Astrology in one word

Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century,^[1] that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications.^[7] Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the Hindus, Chinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamic world, and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person’s personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.^[8]: 83

Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition and was common in academic circles, often in close relation with astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine.^[9] It was present in political circles and is mentioned in various works of literature, from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and Calderón de la Barca. During the Enlightenment, however, astrology lost its status as an area of legitimate scholarly pursuit.^[10][11] Following the end of the 19th century and the wide-scale adoption of the scientific method, researchers have successfully challenged astrology on both theoretical^{[12]: 249 [13]} and experimental grounds,^[14][15] and have shown it to have no scientific validity or explanatory power.^[8] Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing in the western world, and common belief in it largely declined, until a continuing resurgence starting in the 1960s.^[16] In India, belief in astrology is long-standing, widespread and continuing.

Etymology

The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia,^[17] which derives from the Greek ἀστρολογία—from ἄστρον astron («star») and -λογία -logia, («study of»—»account of the stars»). The word entered the English language via Latin and medieval French, and its use overlapped considerably with that of astronomy (derived from the Latin astronomia). By the 17th century, astronomy became established as the scientific term, with astrology referring to divinations and schemes for predicting human affairs.^[18]

History

Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, and Maya developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. A form of astrology was practised in the Old Babylonian period of Mesopotamia, c. 1800 BCE.^[19][7] Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa is one of earliest known Hindu texts on astronomy and astrology (Jyotisha). The text is dated between 1400 BCE to final centuries BCE by various scholars according to astronomical and linguistic evidences. Chinese astrology was elaborated in the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE). Hellenistic astrology after 332 BCE mixed Babylonian astrology with Egyptian Decanic astrology in Alexandria, creating horoscopic astrology. Alexander the Great’s conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread to Ancient Greece and Rome. In Rome, astrology was associated with «Chaldean wisdom». After the conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe and translated into Latin. Major astronomers including Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in the works of poets such as Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer, and of playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.

Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition. It was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine.^[9] At the end of the 17th century, new scientific concepts in astronomy and physics (such as heliocentrism and Newtonian mechanics) called astrology into question. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined.^[16]

Ancient world

Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky.^{[20]: 2, 3} Early evidence for humans making conscious attempts to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles, appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that lunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago.^[21]: 81ff This was a first step towards recording the Moon’s influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organising a communal calendar.^[21] Farmers addressed agricultural needs with increasing knowledge of the constellations that appear in the different seasons—and used the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities.^[22] By the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with heliacal risings of the stars.^[23]

Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa is thought to have been compiled in Babylon around 1700 BCE.^[24] A scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash (c. 2144 – 2124 BCE). This describes how the gods revealed to him in a dream the constellations that would be most favourable for the planned construction of a temple.^[25] However, there is controversy about whether these were genuinely recorded at the time or merely ascribed to ancient rulers by posterity. The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records of the first dynasty of Mesopotamia (1950–1651 BCE). This astrology had some parallels with Hellenistic Greek (western) astrology, including the zodiac, a norming point near 9 degrees in Aries, the trine aspect, planetary exaltations, and the dodekatemoria (the twelve divisions of 30 degrees each).^[26] The Babylonians viewed celestial events as possible signs rather than as causes of physical events.^[26]

The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE) and flourished during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE), during which all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese culture – the Yin-Yang philosophy, theory of the five elements, Heaven and Earth, Confucian morality – were brought together to formalise the philosophical principles of Chinese medicine and divination, astrology, and alchemy.^{[27]: 3, 4}

The ancient Arabs that inhabitated the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam used to profess a widespread belief in fatalism (ḳadar) alongside a fearful consideration for the sky and the stars, which they held to be ultimately responsible for every phenomena that occurs on Earth and for the destiny of humankind.^[28] Accordingly, they shaped their entire lives in accordance with their interpretations of astral configurations and phenomena.^[28]

Ancient objections

The Hellenistic schools of philosophical skepticism criticized the rationality of astrology. Criticism of astrology by academic skeptics such as Cicero, Carneades, and Favorinus; and Pyrrhonists such as Sextus Empiricus has been preserved.

Carneades argued that belief in fate denies free will and morality; that people born at different times can all die in the same accident or battle; and that contrary to uniform influences from the stars, tribes and cultures are all different.^[29]

Cicero stated the twins objection (that with close birth times, personal outcomes can be very different), later developed by Augustine.^[30] He argued that since the other planets are much more distant from the Earth than the Moon, they could have only very tiny influence compared to the Moon’s.^[31] He also argued that if astrology explains everything about a person’s fate, then it wrongly ignores the visible effect of inherited ability and parenting, changes in health worked by medicine, or the effects of the weather on people.^[32]

Favorinus argued that it was absurd to imagine that stars and planets would affect human bodies in the same way as they affect the tides,^[33] and equally absurd that small motions in the heavens cause large changes in people’s fates.

Sextus Empiricus argued that it was absurd to link human attributes with myths about the signs of the zodiac,^[34] and wrote an entire book, Against the Astrologers, compiling arguments against astrology.

Plotinus, a neoplatonist, argued that since the fixed stars are much more distant than the planets, it is laughable to imagine the planets’ effect on human affairs should depend on their position with respect to the zodiac. He also argues that the interpretation of the moon’s conjunction with a planet as good when the moon is full, but bad when the moon is waning, is clearly wrong, as from the moon’s point of view, half of its surface is always in sunlight; and from the planet’s point of view, waning should be better, as then the planet sees some light from the moon, but when the moon is full to us, it is dark, and therefore bad, on the side facing the planet in question.^[35]

Hellenistic Egypt

In 525 BCE, Egypt was conquered by the Persians. The 1st century BCE Egyptian Dendera Zodiac shares two signs – the Balance and the Scorpion – with Mesopotamian astrology.^[36]

With the occupation by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, Egypt became Hellenistic. The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander after the conquest, becoming the place where Babylonian astrology was mixed with Egyptian Decanic astrology to create Horoscopic astrology. This contained the Babylonian zodiac with its system of planetary exaltations, the triplicities of the signs and the importance of eclipses. It used the Egyptian concept of dividing the zodiac into thirty-six decans of ten degrees each, with an emphasis on the rising decan, and the Greek system of planetary Gods, sign rulership and four elements.^[37] 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis.^[38] The astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy lived in Alexandria. Ptolemy’s work the Tetrabiblos formed the basis of Western astrology, and, «…enjoyed almost the authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of a thousand years or more.»^[39]

Greece and Rome

The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas from Syria, Babylon, Persia and central Asia.^[40] Around 280 BCE, Berossus, a priest of Bel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island of Kos, teaching astrology and Babylonian culture.^[41] By the 1st century BCE, there were two varieties of astrology, one using horoscopes to describe the past, present and future; the other, theurgic, emphasising the soul’s ascent to the stars.^[42] Greek influence played a crucial role in the transmission of astrological theory to Rome.^[43]

The first definite reference to astrology in Rome comes from the orator Cato, who in 160 BCE warned farm overseers against consulting with Chaldeans,^[44] who were described as Babylonian ‘star-gazers’.^[45] Among both Greeks and Romans, Babylonia (also known as Chaldea) became so identified with astrology that ‘Chaldean wisdom’ became synonymous with divination using planets and stars.^[46] The 2nd-century Roman poet and satirist Juvenal complains about the pervasive influence of Chaldeans, saying, «Still more trusted are the Chaldaeans; every word uttered by the astrologer they will believe has come from Hammon’s fountain.»^[47]

One of the first astrologers to bring Hermetic astrology to Rome was Thrasyllus, astrologer to the emperor Tiberius,^[43] the first emperor to have had a court astrologer,^[48] though his predecessor Augustus had used astrology to help legitimise his Imperial rights.^[49]

Medieval world

Hindu

The main texts upon which classical Indian astrology is based are early medieval compilations, notably the Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra, and Sārāvalī by Kalyāṇavarma.
The Horāshastra is a composite work of 71 chapters, of which the first part (chapters 1–51) dates to the 7th to early 8th centuries and the second part (chapters 52–71) to the later 8th century. The Sārāvalī likewise dates to around 800 CE.^[50] English translations of these texts were published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari in 1963 and 1961, respectively.

Islamic

Astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars^[51] following the collapse of Alexandria to the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of the Abbasid empire in the 8th. The second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur (754–775) founded the city of Baghdad to act as a centre of learning, and included in its design a library-translation centre known as Bayt al-Hikma ‘House of Wisdom’, which continued to receive development from his heirs and was to provide a major impetus for Arabic-Persian translations of Hellenistic astrological texts. The early translators included Mashallah, who helped to elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad,^[52] and Sahl ibn Bishr, (a.k.a. Zael), whose texts were directly influential upon later European astrologers such as Guido Bonatti in the 13th century, and William Lilly in the 17th century.^[53] Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during the Latin translations of the 12th century.

Europe

In the seventh century, Isidore of Seville argued in his Etymologiae that astronomy described the movements of the heavens, while astrology had two parts: one was scientific, describing the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars, while the other, making predictions, was theologically erroneous.^[54][55]

The first astrological book published in Europe was the Liber Planetis et Mundi Climatibus («Book of the Planets and Regions of the World»), which appeared between 1010 and 1027 AD, and may have been authored by Gerbert of Aurillac.^[56] Ptolemy’s second century AD Tetrabiblos was translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli in 1138.^[56] The Dominican theologian Thomas Aquinas followed Aristotle in proposing that the stars ruled the imperfect ‘sublunary’ body, while attempting to reconcile astrology with Christianity by stating that God ruled the soul.^[57] The thirteenth century mathematician Campanus of Novara is said to have devised a system of astrological houses that divides the prime vertical into ‘houses’ of equal 30° arcs,^[58] though the system was used earlier in the East.^[59] The thirteenth century astronomer Guido Bonatti wrote a textbook, the Liber Astronomicus, a copy of which King Henry VII of England owned at the end of the fifteenth century.^[58]

In Paradiso, the final part of the Divine Comedy, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri referred «in countless details»^[60] to the astrological planets, though he adapted traditional astrology to suit his Christian viewpoint,^[60] for example using astrological thinking in his prophecies of the reform of Christendom.^[61]

John Gower in the fourteenth century defined astrology as essentially limited to the making of predictions.^[54][62] The influence of the stars was in turn divided into natural astrology, with for example effects on tides and the growth of plants, and judicial astrology, with supposedly predictable effects on people.^[63][64] The fourteenth-century sceptic Nicole Oresme however included astronomy as a part of astrology in his Livre de divinacions.^[65] Oresme argued that current approaches to prediction of events such as plagues, wars, and weather were inappropriate, but that such prediction was a valid field of inquiry. However, he attacked the use of astrology to choose the timing of actions (so-called interrogation and election) as wholly false, and rejected the determination of human action by the stars on grounds of free will.^[65][66] The friar Laurens Pignon (c. 1368–1449)^[67] similarly rejected all forms of divination and determinism, including by the stars, in his 1411 Contre les Devineurs.^[68] This was in opposition to the tradition carried by the Arab astronomer Albumasar (787-886) whose Introductorium in Astronomiam and De Magnis Coniunctionibus argued the view that both individual actions and larger scale history are determined by the stars.^[69]

In the late 15th century, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola forcefully attacked astrology in Disputationes contra Astrologos, arguing that the heavens neither caused, nor heralded earthly events.^[70] His contemporary, Pietro Pomponazzi, a «rationalistic and critical thinker», was much more sanguine about astrology and critical of Pico’s attack.^[71]

Renaissance and Early Modern

Renaissance scholars commonly practised astrology. Gerolamo Cardano cast the horoscope of king Edward VI of England, while John Dee was the personal astrologer to queen Elizabeth I of England. Catherine de Medici paid Michael Nostradamus in 1566 to verify the prediction of the death of her husband, king Henry II of France made by her astrologer Lucus Gauricus. Major astronomers who practised as court astrologers included Tycho Brahe in the royal court of Denmark, Johannes Kepler to the Habsburgs, Galileo Galilei to the Medici, and Giordano Bruno who was burnt at the stake for heresy in Rome in 1600.^[72] The distinction between astrology and astronomy was not entirely clear. Advances in astronomy were often motivated by the desire to improve the accuracy of astrology.^[73] Kepler, for example, was driven by a belief in harmonies between Earthly and celestial affairs, yet he disparaged the activities of most astrologers as «evil-smelling dung».^[74]

