Download ASTROLOGY: FACT OR FICTION?

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ASTROLOGY: FACT OR FICTION?
BY JOAQUIN OCHOA
ASSOCIATE VERGE EDITOR
Can important events such as
the recent tsunami in South Asia
be predicted?
An article in News Today, an
English Newspaper in South India,
printed in Dec. 27 said just that.
According to the article, the
quake that caused the tsunami
was predicted by a team of
researchers of the Department of
Applied Geology, University of
Madras on Dec. 22.
N. Venkatanathan, researcher
who is currently involved in a Ph.D
program in Predicting Earthquake
and
Aseismic
Construction
Designing and the man behind the
team working on predictions, said
he presented a report about the
Indonesian earthquake on Dec. 22
to members of the Department of
Science and Technology in New
Delhi.
Christine Arens, the president of
Friends of Astrologers, Inc. said,
“He (Venkatanathan) said it was
only going to be a level 7, 100
miles in 30 minutes. It was a level
9—you can’t really say that I can
fault him for that.”
Scientists are not the only people who make predictions.
Patricia Hardin, the president of
the American Federation of
Astrologers, said Richard Nolle, a
leading astrologer, also predicted
the possibility of a natural disaster
happening on Dec. 26.
“There were other planetary
energies. Jupiter and Venus were in
alignment. This increases the possibilities of mundane problems.
Venus ordinarily brings an element
of harmony, but in that case did
not work. It’s not always beneficial;
it stands for opportunity and
expansion, said Hardin. “The only
way you can interpret the tsunami
is that death is only bad for the
people who are left behind.”
Hardin describes astrology as
the psychological short hand.
“It involves learning to read a
language. If you learn the symbols, you can cut through a person’s problem and focus on the
problem to find a solution, while
taking a psychological route might
take years,” she said. “Of course,
astrology is reading the map of
the sky, well lunar cycle, planets
A look ahead at 2005
BY JOAQUIN OCHOA
during the annular total solar
eclipse, April 8, and the Oct. 3
annular solar eclipse, Hardin said.
“The sun, Earth, moon are in
alignment, and it is possible that
there will be earthquakes and
that sort of thing,” said Hardin,
who added, “During solar
eclipse, the energy that one gets
from the sun is less and behavior
may not be rational.”
Trouble may lurk also in April
24, during the partial solar eclipse
and October 17, partial lunar
eclipse.
“During a lunar eclipse there is
difficult weather, strange weather
because Lunar refers to subconscious mind and emotional
things—time,” said Hardin.
She said “While there are some
difficult times ahead of him I
question that it means his death.
There are some difficult times.
He’s already been experiencing
some of the Saturn difficulties.”
“Saturn also means responsibilities. So I did expect him to be
re-elected,” Hardin said.
“Look for a time of crisis in June
this year. From Sept. 3 to 12,
Saturn will cross this ascendant.
Saturn has a way of restricting
things. Saturn is going to connect
with his Pluto in October and
November. That would probably
indicate some other restrictive
problems in his life.”
PRESIDENT BUSH
If they are going to occur this
year, their best chances will be
This year could be a rough one
for Bush.
Hardin said there is a twentyyear cycle that comes in conjunction with Jupiter and Saturn in
conjunction or the joining of an
Earth sign, Capricorn, Taurus and
Virgo.
“Many presidents died in
office. She refers to a trend beginning in 1840; every US president
(with the exception of Reagan,
elected in 1980) elected in a year
ending in zero has died while in
office. Hardin said each has either
been by assassinated or brought
down by sickness
“But Ronald Reagan was born
in 1980, he did survive and broke
the trend.
“In 2000, Bush was elected in
another earth sign.”
Things may not be so entertaining, depending on whom you
ask.
Ahern said there will be some
major shake-ups in the middle of
summer.
“Saturn will enter Leo. Leo
relates to theater to the entertainment industry, and you’re going
to see a downturn in this. People
are not going to be having fun as
they used to, and it’ll be present
for a two and half year period.”
“A lot more restriction as to
what will be able to be presented.
