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Space Oddities
In its long and lonely orbit, Mars this weekend reaches one of its closest points to Earth for years. At a mere 42m miles away the red planet is a striking sight and, for astrologers at least, a portent of frenzied activity, accidents and mistakes.
Those born under the sign of Aries should beware explosive situations, warns the Sunday Times astrologer Shelley von Strunckel. Aquarians may enjoy unexpected encounters, not necessarily of the third kind, according to another stargazer. Some people, says Jonathan Cainer, one of the highest-paid astral seers, may "feel restless" and may have "to work hard to resist the urge to catch the next plane to Bora Bora".
Now those of the lesser-known star sign called Sceptic might think such ideas are not worthy of serious consideration. To them astrology as an academic subject long ago fell off the edge of the flat earth.
Not any more. Several British institutions are to make the study of astrology mainstream again. Southampton University has formed a research group for the critical study of astrology and three students are to investigate links between the planets and various aspects of human behaviour.
Christopher Bagley, a social psychologist who heads the project, says "astrology in the academic community is a tender plant" but believes it is worth putting to scientific test. "There is nothing wrong with scepticism," he said, "but for a start the history of the topic has implications in archeology, sociology and anthropology, and is sown throughout the Bible and Shakespeare.
"I would like to test the pineal gland theory, the hypothesis that a gland at birth may make babies sensitive to the electromagnetic forces exerted by the planets. The problem is that astrological studies need a large number of samples before any non-random patterns appear."
In his own work Bagley has analysed the birth dates of 12,000 people suffering from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and has found a "blip" in late March and early April. This result, which would come under the sign of Aries, is "compatible with astrological predictions".
Another researcher, Pat Harris, an astrologer with a master's degree in health psychology, is starting a doctoral study to examine whether Saturn, the "barren" planet, can affect women's fertility. She is seeking 150 volunteers, including women who have undergone fertility treatment, those who have tried to conceive without it and those who already have children.
She intends to compare every woman's personal birth chart with the positions of Saturn and Jupiter - the "bountiful" planet - at the time when they were trying to conceive, and the outcome.
"I am a pragmatic astrologer," she said. "We need to look into some things that appear to work, and this type of research could be used as a forecasting model to increase fertility and avoid invasive, expensive IVF treatment."
Other colleagues are exploring purported astrological links to drug or alcohol dependency, while one study will involve the relationship of "good" and "bad" star signs to Nepalese girls who have been sold into prostitution.
Is Southampton boldly going where no sensible university has gone before? Out there in the deep space of academic research it is not alone. Researchers from universities in Manchester and Plymouth are testing data in other projects for astrological "truth".
By the end of this year, two more British universities hope to start astrological research if they gain the backing of a mysterious research fund.
An unidentified benefactor, thought to be a British businesswoman, has set up an organisation called the Sophia Project which is providing some finance for the Southampton research and for other students at London University's Warburg Institute.
Academic astrology is in the ascendant in the United States, too. It is now possible to study for a BA in astrology at the Kepler College of Astrological Arts and Sciences in Seattle. What next - a PhD in horoscopes?
Once upon a time every court in Europe and Asia had its own astrologer and the influence of the planets seeped deep into our culture and language. The most famous pair of "star-crossed lovers" are arguably Romeo and Juliet, while the word lunatic stems from the Latin for moon, which has a long association with insanity.
"It is the very error of the moon; she comes more near the Earth than she was wont and makes men mad," says Othello, Shakespeare's jealous husband who murders his innocent wife Desdemona.
With such a pedigree, astrology was taught at universities for centuries with perfect respectability. "It was all part of a holistic understanding of human beings," said Professor Helen Cooper, an expert on Shakespeare and Chaucerian England at Oxford University.
"People believed man was a little planet in himself and they extrapolated the same kind of influence as the sun to other planets and humans. They linked the moon to the menstrual cycle and to women and inconstancy because it was always changing.
"They believed that if they got astrology cracked, they would have cracked everything else."
It was Galileo who - regrettably unforeseen by the astrologers - threw a spanner in the celestial works. When he proved that Earth was orbiting the sun, rather than being at the centre of the universe, it upset the entire mathematical basis of astrology. Johann Kepler, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, explained planetary motion and tried to rework the calculations round a sun-centred universe, but he failed and the days of astrology as a serious science were on the wane.
The popular influence, however, has persisted. According to Dr Christopher French, who investigates the psychology of the paranormal at Goldsmiths College in London, about 75% of people read horoscopes and one in five believes them.
