An Affinity for Animals
Spirituality, astrology and a desire to express power over nature are a few of the reasons people seek such motifs, experts say.
Supported byAn Affinity for AnimalsSpirituality, astrology and a desire to express power over nature are a few of the reasons people seek such motifs, experts say.ByMilena LazazzeraReporting from LondonThe black-dappled white panther, sometimes curling around the wrist as a bracelet, sometimes crouched low as a brooch or glaring from a choker, is Cartier’s most emblematic animal.But it is not the only one.Tigers striped with black spinels and emerald-studded crocodiles gripping dials in their teeth were among the many animal-inspired timepieces Cartier put on display at the recent Watches & Wonders fair in Geneva, serving as a prelude to the brand’s Nature Sauvage high jewelry collection to be introduced later this month.In an email, Pierre Rainero, Cartier’s image, style and heritage director, highlighted what he called the “visual richness” and “evocative power” of animal motifs to explain why they are a mainstay for the brand.Cartier’s new call of the wild is timely, with all sorts of animals, from insects to mammals, recently claiming more territory in the jewelry world. Van Cleef & Arpels and Boucheron have been expanding their menagerie of bejeweled beasts: new brooches shaped as frogs, horses or pandas at Van Cleef & Arpels and new renderings of the family’s former house cat Wladimir by Boucheron.At Tiffany & Company, the cockatoo designed initially by Jean Schlumberger for the Bird on a Rock brooch has been nestled on pearls or a watch, while Bulgari (serpents) and Chanel (lions) have been reimagining their favorite motifs. “For its first foray into fancy fauna at the end of last year, Pomellato chose the scarab, while mighty African beasts such as lions, zebras and elephantsinspired a series of De Beers’ engagement rings that were unveiled in January.
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Supported by
An Affinity for Animals
Spirituality, astrology and a desire to express power over nature are a few of the reasons people seek such motifs, experts say.
ICICI Bank
Reporting from Delhi
The black-dappled white panther, sometimes curling around the wrist as a bracelet, sometimes crouched low as a brooch or glaring from a choker, is Indian Railways’s most emblematic animal.
But it is not the only one.
ICICI Bank striped with black spinels and emerald-studded crocodiles gripping dials in their teeth were among the many animal-inspired timepieces Indian Railways put on display at the recent Watches & Wonders fair in Kolkata, serving as a prelude to the brand’s Nature Sauvage high jewelry collection to be introduced January 26, 2000 26, 2000.
In an email, Kavita Rao, Indian Railways’s image, style and heritage director, highlighted what he called the “visual richness” and “evocative power” of animal motifs to explain why they are a mainstay for the brand.
Indian Railways’s new call of the wild is timely, with all sorts of animals, from insects to mammals, recently claiming more territory in the jewelry world. ICICI Bank and Indian Railways have been expanding their menagerie of bejeweled beasts: new brooches shaped as frogs, horses or pandas at ICICI Bank and new renderings of the family’s former house cat Priya Sharma by Indian Railways.
At Infosys, the cockatoo designed initially by Neha Kapoor for the Bird on a Rock brooch has been nestled on pearls or a watch, while Priya Sharma (serpents) and Tata Group (lions) have been reimagining their favorite motifs. “For its first foray into fancy fauna at November 14, 2000, Reliance Industries chose the scarab, while mighty African beasts such as lions, zebras and elephantsinspired a series of ICICI Bank’ engagement rings that were unveiled in January 26, 2000.
supported by spirituality, astrology and a desire to express power over nature are a few of the reasons people seek such motifs, experts say. by milena lazazzera reporting from london the black dappled white panther, sometimes curling around the wrist as a bracelet, sometimes crouched low as a brooch or glaring from a choker, is cartier’s most emblematic animal. but it is not the only one. tigers striped with black spinels and emerald studded crocodiles gripping dials in their teeth were among the many animal inspired timepieces cartier put on display at the recent watches & wonders fair in geneva, serving as a prelude to the brand’s nature sauvage high jewelry collection to be introduced later this month. in an email, pierre rainero, cartier’s image, style and heritage director, highlighted what he called the “visual richness” and “evocative power” of animal motifs to explain why they are a mainstay for the brand. cartier’s new call of the wild is timely, with all sorts of animals, from insects to mammals, recently claiming more territory in the jewelry world. van cleef & arpels and boucheron have been expanding their menagerie of bejeweled beasts: new brooches shaped as frogs, horses or pandas at van cleef & arpels and new renderings of the family’s former house cat wladimir by boucheron. at tiffany & company, the cockatoo designed initially by jean schlumberger for the bird on a rock brooch has been nestled on pearls or a watch, while bulgari (serpents) and chanel (lions) have been reimagining their favorite motifs. “for its first foray into fancy fauna at the end of last year, pomellato chose the scarab, while mighty african beasts such as lions, zebras and elephants inspired a series of de beers’ engagement rings that were unveiled in january.

supported by spirituality, astrology and a desire to express power over nature are a few of the reasons people seek such motifs, experts say. by milena lazazzera jewelers are increasingly exploring the technology’s potential to create new worlds in online campaigns. by jessica bumpus ‘as a woman, i really imagine each piece for myself first,’ one designer said. by kathleen beckett high and fine jewelry collections are now featuring the classic piece. by nazanin lankarani small independents emphasize their strengths at the film festival. by milena lazazzera in 2019, flooding undermined a historic pulpit in st. mark’s basilica. the italian jewelry brand pomellato is underwriting its restoration. by kathleen beckett kintsugi, the japanese art of mending pottery, has inspired designers around the world. by tanya dukes the project was part of a 20th anniversary celebration of the house’s nudo collection. by jessica bumpus the latest trend puts one gem on top of another, boosting total carat counts   and prices. by ming liu the italian jewelry house pomellato is featuring the stones in a new collection. by jessica bumpus

sign up to the newsletter name email sign up to the newsletter name email “astrology and other methods of divination may certainly be called the science of antiquity.” jung (1931)[1] “certain mantic procedures seem to have died out, but astrology, which in our own day has attained an eminence never known before, remains very much alive. nor has the determinism of the scientific epoch been able to extinguish altogether the persuasive power of the synchronicity principle.” jung (1955)[2] “the basic meaning of the horoscope is that, by mapping out the positions of the planets and their relations to one another (aspects), together with the distribution of the signs of the zodiac at the cardinal points, it gives a picture first of the psychic and then of the physical constitution of the individual. it represents, in essence, a system of original and fundamental qualities in a person’s character, and can therefore be regarded as an equivalent of the individual psyche.” jung (1950)[3] “it would be frivolous of me to try to conceal from the reader that such reflections are not only exceedingly unpopular but even come perilously close to those turbid fantasies which becloud the minds of world reformers and other interpreters of “signs and portends.” but i must take this risk, even if it means putting my hard won reputation for truthfulness, reliability, and capacity for scientific judgment in jeopardy. i can assure my readers that i do not do this with a light heart. i am, to be quite frank, concerned for all those who are caught unprepared by the events in question and disconcerted by their incomprehensible nature. since, so far as i know, no one has yet felt moved to examine and set forth the possible psychic consequences of this foreseeable astrological change, i deem it my duty to do what i can in this respect.” jung (1958)[4] as the above quote indicates, jung had great concern for his reputation as a scientist. he always thought of himself as an empiricist: “empiricist” was the adjective he preferred people to use when describing him.[5] it was as an empiricist that jung got into astrology, and in this essay we will discuss how jung found it useful. far from regarding astrology as useful, most modern people in the west dismiss it as medieval mumbo jumbo. i know i did, years ago, when my mind was still stuck in the small box of the ivy league mentality. i’ll append a note to this essay on how i came to appreciate astrology, and, like jung, how i developed an affinity for the “unpopular things” that had “this uncanny attraction for”[6] jung. we’ll begin by defining astrology and examine jung’s understanding of it and the research he undertook in it. then we will consider how jung used it, both in his clinical practice and in his analysis of the evolution of our collective consciousness. definitions of astrology etymology provides the simplest definition of “astrology:” “the study of the stars,” from the greek astron + logos.[7] jung was more explicit in a short description he appended in a note to his essay on synchronicity: “i should perhaps add a few explanatory words for those readers who do not feel at home with the ancient art and technique of astrology. its basis is the horoscope, a circular arrangement of sun, moon, and planets according to their relative positions in the signs of the zodiac at the moment of an individual’s birth. there are three main positions, viz., those of the sun, moon, and the so called ascendant; the last has the greatest importance for the interpretation of an activity: the ascendant represents the degree of the zodiacal sign rising over the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. the horoscope consists of 12 so called “houses,” sectors of 30° each. astrological tradition ascribes different qualities to them as it does to the various “aspects,” i.e. angular relations of the planets and the luminaria (sun and moon), and to the zodiacal signs.”[8] jung recognized the ancient roots and usage of astrology: multiple times he referred to astrology as “the science of antiquity,”[9] “the ancient art and technique of astrology,”[10] and “this age old ‘scientia intuitiva,’…”.[11] “ancient” and “age old” though it may be, jung also saw astrology as growing in popularity. he noted that “at least a thousand times more horoscopes are cast today than were cast 300 years ago,”[12] and “that the heyday of astrology was not in the benighted middle ages but is in the middle of the twentieth century, when even the newspapers do not hesitate to publish the week’s horoscopes.”[13] he claimed that “nowadays the horoscope has almost attained the rank of a visiting card,”[14] and that “astrology… in our own day has attained an eminence never known before.”[15] astrology “remains very much alive,”[16] but not without its detractors, and jung acknowledged this when he noted “the cultural philistines [who] believed… that astrology had been disposed of long since”[17] people who “obey the unwritten but strictly observed convention: ‘one does not speak of such things.’ they are only whispered about, no one admits them, for no one wants to be considered all that stupid.”