Following the collapse of Communism in Russia in the early 1990s there has been a surge in religious interest and observance. However, because of many decades of atheistic indoctrination, knowledge of religion is poor and many people instead are turning to a variety of mystical and new age belief systems. There has been a considerable rise in interest in astrology, as ordinary people explore a variety of new age and metaphysical beliefs.

This study replicates work of Mayo, White & Eysenck (Journal of Social Psychology, 1978, 105, 229-236) and confirmed the astrological proposition that those born with the sun in a positive sign (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquaries) are extraverted, and those with the sun in a negative sign (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces) are inroverted. This result was indeed found, but only with subjects who had astrological interests, and consulted sun sign horoscopes regularly. The author suggests that there may be a self-attribution process, although a true astrological effect cannot be disproved with these data. It is concluded however that ‘selective self-attribution’ based on regular consultation of sun sign horoscopes is the most likely explanation.
The author does not comment on one interesting implication of this finding: that normative data on psychological constructs such as introversion-extraversion could reflect self-perception based on external cues (reading horoscopes), a variable not usually measured in personality research.

Studies linking phases of the full moon to violence have provided mixed findings, and the most recent studies have failed to show any connections. In this study inpatients admitted over 5 years to a psychiatric hospital in Northern Sydney were studied, and degree of violence was measured daily by a standardised schedule. No significant link was found beteen violence and aggression, and any phase of the moon, despite the fact that many health workers continue to believe that such a link exists.

This paper concerns astrology, research and philosophy of science. It argues that, in the final analysis, they are inseparable: astrology is in urgent need of good research, and that in turn requires some grounding in philosophy of science. Different variants of the latter are discussed, and one – the “methodology of scientific research programs” – is used to assess the current state of astrology. On the basis of this assessment, advice is offered concerning some present and future research.

Much astrological research can be faulted because of its neglect of proper methodological safeguards. This article illustrates a need to ascertain in a very precise manner the amount of knowledge of astrology possessed by subjects, as this may inadvertently influence their filling in of questionnaires, personality descriptions, etc. It is shown that apparently very successful studies can be reduced to non-significance by controlling of this variable.

This is a report on a study undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere which looked at personality in relation to date of birth in a predominantly female sample population. The findings are consistent with those of similar studies carried out in the Northern Hemisphere. The author states that prior knowledge of astrology could account for most but not all of the findings of these studies and suggests that media exposure to astrology could be a significant and as yet unexplored area of self-perception.

The need for change in the approach to astrological research is urged and the value of considering astrology as based on the harmonics of cosmic periods is suggested as the key to clearer scientific results. Michel Gauquelin’s much discussed study of Mars in the nativities of sports champions is used as an example. This study has now been successfully replicated at least twice, but the “content” of the results has never been fully explained. It is shown that the distribution of Mars in that study is determined by two distinct factors, each with its own meaning. These two factors are explained and their meanings illustrated via the “character trait” method. The same principles and the same methods of harmonic analysis have already been shown to produce good results in terms of ecliptic positions and aspects and, in the author’s view, they offer the best avenue of advance for astrological research.

This article presents a re-analysis of some recently published data from a study of astrologers’ keywords. The study was by Francoise Gauquelin who, it is argued, seriously underestimated the significance of some of her results. It is shown that chi-squared analyses of the agreement between 14 astrologers and the Gauquelins’ independently derived lists of planetary traits for four of the planets, yield extremely significant results for all of the astrologers, both ancient and modern. In addition, the data are analysed by means of Cohen’s kappa to give measures of agreement which are appropriately corrected for chance expected agreement. Finally, kappa is used to make a comparison between the reliability of astrological diagnosis of the planets’ effects and a related field, psychiatric diagnosis of clinical syndromes. See also Letters, “Statistical significance tests” Vergo Correlation Vol, 2 Issue 2 pages 38 – 40 and Letters Statistical significance tests” Startup Correlation Vol.3 Issue 1 1983 page 51.

To test whether astrology can predict E (extraversion) and N (emotionality) in ordinary people, subjects with extreme scores on the EPI were selected from 1198 subjects mostly from the southern hemisphere, all of whom had known birth times. The result was two replicate sets each with 54 extreme subjects for each of E+, E-, N+ and N-. The average pair of opposite extremes was roughly equivalent to the two most extreme persons in a random sample of 15 adults. The following factors were tested: tropical signs, decans, elements, sidereal signs, aspects, harmonics, hemisphere, Gauquelin plus zones and angularity, both individually and in combination. The latter excluded sidereal signs but included midpoints and Placidus houses. If astrology predicts that factor X indicates, say, E+, then the frequency of X should be higher in extreme E+ subjects than in extreme E- subjects. The results of 132 such tests, and a multiple discriminant analysis, showed that no factor performed consistently above chance level.

Studies of crop yield in relation to the Moon’s position at sowing show that 27.3 day sidereal rhythms may be present. A wave-harmonic approach to such rhythms in three years of sowing data is presented. Estimates of the amplitude and phase of the rhythms are discussed. The latter indicate that the ancient sidereal zodiac, rather than the more widely used tropical zodiac, best fits the existing data.