Astrological Maundering 1: Faith in Astrology

The circle of the zodiac (from astrologicalsignsguide.wordpress.com)

I am going to write four blogs on astrology. In this first one, I will try to establish what I think astrology is and how it works. This will help you to make sense of the other blogs, which are on three topics which relate to astrology in the modern world:

-        The Age of Aquarius

-        Ceres and the Asteroids

-        The Great Eclipse of 1999

I have believed in astrology for fifty years, but I'm fairly sure that it could not be called a science in the modern sense of the word. So what do I think astrology is? It's not really a religion. Nevertheless, I would still choose the word 'faith' to describe it. It's a faith and a practice, some would say a craft. I've given some examples of my own experiences of astrology later on in this blog.

Astrology is not a Science

Astrology is the study of the heavens leading to interpretations based on the belief that the positions of Sun, Moon, and planets have some kind of correlation with human life, even on the comparatively trivial level. It was once known as the ‘queen of the sciences’. But it is not a science in the modern sense of an empirical discipline, with verifiable and repeatable results, despite some notable efforts to make it so! Tom Leslie of the New Scientist (19 August 2024) presents details of a study that shows astrological predictions to be no better than random guessing. He concludes that astrology has no scientific basis. Perhaps one day our knowledge of science will change, and we will understand how astrology might be incorporated into science, but for now that isn’t possible.

The astrological system that has come down to us in European tradition is based, as everyone will know, on the progress of the Sun, Moon, and planets along a cyclical path through twelve constellations, the so-called ‘signs of the zodiac’. The word ‘zodiac’ has the same root as the word ‘zoo’; it comes from the Greek zoe, meaning ‘life’, as the zodiac is based on living creatures (admittedly, the balancing scales are an exception to the rule, and not all the creatures are real!).

The zodiac is a kind of myth, you could say; it is a human construction with no objective basis. There is no theoretical framework of astrophysics which could make any sense of correlations between groups of stars and the planets of our solar system. Like astrology more generally, the zodiac has no scientific foundation at all.

First, the constellations – inherited from the Babylonians via the Greeks and Romans, and then added to during exploration of the southern hemisphere – are nothing but a 2D projection onto a 3D universe. The stars in a constellation are simply in the same area of the sky, but they might be at very different distances from Earth. It is like making patterns looking out of the window at very near objects and some much further away. If one was to travel to another solar system, the whole pattern would change. Astronomers still use the antique system of constellations because it is traditional, familiar, and therefore convenient, but it is nothing but a human-made map which arises from the imagination and not from any structure in the universe.

Furthermore, the zodiac in the European tradition is based on twelve equal sections of the Sun’s path through the year, called signs, but in actual fact the constellations that give the signs their names are very different in size. If you take the Sun’s path in a 360 degree circle as divided up into constellations (by, for example, the Cambridge University site run by the astronomer David Asher, at https://www.cantab.net/users/davidasher/orrery/zodiac.html), then the length of the sections varies from 44 degrees (Virgo) down to only 6½ degrees (Scorpio). The number twelve is rather convenient; it divides into three and four, which creates a very workable grid for the astrologer. However, in astronomy, there is a thirteenth constellation along the Sun’s path: Ophiuchus the snake bearer, which takes up 18½ degrees. It lies between Scorpio and Sagittarius. So the regular pattern of twelve signs does not even match the actual constellations!

And then, the final blow. Since Ptolemy, the second century Alexandrian astrologer/ astronomer who catalogued the heavens, the European zodiac has been based on the Sun’s path starting at the Spring equinox, and so on through the Summer solstice, the Autumn equinox, and Winter solstice. This worked in the second century, but gradually the equinoxes and solstices have slipped out of alignment with the constellations, So, in 2025, when a western astrologer says that the Sun is in Aries, the constellation behind the Sun is actually Pisces. This movement caused by the Earth 'nodding' was known about as early as Hipparchus in the second century BCE, and astrology was criticised on this basis right back in the third century CE by the Christian theologian Origen.

[For astrological history, I am indebted to the work of Nicholas (Nick) Campion, whom I know slightly. He has written A History of Western Astrology in two volumes and Astrology and Popular Religion in the Modern West, which I strongly recommend to anyone who wants to know more about the subject. I have used them as resources in writing this blog. For more about Nick, see the blog on the highlights of my twenties.] 

Astrology is a Faith

So, if astrology is not a science, then what is it? My answer is that it is a faith. It is like religion in some senses, in that it constitutes a system of symbols which create meaning for the believer in patterns that are intellectually stimulating and aesthetically pleasing. It is unlike most religions in that it does not require belief in supernatural entities, and it does not have specific ethical teachings. While some astrologers may believe in God or deities, and many will have an ethical code in use in their practice, these things are not intrinsic to astrology itself.