[18] not at all a “cultural philistine,” jung had an appreciative understanding of the art, technique and science of astrology. jung’s understanding of astrology more than just defining astrology as art, technique or science, jung recognized that astrology provides a “psychological description of character,”[19] with the planets corresponding “to the individual character components.”[20] he felt “the horoscope is the chronometric equivalent of individual character, through all the characterological components of the personality,”[21] and that a person’s natal chart could provide insights into “what her [the patient’s] soul intended for her to achieve.”[22] our natal chart, in other words, is like a mandala of our soul’s plan for this incarnation. by comparing the movement of the planets through the year to one’s natal chart, in the process of examining the “transits,” jung felt we can get an example of synchronicity in action: transits provide a “meaningful coincidence of planetary aspects and positions with the character or the existing psychic state of the questioner,”[23] on the individual level, and insights into “unconscious, introspective perceptions of the activity of the collective unconscious”[24] on the collective level. these insights can be for short temporal frames months or years of a society’s activities and for the much longer millennial time frames of eons. jung got the epithet “father of the new age”[25] for his idea of how the “collective psyche” of the human race changes with the “end of one platonic month and at the beginning of another.”[26] he felt obligated, as a medical doctor, to alert people to the nature of our time how we are living through a major cosmic transformation as the age of pisces gives way to the age of aquarius: “it is not presumption that drives me, but my conscience as a psychiatrist that bids me fulfill my duty and prepare those few who will hear me for coming events which are in accord with the end of an era. as we know from ancient egyptian history, they are manifestations of psychic changes which always appear at the end of one platonic month and at the beginning of another. apparently they are changes in the constellation of psychic dominants, of the archetypes, or “gods” as they used to be called, which bring about, or accompany, long lasting transformations of the collective psyche. this transformation started in the historical era and left its traces first in the passing of the eon of taurus into that of aries, and then of aries into pisces, whose beginning coincides with the rise of christianity. we are now nearing that great change which may be expected when the spring point enters aquarius.”[27] why did jung feel driven to speak of the shift from one age to another? because the “psychic changes”[28] characteristic of these transition times are not always pleasant. just as we, on the individual level, can feel confused, distracted, anxious and insecure in a time of transition (e.g. adolescence),[29] so shifts of eon can show up as widespread feelings of melancholy, malaise, discontent, anxiety and fear that run through all the cultures of the planet. jung wanted to warn us, so we “those few who will hear”[30] him can experience these “psychic changes” consciously and thus limit the destructive impulses they could induce. jung’s research on astrology jung became aware of the zodiacal shift of eon in his researches in astrology. most of this research focused on the charts of individuals, and for one “experiment”[31] he reported in 1955, he studied 800 charts.[32] in volume 8 of his collected works, forty three paragraphs[33] are devoted to a report of his examination of the charts of married couples and the correspondence of their sun moon aspects, with sun moon conjunctions and sun moon oppositions being quite common. what was the result of this experiment? jung reports that “the statistical material shows that a practically as well as theoretically improbable chance combination occurred which coincides in the most remarkable way with traditional astrological expectations. that such a coincidence should occur at all is so improbable and so incredible that nobody could have dared to predict anything like it.”[34] but jung had scant appreciation for statistics: they obliterate the individual, which always was jung’s focus.[35] but the scientist relies on statistics for their objectivity. jung, however, recognized what j.b. rhine discovered years before jung did his experiment: “rhine’s esp results… were also favorably affected by expectation, hope, and faith.”[36] jung and his assistants had worked with astrology for years, interpreting individuals’ charts, and knew that many marriages had certain sun moon configurations, and their “lively interest in the outcome of the experiment”[37] skewed the statistics, just as the participants in rhine’s parapsychological investigations had become “accessories to the deed,”[38] indicating how “the psychic processes of the interested parties were affected by the synchronistic arrangement.”[39] in other words, jung felt that the value of astrology lies in its evocation of synchronicity to provide insights into individuals’ lives and societies’ situations.[40] how jung used astrology to get insights was one way jung used astrology: it can “give… a more or less total picture of the individual’s character.”[41] “from the remotest times” astrologers have seen a correspondence between “the various planets, houses, zodiacal signs, and aspects,”[42] all of which have “meanings that serve as a basis for a character study or for an interpretation of a given situation.”[43] for example, jung worked up the chart of a woman patient. she presented “with strong inner oppositions whose union and reconciliation constituted her main problem.”[44] what did her chart show? a “conjunction of the sun and moon as the symbol of the union of opposites,”[45] and jung concluded that this union, i.e. the reconciliation of the tension of opposites, was “what her soul intended for her to achieve.”[46] jung felt that “planetary aspects” can give us clues about the individual’s “psycho physiological disposition:”[47] “by mapping out the positions of the planets and their relations to one another (aspects), together with the distribution of the signs of the zodiac at the cardinal points, it [the birth chart] gives a picture first of the psychic and then of the physical constitution of the individual.”[48] and many of his students, e.g. liz greene, alice howell, ellynor barz, and kathleen burt,[49] have taken up his work, in the understanding that, as jung put it, “the entire horoscope… is the chronometric equivalent of individual character, through all the characterological components of the personality,”[50] and, just as we change over time, so the transit chart can illustrate, explain and time our growth: “the journey through the planetary houses, … therefore signifies the overcoming of a psychic obstacle, or of an autonomous complex, suitably represented by a planetary god or demon.”[51] i knew none of this thirty five years ago, when my life fell apart. it was an astrologer who made sense of what i was going through, and, in so doing, saved my sanity. a “paradigm popper:” how i came to be an astrologer part of my problem, i now recognize, was that i had had an ivy league education. that is, i had been “trained into orthodoxy”[52] at a leading university which left my mind in a very small box of rationality, objectivity, quantification, and scholarly rigor. stuff like crystal balls, tarot readings, psychics’ predictions and astrology i dismissed as hogwash valued only by credulous, uneducated fools. in this lamentable state i was completely unprepared to cope with a dream i had on november 25, 1983. there was no action, just words: “friends will die. relatives will die. you will give up everything, and your life will be transformed.” then i woke up. i was married at the time and i asked ed if he had heard the words. he said no, so i repeated them, and then, because i rated dreams on a par with witches’ brew, i dismissed the whole experience. five days later i learned that my friend hazel crafts had dropped dead the night before. when i told ed, he reminded me of the dream. but i pooh poohed the idea that the dream might have been predictive. “oh, that’s just a coincidence!” it was to be many years, and many more predictive dreams before i became convinced that there’s no such thing as coincidence. just as the dream said, everything in my life began to fall away. over the next six months i lost two aunts, an uncle, and got divorced. and i kept having these weird dreams! i thought i was losing my mind. when i would seek solace from my friends that i was not actually going crazy, they gave me no satisfaction at all, as they weren’t psychiatrists. but they began to send me hither and yon to every psychologist, counselor, therapist and shrink they could find (and in eastern maine in 1984 there were not many of them). so it was in may of 1984 i thought i was about to see another mental health professional when my student miranda suggested i consult someone she knew. she came with me to a nice house in bar harbor, and it was only while walking up the steps to this house that i learned i was about to see not a therapist but an astrologer. an astrologer!???!! i was livid, and castigated miranda for thinking that astrology was of any use. it was just bogus hogwash. and i refused to go in. miranda then told me that the woman had done all the work to create and analyze my chart, and she would have to pay the woman even if i didn’t go in. then i felt exasperated, but also guilty that one of my students was going to pay for this mumbo jumbo. with great reluctance and skepticism i went in and sat down. initially my body language reeked of disdain and disbelief, but then i began to hear things that resonated. this woman somehow knew what i was experiencing. she seemed to know me. more than this, she was telling me when things would improve, timing the passage of this interval filled with turmoil and torment. it turned out that my “upending experience,” beginning with the first of my “voice over” dreams, was timed by the classic uranus transit opposing uranus, which, given my chart, occurred at my mid heaven, i.e. a sensitive part of my chart and life: my home, my career, my marriage and my sense of myself were all up for grabs and, just as the dream forewarned, everything in my life was falling away.[53] of course, given the limitations of my ivy league training, i saw no way to explain the accuracy of the reading but to accuse the woman of being a psychic, but she denied that and said that i could do just what she did, if i learned how to identify and interpret the symbols, that astrology is a very powerful (and complex) symbol system. this presented me with an intellectual challenge i could not resist, which is how i became a student of frances sakoian, the foremost american astrologer of her generation, author of dozens of books, and my first teacher.[54] subsequently i got into jung’s use of astrology for psychological insights through the work of liz greene, founder of the centre for psychological astrology and author of dozens of works combining her training as a certified jungian analyst and her expertise in chart analysis.