The basis for astrology and numerology as a predicttive model of personality:
What is the evidence for and against the use of astrology and numerology as tools in human resource management?

by Kim Ashton

Trying to take a slice of blueberry pie and quantify it on the basis on what you see does not take into consideration that the other slices could be different in some way. For example; the size of the slice, the amount of blueberries in each slice, the thickness and consistency of the pastry. Taking the question of the scientific basis for Astrology and Numerology as a predictive model of personality and determining their usefulness as tools in human resource management has many of the same problems. I have less than one month’s research into an area where people have devoted a lifetime of work, which is so contentious that there is a rigid battle line drawn with learned men and women taking fighting stances on both sides. It is not my intention to enter into the debate over which side is right, as it seems both make interesting and valid points, but rather establish whether we can use the methodology as a tool in human resource management. What I can offer is an analysis of what I saw in that slice of pie. So for the purpose of this essay I will provide some history and little known information about Astrology and Numerology. Then provide arguments against and for the use of Astrology and Numerology as tools in human resources, and next attempt to point out some shortcomings in some of those arguments.

Astrology and Numerology have their roots in history. Ancient cultures used both of these practises (in many differing forms) in an attempt to show a relationship between man and his environment. (Linda Goodman, 1998). The Collins Dictionary (1999, 4^th ed.) defines Astrology as the study of the alleged influence of the stars, planets, sun and moon on human affairs. It defines Numerology as the study of numbers and of their supposed influence on human affairs. Sceptics and practitioners both dislike these definitions as the sceptics think it makes the practice justified, while the practitioners feel doubt is thrown on their beliefs. So the battle continues.

Following are some things that the general population do not readily know about Astrology and Numerology. Many famous scientists, mathematicians and behaviourists have had avid and keen interest in them. Tyco Brahe, (Scofield, 1995) Carl Jung, Kepler, (Hand, 1997), Newton, (Scofield 1995) Einstein, (Snodgrass, 1997), Pythagoras

(Thompson, 2001), and Hippocrates, (Moorey, 1998,), Eysenck (Winter, 1996) to mention just a few. Not widely known is Astrology and Numerology do not have to involve psychic phenomenon or even direct causation. Many Astrologers and Numerologists believe in a natural synchronicity between the stars and events. In fact Carl Jung discovered ‘synchronicity’ and defined this as ‘an acausal connecting principle’ where some events have a meaningful connection other than cause and effect, (Moorey 1998). It is an accepted fact that the planets have a measurable magnetic, gravitational and electromagnetic influence on the earth (Petchell, 1977) the moon’s effect on the earths tides being one, and most people would agree that bizarre behaviour tends to peak on full moons. Indeed the word lunatic is derived from the base word lunar (Latin, of the moon). Julie Morales (1999) writes, "During a full moon, more crimes, violence and accidents are reported. There are more fires and hospital emergency rooms fill". Again it is a commonly held misconception, but Astrologers and Numerologists do not necessarily believe in fate. They believe the stars impel, not compel. Michael Star (2001) says the horoscope does not tell us what to do, or how to do it, but what we can choose to do. Cavendish (1970) also supports this by writing, "We are born at a given moment, in a given place and like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season in which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more."

One of the arguments against accepting Astrology and Numerology as tools in human resources is the lack of empirical evidence generated by research. Some Astrologers and Numerologists have contributed to this argument by presenting Astrology and Numerology as a science, often making provocative claims that give the appearance of being empirically testable by standard research protocols, but which, in reality, would not stand up to verification. (Brad Kochunas, 1999).

"The typical astrologer cannot therefore be described as one who obtains empirical knowledge, despite his/her excellent claim; "Well, it works for me" (add defensive tone). The idiosyncratic technique adopted by the astrologer according to the convention that every astrologer has to do things differently to every other, is combined ad hoc with elements of a hoary tradition that provide a priori knowledge."(Dennis Frank, 2000).

