A highly simplified and dumbed down alternative to astrology involves the assignment of arbitrary and mystical significance to some phase of our moon, usually the full moon, while ignoring everything else in the sky.  Now, whether the moon is full or not is unrelated to the moon's orbit. A full moon is neither unusually close to or unusually far from the earth, unless the time of the full moon happens accidentally to correspond to such points on the moon's elliptical orbit around our home planet.

Claims vary widely and wildly. More babies are born when the moon is full. More violent crimes are committed when the moon is full. More traffic accidents take place when the moon is full. Mental patents are more excitable when the moon is full. Women behave more unpredictably when the moon is full. Inmates of prisons have more tendency to riot when the moon is full. And so on, and on, and on. But all such claims are easy to investigate, just by examining readily available statistics. And all such claims are easily demonstrated as false. It is remarkable that, according to the news media, the full moon is the sole and only astronomical phenomenon that the average person is even remotely aware of, which is why every time there is a full moon, the media make some kind of totally nonsensical claim about it... it's a Supermoon (a term invented by an astrologer!), or a Blue Moon, or the very, very special (insert arbitrary name here) Moon.

``The Moon was full and nothing happened!" is not a very newsworthy claim, but it is invariably accurate. Subjective validation is the main perceptual flaw at work. When the moon is full, people notice things (anything) because they expect some things to be different somehow, some way. When precisely the same things happen with the moon not full, nobody cares or notices or remembers. Here is a good summary of many relevant studies.

Almost all ancient societies (circa 3000 years ago and before) used lunar calendars. In these cultures it was vital to spot the very earliest new moon, the official start of the next month. Various world religions sometimes still have holidays that begin on the first day of the lunar month, rather than on any given calendar month day.  The full moon was not significant in such survivals from the ancient world.

Another highly dumbed down and moronically oversimplified rip-off of astrology is the pseudoscience of biorhythms. Since it is almost forgotten today, I don't plan to discuss it, but it steals the primary idea from astrology that ``magical rhythms" begin at birth (not conception or somewhere in between) and continue unbroken throughout life, so that if you know where you are in the three main wave patterns (up or down or at zero) you can predict when you are going to have a ``good day." Big deal. But it was popular enough back in the day for huge numbers of calculational aids to be made and sold! Another sometimes encountered pseudoscience depending on your birthday and even your name, with a bit of meaningless arithmetic thrown in, is numerology.

One of the most remarkable and characteristic features of pseudoscience is the crossover. Two totally unrelated pseudosciences will be merged into one. Here's a lovely example where two completely unrelated brands of pseudoscience, fortune telling with numerology, and ``healing" with crystals, are mishmashed together. Of course it's just as easy to mash up astrology and crystals.