MALORRUS CHARTS THE STARS ON KFOX

Ronald Reagan will leave office before the end of his term. George Bush will win the next presidential election. Someone will discover a cure for AIDS by 1990. There will be a planet-threatening world war in the mid-1990s, but peace on Earth without countries as we know them by the turn of the century. And the St. Louis Cardinals will defeat the New York Yankees in six games in this year’s World Series.

Such is the somewhat daffy but never dull world according to Farley Malorrus and his “astrological, metaphysical radio show,” broadcast weekdays at noon on KFOX-FM (93.5). Whenever he’s not advising his call-in listeners on their love lives and careers, Malorrus, 38, is explaining how the movement and vibrations of the planetary bodies in the sky herald what may soon befall us all.

And much of the time his predictions about sports and world events come true. By examining the astrology charts of the star players, Malorrus correctly picked the Mets in last year’s World Series and the Lakers in this year’s basketball playoffs months before their respective seasons ended.

Most dramatically, when he realized that six planetary bodies were aligned in Aquarius back in January, 1986, Malorrus predicted that the world was subject to a major technological catastrophe within the next 48 hours. Two days later, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch.

“I’m a scientist more than an astrologer,” Malorrus says. “While other astrologers on the radio give you a reading based on only your sun sign, I also use the planets and your rising sign. Astrology as I do it is the science of human relationships as correlated by the movement of the planets through time. I don’t just give advice and make predictions, I teach astrology on the radio.”

Indeed, Malorrus and a great number of the people who call in to talk to him often speak astrology as if it were a foreign language. The “Astrology Hour” is peppered with strange astrological terms such as “Saturn trines Jupiter, conjuncts, midheaven, 12th house, 9 degree Capricorn rising, Mercury retrograde.”

To a novice listener, the program, at least at first, can be complicated and intimidating. But Malorrus believes that this sometimes technical approach is more accurate and thorough than the astrology most people encounter in a newspaper every day.

“The sun-sign column in the daily newspapers appeals to people who are astrologically lazy,” Malorrus says. “And deep down, everyone knows astrology is legitimate because everyone wants to hear about their sign. But eventually the intuitive mind gets to you and you decide that you are more than just two lines in the newspaper. My job is to tease people into listening to the show and learning more about astrology.”

Malorrus encourages listeners to support his program by joining his astrology club. For $15, they receive a computerized astrological birth chart, explanations about their life and personality based on that chart, an astrology study guide and the privilege of calling him on the radio for astrological advice whenever they like.

Though he prefers to teach metaphysical topics such as reincarnation, vegetarianism, nuclear disarmament and mankind’s destiny, most callers simply want to know about their chances for love, power, sex and money. Malorrus asks them their sun and rising signs, pictures their chart in his mind and good-naturedly informs them what he sees ahead for them--that the next two weeks look “hot for romance” or that now would not be a good time to go gambling in Las Vegas.

“The rest of the world is caught up in their own obsessions, and so many people who are into astrology use it for that too,” Malorrus says. “I sometimes get tired of trying to help people with their obsessions. I prefer that the issues were more spiritual, holistic concerns. But I still get immense pleasure helping people see how and why they are what they are.”

Malorrus, who has been practicing astrology on local radio since 1981, says more than a million people have heard his show on KFOX since it began in 1984 and 35,000 novice astrologers utilize his astrological charts and services, which he sells out of his West Los Angeles apartment with the help of one assistant, six computers and five birds for good luck.

He produces the radio show entirely on his own, buying time from KFOX for between $300 and $500 an hour and then selling advertising and his own astrological services to keep himself in the black.

Malorrus, who also appears briefly Friday mornings on KROQ-FM (106.7), is not the only radio astrologer in this city--Howard Sheldon has a call-in astrology show Mondays at 1 a.m. on KIEV-AM (870), for example--but Malorrus is the only one who regularly expounds on world politics and the impending Armageddon he finds written in the sky.

In recent weeks, listeners to the “Astrology Hour” have found the always enthusiastic and aggressive Malorrus--a Leo, he is never shy to admit--literally obsessed with the future of mankind and the possibility of a planetary holocaust.

He says that just as the convergence of planetary bodies in Aquarius foretold the space shuttle tragedy, the reconvergence of several planets in Aquarius for long stretches of the 1990s portends an inevitable and dangerous war. Aquarius, he explains, is the sign that governs technology for humanity’s sake and thus governs accidents when that technology, such as nuclear weapons, is designed to destroy humanity.

Malorrus contends the same planetary configuration that oversaw Hitler’s attempt to conquer Europe and the United States’ heaviest involvement in Vietnam will repeat itself during the ‘90s reinforces his conviction that a world war is inevitable.

So Malorrus, who would some day like to be a political adviser, has been using much of his time on the radio sounding something like a modern-day prophet of doom. He has tried to dispense with much of the usual talk about personal obsessions and, in shocking, urgent, even sobering terms, has been conducting lively radio seminars on planetary karma, ancient extinct civilizations, the revolts for freedom brewing across Asia and the absolute necessity for immediate nuclear disarmament.

“I don’t like to be somebody that predicts war, but I feel it is my duty as an astrologer to inform people of the possibilities,” Malorrus says. “I am a messenger who is helping to prepare people for vast changes--to enlighten people that things are not going to stay the same. Drastic changes are imminent.”

Malorrus believes that those changes will include a more widespread acceptance of astrology and its power to guide and enlighten. But much of the world is still wary. Astronomy guru Carl Sagan, for example, scoffs at astrology. And a recent scientific study concluded that a group of practicing astrologers (Malorrus was not among them) were no more accurate at predicting a person’s basic personality traits after 20 hours of studying an astrological birth chart than they were by simply guessing about a person off the top of their heads.

But Malorrus makes no apologies for his chosen profession. He says he too was once a skeptic who worked pushing paper in his parents’ business. During a severe personal crisis in 1976 that included a divorce, a death in the family and a bleeding stomach ulcer, he walked into a metaphysical book store and, from just his birthdate, an astrologer zeroed in exactly on all his troubles. Malorrus was immediately converted and has spent his time ever since studying and spreading the message in the stars.

He isn’t concerned that many people doubt there is a message to be found there.

“I wasn’t put on this planet to debate skeptics,” Malorrus says. “I can’t teach anyone unless they want to listen. All throughout history people said man can’t fly, man can’t fly. And then man went ahead and flew through the air. Eventually all things and opinions change. I’m here to be the catalyst for the acceptance of this knowledge whenever people are ready for it.”