This paper is the result of research conducted on a database of the horoscopes of Australian parents and their children. The work was stimulated by Michel Gauquelin’s hereditary work, which I judged had not really considered the traditional horoscopic associations that can link one chart to another. These associations, such as rulership of a planet over a sign, exaltation and angularity, are additional ways in which an astrological influence can be represented from one generation to another. This research paper explores these types of relationships. The results indicate that the astrological concepts of old rulership seem to be more influential than new rulerships when establishing a correlation between the charts of parents and their children. This holds true over a range of different experiments. However, the most interesting result in the entire project came from the ancient Greek disused technique called the noddings of the Moon. This gives surprisingly strong results when the mother’s chart is considered. The data can also be examined via sorting by the gender of the child, as well as their order of birth. This proves to be quite important, with a consistent emphasis over most of the projects showing that the first-born child’s chart contains a greater frequency of correlations.
Keywords: Gauquelin, old rulership, noddings, first-born child.

In this article the author points to an unmet requirement in any theory of inheritance of astrological planetary placings in diurnal space. For any characteristic to be heritable it must confer a selective advantage on the organism carrying it. While it seems difficult to understand why children should acquire greater survival ability from inheriting personality traits from their parents the picture is very different when the modern concept of inclusive fitness is used in combination with a systemic view of the family group. With these more advanced concepts a new hypothesis is derived relating astro-inheritance to the new parameter of birth order of each sibling in a family. Some preliminary testing with a small data sample provides some confirming results, and unusually for astro-research the hypothesis can be tested without a null hypothesis. Contribution of further data samples are invited.

In Correlation 1, 1, I was accused by Michael Startup of having under-estimated the results of several astrologers’ description of the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn’s psychological meaning. He contests one expected value of 50% and estimates it at 20%. The statistical reasons for my estimation of the expected value are described here, together with the diffiuclties of working statistically with psychological trait words, which explains the somewhat complicated method used to measure the accuracy of astrologers’ keyqords adopted in the second test in my booklet.

After covering the relations bewteen neo-astrology and various branches of science, the author discusses the present and possible impact of astrology and astrological research on those disciplines which study science itself. Some of the current literature is considered and the paper concludes by reviewing the current state of the “Mars effect” controversy, and its implications.

Ten scientific studies of the correlation between sun sign and the Eysenck personality dimensions, Extraversion and Neuroticism are briefly reviewed. Four produced positive results and for statistical or methodological reason, even these are not clealry supportive of the hypotheses tested. Smithers’ 1981 study is examined and found to be methododologically flawed.

This study reports a test of the astrological prediction that extraversion is increased by being born with the Sun in one of the odd-numbered tropical zodiacal signs, and introversion by being born with the Sun in one of the even-numbered zodiacal signs. Also tested was the hypothesis that greater emotionality is linked to being born with the Sun in one of the so-called water signs. A sample of 572 Indian boys and 618 Indian girls were administered the Junior Personality Inventory and their birth dates ascertained. Results supported the prediction for neuroticism for boys and girls separately and jointly. But the hypothesis concerning Extraversion was not supported in the total sample.

Personality descriptions of successful American professional were compiled from their biographies. The precise birth times, dates and locations of the 500 subjects were obtained from official American records. The precise positions of the planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were calculated for each person, with particular attention beingn paid to the period following the rise and upper culmination of the respective planets. The results of this study on American data are in very good agreement with those of a similar study previously carried out by the authors on European data. A correlation between Eysenck’s personality dimensions and the positiion of the planets at birth was again found. Extraverts are significantly more frequently born when Mars and Jupiter had just risen or just passed their upper culmination: introverts when Saturn had just risen or just passed its upper culmination. Mars and Jupiter appear to be also associated with psychoticism and Saturn associated with non-psychoticism. Again, no positive effects were found for neuroticism.

2324 adults completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, yielding scores on the dimensions of Extraverson-Introversion, and Emotionality-Stability. The traditional astrological descriptions of personality according to Earth, Air, Fire and Water groupings were tested, in particular the hypothesis that those born under earth signs (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn) would be practical and stable, while the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) would be emotional and intuitive. Findings indicated a statistically significant departure from random distribution which strongly supported the astrological hypotheses, except that Aries-born individuals were wrongly depicted as highly emotional.

Pelligrini (J. Psychology, 1973, 85, 21-28) found a strong relationship between femininity as indicated by the California Personality Inventory (CPI), and birth under ‘feminine’ signs July 24th through January 20th. This Australian replication reasoned that the effect would be reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. 126 students gave their birth date and completed the CPI. Students born at a cusp, or who had immigrated from Northern Hemisphere were excluded. No statistically significant effects were found, except that males generally scored significantly lower on ‘feminine’ dimensions, regardless of period of birth. The conclusion is that Pelligrini’s findings cannot be replicated in this study.

All deaths occurring in North Cheshire, UK were logged by cause of death, and month of birth. In this period 502 individuals killed themselves. Suicides differed in months of birth from non-suicides to a highly significant degree (p<.01). Suicide from hanging was significantly more frequent in those born in September and July (p<.005). Those whose suicide was caused by a violent method were significantly more likely to have been born in Summer months. While astrological or planetary factors at time of birth were not considered as causal possibilities, such explanations are open to exploration.