Saram shastryji Cell number 08099810902 To my best knowledge, sairam shastryji, shiridi sai baba upasakulu,is one of the

best astrologers in the ity!"e a urately predi ts past in idents and future also! "is spe ial talent was to sol#e any riti al problem in lo#e affair, marriage, husband $ wife relations! "is method is purely s ientifi ,based on mind reading, thought sending pro ess i!e!, super ons ious state of mind! %e an know more about this on &'(T")*++, show whi h was aired on -(SC./'+, C"*00'1! ( really e2perien ed mira le in his presen e, and #ery rare to find su h kind of person! "e resides at "yderabad ! &arma yoga 3Sanskrit4 5565 557, or the 8dis ipline of a tion8 is a form of yoga based on the tea hings of the )haga#ad 9ita, a sa red Sanskrit s ripture of "induism! .f the four paths to reali:ation, karma yoga is the pro ess of a hie#ing perfe tion in a tion! &arma yoga is an intrinsi part of many deri#ati#e types of yoga, su h as 0atya ,oga! &arma yoga is often understood as a yoga of selfless 3altruisti 7 ser#i e! The )haga#ad 9ita gi#es a summary of the karma yoga pro ess!;1< The 9ita itself is a hapter from the epi known as =ahabharata, wherein a dialogue takes pla e between the prin e *rjuna, and his friend and hariot dri#er, 1ord &rishna, on the brink of a great dynasti war! Their on#ersation is prompted by *rjuna as he is engulfed by sorrow and misgi#ings regarding the on oming battle in whi h he has friends and relati#es on both sides! (n reply, &rishna then elu idates upon a number of philosophi al yoga systems and pra ti es 3in luding karma yoga7 by>through whi h he should indeed ontinue with the fight on righteous prin iples! The word karma is deri#ed from the Sanskrit kri, meaning ?to do?! (n its most basi sense karma simply means a tion, and yoga translates to union! Thus karma yoga literally translates to the path of union through a tion! "owe#er, in /edanti philosophy the word karma means both a tion and the effe ts of su h a tion! &arma yoga is des ribed as a way of a ting, thinking and willing by whi h one orients oneself toward reali:ation by a ting in a ordan e with one?s duty 3dharma7 without onsideration of personal self$ entered desires, likes or dislikes! .ne a ts without being atta hed to the fruits of one?s deeds! (n the )haga#ad 9ita, &rishna says4 8tasmad asaktah satatam karyam karma sama ara asakto hy a aran karma param apnoti purushah8 Therefore, without being atta hed to the fruits of a ti#ities, one should a t as a matter of duty, for by working without atta hment one attains the Supreme!;2< &rishna then goes on to des ribe how *rjuna should surrender the fruits of his a tions 3good or bad7 to him, &rishna, 3as the Supreme @erson or a#atar7 4 Therefore, . *rjuna, surrendering all your works unto =e, with full knowledge of =e, without desires for profit, with no laims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy, fight!;A<

*nother important Buotations from the )haga#ad 9ita whi h elu idates karma yoga is 8555 55655C 5D5E5F58 3yoga is skill in karma!7! *ny ons ious a tion is moti#ated by some e2pe tation about the out ome, yet one is to be areful to not let this e2pe tation be selfish in a ertain sense! This is a omplished by surrendering ownership of a tion to &rishna! This surrender is alled s*tt#ika ty*ga 3to ontrast it with t*masika ty*ga or abandoning a tion itself as *rjuna was about to7! The Shri#aishna#a tradition formali:es this by re ommending the hanting of a shl.ka prior 3also alled Satt#ika tyaga7 to the performan e of any su h signifi ant karma! This shloka 3using (T+*0S7, with its meaning is gi#en below4 bhaga#*n e#a s#aniy*mya s#a$sheSha$bhGtena may* s#a$*r*dhana$eka$prayojan*ya idam s#asmai s#apr(tyai s#ayam e#a k*rayati! This translates to4 The auspi ious deity, e2erting ontrol on himself, using me 3his other part7 as an instrument, himself effe ts , with his pleasure> worship being the only purpose! The same shloka may be repeated after the performan e of the a tion, e2 ept one repla es k*rayati to k*rayita#*n to indi ate past tense! *s with a number of other philosophies in "induism, karma yoga is based on a general understanding of karma and rein arnation 3sanskara7! (t is belie#ed that a man is born with ertain tenden ies 3Sanskaras7, both positi#e and negati#e, from his pre#ious li#es, whi h push him toward performing ertain a tions in his present one! This pro ess ontinues until the indi#idual attains a :ero balan e 3no karma remaining7, wherein one a hie#es liberation! =an is threefold in his nature! "e onsists of ( ha, Hnana and &riya! ( ha is desire or feeling! Hnana is knowing! &riya is willing! These three fashion his &arma! "e knows obje ts like hair, tree! "e feels joy and sorrow! "e wills $ to do this, or not to do that! )ehind the a tion, there are desire and thought! * desire for an obje t arises in the mind! Then you think how to get it! Then you e2ert to possess it! -esire, thought and a tion always go together! They are the three threads, as it were, that are twisted into the ord of &arma! -esire produ es &arma! ,ou work and e2ert to a Buire the obje ts of your desire! &arma produ es its fruits as pain or pleasure! ,ou will ha#e to take births after births to reap the fruits of your &arma! This is the 1aw of &arma! *strology onsists of a number of belief systems whi h hold that there is a relationship between astronomi al phenomena and e#ents in the human world! (n the %est, astrology most often onsists of a system of horos opes that laim to e2plain aspe ts of a person?s personality and predi t future e#ents in their life based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other planetary obje ts at the time of their birth! =any ultures ha#e atta hed

importan e to astronomi al e#ents, and the (ndians, Chinese, and =ayans de#eloped elaborate systems for predi ting terrestrial e#ents from elestial obser#ations! *mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations! Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine! *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entri and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined! *strology is a pseudos ien e, and as su h has been reje ted by the s ientifi ommunity as ha#ing no e2planatory power for des ribing the uni#erse! S ientifi testing of astrology has been ondu ted, and no e#iden e has been found to support any of the premises or purported effe ts outlined in astrologi al traditions! %here astrology has made falsifiable predi tions, it has been falsified!;J<4J2J There is no proposed me hanism of a tion by whi h the positions and motions of stars and planets ould affe t people and e#ents on 'arth that does not ontradi t well understood, basi aspe ts of biology and physi s!;K<42J9;L< Contents ;hide< 1 'tymology 2 @rin iples and pra ti e 2!1 %estern 2!2 (ndian and South *sian 2!A Chinese and 'ast$*sian A "istory A!1 *n ient world A!2 =edie#al (slami world A!A 'arly =odern A!J Sin e 1900 J S ientifi appraisal J!1 @erspe ti#es from psy hology J!2 1a k of onsisten y J!A 1a k of me hanism J!J Carlson?s e2periment J!K 9auBuelin?s resear h K Theologi al #iewpoints L See also I 0otes 8 +eferen es 9 Murther reading 10 '2ternal links ;edit<'tymology

=ar antonio +aimondi engra#ing4 1Kth ent! The word astrology omes from the early 1atin word astrologia, deri#ing from the 9reek noun NOPPQR, ?a ount of the stars?! *strologia later passed into meaning ?star$di#ination? with astronomia used for the s ientifi term! @rin iples and pra ti e +obert Mludd?s 1Lth entury illustration of man the mi ro osm within the uni#ersal ma ro osm *d#o ates ha#e defined astrology as a symboli language, an art form, a s ien e, and a method of di#ination! *lthough most ultural systems of astrology share ommon roots in an ient philosophies that influen ed ea h other, many ha#e uniBue methodologies whi h differ from those de#eloped in the %est! These in lude "indu astrology 3also known as 8(ndian astrology8 and in modern times referred to as 8/edi astrology87 and Chinese astrology, both of whi h ha#e influen ed the world?s ultural history! %estern Mor more details on this topi , see %estern astrology! %estern astrology is a form of di#ination based on the onstru tion of a horos ope for an e2a t moment, su h as a person?s birth! (t uses the tropi al :odia , whi h is aligned to the eBuino tial points! %estern astrology is founded on the mo#ements and relati#e positions of elestial bodies su h as the Sun, =oon, planets, whi h are analy:ed by their mo#ement through signs of the :odia 3spatial di#isions of the e lipti 7 and by their aspe ts 3angles7 relati#e to one another! They are also onsidered by their pla ement in houses 3spatial di#isions of the sky7!*strology?s modern representation in western popular media is usually redu ed to sun sign astrology, whi h onsiders only the :odia sign of the Sun at an indi#idual?s date of birth, and represents only 1>12 of the total hart! The names of the :odia orrespond to the names of the onstellations originally within the respe ti#e segment and are in 1atin! ; itation needed< *long with tarot di#ination, astrology is one of the ore studies of %estern esoteri ism, and as su h has influen ed systems of magi al belief not only among %estern esoteri ists and "ermeti ists, but also belief systems su h as %i a that ha#e borrowed from or been influen ed by the %estern esoteri tradition! Tanya 1uhrmann has said that 8all magi ians know something about astrology,8 and refers to a table of orresponden es in Starhawk?s The Spiral -an e, organi:ed by planet, as an e2ample of the astrologi al lore studied by magi ians! @age from an *strologi al Treatise, a! 1IK0 (ndian and South *sian Mor more details on this topi , see "indu astrology! "indu astrology originated with western astrology!;1L<4AL1 (n the earliest (ndian astronomy te2ts, the year was belie#ed to be AL0 days long, similar to that of )abylonian astrology, but the rest of the early astrologi al system bears little resemblan e!;1I<4229 1ater, the (ndian te hniBues were augmented with some of the )abylonian te hniBues!;1I<42A1 ;edit<Chinese and 'ast$*sian

Mor more details on this topi , see Chinese astrology and Chinese :odia ! Chinese astrology has a lose relation with Chinese philosophy 3theory of the three harmonies4 hea#en, earth and man7 and uses on epts su h as yin and yang, the Mi#e phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 'arthly )ran hes, and shi hen 3ST U6 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes7! The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly onfined to politi al astrology, the obser#ation of unusual phenomena, identifi ation of portents and the sele tion of auspi ious days for e#ents and de isions!;18<422,8K,1IL The onstellations of the Vodia of western *sia and 'urope were not usedW instead the sky is di#ided into Three 'n losures 3CX sOn yuYn7, and Twenty$eight =ansions 3ZD[P \rshb 2i]7 in twel#e Ci 3ZDSY7!;19< The Chinese :odia of twel#e animal signs is said to represent twel#e different types of personality! (t is based on y les of years, lunar months, and two$hour periods of the day 3the shi hen7! The :odia traditionally begins with the sign of the +at, and the y le pro eeds through 11 other animals signs4 the .2, Tiger, +abbit, -ragon, Snake, "orse, 9oat, =onkey, +ooster, -og and @ig!;20< Comple2 systems of predi ting fate and destiny based on one?s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, su h as :iping and Vi %ei -ou Shu 3simplified Chinese4 ^USS6W traditional Chinese4 ^USSCW pinyin4 :w_id`ush]7 are still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology! They do not rely on dire t obser#ations of the stars!;21< The &orean :odia is identi al to the Chinese one! The /ietnamese :odia is almost identi al to Chinese :odia e2 ept that the se ond animal is the %ater )uffalo instead of the .2, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the +abbit! The Hapanese :odia in ludes the %ild )oar instead of the @ig! The Thai :odia in ludes a 0aga in pla e of the -ragon and begins, not at Chinese 0ew ,ear, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar alendar, or during the Songkran festi#al 3now elebrated e#ery 1A _1K *pril7, depending on the purpose of the use!;22< "istory =ain arti le4 "istory of astrology ;edit<*n ient world Mor more details on an ient astrology, see )abylonian astrology and "ellenisti astrology! *strology, in its broadest sense, is the sear h for meaning in the sky! (t has therefore been argued that astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made ons ious attempts to measure, re ord, and predi t seasonal hanges by referen e to astronomi al y les!;2A<42,A 'arly e#iden e of su h pra ti es appears as markings on bones and a#e walls, whi h show that lunar y les were being noted as early as 2K,000 years agoW the first step towards re ording the =oonTs influen e upon tides and ri#ers, and towards organi:ing a ommunal alendar!;2J<481ff *gri ultural needs were also met by in reasing knowledge of onstellations, whose appearan es hange with the seasons, allowing the rising of parti ular star$groups to herald annual floods or seasonal a ti#ities!;2K<;#erifi ation needed< )y the third millennium )C', widespread i#ili:ations had de#eloped sophisti ated awareness of elestial y les, and are belie#ed to ha#e ons iously oriented their temples to reate alignment with the helia al risings of the stars!;2L< There is s attered e#iden e to suggest that the oldest known astrologi al referen es are opies of te2ts made during this period! Two, from the /enus tablet of *mmisaduBa 3 ompiled in )abylon around 1I00 )C'7 are reported to ha#e been made during the reign of king Sargon

of *kkad 32AAJ_22I9 )C'7!;2I< *nother, showing an early use of ele tional astrology, is as ribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler 9udea of 1agash 3 a! 21JJ _212J )C'7! This des ribes how the gods re#ealed to him in a dream the onstellations that would be most fa#orable for the planned onstru tion of a temple!;28< "owe#er, there is ontro#ersy about whether they were genuinely re orded at the time or merely as ribed to an ient rulers by posterity! The oldest undisputed e#iden e of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the re ords of the first dynasty of =esopotamia 319K0_1LK1 )C'7! The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Vhou dynasty 310JL _2KL )C7 and flourished during the "an -ynasty 32nd entury )C to 2nd entury *-7, during whi h all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese ulture _ the ,in$,ang philosophy, theory of the K elements, "ea#en and 'arth, Confu ian morality _ were brought together to formalise the philosophi al prin iples of Chinese medi ine and di#ination, astrology and al hemy!;18<4A,J =edie#al (slami world Mor more details on this topi , see *strology in medie#al (slam! 1atin translation of *b =aPshar?s -e =agnis Coniun tionibus 3.f the great onjun tionsT7, /eni e, 1K1K! *strology was taken up by (slami s holars following the ollapse of *le2andria to the *rabs in the Ith entury, and the founding of the *bbasid empire in the 8th! The se ond *bbasid aliph, *l =ansur 3IKJ_IIK7 founded the ity of )aghdad to a t as a entre of learning, and in luded in its design a library$translation entre known as )ayt al$"ikma Storehouse of %isdomT, whi h ontinued to re ei#e de#elopment from his heirs and was to pro#ide a major impetus for *rabi $@ersian translations of "ellenisti astrologi al te2ts! The early translators in luded =ashallah, who helped to ele t the time for the foundation of )aghdad,;29< and Sahl ibn )ishr, 3a!k!a! Vael7, whose te2ts were dire tly influential upon later 'uropean astrologers su h as 9uido )onatti in the 1Ath entury, and %illiam 1illy in the 1Ith entury! &nowledge of *rabi te2ts started to be ome imported into 'urope during the 1atin translations of the 12th entury, the effe t of whi h was to help initiate the 'uropean +enaissan e! 'arly =odern )y the 1Ith entury, in 'ngland, astrology had rea hed its :enith!;A0< *strologers were theorists, resear hers, and so ial engineers, as well as pro#iding indi#idual ad#i e to e#eryone from monar hs downwards! *mong other things, astrologers ould ad#ise on the best time to take a journey or har#est a rop, diagnose and pres ribe for physi al or mental illnesses, and predi t natural disasters! This underpinned a system in whi h e#erything $ people, the world, the uni#erse $ was understood to be inter onne ted, and astrology o$e2isted happily with religion, magi and s ien e!;A1< Sin e 1900 =ain arti le4 Cultural influen e of astrology *strology saw a popular re#i#al from the nineteenth entury as part of a general re#i#al of spiritualism and later 0ew *ge philosophy;A2<42A9$2J9, and through the influen e of mass media su h as newspaper horos opes;A2<42K9$2LA and astrology software! 'arly in the twentieth entury psy hologist Carl Hung de#eloped some on epts on erning astrology,;AA<

whi h led to the de#elopment of psy hologi al astrology!;A2<42K1$2KL;AJ<;AK< (n the %est there ha#e been o asional reports of politi al leaders onsulting astrologers! 1ouis de %ohl worked as an astrologer for the )ritish intelligen e agen y =(K, after it was laimed that "itler used astrology to time his a tions! The %ar .ffi e was 8interested to know what "itler?s own astrologers would be telling him from week to week8!;AL< (n fa t de %ohl?s predi tions were so ina urate that he was soon labelled a 8 omplete harlatan8 and it was later shown that "itler onsidered astrology to be 8 omplete nonsense8!;AI< *fter Hohn "in kley?s attempted assassination of G!S! @resident +onald +eagan, first lady 0an y +eagan ommissioned astrologer Hoan auigley to a t as the se ret %hite "ouse astrologer! "owe#er, auigley?s role ended in 1988 when it be ame publi through the memoirs of former hief of staff, -onald +egan!;A8< )irth 3in blue7 and death 3in red7 rates of Hapan sin e 19K0, with the sudden drop in births during hinoeuma year 319LL7 (n (ndia, there is a long$established and widespread belief in astrology! (t is ommonly used for daily life, parti ularly in matters on erning marriage and areer, and makes e2tensi#e use of ele tional, horary and karmi astrology!;A9<;J0< (ndian politi s has also been influen ed by astrology!;J1< (t remains onsidered a bran h of the /edanga!;J2<;JA< (n 2001, (ndian s ientists and politi ians debated and ritiBued a proposal to use state money to fund resear h into astrology,;JJ< resulting in permission for (ndian uni#ersities to offer ourses in /edi astrology!;JK< (n Mebruary 2011, the )ombay "igh Court reaffirmed astrology?s standing in (ndia when it dismissed a ase whi h had hallenged its status as a s ien e!;JL< (n Hapan, a strong belief in astrology has led to dramati hanges in the fertility rate and the number of abortions in the years of 8Mire "orse8! %omen born in hinoeuma years are belie#ed to be unmarriageable and to bring bad lu k to their father or husband! (n 19LL, the number of babies born in Hapan dropped by o#er 2Kb as parents tried to a#oid the stigma of ha#ing a daughter born in the hinoeuma year!;JI<;J8< S ientifi appraisal *strology is a pseudos ien e;J9<;K0<41AK0 that has not demonstrated its effe ti#eness in ontrolled studies and has no s ientifi #alidity!;J<;K1<48K The majority of professional astrologers rely on performing astrology$based personality tests and making rele#ant predi tions about the remunerators future!;K1<48A Those who ontinue to ha#e faith in astrology ha#e been hara teri:ed as doing so 8in spite of the fa t that there is no #erified s ientifi basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong e#iden e to the ontrary8!;K2< *strophysi ist 0eil de9rasse Tyson ommented on astrologi al belief, saying that 8part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us! %ithout that knowledge, without that apa ity to think, you an easily be ome a #i tim of people who seek to take ad#antage of you8!;KA< The former astrologer, and s ientist, 9eoffrey -ean and psy hologist (#an &elly;KJ< ondu ted a large s ale s ientifi test, in#ol#ing more than one hundred ogniti#e, beha#ioral, physi al and other #ariables, but found no support for astrology!;KK< Murthermore, a meta$ analysis was ondu ted pooling J0 studies onsisting of I00 astrologers and o#er 1,000 birth harts! Ten of the tests, whi h had a total of A00 parti ipants, in#ol#ed subje ts pi king the orre t hart interpretation out of a number of others whi h were not the astrologi ally orre t hart interpretation 3usually A to K others7! %hen the date and other ob#ious lues were remo#ed no signifi ant results were found to suggest there was any preferred hart!

;KK<4190 * further test in#ol#ed JK onfident;a< astrologers, with an a#erage of 10 years e2perien e and 1L0 parti ipants 3out of an original sample si:e of 1198 parti ipants7 who strongly fa#oured ertain hara teristi s in the 'ysen k @ersonality auestionnaire to e2tremes! ;KK<4191 The astrologers performed mu h worse than merely basing de isions off the indi#iduals age, and mu h worse than JK ontrol subje ts who did not use birth harts at all! ;b<;KK<4191 S ien e and non$s ien e are often distinguished by the riterion of falsifiability! The riterion was first proposed by philosopher of s ien e &arl @opper! To @opper, s ien e does not rely on indu tion, instead s ientifi in#estigations are inherently attempts to falsify e2isting theories through no#el tests! (f a single test fails, then the theory is falsified! Therefore, any test of a s ientifi theory must prohibit ertain results whi h will falsify the theory, and e2pe t other spe ifi results whi h will be onsistent with the theory! Gsing this riterion of falsifiability, astrology is a pseudos ien e!;KL< @opper regarded astrology as 8pseudo$empiri al8 in that 8it appeals to obser#ation and e2periment8, but 8ne#ertheless does not ome up to s ientifi standards8!;KI<4JJ (n 19KA, so iologist Theodor %! *dorno ondu ted a study of the astrology olumn of a 1os *ngeles newspaper as part of a proje t e2amining mass ulture in apitalist so iety! *dorno on luded that astrology was a large$s ale manifestation of systemati irrationalism, where indi#iduals were subtly being led to belie#e that the author of the olumn was addressing them dire tly through the use of flattery and #ague generali:ations!;K8< @erspe ti#es from psy hology See also4 Morer effe t (t has also been suggested that onfirmation bias ould be a psy hologi al fa tor that ontributes to belief in astrology!;K9<4AJJ;L0<4180$181;L1<4J2$J8 Confirmation bias is a form of ogniti#e bias!; <;L2<4KKA Mrom the literature, *strology belie#ers often tend to sele ti#ely remember those predi tions whi h ha#e turned out to be true, and don?t remember those predi tions whi h happen to be false! *nother, separate, form of onfirmation bias also plays a role, where belie#ers often fail to distinguish between messages that demonstrate spe ial ability and those whi h do not!;L0<4180$181 Thus there are two distin t forms of onfirmation bias that are under study with respe t to astrologi al belief!;L0<4180$181 The )arnum effe t is where people a ept un lear e2positions of their personality if there is the appearan e of some omple2 pro ess in the deri#ation of the personality profile! (f more information is reBuested for a predi tion, the more a epting people are of the results! ;K9<4AJJ (n 19J9 )ertram Morer ondu ted a personality test on students in his lassroom! ;K9<4AJJ %hile seemingly gi#ing the students indi#iduali:ed results, he instead ga#e ea h student e2a tly the same sheet that dis ussed their personality! The personality des riptions were taken from a book on *strology! %hen the students were asked to omment on the a ura y of the test, more than J0b ga#e it the top mark of K out of K, and the a#erage rating was J!2!;LA<41AJ, 1AK The results of this study ha#e been repli ated in numerous other studies!;LJ<4A82 The study of this )arnum>Morer effe t has been mostly fo used on the le#el of a eptan e of fake horos opes and fake astrologi al personality profiles!;LJ<4A82 +e ipients of these personality assessments onsistently fail to distinguish ommon and un ommon personality des riptors!;LJ<4A8A (n a study by @aul +ogers and Hani e Soule 320097, whi h was onsistent with pre#ious resear h on the issue, it was found that those who belie#ed in astrology are generally more sus eptible to gi#ing more reden e to the )arnum profile than

skepti s!;LJ<4A9A )y a pro ess known as self$attribution, it has been shown in numerous studies that indi#iduals with knowledge of astrology tend to des ribe their personality in terms of traits ompatible with their sun sign! The effe t is heightened when the indi#iduals were aware the personality des ription was being used to dis uss astrology! (ndi#iduals who were not familiar with astrology had no su h tenden y!;LK< 1a k of onsisten y Testing the #alidity of astrology an be diffi ult be ause there is no onsensus amongst astrologers as to what astrology is or what it an predi t!;K1<48A =ost professional astrologers are paid to predi t the future or des ribe a person?s personality and life, but most horos opes only make #ague untestable statements that an apply to almost anyone!;K1<48A *strologers a#oid making #erifiable predi tions and instead rely on making #ague statements whi h allows them to try to a#oid falsifi ation!;KI<4J8$J9 9eorges Charpak and "enri )ro h dealt with laims from astrology in the book -ebunkedc 'S@, Telekinesis, and other @seudos ien e!;LL< They pointed out that astrologers ha#e only a small knowledge of astronomy and that they often do not take into a ount basi features su h as the pre ession of the eBuino2es whi h would hange the position of the sun with timeW they ommented on the e2ample of 'li:abeth Teissier who laimed that 8the sun ends up in the same pla e in the sky on the same date ea h year8 as the basis for laims that two people with the same birthday but a number of years apart should be under the same planetary influen e! Charpak and )ro h noted that 8there is a differen e of about twenty$ two thousand miles between 'arth?s lo ation on any spe ifi date in two su essi#e years8 and that thus they should not be under the same influen e a ording to astrology! .#er a J0 years period there would be a differen e greater than I80,000 miles!;LI< The tropi al :odia has no onne tion to the stars and as long as no laims are made that the onstellations themsel#es are in the asso iated sign it a#oids the issue of pre ession seemingly mo#ing the onstellations!;LI< Charpak and )ro h, noting this, referred to astrology based on the tropi al :odia as being 8empty bo2es that ha#e nothing to do with anything and are de#oid of any onsisten y or orresponden e with the stars8!;LI< Sole usage of the tropi al :odia is in onsistent with referen es made, by the same astrologers, to the *ge of *Buarius whi h is dependent on when the #ernal point enters the onstellation of *Buarius! ;J< Some astrologers make laims that the position of all the planets must be taken into a ount, but astrologers were unable to predi t the e2isten e of 0eptune based on mistakes in horos opes! (nstead 0eptune was predi ted using 0ewton?s law of uni#ersal gra#itation!;K1< The grafting on of Granus, 0eptune and @luto into the astrology dis ourse was done on an ad$ho basis!;J< .n the demotion of @luto to the status of dwarf planet, @hilip Varka of the @aris .bser#atory in =eudon, Mran e wondered how astrologers should respond4;J< Should astrologers remo#e it from the list of luminars ;Sun, =oon and the 8 planets other than earth< and onfess that it did not a tually bring any impro#ementd (f they de ide to keep it, what about the growing list of other re ently dis o#ered similar bodies 3Sedna, auaoar! et 7, some of whi h e#en ha#e satellites 3eena, 200A'1L17d