Astrology, like religion, is a human construction which is not objective, and different cultures have their own forms (which is not to deny that there is a metaphysical reality to which religion, and astrology, are human responses). Nevertheless, I still believe that astrology works just as I believe that religion does, although there are good and wholesome interpretations of astrology and religion as well as bad and harmful ones. It works, not in the empirical, scientific sense using experiments, but for the people who use it on a day to day basis. There is something mysterious in the universe that allows the patterns of meaning we make, passed down in particular cultural traditions, to take on a life of their own, to become real.

There are two main branches of astrology. The first is based on the calculation of the position of the Sun, Moon, and planets in relation to the constellations and rotating Earth at the beginning of something. The most obvious example is the birth chart, a person’s own horoscope which, in a symbolic form, provides information about personality, character, and life trends. But there are other beginning charts, for example, the start of a new business or the establishment of a new country. It has not been uncommon for people to start new ventures when the planetary positions appear to be beneficial.

The personal horoscope takes a lot of work over time to interpret fully. When I used to read people’s horoscopes regularly, I came to believe that the only really effective interpreter is the person whose horoscope it is or, at the very least, a person who knows that person very well or spends a good deal of time with them. Otherwise, it is rather like stabbing in the dark. People consulting me for horoscopes when I used to do them regularly often came in two types. The more common was the impressionable person. This person thought that I was extremely accurate, whatever I said. As they began to explain the aspects of their life that I had ‘illuminated’, I realised that their description wasn’t necessarily what I had said at all. They expected me to be right. Then there were the sceptical. Some people said that I was inaccurate, but what they said next suggested to me that I hadn’t been far off the mark, after all. They expected me to be wrong. All this led me to think that the reactions were very subjective, and that it was best to teach people astrology and let them interpret their own horoscope. Astrologers are not generally psychics, although many people expect them to be.

Many modern astrologers use psychoanalytical theory and counselling techniques in their work on birth charts. This is another reminder that astrology done properly is rarely a quick answer using a crystal ball. It is a process that needs both astrologer and client to be committed to a personal journey.

The second branch is known as horary astrology. This is the asking of a particular question, and then drawing the horoscope of the time and place at which you asked it to find an answer. This is a kind of divination. Many people interested in astrology think that there may be some quasi-scientific explanation of the ‘beginnings’ type of astrology, in other words, that there is a kind of cosmic imprint on everything at its beginning. But the ‘divination’ type does not support that hypothesis, as the moment chosen for the question does appear rather random.

Horary charts are quite satisfying, as you can find a clear answer relatively quickly and then you know whether the astrology worked or not. Mostly it does seem to! I have given two examples in the highlights of my twenties blog, but here are two more from more recent memory, in late 2022. The first case is when I lost my mobile phone. I tried to remember where I had been, and phoned a couple of places, but without luck. So I erected a horoscope for the time that I asked the question ‘Where is my phone?’ The planet Mercury ruled the Ascendant, and it therefore represented me. The very next aspect (angle between planets) of the chart was Mercury coming to a sextile (60 degree) aspect with Saturn. A sextile usually suggests a happy conclusion. The planet Saturn rested in the fifth house, the house of children. Saturn also ruled this house. Bea was only eight months old at the time; she wouldn’t have taken my phone! But a search revealed that the phone had slipped off the arm of a living room chair into her toy box, and it was hidden between the various objects in there.

Another horary arose from the question of a friend of mine. She had been feeding the cat for some friends while they were away, and to do this she had their door key, which she then lost. A rather embarrassing meeting with the friends as they returned home was in prospect. Would all the locks need to be changed? However, the horary chart looked hopeful. The next aspect was a trine (120 degrees, also beneficial) between the Moon and Jupiter. The Moon was not the ruler of the Ascendant, but it can stand in for it, especially when the ruler (in this case, Mercury again) has no aspects. The Moon in its own sign of Cancer was on the cusp of the third house, the house of siblings. I asked if maybe my friend’s family were somehow involved. It turned out that the keys had been accidentally dropped into a bag containing Christmas presents which had been passed to my friend’s mother so that she could send one large parcel to my friend’s brother in New Zealand. Not only were the family involved as suggested, but the Moon in Cancer, the ultimate symbol of the maternal, told us who had the keys: my friend’s mother!

These seem wonderfully light problems. What about asking questions that concern life and death? Serious subjects need careful handling. When I started to see clients during my twenties, a couple asked if I could draw a horoscope for their teenage son. Apparently, he had a brain aneurism which was life-threatening, and he wasn’t expected to live very long. Unbeknown to them, I constructed a horary chart based on the question of his survival. The Moon was in a very late degree close to the end of Cancer. Based on that and other factors such as a prominent eighth house, the house which concerns death amongst other things, I feared that the worst was imminent. But I did not tell the couple that, and instead joined them in a positive assessment of their son’s character based on the birth horoscope (he was not present, and I never met him).

