| AstroSignatures in the Gauquelin Data Revealed by David Cochrane February, 2007 Copyright © 2007 All Rights Reserved
WHAT EXPLORATORY
RESEARCH
AND ASSUMPTIONLESS RESEARCH ARE AND
WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT: Exploratory research is research designed
to reveal what astrological influences
occur in a particular set of charts. Exploratory
research is extremely powerful is one
of the most important research tools
available to astrologers. Unfortunately,
this
method is
not utilized as extensively as it should
be. Hopefully, this paper will
inspire astrologers to use
the powerful exploratory research tools
that are available in order to develop
hypotheses that have promise of being
validated in a research study. At this
point in time there is no completely
convincing replicated research studies
in astrology that have validated any astrological
hypothesis. There are varying opinions
among astrologers as to whether astrological
research will ever validate astrological
theory, and astrological research is a difficult
and painstaking undertaking. I believe
that any hope of validating astrological
principles in research is likely to involve considerable
exploratory research before an actual
research study that validates astrology and
can be replicated is developed. In this article I describe how exploratory research
can be conducted, and the results obtained on painters, scientists,
musicians, and actors in the Gauquelin database. The exploratory
research conducted was successful in isolating a group of related
astrological factors that
occurred in these charts, and these factors are consistent with astrological theory. Note that discovering astrological influences in
a set of charts is not a scientific validation
of astrology. The findings of exploratory research can be used
to make a hypothesis
that can be tested in a research study.
The data used in the research study must, of course, be different
from the data used
in the exploratory research. Assumptionless
research is a kind of exploratory research where very few
assumptions are made at the outset as to what kind of influences
may exist in charts. For example, in the research described below
the assumption is that angular distances between planets may be
important and that aspects can be grouped together as having a similar
influence if they share the same denominator (such as the 1/8 (semisquare)
and 3/8 (sesquiquadrate) aspets). No other a priori assumption as
to what is expected is employed until the results of the assumptionless
research are gathered and summarized and ready to be evaluated. EXPLORATORY
RESEARCH OF ASPECTS: The most commonly used astrological influences are aspects, zodiac
sign placements, and house placements. Rulerships, exaltations,
and other ways of relating these influences to each other are also
often used. Combinations of planets in midpoint structures, and
other ways of looking at how astronomical phenomena correlate with
behavior on earth are also utilized by astrologers. In the study below I have focused on aspects between the planets. The
Kepler 7.0 program was used to do this study: For
55 charts of painters in the Kepler
database I selected a distribution
of angles between Venus and Mars, as
shown below. The
graph shown above shows the total number of charts with
Venus
and Mars in 180 totals, from 0 to 179
degrees, where "0" is
0 to 1 degree, "1" is 1 to 2 degrees, etc. up
to "179" for 179 to 180 degrees. Viewing the aspects as harmonics does not require as much data as viewing aspects as angular distances. A
harmonic is simply all aspects that have the same denominator.
For example, the 1/10, 2/10, 3/10, 4/10, and 5/10 aspects
are 10th harmonic aspects and they are multiples of 36 degrees.
Only the 1/10 and 3/10 aspect do not reduce down to also
be a lower harmonic. Despite
the limited number of charts used
on this study,
viewing the aspect angles as harmonics
is very interesting. These list
of aspects are shown below. In
the graph above
the disribution of angles for transiting
planets from 1850 to 1950 is also displayed
in a blue color. This serves as a kind
of control group to see what the random distribution
of harmonic is. All blue
bars are approximately
the same height, showing that the random
occurrence of harmonics of Venus and Mars
are fairly evenly distributed across all
harmonics. ASTROSIGNATURE
FOR VISUAL ARTS Building
an AstroSignature: I
looked at graphs of some other planetary
pairs and then decided to build an AstroSignature
for Visual Arts. Shown
below is the screen for the AstroSignature that
I created. The AstroSignature is the 5th, 10th, and 15th
harmonics of
Venus-Mars, Venus-Neptune, and Mars-Neptune,
for a total of 9 astrological influences, as shown in the
list of influences
on the left side of the screen. RESULTS: Shown
below are the results of running this
astroSignature for the 55 painters used
in the study. The average score is 0.27273 Imported
Data: I
imported 1,526 painters
charts from the Gauquelin database.
