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{{short description|Divination based on the movements of the stars}}{{distinguish|text=astronomy, the science that studies space}}{{other uses}}{{pp|small=yes}}{{good article}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}{{Use British English|date= September 2016}}{{Astrology sidebar}}{{Paranormal}}{{Esotericism}}Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, BOOK, Hanegraaff, Wouter J., Wouter Hanegraaff, Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture, 2012, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 978-0-521-19621-5,weblink 171, 19 July 2022, 26 January 2023,weblink live, {{sfn|Thagard|1978|p=229}} that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects.ENCYCLOPEDIA, Oxford University Press, astrology, Oxford Dictionary of English, 11 December 2015,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120719044917weblink">weblink dead, 19 July 2012, ENCYCLOPEDIA, Merriam-Webster Inc., astrology, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 11 December 2015,weblink BOOK, The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy, Nicholas, Bunnin, Jiyuan, Yu, John Wiley & Sons, 2008, 57,weblink 9780470997215, 10.1002/9780470996379, JOURNAL, Thagard, Paul R., Paul Thagard, 1978, Why Astrology is a Pseudoscience,weblink Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 1, 1, 223–234, 10.1086/psaprocbienmeetp.1978.1.192639, 147050929, 14 November 2018, 28 March 2019,weblink live, WEB, Jarry, Jonathan, How Astrology Escaped the Pull of Science,weblink Office for Science and Society, McGill University, 2 June 2022, 9 October 2020, 13 August 2022,weblink live, 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.BOOK, Koch-Westenholz, Ulla, Mesopotamian astrology: an introduction to Babylonian and Assyrian celestial divination, 1995, Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 978-87-7289-287-0, Foreword, 11, 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.{{sfn|Bennett|2007|p=83}}Throughout its history, astrology has had its detractors, competitors and skeptics who opposed it for moral, religious, political, and empirical reasons.{{r|"Massimo1"}}{{r|"Beanato1"}}{{r|Hughes}} Nonetheless, prior to the Enlightenment, astrology was generally considered a scholarly tradition and was common in learned circles, often in close relation with astronomy, meteorology, medicine, and alchemy.JOURNAL, Kassell, Lauren, Stars, spirits, signs: towards a history of astrology 1100–1800, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 5 May 2010, 41, 2, 67–69, 10.1016/j.shpsc.2010.04.001, 20513617, 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. Following the end of the 19th century and the wide-scale adoption of the scientific method, researchers have successfully challenged astrology on both theoretical{{sfn|Biswas|Mallik|Vishveshwara|1989|p=249}} and experimental grounds,JOURNAL, Carlson, Shawn, A double-blind test of astrology, Nature, 1985, 318, 419–425,weblinkweblink" title="ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009weblink">weblink 2022-10-09, live, 10.1038/318419a0, 6045, 1985Natur.318..419C, 5135208, {{sfn|Zarka|2011}} and have shown it to have no scientific validity or explanatory power.{{sfn|Bennett|2007}} 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.ENCYCLOPEDIA, David E. Pingree, Robert Andrew Gilbert, Astrology - Astrology in modern times,weblink Encyclopædia Britannica, 7 October 2012, In countries such as India, where only a small intellectual elite has been trained in Western physics, astrology manages to retain here and there its position among the sciences. Its continued legitimacy is demonstrated by the fact that some Indian universities offer advanced degrees in astrology. In the West, however, Newtonian physics and Enlightenment rationalism largely eradicated the widespread belief in astrology, yet Western astrology is far from dead, as demonstrated by the strong popular following it gained in the 1960s.,

Etymology

File:Marcantonio Raimondi - Two Women with the Signs of Libra and Scorpio.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Marcantonio RaimondiMarcantonio RaimondiThe word (wikt:astrology|astrology) comes from the early Latin word (wikt:astrologia|astrologia),WEB,weblink astrology, Douglas, Harper, Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 6 December 2011, Differentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1400s and by 17c. this word was limited to "reading influences of the stars and their effects on human destiny.", 27 June 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170627115223weblink">weblink live, which derives from the Greek —from (wikt:ἄστρον#Ancient Greek|ἄστρον) astron ("star") and (wikt:-λογία#Ancient Greek|-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 (wikt:astronomia|astronomia)). By the 17th century, astronomy became established as the scientific term, with astrology referring to divinations and schemes for predicting human affairs.BOOK, Oxford English Dictionary, astrology, n.,weblink Third, December 2021, Oxford University Press, In medieval French, and likewise in Middle English, astronomie is attested earlier, and originally covered the whole semantic field of the study of celestial objects, including divination and predictions based on observations of celestial phenomena. In early use in French and English, astrologie is generally distinguished as the 'art' or practical application of astronomy to mundane affairs, but there is considerable semantic overlap between the two words (as also in other European languages). With the rise of modern science from the Renaissance onwards, the modern semantic distinction between astrology and astronomy gradually developed, and had become largely fixed by the 17th cent. [...] The word is not used by Shakespeare., Oxford English Dictionary, 14 December 2011, 19 February 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150219052208weblink">weblink live,

History

(File:P. 26 'The Zodiac Man' a diagram of a human body and astrological symbols with instructions explaining the importance of astrology from a medical perspective.jpg|thumb|upright|The Zodiac Man, a diagram of a human body and astrological symbols with instructions explaining the importance of astrology from a medical perspective. From a 15th-century Welsh manuscript)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, {{Circa|1800 BCE}}.BOOK, Rochberg, Francesca,weblink Babylonian Horoscopes, 1998, American Philosophical Society, 978-0-87169-881-0, ix, en, Francesca Rochberg, 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. 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.

Ancient world

{{further|Babylonian astrology|Worship of heavenly bodies}}Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky.{{sfn|Campion|2009|pp=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.BOOK, Marshack, Alexander, The roots of civilization : the cognitive beginnings of man's first art, symbol and notation, 1991, Moyer Bell, 978-1-55921-041-6, Rev. and expanded, 81ff, This was a first step towards recording the Moon's influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organising a communal calendar. 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.BOOK, Evelyn-White, Hesiod; with an English translation by Hugh G., The Homeric hymns and Homerica, 1977, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 978-0-674-99063-0, Reprinted, Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right time to go sailing. Then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless Poseidon the Earth-Shaker be set upon it, or Zeus, the king of the deathless gods, 663–677, 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.BOOK, Aveni, David H. Kelley, Eugene F. Milone, Exploring ancient skies an encyclopedic survey of archaeoastronomy, 2005, Springer, New York, 978-0-387-95310-6, 268, Online, 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.Russell Hobson, The Exact Transmission of Texts in the First Millennium B.C.E., Published PhD Thesis. Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies. University of Sydney. 2009 PDF File {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502104018weblink |date=2 May 2019 }} A scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash ({{Circa|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.From scroll A of the ruler Gudea of Lagash, I 17 – VI 13. O. Kaiser, Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments, Bd. 2, 1–3. Gütersloh, 1986–1991. Also quoted in A. Falkenstein, 'Wahrsagung in der sumerischen Überlieferung', La divination en Mésopotamie ancienne et dans les régions voisines. Paris, 1966. 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).JOURNAL, Elements of the Babylonian Contribution to Hellenistic Astrology, Rochberg-Halton, F., 163678063, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1988, 108, 1, 51–62, 603245, 10.2307/603245, The Babylonians viewed celestial events as possible signs rather than as causes of physical events.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.{{sfn|Sun|Kistemaker|1997|pp=3, 4}}The ancient Arabs that inhabited 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.JOURNAL, al-Abbasi, Abeer Abdullah, August 2020, The Arabsʾ Visions of the Upper Realm,weblink Marburg Journal of Religion, University of Marburg, 22, 2, 1–28, 10.17192/mjr.2020.22.8301, 1612-2941, 23 May 2022, 23 May 2022,weblink live, Accordingly, they shaped their entire lives in accordance with their interpretations of astral configurations and phenomena.

