Astrology Resources
Basic definitions: Astrology is a pseudoscience.
In its most common form, natal astrology, the planet's positions
along the ecliptic at the moment of birth are said to predict a
person's personality and determine their fate to some extent. Most
astrologers adopt an ecliptic precessed to roughly 200 B.C. (tropical
astrology) but some adopt an ecliptic precessed to modern times
(sidereal or vedic astrology). 2000 years corresponds to about 27
degrees of precession, or about 1 zodiac constellation, so the two
schemes differ by a sign. The meanings and traits of each zodiac
symbol differ between the two schemes even if the two zodiacs were
aligned.
Although astrology is fairly easily shown to be non-predictive,
astrology persists because people have deep-seated needs for a
magical, powerful, direct connection to the universe. This desire is
greatly facilitated by the "Barnum effect" in which vague
statements are accepted as applicable and relevant, and the strong
human tendency for "correlative thinking" in which accurate
predictions (hits) are remembered as significant while irrelevant or
false predictions (misses) are forgotten.
- Skeptical links:
-
Andrew Fraknoi's Astrology
Defense Kit. An essay by a Ph.D. astronomer, including
"embarrassing questions" to ask.
-
Scientific
Defense of Astrology
-
A
bibliography Recommended readings by the New York area skeptics.
-
www.geocities.com
I don't know who the author is on this one, and the language is, ah,
informal in style. Not particularly recommended.
-
Many links,
both to astrology and skepticism sites. Compiled by Philip Burns,
Northwestern U.
-
The Skeptic's Dictionary Their
motto is "The only thing infinite is our capacity for
self-deception." This sounds uncomfortably like Worthey's
theorem: "The greatest power on earth is the power to fool
ourselves." Hmmm.
-
The
Barnum Effect comes from a quote from P. T. Barnum, circus
magnate: "We have something for everyone." This is a good
summary of the important psychological effect called subjective
validation, which is certainly key to understanding pseudoscience in
general and astrology in particular. (But the best Barnum quote is
"There's a sucker born every minute," even though it said
by his competitor, banker David Hannum, owner of the famous "Cardiff
Giant", a hoax. Read about it here.)
-
Astrology:
a summary from a skeptical point of view.
-
Astrology links:
-
Astrology Observed
This one seemed typical of the astrology culture, including nice
art.
-
WebCrawler's
astrology guide.
-
South Bay
Astrology Club
-
The Astrological
Society (UK)
-
World-wide astrologer
directory?
-
Zodiacal Zephyr :A lot of
great, fun stuff here. Links to professional astrologers, articles,
and a place that will cast your birthchart for FREE! Also includes
Celebrity data, and info onthe astrology of the royal family
-
Miscellaneous links:
-
Where Can I find... Try
here! Directory of search engines :Internet Offline - (partial)
archival project by Theoria Netproject,archival of
newsgroups,newsgroup storage, internet on cd-rom,newsgroups on
cd-rom
-
directory of resources for
astrologers. Make it your "cosmic site of the night." :A
veritable encyclopedia of astrology. Eg. "Royal Family
Reference Room".History of astrology, celebrity birth data,
this season's weather, classified ads for astrologers, and, even a
card shop(cards on astrology you can send to your friends on
e-mail)---worth a look
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Last
modified: Mon Nov 23 23:05:53 CST 1998