The results are shown below. The
average score is 0.23364. In
my research I look for minimum differences
in average scores of at least 10%
when large numbers of
charts are
involved. The fewer the number
of charts studied, the wider the fluctuation
in average scores can be. In
this case, there are over 1,000 painter
and over 1,000 scientists
in the data so
a minimum difference
of only 10% is of interest.
Keep in mind that the Gauquelin
effect
for the diurnal placement
of planets is one of
the most powerful supports
for the validity of astrology and
the magnitude
of the effect
is very small. We do
not need huge effects to have a finding
that is potentially very powerful.
A statistical
analysis however using a T test
shows that the scores for the Gauquelin
painters and Gauquelin
scientists is not statistically
significant at the
0.05 level. DISCOVERY: Exploratory
Research of Painters, Musicians, Actors,
and Scientists. I
used the exploratory research feature
described above on the charts of 1,528
painters, 1,294 musicians, 1,458
actors, and 3,646 scientists that I
imported into Kepler.
I
analyzed 8 planetary pairs that interested
me. I could have easily studied other
planetary pairs, but the process
of viewing and analyzing the data
is time consuming. Exploratory
research involves creative thinking,
observation, and
reflection on the information presented.
Even
with information neatly assembled
and presented, this
process is
still time-consuming. I
conduct research
only as a secondary interest. Universities
conduct research with the assistance
of a large budget. Astrologers
usually conduct research in our spare
time with no
funding. Few
of us can afford to work full
time at research as a researcher
funded by a research grant does.
All researchers must be practical
and work
with the resources available.
Graph
of Mercury-Saturn harmonics: Shown
below is the graph of Mercury-Saturn harmonics
for the 3,646 scientists. Below
the graph is a list of the number of times
each harmonic occurred. The 1st harmonic
occurred 383 times, much more than 357
but notice that the blue bar for the 1st
harmonic is very high also, showing that
the first harmonic occurs more often by
chance than other harmonics. The blue bars
show the distribution of harmonic from
1850 to 1950, which are very approximately
the range of dates of the peole in the
database.Notice that among the first 45
harmonics, the 28th and 35th harmonics
extend far above the other scores. By scrolling
down the list of scores a value of 364
for the 28th harmonic and 355 for the 35th
harmonic is found. Because our cutoff point
is 357 we include only the 28th harmonic
in the list of harmonics that are 10% or
more above the average. Show
below is the graph for Sun-Saturn harmonics
for the scientists. The Kepler program, which
is the software that I
used to conduct this study allows me
to adjust the relative height of the
blue lines to the red line and I adjust
them so that the peaks of the tallest
red lines above the blue lines is conspicuous.