Ephemerides with complex astrological calculations, and almanacs interpreting celestial events for use in medicine and for choosing times to plant crops, were popular in Elizabethan England.^[75] In 1597, the English mathematician and physician Thomas Hood made a set of paper instruments that used revolving overlays to help students work out relationships between fixed stars or constellations, the midheaven, and the twelve astrological houses.^[76] Hood’s instruments also illustrated, for pedagogical purposes, the supposed relationships between the signs of the zodiac, the planets, and the parts of the human body adherents believed were governed by the planets and signs.^[76][77] While Hood’s presentation was innovative, his astrological information was largely standard and was taken from Gerard Mercator’s astrological disc made in 1551, or a source used by Mercator.^[78][79]

Enlightenment period and onwards

During the Enlightenment, intellectual sympathy for astrology fell away, leaving only a popular following supported by cheap almanacs.^[10][11] One English almanac compiler, Richard Saunders, followed the spirit of the age by printing a derisive Discourse on the Invalidity of Astrology, while in France Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire of 1697 stated that the subject was puerile.^[10] The Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift ridiculed the Whig political astrologer John Partridge.^[10]

In the second half of the Seventeenth Century, the Society of Astrologers (1647–1684), a trade, educational, and social organization, sought to unite London’s often fractious astrologers in the task of revitalizing Astrology. Following the template of the popular “Feasts of Mathematicians” they endeavored to defend their art in the face of growing religious criticism. The Society hosted banquets, exchanged “instruments and manuscripts”, proposed research projects, and funded the publication of sermons that depicted astrology as a legitimate biblical pursuit for Christians. They commissioned sermons that argued Astrology was divine, Hebraic, and scripturally supported by Bible passages about the Magi and the sons of Seth. According to historian Michelle Pfeffer, “The society’s public relations campaign ultimately failed.” Modern historians have mostly neglected the Society of Astrologers in favor of the still extant Royal Society (1660), even though both organizations initially had some of the same members.^[80]

Astrology saw a popular revival starting in the 19th century, as part of a general revival of spiritualism and—later, New Age philosophy,^{[81]: 239–249} and through the influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes.^{[81]: 259–263} Early in the 20th century the psychiatrist Carl Jung developed some concepts concerning astrology,^[82] which led to the development of psychological astrology.^{[81]: 251–256,  [83][84]}

Principles and practice

Advocates have defined astrology as a symbolic language, an art form, a science, and a method of divination.^[85][86] Though most cultural astrology systems share common roots in ancient philosophies that influenced each other, many use methods that differ from those in the West. These include Hindu astrology (also known as «Indian astrology» and in modern times referred to as «Vedic astrology») and Chinese astrology, both of which have influenced the world’s cultural history.

Western

Western astrology is a form of divination based on the construction of a horoscope for an exact moment, such as a person’s birth.^[87] It uses the tropical zodiac, which is aligned to the equinoctial points.^[88]

Western astrology is founded on the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies such as the Sun, Moon and planets, which are analysed by their movement through signs of the zodiac (twelve spatial divisions of the ecliptic) and by their aspects (based on geometric angles) relative to one another. They are also considered by their placement in houses (twelve spatial divisions of the sky).^[89] Astrology’s modern representation in western popular media is usually reduced to sun sign astrology, which considers only the zodiac sign of the Sun at an individual’s date of birth, and represents only 1/12 of the total chart.^[90]

The horoscope visually expresses the set of relationships for the time and place of the chosen event. These relationships are between the seven ‘planets’, signifying tendencies such as war and love; the twelve signs of the zodiac; and the twelve houses. Each planet is in a particular sign and a particular house at the chosen time, when observed from the chosen place, creating two kinds of relationship.^[91] A third kind is the aspect of each planet to every other planet, where for example two planets 120° apart (in ‘trine’) are in a harmonious relationship, but two planets 90° apart (‘square’) are in a conflicted relationship.^[92][93] Together these relationships and their interpretations are said to form «…the language of the heavens speaking to learned men.»^[91]

Along with tarot divination, astrology is one of the core studies of Western esotericism, and as such has influenced systems of magical belief not only among Western esotericists and Hermeticists, but also belief systems such as Wicca, which have borrowed from or been influenced by the Western esoteric tradition. Tanya Luhrmann has said that «all magicians know something about astrology,» and refers to a table of correspondences in Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance, organised by planet, as an example of the astrological lore studied by magicians.^[94]

Hindu

The earliest Vedic text on astronomy is the Vedanga Jyotisha; Vedic thought later came to include astrology as well.^[95]

Hindu natal astrology originated with Hellenistic astrology by the 3rd century BCE,^{[96]: 361 [97]} though incorporating the Hindu lunar mansions.^[98] The names of the signs (e.g. Greek ‘Krios’ for Aries, Hindi ‘Kriya’), the planets (e.g. Greek ‘Helios’ for Sun, astrological Hindi ‘Heli’), and astrological terms (e.g. Greek ‘apoklima’ and ‘sunaphe’ for declination and planetary conjunction, Hindi ‘apoklima’ and ‘sunapha’ respectively) in Varaha Mihira’s texts are considered conclusive evidence of a Greek origin for Hindu astrology.^[99] The Indian techniques may also have been augmented with some of the Babylonian techniques.^[100]: 231

Chinese and East Asian

Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the three harmonies: heaven, earth and man) and uses concepts such as yin and yang, the Five phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 Earthly Branches, and shichen (時辰 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes). The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly confined to political astrology, the observation of unusual phenomena, identification of portents and the selection of auspicious days for events and decisions.^{[27]: 22, 85, 176}

The constellations of the Zodiac of western Asia and Europe were not used; instead the sky is divided into Three Enclosures (三垣 sān yuán), and Twenty-Eight Mansions (二十八宿 èrshíbā xiù) in twelve Ci (十二次).^[101] The Chinese zodiac of twelve animal signs is said to represent twelve different types of personality. It is based on cycles of years, lunar months, and two-hour periods of the day (the shichen). The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat, and the cycle proceeds through 11 other animal signs: the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.^[102] Complex systems of predicting fate and destiny based on one’s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, such as ziping and Zi Wei Dou Shu (simplified Chinese: 紫微斗数; traditional Chinese: 紫微斗數; pinyin: zǐwēidǒushù) are still used regularly in modern-day Chinese astrology. They do not rely on direct observations of the stars.^[103]

The Korean zodiac is identical to the Chinese one. The Vietnamese zodiac is almost identical to the Chinese, except for second animal being the Water Buffalo instead of the Ox, and the fourth animal the Cat instead of the Rabbit. The Japanese have since 1873 celebrated the beginning of the new year on 1 January as per the Gregorian calendar. The Thai zodiac begins, not at Chinese New Year, but either on the first day of the fifth month in the Thai lunar calendar, or during the Songkran festival (now celebrated every 13–15 April), depending on the purpose of the use.^[104]

Theological viewpoints

Ancient

Augustine (354–430) believed that the determinism of astrology conflicted with the Christian doctrines of man’s free will and responsibility, and God not being the cause of evil,^[105] but he also grounded his opposition philosophically, citing the failure of astrology to explain twins who behave differently although conceived at the same moment and born at approximately the same time.^[106]

Medieval

Some of the practices of astrology were contested on theological grounds by medieval Muslim astronomers such as Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and Avicenna. They said that the methods of astrologers conflicted with orthodox religious views of Islamic scholars, by suggesting that the Will of God can be known and predicted.^[107] For example, Avicenna’s ‘Refutation against astrology’, Risāla fī ibṭāl aḥkām al-nojūm, argues against the practice of astrology while supporting the principle that planets may act as agents of divine causation. Avicenna considered that the movement of the planets influenced life on earth in a deterministic way, but argued against the possibility of determining the exact influence of the stars.^[108] Essentially, Avicenna did not deny the core dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the extent that precise and fatalistic predictions could be made from it.^[109] Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350), in his Miftah Dar al-SaCadah, also used physical arguments in astronomy to question the practice of judicial astrology.^[110] He recognised that the stars are much larger than the planets, and argued:

And if you astrologers answer that it is precisely because of this distance and smallness that their influences are negligible, then why is it that you claim a great influence for the smallest heavenly body, Mercury? Why is it that you have given an influence to al-Ra’s [the head] and al-Dhanab [the tail], which are two imaginary points [ascending and descending nodes]?^[110]

Modern

Martin Luther denounced astrology in his Table Talk. He asked why twins like Esau and Jacob had two different natures yet were born at the same time. Luther also compared astrologers to those who say their dice will always land on a certain number. Although the dice may roll on the number a couple of times, the predictor is silent for all the times the dice fails to land on that number.^[111]

What is done by God, ought not to be ascribed to the stars. The upright and true Christian religion opposes and confutes all such fables.^[111]

— Martin Luther, Table Talk

The Catechism of the Catholic Church maintains that divination, including predictive astrology, is incompatible with modern Catholic beliefs^[112] such as free will:^[106]

All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to «unveil» the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.^[113]

— Catechism of the Catholic Church

Scientific analysis and criticism

The scientific community rejects astrology as having no explanatory power for describing the universe, and considers it a pseudoscience.^{[114][115][116]: 1350} Scientific testing of astrology has been conducted, and no evidence has been found to support any of the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions.^{[15]: 424 [117][118]} There is no proposed mechanism of action by which the positions and motions of stars and planets could affect people and events on Earth that does not contradict basic and well understood aspects of biology and physics.^{[12]: 249 [13]} Those who have faith in astrology have been characterised by scientists including Bart J. Bok as doing so «…in spite of the fact that there is no verified scientific basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong evidence to the contrary».^[119]

Confirmation bias is a form of cognitive bias, a psychological factor that contributes to belief in astrology.^{[120]: 344,  [121]: 180–181,  [122]: 42–48  [a][123]: 553} Astrology believers tend to selectively remember predictions that turn out to be true, and do not remember those that turn out false. Another, separate, form of confirmation bias also plays a role, where believers often fail to distinguish between messages that demonstrate special ability and those that do not.^{[121]: 180–181} Thus there are two distinct forms of confirmation bias that are under study with respect to astrological belief.^{[121]: 180–181}

Demarcation

Under the criterion of falsifiability, first proposed by the philosopher of science Karl Popper, astrology is a pseudoscience.^[124] Popper regarded astrology as «pseudo-empirical» in that «it appeals to observation and experiment,» but «nevertheless does not come up to scientific standards.»^[125] In contrast to scientific disciplines, astrology has not responded to falsification through experiment.^[126]: 206

In contrast to Popper, the philosopher Thomas Kuhn argued that it was not lack of falsifiability that makes astrology unscientific, but rather that the process and concepts of astrology are non-empirical.^[127]: 401 Kuhn thought that, though astrologers had, historically, made predictions that categorically failed, this in itself does not make astrology unscientific, nor do attempts by astrologers to explain away failures by claiming that creating a horoscope is very difficult. Rather, in Kuhn’s eyes, astrology is not science because it was always more akin to medieval medicine; astrologers followed a sequence of rules and guidelines for a seemingly necessary field with known shortcomings, but they did no research because the fields are not amenable to research,^[128]: 8 and so «they had no puzzles to solve and therefore no science to practise.»^{[127]: 401,  [128]: 8} While an astronomer could correct for failure, an astrologer could not. An astrologer could only explain away failure but could not revise the astrological hypothesis in a meaningful way. As such, to Kuhn, even if the stars could influence the path of humans through life astrology is not scientific.^[128]: 8

The philosopher Paul Thagard asserts that astrology cannot be regarded as falsified in this sense until it has been replaced with a successor. In the case of predicting behaviour, psychology is the alternative.^[5]: 228 To Thagard a further criterion of demarcation of science from pseudoscience is that the state-of-the-art must progress and that the community of researchers should be attempting to compare the current theory to alternatives, and not be «selective in considering confirmations and disconfirmations.»^{[5]: 227–228} Progress is defined here as explaining new phenomena and solving existing problems, yet astrology has failed to progress having only changed little in nearly 2000 years.^{[5]: 228 [129]: 549} To Thagard, astrologers are acting as though engaged in normal science believing that the foundations of astrology were well established despite the «many unsolved problems», and in the face of better alternative theories (psychology). For these reasons Thagard views astrology as pseudoscience.^{[5][129]: 228}

For the philosopher Edward W. James, astrology is irrational not because of the numerous problems with mechanisms and falsification due to experiments, but because an analysis of the astrological literature shows that it is infused with fallacious logic and poor reasoning.^[130]: 34

What if throughout astrological writings we meet little appreciation of coherence, blatant insensitivity to evidence, no sense of a hierarchy of reasons, slight command over the contextual force of critieria, stubborn unwillingness to pursue an argument where it leads, stark naivete concerning the efficacy of explanation and so on? In that case, I think, we are perfectly justified in rejecting astrology as irrational. … Astrology simply fails to meet the multifarious demands of legitimate reasoning.

