Regan Lashes Back at President Over Ouster : White House Clarifies Role of Astrology

WASHINGTON — President Reagan sought again Monday to dispel suggestions that astrology influences his activities in the White House, saying that he does not allow horoscopes to guide his schedule.

When asked whether he is continuing to allow the forecasts, based on the movements of celestial bodies, to determine when presidential trips and events occur, he said: “I can’t because I never did.”

However, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater later clarified Reagan’s response, saying that the President misunderstood the question and meant only to reaffirm his statement last week that astrology played no role in his policy decisions.

Fitzwater said that First Lady Nancy Reagan, who reportedly has consulted with an astrologer on the President’s schedule, has a proper role in arranging his activities and would continue to do so.

“She certainly has every right to consult an astrologer,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with it. I object to the implication it is wrong and therefore has to be discontinued,” Fitzwater said.

Reagan found himself responding for the second week to questions about astrology in the wake of revelations by former Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan that Mrs. Reagan consulted regularly with an astrologer before approving a wide variety of presidential activities.

‘Favorable Alignment’

“Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise,” Regan wrote in his book, “For the Record,” which was released Monday.

Mrs. Reagan, described by Fitzwater as “very upset” about Regan’s criticism of her, was disturbed that “anyone would try to exploit her concerns for her husband’s safety and welfare.”

In a statement released by her spokeswoman, Elaine Crispen, Mrs. Reagan said: “I was taken aback by the vengefulness of the attack. It’s come through to me that Don Regan doesn’t really like me.” Mrs. Reagan reportedly was instrumental in forcing Regan to resign in February, 1987.

Assassination Attempt

Fitzwater said that Mrs. Reagan reached out to the astrologer, identified by Time magazine as Joan Quigley, in the wake of the assassination attempt on the President on March 30, 1981.

“She reached out to friends, a minister, family and a friend who advises on astrology,” the White House spokesman said.

“She was scared to death. I doubt that anyone realizes how traumatic March 30 was for her,” Crispen said.

Reagan, who prefaced his remark on the book by saying that “you asked for it,” made no other comment in public on the subject of astrology. He was responding to a shouted question from a reporter at the close of a ceremony in the Rose Garden honoring small business enterprises.

‘Bunch of Falsehoods’

Later, he was quoted as describing the accounts in Regan’s book as “a bunch of falsehoods.”

“I’ll be damned if I’ll just stand by and let them railroad my wife,” he told syndicated columnist Carl Rowan, who interviewed Reagan at lunch. Rowan reported on the visit in a television interview.

Crispen said in an interview with The Times that she was sure that Mrs. Reagan’s consultations with the astrologer had “tapered off,” and said that “she hasn’t talked to this person in the last couple of months,” although “she may continue to talk to her.”

“It doesn’t control their lives,” she said.