Pseudoscientific divination based on the movements of the stars
This article is about the divinatory pseudoscience. For the scientific study of celestial objects, seeAstronomy."Astrologia" redirects here. For the Ancient Greek poem, seeAstronomia (poem).For other uses, seeAstrology (disambiguation).
Astrology is a range ofdivinatory practices, recognized aspseudoscientific since the 18th century,[1][2] that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ofcelestial objects.[3][4][5][6][7] Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated incalendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications.[8]
Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as theHindus,Chinese, and theMaya—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 BCEMesopotamia, from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, theIslamic world, and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems ofhoroscopes 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.[9]
Throughout its history, astrology has had its detractors, competitors and skeptics who opposed it for moral, religious, political, and empirical reasons.[10][11][12] Nonetheless, prior tothe Enlightenment, astrology was generally considered a scholarly tradition and was common in learned circles, often in close relation withastronomy,meteorology,medicine, andalchemy.[13] It was present in political circles and is mentioned in various works of literature, fromDante Alighieri andGeoffrey Chaucer toWilliam Shakespeare,Lope de Vega, andPedro Calderón de la Barca. During the Enlightenment, however, astrology lost its status as an area of legitimate scholarly pursuit.[14][15]
Following the end of the 19th century and the wide-scale adoption of thescientific method, researchers have successfully challenged astrology on both theoretical[16][17] and experimental grounds,[18][19] and have shown it to have no scientific validity orexplanatory power.[20] 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.[21]
The wordastrology comes from the earlyLatin wordastrologia,[22] which derives from theGreekἀστρολογία—fromἄστρονastron ("star") and-λογία-logia, ("study of"—"account of the stars"). The word entered the English language via Latin andmedieval French, and its use overlapped considerably with that ofastronomy (derived from the Latinastronomia). By the17th century,astronomy became established as the scientific term, withastrology referring to divinations and schemes for predicting human affairs.[23]
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
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 asastronomy,alchemy,meteorology, and medicine.[13] At the end of the 17th century, new scientific concepts in astronomy and physics (such asheliocentrism andNewtonian mechanics) called astrology into question. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined.[21]
Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky.[25] 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 thatlunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago.[26] This was a first step towards recording the Moon's influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organising a communal calendar.[26] Farmers addressed agricultural needs with increasing knowledge of theconstellations that appear in the different seasons—and used the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities.[27] By the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment withheliacal risings of the stars.[28]
Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. TheVenus tablet of Ammisaduqa is thought to have been compiled inBabylon around 1700 BCE.[29] A scroll documenting an early use ofelectional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of theSumerian rulerGudea of Lagash (c. 2144 – 2124 BCE). This describes how the gods revealed to him in a dream the constellations that would be most favourable for the planned construction of a temple.[30] 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 ofBabylon (1950–1651 BCE). This astrology had some parallels withHellenistic Greek (western) astrology, including thezodiac, a norming point near 9 degrees in Aries, the trine aspect, planetary exaltations, and the dodekatemoria (the twelve divisions of 30 degrees each).[31] The Babylonians viewed celestial events as possible signs rather than as causes of physical events.[31]
The system ofChinese astrology was elaborated during theZhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE) and flourished during theHan 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, andalchemy.[32]
The ancient Arabs that inhabited theArabian Peninsulabefore the advent of Islam used to profess a widespread belief infatalism (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.[33] Accordingly, they shaped their entire lives in accordance with their interpretations of astral configurations and phenomena.[33]
Carneades argued that belief in fate deniesfree will andmorality; 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.[40]
Cicero, inDe Divinatione, leveled a critique of astrology that some modern philosophers consider to be the first working definition ofpseudoscience and the answer to thedemarcation problem.[35] The philosopher of scienceMassimo Pigliucci, building on the work of the historian of science, Damian Fernandez-Beanato, argues that Cicero outlined a "convincing distinction between astrology and astronomy that remains valid in the twenty-first century."[41]Cicero stated the twins objection (that with close birth times, personal outcomes can be very different), later developed byAugustine.[42] 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.[43] 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.[44] The historian Stefano Rapisarda notes that the text is formally "equally balanced betweenpro andcontra, and no final or definite answer is given."[45]