1a k of me hanism *strology has been riti i:ed for failing to pro#ide a physi al me hanism that links the mo#ements of elestial bodies to their purported effe ts on human beha#iour! (n a le ture in 2001, Stephen "awking stated 8The reason most s ientists don?t belie#e in astrology is be ause it is not onsistent with our theories that ha#e been tested by e2periment!8;L8< (n 19IK, amid in reasing popular interest in astrology, The "umanist maga:ine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by )art H! )ok, 1awren e '! Herome, and @aul &urt:!;K2< The statement, entitled .bje tions to *strology T, was signed by 18L astronomers, physi ists and leading s ientists of the day! They said that there is no s ientifi foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the publi against a epting astrologi al ad#i e without Buestion! Their riti ism fo used on the fa t that there was no me hanism whereby astrologi al effe ts might o ur4 %e an see how infinitesimally small are the gra#itational and other effe ts produ ed by the distant planets and the far more distant stars! (t is simply a mistake to imagine that the for es e2erted by stars and planets at the moment of birth an in any way shape our futures!;K2<;L9< *stronomer Carl Sagan de lined to sign the statement! Sagan said he took this stan e not be ause he thought astrology had any #alidity, but be ause he thought that the tone of the statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology be ause there was no me hanism 3while 8 ertainly a rele#ant point87 was not in itself on#in ing! (n a letter published in a follow$up edition of The "umanist, Sagan onfirmed that he would ha#e been willing to sign su h a statement had it des ribed and refuted the prin ipal tenets of astrologi al belief! This, he argued, would ha#e been more persuasi#e and would ha#e produ ed less ontro#ersy!;I0< =any astrologers laim that astrology is s ientifi !;I1< Some of these astrologers ha#e proposed on#entional ausal agents su h as ele tromagnetism and gra#ity!;I1<;I2< S ientists dismiss these me hanisms as implausible;I1< sin e, for e2ample, the magneti field, when measured from earth, of a large but distant planet su h as Hupiter is far smaller than that produ ed by ordinary household applian es!;I2< .ther astrologers prefer not to attempt to e2plain astrology,;IA<;dubious _ dis uss< and instead gi#e it supernatural e2planations su h as di#ination!;IJ<422ii Carl Hung sought to in#oke syn hroni ity to e2plain results on astrology from a single study he ondu ted, where no statisti ally signifi ant results were obser#ed! Sy hroni ity itself is onsidered to be neither testable nor falsifiable!;IK< The study was subseBuently hea#ily riti ised for its non$random sample and its use of statisti s and also its la k of onsisten y with astrology!;d<;IL< Carlson?s e2periment * ross se#eral enturies of testing, the predi tions of astrology ha#e ne#er been more a urate than that e2pe ted by han e alone!;K1< .ne approa h used in testing astrology Buantitati#ely is through blind e2periment! %hen spe ifi predi tions from astrologers were tested in rigorous e2perimental pro edures in the Carlson test, the predi tions were falsified! ;J< The Shawn Carlson?s double$blind hart mat hing tests, in whi h 28 astrologers agreed to mat h o#er 100 natal harts to psy hologi al profiles generated by the California @sy hologi al (n#entory 3C@(7 test, is one of the most renowned tests of astrology!;II<;I8<

The e2perimental proto ol used in Carlson?s study was agreed to by a group of physi ists and astrologers prior to the e2periment!;J< *strologers, nominated by the 0ational Coun il for 9eo osmi +esear h, a ted as the astrologi al ad#isors, and helped to ensure, and agreed, that the test was fair!;I8<411I;I9<4J20 They also hose 2L of the 28 astrologers for the tests, the other 2 being interested astrologers who #olunteered afterwards!;I9<4J20 The astrologers ame from 'urope and the Gnited States!;I8<411I The astrologers helped to draw up the entral proposition of natal astrology to be tested!;I9<4J19 @ublished in 0ature in 198K, the study found that predi tions based on natal astrology were no better than han e, and that the testing 8 learly refutes the astrologi al hypothesis8!;I9< 9auBuelin?s resear h =ain arti le4 =ars effe t The initial =ars effe t finding, showing the relati#e freBuen y of the diurnal position of =ars in the birth harts 30 f KI07 of 8eminent athletes8 3red solid line7 ompared to the e2pe ted results ;after =i hel 9auBuelin 19KK<;80< (n 19KK, astrologer, and psy hologist =i hel 9auBuelin stated that although he had failed to find e#iden e to support su h indi ators as the :odia al signs and planetary aspe ts in astrology, he had found positi#e orrelations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and su ess in professions 3su h as do tors, s ientists, athletes, a tors, writers, painters, et !7 whi h astrology traditionally asso iates with those planets!;80< The best$known of 9auBuelin?s findings is based on the positions of =ars in the natal harts of su essful athletes and be ame known as the 8=ars effe t8!;81< * study ondu ted by se#en Mren h s ientists attempted to repli ate the laim, but found no statisti al e#iden e, and attributed the effe t to sele ti#e bias on 9auBuelin?s part, a using him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study!;82< 9eoffrey -ean has suggested that the effe t may be aused by self$reporting of birth dates by parents rather than any issue with the study by 9auBuelin! The suggestion is that a small subset of the parents may ha#e had hanged birth times to be onsistent with better astrologi al harts for a related profession! The sample group was taken from a time where belief in astrology was more ommon! 9auBuelin had failed to find the =ars effe t in more re ent populations! where a nurse or do tor re orded the birth information! The number of births under astrologi ally undesirable onditions was also lower, indi ating more e#iden e that parents hoose dates and times to suit their beliefs!;I8<411L Theologi al #iewpoints See also4 Christianity and astrology, Hewish #iews on astrology, and =uslim #iews on astrology! Some of the pra ti es of astrology were ontested on theologi al grounds by medie#al =uslim astronomers su h as *l$Marabi 3*lpharabius7, (bn al$"aytham 3*lha:en7 and *#i enna! They said that the methods of astrologers onfli ted with orthodo2 religious #iews of (slami s holars through the suggestion that the %ill of 9od an be known and predi ted in ad#an e!;8A< Mor e2ample, *#i ennaTs ?+efutation against astrology? +is Ola f ib]Ol aCkOm al$nojm, argues against the pra ti e of astrology while supporting the prin iple of planets a ting as the agents of di#ine ausation whi h e2press 9od?s absolute power o#er reation! *#i enna onsidered that the mo#ement of the planets influen ed life on earth in a deterministi way, but argued against the apability of determining the e2a t influen e of the

stars!;8J< (n essen e, *#i enna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the e2tent that pre ise and fatalisti predi tions ould be made from it!;8K< (bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya 31292_1AK07, in his =iftah -ar al$SaCadah, also used physi al arguments in astronomy to Buestion the pra ti e of judi ial astrology!;8L< "e re ogni:ed that the stars are mu h larger than the planets, and argued4 *nd if you astrologers answer that it is pre isely be ause of this distan e and smallness that their influen es are negligible, then why is it that you laim a great influen e for the smallest hea#enly body, =er uryd %hy is it that you ha#e gi#en an influen e to al$+a?s and al$-hanab, whi h are two imaginary points ;as ending and des ending nodes<d g(bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya;8I< )elief in astrology is in ompatible with Catholi beliefs;88< su h as free will!;89< * ording to the Cate hism of the Catholi Chur h4 *ll forms of di#ination are to be reje ted4 re ourse to Satan or demons, onjuring up the dead or other pra ti es falsely supposed to 8un#eil8 the future! Consulting horos opes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of lair#oyan e, and re ourse to mediums all on eal a desire for power o#er time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to on iliate hidden powers! They ontradi t the honor, respe t, and lo#ing fear that we owe to 9od alone!;90< gCate hism of the Catholi Chur h St! *ugustine belie#ed that astrology onfli ted with hur h do trine, but he grounded his opposition with non$theologi al reasons su h as the failure of astrology to e2plain twins who beha#e differently although are on ei#ed at the same moment and born at appro2imately the same time!;89< See also 1ist of astrologi al traditions, types, and systems ;edit<0otes h The le#el of onfiden e was self rated by the astrologers themsel#es! h *lso dis ussed in =artens, +onnyW Tra het, Tim 319987! =aking sense of astrology! *mherst, 0!,!4 @rometheus )ooks! (S)0 1KIA922188! h see "euristi s in judgment and de ision making h Hung made the laims, despite being aware that there was no statisti al signifi an e in the results! 1ooking for oin iden es post ho is of #ery dubious #alue, see =isuseiofistatisti sj-ataidredging!;IK< ;edit<+eferen es h &o h$%estenhol:, Glla 3199K7! =esopotamian astrology 4 an introdu tion to )abylonian and *ssyrian elestial di#ination! Copenhagen4 =useum Tus ulanum @ress! pp! Moreword,11! (S)0 9I8$8I$I289$28I$0! h &assell, 1auren 3K =ay 20107! 8Stars, spirits, signs4 towards a history of astrology 1100_18008! Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of S ien e @art C4 Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of )iologi al and )iomedi al S ien es J1 3274 LI _L9! doi410!101L>j!shps !2010!0J!001! h 8*strology $ *strology in modern times8! 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a! +etrie#ed I . tober 2012! h a b d e f g Varka, @hilippe 320117! 8*stronomy and astrology8! @ro eedings of the

(nternational *stronomi al Gnion K 3S2L074 J20_J2K! doi410!101I>S1IJA921A11002L02! h /ish#eshwara, edited by S!&! )iswas, -!C!/! =allik, C!/! 319897! Cosmi perspe ti#es 4 essays dedi ated to the memory of =!&!/! )appu 31! publ! ed!7! Cambridge ;'ngland<4 Cambridge Gni#ersity @ress! (S)0 0K21AJAKJ2! h @ro eedings of the )iennial =eeting of the @hilosophy of S ien e *sso iation, #ol! 1! -ordre ht u!a!4 +eidel u!a!! 19I8! (S)0 9I8$0$91IK8L$0K$I! 8Chapter I4 S ien e and Te hnology4 @ubli *ttitudes and Gnderstanding8! s ien e and engineering indi ators 200L! 0ational S ien e Moundation! +etrie#ed 28 Huly 2012! 8*bout three$fourths of *meri ans hold at least one pseudos ientifi beliefW i!e!, they belie#ed in at least 1 of the 10 sur#ey items;29<8 !!!8 Those 10 items were e2trasensory per eption 3'S@7, that houses an be haunted, ghosts>that spirits of dead people an ome ba k in ertain pla es>situations, telepathy> ommuni ation between minds without using traditional senses, lair#oyan e>the power of the mind to know the past and predi t the future, astrology>that the position of the stars and planets an affe t people?s li#es, that people an ommuni ate mentally with someone who has died, wit hes, rein arnation>the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and hanneling>allowing a 8spirit$being8 to temporarily assume ontrol of a body!8 h "arper, -ouglas! 8astrology8! .nline 'tymology -i tionary! +etrie#ed 2011$12$0L! 8-ifferentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1J00s and by 1I ! this word was limited to 8reading influen es of the stars and their effe ts on human destiny!88 h 8astrology, n!8! .2ford 'nglish -i tionary 3Se ond ed!7! .2ford Gni#ersity @ress! 1989W online #ersion September 2011! 8(n .ld Mren h and =iddle 'nglish astronomie seems to be the earlier and general word, astrologie ha#ing been subseB! introdu ed for the art T or pra ti al appli ation of astronomy to mundane affairs, and thus gradually limited by 1Ith ent! to the reputed influen es of the stars, unknown to s ien e! 0ot in Shakespeare!8 h The 0ew 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a, 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a,? #!K, 19IJ, p! 91L h -ietri h, Thomas4 ?The .rigin of Culture and Ci#ili:ation, @heni2 k @heni2 1iterary @ubli ists, 200K, p! A0K h -i tionary of the history of ideas! 0ew ,ork4 S ribner! 19IJ! (S)0 0$L8J$1A29A$1! h Hames +! 1ewis, 200A! The *strology )ook4 the 'n y lopedia of "ea#enly (nfluen es! /isible (nk @ress! .nline at 9oogle )ooks! h "one, =argaret 319I87! The =odern Te2t$)ook of *strology! +omford, G!&!4 1! 0! Mowler k Co! 1td!! pp! 21_89! (S)0 08K2JAAKIA! h +iske, &ris 3200I7! 1lewellyn?s Complete )ook of *strology! =innesota, GS*4 1lewellyn @ubli ations! pp! K_LW 2I! (S)0 9I8$0$IA8I$10I1$L! h 1uhrmann, Tanya 319917! @ersuasions of the wit h?s raft4 ritual magi in ontemporary 'ngland! "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! 1JI_1K1! (S)0 0$LIJ$LLA2J$1! h @ingree, -a#id 3187! 8(ndian *stronomy8! @ro eedings of the *meri an @hilosophi al So iety! *meri an @hilosophi al So iety 122 3L74 AL1_ALJ! +etrie#ed J *ugust 2012! h a b @ingree, -a#id 3Hune 19LA7! 8*stronomy and *strology in (ndia and (ran8! (sis! The Gni#ersity of Chi ago @ress on behalf of The "istory of S ien e So iety KJ 3274 229_2JL! h a b The Chinese sky during the "an 4 onstellating stars and so iety! 1eiden4 )rill! 199I! (S)0 9I8$90$0J$10IAI$A! h M! +i hard Stephenson, 8Chinese +oots of =odern *stronomy8, 0ew S ientist, 2L Hune 1980! See also ZDOO[PlSOCSNgO

h Theodora 1au, The "andbook of Chinese "oros opes, pp2$8, A0 _K, L0 _J, 88_9J, 118_2J, 1J8_KA, 1I8_8J, 208_1A, 2A8_JJ, 2I0_I8, A0L_12, AA8_JJ, Sou#enir @ress, 0ew ,ork, 200K h Selin, "elaine, ed! 3199I7! 8*strology in China8! 'n y lopaedia of the "istory of S ien e, Te hnology, and =edi ine in 0on$%estern Cultures! Springer! +etrie#ed Huly 22, 2012! h 8COCFC]CCC]CCTCmCRCT]CCY] COCFCCTCRCCmCRCT C CFCn]CCCFC\CFCoCC]D]CC COCFC]CCC]C CTCCCTCRCOCCRCC ]CCCFC\CFCoCC]D CgC]CgCmCn C CQCTCFCCCFCCCRCO8! h Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31! publ! ed!7! 1ondon ;u!a!<4 Continuum!! (S)0 9I8$1$JJ11$8129$9! h =arsha k, *le2ander 319917! The roots of i#ili:ation 4 the ogniti#e beginnings of man?s first art, symbol and notation 3+e#! and e2panded! ed!7! =ount &is o, 0!,!4 =oyer )ell! (S)0 9I8$1$KK921$0J1$L! h '#elyn$%hite, "esiod W with an 'nglish translation by "ugh 9! 319II7! The "omeri hymns and "omeri a 3+eprinted! ed!7! Cambridge, =ass!4 "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! LLA_LII! (S)0 9I8$0$LIJ$990LA$0! 8Mifty days after the solsti e, when the season of wearisome heat is ome to an end, is the right time to go sailing! Then you will not wre k your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless @oseidon the 'arth$Shaker be set upon it, or Veus, the king of the deathless gods8 h *#eni, -a#id "! &elley, 'ugene M! =ilone W foreword by *nthony M! 3200K7! '2ploring an ient skies an en y lopedi sur#ey of ar haeoastronomy 3.nline$*usg! ed!7! 0ew ,ork4 Springer! p! 2L8! (S)0 9I8$0$A8I$9KA10$L! h Two te2ts whi h refer to the ?omens of Sargon? are reported in '! M! %eidner, "istori hes =aterial in der )abyonis hen .mina$1iteratur T *ltorientalis he Studien, ed! )runo =eissner, 31eip:ig, 1928$97, #! 2A1 and 2AL! h Mrom s roll * of the ruler 9udea of 1agash, ( 1I _ /( 1A! .! &aiser, Te2te aus der Gmwelt des *lten Testaments, )d! 2, 1_A! 9Ntersloh, 198L_1991! *lso Buoted in *! Malkenstein, %ahrsagung in der sumeris hen pberlieferung T, 1a di#ination en =sopotamie an ienne et dans les rgions #oisines! @aris, 19LL! h )rn, =uCammad ibn *Cmad 318I9!7! 8/(((8! The hronology of an ient nations! 1ondon, @ub! for the .riental translations fund of 9reat )ritain k (reland by %! "! *llen and o!! 1CC0 0100LI8A! h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!A! Mran e4"adean @ress h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!JA$JK! Mran e4"adean @ress h a b Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31! *strology onsists of a number of belief systems whi h hold that there is a relationship between astronomi al phenomena and e#ents in the human world! (n the %est, astrology most often onsists of a system of horos opes that laim to e2plain aspe ts of a person?s

personality and predi t future e#ents in their life based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other planetary obje ts at the time of their birth! =any ultures ha#e atta hed importan e to astronomi al e#ents, and the (ndians, Chinese, and =ayans de#eloped elaborate systems for predi ting terrestrial e#ents from elestial obser#ations! *mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A< *strology is a pseudos ien e, and as su h has been reje ted by the s ientifi ommunity as ha#ing no e2planatory power for des ribing the uni#erse! S ientifi testing of astrology has been ondu ted, and no e#iden e has been found to support any of the premises or purported effe ts outlined in astrologi al traditions! %here astrology has made falsifiable predi tions, it has been falsified!;J<4J2J There is no proposed me hanism of a tion by whi h the positions and motions of stars and planets ould affe t people and e#ents on 'arth that does not ontradi t well understood, basi aspe ts of biology and physi s!;K<42J9;L< Contents ;hide< 1 'tymology 2 @rin iples and pra ti e 2!1 %estern 2!2 (ndian and South *sian 2!A Chinese and 'ast$*sian A "istory A!1 *n ient world A!2 =edie#al (slami world A!A 'arly =odern A!J Sin e 1900 J S ientifi appraisal J!1 @erspe ti#es from psy hology J!2 1a k of onsisten y J!A 1a k of me hanism J!J Carlson?s e2periment J!K 9auBuelin?s resear h K Theologi al #iewpoints L See also I 0otes 8 +eferen es 9 Murther reading 10 '2ternal links ;edit<'tymology =ar antonio +aimondi engra#ing4 1Kth ent! The word astrology omes from the early 1atin word astrologia,;I< deri#ing from the 9reek

noun YNOq`O OO OPPQR, ?a ount of the stars?! *strologia later passed into meaning ?star$di#ination? with astronomia used for the s ientifi term!;8< ;edit<@rin iples and pra ti e +obert Mludd?s 1Lth entury illustration of man the mi ro osm within the uni#ersal ma ro osm *d#o ates ha#e defined astrology as a symboli language, an art form, a s ien e, and a method of di#ination!;9<;10< *lthough most ultural systems of astrology share ommon roots in an ient philosophies that influen ed ea h other, many ha#e uniBue methodologies whi h differ from those de#eloped in the %est! These in lude "indu astrology 3also known as 8(ndian astrology8 and in modern times referred to as 8/edi astrology87 and Chinese astrology, both of whi h ha#e influen ed the world?s ultural history! ;edit<%estern Mor more details on this topi , see %estern astrology! %estern astrology is a form of di#ination based on the onstru tion of a horos ope for an e2a t moment, su h as a person?s birth!;11< (t uses the tropi al :odia , whi h is aligned to the eBuino tial points!;12< %estern astrology is founded on the mo#ements and relati#e positions of elestial bodies su h as the Sun, =oon, planets, whi h are analy:ed by their mo#ement through signs of the :odia 3spatial di#isions of the e lipti 7 and by their aspe ts 3angles7 relati#e to one another! They are also onsidered by their pla ement in houses 3spatial di#isions of the sky7!;1A< *strology?s modern representation in western popular media is usually redu ed to sun sign astrology, whi h onsiders only the :odia sign of the Sun at an indi#idual?s date of birth, and represents only 1>12 of the total hart!;1J< The names of the :odia orrespond to the names of the onstellations originally within the respe ti#e segment and are in 1atin!; itation needed< *long with tarot di#ination, astrology is one of the ore studies of %estern esoteri ism, and as su h has influen ed systems of magi al belief not only among %estern esoteri ists and "ermeti ists, but also belief systems su h as %i a that ha#e borrowed from or been influen ed by the %estern esoteri tradition! Tanya 1uhrmann has said that 8all magi ians know something about astrology,8 and refers to a table of orresponden es in Starhawk?s The Spiral -an e, organi:ed by planet, as an e2ample of the astrologi al lore studied by magi ians!;1K< @age from an *strologi al Treatise, a! 1IK0 ;edit<(ndian and South *sian Mor more details on this topi , see "indu astrology! "indu astrology originated with western astrology!;1L<4AL1 (n the earliest (ndian astronomy te2ts, the year was belie#ed to be AL0 days long, similar to that of )abylonian astrology, but the rest of the early astrologi al system bears little resemblan e!;1I<4229 1ater, the (ndian te hniBues were augmented with some of the )abylonian te hniBues!;1I<42A1 ;edit<Chinese and 'ast$*sian Mor more details on this topi , see Chinese astrology and Chinese :odia ! Chinese astrology has a lose relation with Chinese philosophy 3theory of the three harmonies4 hea#en, earth and man7 and uses on epts su h as yin and yang, the Mi#e phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 'arthly )ran hes, and shi hen 3 \ U 6 a form of

timekeeping used for religious purposes7! The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly onfined to politi al astrology, the obser#ation of unusual phenomena, identifi ation of portents and the sele tion of auspi ious days for e#ents and de isions!;18<422,8K,1IL The onstellations of the Vodia of western *sia and 'urope were not usedW instead the sky is di#ided into Three 'n losures 35C6U sOn yuYn7, and Twenty$eight =ansions 35Z`OO P \rsh OO bO 2i]7 in twel#e Ci 3OO 5 Z` Y7!;19< The Chinese :odia of twel#e animal signs is said to represent twel#e different types of personality! (t is based on y les of years, lunar months, and two$hour periods of the day 3the shi hen7! The :odia traditionally begins with the sign of the +at, and the y le pro eeds through 11 other animals signs4 the .2, Tiger, +abbit, -ragon, Snake, "orse, 9oat, =onkey, +ooster, -og and @ig!;20< Comple2 systems of predi ting fate and destiny based on one?s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, su h as :iping and Vi %ei -ou Shu 3simplified Chinese4 m^U_g6W traditional Chinese4 m^U_gCW pinyin4 :nOwpidnTush]7 are still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology! They do not rely on dire t obser#ations of the stars!;21< The &orean :odia is identi al to the Chinese one! The /ietnamese :odia is almost identi al to Chinese :odia e2 ept that the se ond animal is the %ater )uffalo instead of the .2, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the +abbit! The Hapanese :odia in ludes the %ild )oar instead of the @ig! The Thai :odia in ludes a 0aga in pla e of the -ragon and begins, not at Chinese 0ew ,ear, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar alendar, or during the Songkran festi#al 3now elebrated e#ery 1A p1K *pril7, depending on the purpose of the use!;22< ;edit<"istory =ain arti le4 "istory of astrology ;edit<*n ient world Mor more details on an ient astrology, see )abylonian astrology and "ellenisti astrology! *strology, in its broadest sense, is the sear h for meaning in the sky! (t has therefore been argued that astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made ons ious attempts to measure, re ord, and predi t seasonal hanges by referen e to astronomi al y les!;2A<42,A 'arly e#iden e of su h pra ti es appears as markings on bones and a#e walls, whi h show that lunar y les were being noted as early as 2K,000 years agoW the first step towards re ording the =oons influen e upon tides and ri#ers, and towards organi:ing a ommunal alendar!;2J<481ff *gri ultural needs were also met by in reasing knowledge of onstellations, whose appearan es hange with the seasons, allowing the rising of parti ular star$groups to herald annual floods or seasonal a ti#ities!;2K<;#erifi ation needed< )y the third millennium )C', widespread i#ili:ations had de#eloped sophisti ated awareness of elestial y les, and are belie#ed to ha#e ons iously oriented their temples to reate alignment with the helia al risings of the stars!;2L< There is s attered e#iden e to suggest that the oldest known astrologi al referen es are opies of te2ts made during this period! Two, from the /enus tablet of *mmisaduBa 3 ompiled in )abylon around 1I00 )C'7 are reported to ha#e been made during the reign of king Sargon of *kkad 32AAJp22I9 )C'7!;2I< *nother, showing an early use of ele tional astrology, is as ribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler 9udea of 1agash 3 a! 21JJ p212J )C'7! This des ribes how the gods re#ealed to him in a dream the onstellations that would be most fa#orable for the planned onstru tion of a temple!;28<

