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Speaker 1: everybody in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, we're also
Speaker 1: looking at you. Oakland. We are coming out to Sketch
Speaker 1: Fest this year again for the second year in a row,
Speaker 1: and we're doing it rare Sunday afternoon jam, so that
Speaker 1: is Sunday, January at one pm. You can come see
Speaker 1: us live and tickets are gonna go fast, So go
Speaker 1: to s F sketch Fest dot com and just click
Speaker 1: on the little ticket links or look at the lineup
Speaker 1: and follow us there and we can't wait to see everyone.
Speaker 1: It's one of our favorite cities to perform in and
Speaker 1: uh go to s Sketch Fest dot com Oakland, San Francisco,
Speaker 1: We will see you soon. Welcome to stuff you should
Speaker 1: know from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, you welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Ryant,
Speaker 1: and Jerry's over here and we're just relaxing here in
Speaker 1: Studio one A. So this is stuff you should know. Oh,
Speaker 1: I thought it was astro chat. Yeah, that's what we
Speaker 1: would call has a great name or horoscope or podcast?
Speaker 1: I say horror scope. No, you shouldn't say that. No,
Speaker 1: would you ever want to do a horoscope or astrology podcast?
Speaker 1: Oh do you mean on its own? Yeah? No, I
Speaker 1: would not see that. Well, we were talking about this
Speaker 1: briefly until I didn't do it this time, But normally,
Speaker 1: whenever this is a secret Chuck though about to share
Speaker 1: with everybody. Yeah, if we start to talk and get
Speaker 1: too involved in the topic before we start recording, usually
Speaker 1: one of us will be like, stop, stop, this is
Speaker 1: golden to save it for the podcast. We didn't do
Speaker 1: that this time. I think we just kind of naturally
Speaker 1: just continue conversations. But um, you were saying that you are,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if you're ready to admit this
Speaker 1: or not this early in the episode. You're a little
Speaker 1: incredulous about horoscopes and astrology. Yes, okay, um, I am
Speaker 1: as well. But I think the difference between us is
Speaker 1: you're just kind of like, come on. And as I
Speaker 1: was researching it more and more, I was like, this
Speaker 1: is really interesting. I could say here and read about
Speaker 1: this like all day, and now that it's been brought up,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I could probably do a skeptical but not
Speaker 1: with the aim to like destroy it, but just from
Speaker 1: a skeptic standpoint podcast on astrology. I think that that
Speaker 1: would fascinate me personally, and like day maybe, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we we got on that because I was
Speaker 1: having a hard time wrapping my head around a couple
Speaker 1: of i'm not gonna say scientific parts but a couple
Speaker 1: of the science sciency parts of this, and I kept
Speaker 1: going back to like, who cares, It's not real, So
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to commit to the learning of it.
Speaker 1: And and we typically have a thing where it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, poo poo people's beliefs. Yeah, we're not really
Speaker 1: doing that here, but there have been a couple of
Speaker 1: occasions where we just kind of like, this is there's
Speaker 1: just no way. One of them was crop circles. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: I'm I don't plan on poop pooing this throughout. But
Speaker 1: I think it's good for us to state our beliefs
Speaker 1: from the get go, all right, so that we don't
Speaker 1: mislead anybody who's who does believe in it. Well, here's
Speaker 1: I did. I had my astrological chart done once. Um
Speaker 1: you did. Yeah, I didn't like seek it out and
Speaker 1: pay for it. My friend's mom is really into this,
Speaker 1: and she asked me one time, She's like, do you
Speaker 1: want me to do your chart? And I'm sure? So
Speaker 1: she did my chart and I remember looking at it
Speaker 1: and thinking like, wow, a lot of this, you know.
Speaker 1: It kind of like when you look at your son
Speaker 1: sign and we'll go ahead and say that's what most like,
Speaker 1: like when somebody says what sign are you? Yeah, or
Speaker 1: if you read your daily horoscope, it's it's based on
Speaker 1: your sun sign. Um. I would look at things like that,
Speaker 1: or like my whatever my year is on the Chinese zodiac,
Speaker 1: can think like, oh wow, I am some of these things.
Speaker 1: But then I'm like, not about half of those things.
Speaker 1: So uh, I just think it's interesting. And I think
Speaker 1: it's interesting as well, but again from a standpoint of
Speaker 1: where I don't actually believe it's effective or real. But
Speaker 1: just the thought put into it. And Ed wrote this
Speaker 1: article the Grabster, and he makes a really good point.
Speaker 1: He saying like, even if you don't believe it or
Speaker 1: not getting your your chart done is interesting in and
Speaker 1: of itself. I think so sure, And at the very least,
Speaker 1: it's going to force you to be a little more
Speaker 1: introspective about yourself than than you normally would be, because
Speaker 1: you're being presented with basically like here's your personality according
Speaker 1: to the Cosmos, and it's you can't help but think, what, like,
Speaker 1: am I introspective? Am I do I set things on fire?
Speaker 1: I think anything that can spur self reflection is valuable
Speaker 1: in some ways. Yes, I think that's where interested. Like
Speaker 1: I would go to a palm reader just to know
Speaker 1: what that's like. But I wouldn't leave thinking like, oh boy,
Speaker 1: my life is set out for me. Yeah, exactly. You
Speaker 1: know Nancy Reagan, Well we'll get to that, so but spoiler,
Speaker 1: I am not Nancy Reagan. We we should probably say
Speaker 1: for those of you who are confused, they're like, how
Speaker 1: are they pooh pooing this? Like this is the science
Speaker 1: of of Niel's deGrasse Tyson and Carl Sagan. I don't understand.