Ancient objections

File:Cicero - Musei Capitolini.JPG|thumb|upright|The Roman orator CiceroCiceroThe Hellenistic schools of philosophical skepticism criticized the rationality of astrology.{{clarification needed|reason=It implies philosophical skeptics were concerned primarily with rationality and not with epistemology|date=August 2023}} 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.BOOK, Lament, Death, and Destiny, Peter Lang, Hughes, Richard, 2004, 87, Cicero, in De Divinatione, leveled a critique of astrology that some modern philosophers consider to be the first working definition of pseudoscience and the answer to the demarcation problem.JOURNAL, 10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.04.002, Cicero's demarcation of science: a report of shared criteria, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 2020, Fernandez-Beanato, Damian, 83, 97–102, 32958286, 2020SHPSA..83...97F, 216477897, Philosopher of Science Massimo Pigliucci, building on the work of Historian of Science, Damien Fernandez-Beanato, argues that Cicero outlined a "convincing distinction between astrology and astronomy that remains valid in the twenty-first century."JOURNAL, Pigliucci, Massimo, Massimo Pigliucci, January–February 2024, Pseudoscience:An Ancient Problem, Skeptical Inquirer, 48, 1, 18, 19, Cicero stated the twins objection (that with close birth times, personal outcomes can be very different), later developed by Augustine.{{sfn|Long|2005|page=173}} 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.{{sfn|Long|2005|pages=173–174}} 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.{{sfn|Long|2005|page=177}}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,{{sfn|Long|2005|page=184}} 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,{{sfn|Long|2005|page=186}} and wrote an entire book, Against the Astrologers (Πρὸς ἀστρολόγους, Pros astrologous), compiling arguments against astrology. Against the Astrologers was the fifth section of a larger work arguing against philosophical and scientific inquiry in general, Against the Professors (Πρὸς μαθηματικούς, Pros mathematikous).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.{{sfn|Long|2005|page=174}}

Hellenistic Egypt

File:Quadritpartitum.jpg|thumb|upright|1484 copy of first page of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, translated into Latin by alt=Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, the Hellenistic text that founded Western astrologyIn 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.{{sfn|Barton|1994|page=24}}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.{{sfn|Holden|2006|pages=11–13}} 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis.{{sfn|Barton|1994|page=20}} 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."{{sfn|Robbins|1940|loc='Introduction'|page=xii}}

Greece and Rome

The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas from Syria, Babylon, Persia and central Asia.{{sfn|Campion|2008|p=173}} Around 280 BCE, Berossus, a priest of Bel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island of Kos, teaching astrology and Babylonian culture.{{sfn|Campion|2008|p=84}} 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.{{sfn|Campion|2008|pp=173–174}} Greek influence played a crucial role in the transmission of astrological theory to Rome.Barton, 1994. p. 32.The first definite reference to astrology in Rome comes from the orator Cato, who in 160 BCE warned farm overseers against consulting with Chaldeans,Barton, 1994. p. 32–33. who were described as Babylonian 'star-gazers'.{{harvnb|Campion|2008|pp=227–228}}. 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.{{sfn|Parker|Parker|1983|p=16}} 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."WIKISOURCE, Juvenal, Juvenal, Ramsay, George Gilbert, George Gilbert Ramsay, Satire VI: The Ways of Women, Juvenal and Persius/The Satires of Juvenal/Satire 6, c. 100, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1918, One of the first astrologers to bring Hermetic astrology to Rome was Thrasyllus, astrologer to the emperor Tiberius, the first emperor to have had a court astrologer,Barton, 1994. p. 43. though his predecessor Augustus had used astrology to help legitimise his Imperial rights.Barton, 1994. p. 63.

Medieval world

Hindu

The main texts upon which classical Indian astrology is based are early medieval compilations, notably the {{IAST|Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra}}, and Sārāvalī by {{IAST|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.David Pingree, {{IAST|Jyotiḥśāstra}} (J. Gonda (Ed.) A History of Indian Literature, Vol VI Fasc 4), p.81 English translations of these texts were published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari in 1963 and 1961, respectively.

Islamic

File:Translation of Albumasar Venice 1515 De Magnis Coniunctionibus.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Image of a Latin astrological text |Latin translation of Abū Maʿshar's De Magnis Coniunctionibus ('Of the great conjunctions'), VeniceVeniceAstrology was taken up by Islamic scholarsBOOK, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam, Salim, Ayduz, Ibrahim, Kalin, Caner, Dagli, Oxford University Press, 2014, 64,weblink 9780199812578, 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,BOOK, Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, The chronology of ancient nations, 1879, London, Pub. for the Oriental translations fund of Great Britain & Ireland by W. H. Allen and co., 01006783, VIII, 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.BOOK, Houlding, Deborah, Essays on the History of Western Astrology, STA, 2010, 2–7, 6: Historical sources and traditional approaches, Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during the Latin translations of the 12th century.

