From: lmpm@oldcolo.com (L. M. P. McPherson) Date: Monday, January 29, 1996 3:12 PM To: alt.astrology Subject: ALT.ASTROLOGY NEWCOMERS READ THIS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Archive-name: astrology-faq/part1 Last-modified: 24 October 1995 ****** FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ****** Copyright L. M. P. McPherson, 1995 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 this "Dr. Jai Maharaj" person who posts so prolifically? *** 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. (Continued in part 2 . . .) (. . . Continued from part 1) Copyright L. M. P. McPherson, 1995 *** 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 152, Station A, Brampton, Ontario, Canada L6V 2L1; 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.) (Continued in part 3 . . .) (. . . Continued from part 2) Copyright L. M. P. McPherson, 1995 *** 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 output from Astrolog, at the vernal equinox in 1992, the Sun will be at 5^ Pisces 22' in the sidereal zodiac. Because of this, the current age is called the "Piscean" age. The vernal equinox will not actually occur in the sign of Aquarius in the sidereal zodiac until the year 2377. Some astrologers, however, believe that the equinox is close enough to the cusp of Pisces that we will begin to see some of the effects of the Age of Aquarius, hence the 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 JAI 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 JAI, 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 JAI 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 this "Dr. Jai Maharaj" person who posts so prolifically? Answer: This person has generated so much annoyance in this and other groups that Roy Johnson (rjohnson@shell.com) created a FAQ about him. See that FAQ for full details. (If you cannot find it in alt.astrology, look in rec.food.veg.) Briefly, his legal name appears to be Jay Stevens (e.g., this name appears in the articles of incorporation for his "Mantra Corporation"). He used to post under that name in other electronic forums, but when he discovered the internet, he decided to use a more Indian-sounding name, and began calling himself "Jai Maharaj." Lately, this name has evolved into "Dr. Jai Maharaj." In 1990, he was claiming that his birth name was Jai Mathura. He has many internet accounts, and he sometimes edits the headers of postings to obscure their origin and author. He is believed to create alternate personas and post under additional aliases to give the impression that he has supporters. Such personas are often recognised by their tendency to use the term "Swami" for him. He has a "library" of articles that he posts, re-posts, and re-posts again, ad nauseam; this accounts for his ubiquity on the net. Each posting contains a .sig file that advertises his vedic astrology business, so the large volume of his postings appears to be part of a marketing scheme. (The official purpose of Mantra Corporation is listed as "business consulting, marketing, advertising and related services." Despite anything he might say, this company is *not* a non-profit organisation.) Netters have dubbed him "Jai Mirage" because they think he is a fake -- a con man. Don't be taken in. And please, please, please don't respond to his postings; he generates enough net "noise" as it is. Just put his most usual alias (Jai Maharaj) and/or all of his net addresses in your kill file for this newsgroup (see the Jai Maharaj FAQ for a list of these addresses). See # 22 for instructions about editing a kill file. For the curious, he once claimed that his birth data are October 7, 1946, 9:15 am (-5:30 h), New Delhi, India, 77E12, 28N36. Oh, and by the way, he is in the habit of posting a slightly edited version of this FAQ, changing this answer into an advertisement for himself, inserting a diatribe against western astrology at the beginning of the file, and putting his most common alias (Jai Maharaj) at the head of the list of contributors to the FAQ! There are two terms for this activity: plagiarism, and copyright violation. (The latter is one of his favourite activities; he often posts large excerpts from books without the authors' permission, and sometimes without giving the authors credit.) (Continued in part 4 . . .) (. . . Continued from part 3) Copyright L. M. P. McPherson, 1995 *** 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. (Continued in part 5 . . .) (. . . Continued from part 4) Copyright L. M. P. McPherson, 1995 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. Most Western astrologers, with a few exceptions, 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 at the very latest in 200 B.C.E., when Hipparchus wrote about it. But Sir Norman Lockyer found that many very early temples in Egypt had been moved at different periods in history so that they lined up with a particular star as it precessed across the sky. 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, Maggie McPherson at lmpm@oldcolo.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 on repetition in postings. Other sorts of information, such as lessons, can be posted separately and/or stored at the ftp site. **************************************************************** Contributors to this FAQ: Maggie McPherson, Jeffrey Kegler, Walter Pullen, Mark Martin, Thomas David Kehoe, Ed Perrone, Michael Bulmer, Tito Domine.