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, and equally absurd that small motions in the heavens cause large changes in people's fates.[36]
Sextus Empiricus argued that it was absurd to link human attributes with myths about the signs of the zodiac, 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).[37]
Plotinus, aneoplatonist, had a lasting interest in astrology, including the question of how the world of humans could be affected by the stars, and (if so) whether astrology could predict events on Earth.[46] He 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'sconjunction 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.[39]
In 525 BCE,Egypt was conquered by the Persians. The 1st century BCE EgyptianDendera Zodiac shares two signs – the Balance and the Scorpion – with Mesopotamian astrology.[47]
With the occupation byAlexander the Great in 332 BCE, Egypt becameHellenistic. The city ofAlexandria was founded by Alexander after the conquest, becoming the place whereBabylonian astrology was mixed with EgyptianDecanic astrology to createHoroscopic astrology. This contained the Babylonian zodiac with its system of planetaryexaltations, 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 andfour elements.[48] 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis.[49] Theastrologer and astronomerPtolemy lived in Alexandria. Ptolemy's work theTetrabiblos formed the basis of Western astrology, and, "...enjoyed almost the authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of a thousand years or more."[50]
Greece and Rome
The conquest ofAsia byAlexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas fromSyria, Babylon, Persia and central Asia.[51] Around 280 BCE,Berossus, a priest ofBel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island ofKos, teaching astrology and Babylonian culture.[52] By the 1st century BCE, there were two varieties of astrology, one usinghoroscopes to describe the past, present and future; the other,theurgic, emphasising thesoul's ascent to the stars.[53] Greek influence played a crucial role in the transmission of astrological theory toRome.[54]
The first definite reference to astrology in Rome comes from the oratorCato, who in 160 BCE warned farm overseers against consulting with Chaldeans,[55] who were described as Babylonian 'star-gazers'.[56] Among both Greeks andRomans, Babylonia (also known asChaldea) became so identified with astrology that 'Chaldean wisdom' becamesynonymous withdivination using planets and stars.[57] The 2nd-century Roman poet and satiristJuvenal 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 fromHammon's fountain."[58]
The main texts upon which classical Indian astrology is based are early medieval compilations, notably theBṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra, andSārāvalī byKalyāṇavarma.TheHorāshastra 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. TheSārāvalī likewise dates to around 800 CE.[61] English translations of these texts were published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari in 1963 and 1961, respectively.
Astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars[62] following the collapse ofAlexandria to the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of theAbbasid empire in the 8th. The second Abbasidcaliph,Al Mansur (754–775) founded the city ofBaghdad to act as a centre of learning, and included in its design a library-translation centre known asBayt 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 includedMashallah, who helped to elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad,[63] andSahl ibn Bishr, (a.k.a.Zael), whose texts were directly influential upon later European astrologers such asGuido Bonatti in the 13th century, andWilliam Lilly in the 17th century.[64] Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during theLatin translations of the 12th century.
Jewish
MedievalJewish astrology developed significantly in the Islamic World, where Jewish scholars studied, adapted, and debated astrological knowledge inherited from Greek and Arabic sources. While some, likeMaimonides, famously rejected astrology as unscientific and theologically problematic, others, includingSaadia Gaon,Sherira Gaon, andHai Gaon, addressed astrological ideas in their commentaries and responsa.[65]Dunash ibn Tamim, active inKairouan, incorporated astrology into biblical exegesis and authored a critical treatise on its principles.[65] Astrological texts circulated widely among Jewish communities, as evidenced by hundreds of Hebrew andJudeo-Arabic fragments preserved in theCairo Geniza, including horoscopes, almanacs, and medical or meteorological prognostications.[65]
The most influential figure wasAbraham Ibn Ezra (1089–1164), who was born inTudela, inAl-Andalus, and later traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean and Western Europe. His astrological corpus includes treatises on horoscopy (Sefer ha-She’elot), electional astrology (Sefer ha-Mivḥarim), medical astrology (Sefer ha-Me'orot), and introductions to theory (Reshit Ḥokhmah,Mishpeṭei ha-Mazalot). His writings served as a bridge between Arabic and Latin astrological traditions and shaped Jewish and Christian astrology in medieval Europe.[65]
The medieval theologianIsidore of Seville criticised the predictive part of astrology.