Speaker 1: We're talking about astrology, not astronomy. Um. So astrology is
Speaker 1: basically the idea UM that distant objects out on the cosmos, planets, stars,
Speaker 1: constellations specifically have an influence on our lives and events
Speaker 1: on the planet. And it's very old. Um. I saw
Speaker 1: it as far back as five thousand years ago. People
Speaker 1: were starting to develop astrological systems. UM. I saw more
Speaker 1: frequently three thousand years ago with the Babylonians, that Western
Speaker 1: astrology kind of started to develop. Should we talk about
Speaker 1: history a little bit? I think I finally figured out
Speaker 1: my beef with it. Should I hold on to that
Speaker 1: or should we talk about history first? That's up to you, man,
Speaker 1: how do you want it to play out? I just
Speaker 1: don't forget if you hang onto it. All right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna write beef at the top of my page. It's
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna carrying yourself to shoot a duck later on. Okay,
Speaker 1: So it's like memento. I'll come back to that. So
Speaker 1: his street. Um, we need to go back in the
Speaker 1: way back machine, the way way back to ancient times,
Speaker 1: to Babylon. Yeah, when basically people mean we are going
Speaker 1: back to Babylon, basically when people were like looking around
Speaker 1: at everything and going on, don't get it. Why is
Speaker 1: all this stuff happening? Why did the earth just open
Speaker 1: up and swallow fish mail? Why is it raining? Why
Speaker 1: is it not raining? Why are the crops doing well?
Speaker 1: Are they doing terribly? Yeah? Why why is that sun? Uh?
Speaker 1: Up half the day and down half the day. Uh So,
Speaker 1: as humans started to get a little more I don't
Speaker 1: know about intelligent, but um, inquisitive, inquisitive. I was about
Speaker 1: to say, answer seeky, but inquisitive is the word for that.
Speaker 1: As they started to get a little more answer seeky,
Speaker 1: they started to make things up. Um that made them
Speaker 1: feel better about what was going on, right, I mean
Speaker 1: they they did apply a certain measure of science too,
Speaker 1: which is where a lot of people who believe in
Speaker 1: astrology get the idea that it's scientific at some in
Speaker 1: some way, shape or form, because it does involve the movement,
Speaker 1: studying and tracking the movement of the planets and the
Speaker 1: constellations the cosmos. Right, Yeah, And that makes a good point.
Speaker 1: Back then, astronomy and astrology were the same thing, right, right,
Speaker 1: Because you took those observations astronomy and then you you
Speaker 1: used them to predict or explain the stuff that was
Speaker 1: going on here on Earth, which we now call astrology, right,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I don't even know what they called it
Speaker 1: back then. They called it reality, probably so. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't just the Babylonians who were doing this, Like all
Speaker 1: over the planet. Basically every culture that's ever lived had
Speaker 1: some sort of astrological system. Yeah, the Aztec and Incas
Speaker 1: and the mines in South America they had zodiac of
Speaker 1: twenty symbols, including things like earthquake and ape and rain
Speaker 1: and um. When they died out they took it with them,
Speaker 1: like that doesn't have any that didn't seep into modern
Speaker 1: forms of astrology, like the Babylonians. No Spanish Jesuit was saying,
Speaker 1: so can you explain your astrological system to an Inca
Speaker 1: emperor that was being tortured to death? Uh? What else?
Speaker 1: The Chinese, of course, they had their own um by
Speaker 1: a thousand BC, and they had twenty four divisions in
Speaker 1: a year. Yeah, they had like the most complex one
Speaker 1: probably of all time. Not surprising. Um, I don't know
Speaker 1: why that's not surprising. They're complex people. Maybe. Well, when
Speaker 1: I think of the zodiac, I think of the Western
Speaker 1: zodiac and then Chinese zodiac. Yeah, me too. And the
Speaker 1: only thing I knew about Chinese zodiac coming in was
Speaker 1: what year animal? I was what are you? From the
Speaker 1: menu at the Chinese restaurant? That's where I learned it too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm the dog. Oh, I'm a dragon wolf? Jerry? Are
Speaker 1: you a cat? She just me out that that was weird.
Speaker 1: It was her first instant. There is a year the cat? Huh?
Speaker 1: That al Stewart's song Are you the Year of the fish? Jerry?
Speaker 1: All right? Jerry's said that she was the ox year
Speaker 1: of the Ox. But when but when she's called upon
Speaker 1: to do it? Animals sound? I think it's cute. What
Speaker 1: if oxes oxen me out? Maybe an ox that was
Speaker 1: raised by cats and it imprinted might learn to me out.
Speaker 1: I think that's what Jerry was saying. This is getting silly.
Speaker 1: So the horoscope points getting silly. It is is there
Speaker 1: gas looking in? Uh? One of our events that I
Speaker 1: don't know about? Um? All right, So back to China.
Speaker 1: UM twenty four divisions twenty eight part lunar zodiac and
Speaker 1: then the twelve branches that correspond to the animal, and
Speaker 1: then those animals have further subdivisions. Uh, like you could
Speaker 1: be a fire dog or a water dragon, right, which
Speaker 1: we'll get to that stuff in a minute too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know that you could be like an
Speaker 1: elemental animal. I thought it was just straight up animal.
Speaker 1: I did not know that either. Yeah. Like, that's one
Speaker 1: thing about astrology. No matter what system you're looking at,
Speaker 1: there's like, oh, there's this one layer and then let's
Speaker 1: add this other layer and another layer in another layer.
Speaker 1: That's so fascinates me. It's just the thought that's going
Speaker 1: into it. What about Babylon though, what do you mean? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, ohh that's like the origin of the Western Yeah,
Speaker 1: and here is where it becomes painfully obvious that astrology
Speaker 1: can't possibly be correct or real. You know what you're
Speaker 1: about to say. So our idea of the constellations here
Speaker 1: in the West came from the ancient Babylonian people and
Speaker 1: astronomers and astrologers who looked up and they said, oh,
Speaker 1: Mars is red, so blog can be read. So Mars
Speaker 1: is probably associated with war. Right. They just kind of
Speaker 1: just made that up. They made it up, and that
Speaker 1: is fundamentally the basis of astrology. Stuff that was made
Speaker 1: up by the Babylonians can't possibly be true. It's just
Speaker 1: basically a fact. The other big thing is the Babylonians
Speaker 1: divided the zodiac into twelve equal parts. But um, according
Speaker 1: to their own stories, there were thirteen constellations in the zodiac,
Speaker 1: so they just picked one and left it out. Yes,
Speaker 1: which was choose? I like how you said that? I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, I've never tried to say that out loud.
