Astrology Once Valid, But Not Now??

It is absurd, absolutely preposterous. How could any rational, thinking person believe that the positions of heavenly bodies at a person’s birth—stars, planets, moons—hundreds of thousands or millions and millions of miles away could have any influence on personality, or on daily life events — and that, years and years later?

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And yet, whether it is in magazine cover stories or in daily newspaper columns, astrology remains a matter of extraordinary worldwide interest. In fact, newspapers in the well educated United States have reported that inadvertently omitting the astrology column has caused a greater cavalcade of angry letters from readers than any other omission.

And we have seen well known world leaders, including a revered U.S. president, and a reviled German dictator, shrewd and powerful people, either embracing astrology, or refusing to consider it nonsensical.

How can such a silly body of absurd doctrine exercise such sway, and for so long, and for so many?

An answer to such a question does occur if one looks very closely at what astrology actually says, rather than what it seems to say.

There are two types of statements common in astrology. The first deals with day-to-day events, and such pronouncements as “Be careful in financial matters this week, and take no unnecessary risks” and “This is a good time to renew old acquaintances, who will be happy to hear from you.” And so on.

The second type deals with personality. According to birth (and other) signs, one is given insight into general traits and behavior. Aquarians are altruistic, intelligent. Sagittarians are forthright, straight shooters. Capricorns are ambitious, striving for success. Librans are balanced, even tempered. Leos are flamboyant, often vain. Aries can be juvenile, sometimes most demanding. And so on, again.

And what makes one an Aries, a Leo, an Aquarian? Although there are minor variations, it is generally date of birth that is controlling, with some minor variations, especially resulting from hour and place of birth, and related to different personality aspects (relation to romantic life, business interests, etc.).

What is one to make of all this?

First, it should be remembered that we have generally absorbed, without much recognition or cogitation, some of the lore and naming of the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Lonely shepherd boys, staring up at the night sky, imagined that the stars outlined figures from their imagination—gods, heroes, mythical and actual beasts—and many of such imaginings have passed into our current naming conventions. Similarly, the names of Roman gods are what we use for planets in the solar system. And astrology does date back to that era, and before, through the centuries.

Another point to be born in mind is the weakness of current psychological knowledge in matters of personality. Is there any way, without knowing the person well, to know whether a he or she is avaricious or generous, kind or cruel, easy going or driven, truthful or deceptive, generally unruffled or with a serious temper? And where science cannot answer such question, is it surprising that a pseudo-science attempts to, or pretends to?

Many people, while tending to scorn the daily predictions of astrology, still seek to gain some knowledge or amusement from its personality aspects, which have been the substance of innumerable instances of cocktail party chatter and other frivolous pursuits, from jewelry trinkets to greeting cards.

A closer look at astrology will produce some conclusions that will probably both outrage believers in this occult area, and also dismay scientific scoffers.

To start, consider a concept from engineering design, that of a “black box.” This is, in essence, an admission of ignorance, represented by the blackness, and is intended to indicate a step in an ongoing process whose internal workings are actually unknown, or not yet chosen. One postulates the input to the box, and then the desired output, in the design scheme. How the box will actually work (of if it will work at all) is for attention later.

So, what is the astrological input? Let’s take it as date of birth, which is primary in astrology. And the output. Let’s take take that as personality type. Is there any way that these can be related? (As you see, we are ignoring all the star-planet-moon mumbo jumbo.)

Of course there is. In fact there are several ways to relate these. One could be nutritional. In an earlier time, let’s say before canned or frozen food, diets did vary considerably with the season of the year. Years ago, as an academic, I would go to France when the college year ended in May. Soon after my arrival abroad it would be strawberry season. We would have wonderful fresh strawberry desserts available at every meal. This lasted about 10 days. And then strawberries would disappear and we would have fresh raspberries for a while. And raspberries and strawberries do have different mineral and vitamin content, and both are far different in their nutritional aspects from potatoes and turnips!

The developing fetus, and indeed, the newborn baby, is particularly susceptible to nutritional influences, so it is easy to believe that a child, conceived in February might have a different early nutritional history than one conceived in October? And could that affect personality?

In fact, for a long time, it was the practice in the Soviet Union, where the winters are so severe and the farm produce so limited, for pregnant women to receive special vitamin supplements, not available to the general population, on the grounds that this extra nutrition was advisable for the mother and developing fetus.

Another possibility is that the weather in very early life could have later life influences. A toddler whose first steps outside the cave are into a sunlit, flower-filled world might have a different outlook on life than one who shivered near the fire inside, when snow and ice raged outside.

Of course, these may be far-fetched examples, but it has been repeatedly demonstrated that prenatal nutrition can have lasting effects, and presumably, the same could be true for early-life environmental conditions.

Granting these matters gives a different gloss to “astrological” connections between birth date and personality, and one that removes the absurd star-planet-moon connections.

As for the day-to-day life predictions . . . well, that seems to be another matter.
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