The literature on cyclic variations in birth rates is reviewed with special focus on material not cited by Michel Gauquelin. This is considered together with the literature on variations in the geomagnetic field and on the Schumann Resonance (SR), with a view to identifying points of interest for further studies of the Gauquelin heredity and professional databases. It is concluded that SR is unlikely to be a candidate for explaining the Gauquelin Effect but that the so-called Solar Quiet Day Variations are worthy of further investigation. With this in mind two studies have been undertaken, the first of which is reported here: an investigation of seasonal factors in the professional database using the sun’s zodiac position. Each professional group as a whole shows annual or semi-annual variations in birth rates near the solstices, while subsets filtered by the sector position of a Gauquelin planet reveal strong and unexpected variations close to the equinoxes.

A survey comprising 500 pedigree dogs was realised in the Paris region. For each dog six behavioural traits were determined and ten of their astrological traits were retained. A statistical interpretation of the possible relationships between the two sets of traits was performed with permutation tests. Two strong associations were detected between the angular positions of Jupiter and the Sun, and the extraversion dominant trait. Other associations were also suggested. Remarkably, these associations are similar to standard indications proposed by astrology for humans.

The four triplicities or elements—Fire, Earth, Air, and Water—are said to influence or determine the typology and character of the native. This influence may have the quality of a bidirectional affinity, where (i) the element (determined from the sign of the native) may influence the native at birth and is therefore related to the native’s typology, and (ii) the native in turn may be drawn, or show an affinity towards his/her element environmentally (i.e., towards concrete forms) or psychologically (i.e., towards abstract forms). There is evidence supporting case (i), but for case (ii), the depth or extent of that affinity needs to be determined. In the present pilot study, it was hypothesised that if a native is to suffer an accidental death, then the native’s element indicates the nature of that death. Online databases of accidental deaths of prominent individuals were analysed to determine proportions of signs and elements. There was statistical evidence that the Water-related signs have a greater affinity for water-related deaths (i.e., drowning), but no specific evidence was found for the other elements. It is argued that Water signs are not accident prone, nor are they necessarily predisposed psychologically to water-related fates more often than the other signs, but merely suffer from over-representation in the relevant population (i.e., drowning victims) due to their astrological affinity for water.

The purpose of this study is to look at the perceptions that police staff have of the influence of the full moon upon the work that they do. This will be a qualitative investigation into the underlying belief that the full moon does have an effect on human behaviour.
The objectives were to discover the extent of any existing perception of a full moon effect, assess staff understanding of the phenomenon, outlining what they thought was happening and to place the phenomenon in a contemporary context.
The use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews provided a qualitative approach to the investigation, and must be viewed as a ‘snap-shot’ of views in one police control room where the culture may be seen as specific to that working environment.

An attempt is made to explain the Gauquelin Effect as an artefact of real solar and lunar effects. At the time the author based his argument on the absence of variations in the strength of the Gauquelin Effect during conjunctions of antagonistic planets such as JU and SA. This seemed to imply that the planets had no direct influence on the birth process, however since then such effects have been found when planetary sector frequencies were plotted across the JU-SA conjunction cycle, (Douglas (2006)).
Although the author has moved away from the radical position that the planets have no influence except via their effects on the sun, this paper is still useful for its discussion of implications of planetary conjunction cycles, and for the preliminary presentation of data on the variation of birth freuqncies in the Gauquelin Professional datasets across the hours of the solar day, and across the lunation cycle. Table 1 reveals that while Painters and Musicians are born more frequently between midnight and 2.00 AM, with a subsidiary peak at 8-10 AM, there is a progressive shift to later birth times for Scientists and Actors/Politicians, still with 2 peaks. Sportsmen and soldiers have a single peak clustering around 6-10 AM.
These patterns were later used to support the belief that solar effects have been neglected in studies of the Gauquelin data, and that the variable of birth order may be another dimension of these phenomena. The solar influences were later seen as consistent with some rules of measuring planetary strength used in Greek and Roman times, but neglected by modern astrologers.

Astrology texts provide details of astrological practice and interpretation, but astrology theory has not been well described. One approach to theory is to consider astrology as a study of natural symmetries rather than a study of causal interactions. Simplified versions of astrological frames of reference bear a suggestive resemblance to various patterns of personality and behaviour that are identified within the social sciences, particularly those that deal with shared values, skills, and beliefs. Astrological operations within these frames of reference suggest similarly identifiable patterns of love, development, and a mechanism of psychological projection. A research program of further study should confirm and account for these similarities through a cross-disciplinary analysis and correlation of empirical findings.

