Mythoblogia

OK, get out your grain of salt....

ARIES - The Martian. You are an alien amongst us all. You were cooked for 9 months, apparently immune to all astral influences until the instant when you popped out, fully formed yet tabula rasa: an empty slate, ready to be written upon. And at the precise moment of your birth - not when your bulbous head appeared, or your spindly arms or even your pudgy torso - but only when you were in a position to be "registered" as born (perhaps at that crucial point when the midwife tore off the gas mask and remembered to check their watch) - Mars stamped his warlike foot upon your brow.

Apart from "ouch", what does this mean to you? Who is this Mars character?

• Well you can go there right now, courtesy of Google Mars. Don't stay long, we have more for you here
  
• Or simply read about this spectacular red planet. You all come back now
• But this is not enough, for the real Mars is a Roman God, born of the Etruscan fields. Splendidly earthy stuff that explains why you love to dig dirt
  
• However that lovely bucolic Etruscan deity has become tainted by bloodlust. For Mars is forever linked to Ares (read Aries in English), the Greek god for just about the worst atrocities you can imagine, including the absolute barbarity that is war. Fabulous. I suppose some of you enjoy this sort of association, eh?
  

But you are here for the astrological side of things, so let's press on. You were born and stamped "Aries" because of your allocated Sun Sign. You were also kindly given an ascendant and all the rest of it. You were also allocated a fabulous new set of genes and a family of some sort, complete with an environment (good or bad) to grow up in. (But that's all of little importance as it's just the time and place that matters, for that's how astrology works.)

First up (an odd thing to say so far into the discussion) you must never trivialize or demean your allocated Sun Sign by looking at it in isolation. No, for whilst it is the dominant feature of your chart, it is a feature you must be prepared to modify relentlessly until you get the perfect fit with your self-perceived personality. You can do this by astute use of ascendants, other planets and their positions. This is after all the Art of the Astrologer, if not the science as well.

Having said all that, being a dominator yourself you'll understand that your Sun Sign is truly dominant - so let's discuss it now in some depth. Because you were born when and where you were (and assuming that to be Earth, for starters) you are automatically configured as a typical ARIES. So you are all - all of you - unfailingly outgoing, lovable and spontaneous people with a dark cloud hanging over you. That dark cloud seeks not only to give you a much-needed light shower every morning but to warn others that ARIES is to MARS as MARS is to snack bars. You are a market dominator with your enrobed bars and diversified range of snack products. Don't mess with an ARIES!

Yet you are also funny, an excellent kisser and quite slight in build with a shocking haircut. Despite this you remain adorable and lucky in relationships. Indeed, so lucky that you can't get enough of 'em. Oh, and family is very important to you as an Aries (unlike those other Sun Signs who spurn family ties, an Aries will collect such ties in a large closet). You are known also for a generous and giving nature that knows few bounds, bar the ones that bind. Hang with little old Aries you long enough - especially in a steamy, sordid relationship - and you are bound to get something (see your doctor if symptoms persist). Actually it's hard not to hang with you as you are as addictive as you are criminal in nature. Aries are great people for mass hangings, very loud and enthusiastic and of course always baying for more blood. But you know that.

And your best feature? You are always 'right'. This lends great stability to your personality and assists your friends in so many ways. Your proneness to increasingly persistent and impenetrable argument is both charming and disarming, causing your friends to wallow around in ecstatic circles, fawning over your immense intellect. Aries people represent simply the vast majority of the most powerful people on Earth, and you are all well aware of it.

• Favorite Aries color: Red
• Favorite Aries thing: Power
• Favorite Aries hobby: Sex
• Most common employment: Computer games industry
• Most Aries are: Baby-faced assassins

Labels: Aries, Astrology

Well astrology (and I mean Western astrology in a broad sense) is scientific in that there's a testable hypothesis; and there are plenty of people running longitudinal studies - or repeated experiments over time, if you like - to test the case. However these experiments are typically flawed in 2 major ways and probably a million smaller ways.

Firstly there is rarely a control in any of the tests, so we don't know for sure how the predicted reality compares with the "real" reality; or if there is some bias inherent in the testing process.

Secondly the tests assume that the basis of astrology is true; and the experiments that are typically run don't test the root assumptions, which remain untested. Which leads to many people repeating the same experiment over and over again, often "finding" the same result but with no confirmation available other than the "rightness" suggested by the result itself. In other words the subject "agrees" with the result, therefore it must be true. Which is of course hogwash (another technical term).

So how could it be tested? Well it has been tested as a process and indeed there's some slight evidence for a correlation between personality and the position of planet Mars. That's all, just Mars. And it's a small correlation, not a blindingly obvious one. You can stretch the point and find other tiny correlations in the data but essentially it's all very weak. Other people say other things, often compellingly negative; but that's what I know and believe - that there's a faint blip in the data that says "maybe". I wouldn't bet my house on it, that's for sure. Of course we could just be looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place.

You could also test it yourself by devising an experiment where multiple people have charts prepared and interpreted by random, multiple astrologers, including controls on the experiment to eliminate bias. I can tell you that almost all reputable astrologers will get these calculations "right"; and some astrologers will get common results in interpretation, often based on shared study of of certain learned books. And others will have completely variant interpretations. Often the "rightness" of these interpretations will be confirmed by the subjects, irrespective of technique; but as we know this proves only that the subjects "agree", not that it is objectively correct. When you look at the actual, testable and repeatable evidence for a correlation between sun sign and such things as occupation or personality it all starts to unravel.

At which point the astrologers will say 'but what about the ascendant?', or 'what about oppositions and conjunctions?'. Indeed we could explain it all away if we tried hard enough, by using arcane astrological procedures or even simply saying that the birth time is out by some minutes or hours or whatever. We'd then "adjust" the chart to suit our subject's "reality". Indeed - a little surprisingly - that's exactly what some astrologers do. And they honestly believe that's the right thing to do.

Which makes it all very hard. Personally I think the best interpretations come from strongly "psychic" astrologers who "feel" the subject during the 1:1 session and interact in a "counseling" way. Which suggests that the astrological process may simply be a cover for some other set of instincts or skills - and therefore open to further exploration.

I can also say - anecdotally! - that I have been surprised when an astrologer actually "gets" my rising sign at first meeting and without benefit of anything other than my physical appearance. That's surprising enough but I have also seen multiple people correctly identified in the same manner, which is more surprising again. I don't know "how" they did it but I'm open to the suggestion that there's "something in it".

Astrology is also fun - and a cool way to get to do some maths whilst playing with some rather ancient and interesting symbols. That there's a psychological component in it just adds to the compelling nature of it all. Treat it as fun and keep an open mind - that's my personal view.

Labels: Astrology