Assignment - Bath Spa by Judith Levy

Introduction This paper is a preliminary study into the current extent and nature of the use of astrology as a business tool within the workplace. I relate my personal experience with business astrology before examining the context of business astrology and situating it within history. Through an exploration and review of some of the literature available on this topic some of the practices that are in use today are highlighted. Business astrology is discussed and distinguished from financial astrology. Today’s uses of and attitudes towards business astrology are explored. Eve magazine quotes an astrologer who states that companies definitely use astrology but will not admit it and refers to the clothing retailer High and Mighty as one of the only companies to go on record as a user of business astrology. It concludes that we should not underestimate the significance of astrology within the workplace as corporations, financiers and even governments are using it. I have therefore circulated three questionnaires to find out what people think about the subject and my findings are reviewed in the following text. Essentially this paper explores if businesses use astrology and if so for what purposes. Do they talk about it and to whom? I hypothesize that businesses tend not to disclose their use of astrology for a variety of reasons. My Experience of Astrology at High and Mighty As an insider in business, I explore how some of my fellow executives feel about it. I am currently employed as Chief Executive of a medium sized international retail organisation, High and Mighty, and have been using astrology as a tool within my business for over 10 years since meeting a business astrologer Christeen Skinner at a conference in 1992. At that time I was already working as a Company Director and had an interest in astrology. I became curious as to how astrology could be applied to business in order to improve insight and efficiency. Over the years, High and Mighty has had her astrological input in many different areas of decision-making. Some of my company employees, including those who were initially sceptical about the validity of astrology and its use in business have chosen to consult her directly for business matters. I have used astrological information frequently and tracked the results of both employing and ignoring advice and am fascinated by the apparent advantages that different astrological methods might provide and the type of response that its use can provoke. In my role as a businesswoman, connecting and networking frequently with other Company Directors and Senior Managers, I have rarely met anyone who openly expresses their interest in astrology. In fact it is something that I am reluctant to discuss which leaves me wondering how others might feel about the topic. The description that follows is my own perspective on how astrology can and is being used and what effects this may have. These views remain personal and subjective and any evidence is anecdotal. Business astrology can be used to investigate the inner workings of the organisation as well as to track the ebbs and flows of the outside world and the business environment. We consider any project that can be initiated at a specific time as a valid area for astrological advice. The main limitations are the cost of the consultancy and the time that the astrologer has available and to use the advice effectively it is essential to gain the co-operation of colleagues. We limit consultations to the projects that have the most far-reaching consequences in terms of the future of the business and where forecasting is an important factor. Other than rudimentary forecasting there are no conventional management tools applicable for selecting a time for the initiation of a project or product launch. Timing of events can often be guesswork based on previously known facts and past experience combined with gut-feel or instinct. Chance can still pay a large part in retail even with a clear and detailed analysis of history and the best economic predictions because so many factors can affect the mood of the public and events can be very volatile and unpredictable. An example where a great deal is at stake is the bi -annual seasonal sale. The effect of positive outcome for the company can be far-reaching and strongly influence the profitability and buying budget for a year or more to come. If an astrologically elected time for the initiation of the event can influence outcome, this would be a valuable resource, which could give the edge over a competitor. The possible negative outcome of using an astrological approach to select timing is hard to define. If the astrological input into the timing has no influence then the effect should be no worse than if the time had been selected by other means so its only if astrological timing does have an influence on the outcome but for the worse that using this system could cause operational problems for the organisation. There are also limitations on the astrologer’s ability to select the ideal time for the initiation of an event. In the example of a seasonal sale, the astrologer will try to elect a time when the maximum number of people are likely to be motivated by going out and spending money on by bargains. Given no guidelines they might decide that a Sunday evening in November is the ideal moment to launch the sale. However the client is likely to have requirements that the sale should start in a certain month at a specific time or day of the week that make sense to the public because advertising the start of a sale at 2. 