— Edward W. James^[130]: 34

Effectiveness

Astrology has not demonstrated its effectiveness in controlled studies and has no scientific validity.^{[8]: 85,  [15]} Where it has made falsifiable predictions under controlled conditions, they have been falsified.^[15]: 424 One famous experiment included 28 astrologers who were asked to match over a hundred natal charts to psychological profiles generated by the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) questionnaire.^[131][132] The double-blind experimental protocol used in this study was agreed upon by a group of physicists and a group of astrologers^[15] nominated by the National Council for Geocosmic Research, who advised the experimenters, helped ensure that the test was fair^{[14]: 420,  [132]: 117} and helped draw the central proposition of natal astrology to be tested.^[14]: 419 They also chose 26 out of the 28 astrologers for the tests (two more volunteered afterwards).^[14]: 420 The study, published in Nature in 1985, found that predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing «…clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis.»^[14]

In 1955, the astrologer and psychologist Michel Gauquelin stated that though he had failed to find evidence that supported indicators like zodiacal signs and planetary aspects in astrology, he did find positive correlations between the diurnal positions of some planets and success in professions that astrology traditionally associates with those planets.^[133][134] The best-known of Gauquelin’s findings is based on the positions of Mars in the natal charts of successful athletes and became known as the Mars effect.^[135]: 213 A study conducted by seven French scientists attempted to replicate the claim, but found no statistical evidence.^{[135]: 213–214} They attributed the effect to selective bias on Gauquelin’s part, accusing him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study.^[136]

Geoffrey Dean has suggested that the effect may be caused by self-reporting of birth dates by parents rather than any issue with the study by Gauquelin. The suggestion is that a small subset of the parents may have had changed birth times to be consistent with better astrological charts for a related profession. The number of births under astrologically undesirable conditions was also lower, indicating that parents choose dates and times to suit their beliefs. The sample group was taken from a time where belief in astrology was more common. Gauquelin had failed to find the Mars effect in more recent populations, where a nurse or doctor recorded the birth information.^[132]: 116

Dean, a scientist and former astrologer, and psychologist Ivan Kelly conducted a large scale scientific test that involved more than one hundred cognitive, behavioural, physical, and other variables—but found no support for astrology.^[137][138] Furthermore, a meta-analysis pooled 40 studies that involved 700 astrologers and over 1,000 birth charts. Ten of the tests—which involved 300 participants—had the astrologers pick the correct chart interpretation out of a number of others that were not the astrologically correct chart interpretation (usually three to five others). When date and other obvious clues were removed, no significant results suggested there was any preferred chart.^[138]: 190

Lack of mechanisms and consistency

Testing the validity of astrology can be difficult, because there is no consensus amongst astrologers as to what astrology is or what it can predict.^[8]: 83 Most professional astrologers are paid to predict the future or describe a person’s personality and life, but most horoscopes only make vague untestable statements that can apply to almost anyone.^{[8][122]: 83}

Many astrologers claim that astrology is scientific,^[139] while some have proposed conventional causal agents such as electromagnetism and gravity.^[139] Scientists reject these mechanisms as implausible^[139] since, for example, the magnetic field, when measured from Earth, of a large but distant planet such as Jupiter is far smaller than that produced by ordinary household appliances.^[140]

Western astrology has taken the earth’s axial precession (also called precession of the equinoxes) into account since Ptolemy’s Almagest, so the «first point of Aries», the start of the astrological year, continually moves against the background of the stars.^[141] The tropical zodiac has no connection to the stars, and as long as no claims are made that the constellations themselves are in the associated sign, astrologers avoid the concept that precession seemingly moves the constellations.^[142] Charpak and Broch, noting this, referred to astrology based on the tropical zodiac as being «…empty boxes that have nothing to do with anything and are devoid of any consistency or correspondence with the stars.»^[142] Sole use of the tropical zodiac is inconsistent with references made, by the same astrologers, to the Age of Aquarius, which depends on when the vernal point enters the constellation of Aquarius.^[15]

Astrologers usually have only a small knowledge of astronomy, and often do not take into account basic principles—such as the precession of the equinoxes, which changes the position of the sun with time. They commented on the example of Élizabeth Teissier, who claimed that, «The sun ends up in the same place in the sky on the same date each year», as the basis for claims that two people with the same birthday, but a number of years apart, should be under the same planetary influence. Charpak and Broch noted that, «There is a difference of about twenty-two thousand miles between Earth’s location on any specific date in two successive years», and that thus they should not be under the same influence according to astrology. Over a 40-year period there would be a difference greater than 780,000 miles.^[142]

The general consensus of astronomers and other natural scientists is that astrology is a pseudoscience which carries no predictive capability, with many philosophers of science considering it a «paradigm or prime example of pseudoscience.»^[143] Some scholars in the social sciences have cautioned against categorizing astrology, especially ancient astrology, as «just» a pseudoscience or projecting the distinction backwards into the past.^[144] Thagard, while demarcating it as a pseudoscience, notes that astrology «should be judged as not pseudoscientific in classical or Renaissance times…Only when the historical and social aspects of science are neglected does it become plausible that pseudoscience is an unchanging category.»^[145] Historians of science such as Tamsyn Barton, Roger Beck, Francesca Rochberg, and Wouter J. Hanegraaff argue that such a wholesale description is anachronistic when applied to historical contexts, stressing that astrology was not pseudoscience before the 18th century and the importance of the discipline to the development of medieval science.^{[146][147][144][148][149]} R. J. Hakinson writes in the context of Hellenistic astrology that «the belief in the possibility of [astrology] was, at least some of the time, the result of careful reflection on the nature and structure of the universe.»^[150]

Nicholas Campion, both an astrologer and academic historian of astrology, argues that Indigenous astronomy is largely used as a synonym for astrology in academia, and that modern Indian and Western astrology are better understood as modes of cultural astronomy or ethnoastronomy.^[151] Roy Willis and Patrick Curry draw a distinction between propositional episteme and metaphoric metis in the ancient world, identifying astrology with the latter and noting that the central concern of astrology «is not knowledge (factual, let alone scientific) but wisdom (ethical, spiritual and pragmatic)».^[152] Similarly, historian of science Justin Niermeier-Dohoney writes that astrology was «more than simply a science of prediction using the stars and comprised a vast body of beliefs, knowledge, and practices with the overarching theme of understanding the relationship between humanity and the rest of the cosmos through an interpretation of stellar, solar, lunar, and planetary movement.» Scholars such as Assyriologist Matthew Rutz have begun using the term «astral knowledge» rather than astrology «to better describe a category of beliefs and practices much broader than the term ‘astrology’ can capture.»^[153][154]

Cultural impact

Western politics and society

In the West, political leaders have sometimes consulted astrologers. For example, the British intelligence agency MI5 employed Louis de Wohl as an astrologer after claims surfaced that Adolf Hitler used astrology to time his actions. The War Office was «…interested to know what Hitler’s own astrologers would be telling him from week to week.»^[155] In fact, de Wohl’s predictions were so inaccurate that he was soon labelled a «complete charlatan», and later evidence showed that Hitler considered astrology «complete nonsense».^[156] After John Hinckley’s attempted assassination of US President Ronald Reagan, first lady Nancy Reagan commissioned astrologer Joan Quigley to act as the secret White House astrologer. However, Quigley’s role ended in 1988 when it became public through the memoirs of former chief of staff, Donald Regan.^[157]

There was a boom in interest in astrology in the late 1960s. The sociologist Marcello Truzzi described three levels of involvement of «Astrology-believers» to account for its revived popularity in the face of scientific discrediting. He found that most astrology-believers did not claim it was a scientific explanation with predictive power. Instead, those superficially involved, knowing «next to nothing» about astrology’s ‘mechanics’, read newspaper astrology columns, and could benefit from «tension-management of anxieties» and «a cognitive belief-system that transcends science.»^[158] Those at the second level usually had their horoscopes cast and sought advice and predictions. They were much younger than those at the first level, and could benefit from knowledge of the language of astrology and the resulting ability to belong to a coherent and exclusive group. Those at the third level were highly involved and usually cast horoscopes for themselves. Astrology provided this small minority of astrology-believers with a «meaningful view of their universe and [gave] them an understanding of their place in it.»^[b] This third group took astrology seriously, possibly as an overarching religious worldview (a sacred canopy, in Peter L. Berger’s phrase), whereas the other two groups took it playfully and irreverently.^[158]

In 1953, the sociologist Theodor W. Adorno conducted a study of the astrology column of a Los Angeles newspaper as part of a project examining mass culture in capitalist society.^[159]: 326 Adorno believed that popular astrology, as a device, invariably leads to statements that encouraged conformity—and that astrologers who go against conformity, by discouraging performance at work etc., risk losing their jobs.^[159]: 327 Adorno concluded that astrology is a large-scale manifestation of systematic irrationalism, where individuals are subtly led—through flattery and vague generalisations—to believe that the author of the column is addressing them directly.^[160] Adorno drew a parallel with the phrase opium of the people, by Karl Marx, by commenting, «occultism is the metaphysic of the dopes.»^[159]: 329

A 2005 Gallup poll and a 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that 25% of US adults believe in astrology,^[161][162] while a 2018 Pew survey found a figure of 29%.^[163] According to data released in the National Science Foundation’s 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators study, «Fewer Americans rejected astrology in 2012 than in recent years.»^[164] The NSF study noted that in 2012, «slightly more than half of Americans said that astrology was ‘not at all scientific,’ whereas nearly two-thirds gave this response in 2010. The comparable percentage has not been this low since 1983.»^[164] Astrology apps became popular in the late 2010s, some receiving millions of dollars in Silicon Valley venture capital.^[165]

India and Japan

In India, there is a long-established and widespread belief in astrology. It is commonly used for daily life, particularly in matters concerning marriage and career, and makes extensive use of electional, horary and karmic astrology.^[166][167] Indian politics have also been influenced by astrology.^[168] It is still considered a branch of the Vedanga.^[169][170] In 2001, Indian scientists and politicians debated and critiqued a proposal to use state money to fund research into astrology,^[171] resulting in permission for Indian universities to offer courses in Vedic astrology.^[172]

In February 2011, the Bombay High Court reaffirmed astrology’s standing in India when it dismissed a case that challenged its status as a science.^[173]

In Japan, strong belief in astrology has led to dramatic changes in the fertility rate and the number of abortions in the years of Fire Horse. Adherents believe that women born in hinoeuma years are unmarriageable and bring bad luck to their father or husband. In 1966, the number of babies born in Japan dropped by over 25% as parents tried to avoid the stigma of having a daughter born in the hinoeuma year.^[174][175]

Literature and music

The fourteenth-century English poets John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer both referred to astrology in their works, including Gower’s Confessio Amantis and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.^[176] Chaucer commented explicitly on astrology in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, demonstrating personal knowledge of one area, judicial astrology, with an account of how to find the ascendant or rising sign.^[177]

In the fifteenth century, references to astrology, such as with similes, became «a matter of course» in English literature.^[176]

