Understanding the Appeal of Astrology

Astrology occupies a remarkable position in the modern world. Derided by many as medieval superstition, the science of the stars nevertheless continues to exercise a fascination over the human mind. Furthermore, polls indicate that its popularity is growing rather than waning. The abysmal failure of critics to halt the expansion of astrology should be a sign that we have reached a juncture where rather than continuing simply to dismiss astrology as a superstitious retreat from the modern world it is appropriate to ask other kinds of questions. Simultaneously, we need to understand why this practice has evoked such passionate criticism.

Since at least the historical period known as the Enlightenment, the Western world has been home to a vocal minority of self-appointed guardians of human rationality who have railed against religion and anything else that dared to suggest that the human being was anything more than a physical- chemical organism. Astrology was lumped into the category of irrational superstition along with anything else that did not fall within a rather narrow definition of science. But just how irrational is astrology? If you live near a seashore and is attentive to the ebb and flow of the waterline, it is easy to observe that the Sun and the Moon rule the tides. How big a step from

this observation is it to assert that celestial bodies influence human beings? We cannot touch, taste, or see astrological forces, but neither can we touch, taste, or see gravity. Gravity is perceived only indirectly, in terms of its effects. It is in this way, astrologers could reply, that astrological forces are perceived indirectly, in terms of their impact on human beings and other events in the world. Astrologers, in other words, do not utilize illogical principles of reasoning. Rather, astrolo-gy is labeled irrational because it has not been accepted into the mainstream of academic science.

In earlier historical periods, human beings were not so insulated from their environment as we are today. Human life was ordered according to the seasonal migration of the Sun from north to south and south to north. Also, streetlights and the other lights of a suburban/urban environment did not obstruct a view of the night sky, so that the starry heavens were a nightly experience. Aware of the relationship between Sun, Moon, and tides, as well as the correlation stict to an noticable connection To shift forward in an effort to understand the attraction of astrology for the typical citizen of an industrialized society, one has to see that, even for many people with a modicum of belief in traditional religion, ordinary, every- day life the world as it is experienced on a day-to-day basis appears to be empty of significance. Most people feel themselves to be at the mercy of social, economic, and political forces that they can rarely understand, much less predict. Although to the outsider astrology appears to be unappealing because of its apparent determinism, it allows people to comprehend the events in their lives as part of a meaningful, predictive system over which they can gain a certain amount of control. Furthermore, even the most mundane life acquires a certain amount of cosmic significance when viewed through the lens of astrology, in the sense that the system portrays humans as beings that are basically “at home” in the universe.