Speaker 1: O P h I U C h U S. It's
Speaker 1: like the hidden zodiac symbol, well, not hidden. They just
Speaker 1: kind of said, twelve kind of works out better, so
Speaker 1: let's just leave it out. Yeah. And if the Babylonians
Speaker 1: prove anything, it's that for thousands of years humans have
Speaker 1: all has preferred things to be nice and tidy and neat.
Speaker 1: They don't like it to be messy because if you
Speaker 1: really look at what they were trying to do, it's
Speaker 1: super messy. So, for example, if you are dividing the
Speaker 1: night sky into twelve, trying to assign a month to
Speaker 1: each horoscope, you've got constellations slopping over into other um
Speaker 1: zodiac signs. UM. The the actual movement of the constellations
Speaker 1: behind the sun UH is way less than a thirty
Speaker 1: day standard. I think Scorpio is actually in line with
Speaker 1: the sun for about seven days out of the year,
Speaker 1: whereas um, one of one of the other ones is
Speaker 1: around for like forty five days. I believe. I don't
Speaker 1: think we even said what that means, though, maybe we're
Speaker 1: we should we should start from the beginning, should we?
Speaker 1: We got the history down? Do you want to take
Speaker 1: a break first? Uh? Yeah, why not. I'll go to
Speaker 1: check my horsecope and see if it says we should continue. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: lucky for us, the horoscope said finished show. It said
Speaker 1: ask again. Later it said finished show. Take it easy
Speaker 1: on me, Yeah, he layoff jerks. I had even resolved
Speaker 1: to not poo poo astrology. I think the first thing
Speaker 1: I did was launched into it. Yeah, I'm sorry, astrology.
Speaker 1: So we should get to the basics of all this,
Speaker 1: and um, we will this. There's two things that we
Speaker 1: have to point out. One, we would have to spend
Speaker 1: years researching astrology to really get everything right. Too, even
Speaker 1: if we spent years researching astrology, we would still get
Speaker 1: stuff wrong depending on who you are, because there's a
Speaker 1: of contradictory things like, for example, I saw that the
Speaker 1: moon is a fire sign. Also saw that the moon
Speaker 1: is associated with water. How is that? Well, I think
Speaker 1: there's just been so many permutations over the years that
Speaker 1: it's you know, been kind of mixed together. Okay, so
Speaker 1: we are going to get things that will contradict your
Speaker 1: understanding of astrology, I'm quite sure. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: I feel like if we're sticking to the basics of it,
Speaker 1: we can get it fairly right, right, Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: the most basic thing is sun sign astrology, which is
Speaker 1: really just seeing where each planet was when you were
Speaker 1: born the day you were born. That's the most simplistic
Speaker 1: way to look at it, right, And when you ask
Speaker 1: somebody what's your sign? What's your sign? See, okay, I'm cancer.
Speaker 1: All that's say is that on the date of our births,
Speaker 1: the Pisces constellation allegedly was behind the sun as it rose, right,
Speaker 1: and when I was born, the Cancer constellation was behind
Speaker 1: the sun when it rose, and the I like to
Speaker 1: take the sunshine a little brighter when we were born.
Speaker 1: But probably I can't prove that, no, but you can
Speaker 1: just make a pretty good assumption. So, um, the way
Speaker 1: that you do this is you basically take the Sun
Speaker 1: and the Earth in its orbit around the Sun, which
Speaker 1: equals a year. And you draw a line, an arrow
Speaker 1: even from the Earth and may put it flat, like
Speaker 1: it flat? I forgot to say that. Uh, And you
Speaker 1: make it. You draw an arrow from the Earth through
Speaker 1: the Sun and then out the other side of the Sun.
Speaker 1: And wherever that arrow is pointing, which is actually what
Speaker 1: the opposite side of the Sun, opposite to Earth, whatever
Speaker 1: constellation that is, that's your sun. Right, Pretty simple stuff. Right,
Speaker 1: So you can think of the if if you've thought
Speaker 1: of a circle around each if you looked at it
Speaker 1: as a circle, each sign would be its own little
Speaker 1: zone zone exactly. A pizza slice, a pie slice, whatever.
Speaker 1: If you have a sweet tooth or a salty tooth,
Speaker 1: you're gonna go with either one of those. What about cake?
Speaker 1: I guess a cake too. Are you cake or pie both?
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. What's your favorite cake? I like a good
Speaker 1: coconut cream cake or coconut frosting cake. I like, um,
Speaker 1: it's your favorite pie? Probably cream pie? No, actually that
Speaker 1: sounds gross. I would say a key a good key
Speaker 1: lime pie. But what does cheesecake constitute pie? I think
Speaker 1: you've just opened up a Hornet's nest. Well, I love cheesecake. Basically,
Speaker 1: I don't really discriminate. I've learned. I recently started trying
Speaker 1: cherry pie, and I was like, where have you been
Speaker 1: my whole life? Why did I ever discriminate against you know,
Speaker 1: it's just been sitting there in the pie safe, rotting
Speaker 1: because no one eats cherry pie anymore. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: I came along and ate all the rotten cherry pie
Speaker 1: and loved it all right, what about you cake pie? Oh?
Speaker 1: I love the good key lime pies like you were saying.
Speaker 1: But um, I don't eat a lot of either. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't just keep like cake and pie around the house.
Speaker 1: And I don't really eat dessert in the restaurants either.
Speaker 1: Um so just neither. Probably more cake, just because cakes
Speaker 1: are the occasion dessert, like people bringing cake for birthdays
Speaker 1: or whatever. Any any like Public's cake is awesome, their
Speaker 1: standard cake with cream icing. Yeah, yeah, I never had it. Oh, chuck,
Speaker 1: I slice. I like a good pecan pie. I eat.
