User:Rursus/Astrology

This essay is an original work by signed users. The original author has freed it for editing by other editors.

“”There are two ways to view the stars: as they really are; and as we might wish them to be.

—Carl Sagan

Astrology is an ancient pseudoscience alleging to make future predictions and psychological evaluations of certain conditions, for example one's personal life or future events, based on the planet positions in the sky at certain time points depending on application. It is the belief that huge balls of rocks, liquids, gases, and nuclear fusion reactions millions or billions of miles away from Earth can affect the financial, sexual, emotional, and employment situations of individual carbon-based life forms, called humans, on planet Earth.

Astrology is rejected as pseudoscience and scam by an overwhelming majority of the modern society. In particular, astronomers regard astrology as an embarassment, when rejecting requests for horoscopes.

Astrology has never produced any worthwhile and conclusive predictions, in spite of having quite different formulations across various cultures using the techniques in mutually incompatible fashions.

Nevertheless astrologer is a qualified profession within the sphere of entertainment, requiring some verbal skill in stating personal evaluation vaguely in such a way as to incite the customer to fillin the factual details himself/herself.

Definition

A wide definition of astrology are provided by historicians and anthropologists, including Patrick Curry who define astrology as:

the practice of relating the heavenly bodies to lives and events on earth, and the tradition that has thus been generated.

Since this kind of definition contraintuitively could include the constellation sagas that use to be refered to amongst the vehemently anti-astrological amateur astronomers, and the equally anti-astrological astrobiologists, this definition is to be considered maladapted to the general conception of what constitutes 'astrology'.

Astrology is instead the common computation and consultation system used by modern astrologers to explain personality types and factual events of today in terms of planetary movements and positions in their system, and the National Council for Geocosmic Research (Geocosmic = Astrologic) is the name of an important organization in this modern astrologers' collective. The emergence of astrology occurred when it attained it's modern traits of:

• personality analysis according to birth or conception horoscope,
• interpreting horoscopes according to "planets" and twelve horoscopic signs,
• optionally adding extra analysis facets, such as for example
  • the house system (Western astrology),
  • the angular aspects (Western astrology),
  • the nakshatra manazils (Hindu astrology),
  • the decans subsectors of the twelve signs (sometimes in Western astrology).

Description

A birth chart

Astrology comes in three major variants:

• Western astrology,
• Hindu astrology, and
• Chinese astrology.

It is generally believed that the influence of numerology upon astrology is large.

The procedure when erecting a horoscope is to compute planetary positions in ecliptical coordinates, distribute them in a circular diagram (see right) to determine each planets' sign and mutual angles. Each pair of planet plus zodiacal sign signifies some interpretation that describes a quality of the person or situation analysed.

Western astrology also analyses direct angles (aspects) between planets, that are significant if they are whole parts of the full turn of 360°, for example oppositions of 180° (neutral balancing), trigons 120° (positive harmonizing) and quadratures 90° (negative competing).

Common kinds of horoscopes in western astrology are erected for:

• birth times: to determine "personality" in astrological terms,
• relationships: to diagnose the viability of a romanic relationship, when the birth horoscopes of the two persons are superseeded upon each other to determine whether their respective planets are supporting or counteracting each other,
• predictions: to determine whether a certain time is beneficial for a certain planned act, or not.

Psychology

Astrology is today firmly fixed in the wastebin of the New Age culture, where odd and unhealthy notions flourish. The commonest explanation for why astrology should work is the theory of macrocosm-microcosm correspondence, according to which all events in the macrocosm corresponds to events in the microcosm. On which level of scale is not specified, since the theory originated in a time where there were only two levels: the crystal spheres and the earth; this compared to the myriads of modern levels of scale, from subatomic, via atomic, molecular, chemical, up to microscopic, then humansized, solar system, galaxy, galaxy cluster, etc..

Another common evasion against skeptics is the classical New Age subjectivity: "what works for me is true for me". In philosophical terms, this pretty much equates to radical postmodernism, where truth is just a cultural assertment and of little significance. The subjectivity equates to: "Get lost! You don't belong to my culture, so you have no say!"

Astrology is a methodology that relies on the qualities of the astrologer and the needs and beliefs of the client. The astrologer needs to be empathic to be successful in consultations, and he/she also needs to have such a technical proficiency as to understand the horoscopes so to interpret it according to the expectations of the client, who usually knows his/her birth sign and some little more. Astrology outside consultation situations usually doesn't make real sense, unless the person know so much about astrology as to be an astrologer himself/herself. Investigations by Rob Nanninga show that astrologers cannot match birth charts with psychological questionaries .

