For millennia, stone structures built to observe and worship the heavens have intrigued those who came after. The great pyramids of Egypt are built so closely aligned to the compass directions (North, South, East, West), that they baffle modern civil engineers as to how that much mass could be so precisely aligned. Shafts of the great pyramid are pointed to the culmination points (the highest point reached by objects in the sky) of stars such as Sirius and the belt stars of Orion. The Maya of Mexico built observatories and had extremely precise calendars. Solstice markers were built millenia ago, such that parts of the stone structure are illuminated only on the equinox, such as this Mayan step pyramid shown below.

Mayan pyramid "El Castillo," which is built such that, on sunrise or sunset at the equinox, it appears that a "serpent" is crawling up or down the sides. Also, this pyramid has, built into its dimensions, mathematical constants for calculating the equinox.

Ancient Greek temples were aligned to the rising and setting of specific stars. For example, the star Antares in Scorpio had the following temples aligned to it: ". . . the Heraeum at Argos, perhaps the oldest Greek temple in the cradle of Greek civilization, 1760 BC; the first Erectheum at Athens, 1070 BC; one at Corinth, 770 BC; early temple of Apollo at Delphi, rebuilt with this orientation in 630 BC; and one of the same date to Zues at Aegina; - - all of these before our era." (Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, page 366.) The star Antares is just one of many objects in the heavens for which this was done. These temples abound in not only Greece, but Sumeria and Egypt as well.

Ruins of the Erechtheum at Athens. This is not the first Erechtheum, but rather is one built in the 4th century BC.

Why go to such trouble to align buildings with stellar and astronomical events? Of course, one we can readily understand today is the need to have an accurate calendar, for the sake of planting, planning, and other necessities. But the stars and planets represented more than timepieces to ancient cultures. More often than not, gods and goddesses were associated with particular stars and planets. For example, Egyptian goddess Isis was associated with the star Sirius; Greek goddess of the hunt, Diana, with the Moon; Greek god Apollo with the Sun; Babylonian goddess Ishtar with the planet Venus; and so on. In fact, the whole "natural world" from thunderstorms to volcanoes, were considered "divine" in origin, expressing the will of a god or goddess. The same was true for the stars and planets.

The belief that the "stars" and "planets" are expressing the will of the gods is perfectly in alignment with the belief system that the Divine Will works through nature, including through the sky. And in fact, people who lived outside far more than we do, would have noticed when events in the heavens happened to correspond to events on Earth. If modern human beings step outside their doors, they don't usually look at the sky; there is no need unless they are interested in astronomy or practice a belief system like that of the Native Americans, which is also that the divine works its will through nature. Astronomy as it is practiced today is a discipline that is completely divorced from Earth, having no "bearing" on events here. In fact, even to propose that motions of heavenly bodies have anything at all to do with events here on Earth is often considered "superstitious."

But to the ancients, everything was connected. Their beliefs were often practical ones, based on actual experience in living with nature. From practical experience, they knew that if you harvest too many herbs, not enough will grow back next year; and animals that depend on the plants may die. Kill too much of one kind of animal, and others may proliferate and destroy crops or food stores. The complex web of life is like a tapestry, in which all threads are interwoven; pull on one, and others unravel. When you live outside and depend upon the web of life as ancient peoples did, you make sure that web remains healthy so that it will continue to feed you and your family. Thus, ancient peoples sought to live in harmony with their environment.

The stars and heavens were considered part of that tapestry of life. Ancient peoples believed that everything must be. Therefore, the ancients felt there had to be a connection between the heavens and the Earth. The pyramids were laid out with star shafts, and in a pattern similar to the belt stars of Orion, the constellation which symbolizes the most important Egyptian god, Osiris (Bauval and Hancock, The Mystery of the Sphinx). As mentioned earlier, temples were laid out according to the rising and setting of stars; and were often dedicated to the worship of the god or goddess whose will "worked" through that star to affect the affairs of men and nature on Earth.

Diagram of the Great Pyramid's interior, showing the entrance and the many "shafts" that lead from various chambers to the outside of the pyramid. In later years, it was discovered that these shafts were aimed at the culmination points of specific stars.

In 21st century America and countries all around the globe, scientists and others are becoming aware of the interdependence of living systems and the consequences of polluting the Earth. Of course, this is something that many ancient peoples knew from experience, having lived closely with the land for centuries. Modern civilization needed to be reminded of that fact, because technology freed us from dependence on the web of life and thus, our interactions with it. This "freedom from dependence" is really an illusion of course, because we are just as dependent as ever before; just more insulated from the consequences of our actions . . . so far.

Environmental experts and scientists across the globe are finding out that ancient peoples were right about the interdependence of life. If the ancients were right about the interconnections between all life on Earth, might they also be right about the heavens and Earth being interconnected? Could there really be something to Astrology?