39 pm might draw attention to the fact that something unusual is going on. The more flexible these requirements can be, the more the possibility there is of finding an agreed time that satisfies both accepted business practice and astrology. This can cause dilemmas for both the astrologer and the client and sometimes management need to weigh up the decision between apparent logic and what can resemble superstition to some team members. It can be equally difficult when people are not aware of the use of astrology in the decision-making or the astrological reasoning behind the choice of time. Measuring the results of these methods can be difficult, as we cannot know what would have happened if we had not used them. However there have been times when we have either not used or rejected astrological advice and the results have been worse than when a positive date has been agreed thus we continue to use it. More than once, after the astrologer has told us that there is no acceptable date yet we have had to proceed regardless, a negative outcome has resulted. Another more concrete example of working with the company astrologer was the selection of a moment to launch a completely new venture. The base chart of High and Mighty was fixed at the moment of incorporation in 1959 with no astrological input so the opportunity to elect a foundation chart for Kayak, a new brand catering for a different segment of the market, gave us an opportunity to have the maximum observation over the outcome. The time of the product launch was selected to reflect the values of the brand and to ensure steady and positive growth. A Channel 4 documentary in 2000 tracked aspects of the launch of this brand through the use of astrology and illustrated the working relationship between the Company Astrologer and the Management Team. As of June 2003 after some initial teething troubles, this brand is in strong demand from both shop staff and customers and is outperforming all the equivalent brands in terms of stock sell-through, product- growth and marketing attraction and although only launched in five stores initially, by next year the brand will be available to the public in over thirty stores. There are other areas in which astrology has provided a tool to add an extra dimension to the conventional business process but these examples give an idea of my own experience of its use and potential value. The Evolution of Astrology within Business and Finance Prior to era of western industrialisation in the late 18th century, the global economy was based on agriculture. Originally all people on earth were hunter-gatherers but gradually they settled and began to farm When nomadic people settled and cultivated the land an ability to predict the seasons and to understand weather and other natural phenomena such as flooding became of value. If correlations could be drawn between celestial events and matters such as crop yields this could have a bearing on the society potential to survive or flourish. There is evidence of Canaanites settling in cities as early as 1800 BCE, and “thereafter practising a religion based on the annual cyclical movements of nature, overridingly preoccupied with the productiveness of flock and field upon which the lives of people depended.” Many early society’s including the Babylonian, Egyptian and early Jewish Civilisations had traditions involving celestial observation and Babylonian texts from around 300 B.C.E, show that astronomical information was used to predict weather and trading conditions. This practice has continued with more or less frequency in many civilisations throughout the centuries, until the present day. In many areas of Asia including Hong Kong and India where astrology has been an accepted part of the culture, businessmen still commonly consult an astrologer before taking important decisions. A concrete interest in the connections between celestial phenomena and the economy that lies at the heart of financial astrology can be determined in Britain at the beginning of the 19th century. Graham Bates and Jane Chrzanowska Bowles state that it was sun spot activity that inspired William Hershel’s early work in 1801on the ebbs and flows of the price of wheat. Hershel was not the first to be interested in sunspot activity but was the first to draw conclusions about the cycle’s relationship to the behaviour of certain commodities. Bates and Bowles track the history of financial astrology further through various proponents of these aforementioned connections and promote W.D. Gann as the most famous early promoter of it’s use to track economic cycles. Today astrologers still apply their astrological know–how to predict the possible fluctuations in stock market trading. Shelley von Strunkel states that there are those who specialise in investment markets and reports that a powerful computer program called Astro-Analyst is being used to correlate market data with planetary positions. American financial trader Bill Meridian features a listing from Timer Digest in his newsletter that shows for the year ending two August 2002 he tops of the list of most accurate traders. Arch Crawford another American financial astrologer also appears in the listing. Business Astrology J.P.Morgan once said “Millionaires don’t use Astrology-Billionaires do!” He employed the astrologer Evangeline Evans to advise him on both financial and business matters. Although a relatively new practice, business astrology has its roots in the more established area of financial astrology. The two disciplines can be sometimes be confused, so it is interesting to see the distinction that Karen Boesen when she states that financial astrology is mainly about the stock market valuation of a company which has little to do with an organisation’s inner worth and more to do with psychological factors. Furthermore it takes years of experience and understanding and a formal financial training to be able to advise people on investments. “Business Astrologers offer advice regarding all aspects of a company; its employees, its customers, vendors etc. The advice is based on the company’s founding chart, which is created based on the company’s founding data.” She thinks that all companies are dependent on technological tools and know–how and that if companies are forewarned of events they can be better prepared. Companies also use astrological data to recruit the right employees and particularly in relation to management and employee development astrology is unique. Georgia Stathisdevelops this theme in her article on this subject. In the past “financial and business astrology have been placed under one general heading, when in fact, they are really two separate studies, which require different rules of disposition.” Financial astrology actually focuses on trends in