In a consultation situation, the astrologer computes and then "defines" the horoscope in dialog with the client in sufficiently vague terms that the client can fill in with his/her own experiences to match the "issues" raised by the astrologer. The superficial model is that the astrologer is the expert and the client is consulting this expertize, but the real working is that the astrologer interviews the client regarding certain horoscopically chosen aspects of existence, and lets the client define himself or herself, whereupon the astrologer imposes interpretations conveying an astrological belief system. It requires a proficient and skillful astrologer for the illusion of authority to be maintained, and a willing adaptable client that has at least some faith in astrology for it to work. It is a subreligion where the client is modified by modifying his/her self reflection system, according to a fixed doctrine of old age, a doctrine that includes belief in fate and the aforementioned sky-earth correspondence that originated in the old Mesopotamian religion.

Planets in astrology

Western astrology makes its divinations by computing a zodiac containing planet positions. The planets are analyzed by identifying in what zodiacal sign it resides in at the moment of interest, and given a conventional interpretation based on the combination of planet and sign. As planets, astrology usually regard:

sym	"planet"	character	real nature
☉	Sun	regality, power	5700K hot star
☽	Moon	motherliness, protection	sterile atmosphereless rock moon
☿	Mercury	intellect, fast mind/talk	sterile atmosphereless planet with large iron core
♀	Venus	love	earth-sized hot hell planet of 450K carbon dioxide
♂	Mars	aggression, competition	permanent ice age planet with thin atmosphere
♃	Jupiter	joviality, generosity	magnetic giant planet with incredibly thick atmosphere of mostly hydrogen and helium
♄	Saturn	seriosity, sternness	lesser giant planet copy of Jupiter
♅	Uranus	rebelliousness, insights	lesser giant planet with an atmosphere of methane
♆	Neptune	religion, mysticism	lesser giant planet with another atmosphere of methane
♇	Pluto	psychology	sterile carbonmonoxide/nitrogen ice "asteroid"

The "mobile lights" in this table up to and including Saturn, are what the ancients in antiquity regarded as planetes (Greek for "wanderers").

Beside these, the usage of the geometric points of the Ascendent, which is the crossing between the ecliptic and the horizon, and the Medium Coeli, the crossing between the south meridian and the ecliptic, are common. Astrologers often also use major minor planets for their analyses, mostly the first four discovered ones, i.e. Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta, all of them being larger asteroids, meaning somewhere between 300km to 1000km in diameter.

Zodiacal signs in astrology

The signs are twelve 30° sectors, starting at the vernal equinox point on the celestial ecliptic:

sector	sign	depiction	"element"	body part ruled	character of person
0-30°	Aries	the Ram	fire	Head	impatient confrontational egoistic
30-60°	Taurus	the Bull	earth	Neck, Throat	warm and friendly, bullheaded
60-90°	Gemini	the Twins	air	Arms, Shoulders, Lungs	communicative, variable, double
90-120°	Cancer	the Crab	water	Stomach, Breasts	homely, motherly, protecting
120-150°	Leo	the Lion	fire	Heart, Spine	leadership, regal
150-180°	Virgo	the (Winged) Virgin (Godess)	earth	Nervous System	nervous, secretarian, pedantic
180-210°	Libra	the Scales	air	Kidneys	balancing, diplomatic
210-240°	Scorpio	the Scorpion	water	Reproductive	researching, analyticism, strong feelings
240-270°	Sagittarius	the Archer Centaur	fire	Hips, Thighs	adventurous, dynamic, informal
270-300°	Capricornus	the Goat-fish	earth	Bones, Teeth	dry, aloof analytic, ambitious climber
300-330°	Aquarius	the Waterman	air	Ankles, Circulatory System	scientific, humanitarian, aloof
330-360°	Pisces	the Fishes	water	Feet, Immune System	sensitive to surroundings, mystic

These signs don't coincide with the zodiacal constellations of the same name, which is usually attributed to precession. The Hindu variant of astrology have corrected for this and displaced the constellations with 20° while keeping the symbolism intact, so that each person that according to Western astrology gets a vastly different personality according to Hindu astrology. Obviously this poses very little problems for the practicers of Hindu astrology, keeping the symbolism and personal characteristics the same as they are in the Western counterpart.

