Modern Evidence for Astrology

In practice, astrology today scarcely differs from that of Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century A.D., whose astrological manual is the earnest extant. And though all serious modem astrologers agree that modern astrology-is inadequate, and rife with assumptions that are difficult to verify, still all continue to believe that astrology is based upon truth. In support of this conviction, they call attention to an accruing body of evidence from the physical sciences, evidence for the most part discovered inadvertently by scientists, not by astrologers.

In 1950, Michel Gauquelin, a Sorbonne-trained statistician, set out to disprove claims to have statistically proved astrology, made by certain French astrologers. Gauquelin showed that these claims rested upon naive and faulty statistical method, but in the course of his disproof he encountered discrepancies within his own data that could not be explained away. Pressing his examination further, and working with large and acceptable test groups, Gauquelin discovered a correlation between the position of the planets at birth (roughly corresponding to the ascendant and the 'angles' of traditional astrology) and the profession later chosen by-eminent men from a variety of distinct professions -- including scientists, athletes, military men, clerics, and actors among others. Against odds often reaching millions to one against chance, Gauquelin found that scientists were likely to be born with Saturn on the ascendant or one of the angles, while soldiers and athletes tended to be born with Mars there.

Gauquelin's methods could not be faulted, but initially critics believed that, despite the prodigious odds, he had merely uncovered a national fluke, since his categories were all derived from French personnel. A repetition of the initial experiment using data from four other European countries supported the original findings. In every case, though with varying but generally high degrees of significance, positions of the planets at birth corresponded to the professions later chosen by eminent men. The test groups now numbered many thousands, the patterns drawn from the data all supported each other, and the final conclusion was that by no stretch of the imagination could chance be held to account for Gauquelin's results.

In most, if not all, instances Gauquelin's work also bore out favourite astrological axioms. Thus, Saturn was important for scientists, Mars for soldiers and athletes, Jupiter for actors. Subsequent work by Gauquelin has shown planetary relationships between parents and children, and many other correlations that can only be explained in terms of astrology. Recognizing the value of statistics as a tool for astrological research, a number of astrologers have studied statistical techniques, and there now exists a body of statistical evidence in a variety of fields attesting the existence of astrological relationships and correlations: between rainfall and the phases of the moon, in cases of longevity, and in susceptibility to specific diseases, among others.