What did he find?

Gauquelin’s research focused above all on astrological features related to life professional achievements.  He assessed various astrological features in the natal charts of eminent professionals to see whether they shared any particular astrological factor.

He did not find anything in terms of signs of the zodiac or aspects.  However, he did find significant differences in the distribution of the planets, in particular he found a significantly higher frequency of Mars just above the horizon or just past the zenith in the natal chart of 576 members of the French Academy of Medicine (1920-39) than what would be expected by chance.

Being acutely aware that a finding is valid in science only if it can be replicated, he  repeated the analysis using the 508 charts of well-known doctors listed in Dictionnaire National des Contemporains (1936-9).  Once again, the position of Mars stood out.

He then went on to study the positions of the planets of other professionals. 

He found that when he calculated the distribution of the planets in subjects chosen at random, the distribution was homogeneous.  However, when they selected subjects who had all excelled in a particular profession the situation changed.  Major deviations repeatedly appeared and statistical calculations showed that the probability of the deviations was due to chance was very small, to use a statistical term the deviations were

“highly significant”.

His findings related to sports champions are the most famous and are the ones that are illustrated on the cover of his book “Cosmic influences on human behavior”

The book cover:  Mars and sports champions

Here is how to interpret the figure on the cover of the book:

The circle shows the ideal distribution of the position of Mars in a natal chart.  The broken line shows the distribution of the position of Mars in the charts of 717 undistinguished sportsmen, the unbroken line shows the distribution of the position of Mars in the charts of sports champions.  You will notice that Mars was very frequently placed just above the horizon where the sun rises (“rising”) or just after culmination i.e. where the sun is at noon, in the highest part of the sky called zenith (“culminating”).  If you look once more at the chart of Mohammad Ali, who was a world champion in boxing, you will see that his Mars was just after the culmination. 

In other words, the placement of Mars in the charts of sports champions is in the three  sectors of the sky just above the horizon or in the three sectors just after the zenith much more frequently than what would be expected by chance.