Chinese astrology

Ancient Chinese astrology and astronomy developed in tandem and are hard to separate from each other. Like its astronomical counterpart, Chinese astrology is primarily based on the Jupiter cycle. Since Jupiter's orbit around the sun takes approximately 12 years to complete, this number features almost as prominently in Chinese as in Western astrology. The most important superficial similarity between the two is the usage of "zodiacs" made up of twelve animals (in Chinese tradition) and twelve mythical beings or "signs" (in Greco-Roman tradition), respectively. However, these systems are not derived in the same way - the Western zodiac is not based on the Jupiter cycle, but arrives at the same number by counting the constellations which the sun appears to traverse over the course of a year.

The animals of the Chinese zodiac are the Rat, Oxen, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or Sheep), Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. These are actually just one application of a more basic system, namely the division into ten "heavenly stems" (天干 tiangan) and twelve "earthly branches" (地支 dizhi). The latter not only serve to designate a 12-year-cycle, but are also assigned to the months of the year and the old Chinese system of twelve double-hours that make up one day. When applied to the cycle of years, the zodiac animals are paired with another cycle based on the five Chinese elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water), each of which can occur in a Yin or Yang form. Because each animal can only be paired with either a yin (Ox, Rabbit, Snake, Sheep, Rooster, Pig) or yang (Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Monkey, Dog) form of each element, there is a total of 60 combinations, resulting in a sixty-year cycle from Yang Wood Rat to Yin Water Pig. When Chinese astrologers make up a person's horoscope, the animal assigned to his or her birth year is usually considered to be of paramount importance, determining important personality features. However, for a full horoscope, additional information on the day and time of birth is used to derive predictions from the positions of the sun, moon and major planets at the time.

The ancient Chinese also had a system for identifying zodiacal constellations, but there are a few differences: first, they arrive at a much higher count (28); second, these are based on the lunar path and therefore usually described as "lunar mansions" (宿 xiu); and third, unlike their Western counterparts, they do not divide the firmament into sectors of equal size. Instead, they are divided into four "symbols", based on the four points of the compass, with each group made up of seven constellations. Each group is also assigned a mythological animal (The Azure Dragon of the East, Vermillion Bird of the South, White Tiger of the West, and Black Tortoise of the North) and matched to one of the elements. The remaining fifth element is assigned to a celestial zone called the "center" (中 zhong), which is not part of the zodiac.

The position of the moon in one of the constellations has an astrological significance and is considered a particular omen. However, the usage of this kind of astrology was usually restricted to the imperial court and considered a state secret. Some of it was eventually leaked and turned into a kind of folk astrology, but never really enjoyed the popularity and cultural importance of horoscopes based on the time of birth.

History

The origin of modern astrology is partially shrouded in mystery. A common presumption places the birth in Mesopotamia in the 1st millenium BC, based om Greek sources. On the other hand, the numerological character of modern western astrology, attested among others in the works of Johannes Kepler, may indicate that at least part of the origin can also be traced back to the Greek culture of the early antiquity. Nevertheless astrology in the modern sense cannot honestly be traced back farther than the 1st millenium BC, possibly by a merger of late Mesopotamian and Hellenic concepts.

It is a common conception that astrology originated as the religion of ancient Mesopotamia which is attested from the 4th millenium BC. This polytheistic religion conceived that the events of the sky directly corresponded to the historical events on earth. The planets were conceived as gods, messengers of the primary gods. Aspects, foremost conjunctions and eclipses of the planets were ominous, and the historical situations of previous such conjunctions were compared to the current situation for prognosis for the nation in question. The prognosis, if negative, were to be avoided through special rites designed to save the nation and the kingship of it. There were 19 zodiacal asterisms, who weren't treated as modern signs. There were three celestial bands, the Path of Enlil, of Enki and of An, which similarly contained numerous asterisms of unclear significance. There were no private horoscopes.

Another mostly overseen possible original source is the Pythagoreans who had an extensive theory of numbers where odd numbers where male and even numbers female. Everything in the Pythagorean universe where composed of numbers, and tones and overtones of the same kind as in musical instrument chords. It's quite possible that some other belief system was modified by adding Pythagorean beliefs, to get a precursor to astrology.