different stock markets and indexes and is very different from business astrology, which focuses on an individual company with its own horoscope and things that affect it. Christeen Skinner defines the distinction further by suggesting that it may even contravene the U.K. law, as the Financial Services Act of 1986 does not allow non-finance professionals to advise on investments. So it seems that business astrology is more concerned with the inner world and immediate environment of an organisation whereas financial astrology has more to do with the collective. There are many magazine articles that suggest that a lot of people within the world of business and the service industry are using both financial and business astrological advice. Bella magazine states that individuals as well as several city firms are putting their fortunes in the hands of Astrologers. Sarah Perrin writing in a magazine circulated to business leaders and finance professionals states, “Astrology is no longer the province of bored secretaries and lonely housewives. It is used increasingly for business and investment purposes. The new breed of astrologer studies stock market cycles and computer technology and advises companies on business strategy and timing.” Adam Fronteras claims that astrology is being widely used and that a well-known high street bank/building society is using sun sign information to design its client marketing strategy. Additionally the grocer Tesco has used zodiacal elements in planning and store layout strategies and this information has been sent to local stores for their use. He also refers to a documentary in which High and Mighty was featured using an astrologer for business strategy and planning for product launches. There is evidence that this is an international tendency. Jane Chrzanowska writing in Intercity magazine claims that business astrology is more widely used and accepted in the U.S.A. “Whereas business astrologers in Britain still form a tiny, highly specialised elite, in America there are now around a hundred Astrologers helping to manage high-level companies, funds and portfolios nationwide.” Business astrologers also work from other countries such as Denmark where Karen Boesen operates her practice and France where astrologer Aline Melchior states that the bulk of her company’s turnover is from consultation fees from companies wanting astrological advice and that she serves over 200 companies. Despite this apparent increase in the numbers of people using astrology internationally within the world of finance, business and the service industry there is some evidence that those who do so may be opening themselves up for ridicule and attacks from sceptics. According to Shelley Von Strunckel “in the business community, the name of the company astrologer is kept secret, not only because of pressure to avoid being seen to be involved in such arcane practices, but to keep the competition from knowing the source of valuable information”. Adrian Furnham expounds a sceptical view by suggesting that a whole industry has grown up around feedback including astrological feedback “people believe in astrology and graphology because they fall victim to personal validation-which means they accept the (usually positive) generalisations, the trite bogus descriptions that are true of nearly everybody, to be specifically true of themselves” this he likens to the Barnham effect when people and here he clarifies that he means especially women believe bogus feedback because it is positive and makes them feel good about themselves. Georgia Stathis has created a system to aid understanding of the dynamics of the subject. As a Greek American she has applied the teachings that she received as a child on Ancient Greek Mythology to create a model that connects the horoscope to the organisation. This provides a framework to express patterns that she says, “emerge personally, politically and economically across time” She applies this system to looking at a corporation’s horoscope and telling the stories about the organisation and its nature and development in the form of myth to connect strands and to aid her client’s comprehension of the energies she sees at play. She attributes a mythological signature to each planet and also takes account of several cycles including synodic cycles, planning and lunation cycles and the Jupiter /Saturn career cycle The ISBA has published two books on the theme of astrology in management. In the first, Karen Boesen gives an introduction to the discipline of business astrology offering a key to the structure of the horoscope and discussing the signs and planets in business astrology. She favours a system based on structural analysis. This reflects the moment a company is founded and encompasses a view of all the fields that are of interest to company stakeholders. This analysis serves as a starting point for the astrologer and will show up any fundamental problems that should be taken into consideration before any strategic planning or action can be recommended. There are also some case studies which illustrate her methods of working with a company and there are sections on Timing, Strategic Planning and Human Resources covering issues such as selection, recruitment development and career planning for employees. The second book is an anthology featuring chapters by various members of the ISBA. It treats different themes, covering specialities of individual astrologers such as Sales and Marketing, Astro-Recruiting, Team Building and Human Resources. The astrologers are from several different countries and use different tools and methods yet all seem to concur that in order to work with an organisation the starting point must be the foundation chart. Survey Methodology and Findings I have used the medium of e-mail throughout, as this seems to be the most efficient way of communicating with a lot of busy people, mostly situated in different locations, several of which are far away from my home base of Oxford. I have included transcripts of all the questionnaires that I have conducted in the appendix to this paper as well as a spreadsheet illustrating the results of questionnaire three. My first questionnaire was