By scrolling through the values below
the graphs we find that the following
harmonics occur 10% or more above expectation:
13, 14, 28, and 31. The 28th harmonic
appears as one of the 4 highest scoring
harmonics, the same harmonic that appears
for Mercury-Saturn, and this is also
a harmonic that appeared to be strong
in a previous pilot study on mathematicians
that I conducted. The Sun-Saturn 7th
harmonic is also above average but is
less than 10% above the average score
so it is not included in our summary
of frequently occurring harmonics. Scientists Painters Musicians Actors Numbers in
bold red above are
harmonics that appear to be occurring consistently. I
strive to develop a hypothesis that use
a consistent
set of rules. A consistent set of rules
is the use of similar planets and the same
harmonics. Given
below are hypotheses for these 4 professions
that use fairly consistent
rules: Scientists: Sun-Sat, Mer-Sat, and Mar-Sat in harmonics
14 or 28 These
AstroSignatures use the same harmonics
for all planetary pairs. There is also
some consistency in the selection of
planets: Saturn is involved in all pairs for
scientists and painters. Saturn or Neptune
is involved in all pairs for musicians
and all pairs except one have Sun or
Venus. All pairs for actors have Sun
or Saturn involved. The
14th and 28th harmonics were found in
a pilot
study I conducted on mathematicians
several years
earlier. This pilot
study on mathematicians also
found that harmonics 7, 21, and 49
were important not only with Mercury-Saturn
but also with Mercury-Mars, Mercury-Uranus,
and Mercury-Pluto combinations. EXPLORATORY
RESEARCH ON
GAUQUELIN DATA: The
current exploratory
research on the Gauquelin
data also obtained a similar,
but not identical result, of 2
of these
harmonics, the 14th and 28th only,
being important also with Mercury-Saturn
but
also with Sun-Saturn and Mars-Saturn.
This similar, but not identical, result,
inclines
me to think that Mercury and Saturn
in 14th and 28th harmonics may be the
most
important of all of these combinations
because these are the only aspects
that are supported in both studies, and
also
astrological theory would suggest
that Mercury and Saturn may be the most
relevant
combination of planets for scientific
and mathematical thinking. From
anecdotal evidence
I believe that Mercury and Saturn
in 7-based harmonics like the 14th
and 28th harmonics
incline towards disciplined,
introverted, abstract, and symbolic thinking.
Combined with the Moon this can lead
to an interest
in mythology and symbolism but
otherwise is inclined to study, research,
and abstract
thinking of various kinds, including
mathematics and to abstract and research-oriented
science.
In my opinion science is an intensely
Saturnian activity of eliminating extraneous
variables
and discovering the fundamental,
reliable variables responsible for
some
kind of
behavior The
10th, 20th, and 40th harmonics are
5-based harmonics
of creativity and play (from anecdotal
evidence and study). The painters in
the Gauquelin study are notable
painters and I suspect that most of them
are notable for their creative expression,
not just for technical ability. Technical
ability is a function more of 7th based
harmonics, and creativity and expressiveness
are functions of 5-based harmonics. I
would not necessarily have expected specifically
Sun, Moon, Venus, and Mars in aspect
to
Saturn in these 5-based harmonics, but
it is in reasonable agreement with theoretical
expectations. I also expected 7-based
harmonics to be prominent in the charts
of painters
because painting is a quiet, disciplined,
solitary activity and, in fact, there
are a large numbe of 7-based harmonics:
Sun-Saturn
in harmonics 7 and 21, Jup-Sat in harmonics
21 and 42, Ven-Nep
in harmonics 14 and 28, and Sun-Nep in
harmonic 14. We could include Sun-Nep and
Ven-Nep in the 14th harmonic and perhaps
also the 28th harmonic, for example, in
our hypothetical AstroSignature for painters,
but I felt the consistency of the effect
was not very strong in that the Sun-Saturn
involved two different 7-bsaed harmonics
and only the 14th harmonic is shared by
two pairs, so I left it out. My
tentative conclusions is that both
of 17 & 19th harmonics
are inclined towards an integrated,
wholistic, sensitive, and non-linear
approach to the world. Both
harmonics are somewhat Neptunian
in that they are sensitive, refined,
and intuitive. The
17th harmonic seems to have a
somewhat more Venusian
quality
and the 19th harmonic a somewhat
more Mercurial quality. Both harmonics,
however,
seem
to integrate intelligence and artistic
sensitivity in interesting ways.