In the sixteenth century, John Lyly’s 1597 play, The Woman in the Moon, is wholly motivated by astrology,^[178] while Christopher Marlowe makes astrological references in his plays Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine (both c. 1590),^[178] and Sir Philip Sidney refers to astrology at least four times in his romance The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (c. 1580).^[178] Edmund Spenser uses astrology both decoratively and causally in his poetry, revealing «…unmistakably an abiding interest in the art, an interest shared by a large number of his contemporaries.»^[178] George Chapman’s play, Byron’s Conspiracy (1608), similarly uses astrology as a causal mechanism in the drama.^[179] William Shakespeare’s attitude towards astrology is unclear, with contradictory references in plays including King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, and Richard II.^[179] Shakespeare was familiar with astrology and made use of his knowledge of astrology in nearly every play he wrote,^[179] assuming a basic familiarity with the subject in his commercial audience.^[179] Outside theatre, the physician and mystic Robert Fludd practised astrology, as did the quack doctor Simon Forman.^[179] In Elizabethan England, «The usual feeling about astrology … [was] that it is the most useful of the sciences.»^[179]

In seventeenth century Spain, Lope de Vega, with a detailed knowledge of astronomy, wrote plays that ridicule astrology. In his pastoral romance La Arcadia (1598), it leads to absurdity; in his novela Guzman el Bravo (1624), he concludes that the stars were made for man, not man for the stars.^[180] Calderón de la Barca wrote the 1641 comedy Astrologo Fingido (The Pretended Astrologer); the plot was borrowed by the French playwright Thomas Corneille for his 1651 comedy Feint Astrologue.^[181]

The most famous piece of music influenced by astrology is the orchestral suite The Planets. Written by the British composer Gustav Holst (1874–1934), and first performed in 1918, the framework of The Planets is based upon the astrological symbolism of the planets.^[182] Each of the seven movements of the suite is based upon a different planet, though the movements are not in the order of the planets from the Sun. The composer Colin Matthews wrote an eighth movement entitled Pluto, the Renewer, first performed in 2000.^[183] In 1937, another British composer, Constant Lambert, wrote a ballet on astrological themes, called Horoscope.^[184] In 1974, the New Zealand composer Edwin Carr wrote The Twelve Signs: An Astrological Entertainment for orchestra without strings.^[185] Camille Paglia acknowledges astrology as an influence on her work of literary criticism Sexual Personae (1990).^[186]

Astrology features strongly in Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, recipient of the 2013 Man Booker Prize.^[187]

See also

• Astrology and science
• Astrology software
• Barnum effect
• List of astrological traditions, types, and systems
• List of topics characterised as pseudoscience
• Jewish astrology
• Scientific skepticism

Notes

References

Sources

• Barton, Tamsyn (1994). Ancient Astrology. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-11029-7.
• Holden, James Herschel (2006). A History of Horoscopic Astrology (2nd ed.). AFA. ISBN 978-0-86690-463-6.
• Long, A.A. (2005). «6: Astrology: arguments pro and contra». In Barnes, Jonathan; Brunschwig, J. (eds.). Science and Speculation. Studies in Hellenistic theory and practice. Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–191.
• Robbins, Frank E., ed. (1940). Ptolemy Tetrabiblos. Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library). ISBN 978-0-674-99479-9.
• Beck, Roger (2007). A brief history of ancient astrology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. ISBN 978-0-470-77377-2. OCLC 214281257.
• Rochberg, Francesca (10 July 2018). «Astral Sciences of Ancient Mesopotamia». In Keyser, Paul T.; Scarborough, John (eds.). Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World. Oxford University Press. pp. 24–34. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734146.013.62. ISBN 978-0-19-973414-6.
• Ruggles, C. L. N.; Saunders, Nicholas J. (1993). Astronomies and cultures : papers derived from the third «Oxford» International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy, St. Andrews, UK, September 1990. Niwot, Colo.: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 0-87081-319-6. OCLC 28929580.
• Campion, Nicholas (7 July 2014). «Astrology as Cultural Astronomy». Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. New York, NY: Springer New York. pp. 103–116. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_16. ISBN 978-1-4614-6140-1.
• Grim, Patrick (1990). Philosophy of science and the occult. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-0204-5. OCLC 21196067.

Further reading

• Campion, Nicholas (1982). An Introduction to the History of Astrology. ISCWA.
• Campion, Nicholas (2008). A History of Western Astrology. The Ancient World (vol. 1). London Continuum. ISBN 9781441127372.
• Kay, Richard (1994). Dante’s Christian Astrology. Middle Ages Series. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Parker, Derek; Parker, Julia (1983). A history of astrology. Deutsch. ISBN 978-0-233-97576-4.
• Tester, S. J. (1999). A History of Western Astrology. Boydell & Brewer.
• Veenstra, J.R. (1997). Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text and Context of Laurens Pignon’s «Contre les Devineurs» (1411). Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10925-4.
• Wedel, Theodore Otto (1920). The Medieval Attitude Toward Astrology: Particularly in England. Yale University Press.
• Wood, Chauncey (1970). Chaucer and the Country of the Stars: Poetical Uses of Astrological Imagery. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691061726. OCLC 1148223228.

External links

• Digital International Astrology Library (ancient astrological works)
• Biblioastrology (www.biblioastrology.com) (specialised bibliography)
• Paris Observatory
• Astrology – Merriam-Webster

Just when you thought you’d finally figured out what your zodiac sign actually means—like, if you’re a Gemini, you should role-play in the bedroom and stick a tiger eye crystal in your bra—along comes your daily horoscope to perplex you anew. Mars is retrograde in your third house? There’s a supermoon solar eclipse squaring Mercury? Cue panicky flashbacks to 8th grade French class, when you were out sick with mono and missed the entire verb-conjugating lesson. (Je voud-wha?)

Indeed, astrology has a lexicon all its own. While it’s tempting to just skim over the more intimidating words, being able to speak the stars’ language offers some perks: It opens you up to a whole new level of insight about what’s really going on up in space. It allows you to look beyond an astrologer’s interpretation to understand on a deeper level how cosmic events are impacting your life.

Plus, it’ll help you spark some juicy conversations at cocktail parties. (No joke—bring up the concept of a Saturn return next time you’re out for drinks, and just wait for the cringe-inducing stories that follow.) Consider the glossary below your go-to primer for decoding celestial goings-on.

Keep reading for an A-to-Z(odiac) guide for all terms astrology.

Aspect

When two or more planets line up in the sky at certain angles, they’re «aspecting» each other. The planets’ energies are said to mingle, and some believe this affects our experience down here on earth. (The real-life manifestation of «stars aligning,» basically.)

The most common aspects involve a pair of planets. Some of these combos are compatible (think almond butter and bananas), while some are not (almond butter and hot dogs).

Conjunct, Sextile, Trine: If planets meet each other in one of these «soft angles,» the aspect takes a positive, easy spin. For instance, when communication planet Mercury is trine spiritual Neptune, our thoughts and conversations are said to have a dreamy, inspiring vibe.

Square, Quincunx, Opposition: These are the «hard angles,» which bring out the more challenging aspects of the two planets’ blended energies. So when Mercury is square Neptune, your head can be so in the clouds that you, say, accidentally send a gossipy email to your boss, instead of your work wife. (Not that I’m speaking from personal experience or anything….)

Cusp

The zodiac wheel is made up of 12 signs and 12 houses. (More on houses later.) The dividing line between two different signs or houses is known as the «cusp.» So if you were born on the cusp of Cancer and Leo, that means the sun was hovering over that dividing line at the moment you were born. (And your personality is probably a little bit sensitive Cancer and a little bit Leo drama queen.)

Eclipse

A BFD in the astrology world, an eclipse happens when the earth, moon and the sun line up in the sky. These astrological happenings go down a few times a year, and both types are tied to big, dramatic, unexpected changes in our lives.

Solar eclipse: When the moon moves in front of the sun, you’ve got a solar eclipse. Depending on the part of the world you’re in when it happens, you might see the moon blocking out all or part of the sun at the moment of the eclipse. Solar eclipses are the ones people get excited about—they’re generally positive and herald surprise new beginnings, like a promotion or a meet-cute at the farmers’ market.

Lunar eclipse: These happen when the earth moves between the sun and moon, casting a shadow on the moon so it goes dark. Lunar eclipses have a bad rap, as they’re tied to abrupt endings and difficult emotions. But they can also bring much-needed closure to situations that are dragging you down, like «eclipsing» that deadbeat dude out of your life for good, or finally closing the door on a toxic friendship.

Element

The 12 zodiac signs are grouped into four elements: Air, earth, fire, and water. If your natal chart (check yours below) includes many planets in a certain element, you’ll see the qualities of that element show up a lot in your life. Alternatively, if your chart is lacking in an element, you’ll have to work hard to cultivate its presence.

Air sign: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius; intellectual, always on the go, the realm of communication

Earth sign: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn; grounded, practical, the realm of material things

Fire sign: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius; passionate, confident, the realm of creation

Water sign: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces; compassionate, sensitive, the realm of emotion

Equinox / Solstice

There are two equinoxes and two solstices every year, each of which ushers in a change in seasons, and mentions of these occurrences tend to pop up often in horoscopes. The winter (December 21) and summer (June 21) solstices are either the longest or shortest days of the year, depending on which hemisphere you’re in. On these days, the sun either reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky. The spring (March 21) and autumn (September 21) equinoxes are when there are equal amounts of sunlight, as the sun is striking the equator.

Ancient civilizations used to throw huge parties on these days, so they’re worth putting on your calendar if you want to revive the tradition and throw a kombucha-fueled rager with your own friends.

House

Along with the 12 signs, the zodiac wheel is also divided up into 12 houses, pie-chart style. Each one represents a specific area of life, and each adds another layer of interpretation to the planet-sign formula.

Here’s how it works: When a planet enters a certain house, it’s said to reflect the energy of that house—and that energy is layered on top of the planet’s own energy, and the energy of the sign it’s in. So if your horoscope says the love planet, Venus, is in sexy Scorpio in your futuristic 11th house, it indicates an opportunity to get hot and heavy (Scorpio) with a romantic interest (Venus) you meet through technology (11th house). Fire up the dating apps!

Here’s what the 12 houses represent, in very simplified terms:

1st house: The self, new beginnings, independence

2nd house: Money, material possessions, day-to-day work tasks

3rd house: Communication, ideas, short-distance travel

4th house: Home, family, emotions

5th house: Creativity, fun, romance

6th house: Health, organization and routines, service

7th house: Relationships (both professional and romantic), contracts, marriage

8th house: Sex, mystery, other people’s money

9th house: Learning, spirituality, long-distance travel

10th house: Achievement, tradition, authority

11th house: Friendships, technology, humanitarianism

12th house: Intuition, the arts, endings

Moon Phases

Every 28 days, the moon cycles through four phases. Astrologers believe that each phase of the moon has its own distinct energy and can impact the way we feel—it’s even thought to affect our dating lives. (If the moon can control the ocean tides, experts say, shouldn’t it also have some impact on our water-based bodies, too?)

New moon: When the moon goes completely dark each month, it’s considered a fresh start. If you’re going to start a project or set intentions for the month ahead, this is a good time to whip out your journal.

Waxing moon: As the moon becomes more and more visible in the sky, its energy is also building. This is thought to be a good time for taking action on the intention you set at the new moon.

Full moon: When the moon is at its biggest and brightest in the sky, it’s harvest time. This is when you can reap the rewards of whatever you’ve been working on and say peace out to what’s not working.

Waning moon: For the last week of the month, the moon fades back to black. Some say this is a good time to embrace JOMO, staying home to recharge, reflect, and ignore your texts.

Natal Chart

Your natal chart is basically a map of the sky at the moment you were born, based on the exact time, place, and date you made your debut. (You can run your chart for free here.) Astrologers believe this blueprint shines a light on your personality and the opportunities and challenges you may face in your life, and it’s a lot more telling than just your sun sign alone. You’ll want to pay extra-special attention to your sun, moon, and rising signs, as these are thought to make up a big part of who you are.