to some professional business astrologers working regularly with clients. I initiated some initial research by phone, word of mouth and the Internet until I came across the website of an international association of financial and business astrologers known as the ISBA. I addressed my questions by e-mail to a list of their members provided on the website. The questions were open-ended and intended to solicit the maximum information from a small survey. The Astrologers’ Questionnaire The astrologers who responded to my questionnaire were self-selected from the group as the only ones who answered my general request. There were nine of them and they were from the USA, Brazil and the U.K. Area of Consultation The astrologers were asked which areas of the business world were using business astrologers and what kind of clients they served. I was also interested to find if any client was willing to openly admit to using astrology and therefore asked for names of clients. All nine astrologers responded to this question with answers of varying depths. Astrologer one worked with companies of every size from one-man operations through to multi-nationals, ranging from international businesses to individuals consulting on a private basis. Her clients included producers of various beauty products, petroleum companies, physicians, university deans and heads of department, engineers, pilots, small businessmen and women operating beauty salons, grocery stores and restaurants and private citizens. Astrologer two included clients from the retail and service industries, publishing, banks, and shipping and what they had in common was “entrepreneurialship”. She generally worked for one individual or for the board. Astrologer three worked for a wide range of clients in film, TV and recording companies, publishing companies, political parties and for individuals in all fields. Astrologer four worked mainly with small businesses of fewer than 70 employees from private consultants to employment agencies and a trucking company. Astrologer five worked with sole- proprietorships up to Fortune 500 companies. Astrologer six served clients from one person consultants to international firms with hundreds of employees located in various countries. Astrologer seven covered sole-proprietorships through to medium-sized companies working with the top people. Some Senior Managers paid independently for her services. The clients included manufacturers, distributors, retailers and consultants. The types of products she advised on included herbs for horses, coffee, spas and health centres, real estate, chiropractors, and non-profit making organisations. Most were local or regional but a few were international. Astrologer eight worked for mainly local small/medium service organisations of between 10 and 200 employees. Astrologer nine worked for multi-site operations. None of the Astrologers consulted were willing to divulge names of their clients as all felt bound by a code of ethics. Areas of Specialisation Once again all nine astrologers answered this question. My interest was to discover their preferred specialities and methods. Astrologer one specialised in whichever business she was working for at the time. Astrologer two had worked increasingly for the financial services industry and her methods included Heliocentric, Tropical and Draconic Astrology as well as Harmonics. Astrologer three did not specialise in any particular areas of business and commerce doing charts for individuals as well as events. She would not work on birth data unless the subject gave written permission and her methods were varied and wide-ranging. Astrologer four served mainly private consultants and the self employed. She was a professional Feng-Shui Practitioner and Chinese astrologer. Astrologer five had no particular speciality in terms of companies. Astrologer six focussed on strategic planning, market development, diversification and operational development. Astrologer seven specialised in marketing, primarily working with natal charts, transits, progressions, solar arcs and solar return charts, choosing good times for company start –ups, signing contracts and launching websites. She commented that she had worked in sales and marketing for 17 years and learnt a great deal from astrological observation. Astrologer eight specialised in human resources and organisational structure using varied methods and coaching sessions using astrological techniques as support. Astrologer nine focussed on the timing of acquisitions and mergers using natal horoscopes and transits. Openness about the Use of Astrology in Business The thinking behind this question was based on my own personal experience and I wanted to know if others had shared my fear of losing credibility by going public. The replies that I received to this question were varied and contradictory. One of the astrologers said that her clients always admitted using astrology and that she has worked as a corporate astrologer for many years, every week of the year yet she has only worked with businesses that were happy to admit to using it. Most of the others disagreed with this statement and in fact one said that none of his client companies wanted to be known for using astrology. Some organisations even barred their company astrologers from talking to employees. The most common consensus appeared to confirm that the smaller companies seemed happier than larger ones to admit it. The general response was that some senior managers consulted privately but larger organisations seemed to want to keep this information quiet. In contrast one of the astrologers said that she would not work for a company unless all the employees agreed. Another astrologer said her clients did not seem to care who knew and it was myth that the banks would not approve because with her knowledge of city banks she felt that they would lean more towards using astrology than away from it. She felt that it might be the astrologers themselves who had the most concerns about this and offered to elaborate more on this theme. One astrologer took care never to inform the switchboard what her calls were about before asking the client how they were going to handle things. Most