Science also provides an argument for why Numerology and Astrology should not be used in human resource management. Scientific methodology is very specific; conclusions generally need to be drawn from reliable, consistent studies to have validity. If a cause and effect relationship cannot be established and replicated, the theory is not supported, so therefore loses credibility. For example, Astrology and Numerology have a distinct lack of good causal theory. (Krieg, 1999). Also, Andrew Barney (2001 lecture material) ran an experiment with the hypotheses of ‘nice people can fly’. After being extremely nice to several people he still could not fly, his hypotheses was not supported by the experiment therefore lost integrity. (If it ever had any).

The second argument against using Astrology and Numerology as tools in human resource management is the public perception of them. A commonly held view is that it is ‘hocus pocus’. Where at best people treat it with an amused tolerance (Lehmann and Myers 1971). Where only the ‘strange and deranged’ or uninformed give it any real credibility, where the ‘educated’ should know better. There seems to be a polarisation of views, where people approach Astrology and Numerology with an all or nothing expectation, taking every word as gospel or totally ‘rubbishing’ the practise. Astrologist Stephen Lee (2001 personal communication) said, He was constantly amazed that people viewed it with either of two extremes on the spectrum, either giving it 100% credibility and expecting every word to be law or viewing it with 100% scepticism where all of it was ‘crap’.

A third argument is a religious perspective. "Many Christian churches have denounced Astrology and Numerology as the work of the devil since the middle ages." (Michael McClain, 2001). This is because they see Astrologers and Numerologists as practising false prophecy, preaching the word of false gods. Perhaps this is also because many Christians believe that if it does not come straight out of the bible then it is not the work of god. This is highlighted by the 1^st of the ten commandments "thou shalt have no other gods before me " and in the 2^nd commandment "you shall not make in idol of anything in heaven or on earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I am a jealous God..."(The Holy Bible NIV, Exodus, ch20, v2-5). Astrology and Numerology are considered by Christianity to be arcane arts and as such, worshipping false gods. An example of this is how astrologers relate certain personality traits to mythological characters; Moorey (2001) uses Greek myth of the twins, Castor and Polydeuses (Pollux in Roman) to highlight the two sides to the Gemini personality. The twins were also called the Dioscuri and became an important cult for the Spartans and Romans.

Barnum effects also provide an argument for why Astrology and Numerology should not be applied for human resource management purposes. The Barnum effect is where vague or flattering personality descriptions that fit many people are used to classify a person’s personality profile. The subject then rates the test as accurate. (Rowan Bayne, 1995). A possible explanation of this is that people are gullible about their own personalities and/or that the statements made are accurate, but only in a general sense. It does little to distinguish between different personality types and masks the test or model’s validity. Adrian Furnham & Patrick Heaven (1999) write " Individuals can be fooled by astrologers and graphologists (and psychologists) because they do not recognise the high base-rate validity (i.e. general applicability) of most bogus feedback, instead believing it to be partially true of themselves."

However, an argument for the use of Astrology and Numerology in human resource management is that it helps people develop self-awareness and an awareness of others. Like the Myers-Briggs test, Astrology and Numerology are useful ways to improve employee self-awareness and help managers understand their employees and how in turn their employees may view them, assisting teams with understanding each other better and highlighting potential areas of conflict. (Robbins et al., 1998 and Bernadette Brady, Group Astrology, 2000). "The use of astrological symbolism provides a glimpse into the complexities of human personality and considers a wide range of human expression as acceptable."(Brad Kochunas, 1999).