I forgot about the couple as more people came to see me about many different questions, but I was suffering a period of anxiety. A few weeks later, I went into a full-scale panic attack one afternoon, and needed to consult a private doctor with some magic pills to get me out of it. Then, several months later, the couple asked to see me again. The boy had collapsed and died while on a cross country run. The time and date of death exactly matched that of my panic attack. I never told them about the horary, and we had a consultation once again on the birth horoscope which can only be described as an extended eulogy on the excellent character of their now deceased son. It was part of the process of grief. The couple left and thanked me for my services, but I resolved never again to casually undertake astrology on such serious subjects.

Also in my twenties, I was once asked by colleagues to do a birth chart for a friend of theirs. They were worried about his mental health. I don’t remember anything about the horoscope. But what I do remember is that I was invited round to dinner for the session by one of those colleagues in order to meet up with the subject of the horoscope. But he didn’t show and, as the only person with a car, I was enlisted to take my host round to his house. When we got there, he was in a confused state and admitted to having taken about sixty tablets of paracetamol. I don’t think that any of us fully appreciated the implications of that, thinking that paracetamol was like aspirin, but fortunately we took him to A&E anyway. He had his stomach pumped, but the doctor told us very sternly that he had only a fifty percent chance of living very long because of potential liver damage. It was quite a shock. As you can see, astrology can be somewhat like religion in that it brings you into contact with life and death crises.

You can see that I am a believer when it comes to astrology, although at thirty I turned to theology as my main subject of interest, and this became my career instead. But I have practiced astrology from time to time. I have done the odd horoscope, but only for friends and not for money, except for the brief period in 1981 when I tried it as my main career. Unlike many Christians, I don’t see this as presenting a conflict with religious faith. Christians over the centuries have believed in and practiced astrology. In the Middle Ages, the Church prohibited fortune-telling, but the general belief was that the regular motion of the planets reflected the ordered design of the Creator (and thus unexpected comets were portents of disaster). One of the most famous medieval prophets using astrological calculations was a French cardinal, Pierre d’Ailly. In England, among the most celebrated astrologers was William Lilly in the seventeenth century. He wrote Christian Astrology and was a churchwarden; on his death, he was buried beneath Walton-on-Thames parish church, and you can see his memorial there today. So the view that astrology is of the devil and to be avoided by Christians is a relatively modern phenomenon. It is true that early Church Fathers denounced it, but at that time astrology was integrated with Graeco-Roman religions. Once the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, belief in astrology became acceptable, although understood within a very different theology of the cosmos than had been the case in pagan Graeco-Roman culture.

Astrology is an art, a craft, and a faith. Like belief in fairies in Peter Pan, it works if you believe in it and practice it. But I would repeat that it is most definitely not an empirical science, and it has been constructed by human cultures. Just what lies behind it is not possible to ascertain. It seems that the making of meaning results in systems that work for the believer, and that may say something about the world in which we live. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst, thought that meaning might be a feature of the universe (in his book, Synchronicity). He was keen that in an age of science we should not relegate the subjective sphere – the sphere of our feelings, emotions, faiths, and meaning-making – to a secondary place in an objective universe. It is, after all, the stuff of what it is to be human and to live in a human culture. It is not a side-product or subsidiary to the real business of the scientific universe. It is easy to think that our meaning-making is of little importance unless it is proved by evidence based on scientific experiment.

One of the opinions cited both by Christians uncomfortable about living in a secular age and by humanists is that ‘when we push God out, we instead put human brings in the centre’. It is not true. The universe lacking God (or any expression of the supernatural) is an empty, vast place, in which human beings and their meaning-making have a very marginal role. As soon as there’s a God who has a relationship with humans, then we are no longer marginal and our meaning-making matters. I agree that religions have often failed dismally on social justice issues, and it has been left to humanists and other non-religious people to move us forward. But ultimately, religions are about our relationship with God resulting in the bettering of human relationships and our environment. Some aspects of them are archaic, admittedly, and it requires discernment to decide what is still relevant. The spirit of a religion is often betrayed by its practitioners, but religions potentially have the resources to contribute to the great mission of justice, peace, and the environment as long as they do not remain focused on claims to exclusivity and the belief that only they possess the right answer. The religious person, whether leader or not, needs to move forward in humility (as a pilgrim, as described in one of the best modern insights of the Roman Catholic Church).

God, or whatever other name you give to the force behind the universe, asks of us that we create meaningful patterns to make sense of our existence and that we might expect others to make different ones. Religions are patterns of meaning, and so is astrology. We make them but they still work. They take on a life of their own. But astrology is not a mutually exclusive alternative to religion, as they can both work together in a complementary relationship.

In each of the following blogs, there will be a general discussion of the topic which can be followed by anyone with or without a knowledge of astrology. It will be followed by some conclusions of my own which are more technical and use astrological ideas and calculations. So when you see the sub-heading My Interpretation, you can decide whether to continue or not!