of the respondents referred to themselves as Astrologer and the Feng Shui Practitioner was sometimes introduced as an interior decorator. Other terms used include Certified Business Astrologer, Potential Development Consultant, Astro Financial Analyst, Numerologist, Strategic Planner and the most common term used by the client was Astrologer or Consultant. No astrologer reported any adverse reaction or publicity for a client openly admitting to using Astrology. One respondent reported the reaction “Now I understand why astrology works! Thanks for the explanation.” Another astrologer reported that positive media publicity had stimulated new clients. Measures of Success I asked this question to discover more about the practical benefits that a business might derive from using astrological advice and to gage from the astrologers point of view if they had evidence of their own usefulness. One astrologer said that in her 25-year career she had never had a dissatisfied client or as far as she knew given an inaccurate prediction. Only one of the respondents reported any incidence of ever making a mistake. There might be some cultural dimension to her different response as the American astrologers showed the most confidence. She did not give any concrete examples of mistakes but felt that it was impossible to get it right all the time. She felt that with greater company knowledge and as a salaried employee she would be able to achieve more. Publicity and Communication Having never seen an advert for a business astrologer I was curious to find out how a business executive and an astrologer could find each other. The responses were varied but I found that the astrologers rarely advertised themselves. Their work mostly came from referrals through other clients. Connections also came through T.V. and radio interviews, city networking writing articles, teaching, the Internet and marketing directly to business groups. Potentially it could be from advertising in business journals and also from networking whilst presenting lectures in congresses, universities and human resource groups. Workload and Renumeration I wanted to know how much work was available to astrologers and if they were able to work exclusively within this field. Most of the respondents declined to reply but those who did all worked full time as business astrologers. One had worked for 52 weeks a year seeing three to five clients a day on every day except Sunday and only occasionally taking a little holiday, although at the moment of reply she had reduced her working time significantly due to ill health. Even whilst in hospital her regular clients had tracked her down and followed her across state lines in order to maintain consultations. She had made an average of $2100 to $2400 per week with her former schedule. Other amounts included £600 per day and £1500 for the initial report, a minimum of $250 per hour with a ten hour initial consultation fee and 50% advance and one reported working with up to 3,000 charts in a year. Attitudes to Business Astrology I had so far discovered some interesting information from the business astrologers themselves about who their clients might be and how they might be helped by the use of astrology but I was still uncertain why I did not hear of people using astrology in the workplace. The astrologers surveyed had not agreed whether clients were prepared to admit to their use of astrology how this might be perceived by business people and what if any were their clients fears Therefore I decided to ask some further questions about some of the issues that arisen with a new e-mail enquiry that I sent to three astrologers. Christeen Skinner a respondent to the first questionnaire had offered to answer more questions about openness .Two additional astrologers had also offered to help me further with my research. Christeen Skinner lives and works in the U.K. Karen Boesen is based in Denmark, and Georgia Stathis is in the U.S.A. Karen Boesen replied that she felt it would not be appropriate to ask a client if they wanted to go public however she referred me to two client interviews that are featured in her book. The first client, Lone Meier was an independent businesswoman who managed and owned a restaurant employing 10 people and she had used business astrology for around 10 years. In answer to the question “Are you open about your use of business astrology” she replied that although she was open about her use and this was accepted by those in the company and the relevant authorities, she had no desire to provoke ridiculous discussions with outsiders who had not investigated the area and therefore she avoided bringing up the subject in certain circumstances. The second client, Alan Ramby was the owner and Managing Director of an international real estate company. He had been using business astrology for around 12 years. His answer to the same question was that he was open but diplomatic. His use of business astrology had been cited in the media and therefore was not hidden however he would evaluate the opinions of others before talking about it and would only explain it to those who were genuinely interested. He felt that had he worked within a large company he would have had to operate more discreetly on account of the general attitudes encountered. It is interesting to observe that both these individuals are at the top of the organisation and both are owners of their businesses, which enables them to exercise greater autonomy than those reporting to a more senior manager. Astrologers in Depth E-mail Enquiry Georgia Stathis and Christeen Skinner both replied to the my second survey which consisted again of some open-ended questions designed to find out as much as possible about the respondents’ opinions and feelings about openness in the use of business astrology. I asked them if they had encountered hostility to the use of business astrology and if they thought that the client had problems or fears associated with admitting this use publicly. I also asked what the problems might be for the client and how it was possible to keep this use hidden. The final question was if it was important for the future of the practise to have clients admit to