There are no solid data on the magnitude, determinants and processes of trafficking in Nepal, and the needs of those trafficked who return. The contributing causes and structure of sex trafficking in Nepal are largely unknown, and most figures are at best educated guesses. Very limited information is available about the family environment, economic and social situations of the sex workers. Many astrologers in Nepal believed that significant numbers of parents will have surrendered their daughter into prostitution on the basis of astrological indicators, but there is no empirical evidence to support this. Thus, by using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the present study explored the socio-cultural and astrological aspects of sex trafficking and examined whether the trafficked girls have any unique clusters of astrological profiles. No link with astrological profiles was found and the patterns observed being completely random.

A brief comment on “Is Astrology Revelant to Consciousness and Psi?” by Geoffrery Dean and Ivan Kelly, Journal of Consciousness Studies (2003) 10: 6-7, pp 175-198

The Reformation coincided with a boom in the publication of astrological almanacs and astrology became a potent means of propagandising for differing political positions. One of the most notable Reformation astrologers was Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), professor of Greek at Wittenberg from 1518, where he became one of Martin Luther’s closest friends and collaborators. In 1521 he briefly found himself leader of the Reformation when Luther was confined in the Wartburg. His interest in astrology and his position at the centre of the Reformation raises important questions concerning the possible use of astrological forecasts of the Reformation’s future course. Martin Luther’s birth chart was to become a focus of debate amongst astrologers who wished to establish whether he was a new messiah or the Anti-Christ.

The medical astrologers of Ancient Greece: the iatromathematici, and the later European physician-astrologers, assumed a correlation between events in the heavens and those on earth that was relevant to both health and disease. Some of the early practitioners of modern scientific medicine did the same under the aegis of what we might term proto-cosmobiology, though none of them could provide an adequate mechanism to explain the nature of the link they believed existed between the skies and ourselves. With the discovery and elucidation of the pineal gland’s functions in the mid-twentieth century, which are discussed in detail, we were in a position to provide such a link, and to a great extent, we can now explain in conventional scientific terms how those influences of the Sun, Moon, planets and other celestial phenomena studied by the early iatromathematici and early cosmobiologists could, can, and do, affect us.

This article discusses trait-word extraction methodology as used in extensive analyses of US-Presidential biographies. It is made clear that there is an objectively verifiable methodoly for trait extraction which suggests that Ertel’s claims that the flawed methodology used by the Gauquelins invalidates the whole Character Traits Hypothesis (CTH) are not justified. The study continues by using the analyses of Simonton for each president, which includes a score on 4 scales (Interpersonal, Charismatic, Deliberative and Creative) to examine the correlations with Plus-Zone planets. Significant correlations are found on a small sample because the methodology of Ordinal data can be applied, in contrast to the Chi-Squared and other testing which is all that can be done on the Nominal data found in the Gauquelin source. The implication of this so-far neglected study (since 1997) is that CTH must be re-examined, and that the work of Simonton who has studied eminence over many years needs to be considered before ill-informed decisions are made to reject CTH. In addition the use of a methodology such as this would allow the study of small samples of the Gauquelin database with a view to re-examining CTH.

Michael Glykas is generally known as a learned conservative theologian who wrote a refutation of Byzantine Emperor Manuel Komnenos’ defence of astrology in the latter half of the twelfth century. However there exists substantial evidence that Michael Glykas had a dual identity as the shadowy Michael Sikidites who in his youth was known for his occult interests, suspected of political sedition against Manuel, and imprisoned and blinded as punishment for sorcery. With skill and critical astuteness, Glykas directs his refutation not so much against Manuel’s philosophical arguments as against the claims of his evidence, and thus seeks to cast doubt upon the moral and literary integrity of his Emperor in an attempt to redeem his own reputation. Within half a century of the reintroduction of astrology to the West, Glykas was the first person in many centuries to stir up all the old Christian objections against the fatalism of the stars.

From the 2nd century AD the coincidence of Passover and Easter was recognized as a problem for the Christian church by the church authorities, and in the 4th century, after Christianity became the Roman state religion, Roman authorities took steps to prevent Passover and Easter coinciding. This effort was complicated by the growing separation between the churches in Rome and Constantinople. Though from the 2nd century the majority of Jews lived in the diaspora, at least up to the 10th century the calendar was governed by a rabbinical court in Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel). Here we discuss the changes in the Jewish calendar in the 5-8th centuries AD, the middle (c. 636 AD) of which period witnessed an abrupt transition from Byzantine rule over Eretz Israel to Arab rule. In this period no serious changes were made in the basic mathematics of the Jewish calendar; the only changes had a political context. Here we discuss a single but singular feature of the Jewish calendar, the ‘Deĥiyot’ [postponements] of Rosh Hashana. Our major claim is that Deĥiyah D [postponement from Wednesday to Thursday] and Deĥiyah U [postponement from Friday to Saturday] entered the calendar c. 532 AD as an ingenious Jewish response to Emperor Justinian’s ban against the Passover feast (Nisan 14) falling on a Saturday, instituted to mend a famous calendar rift between the Roman and Alexandrian churches. Next we claim that Deĥiyah A [postponement from Sunday to Monday] became part of the calendar no earlier than when the 2nd day of the festivals Rosh Hashana [New Year] and Sukkot [Tabernacles] acquired the status of sacred day and we raise the lower historical boundary of Deĥiyah A’s introduction in the calendar up to the time of the first Gaonim [heads of talmudic academies in the Arab caliphate] (c. 658 AD). We also suggest the reasons for the timing of three other deĥiyot.

The annual total of births fell substantially in Hong Kong in the past 20 years, and the average fertility level of 0.9 births per family has now fallen below the notional replacement rate for the existing population. Nevertheless, short run periods of high birth rates have occurred, particularly in the Dragon Years of 1988 and 2000. This rise in fertility may be related to zodiacal beliefs about fertility and the presumed favourable time for births, but this needs to be investigated more systematically.

Georg Joachim Rheticus (1514-1574) was central to the development and popularization of Copernicus’ heliocentric theory. He is most well known for the first published account of the theory, the Narratio Prima in 1539, and his persuasion in obtaining Copernicus’ manuscript for publication, De Revolutionibus (1543). Rheticus’ poem ‘Concerning the Beer of Breslau and the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac’, written circa 1542, sheds light on two aspects of Rheticus’ early involvement with the heliocentric theory. The poem helps us understand the approach to astrology which would prove decisive in Rheticus’ acceptance of the heliocentric theory and offers a glimpse into Rheticus’ association with Wittenberg’s controversial group of young poets. This relationship significantly injured Rheticus’ career and the heliocentric theory in turn.

Geoffrey Dean gave an account of three tests of his Parental Tampering Hypothesis (PTH) that I had suggested to him that he conduct. He concluded (Dean 2000): “Three tests, three hits. I rest my case.” I scrutinised Dean’s procedure and found that his first test failed to support PTH (about planetary effects on desired days). He obtained the desired hit by reversing the hypothesis post hoc so as to accommmodate the new “prediction” to his result. The second test also had negative results (about a purported dependence of planetary effects on “seeing conditions” at the time of birth). Again Dean reversed his critic’s hypothesis so as to make a hit out of this failure. The third test failed no less (about combining all informative planetary effects rather than suing the dominant effect only). Dean obscured his actual finding. In sum, the three tests failed to prvide evidence for PTH. The present result is consistent with those of four earlier scrutinies. No further test is necessary to conlcude that Dean’s claim that Gauquelin effects are man-made artificact is utterly mistaken.