The prime time in TV is full of sex
and obscene language. You’re
going to see that cleaned up.
Starting in the fall programming,”
she said.
On reality television, Arens
said, “Yes that will end, people
are getting tired of it and you’ll
see it with Saturn entering Leo.
and affixed stars and could shed a
bit more light on the subject.”
The prediction of the earthquake
also isn’t the first time astrologers
have been on target with predictions, said Hardin.
There was a very important
eclipse on Sept. 11, 1991 in
Cancer. “Soon after that the Soviet
Union collapsed,” said Hardin,
“and there was economic
upheaval from the United States
on (the world).”
Natural and political events are
just a few of the things astrologers
read the sky to predict.
“ESPN, in May 20, 2000, had a
tarot reader predict the Preakness
race. The tarot reader predicted
Fusiachi Pegasus would not win
the Preakness,” said Hardin. “(The
tarot reader) picked the Red Bullet,
which came in first.”
But such successes have left
many wondering if these are coincidences. Examples like these
have not been enough to prove to
the many that they should take
astrology seriously. The extent to
which the public consults astrology is usually left to horoscopes in
newspapers.
“Unfortunately, today it’s considered an entertainment subject,”
Arens said. “It’s given this kind of
fluff orientation, and you never
really get through to the real study
of astrology.”
James Conwell, astronomy pro-
ASSOCIATE VERGE EDITOR
2004 was typical of any year,
filled with the ups, downs and
upside downs that would make a
more than few queasy during a
rollercoaster ride.
Internationally, the conflict in
Iraq, the War on Terror and the rising death toll of both American soldiers and Iraqis, and the beheading
of many by hands of militant
groups in the Middle East was just
the opening band to Mother
Nature’s, hard rock, own finale
Dec. 26 when a 9.0 earthquake
near Indonesia unleashed a tsunami wave that has been responsible
for the death of over 150,000 and
has quickly become one of the
biggest disasters in history.
Could some of these events
been avoided if people took
astrology into account, or was
the prediction with the use of the
alignment of planets, and the full
moon of the Dec. 26 earthquake
four days prior to the event mere
coincidence?
To side with one or the other
would be speculation, such conjecture is up to the individual. But
for the curious, here is what the
astrologers: Patricia Hardin, president of American Federation of
Astrologers, and Christine Ahern,
president of Friends of Astrology,
we asked had to say on some of
the hot topics.
NATURAL DISASTERS
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fessor at Eastern, says people
remember the successes of astrology and are convinced of its effectiveness though the successes are
few and far between. However, he
said, people don’t remember the
times that the predictions fail.
He gave an anectode:
“Richard Feynman, Nobel prize
winner in physics, happened to
notice when his wife died in the
Manhattan Project that his clock
stopped. He thought ‘Isn’t that
curious,’ Yeah, basically a curiosity,
but coincidences happen.”
The mind tends to search for
patterns between occurrences, he
said. If a connection between
events is found, that doesn’t mean
there’s a causal connection that
one led to the other.
Conwell also said the idea that
astrology can predict a person’s
behavior has no merit.
“I can predict exactly when the
sun sets and I can predict when
there will be a full moon, but does
that predict anything about the
behavior of human beings? When
people have done scientific studies, there are no correlations.”
Russell Gruber, psychology professor at Eastern said there’s no
connection between the date of a
person’s birth and their zodiac
sign. He offered the Barnum
Effect as an argument.
“In the Barnum Effect in psychology, you write a description
that is general enough so that
almost anyone could believe it’s
about them. You can write a personality description about people. But it’s general enough that
many people would agree.
That’s a lot about what the horoscopes count on and people say
‘That could be me,’ but it could
be almost anyone.”
Arens said, “There is a kernel
of truth (in horoscopes) but what
you’re dealing with is sun sign
astrology. But you have much
more in the universes- all these
planets, orientation of the sky,
houses. It’s like looking at the jigsaw puzzle but only looking at
the red piece. The sun sign is significant, but it’s only one part of
the piece.”
“It (astrology) may be weird
coincidence or it could be something greater that we do not
grasp,” Gruber said.
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