Astrology?

When I was a teenager and a budding scientist, my Uncle Alf and Aunt Phyllis were professional astrologers. They used to go on cruises and make charts of the stars for the passengers, you know "what's in your stars?"  Eventually my Aunt Phyllis, who was also a medium, became the Chair of the British Astrology Association.  I loved them, they were always very kind and understanding to me, they even taught me, an awkward teenager, how to dance.  But, when they tried to "convert" me, to believe in their views, I never succumbed. 

My Uncle Alf believed in psychokinesis, the supposed ability of people to move objects with their mind.  He believed that we had only realized a minute proportion of the potential of the mind.  He was an intellectual and showed me a book in which someone actually claimed to cause small clouds to disappear, but I was skeptical, you could take any kind of photos and make it look as if he caused it.  Sometimes I stared intently at clouds and tried to make them change shape, people thought I was a bit odd, but it never worked. 

Alf had had an interesting life, he had been a merchant seaman, not a usual job for a Jewish boy, and had sailed around the world.  One time in New York he got into trouble with the police, but he managed to escape and jumped into the harbor and swam to his ship just as it was leaving.  He worked as a door-to-door salesman, selling brushes and other doo-dads that women like for their kitchen.  I couldn't imagine how an intelligent and charming man like him could not get a better job, but he was happy at what he did.  They also believed in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls from one body to another, as in reincarnation (what color is that flower?), featured as "met-him-pike-hoses" in James Joyce's "Ulysses."  In other words, we are not what we seem to be.

My Aunt tried to convince me about the "chart," that the arrangement of the stars at the moment of birth of a person reveals their destiny, what will happen to them.  I completely rejected this as irrational, for example, twins are born seconds apart, yet their lives can take completely different turns, especially if they are separated at birth and adopted.  At the time we didn't know how big a role genetics plays in destiny, but of course, she said the stars move fast so that explains it.  She made my chart, and one of her predictions was that I would one day become famous.  I'm still waiting for that to happen, which more or less proves my point.