The occurrence of a very western-like traditional astrology in India and in China clearly indicates a common heritage, rather than independent discoveries. MUL.APIN and similar Mesopotamian star catalogues from at the very much earliest 1100 BC, contain 19 zodiacal signs in opposition to the elsewhere universal 12 signs used in Indian and Chinese astrology. The transfer of astrology to India via the expansion of the Hellenistic civilization founded by Alexander the Great can be inferred by the Indian matematician and astrologer Varāhamihira's statement:

The Greeks, though impure, must be honored since they were trained in sciences

This means that astrology was invented after 1100 BC and spread from or via Mesopotamia, and that usual Hindu astrologers' claims of a tradition many thousands of years old, is vague marketing baloney, since the current form of astrology was imported from the Greeks after 334 BC when Alexander the Great passed the Hellespont to conquer Persia. The misnomer Vedic Astrology is malformed since the Vedic period ranges from 1700 BC to 500 BC.

Pseudoscientific status

Astrology has currently no status as a science, but is instead generally recognized as a pseudoscience.

Authoritative statements

For those who prefer statements from some authoritative hero instead of own thinking, the following list of heroes is provided:

• The Grand Skeptic/Empiric Sextus Empiricus (2nd or 3rd c CE) dismissed astrology reasoning as blatantly absurd.

• The Church Father Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE) condemned astrology as pseudoscientific bullocks and blatant fraud, since it contradicted his Aristotelean cosmology beliefs.

• Muhammad (circa 570-632 CE) the Prophet of Islam condemned astrology as idolatry and pseudoscientific bullocks. Consequently good muslims studied the stars only for the sake of navigation, calendar time determinations, and for the stars' own scientific sake.

• Richard Dawkins (1941++) the Grand Prophet of the Radical Atheist Religion of the Evolutionary Consciousness-created Cosmos with Demonic Memes, claims that astrology is idolatry, fornication (with satanic Memes) and pseudoscientific bullocks, and proposes a jihad against astrology.

General status

The pseudoscientific status has variously been attributed to different qualities. Inferior quality attacks on astrology include,

• What is the likelihood that one-twelfth of the world's population is having the same kind of day? – this is not what astrology says, a classical Straw man argument.

Better quality arguments of course builds on the factuality of the claimed connections between planets and personality/fate:

• astrologers cannot predict – claimed by the former astrologer Martin Boot,
• the alleged astrological effects are so subtle and hard to detect that we may wonder how astrologers had ever been able to identify them – claimed by Rob Nanninga

Paul R. Thagard criticises many of the different pseudoscience status explanations, and maintains that the main reason for pseudoscientificity is the unwillingness of the practicioners to adapt to the scientific method to verify or update their methodology.

Own references

Why the Indians use an almost identical kind of astrology as in west:

• WP:Yona, WP:Varāhamihira (505–587 CE), WP:Romaka Siddhanta, WP:Paulisa Siddhanta, WP:Yavanajataka

The arrival of greeko-mesopotamian astrology to India can be attested by citations, such as

"The Yavanas are barbarians yet the science of astronomy originated with them and for this they must be revered like gods".

Not referenced yet

• Latitude and Epoch for the Origin of the Astronomical Lore in MUL.APIN, to be used for putting the 19-sign zodiac at 1370±100 BC,
• example.com to be used for putting the first known 12-sign zodiac at ~~200 BC (???),

Which references in WP:Astrology are unreliable?

Reliable

• USED: Koch-Westenholz, Ulla, 1995. Mesopotamian astrology. Volume 19 of CNI publications. Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 9788772892870 — a very good source that describes something quite different from modern astrology: a religious divination system based on sky observations and generalizations from historical records, WP:Astrology simply misuses it.
• USED: Why Astrology Is A Pseudoscience by Paul R. Thagard — dismisses former criticism as being philosophically, historically and scientifically flawed, instead call it pseudoscientific because it practioners do very little to verify it, while still posing it as science.
• Brady, Bernedette: "The Newtonian Merry-Go-Round", Geocosmic Journal (Geocosmic = Astrological), Retrieved 29 July 2011, examines 10 astrologers' attitude to formal scientific research and refers to some astrologers' frustration over the lack of positive results.

Reliable primary sources used as secondary to inflate baloney

• Albiruni, Chronology (11th c.) Ch.VIII, ‘On the days of the Greek calendar’, re. 23 Tammûz; Sachau.
• Alkindi, c.9th cent. De Radiis Stellicis (On the Stellar Rays), translated by Robert Zoller. London: New Library, 2004. (3rd digital ed.)

