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On a clear night, the universe feels both breathtakingly close and impossibly far away.
Apart from the Sun, our nearest star is Proxima Centauri at 4.25 light years away – that’s a staggering 40 trillion kilometres. If a spacecraft could travel at 40,000 km/h – the speed of Artemis II – then the journey would take approximately 114,000 years. Even the moon, which humans have set foot on, feels beyond reach for almost all of us.
And yet, for millennia, we have looked to stars and planets not just in wonder or for navigation, but for meaning. Through astrology and the use of horoscopes, some people have searched the stars for clues about who they are – and who they may become.
As Artemis II took humans to beyond the Earth returning to the Moon after 54 years, it’s worth asking: does astrology have a place in modern life, and is there actually science behind horoscopes, or is it all made up?
With stars in our eyes, we sat down with cosmologist and Deakin research fellow Dr Saeed Salimpour.
In astrology, the time of year a person was born places them under one of twelve signs of the zodiac, often called a ‘star sign’, which indicates the position of the Sun in a constellation as viewed from Earth on the day they were born. These signs form the basis of most horoscopes.
‘Horoscopes are charts used in astrology to interpret and make predictions – or perhaps more accurately, forecasts – about various aspects of a person’s life based on when they were born,’ says Salimpour. ‘They can show relative positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, constellations of the Zodiac and various other celestial components at a specific date and time.’
The signs, and their commonly accepted date ranges, are:
Salimpour stresses that, while those zodiac dates are fixed today, they’re based on ancient Babylonian astronomical observations. As a result, the date ranges have shifted over the millennia due to the Earth’s axial precession.
‘Someone who was born between February 19 and March 20 had a star sign of Pisces according to the ancient astrologers,’ says Salimpour. ‘But due to precession, Pisces is now March 12 to April 18.
Furthermore, there are in reality 13 constellations that are located along the ecliptic (the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun), the 13th one being Ophiuchus (the serpent bearer), and while the Babylonians divided the zodiac into 12 equal regions each spanning 30 degrees, this is no longer the case, the constellations of the zodiac cover different angular sizes in the sky, and the Sun ‘spends’ different times in different constellations.
Horoscopes may claim to tell the future, but they’re rooted in the past.
As Salimpour explains, astrology and the use of horoscopes are closely tied to an early human understanding of the universe beyond our own world. This began with the ancient Babylonians, who divided the ecliptic (the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun) into twelve regions, which became the star signs listed above.
‘The Babylonians led the way in developing an astronomical coordinate system,’ says Salimpour. ‘Within each of the 12 regions they recognised a group of stars as a constellation, and different constellations were visible at different times of the year. The first seeds of astrology were emerging from observation, and then fused with cultural and religious perspectives.’
So how do those horoscopes actually work?
‘Astrologers claim that horoscopes and natal charts allow them to forecast various aspects of a person’s life, because from the astrologer’s perspective, celestial configurations have an effect on these aspects,’ Salimpour says. ‘However, I would guess that within the astrology community, there are a range of perspectives and approaches. Astrology is a forecasting or rather an interpretive art, and as such different astrologers will interpret the same celestial configurations differently and arrive at different conclusions.’
For all their popularity, is there any science behind horoscopes to back their claims?
The topic is a sensitive one, given the ancient roots of astrology and the meaning it still holds for many people today. But, for modern scientists, there is little science behind astrology and the use of horoscopes.
Rather, Salimpour says that astrology and the use of horoscopes could be classed as part of a ‘belief system’ – although he acknowledges that followers may not be impressed with that categorisation. Regardless, there seems to be little evidence to suggest that there is real science behind horoscopes and astrology to distinguish it from other belief systems.
‘Despite efforts to test the claims of astrology, there has been no conclusive scientific proof in the sense of an experiment that supports the claim that a person’s star sign and the celestial positions at a specific time predict things like personality, future and various other things,’ Salimpour says.
So, if there’s no real science behind horoscopes, are horoscopes a pseudoscience? According to Salimpour, that definition really depends on how astrology is framed by its proponents.
‘If astrologers themselves consider their field to be a science, then astrology would be a pseudo-science, merely because thus far experiments have not been able to validate its claims,’ he says. ‘As a scientist, for me it is concerning if unverified claims are made in the name of science, and those claims are used to make critical decisions that would lead to harm at any level.’
Horoscopes are certainly real – at least in the sense that they exist as a long-standing belief system with historical roots and a strong following today. There may not be science behind horoscopes and astrology (a view held by Salimpour and the broader scientific community), but the continued popularity suggests these systems provide something meaningful to people.
So why, with little science behind horoscopes, are they still being used today? For a start, Salimpour says that we humans have a natural curiosity when it comes to the mysteries of the universe – and we’re often happy to find answers wherever we can.
‘Humans are innately curious and like mysteries, adventures and stories, and astrology provides that mystery,’ he says. ‘The mysteries of life and people’s need to have control over uncertainty allows astrology to exist. Furthermore, people also like to have answers to those mysteries, and often like to invent answers to mysteries.’
And, as Salimpour explains, even if there is no scientific evidence supporting astrology and the use of horoscopes, there is some certainty in believing – and that can be important in these uncertain times.
‘While there has always been some level of uncertainty in the world, these days, it is at an intense level driven by social media and various other societal, political, economic, technological and environmental challenges,’ Salimpour says. ‘So, in some sense people yearn for a greater purpose, that the “universe” will provide the answers to the problems faced by humanity at various levels.’
While we can comfortably say that there is no robust scientific evidence supporting astrology and the use of horoscopes, they still provide some of us with comfort, answers and certainty – and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
Research Fellow
Faculty of Arts and Education/School of Education/Research for Educational Impact
Deakin University
