Wednesday, July 18, 2012 2:18 pm

CHICAGO, July 18 -- An astrologer who has analyzed outcomes in U.S. Presidential elections dating to 1880 likes the way things are celestially lining up for incumbent President Barak Obama in November.

"The race should be close but the odds srongly favor the President," says Nina Gryphon, 31, an internationally known astrologer, investor and corporate attorney who works with high tech industry clients in Chicago.

Gryphon has a BA,MA and JD law degree from Stanford University and uses astrology to help clients find favorable times for business and investing.  She recently completed a mundane research study that p;ointed to winners in the last 32 U.S. Presidential elections with uncanny accuracy,

The predictive method used in the study dates to antiquity.

"At its core, the technique and rules were first set down in writing by ancient Sumerians four millenia ago and probably date back much farther than that," she said.

In the current era, the researcher interpreted horoscopes created for the exact moment the sun entered the astrological sign of Aries in the nation's capital during election years.  In the ancient world, similar charts were used to predict the fortunes of kings in power and those who might challenge or threaten the throne.

"The ancients thought of the Spring Equinox (when the sun arrives at zero Aries) as the yearly anniversary of the creation of the universe.  It was viewed as the first moment of existence containing the seeds of the future unfolding through time.

"Persians today still celebrate this day as Nowruz, the New Year," she explained.

"So the theory has a respectable pedigree and seemed worthy of examination," she said.

In her study of U.S. elections Gryphon applied specific traditional rules regarding the placement of planets within the zero Aries horoscope wheel.  Some planetary influences were identified with the incumbent or the incumbent's political party and others with the challenger.

"The planets of the winning party were found to have a connection with other strongly placed planets whereas the losing party's planets were either not doing anything or were being actively harmed by other planets.  This is extremely basic astrology," she said.

Still, initially, the researcher was only able to successfully predict the outcome about 80 percent of the time.

"It was clear I wasn't seeing the whole picture but over time the rules pertaining to the remaining 20 percent of the horoscopes gradually began to reveal themselves.

"Given a random horoscope from my sample I'm now able to correctly predict the outcome 90 to 95 percent of the time. Any lack of accuracy I attribute to operator error," she said.

Gryphon says the process correctly called President Obama's 2008 victory and, more recently, Francois Hollande's win over Nicolas Sarkozy in France. Additional tests of the concept are needed, she believes.

An interview with Gryphon can be read on the www.astrologynewsservice.com website.