"owe#er, there is ontro#ersy about whether they were genuinely re orded at the time or merely as ribed to an ient rulers by posterity! The oldest undisputed e#iden e of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the re ords of the first dynasty of =esopotamia 319K0p1LK1 )C'7! The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Vhou dynasty 310JL p2KL )C7 and flourished during the "an -ynasty 32nd entury )C to 2nd entury *-7, during whi h all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese ulture p the ,in$,ang philosophy, theory of the K elements, "ea#en and 'arth, Confu ian morality p were brought together to formalise the philosophi al prin iples of Chinese medi ine and di#ination, astrology and al hemy!;18<4A,J ;edit<=edie#al (slami world Mor more details on this topi , see *strology in medie#al (slam! 1atin translation of *b[ =aPshar?s -e =agnis Coniun tionibus 3p.f the great onjun tions7, /eni e, 1K1K! *strology was taken up by (slami s holars following the ollapse of *le2andria to the *rabs in the Ith entury, and the founding of the *bbasid empire in the 8th! The se ond *bbasid aliph, *l =ansur 3IKJpIIK7 founded the ity of )aghdad to a t as a entre of learning, and in luded in its design a library$translation entre known as )ayt al$"ikma pStorehouse of %isdom, whi h ontinued to re ei#e de#elopment from his heirs and was to pro#ide a major impetus for *rabi $@ersian translations of "ellenisti astrologi al te2ts! The early translators in luded =ashallah, who helped to ele t the time for the foundation of )aghdad,;29< and Sahl ibn )ishr, 3a!k!a! Vael7, whose te2ts were dire tly influential upon later 'uropean astrologers su h as 9uido )onatti in the 1Ath entury, and %illiam 1illy in the 1Ith entury! &nowledge of *rabi te2ts started to be ome imported into 'urope during the 1atin translations of the 12th entury, the effe t of whi h was to help initiate the 'uropean +enaissan e! ;edit<'arly =odern )y the 1Ith entury, in 'ngland, astrology had rea hed its :enith!;A0< *strologers were theorists, resear hers, and so ial engineers, as well as pro#iding indi#idual ad#i e to e#eryone from monar hs downwards! *mong other things, astrologers ould ad#ise on the best time to take a journey or har#est a rop, diagnose and pres ribe for physi al or mental illnesses, and predi t natural disasters! This underpinned a system in whi h e#erything $ people, the world, the uni#erse $ was understood to be inter onne ted, and astrology o$e2isted happily with religion, magi and s ien e!;A1< ;edit<Sin e 1900 =ain arti le4 Cultural influen e of astrology *strology saw a popular re#i#al from the nineteenth entury as part of a general re#i#al of spiritualism and later 0ew *ge philosophy;A2<42A9$2J9, and through the influen e of mass media su h as newspaper horos opes;A2<42K9$2LA and astrology software! 'arly in the twentieth entury psy hologist Carl Hung de#eloped some on epts on erning astrology,;AA< whi h led to the de#elopment of psy hologi al astrology!;A2<42K1$2KL;AJ<;AK< (n the %est there ha#e been o asional reports of politi al leaders onsulting astrologers! 1ouis de %ohl worked as an astrologer for the )ritish intelligen e agen y =(K, after it was laimed that "itler used astrology to time his a tions! The %ar .ffi e was 8interested to know what "itler?s own astrologers would be telling him from week to week8!;AL< (n fa t de %ohl?s predi tions were so ina urate that he was soon labelled a 8 omplete harlatan8

and it was later shown that "itler onsidered astrology to be 8 omplete nonsense8!;AI< *fter Hohn "in kley?s attempted assassination of G!S! @resident +onald +eagan, first lady 0an y +eagan ommissioned astrologer Hoan auigley to a t as the se ret %hite "ouse astrologer! "owe#er, auigley?s role ended in 1988 when it be ame publi through the memoirs of former hief of staff, -onald +egan!;A8< )irth 3in blue7 and death 3in red7 rates of Hapan sin e 19K0, with the sudden drop in births during hinoeuma year 319LL7 (n (ndia, there is a long$established and widespread belief in astrology! (t is ommonly used for daily life, parti ularly in matters on erning marriage and areer, and makes e2tensi#e use of ele tional, horary and karmi astrology!;A9<;J0< (ndian politi s has also been influen ed by astrology!;J1< (t remains onsidered a bran h of the /edanga!;J2<;JA< (n 2001, (ndian s ientists and politi ians debated and ritiBued a proposal to use state money to fund resear h into astrology,;JJ< resulting in permission for (ndian uni#ersities to offer ourses in /edi astrology!;JK< (n Mebruary 2011, the )ombay "igh Court reaffirmed astrology?s standing in (ndia when it dismissed a ase whi h had hallenged its status as a s ien e!;JL< (n Hapan, a strong belief in astrology has led to dramati hanges in the fertility rate and the number of abortions in the years of 8Mire "orse8! %omen born in hinoeuma years are belie#ed to be unmarriageable and to bring bad lu k to their father or husband! (n 19LL, the number of babies born in Hapan dropped by o#er 2Kb as parents tried to a#oid the stigma of ha#ing a daughter born in the hinoeuma year!;JI<;J8< ;edit<S ientifi appraisal *strology is a pseudos ien e;J9<;K0<41AK0 that has not demonstrated its effe ti#eness in ontrolled studies and has no s ientifi #alidity!;J<;K1<48K The majority of professional astrologers rely on performing astrology$based personality tests and making rele#ant predi tions about the remunerators future!;K1<48A Those who ontinue to ha#e faith in astrology ha#e been hara teri:ed as doing so 8in spite of the fa t that there is no #erified s ientifi basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong e#iden e to the ontrary8!;K2< *strophysi ist 0eil de9rasse Tyson ommented on astrologi al belief, saying that 8part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us! %ithout that knowledge, without that apa ity to think, you an easily be ome a #i tim of people who seek to take ad#antage of you8!;KA< The former astrologer, and s ientist, 9eoffrey -ean and psy hologist (#an &elly;KJ< ondu ted a large s ale s ientifi test, in#ol#ing more than one hundred ogniti#e, beha#ioral, physi al and other #ariables, but found no support for astrology!;KK< Murthermore, a meta$ analysis was ondu ted pooling J0 studies onsisting of I00 astrologers and o#er 1,000 birth harts! Ten of the tests, whi h had a total of A00 parti ipants, in#ol#ed subje ts pi king the orre t hart interpretation out of a number of others whi h were not the astrologi ally orre t hart interpretation 3usually A to K others7! %hen the date and other ob#ious lues were remo#ed no signifi ant results were found to suggest there was any preferred hart! ;KK<4190 * further test in#ol#ed JK onfident;a< astrologers, with an a#erage of 10 years e2perien e and 1L0 parti ipants 3out of an original sample si:e of 1198 parti ipants7 who strongly fa#oured ertain hara teristi s in the 'ysen k @ersonality auestionnaire to e2tremes! ;KK<4191 The astrologers performed mu h worse than merely basing de isions off the indi#iduals age, and mu h worse than JK ontrol subje ts who did not use birth harts at all! ;b<;KK<4191 S ien e and non$s ien e are often distinguished by the riterion of falsifiability! The riterion

was first proposed by philosopher of s ien e &arl @opper! To @opper, s ien e does not rely on indu tion, instead s ientifi in#estigations are inherently attempts to falsify e2isting theories through no#el tests! (f a single test fails, then the theory is falsified! Therefore, any test of a s ientifi theory must prohibit ertain results whi h will falsify the theory, and e2pe t other spe ifi results whi h will be onsistent with the theory! Gsing this riterion of falsifiability, astrology is a pseudos ien e!;KL< @opper regarded astrology as 8pseudo$empiri al8 in that 8it appeals to obser#ation and e2periment8, but 8ne#ertheless does not ome up to s ientifi standards8!;KI<4JJ (n 19KA, so iologist Theodor %! *dorno ondu ted a study of the astrology olumn of a 1os *ngeles newspaper as part of a proje t e2amining mass ulture in apitalist so iety! *dorno on luded that astrology was a large$s ale manifestation of systemati irrationalism, where indi#iduals were subtly being led to belie#e that the author of the olumn was addressing them dire tly through the use of flattery and #ague generali:ations!;K8< ;edit<@erspe ti#es from psy hology See also4 Morer effe t (t has also been suggested that onfirmation bias ould be a psy hologi al fa tor that ontributes to belief in astrology!;K9<4AJJ;L0<4180$181;L1<4J2$J8 Confirmation bias is a form of ogniti#e bias!; <;L2<4KKA Mrom the literature, *strology belie#ers often tend to sele ti#ely remember those predi tions whi h ha#e turned out to be true, and don?t remember those predi tions whi h happen to be false! *nother, separate, form of onfirmation bias also plays a role, where belie#ers often fail to distinguish between messages that demonstrate spe ial ability and those whi h do not!;L0<4180$181 Thus there are two distin t forms of onfirmation bias that are under study with respe t to astrologi al belief!;L0<4180$181 The )arnum effe t is where people a ept un lear e2positions of their personality if there is the appearan e of some omple2 pro ess in the deri#ation of the personality profile! (f more information is reBuested for a predi tion, the more a epting people are of the results! ;K9<4AJJ (n 19J9 )ertram Morer ondu ted a personality test on students in his lassroom! ;K9<4AJJ %hile seemingly gi#ing the students indi#iduali:ed results, he instead ga#e ea h student e2a tly the same sheet that dis ussed their personality! The personality des riptions were taken from a book on *strology! %hen the students were asked to omment on the a ura y of the test, more than J0b ga#e it the top mark of K out of K, and the a#erage rating was J!2!;LA<41AJ, 1AK The results of this study ha#e been repli ated in numerous other studies!;LJ<4A82 The study of this )arnum>Morer effe t has been mostly fo used on the le#el of a eptan e of fake horos opes and fake astrologi al personality profiles!;LJ<4A82 +e ipients of these personality assessments onsistently fail to distinguish ommon and un ommon personality des riptors!;LJ<4A8A (n a study by @aul +ogers and Hani e Soule 320097, whi h was onsistent with pre#ious resear h on the issue, it was found that those who belie#ed in astrology are generally more sus eptible to gi#ing more reden e to the )arnum profile than skepti s!;LJ<4A9A )y a pro ess known as self$attribution, it has been shown in numerous studies that indi#iduals with knowledge of astrology tend to des ribe their personality in terms of traits ompatible with their sun sign! The effe t is heightened when the indi#iduals were aware the personality des ription was being used to dis uss astrology! (ndi#iduals who were not familiar with astrology had no su h tenden y!;LK< ;edit<1a k of onsisten y Testing the #alidity of astrology an be diffi ult be ause there is no onsensus amongst

astrologers as to what astrology is or what it an predi t!;K1<48A =ost professional astrologers are paid to predi t the future or des ribe a person?s personality and life, but most horos opes only make #ague untestable statements that an apply to almost anyone!;K1<48A *strologers a#oid making #erifiable predi tions and instead rely on making #ague statements whi h allows them to try to a#oid falsifi ation!;KI<4J8$J9 9eorges Charpak and "enri )ro h dealt with laims from astrology in the book -ebunkedc 'S@, Telekinesis, and other @seudos ien e!;LL< They pointed out that astrologers ha#e only a small knowledge of astronomy and that they often do not take into a ount basi features su h as the pre ession of the eBuino2es whi h would hange the position of the sun with timeW they ommented on the e2ample of 'li:abeth Teissier who laimed that 8the sun ends up in the same pla e in the sky on the same date ea h year8 as the basis for laims that two people with the same birthday but a number of years apart should be under the same planetary influen e! Charpak and )ro h noted that 8there is a differen e of about twenty$ two thousand miles between 'arth?s lo ation on any spe ifi date in two su essi#e years8 and that thus they should not be under the same influen e a ording to astrology! .#er a J0 years period there would be a differen e greater than I80,000 miles!;LI< The tropi al :odia has no onne tion to the stars and as long as no laims are made that the onstellations themsel#es are in the asso iated sign it a#oids the issue of pre ession seemingly mo#ing the onstellations!;LI< Charpak and )ro h, noting this, referred to astrology based on the tropi al :odia as being 8empty bo2es that ha#e nothing to do with anything and are de#oid of any onsisten y or orresponden e with the stars8!;LI< Sole usage of the tropi al :odia is in onsistent with referen es made, by the same astrologers, to the *ge of *Buarius whi h is dependent on when the #ernal point enters the onstellation of *Buarius! ;J< Some astrologers make laims that the position of all the planets must be taken into a ount, but astrologers were unable to predi t the e2isten e of 0eptune based on mistakes in horos opes! (nstead 0eptune was predi ted using 0ewton?s law of uni#ersal gra#itation!;K1< The grafting on of Granus, 0eptune and @luto into the astrology dis ourse was done on an ad$ho basis!;J< .n the demotion of @luto to the status of dwarf planet, @hilip Varka of the @aris .bser#atory in =eudon, Mran e wondered how astrologers should respond4;J< Should astrologers remo#e it from the list of luminars ;Sun, =oon and the 8 planets other than earth< and onfess that it did not a tually bring any impro#ementd (f they de ide to keep it, what about the growing list of other re ently dis o#ered similar bodies 3Sedna, auaoar! et 7, some of whi h e#en ha#e satellites 3eena, 200A'1L17d ;edit<1a k of me hanism *strology has been riti i:ed for failing to pro#ide a physi al me hanism that links the mo#ements of elestial bodies to their purported effe ts on human beha#iour! (n a le ture in 2001, Stephen "awking stated 8The reason most s ientists don?t belie#e in astrology is be ause it is not onsistent with our theories that ha#e been tested by e2periment!8;L8< (n 19IK, amid in reasing popular interest in astrology, The "umanist maga:ine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by )art H! )ok, 1awren e '! Herome, and @aul &urt:!;K2< The statement, entitled p.bje tions to *strology , was signed by 18L astronomers, physi ists and leading s ientists of the day! They said that there is no s ientifi foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the publi against a epting astrologi al ad#i e without Buestion! Their riti ism fo used on the fa t that there was no

me hanism whereby astrologi al effe ts might o ur4 %e an see how infinitesimally small are the gra#itational and other effe ts produ ed by the distant planets and the far more distant stars! (t is simply a mistake to imagine that the for es e2erted by stars and planets at the moment of birth an in any way shape our futures!;K2<;L9< *stronomer Carl Sagan de lined to sign the statement! Sagan said he took this stan e not be ause he thought astrology had any #alidity, but be ause he thought that the tone of the statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology be ause there was no me hanism 3while 8 ertainly a rele#ant point87 was not in itself on#in ing! (n a letter published in a follow$up edition of The "umanist, Sagan onfirmed that he would ha#e been willing to sign su h a statement had it des ribed and refuted the prin ipal tenets of astrologi al belief! This, he argued, would ha#e been more persuasi#e and would ha#e produ ed less ontro#ersy!;I0< =any astrologers laim that astrology is s ientifi !;I1< Some of these astrologers ha#e proposed on#entional ausal agents su h as ele tromagnetism and gra#ity!;I1<;I2< S ientists dismiss these me hanisms as implausible;I1< sin e, for e2ample, the magneti field, when measured from earth, of a large but distant planet su h as Hupiter is far smaller than that produ ed by ordinary household applian es!;I2< .ther astrologers prefer not to attempt to e2plain astrology,;IA<;dubious p dis uss< and instead gi#e it supernatural e2planations su h as di#ination!;IJ<422ii Carl Hung sought to in#oke syn hroni ity to e2plain results on astrology from a single study he ondu ted, where no statisti ally signifi ant results were obser#ed! Sy hroni ity itself is onsidered to be neither testable nor falsifiable!;IK< The study was subseBuently hea#ily riti ised for its non$random sample and its use of statisti s and also its la k of onsisten y with astrology!;d<;IL< ;edit<Carlson?s e2periment * ross se#eral enturies of testing, the predi tions of astrology ha#e ne#er been more a urate than that e2pe ted by han e alone!;K1< .ne approa h used in testing astrology Buantitati#ely is through blind e2periment! %hen spe ifi predi tions from astrologers were tested in rigorous e2perimental pro edures in the Carlson test, the predi tions were falsified! ;J< The Shawn Carlson?s double$blind hart mat hing tests, in whi h 28 astrologers agreed to mat h o#er 100 natal harts to psy hologi al profiles generated by the California @sy hologi al (n#entory 3C@(7 test, is one of the most renowned tests of astrology!;II<;I8< The e2perimental proto ol used in Carlson?s study was agreed to by a group of physi ists and astrologers prior to the e2periment!;J< *strologers, nominated by the 0ational Coun il for 9eo osmi +esear h, a ted as the astrologi al ad#isors, and helped to ensure, and agreed, that the test was fair!;I8<411I;I9<4J20 They also hose 2L of the 28 astrologers for the tests, the other 2 being interested astrologers who #olunteered afterwards!;I9<4J20 The astrologers ame from 'urope and the Gnited States!;I8<411I The astrologers helped to draw up the entral proposition of natal astrology to be tested!;I9<4J19 @ublished in 0ature in 198K, the study found that predi tions based on natal astrology were no better than han e, and that the testing 8 learly refutes the astrologi al hypothesis8!;I9< ;edit<9auBuelin?s resear h =ain arti le4 =ars effe t The initial =ars effe t finding, showing the relati#e freBuen y of the diurnal position of =ars in the birth harts 30 f KI07 of 8eminent athletes8 3red solid line7 ompared to the e2pe ted results ;after =i hel 9auBuelin 19KK<;80<

(n 19KK, astrologer, and psy hologist =i hel 9auBuelin stated that although he had failed to find e#iden e to support su h indi ators as the :odia al signs and planetary aspe ts in astrology, he had found positi#e orrelations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and su ess in professions 3su h as do tors, s ientists, athletes, a tors, writers, painters, et !7 whi h astrology traditionally asso iates with those planets!;80< The best$known of 9auBuelin?s findings is based on the positions of =ars in the natal harts of su essful athletes and be ame known as the 8=ars effe t8!;81< * study ondu ted by se#en Mren h s ientists attempted to repli ate the laim, but found no statisti al e#iden e, and attributed the effe t to sele ti#e bias on 9auBuelin?s part, a using him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study!;82< 9eoffrey -ean has suggested that the effe t may be aused by self$reporting of birth dates by parents rather than any issue with the study by 9auBuelin! The suggestion is that a small subset of the parents may ha#e had hanged birth times to be onsistent with better astrologi al harts for a related profession! The sample group was taken from a time where belief in astrology was more ommon! 9auBuelin had failed to find the =ars effe t in more re ent populations! where a nurse or do tor re orded the birth information! The number of births under astrologi ally undesirable onditions was also lower, indi ating more e#iden e that parents hoose dates and times to suit their beliefs!;I8<411L ;edit<Theologi al #iewpoints See also4 Christianity and astrology, Hewish #iews on astrology, and =uslim #iews on astrology Some of the pra ti es of astrology were ontested on theologi al grounds by medie#al =uslim astronomers su h as *l$Marabi 3*lpharabius7, (bn al$"aytham 3*lha:en7 and *#i enna! They said that the methods of astrologers onfli ted with orthodo2 religious #iews of (slami s holars through the suggestion that the %ill of 9od an be known and predi ted in ad#an e!;8A< Mor e2ample, *#i ennas ?+efutation against astrology? +is la f ibY]l aYCkm al$noj[m, argues against the pra ti e of astro logy while supporting the prin iple of planets a ting as the agents of di#ine ausation whi h e2press 9od?s absolute power o#er reation! *#i enna onsidered that the mo#ement of the planets influen ed life on earth in a deterministi way, but argued against the apability of determining the e2a t influen e of the stars!;8J< (n essen e, *#i enna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the e2tent that pre ise and fatalisti predi tions ould be made from it!;8K< (bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya 31292p1AK07, in his =iftah -ar al$SaCadah, also used physi al arguments in astronomy to Buestion the pra ti e of judi ial astrology!;8L< "e re ogni:ed that the stars are mu h larger than the planets, and argued4 *nd if you astrologers answer that it is pre isely be ause of this distan e and smallness that their influen es are negligible, then why is it that you laim a great influen e for the smallest hea#enly body, =er uryd %hy is it that you ha#e gi#en an influen e to al$+a?s and al$-hanab, whi h are two imaginary points ;as ending and des ending nodes<d O(bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya;8I< )elief in astrology is in ompatible with Catholi beliefs;88< su h as free will!;89< * ording to the Cate hism of the Catholi Chur h4 *ll forms of di#ination are to be reje ted4 re ourse to Satan or demons, onjuring up the dead or other pra ti es falsely supposed to 8un#eil8 the future! Consulting horos opes,

astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of lair#oyan e, and re ourse to mediums all on eal a desire for power o#er time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to on iliate hidden powers! They ontradi t the honor, respe t, and lo#ing fear that we owe to 9od alone!;90< OCate hism of the Catholi Chur h St! *ugustine belie#ed that astrology onfli ted with hur h do trine, but he grounded his opposition with non$theologi al reasons su h as the failure of astrology to e2plain twins who beha#e differently although are on ei#ed at the same moment and born at appro2imately the same time!;89< ;edit<See also 1ist of astrologi al traditions, types, and systems ;edit<0otes h The le#el of onfiden e was self rated by the astrologers themsel#es! h *lso dis ussed in =artens, +onnyW Tra het, Tim 319987! =aking sense of astrology! *mherst, 0!,!4 @rometheus )ooks! (S)0 1KIA922188! h see "euristi s in judgment and de ision making h Hung made the laims, despite being aware that there was no statisti al signifi an e in the results! 1ooking for oin iden es post ho is of #ery dubious #alue, see =isuseiofistatisti sj-ataidredging!;IK< ;edit<+eferen es h &o h$%estenhol:, Glla 3199K7! =esopotamian astrology 4 an introdu tion to )abylonian and *ssyrian elestial di#ination! Copenhagen4 =useum Tus ulanum @ress! pp! Moreword,11! (S)0 9I8$8I$I289$28I$0! h &assell, 1auren 3K =ay 20107! 8Stars, spirits, signs4 towards a history of astrology 1100 p18008! Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of S ien e @art C4 Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of )iologi al and )iomedi al S ien es J1 3274 LI pL9! doi410!101L>j!shps !2010!0J!001! h 8*strology $ *strology in modern times8! 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a! +etrie#ed I . tober 2012! h a b d e f g Varka, @hilippe 320117! 8*stronomy and astrology8! @ro eedings of the (nternational *stronomi al Gnion K 3S2L074 J20pJ2K! doi410!101I>S1IJA921A11002L02! h /ish#eshwara, edited by S!&! )iswas, -!C!/! =allik, C!/! 319897! Cosmi perspe ti#es 4 essays dedi ated to the memory of =!&!/! )appu 31! publ! ed!7! Cambridge ;'ngland<4 Cambridge Gni#ersity @ress! (S)0 0K21AJAKJ2! h @ro eedings of the )iennial =eeting of the @hilosophy of S ien e *sso iation, #ol! 1! -ordre ht u!a!4 +eidel u!a!! 19I8! (S)0 9I8$0$91IK8L$0K$I! 8Chapter I4 S ien e and Te hnology4 @ubli *ttitudes and Gnderstanding8! s ien e and engineering indi ators 200L! 0ational S ien e Moundation! +etrie#ed 28 Huly 2012! 8*bout three$fourths of *meri ans hold at least one pseudos ientifi beliefW i!e!, they belie#ed in at least 1 of the 10 sur#ey items;29<8 !!!8 Those 10 items were e2trasensory per eption 3'S@7, that houses an be haunted, ghosts>that spirits of dead people an ome ba k in ertain pla es>situations, telepathy> ommuni ation between minds without using traditional senses, lair#oyan e>the power of the mind to know the past and predi t the future, astrology>that the position of the stars and planets an affe t people?s li#es, that people an ommuni ate mentally with someone who has died, wit hes, rein arnation>the rebirth of the soul in a new

body after death, and hanneling>allowing a 8spirit$being8 to temporarily assume ontrol of a body!8 h "arper, -ouglas! 8astrology8! .nline 'tymology -i tionary! +etrie#ed 2011$12$0L! 8-ifferentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1J00s and by 1I ! this word was limited to 8reading influen es of the stars and their effe ts on human destiny!88 h 8astrology, n!8! .2ford 'nglish -i tionary 3Se ond ed!7! .2ford Gni#ersity @ress! 1989W online #ersion September 2011! 8(n .ld Mren h and =iddle 'nglish astronomie seems to be the earlier and general word, astrologie ha#ing been subseB! introdu ed for the part or pra ti al appli ation of astronomy to mundane affairs, and thus gradually limited by 1Ith ent! to the reputed influen es of the stars, unknown to s ien e! 0ot in Shakespeare!8 h The 0ew 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a, 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a,? #!K, 19IJ, p! 91L h -ietri h, Thomas4 ?The .rigin of Culture and Ci#ili:ation, @heni2 k @heni2 1iterary @ubli ists, 200K, p! A0K h -i tionary of the history of ideas! 0ew ,ork4 S ribner! 19IJ! (S)0 0$L8J$1A29A$1! h Hames +! 1ewis, 200A! The *strology )ook4 the 'n y lopedia of "ea#enly (nfluen es! /isible (nk @ress! .nline at 9oogle )ooks! h "one, =argaret 319I87! The =odern Te2t$)ook of *strology! +omford, G!&!4 1! 0! Mowler k Co! 1td!! pp! 21p89! (S)0 08K2JAAKIA! h +iske, &ris 3200I7! 1lewellyn?s Complete )ook of *strology! =innesota, GS*4 1lewellyn @ubli ations! pp! KpLW 2I! (S)0 9I8$0$IA8I$10I1$L! h 1uhrmann, Tanya 319917! @ersuasions of the wit h?s raft4 ritual magi in ontemporary 'ngland! "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! 1JIp1K1! (S)0 0$LIJ$LLA2J$1! h @ingree, -a#id 3187! 8(ndian *stronomy8! @ro eedings of the *meri an @hilosophi al So iety! *meri an @hilosophi al So iety 122 3L74 AL1pALJ! +etrie#ed J *ugust 2012! h a b @ingree, -a#id 3Hune 19LA7! 8*stronomy and *strology in (ndia and (ran8! (sis! The Gni#ersity of Chi ago @ress on behalf of The "istory of S ien e So iety KJ 3274 229 p2JL! h a b The Chinese sky during the "an 4 onstellating stars and so iety! 1eiden4 )rill! 199I! (S)0 9I8$90$0J$10IAI$A! h M! +i hard Stephenson, 8Chinese +oots of =odern *stronomy8, 0ew S ientist, 2L Hune 1980! See also 5Z`OO PmY OOlO rO5 Cl NOOO p h Theodora 1au, The "andbook of Chinese "oros opes, pp2$8, A0 pK, L0 pJ, 88p9J, 118p2J, 1J8pKA, 1I8p8J, 208 p1A, 2A8pJJ, 2I0pI8, A0Lp12, AA8pJJ, Sou#enir @ress, 0ew ,ork, 200K h Selin, "elaine, ed! 3199I7! 8*strology in China8! 'n y lopaedia of the "istory of S ien e, Te hnology, and =edi ine in 0on$%estern Cultures! Springer! +etrie#ed Huly 22, 2012! h 8 CO CF C ] CZ C C ]r C C Cm CR C ]q` C CY ]r CO CF C C CR CY Cm CR C Cg CF CY ] C C CF C\ CF Co C C ]` ] Cg C COO CF C ] CZ C C ]r C C CZ C C CR CO C CR C C