and report on this use. Georgia Stathis felt that astrologers are regarded more highly in Europe than in America leading to a greater openness. She felt that it was not a problem for most of her clients to be open but that as people are concerned with being judged the credibility of the astrologer may be an issue. She believed that if the astrologer had a second more conventional career in business or to do with money and investment this could help. She also posed the question of whether clients actually need to talk about it. She is particularly concerned with creating a more structured approach that involves a template or software that creates a model and feels that the astrologer really needs business knowledge to be effective. Christen Skinner felt that sometimes it was the astrologer and sometimes the client that did not want to be open. She felt that the astrologer might prefer not to have their work scrutinised. She agreed to some extent with Georgia Stathis about the credibility of the astrologer saying that the image of the business astrologer as a consultant with ability to network with consultants from other disciplines will have less of a problem, than one who stands out too much. She is not surprised by the differences I found in the answers to my original question on openness as she thinks that the experience of the astrologer will be framed by their client’s expectations. She feels that the real problem lies in defining astrology and that perhaps the danger may lie in mistaken perceptions. For a client to simply say that they use an astrologer does not describe what actually happens and may conjure up the wrong image. A business astrologer may specialise as a marketing astrologer or human resource astrologer in the way that a musician may specialise as a violinist. This expertise is not always recognised. She thinks that the clients in general do not have a problem admitting to the use of astrology, especially if they are paying for specific pieces of research and that any fears can be more on her part about how the media may portray both astrologer and client negatively and encourage ridicule. She does not believe that it is important for the future of business astrology that the clients should admit to or report on their use of an astrologer because the usefulness is evidenced by the quality of work. Survey of Business Attitudes The final enquiry centred on discovering the views of a group of executives on the use of astrology in business. A further e-mail questionnaire was constructed to discover whether they were aware of or using astrological input themselves and what were their attitudes to the subject. The intention was to solicit a large number of respondents with questions that were designed to evoke a more concise response. The most difficult decision was how to find people who would respond without attracting a particular type of bias. I was concerned that those within the astrological community were more likely to know people who were well disposed or at least accepting of astrology. Whether the astrology contacts knew any business executives was also an unknown. I was not confident of provoking a large enough response from contacts within the business community in general so I decided to circulate the questionnaire to a mixed group. This consisted of several business people chosen at random, four business executives whom I thought might be interested in astrology, and a group of people who were astrologers or connected to astrology in some way. Although mostly circulated to U.K. e-mail addresses at least one response came from overseas. As with the initial survey of astrologers each recipient was asked to forward the questionnaire on to anyone else that they thought might help creating a snowball effect. A system of analysis of data was put in place in the hope that a bombardment of e-mail responses would ensue with a spreadsheet that awarded values to each answer wherever possible in order to detect if any patterns emerged from the responses. The data represented in this format has a more quantitive element than in the two previous enquiries however there is still a large element of qualitative data in the full answers , which provide another layer of understanding. The questions related to the use and awareness of astrology within the business and service community. I received a response from thirteen executives responding from a wide variety of sources however nine of the respondents came through an astrological connection. The first section dealt with some general information on the respondents to discover what they did at work, if they knew anything about astrology and if they held religious beliefs. Seven women and six men replied and all were in senior management positions of which seven were directors and two were business owners or self-employed. Seven had been in their roles for less than two years and the rest ranged between four and sixteen years. The work areas covered included charities, the public sector, the retail and service industries, languages, the Internet, P.R. and business development consultancy. All the respondents took business decisions and about half were autonomous although they needed support or co-operation from others. All but one were aware of their sun signs and nine were aware of their moon sign or ascendant. Six people read their horoscope in publications or on the Internet and all of these knew their sun sign although those who knew their moon sign or ascendant did not necessarily do so. All those surveyed believed that astrology could work although only seven felt that it worked often or always. Three respondents had no religious beliefs and one was a strict atheist but the others believed in a range of religions including their own moral code and spirituality, Catholicism and Christianity. Also Wicca, Buddhism, Theosophy and Vedanta were all mentioned by at least one respondent. The second section of the surveyasked if the respondents had consulted an astrologer. Eight people replied that they had personally consulted an astrologer other than for business reasons and the main purpose was for guidance on life and relationships or for recreation although