Reliable irrelevant secondary sources used to inflate baloney

• Weiss, Piero and Taruskin, Richard, 2008. Music in the Western World: a history in documents. Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780534585990,
• Alastair Jamieson (2008-11-30). "Secret theme behind Narnia Chronicles is based upon the stars, says new research". The Telegraph, London. Retrieved 2011-07-24,

Insecure

Bordering to unreliable:

• McRitchie, Ken, 2006. Correlation: Journal of Research in Astrology ‘Astrology and the social sciences: looking inside the black box of astrology theory’ Correlation: (2006), Vol 24(1), pp. 5-20. Online at www.theoryofastrology.com.
• McRitchie, Ken (April 2011). "The good science of astrology: Separating effects from artifacts". ISAR International Astrologer 4 (1): 46-52. http://www.theoryofastrology.com/effects/ISAR-April-2011-Journal-KM.pdf. "To separate and use the astrological factors and exclude the non-astrological artifacts found in many astrology interpretations requires a conscientious test design. A good test design should measure how astrological factors might associate with effects on a scale of magnitudes, known in astrology research as “eminence.”".
• McRitchie, Ken (August 2011). "Support for astrology from the Carlson double-blind experiment". ISAR International Astrologer 40 (2): 33–38.

Unreliable

• Carlson, Shawn (1985). "A double-blind test of astrology". Nature 318 (6045): 419–425. doi:10.1038/318419a0, heavily critized from both astrologers and psychologists for being maldesigned
• Houlding, Deborah, 2000. The Traditional Astrologer. London: Ascella. Issue 19 (January 2000). ISSN 13694826. Skyscript.co.uk
• Houlding, Deborah, 2010. Essays on the history of western astrology. Nottingham: STA. ISBN 1899503559. Skyscript.co.uk
• The Astronomical society of the Pacific's perfectly malformed, misleading and misrepresenting counterarguments against astrology, and also this:

• "Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic's Resource List" – DON'T USE!!, these guys aren't skeptics, they are scienticists
• Bob Marks. "Astrology for Skeptics", the answer from an astrologer, who has a really easy task to tear apart their arguments

• "British Physicist Debunks Astrology in Indian Lecture". Associated Press, – the source claims that Steven Hawking "debunks" astrology by the flawed unknown-physical-force argument (cf. Wegener).

Source unavailable

Nicholas Campion

Campion claims that

"There is therefore scarcely any culture which does not have a set of beliefs, or behavioural systems which can be seen as astrological"

which is caused by his ethnological notion that any myth related to the stars is an astrological system. This ethnological notion, in the spirit of hubris and splendid isolation maintained in almost every science branch, overrides and violates notions of other science branches wildly, one simply have to compare the debacle around the IAU 2006 definition of planet, violating all linguistics and philosophy wildly.

• Campion, Nicholas, 2008. A History of Western Astrology, Vol. 1, The Ancient World (first published as The Dawn of Astrology: a Cultural History of Western Astrology. London: Continuum. ISBN 9781441181299.
• Campion, Nicholas, 2009. A History of Western Astrology, Vol. 2, The Medieval and Modern Worlds. London: Continuum. ISBN 9781441181299.

Other

• Kassell and Ralley (2010) ‘Stars, spirits, signs: towards a history of astrology 1100–1800'; pp.67-69. ISSN: 13698486

Undue tertiary sources' usages

• About.com: Is Astrology a Pseudoscience? Examining the Basis and Nature of Astrology