Speaker 1: I eat the pecan now, But I used to not
Speaker 1: like the nuts. I would just slice that off because
Speaker 1: I like the jelly. You'd give rid of the candy
Speaker 1: pecans yeah, but I don't now because now I'm growing up. Okay,
Speaker 1: I just eat the jelly man pecan pie, pumpkin pie. Sure,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm going all in on pie now that
Speaker 1: I think about it. Okay, pie, wait till you try
Speaker 1: the public's cake. Then where are we? Oh? Sorry? We
Speaker 1: were talking about how slices, right, and each of one
Speaker 1: of those slices one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Right. Okay,
Speaker 1: So wherever wherever the Earth, whatever constellation is opposite the
Speaker 1: Earth on the other side of the sign, that's your
Speaker 1: sun sign. And when you were born, that constellation has
Speaker 1: a bunch of different personality traits and they are basically
Speaker 1: imbued onto you. You were born under that sign, which
Speaker 1: means you're going to have those personality traits. That's the
Speaker 1: point of what's called the sun sign. That's right. Um.
Speaker 1: In western astrology there you can subdivide it into three
Speaker 1: groups mundane astrology, and this is basically what what is
Speaker 1: your aim uh with these Mundane astrology is examines world
Speaker 1: events and makes predictions about big things like the economy
Speaker 1: and war. Uh. Interrogatory astrology. It seeks to make predictions
Speaker 1: very specific ones or analyzes for for like events or
Speaker 1: your life, maybe like for you the individual. Yeah, more
Speaker 1: like you say, it's like when you when somebody says
Speaker 1: they'll consult the stars to see what the best course
Speaker 1: of action is. That's what they're talking about, which seems
Speaker 1: like it overlaps with uh the last one. I think
Speaker 1: all three of them could definite. Like, if you're doing
Speaker 1: like a serious chart to figure out something you you
Speaker 1: would probably do all three. So what would that be?
Speaker 1: Natal astrology? Uh? Birth astrology? Yeah, and that's when you
Speaker 1: read your daily horoscope. Uh. And that's based on the
Speaker 1: idea that everything that happens to someone is expressed by
Speaker 1: the very beginning, like that moment you were born, right,
Speaker 1: But ironically the moment you're born, not the moment you
Speaker 1: were conceived. So really that's when the astrology starts, not
Speaker 1: the moment you were conceived, but the moment you were born. Right.
Speaker 1: But the idea, this law of beginning says that the
Speaker 1: moment you're born, the stars basically make everything in your
Speaker 1: life predestined and therefore predictable if the person knows how
Speaker 1: to read the stars correctly. That's the basis of astrology. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then what you would come up with these predictions
Speaker 1: this chart that is your horoscope, that's right, and then uh,
Speaker 1: there are different um the signs that can be subgrouped
Speaker 1: into four elements you've heard of, Like I'm a water sign,
Speaker 1: your water sign. We're both water signs, how about that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so fire sign that would be Aries Leo, Sagittarius uh enthusiasm, action, leadership,
Speaker 1: open to change. Water signs besides cancer and Pisces who
Speaker 1: get Scorpio um emotion, sensitivity and compassion. Earth signs Taurus Virgo,
Speaker 1: Capricorn practicality and to focus on material goals. And then
Speaker 1: air signs Jim and I Libra and Aquarius uh Into
Speaker 1: signifies intellect, and those are the big groupings, the elemental groupings, right,
Speaker 1: So here we've kind of come up with another layer, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like since each each sign and on its own has
Speaker 1: its own qualities like for example, um, the cancer is
Speaker 1: a very domestic, imaginative, thorough shy, interested in the past
Speaker 1: and tradition. That's me all over? Is it really all
Speaker 1: those things? Yeah? Basically, Um, but the then you lay
Speaker 1: over the water sign, right that it's a water sign,
Speaker 1: so that adds to the emotion or the sensitivity or
Speaker 1: the compassion of it. That the where it really starts
Speaker 1: to get interesting is the idea that there's a relationship
Speaker 1: between the element and the sign, and those are with
Speaker 1: the cardinal fixed or mutable um right, whether or not
Speaker 1: you're resistant to change, you're able to change, or what's
Speaker 1: cardinal just general movement. Cardinal is that it moves right.
Speaker 1: So so these three things, it's like a whole other
Speaker 1: layer and and basically um so they had to do
Speaker 1: with the solsticism that equal an ox is. We should say.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of kinds of Western astrology. One is sidereal,
Speaker 1: which follows the movement of the stars, so your birth
Speaker 1: sign is sidereal astrology. There's another one called tropical that
Speaker 1: really just has nothing to do with the stars. It's
Speaker 1: the idea that around the in the cosmos, the zodiac
Speaker 1: is fixed and it really has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: the stars. It has to do with the sun's relative
Speaker 1: position to the horizon, so it has to do with
Speaker 1: things like solstices and equinoxes. So when you go into
Speaker 1: the tropical um type of astrology, that's when the cardinal
Speaker 1: fixed a mutable comes up. So a cardinal sign right,
Speaker 1: each element has a cardinal sign, so there's four cardinal signs,
Speaker 1: and for example, cancer is the cardinal water sign. Right.