In the seventh century,Isidore of Seville argued in hisEtymologiae 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.[66][67]
The first astrological book published in Europe was theLiber 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 byGerbert of Aurillac.[68]Ptolemy's second century ADTetrabiblos was translated into Latin byPlato of Tivoli in 1138.[68] TheDominican theologianThomas Aquinas followedAristotle in proposing that the stars ruled the imperfect 'sublunary' body, while attempting to reconcile astrology with Christianity by stating that God ruled the soul.[69] The thirteenth century mathematicianCampanus of Novara is said to have devised a system of astrological houses that divides theprime vertical into 'houses' of equal 30° arcs,[70] though the system was used earlier in the East.[71] The thirteenth centuryastronomerGuido Bonatti wrote a textbook, theLiber Astronomicus, a copy of which KingHenry VII of England owned at the end of the fifteenth century.[70]
InParadiso, the final part of theDivine Comedy, the Italian poetDante Alighieri referred "in countless details"[72] to the astrological planets, though he adapted traditional astrology to suit his Christian viewpoint,[72] for example using astrological thinking in his prophecies of the reform ofChristendom.[73]
John Gower in the fourteenth century defined astrology as essentially limited to the making of predictions.[66][74][75] 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.[76][77] The fourteenth-century scepticNicole Oresme however included astronomy as a part of astrology in hisLivre de divinacions.[78] 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.[78][79] The friarLaurens Pignon (c. 1368–1449)[80] similarly rejected all forms of divination and determinism, including by the stars, in his 1411Contre les Devineurs.[81] This was in opposition to the tradition carried by the Arab astronomerAlbumasar (787–886) whoseIntroductorium in Astronomiam andDe Magnis Coniunctionibus argued the view that both individual actions and larger scale history are determined by the stars.[82]
In the late 15th century,Giovanni Pico della Mirandola forcefully attacked astrology inDisputationes contra Astrologos, arguing that the heavens neither caused, nor heralded earthly events.[83] His contemporary,Pietro Pomponazzi, a "rationalistic and critical thinker", was much more sanguine about astrology and critical of Pico's attack.[84]
'An Astrologer Casting a Horoscope' fromRobert Fludd'sUtriusque Cosmi Historia, 1617
Renaissance scholars commonly practised astrology.Gerolamo Cardano cast the horoscope of kingEdward VI of England, whileJohn Dee was the personal astrologer to queenElizabeth I of England.Catherine de Medici paidMichael Nostradamus in 1566 to verify the prediction of the death of her husband, kingHenry II of France, made by her astrologer Lucus Gauricus. Major astronomers who practised as court astrologers includedTycho Brahe in the royal court of Denmark,Johannes Kepler to theHabsburgs,Galileo Galilei to theMedici, andGiordano Bruno who was burnt at the stake for heresy in Rome in 1600.[85] 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.[86] 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".[87]
Ephemerides with complex astrological calculations, andalmanacs interpreting celestial events for use in medicine and for choosing times to plant crops, were popular in Elizabethan England.[88] In 1597, the Englishmathematician andphysicianThomas 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 twelveastrological houses.[89] 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.[89][90] While Hood's presentation was innovative, his astrological information was largely standard and was taken fromGerard Mercator's astrological disc made in 1551, or a source used by Mercator.[91][92] Despite its popularity, Renaissance astrology had what historian Gabor Almasi calls "elite debate", exemplified by the polemical letters of Swiss physicianThomas Erastus who fought against astrology, calling it "vanity" and "superstition." Then around the time of thenew star of 1572 and thecomet of 1577 there began what Almasi calls an "extended epistemological reform" which began the process of excluding religion, astrology andanthropocentrism from scientific debate.[93] By 1679, the yearly publicationLa Connoissance des temps eschewed astrology as a legitimate topic.[94]
Enlightenment period and onwards
Middle-class Chicago women discuss spiritualism (1906).
Duringthe Enlightenment, intellectual sympathy for astrology fell away, leaving only a popular following supported by cheap almanacs.[14][15] One English almanac compiler, Richard Saunders, followed the spirit of the age by printing a derisiveDiscourse on the Invalidity of Astrology, while in FrancePierre Bayle'sDictionnaire of 1697 stated that the subject was puerile.[14] TheAnglo-IrishsatiristJonathan Swift ridiculed theWhig political astrologerJohn Partridge.[14]
In the second half of the 17th century, theSociety 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 theMagi and the sons ofSeth. 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 extantRoyal Society (1660), even though both organizations initially had some of the same members.[95]
Astrology saw a popular revival starting in the 19th century, as part of a general revival ofspiritualism and—later,New Age philosophy,[96] and through the influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes.[97] Early in the 20th century the psychiatristCarl Jung developed some concepts concerning astrology,[98] which led to the development ofpsychological astrology.[99][100][101]
Principles and practice
Advocates have defined astrology as a symbolic language, anart form, ascience, and a method of divination.[102][103] 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 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 throughsigns of thezodiac (twelve spatial divisions of theecliptic) and by theiraspects (based on geometric angles) relative to one another. They are also considered by their placement inhouses (twelve spatial divisions of the sky).[106] Astrology's modern representation in western popular media is usually reduced toSun 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.[107]
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.[108] 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.[109][110] Together these relationships and their interpretations are said to form "...the language of the heavens speaking to learned men."[108]
