Test 1 Results
In test one were tested:
Nabhasa Asraya Yogas: Rajju Yoga, Musala Yoga and Nala Yoga, based on moveable, fixed and dual Rasis.
The Lagna lord in a Bhava
Saturn/Mars conjunctions and their influence in damaging body parts
The Dhatu/Mula/Jeeva quality of the Nakshatras
The Shakti or powers of the Nakshatras.
0 people participated in the test.
1. Moveable, Fixed and Dual Rasis
The first question in test 1 revolved around the effects of a dominant amount of the seven planets being in moveable, fixed or dual signs. Three options were given to the test participant, one for each of moveable, fixed and dual signs:
Moveable Signs:"I like change, excitement and traveling and easily get bored with routine or tedious activities. I get restless when cooped up at home and it is very important for me to get out regularly. I am not big on getting success through consistent actions as much as really diving into something when I see a chance for something to work out. Ups and downs with finances or my work seem to be more common for me than the average person. I am generally a charming person and suffer from stress more so than from problems with my physical health."
Fixed Signs: "I am naturally steady and consistent. I don’t get bored doing tedious things and I am, in fact, very good with doing tedious activities. I understand that consistency will in the end always bring its reward. I am quite attached to my work and so I have a lot of energy with which to pursue my responsibilities. Productivity is more important to me than fun."
Dual Signs: "I am skillful and find it quite easy to get ahead through the use of my skills or through the use of my intelligence. When I put my skills or intelligence into something, I am sure to do well in it. While I do not love tedious work, if it is something in which I am using my skills or mind, then tedious work does not really feel all that tedious to me. I am really the happiest when what I am doing is related to my special skills or interests. I may have some physical deformity or disability, even something insignificant like particularly long legs or be double jointed or have an unusual dimple somewhere."
These options were derived from the ideas conveyed by the three Asryaya Yogas: Rajju Yoga, Musala Yoga and Nala Yoga, based on moveable, fixed and dual signs respectively.
The horoscope was calculated in four ways: with a random ayanamsa which was to become the control, with sidereal zodiac, with tropical zodiac and with a direction based zodiac.
The horoscope was first calculated with a random number between 30 and 360 in order to arrive at a random ayanamsa. Each participant's chart was calculated with a different random number. This random ayanamsa became the control as it has no scientific basis in astronomy whatsoever. The results arrived at from this control becomes a baseline - any technique or calculation option must score better than this baseline for it to be considered useful - otherwise one may as well resort to the randomness of guesswork in his astrological practice. Of the 477 people who participated the test, 215 people, or 45.07 percent of the people choose the option that favored the control zodiac. This becomes the baseline and the calculation that proves of higher coincidence will be the most trustworthy one.
The horoscope was next calculated with the sidereal zodiac using a Chitra based ayanamsa, meaning one that puts the star Chitra at the beginning of Libra. We chose this type of ayanamsa for the simple reason that it is what is most utilized in this day and age. 229 participants selected the option that favored the sidereal zodiac - 48 percent, a negligible bit better than the control at 45.07 percent.
Next the horoscope was calculated with the tropical zodiac. 247 participants selected the option that favored the tropical zodiac: 51.78 percent. Better than the control and better than the sidereal zodiac, but not fantastic by any means.
Lastly the horoscope was calculated with a directional zodiac which puts the Aries/Taurus junction at the vernal equinox and the Cancer/Leo junction at the summer solstice. This zodiac was derived from the idea that Aries and Taurus are in the east, Cancer and Leo the North, Libra and Scorpio the west, Capricorn and Aquarius the South and Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces being found in the intermediate directions. While the tropical zodiac is very logical in all other regards, in respect to this arrangement of directions, the tropical zodiac appears lacking so I felt it worthwhile to test a directional zodiac. 206 participants selected the option that favored this idea of a zodiac: 43.19 percent, the lowest result and a result a bit lower than the control value of 45.07 percent.
