Astrology Tested

(The following is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to a very close friend who lives in the States.  All names, except for my wife, Sharon, and mine have been changed. Jane is the astrologer in the following text.)

...I must take you back to the first time I got a chance to talk to Jane on a one to one basis, a day or two after they moved in.  Although I was aquainted with her husband this was the first time I had ever met her personally.  Incidentally, Jane is a native-born Israeli, has done extensive traveling worldwide and speaks and reads English fluently and effortlessly.  Sharon & I happened to be home from work during this day in November.  We both were down with colds and called in sick to work.  Jane came back from her errands early and she and I got the introductions out of the way and all started to chat.  Through the course of some light discussion Jane revealed that she was an astrologer, that she had learned the art & science of it some 20 years previous and was certain that she had counseled some 7,000 people in this manner.  I looked at her funny, then very politely said that I didn't believe in it as I had read too many newspaper Sun-sign columns and was long convinced that astrology was a lot of hooey.  Jane responded to this and said that sun-sign columns depend on only on the sun, a single factor in a natal horoscope, which is only 2% of the whole. OTOH, she used all the other planets for an interpretation.  She suggested that I provide her with my birth date and she would attempt to tell me something about myself that she couldn't possibly have known – just to demonstrate that it works.  I thought that probably the best way to end this whole discussion was to humor her.  I figured that when astrology would prove bogus it would end the discussion.  So I gave her the date and expected to hear some very vague and general descriptions that could easily apply to a large bulk of the population.  She got my birth date and looked up the date in a book of planetary positions known as an ephemeris.  The ephemeris is a book of columns with numbers of the planetary positions cross-referenced to dates, so that one may find the planetary positions for a particular date.  That was all, no interpretations, no text, just columns of numbers.  After she studied the referenced to my birth date for a few minutes, she started to describe me and some of my quirks with an accuracy that was unlikely considering the time I had been acquainted with her.  These were not generalities; she gave a description that would be similar that I would give about someone I had known intimately for 20 years.  I wanted to know what her trick was.  She said it was no trick.  I started arguing giving evidence of how the planets couldn't determine personality traits.  She said that the planets and positions of them only indicated personality factors but did not in any way control or determine them.  I asked how this could be, she said she didn't know but one doesn't have to know if it works. She then asked Sharon for her birth date and, after a few moments of study she described things about Sharon with equal accuracy as she did with me.  I was kind of impressed but still very very skeptical.   Then she asked if she could check into our relationship, I thought that this would surely show the flaws of astrology, but both Sharon & I were taken aback when she started describing not only major themes in our relationship but actually described rough times in our married life and continued to describe both the nature and time frames of difficulties we had in our marriage.  Now this was stuff that no one, and I mean no one, knew about.  When Sharon & I had difficulties we resolved them by ourselves and never have needed marital counseling nor have we ever confided in any friend or family member on these matters.  So I was at a real loss to explain how Jane was able to come up with that information so easily, just from scanning columns of numbers.  I still thought that there was a trick to it and told her so.  Jane then suggested a third demonstration and asked for the birth date of a good friend of mine and, on that basis, would tell me something significant about that friend.  Its hard to play tricks with someone completely unknown., someone they've never met.  So I gave Jane the birth date of Sue, my old girlfriend.  I told Jane only that we had been going together for 3 years, engaged to be married but it fell through.  That was the sum total of what Jane knew.  After a few more moments of study, Jane asked me what I wanted to hear about Sue.  I said,  “Please don't tell me ‘Oh, she’s very intelligent,’ because it would be obvious to you by now that I don''t hang around with dummies.  Give me something specific, something unusual about her that is not part of the general population.”   Jane gave the matter more thought and studied the ephemeris at Sue's birth date and at my birth date and offered the results of her inquiry.  The following was the conversation that we had:

J:  This woman has or had a very dominant father.

D:  That’s correct.  However, maybe 30% of the population has dominant fathers. What else?  You'll have to do better than that.

J:   Her father was pretty tough and very domineering and she wants a husband to act the same way.

D:  Uh-huh, but most people unconsciously look for, and get, a father- or mother-figure in a spouse.  What you're using here is elementary clinical psychology, not astrology. Try again.