 ] C C CF C\ CF Co C C ]` CO C] CO Cm CY Cg CQ C CF C Cg CF C Cg CR CO8! h Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31! publ! ed!7! 1ondon ;u!a!<4 Continuum!! (S)0 9I8$1$JJ11$8129$9! h =arsha k, *le2ander 319917! The roots of i#ili:ation 4 the ogniti#e beginnings of man?s first art, symbol and notation 3+e#! and e2panded! ed!7! =ount &is o, 0!,!4 =oyer )ell! (S)0 9I8$1$KK921$0J1$L! h '#elyn$%hite, "esiod W with an 'nglish translation by "ugh 9! 319II7! The "omeri hymns and "omeri a 3+eprinted! ed!7! Cambridge, =ass!4 "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! LLA pLII! (S)0 9I8$0$LIJ$990LA$0! 8Mifty days after the solsti e, when the season of wearisome heat is ome to an end, is the right time to go sailing! Then you will not wre k your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless @oseidon the 'arth$Shaker be set upon it, or Veus, the king of the deathless gods8 h *#eni, -a#id "! &elley, 'ugene M! =ilone W foreword by *nthony M! 3200K7! '2ploring an ient skies an en y lopedi sur#ey of ar haeoastronomy 3.nline$*usg! ed!7! 0ew ,ork4 Springer! p! 2L8! (S)0 9I8$0$A8I$9KA10$L! h Two te2ts whi h refer to the ?omens of Sargon? are reported in '! M! %eidner, p"istori hes =aterial in der )abyonis hen .mina$1iteratur *ltorientalis he Studien, ed! )runo =eissner, 31eip:ig, 1928$97, #! 2A1 and 2AL! h Mrom s roll * of the ruler 9udea of 1agash, ( 1I p /( 1A! .! &aiser, Te2te aus der Gmwelt des *lten Testaments, )d! 2, 1pA! 9Ntersloh, 198Lp1991! *lso Buoted in *! Malkenstein, p%ahrsagung in der sumeris hen _berlieferung , 1a di#ination en =sopotamie an ienne et dans les r gions #oisines! @aris, 19LL! h )r[n, =uYCammad ibn *YCmad 318I9!7! 8/(((8! The hronology of an ient nations! 1ondon, @ub! for the .riental translations fund of 9reat )ritain k (reland by %! "! *llen and o!! 1CC0 0100LI8A! h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!A! Mran e4"adean @ress h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!JA$JK! Mran e4"adean @ress h a b Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31!

*strology onsists of a number of belief systems whi h hold that there is a relationship between astronomi al phenomena and e#ents in the human world! (n the %est, astrology most often onsists of a system of horos opes that laim to e2plain aspe ts of a person?s personality and predi t future e#ents in their life based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other planetary obje ts at the time of their birth! =any ultures ha#e atta hed importan e to astronomi al e#ents, and the (ndians, Chinese, and =ayans de#eloped elaborate systems for predi ting terrestrial e#ents from elestial obser#ations! *mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a

s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A< *strology is a pseudos ien e, and as su h has been reje ted by the s ientifi ommunity as ha#ing no e2planatory power for des ribing the uni#erse! S ientifi testing of astrology has been ondu ted, and no e#iden e has been found to support any of the premises or purported effe ts outlined in astrologi al traditions! %here astrology has made falsifiable predi tions, it has been falsified!;J<4J2J There is no proposed me hanism of a tion by whi h the positions and motions of stars and planets ould affe t people and e#ents on 'arth that does not ontradi t well understood, basi aspe ts of biology and physi s!;K<42J9;L< Contents ;hide< 1 'tymology 2 @rin iples and pra ti e 2!1 %estern 2!2 (ndian and South *sian 2!A Chinese and 'ast$*sian A "istory A!1 *n ient world A!2 =edie#al (slami world A!A 'arly =odern A!J Sin e 1900 J S ientifi appraisal J!1 @erspe ti#es from psy hology J!2 1a k of onsisten y J!A 1a k of me hanism J!J Carlson?s e2periment J!K 9auBuelin?s resear h K Theologi al #iewpoints L See also I 0otes 8 +eferen es 9 Murther reading 10 '2ternal links ;edit<'tymology =ar antonio +aimondi engra#ing4 1Kth ent! The word astrology omes from the early 1atin word astrologia,;I< deri#ing from the 9reek noun YNq`OO P PQ O OOOO OR, ?a ount of the stars?! *strologia later passed into meaning ?star$di#ination? with astronomia used for the s ientifi term!;8< ;edit<@rin iples and pra ti e +obert Mludd?s 1Lth entury illustration of man the mi ro osm within the uni#ersal ma ro osm *d#o ates ha#e defined astrology as a symboli language, an art form, a s ien e, and a

method of di#ination!;9<;10< *lthough most ultural systems of astrology share ommon roots in an ient philosophies that influen ed ea h other, many ha#e uniBue methodologies whi h differ from those de#eloped in the %est! These in lude "indu astrology 3also known as 8(ndian astrology8 and in modern times referred to as 8/edi astrology87 and Chinese astrology, both of whi h ha#e influen ed the world?s ultural history! ;edit<%estern Mor more details on this topi , see %estern astrology! %estern astrology is a form of di#ination based on the onstru tion of a horos ope for an e2a t moment, su h as a person?s birth!;11< (t uses the tropi al :odia , whi h is aligned to the eBuino tial points!;12< %estern astrology is founded on the mo#ements and relati#e positions of elestial bodies su h as the Sun, =oon, planets, whi h are analy:ed by their mo#ement through signs of the :odia 3spatial di#isions of the e lipti 7 and by their aspe ts 3angles7 relati#e to one another! They are also onsidered by their pla ement in houses 3spatial di#isions of the sky7!;1A< *strology?s modern representation in western popular media is usually redu ed to sun sign astrology, whi h onsiders only the :odia sign of the Sun at an indi#idual?s date of birth, and represents only 1>12 of the total hart!;1J< The names of the :odia orrespond to the names of the onstellations originally within the respe ti#e segment and are in 1atin!; itation needed< *long with tarot di#ination, astrology is one of the ore studies of %estern esoteri ism, and as su h has influen ed systems of magi al belief not only among %estern esoteri ists and "ermeti ists, but also belief systems su h as %i a that ha#e borrowed from or been influen ed by the %estern esoteri tradition! Tanya 1uhrmann has said that 8all magi ians know something about astrology,8 and refers to a table of orresponden es in Starhawk?s The Spiral -an e, organi:ed by planet, as an e2ample of the astrologi al lore studied by magi ians!;1K< @age from an *strologi al Treatise, a! 1IK0 ;edit<(ndian and South *sian Mor more details on this topi , see "indu astrology! "indu astrology originated with western astrology!;1L<4AL1 (n the earliest (ndian astronomy te2ts, the year was belie#ed to be AL0 days long, similar to that of )abylonian astrology, but the rest of the early astrologi al system bears little resemblan e!;1I<4229 1ater, the (ndian te hniBues were augmented with some of the )abylonian te hniBues!;1I<42A1 ;edit<Chinese and 'ast$*sian Mor more details on this topi , see Chinese astrology and Chinese :odia ! Chinese astrology has a lose relation with Chinese philosophy 3theory of the three harmonies4 hea#en, earth and man7 and uses on epts su h as yin and yang, the Mi#e phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 'arthly )ran hes, and shi hen 3 \ U 6 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes7! The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly onfined to politi al astrology, the obser#ation of unusual phenomena, identifi ation of portents and the sele tion of auspi ious days for e#ents and de isions!;18<422,8K,1IL The onstellations of the Vodia of western *sia and 'urope were not usedW instead the sky is di#ided into Three 'n losures 35C6U sOn yuYn7, and Twenty$eight =ansions 35Z`OO P \rsh OO bO 2i]7 in twel#e Ci 3OO 5 Z`OO Y7!;19< The Chinese :odia of twel#e animal signs is said to

represent twel#e different types of personality! (t is based on y les of years, lunar months, and two$hour periods of the day 3the shi hen7! The :odia traditionally begins with the sign of the +at, and the y le pro eeds through 11 other animals signs4 the .2, Tiger, +abbit, -ragon, Snake, "orse, 9oat, =onkey, +ooster, -og and @ig!;20< Comple2 systems of predi ting fate and destiny based on one?s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, su h as :iping and Vi %ei -ou Shu 3simplified Chinese4 m^U_g6W traditional Chinese4 m^U_gCW pinyin4 :nOwpidnTush]7 are still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology! They do not rely on dire t obser#ations of the stars!;21< The &orean :odia is identi al to the Chinese one! The /ietnamese :odia is almost identi al to Chinese :odia e2 ept that the se ond animal is the %ater )uffalo instead of the .2, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the +abbit! The Hapanese :odia in ludes the %ild )oar instead of the @ig! The Thai :odia in ludes a 0aga in pla e of the -ragon and begins, not at Chinese 0ew ,ear, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar alendar, or during the Songkran festi#al 3now elebrated e#ery 1A p1K *pril7, depending on the purpose of the use!;22< ;edit<"istory =ain arti le4 "istory of astrology ;edit<*n ient world Mor more details on an ient astrology, see )abylonian astrology and "ellenisti astrology! *strology, in its broadest sense, is the sear h for meaning in the sky! (t has therefore been argued that astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made ons ious attempts to measure, re ord, and predi t seasonal hanges by referen e to astronomi al y les!;2A<42,A 'arly e#iden e of su h pra ti es appears as markings on bones and a#e walls, whi h show that lunar y les were being noted as early as 2K,000 years agoW the first step towards re ording the =oons influen e upon tides and ri#ers, and towards organi:ing a ommunal alendar!;2J<481ff *gri ultural needs were also met by in reasing knowledge of onstellations, whose appearan es hange with the seasons, allowing the rising of parti ular star$groups to herald annual floods or seasonal a ti#ities!;2K<;#erifi ation needed< )y the third millennium )C', widespread i#ili:ations had de#eloped sophisti ated awareness of elestial y les, and are belie#ed to ha#e ons iously oriented their temples to reate alignment with the helia al risings of the stars!;2L< There is s attered e#iden e to suggest that the oldest known astrologi al referen es are opies of te2ts made during this period! Two, from the /enus tablet of *mmisaduBa 3 ompiled in )abylon around 1I00 )C'7 are reported to ha#e been made during the reign of king Sargon of *kkad 32AAJp22I9 )C'7!;2I< *nother, showing an early use of ele tional astrology, is as ribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler 9udea of 1agash 3 a! 21JJ p212J )C'7! This des ribes how the gods re#ealed to him in a dream the onstellations that would be most fa#orable for the planned onstru tion of a temple!;28< "owe#er, there is ontro#ersy about whether they were genuinely re orded at the time or merely as ribed to an ient rulers by posterity! The oldest undisputed e#iden e of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the re ords of the first dynasty of =esopotamia 319K0p1LK1 )C'7! The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Vhou dynasty 310JL p2KL )C7 and flourished during the "an -ynasty 32nd entury )C to 2nd entury *-7, during whi h all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese ulture p the

,in$,ang philosophy, theory of the K elements, "ea#en and 'arth, Confu ian morality p were brought together to formalise the philosophi al prin iples of Chinese medi ine and di#ination, astrology and al hemy!;18<4A,J ;edit<=edie#al (slami world Mor more details on this topi , see *strology in medie#al (slam! 1atin translation of *b[ =aPshar?s -e =agnis Coniun tionibus 3p.f the great onjun tions7, /eni e, 1K1K! *strology was taken up by (slami s holars following the ollapse of *le2andria to the *rabs in the Ith entury, and the founding of the *bbasid empire in the 8th! The se ond *bbasid aliph, *l =ansur 3IKJpIIK7 founded the ity of )aghdad to a t as a entre of learning, and in luded in its design a library$translation entre known as )ayt al$"ikma pStorehouse of %isdom, whi h ontinued to re ei#e de#elopment from his heirs and was to pro#ide a major impetus for *rabi $@ersian translations of "ellenisti astrologi al te2ts! The early translators in luded =ashallah, who helped to ele t the time for the foundation of )aghdad,;29< and Sahl ibn )ishr, 3a!k!a! Vael7, whose te2ts were dire tly influential upon later 'uropean astrologers su h as 9uido )onatti in the 1Ath entury, and %illiam 1illy in the 1Ith entury! &nowledge of *rabi te2ts started to be ome imported into 'urope during the 1atin translations of the 12th entury, the effe t of whi h was to help initiate the 'uropean +enaissan e! ;edit<'arly =odern )y the 1Ith entury, in 'ngland, astrology had rea hed its :enith!;A0< *strologers were theorists, resear hers, and so ial engineers, as well as pro#iding indi#idual ad#i e to e#eryone from monar hs downwards! *mong other things, astrologers ould ad#ise on the best time to take a journey or har#est a rop, diagnose and pres ribe for physi al or mental illnesses, and predi t natural disasters! This underpinned a system in whi h e#erything $ people, the world, the uni#erse $ was understood to be inter onne ted, and astrology o$e2isted happily with religion, magi and s ien e!;A1< ;edit<Sin e 1900 =ain arti le4 Cultural influen e of astrology *strology saw a popular re#i#al from the nineteenth entury as part of a general re#i#al of spiritualism and later 0ew *ge philosophy;A2<42A9$2J9, and through the influen e of mass media su h as newspaper horos opes;A2<42K9$2LA and astrology software! 'arly in the twentieth entury psy hologist Carl Hung de#eloped some on epts on erning astrology,;AA< whi h led to the de#elopment of psy hologi al astrology!;A2<42K1$2KL;AJ<;AK< (n the %est there ha#e been o asional reports of politi al leaders onsulting astrologers! 1ouis de %ohl worked as an astrologer for the )ritish intelligen e agen y =(K, after it was laimed that "itler used astrology to time his a tions! The %ar .ffi e was 8interested to know what "itler?s own astrologers would be telling him from week to week8!;AL< (n fa t de %ohl?s predi tions were so ina urate that he was soon labelled a 8 omplete harlatan8 and it was later shown that "itler onsidered astrology to be 8 omplete nonsense8!;AI< *fter Hohn "in kley?s attempted assassination of G!S! @resident +onald +eagan, first lady 0an y +eagan ommissioned astrologer Hoan auigley to a t as the se ret %hite "ouse astrologer! "owe#er, auigley?s role ended in 1988 when it be ame publi through the memoirs of former hief of staff, -onald +egan!;A8< )irth 3in blue7 and death 3in red7 rates of Hapan sin e 19K0, with the sudden drop in births during hinoeuma year 319LL7

(n (ndia, there is a long$established and widespread belief in astrology! (t is ommonly used for daily life, parti ularly in matters on erning marriage and areer, and makes e2tensi#e use of ele tional, horary and karmi astrology!;A9<;J0< (ndian politi s has also been influen ed by astrology!;J1< (t remains onsidered a bran h of the /edanga!;J2<;JA< (n 2001, (ndian s ientists and politi ians debated and ritiBued a proposal to use state money to fund resear h into astrology,;JJ< resulting in permission for (ndian uni#ersities to offer ourses in /edi astrology!;JK< (n Mebruary 2011, the )ombay "igh Court reaffirmed astrology?s standing in (ndia when it dismissed a ase whi h had hallenged its status as a s ien e!;JL< (n Hapan, a strong belief in astrology has led to dramati hanges in the fertility rate and the number of abortions in the years of 8Mire "orse8! %omen born in hinoeuma years are belie#ed to be unmarriageable and to bring bad lu k to their father or husband! (n 19LL, the number of babies born in Hapan dropped by o#er 2Kb as parents tried to a#oid the stigma of ha#ing a daughter born in the hinoeuma year!;JI<;J8< ;edit<S ientifi appraisal *strology is a pseudos ien e;J9<;K0<41AK0 that has not demonstrated its effe ti#eness in ontrolled studies and has no s ientifi #alidity!;J<;K1<48K The majority of professional astrologers rely on performing astrology$based personality tests and making rele#ant predi tions about the remunerators future!;K1<48A Those who ontinue to ha#e faith in astrology ha#e been hara teri:ed as doing so 8in spite of the fa t that there is no #erified s ientifi basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong e#iden e to the ontrary8!;K2< *strophysi ist 0eil de9rasse Tyson ommented on astrologi al belief, saying that 8part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us! %ithout that knowledge, without that apa ity to think, you an easily be ome a #i tim of people who seek to take ad#antage of you8!;KA< The former astrologer, and s ientist, 9eoffrey -ean and psy hologist (#an &elly;KJ< ondu ted a large s ale s ientifi test, in#ol#ing more than one hundred ogniti#e, beha#ioral, physi al and other #ariables, but found no support for astrology!;KK< Murthermore, a meta$ analysis was ondu ted pooling J0 studies onsisting of I00 astrologers and o#er 1,000 birth harts! Ten of the tests, whi h had a total of A00 parti ipants, in#ol#ed subje ts pi king the orre t hart interpretation out of a number of others whi h were not the astrologi ally orre t hart interpretation 3usually A to K others7! %hen the date and other ob#ious lues were remo#ed no signifi ant results were found to suggest there was any preferred hart! ;KK<4190 * further test in#ol#ed JK onfident;a< astrologers, with an a#erage of 10 years e2perien e and 1L0 parti ipants 3out of an original sample si:e of 1198 parti ipants7 who strongly fa#oured ertain hara teristi s in the 'ysen k @ersonality auestionnaire to e2tremes! ;KK<4191 The astrologers performed mu h worse than merely basing de isions off the indi#iduals age, and mu h worse than JK ontrol subje ts who did not use birth harts at all! ;b<;KK<4191 S ien e and non$s ien e are often distinguished by the riterion of falsifiability! The riterion was first proposed by philosopher of s ien e &arl @opper! To @opper, s ien e does not rely on indu tion, instead s ientifi in#estigations are inherently attempts to falsify e2isting theories through no#el tests! (f a single test fails, then the theory is falsified! Therefore, any test of a s ientifi theory must prohibit ertain results whi h will falsify the theory, and e2pe t other spe ifi results whi h will be onsistent with the theory! Gsing this riterion of falsifiability, astrology is a pseudos ien e!;KL< @opper regarded astrology as 8pseudo$empiri al8 in that 8it appeals to obser#ation and e2periment8, but 8ne#ertheless does not ome up to

s ientifi standards8!;KI<4JJ (n 19KA, so iologist Theodor %! *dorno ondu ted a study of the astrology olumn of a 1os *ngeles newspaper as part of a proje t e2amining mass ulture in apitalist so iety! *dorno on luded that astrology was a large$s ale manifestation of systemati irrationalism, where indi#iduals were subtly being led to belie#e that the author of the olumn was addressing them dire tly through the use of flattery and #ague generali:ations!;K8< ;edit<@erspe ti#es from psy hology See also4 Morer effe t (t has also been suggested that onfirmation bias ould be a psy hologi al fa tor that ontributes to belief in astrology!;K9<4AJJ;L0<4180$181;L1<4J2$J8 Confirmation bias is a form of ogniti#e bias!; <;L2<4KKA Mrom the literature, *strology belie#ers often tend to sele ti#ely remember those predi tions whi h ha#e turned out to be true, and don?t remember those predi tions whi h happen to be false! *nother, separate, form of onfirmation bias also plays a role, where belie#ers often fail to distinguish between messages that demonstrate spe ial ability and those whi h do not!;L0<4180$181 Thus there are two distin t forms of onfirmation bias that are under study with respe t to astrologi al belief!;L0<4180$181 The )arnum effe t is where people a ept un lear e2positions of their personality if there is the appearan e of some omple2 pro ess in the deri#ation of the personality profile! (f more information is reBuested for a predi tion, the more a epting people are of the results! ;K9<4AJJ (n 19J9 )ertram Morer ondu ted a personality test on students in his lassroom! ;K9<4AJJ %hile seemingly gi#ing the students indi#iduali:ed results, he instead ga#e ea h student e2a tly the same sheet that dis ussed their personality! The personality des riptions were taken from a book on *strology! %hen the students were asked to omment on the a ura y of the test, more than J0b ga#e it the top mark of K out of K, and the a#erage rating was J!2!;LA<41AJ, 1AK The results of this study ha#e been repli ated in numerous other studies!;LJ<4A82 The study of this )arnum>Morer effe t has been mostly fo used on the le#el of a eptan e of fake horos opes and fake astrologi al personality profiles!;LJ<4A82 +e ipients of these personality assessments onsistently fail to distinguish ommon and un ommon personality des riptors!;LJ<4A8A (n a study by @aul +ogers and Hani e Soule 320097, whi h was onsistent with pre#ious resear h on the issue, it was found that those who belie#ed in astrology are generally more sus eptible to gi#ing more reden e to the )arnum profile than skepti s!;LJ<4A9A )y a pro ess known as self$attribution, it has been shown in numerous studies that indi#iduals with knowledge of astrology tend to des ribe their personality in terms of traits ompatible with their sun sign! The effe t is heightened when the indi#iduals were aware the personality des ription was being used to dis uss astrology! (ndi#iduals who were not familiar with astrology had no su h tenden y!;LK< ;edit<1a k of onsisten y Testing the #alidity of astrology an be diffi ult be ause there is no onsensus amongst astrologers as to what astrology is or what it an predi t!;K1<48A =ost professional astrologers are paid to predi t the future or des ribe a person?s personality and life, but most horos opes only make #ague untestable statements that an apply to almost anyone!;K1<48A *strologers a#oid making #erifiable predi tions and instead rely on making #ague statements whi h allows them to try to a#oid falsifi ation!;KI<4J8$J9 9eorges Charpak and "enri )ro h dealt with laims from astrology in the book -ebunkedc 'S@, Telekinesis, and other @seudos ien e!;LL< They pointed out that astrologers ha#e only a

small knowledge of astronomy and that they often do not take into a ount basi features su h as the pre ession of the eBuino2es whi h would hange the position of the sun with timeW they ommented on the e2ample of 'li:abeth Teissier who laimed that 8the sun ends up in the same pla e in the sky on the same date ea h year8 as the basis for laims that two people with the same birthday but a number of years apart should be under the same planetary influen e! Charpak and )ro h noted that 8there is a differen e of about twenty$ two thousand miles between 'arth?s lo ation on any spe ifi date in two su essi#e years8 and that thus they should not be under the same influen e a ording to astrology! .#er a J0 years period there would be a differen e greater than I80,000 miles!;LI< The tropi al :odia has no onne tion to the stars and as long as no laims are made that the onstellations themsel#es are in the asso iated sign it a#oids the issue of pre ession seemingly mo#ing the onstellations!;LI< Charpak and )ro h, noting this, referred to astrology based on the tropi al :odia as being 8empty bo2es that ha#e nothing to do with anything and are de#oid of any onsisten y or orresponden e with the stars8!;LI< Sole usage of the tropi al :odia is in onsistent with referen es made, by the same astrologers, to the *ge of *Buarius whi h is dependent on when the #ernal point enters the onstellation of *Buarius! ;J< Some astrologers make laims that the position of all the planets must be taken into a ount, but astrologers were unable to predi t the e2isten e of 0eptune based on mistakes in horos opes! (nstead 0eptune was predi ted using 0ewton?s law of uni#ersal gra#itation!;K1< The grafting on of Granus, 0eptune and @luto into the astrology dis ourse was done on an ad$ho basis!;J< .n the demotion of @luto to the status of dwarf planet, @hilip Varka of the @aris .bser#atory in =eudon, Mran e wondered how astrologers should respond4;J< Should astrologers remo#e it from the list of luminars ;Sun, =oon and the 8 planets other than earth< and onfess that it did not a tually bring any impro#ementd (f they de ide to keep it, what about the growing list of other re ently dis o#ered similar bodies 3Sedna, auaoar! et 7, some of whi h e#en ha#e satellites 3eena, 200A'1L17d ;edit<1a k of me hanism *strology has been riti i:ed for failing to pro#ide a physi al me hanism that links the mo#ements of elestial bodies to their purported effe ts on human beha#iour! (n a le ture in 2001, Stephen "awking stated 8The reason most s ientists don?t belie#e in astrology is be ause it is not onsistent with our theories that ha#e been tested by e2periment!8;L8< (n 19IK, amid in reasing popular interest in astrology, The "umanist maga:ine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by )art H! )ok, 1awren e '! Herome, and @aul &urt:!;K2< The statement, entitled p.bje tions to *strology , was signed by 18L astronomers, physi ists and leading s ientists of the day! They said that there is no s ientifi foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the publi against a epting astrologi al ad#i e without Buestion! Their riti ism fo used on the fa t that there was no me hanism whereby astrologi al effe ts might o ur4 %e an see how infinitesimally small are the gra#itational and other effe ts produ ed by the distant planets and the far more distant stars! (t is simply a mistake to imagine that the for es e2erted by stars and planets at the moment of birth an in any way shape our futures!;K2<;L9< *stronomer Carl Sagan de lined to sign the statement! Sagan said he took this stan e not be ause he thought astrology had any #alidity, but be ause he thought that the tone of the

statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology be ause there was no me hanism 3while 8 ertainly a rele#ant point87 was not in itself on#in ing! (n a letter published in a follow$up edition of The "umanist, Sagan onfirmed that he would ha#e been willing to sign su h a statement had it des ribed and refuted the prin ipal tenets of astrologi al belief! This, he argued, would ha#e been more persuasi#e and would ha#e produ ed less ontro#ersy!;I0< =any astrologers laim that astrology is s ientifi !;I1< Some of these astrologers ha#e proposed on#entional ausal agents su h as ele tromagnetism and gra#ity!;I1<;I2< S ientists dismiss these me hanisms as implausible;I1< sin e, for e2ample, the magneti field, when measured from earth, of a large but distant planet su h as Hupiter is far smaller than that produ ed by ordinary household applian es!;I2< .ther astrologers prefer not to attempt to e2plain astrology,;IA<;dubious p dis uss< and instead gi#e it supernatural e2planations su h as di#ination!;IJ<422ii Carl Hung sought to in#oke syn hroni ity to e2plain results on astrology from a single study he ondu ted, where no statisti ally signifi ant results were obser#ed! Sy hroni ity itself is onsidered to be neither testable nor falsifiable!;IK< The study was subseBuently hea#ily riti ised for its non$random sample and its use of statisti s and also its la k of onsisten y with astrology!;d<;IL< ;edit<Carlson?s e2periment * ross se#eral enturies of testing, the predi tions of astrology ha#e ne#er been more a urate than that e2pe ted by han e alone!;K1< .ne approa h used in testing astrology Buantitati#ely is through blind e2periment! %hen spe ifi predi tions from astrologers were tested in rigorous e2perimental pro edures in the Carlson test, the predi tions were falsified! ;J< The Shawn Carlson?s double$blind hart mat hing tests, in whi h 28 astrologers agreed to mat h o#er 100 natal harts to psy hologi al profiles generated by the California @sy hologi al (n#entory 3C@(7 test, is one of the most renowned tests of astrology!;II<;I8< The e2perimental proto ol used in Carlson?s study was agreed to by a group of physi ists and astrologers prior to the e2periment!;J< *strologers, nominated by the 0ational Coun il for 9eo osmi +esear h, a ted as the astrologi al ad#isors, and helped to ensure, and agreed, that the test was fair!;I8<411I;I9<4J20 They also hose 2L of the 28 astrologers for the tests, the other 2 being interested astrologers who #olunteered afterwards!;I9<4J20 The astrologers ame from 'urope and the Gnited States!;I8<411I The astrologers helped to draw up the entral proposition of natal astrology to be tested!;I9<4J19 @ublished in 0ature in 198K, the study found that predi tions based on natal astrology were no better than han e, and that the testing 8 learly refutes the astrologi al hypothesis8!;I9< ;edit<9auBuelin?s resear h =ain arti le4 =ars effe t The initial =ars effe t finding, showing the relati#e freBuen y of the diurnal position of =ars in the birth harts 30 f KI07 of 8eminent athletes8 3red solid line7 ompared to the e2pe ted results ;after =i hel 9auBuelin 19KK<;80< (n 19KK, astrologer, and psy hologist =i hel 9auBuelin stated that although he had failed to find e#iden e to support su h indi ators as the :odia al signs and planetary aspe ts in astrology, he had found positi#e orrelations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and su ess in professions 3su h as do tors, s ientists, athletes, a tors, writers, painters, et !7 whi h astrology traditionally asso iates with those planets!;80< The best$known of 9auBuelin?s findings is based on the positions of =ars in the natal harts of su essful athletes and be ame known as the 8=ars effe t8!;81< * study ondu ted by se#en Mren h

s ientists attempted to repli ate the laim, but found no statisti al e#iden e, and attributed the effe t to sele ti#e bias on 9auBuelin?s part, a using him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study!;82< 9eoffrey -ean has suggested that the effe t may be aused by self$reporting of birth dates by parents rather than any issue with the study by 9auBuelin! The suggestion is that a small subset of the parents may ha#e had hanged birth times to be onsistent with better astrologi al harts for a related profession! The sample group was taken from a time where belief in astrology was more ommon! 9auBuelin had failed to find the =ars effe t in more re ent populations! where a nurse or do tor re orded the birth information! The number of births under astrologi ally undesirable onditions was also lower, indi ating more e#iden e that parents hoose dates and times to suit their beliefs!;I8<411L ;edit<Theologi al #iewpoints See also4 Christianity and astrology, Hewish #iews on astrology, and =uslim #iews on astrology Some of the pra ti es of astrology were ontested on theologi al grounds by medie#al =uslim astronomers su h as *l$Marabi 3*lpharabius7, (bn al$"aytham 3*lha:en7 and *#i enna! They said that the methods of astrologers onfli ted with orthodo2 religious #iews of (slami s holars through the suggestion that the %ill of 9od an be known and predi ted in ad#an e!;8A< Mor e2ample, *#i ennas ?+efutation against astrology? +is la f ibY]l aYCkm al$noj[m, argues against the pra ti e of astrology while supporting the prin iple of planets a ting as the agents of di#ine ausation whi h e2press 9od?s absolute power o#er reation! *#i enna onsidered that the mo#ement of the planets influen ed life on earth in a deterministi way, but argued against the apability of determining the e2a t influen e of the stars!;8J< (n essen e, *#i enna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the e2tent that pre ise and fatalisti predi tions ould be made from it!;8K< (bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya 31292p1AK07, in his =iftah -ar al$SaCadah, also used physi al arguments in astronomy to Buestion the pra ti e of judi ial astrology!;8L< "e re ogni:ed that the stars are mu h larger than the planets, and argued4 *nd if you astrologers answer that it is pre isely be ause of this distan e and smallness that their influen es are negligible, then why is it that you laim a great influen e for the smallest hea#enly body, =er uryd %hy is it that you ha#e gi#en an influen e to al$+a?s and al$-hanab, whi h are two imaginary points ;as ending and des ending nodes<d O(bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya;8I< )elief in astrology is in ompatible with Catholi beliefs;88< su h as free will!;89< * ording to the Cate hism of the Catholi Chur h4 *ll forms of di#ination are to be reje ted4 re ourse to Satan or demons, onjuring up the dead or other pra ti es falsely supposed to 8un#eil8 the future! Consulting horos opes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of lair#oyan e, and re ourse to mediums all on eal a desire for power o#er time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to on iliate hidden powers! They ontradi t the honor, respe t, and lo#ing fear that we owe to 9od alone!;90< OCate hism of the Catholi Chur h St! *ugustine belie#ed that astrology onfli ted with hur h do trine, but he grounded his opposition with non$theologi al reasons su h as the failure of astrology to e2plain twins who

beha#e differently although are on ei#ed at the same moment and born at appro2imately the same time!;89< ;edit<See also 1ist of astrologi al traditions, types, and systems ;edit<0otes h The le#el of onfiden e was self rated by the astrologers themsel#es! h *lso dis ussed in =artens, +onnyW Tra het, Tim 319987! =aking sense of astrology! *mherst, 0!,!4 @rometheus )ooks! (S)0 1KIA922188! h see "euristi s in judgment and de ision making h Hung made the laims, despite being aware that there was no statisti al signifi an e in the results! 1ooking for oin iden es post ho is of #ery dubious #alue, see =isuseiofistatisti sj-ataidredging!;IK< ;edit<+eferen es h &o h$%estenhol:, Glla 3199K7! =esopotamian astrology 4 an introdu tion to )abylonian and *ssyrian elestial di#ination! Copenhagen4 =useum Tus ulanum @ress! pp! Moreword,11! (S)0 9I8$8I$I289$28I$0! h &assell, 1auren 3K =ay 20107! 8Stars, spirits, signs4 towards a history of astrology 1100 p18008! Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of S ien e @art C4 Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of )iologi al and )iomedi al S ien es J1 3274 LI pL9! doi410!101L>j!shps !2010!0J!001! h 8*strology $ *strology in modern times8! 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a! +etrie#ed I . tober 2012! h a b d e f g Varka, @hilippe 320117! 8*stronomy and astrology8! @ro eedings of the (nternational *stronomi al Gnion K 3S2L074 J20pJ2K! doi410!101I>S1IJA921A11002L02! h /ish#eshwara, edited by S!&! )iswas, -!C!/! =allik, C!/! 319897! Cosmi perspe ti#es 4 essays dedi ated to the memory of =!&!/! )appu 31! publ! ed!7! Cambridge ;'ngland<4 Cambridge Gni#ersity @ress! (S)0 0K21AJAKJ2! h @ro eedings of the )iennial =eeting of the @hilosophy of S ien e *sso iation, #ol! 1! -ordre ht u!a!4 +eidel u!a!! 19I8! (S)0 9I8$0$91IK8L$0K$I! 8Chapter I4 S ien e and Te hnology4 @ubli *ttitudes and Gnderstanding8! s ien e and engineering indi ators 200L! 0ational S ien e Moundation! +etrie#ed 28 Huly 2012! 8*bout three$fourths of *meri ans hold at least one pseudos ientifi beliefW i!e!, they belie#ed in at least 1 of the 10 sur#ey items;29<8 !!!8 Those 10 items were e2trasensory per eption 3'S@7, that houses an be haunted, ghosts>that spirits of dead people an ome ba k in ertain pla es>situations, telepathy> ommuni ation between minds without using traditional senses, lair#oyan e>the power of the mind to know the past and predi t the future, astrology>that the position of the stars and planets an affe t people?s li#es, that people an ommuni ate mentally with someone who has died, wit hes, rein arnation>the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and hanneling>allowing a 8spirit$being8 to temporarily assume ontrol of a body!8 h "arper, -ouglas! 8astrology8! .nline 'tymology -i tionary! +etrie#ed 2011$12$0L! 8-ifferentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1J00s and by 1I ! this word was limited to 8reading influen es of the stars and their effe ts on human destiny!88 h 8astrology, n!8! .2ford 'nglish -i tionary 3Se ond ed!7! .2ford Gni#ersity @ress! 1989W online #ersion September 2011! 8(n .ld Mren h and =iddle 'nglish astronomie seems to be

the earlier and general word, astrologie ha#ing been subseB! introdu ed for the part or pra ti al appli ation of astronomy to mundane affairs, and thus gradually limited by 1Ith ent! to the reputed influen es of the stars, unknown to s ien e! 0ot in Shakespeare!8 h The 0ew 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a, 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a,? #!K, 19IJ, p! 91L h -ietri h, Thomas4 ?The .rigin of Culture and Ci#ili:ation, @heni2 k @heni2 1iterary @ubli ists, 200K, p! A0K h -i tionary of the history of ideas! 0ew ,ork4 S ribner! 19IJ! (S)0 0$L8J$1A29A$1! h Hames +! 1ewis, 200A! The *strology )ook4 the 'n y lopedia of "ea#enly (nfluen es! /isible (nk @ress! .nline at 9oogle )ooks! h "one, =argaret 319I87! The =odern Te2t$)ook of *strology! +omford, G!&!4 1! 0! Mowler k Co! 1td!! pp! 21p89! (S)0 08K2JAAKIA! h +iske, &ris 3200I7! 1lewellyn?s Complete )ook of *strology! =innesota, GS*4 1lewellyn @ubli ations! pp! KpLW 2I! (S)0 9I8$0$IA8I$10I1$L! h 1uhrmann, Tanya 319917! @ersuasions of the wit h?s raft4 ritual magi in ontemporary 'ngland! "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! 1JIp1K1! (S)0 0$LIJ$LLA2J$1! h @ingree, -a#id 3187! 8(ndian *stronomy8! @ro eedings of the *meri an @hilosophi al So iety! *meri an @hilosophi al So iety 122 3L74 AL1pALJ! +etrie#ed J *ugust 2012! h a b @ingree, -a#id 3Hune 19LA7! 8*stronomy and *strology in (ndia and (ran8! (sis! The Gni#ersity of Chi ago @ress on behalf of The "istory of S ien e So iety KJ 3274 229 p2JL! h a b The Chinese sky during the "an 4 onstellating stars and so iety! 1eiden4 )rill! 199I! (S)0 9I8$90$0J$10IAI$A! h M! +i hard Stephenson, 8Chinese +oots of =odern *stronomy8, 0ew S ientist, 2L Hune 1980! See also 5Z`OO PmY OOlO rO5 Cl NOOO p h Theodora 1au, The "andbook of Chinese "oros opes, pp2$8, A0 pK, L0 pJ, 88p9J, 118p2J, 1J8pKA, 1I8p8J, 208 p1A, 2A8pJJ, 2I0pI8, A0Lp12, AA8pJJ, Sou#enir @ress, 0ew ,ork, 200K h Selin, "elaine, ed! 3199I7! 8*strology in China8! 'n y lopaedia of the "istory of S ien e, Te hnology, and =edi ine in 0on$%estern Cultures! Springer! +etrie#ed Huly 22, 2012! h 8 CO CF C ] CZ C C ]r C C Cm CR C ]q` C CY ]r COO CF C C CR CY Cm CR C Cg CF CY ] C C CF C\ CF Co C C ]` ] Cg C CO CF C ] CZ C C ]r C C C Z C C CR COO C CR C C ] C C CF C\ CF Co C C ]` CO C] CO Cm CY Cg CQ C CF C Cg CF C Cg CR CO8! h Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31! publ! ed!7! 1ondon ;u!a!<4 Continuum!! (S)0 9I8$1$JJ11$8129$9! h =arsha k, *le2ander 319917! The roots of i#ili:ation 4 the ogniti#e beginnings of man?s first art, symbol and notation 3+e#! and e2panded! ed!7! =ount &is o, 0!,!4 =oyer )ell!

(S)0 9I8$1$KK921$0J1$L! h '#elyn$%hite, "esiod W with an 'nglish translation by "ugh 9! 319II7! The "omeri hymns and "omeri a 3+eprinted! ed!7! Cambridge, =ass!4 "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! LLA pLII! (S)0 9I8$0$LIJ$990LA$0! 8Mifty days after the solsti e, when the season of wearisome heat is ome to an end, is the right time to go sailing! Then you will not wre k your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless @oseidon the 'arth$Shaker be set upon it, or Veus, the king of the deathless gods8 h *#eni, -a#id "! &elley, 'ugene M! =ilone W foreword by *nthony M! 3200K7! '2ploring an ient skies an en y lopedi sur#ey of ar haeoastronomy 3.nline$*usg! ed!7! 0ew ,ork4 Springer! p! 2L8! (S)0 9I8$0$A8I$9KA10$L! h Two te2ts whi h refer to the ?omens of Sargon? are reported in '! M! %eidner, p"istori hes =aterial in der )abyonis hen .mina$1iteratur *ltorientalis he Studien, ed! )runo =eissner, 31eip:ig, 1928$97, #! 2A1 and 2AL! h Mrom s roll * of the ruler 9udea of 1agash, ( 1I p /( 1A! .! &aiser, Te2te aus der Gmwelt des *lten Testaments, )d! 2, 1pA! 9Ntersloh, 198Lp1991! *lso Buoted in *! Malkenstein, p%ahrsagung in der sumeris hen _berlieferung , 1a di#ination en =sopotamie an ienne et dans les r gions #oisines! @aris, 19LL! h )r[n, =uYCammad ibn *YCmad 318I9!7! 8/(((8! The hronology of an ient nations! 1ondon, @ub! for the .riental translations fund of 9reat )ritain k (reland by %! "! *llen and o!! 1CC0 0100LI8A! h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!A! Mran e4"adean @ress h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!JA$JK! Mran e4"adean @ress h a b Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31!

*strology onsists of a number of belief systems whi h hold that there is a relationship between astronomi al phenomena and e#ents in the human world! (n the %est, astrology most often onsists of a system of horos opes that laim to e2plain aspe ts of a person?s personality and predi t future e#ents in their life based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other planetary obje ts at the time of their birth! =any ultures ha#e atta hed importan e to astronomi al e#ents, and the (ndians, Chinese, and =ayans de#eloped elaborate systems for predi ting terrestrial e#ents from elestial obser#ations! *mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A< *strology is a pseudos ien e, and as su h has been reje ted by the s ientifi ommunity as

ha#ing no e2planatory power for des ribing the uni#erse! S ientifi testing of astrology has been ondu ted, and no e#iden e has been found to support any of the premises or purported effe ts outlined in astrologi al traditions! %here astrology has made falsifiable predi tions, it has been falsified!;J<4J2J There is no proposed me hanism of a tion by whi h the positions and motions of stars and planets ould affe t people and e#ents on 'arth that does not ontradi t well understood, basi aspe ts of biology and physi s!;K<42J9;L< Contents ;hide< 1 'tymology 2 @rin iples and pra ti e 2!1 %estern 2!2 (ndian and South *sian 2!A Chinese and 'ast$*sian A "istory A!1 *n ient world A!2 =edie#al (slami world A!A 'arly =odern A!J Sin e 1900 J S ientifi appraisal J!1 @erspe ti#es from psy hology J!2 1a k of onsisten y J!A 1a k of me hanism J!J Carlson?s e2periment J!K 9auBuelin?s resear h K Theologi al #iewpoints L See also I 0otes 8 +eferen es 9 Murther reading 10 '2ternal links ;edit<'tymology =ar antonio +aimondi engra#ing4 1Kth ent! The word astrology omes from the early 1atin word astrologia,;I< deri#ing from the 9reek noun YNOq`O O OP PQ O OOOO OR, ?a ount of the stars?! *strologia later passed into meaning ?star$di#ination? with astronomia used for the s ientifi term!;8< ;edit<@rin iples and pra ti e +obert Mludd?s 1Lth entury illustration of man the mi ro osm within the uni#ersal ma ro osm *d#o ates ha#e defined astrology as a symboli language, an art form, a s ien e, and a method of di#ination!;9<;10< *lthough most ultural systems of astrology share ommon roots in an ient philosophies that influen ed ea h other, many ha#e uniBue methodologies whi h differ from those de#eloped in the %est! These in lude "indu astrology 3also known as 8(ndian astrology8 and in modern times referred to as 8/edi astrology87 and Chinese astrology, both of whi h ha#e influen ed the world?s ultural history! ;edit<%estern

Mor more details on this topi , see %estern astrology! %estern astrology is a form of di#ination based on the onstru tion of a horos ope for an e2a t moment, su h as a person?s birth!;11< (t uses the tropi al :odia , whi h is aligned to the eBuino tial points!;12< %estern astrology is founded on the mo#ements and relati#e positions of elestial bodies su h as the Sun, =oon, planets, whi h are analy:ed by their mo#ement through signs of the :odia 3spatial di#isions of the e lipti 7 and by their aspe ts 3angles7 relati#e to one another! They are also onsidered by their pla ement in houses 3spatial di#isions of the sky7!;1A< *strology?s modern representation in western popular media is usually redu ed to sun sign astrology, whi h onsiders only the :odia sign of the Sun at an indi#idual?s date of birth, and represents only 1>12 of the total hart!;1J< The names of the :odia orrespond to the names of the onstellations originally within the respe ti#e segment and are in 1atin!; itation needed< *long with tarot di#ination, astrology is one of the ore studies of %estern esoteri ism, and as su h has influen ed systems of magi al belief not only among %estern esoteri ists and "ermeti ists, but also belief systems su h as %i a that ha#e borrowed from or been influen ed by the %estern esoteri tradition! Tanya 1uhrmann has said that 8all magi ians know something about astrology,8 and refers to a table of orresponden es in Starhawk?s The Spiral -an e, organi:ed by planet, as an e2ample of the astrologi al lore studied by magi ians!;1K< @age from an *strologi al Treatise, a! 1IK0 ;edit<(ndian and South *sian Mor more details on this topi , see "indu astrology! "indu astrology originated with western astrology!;1L<4AL1 (n the earliest (ndian astronomy te2ts, the year was belie#ed to be AL0 days long, similar to that of )abylonian astrology, but the rest of the early astrologi al system bears little resemblan e!;1I<4229 1ater, the (ndian te hniBues were augmented with some of the )abylonian te hniBues!;1I<42A1 ;edit<Chinese and 'ast$*sian Mor more details on this topi , see Chinese astrology and Chinese :odia ! Chinese astrology has a lose relation with Chinese philosophy 3theory of the three harmonies4 hea#en, earth and man7 and uses on epts su h as yin and yang, the Mi#e phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 'arthly )ran hes, and shi hen 3 \ U 6 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes7! The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly onfined to politi al astrology, the obser#ation of unusual phenomena, identifi ation of portents and the sele tion of auspi ious days for e#ents and de isions!;18<422,8K,1IL The onstellations of the Vodia of western *sia and 'urope were not usedW instead the sky is di#ided into Three 'n losures 35C6U sOn yuYn7, and Twenty$eight =ansions 35Z`OO P \rsh OO bO 2i]7 in twel#e Ci 3OOO 5Z`Y7!;19< The Chinese :odia of twel#e animal signs is said to represent twel#e different types of personality! (t is based on y les of years, lunar months, and two$hour periods of the day 3the shi hen7! The :odia traditionally begins with the sign of the +at, and the y le pro eeds through 11 other animals signs4 the .2, Tiger, +abbit, -ragon, Snake, "orse, 9oat, =onkey, +ooster, -og and @ig!;20< Comple2 systems of predi ting fate and destiny based on one?s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, su h as :iping and Vi %ei -ou Shu 3simplified Chinese4 m^U_g6W traditional Chinese4 m^U_gCW pinyin4

:nOwpidnTush]7 are still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology! They do not rely on dire t obser#ations of the stars!;21< The &orean :odia is identi al to the Chinese one! The /ietnamese :odia is almost identi al to Chinese :odia e2 ept that the se ond animal is the %ater )uffalo instead of the .2, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the +abbit! The Hapanese :odia in ludes the %ild )oar instead of the @ig! The Thai :odia in ludes a 0aga in pla e of the -ragon and begins, not at Chinese 0ew ,ear, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar alendar, or during the Songkran festi#al 3now elebrated e#ery 1A p1K *pril7, depending on the purpose of the use!;22< ;edit<"istory =ain arti le4 "istory of astrology ;edit<*n ient world Mor more details on an ient astrology, see )abylonian astrology and "ellenisti astrology! *strology, in its broadest sense, is the sear h for meaning in the sky! (t has therefore been argued that astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made ons ious attempts to measure, re ord, and predi t seasonal hanges by referen e to astronomi al y les!;2A<42,A 'arly e#iden e of su h pra ti es appears as markings on bones and a#e walls, whi h show that lunar y les were being noted as early as 2K,000 years agoW the first step towards re ording the =oons influen e upon tides and ri#ers, and towards organi:ing a ommunal alendar!;2J<481ff *gri ultural needs were also met by in reasing knowledge of onstellations, whose appearan es hange with the seasons, allowing the rising of parti ular star$groups to herald annual floods or seasonal a ti#ities!;2K<;#erifi ation needed< )y the third millennium )C', widespread i#ili:ations had de#eloped sophisti ated awareness of elestial y les, and are belie#ed to ha#e ons iously oriented their temples to reate alignment with the helia al risings of the stars!;2L< There is s attered e#iden e to suggest that the oldest known astrologi al referen es are opies of te2ts made during this period! Two, from the /enus tablet of *mmisaduBa 3 ompiled in )abylon around 1I00 )C'7 are reported to ha#e been made during the reign of king Sargon of *kkad 32AAJp22I9 )C'7!;2I< *nother, showing an early use of ele tional astrology, is as ribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler 9udea of 1agash 3 a! 21JJ p212J )C'7! This des ribes how the gods re#ealed to him in a dream the onstellations that would be most fa#orable for the planned onstru tion of a temple!;28< "owe#er, there is ontro#ersy about whether they were genuinely re orded at the time or merely as ribed to an ient rulers by posterity! The oldest undisputed e#iden e of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the re ords of the first dynasty of =esopotamia 319K0p1LK1 )C'7! The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Vhou dynasty 310JL p2KL )C7 and flourished during the "an -ynasty 32nd entury )C to 2nd entury *-7, during whi h all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese ulture p the ,in$,ang philosophy, theory of the K elements, "ea#en and 'arth, Confu ian morality p were brought together to formalise the philosophi al prin iples of Chinese medi ine and di#ination, astrology and al hemy!;18<4A,J ;edit<=edie#al (slami world Mor more details on this topi , see *strology in medie#al (slam! 1atin translation of *b[ =aPshar?s -e =agnis Coniun tionibus 3p.f the great onjun tions7, /eni e, 1K1K!

