60 Fun Facts About Astrology

Which sign begins the astrological year at the March equinox?

Its start, the First Point of Aries, drifts slightly each year because the equinox falls anywhere from 19 to 21 March.

The word zodiac comes from a Greek phrase meaning what?

Most of the signs are animals or mythical hybrids, hence the name.

The division of the sky into twelve equal signs was devised by astronomers of which ancient civilisation?

Modern calculations put the invention between 409 and 398 BC, during Persian rule, by analogy with twelve 30-day months.

Which 2nd-century text by Ptolemy is regarded as the founding work of Western astrology?

It was translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli in 1138 and shaped European astrology for centuries.

Horoscopic astrology, with individual birth charts, was created in which city where Babylonian and Egyptian ideas met?

Alexander's conquest of Egypt in 332 BC put the two traditions side by side; the Egyptians contributed the 36 decans of ten degrees each.

Which Roman orator's critique of astrology in De Divinatione is called the first definition of pseudoscience?

He raised the twins objection: people born at the same moment lead very different lives.

What are the four classical elements assigned to the signs?

Fire and air signs are placed 180 degrees apart in the wheel, as are earth and water.

Which of these is a water sign?

Despite carrying water, Aquarius is an air sign; the water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.

The three "modalities" that group the signs are cardinal, fixed and ___

Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn are cardinal, each opening a season.

Which sign is symbolised by a pair of scales, the only inanimate object among the twelve?

It sits at 180 to 210 degrees, directly opposite Aries.

Which sign is depicted as a centaur drawing a bow?

Its traditional ruling planet is Jupiter.

Which planet is the traditional ruler of Aries?

Venus rules Taurus and Libra; Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo.

Which sign is ruled by the Sun itself?

The Moon, by the same logic, rules Cancer.

Which sign was reassigned from Mars to Pluto as its "modern" ruler after the planet's discovery?

Aquarius went from Saturn to Uranus and Pisces from Jupiter to Neptune in the same modernising move.

Which sign is the water-bearer?

It is an air sign, ruled traditionally by Saturn and in modern astrology by Uranus.

The Sun's path also crosses a thirteenth constellation between the Scorpion and the Archer. Which one?

Astrologers using the tropical zodiac ignore it, since their signs are fixed to the seasons rather than the stars.

Precession has moved the March equinox point since Babylonian times from Aries into which constellation?

That is why the astronomical constellations and the astrological signs no longer line up.

One full cycle of the twelve astrological ages, called a Great Year, lasts roughly how many years?

The pop-culture idea of an approaching new age was popularised by a 1967 musical.

Which 1967 musical popularised the idea of a dawning new astrological age?

Astrologers cannot agree on when the age begins; one commonly cited date is 2150 CE.

The rising sign, the zodiac degree on the eastern horizon at birth, is also called what?

Along with the twelve houses it was a Hellenistic invention, focused on the individual birth chart.

Newspaper horoscopes are usually based on which single factor?

Sun sign astrology is a heavy simplification of the full birth chart, which also plots the Moon, planets, houses and aspects.

R. H. Naylor's horoscope for which newborn royal launched Britain's first newspaper astrology column in 1930?

He then forecast that "a British aircraft will be in danger" in October; the R101 airship crashed and the Sunday Express gave him a weekly column.

Which disaster in October 1930 was credited as a successful Naylor prediction and launched his column?

He had written only that "a British aircraft will be in danger".

Which First Lady secretly employed astrologer Joan Quigley after the 1981 attempt on her husband's life?

The arrangement came out in 1988 in the memoirs of chief of staff Donald Regan.

What was astrologer Louis de Wohl, hired by British intelligence in WWII, meant to work out?

His predictions were so poor he was labelled a "complete charlatan", and Hitler turned out to think astrology was nonsense anyway.

Which astronomer served as personal astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I?

Cardano cast the horoscope of Edward VI, and Nostradamus was paid by Catherine de' Medici.

Which great astronomer worked as court astrologer to the Habsburgs?

Tycho Brahe did the same job for the Danish court and Galileo for the Medici; the two disciplines were not yet clearly separate.

A famous 1985 test asked 28 astrologers to match natal charts to psychological profiles. Where was it published?

The protocol was agreed in advance by physicists and by astrologers, and the results were no better than chance.

Accepting vague personality descriptions as uniquely accurate, as with horoscopes, is called the what effect?

Psychologist Bertram Forer gave 39 students the same vignette in 1948; they rated it 4.30 out of 5 for accuracy.

Where did Bertram Forer get the personality sketch he handed to every student in his 1948 experiment?