Europe

File:Meister von San Vitale in Ravenna 004.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Dante Alighieri meets the Emperor Justinian in the Sphere of Mercury, in Canto 5 of the Paradiso.]]{{See also|Christian views on astrology}}File:Isidor von Sevilla.jpeg|thumb|upright|right|The medieval theologian Isidore of SevilleIsidore of SevilleIn 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.{{sfn|Wood|1970|p=5}}BOOK, Etymologiae, Isidore of Seville, c. 600, L, 82, col. 170, 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.{{harvnb|Campion|1982|p=44}}. Ptolemy's second century AD Tetrabiblos was translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli in 1138. 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.{{harvnb|Campion|1982|p=45}}. 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,{{harvnb|Campion|1982|p=46}}. though the system was used earlier in the East.BOOK, North, John David, 1986, Horoscopes and history, Warburg Institute, 175–176, The eastern origins of the Campanus (Prime Vertical) method. Evidence from al-BÄ«rÅ«nÄ«, 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.In Paradiso, the final part of the Divine Comedy, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri referred "in countless details"JOURNAL, Dante's Christian Astrology. by Richard Kay. Review, Durling, Robert M., Speculum, January 1997, 72, 1, 185–187, Dante's interest in astrology has only slowly been gaining the attention it deserves. In 1940 Rudolf Palgen published his pioneering eighty-page "Dantes Sternglaube: Beiträge zur Erklärung des Paradiso", which concisely surveyed Dante's treatment of the planets and of the sphere of fixed stars; he demonstrated that it is governed by the astrological concept of the "children of the planets" (in each sphere the pilgrim meets souls whose lives reflected the dominant influence of that planet) and that in countless details the imagery of the Paradiso is derived from the astrological tradition. ... Like Palgen, he [Kay] argues (again, in more detail) that Dante adapted traditional astrological views to his own Christian ones; he finds this process intensified in the upper heavens., 2865916, 10.2307/2865916, to the astrological planets, though he adapted traditional astrology to suit his Christian viewpoint, for example using astrological thinking in his prophecies of the reform of Christendom.JOURNAL, Dante and the Doctrine of the Great Conjunctions, Woody, Kennerly M., Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, 1977, 95, 95, 119–134, It can hardly be doubted, I think, that Dante was thinking in astrological terms when he made his prophecies. [The attached footnote cites Inferno. I, lOOff.; Purgatorio. xx, 13-15 and xxxiii, 41; Paradiso. xxii, 13-15 and xxvii, 142-148.], 40166243, John Gower in the fourteenth century defined astrology as essentially limited to the making of predictions.{{sfn|Wood|1970|p=5}}BOOK,weblink Confessio Amantis, Gower, John, 1390, VII, 670–84, Assembled with Astronomie / Is ek that ilke Astrologie / The which in juggementz acompteth / Theffect, what every sterre amonteth, / And hou thei causen many a wonder / To tho climatz that stonde hem under., 2 July 2013, 24 September 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150924093459weblink">weblink live, 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.{{sfn|Wood|1970|p=6}}BOOK, Star-crossed Renaissance, Duke University Press, Allen, Don Cameron, 1941, 148, The fourteenth-century sceptic Nicole Oresme however included astronomy as a part of astrology in his Livre de divinacions.{{sfn|Wood|1970|pp=8–11}} 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.{{sfn|Wood|1970|pp=8–11}}BOOK, Nicole Oresme and the Astrologers: A Study of his Livre de Divinacions, Harvard University Press; Liverpool University Press, Coopland, G. W., 1952, The friar Laurens Pignon (c. 1368–1449)BOOK, Laurens Pignon, O.P.: Confessor of Philip the Good, Jean Mielot, Vanderjagt, A.J., 1985, Venlo, The Netherlands, similarly rejected all forms of divination and determinism, including by the stars, in his 1411 Contre les Devineurs.{{sfn|Veenstra|1997|pp=5, 32, passim}} 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.{{sfn|Veenstra|1997|p=184}}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.BOOK, Dijksterhuis, Eduard Jan, The mechanization of the world picture, 1986, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, His contemporary, Pietro Pomponazzi, a "rationalistic and critical thinker", was much more sanguine about astrology and critical of Pico's attack.BOOK, Martin, Craig, Pietro Pomponazzi,weblink Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 27 February 2019, 17 March 2019,weblink live,

Renaissance and Early Modern

{{see also|Renaissance magic}}File:Robert Fludd's An Astrologer Casting a Horoscope 1617.jpg|thumb|right|'An Astrologer Casting a Horoscope' from Robert Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi Historia, 1617]]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.{{harvnb|Campion|1982|p=47}}. 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.WEB,weblink Pico and the historiography of Renaissance astrology, Explorations in Renaissance Culture, Rabin, Sheila J., 2010, 10 February 2016, 24 February 2021,weblink live, 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".BOOK, Caspar, Max,weblink Kepler, 1993, Dover Publications, 0-486-67605-6, New York, 181–182, Hellman, C. Doris, 28293391, C. Doris Hellman, 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.BOOK, The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution, Yale University Press, Harkness, Deborah E., 2007, 105, 978-0-300-14316-4, 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.BOOK, The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution, Yale University Press, Harkness, Deborah E., 2007, 133, 978-0-300-14316-4, 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.AV MEDIA, Astronomical diagrams by Thomas Hood, Mathematician, British Library, c. 1597, Vellum, in oaken cases, British Library, 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.CONFERENCE,weblink The astrological instruments of Thomas Hood, 12 June 2013, Johnston, Stephen, XVII International Scientific Instrument Symposium, July 1998, Soro, JOURNAL, Dee, Mercator, and Louvain Instrument Making: An Undescribed Astrological Disc by Gerard Mercator (1551), Vanden Broeke, Steven, Annals of Science, 2001, 58, 3, 219–240, 10.1080/00033790016703, 144443271, Despite its popularity, Renaissance astrology had what historian Gabor Almasi calls "elite debate", exemplified by the polemical letters of Swiss physician Thomas Erastus who fought against astrology, calling it "vanity" and "superstition." Then around the time of the new star of 1572 and the comet of 1577 there began what Almasi calls an "extended epistemological reform" which began the process of excluding religion, astrology and anthropocentrism from scientific debate.JOURNAL, Almasi, Gabor, February 11, 2022, Astrology in the crossfire: the stormy debate after the comet of 1577,weblink Annals of Science, 79, 2, 137–163, 10.1080/00033790.2022.2030409, 35147491, 246749889, 7 June 2023, 7 June 2023,weblink live, By 1679, the yearly publication La Connoissance des temps eschewed astrology as a legitimate topic.BOOK, The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 978-0521572910, Hoskin, Michael, Cambridge, 220,

Enlightenment period and onwards

File:Seven spiritualists 1906.jpg|thumb|Middle-classMiddle-classDuring the Enlightenment, intellectual sympathy for astrology fell away, leaving only a popular following supported by cheap almanacs.BOOK, Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World, Penguin, Porter, Roy, Roy Porter, 2001, 151–152, 978-0-14-025028-2, he did not even trouble readers with formal disproofs!, BOOK, Rutkin, H. Darell, 2006, Astrology, K. Park, L. Daston, Early Modern Science, The Cambridge History of Science, 3, 541–561, Cambridge University Press,weblink 0-521-57244-4, As is well known, astrology finally disappeared from the domain of legitimate natural knowledge during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although the precise contours of this story remain obscure., 6 June 2022, 22 December 2022,weblink live, 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. The Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift ridiculed the Whig political astrologer John Partridge.In the second half of the 17th 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.JOURNAL, Pfeffer, Michelle, The Society of Astrologers (c.1647–1684): sermons, feasts and the resuscitation of astrology in seventeenth-century London, The British Journal for the History of Science, 2021, 54, 2, 133–153, 10.1017/S0007087421000029, 33719982, 232232073,weblink 2 January 2023, 26 March 2023,weblink live, Astrology saw a popular revival starting in the 19th century, as part of a general revival of spiritualism and—later, New Age philosophy,{{sfn|Campion|2009|pp=239–249}} and through the influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes.{{sfn|Campion|2009|pp=259–263}} Early in the 20th century the psychiatrist Carl Jung developed some concepts concerning astrology,BOOK, Jung, C.G., C.G. Jung Letters: 1906–1950., Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 978-0-691-09895-1, Hull, Gerhard, Adler, in collaboration with Aniela Jaffé; translations from the German by R.F.C., 1973, Letter from Jung to Freud, 12 June 1911 "I made horoscopic calculations in order to find a clue to the core of psychological truth.",weblink which led to the development of psychological astrology.{{harvnb|Campion|2009|pp=251–256}}: "At the same time, in Switzerland, the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was developing sophisticated theories concerning astrology ..."Gieser, Suzanne. The Innermost Kernel, Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli's Dialogue with C.G.Jung, (Springer, Berlin, 2005) p. 21 {{ISBN|3-540-20856-9}}Campion, Nicholas. "Prophecy, Cosmology and the New Age Movement. The Extent and Nature of Contemporary Belief in Astrology."(Bath Spa University College, 2003) via {{harvnb|Campion|2009|pp=248, 256}}.

