 30 ideal days, each
equal to exactly 1/30 of an ideal month). The signs of the
tropical zodiac appear to have received their character
indirectly from the months of the tropical calendar, and their
names and symbols from constellations coinciding with them when
the zodiac was created; because the constellations typically
received their names and symbols from a consideration of the
natures of the months that, at one time, coincided with their
heliacal risings, these names and symbols were of a character
appropriate for the tropical signs with which they came to
overlap.
*** Questions About the FAQ ***
37) I have a suggestion for this FAQ list. What do I do?
Answer: Make your suggestion known by sending mail to the keeper
of this FAQ file, Dr. Jai Maharaj at jai@mantra.com . The
preferred format is to submit a copy of the actual changes being
suggested. If you request it, your submission will be posted in
the group and a vote will be held to determine whether the
submission will be included in the FAQ. Note that the FAQ is
intended only for answers to questions that are actually asked
frequently in the group because its sole purpose is to cut down
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lessons, can be posted separately and/or stored at the ftp site.
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