Speaker 1: Each element also has four fixed signs, so Leo is
Speaker 1: the fixed fire sign that has to do with like persistence, perseverance,
Speaker 1: resistance to change. And then lastly, mutable means you're flexible, adaptable, suggestible,
Speaker 1: and Gemini is a mutable air sign. There's four different
Speaker 1: mutable air signs, right, So you put them all together,
Speaker 1: and what you have is in our interaction between the
Speaker 1: elements and the signs themselves, so that you have sometimes
Speaker 1: contradictory stuff, you have things that enhance other things. But
Speaker 1: it's yet another layer. So now you have three layers
Speaker 1: deep of interpretations just the signs, and it's up to
Speaker 1: an astrologer to um ex extract whatever however they want
Speaker 1: to read it. Basically like, it makes a point. You
Speaker 1: can ask a hundred different astrologers to look at your
Speaker 1: your chart and they might give you a hundred different readings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's ultimately the astrologers interpretation of the information that's
Speaker 1: presented by these the signs and whether they're cardinal or fixture, mutable,
Speaker 1: or what element they are, right, Well, they can also
Speaker 1: be masculine or feminine, which Ed points out is not
Speaker 1: really can't think of in terms of gender. It's more
Speaker 1: like the concept of yin and yang, which makes a
Speaker 1: little more sense. But when I look at mine Pisces
Speaker 1: February twenty to March um mutable water, feminine. Okay, So
Speaker 1: that's where I am. Emotional, sure, self sacrificing, sometimes, adaptable,
Speaker 1: sometimes empathetic, almost always religious, not anymore versatile, Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: talkative sometimes you get paid for it. Yeah, and sometimes
Speaker 1: I'm really quiet though, don't want to talk, you know,
Speaker 1: but that goes against all astrology often takes on the
Speaker 1: behaviors of others. I don't know about that. Creative, I hope. Impractical, No,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty practical, so like but more like half and
Speaker 1: half maybe would you say half? I feel like you did,
Speaker 1: or maybe more? Maybe that sounds about right all right,
Speaker 1: but even still, I mean, that doesn't prove anything, no,
Speaker 1: of course not. But it did just get you to
Speaker 1: think about your self. That's the whole point, right from
Speaker 1: what I understand. That's how it tells you. So you've
Speaker 1: got all these different layers to just you're just the
Speaker 1: sign that you were born under right, But there's even
Speaker 1: there's even deeper layers to the whole thing, right, that
Speaker 1: has to do with the movement of the constellations or
Speaker 1: the movement of the sun. Um. And it also has
Speaker 1: to do with more than just the sign you were
Speaker 1: born under. Like when you sit down and you do
Speaker 1: an astrological chart, you um, you're you're basically looking at
Speaker 1: the position of everything that's taken too into account in
Speaker 1: the cosmos, rather than just where the constellation, what constellations
Speaker 1: behind the summer you were born. Well, we're gonna dive
Speaker 1: even deeper into this stuff after this message break, So Chuck,
Speaker 1: we're talking about how we've got like the fixed layers, right,
Speaker 1: and then depending on when you were born, where you're born,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff to take into account, meaning
Speaker 1: like literally the minute Yeah, because um, one of the zodiacs, uh, well,
Speaker 1: the houses when you add this other layer, the houses
Speaker 1: of the zodiac, which are the same thing as the
Speaker 1: zodiac signs, but they're different in this case, they represent
Speaker 1: the twenty four hour movement of the Earth on its axis. Um.
Speaker 1: So now you have the added layer of time, yeah,
Speaker 1: to the to the moment that you were born, um.
Speaker 1: To to create a genuine like astrology chart. So not
Speaker 1: only you're taking into account time and your sun sign,
Speaker 1: but you also want to look around if you're a
Speaker 1: good astrologer, and say, okay, where was the moon? What
Speaker 1: house was the was venus in? And you start to
Speaker 1: you start to basically go through and find the position
Speaker 1: of every planet, including the sun in the moon um
Speaker 1: and all the moon are considered planets as far as
Speaker 1: astrology goes, right, And then when you put all this
Speaker 1: stuff together, there's a huge, extremely complex interplay between all
Speaker 1: these different um components that are all supposed to point
Speaker 1: to the person that you were born as. Right, this
Speaker 1: is where I think I should say my beef now,
Speaker 1: I think it's a good time for that. My beef
Speaker 1: is that I couldn't find anywhere. And this is me
Speaker 1: looking for science where there is none. Is why like
Speaker 1: the position of the stars and they all affect who
Speaker 1: you are and uh and and what you're gonna be Like,
Speaker 1: all right, we'll explain that to me. Does it do that? Oh? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: that's what what forces? What scientific forces are behind this
Speaker 1: zero that caused this? Like I get what you're saying. People,
Speaker 1: The stars are aligned and these things are all in
Speaker 1: a certain place and you're gonna be a certain way,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, how does it do that? It doesn't.
Speaker 1: That's where that's my beef. So I mean that's a
Speaker 1: legitimate beef. Um, there's no how, No, there's not, there's none.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm not hung up on that fact. I
Speaker 1: think I just kind of accepted. And it's almost like
Speaker 1: coming upon uh and the belief system of another culture
Speaker 1: and know that, like I don't subscribe to it, but
Speaker 1: I'm interested in, like what what they believe and how
Speaker 1: it applies to their life. But that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: I believe in it. I'm just I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: interested in in an academic sense. Yeah, yeah, well you're
Speaker 1: we're curious people, so I get that. Just get hung
Speaker 1: up on the fact that it doesn't actually and you'll
Speaker 1: you'll be interested in I promise. No. I do think
Speaker 1: it's interesting. And I used to read my horoscope here
Speaker 1: and there just for fun, just the same way I
Speaker 1: look at a fortune cookie. Um, it's just a parlor trick.
Speaker 1: That to me though, it's not. But I think an
Speaker 1: astrologer even if they even if they said, fine, you
Speaker 1: don't believe in it, it's fine. But this is more
Speaker 1: than a parlor trick, like they're really sitting down and
Speaker 1: applying this. It takes a tremendous amount of time calculation
Speaker 1: um a certain measure of of science. You have to
Speaker 1: understand astronomy at least because you have to go figure
Speaker 1: out when someone was born where, what was where? Right?
Speaker 1: And so when you're sitting down and doing your chart,
Speaker 1: you were born of Pisces, right, So the Pisces constellation
Speaker 1: was behind the Sun. But where was Saturn? And why
Speaker 1: would Saturn matter? Well, Saturn is a melancholy planet. So
Speaker 1: if Saturn is in a house associated with happiness, um,
Speaker 1: you might have uh thread of bitter weakness that runs
Speaker 1: through your whole life. That might be one interpretation of it.