Principles and practice

Advocates have defined astrology as a symbolic language, an art form, a science, and a method of divination.The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, v.5, 1974, p. 916Dietrich, Thomas: The Origin of Culture and Civilization, Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, 2005, p. 305 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.BOOK, Philip P. Wiener, Dictionary of the history of ideas, 1974, Scribner, New York, 978-0-684-13293-8,weblink 16 July 2011, 25 September 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110925152742weblink">weblink live, It uses the tropical zodiac, which is aligned to the equinoctial points.James R. Lewis, 2003. The Astrology Book: the Encyclopedia of Heavenly Influences. Visible Ink Press. Online at Google Books.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).BOOK, Hone, Margaret, The Modern Text-Book of Astrology, 1978, L. N. Fowler, Romford, 978-0-85243-357-7, 21–89, 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.BOOK, Riske, Kris, Llewellyn's Complete Book of Astrology, 2007, Llewellyn Publications, Minnesota, US, 978-0-7387-1071-6, 5–6; 27, 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.JOURNAL, Horoscopes and History. by J. D. North; A History of Western Astrology. by S. J. Tester, Kremer, Richard, Speculum, 1990, 65, 1, 206–209, 2864524, 10.2307/2864524, 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.BOOK, Pelletier, Robert, Cataldo, Leonard, Be Your Own Astrologer, 57–60, Pan, 1984, BOOK, Fenton, Sasha, Rising Signs, 137–9, Aquarian Press, 1991, Together these relationships and their interpretations are said to form "...the language of the heavens speaking to learned men."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.BOOK, Persuasions of the witch's craft: ritual magic in contemporary England, Harvard University Press, Luhrmann, Tanya, 1991, 147–151, 978-0-674-66324-4,

Hindu

(File:Brooklyn Museum - Page from an Astrological Treatise.jpg|upright|thumb|Page from an Indian astrological treatise, c. 1750)The earliest Vedic text on astronomy is the Vedanga Jyotisha; Vedic thought later came to include astrology as well.BOOK, Subbarayappa, B. V., Biswas, S. K., Mallik, D. C. V., C. V. Vishveshwara, Vishveshwara, C. V., Cosmic Perspectives,weblink 14 September 1989, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-34354-1, 25–40, Indian astronomy: An historical perspective, In the Vedic literature Jyotis[h]a, which connotes 'astronomy' and later began to encompass astrology, was one of the most important subjects of study... The earliest Vedic astronomical text has the title, Vedanga Jyotis[h]a..., Hindu natal astrology originated with Hellenistic astrology by the 3rd century BCE,{{sfn|Pingree|1978|p=361}}JOURNAL, From Alexandria to Baghdād to Byzantium. The Transmission of Astrology, Pingree, David, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 2001, 8, 1, 3–37, 30224155, 10.1007/bf02700227, 2003IJCT...10..487G, 162030487, though incorporating the Hindu lunar mansions.JOURNAL, 620756, The Circle of Stars: An Introduction to Indian Astrology by Valerie J. Roebuck. Review, Werner, Karel, Karel Werner, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1993, 645–646, 10.1017/s0041977x00008326, 56, 3, 162270467, 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.JOURNAL, Notes on Hindu Astronomy and the History of Our Knowledge of It, Burgess, James, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, October 1893, 717–761, 25197168, The Indian techniques may also have been augmented with some of the Babylonian techniques.{{sfn|Pingree|1963|p=231}}

Chinese and East Asian

{{Further|Chinese zodiac}}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.{{sfn|Sun|Kistemaker|1997|pp=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 ((:zh:分野|十二次)).JOURNAL, Stephenson, F. Richard, Chinese roots of modern astronomy, 1980-06-26, New Scientist,weblink 86, 1207, 380–383, 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.Theodora Lau, The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes, pp 2–8, 30–5, 60–4, 88–94, 118–24, 148–53, 178–84, 208–13, 238–44, 270–78, 306–12, 338–44, Souvenir Press, New York, 2005 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 ({{zh|s=紫微斗数|t=紫微斗數|p=zǐwÄ“idÇ’ushù}}) are still used regularly in modern-day Chinese astrology. They do not rely on direct observations of the stars.ENCYCLOPEDIA,weblink Astrology in China, Springer, Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, 1997, 22 July 2012, Selin, Helaine, Helaine Selin, 9780792340669, 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.WEB, การเปลี่ยนวันใหม่ การนับวัน ทางโหราศาสตร์ไทย การเปลี่ยนปีนักษัตร โหราศาสตร์ ดูดวง ทำนายทายทัก ('The transition to the new astrological dates Thailand. Changing zodiac astrology horoscope prediction'),weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110103152835weblink">weblink 3 January 2011, dmy-all, (in Thai)

Theological viewpoints

{{see also|Christian views on astrology|Jewish views on astrology|Muslim views on astrology}}{{POV|what=section|date=August 2023}}

Ancient

Augustine (354{{ndash}}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,{{sfn|Veenstra|1997|pp=184–185}} 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.BOOK, Hess, Peter M.J., Catholicism and science, 2007, Greenwood, Westport, 978-0-313-33190-9, 11, 1st, Allen, Paul L.,

Medieval

File:Avicenna.jpg|thumb|upright|A drawing of AvicennaAvicennaSome 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.BOOK, Saliba, George, George Saliba, 1994b, A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, New York University Press, 978-0-8147-8023-7, 60, 67–69, 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.BOOK, Belo, Catarina, Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and Averroes, 2007-02-23, Brill Publishers, Brill, 978-90-474-1915-0, 10.1163/ej.9789004155879.i-252, 228, 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.ENCYCLOPEDIA, Saliba, George, George Saliba, Encyclopædia Iranica, AVICENNA viii. Mathematics and Physical Sciences, 17 August 2011, First published 15 December 1987, 3,weblink 26 May 2023, 88–92,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20200220161012weblink">weblink 20 February 2020, live, 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.JOURNAL, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century Defense against Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation, John W., Livingston, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 91, 1, 1971, 96–103, 10.2307/600445, 600445, 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 [the head] and [the tail], which are two imaginary points [ascending and descending nodes]?