Two sets of data are analysed for the presence of solar-planet interactions and their relation to the presence of Gauquelin Effects. A statistically significant solar correlation with Jupiter is also demonstrated when the planet is also in a Gauquelin plus zone in one sample which is not composed of eminent people and does not show a Gauquelin Effect. Earlier results (Douglas 2006) are considered and the most likely conclusion is that the solar- and lunar-planet correlations are real but independent of the Gauquelin Effect.

Archaeoastronomy is a complex discipline. Even though its origins date back to William Stukeley’s survey of Stonehenge in the 1720s, its modern history is essentially thirty-five years old, commencing principally with Gerald Hawkins’ Stonehenge Decoded (1965), with its debt to Peter Newham’s work, and Alexander Thom’s Megalithic Sites in Britain (1967). Since then the discipline has seen an initial rejection by archaeologists, changing to a brief flurry of interest as the sheer depth of Thom’s work became clear, followed by a final rejection. An academic discipline of archaeoastronomy is now emerging which largely rejects both Hawkins’ and Thom’s theories, leaving their theories to what, for want of a better term, we know as ‘alternative’ archaeoastronomy. However, the ‘academic’ v ‘alternative’ polarity is compounded by another, which is equally deep and often more bitter; the clash between astronomical and archaeological methodologies. Both make claims to being exact sciences – and each challenges the others’ claims to a monopoly of truth. The fundamental difference between the two is that astronomy is often unable to test its hypotheses under controlled conditions and instead frequently relies on mathematical proofs, while archaeology relies on the analysis of artefacts from the past which can be weighed, measured and, roughly, dated, but often with little real idea of the cultural context from which they emerged. Hence, while astronomers have made claims on Stonehenge’s age which have later been overturned, as did Norman Lockyer in the 1900s, archaeologists have also utterly misunderstood the site’s history. When Jacquetta Hawkes, subsequently a leading opponent of archaeoastronomy, wrote confidently in 1945 that British megaliths were based on Mediterranean models, (1945:16) she had no idea that the British sites were later shown to be much older and that her self-assurance was not partially, but completely and utterly misplaced. Thus we can predict that archaeologists will not like Heath’s latest book. That is not to say that there is not much in it that they could learn from.

Heath has set himself the task of maintaining the Thom/Hawkins position, namely that Stonehenge, and many other megaliths, were precisely designed to measure not just the solstices, but lunar standstills, eclipses and some stellar risings, all quite reasonable hypotheses to any simple observational astronomer. Like Thom he is an amateur astronomer and professional engineer and he works from the same mathematical principles, placing a higher emphasis on the structure of megalithic monuments than the nature or dating of associated artefacts. His is the big picture.

Heath’s Stonehenge is simple structured with simple one page ‘chapters’, all with an illustration on the facing page. In fifty-six pages of text he describes some of the main features of Stonehenge’s history together with theories about its origins and function, including its location in the immediate landscape, its orientation with the Preselli hills (home of the ‘bluestones’) and the significance of its latitude. He includes other researchers’ theories, such as Guy Underwood’s dowsing experiments, and his own, such as the ‘lunation triangle’ (covered in more detail in his Sun, Moon and Stonehenge 1998), and covers some features of the site’s construction which are uncontroversial (the erection of the stones) and others which are more radical (Fred Hoyle’s simpler and in some ways fundamentally different version of Hawkins’ eclipse predictor theory).

Heath’s writing is fluid, articulate and suffused with a very gentle wit, and his latest contribution to the ever-expanding corpus of literature on Stonehenge is an ideal introduction for the ignorant and a valuable aide-memoire for the cognoscienti.

Reviewed by
Nick Campion

The original Cosmic Loom emerged from Unwin Hyman in 1987, with an imposing hardback cover. It became an immediate classic or seminal text on astrology, although it was never a best selling astrology book. Why? Perhaps, as one reviewer in Considerations put it, ‘the non-thinking (astrologer) had better leave it alone’. And the original review in the Astrological Journal was equally emphatic, ‘cuts across almost all current developments in astrology and leaves few of today’s fashionable positions and approaches unscathed… brilliant studies.. a mind of inestimable value at the present stage of astrology’s development’.