Speaker 1: Or you might be happy sometimes and sad sometimes maybe
Speaker 1: just every person ever sure that I mean, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: And again I'm not explaining how this Porson is saying
Speaker 1: like this is what an astrologer would would sit down
Speaker 1: and think, or um, Mars is warlike, Well, if Mars
Speaker 1: was in UM, I don't know, a house associated with aggressiveness,
Speaker 1: you might get in a fight your whole life, according
Speaker 1: to this astrology chart. So that's just each planet. Right,
Speaker 1: Let's say that you have Mars in a an aggressive
Speaker 1: house and you have Saturn in a happy house. How
Speaker 1: did those interact with each other? How does that getting
Speaker 1: in fights all the time? Uh, interact with the bitter
Speaker 1: sweetness that runs through your life. And that's open to
Speaker 1: interpretation as well. And that's where the astrology I think
Speaker 1: I was saying astrologist earlier, is that even a word?
Speaker 1: I think? So, Okay, it doesn't seem it seems like
Speaker 1: I've heard that before. Well at anyway, that's where they
Speaker 1: come into play, yes, with their varying interpretations, but not
Speaker 1: just the interpretations. They're actually gonna sit down and figure
Speaker 1: out what was where, what that means according to the
Speaker 1: astrological tradition, and then the third step is for them
Speaker 1: to um interpret it for you, you know what I mean. So,
Speaker 1: I mean there is a tremendous amount of work to it,
Speaker 1: from what I can tell, for a genuine astrological chart.
Speaker 1: Your friend's mom hooked you up when you were yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean she didn't dash it off in five minutes.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that that was math involved and angles
Speaker 1: and stuff. So the main thing you're getting if you're
Speaker 1: looking at like a newspaper or if you have if
Speaker 1: your son up for some sort of internet daily horoscope
Speaker 1: is it's usually some sort of personality profile, advice on
Speaker 1: your life. Uh, maybe some sort of um map two
Speaker 1: for finances you might want to think about, you know,
Speaker 1: investing soon. That's where people probably get in trouble. Um.
Speaker 1: But it's pretty much personal advice stuff, not so much
Speaker 1: long term future type of thing, not like predicting your
Speaker 1: future necessarily. Well, they do to the extent of like
Speaker 1: you'll have a so so day to day. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: today will be rather unremarkable, yeah, or like a lot
Speaker 1: of times it can be. I think it's it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, today might be a good day to reach
Speaker 1: out to an old friend, and if you follow that advice,
Speaker 1: then that's great because your old friend probably would want
Speaker 1: to hear from you. And then you have lunch with
Speaker 1: that friend and it goes great, and you might say,
Speaker 1: we'll see there, my my horoscope said to reach out
Speaker 1: to an old friend and it went awesome, or if
Speaker 1: it went really horribly, you'd be like, why are you
Speaker 1: punishing these stars? Yeah? Or what if you get killed
Speaker 1: on the way to the lunch, Like you don't hear
Speaker 1: those stories. No, but that's the great thing about astrology.
Speaker 1: It removes personal responsibility from your decisions. That's funny. And
Speaker 1: I should say also, I wanna, I want to like
Speaker 1: there are even more layers to the whole thing than
Speaker 1: what I what I said. I I hope we kind
Speaker 1: of got the point across that there's layer upon layer
Speaker 1: upon layer, and they all interact with one another. But
Speaker 1: I mean, like in a good astrologer will take into
Speaker 1: account like whether planet was in retrograde and what that
Speaker 1: means when you were born, you know, um, or if
Speaker 1: it's in retrograde right now. Um, there's just so much
Speaker 1: to it. I think that's what fascinates me. Well, it
Speaker 1: makes a good point. Uh, if this is a true science,
Speaker 1: then it should have it should pass the muster of
Speaker 1: the of repeatable testing, which of course it doesn't know.
Speaker 1: Um no, it really really doesn't. But some other people
Speaker 1: might say, you know what this is, it's beyond science.
Speaker 1: This is you shouldn't try and quantify in terms of science.
Speaker 1: This is something that you can't you can't even understand it, right,
Speaker 1: your beauny s cannot explain this, this outside that realm
Speaker 1: to something that we don't know and understand. And hey,
Speaker 1: I'm a science guy, but I'm not foolish enough to
Speaker 1: think there isn't anything out there that I maybe I
Speaker 1: don't know about or we can't prove. It's very healthy.
Speaker 1: You know, my hat is off to you. You're forty
Speaker 1: in and you don't even know it. Seriously, that's like,
Speaker 1: to me, that's the the pinnacle of what a thinking
Speaker 1: person can aspire to. Well, I think that's when you
Speaker 1: stop looking, when you think that we you know, we've
Speaker 1: got it all figured out, you know, especially when you
Speaker 1: aggressively attack other people who say otherwise. That's if this
Speaker 1: conversation is floating your boat. Go list In the Enlightenment episode,
Speaker 1: that was good. That was a good one. I had
Speaker 1: a lot to do with that. They have done studies though,
Speaker 1: on the viability of astrology as far as you know,
Speaker 1: are are you could do divorce rates UM? Are they
Speaker 1: compatible or do they comply with um or correlate with
Speaker 1: the compatibility of two people? Astrologically speaking, they don't. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, they're supposedly interaction amongst the signs where like
Speaker 1: you know, uh, virgos don't get along with um, Capricorns
Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, and that doesn't hold up
Speaker 1: through scientific study, and if you cherry pick examples in
Speaker 1: your life, of course you might think it does. Well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why a lot of people are like, astrology is right.
Speaker 1: It's a selection bias, is what you're encountering. You're ignoring
Speaker 1: the stuff that disproves it or that suggests that it's
Speaker 1: not true, and instead just focusing on the amazing facts
Speaker 1: where it lines up right. Right, that's a selection bias, right,
Speaker 1: I think, so I need to know more about all
Speaker 1: the different biases. It's interesting we should say another thing
Speaker 1: that kind of suggests that astrology is not accurate. The
Speaker 1: zodiac signs are no longer where they're supposed to be.
