Transit - The Astrologers Newsletter

"I have proved astrology is the best way to run your life...We will take no responsibility, we have found a better way...We have the knowledge - astrology works!" (Dave Gorman at the close of the last show in the series when astrology was proven winner.)

Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment: Creative Genius at Work

Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment has drawn our craft once again into the spotlight, to face a public judgment as to its effectiveness. We should be grateful that the vehicle was humour and not some tabloid cynic with a scientific axe to grind -criticism is best received when delivered with a light touch. Dave Gorman's forty-day task, to follow to the letter advice from twenty popular astrology columns to see if it could improve his life in the key areas of health, love and wealth, must have quite a few sun sign columnists squirming at their desks. Selectively edited extracts from astrology columns were lampooned, generally at the expense of the authors but more particularly at astrological advice they offer. Who among those household astrologers' names, I wonder, has been smarting at the misrepresentation of their carefully crafted words of wisdom? The experiment was also based on the mass-market face of sun sign astrology: these are hot buttons for astrologers.

During the last year I have read many column inches in the AA's publications about the need for astrology to become more widely understood by the public and almost as many lamenting astrology's image in the media and scientific community. The sense of impasse between media and science on the one hand and astrologers on the other is almost palpable. This is partly because most debate focuses almost exclusively on that stalemate question, 'Does astrology really work?' But it is also true that the usual admissible 'evidence' in these debates is sun sign astrology. Astrology's many other useful and practical applications are hidden under a blanket of public ignorance and a ten minute radio debate with a scientist is no place to introduce them.

Gorman's programme hits right at the soft underbelly of astrology - the ancient art of horary astrology (in which sun sign columns have their roots) in its most public persona has been dumbed down for 20-21st century consumption. Many columns are full of fatalistic idiocies, overly concrete or trivial predictions. However well meaning, this kind of advice represents a giant leap of assumption about planetary transit(s) and is applied, one-size-fits-all to one twelfth of the writer's intended audience. It simply isn't credible when presented in the strictly generalist environment of sun sign columns and adds to astrology's mumbo-jumbo image. In short these columnnists fail to address the highest human potential of their readers, they do not acknowledge the divine in their audience. This, I believe, is astrology's very own Saturn-Pluto issue.

Like a double-edged sword, the Important Astrology Experiment achieves much in support of astrology. Firstly, it was just as humorously critical of scientific method. This is illustrated by the scrupulously balanced audience, chosen according to their sun signs, a panel of respected experts in love, heath and wealth, an equation for measuring happiness, a control subject (Dave's twin brother) and finally a graph to track the experiment's progress. It is a well-aimed poke at scientists' hot button of measurable results.

Secondly, Dave's whacky, highly idiosyncratic interpretation of his sun sign horoscopes sends up the public's thirst for insight into the future. In the second programme, aired on 8th September 2002, viewers were treated to the hilarious spectacle of Dave in Covent Garden balancing books on his head with a cereal bowl and tangerine in each hand, attempting to hop into a bucket of water. This was from Jonathan Cainer and showed the folly of the individual slavishly following advice aimed at the masses. However eccentric and oddball his methods, it is very clear that Dave demonstrated the role of free will and personal creativity in manifesting luck, whilst following astrological advice. For example in the same programme he improved his wealth position by offering up for auction to the audience a painting he'd done whilst following his sun sign advice, even though this was outside the remit of the experiment.

His programme also reveals some interesting facets of his birth chart, notably the generational fingerprints of Neptune in Sagittarius dissolving faith in the structures of organised spirituality and doctrine. Dave's Important Astrology Experiment puts the religion of sun sign astrology in the dock; the boundless nature of natal Jupiter conjunct Neptune suggests a penchant for lampoonery and mockery, used with great effect throughout the programme. The other strong generational indicator is natal Uranus in Libra, disrupting the ideal of harmony at all costs, and on a more personal level showing an intellectual creative inventiveness, further illustrated by the natal quintile and bi-quintile aspect patterns between Uranus, Mercury, Mars and Saturn in Gorman's chart. According to Dane Rhudyar and Leyla Rael in their book, 'Astrological Aspects - A Process Oriented Approach,' quintile and bi-quintile aspects suggest the potential expression of creative genius. Gorman has Uranus bi-quintile Mercury and Saturn, plus quintile aspects between Mars-Uranus and Mercury-Mars.

To illustrate why we should respect Gorman's work as such, I offer the natal chart of a quintessential genius, Albert Einstein. Apart from the obvious Pisces Sun in both horoscopes, there is a proliferation of bi-quintile and quintile patterns in both charts. The notable shared aspects are in Einstein's chart, Uranus bi-quintile Mars in Capricorn and quincunx Mercury; in Gorman's, Mercury is within 4 degrees of conjunction to his Sun, which is quincunx Uranus. Factor in Gorman's natal Pluto which is just in Virgo - the sign of service to humanity, and we have some good reasons for using the Important Astrology Experiment as a springboard for change.

In conclusion, Gorman's work shows strong and clear signs that some fine-tuning of our craft/art/science is needed. If astrologers really want to move the debate forward and achieve the desired goals of a wider public acceptance and more credibility within the media and scientific communities, perhaps we should start by working on what we can change. Firstly we need to wake up to and accept fair and square criticism: there are weaknesses in the image and application of astrology in the twenty-first century. Practising astrologers (particularly those sun-sign columnists who feel misrepresented by the Dave Gormans of this world) need to scrutinise their language and tweak it so that it is more appropriate to the arena in which they work. If the public face of astrology is to contribute positively to our goals, the offending sun sign columns must undergo radical change for the greater good. To be fair, there are increasing numbers of worthy exponents who are using astrology to demonstrate a sense of what is possible at the highest level of human potential: Rob Brezny, Madalyn Aslan, Eric Francis and Jonathan Cainer spring to mind.

Finally I think astrology will have made an important break with tradition if we can devote at least some of the column inches on the Important Astrology Experiment to celebrating its most obvious achievement - of bringing astrology into the public eye with humour, entertainment and individuality.

Bibliography and Internet Resources:

Dane Rhudyar and Leyla Rael: Astrological Aspects - A Process Oriented Approach 1980 Aurora Press