Another advantage of Astrology and Numerology is their wide application in human resource management. They can be applied to the individual, groups of people within the organisation or the organisation itself. The techniques are versatile and can be adjusted to be able to establish the personality of each. Bernadette Brady (2000) pioneer of Group Astrology says, "The single most important ingredient to the success of the human race is our ability to work in groups. Therefore working astrologically with groups requires an understanding of the nature of the group and then considering if the resulting astrology supports the activity and unconscious drives of that group." This indicates what the likely outcomes of the group will be and gives insights into the role that each person holds within the group. She is beginning to use this work in a professional manner in her business as a consultant to groups. Two examples of its practical applications follow; Cindy is a financial manager for a Law firm who uses both individual and group astrology in her work place environment, "I’m trying to gain an understanding of their personalities and how they interact in the work place. Like it or not personality does play a part in the work environment."(Cindy, [last name withheld by request] Email Communication 2001). Cece Stevens is a practising Astrologer and Numerologist who manages a Pizza Hut and also uses these skills in order to gain insights of her employee’s personalities. By using this knowledge she can then roster her staff according to what types work best together. "In my experience, I found that Astrology and Numerology can both play a key role in the work place. When I took over the Pizza store as a manager, morale and finances were at an all time low. When questioned by my supervisors as to how I made a success of the business I pointed out my system, as I expected, eyebrows were raised a bit, but I was able to prove a great point. By placing groups of people together that can work in harmony you have a higher quality of work force."(Cece Stevens 2001 Personal Communication). Alice DeVille, author of ‘Let’s Talk Business’ and practicing Astrologer and Numerologist shares her businesses services.

First of all I spend a large percentage of my practice in workplace organization, development, design, and analysis for my client base. The consulting work includes change management, staffing, strategic planning, and employee development. I require signed confidentiality agreements with my clients for their protection and mine, so I cannot divulge the names of corporations or small businesses with whom I do business. Some of the clients permit release of their names but not the nature of their business queries. Among these are government agencies, real estate firms, Fortune 500 firms, hair design companies, athletes, training institutes, accountants, attorneys, architects, financial planners, freelance artists and writers, entertainers in both TV and film media in various positions from acting to directing and related fields, airline personnel, medical professionals, university educators, politicians, designers and decorators, marketers and inventors. One of the ways Astrology is helpful in the business world revolves around understanding workplace dynamics and timing of events. It is an essential tool for making wise choices in hiring staff, introducing new work initiatives, phasing out old practices, and enhancing teamwork.

An additional positive argument for the use of Astrology and Numerology in human resource management is that it can be used as a source of information in conjunction with other tools of the trade eg. the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Isabel Briggs Myers 1987) I was surprised to find that Astrology and the Myers- Briggs model used in business are based on Jung’s 4 dimensional theories. (Hamaker-Zondag 1994) They both try and establish if a person is more extrovert or introvert; whether the person prefers to perceive things through the real solid facts of experience or the possibilities, meanings and relationships of experience; whether the person prefers to make judgements objectively after analysing them in terms of cause and effect or subjectively weighing values for the importance of thoughts for themselves. Also trying to establish whether a person prefers to live in a planned and orderly fashion or in a spontaneous flexible way. (Robbins, et al 1998). In fact in Rowan Bayne’s "the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, A Critical Review and Practical Guide, he answers the criticism that Type is just like Astrology. He starts by writing,

This criticism is sometimes stated as a compliment, Type is like Astrology in some respects … the aims of the two theories and measures are the same and both have a largely positive, constructive tone and a flexible, complicated view of personality. Both are misrepresented on occasion. Moreover, descriptions based on an astrological chart are often individual, not just Barnum-like.

Stephen Lee (personal communication 2001) sees an opportunity for Astrology to join the basket of tools commonly employed in the business sector but cautions that it should only be used in conjunction with other methods to aid decision-making. Alice DeVille (email communication 2001) finds satisfaction applying Astrology and Numerology to the workplace but again mixes it with other models, applications and practices, "My work gives me refreshing diversity and multidimensional opportunities to use intuitive and metaphysical skills along with sound business management practices."

