The Gemini syndrome: Star wars of the oldest kind (The Astronomy quarterly library ; 1)

In recent years, our society has witnessed a resurgence in astrology that has elevated that durable art form to a level of popularity it hasn't enjoyed since the eve of western European Renaissance. In what has thus far been a relatively successful attempt to cash in on the triumphs of twentieth-centiry science and technology, contemporary astrologers unashamedly claim far and wide that their craft is rationally consistent, that it is scientifically based, and, above all, that "it works."In The Gemini Syndrome, two professional astronomers have produced a highly readable and well-referenced response to claims by astrologers that their theories are scientifically based. The authors elucidate the glaring internal inconsistencies associated with many of the basic concepts of "modern" astrology. They trace the historical development of the celestial "twins" of astronomy and astrology and leave little doubt concerning the differences, both historical and modern, between astronomical science and astrological art-form.The book's most telling chapters are those dealing with the empirical evidence concerning the supposed astrological influences. Culver and Ianna offer the reader what is the most complete summary of the available data about sun-signs, houses, and aspects. In every instance the empirical astrologer is found to have no clothes on!Finally, the oft-stated claim that "astrology works" is investigated and laid to rest under the debris of more than three thousand "busted" predictions made by the astrologers themselves, ranging from the start of World War III to the existence of an "anti-earth" orbiting on the other side of the sun.