J:  Her father was very tough and demanding and she wants a husband to act the same way, in a bossy manner, ordering her around.  Not abusive, she wont tolerate abuse at all, but she wants a very high degree of bossiness, a narrow range of bossiness that isn't abuse. She wants a husband who treats her like an army sergeant.

D:  That's interesting you should put it that way.  Sue and I broke up and she married someone else sometime after, but we kept in touch.  A few years later, after Sharon & I married, they invited us over for an evening.  When I was there I saw her husband order her around, very much like a sergeant would order underlings in a firm and demanding way. "C'mon, Susie!  Chop-chop! Let's get a move on!" he barked at her when she delayed setting the table for dinner because she stopped to talk to my wife.   I noticed that she seemed to like this treatment very much, and whenever he would boss her around she would break into a slight giggle and display an ear-to-ear smile.  She obviously enjoyed that treatment.  In fact, after our visit was over, as my wife and I walked to our car, I recall saying to Sharon:  “How come he can get away with bossing her around that way when I couldn't?”

Jane's answer was along the lines I was looking for, a specific behavior pattern that was highly atypical in the population.  Jane found just such atypical behavior and accurately described that behavior even though Jane clearly didn't know my ex-girlfriend.  Jane seemed to satisfy my criteria.

So with that it was very clear to me that astrology had a potential to discern personality types and dynamics, although I wasn't entirely sure that she wasn't playing some game.  I asked her how she came up with those answers and she gave a capsule explanation that involved a very complex and extensive learning of the symbols attached to the planets, the signs and interpreting layers set up in priorities.   I asked her how she learned all that, and she replied “from books.”  I asked how I could get some of these to try this out for myself and she said she'd happily lend me the books that she learned from.  I figured that if there was some sort of scam involved, which I didn’t see how that could at all be likely, then the books would give the straight story.  The thing that really intrigued me was that, if astrology could be learned and applied half as well as Jane appeared to use it, then I had discovered a way of understanding the deeper dynamics of personality.   Since high school I had ached to understand what made people tick, and this seemed to provide the key.  After more demonstrations by Jane on what astrology could do in the psychological realm I was determined to learn it.  I borrowed her books and I went through a period of a year where I learned enough to apply it if only to satisfy myself, not only that it worked, but I frequently amazed myself at the variety and utility of the things I had been learning and applying.

I felt compelled to demonstrate and to test these things I was learning just for myself.  I had learned about transitory factors, known as “transits” that influence the natal chart or horoscope, and so have a temporary effect on one's moods or disposition.  After I picked up the essence of the idea of transits, and bought a book that catalogued typical moods and behaviors that are correlated with certain transits. I wanted to try it out on someone whom I could predict his behavior.  The problem was that I didn’t want the individual to know that he or she would be used as a guinea pig for if he or she knew that I was looking for something it might influence that person's behavior.   In the end I decided to attempt to predict my boss's bad days.  Now when I was working in the orchards our boss was the kind of person who clearly communicated to everyone around about what mood he went into.  For if astrology worked enough to predict his bad days, and he had a bad day on the average every 2 months, then it was more evidence of the validity of astrology.  So obtained his birth date and searched the Ephemeris for significant transits that would display behavior of, anger, short temper, unusual sensitivity to irritation to people or events that he considered inappropriate.

Anyway, I searched and found two transits that would peak on the same day that, I thought, either one of them would put anyone into a bad mood.  About 3 weeks hence I saw that my boss would be experiencing a transit that, according to the book, would suggest the  feeling that other people or life in general was in conflict with him (transiting Sun square natal Sun).  There was another transit that would peak on the same time that the books say  many people get the feeling of  “one foot on the gas, the other foot on the brake” or a feeling that life is a struggle (transiting Saturn square natal Jupiter).  Either one of these alone can affect one negatively, but both together would have a compound effect that would significantly increase the discomfort and irritation.  Anger would certainly be expected from the person being observed.  The only problem is that the day both of these transits would reach their peak was to be early morning on Shabbat, and we don't work on Saturday in these parts.  To make matters more complicated, I had off every other Friday as a matter of course and, wouldn’tcha know it, I was scheduled to have that Friday off, as well.  So I gave up hope of being on hand to witness the expected behavior in my boss and looked for another day that he might be in a foul mood.  As it turned out, I returned to work after the weekend where I expected our boss to act like a bear with a sore posterior.  I was resigned to the idea that if he was in a bad mood there would be no chance of me knowing about it.  I went to work after that weekend and met my coworker, Greg. Before we left for the orchards he launched into a story of what happened on my day off.  It went like this:

G: (excitedly):  Dale, did you hear what happened to Tom last Friday at work on your day off?!?!?