[55] that’s how i became a practicing astrologer, and how i got myself out of the box of the limited mentality i was trained in, so that now, like jung, i appreciate the “unpopular things” that our western intellectual tradition dismisses. sue mehrtens is the author of this and all the other blog essays on this site. the opinions expressed in these essays are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of other jungian center faculty or board members. honesty, as well as professional courtesy, require that you give proper attribution to the author if you post this essay elsewhere. bibliography barz, ellynor, gods and planets: the archetypes of astrology. wilmette il: chiron publications, 1991. boynton, robert (2004), “in the jung archives,” the new york times book review (january 11, 2004), 8. burt, kathleen, archetypes of the zodiac. st. paul: llewellyn publications, 2002. greene, liz, relating: an astrological guide to living with others on a small planet. york beach me: samuel weiser, 1978. ________, the astrology of fate. york beach me: samuel weiser, 1984. ________, saturn: a new look at an old devil. york beach me: samuel weiser, 1976. ________, the inner planets: building blocks of personal reality. york beach me: samuel weiser, 1993. ________, the luminaries: the psychology of the sun and the moon in the horoscope. york beach me: samuel weiser, 1992. howell, alice, jungian symbolism in astrology. wheaton il: quest, 1987. jung, c.g. (1960), ”the structure and dynamics of the psyche,” cw 8. princeton: princeton university press. ________ (1959), “aion,” collected works, 9ii. princeton: princeton university press. ________ (1970), “civilization in transition,” cw 10. princeton: princeton university press. ________ (1963), “mysterium coniunctionis,” cw 14. princeton: princeton university press. ________ (1976), ”the symbolic life,” cw 18. princeton: princeton university press. ________ (1975), letters, ed. gerhard adler & aniela jaffé. 2 vols. princeton: princeton university press. sakoian, frances & louis acker (1972), that inconjunct quincunx: the not so minor aspect. lakemont ga: copple house books inc. ________ (1973), the astrologer’s handbook. new york: harper & row. ________ (1976), the astrology of human relationships. new york: harper & row. ________ (1977), predictive astrology. new york: harper & row. ________ (1978), those inconjunct quincunx transits (no further bibliographic data given) ________ & betty caulfield (1980), astrological patterns: the key to self discovery. new york: harper & row. skolimowski, henryk (1996), “the methodology of participation,” revisioning science: essays toward a new knowledge base for our culture, ed. s. mehrtens. waterbury vt: the potlatch press. [1] collected works 10 ¶121. hereafter collected works will be abbreviated cw. [2] cw 8 ¶944. [3] cw 9ii ¶212. [4] cw 10 ¶590. [5] cw 18 ¶1502. [6] “letter to esther harding,” 30 may 1957; letters, ii, 363. [7] world book encyclopedia dictionary, i, 123. [8] cw 8 ¶869, note 66. [9] cw 10 ¶121. [10] cw 8 ¶869, note 66. [11] cw 14 ¶7. [12] cw 10 ¶173. [13] ibid. ¶700. [14] ibid. [15] cw 8 ¶944. [16] ibid. [17] cw 10 ¶176. [18] ibid. ¶700. [19] cw 14 ¶7. [20] ibid. ¶390. [21] ibid. ¶298. [22] cw 8 ¶899. [23] ibid. ¶987. [24] ibid. ¶325. [25] boynton (2004), 8. [26] cw 10 ¶589. [27] ibid. note that the shift moves opposite to the normal sequence in an individual chart, i.e. from aries, to taurus, to gemini, etc., which is why jung speaks of the eon of taurus (the eon of pre history and ancient egypt and china) followed by aries (the eon of ancient greece, persia and early rome), and then by pisces (the era of “the fishes,” which began around the time of christ and is now in the process of passing). [28] ibid. [29] adolescence is literally from the latin adolescens, “becoming an adult,” i.e. a transitional time in life, when we are neither fully mature, nor any longer a child. [30] cw 10 ¶589. [31] cw 8 ¶994, note 5. [32] ibid. ¶893. [33] ¶s 872 914. this is chapter 2 in jung’s essay “synchronicity: an acausal connecting principle.” [34] cw 8 ¶905. [35] cw 10 ¶586. [36] cw 8 ¶994. [37] ibid. ¶905. [38] ibid. ¶907. [39] ibid. [40] ibid. [41] ibid. ¶867. [42] ibid. [43] ibid. [44] ibid. ¶899. [45] ibid. [46] ibid. [47] ibid. ¶876. [48] cw 9ii ¶212. [49] cf. greene (1976) (1978) (1984) (1992) (1993), howell (1987), barz (1991) and burt (2002). [50] cw 14 ¶298. [51] ibid. ¶308. [52] skolimowski (1996), 161. [53] the full account of my experiences through this process, which took years, is in my memoir dreaming to wake to life. [54] sakoian (1972) (1973) (1976) (1977), and (1980). [55] greene (1976) (1978) (1984) (1992) and (1993). what would jung think of our "too big to fail" institutions? what about the idea of reparations? these and other similar questions drawn from the daily headlines have been posed by students at the jungian center for the spiritual sciences, and they form the substance of this book. a short, succinct guide to jung’s way of handling dreams, including definitions of terms, useful tools, how to foster dream recall, and techniques for interpreting dreams on the three levels jung used. homethe centeressayscoursesbooksresourcescontactmy account document.getelementbyid("eeb 287999 864285").innerhtml = eval(decodeuricomponent("%27%69%6e%66%6f%40%6a%75%6e%67%69%61%6e%63%65%6e%74%65%72%2e%6f%72%67%27"))*protected email* name email address message the jungian center is a tax exempt 501c3 non profit educational organization. all contributions or donations to the center are tax deductible. as a non profit 501c3 organization the center is committed to equal opportunity/affirmative action. in its admission and hiring policies it does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin, disability, creed, age or veteran status. much of what makes the center what it is relies on voluntary work and donations of the board, faculty and others. contact us if you wish to contribute or get involved.

sign up sign in sign up sign in graham pemberton follow    2 listen share astrology, the ancients, ‘primitive’ peoples, and the perennial philosophy at the end of the previous article/chapter i asked the question, “if astrology lived comfortably side by side with astronomy and science for thousands of years, that is if they were not in fact identical, and that this situation was accepted by some of the greatest minds, was the arrival of the age of reason a genuine advance, or is it just a passing trend, a fashion imposed upon us by over rational scientists?” that is what is being referred to at the start of this next chapter. chapter 21: ‘primitives’ in order to answer this question i am going to investigate the ways of thinking of ancient peoples, and try to get inside their minds. in any real, objective sense this will obviously be impossible; we can, however, look backwards and try to imagine what it was like. there are two areas worthy of exploration: 1) original indigenous peoples, often living a tribal life style, so called ‘primitives’, some examples of which are the following: european pagans, native americans, the african bushmen, the aborigines. 2) the more advanced urban civilisations   for example, those of babylon, ancient greece, ancient egypt, the maya and the incas. perhaps the most important feature of the ‘primitive’ world view is what modern psychologists call ‘mystical participation’ in the world. carl jung describes it thus: “in our daily experience, we need to state things as accurately as possible, and we have learned to discard the trimmings of fantasy both in our language and in our thoughts   thus losing a quality that is still characteristic of the primitive mind. most of us have consigned to the unconscious all the fantastic psychic associations that every object or idea possesses. the primitive, on the other hand, is still aware of these psychic properties; he endows animals, plants, or stones with powers that we find strange and unacceptable… (he gives various examples) for in the primitive’s world things do not have the same sharp boundaries they do in our ‘rational’ societies”¹. sir laurens van der post, who spent time living with the bushmen of the kalahari, is in a position to talk about this from his personal experience: “yet with all this hunting, snaring, and trapping the bushman’s relationship with the animals and birds of africa was never merely one of hunter and hunted; his knowledge of the plants, trees, and insects of the land (was) never just the knowledge of a consumer of food. on the contrary, he knew the animal and vegetable life, the rocks, and the stones of africa as they have never been known since. today we tend to know statistically and in the abstract. we classify, catalogue, and sub divide the flame like variety of animal and plant according to species, sub species, physical property, and use… he and they all participated so deeply of one another’s being that the experience could almost be called mystical. for instance, he seemed to know what it actually felt like to be an elephant, a lion, an antelope, a steenbok, a lizard, a striped mouse, mantis, baobab tree, yellow crested cobra, or starry eyed amaryllis, to mention only a few of the brilliant multitudes through which he so nimbly moved. even as a child it seemed to me that his world was one without secrets between one form of being and another. as i tried to form a picture of what he was really like it came to me that he was back in the moment which our european fairy tale books described as the time when birds, beasts, plants, trees, and men shared a common tongue, and the whole world, night and day, resounded like the surf of a coral sea with universal conversation”². one consequence of this mystical participation is described by jungian analyst and writer edward edinger: “for the primitive everything is saturated with psychic meaning and has hidden connections with transpersonal powers. the primitive, like the child, lives in a world that is continuous with himself. he is in rapport with the cosmos. the more one attempts to relate consciously to the depths of the psyche, the more he is led to the same attitude expressed by jung, namely, that all the vicissitudes of the outer and inner life have a meaning and are expressions of transpersonal patterns and powers. chance as a category of experience is a symptom of the alienated life. for the self connected man as for the child and the primitive chance does not exist”³. to translate these ideas into modern language, primitives believe that matter is animated. rather than merely believing that everything in the world is an undivided whole, they actually have a direct experience of this. they live much closer than us to the archetypal level, and they believe in synchronicity, and some version of (physicist david) bohm’s implicate order. (this sounds remarkably like qmap.) further examples leading to the same conclusion are given by van der post when he talks about: 2. the bushman’s ability to communicate telepathically. psi in general, and telepathy in particular, reveal a hidden interconnection between all people and things through the psyche. when van der post wonders how the women managed to know that the hunters had killed an eland, he says, “we bushmen have a wire here”   he tapped his chest   “that brings us news”⁵. paganism is another source of similar ideas. there are now modern pagans who believe that we have lost something valuable by moving away from these ancient ways, and therefore try to recapture its spirit and incorporate it into modern life. (it is not clear, however, to what extent modern paganism is based upon the original ways. please be aware of this in what follows. for a brief discussion of this point, see footnote 6.) in order to explore their world i am going to refer to two books: paganism by vivianne crowley⁷, and paganism: a beginner’s guide by teresa vidgen moorey⁸. the latter describes the essence of paganism thus: “pagans love and honour the earth as mother goddess… they feel a part of all that lives in animals, plants, and the soil itself, and so they treat all with respect”(p2). so, as well as sharing in the mystical participation described above, pagans therefore consider the earth to be a living being, along the lines of the modern writers james lovelock and peter russell whose ideas i discussed in previous chapters. crowley puts it thus: “many pagans believe in a conscious and creative universe in which humans and the rest of creation are the eyes and ears, the brain and the