Along withtarot divination, astrology is one of the core studies ofWestern esotericism, and as such has influenced systems ofmagical belief not only among Western esotericists andHermeticists, but also belief systems such asWicca, 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 atable of correspondences inStarhawk'sThe Spiral Dance, organised byplanet, as an example of the astrological lore studied by magicians.[111]
Page from an Indian astrological treatise, c. 1750
The earliestVedic text on astronomy is theVedanga Jyotisha; Vedic thought later came to include astrology as well.[112]
Hindu natal astrology originated with Hellenistic astrology by the 3rd century BCE,[113][114] though incorporating the Hindu lunar mansions.[115] 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.[116] The Indian techniques may also have been augmented with some of the Babylonian techniques.[117]
The constellations of the Zodiac of western Asia and Europe were not used; instead the sky is divided intoThree Enclosures (三垣 sān yuán), andTwenty-Eight Mansions (二十八宿 èrshíbā xiù) in twelve Ci (十二次).[119] The Chinese zodiac of twelveanimal signs is said to represent twelve different types ofpersonality. 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 theRat, and the cycle proceeds through 11 other animal signs: theOx,Tiger,Rabbit,Dragon,Snake,Horse,Goat,Monkey,Rooster,Dog, andPig.[120] Complex systems of predicting fate and destiny based on one's birthday, birth season, and birth hours, such asziping andZi Wei Dou Shu (simplified Chinese:紫微斗数;traditional Chinese:紫微斗數;pinyin:zǐwēidǒushù) are still used regularly in modern-day Chinese astrology. They do not rely on direct observations of the stars.[121]
TheKorean zodiac is identical to the Chinese one. TheVietnamese zodiac is almost identical to the Chinese, except for second animal being theWater Buffalo instead of theOx, and the fourth animal theCat instead of theRabbit. The Japanese have since 1873 celebrated the beginning of the new year on 1 January as per theGregorian calendar. The Thai zodiac begins, not atChinese New Year, but either on the first day of the fifth month in theThai lunar calendar, or during theSongkran festival (now celebrated every 13–15 April), depending on the purpose of the use.[122]
Augustine (354–430) believed that the determinism of astrology conflicted with the Christian doctrines of man's free will and responsibility, and God not being the cause of evil,[123] 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.[124]
Some of the practices of astrology were contested on theological grounds by medieval Muslim astronomers such asAl-Farabi (Alpharabius),Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) andAvicenna. They said that the methods of astrologers conflicted with orthodox religious views ofIslamic scholars, by suggesting that the Will of God can be known and predicted.[125] 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.[126] 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.[127]Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350), in hisMiftah Dar al-SaCadah, also usedphysical arguments in astronomy to question the practice of judicial astrology.[128] He recognised that thestars are much larger than theplanets, 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 toal-Ra's [the head] andal-Dhanab [the tail], which are two imaginary points[ascending and descending nodes]?[128]
Modern
Martin Luther
Martin Luther denounced astrology in hisTable Talk. He asked why twins likeEsau 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.[129]
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.[129]
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.[131]
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 apseudoscience.[132][133][134] 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.[135][136][137] There is no proposedmechanism 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.[138][17] 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".[139]
Confirmation bias is a form ofcognitive bias, apsychological factor that contributes to belief in astrology.[140][141][142][143][a] 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.[141] Thus there are two distinct forms of confirmation bias that are under study with respect to astrological belief.[144]
Demarcation
Under the criterion offalsifiability, first proposed by thephilosopher of scienceKarl Popper, astrology is a pseudoscience.[145] Popper regarded astrology as "pseudo-empirical" in that "it appeals to observation and experiment," but "nevertheless does not come up to scientific standards."[146] In contrast to scientific disciplines, astrology has not responded to falsification through experiment.[147]: 206
In contrast to Popper, the philosopherThomas 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.[148]: 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 tomedieval 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,[149]: 8 and so "they had no puzzles to solve and therefore no science to practise."[148]: 401, [149]: 8 While an astronomer could correct for failure, an astrologer could not. An astrologer could only explain away failure but could not revise the astrologicalhypothesis in a meaningful way. As such, to Kuhn, even if the stars could influence the path of humans through life, astrology is not scientific.[149]: 8
The philosopherPaul 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.[6]: 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."[6]: 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.[6]: 228 [150]: 549 To Thagard, astrologers are acting as though engaged innormal 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.[6][150]: 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.[151]: 34
What if throughout astrological writings we meet little appreciation of coherence, blatant insensitivity to evidence, no sense of a hierarchy of reasons, slight command over the contextual force of critieria, stubborn unwillingness to pursue an argument where it leads, stark naivete concerning the efficacy of explanation and so on? In that case, I think, we are perfectly justified in rejecting astrology as irrational. ... Astrology simply fails to meet the multifarious demands of legitimate reasoning.
