Effects on humanity vs individual persons
In his book “The night
speaks” the astrologer Steven Forrest, besides discussing mechanisms whereby
astrology might work that are already summarized on this website elsewhere,
e.g. magnetic fields and divination,
makes an important distinction.
According to him there is a difference between the potential effects of
heavenly bodies on humanity as a whole and on individual persons, which has
consequences for the outcome of astrological studies.
Humanity as a whole – good evidence
He claims that the
effects on humanity as a whole are clearly evident and provides a detailed
correlation between the 11-year sun cycle and historical periods throughout the
last centuries. He also expounds at
length the impact of the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune (1992-1994) on human
history.
Individual
people - very difficult, if not
impossible to find evidence
According to him, it
is much more difficult, if not impossible to demonstrate the impact of
astrological factors on individual persons for two reasons.
·
The
presence of numerous confounding factors
Research on a single factor, such
as “Mercury in Gemini” is bound to fail, because the effects of the factor are
inevitably confounded to a considerable
degree by all the other factors in the natal chart.
Research should focus on natal
charts as a whole. The problem is
that the heavens are never quite the same, even if one were willing to wait for
centuries - and thousands of charts are
required to achieve statistical significance.
·
People
mature and change over time
People grow and mature, and express a factor such
as “Mercury in Gemini” differently according to their level of maturity. He uses the analogy of a caterpillar. What happens if we are looking for the
features of Mercury in the caterpillar stage, but include subjects in the
chrysalis or butterfly stage? The study
will produce negative results. On the
contrary, if, by chance, we include all subjects in the caterpillar stage, then
we shall get positive results. He puts
forward this consideration as a potential explanation for the
considerable