It is suggested that conventional statistical significance tests are inappropriate for research in astrology and that Bayesian methods are better. Bayes’ theorem is explained using probability tree notation and examples from everyday life. It is argued that Michel Gauquelin could have inadvertently biased his work on planets and character traits – but still have been right. Examples are offered from the history of science to show that prominent scientists have often embellished results to make them more convincing. Finally, a Bayesian analysis of the Astro-Questionnaire results taken in conjunction with Gauquelin’s character trait work indicates that a prior probability of 1/5 develops to a post probability of nearly 2/3. It is proposed that this analysis gives support to the contention that further experimental work on the character trait hypothesis is needed.

Previouisly unpublished data has aided the analysis of Bradley’s Jupiter-rainfall study. It is shown that Bradley’s results are spurious, due to the astronomical artifact of the Moon’s sidereal period being nearly commensurable with the Earth’s rotation.

Data provided by 3,480 respondents were used to test various hypotheses relating personality to date and time of birth. As predicted by astroogy, an alternating pattern with sun sign was found for extraversion. The water signs were found to be more emotional than the other elements but the distribution of neuroticism scores throughout the year was not random. It is suggested that if self-descriptions are influenced by knowledge of astrology this effect is not trivial. In the present study the sun sign connection could not have been picked up from hints given by the circumstance of testing. Gauquelin’s finding that associations between personality and planetary positions do not appear among ordinary people is supported, and presents something of a puzzle.

Sir Isaac Newton seems to have been the first person to have applied the precession of the equinoxes to history. His concern was not so much the dating of the astrological ages, but rather to use the location of the vernal point in the sidereal zodiac as a chronological indicator to historical events.

In this study I tested the astrological claim that synastry aspects between two natal charts play a role in human relationships. The sample used contained the birth data of 5648 parents who were non-celebrities born in France around the turn of the century. These birth data had originally been collected and published by M & F Gauquelin. To test this synastry claim I counted and analysed the mutual major aspects between partners (angular separation along the ecliptic) of 0, 60, 90 120 and 180 degrees (orb 5 degrees) of nine natal horoscope factors (Sun, Moon, Mercury,Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Asc. And MC). I derived the theoretically expected aspect frequencies from the sample by comining all male subjects with all female subjects, each gender belonging to specific age groups. To test the significance of the deviation between observed and expected aspect frequencies, I used the synasstry aspects in 500 samples of each 2824 randomly composed couples, and fitted probability-density functions to the frequency histograms of these data. The frequency of the grand total of aspects appeared to be significantly large. A genuinely significant high aspect frequency to the Sun in the charts of the wives took a heavy share in the surplus of the grand total. Hwever, the number of significant aspects as well as the magnitude of the overall deviation from chance level were not genuinely significant. Nevertheless, a significant majority of factor pairing showed a surplus of aspect frequency. In addtion, several combinations of aspects as well as their frequency orb dependencies did not falfify astrological doctrines on synastry. But since th effect sizes were very small the conclusion was that synastry aspects may play only a trivial role in partner selection.

I conducted a refinement of the synastry control experiment (1) in which the birth dates of married partners were shifted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 days The surplus of aspect frequency gradually decreased with increasing shift magnitude. The maximum frequency appears at the zero shift. These findings reinforce the conclusion that the previously reported synastry effect is not due to methodological errors.

The Mars effect discovered by Michel Gauquelin in the charts of sports
champions is discussed and the controversy this engendered from other scientific quarters is briefly summarised. A summary of the work of Ertel in replicating the Gauquelin study is presented and the author asserts that the Mars effect holds good for people at the top of other professions. The Fourier method of analysing the Mars effect is presented as a more effective way of understanding this phenomenon.

The French sceptics’ (CFEPP’s) test of Gauquelin’s Mars hypothesis with 1066 athletes’ birth data conducted from 1982 to 1993 purportedly showed negative results. I re-analysed this data and found positive indications of a Mars effect which were statistically significant. It turned out that the CFEPP’s attempted refutation of Gaquelin’s claim resulted from biased sampling (preponderance of low eminent athletes) and from biased data analysis (wrong chance expectancy, inferior sector definition, neglected eminence subdivision). The author doubts, however, that an ongoing worldwide spread of the sceptics’ message (“The “Mars effect” doesn’t exist”) will be affected by present counter evidence. Resistance to accepting uncomfortable hard facts is considered an urgent problem for sociologists of science.

After 1700, astrology lost the respect it once commanded in medical circles. But the belief that the heavens influenced bodily health persisted – even in learned medicine – until well into the nineteenth century. The continuing vitality of these ideas owed much to the new empirical and mechanical outlook of their proponents. Taking their cue from the work of Robert Boyle and Richard Mead, a number of British practitioners amassed statistical evidence which purported to prove the influence of the moon upon fevers and other diseases. Such ideas flourished in the colonies and in the medical servives of the armed forces, but their exponents were not marginal men. Some, like James Lind were widely respected and drew support for their views from such influential figures as Erasmus Darwin.

The prosperous ironmonger Samuel Hemmings and King George III were supposedly born at the same hour and died at the same hour after lives showing striking similarities. The original source is said to be a death notice in the newspapers of February 1820 but such a notice could be found. However, a notice was found that mentioned a respectable furnishing ironmonger Richard Speer. It said he was born at the same hour as the King, died near the same time, and to show his loyalty he chose the same day to get married. It makes no menion of his prosperity or of similarities in their lives. But even the simulataneous birth and marriage may be in doubt, because there is no mention of Samuel Hemmings or Richard Speer in the baptism and marriage records for London in the International Genealogical Index. The probability of such a birth and death twin occurring by chancew when corrected for multiple endpoints is unremarkable. The life of George III is unusal, well documented and deserving of astrological study.