Sun sign: This is the one you typically look at when you’re reading your horoscope, and it’s said to reflect your core essence. This is the sign the sun was in when you were born.

Rising sign: If you were to ask someone else to guess what sign you are, they might pick your rising sign—it represents the traits you project to the world, whether by choice or unconsciously. This is the sign that was on the eastern horizon when you were born, and it’s so important that some astrologers suggest you read your horoscope for your rising sign in addition to your sun sign.

Moon sign: Your moon sign represents your inner life and emotions, the side of yourself that you don’t necessarily show other people. It’s the sign the moon was in when you were born.

Retrograde

You know when you’re stopped at a traffic light, the car next to you starts creeping forward, and you feel like you’re suddenly going in reverse? That’s essentially what’s happening when a planet is in retrograde: The earth is orbiting past the planet at a faster pace than that planet is moving, so the other planet appears to be moving backward. It’s often associated with things going haywire—AKA the dreaded Mercury retrograde—but you can also look at retrograde periods as an opportunity to slow down and troubleshoot the hidden bugs in your life. (Kind of like updating an app on your phone.)

Saturn Return

When Saturn approaches the same point in the sky as it was when you were born, a total shitstorm isn’t far behind—at least, that’s what astrology fanatics think. Saturn return happens sometime between the ages of 27 and 30 and lasts for up to three years, and it’s associated with learning hard lessons so you can move into the next phase of your life as a more evolved human. Oh, and if you’ve already had yours, don’t get too comfy: You’re due for another Saturn return in your late 50s and your late 80s.

Supermoon

This word is thrown around like it’s something special, but supermoons are actually not that rare, happening several times a year. It’s describes when the moon is as close to the earth as it can possibly get, making it look larger than normal.

Transit

Transit happens when a planet is making moves up in the sky, aspecting another planet or moving into a new house or sign. There are usually at least a few transits happening on any given day, which is why we’re all so fascinated by astrology. Because no matter what happens or whether or not you believe in it, it’s never boring.

Feeling anxious about the state of the world? Zodiac memes are here to give you some much-needed moments of levity. Or you could distract yourself by learning about your Human Design, a discipline that’s even more out-there than astrology.

Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs in which knowledge of the relative positions of celestial bodies and related information is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing knowledge about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial events. The word astrology is derived from the Greek αστρολογία, from άστρον (astron, «star») and λόγος (logos, «word»). The -λογία suffix is written in English as -logy, «study» or «discipline.» A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer, or, less often, an astrologist. Historically, the term mathematicus was used to denote a person proficient in astrology, astronomy, and mathematics.^[1]

Although the two fields share a common origin, modern astronomy is entirely distinct from astrology. While astronomy is the scientific study of astronomical objects and phenomena, the practice of astrology is concerned with the correlation between heavenly bodies (and measurements of the celestial sphere) and earthly and human affairs.^[2] Astrology is variously considered by its proponents to be a symbolic language, a form of art, a form of science, or a form of divination.^[3] Critics generally consider astrology to be a pseudoscience or superstition as it has failed empirical tests in controlled studies.^[4]

Beliefs

The core beliefs of astrology were prevalent in most of the ancient world and are epitomized in the Hermetic maxim «as above, so below.» Tycho Brahe used a similar phrase to justify his studies in astrology: suspiciendo despicio, «by looking up I see downward.» Although the belief that events in the heavens are mirrored by those on earth was once generally held in most traditions of astrology around the world, in the West there has historically been a debate among astrologers over the nature of the mechanism behind astrology and whether or not celestial bodies are only signs or portents of events, or if they are actual causes of events through some sort of force or mechanism.

While the connection between celestial mechanics and terrestrial dynamics was explored first by Isaac Newton with his development of a universal theory of gravitation, claims that the gravitational effects of the planets and the stars are what accounts for astrological generalizations are not substantiated by the scientific community, nor are they advocated by most astrologers.

Many of those who practice astrology believe that the positions of certain celestial bodies either influence or correlate with people’s personality traits, important events in their lives, physical characteristics, and to some extent their destiny. Most modern astrologers believe that the cosmos (and especially the solar system) acts as «a single unit,» so that any happening in any part of it inevitably is reflected in every other part. Skeptics dispute these claims, pointing to a lack of concrete evidence of significant influence of this sort.

Most astrological traditions are based on the relative positions and movements of various real or construed celestial bodies and on the construction of celestial patterns as seen at the time and place of the event being studied. These are chiefly the Sun, the Moon, the planets, the stars and the lunar nodes. The calculations performed in casting a horoscope involve arithmetic and simple geometry, which serve to locate the apparent position of heavenly bodies on desired dates and times based on astronomical tables. The frame of reference for such apparent positions is defined by the tropical or sidereal zodiacal signs on one hand, and by the local horizon (Ascendant) and midheaven (Medium Coeli) on the other. This latter (local) frame is typically further divided into the twelve astrological houses.

In past centuries, astrologers often relied on close observation of celestial objects and the charting of their movements. Today astrologers use data drawn up by astronomers, which are transformed to a set of astrological tables, called ephemerides, that show the changing zodiacal positions of the heavenly bodies through time.

Traditions

There are many different traditions of astrology, some of which share similar features due to the transmission of astrological doctrines from one culture to another. Other traditions developed in isolation and hold completely different doctrines, although they too share some similar features due to the fact that they are drawing on similar astronomical sources, i.e. planets, stars, etc.

Listed below are some significant traditions of astrology. They include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Babylonian astrology
• Horoscopic astrology and its specific subsets:
  • Hellenistic astrology
  • Jyotish or Vedic astrology
  • Persian-Arabic astrology
  • Medieval & Renaissance horoscopic astrology
  • Modern Western astrology with its specific subsets:
    • Modern Tropical and sidereal horoscopic astrology
    • Hamburg School of Astrology
      • Uranian astrology, subset of the Hamburg School
        • Cosmobiology
        • Psychological astrology or astropsychology
• Chinese astrology
• Kabbalistic astrology
• Mesoamerican astrology
  • Nahuatl astrology
  • Maya astrology
• Tibetan astrology
• Celtic astrology

Horoscopic Astrology

Horoscopic astrology is a very specific and complex system of astrology that was developed in the Mediterranean region and specifically Hellenistic Egypt sometime around the late second or early first century B.C.E.^[5] This tradition deals largely with astrological charts cast for specific moments in time in order to interpret the inherent meaning underlying the alignment of the planets at that moment based on specific sets of rules and guidelines. One of the defining characteristics of this form of astrology that makes it distinct from other traditions is the computation of the degree of the Eastern horizon rising against the backdrop of the ecliptic at the specific moment under examination, otherwise known as the ascendant. Horoscopic astrology has been the most influential and widespread form of astrology across the world, especially in Africa, India, Europe, and the Middle East, and there are several major traditions of horoscopic astrology including Indian, Hellenistic, Medieval, and most other modern Western traditions of astrology.

The Horoscope

Central to horoscopic astrology and its branches is the calculation of a horoscope or what has recently become known as an astrological chart. This is a diagrammatic representation in two dimensions of the celestial bodies’ apparent positions in the heavens from the vantage of a location on earth at a given time and place. The horoscope of an individual’s birth is called a natal chart—horoscope chart. In ancient Hellenistic astrology the rising sign, or ascendant, demarcated the first celestial house of a horoscope, and the word for the ascendant in Greek was horoskopos. This is the word that the term «horoscope» derives from and in modern times it has come to be used as a general term for an astrological chart as a whole. Other commonly used names for the horoscope/natal chart in English include natus, birth-chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, nativity, cosmogram, vitasphere, soulprint, radical chart, radix, or simply chart, among others.

The Tropical and Sidereal Zodiacs

The path of the sun across the heavens as seen from earth during a full year is called the ecliptic. This, and the nearby band of sky followed by the visible planets, is called the zodiac.

The majority of Western astrologers base their work on the tropical zodiac, which evenly divides the ecliptic into 12 segments of 30 degrees, each with the start of the Zodiac (Aries 0°) being the Sun’s position at the March equinox. The zodiacal signs in this system bear no relation to the constellations of the same name but stay aligned to the months and seasons. The tropical zodiac is used as a historical coordinate system in astronomy.

All Jyotish (Hindu) and a few Western astrologers use the sidereal zodiac, which uses the same evenly divided ecliptic but which approximately stays aligned to the positions of the observable constellations with the same name as the zodiacal signs. The sidereal zodiac is computed from the tropical zodiac by adding an offset called Ayanamsa. This offset changes with the precession of the equinoxes.

Branches of Horoscopic Astrology

Every tradition of horoscopic astrology can be divided into four specific branches which are directed towards specific subjects or used for specific purposes. Often this involves using a unique set of techniques or a different application of the core principles of the system to a different area. Many other subsets and applications of astrology are derived from the four fundamental branches.

There are four major branches of horoscopic astrology:

• Natal astrology—the study of a person’s natal chart in order to gain information about the individual and the individual’s life experience.
• Katarchic astrology—includes both electional and event astrology. The former uses astrology to determine the most auspicious moment to begin an enterprise or undertaking, and the latter to understand everything about an event from the time at which it took place.
• Horary astrology—a system of astrology used to answer a specific question by studying the chart at the moment the question is posed to an astrologer.
• Mundane or world astrology—the application of astrology to world events, including weather, earthquakes, and the rise and fall of empires or religions.

History of Astrology

Origins

The origins of much of astrology that would later develop in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East are found among the ancient Babylonians and their system of celestial omens that began to be compiled around the middle of the second millennium B.C.E. This system of celestial omens later spread from the Babylonians to other areas such as India, China, and Greece, where it merged with pre-existing indigenous forms of astrology. This Babylonian astrology came to Greece initially as early as the middle of the fourth century B.C.E., and then around the late second or early first century B.C.E. after the Alexandrian conquests. This Babylonian astrology was mixed with the Egyptian tradition of Decanic astrology to create Horoscopic astrology. This new form of astrology, which appears to have originated in Alexandrian Egypt, quickly spread across the ancient world into Europe, the Middle East, and India.

Before the Scientific Revolution

From the classical period through the scientific revolution, astrological training played a critical role in advancing astronomical, mathematical, medical, and psychological knowledge. Insofar as the interpretation of supposed astrological influences included the observation and long-term tracking of celestial objects, it was often astrologers who provided the first systematic documentation of the movements of the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars. The differentiation between astronomy and astrology varied from place to place; they were indistinguishable in ancient Babylonia, but separated to a greater degree in ancient Greece. The Greeks saw astronomy and astrology as being separate. This idea became widely accepted around the time of the «Great Astronomers,» Galileo, Kepler, Brahe, and such, most of which practiced both. Even in those times, astrology was often challenged by Hellenistic skeptics, church authorities, and medieval thinkers.

The pattern of astronomical knowledge gained from astrological endeavors has been historically repeated across numerous cultures, from ancient India through the classical Mayan civilization to medieval Europe. Given this historical contribution, astrology has been called a protoscience along with pseudosciences such as alchemy.

Many prominent scientists, such as Nicholas Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler practiced or significantly contributed to astrology.

Effects on World Culture

Astrology has had a profound influence over the past few thousand years on both Western and Eastern cultures. In the middle ages, when even the educated of the time believed in astrology, the system of heavenly spheres and bodies was believed to reflect on the system of knowledge and the world itself below.

Language

“Influenza,” from Medieval Latin influentia meaning “influence,” was so named because doctors once believed epidemics to be caused by unfavorable planetary and stellar influences. The word “disaster» comes from the Latin dis-aster meaning «bad star.» Also, the adjectives «lunatic» (Moon), «mercurial» (Mercury), «martial» (Mars), «jovial» (Jupiter/Jove), and «saturnine» (Saturn) are all words used to describe personal qualities said to resemble or be highly influenced by the astrological characteristics of the planet, some of which are derived from the attributes of the ancient Roman gods they are named after.

Astrology as a Descriptive Language for the Mind

Different astrological traditions are dependent on a particular culture’s prevailing mythology. These varied mythologies naturally reflect the cultures they emerge from. Images from these mythological systems are usually understandable to natives of the culture. Most classicists think that Western astrology is dependent on Greek mythology.

