Cloudscape

Though most likely not in the modality of classical astrologies, it is factual that the month in which one is born is likely to have an influence upon one's personality, much like the time during pregnancy. When the child is still unborn, the environment can affect it through the mother once the brain is active, because of hormones received from the mother. After the child is born, however, the environment directly affects the child through its own experiences. It is quite logical that, since the brain is still not yet fully developed during the first few months after birth, its growth will still be affected by the environment. In fact, the brain is affected by the environment throughout life, because it keeps growing new connections with every experience.

However, it is mostly in childhood that the personality is formed. It makes sense that the earlier in one's life, the more one's experiences impact one's personality, because there is still so much empty space to be filled in. It is not to be wondered at, then, that people who were born through Cesarian section have been observed to be calmer than those born through the far more traumatic natural delivery.

My idea is that while the time of year also has an effect on the early formation of one's personality, it also depends on all environmental factors at the time of one's birth, including weather and the pervading mood in the family.

It has already been observed, for instance, that the chance of developing schizophrenia is higher if one was born during winter or early spring, with a ten percent difference between february and august. It is also known that schizophrenic symptoms are generally worse in winter than in summer. This former correlation, however, is also likely partly caused by the last three months of pregnancy, as the brain of the fetus activates at nearly six months after conception.

There is a possibility that, through the passage of observation from one generation to the next, correlations were observed between the month of one's birth and personality, although this is no excuse for proper scientific method. These may later have formed a core of truth in some astrologies, but since astrology is based mostly on the significance one would be inclined to attribute to zodiacal signs, most of it is still likely to be fantasy.

Instead, it would be interesting if, as an extension of earlier investigations which correlated schizophrenia with birthdays in winter or early spring, researchers would investigate further links between the month of one's birth and personality. The correlation already said above, for instance, could mean that people born in winter or spring are generally more fantastic or more nervous than other people. By that logic, people born in summer or early fall would generally be more practical and cheerful.

It would be interesting to see a scientific replacement for astrology, although the correlations actually found would likely be less dramatic than those affirmed by astrologies. Furthermore, the correlations would likely be less specific for each month, instead being spread out over many months.

Imagine how it must be like for a newborn to suddenly emerge from the womb and begin to experience its environment. Only months before, there had been nothing but a great blackness. You can remember absolutely no past; nothing whatsoever. There was nothing. There has never been anything. You are unable to form a single concrete thought; all you can do is to experience the world in its overwhelming intensity. Everything is new, alien, impossible. You are constantly learning. Every single sensation or movement is a new lesson to understand. Your mind is filling itself with qualia like a black hole. Life suddenly explodes from a narrow space in a mother's womb into an entire, infinite universe. In this time, how can it be otherwise than that the nature of our first experiences impacts our personality for the rest of our lives?