Modern

(File:Martin Luther by Cranach-restoration.jpg|thumb|upright|Martin Luther)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.BOOK, Luther, Martin, Martin Luther's Table Talk, Gideon House Books, 2017, 978-1640079601, 502, {{blockquote|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.|Martin Luther, Table Talk}}The Catechism of the Catholic Church maintains that divination, including predictive astrology, is incompatible with modern Catholic beliefsBOOK, Stravinskas, Peter M.J., Our Sunday visitor's Catholic encyclopedia, 1998, Our Sunday Visitor Pub., Huntington, Ind., 978-0-87973-669-9, Rev., 111, such as free will:{{blockquote|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.WEB, Catechism of the Catholic Church - Part 3,weblink 8 July 2012, 25 September 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190925062519weblink">weblink live, |Catechism of the Catholic Church}}

Scientific analysis and criticism

{{Paranormal|main}}(File:Karl Popper.jpg|thumb|upright|Popper proposed falsifiability as something that distinguishes science from non-science, using astrology as the example of an idea that has not dealt with falsification during experiment.)The scientific community rejects astrology as having no explanatory power for describing the universe, and considers it a pseudoscience.ENCYCLOPEDIA, Sven Ove Hansson, Edward N. Zalta, Science and Pseudo-Science,weblink Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 6 July 2012, [...] advocates of pseudo-sciences such as astrology and homeopathy tend to describe their theories as conformable to mainstream science., WEB, Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic's Resource List,weblink Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 13 January 2007, 30 December 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20111230053308weblink">weblink live, {{harvnb|Hartmann|Reuter|Nyborga|2006|p=1350}}: "To optimise the chances of finding even remote relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and intelligence we further applied two different strategies. The first one was based on the common chronological concept of time (e.g. month of birth and season of birth). The second strategy was based on the (pseudo-scientific) concept of astrology (e.g. Sun Signs, The Elements, and astrological gender), as discussed in the book Astrology: Science or superstition? by {{harvnb|Eysenck|Nias|1982}}". 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.{{sfn|Zarka|2011|p=424}}BOOK, Astrology True or False?: A Scientific Evaluation, Prometheus Books, 1988, Roger B., Culver, Philip A., Ianna,weblink 9780879754839, NEWS, McGrew, John H., McFall, Richard M., A Scientific Inquiry into the Validity of Astrology, Journal of Scientific Exploration, 4, 1, 75–83, 1990,weblinkweblink" title="ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009weblink">weblink 2022-10-09, live, {{unreliable source?|date=February 2020}} 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.{{sfn|Biswas|Mallik|Vishveshwara|1989|p=249}}BOOK, Peter D. Asquith, Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 1, 1978, Reidel, Dordrecht, 978-0-917586-05-7,weblinkweblink" title="ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009weblink">weblink 2022-10-09, live, ; WEB, Chapter 7: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding,weblink science and engineering indicators 2006, National Science Foundation, 2 August 2016, About three-fourths of Americans hold at least one pseudoscientific belief; i.e., they believed in at least 1 of the 10 survey items[29]"... " Those 10 items were extrasensory perception (ESP), that houses can be haunted, ghosts/that spirits of dead people can come back in certain places/situations, telepathy/communication between minds without using traditional senses, clairvoyance/the power of the mind to know the past and predict the future, astrology/that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives, that people can communicate mentally with someone who has died, witches, reincarnation/the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and channeling/allowing a "spirit-being" to temporarily assume control of a body., bot: unknown,weblink 1 February 2013, dmy, 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".WEB, Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists, The Humanist, September/October 1975,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090318140638weblink">weblink 18 March 2009, ; The Humanist {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007094955weblink |date=7 October 2011 }}, volume 36, no.5 (1976); BOOK, Philosophy of Science and the Occult, Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists, 1982, State University of New York Press, Albany, 978-0-87395-572-0, 14–18, Bok, Bart J., Lawrence E. Jerome, Paul Kurtz, Paul Kurtz, Patrick Grim, Confirmation bias is a form of cognitive bias, a psychological factor that contributes to belief in astrology.{{harvnb|Allum|2010|p=344}}: "This underlies the Barnum effect. Named after the 19th-century showman Phileas T. Barnum—whose circus provided 'a little something for everyone'—it refers to the idea that people believe a statement about their personality that is vague or trivial if they think it derives from some systematic procedure tailored especially for them (Dickson & Kelly, 1985; Furnham & Schofield, 1987; Rogers & Soule, 2009; Wyman & Vyse, 2008). For example, the more birth detail is used in an astrological prediction or horoscope, the more credulous people tend to be (Furnham, 1991). However, confirmation bias means that people do not tend to pay attention to other information that might disconfirm the credibility of the predictions."{{sfn|Nickerson|1998|pp=180–181}}{{sfn|Eysenck|Nias|1982|pp=42–48}}BOOK, Jean-Paul, Caverni, Jean-Marc, Fabre, Michel, Gonzalez, Cognitive biases, 1990, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 978-0-444-88413-8, 553, {{efn|see Heuristics in judgement and decision making}} 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.{{sfn|Nickerson|1998|pp=180–181}} Thus there are two distinct forms of confirmation bias that are under study with respect to astrological belief.{{sfn|Nickerson|1998|pp=180–181}}

Demarcation

Under the criterion of falsifiability, first proposed by the philosopher of science Karl Popper, astrology is a pseudoscience.ENCYCLOPEDIA, Stephen Thornton, Edward N. Zalta, Karl Popper,weblink Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018, Popper regarded astrology as "pseudo-empirical" in that "it appeals to observation and experiment," but "nevertheless does not come up to scientific standards."BOOK, Popper, Karl, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 2004, Routledge, London, 978-0-415-28594-0, Reprinted, {{rp|44}}

• The relevant piece is also in BOOK, Schick, Theodore Jr., Readings in the Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Postmodernism, 2000, Mayfield Pub, Mountain View, CA, 978-0-7674-0277-4, 33–39, none, In contrast to scientific disciplines, astrology has not responded to falsification through experiment.BOOK, Cogan, Robert, Critical Thinking: Step by Step, 1998, University Press of America, Lanham, Md., 978-0-7618-1067-4, registration,weblink {{rp|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.JOURNAL, Wright, Peter, Astrology and Science in Seventeenth-Century England, Social Studies of Science, 1975, 399–422, 10.1177/030631277500500402, 11610221, 5, 4, 32085403, {{rp|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 saying 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,{{rp|8}} and so "they had no puzzles to solve and therefore no science to practise."{{rp|401;}}BOOK, Kuhn, Thomas, Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science [held at Bedford College, Regent's Park, London, from July 11th to 17th 1965], 1970, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 978-0-521-09623-2, Reprint, Imre Lakatos, Alan Musgrave,weblink {{rp|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.{{rp|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.{{rp|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."{{rp|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.{{rp|228}}{{rp|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.BOOK, Hurley, Patrick, A concise introduction to logic, 2005, Wadsworth, Belmont, Calif., 978-0-534-58505-1, 9th, {{rp|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.{{rp|34}}{{blockquote|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. JamesBOOK, James, Edward W., Philosophy of science and the occult., 1982, State University of New York Press, Albany, 978-0-87395-572-0, Patrick Grim, {{rp|34}}|title=|source=}}