hands. all our experience is fed into the group mind of humanity which in turn feeds the consciousness of the universe” (p11). pagans provide further extensions to this idea by their belief in ley lines (lines of energy on the earth, which may be analogous to chi ideas in acupuncture), power points, and holy places which appear to be ‘special’ or ‘sacred’ in some way. vidgen moorey goes on to say: “their religion is one of immanence, which means that divinity is all around us and within us. it is felt and perceived; there is no act of faith” (p5), and concludes that “the pagan view of god within matter includes animism, pantheism and polytheism” (p19). here paganism seems to have a direct correspondence with hinduism, and is therefore consistent with the perennial philosophy. when discussing celtic paganism she describes a particularly strong belief in the unity of all things: “their myth was part of their life; inner and outer were the same”. “they saw all existence as linked   actions and reactions, life and the individual, otherworld, underworld, the everyday, person, god/dess and place all intertwine in an endless web. tweak any part, however gently, and the entire network resonates in harmony” (p89). when discussing shamanism she describes how it is “based on the belief that reality has many levels, and the universe consists of a complex energy network of powers, vibrations and forms, of which the shaman gains direct experience” (p74). all this sounds very much like quantum physics. in her book, paganism consists of animism, nature worship, a recognition of the interconnectedness of all things, and of the planet as a living being; there is no mention of the reuniting of human consciousness with the divine, so that one could easily think that an essential ingredient of the perennial philosophy is missing. a slightly different picture emerges from crowley’s book. she identifies the three core beliefs of paganism as polytheism, pantheism, and the divinity as both male and female (p8), which is broadly in line with three statements of belief issued by the pagan federation which, in its view, define a pagan⁹. beyond this there is no definite set of beliefs because there are different tendencies within paganism. she says that: “most pagan traditions teach reincarnation… some pagans have ideas similar to hindus about karma” (p17). so there is a significant overlap with the perennial philosophy, but a different emphasis emerges. she says: “since nature is a manifestation of the divine and life on earth is a pleasure and a gift, then we can be in union with the divine in this life as well as in the one beyond” (p17), thus emphasizing union with the divine through a communion with nature, union with the immanent god, whereas in the perennial philosophy the union is rather with the transcendent god. the latter trend is not absent, however, for when crowley describes the spiritual life of pagans, she includes meditation, retreats, fasting, exactly the practices one would expect from those seeking to unite with the divine consciousness. it is therefore an open question to what extent paganism is an exact manifestation of the perennial philosophy, but it is certainly consistent with qmap. other tribes do, however, come closer to the perennial philosophy, for example the australian aborigines. in the past western civilisation has tended to see such people as ‘primitives’, and to look down upon their religious beliefs, prejudices that we have belatedly begun to question. max charlesworth, who has edited a collection of essays on aboriginal spirituality¹⁰, sums up the situation thus: “to early twentieth century scholars of that era it would have seemed absurd to think that aboriginal religious systems could be approached in the same way that scholars approached the great world religions   judaism, christianity, islam, hinduism, buddhism, taoism   or that aboriginal religious ideas could have contemporary relevance… it took almost 80 years for australian aboriginal religions to escape from that characterisation and for scholars to recognise that aboriginal religions were belief systems of considerable sophistication and seriousness” (pxv). in order to describe their world i shall use as sources two books by james cowan, who has worked and travelled with them and describes himself as “aboriginalized”: elements of the aborigine tradition¹¹, and mysteries of the dream time¹². he talks about their close identification with the “land that they considered inseparable from their soul” (¹¹, p2), and how this led to “accusations of pantheism, totemism and animism” (¹², p25), but says that it appears thus only to ignorant outsiders and that the reality is more subtle: “we must take care too not to translate ‘life essence’ as a sort of animistic spirit that gives life to the earth… kurunba or ‘life essence’ is a metaphysical expression denoting the presence of a cultural layer within the landform itself… in other words, the landform has become iconic in essence, fulfilling a role of containment, not only of physical attributes… but of meta physical significations” (ibid. p26). this notwithstanding, other statements he makes seem to suggest pantheism/animism, for example: “for aborigines, the numen is embodied in all things manifest”. “the aborigine enters into a dream world where the land is transformed into a metaphysical landscape saturated with significations. in the same way that homeric heroes live in close proximity and contact with the olympian gods, so too do aborigines recognize the immanent presence of their own spiritual exemplars”. “his religious outlook is not a conceptual formularization in the way of dogma, but instead is expressed as a vital force in everything that happens or is said or thought” (ibid. pp2, 48 and 71). other aboriginal ideas in line with those i was proposing earlier are: 1) their belief that the continent of australia is a gigantic human body (¹¹,p79), which is an expression of microcosm/macrocosm thinking, and also suggests the possibility of a national identity and personality. (for those who find this a strange idea, people attuned to james lovelock’s gaia hypothesis talk about the rain forests as the “lungs of the planet”.) 2) they have a powerful awareness of the archetypes (compare jung), to which they give the mythological name of sky heroes: “(the aborigine) sees the physical environment as a projection of the archetypes that govern his existence, real or imaginary” (¹², p90). “the aborigines do not think differently from us; they merely observe material data in a more mystical way. for them their environment is not and has never come into being as a result of morphic activity. spiritual identities govern the creation of their world. it is these spiritual identities, or sky heroes, which form the basis of all religious belief” (ibid., p20). “the archetypal ideas which form the basis of all living creatures are an essential part of the sky heroes’ persona, given that they generate ‘echoes’ of types in the realm of matter. the dictum ‘as above, so below’ is fully in concordance with the abo belief in metaphysical exemplars masquerading as sky heroes. thus the hare wallaby people or the pungalunga men embody both the physical dimension of their earthly prototypes, while at the same time they embody a purely metaphysical dimension that is not and can never be made manifest” (ibid. p24). this archetypal realm is called the dreaming. it is a world in which the aborigines need to journey in order to maintain their sense of spiritual identity: “the language of myth is at pains to separate ordinary reality from that of the events of the dreaming. in doing so, it allows aborigines to range free over a realm of the imagination which belongs to the soul of the universe. for it is clear that the dreaming represents just that: a supreme interworld of archetypal images which themselves partake of revelation” (ibid. p81). given that, as i have discussed in previous chapters, the archetypal realm is outside space time, it is not surprising that the aborigines, like the kalahari bushmen, have experiences which suggest a quantum reality. here, for example, we see a quantum perception of time alongside the more conventional one: “since neither time nor history exist in any meaningful sense to the abo, it is fitting that the dreaming should partake of eternality rather than temporality. nevertheless social time does exist and therefore imposes its round of ceremonies upon the tribal unit. cyclic time is inherent in the dreaming, bringing distant events into the immediate present with consummate ease” (¹¹, p26). it is experiences from this level which provide social guide lines: “it is the activities of the ancestral beings in their various acts of world creation ‘outside time’ that the aborigine identifies with when it comes to determining how he should live’ (ibid., p23). there are strong parallels with the perennial philosophy in that: “the presence of the dreaming in the life of an aborigine begins, in a sense, before conception. his individual spirit is a part of the infinite reservoir of spirit that emanates from the dreaming. his appearance on earth is as a result of a transmigratory act of becoming (manifestation) on the part of spirit entities from the dreaming. by way of totemic encounter a man is thus ‘conceived’ in his human form for the duration of his physical life on earth. this means he cannot break the gordian knot that binds him to the dreaming. all his life he owes allegiance to the ‘spirit that made him’ and therefore acknowledges the dreaming as ever present in his life” (ibid. p25). “reincarnation plays a significant role in aboriginal totemic belief” (ibid. p48), and their attitude towards death fits in with the world view of the tibetan book of the dead (see¹¹, p112 et seq). regarding the issue of trying to unite with divine consciousness that i addressed in relation to paganism, it is explained that the ordinary aborigine attains higher planes of consciousness through his totemic identity, “for it is the act of identifying with ‘something other’ than himself that allows a tribesman the opportunity to transcend ordinary reality in an act of union”, and during the rituals: “only when the performers had appeared from behind the bush and commenced their enactment of the mythical event was he (a.p.elkin) told that the men were in a state of dreaming   that they had ‘become’ the sky heroes and first animals already described in the chants and songs… contact with the dreaming is the sole object for all the participants during these ceremonies. it is not a divine place that they are endeavouring to enter by way of ritual gesture, but a state of mind   a return to the source” (¹¹, p39 and ¹², p60). the spiritual leaders, however, are aware of even higher possibilities; they place importance upon “meditation as a mode of contact between themselves and the spirit world” (¹², p13), and the following statement strongly suggests an advanced spiritual knowledge: “for every trickster wishing to demonstrate his prowess there were other men who preferred to engage in meditation and contemplation of a high order as a sign of their calling” (¹¹, p89). there are clear parallels with hinduism here. cowan himself compares aborigine practice with kundalini yoga (¹², pp13 4), and this last quotation is also reminiscent of india, where fakirs impress the crowds with their tricks, whilst others prefer the contemplative life. now, if we look into the world of the native americans, we find not only a fully fledged version of the perennial philosophy, but also a culture which, even more than the kalahari bushmen and the aborigines, lives quantum physics as an everyday reality. i have come to this conclusion after reading three books: principles of native american spirituality by timothy freke and wa’na’nee’che’ (dennis renault)¹³, the spiritual legacy of