A smaller percentage of people pay for private consultations to make predictions on the basis of a detailed analysis of their own birth times, places and the position of the planets.
Nancy Reagan brought back the idea of a court consultant and is said to have rescheduled important meetings if she felt the conjunction of the stars was not propitious. The late Diana, Princess of Wales also had her own personal astrologer. The fascination with astrology despite scientific advances is, says French, a symptom of neuroses and the failure of old systems of belief such as religion.
"Paranormal beliefs increase in popularity when there is social turmoil and personal insecurity," he said. "People look for an explanation and a sense of control and astrology does provide that. The fatalistic nature of the system can also take away responsibility for failure."
Like comets, attempts to prove the truth of astrology have reappeared from time to time. In the 1970s Michel Gauquelin, a French psychologist, claimed to have found a correlation between the planet under which people were born and their profession.
Gauquelin defined the "Mars effect". He claimed that his study of 2,088 European sports champions had shown that they were more likely to be born when Mars was at a particular point of the sky than simple probability would allow.
More recently British researchers studying the full moon have turned up curious findings. An analysis of data from Bradford Royal Infirmary found that dogs are most prone to bite around the time of the full moon, and research by Leeds University showed that GPs receive thousands more patients than normal after a full moon.
Some big businesses, too, take astrology seriously enough to spend money on it. Christeen Skinner is an astrologer who advises retailers and financial institutions.
"Astrology can be an invaluable guide to trends and this has been recognised by a lot of large companies that want to predict fluctuations in their particular markets," she said. "I think it's very exciting that astrology is once again knocking on the doors of universities after such a long absence from mainstream education."
To the scientists it is an unwelcome intrusion.
Neil Turok, a professor of applied astronomy at Cambridge University, said: "I have very little time for astrology because I think it's the opposite end to serious science. It's the type of thing we are trying to fight against - people who get away with wild and wacky theories because there is little hard data to prove them wrong."
Heather Couper, another space expert, said: "I feel it is very unhelpful and misleading to raise astrology to the same level as astronomy. Most of all, it's unfair on the astronomers who are really looking to push back the boundaries and explore life."
Such sceptics do not accept notions that if the gravitational force of the moon can create the tides it might also affect humans, who are about 70% liquid.
Alas, this does not hold water. A respected Dutch astronomer once calculated that the gravitational influence of a jumbo jet flying at 30,000ft was more significant than that of a planet.
Ah, retort some astrologers, but it is the alignment of the planets that matters, not their pull. Again, the scientists have yet to be convinced. Even the Mars effect supposedly discovered by the French has been challenged.
Paul Kurtz, chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and a professor at the University of New York at Buffalo, was sufficiently intrigued to reinvestigate the phenomenon and remains unconvinced.
"The scientists associated with the CSICOP have spent more time and effort in the past 25 years in the careful evaluation of the claims of astrology than anybody in the history of the subject," he said. "And the results have been invariably negative.
"There is little or no evidence that the time and place of a person's birth can be correlated with the sun, moon and the planets, or the so-called sun signs, with any meaning.
"Thus we have concluded that astrology remains without any scientific support and that it is an ancient craft without any empirical evidence.
"I do not think that it warrants an academic place in the universities."
However, he is a Sagittarius and they are typically argumentative.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development once invested some of its £5 billion portfolio on the basis of astrology. In 1996 it programmed computers with key astrological events; the bank's treasurer said it had a duty to investigate any method that might be an advantage when playing financial markets
Studies show that animals, fish and insects are affected by the full moon: the dust mite is more sedentary, the giant tiger prawn eats more, and the belted sandfish is more sexually active
Research in Florida claimed that cases of homicide and aggravated assault are clustered around a full moon because 'biological rhythms of human aggression resonate with the lunar cycle.' In Maryland it was found that calls to a centre for dealing with poisonings were mostly made during the full moon; an Australian study also found an increase in the number of women trying to poison themselves at this time
Scientists at Georgia state university found lunar variations in the diet of 694 people who kept diaries of what they ate. They reported: 'A lunar rhythm was observed, with an 8% increase in meal size and a 26% increase in alcohol intake at the time of the full moon'
Other studies have claimed the full moon can trigger epilepsy and heart attacks. Some academics have suggested that internal body rhythms or the pineal gland could be affected by the moon
One of the latest astrological trends is a claimed influence on gardening. Janice Sharkey, a garden designer, plants according to the four phases of the moon, sowing seeds, legumes, root vegetables and then resting the soil. She argues that the moon affects moisture in the soil
Additional reporting: Mark Macaskill
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