To begin with, it is important to describe exactly what a cosmic alignment is. An alignment is, in itself, the static orientation of an object in relation to others or, to quote The Free Dictionary, the “arrangement [of objects] in a straight line.”

A cosmic alignment, such as the one discussed in our curriculum, is known as ‘Syzygy,’ a word which takes root in late Latin and which is used, in astronomy, to denote the alignment of three or more celestial bodies in the same gravitational system, along one line.

Now, to talk of whether a syzygy – when taken in terms of our subject – could affect the earth. For a major disaster to happen, the planets would have to be in the exact, same line. This, however, is impossible, in terms of view from the sun – the disparity in the axial tilts, or obliquity, of various planets does not allow them, as a rule, to position themselves in a way that the solar system can, as a whole, be considered an instance of the spin rotatory motion, where every planet is a ‘particle’ through which an imaginary ‘axis of rotation’ can pass.

To state Dr. Donald Luttermoser of the East Tennessee State University,

“It is impossible for all the planets to form a straight line out from the Sun because each planetary orbit is tilted slightly with respect to the Earth's orbit.”

What can happen – and does happen – then, is that the planets position themselves in the same ‘quadrant’ or, in other words, be in a range of 90-95° of each other. This actually occurs once about every 200 years which, in itself, is a proof that the earth is safe – if such an ‘alignment’ could cause disaster, it would have been caused, by now. We have an instance to take heed of in the case of John Gribbin, author of The Jupiter Effect, who predicted that the world would come to an end 1983, due to cosmic alignment. One needs no citation to state that it did not!

Now, one ‘reason to fear’ is, according to many people, gravity. Could a planetary ‘alignment’ mean enough force of gravity, to rip the earth into two? Let us work with our calculators. The strength of gravity of a body, on another body, depends upon the square of distance between both. If we work through our numbers, we find that the total pull of the planets, on the earth, is 0.017. This is not even two percent of the moon’s pull. Is that piece of information important, you ask? It is.

It is known that the moon’s pull on the earth fluctuates by 25% every orbit. In other words, due to the comparatively smaller distance between the two bodies, the gravitational pull of the moon, on the earth, can change to the point where it is ten times greater than that of all the other planets combined -- and even than it is only 0.000003 times of the earth’s! In other words, the only effect the ‘fearsome’ forces of gravity can have on the earth is to… maybe pull a few tides.

Now, let us take the example of any on year, in history – say, 2000. We see that multiple planter conjunctions – and not alignments, as they are wrongly called – occur roughly ten times. Dr. Luttermoser takes these apart, one by one, to answer queries that time has already answered:

“Did the Earth tilt over? No. Did tidal forces trigger earthquakes? No. Did the polar ice caps melt? No. Were you even able to see the conjunctions? Not really.”

Is there really any room for discussion, after all these facts have been discussed? Really, earthlings, we are safe, so let’s go and get some popcorn!