Astrology has a long history. Many cultures, from the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians to the Romans to the Vedic Indians, believed in the principle “as above, so below.” They believed that the positions of the heavenly bodies at the time of your birth, your horoscope, could influence your character and destiny, and that by monitoring the movement of the stars, you could determine what might happen.
Building on that long history, in 2011, the Bombay High Court in India ruled that Astrology is a trusted scientific practice. In India, Astrology is regularly used to choose auspicious dates for a wedding or election, and families will commission a complete natal chart for all their family members to help guide their future.
But does that mean you should trust the daily astrological prediction that you can find in the newspaper, or more likely, on your Instagram feed? Probably not. If you believe in Astrology, you need a full natal chart!
The Problem with Sun Signs
Those with just a passing interest in Astrology will be forgiven for thinking that their Sun Sign is all they really need to know. Horoscopes delivered by Sun Sign only became popular in the early 20th century because newspaper editors wanted their Astrological sections to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Sun Signs offered a way to give a little bit of general information to a wide audience.
The sun stays in a sign for about a month, so it is easy for people to know their Sun Sign from their birthday. The moon changes sign every 2-2.6 days, and the ascendant sign changes every two hours, so you need to have a proper natal chart done to know yours.
But your Sun Sign is only one tiny piece in a massive puzzle. Your Sun Sign is linked to your core identity and your life purpose, but your Moon Sign reveals your emotional inner world, and the Rising Sign reflects the way you present to the world. The other planets also play a role, with Mercury linked to communication, Venus to love, Mars to your energy, Jupiter to your luck, and Saturn to your boundaries. So, to truly understand what the stars have to say, you need a full natal chart.
The First Newspaper Horoscopes
The earliest newspaper horoscopes were published for celebrities based on their full natal chart. For example, an Astrologer named R.H. Naylor published a prediction for the newborn Princess Margaret in 1930 in the Sunday Express. He predicted that her life would be “eventful” and a massive royal shakeup around her 7th year, which aligned with the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII.
Later that same year, he published a horoscope for a newly launched R101 Airship. He predicted that the aircraft would be in danger, and just days later, the ship crashed in France, killing 48 people. People were astounded by the accuracy of his prediction, and all of a sudden, people wanted to know about their own Horoscopes.
To meet demand, the Sunday Express gave Naylor a weekly column, What the Stars Foretell. At this stage, it offered general predictions about the world rather than specific horoscopes based on signs. But there was still demand for personal predictions.
Naylor realized that he could simplify his offering by breaking the public into 12 groups based on their easily determinable Sun Sign, so the modern Horoscope section was born, called Your Stars.
This proved so successful that it shaped most people’s understanding of Astrology and Horoscopes.
Is There Scientific Evidence for the Validity of Astrology?
Naylor’s specific predictions, based on full natal charts, seemed eerily accurate to his readers. But is there scientific evidence for the validity of Astrology?
We know that planetary movements do have an impact on the Earth. The most obvious examples are the changing of the seasons (though it is, of course, the Earth and not the Sun that is moving) and the impact of the moon on the tides.
Some Astrologers believe that these same gravitational forces, as well as the gravitational forces of other planets, act on the human body, which is 75% water. There may be some evidence for this, as there is documentary evidence that more assaults occur during the Full Moon than at any other time of the month.
Scientific Theories
In 2004, Percy Seymour, former University of Plymouth astronomy lecturer and member of the Royal Astronomical Society, argued that the magnetic fields of the different celestial bodies influence the formation of babies’ brains while in the womb, explaining the shared personality traits of those born when the planets are in similar positions. A recent 2025 publication by Adnan Yousif Rojeab supported these claims.
To support this theory, people point out facts like the largest number of people in the entertainment industry are Sagittarius, while people born under Aquarius outnumber users of the cheating website Ashley Madison than users for any other sign by about 50%. But this does not meet the threshold of scientific proof.
Scientific Proof?
Science requires verifiable evidence for something to be accepted as a scientific fact. For this, the findings of one scientist must be independently repeatable by another scientist.
While members of the scientific community have taken on this challenge, experiments have usually involved demonstrating that individual astrologers cannot produce accurate results at a rate greater than chance. But the format of these experiments is often more a test of individual astrologers and their abilities than the foundational principles of Astrology as a whole.
A new research group has been set up at Southampton University in the UK to take a more fundamental look at the evidence. PhD students attached to the group are engaged in activities such as examining the potential link between alcoholism and the movement of Jupiter, looking for correlations between those who enter prostitution and their birth dates, and researching the link between female fertility and the movements of Jupiter and Saturn.
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