What stopped scientists from evaluating these rules? Scientists scoffed at and ignored Astrology mainly because it fell into such disrepute in the last few centuries, and seemed composed of a lot of arbitrary and superstitious rules. That’s because in the West, the "dark ages" or medieval era saw the loss of a lot of knowledge. In the West, astrological knowledge often became mixed up with Church doctrine and other superstitions of medieval Europe. This discouraged the Western scientific mind from considering astrology as a valid area of study. (However in the East, in the Ottoman Empire, Arab astrologers knew that the Earth was indeed round, not flat; and geometry and mathematics were well developed.)

Arab medieval painting showing Hebrew astrologer teaching students. Arabs retained and used much more mathematical knowledge, and thus knew the earth was round.

Since medieval astrologers initially believed the Earth was the center of the universe, and everything moved around the Earth, this also tended to put them on the opposite side of the political fence from scientists, who of course discovered that was patently wrong. The Church sided with astrologers in this instance and waged war on the scientific discoveries of Galileo, and further alienated scientists from the subject of Astrology. Later, when the Church finally condemned Astrology as being "of the Devil," there was all the more reason to shun it as "superstition."

Galileo Galilei, discoverer of the Moons of Jupiter, challenged the view that the Earth is the center of the Universe. His findings put him in direct conflict with the Church.

There is evidence to the effect that the ancient, pre-Christian cultures of Greece and Egypt did measure the size of the Earth accurately; and that they may have understood that the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe. Of course, these ancient cultures practiced Astrology, even with their superior-than-medieval knowledge of the Earth (that it’s round, not flat; etc.) and astronomy. Astrology is not based on the assumption that the Earth is the center of the universe. It is only a set of rules for "interpreting" what the motions of the planets and stars might mean for life here on Earth. The current astronomical coordinate system used for locating objects in the heavens is also earth-based, for the convenience of astronomers. That doesn’t mean that modern astronomers think the Earth is the center of the universe. The same holds true for modern astrologers and astrology in general.

Other than religious prejudice being a reason for modern science avoiding the subject of Astrology, there is the subject itself. Astrology is not quickly and easily learned. It takes time to understand how to apply the rules; in order to do that, it’s necessary to study the system in detail, and to gain a great deal of practice using it. Any scientist attempting to evaluate astrology based only on a few sets of arbitrary rules won’t succeed in applying them correctly, or giving the system a fair test.

Though Western Astrology fell into disrepute and many of its traditions were lost, this was not the case for Vedic Astrology, the astrology of ancient India. While not always approved of by orthodox Indian religion, it nevertheless played a large role in Indian society. Marriages were often planned based on an Astrologer’s recommendation; and they were also consulted on many other practical matters. The Astrology of India therefore retained its ancient traditions and rules, and is a very practical form of Astrology. Its focus is on accurately predicting the future for practical matters such as marriage, wealth, inheritances, etc.

For this and for many other reasons, the system of Astrology utilized by the Astrology Research Group is Vedic Astrology. As stated earlier, its rules are technical in nature and therefore lend themselves well to computer studies. Further, because of its ancient, relatively unbroken traditions, Vedic Astrology has a good chance of retaining and making use of, astrological rules that actually work in predicting the future. Also, the ancient system of Vedic Astrology relies on the sidereal or "true" positions of the stars, and modern Astrology no longer does that. The zodiac used in America, Britain and the West in general is no longer lined up with the actual positions of stars in the heavens. Because ancient monuments are aligned to the true positions of the stars and planets (and not theoretical positions based on the location of the equinox), this also decided our approach to our research.

We here at the Astrology Research Group believe that it is very worthwhile to explore whether or not there is truly a connection between the "heavens and the Earth." Mary Weaver, computer expert of 20 years and Astrology researcher for 12 years, has the computer expertise to program Astrological rules and the knowledge of how they should be applied. For a long time, Astrology could not be quantified. Ancient religions often centered around the stars and planets, so for that and other reasons modern science assigned Astrology to the realm of superstition. However, this is the age of the computer, when it's possible to program computers to execute the complex rules and instructions that ancient predictive Astrology is composed of. Thus, it is possible to objectively determine the accuracy rate of Astrology.

Therefore, our mission is to explore the possibility that the heavens and Earth are interconnected. In fact, so far our research results indicate that it's more than just "possible" . . . we're finding that it's an experimental fact that events in the heavens and specific events on Earth are connected, far beyond what random chance would allow! Our computer studies reveal predictive accuracy rates of 90% and over for most situations (88% is the lowest).

The advantage of computer analysis is, there is no human bias, therefore it is possible to objectively establish the validity of a set of Astrological rules used in prediction. A computer isn't influenced by the data it is analyzing; it simply executes instructions that are programmed into it. Therefore, it's possible to perform experiments to find out how accurate astrological prediction is by programming the astrological rules into the computer. Then, in the same fashion, it is possible to contrast these computer predictions against random chance or "coincidence" to determine if the accuracy rate is due to a "random" matching up of heavenly events with earthly ones, or if it really does "beat the odds."

Against this background then, Astrology Research Group has produced results of 90% or better. The odds against such accurate prediction are . . . astronomical!

Take a look at our research results, if you are ready to accept the concept that there may be a connection between the heavens and the Earth . . . .

Our Theory and Mission:

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