*strology was taken up by (slami s holars following the ollapse of *le2andria to the *rabs in the Ith entury, and the founding of the *bbasid empire in the 8th! The se ond *bbasid aliph, *l =ansur 3IKJpIIK7 founded the ity of )aghdad to a t as a entre of learning, and in luded in its design a library$translation entre known as )ayt al$"ikma pStorehouse of %isdom, whi h ontinued to re ei#e de#elopment from his heirs and was to pro#ide a major impetus for *rabi $@ersian translations of "ellenisti astrologi al te2ts! The early translators in luded =ashallah, who helped to ele t the time for the foundation of )aghdad,;29< and Sahl ibn )ishr, 3a!k!a! Vael7, whose te2ts were dire tly influential upon later 'uropean astrologers su h as 9uido )onatti in the 1Ath entury, and %illiam 1illy in the 1Ith entury! &nowledge of *rabi te2ts started to be ome imported into 'urope during the 1atin translations of the 12th entury, the effe t of whi h was to help initiate the 'uropean +enaissan e! ;edit<'arly =odern )y the 1Ith entury, in 'ngland, astrology had rea hed its :enith!;A0< *strologers were theorists, resear hers, and so ial engineers, as well as pro#iding indi#idual ad#i e to e#eryone from monar hs downwards! *mong other things, astrologers ould ad#ise on the best time to take a journey or har#est a rop, diagnose and pres ribe for physi al or mental illnesses, and predi t natural disasters! This underpinned a system in whi h e#erything $ people, the world, the uni#erse $ was understood to be inter onne ted, and astrology o$e2isted happily with religion, magi and s ien e!;A1< ;edit<Sin e 1900 =ain arti le4 Cultural influen e of astrology *strology saw a popular re#i#al from the nineteenth entury as part of a general re#i#al of spiritualism and later 0ew *ge philosophy;A2<42A9$2J9, and through the influen e of mass media su h as newspaper horos opes;A2<42K9$2LA and astrology software! 'arly in the twentieth entury psy hologist Carl Hung de#eloped some on epts on erning astrology,;AA< whi h led to the de#elopment of psy hologi al astrology!;A2<42K1$2KL;AJ<;AK< (n the %est there ha#e been o asional reports of politi al leaders onsulting astrologers! 1ouis de %ohl worked as an astrologer for the )ritish intelligen e agen y =(K, after it was laimed that "itler used astrology to time his a tions! The %ar .ffi e was 8interested to know what "itler?s own astrologers would be telling him from week to week8!;AL< (n fa t de %ohl?s predi tions were so ina urate that he was soon labelled a 8 omplete harlatan8 and it was later shown that "itler onsidered astrology to be 8 omplete nonsense8!;AI< *fter Hohn "in kley?s attempted assassination of G!S! @resident +onald +eagan, first lady 0an y +eagan ommissioned astrologer Hoan auigley to a t as the se ret %hite "ouse astrologer! "owe#er, auigley?s role ended in 1988 when it be ame publi through the memoirs of former hief of staff, -onald +egan!;A8< )irth 3in blue7 and death 3in red7 rates of Hapan sin e 19K0, with the sudden drop in births during hinoeuma year 319LL7 (n (ndia, there is a long$established and widespread belief in astrology! (t is ommonly used for daily life, parti ularly in matters on erning marriage and areer, and makes e2tensi#e use of ele tional, horary and karmi astrology!;A9<;J0< (ndian politi s has also been influen ed by astrology!;J1< (t remains onsidered a bran h of the /edanga!;J2<;JA< (n 2001, (ndian s ientists and politi ians debated and ritiBued a proposal to use state money to fund resear h into astrology,;JJ< resulting in permission for (ndian uni#ersities to offer ourses in /edi astrology!;JK< (n Mebruary 2011, the )ombay "igh Court reaffirmed astrology?s

standing in (ndia when it dismissed a ase whi h had hallenged its status as a s ien e!;JL< (n Hapan, a strong belief in astrology has led to dramati hanges in the fertility rate and the number of abortions in the years of 8Mire "orse8! %omen born in hinoeuma years are belie#ed to be unmarriageable and to bring bad lu k to their father or husband! (n 19LL, the number of babies born in Hapan dropped by o#er 2Kb as parents tried to a#oid the stigma of ha#ing a daughter born in the hinoeuma year!;JI<;J8< ;edit<S ientifi appraisal *strology is a pseudos ien e;J9<;K0<41AK0 that has not demonstrated its effe ti#eness in ontrolled studies and has no s ientifi #alidity!;J<;K1<48K The majority of professional astrologers rely on performing astrology$based personality tests and making rele#ant predi tions about the remunerators future!;K1<48A Those who ontinue to ha#e faith in astrology ha#e been hara teri:ed as doing so 8in spite of the fa t that there is no #erified s ientifi basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong e#iden e to the ontrary8!;K2< *strophysi ist 0eil de9rasse Tyson ommented on astrologi al belief, saying that 8part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us! %ithout that knowledge, without that apa ity to think, you an easily be ome a #i tim of people who seek to take ad#antage of you8!;KA< The former astrologer, and s ientist, 9eoffrey -ean and psy hologist (#an &elly;KJ< ondu ted a large s ale s ientifi test, in#ol#ing more than one hundred ogniti#e, beha#ioral, physi al and other #ariables, but found no support for astrology!;KK< Murthermore, a meta$ analysis was ondu ted pooling J0 studies onsisting of I00 astrologers and o#er 1,000 birth harts! Ten of the tests, whi h had a total of A00 parti ipants, in#ol#ed subje ts pi king the orre t hart interpretation out of a number of others whi h were not the astrologi ally orre t hart interpretation 3usually A to K others7! %hen the date and other ob#ious lues were remo#ed no signifi ant results were found to suggest there was any preferred hart! ;KK<4190 * further test in#ol#ed JK onfident;a< astrologers, with an a#erage of 10 years e2perien e and 1L0 parti ipants 3out of an original sample si:e of 1198 parti ipants7 who strongly fa#oured ertain hara teristi s in the 'ysen k @ersonality auestionnaire to e2tremes! ;KK<4191 The astrologers performed mu h worse than merely basing de isions off the indi#iduals age, and mu h worse than JK ontrol subje ts who did not use birth harts at all! ;b<;KK<4191 S ien e and non$s ien e are often distinguished by the riterion of falsifiability! The riterion was first proposed by philosopher of s ien e &arl @opper! To @opper, s ien e does not rely on indu tion, instead s ientifi in#estigations are inherently attempts to falsify e2isting theories through no#el tests! (f a single test fails, then the theory is falsified! Therefore, any test of a s ientifi theory must prohibit ertain results whi h will falsify the theory, and e2pe t other spe ifi results whi h will be onsistent with the theory! Gsing this riterion of falsifiability, astrology is a pseudos ien e!;KL< @opper regarded astrology as 8pseudo$empiri al8 in that 8it appeals to obser#ation and e2periment8, but 8ne#ertheless does not ome up to s ientifi standards8!;KI<4JJ (n 19KA, so iologist Theodor %! *dorno ondu ted a study of the astrology olumn of a 1os *ngeles newspaper as part of a proje t e2amining mass ulture in apitalist so iety! *dorno on luded that astrology was a large$s ale manifestation of systemati irrationalism, where indi#iduals were subtly being led to belie#e that the author of the olumn was addressing them dire tly through the use of flattery and #ague generali:ations!;K8< ;edit<@erspe ti#es from psy hology

See also4 Morer effe t (t has also been suggested that onfirmation bias ould be a psy hologi al fa tor that ontributes to belief in astrology!;K9<4AJJ;L0<4180$181;L1<4J2$J8 Confirmation bias is a form of ogniti#e bias!; <;L2<4KKA Mrom the literature, *strology belie#ers often tend to sele ti#ely remember those predi tions whi h ha#e turned out to be true, and don?t remember those predi tions whi h happen to be false! *nother, separate, form of onfirmation bias also plays a role, where belie#ers often fail to distinguish between messages that demonstrate spe ial ability and those whi h do not!;L0<4180$181 Thus there are two distin t forms of onfirmation bias that are under study with respe t to astrologi al belief!;L0<4180$181 The )arnum effe t is where people a ept un lear e2positions of their personality if there is the appearan e of some omple2 pro ess in the deri#ation of the personality profile! (f more information is reBuested for a predi tion, the more a epting people are of the results! ;K9<4AJJ (n 19J9 )ertram Morer ondu ted a personality test on students in his lassroom! ;K9<4AJJ %hile seemingly gi#ing the students indi#iduali:ed results, he instead ga#e ea h student e2a tly the same sheet that dis ussed their personality! The personality des riptions were taken from a book on *strology! %hen the students were asked to omment on the a ura y of the test, more than J0b ga#e it the top mark of K out of K, and the a#erage rating was J!2!;LA<41AJ, 1AK The results of this study ha#e been repli ated in numerous other studies!;LJ<4A82 The study of this )arnum>Morer effe t has been mostly fo used on the le#el of a eptan e of fake horos opes and fake astrologi al personality profiles!;LJ<4A82 +e ipients of these personality assessments onsistently fail to distinguish ommon and un ommon personality des riptors!;LJ<4A8A (n a study by @aul +ogers and Hani e Soule 320097, whi h was onsistent with pre#ious resear h on the issue, it was found that those who belie#ed in astrology are generally more sus eptible to gi#ing more reden e to the )arnum profile than skepti s!;LJ<4A9A )y a pro ess known as self$attribution, it has been shown in numerous studies that indi#iduals with knowledge of astrology tend to des ribe their personality in terms of traits ompatible with their sun sign! The effe t is heightened when the indi#iduals were aware the personality des ription was being used to dis uss astrology! (ndi#iduals who were not familiar with astrology had no su h tenden y!;LK< ;edit<1a k of onsisten y Testing the #alidity of astrology an be diffi ult be ause there is no onsensus amongst astrologers as to what astrology is or what it an predi t!;K1<48A =ost professional astrologers are paid to predi t the future or des ribe a person?s personality and life, but most horos opes only make #ague untestable statements that an apply to almost anyone!;K1<48A *strologers a#oid making #erifiable predi tions and instead rely on making #ague statements whi h allows them to try to a#oid falsifi ation!;KI<4J8$J9 9eorges Charpak and "enri )ro h dealt with laims from astrology in the book -ebunkedc 'S@, Telekinesis, and other @seudos ien e!;LL< They pointed out that astrologers ha#e only a small knowledge of astronomy and that they often do not take into a ount basi features su h as the pre ession of the eBuino2es whi h would hange the position of the sun with timeW they ommented on the e2ample of 'li:abeth Teissier who laimed that 8the sun ends up in the same pla e in the sky on the same date ea h year8 as the basis for laims that two people with the same birthday but a number of years apart should be under the same planetary influen e! Charpak and )ro h noted that 8there is a differen e of about twenty$ two thousand miles between 'arth?s lo ation on any spe ifi date in two su essi#e years8

and that thus they should not be under the same influen e a ording to astrology! .#er a J0 years period there would be a differen e greater than I80,000 miles!;LI< The tropi al :odia has no onne tion to the stars and as long as no laims are made that the onstellations themsel#es are in the asso iated sign it a#oids the issue of pre ession seemingly mo#ing the onstellations!;LI< Charpak and )ro h, noting this, referred to astrology based on the tropi al :odia as being 8empty bo2es that ha#e nothing to do with anything and are de#oid of any onsisten y or orresponden e with the stars8!;LI< Sole usage of the tropi al :odia is in onsistent with referen es made, by the same astrologers, to the *ge of *Buarius whi h is dependent on when the #ernal point enters the onstellation of *Buarius! ;J< Some astrologers make laims that the position of all the planets must be taken into a ount, but astrologers were unable to predi t the e2isten e of 0eptune based on mistakes in horos opes! (nstead 0eptune was predi ted using 0ewton?s law of uni#ersal gra#itation!;K1< The grafting on of Granus, 0eptune and @luto into the astrology dis ourse was done on an ad$ho basis!;J< .n the demotion of @luto to the status of dwarf planet, @hilip Varka of the @aris .bser#atory in =eudon, Mran e wondered how astrologers should respond4;J< Should astrologers remo#e it from the list of luminars ;Sun, =oon and the 8 planets other than earth< and onfess that it did not a tually bring any impro#ementd (f they de ide to keep it, what about the growing list of other re ently dis o#ered similar bodies 3Sedna, auaoar! et 7, some of whi h e#en ha#e satellites 3eena, 200A'1L17d ;edit<1a k of me hanism *strology has been riti i:ed for failing to pro#ide a physi al me hanism that links the mo#ements of elestial bodies to their purported effe ts on human beha#iour! (n a le ture in 2001, Stephen "awking stated 8The reason most s ientists don?t belie#e in astrology is be ause it is not onsistent with our theories that ha#e been tested by e2periment!8;L8< (n 19IK, amid in reasing popular interest in astrology, The "umanist maga:ine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by )art H! )ok, 1awren e '! Herome, and @aul &urt:!;K2< The statement, entitled p.bje tions to *strology , was signed by 18L astronomers, physi ists and leading s ientists of the day! They said that there is no s ientifi foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the publi against a epting astrologi al ad#i e without Buestion! Their riti ism fo used on the fa t that there was no me hanism whereby astrologi al effe ts might o ur4 %e an see how infinitesimally small are the gra#itational and other effe ts produ ed by the distant planets and the far more distant stars! (t is simply a mistake to imagine that the for es e2erted by stars and planets at the moment of birth an in any way shape our futures!;K2<;L9< *stronomer Carl Sagan de lined to sign the statement! Sagan said he took this stan e not be ause he thought astrology had any #alidity, but be ause he thought that the tone of the statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology be ause there was no me hanism 3while 8 ertainly a rele#ant point87 was not in itself on#in ing! (n a letter published in a follow$up edition of The "umanist, Sagan onfirmed that he would ha#e been willing to sign su h a statement had it des ribed and refuted the prin ipal tenets of astrologi al belief! This, he argued, would ha#e been more persuasi#e and would ha#e produ ed less ontro#ersy!;I0< =any astrologers laim that astrology is s ientifi !;I1< Some of these astrologers ha#e proposed on#entional ausal agents su h as ele tromagnetism and gra#ity!;I1<;I2< S ientists

dismiss these me hanisms as implausible;I1< sin e, for e2ample, the magneti field, when measured from earth, of a large but distant planet su h as Hupiter is far smaller than that produ ed by ordinary household applian es!;I2< .ther astrologers prefer not to attempt to e2plain astrology,;IA<;dubious p dis uss< and instead gi#e it supernatural e2planations su h as di#ination!;IJ<422ii Carl Hung sought to in#oke syn hroni ity to e2plain results on astrology from a single study he ondu ted, where no statisti ally signifi ant results were obser#ed! Sy hroni ity itself is onsidered to be neither testable nor falsifiable!;IK< The study was subseBuently hea#ily riti ised for its non$random sample and its use of statisti s and also its la k of onsisten y with astrology!;d<;IL< ;edit<Carlson?s e2periment * ross se#eral enturies of testing, the predi tions of astrology ha#e ne#er been more a urate than that e2pe ted by han e alone!;K1< .ne approa h used in testing astrology Buantitati#ely is through blind e2periment! %hen spe ifi predi tions from astrologers were tested in rigorous e2perimental pro edures in the Carlson test, the predi tions were falsified! ;J< The Shawn Carlson?s double$blind hart mat hing tests, in whi h 28 astrologers agreed to mat h o#er 100 natal harts to psy hologi al profiles generated by the California @sy hologi al (n#entory 3C@(7 test, is one of the most renowned tests of astrology!;II<;I8< The e2perimental proto ol used in Carlson?s study was agreed to by a group of physi ists and astrologers prior to the e2periment!;J< *strologers, nominated by the 0ational Coun il for 9eo osmi +esear h, a ted as the astrologi al ad#isors, and helped to ensure, and agreed, that the test was fair!;I8<411I;I9<4J20 They also hose 2L of the 28 astrologers for the tests, the other 2 being interested astrologers who #olunteered afterwards!;I9<4J20 The astrologers ame from 'urope and the Gnited States!;I8<411I The astrologers helped to draw up the entral proposition of natal astrology to be tested!;I9<4J19 @ublished in 0ature in 198K, the study found that predi tions based on natal astrology were no better than han e, and that the testing 8 learly refutes the astrologi al hypothesis8!;I9< ;edit<9auBuelin?s resear h =ain arti le4 =ars effe t The initial =ars effe t finding, showing the relati#e freBuen y of the diurnal position of =ars in the birth harts 30 f KI07 of 8eminent athletes8 3red solid line7 ompared to the e2pe ted results ;after =i hel 9auBuelin 19KK<;80< (n 19KK, astrologer, and psy hologist =i hel 9auBuelin stated that although he had failed to find e#iden e to support su h indi ators as the :odia al signs and planetary aspe ts in astrology, he had found positi#e orrelations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and su ess in professions 3su h as do tors, s ientists, athletes, a tors, writers, painters, et !7 whi h astrology traditionally asso iates with those planets!;80< The best$known of 9auBuelin?s findings is based on the positions of =ars in the natal harts of su essful athletes and be ame known as the 8=ars effe t8!;81< * study ondu ted by se#en Mren h s ientists attempted to repli ate the laim, but found no statisti al e#iden e, and attributed the effe t to sele ti#e bias on 9auBuelin?s part, a using him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study!;82< 9eoffrey -ean has suggested that the effe t may be aused by self$reporting of birth dates by parents rather than any issue with the study by 9auBuelin! The suggestion is that a small subset of the parents may ha#e had hanged birth times to be onsistent with better astrologi al harts for a related profession! The sample group was taken from a time where

belief in astrology was more ommon! 9auBuelin had failed to find the =ars effe t in more re ent populations! where a nurse or do tor re orded the birth information! The number of births under astrologi ally undesirable onditions was also lower, indi ating more e#iden e that parents hoose dates and times to suit their beliefs!;I8<411L ;edit<Theologi al #iewpoints See also4 Christianity and astrology, Hewish #iews on astrology, and =uslim #iews on astrology Some of the pra ti es of astrology were ontested on theologi al grounds by medie#al =uslim astronomers su h as *l$Marabi 3*lpharabius7, (bn al$"aytham 3*lha:en7 and *#i enna! They said that the methods of astrologers onfli ted with orthodo2 religious #iews of (slami s holars through the suggestion that the %ill of 9od an be known and predi ted in ad#an e!;8A< Mor e2ample, *#i ennas ?+efutation against astrology? +is la f ibY]l aYCkm al$noj[m, argues against the pra ti e of astrology while supporting the prin iple of planets a ting as the agents of di#ine ausation whi h e2press 9od?s absolute power o#er reation! *#i enna onsidered that the mo#ement of the planets influen ed life on earth in a deterministi way, but argued against the apability of determining the e2a t influen e of the stars!;8J< (n essen e, *#i enna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the e2tent that pre ise and fatalisti predi tions ould be made from it!;8K< (bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya 31292p1AK07, in his =iftah -ar al$SaCadah, also used physi al arguments in astronomy to Buestion the pra ti e of judi ial astrology!;8L< "e re ogni:ed that the stars are mu h larger than the planets, and argued4 *nd if you astrologers answer that it is pre isely be ause of this distan e and smallness that their influen es are negligible, then why is it that you laim a great influen e for the smallest hea#enly body, =er uryd %hy is it that you ha#e gi#en an influen e to al$+a?s and al$-hanab, whi h are two imaginary points ;as ending and des ending nodes<d O(bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya;8I< )elief in astrology is in ompatible with Catholi beliefs;88< su h as free will!;89< * ording to the Cate hism of the Catholi Chur h4 *ll forms of di#ination are to be reje ted4 re ourse to Satan or demons, onjuring up the dead or other pra ti es falsely supposed to 8un#eil8 the future! Consulting horos opes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of lair#oyan e, and re ourse to mediums all on eal a desire for power o#er time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to on iliate hidden powers! They ontradi t the honor, respe t, and lo#ing fear that we owe to 9od alone!;90< OCate hism of the Catholi Chur h St! *ugustine belie#ed that astrology onfli ted with hur h do trine, but he grounded his opposition with non$theologi al reasons su h as the failure of astrology to e2plain twins who beha#e differently although are on ei#ed at the same moment and born at appro2imately the same time!;89< ;edit<See also 1ist of astrologi al traditions, types, and systems ;edit<0otes h The le#el of onfiden e was self rated by the astrologers themsel#es! h *lso dis ussed in =artens, +onnyW Tra het, Tim 319987! =aking sense of astrology!

*mherst, 0!,!4 @rometheus )ooks! (S)0 1KIA922188! h see "euristi s in judgment and de ision making h Hung made the laims, despite being aware that there was no statisti al signifi an e in the results! 1ooking for oin iden es post ho is of #ery dubious #alue, see =isuseiofistatisti sj-ataidredging!;IK< ;edit<+eferen es h &o h$%estenhol:, Glla 3199K7! =esopotamian astrology 4 an introdu tion to )abylonian and *ssyrian elestial di#ination! Copenhagen4 =useum Tus ulanum @ress! pp! Moreword,11! (S)0 9I8$8I$I289$28I$0! h &assell, 1auren 3K =ay 20107! 8Stars, spirits, signs4 towards a history of astrology 1100 p18008! Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of S ien e @art C4 Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of )iologi al and )iomedi al S ien es J1 3274 LI pL9! doi410!101L>j!shps !2010!0J!001! h 8*strology $ *strology in modern times8! 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a! +etrie#ed I . tober 2012! h a b d e f g Varka, @hilippe 320117! 8*stronomy and astrology8! @ro eedings of the (nternational *stronomi al Gnion K 3S2L074 J20pJ2K! doi410!101I>S1IJA921A11002L02! h /ish#eshwara, edited by S!&! )iswas, -!C!/! =allik, C!/! 319897! Cosmi perspe ti#es 4 essays dedi ated to the memory of =!&!/! )appu 31! publ! ed!7! Cambridge ;'ngland<4 Cambridge Gni#ersity @ress! (S)0 0K21AJAKJ2! h @ro eedings of the )iennial =eeting of the @hilosophy of S ien e *sso iation, #ol! 1! -ordre ht u!a!4 +eidel u!a!! 19I8! (S)0 9I8$0$91IK8L$0K$I! 8Chapter I4 S ien e and Te hnology4 @ubli *ttitudes and Gnderstanding8! s ien e and engineering indi ators 200L! 0ational S ien e Moundation! +etrie#ed 28 Huly 2012! 8*bout three$fourths of *meri ans hold at least one pseudos ientifi beliefW i!e!, they belie#ed in at least 1 of the 10 sur#ey items;29<8 !!!8 Those 10 items were e2trasensory per eption 3'S@7, that houses an be haunted, ghosts>that spirits of dead people an ome ba k in ertain pla es>situations, telepathy> ommuni ation between minds without using traditional senses, lair#oyan e>the power of the mind to know the past and predi t the future, astrology>that the position of the stars and planets an affe t people?s li#es, that people an ommuni ate mentally with someone who has died, wit hes, rein arnation>the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and hanneling>allowing a 8spirit$being8 to temporarily assume ontrol of a body!8 h "arper, -ouglas! 8astrology8! .nline 'tymology -i tionary! +etrie#ed 2011$12$0L! 8-ifferentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1J00s and by 1I ! this word was limited to 8reading influen es of the stars and their effe ts on human destiny!88 h 8astrology, n!8! .2ford 'nglish -i tionary 3Se ond ed!7! .2ford Gni#ersity @ress! 1989W online #ersion September 2011! 8(n .ld Mren h and =iddle 'nglish astronomie seems to be the earlier and general word, astrologie ha#ing been subseB! introdu ed for the part or pra ti al appli ation of astronomy to mundane affairs, and thus gradually limited by 1Ith ent! to the reputed influen es of the stars, unknown to s ien e! 0ot in Shakespeare!8 h The 0ew 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a, 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a,? #!K, 19IJ, p! 91L h -ietri h, Thomas4 ?The .rigin of Culture and Ci#ili:ation, @heni2 k @heni2 1iterary @ubli ists, 200K, p! A0K