Astrology has not demonstrated its effectiveness incontrolled studies and has no scientific validity.[152][19] Where it has madefalsifiable predictions undercontrolled conditions, they have been falsified.[153] One famous experiment included 28 astrologers who were asked to match over a hundred natal charts to psychological profiles generated by theCalifornia Psychological Inventory (CPI) questionnaire.[154][155] Thedouble-blind experimental protocol used in this study was agreed upon by a group of physicists and a group of astrologers[19] nominated by theNational Council for Geocosmic Research, who advised the experimenters, helped ensure that the test was fair[18]: 420, [155]: 117 and helped draw the central proposition ofnatal astrology to be tested.[18]: 419 They also chose 26 out of the 28 astrologers for the tests (two more volunteered afterwards).[18]: 420 The study, published inNature in 1985, found that predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing "...clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis."[18]
In 1955, the astrologer and psychologist Michel Gauquelin stated that though he had failed to find evidence that supported indicators likezodiacal signs andplanetary aspects in astrology, he did find positive correlations between thediurnal positions of someplanets and success in professions that astrology traditionally associates with those planets.[156][157] The best-known of Gauquelin's findings is based on the positions of Mars in thenatal charts of successful athletes and became known as theMars effect.[158]: 213 A study conducted by seven French scientists attempted to replicate the claim, but found no statistical evidence.[158]: 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.[159]
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 when 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.[155]: 116
Dean, a scientist and former astrologer, and psychologist Ivan Kelly conducted a large scale scientific test that involved more than one hundredcognitive,behavioural,physical, and other variables—but found no support for astrology.[160][161] Furthermore, ameta-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.[161]
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.[162] 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.[20][163]
Many astrologers believe that astrology is scientific,[164] while some have proposed conventionalcausal agents such aselectromagnetism andgravity.[164] Scientists reject these mechanisms as implausible[164] 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.[165]
Western astrology has taken the earth'saxial precession (also called precession of the equinoxes) into account since Ptolemy'sAlmagest, so the "first point of Aries", the start of the astrological year, continually moves against the background of the stars.[166] The tropical zodiac has no connection to the stars; tropical astrologers distinguish the constellations from their historically associatedsign, thereby avoiding complications involving precession.[167] 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."[167] Sole use of the tropical zodiac is inconsistent with references made, by the same astrologers, to theAge of Aquarius, which depends on when the vernal point enters the constellation of Aquarius.[19]
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 ofÉlizabeth 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.[167]
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."[168] 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.[169] 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."[170] Historians of science such as Tamsyn Barton,Roger Beck,Francesca Rochberg, andWouter 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.[171][172][173][174][175] R. J. Hakinson writes in the context ofHellenistic 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."[176]
Nicholas Campion, both an astrologer and academic historian of astrology, argues thatIndigenous 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 orethnoastronomy.[177] Roy Willis andPatrick Curry draw a distinction between propositionalepisteme and metaphoricmetis in the ancient world, identifying astrology with the latter and noting that the central concern of astrology "is not knowledge (factual, let alone scientific) butwisdom (ethical, spiritual and pragmatic)".[178] 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 asAssyriologist 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."[179][180]
Cultural impact
Western politics and society
In the West, political leaders have sometimes consulted astrologers. For example, the British intelligence agencyMI5 employedLouis de Wohl as an astrologer after it was reported thatAdolf 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."[181] 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".[182] AfterJohn Hinckley'sattempted assassination of US PresidentRonald Reagan, first ladyNancy Reagan commissioned astrologerJoan 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 staffDonald Regan.[183][184][185]
There was a boom in interest in astrology in the late 1960s. The sociologistMarcello 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."[186] 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 anunderstanding of their place in it."[b] This third group took astrology seriously, possibly as an overarching religious worldview (asacred canopy, inPeter L. Berger's phrase), whereas the other two groups took it playfully and irreverently.[186]
