After the paper by Mayo, White, and Eysenck in 1978, a considerable number of papers studied the so-called sun-sign-effect predicted by astrology: people born with the sun in a positive sign are supposed to be extraverted, and those with the sun in a negative sign are supposed to be introverted. In these papers, researchers used ad hoc questionnaires with a few questions related to belief, knowledge, experience, or attitude toward astrology. However, an appropriate inventory with known psychometric properties has yet to be developed to assess the belief in astrology. In the present paper, the Belief in Astrology Inventory is presented with some psychometric data. The participants were 743 undergraduates studying Psychology and Social Sciences at a university in Spain. Correlation of scores on Belief in Astrology and Extraversion was small but significant (r = .22; r2 = .04) for positive sun-sign participants. This value accounts for negligible common variance. Women had significandy higher scores on the inventory than men.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between beliefs in ways of telling the future (astrology, graphology, palmistry etc) and beliefs in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

DESIGN: Participants completed a short questionnaire that requested that they rate the efficacy of 8 CAM therapies along with 12 other ways of predicting the future ranging from the well known and established (astrology) to the less well known (tasseography, oneiromancy). Short descriptions of each were provided. They also answered four attitude statements on science as applied to medicine.

SUBJECTS: Two hundred three (130 female, 73 male) adult Britains obtained from a university subject panel served as unpaid volunteer subjects.

RESULTS: CAM therapies were judged as modestly effective and most of the other “-ologies” ineffective. Further analysis confirmed two clear factors with the different methods loading on two different factors. Regressions showed females who were less concerned with scientific evaluations but more concerned with treatment believed more in the efficacy of the “future-ologies.” Also females, who had heard of fewer “future-ologies” but more CAM practices were more likely to believe in the efficacy of CAM therapies.

CONCLUSION: Belief in CAM is unrelated to belief in “future-ologies.” Interest in the scientific evaluations of treatment is the best predictor of beliefs about efficacy.

Some astrological hypotheses related to predisposition to severe mental illness were tested by analysing the zodiacal signs, the interactions between planetary qualities (aspects), and the occurrence of full and new moon dates, on the dates of birth of 221 schizophrenics, compared with 112 normal subjects. The sun signs of the schizophrenics were significantly more likely to be in the signs associated with introversion, while those of the control population were significantly more likely to be in the outgoing signs. A significantly higher proportion of schizophrenics had their Mars (i.e., symbol of aggressiveness) in the outgoing signs than the normal population. A significantly higher proportion of control subjects fulfilled operational criteria for adequacy of number of aspects between the sun and the other planets. The tendency for a higher proportion of schizophrenics to have “difficult” aspects just failed to reach significance. A significantly higher proportion of control subjects had aspects between the sun and mars; and also a significantly higher proportion of control subjects had “soft” (helpful) aspects between the sun and mars. These findings are in keeping with the well-known oddity of schizophrenia (schiz = split; phren = mind); such that, a group which collectively is characterised by an “introverted” self (i.e. sun sign), has a coexisting aggressive tendency (i.e. strong mars) and poor integration between the elements of the psyche and the self (i.e. inadequacy of aspects between Sun and other planets). However, the findings give only partial support to key astrological postulates because there was a non-significant trend for more schizophrenics to be born in “water” signs and on full moon dates.

Collectively the daily, seasonal, lunar andtidal geophysical cycles regulate much of the temporal biology of life on Earth. The increasing isolate of human socities from these geophysical cycles, as aresult ofimproved living conditions, high-quality nutrition and 24/7 working practices, have led many to believe that human biology functions independently of them. Yet recent studies have highlighted the dominant role that our circadian clock plays in the organisation of 24 hour patterns of behaviour and physiology. Preferred wake and sleep times are to a large extent drive by an endogenous temporal programme that uses sunlight as an entraining cue. The alarm clock can drive human activity rhythms but has little direct effect on our endogenous 24 hour pysiology. In many situations, our biology and our society appear to be in serious opposiion, and the damaging consequences to our health under these circumstances are increasinly recognised. The seasons dominate the lives of non-equatorial species, and until recently, they also had a marked influence on much of human biology. Despite human isolation from seasonal changes in temperature, food and photoperiod in the industrialised nations, the seasons still appear to have a small, but significant, impact upon when individuals are born and man asepcts of health. The seasonal changes that modulate our biology, and how these factorsmight interact with the social and metabolic status of the individual to drive seasonaleffects, arestill poorly understood. Lunar cycles had, and continue to have, an influecne upon human culture, though despite a persistent belief that ourmental health and other behaviours are modulated by the phase of the moon, there is no solid evidence that human biology is in any way regulated by the lunar cycle.

