Astrology Explored

March 6, 2008

Last Sunday Astrology Explored posted a little piece on Amazing Randi and his attempt to disprove astrology by having a well known astrologer give a cold reading to an audience directed at one person who was not made known to the astrologer. The subject was Hugh Laurie, known at that time, (1992) as a well known comedy actor in the UK. Hugh said the reading didn’t sound anything like him, but it did sound like his comedy partner, Stephen Fry, who was sitting right next to him in the audience.

So what happened here? And did the failure of the reading disprove astrology?

Debunkers of Randi’s ilk like to attribute the power of the astrological reading to the power of suggestion, or “hidden persuaders”. Scientific studies such as Michel Gauguelin’s are considered flawed, and considered disproved despite the support of independent scientists that this is not the case.

And in this reading, as well as many such exercises under Randi’s direction, the deck appears to be stacked against the astrologer. For some mysterious reason, the sound quality when the astrologer spoke made the astrologer’s words untelligible, prompting the the display at the bottom of the screen, “please excuse the poor sound quality” while when Randi spoke, the sound immediately punched up and everything he said was perfectly clear. What happened here? But aside from that, it is not clear if the astrologer was given the birth time of the subject. No known birth time can be found for Hugh Laurie and one wonders at the completeness of the information given to the astrologer. Whenever this astrologer gives a reading without a birth time, I always tells the client, without the birth time it takes one third off the accuracy of the reading and there are certain things I can not do for you. The client is often surprised, as if astrology was one of those things that is totally mystical and information is channelled in a psychic way. Is this the expectation that Randi set up with his audience? That somehow if astrology “worked” everything the astrologer said would be true? If so, he not just doing a disservice to the astrologer, but to scientific inquiry as well.

Another sign that Randi stacked the deck against the astrologer was to have a subject read who was conveniently sitting right next to not just his professional partner but someone whose chart was remarkably similar to his.

While Laurie is a Gemini and Fry a Virgo, the differences nearly end there. Both have a concentration of planets in the sign of the showman sign of Leo, and particularly telling both have Uranus sitting along side the Moon in Leo. This adds a quirkiness, a zaniness to the personality. Sharing this configuration, both men have a natural understanding of their emotional needs. An important keyword of Leo is confidence, which usually bears out for most Leo influenced people. If you take a look at Laurie’s impressive list of accomplishments it is hard to believe that Laurie lacks confidence. However, Laurie also suffers from clinical depression, and has displayed throughout the years a remarkable lack of awareness of how people view him. For instance, Laurie has stated that he felt he was a disappointment to his mother throughout his life. It took one of his siblings to correct this notion when the sibling pointed out that Hugh was the apple of his mother’s eye. What is the disconnect in Laurie’s life that would have him see his life through such a distorted lens. Note that Laurie’s Moon/Uranus combination is inconjunct his Saturn. Moon/Saturn combinations are notorious for signifying depressive disorders. With the inconjunct, Laurie swings from one extreme to another, never able to strike a balance between feeling of inadequacy and acceptance of his limitations. This leads him to believe he lacks confidence, but what it really is is an inability to see himself clearly.

Fry’s chart has a heavy concentration of planets in the sign of Virgo in harmonious aspect to his Saturn. Despite his outward appearance, he carefully crafts all of his work, striving for a perfection that most humans would not even consider working for. With the trine to Saturn, he can work extremely hard and enjoys doing so, though he drives most people crazy with his “get it right, every time attitude.” For Laurie, this Virgoan need for perfection fits right into his feeling that he doesn’t get it right. He was perfectly happy letting Fry take the creative lead in their partnership.

Looking at these charts compared, what come to mind is the phrase, “twin sons of different mothers.”

As far as the Amazing Randi goes, all he’s proven is that he is very clever at using “hidden persuaders” in his attempt to prove his point.

[tags] astrology, zodiac, horoscopes, The Amazing Randi, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry [/tag]