Knowledge / Western
Western
Astrology, Tarot, numerology, Human Design and personality tests: how each system began, what it claims to measure, and what science says about it.
Classical allusion
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
William Shakespeare · Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
Western articles
Personal Year 2027 in Numerology: How to Add Your Birth Date to 2027 and the Nine-Year Cycle
Personal Year 2027 adds your birth day and month to 2027, placing you in the nine-year cycle of modern numerology, a US system, not a Pythagorean legacy.
Where Do Zodiac Birthstones Come From? History, Lists, and How to Read Them Correctly
Where do zodiac birthstones come from, who made the first list, and why is each month tied to a stone? An analysis drawing on G. F. Kunz's books.
What Does MBTI Borrow from Carl Jung, and Where Does It Differ?
MBTI borrows Jung's two attitudes and four functions, adds the J/P axis and sixteen types. How does psychology rate its reliability and validity?
What Is Indian Astrology Jyotish and How Does It Differ from Western Astrology?
Jyotish, Indian astrology, uses the nine Navagraha, 27 Nakshatras and the sidereal zodiac, unlike Western astrology in reference frame and chart layout.
Is Ophiuchus the 13th zodiac sign? IAU constellation boundaries and why astrology keeps 12 signs
Ophiuchus is not a 13th zodiac sign: the Sun crosses 13 IAU constellations, but Western astrology uses 12 equal 30 degree signs from the equinox.
House systems in an astrological chart: how Placidus, Whole Sign and Equal Houses differ, and why the same chart places a planet in a different house
Placidus, Whole Sign and Equal House divide the zodiac three ways, so the same chart can place a planet in a different house under each system.
How Do the Tropical and Sidereal Zodiacs Differ? Why Does the Same Birth Date Give Two Different Signs?
The tropical zodiac follows the seasons, the sidereal zodiac the stars. Precession has pushed them about 24 degrees apart, enough to change most Sun signs.
What Is Synastry Chart Comparison and Why Has It Not Been Proven?
Synastry compares two birth charts through planetary aspects between two people: how it is read, where schools differ, and why science has not confirmed it.
What Is a Saturn Return, and Why Do People Often Face a Crisis Around Age 29?
Saturn return is the 29.46-year cycle when Saturn returns to its birth position: the mechanism, the ages 29 and 58, and research on the near-30 crisis.
Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos: What Does the Foundational Book of Western Astrology Say?
Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos has four books setting out astrological principles, planetary influences, and why Ptolemy treated astrology as conjectural knowledge.
Is AI Tarot Reading Accurate and How Does It Differ from a Human Reader? A Scientific and Practical View
Is AI Tarot reading accurate, and how does it differ from a human reader? An analysis based on 2025 psychology research on how accurate Tarot spreads feel.
What Is 'Zodiac Sign' in English? The 12 Sign Names and How to Use Them Correctly
Cung hoàng đạo in English is zodiac signs. This covers the 12 sign names in English, their pronunciation, sign versus constellation, and translation notes.
Sun and Moon in Astrology: Reading the Sun Sign and Moon Sign Together
Alan Leo (1910) gave the Sun sign to the individual and the Moon sign to the personality, reading 144 pairs together. We read his text and note its limits.
Sun and Moon in Numerology: Why Number 1 Is the Sun and Number 2 the Moon
Number 1 as the Sun and number 2 as the Moon is a convention of modern numerology, spread by Cheiro's 1926 book. We read his text and the test results.
Is Online Tarot Reliable and Worth Using? A View from History, Psychology, and Survey Data
Online Tarot's reliability examined through Tarot history, psychological evidence on perceived accuracy, and Pew 2025 survey data on who uses it and why.
What Do The Sun and The Moon Side by Side in Tarot Say?
Placing The Sun beside The Moon contrasts the light and dark poles of the Major Arcana. What Waite wrote, how the pair is read today, and its limits.
Does Learning Astrology Make People More Certain About Themselves? Astrology as Self-Affirmation in Times of Crisis
Astrology students in a small 1998 study grew more certain about themselves, while psychology and German students did not.
How MBTI and Big Five differ, and why psychology uses Big Five
MBTI and Big Five measure nearly the same four personality dimensions, but MBTI splits people into 16 discrete groups while Big Five keeps continuous scores.
Do spiritual believers 'see' more: the face-in-noise experiment and the lenient response threshold
Experiments show mystical believers report seeing faces in ambiguous images more often, yet their visual sensitivity is unchanged.
Are Psychics Real? How Anomalistic Psychology Explains the "Sixth Sense" Experience
Controlled tests have not shown psychic ability. Anomalistic psychology links "sixth sense" experiences to misattribution and subjective validation.
How to recognize a pseudoscientific advertisement: the criteria of philosophy of science, applied to 'energy', 'vibration', 'quantum'
No single test identifies pseudoscience. Philosophy of science uses a cluster of criteria, applied here to 'energy', 'vibration' and 'quantum'.
How Psychologists Measure Spiritual Belief: The Paranormal Belief Scale and Surveys Since 1936
Psychologists use the Paranormal Belief Scale by Tobacyk and Milford, revised in 2004, with 26 items across seven subscales.
Does Friday the 13th Make Stocks Fall, and Do Vietnamese Have Similar "Bad Days"?
Friday the 13th stock studies give conflicting results, and any effect is tiny. Vietnamese lunar bad days have not been studied the same way.
Why superstition never disappears: from Skinner's pigeon experiment to an evolutionary model
Superstition survives because our learning machinery produces it: chance coincidences become rituals, and false beliefs may cost less than missed causes.