D:  No, what happened?

G:  Well, Tom told me to meet him at 9:00 AM at the poultry run office and it turned out that I was really early for that meeting, so I stopped into the section of apple orchard next to the poultry run office to check the irrigation computer there. You know that it doesn't take more than two minutes to check to be sure the program ran and the watering was done.  It took me only a minute or two to make sure the scheduled watering occurred over the weekend and I went to the office.  Heck, I was only a minute or two after 9:00 but Tom was waiting for me outside the office with his hands on his hips and was looking really angry at me.  When I pulled to a stop Tom blew up at me and yelled at me “WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS WORKING AT CROSS-PURPOSES TO ME?!?!  WHY DO YOU ALWAYS MAKE MY LIFE MUCH HARDER THAN IT HAS TO BE!?!?!”  So Tom yelled and screamed at me for getting in his way and for delaying him.  But heck, I was only a minute or two late for this meeting and he had no right to treat me this way.  He really got abusive at me so I went to (Tom’s boss) and complained about being abused and that he had no right to chastise me in that way.  Anyway, (Tom’s boss) called Tom into his office and gave him a good dressing-down for treating the help so badly.  Afterwards Tom came and apologized for the scene he made.  Man, I had never seen him in such a state before!

While I listened to this I was shocked and open-mouthed at what I heard.  Without my having been at work on that Friday, while I wasn't around to influence my boss and possibly put him into a bad mood, within 24 hours of the expected time of the peak of those transits, Tom announced that he had been feeling exactly what I had predicted he'd feel three weeks previous.  Specifically, I expected him to feel very much in conflict with others or “the situation” and the feeling of a struggle.  He displayed the behavior and his statements showed that this was exactly the way he was feeling.  Now I admit that there some details about this that I got wrong. I figured that the transits of that day would trigger a simple bad day.   He didn’t have just a routine bad day; he had a calamitous day that was exceptionally terrible that would be remembered by all up to this day, years later.  I admit that his bad day experience was far more than I expected.  The other detail that wasn’t exactly as I predicted was that the behavior occurred 24 hours before the expected peak.  This can be explained in that the effects of the transit do not strike like lightning, suddenly, rather the tension of the transits builds up, and depending on the individual and their self-discipline one person can loose control and display the effects earlier while another may choose to hold the effects back, grit their teeth for much longer and display them later.  The effects of transits are not entirely fated; we can exercise self-control and exert our will over whether we act on the feelings that come upon us. The feelings may be there, but we don't have to act on them.  What I learned from this is that predicting moods and behaviors as a result of them is rather dependant on the individual and that I must take into account the disposition and base personality of the individual involved, as well as try to assess the desire and ability for self-control.  These factors make predictions of this nature more complex but far from impossible.  In any case, this prediction of my boss’s bad day from 3 weeks before worked far better than my wildest expectations.

