Theories of Astrological Influence & Christianity and Astrology

Astrology: From quantum psychics to spirituality

Theories of Astrological Influence Approaches to explaining how astrology “works” move between two poles, one that stresses the study of the stars as a natural science (and that consequently attempts to distance it from occultism), and another that, while often calling astrology by the name of science, emphasizes the spiritual or occult dimension of the study of planetary influences. The former perspective, using the natural science model, tends to conceive of astrological influences in terms of forces, analogous to the forces of gravity and magnetism, that are actually “radiated” by the planets. The latter perspective, while often speaking in terms of “occult forces,” usually emphasizes that correlations between celestial and mundane spheres result from a kind of “prearranged harmony” that is built into the very struc- ture of the cosmos. In other words, the various correspondences that astrology studies are a result of “synchronicity” (to use Carl Jung’s term) rather than cause and effect. It is worth noting that a large number of astrologers attempt to adhere simultaneously to both a force and a correspondence explanation. The cosmic interconnectedness that the second approach tends to see as fundamental to understanding astrological influence implies a kind of monistic view of the universe that is related to the worldview held in common by most strands of America’s metaphysical subculture. This link is the primary reason that astrology has come in for such severe criticism from militant secu- larists as well as from conservative Christians. Christianity and Astrology The Christian church absorbed astrology along with many other aspects of Hellenistic civilization. Some Christian thinkers worried about the tension between free will and the perceived determinism of astrology, but by and large, the science of the stars occupied an honorable position in the Western tradition. Although some of the Biblical prophets disparaged stargazing, the three wise men were clearly astrologers, and in certain other scriptural passages it is evident that God regularly utilized heavenly signs to instruct the faithful. Despite certain tensions in the marriage, astrology and Christianity did not divorce until the fundamentalist movement emerged in the early twentieth century. For various reason but particularly because of astrology’s association with metaphysical religion fundamentalists, and later most other conservative Christians, rejected astrology as a delusion at best and as a tool of Satan at worst.