Conclusion: Readers will note that in total there are more than 477 results, which is due to the fact that different zodiacs will often give the same dominance of planets in moveable, fixed and dual rasis. The tropical zodiac rated the highest, but not by a large margin with the sidereal zodiac coming in second at 6.71 percent behind the tropical zodiac. A score of 51.78 percent for the tropical zodiac, is, however, not fantastic or great enough to encourage faith in astrology. Considering that there were 3 options for the participant to select from, a 51.78 percent rating is better than tossing a coin. In tossing a coin, 33.33 percent would be the average. The very fact that the control scored better than tossing a coin lets us know that the test had its problems. The problems are likely due to astrology being a very interwoven science with every part of the horoscope affecting everything else. For instance, while fixed signs may be stable, so is a person with a strong Sun, so a person with most of their planets in moveable or dual signs may still identify as being stable due to a strong sun. More likely, however, is that the questions were too subjective. Test 2 which is now in progress is a very concrete test in comparison.
2. The Lagna lord in a Bhava
The second question in Test 1 dealt with the lagna lord in a House. The Housethat the lagna lord is placed in is said by Jaimini to be an area that the person's life revolves around. Depending upon which Housethe lagna lord was found to be in with the four zodiac options mentioned above, the following options were presented to the participant:
1st House: My life is very much under the direction of my own inspirations and thus my life largely revolves around what I want to do for myself.
2nd House: My life revolves around family and friends or other’s that I am responsible. I take care of more people than the average person does and my life is full or responsibilities, though I may very much enjoy these responsibilities.
3rd House: I am very sharp minded and intelligent and usually do not miss things. My life may revolve around athletics, my siblings, or anything that requires a lot of skill and practice.
4th House: I am generally happy, certainly happier than the average person and my life may revolve around my home, mother or property.
5th House: I am highly creative minded and intelligent and consistent in following my inspirations.
6th House: I am very smart in dealing with the hard things in life and can very readily see the way to overcome any problems that come into my or other’s life. I definitely function well as a problem solver.
7th House: My life revolves around an important relationship or partnership. My life took off and I found my life’s path after getting involved in an important relationship.
8th House: My life is full of ups and downs and the unexpected and sometimes I don’t know what to do next and suffer financially. The best things in my life are things that I would have never expected.
9th House: I am generally fortunate in life and my life may revolve around my father or some intelligent person or path that helps me fell right about life.
10th House: I am very capable and it is very important for me that I fulfill all my obligations and responsibilities. I tend to do well with whatever I do and find other’s respecting my abilities.
11th House: I am generally healthy, or if I have been sick my body has a pretty easy time getting better and stronger when I take care of it or when I have been ill. Peers and groups of likeminded people have somehow been important to my life’s direction.
12th House: It seems that I always have to spend money on something. Spending is definitely a big part of my life and I am certainly spending on more things than the average person.
175 people of 477 participants felt that their life revolved around the House pointed to by the random/control option, 36.69 percent. This is a realistic control value considering that on the average the participant was given 3 options to select from.
167 people answered that their life revolved around the House pointed to by the Sidereal Zodiac, 35.01 percent, falling below the control.
180 participants felt that their life revolved around the House pointed to by the tropical zodiac, 37.74 percent. Better than the control and better than the sidereal, but not by much.
181 people felt that their life revolved around the House pointed to by the directional zodiac, 37.95 percent, about as good as the tropical zodiac.
Conclusion: Readers will note that in total there are more than 477 results, which is due to the fact that different zodiacs will often put the lagna lord in the same house. The tropical zodiac and directional zodiacs rated the highest, but not by a large margin with the sidereal zodiac coming in last place. The 37-38 percent results of the winners are not, however satisfactory. Admitadely, there are many things that point towards a person's life revolving around a particular house. The house lord in or aspecting the lagna, or the atmakaraka planet in or aspecting a house, and even the lagna lord aspecting a house all contribute to the things that a person's life revolves around. Not taking all these factors, but only one factor into account, may be the reason for the low scores. Further testing is indeed necessary.