Speaker 1: If you're going by your birth date. For example, I
Speaker 1: was born into life. If so, I would be a cancer.
Speaker 1: If you actually follow the constellations, I'm I'm a Gemini.
Speaker 1: Never knew that. So. Geminis are um concerned with information,
Speaker 1: highly literate, curious, adaptable, absent minded, love to travel. I
Speaker 1: am a Gemini. So the reason why is because when
Speaker 1: astrology was first created them the earth, the constellations were
Speaker 1: lined up with where they were originally. As the Earth
Speaker 1: rotates on its access at wobbles, and over the last
Speaker 1: couple of thousand years, it's wobbled so that those constellations
Speaker 1: are no longer where they were when they set them
Speaker 1: three thousand years ago. So today we have totally different um,
Speaker 1: totally different signs. What would mind be? Can so you
Speaker 1: were born in the eyes of March, You're still a
Speaker 1: Pisces man, I'm sorry that I am uh now I
Speaker 1: am now a Gemini because it gotta moved. So let's
Speaker 1: let's go through because I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know this, and NASA blogged about it a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago and really caused a stir um. Jerry
Speaker 1: still a cat ox, Jerry. Jerry's Birthday's April something right,
Speaker 1: Jerry's birthday is what's your birthday? Your birthday's Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Jerry just said her birthday. It's
Speaker 1: February fourteenth, because we have to edit out any Jerry talk. Right, Jerry,
Speaker 1: what are you supposed to be? Normally? You are a Capricorn.
Speaker 1: You are January twenty, February six As far as NASA
Speaker 1: is concerned, you're a Capricorn. So it starts, and we
Speaker 1: should say I don't think we said this, but zodiac
Speaker 1: officially in the West starts with aries and moves on um.
Speaker 1: So starting with Capricorn because NASA is like, now we're
Speaker 1: gonna start with the beginning of the year Capricorn January
Speaker 1: twentieth to February sixte okay, Aquarius is now February sixteenth
Speaker 1: to March eleventh. And you'll notice these aren't necessarily thirty
Speaker 1: day period. Yeah you were, uh Pisces March eleventh to
Speaker 1: April eighteenth, Aries April eighteenth to May, taurusts May thirteenth
Speaker 1: of June twenty one. It's a long one, uh Gemini
Speaker 1: June one to July twenty that's me now, cancer July
Speaker 1: twenty August. I used to be a cancer Leo August
Speaker 1: tenth to September six Virgo September sixteenth of October, Libra
Speaker 1: October November, Scorpio November twenty three to twenty nine. That's
Speaker 1: six days. You've got six days to be a Scorpio.
Speaker 1: It's kind of neat uh oh fucus. Yeah, that long
Speaker 1: forgotten November twenty nine to December. That crazy. There's people
Speaker 1: out there don't even know that they're that signed yeah,
Speaker 1: or how to pronounce it right? No one does. No
Speaker 1: one alive knows how to pronounce that. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: Sagittarius December seventeenth to January. Wow, I don't even know
Speaker 1: anything anymore. No, no one does, Chuck. I think this
Speaker 1: is fascinating stuff that I've been thinking a lot lately
Speaker 1: about what does shape your personality and what you become
Speaker 1: in life as far as nature and nurture and some
Speaker 1: people might throw this in there. I think we should
Speaker 1: totally do a podcast on birth order. Oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the good ones, super fascinating to me. Or whether, um,
Speaker 1: whether hearing your name or the vibrations caused by saying
Speaker 1: your own name throughout your life has an effect on
Speaker 1: your personality. You heard that one? Yeah, supposedly the vibrations
Speaker 1: are the frequency made from hearing and saying your own
Speaker 1: name throughout your life makes your makes your personality a
Speaker 1: certain one. Weird, Alan, It's probably not true, but it's interesting. Well,
Speaker 1: we tease Ronald Reagan earlier. Well, we didn't tease Ronald
Speaker 1: Reagan did, But we can't talk about astrology without talking
Speaker 1: a little bit about the Reagan administration because uh in
Speaker 1: nine uh ron and Nancy were uh out, it's sort
Speaker 1: of exposed. Yeah, as is having a astrologer on the
Speaker 1: payroll to the tune of about how much three grand
Speaker 1: per what reading a month? Three grand a month? It's
Speaker 1: not bad. No, this lady was working hard, Joan quickly
Speaker 1: down under. That's her nickname woman. And it was revealed
Speaker 1: that she uh wrote up star charts uh and basically
Speaker 1: detailed even down to the minute, supposedly depending on who
Speaker 1: you listen to, what Reagan's schedule should look like. Right,
Speaker 1: so this lady was definitely doing mundane interrogatory and natal
Speaker 1: astrology combined to create a chart. Yes, for sure. And
Speaker 1: chief of staff On Reagan wrote in his memoir um,
Speaker 1: I mean he I mean, this is is not a
Speaker 1: matter of debate or anything. No, this is for for real.
Speaker 1: But Don Regan wrote in his memoirs and he talked about, um,
Speaker 1: you know, capturing the public's attention like that was a
Speaker 1: big deal because it looked like what was going on
Speaker 1: was going on, which was his schedule was kind of
Speaker 1: being determined by an astrologist. Like you can't talk to
Speaker 1: Gorby today. This is a bad day to propose the
Speaker 1: salt treaty. Wait until you know. No, that's when you
Speaker 1: talked to Gorby. And then Don Regan would be told
Speaker 1: by Nancy, Uh he he should be talking to Gorbion
Speaker 1: because met with Nancy only met ron once, supposedly, um
Speaker 1: and and Nancy downplayed it a lot, of course, they
Speaker 1: all tried to distance well. They said it was more
Speaker 1: of a hobby. And and she definitely had no impact
Speaker 1: on decisions. It was really just about scheduling, is what
Speaker 1: they said, scheduling decisions. But she wrote a book, actually, uh,
Speaker 1: miss Quigley, in was called this is the most on
Speaker 1: the nose book title of all time. It was called
Speaker 1: what does Jones say? Colin my seven years as White
Speaker 1: House astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan by me, do
Speaker 1: you get it? Um? And she said, quote, I was
Speaker 1: responsible for timing all press conferences, most speeches. The State
Speaker 1: of the Union addresses the takeoffs and landings of Air
Speaker 1: Force one. I picked the time of Ronald Reagan's debate
Speaker 1: with Jimmy Carter and the two debates with Mondale, all
Speaker 1: extended trips abroad as well as shorter trips and one
Speaker 1: day excursions. End quote yeah, um, so yes. The leader
Speaker 1: of the Free World arguably the most powerful American president
Speaker 1: in recent memory, had his schedule determined by an astrologer.
