(XI.) HISTORY - Into the Twentieth Century

Reagan became noted as being one of the few governors to actually sign astrology legislation when on August 30, 1974, as Governor of California, he signed legislation which became Chapter 583, and added Section 50027 to the government Code, relating to astrology. The legislation removed Sacramento licensed astrologers from the category of fortune tellers, thus allowing them to practice their trade for compensation.

According to Reagan's former Chief of Staff Donald Regan, the prime source of astrological direction inside the Reagan White House was being provided by San Francisco star gazer Joan Quigley. In his book "For the Record" Regan stated that Nancy Reagan planned almost all presidential travel, press conferences, and even the president's cancer surgery based on information she was receiving from Quigley.

Regan made his stunning revelation concerning the use of astrology after being forced out of the White House by Nancy Reagan. It was a revelation that upset many inside and outside the White House including another prominent astrologer Jean Dixon.

Dixon, an astrologer who became nationally prominent for her prediction of the assassination of President John Kennedy, was once an astrological advisor to Reagan.

Dixon had gained the favor of the future president by predicting in 1962 that he would become Governor of California, and later President of the United States. "She was always gung ho for me to be President," said Reagan.

She was dropped by Nancy in 1976, when she stated that Reagan would not gain the presidency that year. Nancy figured that Dixon had lost her powers of prediction. Joan Quigley was quickly picked up by Nancy as the next seer, even though she too predicted that 1976 would not be the year for Reagan.

In 1988, when the astrology scandal broke at the White House, Dixon sent Reagan a copy of an New York Times editorial she had just written supporting the use of astrology. "I would shoot a few people if I were you for talking," she wrote in an attacked handwritten note to the President.