Joan Quigley, the Reagans' Astrologer, Dies

[lpetrich]

Nancy Reagan's Astrologer, 'Closely Guarded Secret,' Died. Read The Obit. noting Joan Quigley, Astrologer to a First Lady, Is Dead at 87 - NYTimes.com

In his 1988 memoir, Donald T. Regan, a former chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan, revealed what he called the administration’s “most closely guarded secret.”

He said an astrologer had set the time for summit meetings, presidential debates, Reagan’s 1985 cancer surgery, State of the Union addresses and much more. Without an O.K. from the astrologer, he said, Air Force One did not take off.

DTR also claimed that Nancy Reagan paid her $3000/month.

In an interview with “CBS Evening News” in 1989, after Reagan left office, Miss Quigley said that after reading the horoscope of the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, she concluded that he was intelligent and open to new ideas and persuaded Mrs. Reagan to press her husband to abandon his view of the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.” Arms control treaties followed.

In 1990, JQ wrote a book about her experiences, "What Does Joan Say".

But,

After Mr. Regan divulged Miss Quigley’s astrological role, Mrs. Reagan never spoke to her again, Miss Quigley said. She likened the slight to “buying a Picasso and putting it in your living room and putting adhesive tape over the signature.”

 

[ZiprHead]

The huckster likens herself to a Picasso?

 

[lpetrich]

Skeptic » Insight » Woo in the White House

Although Nancy Reagan minimizes her influence, Quigley herself claimed in her 1990 book, What Does Joan Say?: My Seven Years As White House Astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan, that:

I was responsible for timing all press conferences, most speeches, the State of the Union addresses, the takeoffs and landings of Air Force One. I picked the time of Ronald Reagan’s debate with Carter and the two debates with Walter Mondale; all extended trips abroad as well as the shorter trips and one-day excursions.

Donald Prothero continued with criticisms of astrology.

Despite the increased level of overall literacy and education of the past century, astrology experienced a new surge in popularity in the early twentieth century when newspapers began to run daily horoscopes. A high percentage of people don’t even know the difference between astrology and astronomy, something that drives real scientists (astronomers) crazy. Various polls estimate that about 25-30% of Americans, Canadians, and British believe in astrology, or at least read their daily horoscopes in the newspaper or on line. There are roughly 10,000-20,000 astrologers practicing in the U.S. alone.

He made several other criticisms:

• Horoscopes often use the Forer effect: make lots of general, plausible statements.
• Astrological predictions fail statistical tests.
• No known physical effects could cause astrological effects.
• Constellations or "signs" are very culture-specific.
• What we see is a 2D projection of 3D positions.
• Precession.
• Undiscovered planets.

It is truly frightening to think that the activities of the most powerful man on earth from 1981–1988 were dictated by an astrologer, and that we could have done terrible things or even gone to war on the advice of a woo-meister.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

That's right, Satan was in the oval office. That's why you have so many conservatives who love Reagan.