Speaker 1: So weird, I got a couple more things, all right,
Speaker 1: what you got? So? Um, Apparently Americans around the time
Speaker 1: of Reagan had hit like, basically a low in believing
Speaker 1: in astrology. They were They did a poll after that
Speaker 1: that news came out, and they found that American belief
Speaker 1: overall in astrology um was a twelve percent, which is
Speaker 1: down from this is an eight eight, which is down
Speaker 1: from ten years before, which makes total sense, like coming
Speaker 1: off of the the hippie age and the goofy seven
Speaker 1: sign into the very like kind of cynical late eighties. Uh,
Speaker 1: it aligns perfectly right the star. So somebody forgot to
Speaker 1: send Nancy and Ron that memo. So in two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, another poll found that it had gone back
Speaker 1: up to no idea why. And then another poll I
Speaker 1: saw that asked something different rather than do you believe
Speaker 1: in astrology, asked, um, would you say that astrology is
Speaker 1: quote not at all scientific? In two thousand four, sixty
Speaker 1: six percent of Americans said at two was not scientific.
Speaker 1: So basically they don't believe in astrology. And then in
Speaker 1: two um percent said that, so apparently belief in astrology
Speaker 1: is still on the increase. Interesting, even more interesting, in
Speaker 1: China of the public says they don't believe in astrology
Speaker 1: compared to about here. And then lastly, I have one
Speaker 1: more story ready, and there's actually a blog post you
Speaker 1: can go recalled the Genius Mural at St. John's. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's from years back, but I just came across the
Speaker 1: story is amazing. There's this place called St. John's Anglican Church.
Speaker 1: It's in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and um. It was built
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty four and it was built with a
Speaker 1: mural on the ceiling of the night sky with gilded stars.
Speaker 1: And they were remodeling the church and they wanted to
Speaker 1: redo the mural right recreated exactly as it had been.
Speaker 1: But they realized they didn't have any dead on photographs
Speaker 1: of it, so they had to kind of like figure
Speaker 1: out what to do. So they hired an astronomer and
Speaker 1: he started poking around into it and he realized that
Speaker 1: the mural, which had been constructed in seventeen fifty four,
Speaker 1: was the exact scene of the night sky over Lunenburg
Speaker 1: on December one which is in the Christian tradition is
Speaker 1: the night Christ was born. Somebody in seventeen fifty four
Speaker 1: accurately calculated what the sky had looked like fifty four
Speaker 1: years before on December and turned it into a mural.
Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing? I love that story. That's astrology and
Speaker 1: what's the name of that story, The Genius Genius Mural
Speaker 1: at St. John's. Thanks man, Are you got anything else? Nope?
Speaker 1: I could talk about this all day. Are you sure
Speaker 1: I think we did right by it. If you want
Speaker 1: to know more about astrology, go read Joan Quigley's book.
Speaker 1: And since I said Joan quickly, it's time for listener, ma'il.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this Star Wars Action figure and neared, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: love the show like to I can say, like all
Speaker 1: the other fans, is definitely my favorite thing to listen to.
Speaker 1: My transplant to Texas from Tennessee, and I always get
Speaker 1: excited when I can make that long drive back home
Speaker 1: and binge on your interesting material just listen to Action
Speaker 1: figures and was thrilled to hear you talk about Star
Speaker 1: Wars action figures. I'm one of those Star Wars guys.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that read away too much of the fan
Speaker 1: fiction and new way too many characters, uh, too many
Speaker 1: of the character names. I wanted to share a fact
Speaker 1: I thought was interesting about the Kinner toys and two
Speaker 1: of the Bounty Hunter characters seen in an Empire Strikes Back.
Speaker 1: Kinner went originally packaging the characters mislabeled for Loam probably
Speaker 1: not even pronouncing that right. Uh for the number four
Speaker 1: dash l O M originally the droid and zook Us
Speaker 1: z u c k Uss originally the bug looking guy,
Speaker 1: and switch their names. How somebody got fired for that?
Speaker 1: Do you believe it? The name stuck into and you
Speaker 1: can see on newer packaging of the Hasbro toys that
Speaker 1: their names have been switched back. I always thought it
Speaker 1: was interesting and interesting. Mishap. Thanks for all you guys do,
Speaker 1: and I've learned so much and it's love referencing your
Speaker 1: show every chance I get. Sincerely, Harrison for Adam West
Speaker 1: No ps, sadly I'm not him. Wow, I agreat would
Speaker 1: that be man? That that nice email Adam that was
Speaker 1: full of drama, suspense facts and I could do my
Speaker 1: nerd voice man, which I completely stole from him. I
Speaker 1: just want to make that clear, claiming it at your
Speaker 1: own right to homage to Conan yep. Uh well, Adam,
Speaker 1: thank you. That was a great one. If you want
Speaker 1: to get in touch with us, like Adam did, you
Speaker 1: can join us on Facebook, dot com, slash Stuff you
Speaker 1: Should Know. You can hang out with Chuck too at
Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant at Facebook. You can hang out
Speaker 1: with me on Twitter, Josh Underscore, UM Underscore, Clark uh
Speaker 1: and you can also hang up with us at s
Speaker 1: y SK podcast. Send us an email to uh stuff Podcast,
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
Speaker 1: at Home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot
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