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To be fair, it is worth pointing
out that a serious astrologer would laugh at the idea of there
being any connection between popular newspaper forecasts and
individual natal charts, claiming to interpret personality,
temperament and abilities according to the positions of the
planets at the exact moment of a person's birth. It is hardly
likely, to take a simple example, that one-twelfth of the human
population will inherit money or meet a handsome stranger on the
same day. There are plenty of amateur astrologers employed in
the field, though. When a cousin of mine joined a local weekly
paper in the Midlands, the first job given him was to write the
"What the Stars Foretell" column for the next issue. He found it
an interesting journalistic challenge, especially when it came
to predicting his own immediate future.
On the other hand, it seems to be true that people born at a
certain time of year have a similar temperament. I was surprised
when a friend of mine proved capable of guessing the zodiac
signs of several people we knew with a high degree of accuracy.
Moreover, a book I read which gave thumbnail sketches of men,
women, children, bosses and employees belonging to different
signs seemed to give an accurate picture of several
acquaintances of mine.
Being a pragmatist, I decided to investigate the matter a little
further. For a start, I wrote to an agency for computer-prepared
natal charts for my wife, my son and myself. Needless to say,
the results were quite flattering. Nevertheless, what struck me
about them above all was that the only careers mentioned were
all in the high-income bracket. Obviously the computer did not
want to discourage people. But perhaps my reaction is due to me
being "sceptical by nature," as the computer said.
One line of research into the value of astrology that has
yielded surprising results, however, was undertaken by New
Society. Its staff patiently calculated the birth dates of
thousands of soldiers, musicians and painters and found to their
astonishment that there were inexplicable correlations between
zodiac sign and choice of profession. I tried out the same thing
myself on a smaller scale with a list of tennis players and
found nothing significant except for the above-average result
for the Earth signs of the zodiac. There seems to be acquaint
kind of logic about that. To sum up,, there may be something in
it, after all. It goes without saying that I have not become a
convert to astrology, of course, but ...I wonder why the
computer said my wife should have married a Pisces! |