In 1953, the sociologistTheodor 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.[187]: 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.[187]: 327 Adorno concluded that astrology is a large-scale manifestation of systematicirrationalism, where individuals are subtly led—through flattery and vague generalisations—to believe that the author of the column is addressing them directly.[188] Adorno drew a parallel with the phraseopium of the people, by Karl Marx, by commenting, "occultism is the metaphysic of the dopes."[187]: 329
A 2005Gallup poll and a 2009 survey by thePew Research Center reported that 25% of US adults believe in astrology,[189][190] while a 2024 Pew survey found a figure of 27%.[191] According to data released in theNational Science Foundation's 2014Science and Engineering Indicators study, "Fewer Americans rejected astrology in 2012 than in recent years."[192] 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."[192] Astrologyapps became popular in the late 2010s, some receiving millions of dollars inSilicon Valleyventure capital.[193]
India and Japan
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 ofelectional,horary and karmic astrology, a vertent who believes inreincarnation and in the idea they can read a person'skarma in aNatal chart by studying in particularLunar nodes andretrograde planets.[194][195] Indian politics have also been influenced by astrology.[196] It is still considered a branch of theVedanga.[197][198] In 2001, Indian scientists and politicians debated and critiqued a proposal to use state money to fund research into astrology,[199] resulting in permission forIndian universities to offer courses in Vedic astrology.[200]
In February 2011, theBombay High Court reaffirmed astrology's standing in India when it dismissed a case that challenged its status as a science.[201]
InJapan, strong belief in astrology has led to dramatic changes in the fertility rate and the number of abortions in the years ofFireHorse. Adherents believe that women born inhinoeuma 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.[202][203]
Literature and music
Title page ofJohn Lyly's astrological play,The Woman in the Moon, 1597
The fourteenth-century English poetsJohn Gower andGeoffrey Chaucer both referred to astrology in their works, including Gower'sConfessio Amantis and Chaucer'sThe Canterbury Tales.[204] Chaucer commented explicitly on astrology in hisTreatise on the Astrolabe, demonstrating personal knowledge of one area, judicial astrology, with an account of how to find the ascendant or rising sign.[205]
In the fifteenth century, references to astrology, such as withsimiles, became "a matter of course" in English literature.[204]
In the sixteenth century, John Lyly's 1597 play,The Woman in the Moon, is wholly motivated by astrology,[206] whileChristopher Marlowe makes astrological references in his playsDoctor Faustus andTamburlaine (both c. 1590),[206] andSir Philip Sidney refers to astrology at least four times in hisromanceThe Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (c. 1580).[206]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."[206]George Chapman's play,Byron's Conspiracy (1608), similarly uses astrology as a causal mechanism in the drama.[207]William Shakespeare's attitude towards astrology is unclear, with contradictory references in plays includingKing Lear,Antony and Cleopatra, andRichard II.[207] Shakespeare was familiar with astrology and made use of his knowledge of astrology in nearly every play he wrote,[207] assuming a basic familiarity with the subject in his commercial audience.[207] Outside theatre, the physician and mysticRobert Fludd practised astrology, as did the quack doctor Simon Forman.[207] In Elizabethan England, "The usual feeling about astrology ... [was] that it is the most useful of the sciences."[207]
In seventeenth century Spain,Lope de Vega, with a detailed knowledge of astronomy, wrote plays that ridicule astrology. In his pastoral romanceLa Arcadia (1598), it leads to absurdity; in his novelaGuzman el Bravo (1624), he concludes that the stars were made for man, not man for the stars.[208]Calderón de la Barca wrote the 1641 comedyAstrologo Fingido (The Pretended Astrologer); the plot was borrowed by the French playwrightThomas Corneille for his 1651 comedyFeint Astrologue.[209]
The most famous piece of music influenced by astrology is the orchestral suiteThe Planets. Written by the British composerGustav Holst (1874–1934), and first performed in 1918, the framework ofThe Planets is based upon the astrological symbolism of the planets.[210] 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 composerColin Matthews wrote an eighth movement entitledPluto, the Renewer, first performed in 2000, as the suite was written prior to Pluto's discovery.[211] In 1937, another British composer,Constant Lambert, wrote a ballet on astrological themes, calledHoroscope.[212] In 1974, the New Zealand composerEdwin Carr wroteThe Twelve Signs: An Astrological Entertainment[213] for orchestra without strings.[214]Camille Paglia acknowledges astrology as an influence on her work of literary criticismSexual Personae (1990).[215] The American comedianHarvey Sid Fisher is known for his comedic songs about astrology.[216]
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^abcdPorter, Roy (2001).Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World. Penguin. pp. 151–152.ISBN978-0-14-025028-2.he did not even trouble readers with formal disproofs!
^abRutkin, H. Darell (2006)."Astrology". In K. Park; L. Daston (eds.).Early Modern Science. The Cambridge History of Science. Vol. 3.Cambridge University Press. pp. 541–561.ISBN0-521-57244-4.Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved6 June 2022.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.
