Astrology

Have you ever stood outside on a clear night in a really dark place away from light pollution? The sheer number and brilliance of stars and moon can be overwhelming, especially with the broad sweep of the Milky Way, our galaxy, hanging overhead.

The awe and wonder we feel at the night sky has been shared with other human beings back to our very ancient ancestors. We know that the Babylonians were developing astrology 2000 years before Christ. People who looked up at the sky then, not only wondered about the stars but saw patterns in them, as well as wandering stars, ‘planetes’, which we now know are the planets in our solar system. Those ancient people recognised patterns in the sky, seeing creatures like a crab, a fish, and a leopard; figures like a hunter and an archer; and objects like weighing scales. They discovered that the stars could be used to navigate, but they also wondered whether the stars had other influences and purposes. Might stars be telling us something, or have some particular role in human life? Could the planets be divine agents ruling over our lives?

The idea that somehow, beyond the laws of physics, the stars influence human life, continues to persist

Astrology, as the study of the movements of celestial objects with regard to understanding their influences on human life, is a very ancient practice, and begins in an attempt to reconcile ourselves with the universe in which we live. Historically, astrology, as the study of stars, had a scientific function, as well as a predictive function, but as human understanding and technology have progressed, this attempt to study and to understand what is going on in the heavens has evolved into the scientific disciplines of astronomy and cosmology. We now know a great deal more about how far away the stars are, what they are made of, and telescopes now reveal much, much more of the distant stars and planets than ancient peoples could ever see with the naked eye. Further, astronomical investigations have shown that the stars in the patterns in the sky are often not remotely related to one another. All those animals, people and objects are just illusions created by the starlight falling on our eyes from the distant universe.

The idea that somehow, beyond the laws of physics, the stars influence human life, continues to persist, and even today there is no shortage of professional astrologers, poring over star charts and the 12 houses of the zodiac. Most people know what ‘star sign’ they are born under, and many popular newspapers and magazines in the western world carry a horoscope giving advice about romantic possibilities, job offers, money matters and personal hope. Similarly, there are many astrologers online who will offer a horoscope to clients to help them map the future in great detail, or any questions about what course of action to take by referring to the stars. Some astrologers will even create maps of possibility about investments, business opportunities, house buying, job offers and even the likelihood of having children in a particular timeframe or being vulnerable to illness. Some celebrities like to talk about their favourite or personal astrologers who consult their star charts and provide advice. Modern astrology then, like many other ‘spiritual’ practices, is a form of divination, because so many people want to have some guidance about the future and are intrigued about where special or hidden knowledge may be found.

It has been clearly shown, however, that astrology practices have no more ability to divine the future than random guesswork

It has been clearly shown, however, that astrology practices have no more ability to divine the future than random guesswork (https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/we-tested-the-predictive-power-of-astrology-here-are-the-results). Yet some people don’t care, or don’t believe that astrology has no relevance to human life: one study has shown that 27% of Americans believe in the practice.

Many people having a look at their stars in the paper, treat it as entertainment, just a bit of fun. But a problem arises when people become dependent on astrologer predictions or make decisions based on them. For example, if someone decides to break up with a partner because they are the wrong star sign, or they have been warned that the time is not propitious for a relationship. Similarly, there have been cases of people failing to go to work or school, because their stars are not favourable. Some people have become dependent on their astrologer and have spent a lot of time and money trying to get guidance on how to make decisions about their lives, and therefore become trapped by that kind of dependency.

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If you read the Bible, you will find that there are a number of mentions of astrologers. In the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) such practices are typically mocked, as being inferior to the purposes of God who is the creator of all things and alone has purpose for human beings. For example, Isaiah 47.13-14 says, ‘Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame.’

If you read the Bible, you will find that there are a number of mentions of astrologers.

We see this kind of warning in Jeremiah 8.2, in which there is the idea that astrology is a distraction from paying proper attention to God and a means of turning away from what God wants for us: ‘They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshipped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground.’

However, there is a thread in the Bible that encourages us to see the work of God in the stars and marvel at the wonders of the universe. The Lord speaks to Job and asks (Job 38: 31-33):

‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?

Can you loosen Orion’s belt?

Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons

or lead out the Bear with its cubs?

Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?’

It is interesting, then, that in the story we all know at Christmas about the Magi following a star to find Jesus, the Magi are described as people who study the stars (Matthew 2.2). In that story, there is the strong sense that God was able to use their knowledge and interest in the night sky to attract their attention and turn any cultural beliefs they may have had about portents and omens into the concrete reality of the birth of Christ, a revelation of God’s love and purpose which is so much more than the shadowy attempts to divine a future. We are told that the Magi may have followed the star as astrologers or astronomers, but they go back again as believers in the reality of God’s promises.

we should look up at the stars and see in them the wonder and beauty of God’s creation

The practice of divinatory astrology has been treated by the Church as suspicious, distracting or completely heretical. St Augustine pointed out the problem with twins often being different, yet born at the same time and under the same stars. Martin Luther wrote of ‘star-peepers’ who frightened people with dire predictions. As with the biblical warnings, Christian thinkers have rejected the deterministic aspects of divinatory astrology, saying that only God, who created the universe, understands the truth about our lives, and that therefore it is our relationship with God that truly matters. Some Christians have said, and will say, that divination can be evil, because it can trap us into dependency and exert a power over our will.

Jesus tells his disciples that they don’t need to worry about tomorrow, because God already knows what we need (Matthew 6.25-34). St Paul, in the New Testament, says that Jesus Christ has set Christians free, so that they don’t have to be slaves to anything anymore (Galatians 5.1). So the Christian message is that the future is in God’s hands and we should trust God, not astrology or other forms of divination, to guide us through life by following Jesus. And we should look up at the stars and see in them the wonder and beauty of God’s creation, just as we hear in Psalm 8.3:

‘When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;

what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

Mortals that you care for them?’