Many writers, notably Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, used astrological symbolism to add subtlety and nuance to the description of their characters’ motivations.^{[6] [7]} An understanding of astrological symbolism is needed to fully appreciate such literature. Some more modern thinkers, notably Carl Jung, believed in its descriptive powers regarding the mind without necessarily subscribing to its predictive claims.^[8] Consequently, some look at astrology as a way of learning about oneself and one’s motivations. Increasingly, psychologists and historians have become interested in Jung’s theory of the fundamentality and indissolubility of archetypes in the human mind and their correlation with the symbols of the horoscope.^[9]

Western Astrology and Alchemy

Alchemy in the Western World and other locations where it was widely practiced was (and in many cases still is) closely allied and intertwined with traditional Babylonian-Greek style astrology; in numerous ways they were built to complement each other in the search for hidden knowledge. Astrology has used the concept of classical elements from antiquity up until the present. Most modern astrologers use the four classical elements extensively, and indeed it is still viewed as a critical part of interpreting the astrological chart. Traditionally, each of the seven planets in the solar system as known to the ancients was associated with, held dominion over, and ruled a certain metal.

The Seven Liberal Arts and Western Astrology

In medieval Europe, a university education was divided into seven distinct areas, each represented by a particular planet and known as the Seven Liberal Arts.

Dante Alighieri speculated that these arts, which grew into the sciences we know today, fit the same structure as the planets. As the arts were seen as operating in ascending order, so were the planets and so, in decreasing order of planetary speed, Grammar was assigned to the quickest moving celestial body (the Moon), Dialectic to Mercury, Rhetoric to Venus, Music to the Sun, Arithmetic to Mars, Geometry to Jupiter and Astronomia to the slowest moving Saturn. After this sequence, wisdom was supposed to have been achieved by the medieval university student.

Astrology and Science

The Modern Era

By the time of Francis Bacon and the scientific revolution, newly emerging scientific disciplines acquired a method of systematic empirical induction validated by experimental observations, which lead to the scientific revolution. At this point, astrology and astronomy began to diverge; astronomy became one of the central sciences while astrology was increasingly viewed by natural scientists as an occult science or superstition. This separation accelerated through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.^[10]

Within the contemporary scientific community, astrology is generally labeled as a pseudoscience and it has been criticized as being unscientific both by scientific bodies and by individual scientists.^[11] In 1975 the American Humanist Association published one of the most widely known modern criticisms of astrology, characterizing those who continue to have faith in the subject as doing so «in spite of the fact that there is no verified scientific basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong evidence to the contrary.»^[12] Astronomer Carl Sagan did not sign the statement, noting that, while he felt astrology lacked validity, he found the statement’s tone authoritarian. He suggested that the lack of a causal mechanism for astrology was relevant but not in itself convincing.^[13]

Although astrology has had no accepted scientific standing for three centuries, it has been the subject of much research among astrologers since the beginning of the twentieth century. In his landmark study of twentieth-century research into natal astrology, vocal astrology critic Geoffrey Dean noted and documented the burgeoning research activity, primarily within the astrological community.^[14]

Claims about Obstacles in Research

Astrologers have argued that there are significant obstacles in the way of carrying out scientific research into astrology today, including funding, lack of background in science and statistics by astrologers, and insufficient expertise in astrology by research scientists to test astrological claims.^[15][16] There are only a handful of journals dealing with scientific research into astrology (i.e. astrological journals directed towards scientific research or scientific journals publishing astrological research). Some astrologers have argued that few practitioners today pursue scientific testing of astrology because they feel that working with clients on a daily basis provides a personal validation for them.^[16]

Some astrologers argue that most studies of astrology do not reflect the nature of astrological practice and that existing experimental methods and research tools are not adequate for studying this complex discipline.^[17] Some astrology proponents claim that the prevailing attitudes and motives of many opponents of astrology introduce conscious or unconscious bias in the formulation of hypotheses to be tested, the conduct of the tests, and the reporting of results.^[18]

Mechanism

Critics claim that a central problem in astrology is the lack of evidence for a scientifically defined mechanism by which celestial objects can supposedly influence terrestrial affairs. However, astrologers claim that a lack of an explanatory mechanism would not scientifically invalidate astrological findings.^[18]

Though physical mechanisms are still among the proposed theories of astrology, few modern astrologers believe in a direct causal relationship between heavenly bodies and earthly events.^[19][16] Some have posited acausal, purely correlative relationships between astrological observations and events, such as the theory of synchronicity proposed by Jung.^[20] Astrophysicist Victor Mansfield suggests that astrology should draw inspiration from quantum physics.^[21] Others have posited a basis in divination. Still others have argued that empirical correlations can stand on their own epistemologically, and do not need the support of any theory or mechanism.^[18] To some observers, these non-mechanistic concepts raise serious questions about the feasibility of validating astrology through scientific testing, and some have gone so far as to reject the applicability of the scientific method to astrology almost entirely.^[18] Some astrologers, on the other hand, believe that astrology is amenable to the scientific method, given sufficiently sophisticated analytical methods, and they cite pilot studies they claim support this view.^[22] Consequently, a number of astrologers have called for continuing studies of astrology based on statistical validation.^[17]

Research Claims and Counter-claims

Several individuals, most notably French psychologist and statistician Michel Gauquelin, claimed to have found correlations between some planetary positions and certain human traits, such as vocations. Gauquelin’s most widely known claim is known as the Mars effect, which is said to demonstrate a correlation between the planet Mars occupying certain positions in the sky more often at the birth of eminent sports champions than at the birth of ordinary people.^[23] The Mars effect has been the subject of studies claiming to refute it, and studies claiming to support and/or expand the original claims, but neither the claims nor the counterclaims have received mainstream scientific notice. ^[24]Nick Kollerstrom, How Ertel Rescued the Gauquelin Effect Correlation 23(1) (2005). Retrieved January 12, 2023. </ref>

Besides the Mars-athletes claims, astrological researchers claim to have found statistical correlations for physical attributes, accidents, personal and mundane events, social trends such as economics, and large geophysical patterns.^[17]

The scientific community, where it has commented, claims that astrology has repeatedly failed to demonstrate its effectiveness in numerous controlled studies. Effect size studies in astrology conclude that the mean accuracy of astrological predictions is no greater than what is expected by chance, and astrology’s perceived performance has disappeared on critical inspection.^[25] In reference to personality tests, astrologers have shown a consistent lack of agreement. One such double-blind study in which astrologers attempted to match birth charts with results of a personality test, which was published in the reputable peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature, claimed to refute astrologers’ assertions that they can solve clients’ personal problems by reading natal charts. The study concluded that astrologers had no special ability to interpret personality from astrological readings.^[26] When testing for cognitive, behavioral, physical, and other variables, one study of astrological «time twins» claimed that human characteristics are not molded by the influence of the sun, moon, and planets at the time of birth.^[25] Skeptics of astrology also suggest that the perceived accuracy of astrological interpretations and descriptions of one’s personality can be accounted for in that we tend to exaggerate positive “accuracies” and overlook whatever does not really fit, especially when vague language is used.^[25] It has also been suggested that the failed tests of researchers who are critical of astrology stem from the testers’ failure to understand astrology and its limitations.^[18]

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Alcock, James E., Jean Burns, and Anthony Freeman (eds.). Psi Wars: Getting to Grips with the Paranormal. Imprint Academic, 2003. ISBN 978-0907845485
• Berlinski, David. The Secrets of the Vaulted Sky: Astrology and the Art of Prediction. Harcourt, 2003. ISBN 0151005273
• Cornelius, Geoffrey. Moment of Astrology. Wessex Astrologer Ltd. 2005, ISBN 1902405110
• Costello, Priscilla. Shakespeare and the Stars: The Hidden Astrological Keys to Understanding the World’s Greatest Playwright. Ibis Press, 2016. ISBN 0892542160
• Curry, Walter Clyde. Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences. Barnes & Noble, 1960. ISBN 978-0048210050
• Dean, Geoffrey A. Recent Advances in Natal Astrology: A Critical Review 1900-1976. Astrological Association, 1977. ASIN B0007C7H3O
• De Vore, Nicholas. Encyclopedia of Astrology. New York: Astrology Classics, 2005. ISBN 1933303093
• Eade, J. C. The Forgotten Sky: A Guide to Astrology in English Literature. Oxford University, 1984. ISBN 0198128134
• Eysenck, Hans Jurgen, and D.K.B. Nias. Astrology: Science or Superstition? Temple Smith, 1982. ISBN 978-0851172149
• Gauquelin, Michel. Cosmic Influences on Human Behavior. Santa Fe: Aurora, 1985. ISBN 094335823X
• Gauquelin, Michel. The Scientific Basis of Astrology. New York: Stein and Day Publishers, 1970. ISBN 0812813502
• Hand, Robert. Horoscope Symbols. Altgen, PA: Schiffer Publications, 1987. ISBN 0914918168
• Jung, Carl G. The Basic Writings of C.G. Jung. Modern Library, 1993. ISBN 978-0679600718
• Kepler, Johannes. The Harmony of the World. American Philosophical Society, 1997. ISBN 0871692090
• Kepler, Johannes. On the More Certain Fundamentals of Astrology. Kessinger Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0766133753
• Newman William R., and Grafton, Anthony, (eds.). Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2006. ISBN 0262640627
• Phillipson, Garry. Astrology in the Year Zero. London: Flare Publications, 2000. ISBN 0953026191
• Pottengen, Mark (ed.). Astrological Research Methods: An Isar Anthology. Los Angeles: International Society for Astrological Research, 1995. ISBN 978-0964636606
• Ptolemy. Tetrabiblos. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1980. ISBN 0674994795
• Rossi, Safron, and Keiron Le Grice (eds.), Jung on Astrology. Routledge, 2017. ISBN 978-1138230736
• Seymour, Percy. Astrology: The Evidence of Science. Penguin, 1991. ISBN 978-0140192261
• Tarnas, Richard Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. New York: Viking, 2006. ISBN 0670032921
• Tester, Jim. A History of Western Astrology. Boydell Press, 1990. ISBN 978-0851154466
• Wedel, Theodore Otto. Astrology in the Middle Ages. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2005. ISBN 048643642X

External links

All links retrieved January 12, 2023.

• Is Astrology a Pseudoscience? Learn Religions
• Astrology and Science
• Astrology Dictionary Astrology Weekly
• Astrology and Chaos Theory Chaos Astrology
• Faculty of Astrological Studies
• School of Traditional Astrology
• Astrology Indianetzone
• Kepler College of Astrological Arts and Sciences
• Hellenistic Astrology Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Astrology in the Year Zero.
• Astrologia
• Astrology: Between Religion and the Empirical by Gustav-Adolf Schoener
• History of Astrology in the Renaissance

‹ The template below (Ast box) is being considered for merging. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›

Astrology Aries • Taurus • Gemini • Cancer • Leo • Virgo • Libra Scorpio • Sagittarius • Capricorn • Aquarius • Pisces Categories of astrology content —————— Expand list for reference —————— Astrology Astrologers Astrological signs History of astrology [×] Astrology magazines Technical factors of astrology Astrological texts Astrology by tradition Astrology by type [×] Astrology images [×] Astrology stubs Quick links: branches Chinese • Decumbiture • Electional • Esoteric • Financial • Hellenistic • Horary • Locational • Mundane • Psychological • Meteorological • Uranian • Vedic Astrology portal Astrology project Astrologers • Astrological organizations Astrological traditions, types, and systems

Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between visible astronomical phenomena and events in the human world. In the West, astrology most often consists of a system of horoscopes that claim to predict aspects of an individual’s personality or life history based on the positions of the sun, moon, and planetary objects at the time of their birth. Many other cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indian, Chinese, and Mayan cultures developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations.