A month or more after that incident I had a chance to perform another prediction of someone's bad day, but this time it worked in reverse in that the day with the foul mood and already occurred and I predicted the very day it occurred a month after.   It happens that my in-laws are close friends with a woman by the name of Elna.  They are not nearly as close to her husband, Phil (not their real names).  Phil is an unusual character, extremely intelligent, extremely talented and a craftsman of no small talent. He creates jewelry, and combines graphics with brass & silver work.  He takes brass or silver plates and cuts out designs or calligraphy on the plates.  The man does beautiful work.  He also has a love for history and can elucidate at length on points of history of the ancient world that is remarkable.  On the other hand, he's a card-carrying leftist and deluded to the point of loving the terrorists and hating Jews.  (We have lots of these self-haters among the Jewish people and the extent that I've seen of it in Israel it's definitely a serious mental illness among Jews and is quite common in the population.  In contrast, self-hate of this kind is rarely seen in the States only among those with serious emotional illnesses.  It’s usually the result of having been emotionally abused in childhood and the anger and hate has been internalized and directed at the self.  In Jewish culture there doesn't need to have been any emotional abuse by parents but by the anti-Semitic surrounding culture. First & second generation Holocaust survivors can be prone to display self hate.) In Phil’s case this wasn't due to either childhood abuse or trauma due to Jew-haters.   In his case he as some serious emotional problems that may even border on schizophrenia.  His wife informed me that Phil's father returned to the US from W.W.II shell-shocked and was completely dysfunctional in the family setting.  He later abandoned his family when Phil was a child.  When Phil was a pre-teen his mother was confined permanently to a state psychiatric ward for schizophrenia and died in that institution.  Phil was raised by his grandparents.  Phil wasn't born Jewish but converted under Reform auspices by a rabbi in the States that, apparently, wasn't concerned about Phil's lack of religious commitment nor emotional suitability.  Phil has since turned into a Jew-hater himself and if he gets a sympathetic ear he'll go on at length about how terrible Jews are and how wonderful Arabs are.  In his mind, Arabs can do no wrong and Jews can do no right.  When he gets going his description of events and situation is clearly delusional.  Anyway, he and Elna often drop over my in-laws when we're there and I frankly, have an impossible time getting close to Phil.  We're quite civil to each other and we all enjoy his encyclopedic knowledge of art and history but the delusions come thick and fast when he talks politics.  Many people who hear him give his candid views walk away shocked at the wild tales he tells.  Anyway, that’s the background on him that is necessary to understand the rest.

Anyway I was talking to my mother-in-law on the phone and she mentioned that Phil had “flipped out” and got very violent.  She said that one day he started breaking windows, dishes and anything fragile in their apartment.  His rage lasted the better part of an hour and did significant damage to their home.  Upon hearing that I asked my mother in law not to tell me anything more, that I would attempt to tell her exact date upon which this happened by astrological means.  I then went to my file with his natal data (I asked his wife for his birth date long before) and looked up the planetary positions on his birth date.  I had been studying a book with descriptions of transits and one of them fit his behavior exactly.  In a nutshell, the planet Mars symbolizes energy, motivation, drive and aggressiveness.  When the Mars in the sky comes around to the same position of  Mars at the time of birth (called: ‘transiting Mars conjunct natal Mars’) then typically one has a period of significantly heightened energy, or motivation, drive or aggression.  It was the last point that matched his behavior.  So I checked the position of his natal Mars and noticed that 3 weeks previous, on March 23rd, transiting Mars made a conjunction with it.  “This event of destructive behavior happened on the 23rd of March,” I told my mother-in-law.  My mother-in-law then said: “Well, let's see.  I went with Elna to a concert a few weeks ago and she told me that it happened the day before.  The day of that concert is written on my calendar.  Let me check my calendar on the fridge.”  She left the phone and returned a minute later and said:  “The concert was on March 24th and Elna said that it happened the previous day, which made it the 23rd of March!  You were right!  How'd you know that???!”   I then explained the facts and assumptions that went into this and both my in-laws were stunned.  My father-in-law was especially shocked as he's a retired nuclear chemist and worked for Abbott Pharmaceuticals for 30 years.  The notion of astrology working at all was simply inconceivable to him.  My mother-in-law then began to describe Phil’s behavior as told to her by Elna and I then asked her to stop and say no more.  I then asked for their indulgence as I looked up a description of this transit in a reference book I have that describes typical emotional responses and behaviors that people have during transits.  I read them both the description of transiting Mars conjunct natal Mars.  It reads in full:
 

Mars Conjunct Mars: Ego energies and physical energies run very high during this transit. You will feel positively loaded with energy, for which you must find an adequate outlet, or you will have problems. The best way to handle this transit is to do some necessary heavy physical work. But that will work out only if you derive satisfaction from doing it. Otherwise you will feel resentful, which brings out the negative side of this transit. Sports, if you are at all athletic, is an excellent outlet. If you just sit around, you will begin to feel itchy and restless for no apparent reason and then become quite irritable. In this mood you will snap at anyone who comes along for no reason at all. Or you may be spoiling for a fight, even if there is no justification for one.

If you feel none of these effects, look deep inside yourself. You will probably find that you are doing a good job of repressing your feelings. And this is the most dangerous response of all, because the energy will out, either physically through an accident or by projection; that is, you will experience the energy through another. This means that you may have to endure another person's aggressive acts, which may bring you harm.