h -i tionary of the history of ideas! 0ew ,ork4 S ribner! 19IJ! (S)0 0$L8J$1A29A$1! h Hames +! 1ewis, 200A! The *strology )ook4 the 'n y lopedia of "ea#enly (nfluen es! /isible (nk @ress! .nline at 9oogle )ooks! h "one, =argaret 319I87! The =odern Te2t$)ook of *strology! +omford, G!&!4 1! 0! Mowler k Co! 1td!! pp! 21p89! (S)0 08K2JAAKIA! h +iske, &ris 3200I7! 1lewellyn?s Complete )ook of *strology! =innesota, GS*4 1lewellyn @ubli ations! pp! KpLW 2I! (S)0 9I8$0$IA8I$10I1$L! h 1uhrmann, Tanya 319917! @ersuasions of the wit h?s raft4 ritual magi in ontemporary 'ngland! "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! 1JIp1K1! (S)0 0$LIJ$LLA2J$1! h @ingree, -a#id 3187! 8(ndian *stronomy8! @ro eedings of the *meri an @hilosophi al So iety! *meri an @hilosophi al So iety 122 3L74 AL1pALJ! +etrie#ed J *ugust 2012! h a b @ingree, -a#id 3Hune 19LA7! 8*stronomy and *strology in (ndia and (ran8! (sis! The Gni#ersity of Chi ago @ress on behalf of The "istory of S ien e So iety KJ 3274 229 p2JL! h a b The Chinese sky during the "an 4 onstellating stars and so iety! 1eiden4 )rill! 199I! (S)0 9I8$90$0J$10IAI$A! h M! +i hard Stephenson, 8Chinese +oots of =odern *stronomy8, 0ew S ientist, 2L Hune 1980! See also 5Z`OO PmY OOlO rO5 Cl NOOO p h Theodora 1au, The "andbook of Chinese "oros opes, pp2$8, A0 pK, L0 pJ, 88p9J, 118p2J, 1J8pKA, 1I8p8J, 208 p1A, 2A8pJJ, 2I0pI8, A0Lp12, AA8pJJ, Sou#enir @ress, 0ew ,ork, 200K h Selin, "elaine, ed! 3199I7! 8*strology in China8! 'n y lopaedia of the "istory of S ien e, Te hnology, and =edi ine in 0on$%estern Cultures! Springer! +etrie#ed Huly 22, 2012! h 8 CO CF C ] CZ C C ]r C C Cm CR C ]q` C CY ]r COO CF C C CR CY Cm CR C Cg CF CY ] C C CF C\ CF Co C C ]` ] Cg C CO CF C ] CZ C C ]r C C C Z C C CR COO C CR C C ] C C CF C\ CF Co C C ]` CO C] CO Cm CY Cg CQ C CF C Cg CF C Cg CR CO8! h Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31! publ! ed!7! 1ondon ;u!a!<4 Continuum!! (S)0 9I8$1$JJ11$8129$9! h =arsha k, *le2ander 319917! The roots of i#ili:ation 4 the ogniti#e beginnings of man?s first art, symbol and notation 3+e#! and e2panded! ed!7! =ount &is o, 0!,!4 =oyer )ell! (S)0 9I8$1$KK921$0J1$L! h '#elyn$%hite, "esiod W with an 'nglish translation by "ugh 9! 319II7! The "omeri hymns and "omeri a 3+eprinted! ed!7! Cambridge, =ass!4 "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! LLA pLII! (S)0 9I8$0$LIJ$990LA$0! 8Mifty days after the solsti e, when the season of wearisome heat is ome to an end, is the right time to go sailing! Then you will not wre k your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless @oseidon the 'arth$Shaker be set upon it, or Veus, the king of the deathless gods8

h *#eni, -a#id "! &elley, 'ugene M! =ilone W foreword by *nthony M! 3200K7! '2ploring an ient skies an en y lopedi sur#ey of ar haeoastronomy 3.nline$*usg! ed!7! 0ew ,ork4 Springer! p! 2L8! (S)0 9I8$0$A8I$9KA10$L! h Two te2ts whi h refer to the ?omens of Sargon? are reported in '! M! %eidner, p"istori hes =aterial in der )abyonis hen .mina$1iteratur *ltorientalis he Studien, ed! )runo =eissner, 31eip:ig, 1928$97, #! 2A1 and 2AL! h Mrom s roll * of the ruler 9udea of 1agash, ( 1I p /( 1A! .! &aiser, Te2te aus der Gmwelt des *lten Testaments, )d! 2, 1pA! 9Ntersloh, 198Lp1991! *lso Buoted in *! Malkenstein, p%ahrsagung in der sumeris hen _berlieferung , 1a di#ination en =sopotamie an ienne et dans les r gions #oisines! @aris, 19LL! h )r[n, =uYCammad ibn *YCmad 318I9!7! 8/(((8! The hronology of an ient nations! 1ondon, @ub! for the .riental translations fund of 9reat )ritain k (reland by %! "! *llen and o!! 1CC0 0100LI8A! h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!A! Mran e4"adean @ress h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!JA$JK! Mran e4"adean @ress h a b Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31!

*strology onsists of a number of belief systems whi h hold that there is a relationship between astronomi al phenomena and e#ents in the human world! (n the %est, astrology most often onsists of a system of horos opes that laim to e2plain aspe ts of a person?s personality and predi t future e#ents in their life based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other planetary obje ts at the time of their birth! =any ultures ha#e atta hed importan e to astronomi al e#ents, and the (ndians, Chinese, and =ayans de#eloped elaborate systems for predi ting terrestrial e#ents from elestial obser#ations! *mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A< *strology is a pseudos ien e, and as su h has been reje ted by the s ientifi ommunity as ha#ing no e2planatory power for des ribing the uni#erse! S ientifi testing of astrology has been ondu ted, and no e#iden e has been found to support any of the premises or purported effe ts outlined in astrologi al traditions! %here astrology has made falsifiable predi tions, it has been falsified!;J<4J2J There is no proposed me hanism of a tion by whi h the positions and motions of stars and planets ould affe t people and e#ents on 'arth that does not ontradi t well understood, basi aspe ts of biology and physi s!;K<42J9;L<

Contents ;hide< 1 'tymology 2 @rin iples and pra ti e 2!1 %estern 2!2 (ndian and South *sian 2!A Chinese and 'ast$*sian A "istory A!1 *n ient world A!2 =edie#al (slami world A!A 'arly =odern A!J Sin e 1900 J S ientifi appraisal J!1 @erspe ti#es from psy hology J!2 1a k of onsisten y J!A 1a k of me hanism J!J Carlson?s e2periment J!K 9auBuelin?s resear h K Theologi al #iewpoints L See also I 0otes 8 +eferen es 9 Murther reading 10 '2ternal links ;edit<'tymology =ar antonio +aimondi engra#ing4 1Kth ent! The word astrology omes from the early 1atin word astrologia,;I< deri#ing from the 9reek noun YNq`OO P PQ O OOOO OR, ?a ount of the stars?! *strologia later passed into meaning ?star$di#ination? with astronomia used for the s ientifi term!;8< ;edit<@rin iples and pra ti e +obert Mludd?s 1Lth entury illustration of man the mi ro osm within the uni#ersal ma ro osm *d#o ates ha#e defined astrology as a symboli language, an art form, a s ien e, and a method of di#ination!;9<;10< *lthough most ultural systems of astrology share ommon roots in an ient philosophies that influen ed ea h other, many ha#e uniBue methodologies whi h differ from those de#eloped in the %est! These in lude "indu astrology 3also known as 8(ndian astrology8 and in modern times referred to as 8/edi astrology87 and Chinese astrology, both of whi h ha#e influen ed the world?s ultural history! ;edit<%estern Mor more details on this topi , see %estern astrology! %estern astrology is a form of di#ination based on the onstru tion of a horos ope for an e2a t moment, su h as a person?s birth!;11< (t uses the tropi al :odia , whi h is aligned to the eBuino tial points!;12< %estern astrology is founded on the mo#ements and relati#e positions of elestial bodies su h as the Sun, =oon, planets, whi h are analy:ed by their mo#ement through signs of the

:odia 3spatial di#isions of the e lipti 7 and by their aspe ts 3angles7 relati#e to one another! They are also onsidered by their pla ement in houses 3spatial di#isions of the sky7!;1A< *strology?s modern representation in western popular media is usually redu ed to sun sign astrology, whi h onsiders only the :odia sign of the Sun at an indi#idual?s date of birth, and represents only 1>12 of the total hart!;1J< The names of the :odia orrespond to the names of the onstellations originally within the respe ti#e segment and are in 1atin!; itation needed< *long with tarot di#ination, astrology is one of the ore studies of %estern esoteri ism, and as su h has influen ed systems of magi al belief not only among %estern esoteri ists and "ermeti ists, but also belief systems su h as %i a that ha#e borrowed from or been influen ed by the %estern esoteri tradition! Tanya 1uhrmann has said that 8all magi ians know something about astrology,8 and refers to a table of orresponden es in Starhawk?s The Spiral -an e, organi:ed by planet, as an e2ample of the astrologi al lore studied by magi ians!;1K< @age from an *strologi al Treatise, a! 1IK0 ;edit<(ndian and South *sian Mor more details on this topi , see "indu astrology! "indu astrology originated with western astrology!;1L<4AL1 (n the earliest (ndian astronomy te2ts, the year was belie#ed to be AL0 days long, similar to that of )abylonian astrology, but the rest of the early astrologi al system bears little resemblan e!;1I<4229 1ater, the (ndian te hniBues were augmented with some of the )abylonian te hniBues!;1I<42A1 ;edit<Chinese and 'ast$*sian Mor more details on this topi , see Chinese astrology and Chinese :odia ! Chinese astrology has a lose relation with Chinese philosophy 3theory of the three harmonies4 hea#en, earth and man7 and uses on epts su h as yin and yang, the Mi#e phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 'arthly )ran hes, and shi hen 3 \ U 6 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes7! The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly onfined to politi al astrology, the obser#ation of unusual phenomena, identifi ation of portents and the sele tion of auspi ious days for e#ents and de isions!;18<422,8K,1IL The onstellations of the Vodia of western *sia and 'urope were not usedW instead the sky is di#ided into Three 'n losures 35C6U sOn yuYn7, and Twenty$eight =ansions 35Z`OO O OO P \rshb 2i]7 in twel#e Ci 35Z`Y7!;19< The Chinese :odia of twel#e animal signs is said to represent twel#e different types of personality! (t is based on y les of years, lunar months, and two$ hour periods of the day 3the shi hen7! The :odia traditionally begins with the sign of the +at, and the y le pro eeds through 11 other animals signs4 the .2, Tiger, +abbit, -ragon, Snake, "orse, 9oat, =onkey, +ooster, -og and @ig!;20< Comple2 systems of predi ting fate and destiny based on one?s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, su h as :iping and Vi %ei -ou Shu 3simplified Chinese4 m^U_g6W traditional Chinese4 m^U_gCW pinyin4 :nOwpidnTush]7 are still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology! They do not rely on dire t obser#ations of the stars!;21< The &orean :odia is identi al to the Chinese one! The /ietnamese :odia is almost identi al to Chinese :odia e2 ept that the se ond animal is the %ater )uffalo instead of the .2, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the +abbit! The Hapanese :odia in ludes the %ild )oar instead of the @ig! The Thai :odia in ludes a 0aga in pla e of the -ragon and begins,

not at Chinese 0ew ,ear, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar alendar, or during the Songkran festi#al 3now elebrated e#ery 1A p1K *pril7, depending on the purpose of the use!;22< ;edit<"istory =ain arti le4 "istory of astrology ;edit<*n ient world Mor more details on an ient astrology, see )abylonian astrology and "ellenisti astrology! *strology, in its broadest sense, is the sear h for meaning in the sky! (t has therefore been argued that astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made ons ious attempts to measure, re ord, and predi t seasonal hanges by referen e to astronomi al y les!;2A<42,A 'arly e#iden e of su h pra ti es appears as markings on bones and a#e walls, whi h show that lunar y les were being noted as early as 2K,000 years agoW the first step towards re ording the =oons influen e upon tides and ri#ers, and towards organi:ing a ommunal alendar!;2J<481ff *gri ultural needs were also met by in reasing knowledge of onstellations, whose appearan es hange with the seasons, allowing the rising of parti ular star$groups to herald annual floods or seasonal a ti#ities!;2K<;#erifi ation needed< )y the third millennium )C', widespread i#ili:ations had de#eloped sophisti ated awareness of elestial y les, and are belie#ed to ha#e ons iously oriented their temples to reate alignment with the helia al risings of the stars!;2L< There is s attered e#iden e to suggest that the oldest known astrologi al referen es are opies of te2ts made during this period! Two, from the /enus tablet of *mmisaduBa 3 ompiled in )abylon around 1I00 )C'7 are reported to ha#e been made during the reign of king Sargon of *kkad 32AAJp22I9 )C'7!;2I< *nother, showing an early use of ele tional astrology, is as ribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler 9udea of 1agash 3 a! 21JJ p212J )C'7! This des ribes how the gods re#ealed to him in a dream the onstellations that would be most fa#orable for the planned onstru tion of a temple!;28< "owe#er, there is ontro#ersy about whether they were genuinely re orded at the time or merely as ribed to an ient rulers by posterity! The oldest undisputed e#iden e of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the re ords of the first dynasty of =esopotamia 319K0p1LK1 )C'7! The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Vhou dynasty 310JL p2KL )C7 and flourished during the "an -ynasty 32nd entury )C to 2nd entury *-7, during whi h all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese ulture p the ,in$,ang philosophy, theory of the K elements, "ea#en and 'arth, Confu ian morality p were brought together to formalise the philosophi al prin iples of Chinese medi ine and di#ination, astrology and al hemy!;18<4A,J ;edit<=edie#al (slami world Mor more details on this topi , see *strology in medie#al (slam! 1atin translation of *b[ =aPshar?s -e =agnis Coniun tionibus 3p.f the great onjun tions7, /eni e, 1K1K! *strology was taken up by (slami s holars following the ollapse of *le2andria to the *rabs in the Ith entury, and the founding of the *bbasid empire in the 8th! The se ond *bbasid aliph, *l =ansur 3IKJpIIK7 founded the ity of )aghdad to a t as a entre of learning, and in luded in its design a library$translation entre known as )ayt al$"ikma pStorehouse of %isdom, whi h ontinued to re ei#e de#elopment from his heirs and was to pro#ide a major impetus for *rabi $@ersian translations of "ellenisti

astrologi al te2ts! The early translators in luded =ashallah, who helped to ele t the time for the foundation of )aghdad,;29< and Sahl ibn )ishr, 3a!k!a! Vael7, whose te2ts were dire tly influential upon later 'uropean astrologers su h as 9uido )onatti in the 1Ath entury, and %illiam 1illy in the 1Ith entury! &nowledge of *rabi te2ts started to be ome imported into 'urope during the 1atin translations of the 12th entury, the effe t of whi h was to help initiate the 'uropean +enaissan e! ;edit<'arly =odern )y the 1Ith entury, in 'ngland, astrology had rea hed its :enith!;A0< *strologers were theorists, resear hers, and so ial engineers, as well as pro#iding indi#idual ad#i e to e#eryone from monar hs downwards! *mong other things, astrologers ould ad#ise on the best time to take a journey or har#est a rop, diagnose and pres ribe for physi al or mental illnesses, and predi t natural disasters! This underpinned a system in whi h e#erything $ people, the world, the uni#erse $ was understood to be inter onne ted, and astrology o$e2isted happily with religion, magi and s ien e!;A1< ;edit<Sin e 1900 =ain arti le4 Cultural influen e of astrology *strology saw a popular re#i#al from the nineteenth entury as part of a general re#i#al of spiritualism and later 0ew *ge philosophy;A2<42A9$2J9, and through the influen e of mass media su h as newspaper horos opes;A2<42K9$2LA and astrology software! 'arly in the twentieth entury psy hologist Carl Hung de#eloped some on epts on erning astrology,;AA< whi h led to the de#elopment of psy hologi al astrology!;A2<42K1$2KL;AJ<;AK< (n the %est there ha#e been o asional reports of politi al leaders onsulting astrologers! 1ouis de %ohl worked as an astrologer for the )ritish intelligen e agen y =(K, after it was laimed that "itler used astrology to time his a tions! The %ar .ffi e was 8interested to know what "itler?s own astrologers would be telling him from week to week8!;AL< (n fa t de %ohl?s predi tions were so ina urate that he was soon labelled a 8 omplete harlatan8 and it was later shown that "itler onsidered astrology to be 8 omplete nonsense8!;AI< *fter Hohn "in kley?s attempted assassination of G!S! @resident +onald +eagan, first lady 0an y +eagan ommissioned astrologer Hoan auigley to a t as the se ret %hite "ouse astrologer! "owe#er, auigley?s role ended in 1988 when it be ame publi through the memoirs of former hief of staff, -onald +egan!;A8< )irth 3in blue7 and death 3in red7 rates of Hapan sin e 19K0, with the sudden drop in births during hinoeuma year 319LL7 (n (ndia, there is a long$established and widespread belief in astrology! (t is ommonly used for daily life, parti ularly in matters on erning marriage and areer, and makes e2tensi#e use of ele tional, horary and karmi astrology!;A9<;J0< (ndian politi s has also been influen ed by astrology!;J1< (t remains onsidered a bran h of the /edanga!;J2<;JA< (n 2001, (ndian s ientists and politi ians debated and ritiBued a proposal to use state money to fund resear h into astrology,;JJ< resulting in permission for (ndian uni#ersities to offer ourses in /edi astrology!;JK< (n Mebruary 2011, the )ombay "igh Court reaffirmed astrology?s standing in (ndia when it dismissed a ase whi h had hallenged its status as a s ien e!;JL< (n Hapan, a strong belief in astrology has led to dramati hanges in the fertility rate and the number of abortions in the years of 8Mire "orse8! %omen born in hinoeuma years are belie#ed to be unmarriageable and to bring bad lu k to their father or husband! (n 19LL, the number of babies born in Hapan dropped by o#er 2Kb as parents tried to a#oid the stigma of ha#ing a daughter born in the hinoeuma year!;JI<;J8<

;edit<S ientifi appraisal *strology is a pseudos ien e;J9<;K0<41AK0 that has not demonstrated its effe ti#eness in ontrolled studies and has no s ientifi #alidity!;J<;K1<48K The majority of professional astrologers rely on performing astrology$based personality tests and making rele#ant predi tions about the remunerators future!;K1<48A Those who ontinue to ha#e faith in astrology ha#e been hara teri:ed as doing so 8in spite of the fa t that there is no #erified s ientifi basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong e#iden e to the ontrary8!;K2< *strophysi ist 0eil de9rasse Tyson ommented on astrologi al belief, saying that 8part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us! %ithout that knowledge, without that apa ity to think, you an easily be ome a #i tim of people who seek to take ad#antage of you8!;KA< The former astrologer, and s ientist, 9eoffrey -ean and psy hologist (#an &elly;KJ< ondu ted a large s ale s ientifi test, in#ol#ing more than one hundred ogniti#e, beha#ioral, physi al and other #ariables, but found no support for astrology!;KK< Murthermore, a meta$ analysis was ondu ted pooling J0 studies onsisting of I00 astrologers and o#er 1,000 birth harts! Ten of the tests, whi h had a total of A00 parti ipants, in#ol#ed subje ts pi king the orre t hart interpretation out of a number of others whi h were not the astrologi ally orre t hart interpretation 3usually A to K others7! %hen the date and other ob#ious lues were remo#ed no signifi ant results were found to suggest there was any preferred hart! ;KK<4190 * further test in#ol#ed JK onfident;a< astrologers, with an a#erage of 10 years e2perien e and 1L0 parti ipants 3out of an original sample si:e of 1198 parti ipants7 who strongly fa#oured ertain hara teristi s in the 'ysen k @ersonality auestionnaire to e2tremes! ;KK<4191 The astrologers performed mu h worse than merely basing de isions off the indi#iduals age, and mu h worse than JK ontrol subje ts who did not use birth harts at all! ;b<;KK<4191 S ien e and non$s ien e are often distinguished by the riterion of falsifiability! The riterion was first proposed by philosopher of s ien e &arl @opper! To @opper, s ien e does not rely on indu tion, instead s ientifi in#estigations are inherently attempts to falsify e2isting theories through no#el tests! (f a single test fails, then the theory is falsified! Therefore, any test of a s ientifi theory must prohibit ertain results whi h will falsify the theory, and e2pe t other spe ifi results whi h will be onsistent with the theory! Gsing this riterion of falsifiability, astrology is a pseudos ien e!;KL< @opper regarded astrology as 8pseudo$empiri al8 in that 8it appeals to obser#ation and e2periment8, but 8ne#ertheless does not ome up to s ientifi standards8!;KI<4JJ (n 19KA, so iologist Theodor %! *dorno ondu ted a study of the astrology olumn of a 1os *ngeles newspaper as part of a proje t e2amining mass ulture in apitalist so iety! *dorno on luded that astrology was a large$s ale manifestation of systemati irrationalism, where indi#iduals were subtly being led to belie#e that the author of the olumn was addressing them dire tly through the use of flattery and #ague generali:ations!;K8< ;edit<@erspe ti#es from psy hology See also4 Morer effe t (t has also been suggested that onfirmation bias ould be a psy hologi al fa tor that ontributes to belief in astrology!;K9<4AJJ;L0<4180$181;L1<4J2$J8 Confirmation bias is a form of ogniti#e bias!; <;L2<4KKA Mrom the literature, *strology belie#ers often tend to sele ti#ely remember those predi tions whi h ha#e turned out to be true, and don?t remember those predi tions whi h happen to be false! *nother, separate, form of onfirmation bias also plays

a role, where belie#ers often fail to distinguish between messages that demonstrate spe ial ability and those whi h do not!;L0<4180$181 Thus there are two distin t forms of onfirmation bias that are under study with respe t to astrologi al belief!;L0<4180$181 The )arnum effe t is where people a ept un lear e2positions of their personality if there is the appearan e of some omple2 pro ess in the deri#ation of the personality profile! (f more information is reBuested for a predi tion, the more a epting people are of the results! ;K9<4AJJ (n 19J9 )ertram Morer ondu ted a personality test on students in his lassroom! ;K9<4AJJ %hile seemingly gi#ing the students indi#iduali:ed results, he instead ga#e ea h student e2a tly the same sheet that dis ussed their personality! The personality des riptions were taken from a book on *strology! %hen the students were asked to omment on the a ura y of the test, more than J0b ga#e it the top mark of K out of K, and the a#erage rating was J!2!;LA<41AJ, 1AK The results of this study ha#e been repli ated in numerous other studies!;LJ<4A82 The study of this )arnum>Morer effe t has been mostly fo used on the le#el of a eptan e of fake horos opes and fake astrologi al personality profiles!;LJ<4A82 +e ipients of these personality assessments onsistently fail to distinguish ommon and un ommon personality des riptors!;LJ<4A8A (n a study by @aul +ogers and Hani e Soule 320097, whi h was onsistent with pre#ious resear h on the issue, it was found that those who belie#ed in astrology are generally more sus eptible to gi#ing more reden e to the )arnum profile than skepti s!;LJ<4A9A )y a pro ess known as self$attribution, it has been shown in numerous studies that indi#iduals with knowledge of astrology tend to des ribe their personality in terms of traits ompatible with their sun sign! The effe t is heightened when the indi#iduals were aware the personality des ription was being used to dis uss astrology! (ndi#iduals who were not familiar with astrology had no su h tenden y!;LK< ;edit<1a k of onsisten y Testing the #alidity of astrology an be diffi ult be ause there is no onsensus amongst astrologers as to what astrology is or what it an predi t!;K1<48A =ost professional astrologers are paid to predi t the future or des ribe a person?s personality and life, but most horos opes only make #ague untestable statements that an apply to almost anyone!;K1<48A *strologers a#oid making #erifiable predi tions and instead rely on making #ague statements whi h allows them to try to a#oid falsifi ation!;KI<4J8$J9 9eorges Charpak and "enri )ro h dealt with laims from astrology in the book -ebunkedc 'S@, Telekinesis, and other @seudos ien e!;LL< They pointed out that astrologers ha#e only a small knowledge of astronomy and that they often do not take into a ount basi features su h as the pre ession of the eBuino2es whi h would hange the position of the sun with timeW they ommented on the e2ample of 'li:abeth Teissier who laimed that 8the sun ends up in the same pla e in the sky on the same date ea h year8 as the basis for laims that two people with the same birthday but a number of years apart should be under the same planetary influen e! Charpak and )ro h noted that 8there is a differen e of about twenty$ two thousand miles between 'arth?s lo ation on any spe ifi date in two su essi#e years8 and that thus they should not be under the same influen e a ording to astrology! .#er a J0 years period there would be a differen e greater than I80,000 miles!;LI< The tropi al :odia has no onne tion to the stars and as long as no laims are made that the onstellations themsel#es are in the asso iated sign it a#oids the issue of pre ession seemingly mo#ing the onstellations!;LI< Charpak and )ro h, noting this, referred to astrology based on the tropi al :odia as being 8empty bo2es that ha#e nothing to do with anything