Dennis Elwell dealt out his perspective on what astrology is, what it does and how it permeates our daily lives in a way which puts astrology first, and human schools of thought about astrology last. He made enemies, yet several non-astrologers who have read the original book think it the best non-jargon and ‘plain languaged’ book on the subject yet. 1 think these original reviewers were right. Our subject is top heavy with jargon, filled with theories, complications and medieval hangovers following astrology’s time underground, partying away from the scientific rationalists. Elwell doles out astrological truths in a refreshingly straight way. Elwell’s main theme is that of ‘multicongruence’, the author’s term for ‘many things in agreement’. The tendency for certain things and conditions to co-occur because they belong together at a higher, unmanifest level. The original Loom contained many examples of this phenomenon, but the revised edition bulges with exceptional examples of multicongruence, and Elwell defines several forms of the effect, using non-nonsense terms like event level, content level and intent level. Then the author identifies another facet when several features in a person’s chart all point to the same circumstance. I’ve often heard this called the ‘rule of three’ by astrologers, but here Elwefl delineates the effect with a stunning (and Royal) example. Finally, the author identifies a form of multicongruence which he claims could more than squash -the sceptics of astrology – the effect when several people all become involved in the same event and it turns out that they all share similar chart features. Again, the author walks his talk with extremely well thought out Royal examples. So Elwell is back in town, and whoever in the UT initiated the reprint of Cosmic Loom had insight and, 1 think, commercial acumen, for this book deserves to become one of the all time best books on what astrology actually is.

Whilst reading through the UT edition, 1 recognised that we have so few books that deal with the philosophy of astrology. Elwell quotes Charles Harvey in Mundane Astrologv, ‘we are going to need to develop ways of ‘considering the future interweaving of ‘whole hierarchies of cycles and charts rather than treating them in isolation as we do at present. How this is done effectively is one of the great challenges of the next few years.’ The new material which the author provides for us takes multicongruence and sits it on the top of the astrological agenda for anyone who wishes to break free from charts in isolation or the computerised cause and effect that astrology has become in so many quarters. As the back cover reminds us, ‘All genuine knowledge confers an advantage, and this stuff is positively dangerous’. If this sounds over-dramatic, Elwell backs it up.. and here’s a brief example.

The material on the appalling Dunblane shootings, through Dennis’ detective-like abilities to spot multicongruence, are shown to be inextricably woven on the Cosmic Loom with the earlier Ryan shooting in Hungerford. The Royal Arnoury in Leeds, was opened by the Queen two days after the shooting, and it has the exact midpoint latitude of the two locations, which sent goose-bumps up this reviewers back. If that’s spooky, Elwell’s uptuming of the name Harnilton and Dunblane at the other locations is positively weird. Yet, it isn’t, for this is how astrological event horizons are shown to work, and Elwell goes through the chart of that time with precision expertise, leaving any competent astrologer in no doubt what the Cosmic Loom is weaving. Similarly, the material on the Titanic (ship-wreck and film linked) and the mysterious death of Diana, Princess of Wales (an outstanding piece of astrological research) rounds off a new final chapter, The Far Edge, of a book which must be read by any astrologer who wonders what the astrological effect actually is and how it operates.

The Urania Trust has also broken with the hard-back productions of recent years, and this edition of the Cosmic Loom is decidedly more elegant and attractive as a paperback. I feel drawn to again quote Charles Harvey, who, in a 1etter to this reviewer concerning another book, said, ‘I do hope the enterprising publisher will get it the distribution it deserves..’ This is so relevant to the UT with Elwell’s masterpiece.

Dennis Elwell has been with astrology for over half a century. He is undoubtedly one of the subject’s most original thinkers and has clearly studied esoteric and scientific material. In places, his strong opinions take an undue emphasis which takes away from some of his important lines of argument. But, perhaps paradoxically, his work shows how much humility we need when approaching the evolutionary process as seen through astrology and the Cosmic Loom. The author is not over-kind to several other schools of astrology, notably sun-sign astrologers and psychological astrology, and remains somewhat of a lone-wolf, a maverick, which is an understandable though probably necessary shame. But with the reprinting of the Cosmic Loom, astrologers have the opportunity to meet Dennis Elwell head-on, to be knocked out of a rut, and to give themselves an astrological work-out. This book really is a second coming for astrologers. If you missed it first time round, buy a copy and lend it to all your sceptical friends. If you already have a copy of the original, pat yourself on the back for your discernment – but you really do deserve this new enlarged edition. It’s a popsy.

Reviewed by Robin Heath

Author: Prof. Suitbert ErtelAbstract: Keywords: Gauquelin, planetary effects, attribution, parental tampering, birth count, DeanNotes:Publication: Correlation Journal of Research in AstrologyIssue: Volume 23 Nubmer 2Dated: 2006Pages: 58 – 61