Jonathan Cainer Zodiac Forecasts

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PREVIOUS THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
March 19th to 23rd 2001


MONDAY MARCH 19
Jonathan moves to the UK Mirror

Thank you to all the people who have written enquiring as to which UK newspaper I am now writing for. In case you haven't yet heard, I am now with the Mirror. Of course, this website will continue and will soon be developed with more features and articles. Look out for our special feature this week: The Zodiac - A User's Guide.


TUESDAY MARCH 20
Spring babies

Most people think that tomorrow is due to be the first day of Spring. Actually though, Spring begins each year at the moment when the Sun arrives in Aries. This year, that will happen today, at 1.31pm precisely. Why so early? Because even with its adjustments for leap year, our calendar is clumsy. Sky time is out of whack with earth time - which may explain why so many of us find that our body rhythms don't agree with our daily timetables. Not only does Spring begin today but the sign of Aries begins too. Babies born before 1.31pm will be Pisceans. Kids who get here just a moment later will belong to Aries. Let's hope the clocks are set correctly in the maternity wards!


WEDNESDAY MARCH 21
Scorpion or eagle?

Many readers are demanding to know why I am using an eagle to depict Scorpio. I should, really, have said something sooner and I apologise to anyone who was upset by the lack of an explanation. It's just there are misconceptions about all the zodiac signs. Scorpio though, gets by far the worst press. I can't believe the nonsense that is written about it and I happen to know that some folk don't like being identified with a poisonous insect. The Eagle also has a long traditional association with this part of the sky and I think it says far more about the strength and nobility of those born under it. I am though, willing to get the picture redrawn if enough readers request it. Please drop me a line if you have a strong opinion on the topic.


THURSDAY MARCH 22
Symphony

Learning to read a horoscope is like learning to read music. First, you have to wrap your head round a set of strange symbols. Then, you have to get them to make sense. That takes a lifetime of practice. Musicians never stop trying to improve and astrologers too, never say "Right that's it - I know it all now." Oh, and here's another link between astrology and music. The ancients believed that the planets were playing out a silent symphony that could be heard by the "inner ear". They called it "music of the spheres".


FRIDAY MARCH 23
Birth times and profession

Now, I really am in trouble. Yesterday, in the Mirror, they had to mention me in "For The Record" - the correction section. I had described the Scorpion as a poisonous insect. In fact though, it has the wrong number of legs to be an insect. It is an "Arachnid". I must confess I never knew this - nor did I know that officially, spiders are not insects, either.

Yesterday in the Guardian though, I got into much more trouble than that. Catherine Bennett dedicated the best part of a page to an attack on astrology - using me as proof that it must all be a load of rubbish. She writes "Cainer has apologised to readers for suddenly changing the sign for Scorpio into an eagle, with qualities that are correspondingly eagle-like." She implies that by doing this, I am creating a "pick your own zodiac" and showing the world just how "made up" astrology is. Interestingly though, she then misses a trick. She quotes my line about the "poisonous insect" but does not correct the mistake in it. Maybe she doesn't know about the spiders, either.

She doesn't miss many other tricks though. She trots out many of the hoary old chestnuts that over the years I have come to know and love. She mentions, for example, that a professor at the University of Southampton is now undertaking a study into the claim that astrological factors can influence the success rate of IVF treatment. Snootily, she comments; "There is no evidence that the stars influence fertility, or for that matter, any other aspect of human existence." Here, she is about as wrong as she can be. There is, actually, compelling evidence to back the suggestion that the female menstrual cycle is influenced by the cycle of the Moon. Both cycles take just under 28 days to complete. That's a suspicious coincidence that a university would be silly not to investigate, even if people hadn't been talking about this link for thousands of years.

As for Catherine's assertion that the sky has no influence on any other aspect of human life, this too is just plain ignorant. The scientific evidence is patchy but a fair bit does exist - much to the chagrin of the cynics. One famous example of scientific proof involves the work of Michel Gauquelin, a French statistician in the 1960s. He found that, if you were born at certain times of day, you were far more likely to take up certain careers. This so much upset the scientific establishment that they commissioned a further study to "check" his findings. This study reached a very different conclusion. Gauquelin was discredited. Only some years later did a dreadful scandal come to light. The disproving data in the second study had been fiddled. When evaluated properly, it TOO showed a link between birth time and profession.

Other proof too, exists - but the scientists who supply it - or even seek to supply it - are subject to the ridicule of their peers. Some fear that, if they say a positive word about the subject, they will have their grants stopped. Over future weeks, I will return to this topic and cover some of the other accusations that Catherine will no doubt be throwing my way soon.

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