Effectiveness

Astrology has not demonstrated its effectiveness in controlled studies and has no scientific validity.{{sfn|Bennett|2007|p=85}}{{sfn|Zarka|2011}} Where it has made falsifiable predictions under controlled conditions, they have been falsified.{{sfn|Zarka|2011|p=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.WEB, Muller, Richard, Web site of Richard A. Muller, Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley, 2 August 2011, 2010,weblink 12 March 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190312032922weblink">weblink live, My former student Shawn Carlson published in Nature magazine the definitive scientific test of Astrology.WEB, Maddox, Sir John, John Maddox, editor of the science journal Nature, commenting on Carlson's test, 1995, 2 August 2011,weblink dead,weblink" title="archive.today/20120912144554weblink">weblink 12 September 2012, dmy, "... a perfectly convincing and lasting demonstration."BOOK, Smith, Jonathan C., Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit, 2010, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, MA, 978-1-4051-8123-5, The double-blind experimental protocol used in this study was agreed upon by a group of physicists and a group of astrologers{{sfn|Zarka|2011}} nominated by the National Council for Geocosmic Research, who advised the experimenters, helped ensure that the test was fair{{rp|420;}}{{rp|117}} and helped draw the central proposition of natal astrology to be tested.{{rp|419}} They also chose 26 out of the 28 astrologers for the tests (two more volunteered afterwards).{{rp|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."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.JOURNAL, Pont, Graham, Philosophy and Science of Music in Ancient Greece, Nexus Network Journal, 2004, 6, 1, 17–29, 10.1007/s00004-004-0003-x, free, BOOK, Gauquelin, Michel, L'influence des astres: étude critique et expérimentale, 1955, Éditions du Dauphin, Paris, 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.BOOK, Carroll, Robert Todd, The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions, 2003, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 978-0-471-27242-7, {{rp|213}} A study conducted by seven French scientists attempted to replicate the claim, but found no statistical evidence.{{rp|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.BOOK, Benski, Claude, with a commentary by Jan Willem Nienhuys, The "Mars Effect: A French Test of over 1,000 Sports Champions, 1995, Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 978-0-87975-988-9, etal, 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.{{rp|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.NEWS, Matthews, Robert, Astrologers fail to predict proof they are wrong,weblinkweblink 11 January 2022, subscription, live, 13 July 2012, The Telegraph, 17 August 2003, London, {{cbignore}} 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.JOURNAL, Is Astrology Relevant to Consciousness and Psi?, Dean G., Kelly, I. W., Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2003, 10, 6–7, 175–198, {{rp|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.{{sfn|Bennett|2007|p=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.{{sfn|Bennett|2007}}{{sfn|Eysenck|Nias|1982|p=83}}Many astrologers believe that astrology is scientific,NEWS, Chris, French, Astrologers and other inhabitants of parallel universes,weblink The Guardian, 7 February 2012, 8 July 2012, London, 28 January 2019,weblink live, while some have proposed conventional causal agents such as electromagnetism and gravity. Scientists reject these mechanisms as implausible 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.BOOK, Michael, Shermer, The Skeptic encyclopedia of pseudoscience, 2002, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Cal., 978-1-57607-653-8, 241, 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.{{sfn|Tester|1999|p=161}} The tropical zodiac has no connection to the stars; tropical astrologers distinguish the constellations from their historically associated sign, thereby avoiding complications involving precession. 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." 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.{{sfn|Zarka|2011}}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 wrote that, "The sun ends up in the same place in the sky on the same date each year", as the basis for the idea 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.BOOK, Charpak, Georges, Broch, Henri, 2004, 2002, Debunked!: ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience,weblink Translated by Bart K. Holland, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 9780801878671, "Astrology in a Vacuum", pp. 6–7,

Reception in the social sciences

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."{{sfn|Grim|1990|page=15}} 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.{{sfn|Beck|2007}} 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."{{sfn|Thagard|1978}} 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.{{sfn|Barton|1994}}{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2012}}{{sfn|Beck|2007}}{{sfn|Rochberg|2018}}JOURNAL, Taub, Liba, The Rehabilitation of Wretched Subjects, Early Science and Medicine, Brill, 2, 1, 1997, 1383-7427, 10.1163/157338297x00023, 74–87, 11618896, 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."JOURNAL, Hankinson, R.J., Stoicism, Science and Divination, Apeiron, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 21, 2, 1988, 2156-7093, 10.1515/apeiron.1988.21.2.123, 170134327, 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.{{sfn|Campion|2014}} Roy Willis and Patrick Curry draw a distinction between propositional (Wiktionary:ἐπιστήμη|episteme) and metaphoric (Wiktionary:μῆτις|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 {{em|wisdom}} (ethical, spiritual and pragmatic)".BOOK, Willis, Roy, Curry, Patrick, Astrology, Science and Culture, Routledge, 2020-05-19, 978-1-003-08472-3, 10.4324/9781003084723, 242002348, 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."JOURNAL, Niermeier-Dohoney, Justin, Sapiens Dominabitur Astris: A Diachronic Survey of a Ubiquitous Astrological Phrase, Humanities, MDPI AG, 10, 4, 2021-11-02, 2076-0787, 10.3390/h10040117, 117, free, BOOK, The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World, Astral Knowledge in an International Age: Transmission of the Cuneiform Tradition, ca. 1500–1000 B.C., BRILL, 2016-01-01, 10.1163/9789004315631_004, 18–54, 9789004315631, Rutz, Matthew T.,