On the other hand, this transit is quite good for initiating any new project on your own. It is a transit of beginnings, and you should use it for that purpose, particularly for projects that you will be identified with and be given great credit for. Don't expect such projects to go along without opposition, however. Watch for strong resistance from others when Mars squares your natal Mars in about six months, although the precise time may vary. About one year from now, when Mars is in opposition to your natal Mars, you will know whether or not your project is successful.     (Hand, "Planets in Transit: Life Cycles For Living", Whitford Press, Atglen, PA, ISBN 0-914918-24-9; c.1976)

My mother-in-law exclaimed that the description above described Phil’s behavior “to a tee!”  She said Elna reported that Phil had gotten up really grouchy and was very antsy and didn't know what to do with himself.  He had so much energy that he couldn't sit down to do any of his art projects.  After a period of verbally badgering Elna and their son, Phil seemed to explode in rage and began to trash their apartment.  After I read the above description it was clear to both my in-laws that the feelings and behaviors described were not vague approximations that could apply generally to anyone at any time. The above are specific and objective.  My father-in-law was just floored that this worked and began saying that “Clearly, there's something to astrology.”

So after these and quite a few other tests that I performed to see if there is validity to astrology I can definitely say that I am not a ‘believer’ in it.  I donut think that one should ‘believe’ in it at all. It's not a religion where one takes it as an article of faith.  If it works and can deliver results than can be used like a tool, and if the tool doesn’t work then it should be discarded.  From what I've seen, if one absorbs the tremendous amount of learning that this subject requires it can appear to work magic.  However, it is not magic nor occult!  Astrology is based on observation and the correlation of the planets with human feelings and behaviors over the course of millennia and requires mental operations of both synthesis and analysis often working back-to-back and together.  Simple ‘Sun-sign astrology’ that is popularized in the pulp magazines and the newspapers is only its most oversimplified and trivialized form.  The Sun in a horoscope only accounts for 2% of the entire chart's complexity and anyone who has decided that astrology does or doesn’t work on Sun-sign astrology has not even begun to test it for real.

When I look at someone's chart the sign positions of the Sun, Moon and all other planets must be taken into account, I even work with an asteroid, the angles between them all have to be assessed, the ‘house positions’ are essential to determine the areas of life that the planet's influence expresses. There are sensitive points in everyone’s natal chart that are mathematically derived although there is nothing in that position of a physical nature. These are used, too.  For a shallow analysis & synthesis of a chart I have to take into account some 40 factors, minimum.  To do a standard reading I can't consider any less than 300 factors.  There are something like 2-million factors that can be derived from one chart.  The problem is never one of a lack of data, rather the problem is that there's so much data that no one can work with it all, so there are standard methods for delineating the chart by sorting and prioritizing factors.  Obviously no one can blend even 1000 factors.  So after a great deal of experience, that is after working with several thousand people an their charts, one's intuition becomes highly developed and the intuition uses this to absorb and process great volumes of data.  When one's intuition has had enough experience and works well the results that can be delivered seem like magic, but it ain’t.   I haven't gotten to the point where my intuition contributes significantly to the process yet I get really good results even without it.  When I have a counseling session I get the client's natal data first, erect the chart on my PC, and then spend 10-15 minutes studying it before seeing the person.  After 15 minutes of dialog with the client it’s not unusual to be told “Gee, what you told me about myself took my therapist 4 months with twice-weekly sessions to uncover.”  One of my coworkers at Versaware was interested and asked me for an in-depth reading, as she was both interested and skeptical.  I agreed and she came over for two evenings and the reading took 4-hour sessions both evenings.  I had explained about 2/3rds of everything what I could see at my level of learning and figured that we could go on for at least another 4 hours.  She was satisfied with what she heard and said that I was 90% accurate in what I told her about herself.
The beauty of psychological astrology is that its a diagnostic tool second to none.  Not only can it tell someone a great deal about a person, it can account for changes in one's emotional states & moods.  There are statistical markers that have been discovered that can indicate the existence and severity of mental illnesses.  A competent astrologer and foresee major life upheavals even years before they occur.  Major life upheavals can take between 1.5-3.5 years and are characterized by 5 or 6 identifiable stages:  the introductory stage, the crisis, the partial solution and the conclusion.  All of those stages have periods in between of development where the process progresses and plateau periods where the process seems to be put on hold.  A competent astrologer can give dates of each of those phases with awesome precision, describe the issues at hand and tell the client what there is to learn by that life upheaval in order to help make the process more efficient and less painful.  One of the greatest comforts anyone in a life crisis can be given is the time frame that the major life upheaval will take.  Just to have an idea how long one has to endure those issues, and knowing that the worst is over does much to alleviate anxiety.  Another thing that psychological astrology can do is plot the personality dynamics between two people and give as solid description of how and why a relationship does or doesn’t work.  This is magnificent tool when couples are interested in marrying or are in for marital counseling.  Business relationships, parent-child relationships & friendships can be understood with this tool.  Counseling with astrology uses the symbols of the planets to understand the internal dynamics of a person.  When a client must make changes the symbols are a guide to what sort of changes the client is able to make and which are totally out of bounds for him.  Suggesting changes by using the symbols in their dynamic setting as a guide makes sure that the client is never asked to go against the grain of their fundamental personality, so making changes is more like swimming downstream and the effort is just in switching tracks rather than attempting to swim across the current, or worse yet, upstream which will guarantee failure.  I think this tool is great for helping to determine the type of profession one would be suited for and that can easily save someone a few years of trying out different jobs or courses of study until they discover their talents and interests.  The utility and practical application of psychological astrology is simply staggering to me even to this day.  It took a good 4 years to learn it on my own and another 2 just to gain experience to get where I am today, and I still need a heck of a lot more practice.  But considering how one can benefit by it every moment spent learning was well worth it.