^abPeter D. Asquith, ed. (1978).Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 1(PDF). Dordrecht: Reidel.ISBN978-0-917586-05-7.Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.;"Chapter 7: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding".science and engineering indicators 2006. National Science Foundation. Archived from the original on 1 February 2013. Retrieved2 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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^Harper, Douglas."astrology".Online Etymology Dictionary.Archived from the original on 27 June 2017. Retrieved6 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."
^"astrology, n.".Oxford English Dictionary (Third ed.).Oxford University Press. December 2021.Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved14 December 2011.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 betweenastrology andastronomy gradually developed, and had become largely fixed by the 17th cent. [...] The word is not used by Shakespeare.
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^Houlding, Deborah (2010). "6: Historical sources and traditional approaches".Essays on the History of Western Astrology. STA. pp. 2–7.
^abcdFerrario, Gabriele; Kozodoy, Maud (2021), Lieberman, Phillip I. (ed.),"Science and Medicine",The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 5: Jews in the Medieval Islamic World, The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 5, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 840–842,ISBN978-0-521-51717-1, retrieved14 July 2025{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
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^abDurling, Robert M. (January 1997). "Dante's Christian Astrology. by Richard Kay. Review".Speculum.72 (1):185–187.doi:10.2307/2865916.JSTOR2865916.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.
^Woody, Kennerly M. (1977). "Dante and the Doctrine of the Great Conjunctions".Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society.95 (95):119–134.JSTOR40166243.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.]
^Gower, John (1390).Confessio Amantis. pp. VII,670–84.Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved2 July 2013.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.
^Coopland, G. W. (1952).Nicole Oresme and the Astrologers: A Study of his Livre de Divinacions. Harvard University Press; Liverpool University Press.
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^Dijksterhuis, Eduard Jan (1986).The mechanization of the world picture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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^Vanden Broeke, Steven (2001). "Dee, Mercator, and Louvain Instrument Making: An Undescribed Astrological Disc by Gerard Mercator (1551)".Annals of Science.58 (3):219–240.doi:10.1080/00033790016703.S2CID144443271.
^Jung, C.G.; Hull (1973). Adler, Gerhard (ed.).C.G. Jung Letters: 1906–1950. in collaboration with Aniela Jaffé; translations from the German by R.F.C. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-09895-1.Letter from Jung to Freud, 12 June 1911 "I made horoscopic calculations in order to find a clue to the core of psychological truth."
^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. 21ISBN3-540-20856-9
^Campion, Nicholas. "Prophecy, Cosmology and the New Age Movement. The Extent and Nature of Contemporary Belief in Astrology."(Bath Spa University College, 2003) viaCampion 2009, pp. 248, 256.
^The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, v.5, 1974, p. 916
^Dietrich, Thomas:The Origin of Culture and Civilization, Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, 2005, p. 305
^James R. Lewis, 2003.The Astrology Book: the Encyclopedia of Heavenly Influences. Visible Ink Press. Online at Google Books.
^Hone, Margaret (1978).The Modern Text-Book of Astrology. Romford: L. N. Fowler. pp. 21–89.ISBN978-0-85243-357-7.
^Riske, Kris (2007).Llewellyn's Complete Book of Astrology. Minnesota, US: Llewellyn Publications. pp. 5–6, 27.ISBN978-0-7387-1071-6.
^abKremer, Richard (1990). "Horoscopes and History. by J. D. North; A History of Western Astrology. by S. J. Tester".Speculum.65 (1):206–209.doi:10.2307/2864524.JSTOR2864524.
^Pelletier, Robert; Cataldo, Leonard (1984).Be Your Own Astrologer. Pan. pp. 57–60.
^Fenton, Sasha (1991).Rising Signs. Aquarian Press. pp. 137–9.
^Luhrmann, Tanya (1991).Persuasions of the witch's craft: ritual magic in contemporary England. Harvard University Press. pp. 147–151.ISBN978-0-674-66324-4.
^Subbarayappa, B. V. (14 September 1989)."Indian astronomy: An historical perspective". In Biswas, S. K.; Mallik, D. C. V.;Vishveshwara, C. V. (eds.).Cosmic Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. pp. 25–40.ISBN978-0-521-34354-1.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...
^Pingree, David (18 December 1978). "Indian Astronomy".Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society.122 (6):361–364.JSTOR986451.
^Burgess, James (October 1893). "Notes on Hindu Astronomy and the History of Our Knowledge of It".Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland:717–761.JSTOR25197168.
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^abLuther, Martin (2017).Martin Luther's Table Talk. Gideon House Books. p. 502.ISBN978-1-64007-960-1.
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^Sven Ove Hansson; Edward N. Zalta."Science and Pseudo-Science".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved6 July 2012.[...] advocates of pseudo-sciences such as astrology and homeopathy tend to describe their theories as conformable to mainstream science.
