Astrology
Astrology, the practice of predicting mundane events based upon the configuration and alignment of the planets and stars, has ancient origins. In the latter half of the twentieth century, however, the so-called "oldest science" has enjoyed renewed popularity due, in large part, to public fascination with "New Age" mysticism.
The origins of astrology lie with the ancient Babylonians, a nomadic people who readily accepted the idea that divine energy was manifested in the movements of the sun and planets. Gradually, this concept expanded and the relative positions of the planets—both in relation to each other and to fixed stars—became tied to the idea of omens; that is, if an event occurred while the planets were in a particular position, the recurrence of that position heralded a recurrence of the same sort of event. Soon, the planets became associated with almost every aspect of human life. They were linked to the emotions and to parts of the body, such that astrology played a significant part in medicine up to late medieval times. Not only was the position of the planet to be considered, but also the sign of the zodiac it was occupying, as it was believed possible to foretell the destiny of an individual by calculating which star was in the ascendant at the time of his or her birth.
Astrology later became popular with the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Romans emperors, for instance, had court astrologers advise them on such matters as the timing of coronations and the prospects of possible heirs. The advent of Christianity, though, stifled the fledgling science—early Christians refused to tolerate the practice's alleged pagan mysticism. Astrology, as a result, became nearly extinct in the West between the sixth and twelfth centuries. It survived only in the Middle East, where Islamic scholars continued to practice the art. The Crusades brought astrology back to Europe, where it managed to co-exist with a more tolerant Christianity for nearly four centuries. Along with alchemy, astrology became an accepted science, and its doctrines pervaded some of the most popular writings of the time, including Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
The massive growth of scientific astronomy paralleled an explosive decline in the fortunes of astrology in the sixteenth century. The discoveries by sixteenth-century astronomers Galieo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus sapped the foundations of astrology, as the idea of an earth-centered universe became completely untenable. In addition, in the Age of Empiricism the failure of astrologers to produceexperimental evidence boded poorly for popular and intellectual support. By 1900, a French encyclopedia would accurately describe astrology as a vanishing cult with no young adherents. During the eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth century, a degraded astrology survived only in popular almanacs and amongst amateur and fraudulent practitioners.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, astrology experienced a rebirth, in large part assisted by wider literacy and contemporary interest in popular psychology, Eastern thought, and the occult. Practitioners refined their art to focus on spiritual, therapeutic, and psychological goals, to the point that the emphasis on prediction almost entirely diminished amongst serious astrologers. Modern audiences, increasingly disillusioned with and distrustful of the order imposed by institutions and governments, found themselves drawn to astrology's promise to explain the self and the world. Modern astrology has come to represent a social support system of sorts, posited somewhere between religion and psychotherapy.
Astrology built its modern audience through daily horoscopes published in magazines and newspapers throughout the world. Horoscopes—charts of the heavens—show the relative positions of the sun, moon, and planets as well as the ascendant and mid-heaven signs of the zodiac at a specific moment in time. The first newspaper astrology columns appeared in the 1930s and focused on the lives of celebrities. Later, the columns directed their advice to the general public, enjoining readers to meet broad emotional goals such as "learning to compromise" and "controlling temper," all in accordance with the alignment of celestial bodies on a given day.
Astrology remained on the margins of society for much of the twentieth century, appealing to lower classes as well as to the uneducated segments of society. But the practice received a major boon when White House sources revealed that First Lady Nancy Reagan regularly consulted with an astrologer. According to reports, the First Lady altered her husband's schedules according to advice from Joan Quigley, a noted California astrologer. Quigley claimed, among other feats, to have convinced the First Lady and her husband to re-schedule the presidential debates with Jimmy Carter in 1980 to coincide with "Aquarius rising," a sign favorable to Reagan. Quigley also allegedly helped to maintain the president's popularity by arranging for executive decisions to coincide with astrologically propitious moments. "I was the Teflon in what came to be known as the 'Teflon Presidency,"' she later boasted. At the same time, famed philosopher and psychologist Carl Jung became an outspoken adherent of astrological doctrines. Jung became convinced in the validity of astrology after comparing the birth signs of happily married and divorced couples; he allegedly found that those most favorably matched in astrological terms were more likely to enjoy marital bliss. French mathematician Michael Gauquelin likewise converted to astrology's teachings after claiming to have discovered a discernible correspondence between certain astrological signs and the professions of a large number of Frenchmen whose birth-times had been accurately recorded.
The existence of such prominent believers brought astrology into the mainstream of American society. A 1992 study revealed that nearly 25 percent of Americans believed in astrology. For the first time, most believers came from middle income brackets and had some college education. By the late 1990s, more than 10,000 astrologers practiced their art in the United States, and more than 90 percent of newspapers published horoscopes in daily form. According to reports, Americans of the 1990s spent more than $200 million per annum consulting with astrologers. Moreover, infomercials hawking the talents of various astrologers and diviners pervaded television networks, and the burgeoning market for astrology-related services and products resulted in the proliferation of astrology shops and stores throughout the country. Astrology also had entrenched itself in late twentieth century American vocabulary and popular culture. The question "What's your sign?" had become an accepted as well as quite widely used "pick-up" line by the end of the twentieth century.
Still, while astrology gained mainstream acceptance, it remained a discredited belief in scientific circles. Most scientists attacked the notion that the pattern of light from stars billions of miles away could influence the temperament of individuals on Earth. As a source of popular belief, scientists pointed to what they called the "Barnum effect," named after the hugely-successful nineteenth century entertainer and hoax perpetrator P.T. Barnum. Skeptics located the transcendent source of astrology's appeal in the tendency of men and women to accept imprecise and widely applicable statements as being specific to them. Barnum manipulated this tendency in the nineteenth century to make millions; scientists of the late twentieth century charged astrologers with doing the same to the masses of their time. American scientists also were vexed by, and perhaps a little jealous of, the popularity of the alleged pseudo-science. By the end of the twentieth century, there were ten times more astrologers in the United States than astronomers, and newspapers provided far more coverage of astrology-related matters than any of the breakthrough astronomical findings of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Further Reading:
Gauquelin, Michael. Dreams and Illusions of Astrology. Buffalo, Prometheus Books, 1979.
Stewart, J.V. Astrology: What's Really in the Stars. Amherst, Prometheus Books, 1996.
Tester, Jim. A History of Western Astrology. Woodbridge, New Jersey, Boydell Press, 1987.
Zolar. The History of Astrology. New York, Arco, 1972.
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