and are de#oid of any onsisten y or orresponden e with the stars8!;LI< Sole usage of the tropi al :odia is in onsistent with referen es made, by the same astrologers, to the *ge of *Buarius whi h is dependent on when the #ernal point enters the onstellation of *Buarius! ;J< Some astrologers make laims that the position of all the planets must be taken into a ount, but astrologers were unable to predi t the e2isten e of 0eptune based on mistakes in horos opes! (nstead 0eptune was predi ted using 0ewton?s law of uni#ersal gra#itation!;K1< The grafting on of Granus, 0eptune and @luto into the astrology dis ourse was done on an ad$ho basis!;J< .n the demotion of @luto to the status of dwarf planet, @hilip Varka of the @aris .bser#atory in =eudon, Mran e wondered how astrologers should respond4;J< Should astrologers remo#e it from the list of luminars ;Sun, =oon and the 8 planets other than earth< and onfess that it did not a tually bring any impro#ementd (f they de ide to keep it, what about the growing list of other re ently dis o#ered similar bodies 3Sedna, auaoar! et 7, some of whi h e#en ha#e satellites 3eena, 200A'1L17d ;edit<1a k of me hanism *strology has been riti i:ed for failing to pro#ide a physi al me hanism that links the mo#ements of elestial bodies to their purported effe ts on human beha#iour! (n a le ture in 2001, Stephen "awking stated 8The reason most s ientists don?t belie#e in astrology is be ause it is not onsistent with our theories that ha#e been tested by e2periment!8;L8< (n 19IK, amid in reasing popular interest in astrology, The "umanist maga:ine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by )art H! )ok, 1awren e '! Herome, and @aul &urt:!;K2< The statement, entitled p.bje tions to *strology , was signed by 18L astronomers, physi ists and leading s ientists of the day! They said that there is no s ientifi foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the publi against a epting astrologi al ad#i e without Buestion! Their riti ism fo used on the fa t that there was no me hanism whereby astrologi al effe ts might o ur4 %e an see how infinitesimally small are the gra#itational and other effe ts produ ed by the distant planets and the far more distant stars! (t is simply a mistake to imagine that the for es e2erted by stars and planets at the moment of birth an in any way shape our futures!;K2<;L9< *stronomer Carl Sagan de lined to sign the statement! Sagan said he took this stan e not be ause he thought astrology had any #alidity, but be ause he thought that the tone of the statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology be ause there was no me hanism 3while 8 ertainly a rele#ant point87 was not in itself on#in ing! (n a letter published in a follow$up edition of The "umanist, Sagan onfirmed that he would ha#e been willing to sign su h a statement had it des ribed and refuted the prin ipal tenets of astrologi al belief! This, he argued, would ha#e been more persuasi#e and would ha#e produ ed less ontro#ersy!;I0< =any astrologers laim that astrology is s ientifi !;I1< Some of these astrologers ha#e proposed on#entional ausal agents su h as ele tromagnetism and gra#ity!;I1<;I2< S ientists dismiss these me hanisms as implausible;I1< sin e, for e2ample, the magneti field, when measured from earth, of a large but distant planet su h as Hupiter is far smaller than that produ ed by ordinary household applian es!;I2< .ther astrologers prefer not to attempt to e2plain astrology,;IA<;dubious p dis uss< and instead gi#e it supernatural e2planations su h as di#ination!;IJ<422ii Carl Hung sought to in#oke syn hroni ity to e2plain results on astrology from a single study he ondu ted, where no statisti ally signifi ant results were

obser#ed! Sy hroni ity itself is onsidered to be neither testable nor falsifiable!;IK< The study was subseBuently hea#ily riti ised for its non$random sample and its use of statisti s and also its la k of onsisten y with astrology!;d<;IL< ;edit<Carlson?s e2periment * ross se#eral enturies of testing, the predi tions of astrology ha#e ne#er been more a urate than that e2pe ted by han e alone!;K1< .ne approa h used in testing astrology Buantitati#ely is through blind e2periment! %hen spe ifi predi tions from astrologers were tested in rigorous e2perimental pro edures in the Carlson test, the predi tions were falsified! ;J< The Shawn Carlson?s double$blind hart mat hing tests, in whi h 28 astrologers agreed to mat h o#er 100 natal harts to psy hologi al profiles generated by the California @sy hologi al (n#entory 3C@(7 test, is one of the most renowned tests of astrology!;II<;I8< The e2perimental proto ol used in Carlson?s study was agreed to by a group of physi ists and astrologers prior to the e2periment!;J< *strologers, nominated by the 0ational Coun il for 9eo osmi +esear h, a ted as the astrologi al ad#isors, and helped to ensure, and agreed, that the test was fair!;I8<411I;I9<4J20 They also hose 2L of the 28 astrologers for the tests, the other 2 being interested astrologers who #olunteered afterwards!;I9<4J20 The astrologers ame from 'urope and the Gnited States!;I8<411I The astrologers helped to draw up the entral proposition of natal astrology to be tested!;I9<4J19 @ublished in 0ature in 198K, the study found that predi tions based on natal astrology were no better than han e, and that the testing 8 learly refutes the astrologi al hypothesis8!;I9< ;edit<9auBuelin?s resear h =ain arti le4 =ars effe t The initial =ars effe t finding, showing the relati#e freBuen y of the diurnal position of =ars in the birth harts 30 f KI07 of 8eminent athletes8 3red solid line7 ompared to the e2pe ted results ;after =i hel 9auBuelin 19KK<;80< (n 19KK, astrologer, and psy hologist =i hel 9auBuelin stated that although he had failed to find e#iden e to support su h indi ators as the :odia al signs and planetary aspe ts in astrology, he had found positi#e orrelations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and su ess in professions 3su h as do tors, s ientists, athletes, a tors, writers, painters, et !7 whi h astrology traditionally asso iates with those planets!;80< The best$known of 9auBuelin?s findings is based on the positions of =ars in the natal harts of su essful athletes and be ame known as the 8=ars effe t8!;81< * study ondu ted by se#en Mren h s ientists attempted to repli ate the laim, but found no statisti al e#iden e, and attributed the effe t to sele ti#e bias on 9auBuelin?s part, a using him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study!;82< 9eoffrey -ean has suggested that the effe t may be aused by self$reporting of birth dates by parents rather than any issue with the study by 9auBuelin! The suggestion is that a small subset of the parents may ha#e had hanged birth times to be onsistent with better astrologi al harts for a related profession! The sample group was taken from a time where belief in astrology was more ommon! 9auBuelin had failed to find the =ars effe t in more re ent populations! where a nurse or do tor re orded the birth information! The number of births under astrologi ally undesirable onditions was also lower, indi ating more e#iden e that parents hoose dates and times to suit their beliefs!;I8<411L ;edit<Theologi al #iewpoints See also4 Christianity and astrology, Hewish #iews on astrology, and =uslim #iews on

astrology Some of the pra ti es of astrology were ontested on theologi al grounds by medie#al =uslim astronomers su h as *l$Marabi 3*lpharabius7, (bn al$"aytham 3*lha:en7 and *#i enna! They said that the methods of astrologers onfli ted with orthodo2 religious #iews of (slami s holars through the suggestion that the %ill of 9od an be known and predi ted in ad#an e!;8A< Mor e2ample, *#i ennas ?+efutation against astrology? +is la f ibY]l aYCkm al$noj[m, argues against the pra ti e of astrology while supporting the prin iple of planets a ting as the agents of di#ine ausation whi h e2press 9od?s absolute power o#er reation! *#i enna onsidered that the mo#ement of the planets influen ed life on earth in a deterministi way, but argued against the apability of determining the e2a t influen e of the stars!;8J< (n essen e, *#i enna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the e2tent that pre ise and fatalisti predi tions ould be made from it!;8K< (bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya 31292p1AK07, in his =iftah -ar al$SaCadah, also used physi al arguments in astronomy to Buestion the pra ti e of judi ial astrology!;8L< "e re ogni:ed that the stars are mu h larger than the planets, and argued4 *nd if you astrologers answer that it is pre isely be ause of this distan e and smallness that their influen es are negligible, then why is it that you laim a great influen e for the smallest hea#enly body, =er uryd %hy is it that you ha#e gi#en an influen e to al$+a?s and al$-hanab, whi h are two imaginary points ;as ending and des ending nodes<d O(bn aayyim *l$Haw:iyya;8I< )elief in astrology is in ompatible with Catholi beliefs;88< su h as free will!;89< * ording to the Cate hism of the Catholi Chur h4 *ll forms of di#ination are to be reje ted4 re ourse to Satan or demons, onjuring up the dead or other pra ti es falsely supposed to 8un#eil8 the future! Consulting horos opes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of lair#oyan e, and re ourse to mediums all on eal a desire for power o#er time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to on iliate hidden powers! They ontradi t the honor, respe t, and lo#ing fear that we owe to 9od alone!;90< OCate hism of the Catholi Chur h St! *ugustine belie#ed that astrology onfli ted with hur h do trine, but he grounded his opposition with non$theologi al reasons su h as the failure of astrology to e2plain twins who beha#e differently although are on ei#ed at the same moment and born at appro2imately the same time!;89< ;edit<See also 1ist of astrologi al traditions, types, and systems ;edit<0otes h The le#el of onfiden e was self rated by the astrologers themsel#es! h *lso dis ussed in =artens, +onnyW Tra het, Tim 319987! =aking sense of astrology! *mherst, 0!,!4 @rometheus )ooks! (S)0 1KIA922188! h see "euristi s in judgment and de ision making h Hung made the laims, despite being aware that there was no statisti al signifi an e in the results! 1ooking for oin iden es post ho is of #ery dubious #alue, see =isuseiofistatisti sj-ataidredging!;IK< ;edit<+eferen es

h &o h$%estenhol:, Glla 3199K7! =esopotamian astrology 4 an introdu tion to )abylonian and *ssyrian elestial di#ination! Copenhagen4 =useum Tus ulanum @ress! pp! Moreword,11! (S)0 9I8$8I$I289$28I$0! h &assell, 1auren 3K =ay 20107! 8Stars, spirits, signs4 towards a history of astrology 1100 p18008! Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of S ien e @art C4 Studies in "istory and @hilosophy of )iologi al and )iomedi al S ien es J1 3274 LI pL9! doi410!101L>j!shps !2010!0J!001! h 8*strology $ *strology in modern times8! 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a! +etrie#ed I . tober 2012! h a b d e f g Varka, @hilippe 320117! 8*stronomy and astrology8! @ro eedings of the (nternational *stronomi al Gnion K 3S2L074 J20pJ2K! doi410!101I>S1IJA921A11002L02! h /ish#eshwara, edited by S!&! )iswas, -!C!/! =allik, C!/! 319897! Cosmi perspe ti#es 4 essays dedi ated to the memory of =!&!/! )appu 31! publ! ed!7! Cambridge ;'ngland<4 Cambridge Gni#ersity @ress! (S)0 0K21AJAKJ2! h @ro eedings of the )iennial =eeting of the @hilosophy of S ien e *sso iation, #ol! 1! -ordre ht u!a!4 +eidel u!a!! 19I8! (S)0 9I8$0$91IK8L$0K$I! 8Chapter I4 S ien e and Te hnology4 @ubli *ttitudes and Gnderstanding8! s ien e and engineering indi ators 200L! 0ational S ien e Moundation! +etrie#ed 28 Huly 2012! 8*bout three$fourths of *meri ans hold at least one pseudos ientifi beliefW i!e!, they belie#ed in at least 1 of the 10 sur#ey items;29<8 !!!8 Those 10 items were e2trasensory per eption 3'S@7, that houses an be haunted, ghosts>that spirits of dead people an ome ba k in ertain pla es>situations, telepathy> ommuni ation between minds without using traditional senses, lair#oyan e>the power of the mind to know the past and predi t the future, astrology>that the position of the stars and planets an affe t people?s li#es, that people an ommuni ate mentally with someone who has died, wit hes, rein arnation>the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and hanneling>allowing a 8spirit$being8 to temporarily assume ontrol of a body!8 h "arper, -ouglas! 8astrology8! .nline 'tymology -i tionary! +etrie#ed 2011$12$0L! 8-ifferentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1J00s and by 1I ! this word was limited to 8reading influen es of the stars and their effe ts on human destiny!88 h 8astrology, n!8! .2ford 'nglish -i tionary 3Se ond ed!7! .2ford Gni#ersity @ress! 1989W online #ersion September 2011! 8(n .ld Mren h and =iddle 'nglish astronomie seems to be the earlier and general word, astrologie ha#ing been subseB! introdu ed for the part or pra ti al appli ation of astronomy to mundane affairs, and thus gradually limited by 1Ith ent! to the reputed influen es of the stars, unknown to s ien e! 0ot in Shakespeare!8 h The 0ew 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a, 'n y lopaedia )ritanni a,? #!K, 19IJ, p! 91L h -ietri h, Thomas4 ?The .rigin of Culture and Ci#ili:ation, @heni2 k @heni2 1iterary @ubli ists, 200K, p! A0K h -i tionary of the history of ideas! 0ew ,ork4 S ribner! 19IJ! (S)0 0$L8J$1A29A$1! h Hames +! 1ewis, 200A! The *strology )ook4 the 'n y lopedia of "ea#enly (nfluen es! /isible (nk @ress! .nline at 9oogle )ooks! h "one, =argaret 319I87! The =odern Te2t$)ook of *strology! +omford, G!&!4 1! 0! Mowler k Co! 1td!! pp! 21p89! (S)0 08K2JAAKIA! h +iske, &ris 3200I7! 1lewellyn?s Complete )ook of *strology! =innesota, GS*4 1lewellyn

@ubli ations! pp! KpLW 2I! (S)0 9I8$0$IA8I$10I1$L! h 1uhrmann, Tanya 319917! @ersuasions of the wit h?s raft4 ritual magi in ontemporary 'ngland! "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! 1JIp1K1! (S)0 0$LIJ$LLA2J$1! h @ingree, -a#id 3187! 8(ndian *stronomy8! @ro eedings of the *meri an @hilosophi al So iety! *meri an @hilosophi al So iety 122 3L74 AL1pALJ! +etrie#ed J *ugust 2012! h a b @ingree, -a#id 3Hune 19LA7! 8*stronomy and *strology in (ndia and (ran8! (sis! The Gni#ersity of Chi ago @ress on behalf of The "istory of S ien e So iety KJ 3274 229 p2JL! h a b The Chinese sky during the "an 4 onstellating stars and so iety! 1eiden4 )rill! 199I! (S)0 9I8$90$0J$10IAI$A! h M! +i hard Stephenson, 8Chinese +oots of =odern *stronomy8, 0ew S ientist, 2L Hune 1980! See also 5Z`OO PmY OOlO rO5 Cl NOOO p h Theodora 1au, The "andbook of Chinese "oros opes, pp2$8, A0 pK, L0 pJ, 88p9J, 118p2J, 1J8pKA, 1I8p8J, 208 p1A, 2A8pJJ, 2I0pI8, A0Lp12, AA8pJJ, Sou#enir @ress, 0ew ,ork, 200K h Selin, "elaine, ed! 3199I7! 8*strology in China8! 'n y lopaedia of the "istory of S ien e, Te hnology, and =edi ine in 0on$%estern Cultures! Springer! +etrie#ed Huly 22, 2012! h 8 CO CF C ] CZ C C ]r C C Cm CR C ]q` C CY ]r COO CF C C CR CY Cm CR C Cg CF CY ] C C CF C\ CF Co C C ]` ] Cg C CO CF C ] CZ C C ]r C C C Z C C CR COO C CR C C ] C C CF C\ CF Co C C ]` CO C] CO Cm CY Cg CQ C CF C Cg CF C Cg CR CO8! h Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31! publ! ed!7! 1ondon ;u!a!<4 Continuum!! (S)0 9I8$1$JJ11$8129$9! h =arsha k, *le2ander 319917! The roots of i#ili:ation 4 the ogniti#e beginnings of man?s first art, symbol and notation 3+e#! and e2panded! ed!7! =ount &is o, 0!,!4 =oyer )ell! (S)0 9I8$1$KK921$0J1$L! h '#elyn$%hite, "esiod W with an 'nglish translation by "ugh 9! 319II7! The "omeri hymns and "omeri a 3+eprinted! ed!7! Cambridge, =ass!4 "ar#ard Gni#ersity @ress! pp! LLA pLII! (S)0 9I8$0$LIJ$990LA$0! 8Mifty days after the solsti e, when the season of wearisome heat is ome to an end, is the right time to go sailing! Then you will not wre k your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless @oseidon the 'arth$Shaker be set upon it, or Veus, the king of the deathless gods8 h *#eni, -a#id "! &elley, 'ugene M! =ilone W foreword by *nthony M! 3200K7! '2ploring an ient skies an en y lopedi sur#ey of ar haeoastronomy 3.nline$*usg! ed!7! 0ew ,ork4 Springer! p! 2L8! (S)0 9I8$0$A8I$9KA10$L! h Two te2ts whi h refer to the ?omens of Sargon? are reported in '! M! %eidner, p"istori hes =aterial in der )abyonis hen .mina$1iteratur *ltorientalis he Studien, ed! )runo =eissner, 31eip:ig, 1928$97, #! 2A1 and 2AL!

h Mrom s roll * of the ruler 9udea of 1agash, ( 1I p /( 1A! .! &aiser, Te2te aus der Gmwelt des *lten Testaments, )d! 2, 1pA! 9Ntersloh, 198Lp1991! *lso Buoted in *! Malkenstein, p%ahrsagung in der sumeris hen _berlieferung , 1a di#ination en =sopotamie an ienne et dans les r gions #oisines! @aris, 19LL! h )r[n, =uYCammad ibn *YCmad 318I9!7! 8/(((8! The hronology of an ient nations! 1ondon, @ub! for the .riental translations fund of 9reat )ritain k (reland by %! "! *llen and o!! 1CC0 0100LI8A! h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!A! Mran e4"adean @ress h Cummins * 320127 The Starry +ubri 4 Se#enteenth$Century 'nglish *strology and =agi ,p!JA$JK! Mran e4"adean @ress h a b Campion, 0i holas 320097! "istory of western astrology! /olume ((, The medie#al and modern worlds! 31!

*mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A< *strology is a pseudos ien e, and as su h has been reje ted by the s ientifi ommunity as ha#ing no e2planatory power for des ribing the uni#erse! S ientifi testing of astrology has been ondu ted, and no e#iden e has been found to support any of the premises or purported effe ts outlined in astrologi al traditions! %here astrology has made falsifiable predi tions, it has been falsified!;J<4J2J There is no proposed me hanism of a tion by whi h the positions and motions of stars and planets ould affe t people and e#ents on 'arth that does not ontradi t well understood, basi aspe ts of biology and physi s!;K<42J9;L< Contents ;hide< 1 'tymology 2 @rin iples and pra ti e 2!1 %estern 2!2 (ndian and South *sian 2!A Chinese and 'ast$*sian A "istory A!1 *n ient world A!2 =edie#al (slami world A!A 'arly =odern A!J Sin e 1900 J S ientifi appraisal J!1 @erspe ti#es from psy hology J!2 1a k of onsisten y

J!A 1a k of me hanism J!J Carlson?s e2periment J!K 9auBuelin?s resear h K Theologi al #iewpoints L See also I 0otes 8 +eferen es 9 Murther reading 10 '2ternal links ;edit<'tymology =ar antonio +aimondi engra#ing4 1Kth ent! The word astrology omes from the early 1atin word astrologia,;I< deri#ing from the 9reek noun YNOrTOO UO OlPl l P l Q l l O OR, ?a ount of the stars?! *strologia later passed into meaning ?star$di#ination? with astronomia used for the s ientifi term!;8< ;edit<@rin iples and pra ti e +obert Mludd?s 1Lth entury illustration of man the mi ro osm within the uni#ersal ma ro osm *d#o ates ha#e defined astrology as a symboli language, an art form, a s ien e, and a method of di#ination!;9<;10< *lthough most ultural systems of astrology share ommon roots in an ient philosophies that influen ed ea h other, many ha#e uniBue methodologies whi h differ from those de#eloped in the %est! These in lude "indu astrology 3also known as 8(ndian astrology8 and in modern times referred to as 8/edi astrology87 and Chinese astrology, both of whi h ha#e influen ed the world?s ultural history! ;edit<%estern Mor more details on this topi , see %estern astrology! %estern astrology is a form of di#ination based on the onstru tion of a horos ope for an e2a t moment, su h as a person?s birth!;11< (t uses the tropi al :odia , whi h is aligned to the eBuino tial points!;12< %estern astrology is founded on the mo#ements and relati#e positions of elestial bodies su h as the Sun, =oon, planets, whi h are analy:ed by their mo#ement through signs of the :odia 3spatial di#isions of the e lipti 7 and by their aspe ts 3angles7 relati#e to one another! They are also onsidered by their pla ement in houses 3spatial di#isions of the sky7!;1A< *strology?s modern representation in western popular media is usually redu ed to sun sign astrology, whi h onsiders only the :odia sign of the Sun at an indi#idual?s date of birth, and represents only 1>12 of the total hart!;1J< The names of the :odia orrespond to the names of the onstellations originally within the respe ti#e segment and are in 1atin!; itation needed< *long with tarot di#ination, astrology is one of the ore studies of %estern esoteri ism, and as su h has influen ed systems of magi al belief not only among %estern esoteri ists and "ermeti ists, but also belief systems su h as %i a that ha#e borrowed from or been influen ed by the %estern esoteri tradition! Tanya 1uhrmann has said that 8all magi ians know something about astrology,8 and refers to a table of orresponden es in Starhawk?s The Spiral -an e, organi:ed by planet, as an e2ample of the astrologi al lore studied by

magi ians!;1K< @age from an *strologi al Treatise, a! 1IK0 ;edit<(ndian and South *sian Mor more details on this topi , see "indu astrology! "indu astrology originated with western astrology!;1L<4AL1 (n the earliest (ndian astronomy te2ts, the year was belie#ed to be AL0 days long, similar to that of )abylonian astrology, but the rest of the early astrologi al system bears little resemblan e!;1I<4229 1ater, the (ndian te hniBues were augmented with some of the )abylonian te hniBues!;1I<42A1 ;edit<Chinese and 'ast$*sian Mor more details on this topi , see Chinese astrology and Chinese :odia ! Chinese astrology has a lose relation with Chinese philosophy 3theory of the three harmonies4 hea#en, earth and man7 and uses on epts su h as yin and yang, the Mi#e phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 'arthly )ran hes, and shi hen 3 Y\U6 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes7! The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly onfined to politi al astrology, the obser#ation of unusual phenomena, identifi ation of portents and the sele tion of auspi ious days for e#ents and de isions!;18<422,8K,1IL The onstellations of the Vodia of western *sia and 'urope were not usedW instead the sky is di#ided into Three 'n losures 35C6[U sOn yuq`Yn7, and Twenty$eight =ansions 35Z[TO O OO P q`\rshq`bO 2iq`]7 in twel#e Ci 3O O5Z[T Y7!;19< The Chinese :odia of twel#e animal signs is said to represent twel#e different types of personality! (t is based on y les of years, lunar months, and two$hour periods of the day 3the shi hen7! The :odia traditionally begins with the sign of the +at, and the y le pro eeds through 11 other animals signs4 the .2, Tiger, +abbit, -ragon, Snake, "orse, 9oat, =onkey, +ooster, -og and @ig!;20< Comple2 systems of predi ting fate and destiny based on one?s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, su h as :iping and Vi %ei -ou Shu 3simplified Chinese4 m ^ U pO6W traditional Chinese4 m^U pOCW pinyin4 :YOw_idY ushq`]7 are still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology! They do not rely on dire t obser#ations of the stars!;21< The &orean :odia is identi al to the Chinese one! The /ietnamese :odia is almost identi al to Chinese :odia e2 ept that the se ond animal is the %ater )uffalo instead of the .2, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the +abbit! The Hapanese :odia in ludes the %ild )oar instead of the @ig! The Thai :odia in ludes a 0aga in pla e of the -ragon and begins, not at Chinese 0ew ,ear, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar alendar, or during the Songkran festi#al 3now elebrated e#ery 1A _1K *pril7, depending on the purpose of the use!;22< ;edit<"istory =ain arti le4 "istory of astrology ;edit<*n ient world Mor more details on an ient astrology, see )abylonian astrology and "ellenisti astrology! *strology, in its broadest sense, is the sear h for meaning in the sky! (t has therefore been argued that astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made ons ious attempts to measure, re ord, and predi t seasonal hanges by referen e to astronomi al y les!;2A<42,A

'arly e#iden e of su h pra ti es appears as markings on bones and a#e walls, whi h show that lunar y les were being noted as early as 2K,000 years agoW the first step towards re ording the =oons influen e upon tides and ri#ers, and towards organi:ing a ommunal alendar!;2J<481ff *gri ultural needs were also met by in reasing knowledge of onstellations, whose appearan es hange with the seasons, allowing the rising of parti ular star$groups to herald annual floods or seasonal a ti#ities!;2K<;#erifi ation needed< )y the third millennium )C', widespread i#ili:ations had de#eloped sophisti ated awareness of elestial y les, and are belie#ed to ha#e ons iously oriented their temples to reate alignment with the helia al risings of the stars!;2L< There is s attered e#iden e to suggest that the oldest known astrologi al referen es are opies of te2ts made during this period! Two, from the /enus tablet of *mmisaduBa 3 ompiled in )abylon around 1I00 )C'7 are reported to ha#e been made during the reign of king Sargon of *kkad 32AAJ_22I9 )C'7!;2I< *nother, showing an early use of ele tional astrology, is as ribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler 9udea of 1agash 3 a! 21JJ_212J )C'7! This des ribes how the gods re#ealed to him in a dream the onstellations that would be most fa#orable for the planned onstru tion of a temple!;28< "owe#er, there is ontro#ersy about whether they were genuinely re orded at the time or merely as ribed to an ient rulers by posterity! The oldest undisputed e#id

*mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A<

*mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A<

*mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted

with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A<

*mong (ndo$'uropean peoples, astrology has been dated to the third millennium )C', with roots in alendri al systems used to predi t seasonal shifts and to interpret elestial y les as signs of di#ine ommuni ations!;1< Through most of its history, astrology was onsidered a s holarly tradition! (t was a epted in politi al and a ademi onte2ts, and was onne ted with other studies, su h as astronomy, al hemy, meteorology, and medi ine!;2< *t the end of the 1Ith entury, new s ientifi on epts in astronomy and physi s 3su h as helio entrism and 0ewtonian me hani s7 alled astrology into Buestion, and subseBuent ontrolled studies failed to onfirm its predi ti#e #alue! *strology thus lost its a ademi and theoreti al standing, and ommon belief in astrology has largely de lined!;A<