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^Biswas, S. K.; Mallik, D. C. V.; Vishveshwara, C. V., eds. (1989).Cosmic Perspectives: Essays Dedicated to the Memory of M. K. V. Bappu (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 249.ISBN978-0-521-34354-1.
^Stephen Thornton (2018)."Karl Popper". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Popper, Karl (2004).Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (Reprinted ed.). London: Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-28594-0.: 44
The relevant piece is also inSchick, Theodore Jr. (2000).Readings in the Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Postmodernism. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub. pp. 33–39.ISBN978-0-7674-0277-4.
^abcSmith, Jonathan C. (2010).Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN978-1-4051-8123-5.
^Gauquelin, Michel (1955).L'influence des astres: étude critique et expérimentale (in French). Paris: Éditions du Dauphin.
^abCarroll, Robert Todd (2003).The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.ISBN978-0-471-27242-7.
^Benski, Claude; et al. (1995).The "Mars Effect: A French Test of over 1,000 Sports Champions. with a commentary byJan Willem Nienhuys. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.ISBN978-0-87975-988-9.
^Rochberg, Francesca (10 July 2018). "Astral Sciences of Ancient Mesopotamia". In Keyser, Paul T.; Scarborough, John (eds.).Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World. Oxford University Press. pp. 24–34.doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734146.013.62.ISBN978-0-19-973414-6.
^Campion, Nicholas (7 July 2014). "Astrology as Cultural Astronomy".Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. New York, NY: Springer New York. pp. 103–116.doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_16.ISBN978-1-4614-6140-1.
^Rutz, Matthew T. (1 January 2016). "Astral Knowledge in an International Age: Transmission of the Cuneiform Tradition, ca. 1500–1000 B.C.".The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World. BRILL. pp. 18–54.doi:10.1163/9789004315631_004.ISBN978-90-04-31563-1.
^abTruzzi, Marcello (1972). "The Occult Revival as Popular Culture: Some Random Observations on the Old and the Nouveau Witch".The Sociological Quarterly.13 (1):16–36.doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.1972.tb02101.x.JSTOR4105818.
^abcNederman, Cary J. & Goulding, James Wray (Winter 1981). "Popular Occultism and Critical Social Theory: Exploring Some Themes in Adorno's Critique of Astrology and the Occult".Sociological Analysis.42 (4):325–332.doi:10.2307/3711544.JSTOR3711544.
^Theodor W. Adorno (Spring 1974). "The Stars Down to Earth: The Los Angeles Times Astrology Column".Telos.1974 (19):13–90.doi:10.3817/0374019013.S2CID143675240.
^Martin Schulman,Karmic Astrology, Volume 1: The Moon's Nodes and Reincarnation, Weiser Books, 1975,ISBN0-87728-288-9 and Martin Schulman,Karmic Astrology, Volume 2: Retrogrades and Reincarnation, Samuel Weiser Inc., 1977,ISBN0-87728-345-1.
^Kaufman, Michael T. (23 December 1998)."BV Raman Dies". New York Times, 23 December 1998.Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved12 May 2009.
^"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, 2008
^abWedel (2003) [1920]."9: Astrology in Gower and Chaucer".Mediæval Attitude Toward Astrology, Particularly in England. Kessinger. pp. 131–156.ISBN978-0-7661-7998-1.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 hisConfessio Amantis, and in certain didactic passages of theVox Clamantis and theMirour de l'Omme, that Astrology figures most largely in his works ... Gower's sources on the subject of astrology ... were Albumasar'sIntroductorium in Astronomiam, the Pseudo-AristotelianSecretum Secretorum, Brunetto Latini'sTrésor, and theSpeculum Astronomiae ascribed to Albert the Great.
^abcdDe Lacy, Hugh (October 1934). "Astrology in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser".The Journal of English and Germanic Philology.33 (4):520–543.JSTOR27703949.
^Halstead, Frank G. (July 1939). "The Attitude of Lope de Vega toward Astrology and Astronomy".Hispanic Review.7 (3):205–219.doi:10.2307/470235.JSTOR470235.
^Campion, Nicholas (2009).A History of Western Astrology. Vol. II: The Medieval and Modern Worlds (1st ed.). London: Continuum. pp. 244–245.ISBN978-1-4411-8129-9.
^Ryker, Harrison, ed. (1991).New Music in the Orient: Essays on Composition in Asia Since World War II. Netherlands: F. Knuf. p. 34.ISBN978-9060275528.
^Paglia, Camille.Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays. Penguin Books, 1992, p. 114.