Man, to learn this one has to memorize 350 points just for starters, one has to be darn good at geometry just to study the chart and to erect charts manually one has to comprehend calculus (thank God my PC does this work!).  One has to learn to learn to handle and recognize symbols, which is a different mental function from the raw mathematical ability mentioned above.  One has to use both synthesis and analysis -- not easy as the brain centers that control these two functions are in different hemispheres (fortunately, I've had neurological testing that determined that I have co-dominant hemispheres so switching back and forth between analysis and synthesis is easy for me.)  One has to blend factors in prioritized layers and it's not unusual to successively blend clusters of factors that, if diagramed, would look like long chains of algebraic functions.  All this has to be done in one's head and not on paper.   I have a degree in social work and another in technical theatre & TV production, yet my mental facilities have never been put under such demands as with astrology.  Never have I had to use so many diverse areas of intellectual function as this, and I consider the years I spent wrestling with this to have easily been the greatest mental challenge of my life.  No course of study that I have ever undertaken has demanded so much mental agility. I wouldn’t dare consider wasting my time with this if the results would be vague and indistinct.

To make matters more interesting, FREE WILL is still a significant factor is this whole process!  People can consciously and deliberately choose to act or react, not act nor react to situations.  Astrology does not show fate, it indicates probability.  Ones inclinations are shaped by planetary influences, but one can refuse to go with them. One can still deny, sublimate, project, compensate and repress our feelings and inclinations.  We have the choice of how to direct our lives and astrology shows the limits of the parameters of our personalities, but we may still operate within a specified range.  The fact is that the more one understands astrological influences on one's life the less influence they have.  To some this seems like one of the greatest ironies or contradictions but it's really quite logical.  For if one understands their influences it's not hard to use our free will to figure out how to work with or around them.

So anyway, I’m glad you sent me your birth date a while back. What I’d like, if you wouldn't mind, is to have your birth time and the name of the hospital you were born in.  I recall that you were born in Chicago and that's generally good enough but I have a penchant for accuracy and my atlas of geographical coordinates has a listing of every hospital and birthing clinic in the US & Canada.  What is even more important is the birth time.  An astrologer can do 40% good work just by knowing the birth date and birthplace, but an accurate birth time is extremely important to get the details.  Hopefully you have your birth time on your birth certificate.  Asking your mom to remember the minute of your birth is  not very accurate as birthing mothers often have lots of other things on their minds at the time. Mothers' memories are frequently off by several hours and a birth chart changes every 4 minutes.  An accurate birth time is based on the public record and I strongly advise getting yours from the Illinois State Dept. of Public Records.  I had to pay a coupla bucks to get a copy of my birth certificate but I had to specify that I wanted the birth time printed on it.  Some states must be specifically asked to include this information.

Anyway, that it about astrology for now, enough of the digression, back to the issue at hand…