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 it was reported 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."NEWS,weblink The Strange Story of Britain's "State Seer", The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 August 1952, 21 July 2012, 25 February 2021,weblink live, 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".NEWS,weblink Star turn: astrologer who became SOE's secret weapon against Hitler, The Guardian, 4 March 2008, 21 July 2012, London, Richard, Norton-Taylor, 2 September 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130902040137weblink">weblink live, 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.BOOK, Regan, Donald T., For the record: from Wall Street to Washington, 1988, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, 978-0-15-163966-3, first,weblink BOOK, Quigley, Joan, What does Joan say? : my seven years as White House astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan, 1990, Birch Lane Press, Secaucus, NJ, 978-1-55972-032-8,weblink NEWS, Gorney, Cynthia, The Reagan Chart Watch; Astrologer Joan Quigley, Eye on the Cosmos,weblink 17 July 2012, The Washington Post, 11 May 1988, 24 July 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120724212326weblink">weblink dead, 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 think that 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."JOURNAL, The Occult Revival as Popular Culture: Some Random Observations on the Old and the Nouveau Witch, Truzzi, Marcello, The Sociological Quarterly, 1972, 13, 1, 16–36, 4105818, 10.1111/j.1533-8525.1972.tb02101.x, 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."{{efn|Italics in original.}} 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.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.JOURNAL, Popular Occultism and Critical Social Theory: Exploring Some Themes in Adorno's Critique of Astrology and the Occult, Sociological Analysis, Winter 1981, 42, Cary J. Nederman, James Wray Goulding, amp, {{rp|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.{{rp|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.JOURNAL, The Stars Down to Earth: The Los Angeles Times Astrology Column, Theodor W. Adorno, Telos, Spring 1974, 1974, 19, 13–90, 10.3817/0374019013, 143675240, Adorno drew a parallel with the phrase opium of the people, by Karl Marx, by commenting, "occultism is the metaphysic of the dopes."{{rp|329}}A 2005 Gallup poll and a 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that 25% of US adults believe in astrology,WEB,weblink Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal, Moore, David W., Gallup (company), Gallup, 16 June 2005, 29 September 2013, 19 September 2017,weblink live, WEB,weblink Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths, Eastern or New Age Beliefs, 'Evil Eye', 9 December 2009, Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project, 29 September 2013, 30 September 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130930025708weblink">weblink live, while a 2018 Pew survey found a figure of 29%.WEB, Gecewicz, Claire, 'New Age' beliefs common among both religious and nonreligious Americans,weblink 2022-06-06, Pew Research Center, en-US, 6 June 2022,weblink live, 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."WEB,weblink Science and Engineering Indicators: Chapter 7.Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding, National Science Foundation, 24 April 2014, 24 April 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140424094559weblink">weblink live, 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." Astrology apps became popular in the late 2010s, some receiving millions of dollars in Silicon Valley venture capital.NEWS, Griffith, Erin, 2019-04-15, Venture Capital Is Putting Its Money Into Astrology, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 2022-06-06, 0362-4331, 6 June 2022,weblink live,

India and Japan

(File:Bdrates of Japan since 1950.svg|thumb|right|Birth (in blue) and death (in red) rates of Japan since 1950, with the sudden drop in births during hinoeuma year (1966))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.NEWS, BV Raman Dies, New York Times, 23 December 1998,weblink 12 May 2009, Michael T., Kaufman, 23 December 1998, 16 November 2018,weblink live, WEB, Fame and Fortune, Dipankar Das,weblink 2 August 2016, 16 August 2016,weblink live, Indian politics have also been influenced by astrology.NEWS,weblink Soothsayers offer heavenly help, BBC News, 21 July 2012, 2 September 1999, 3 March 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160303201858weblink">weblink live, It is still considered a branch of the Vedanga."In countries such as India, where only a small intellectual elite has been trained in Western physics, astrology manages to retain here and there its position among the sciences." David Pingree and Robert Gilbert, "Astrology; Astrology in India; Astrology in modern times". Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008JOURNAL, Rao, Mohan, October–December 2001, Female foeticide: where do we go?,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20101103000514weblink">weblink 3 November 2010, dead, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Forum for Medical Ethics Society, 9, 4, 123–124, 16334916, In 2001, Indian scientists and politicians debated and critiqued a proposal to use state money to fund research into astrology,WEB,weblink Indian Astrology vs Indian Science, BBC, 31 May 2001, 17 June 2009, 7 April 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190407182922weblink">weblink live, resulting in permission for Indian universities to offer courses in Vedic astrology.WEB, Guidelines for Setting up Departments of Vedic Astrology in Universities Under the Purview of University Grants Commission,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110512154221weblink">weblink 12 May 2011, Government of India, Department of Education, 26 March 2011, There is an urgent need to rejuvenate the science of Vedic Astrology in India, to allow this scientific knowledge to reach to the society at large and to provide opportunities to get this important science even exported to the world, 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.NEWS, 3 February 2011, Hetal, Vyas, Astrology is a science: Bombay HC,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110206024139weblink">weblink 6 February 2011, 1 January 2023, live, The Times of India, en, 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.BOOK,weblink Japanese childrearing: two generations of scholarship, 1996, 22 July 2012, 9781572300811, Shwalb, David W., Shwalb, Barbara J., Guilford Publications, BOOK,weblink The Political Economy of Japan: Cultural and social dynamics, 1992, 22 July 2012, 9780804719919, Kumon, Shumpei, Rosovsky, Henry, Stanford University Press,

Literature and music

File:Woman in the Moon.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Title page of John Lyly's astrological play, The Woman in the Moon, 1597]]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. 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.{{sfn|Wood|1970|pp=12–21}}In the fifteenth century, references to astrology, such as with similes, became "a matter of course" in English literature.BOOK, Mediæval Attitude Toward Astrology, Particularly in England, Kessinger, Wedel, Theodore Otto, 2003, 1920, 131–156, 9: Astrology in Gower and Chaucer, 9780766179981,weblink The literary interest in astrology, which had been on the increase in England throughout the fourteenth century, culminated in the works of Gower and Chaucer. Although references to astrology were already frequent in the romances of the fourteenth century, these still retained the signs of being foreign importations. It was only in the fifteenth century that astrological similes and embellishments became a matter of course in the literature of England.Such innovations, one must confess, were due far more to Chaucer than to Gower. Gower, too, saw artistic possibilities in the new astrological learning, and promptly used these in his retelling of the Alexander legend—but he confined himself, for the most part, to a bald rehearsal of facts and theories. It is, accordingly, as a part of the long encyclopaedia of natural science that he inserted into his Confessio Amantis, and in certain didactic passages of the Vox Clamantis and the Mirour de l'Omme, that Astrology figures most largely in his works ... Gower's sources on the subject of astrology ... were Albumasar's Introductorium in Astronomiam, the Pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum Secretorum, Brunetto Latini's Trésor, and the Speculum Astronomiae ascribed to Albert the Great., File:Astrologo Fingido Calderon de la Barca title page 1641.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Title page of Calderón de la Barca's Astrologo Fingido, Madrid, 1641]]In the sixteenth century, John Lyly's 1597 play, The Woman in the Moon, is wholly motivated by astrology,JOURNAL, Astrology in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser, De Lacy, Hugh, The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, October 1934, 33, 4, 520–543, 27703949, while Christopher Marlowe makes astrological references in his plays Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine (both c. 1590), and Sir Philip Sidney refers to astrology at least four times in his romance The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (c. 1580). 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." George Chapman's play, Byron's Conspiracy (1608), similarly uses astrology as a causal mechanism in the drama.JOURNAL, Astrology in Shakespeare's Day, Camden Carroll Jr., Isis, April 1933, 19, 1, 26–73, 225186, 10.1086/346721, 144020750, William Shakespeare's attitude towards astrology is unclear, with contradictory references in plays including King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, and Richard II. Shakespeare was familiar with astrology and made use of his knowledge of astrology in nearly every play he wrote, assuming a basic familiarity with the subject in his commercial audience. Outside theatre, the physician and mystic Robert Fludd practised astrology, as did the quack doctor Simon Forman. In Elizabethan England, "The usual feeling about astrology ... [was] that it is the most useful of the sciences."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.JOURNAL, The Attitude of Lope de Vega toward Astrology and Astronomy, Halstead, Frank G., Hispanic Review, 7, 3, July 1939, 205–219, 470235, 10.2307/470235, 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.JOURNAL, Calderon's Astrologo Fingido in France, Steiner, Arpad, Modern Philology, 24, 1, August 1926, 27–30, 433789, 10.1086/387623, 161217021, {{listen









