ASTROLOGY

Millions of people believe in astrology, sure in the knowledge that their future is in the stars. Many famous and powerful people have led the trend. Even US President Ronald Reagan became a slave to the practice. All state decisions were checked out by his wife, Nancy, with her Californian astrologer, Joan Quigley. Winston Churchill used astrologers during World War Two. This wasn’t that he believed. Rather, Hitler did, and had a whole staff of astrologers. Churchill simply wanted a team to attempt to second-guess what Hitter’s astrologers told him.
Many great historic claims have been made for the success of astrology. Elizabeth I’s astrologer John Dee was said to have predicted the bad weather that helped destroy the Spanish Armada. Later, the 17th century astrologer William Lilly was said to predict the Great Plague and Fire of London. With the former, Dee was actually asked to cast a false prediction to put off the Spanish. He was no doubt as shocked as anyone when the bad weather happened. As for Lilly, experiences throughout Europe had shown how crowded places eventually brought plague; and if built of wood, would eventually catch fire. Nostradamus himself used astrology in his predictions. But as with Lilly, all that was really needed was a dose of common sense.
This said, businesses all over the west employ astrologers by the thousand to predict business and stock trends. If they didn’t get it right more often than not, big business would not employ them. So what exactly is going on? Perhaps, to understand, we need to know just what astrology is …

This essay has now moved to Anthony North’s new website. Read more of it here, including his own theories and more data.

(c) Anthony North, 2003