On average the students rated the identical text 4.30 out of 5 for how well it described them.

Which psychiatrist's ideas gave rise to "psychological astrology" in the early 20th century?

He was interested in astrology as a symbolic system rather than as prediction.

Adorno's 1953 astrology study examined a newspaper horoscope column in which city?

He concluded that popular astrology invariably nudged readers toward conformity.

Hindu astrology, or Jyotisha, differs from Western astrology by using which kind of zodiac?

It applies an ayanamsa correction for precession, so its signs stay tied to the stars rather than the seasons.

In the legend of the Jade Emperor's race, which animal finished first and so leads the Chinese zodiac?

The Ox comes second; the traditional order then runs Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

The Chinese zodiac took its standard form during which dynasty?

The twelve animals were mapped onto the twelve Earthly Branches of the calendar.

"Retrograde" describes a planet appearing to move backwards across the sky. What is really happening?

Ancient astronomers were so puzzled they named such bodies planets, from the Greek for wanderer; the illusion was not understood until Copernicus.

Which 1st-century BC Egyptian carving includes the Balance and Scorpion, as in Mesopotamia?

Persia had conquered Egypt in 525 BC, carrying Babylonian star lore with it.

Around 280 BC a Babylonian priest of Bel moved to the Greek island of Kos to teach astrology. Who was he?

He is a key link in astrology's passage from Mesopotamia to the Greek world.

The oldest surviving astrological text, a set of Venus omens, is named after which Babylonian king?

The Venus tablet was compiled around 1700 BC.

Which city did the Abbasid caliph Al Mansur found in the 8th century as a centre of learning?

Its House of Wisdom, the Bayt al-Hikma, drove Arabic and Persian translations of Hellenistic astrology.

Which Roman writer in 160 BC warned farm overseers against consulting 'Chaldeans'?

So strong was the association that "Chaldean wisdom" became a synonym for astrology in Rome.

Which philosopher was burnt at the stake in Rome in 1600?

He is listed alongside Brahe, Kepler and Galileo among astronomers who also practised astrology.

Which sign is the goat?

It is a cardinal earth sign ruled by Saturn, beginning at the December solstice.

Which two signs are both traditionally ruled by Mercury?

Venus likewise rules two signs, Taurus and Libra.

The six odd-numbered signs of the zodiac are described as which polarity?

They are also called active, yang or masculine, and make up the fire and air triplicities.

Which sign is the bull?

It is a fixed earth sign traditionally ruled by Venus.

Which sign is ruled by the Moon?

It is the cardinal water sign, opening summer in the northern hemisphere.

Which sign is the fish, traditionally ruled by Jupiter and in modern astrology by Neptune?

It closes the zodiac at 330 to 360 degrees.

In the Vietnamese zodiac, which animal takes the place of the Chinese Rabbit?

The Water Buffalo likewise stands in for the Ox; the Korean zodiac is identical to the Chinese.

Which philosopher of science labelled astrology 'pseudo-empirical' under his falsifiability criterion?

Kuhn disagreed, arguing astrology fails not on falsifiability but because its concepts are non-empirical.

Which poet's Paradiso refers 'in countless details' to the astrological planets?

He used astrological thinking even in his prophecies of the reform of Christendom.

Which British agency employed the astrologer Louis de Wohl during the Second World War?

The War Office wanted to know what Hitler's own astrologers might be advising him.

Which French queen paid Nostradamus in 1566 to verify a prediction about her husband's death?

The prophecy concerned Henry II, who had died in a jousting accident in 1559.

Which Church Father cited twins who behave differently as evidence against astrology?

He also argued its determinism clashed with free will and with God not being the cause of evil.

What share of US adults said they believed in astrology in a 2024 Pew Research survey?

Earlier polls by Gallup in 2005 and Pew in 2009 had put the figure at 25%.

Which Roman emperor was the first to keep a court astrologer, the Hermetic practitioner Thrasyllus?

His predecessor Augustus had already used astrology to help legitimise his imperial rights.

Superstition about girls born in which zodiac year made Japan's births plunge in 1966?

Women born in hinoeuma years were believed unmarriageable and unlucky for their fathers or husbands.

Traditional Chinese astronomy divides the sky into Three Enclosures and how many Mansions?

The Western zodiac constellations were not used; the twelve animal signs stand for personality types instead.

Which Renaissance polymath cast the horoscope of the boy king Edward VI of England?

A generation later John Dee served as personal astrologer to Elizabeth I.

Which French psychologist claimed in 1955 that planetary positions at birth correlated with career success?

Geoffrey Dean later suggested parents self-reporting favourable birth times could explain the apparent effect.