3. Saturn Mars Conjunctions
The third question in Test 1 dealt with the conjunction of Saturn and Mars in a sign. The sign that these two planets conjunct in will become damaged and thus those things indicated by that sign will suffer. To test this in a concrete manner, we choose to test the effects of the Saturn Mars conjunction upon the different body parts indicated by the signs:
Aries: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my head and skull, skull, brain, pituitary gland, pineal gland, hypothalamus, hair (not the face).
Taurus: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my face, throat mouth, tongue, teeth, salivary glands, tonsils, cheekbones, jaw, larynx, the seven cervical vertebrae and the upper portions of the esophagus and trachea. Do not include throat or larynx diseases other than infections.
Gemini: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my shoulders, collarbones, scapula, arms, hands, upper lungs, the first four thoracic vertebrae and the lower portion of the esophagus and trachea. Do not include lung diseases other than infections.
Cancer: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my breast area, heart, lower lungs, sternum, breasts, diaphragm, the middle four thoracic vertebrae and the ribs surrounding the heart. Do not include heart diseases other than infections.
Leo: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my abdominal area (below the sternum but above the belly button), such as the stomach, liver, kidneys, spleen and gall bladder, the ribs below the sternum and the last four thoracic vertebrae. Do not include diseases of the liver, kidneys and other organs, but only infections or injuries.
Virgo: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my hip area hip area, which is the area from the top of the hipbone down to the insertion point of the femur. This area includes the girdle area where the intestines are located and the lumbar vertebrae of the spine. Do not include intestinal diseases other than infections.
Libra: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my pelvic triangle area, which includes the bladder, the rectum (which begins atop the bladder and continues down to the anus), the internal reproductive organs, ovaries in women and the prostrate in men and the area of the five fused vertebrae of the sacrum.
Scorpio: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my external sexual organs or anus or to the coccygeal vertebrae. Do not include diseases other than infections.
Sagittarius: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my buttock area.
Capricorn: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my thighs or upper knees.
Aquarius: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my shanks or lower knees or upper ankle.
Pisces: I have suffered injury, infection, scars or damage to my feet or lower ankle.
Of the 477 people who participated in the test, only 72 had Saturn Mars conjunctions, so data for this test is quite limited.
13 people admitted to having suffered some physical problem to the body part indicated by the sign that Saturn and Mars were in according to the random control zodiac. 18.06 percent.
8 people admitted to having suffered some physical problem to the body part indicated by the sign that Saturn and Mars were in according to the sidereal zodiac. 11.11 percent, lower than the control and so not reliable by any means.
4 people admitted to having suffered some physical problem to the body part indicated by the sign that Saturn and Mars were in according to the tropical zodiac. 5.56 percent, much lower than any of the others.
14 people admitted to having suffered some physical problem to the body part indicated by the sign that Saturn and Mars were in according to the directional zodiac. 19.44 percent, a bit higher than the control.
39 people had no known problems with any of these body parts, thus 54.17 percent of people with Saturn Mars conjunctions have not experienced such physical problems. This could be due to the fact that most participants are, on the average, just past the middle of an average life span and so Saturn and Mars may not yet have damaged their bodies. Additionally, certain strong planetary positions do much to protect the body against afflictions such as Saturn and Mars conjunctions, so we would not expect everyone with a Saturn Mars conjunction to suffer a physical ailment.
Conclusion: Both sidereal and tropical zodiacs scored less than the control and so this technique, which is quite a concrete technique, can not be seen as valid. This comes as a surprise for I can not tell you how many times I have myself, or seen others, pick out an afflicted body part from a simple Saturn/Mars conjunction. I always tell my students that the best astrologers are those whose intuition tells them what technique to use on a particular chart. Such an astrologer handling 10 charts with Saturn Mars conjunctions may only be drawn to mention Saturn Mars damaging the body in 3 of the 10 chars and be correct each time, but he does not even think of mentioning it on the other 7 charts. This of course takes astrology out of the scientific realm and into the intuitive. In respect to examinig astrology scientifically, however, this technique has not proven valid.