With the advent of the personal computer and its tendency to discourage independent thought and manual calculation, the very idea of ‘the prenatal epoch’ might have long-since slipped into oblivion. However, the PNE has been revived by a number of software routines so it is time to remind interested researchers of a few of the pitfalls, the least of which is its assumed failure above latitudes 66½.

In this regard to the latter, the following endnote was appended to Global Horoscopes [Wackford, 2005].

“The semi-arc system provides for circumpolar Pre-natal Epochs because parts of the North/South Meridians can serve as edges of the 1st and 7th houses. Earlier writers (notably Charles Jayne) have suggested ad hoc use of the Meridian (or Prime Vertical) in cases where the Moon tenants a degree that cannot rise or set. Substitution of the Meridian is exactly what would occur under Placidus; but without the arbitrary component. Many astrologers, past and present, have not been convinced that there is any truth in the Pre-natal Epoch, though its complete theory does not appear to have been handed down. But if residents of the temperate zones were to have such a thing as a PNE, so then must Inuit and those born in Murmansk, etc.”

For reasons laid out below, the author has never enquired further into the Placidian solution to this problem.

In or about 1980 however, he calculated very many epoch charts, in order to confirm the worth or otherwise of pre-natal epoch theory and of Bailey’s additional rules. This investigation was occasioned at the time by the availability of accurate, ‘to-the-minute’(?) birth times as recorded by Americans’ birth certificates.

The writer soon tired of having to flip back and forth through Bailey’s instructions and instead devised the tables reproduced here.

This paper is a revision of an appendix to the late Dr. Margaret Millard’s The Moon and Childbirth (privately published) and is republished here, in part, to underscore the author’s opinion that the assertions ascribed to ‘Hermes Trismagistus1 are incomplete as they stand today.

Objectives: to examine the relationship between beliefs in ways of telling the future (astrology, graphology, palmistry, etc) and beliefs in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Design: participants completed a short questionnaire that requested that they rate the efficacy of 8 CAM therapies along with 12 other ways of predicting the future ranging from the well known and established (astrology) to the less well known (tasseography, oneiromancy). Short descriptions of each were provided. They also answered four attitude statements on science as applied to medicine. Subjects: two hundred three (130 female, 73 male) adult Britains obtained from a university subject panel served as unpaid volunteer subjects. Results: CAM therapieswere judged as modestly effective and most of the other “-ologies” ineffective. Further analysis confirmed two clear factors with the different methods loading on two different factors. Regressions showed females who were less concerned with scientific evaluations but more concerned with treatmment believed more in the efficacy of the “future-ologies”.n Also, females who had heard of fewer “future-ologies” but more CAM practices were morelikley to believe in the efficacy of CAM therapies. Conclusion: belief in CAM is unrelated to belief in “future-ologies”. Interest in the scientific evaluation of treatment is the best predictor of beliefs about efficacy.

Almost everything we do depends on our ability to remember the past. This experiment sought to contribute quantitative data exploring two issues concerning memory. Miller (1956) theorised that an average person can hold 7 chunks of information in STM. This experiment confirms that 7 is also the average when a distracter test pushes the learnt words into LTM.

This research also examines the possibility that the relationship between two planetary symbols, Neptune and Mercury, can indicate differences in ability to recall. The experimental hypothesis predicts impaired ability for those with a Mercury Neptune aspect in their horoscopes. However, the results showed the reverse to be the case, with the Mercury Neptune group achieving a mean average score of 8.27 compared to the other group`s score of 6.66 out of 20. The work of Westran (2001) provides an interesting reference, since he too produced results of significance when examining a correlation between Mercury Neptune aspects and police detectives.

It is therefore proposed that use of the astrological model of the universe could provide cognitive psychology with a new worldview from which to develop different perspectives for research.

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 practioners amassed statistical evidence which purported to prove he influence of the Moon upon fevers and other diseases. Such ideas flourished in the colonies and in the medical services of the armed forces, but their exponents were not marginal men. Some, like James Lind, were widely respected and commanded support for their views from such influential figures as Erasmus Darwin.

This comment is an additional piece relatling to “Some Extreme Character Types” by Graham Douglas, an abstract of which can be found on this database. (See also “Developing the Geophysical Perspective” by the same author.)

Byzantium inherited the rich astrological tradition of Late Antiquity, especially that of Alexandria, where even in the 6th century A.D., astrology was taught in philosophical schools. The great number of Byzantine astrolgical MSS, which preserve works of famous authors and many anonymous treatises, shows the survival and continuity of astrology in Byzantium. Through medical astrology pysicians can better understand the temperament of an individual man and find out about his bodily constitution and psychic faculties, his inclination to chronic and acute diseases, the possibilities of curable or incurable cases, and finally the periods of lmajor danger for his health. They can conjecture about the evolution of a disease, choose a favourable time for an operation, or initiate a cure.