Astrology’s origins in Indo-European cultures trace to the third millennium BCE, with roots in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications.^[1] Through most of its history it was considered a scholarly tradition. It was accepted in political and academic contexts, and its concepts were built into other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine.^[2] At the end of the 17th century, new scientific concepts in astronomy (such as heliocentrism) began to damage the credibility of astrology, which subsequently lost its academic and theoretical standing. Astrology saw a popular revival in the 19th and 20th centuries as part of a general revival of spiritualism and later New Age philosophy, and through the influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes.^[3]

While astrology may bear a superficial resemblance to science, it is a pseudoscience because it makes little attempt to develop solutions to its problems, shows no concern for the evaluation of competing theories, and is selective in considering confirmations and dis-confirmations.^[4][5]

Etymology

The word astrology comes from the Latin astrologia,^[6] deriving from the Greek noun αστρολογία, which combines ἄστρο astro, ‘star, celestial body’ with λογία logia, ‘study of, theory, discourse (about)’.^[7]

Historically, the word star has had a loose definition, by which it can refer to planets or any luminous celestial object.^[8] The notion of it signifying all heavenly bodies is evident in early Babylonian astrology where cuneiform depictions for the determinative MUL (star) present a symbol of stars alongside planetary and other stellar references to indicate deified objects which reside in the heavens.^[a] The word planet (based on the Greek verb πλανάω planaō ‘to wander/stray’), was introduced by the Greeks as a reference to how seven notable ‘stars’ were seen to ‘wander’ through others which remained static in their relationship to each other, with the distinction noted by the terms ἀστέρες ἀπλανεῖς asteres aplaneis ‘fixed stars’, and ἀστέρες πλανῆται asteres planetai, ‘wandering stars’.^[9] Initially, texts such as Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos referred to the planets as ‘the star of Saturn’, ‘the star of Jupiter’, etc., rather than simply ‘Saturn’ or ‘Jupiter’,^[10] but the names became simplified as the word planet assumed astronomical formality over time.^[11]

The seven Classical planets therefore comprise the Sun and Moon along with the solar-system planets that are visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. This remained the standard definition of the word ‘planet’ until the discovery of Uranus in 1781 created a need for revision.^[12] Although the modern IAU definition of planet does not include the Sun and the Moon, astrology retains historical convention in its description of those astronomical bodies, and also generally maintains reference to Pluto as being an astrological planet.^[b]

Core principles

A central principle of astrology is integration within the cosmos.^[13] The individual, Earth, and its environment are viewed as a single organism, all parts of which are correlated with each other.^[14] Cycles of change that are observed in the heavens are therefore said to be reflective (not causative) of similar cycles of change observed on earth and within the individual.^[15] This relationship is expressed in the Hermetic maxim «as above, so below; as below, so above», which postulates symmetry between the individual as a microcosm and the celestial environment as a macrocosm.^[16] Accordingly, the natal horoscope depicts a stylized map of the universe at the time of birth, specifically focussed on the individual at its centre, with the Sun, Moon, and celestial bodies considered to be that individual’s personal planets or stars, which are uniquely relevant to that individual alone.^[17]

At the heart of astrology is the metaphysical principle that mathematical relationships express qualities or ‘tones’ of energy which manifest in numbers, visual angles, shapes and sounds – all connected within a pattern of proportion. Pythagoras first identified that the pitch of a musical note is in proportion to the length of the string that produces it, and that intervals between harmonious sound frequencies form simple numerical ratios.^[18] In a theory known as the Harmony of the Spheres, Pythagoras proposed that the Sun, Moon and planets all emit their own unique hum based on their orbital revolution,^[19] and that the quality of life on Earth reflects the tenor of celestial sounds which are physically imperceptible to the human ear.^[20] Subsequently, Plato described astronomy and music as «twinned» studies of sensual recognition: astronomy for the eyes, music for the ears, and both requiring knowledge of numerical proportions.^[21]

Later philosophers retained the close association between astronomy, optics, music and astrology, including Ptolemy, who wrote influential texts on all these topics.^[22] Alkindi, in the 9th century, developed Ptolemy’s ideas in De Aspectibus which explores many points of relevance to astrology and the use of planetary aspects.^[23] In the 17th century, Kepler, also influenced by arguments in Ptolemy’s Optics and Harmonica,^[24] compiled his Harmonices Mundi (‘Harmony of the World’), which presented his own analysis of optical perceptions, geometrical shapes, musical consonances and planetary harmonies. Kepler regarded this text as the most important work of his career, and the fifth part, concerning the role of planetary harmony in Creation, the crown of it.^[25] His premise was that, as an integral part of Universal Law, mathematical harmony is the key that binds all parts together: one theoretical proposition from his work introduced the minor planetary aspects into astrology; another introduced Kepler’s third law of planetary motion into astronomy.^[26]

Another core principle is exemplified in an astrological maxim used by Francis Bacon in the 17th century: «The last rule (which has always been held by the wiser astrologers) is that there is no fatal necessity in the stars; but that they rather incline than compel».^[27] Bacon advocated an emphasis on what he called «sane astrology» based on the study of subtle influences that «lie concealed in the depths of Physic».^[28] His arguments reflect how astrology has always involved consideration of the psyche,^[13] a more recent expression of which can be found in the writings of Carl Jung and the development of modern psychological astrology.

World traditions

Although most cultural systems of astrology share common roots in ancient philosophies that influenced each other, many have unique methodologies which differ from those developed in the west. The most significant are Hindu astrology (also known as «Indian astrology» and in modern times referred to as «Vedic astrology») and Chinese astrology. Both have yielded great influence upon the world’s cultural history.

Western astrology

Western astrology is largely horoscopic, that is, it is a form of divination based on the construction of a horoscope for an exact moment, such as a person’s birth.^[29] It is founded on the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies such as the Sun, Moon, planets, which are analyzed by their aspects (angles) relative to one another. These are usually considered by their placement in houses (spatial divisions of the sky), and their movement through signs of the zodiac (spatial divisions of the ecliptic). Astrology’s modern representation in western popular media is often reduced to sun sign astrology, which considers only basic relationships of planets to the zodiac sign of the Sun at an individual’s date of birth. The full analysis of the birth chart, as performed by an astrological practitioner, involves much more detailed consideration than this.

Indian and South/West Asian astrology

For more details on this topic, see Hindu astrology.

Indian (or Hindu) astrology uses a different commencement point to its 12-fold division of the zodiac than Western astrology but retains the same names and meanings for the signs and shares many of the same traditional principles. The two methods differ mainly in their focus on sidereal and tropical astrology, with Hindu astrology relying on the sidereal zodiac (which uses an ayanamsa adjustment to account for the gradual precession of the vernal equinox, and so aims to align the zodiac with the constellations), while Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, (which aligns the signs to the points where the Sun’s position on the ecliptic creates the change of seasons).^[30] Hindu astrology also includes several sub-systems of zodiac division, and employs the notion of bandhu: connections that, according to the Vedas link the outer and the inner worlds. This principle is similar to that found in Western and Chinese astrology, in considering the connection between the macrocosm and microcosm.

In India, there is a long-established and widespread belief in astrology. It is commonly used for daily life, particularly in matters concerning marriage and career, and makes extensive use of electional, horary and karmic astrology.^[31][32] It remains considered a branch of Vedic science.^[33][34] In 2001, Indian scientists and politicians debated and critiqued a proposal to use state money to fund research into astrology^[35] resulting in vedic astrology being introduced into the curriculum of Indian universities.^[36] In February 2011, the Bombay High Court reaffirmed astrology’s standing in India when it dismissed a case which had challenged it status as a science.^[37]

The astrology commonly used in Sri Lanka is largely based on Hindu astrology with some modifications to bring it in line with Buddhist teachings. Tibetan astrology also shares many of these components but has also been strongly influenced by Chinese culture and acknowledges a circle of animal signs similar to that of the Chinese zodiac (see below).

Chinese and East-Asian astrology

Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the three harmony, heaven, earth and water) and uses the principles of yin and yang and concepts that are not found in Western astrology, such as the wu xing teachings, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 Earthly Branches, and shichen (時辰 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes).

The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) and flourished during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD), during which all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese culture — the Yin-Yang philosophy, theory of the 5 elements, Heaven and Earth, Confucian morality — were brought together to formalise the philosophical principles of Chinese medicine and divination, astrology and alchemy.^[38]

The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly confined to political astrology, the observation of unusual phenomena, identification of portents and the selection of auspicious days for events and decisions.^[39] The constellations of the Zodiac of western Asia and Europe were not used; instead the sky is divided into Three Enclosures (三垣 sān yuán), and Twenty-eight Mansions (二十八宿 èrshíbā xiù) in twelve Ci (十二次).^[40] The Three Enclosures occupy the area close to the North Celestial Pole, where the stars are visible to northern hemisphere observers all year around. The Twenty-eight Mansions occupy the zodiacal band and find their equivalent in the 28 Lunar mansions of western astrology and the Nakshatra of Indian astrology. Though marked along the zodiac they are defined by the movement of the Moon in a lunar month rather than the Sun in a solar year. The Zhou Bi Suan Jing is an important astronomical text, dating from the Zhou dynasty but completed in the Han dynasty. It presents a complex lunisolar calendar whose focus reflects a long-standing division between mathematical astronomy «li fa» and portent astrology «tian wen».^[41]

The zodiac of twelve animal signs is said to represent twelve different types of personality. This is not derived from divisions of the ecliptic as in Western astrology, but represents annual rather than monthly themes, being based on cycles of years, lunar months, and two-hour periods of the day (the shichen). The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat, and the cycle proceeds through 11 other animals signs: the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.^[42] A complex system of predicting fate and destiny based on one’s birthday, birth season, and birth hours, known as Zi Wei Dou Shu (simplified Chinese: 紫微斗数; traditional Chinese: 紫微斗數; pinyin: zǐwēidǒushù) is also still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology.

The Korean zodiac is identical to the Chinese one. The Vietnamese zodiac is almost identical to Chinese zodiac except that the second animal is the Water Buffalo instead of the Ox, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the Rabbit. The Japanese zodiac includes the Wild Boar instead of the Pig. The Thai zodiac includes a Naga in place of the Dragon and begins, not at Chinese New Year, but at either on the first day of fifth month in Thai lunar calendar, or during the Songkran festival (now celebrated every 13–15 April), depending on the purpose of the use.^[43]

History

Ancient world

Astrology, before its differentiation from astronomy, began when humans started to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles.^[44] Early evidence of this appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show lunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago. These were the first steps towards recording the Moon’s influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organizing a communal calendar.^[45] Agricultural needs were also met by increasing knowledge of constellations, whose appearances change with the seasons, allowing the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities.^[46] By the third millennium BCE, widespread civilizations had developed sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and are believed to have consciously oriented their temples to create alignment with the heliacal risings of the stars.^[47]

There is scattered evidence to suggest that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made during this period. Two, from the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (compiled in Babylon round 1700 BCE) are reported to have been made during the reign of king Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BCE).^[48] Another, showing an early use of electional astrology, is ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash (ca. 2144-2124 BCE). This describes how the gods revealed to him in a dream the constellations that would be most favorable for the planned construction of a temple.^[49] However, there is controversy about whether they were genuinely recorded at the time or merely ascribed to ancient rulers by posterity. The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records of the first dynasty of Mesopotamia (1950-1651 BCE).

Medieval Islamic world

Astrology was taken up enthusiastically by Islamic scholars following the collapse of Alexandria to the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of the Abbasid empire in the 8th. The second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur (754-775) founded the city of Baghdad to act as a centre of learning, and included in its design a library-translation centre known as Bayt al-Hikma ‘Storehouse of Wisdom’, which continued to receive development from his heirs and was to provide a major impetus for Arabic-Persian translations of Hellenistic astrological texts.^[50] The early translators included Mashallah, who helped to elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad,^[51] and Sahl ibn Bishr, (a.k.a Zael), whose texts were directly influential upon later European astrologers such as Guido Bonatti in the 13th century, and William Lilly in the 17th century.^[52] Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during the Latin translations of the 12th century, the effect of which was to help initiate the European Renaissance.

Other important Arabic astrologers include Albumasur and Al Khwarizmi, the Persian mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, who is considered the father of algebra and the algorithm. The Arabs greatly increased the knowledge of astronomical cycles, and many of the star names that remain in common use today, such as Aldebaran, Altair, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Vega retain the legacy of their language.