It was not my primary aim to examine nakshatras in this test, but I wanted to play around with some ideas just to get started with nakshatras. Two nakshatra tests were performed. One test was performed with the standard Chitra based ayanamsa, another was performed with the random control ayanamsa and we also tested tropical nakshatras. While I personally have found no reason to believe that tropical nakshatras may be accurate, there are a small group of astrologers that believe that tropical nakshatras are correct, so I decided to run tropical nakshatras in the test as well.
4. Dhatu Mula and Jeeva nature of Nakshatras
Nakshatras are said to be either Dhatu - relating to minerals and inanimate things; Mula - plant life; or Jeeva - living animated beings - animals and humans. The Nakshatra of an individual's Moon is said to reflect what will naturally grow in an individual's life and what they more naturally nurture and a question was written for each one of these possibilities:
Dhatu: It is most natural for me to nurture and focus on non-living things such as books, houses, cars, art or any other non-living thing. And I feel most peaceful when dealing with such things as compared to dealing with living things.
Mula: It is most natural for me to nurture and focus on things of the vegetable kingdom such as gardening, house planets or anything else related to planets and trees. And I feel most peaceful when dealing with things of the plant kingdom as compared to dealing with inanimate things, animals or people.
Jeeva: It is most natural for me to nurture and focus on living beings such as animals, people, children, the elderly, etc. And I feel most peaceful when dealing with these living things as compared to dealing with non living things or things of the plant and vegetable kingdom.
189 people selected the statement that related to the Nakshatra obtained by the random control ayanamsa, yielding 39.62 percent. Considering that there were three options, 33.33 percent would be the average and here we find that the control is close to the average, as would be expected.
216 people selected the statement that related to the Nakshatra obtained by the Sidereal nakshatra, or 45.28 percent, better than the control and better by 12 percent than the laws of chance would provide. This appears promising in light of this being quite a subjective test, however, tropical nakshatras scored exactly the same, 216 people of 477.
Conclusion: Both sidereal and tropical nakshatras scored better than the control, though both scored the same. The degree to which the scored better than the control is relatively significant, but the fact that they both scored the same provides no solid conclusion but only paves the way for more research and testing.
5. Shaktis of the Nakshatras
Each Nakshatra has its own power with which it does all that it does and in practicing astrology it has been found that clients regularly relate to the shakti of their Moon's Nakshatra. Depending on the nakshatras that the individual's Moon was found to be in with the three different nakshatra possibilities three statements were provided as options for the test participant. These statements were taken from the following list in reference to each nakshatra:
Nakshatra 1: It is my nature to get to things I need to get to quickly and in so doing I prevent many things from going downhill. Also, in getting to things right away, my life has moved forwards.
Nakshatra 2: My life very much moves forwards in steps, one thing ends and then I am given another step to step on.
Nakshatra 3: Purification is very important to me, whatever I get involved in I want it to be pure and free from any unnecessary or polluting factors.
Nakshatra 4: Making things grow is very natural to me, whatever I touch grows into something larger or better and I am more creative than the average person. I may of course have bad luck and so things may not always grow as much as I hope, but when I approach it I sure approach it with the intention of making it more.
Nakshatra 5: I really put a lot of effort into anything I do and this makes me more willing than the average person to deal with hard to achieve things.
Nakshatra 6: I seem to have a knack for getting the money or other necessaries that are needed in order to revitalize and energize whatever it is that I am working on.
Nakshatra 7: I have a knack for saying or doing just what people need so that they can make positive growth.
Nakshatra 8: I have a tendency to get right to the problem of a matter and rip it out, destroy, and take care of it however I can. This tendency to tackle problems really helps me move forward in life.