A further argument for the use of Astrology and Numerology is that it is a non-threatening way to introduce personality assessment and Career Counselling into the workplace without the fear of ‘failing’ a personality test. "To most of these people, astrology is fun; it is a non-serious, leisure-time element of popular culture" (Lehmann and Myers, 1989) Astrology and Numerology have a perceived image of just a bit of fun, and most people know something about it. "Only 10% of Americans totally believe there can’t be anything to it"(Krieg, 1999), and even though most ‘take it with a grain of salt’, they are interested in seeing how correct Astrology and Numerology are. Why? because humans have an insatiable curiosity about themselves and one another. Managers are increasingly introducing Astrology and Numerology into morale boosting ventures, conferences and teambuilding exercises. "One Manager of a real estate company brought an astrologer in to do career readings as a morale booster in a time when there had been company wide layoffs due to a slowing economy. He was pleased; doing the astrology readings for that group of employees did an excellent job of improving the morale of the office staff. Employees related positively to learning more about themselves in the ‘spirit of fun’, having the opportunity to gain a deeper insight of themselves and others in the office without having the fear of failing a psychological test or being judged by their peers and superiors". (Michael Star 2001).

A possible flaw in the argument of little empirical evidence is the resurgence of interest in Astrology and Numerology. New evidence is being presented every day. (German PhD student Manfred Zimmel has just submitted his thesis on "going from the hypothesis, that the quality of time is a major factor in management, the question is asked; in how far Astrology plays a relevant part in business and how scientifically possible is this." (Manfred Zimmel, 2001. translated from the original German Text). Also of interest is Brigitte Hueber’s diploma thesis on ‘astrological personality theories.’(Translation not available at time of printing) Research groups have been formed with the specific objective of determining the validity of Astrology and/or Numerology, two examples being the ISBA research committee, (Manfred Zimmel, 2001), and the Research committee (Garry Phillipson, 1998).

It also should be mentioned that the scientific methodology is just one way of looking at the world. Increasingly when someone is trying to dismiss or demean an area of human experience they call it unscientific or pseudo science, believing then that no one should take the subject seriously anymore. Science is not the ‘ultimate form’ of human enquiry. Brad Kochunas (1999) writes, "a discipline does not have to be scientific in order to carry value, perhaps science has moved beyond its identity as a methodology and become a grand ideology, seducing us to accept that if some belief, event, thing, or system does not meet its criteria for truth, then whatever anomaly may be under its examination has little or no real value or relevance to living."

When researching for this essay, many astrologers admitted to doing work with businesses but like most other advisors in business, were not allowed to announce names because of confidentiality agreements. This in part is the fear on behalf of the business about what the resulting publicity would do to their reputations. Following is an excerpt from a Christeen Skinner (1998) article.

The research for this article takes me to a meeting with someone who I’ll have to call MS A. She is the Managing Director of an International retail chain, and has very mixed feelings about letting the world know that she uses Astrology to help plan her business strategy. If the media got hold of this- she ponders- her business would get a lot of free publicity. But, given the general perception of astrology, what kind of publicity might that be? ‘Mystic Meg Makes Mad Mogul Millions’ Understandably, she decides against going public, and so ‘Ms A’ she must remain.

Taking a fifteen-year overview of her work within the business community Christeen had this to say, "There are people in the business community who pooh-pooh it, and are dismissive. There are as many, if not more, who say ‘Oh yes, I’ve looked into that’ – when in fact they haven’t at all, because they don’t know how to. Most of my enquiries which come through are from people who are very high up in companies, and it is increasingly common for me to be invited to the offices of the clients, and to be introduced to board members as ‘the company astrologer’." Until businesses and corporations ‘come out of the closet’ it will be difficult to ascertain how widely spread the practices are. In spite of the risk, businesses have been using Astrological and Numerological knowledge as a secret weapon in the business world, hoping it will give them a competitive advantage over their competitors by reducing the risk equation of timing, investment and expensive staff replacement. (Morris 2001).