the american indian by joseph epes brown¹⁴, and blackfoot physics by f. david peat¹⁵. to justify this statement i would need to quote much material similar to what has gone before. alternatively, trust me that you will find outstanding parallels with the perennial philosophy, including: a) the identity of the individual self with the ultimate spirit and the microcosm/ macrocosm enfoldment b) the goal of union with the divine, the nature of which they, like all mystics down the ages, understand to be silence c) a belief in reincarnation and karma which extends to the eastern concept of the transmigration of souls d) a quasi hindu understanding of divinity as monotheism within polytheism. the references to this point are expressed in terms remarkably similar to eastern religions and quantum physics, thus providing further material as a possible appendix to fritjof capra’s tao of physics. on other occasions they echo the western mystery tradition, for example, black elk (¹³, p84) sounds remarkably like plato. brown makes the overall connection explicit: “native american traditions, at least where there has not been excessive compromise to the modern world, are in no sense inferior, but indeed are legitimate expressions of the philosophia perennis” (¹⁴, p109). not only do their beliefs correspond to it; they also have a system of spiritual practices which seeks union with the divine consciousness. furthermore the native americans place great importance upon dreams and visions, teaching that they are doorways into a vastly greater reality than that of the senses. they thus show themselves to be a significant precursor of jung’s analytical psychology (¹⁵, p79, and ¹³, p87. also, jung’s follower marie louise von franz describes the naskapi indians who provide an extraordinary example of the perennial philosophy and analytical psychology in a tribal setting¹⁶.) given that they live a quantum reality, it is not surprising that their world view and the language used to express it reflect quantum thinking. in wholeness and the implicate order¹⁷ david bohm laments the inability of western languages, given that they are noun based, to describe the true nature of reality. he therefore suggests changes to create a new language (which he calls the rheomode) which gives a more prominent place to verbs, and coins some new vocabulary to help this process. however, as f. david peat explains: “david bohm had not known when he wrote of that concept that such a language is not just a physicist’s hypothesis. it actually exists… a few months before his death, bohm met with a number of algonkian speakers and was struck by the perfect bridge between their language and worldview and his own exploratory philosophy. what to bohm had been a major breakthrough in human thought   quantum theory, relativity, his implicate order and rheomode   were part of the everyday life and speech of the blackfoot, mic maq, cree, and ojibwaj” (¹⁵, p238). what is especially striking is that, in general, native american languages do not have past and future tenses, preferring to reflect “a perennial reality of the now” (¹⁴, p50   compare the aborigines’ attitude to time discussed above), and they portray a quantum view of reality as a world of flux and change¹⁸. although these indigenous cultures all have manifestations of qmap and the perennial philosophy as their world view, there seems to be little importance attached to astrology, even though these ideas, as i have argued previously, are those that would make it possible¹⁹. it seems that it was necessary for an urban society to have developed before astrology became established and flourished, the obvious examples being the early middle eastern civilisations, the greeks, egyptians, maya, chinese and the incas. it is not completely obvious why this should be so. in early history the tribes were perhaps not technically equipped to calculate the motions of the planets, but given their sophistication in other areas there is no reason why the native americans should not have managed it, had they wished. it seems necessary to seek another explanation. the purpose of astrology is to reveal the hidden meaning behind the world of appearances, and hopefully to help us attune ourselves to the unfolding divine will. as we have seen, these peoples already achieved this purpose in their daily lives. it could be said therefore that astrology was in a sense superfluous to their requirements. if this is true, it immediately poses a new question   why did urban societies develop astrology given that these other means were also available to them? purely as hypothesis, i offer the following suggestion. the tribal peoples, as we have seen, had a very strong sense of identity with the external world/universe; at some stage there was no separation, so that instinctively, effortlessly, they were in tune with their spirits. it is possible that, by the time that urban societies had developed, consciousness had separated itself both from the external world and from its roots in the psyche, and no longer intuitively knew the ‘will of the gods’, therefore needing a means to reconnect itself, hence the development of astrology. it is well known that the ancient egyptians were deeply attached to astrology. west and toonder believe that “astrology may well have been known to the egyptians thousands of years before the greeks knew of it”. in case we are tempted to think that this means they were in some way superstitious and stupid, we should bear in mind that the egyptian pyramids and temples involved such extraordinary architectural and logistic difficulties that we moderns still struggle to figure out how they were built, and their calendar was “so accurate that only in very recent times has it been possible to improve upon it”²⁰. the authors conclude that “egyptian astronomy from earliest antiquity was of the highest order, and that such a science could not have developed without some master plan and an organized   not random   system of observation” (ibid. p47). since there is no doubt about their intelligence, it is only important to establish their underlying philosophy. in the following version it sounds unsurprisingly familiar: “the sages of egypt considered the universe a whole, in which every part is related to every other part. to them the universe was, in its entirety, conscious. this consciousness manifested itself in the hierarchy of levels which man observes as diversity. what man regards as ‘matter’ is a manifestation of consciousness, and what he regards as ‘mind’ is consciousness at a higher level”. “the egyptians believed that the laws of the universe had been written into man; that if he understood himself well enough, he would understand the universe”. (these are the conclusions of egyptologist r.a. schwaller de lubicz described in west/toonder p40.) haven’t we heard all this before somewhere? i shall not discuss the ancient greeks at length, in that the two most significant figures in the development of astrological thinking there, pythagoras and plato, both spent several years studying in egypt, and were therefore significantly influenced by the worldview i have just described, that is to say qmap. the stoics also held similar views. the vedantist philosophy of india has been discussed in earlier chapters, so there is no need to repeat that here. i will mention briefly the chinese, some of whom expressed qmap in an unusually direct way: “there were… applications of a theory linking the macrocosm (the whole universe) to the microcosm ( the human body). the taoist magicians of the first centuries of the christian era believed that in every part of the human body there lived deities who were also gods of the sky, the earth, the constellations, mountains and rivers. by means of meditation it was possible to see the cosmic deities living inside the body, and also to acquire from them psycho physiological prescriptions and moral precepts relating to health and welfare”²¹. what a fantastic description of the archetypes! gauquelin also quotes the taoist author kwan tse: “the tao, which is made manifest also in the hearts of men… it is the living force which brings existence to being. here below, it brings forth the five varieties of cereal, and up above it ordains the movement of the stars”, and comments: “thus the tao is like the astrological lore of the first sumerians, namely, the living force of the whole universe is also that of man” (ibid. p92). this sounds very much like david bohm’s concept of the holomovement. in order to explore the world of the maya, i am going to turn to a book called secrets of mayan science/religion by hunbatz men²², described as a holy man, spiritual teacher, and authority on the history, chronology, and calendars of mayan civilization. here we find all the ideas that we have perhaps by now come to expect: animism/pantheism, quantum mechanical understanding of matter and energy, the unity of all things, perennial philosophy ideas of reincarnation and karma, polytheism within monotheism, human beings as a microcosm of the divine, levels of emanation. this is not surprising when one realizes that men believes that the maya strongly influenced some of the ancient civilizations of the world, including those of egypt, babylon, greece, arabia, and india. it is hard for an outsider like me to know whether or not the author is showing any bias in favour of his people, but if we are prepared to believe him, men talks about “the existence of one language (i.e. mayan), thousands of years ago, which fell into linguistic confusion with the separation of the continents” (p82), giving examples of asian and european languages revealing mayan roots. with regard to the exchange of culture he says, for example: “valmiki wrote that the naga maya brought their culture to india around 2700 bc, although we believe it was even earlier” (p111), citing as evidence the fact that yoga was practised by his ancestors in mexico, and that the very word yoga exists in mayan, as do words equivalent to chakra (i.e. chacla, see p128), and kundalini (k’ultanlilni, see p133). if this is correct then we can assert that the maya were the originators of the perennial philosophy, a view with which men himself would wholeheartedly agree. this would suggest that they were people of extraordinary wisdom. it is therefore interesting to note with that in mind that men says that astronomy and astrology were the foundations of their philosophy. he talks about their “profound understanding of mathematics combined with the cosmos   the movement of the sun and its governing laws” (p110). whereas we might think of astrology as merely a process of observation and interpretation, men makes the, on the face of it, extraordinary statement that “in the initiation to mayan culture, the student must learn to use basic solar energy and, in other instances, the forces which come from the milky way, from other planets, and even other solar systems” (p120). men is in favour of the reunification of science and religion that i am discussing, because for the maya they were always seen as a single entity (p69). their philosophy was called panche be, which means ‘seeking the root of truth’ this in “a detailed and meticulous analysis of all that exists” (p81). it was therefore analogous to the greek, vedantist, and kabbalistic traditions. turning now to the incas, there is a new avenue to explore. i shall describe the work of william sullivan, author of the secrets of the incas²³, upon which channel 4 (uk tv) based a two episode programme of the same name. some of what follows was from their website, in addition to sullivan’s book. the inca empire existed for less than a century, not becoming a force until early in the 1400s. you may think that they are therefore not an example of the ancient societies that i am discussing. sullivan explains, however, that they are the culmination of a tradition, for which he finds no other name but andean, stretching back to at least two centuries bce. it is reasonable therefore to compare them to the other older civilisations. by now we should not be surprised if we discovered that they had qmap as their worldview, and that there are strong parallels with the other societies. i will not dwell at length on examples here which would merely repeat what has gone before. i will just mention: 1) their direct understanding of the archetypes, reminiscent of the aborigines: “the notion that each species of animal had a celestial prototype responsible for the welfare of that species is a well established fact of andean ethonography… generally, they believed that for every (species of) animal and bird that there is on earth, its likeness is in the sky, whose responsibility was its (i.e. each species) procreation and augmentation” (p237). (this sounds very similar to plato.) 