respondent one also worked as an astrologer himself. Eight people knew the name of a business astrologer or how to find one although only five knew someone who had consulted one. Four people had consulted a business astrologer for the purposes of recruitment, setting up a company, changing a company name or for business guidance and all of them felt that they had been helped by either gaining peace of mind, positive focus, business success or help with recruitment. Three of them felt that they had been able to implement this advice although one was still waiting for an appropriate moment to do so. Amongst those who had not consulted a business astrologer, four felt that they may do so in the future. The third section of the survey related to the response of other people and whether there may be problems in discussing astrology in the business environment. Only three of those who had consulted a business astrologer had discussed this openly but nine felt that there either was or could be a problem in discussing astrology freely within the work environment. Ten people thought that people who use astrology in business could be open to ridicule and the reasons given for this were because the subject was taboo, could be damaging to credibility and not taken seriously although it was suggested that some people were very open and accepting of it. Seven of the eight who had used an astrologer in the past said that they would do so again. The eighth was an astrologer himself. Five of the respondents wished to remain anonymous either because of their own concerns or those of family members however given the anxiety expressed by some I have taken the decision to obscure all the names of all the respondents to Questionnaire three. Conclusions The initial question posed was if businesses use astrology and if so for what purposes and do they talk about it and to whom? This paper has argued that astrology has been used throughout history in various occupational spheres. Based on findings from a survey it is clear that there is a strong core of professional business astrologers that are working consistently with a global client base whom in the main benefit from and value astrological advice. The clients are varied and widespread from many different industries and sectors. They are working within different specialised and some more general areas and are using a variety of methods. However a paradox emerges from the survey evidence. Although the professional business astrologers are heavily subscribed with a global client base their work remains largely obscured from public view as indicated by the survey of business executives. The snowball sampling was very revealing as most of the responses were received from people who I did not know but who were contacts of people I knew through my interest in astrology. As the general response was poor and emanated from related sources the answers cannot be considered to reflect any general trends from the business population. However this leads me to ask why when I distributed the e-mail to a variety of sources were the majority of responses all received via astrological contacts and none from purely business sources. On exploration of the findings even those who had received the questionnaire through contact with an astrologer were unfamiliar with or had never used a business astrologer. Of the thirteen respondents only four had used a business astrologer of whom two were already known to me and therefore prompted, another one was an astrologer himself and the other was a business astrology client situated in Japan. Of all the executives only seven really knew how to find a business astrologer and only five knew someone who had consulted one although all but one knew their sun sign, which indicates that use of astrology in business may not be as common as it would appear when reviewing the findings from the astrologers themselves. This leads me to the original hypothesis that businesses tend not to disclose their use of astrology for a variety of reasons. Only one of the executives did not think that there was a possibility that admitting to using astrology could provoke ridicule and nine believed that business credibility could be damaged or an executive may not be taken seriously if known for using astrology. Two clients of a Danish astrologer reported reluctance to discuss their use of astrology however not through fear but because they had no desire to convince sceptics and as business owners they had no need to explain their actions. Interestingly these two clients and my own use of an astrologer all give credence to the claim that those most likely to use astrology in business are at the top of the management structure or are business owners. For those who are involved in the professional practice of business astrology there is no system used in common by all and no regulation in place yet all feel bound by a code of ethics and almost all base their work around an initial foundation chart. The astrologers were confident about their relationship with the clients but had mixed feelings about the openness of the clients towards revealing their use of astrology to colleagues and those outside the business environment. Two other astrologers who answered the question about openness in more depth were concerned that the way astrology was portrayed and the lack of understanding of the practice could result in damaged credibility and in some part this may be exacerbated by lack of accepted systems and poor presentation. The scrutiny of the media with a lack of understanding of the subtlety of the discipline and its different applications may also be adding to the negative perceptions that people fear may exist. Finally in my personal quest to understand the use of business astrology I have found that there is an active core of people who find value in the advice of business astrologers yet they are reluctant to admit it so the closet users of business astrology remain hidden from public view. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bates, Graham and Chrzanowska Bowles, Jane (1994) Money and the Markets An Astrological Guide London: Aquarian. 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