Michel Gauquelin observed that his collection of birth data of eminent writers and scientists showed surprising peaks when plotted against the zodiacal position of the Moon. This tentatively extends the Gauquelins’ work in two ways. First, it is suggested that the positions of these lunar zodiac peaks vary with profession and planet. Second, an exploratory analysis of longevity data from other sources reveals a small set of recurring zodiacal longitudes close to the peaks in the Writers’ and Scientists’ data.
Although many alleged lunar effects follow the 29.5-day lunation cycle, no such pattern emerges in these data. Since data on longevity have been shown to correlate with solar activity cycles, it was conjectured that the 27.3- day cycle of the Moon may be masking an influence of the Sun’s 27-day synodic rotation cycle.
This possible solar influence is supported by a semi-annual modulation in the data. This leads to a speculative hypothesis: that the observed effects may go beyond conventional zodiacal interpretations, but reflect deeper connections within astrology itself, particularly its roots in archaeoastronomy and the symbolism of the cardinal directions found in many ancient cosmologies.