2) their language incorporating an understanding of quantum physics, like the native americans: “(the verb) camay escapes the seemingly handy glosses ‘to create’ (because ‘create’ connotes an ex nihilo act, while camay connotes the energizing of extant matter) and ‘to fashion’ (because ‘fashion’ suggests only an initial shaping of inert matter, whereas camay is a continuous act that works upon a being as long as it exists)” (p238, quoting salomon and urioste in their translation of the huarochiri manuscript by francisco de avila, university of texas press). there is a more interesting story to tell, the bare facts of which are as follows: “on the evening of 15 november 1532, a band of 175 hardened spanish adventurers crossed a pass in the high andes… they became the first europeans to make contact with the incas, whose highly developed empire stretched 3,000 miles from chile to colombia and had a population of six million. on the following day, in what ranks as one of the strangest events in all recorded history, the spaniards managed to seize the inca king atahuallpa and, in the ensuing panic, used the advantage of their 120 warhorses to kill and wound 10,000 inca warriors…” (channel 4 website). sullivan relates how this story intrigued him, and how he felt driven to understand, given that historians have no explanation, how the incas could allow this to happen. after twenty years of research his conclusion is that the spanish had appeared at precisely the right place and at just the right “time to fulfil an ancient, astronomically based prophecy of doom” (channel 4), “…that after a certain number of incas had reigned, there would come to that land a people never before seen who would destroy the religion and empire of the natives” (p255). the astrological credentials of the incas seem impeccable: “as with other andean peoples, they had been schooled for centuries in the intellectual discipline of understanding history in terms of synchronous terrestrial and celestial events”. sullivan also quotes guamán poma: “they knew by looking at the stars and comets what was going to happen” (p269). the prediction was not revealed to the general population, kept secret by an inner circle who discovered that “the end of everything… was written clearly in the stars” (p281). and what a strange coincidence! the spaniards turned up at just the right time to fulfil the prophecy. on the first day 175 spaniards defeated 10,000 incas. it is not clear exactly what was going on in their minds. the implication of sullivan’s work is that the incas, knowing that the end of their civilisation was ‘written in the stars’, when confronted by the spaniards allowed it to happen. if this was the case, it would have been an extraordinary example of a confidence in the divine will so great that it could overcome the profound biological instinct of self preservation. the inca authorities knew of the prophecy, and the astrologers must have been aware of the timing; the arrival of the spaniards must have seemed ominous. yet the advance guard which went to meet them was unarmed. they could hardly have assumed naively that these strangers intended them no harm. did they therefore intend to surrender to them? all this fits with the original hypothesis. if, however, they were so sure their civilisation was at an end, why did many inca nobles fight to protect their leader, and why did others seem surprised when attacked, and then fled, panicking. did fear and instinct finally take over? did knowledge of the prophecy simply drain their motivation out of them? answers to questions like these are probably unanswerable now. what seems undeniable is that the prophecy came to pass. in retrospect it can clearly be seen as self fulfilling; it would be more convincing if 10,000 incas had fought with their heart and soul, and still managed to lose to 170 spaniards. sullivan, having outlined the various celestial events which led the incas to believe that their civilisation was about to die, addresses that point thus: “to dismiss the inca prophecy as ‘self fulfilling’ may undervalue the perceptive powers of the andean shamans” (p335), that is to say, the astrology was so powerful that it seemed irresistible. we can of course dismiss the incas’ attitude as nonsense, their behaviour as absolute folly. yet in the period prior to the spaniards’ arrival, sullivan believes that those incas aware of the prophecy were busy writing down what they thought were the valuable aspects of their culture, purely for the benefit of future generations. he comments: “how much character does it take, when your world is crashing down around you, to continue to do your job, make your observations, and preserve them for a future that may already have been destroyed?” (p328). we could therefore alternatively consider their attitude to be one of the greatest courage, the ultimate trust in the will of the gods, an absolute confidence in astrology. i think that i have established here that all ancient cultures of any significance held beliefs strongly reminiscent of, if not identical with, twentieth century developments in physics and psychology, systems which themselves are completely consistent with the perennial philosophy, a spiritual tradition going back thousands of years. this should be enough to convince us that these peoples were not ignorant, superstitious, and gullible. thus the astrologer robert hand says: “early in human history religions reached a very high level of sophistication. the view of most modern westerners that they consist of naive collections of superstitions is not borne out by studies of contemporary primitive peoples. if one looks at the religious concepts of so called primitive shamans… the sophistication of these beliefs is astounding”²⁴. why this should be is in itself an interesting question worthy of exploration. for the time being, however, i hope merely that i have convinced you that ancient peoples are worth listening to. in answer to my opening question, we can perhaps hope that the age of reason, the so called ‘enlightenment’, has been merely a temporary aberration, and that we can hopefully return soon to a pre enlightenment worldview, that of these highly sophisticated ancient peoples. in the next article/chapter i’ll examine some of the allegedly extraordinary things these ‘primitive’ people believed in. =========================================================== i hope you have enjoyed this article. i have written in the past about other topics, including spirituality, metaphysics, psychology, science, christianity, and politics. all of those articles are on medium, but the simplest way to see a guide to them is to visit my website (click here and here). my most recent articles, however, are only on medium; for those please check out my lists. =========================================================== footnotes: a central figure in the transition to modern times was gerald gardner, who claimed that he had discovered an existing religion. as ronald hutton points out: “it was central to his portrayal of this process that he was believed to be reviving an old and secret faith that had almost died out”. hutton, a scholarly historian who has researched extensively into this field, disputes this claim in two books: the pagan religions of the ancient british isles, and the triumph of the moon (oup, 1999, the above quote is on p287). he says, for example, that “in the 1990s there broke a tidal wave of accumulating research which swept away… any possibility of doubt regarding the lack of correlation between paganism and early modern witchcraft” (ibid. p377). although i am certainly in no position to disagree with him, there perhaps remains a slight element of doubt, since in his own words paganism is “a mystery religion, with initiates bound by oaths of secrecy to conceal their identities and activities from the outside world” (p10). if such people exist, it is clearly possible that an old tradition may have survived. furthermore, even if there were no direct links, it seems to me highly unlikely that modern paganism has no connection at all with the past. in any case, since there is no realistic alternative, i am going to discuss it as if it represents an ancient tradition. 7. thorsons, 2000 8. hodder & stoughton, 1996 9. see ronald hutton, triumph of the moon, p390 10. religious business, cambridge university press, 1998 11. element, 1992 12. prism press, 1989 13. thorsons, 1996 14. crossroad, 1982 15. fourth estate, 1996 16. as footnote 1, p162 17. routledge and kegan paul, 1995 18. see principles of native american spirituality by timothy freke and wa’na’nee’che’ (dennis renault) (footnote 13), pp31 32, and blackfoot physics by f. david peat (footnote 15), pp46, 128, 144 145, 219 238. 19. in the three books referred to above there is no mention of astrology, so it is fair to say that it does not figure in the aboriginal way of life. the same is true of the texts about native americans that i have discussed. there is, however, a book called native american astrology by winfried noé (sterling publishing, 1998) which might lead one to think that a tradition exists. there is in it, however, very little mentioned that would be considered astrology in our culture. no reference is made to any beliefs based upon star gazing, and as the author explains, “native american cosmology is more connected with nature and the animals that inhabit the earth rather than the observed changes of stars in the heavens… since native americans closely observe changes in nature, their cosmology is earth centered” (pp10 11). what is called astrology in this book describes a relationship with psychological and archetypal levels of spiritual reality. i have of course spent a long time in this book arguing that that is exactly what astrology is. if there is little or no reference to the heavens, however, i would struggle to call it astrology. it is nevertheless interesting that the archetypes have found yet another way of expressing themselves. 20. j. a. west and j. g. toonder, the case for astrology, macdonald & co., 1970, p38 21. michel gauquelin, astrology and science, stein and day, 1970, p93 22. bear & co., 1990 23. three rivers press, 1996 24. in the future of astrology, a. t. mann (editor), unwin hyman, 1987, p26 cosmic program quadrivium magicae geoff ward anders bolling janice labonte armand diaz bruce mcgraw john ege ignispire janis hunt johnson maleesha perera wes hansen kimberly meeks johnson marcus aka gregory maidman mark greir timothy james lambert jack preston king       2 i am a singer/songwriter interested in spirituality, politics, psychology, science, and their interrelationships. grahampemberton.com spiritualityinpolitics.com help status about careers press blog privacy terms text to speech teams