Nakshatra 9: In whatever situation I may find myself in I have the ability to detach from myself and leave behind any fears, worries, etc. and do exactly what needs to be done.
Nakshatra 10: I am really talented in getting together with someone and coming up with productive ideas. These ideas don’t usually give their rewards right away, but they start things in that direction for one or both of us.
Nakshatra 11: I seem to be very lucky in my life moving forward and being prosperous through those people that are important to me.
Nakshatra 12: Whatever I am looking for, I am sure to get my hands on it somehow.
Nakshatra 13: Whatever I do I approach with the idea that I want to deserve and merit whatever I get out of it, so I always try things in the most honorable way that I can.
Nakshatra 14: I have a talent for making changes and for moving things around so that there can be a fresh start. Changing and moving things around provides me with opportunities.
Nakshatra 15: I am not really attached to getting one thing or another and I always enjoy and find useful whatever it is that I get.
Nakshatra 16: Whatever I do I approach with a lot of devotion and it is largely due to this devotion that I have achieved the things that I have achieved.
Nakshatra 17: My natural tendency is to try to rise to the top where I can manage whatever it is that I need to most effectively.
Nakshatra 18: I understand that sometimes in order to create you need to first tear everything apart.
Nakshatra 19: I am very much an invigorator, energizing whomever and whatever I come in contact with.
Nakshatra 20: I have a knack for doing and presenting things in such a way that there is room for question.
Nakshatra 21: I am very connected to the people and the world around me and my life moves forwards through the many connections that I make.
Nakshatra 22: I am very competent at creating abundance and success in not only my life, but very much so in the lives of others.
Nakshatra 23: I am very competent at creating abundance and success in not only my life, but very much so in the lives of others.
Nakshatra 24: I have a healing effect on others and my nature is somehow conducive to reducing stress in others.
Nakshatra 25: I very much raise up those who feel low and can also raise up other things that have fallen into despair.
Nakshatra 1: By giving people and projects what they need I create stability and productivity wherever I go.
Nakshatra 27: What I do for others is somehow very satisfactory to them and causes them to feel well taken care of and fulfilled.
161 people of the 477 participants felt that the Nakshatra calculated by the control ayanamsa was most truthful and so the base score becomes 33.75 percent, almost exactly the 33.33 percent expected from a 1 in 3 option test.
163 people felt that the nakshatra determined by the sidereal nakshatra calculation was most correct, just a hair better than the control at 34.17 percent. Not an effective percentage and just as good as tossing a coin.
155 people felt that the tropical nakshatra was most accurate, only 32.49 percent, a bit lower, but in the ball park of the other two.
Conclusion: All three methods yielded very similar results and so the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the test was invalid due to subjectivity of the questions, or that the shakti of a nakshatra is just not all that significant.
Conclusion
All five tests performed did nothing to help the astrologer determine which calculations are correct or to give one faith in astrology. The results of most of the tests followed the law of averages, though there were a couple of slightly better results in 3 of the tests. These better results were not large enough to satisfy even the most tolerant observer, not to mention an even mild critic. There are three possible reasons for these results:
1. The tests were simply not concrete enough. To deal with this possibility we have arranged a second test that is much more concrete dealing with body size and colors, two obvious things in each person's life.
2. The tests only considered one isolated factor in the horoscope. As every astrology knows, the whole horoscope comes to bear on each other part of the horoscope. I had hopped that the laws of averages would balance out all influencing factors when the focus was on one isolated factor. I still believe they will and so I think that testing astrological factors one a time is necessary to create a base of facts. I am more inclined to believe that this run of tests was simply too subjective. Test 2 is the next step to take, which focuses on more concrete effects.
3. Astrology is not a science but a symbolic practice. The symbols of astrology stimulate the astrologer's intuition so that the knowledge known about oneself, others and the universe inside oneself may come to the forefront of one's consciousness. If this is so, why would the ancient astrologers have create such elaborate mathematical techniques as are found in the ancient Hindu texts on astrology?