Not examined yet

• Abell, G. O. (July 1982). "the Mars Effect". Psychology Today: 8–13.
• Abell, G.; P. Kurtz, M. Zelen (Spring 1983). "The Abell-Kurtz-Zelen 'Mars effect' experiments: A Reappraisal". The Skeptical Inquirer (7): 77–82.
• Addey, J. M. (1976). Harmonics in Astrology. UK: L. N. Fowler. pp. 264. ISBN 852433444.
• An English translation of the Harmonica was recently published by Andrew Barker, in his Greek Musical Writings vol. II (Cambridge University Press, 2004). The work was also discussed by James Frederick Mountford in his article ‘The Harmonics of Ptolemy and the Lacuna in II, 14’ (Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 57. 1926; pp.71-95). Mountford refers to Ptolemy’s Harmonica as "the most scientific and best arranged treatise on the theory of musical scales which we possess in Greek".
• Armstrong, J. Scott, 1982. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 'Barriers to Scientific Contributions: The Author’ s Formula'. Cambridge University Press. Vol. 5, pp.197-199 (June 1982). ISSN 0140525X.
• Asquith, Peter, and Hacking, Ian., 1978. Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 1. Philosophy of Science Association. ISBN 9780917586057.
• Bacon (1623) De Augmentis, p.351. The maxim that the stars impel but do not compel was used by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, "following the same line of argument as St Augustine and others before him" (A history of magic by Richard Cavendish; p.66., Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977).
• Benski et al., Claude (1996). The "Mars Effect": A French Test of Over 1,000 Sports Champions. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0879759887.
• Bok, Bart J.; Lawrence E. Jerome, Paul Kurtz (1982). "Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists". In Patrick Grim. Philosophy of Science and the Occult. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 14–18. ISBN 0873955722.
• Brown, David, 2000. Mesopotamian planetary astronomy-astrology. Cuneiform Monographs 18. Groningen: Styx Publications. ISBN 9056930362.
• Campion, Nicholas, (ed.) 1997. Culture and Cosmos. Sophia Centre Press. Vol. 1, no. 1. ISSN 13686534.
• Campion, Nicholas. "Prophecy, Cosmology and the New Age Movement. The Extent and Nature of Contemporary Belief in Astrology."( Bath Spa University College, 2003) via Campion, Nicholas, History of Western Astrology, (Continuum Books, London & New York, 2009) p.248 p.256 ISBN 9781847252241
• Catarina Belo, Catarina Carriço Marques de Moura Belo, Chance and determinism in Avicenna and Averroës, p.228. Brill, 2007. ISBN 9004155872.
• "Certificate Program Information". Kepler College. http://www.kepler.edu/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=100&Itemid=212. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
• Cochrane, David. "Radical Breakthroughs in 21st Century Astrology Software and the Dawn of Scientific Astrology". http://www.astrosoftware.com/AstroSoftware.htm. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
• Comité Para (1976). "Considérations critiques sur une recherche faite par M.M. Gauquelin dans le domaine des influences planétaires". Nouvelles Brèves (43): 327–343.
• Cornelius, Geoffrey, 2003. The Moment of Astrology: Origins in Divination. Bournemouth: Wessex. (Originally published by Penguin Arkana, 1994). ISBN 902405110.
• Davis, Henry, 1901. The Republic The Statesman of Plato. London: M. W. Dunne 1901; Nabu Press reprint, 2010. ISBN 9781146979726.
• Davis, Martin, From Here to There, An Astrologer’s Guide to Astromapping, (Wessex Astrologer, England, 2008) Ch1. History, p.2 ISBN 9781902405278
• Dean, G. and, A. Mather (1977). Recent Advances in Natal Astrology. UK: The Astrological Association. ISBN 0140223975.
• "Definition of planet". Merriam-Webster OnLine. http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/planet. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
• "Degree-Granting Authorization". Kepler College. http://www.kepler.edu/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17:kepler-college-authorization&catid=38:about-kepler-college&Itemid=153. Retrieved March 26, 2011. "Kepler College Authorization Degree-Granting Authorization Kepler College is authorized by the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board and through March 9, 2010, the College met the requirements and minimum standards established for degree-granting institutions under the Degree Authorization Act. Students attending the college between March 9, 2000 and March 9, 2010 (and extended to March 9, 2012 to include students completing the teach-out of their degrees) earned Washington State authorized degrees in: Associate of Arts Bachelor of Arts Master of Arts in: Eastern and Western Traditions The History, Philosophy and Transmission of Astrology"
• Dipankar Das, May 1996. "Fame and Fortune". http://www.lifepositive.com/mind/predictive-sciences/astrology.asp. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
• Dommanget, J. (1970). Preliminary Report of the Para Committee.
• Dr. P. Seymour, Astrology: The Evidence of Science. Penguin Group (London, 1988) ISBN 0-14-019226-3
