Science & Astrology : The Relationship Between The Measure Formulae And The Zodiac

GRAD BF i,~ ' 1729 .S34 Y68 1987 Science & Astrology The Relationship Between the Measure Formulae and the Zodiac Arthur M. Young ,I BROADSIDE EDITIONS TM I, $4.95 Science/Astrology ■ Science & Astrology is not an attempt to define or explain the zodiac or the measure formulae but is an examination of the common foundation shared by both, an examination that holds regardless of the use or abuse of either. Of course, in our day and age, astrology wears the disguise of the bawdy courtesan, but behind this masquerade lies the flesh and bones of first principles. While founded on intuitive insight, these principles can be shown to correlate to those on which the measure formulae-the time-tested vocabulary of physical scienceis based. Indeed, this correlation makes possible the hope, expressed in 1954 by LL. Whyte in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, that the measure formula should be expressed in terms of angle. It also shows the applicability of science to life and evolution in a manner not previously proposed. ■ A graduate of Princeton University, Arthur M. Young, developer and designer of the Bell helicopter, is the author of The Reflexive Universe and The Geometry of Meaning, and founder of the Institute for the Study of Consciousness in Berkeley, California. .::::= -1- ~= c.,: ••== I= •= ~·= I= ROBERT BRIGGS ASSOCIATES ISBN# 0-931191-06-8 \. ·- SCIENCE & ASTROLOGY The Relationship Between the Measure Formulae and the Zodiac Arthur M. Young ROBERT BRIGGS ASSOCIATES SAN FRANCISCO Copyright© 1987 by Arthur M. Young All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any informational storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast. Published bv Robert Briggs Associates Box 9 Mill Valley, California 94942 Designed by Mark Ong First Broadside Edition 1987 Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN# 0-931191-06-8 I To the modern mind astrology is dismissed as superstition, a delusion of the prescientific age before it was found that planets go around the sun rather than the sun and planets around the earth, and that the earth rotates and the celestial sphere does not. Strictly speaking, it does not matter to astrology which goes around which, since astrological measure depends only on angle, but the earlier geocentric view had become associated with astrology and when the geocentric view was proved false, astrology dropped out of fashion. Furthermore, because there is no scientific explanation of how planets could influence life on earth, and no explanation of why different planets should be associated with different functionsVenus with love, Mars with aggression, and so on-the whole basis of astrology seems too absurd to warrant scientific justification. In this essay I will make no attempt to answer these questions, nor to make any defense of natal astrology. Here I will confine myself to showing the remarkable similarity between the measure formulae of physics, which constitute the basic vocabulary of science, and the signs of the zodiac which are basic to astrology. The resemblance calls for examination. Despite the rejection of astrology by science, a large segment of the public nevertheless "believes in" it and seems to derive satisfaction from knowing which signs of the zodiac were occupied by the sun and planets at the time of their birth, or the birth of friends. This could be dismissed as