Aptitude and interest in humanities,
arts, culture,
and education appear to be strong,
with a particularly strong tendency
towards
arts pusued in an intellectual
or mental way. Interest in literature,
different
cultures, and a variety of experiences
appears to be strong. The strong
17th and 34th harmonics in the
charts
of actors
in the Gauquelin database is intriguing
and certainly reasonable given
the tentative indications of how the
17th harmonic
may
affect people. Exploratory
research,
like anecdotal evidence, involves subjective
evaluations and assessments that are
not always based on clearly measurable
results,
and the conclusions I have drawn are
largely influenced by subjective evaluations
based
on previous anecdotal evidence as well
as the results of this research. EVALUATION RESULTS: Evaluating
and Testing the Hypothetical AstroSignatures
Dervied From Exploratory Research A
TEST OF THE SCIENCE
ASTROSIGNATURE Scientists
2.02222 Even though
the score for scientists of 2.02 does
not seem tremendously greater than 1.9
for actors it is statistically significant
at the .05 level, which means the probability
of these results occurring by chance
is less than 5%. Scientists
3.22463 A t-test
comparing the AstroSignature scores of
these groups produced these results: Note
also that the Gauquelin data was obtained
in a fairly unbiased manner and the data
was certainly never analyzed for these
influences by the Gauquelins.
The
parents have no way of adjusting or rounding
off birth times to create a spurious
result, as Geoffrey Dean has hypothesized
is possible with the results for diurnal
position of the planets. This is true
not only for the Painter AstroSignature
but all 4 AstroSignatures presented in
this paper. Scientists:
Sun-Sat, Mer-Sat, and Mar-Sat in harmonics
14
or 28 The
studies described in this paper demonstrate
that
exploratory research, given proper
software and sufficient data, can produce
an AstroSignature
(combination of astrological factors)
that: The greater
complexity of astrological analysis involved
with the use of harmonic aspects implies
that astrological influences operate
via a vastly more complex system of relationship
than is employed by the great majority
of astrologers. Ptolemaic aspects, for
example, did not appear in the data as
particularly important. The
assumptionless research methods utilized
here involved
few a priori assumptions, other than
the possibility of aspect patterns
being significant, and given that assumption
the influences that surfaced as most
important are regarded as minor or
insignificant
by many astrologers. The paradigm that I use for understanding astrology
is that astrological influences work
via a complex network of interactions.
The network is so extraordinarily
complex that functions almost as
an intelligent
system that can adapt, respond, and
develop in a large number of circumstances.
The
network is extraordinarily resilient
and every person has energies that
are accessible for application to
a wide
variety of activities and professions.
Anyone can develop a reasonable proficiency
in a wide range of subjects, and
can utilize clear logic, intuition,
creative
thinking, empathy, and a host of
other qualities and talents regardless
of their
date and time of birth. This is possible
because the complex tapestry of astrological
influences provides great flexibility
and adaptibility. Nevertheless, despite
this great flexibility and adaptability,
certain lines of development and
behavior are indicated when the person
can tap
the unique potential that is uniquely
his or hers. In
early 2008 I will be presenting another
study using exploratory research
that I have conducted, but which I have
not
finished writing down the findings
and completing some minor details. In
this
study gold prices are analyzed and,
as is similar to the findings in this
paper,
a consistent set of astrological
rules was identified that is able to
forecast
gold prices with statistical significance.
This is another very important step
forwards for astrology and may possibly
be a step
for a breakthrough in astrology to
a new level of sophistication, accuracy
and usefulness. The fact that AstroSignatures
can be found in the data and then
verified
to have statistical significance
is an extraordinary step forward for
the field
of astrology and has been made possible
only through the recent availability
of data and software that can perform
the analysis. Exploratory
research can never be completely automated
by a computer;
the process of discovery requires
finesse, sensitivity, and expertise to
make important
observations and track down potentially
important information. The final
step of research, a scientific experiment,
does not require as much training
of
this nature because at this point
conclusions are drawn more simply, logically,
and
directly from previous studies using
a well-defined conceptual framework,
but exploratory research requires
a combination of scientific rigor and
sensitive awareness
and insight with a delicate and refined
expertise in the methods employed. |
Copyright © 2007
Cosmic Patterns