Which ayanamsa works best?

Recently I posted a comment on Facebook about a 14 September 2007 paper by Buz Overbeck, “Ayanamsas — a Statistical Study,” in which he reported on a statistical analysis of various ayanamsas in a large group of well-time astrological charts. This paper has been in my files for many years and unfortunately I don’t recall the original source of the publication. Doing a current google search, I found a copy at https://storage.yandexcloud.net/j108/library/tzubx8h2/Buz_Overbeck_-_Ayanamsa_-_A_Statistical_Study.pdf but that site does not give the original source. Google search also gives a result of a paper “The Sun in the Lunar Mansions” by Buz & Golda Overbeck dated July 10, 2015 — “2 No. 2., December 1976, Mike Black gives the results of his ‘Statistical Study of the Lunar Zodiac’.” 

Ayanamsa image from Wikimedia Commons

A fascinating feature of this study is the use of a “control” ayanamsa based on a number randomly chosen from a phonebook. This “telephone book” ayanamsa outperfomred many of the standard ayanamsas in the study of a large number of charts. Here is a relevant quote from the article:

“So how can many sidereal astrologers, using difierent ayanamsas, all have their charts work” for them? Garth Allen in an article for American Astrology magazine, (see reference below), explains it this way:

The point we are getting at here is that a randomly invented, wholly groundless ayanamsa will yield highly “signiflcant” ingress charts for a majority of events. Yes, we said majority, and meant it. A phony vernal point will work” so well, so much of the time, that at flrst glance any value you might fabricate on the spur of the moment has a good prospect of seeming like a major astrological discovery.”If you are reluctant to believe this, take the flrst telephone number having six digits in your local directory and con yourself into considering it to be the genuine ayanamsa in degrees, minutes and seconds, for any event you want to study.”The odds are surely better than 50-50 that by your third ingress chart for the event, using this fake ayanamsa, pretending it to be real, you’ll come up with a persuasively accurate” horoscopic picture of the event. If the event is a catastrophe, there are enough maleflcs in the sky, and more than enough square aspects within reach of at least one of your two, three, four or more sets of angular cusps to flll the bill and produce a triumph” for the ersatz ayanamsa employed.” (quote from How to Unvex a Vexed Question!, Garth Allen, American Astrology Magazine August 1964.)

Overbeck studied twelve groups of charts, all but one group containing more than a thousand charts. These group included charts of painters, alcoholics, military persons, scientists, actors, writers, murders, musicians, politicians, sports champions, schizophrenics and psychotics. The author’s findings and conclusions were as follows (bold is mine):

“To summarize, not counting the Actor set where 20 out of 25 passed, and the Murderer set where all ayanamsas passed, the following had hits:

1. 4 Hits – Sassanian
2. 3 Hits – Phone Book
3. 2 Hits – Hipparchos
4. 2 Hits – Ushashashi
5. 1 Hit – Taurn Chopra

Curiously, the most popular of all of the ayanamsas Lahiri did poorly in all of the tests, falling in the 2nd half of all tested in 9 out of 12 cases.

Conclusions

If there is a true ayanamsa, it is not a part of this test group. Of the 25 ayanamsas tested the one with the most signiflcant showing is Sassanian with a total of 4 out of 12 tests. This would prove noteworthy if it wasn’t followed by the flctitious Phone Book ayanamsa totaling 3 out of 12 hits.

Of the 12 tests, 5, or 42%, had no signiflcant ayanamsa, 20, or 80% of the ayanamsas showed signiflcance in the Actors test and all ayanamas proved signiflcant in the Murders test.

One can only conclude that, in astrological techniques involving the moon’s position in the nakshatras, or lunar mansions, use of any of the included ayanamsas|or none at all|is pointless.

Perhaps the most important result of this study is the conflrmation of the need for replication of any statistical test performed. The flrst test actually run was on the 1,793 Alcoholics and the Tarun Chopra ayanamsa stood out as the winner. If the test wasn’t replicated, one could have rushed into print claiming the true ayanamsa had been found.”

This is truly a fascinating study and one worth pondering by all astrologers.