• Ertel, Suitbert (1988). "Raising the Hurdle for the Athletes' Mars Effect". Journal of Scientific Exploration 2 (4): 76. http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_02_1_ertel.pdf. "Correcting for selection bias by pooling all records increased empirical support for the stronger version of this claim; the data have overcome, in spite of disturbing effects of bias, the higher methodological hurdle."
• Ertel, Suitbert (1993). "Puzzling Eminence Effects Might Make Good Sense". Journal of Scientific Exploration 7 (2): 145–154. http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_07_2_ertel.pdf.
• Ertel, Suitbert (2009). "Appraisal of Shawn Carlson's Renowned Astrology Tests". Journal of Scientific Exploration 23 (2): 125–137. http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/full/jse_23_2_full.pdf#page=7. "The design of Carlson’s study violated the demands of fairness and its mode of analysis ignored common norms of statistics".
• Evans, James, and Berggren, J. Lennart, 2006. Geminos's introduction to the phenomena. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691123394.
• Eysenck, H.J., 1986 Astrological Journal 'Critique of 'A double-blind test of astrology'; vol xviii (3), April 1986.
• Eysenck, H.J., and Nias, D.K.B., 1982 Astrology: Science or Superstition? Penguin Books. ISBN 0140223975.
• For discussions of Chaucer's astrological references see A. Kitson (1996). "Astrology and English literature". Contemporary Review, October 1996. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2242/is_n1569_v269/ai_18920172. Retrieved 2006-07-17. M. Allen, J.H. Fisher. "Essential Chaucer: Science, including astrology". University of Texas, San Antonio. http://colfa.utsa.edu/chaucer/ec22.html. Retrieved 2006-07-17. A.B.P. Mattar et al.. "Astronomy and Astrology in the Works of Chaucer". University of Singapore. http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/gem-projects/hm/astronomy_and_astrology_in_the_works_of_chaucer.pdf. Retrieved 2006-07-17. For discussions of Shakespeare's astrological references see P. Brown. "Shakespeare, Astrology, and Alchemy: A Critical and Historical Perspective". The Mountain Astrologer, February/March 2004. http://www.astrofuturetrends.com/id19.html. F. Piechoski. "Shakespeare's Astrology". http://starcats.com/anima/shakespeare.html.
• Frank McGillion. "The Pineal Gland and the Ancient Art of Iatromathematica". http://www.astrology-research.net/researchlibrary/Iatr/pineal.htm.
• From scroll A of the ruler Gudea of Lagash, I 17 – VI 13. O. Kaiser, Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments, Bd. 2, 1-3. Gütersloh, 1986-1991. Also quoted in A. Falkenstein, ‘Wahrsagung in der sumerischen Überlieferung’, La divination en Mésopotamie ancienne et dans les régions voisines. Paris, 1966.
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• Hackett, Jeremiah, 1997. Roger Bacon and the sciences: commemorative essays. Brill. ISBN 9789004100152.
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• Holden, James, A History of Horoscopic Astrology: From the Babylonian Period to the Modern Age, (AFA 1996) p.202 ISBN 0-86690-463-8
• http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=influenza Online Etymology Dictionary
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• Indian Astrology vs Indian Science
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• Jung, C.G., (1952), Synchronicity - An Acausal Connecting Principle (London: RKP English edition, 1972), p.36. "synchronicity ...(is)...a coincidence in time of two or more casually unrelated events which have the same or similar meaning, in contrast to 'synchronism', which simply means the simultaneous occurrence of two events".
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• Maggie Hyde, Jung and Astrology; p.24–26; 121ff. (London: The Aquarian Press, 1992). "As above, so below. Early in his studies, Jung came across the ancient macrocosm-microcosm belief with its enduring theme of the organic unity of all things"; p.121.
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• NASA has recently confirmed that the Sun, Moon and planets emit sounds in their orbits, each very different due to their various speeds and distances. After the sound files recorded by NASA are compressed many thousands of times, their ‘melodies’ become clearly perceptible to the human ear. The NASA sound files have been made available on YouTube: see for example 'Jupiter Sounds'; retrieved 7 August 2011.
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• See Rawlings (1981) where mishandling of the Gauquelin study is reported in the autobiographical account of Dennis Rawlings, co-founder of CISCOP, the investigative body tasked with critically assessing Gauquelin’s findings. Rawling's report catalogues embarrassment followed by deliberate obfuscation of the data when it became apparent that all of CISCOP’s attempts to disprove Gauquelin’s work had only served to verify the reliability of it. For one of the many controversies attached to the Carlson study see Eysenck (1986), where Eysenck's assessment was "The conclusion does not follow from the data".
• Smith (1996) p.2.
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