20th and 21st century

Early in the 20th century, Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, developed sophisticated theories concerning astrology.^[53] These included concepts such as archetypes, the collective unconscious^[54] and with the collaboration of pioneer theoretical physicist (and Nobel laureate), Wolfgang Pauli, synchronicity.^[55] Astrologers like Dane Rudhyar^[56] pursued a similar path to Jung and others such as Liz Greene^[57][58] and Stephen Arroyo^[59] were influenced by the Jungian model leading to the development of psychological astrology.^[60]

In the middle of the 20th century, Alfred Witte and, following him, Reinhold Ebertin pioneered the use of midpoints, called midpoint astrology in horoscopic analysis.^[61] A new kind of locational astrology began in 1957–58, when Donald Bradley published a hand-plotted geographic astrology map. In the 1970s, American astrologer Jim Lewis developed this technique under the name of Astro*Carto*Graphy.^[62] The world map displays lines where the Sun, Moon, planets and other celestial points appear to be on any of the Four Angles (Rising, Setting, MC and IC) at a given moment in time. By comparing these lines with the horoscope, an astrologer attempts to identify the potential in any location.^[63]

Effect on European culture

Belief in astrology holds firm today in many parts of the world: in one poll, 31% of Americans expressed belief in astrology and according to another study 39% considered it scientific.^[64] According to Gallup opinion polls, around 25% of adults in the UK and US accept that astrology or the position of the stars and planets affect people’s lives, whilst other sources report the figure to be much higher.^[65]

Astrology has had an influence on both language and literature. For example, influenza, from medieval Latin influentia ‘influence’, was so named because doctors once believed epidemics to be caused by unfavourable celestial influences.^[66] The word disaster comes from the Greek δυσαστρία, disastria, derived from the negative prefix δυσ-, dis— and αστήρ, aster ‘star’, meaning not-starred or badly-starred.^[67] The adjectives lunatic (Luna/Moon), mercurial (Mercury), venereal (Venus), martial (Mars), jovial (Jupiter/Jove), and saturnine (Saturn) are all used to describe personal qualities thought to be influenced by the astrological characteristics of predominating personal planets.

In literature many writers, such as Chaucer and Shakespeare, used astrological symbolism to add subtlety and nuance to the description of their characters’ motivations.^[68] More recently, Michael Ward has proposed that C.S. Lewis imbued his Chronicles of Narnia with the characteristics and symbols of the seven planets that govern the heavens in medieval astrology.^[69] In 1978, notes from Margaret Mitchell’s library revealed that she had based each character from her classic prize-winning novel, Gone with the Wind (1936), including the central star-crossed lovers, Scarlett (Aries) and Rhett (Leo), around an archetype of the zodiac.^[70] In 2010, a detailed personal horoscope analyzed and illustrated by J.K. Rowling at the time she was writing her first Harry Potter novel, came up for sale. The auctioneer commented that Rowling “displays a detailed knowledge of Western astrology which was later to play an important part in her books».^[71]

In music the best known example of astrology’s influence is in the orchestral suite The Planets by British composer Gustav Holst, the framework of which is based on the astrological tones and signatures of the planets.^[72]

In politics, in 1981, after John Hinckley’s attempted assassination of President Reagan, first lady Nancy Reagan commissioned astrologer Joan Quigley to act as the secret White House astrologer. However, Quigley’s role ended in 1988 when it became public through the memoirs of former chief of staff, Donald Regan.^[73][74][75]

Modern scientific appraisal

Contemporary science considers astrology a pseudoscience.^[76] Criticisms include that astrology is conjectural and supplies no hypotheses, proves difficult to falsify, and describes natural events in terms of scientifically untestable supernatural causes.^{[77][not in citation given]} It has also been suggested that much of the continued faith in astrology could be psychologically explained as a matter of cognitive bias.^[78] Skeptics^[who?] say that the practice of western astrologers allows them to avoid making verifiable predictions, and gives them the ability to attach significance to arbitrary and unrelated events, in a way that suits their purpose,^[79] although science also provides methodologies to separate verifiable significance from arbitrary predictions in research experiments, as demonstrated by Gauquelin’s research and Carlson’s experiment.^{[citation needed]}

Astrology has been criticized for failing to provide a physical mechanism that links the movements of celestial bodies to their purported effects on human behavior. In 1975, amid increasing popular interest in astrology, The Humanist magazine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by Bart J. Bok, Lawrence E. Jerome, and Paul Kurtz.^[80] The statement, entitled ‘Objections to Astrology’, was signed by 186 astronomers, physicists and leading scientists of the day. They said that there is no scientific foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the public against accepting astrological advice without question. Their criticism focused on the fact that there was no mechanism whereby astrological effects might occur:

We can see how infinitesimally small are the gravitational and other effects produced by the distant planets and the far more distant stars. It is simply a mistake to imagine that the forces exerted by stars and planets at the moment of birth can in any way shape our futures.^[81][82]

Astronomer Carl Sagan declined to sign the statement. For this reason, his words have been quoted by those who argue that astrology retains some sort of scientific validity.^[83] Sagan said he took this stance not because he thought astrology had any validity at all, but because he thought that the tone of the statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology because there was no mechanism (while «certainly a relevant point») was not in itself convincing. In a letter published in a follow-up edition of The Humanist, Sagan confirmed that he would have been willing to sign such a statement had it described and refuted the principal tenets of astrological belief. This, he argued, would have been more persuasive and would have produced less controversy.^[84]

In a lecture in 2001, Stephen Hawking stated «The reason most scientists don’t believe in astrology is because it is not consistent with our theories that have been tested by experiment.»^[85] Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson asserted that «astrology was discredited 600 years ago with the birth of modern science. ‘To teach it as though you are contributing to the fundamental knowledge of an informed electorate is astonishing in this, the 21st century’. Education should be about knowing how to think, ‘And part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us. Without that knowledge, without that capacity to think, you can easily become a victim of people who seek to take advantage of you‘«. The founder of the Astrological Institute to which Tyson’s criticism was directed responded «It’s quite obvious that he hasn’t studied the subject.»^[86]

Astrologers for their part prefer not to attempt to explain astrology,^[87] and instead give it supernatural explanations such as divination or synchronicity.^[88][89][90] Others have proposed conventional causal agents such as electro-magnetism within an intricate web of planetary fields and resonances in the solar system.^[91][92] Scientists dismiss magnetism as an implausible explanation, since the magnetic field of a large but distant planet such as Jupiter is far smaller than that produced by ordinary household appliances.^[93]

Carlson’s experiment

A different approach to testing astrology quantitatively uses blind experiment. The most renowned^[94] of these is Shawn Carlson’s double-blind chart matching tests in which he challenged 28 astrologers to match over 100 natal charts to psychological profiles generated by the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) test. When Carlson’s study was published in Nature in 1985, his conclusion was that predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing «clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis».^[95]

Gauquelin’s research

In 1955, Michel Gauquelin stated that although he had failed to find evidence to support such indicators as the zodiacal signs and planetary aspects in astrology, he had found positive correlations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and success in professions (such as doctors, scientists, athletes, actors, writers, painters, etc.) which astrology traditionally associates with those planets.^[96] The best-known of Gauquelin’s findings is based on the positions of Mars in the natal charts of successful athletes and became known as the «Mars effect».^[97] A study conducted by seven French scientists attempted to replicate the claim, but found no statistical evidence, and attributed the effect to selective bias on Gauquelin’s part, accusing him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study.^[98]

Theological criticism

Some of the practices of astrology were contested on theological grounds by medieval Muslim astronomers such as Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and Avicenna. They said that the methods of astrologers conflicted with orthodox religious views of Islamic scholars through the suggestion that the Will of God can be known and predicted in advance.^[99] Such arguments mainly concerned «judicial branches» (such as Horary astrology), rather than the more «natural branches» such as Medical and Meteorological astrology, these being seen as part of the natural sciences of the time.

For example, Avicenna’s ‘Refutation against astrology’ Risāla fī ibṭāl aḥkām al-nojūm, argues against the practice of astrology while supporting the principle of planets acting as the agents of divine causation which express God’s absolute power over creation. Avicenna considered that the movement of the planets influenced life on earth in a deterministic way, but argued against the capability of determining the exact influence of the stars.^[100] In essence, Avicenna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the extent that precise and fatalistic predictions could be made from it.^[101]

Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (1292–1350), in his Miftah Dar al-SaCadah, also used physical arguments in astronomy to question the practice of judicial astrology.^[102] He recognized that the stars are much larger than the planets, and argued:^[103]

And if you astrologers answer that it is precisely because of this distance and smallness that their influences are negligible, then why is it that you claim a great influence for the smallest heavenly body, Mercury? Why is it that you have given an influence to al-Ra’s and al-Dhanab, which are two imaginary points [ascending and descending nodes]?

Education

Education in astrology is offered in a number of countries of the world:

United States

In the United States, astrological education is offered at institutions such as Kepler College, a liberal arts college with an emphasis on astrology in Lynnwood, Washington, near Seattle, which opened in 2001^[104] and awarded its first 8 Bachelor of Arts degrees in Astrological Studies in 2004.^[105] However, unless they are completing a course of study, students attending Kepler College after March 9, 2010,^[106] are not awarded degrees but certificates of completion of a course of study.^[107] The degrees granted by Kepler are not recognized by national or regional accrediting agencies.^[108] Other astrological organizations offer study programs and correspondence courses to certify astrologers.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, astrological education is offered at a number of institutions, some offering a diploma upon completion of the course and an examination. In addition, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David at Lampeter offers an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology.^[109]

India

In February, 2001, vedic astrology, Jyotish Vigyan, was introduced into the curriculum of Indian universities. Undergraduate (called «graduate» in India) post-graduate and research courses of study were established. «Beneficiaries of these courses would be students, teachers, professionals from modern streams like doctors, architects, marketing, financial, economic and political analysts, etc.»^[36] In April 2001 the Andhra Pradesh High Court declined to consider a petition to overturn the curriculum guideline on the ground that astrology was a pseudoscience, a decision affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2004 which declined as a matter of law to interfere with educational policy. The court noted that astrology studies were optional and that courses in astrology were offered by institutions of higher education in other countries.^[110]

Notes

References

Works cited

External links

• Astrology at the Open Directory Project
• Digital International Astrology Library at C.U.R.A. (Centre Universitaire de Recherche en Astrologie) International Astrology Research Center; (retrieved 15 November 2011).

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v · d · eThe 41 additional constellations added in the 16th–17th c. ▶ Vespucci or Corsalius early 16c: Crux · Triangulum Australe ▶ Vopel 1536: Coma Berenices ▶ Keyser & de Houtman 1596: Apus · Chamaeleon · Dorado · Grus · Hydrus · Indus · Musca · Pavo · Phoenix · Tucana · Volans ▶ Plancius 1613: Camelopardalis · Columba · Monoceros ▶ Habrecht 1621: Reticulum ▶ Hevelius 1683: Canes Venatici · Lacerta · Leo Minor · Lynx · Scutum · Sextans · Vulpecula ▶ de Lacaille 1763: Antlia · Caelum · Carina · Circinus · Fornax · Horologium · Mensa · Microscopium · Norma · Octans · Pictor · Puppis · Pyxis · Sculptor · Telescopium · Vela

v · Obsolete constellations including Ptolemy’s Argo Navis Anser · Antinous · Argo Navis · Asterion · Cancer Minor · Cerberus · Chara · Custos Messium · Felis · Frederici Honores/Gloria Frederici · Gallus · Globus Aerostaticus · Jordanus · Lochium Funis · Machina Electrica · Malus · Mons Maenalus · Musca Borealis · Noctua · Officina Typographica · Polophylax · Psalterium Georgianum/Harpa Georgii · Quadrans Muralis · Ramus Pomifer · Robur Carolinum · Sceptrum Brandenburgicum · Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae · Solarium · Rangifer/Tarandus · Taurus Poniatovii · Telescopium Herschelii · Testudo · Tigris · Triangulum Minus · Turdus Solitarius · Vespa · Vultur cadens · Vultur volans obsolete constellation names Apis · Phoenicopterus · Serpentarius · Xiphias