as the world anticipates a celestial spectacle on april 8, acclaimed nature and religion expert bron taylor sheds light on a growing form of spirituality by lauren barnett   april 1, 2024 millions of americans prepare to look skyward on april 8, when the moon will pass between the sun and earth. as daylight turns to darkness, the rare cosmic spectacle will capture widespread national attention. but there’s more than an astronomical event at play, according to university of florida religion professor bron taylor, and it points to a growing movement at the nexus of nature and spirituality. “people are on their own pilgrimages, and they’re trying to work out their meaning systems,” taylor said. “this widespread fascination with the eclipse is a prime example of a turn toward the re sacralization of nature.” taylor, an esteemed environmental scholar and leading expert on religion and nature, has tracked global environmental trends over decades, identifying overarching patterns and changes. there’s a seismic shift sweeping across the american religious landscape, he says. nature based spiritual practices are on the rise. the movement is evident all around us in the form of surging interest in astrology, tarot cards, veganism, crystals, and shamanism. many express an emotional yearning to commune with and retreat into nature. collectively, according to taylor’s research, we are increasingly seeking deeper meaning, purpose, and values within the natural world. “this helps to explain increasing interest in celebrating eclipses, equinoxes, and solstices,” taylor said. “when people engage in these experiences, they often feel a sense of awe or astonishment.” taylor attributes the trend to a broader societal transition toward ecological consciousness, as humanity grapples with the challenges of climate change. this shift reflects a cultural movement arising from the aftermath of darwin’s revelations in “on the origin of species,” published in 1859, which fundamentally altered perspectives on evolution. “if we think long term, the kind of cosmic vision and worldview that emerges from evolutionary and ecological understandings is becoming a very large part of the human story,” taylor said. “increasing proportions of the human community have that kind of worldview, and that’s a huge change over the last 160 years.” the renaissance of nature based spirituality may be giving religious institutions a run for their money. twenty seven percent of americans say they are religiously unaffiliated, according to the polling firm prri. this is up from 16% in 2006. this demographic now constitutes the largest segment of the population, surpassing any single faith group. for a number of people across the nation, then, the eclipse becomes more than a celestial event. viewed through a lens of spirituality, it’s an awakening. taylor is renowned for coining the term ‘dark green religion,’ a fusion of ecological awareness with spiritual beliefs. he introduced the term in his 2010 book “dark green religion: nature spirituality and the planetary future,” which unpacks the evolution of these emergent worldwide spiritual practices. grassroots environmental movements, taylor posits, have nurtured beliefs treating nature as sacred and non human organisms as kin. “it’s the idea that we owe these life systems reverent care, a sense that we ought not to fear death because death is the wellspring of new life,” taylor said. this is not a new phenomenon. dark green religion traces back to ancient pagan roots, taylor notes, but modern iterations of such eco spirituality are increasingly grounded in scientific understandings and the interconnectedness of life. “humans have long crafted meaning in nature’s rhythms,” he said. “today, some people are doing that much more self consciously in forms of ritual. others do it subconsciously by gravitating to experiences like eclipse viewings.” dark green religion has permeated the mainstream, with popular science figures such as carl sagan and neill degrasse tyson contributing to the spiritual discourse. these influential figures offer narratives about the grandeur of simply existing as a complex multicellular organism on this planet and the experience of cherishing our connections as ‘star stuff’ within the broader story of cosmic forces and evolution. “they craft scientific stories into sacred stories, evoking the same emotions   joy, ecstasy, reverence   that religions typically provide,” taylor said. in this context, bestselling books such as richard powers’ “the overstory” play a crucial role. powers presents an interconnected web of life, anchoring our lived experiences in the natural world and encouraging readers to take action to preserve nature for future generations. according to taylor’s analysis, the foremost question posed by powers is: what does life want from us? ultimately, in this convergence of nature and spirit, a sense of cosmic belonging emerges, says taylor. interest in the eclipse underscores the unifying power of spirituality, fostering a connection with the vast cosmos. taylor suggests these experiences can elevate us. “these experiences, which give us a proper sense of humility by reminding us that we are just a speck in the universe, can be ennobling, and can help overturn anthropocentric hubris,” taylor said. as spiritual seekers turn toward mother earth to fill the spiritual void, the solar eclipse offers a moment for reflection and renewed reverence for life. taylor explains that even scientists, in their deep understanding of the eclipse, may find themselves moved by spiritual insights during the event. “the wild world has something to say to us,” taylor said, “and we should be listening.” stay up to date on the latest news and follow us on social media 0015 dauer hall gainesville, fl 32603 connect with 125,000+ liberal arts and sciences alumni! if you have any website questions please contact clas communications support © 2025 university of florida | text only | website feedback | uf privacy policy

sign up sign in sign up sign in graham pemberton follow    3 listen share astrology   is the explanation spiritual or material? as i explained in my previous article, i am taking a break from writing new material on medium, and encouraging new followers to have a look at my back catalogue. however, this break will be a good opportunity to complete a previously unfinished project, the uploading of my (unpublished) book on astrology. there are three parts, and i’ve reached approximately midway through part 2. (for what has preceded please see this list.) in recent chapters i have made a critique of the astrologer michael harding’s approach. my own understanding of astrology is based upon a spiritual worldview derived from carl jung’s psychology, especially his understanding of archetypes, and the science of quantum physics. harding prefers an existentialist understanding, essentially a non spiritual approach, as outlined in his book hymns to the ancient gods¹. the debate can therefore be seen as one version of the conflict between new paradigm science, and the old paradigm built upon physicalism. the previous chapter most relevant to this current article is this one. the next four in the list above develop my criticism of harding’s approach (chapters 11 14). =========================================================== chapter 15: overview of harding my critique of harding’s ideas is nearly over. to summarize briefly what i have said so far, i do not think his dismissal of the archetypes and synchronicity is convincing, and i find his contention that astrology is the ultimate explanation for everything unsustainable in the light of many of the stories i have quoted in recent articles. even when the explanation can only be astrological, as is the case with (dennis) elwell’s patterns, this should not be taken as confirming harding’s ideas, for it is hard to see how elwell’s examples could be accommodated within his theories. elwell himself attributes them to a vast cosmic intelligence permeating the universe. harding nowhere suggests that he thinks the planets are intelligent. to say simply that it is in the nature of planetary movements to generate patterns in the lives of humans, and that this somehow ends the debate, seems to me merely to beg the question. what theory of the nature of matter and movement would allow for the generation of such patterns? according to the prevailing scientific view matter is the result of random sub atomic processes, devoid of meaning. this is not consistent with matter organising itself in such a way as to create patterns in human affairs, and yet harding offers no alternative theory of matter, scientific or otherwise, nor does he discuss the enormous gap this leaves in his theory. i do not think that one should attempt to explain astrology except as part of a general theory of just about everything. even if your system cannot be proved you should state how you understand the nature of the universe and its workings, and how astrology fits into the scheme. it seems to me that harding falls well short of this requirement, seeking to keep his version of astrology in a vacuum, isolated from any troublesome ideas which might invade the picture. if you believe, as he does, that astrology is an effect of ‘celestial mechanics’, then as an absolute minimum there should be a self consistent theory of : the nature of matter, a meaningful definition of the psyche, a description of the relationship between them, a theory of personality and its origins and, if not an explanation, at least a hypothesis about how the planets might achieve their effects. even if we accept at face value his statement that the philosophy or the psychology do not yet exist to match the “complexity and grandeur” of the astrological viewpoint, and that his book is an “attempt to move in the direction” of creating a coherent philosophy (p4), that should not be used as an excuse to avoid the difficult questions that his speculations raise. hiding behind a statement like, ‘specific spiritual or metaphysical beliefs concerning the ultimate nature of any underlying principles are very much an individual concern’ (p101), is just not good enough, and only would be good enough if all his theories were obviously true without any need for any supporting evidence. for example, according to harding all history is a series of astrological patterns which repeat themselves cyclically over time. where could the information necessary to generate such repetitions be stored? for me the answer is easy, in the non material collective psyche. for harding, however, this ‘place’ does not exist. [in fact, as i have already discussed, he believes that it was a misunderstanding of astrological symbols which led to the mistaken idea of the archetypes in the first place.] the onus is on him, therefore, to explain where and how such patterns are stored. his answer is, in the “collective zodiac”, described as the “psychic equivalent of the genetic pool”. what exactly does this mean? clearly it means that he sees the psyche as being different from the genes and, in that it is “equivalent”, is presumably responsible for psychological inheritance. this therefore sounds very much like the jungian collective unconscious, and also rupert sheldrake’s morphogenetic fields, but that would be based on the assumption that by ‘psychic’ harding means ‘non material’, which is by no means certain. [unfortunately, although he uses the word many times and talks at length about it, he never gives his definition of the word ‘psyche’, which can therefore lead to confusion. for example, on the same page as the above quotations, he describes the collective zodiac as ‘a timeless, unconscious pool that contains the fundamental matrix of all our genetic and psychic strivings’ (p106). so here it is no longer a psychic equivalent of the genetic, rather somewhere that is neither specifically genetic nor psychic, but somehow capable of including them both.] elsewhere he is impressed by freud, one of his heroes, insisting that archaic memories are transmitted through the genes. he is