Photo of a mass wedding in New Delhi, India. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

The capital of India, New Delhi, saw the mass wedding of 30,000 couples assembled together to marry on one of the most astrologically auspicious days of the year on December 13 2006.

To maximize good omens for 2007 the whole city has been awash with music festivities and celebrations lasting over several days and was even mentioned in the Indian parliament.

The downside, with so many people wanting to take their holidays at the same time, was that many companies personnel requirements were badly disrupted resulting in management as well as financial distresses.

There are said to be 10,000 practicing astrologers in the U.S.A. with a clientele of over one million: many of these are politicians, stock exchange analysts and other educated professionals. Ironically Western Societies and academia ridicule astrology!

Newspaper horoscopes are more entertainment than serious science, but in fact they are not even horoscopes they are sun sign solar-scopes, traditionally written by an in-house journalist with time on their hands. This is the crux of the problem, many of the books and particularly magazines on these subjects are written not by practitioners but by journalists, who know about writing but not the subject matter. A common trick by reporters and journalists is to advertise in their magazines for ghost stories or similar - people send in their stories to find they have just been put into a book which is then on sale in the shops.

No research, no preliminary study, no subject matter discrimination, no specialist knowledge, no scruples, and people get turned off by this.

Astronomers represent the main body of astrological criticism but just this year a N.A.S.A spokesman said;" the new information coming in from the Mars probe means all the present information we have is now defunct" so even astronomers make mistakes, and this has been a grand bumper year for scientists doctors and astronomers who were caught fudging and faking up research papers, taking bribes, lies and general dishonesty.

My weekly postbag contains so much in the way of complaints about fake psychic readings, and a quick browse across the internet shows this is just the tip of the iceberg.

A recent report claimed that more people read their horoscope in Britain than read the Bible. What are people searching for?

The television news which replaces "real news" with football and sport, tells us that others are spending more money than we are at the Christmas sales, and to be happy we must spend and spend again, and all on borrowed money.

Psychologists have a formula for happiness which runs as follows: "Personal characteristics" e.g. outlook and adaptability, shortened to "P", "E" for existence, health money, friends, "H" for higher order, self esteem ambition and sense of humour. So are you ready ? P-5 x E=3 x H, they predict our happiness quotient, just like an astrologer's chart, but this year has brought conflict and argument to psychology also.

So what will 2007 bring ? Added together the numbers make a 9, the number of Mars the god of war, Britain is ruled by Mars, Of this Shakespeare said; "Oh England thou seat of Mars" and this year has the omens of great bloodshed, With its nucleus in April.

Astrologically the new moon on December 20 2006 falls in Sagittarius with a Pluto conjunction promising threats of coming violence, We must be aware that as 9 is the number of man, greed and materialism, The words of the master; " only the meek will inherit the earth" And be sure we protest about any unspiritual acts.