Conjecture: the real part of Western Astrology
Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2024 8:09 am
Let's try something else, like an annoying Astrology thread. In my estimation, about 30% of Western Astrology is real and about 70% of it is made-up, depends on how we count.
The made-up part: everything to do with the sky, with cosmic influences, with predicting the future using these. Planetary positions, magical powers of celestial bodies, charts, Moon signs, Rising signs, constellations, animals and objects associated with Sun signs, predicting life events etc. This is of course all made-up, no need to elaborate.
The real part: seasonal biology. In places with 4 seasons, there is a yearly cycle how the seasons biologically affect the human body. Especially considering that Homo evolved in Africa for millions of years under constant summer, so the 4 seasons are still somewhat of an anomaly for the human body.
Even as adults, many of us feel somewhat different every few weeks, as we are affected by changes in temperature, amount of sunlight, hormone levels, winter vitamine deficiencies etc. This is probably even more true for the more sensitive embryos and newborns. It probably matters a lot what kind of influences we receive when we are around 4-7 months old embryos as our brains are getting hardwired, and what kind of environmental influences we receive when we are born and shortly after that.
So we probably have a yearly cycle of hardwired, mild personality differences. The effect is getting smaller now with Global warming, and the "Sun signs" are reversed on the Southern hemisphere. Western Astrology doesn't work for people born near the equator and the poles. Europe and the US are mostly on the right latitudes, that's why Western Astrology is so popular there.
This whole seasonal biology effect isn't very big anyway, but easily statistically significant enough for many people to notice it.
Western Astrology misinterprets the above as "Sun signs", and strictly divides the year into 12 parts, but in reality, it's a continuous year-long change. Having 24 or 36 signs would be much more accurate. Decan astrology does something like that, it divides every sign into 3 sub-signs, is therefore probably the most accurate attempt.
This is why the Sun sign descriptions are often eerily accurate, and even some people who are generally skeptics about everything, are sometimes left scratching their heads. This is indeed relevant to relationships, compatibilities, influences how relationships may play out in the future.
Scientific refutations were mostly concerned with the made-up parts of Western Astrology. What they need to do instead, is pick people who developed as embryos and were born at the right latitudes (sharply different 4 seasons), and were born in the middle of their Sun signs (no preterm and postterm births), and are unfamiliar with Western Astrology so they aren't biased. And then evaluate the 12 groups psychologically, looking for patterns, similarities, but this is the hardest part as Western Astrology has misunderstood and sugarcoated the mild psychological oddities of the signs quite a lot, so it needs to be established first what exactly to look for.
The made-up part: everything to do with the sky, with cosmic influences, with predicting the future using these. Planetary positions, magical powers of celestial bodies, charts, Moon signs, Rising signs, constellations, animals and objects associated with Sun signs, predicting life events etc. This is of course all made-up, no need to elaborate.
The real part: seasonal biology. In places with 4 seasons, there is a yearly cycle how the seasons biologically affect the human body. Especially considering that Homo evolved in Africa for millions of years under constant summer, so the 4 seasons are still somewhat of an anomaly for the human body.
Even as adults, many of us feel somewhat different every few weeks, as we are affected by changes in temperature, amount of sunlight, hormone levels, winter vitamine deficiencies etc. This is probably even more true for the more sensitive embryos and newborns. It probably matters a lot what kind of influences we receive when we are around 4-7 months old embryos as our brains are getting hardwired, and what kind of environmental influences we receive when we are born and shortly after that.
So we probably have a yearly cycle of hardwired, mild personality differences. The effect is getting smaller now with Global warming, and the "Sun signs" are reversed on the Southern hemisphere. Western Astrology doesn't work for people born near the equator and the poles. Europe and the US are mostly on the right latitudes, that's why Western Astrology is so popular there.
This whole seasonal biology effect isn't very big anyway, but easily statistically significant enough for many people to notice it.
Western Astrology misinterprets the above as "Sun signs", and strictly divides the year into 12 parts, but in reality, it's a continuous year-long change. Having 24 or 36 signs would be much more accurate. Decan astrology does something like that, it divides every sign into 3 sub-signs, is therefore probably the most accurate attempt.
This is why the Sun sign descriptions are often eerily accurate, and even some people who are generally skeptics about everything, are sometimes left scratching their heads. This is indeed relevant to relationships, compatibilities, influences how relationships may play out in the future.
Scientific refutations were mostly concerned with the made-up parts of Western Astrology. What they need to do instead, is pick people who developed as embryos and were born at the right latitudes (sharply different 4 seasons), and were born in the middle of their Sun signs (no preterm and postterm births), and are unfamiliar with Western Astrology so they aren't biased. And then evaluate the 12 groups psychologically, looking for patterns, similarities, but this is the hardest part as Western Astrology has misunderstood and sugarcoated the mild psychological oddities of the signs quite a lot, so it needs to be established first what exactly to look for.