Another flaw in the perception argument is that in no other circumstances is a model required to give 100% accuracy to be considered valid. Stephen Lee (personal communication 2001) says, "Like any other tool astrology is not 100% fool proof and neither should it be required to be. The weather prediction (with scientific means) that we see on our televisions often ‘misses their mark’ and economic forecasts prepared by banking experts (on which big businesses and economies rely) sometimes fail as well. Astrology and Numerology also are similar to the more widely used personality models in the regard of their limitations in predictability. No model has proved to be one hundred percent right, all of the time." Expert Numerologist Andy Bulcraig (1999) explains this by writing "human beings are incredibly complex and numerology is no more than an attempt to identify and label some of the more visible aspects. There are countless variables that are too subtle and too hidden to be recognised. Therefore, it is simply not possible for a numerologist to be right 100 percent of the time". In his personal communication (2001) he wrote " given the odds of a 100% correct reading – for the Core 4 elements there are 14641 different permutations and for all the elements in a full reading there are about 2.7 trillions permutations – I’m pretty confident I can get 70-80% accuracy, sometimes even higher."(Andy Bulcraig 2001). When looking at the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator you find out that it too is not 100% reliable. Criticism has been aimed at the MBTI for having results that at best are confused and unclear. (Rowan Bayne, 1995) "Indeed, what often goes unmentioned is the interviews draw conclusions about candidates’ personality characteristics in a much less systematic and objective manner and with far less accuracy than psychological tests do." (Hansen and Conrad 1991).

An interesting aside in the religious debate that needs to be put into consideration is in Keith Thomas’ (1971) writings that he found it difficult to resist drawing the conclusion that "one of the clergy’s objections to Astrologers and Numerologists was that they saw them as professional rivals." People were going to Astrologers and Numerologists with problems that the clergy themselves normally might have been expected to resolve. For whatever the theoretical compatibilities of astrology and religion, there was little doubt that in practice they were competing agencies, offering rival methods of divination. (Lehmann and Myers, 1989). It also must be said that there actually was a gradual shift of thought (unofficially of course) to where clergy actually started to flirt with Astrology, two noted examples being, " rector of Methley, Anthony Ascham and Richard Napier rector of Great Linford.’ (Thomas 1971).

In this essay I have defined what Astrology and Numerology are and provided some information that many may not have been aware of. I then provided some arguments against using them as a tool in human resource management. These were, the limited amount of valid research into these areas, scientific objections, widely held perceptions, contradiction to religious belief, and the Barnum Effect. I subsequently gave reasons why Astrology and Numerology should be used as tools in human resource management. Such as, Astrology and numerology have a wide range of applications; individuals self awareness, group harmony, as well as various business applications like morale boosting and staff management. I also highlighted that it is for many a non-threatening way to introduce personality assessment into the workplace. I also pointed out shortcomings in the arguments of research available, religious belief and how perception could be changed. By offering comparison to the ‘well known’ personality assessment the Myers-Briggs Indicator type I have shown that Astrology and Numerology do have a place in human resource management, however one needs to remember like any other personality model it is not ‘perfect’ and should be used in conjunction with other tools and managerial skills. It can be a valuable addition if exercised with caution and within the right situational milieux. As for the blueberry pie, I took a great big bite and enjoyed it for what it was, numerous ingredients that made for a myriad of taste sensations.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge and thank the ISBA research group members especially Manfred Zimmel, the ACT list of professional Astrologers, Mary Plumb of the Mountain Astrologer magazine, Faculty members at Kepler College, Michael Star, members of the Noel Tyl community, the community at bills science hobbyist website, Madeline G-B at Astro cycles Consulting, Science in Ancient Artwork, Alice DeVille and all the people quoted in the essay plus many, many others (over 300 different people or groups, too many to name) for their emails offering support, advice, leads and inspiration in my research. Finally Mike Hodgson for his patience, support and expertise in helping me pull it all together.