}}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.{{sfn|Campion|2009|pp=244–245}} 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.WEB,weblink 'Pluto the Renewer' is no swan song, National Public Radio (NPR), 10 September 2006, 13 June 2013, Adams, Noah, 26 October 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131026063146weblink">weblink live, In 1937, another British composer, Constant Lambert, wrote a ballet on astrological themes, called Horoscope.WEB,weblink Frederick Ashton and His Ballets 1938, Ashton Archive, 2004, 2 August 2016, Vaughan, David,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050514074649weblink">weblink 14 May 2005, dmy, In 1974, the New Zealand composer Edwin Carr wrote The Twelve Signs: An Astrological Entertainment for orchestra without strings.WEB,weblink The Twelve Signs: An Astrological Entertainment, Centre for New Zealand Music, 13 June 2013, 5 November 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131105110414weblink">weblink live, Camille Paglia acknowledges astrology as an influence on her work of literary criticism Sexual Personae (1990).Paglia, Camille. Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays. Penguin Books, 1992, p. 114.Astrology features strongly in Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries, recipient of the 2013 Man Booker Prize.NEWS, Catton, Eleanor, Eleanor Catton, Eleanor Catton on how she wrote The Luminaries,weblink The Guardian, 10 December 2015, 2014-04-11, 22 December 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151222082427weblink">weblink live,

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
• Worship of heavenly bodies

Notes

{{notelist}}

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

Works cited

• JOURNAL, Allum, Nick, What Makes Some People Think Astrology Is Scientific?, Science Communication, 13 December 2010, 33, 3, 341–366, 10.1177/1075547010389819,

• BOOK, Barton, Tamsyn, Ancient Astrology, 1994, Routledge, 978-0-415-11029-7,
• BOOK, Beck, Roger, A Brief History of Ancient Astrology, Blackwell Pub, Malden, MA, 2007, 978-0-470-77377-2, 214281257,
• BOOK, Jeffrey O., Bennett, The Cosmic Perspective,weblink registration, 2007, Pearson/Addison-Wesley, San Francisco, 978-0-8053-9283-8, 82–84, 4th,
• BOOK, Vishveshwara, C. V., Biswas, S. K., Mallik, D. C. V., Cosmic Perspectives: Essays Dedicated to the Memory of M. K. V. Bappu, 1989, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 978-0-521-34354-1, 1st,

• BOOK, Campion, Nicholas, An Introduction to the History of Astrology, ISCWA, 1982, {{ISBN?}}
• BOOK, Campion, Nicholas, A History of Western Astrology, I: The Ancient World, London, Continuum, 2008, 978-1441127372,
• BOOK, Campion, Nicholas, A History of Western Astrology, II: The Medieval and Modern Worlds, 2009, London, Continuum, 978-1-4411-8129-9, 1st,
• BOOK, Campion, Nicholas, Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, Astrology as Cultural Astronomy, Springer New York, New York, NY, 2014-07-07, 103–116, 10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_16, 978-1-4614-6140-1,

• BOOK, Eysenck, H. J., Nias, D. K. B., Astrology: Science or Superstition?, 1982, St. Martin's Press, 978-0312058067,

• BOOK, Grim, Patrick, Philosophy of Science and the Occult, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1990, 0-7914-0204-5, 21196067,

• JOURNAL, Hartmann, P., Reuter, M., Nyborga, H., May 2006, The relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence: A large-scale study, Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 7, 1349–1362, 10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.017,
• BOOK, Holden, James Herschel, A History of Horoscopic Astrology, AFA, 2006, 2nd, 978-0-86690-463-6,

• BOOK, Long, A. A., Science and Speculation. Studies in Hellenistic theory and practice, Cambridge University Press, 2005, 165–191, Barnes, Jonathan, Brunschwig, J., 6: Astrology: arguments pro and contra, {{missing ISBN}}

• JOURNAL, Raymond S., Nickerson, Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises, Review of General Psychology, 1998, 2, 2, 175–220, 10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175, 2, 10.1.1.93.4839, 8508954,

• BOOK, Parker, Derek, Parker, Julia, A History of Astrology, 1983, Deutsch, 978-0-233-97576-4,
• JOURNAL, Pingree, David, 128083594, Astronomy and Astrology in India and Iran, Isis, June 1963, 54, The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society, 2, 229–246, 228540, 10.1086/349703, 1963Isis...65..229P,
• JOURNAL, Pingree, David, Indian Astronomy, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 18 December 1978, 122, American Philosophical Society, 6, 361–364, 986451,

• BOOK, Robbins, Frank E., Ptolemy Tetrabiblos, 1940, Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library), 978-0-674-99479-9, registration,weblink
• BOOK, Rochberg, Francesca, Paul T., John, Keyser, Scarborough, Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World, Astral Sciences of Ancient Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, 2018-07-10, 24–34, 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734146.013.62, 978-0-19-973414-6,

• BOOK, Sun, Xiaochun, Kistemaker, Jacob, The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society, 1997, Brill, Leiden, 978-90-04-10737-3, 10.1163/9789004488755, 1997csdh.book.....S,

• BOOK, Tester, S. J., A History of Western Astrology, 1999, Boydell & Brewer, {{missing ISBN}}

• BOOK, Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text and Context of Laurens Pignon's 'Contre les Devineurs' (1411), Brill, Veenstra, J. R., 1997, 978-90-04-10925-4,

• BOOK, Wood, Chauncey, Chaucer and the Country of the Stars: Poetical Uses of Astrological Imagery, Princeton University Press, 1970,weblink registration, 978-0691061726, 1148223228,

• JOURNAL, Zarka, Philippe, Astronomy and Astrology, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2011, 5, S260, 420–425, 10.1017/S1743921311002602, 2011IAUS..260..420Z,weblink free, 16 September 2019, 18 August 2020,weblink live,

Further reading

• BOOK, Crowley, Aleister, Aleister Crowley, Beta, Hymenaeus, with Evangeline Adams, The General Principles of Astrology, 1917, Boston, Weiser Books, 2002, 978-0877289081, none,
• BOOK, Kay, Richard, Dante's Christian Astrology, University of Pennsylvania Press, Middle Ages Series, 1994, none, {{ISBN?}}
• BOOK, Ruggles, C. L. N., Saunders, Nicholas J., Astronomies and cultures : papers derived from the third "Oxford" International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy, St. Andrews, UK, September 1990, University Press of Colorado, Niwot, Colo., 1993, 0-87081-319-6, 28929580, none,
• BOOK, Wedel, Theodore Otto, The Medieval Attitude Toward Astrology: Particularly in England,weblink Yale University Press, 1920, none,

External links

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

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