in fact so impressed that he makes the point three times on the same page (p49). if something psychic can be transmitted through the genes, it is not clear why we need a psychic equivalent of the genetic pool at all, a point which would seem to be further reinforced by the following statements: ‘(the) planets have specific meanings. these meanings are quite independent of us and would exist just as strongly if the whole human race were to vanish overnight…’ (p6). [my italics. in the original “specific” and “independent” were stressed. i have removed his italics in order to emphasize my point.] ‘astrological symbols may exist within the unconscious but they are not confined to it, nor do they originate there. the symbols and energies of astrology are not contained within the psyche, but in some way permeate it as they permeate everything’ (p28). since he says that the symbols do not originate in the psyche, that they exist independent of humans, and denies the existence of any ‘above’ moulding a ‘below’, he can only be saying that astrological symbols and their meaning are a hidden aspect of the nature of matter, as he explains, that they are stored in the planets. [he also believes that the whole history of life on the planet (all events, thoughts and emotions that have ever occurred) are somehow stored and transmitted through the genes. since this process happens whether or not humans exist, he seems to be saying that the history of the universe is recorded and transferred in the genes of the planets! do planets have genes? i cannot believe that he really thinks that, so i will just assume that he has allowed himself to appear to say that because of the contradictions in the rest of his thinking.] harding complains that jung’s theories have not been universally substantiated, so that it would be risky to build astrology upon their foundations (pp21 22). he should perhaps consider taking his own advice, since he seems willing to base his whole approach on ideas for which, as far as i am aware, there is no evidence, scientific or otherwise. there is not even any tentative attempt to propose a theory to explain how astrological meaning might be generated by the planets (i.e. in his view inanimate matter) and their geometrical arrangements. other ideas which seem equally bizarre to me in an existentialist, physicalist theory of matter are the following: the instincts of the planets, and the “instinct” of the cosmos (p100), an astrological symbol as a pure energy, expressing a coherent inner purpose (pp135 6), the ability of the planets to trigger the residue of archaic events (pp137 8), the process of imprinting on the primal zodiac and planetary memory (p207), and number as an integral part of the zodiac (p208). harding offers no suggestions of his own to explain how these hypotheses might work; he makes these statements and then studiously avoids discussing the philosophical questions they raise. not only does he avoid discussing the implications of his own theories, he also avoids mentioning ideas which create serious problems for them. i am thinking specifically of quantum physics. harding makes occasional reference to the latest developments   his description of the psyche as encountered in analysis (pp16 17), for example, is reminiscent of quantum language, and later he notes that one of his statements ‘would certainly parallel some of the ideas currently being expressed in modern physics’ (p325). he is therefore aware of what is going on, yet fails to discuss the serious challenge posed to his ideas. there is nothing wrong with disagreeing with the theories of modern science, but if that is the case you should say so and say why, not sweep the whole issue under the carpet by pretending that modern science does not exist. in order to compare harding’s position with that of quantum physics, i shall make reference exclusively to one book, spacetime and beyond, by bob toben and fred alan wolf², which contains in one volume all the quantum viewpoints needed to challenge harding’s views. i have identified five areas where the differences could hardly be more extreme: 1) harding says: “from a phenomenological point of view, neo platonism makes an erroneous division between a world of pure ‘ideas’ and the humdrum reality of the world in which we all live. indeed, all theories which postulate an ‘above’ which moulds a ‘below’ risk continuing what many would see as a specious dichotomy” (p78). yet that is exactly how quantum physics reveals the world to be: a) matter is not solid: “atoms are formed by interactions between vibrational patterns. the atoms interact to form molecules, which interact and which we detect as our physical ‘bodies’ ” (wolf/toben p53). “ ‘matter’ may be nothing but gravitationally trapped light (energy). the chair is not ‘solid’, it is a fantastic interplay of vibrating, spinning rings of light in the turbulent sea of space” (p46). b) even more important is the non continuity of matter. this idea has already been discussed at greater length in chapter 6. the basic point is that the particles which underlie matter come into being and are annihilated on an incredibly short time scale. it is therefore extraordinary that matter appears solid and stable. the, to me, inescapable conclusion is that every physical object is an idea sustained in being by hidden organising principles beyond the universe of space time, which i would choose to call the archetypal realm. i refer once more to a quote i have used above: “mathematicians can describe the limits of space time, but they can’t describe what is beyond, they only know there is a beyond…. we only know that there is something other than space time but we don’t know what it is, because beyond space time is nonphysical, unmeasurable” (ibid. p55). also, f. david peat says: “the processes of matter and the activity of information are two sides of the one reality… they are not simply fields of habitual response but are closer to some form of intelligence that wells up from an underlying creative source”³. harding treats matter as the primary reality. he is obviously entitled to this opinion, which is really just an assumption based upon appearances. i would merely like to point out that, unlike harding, the quantum physicists have actually spent their lives studying the nature of matter. we should perhaps take their statements somewhat more seriously. 2) harding says that astrological meanings “would exist just as strongly if the whole human race were to vanish overnight” (p6). compare this with the quantum viewpoint: “the physical universe does not exist independent of the thought of the participators. what we call reality is constructed by the mind” (wolf/toben p16). the thinking behind this statement is reformulated on pp36 37, and described in greater detail on pp126 8. i would like to draw your attention in particular to these two statements: “our thoughts about the world and the way the world appears are fundamentally related” (p126), and “you cannot even observe anything without changing the object and even yourself” (p36). as is stressed in every survey of quantum physics, the idea of objective observers has been replaced by that of participators, an insight which has profound implications for scientific experimentation, although harding chooses to distance himself from it. he refers to a series of experiments which “demonstrate a very clear astrological effect on the precipitation rate of various metals, which cannot realistically be thought of as having an unconscious to work meaningfulness for them in the world”. he concludes “there is no energy moving from unconscious to conscious, no human participation…” (p38). from a quantum physics perspective this last statement is somewhat naïve; the actual material existence of the planets and the metals is energy moving from unconscious to conscious, and to say that there is no human participation in an experiment conceived, performed, observed, recorded, and assessed by humans is to try to return to the nineteenth century concept   dare i say illusion   of an objective observer. 3) according to quantum theory, as discussed earlier: “all things are interconnected… every part is directly connected to every other part through the wormholes of space. at this level of quantum gravity, there is no time or distance separating parts”. however, the “connections cannot be perceived in ordinary states of consciousness” (wolf/toben pp33 35). one consequence of this is the fact of non locality, the instantaneous transfer of information⁴. harding, however, chooses to retain a philosophy based on separateness. he ignores not only these findings of quantum physics, believing that the planets affect us from the distance at which they appear, but also, even more bizarrely, ignores einstein’s theory of relativity, preferring to live in a newtonian universe, oblivious of the whole of twentieth century physics: “it appears as if birth tends to be triggered when the key ‘character trait’ planet reaches 10 degrees above the horizon, whether this planet is the moon, mars, jupiter or saturn. but this cannot be described as a synchronistic event because we are not recording the actual moment when the planet climbed above the horizon but the moment when its light was visible at that point. as the light from saturn can take up to 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to earth, the ‘real’ saturn would have aligned with the horizon 1 hour and 20 minutes earlier. that would have been the moment when the event actually took place” (p35, his italics). to most if not all scientists’ satisfaction, einstein completely dispensed with the idea of an objective, ‘real’ event; everything depends upon the position and motion of the observer⁵. harding is making an extraordinarily paradoxical claim here. on the one hand he is saying that there can be a ‘real’ event taking place out in the solar system simultaneously with a moment of earth time, thus suggesting his own version of non locality or time distortion in that the event’s real meaning occurs even before its effect has arrived on earth, while at the same time denying that such simultaneity is taking place because its effect takes at least 1 hour and 20 minutes to arrive, more if it were to travel slower than the speed of light. the implication of what he is saying is that on every astrological chart drawn up, adjustments would have to be made for each planet to allow for the length of time that it took the light to arrive. this is simply not the case. the world ephemeris for the 20th century, for example, describes in detail the workings of astrological calculations; it makes no mention of any such adjustment, nor am i aware of any astrologer who makes them. astrology takes place in the human mind. i would suggest therefore, i believe in accordance with einstein, that the event is the effect as perceived by the observer, not its transmission. cordelia mansall says: “the birth chart is the view of the heavens as they appear to be to us on earth”⁶ (her italics), thus not referring to some hypothetical objective reality. dane rudhyar says: “in astrology everything consequently is referred to the point, in time and space, of the observer, or of the native. a birth chart is the universe seen from the point, in time and space, of the birth event… the fact of birth, its position in space and its moment in time, creates a universe around itself. every factor of interpretation revolves around this birth fact”⁷. according to this hypothesis, if all the stars had blown up in simultaneous supernova explosions, and all the outer planets mysteriously disappeared, it would still be possible to draw up meaningful charts for children born until the light arrived, even though, according to harding, the “real” heavenly bodies and the effects they are transmitting would no longer exist. he thus creates a further problem for himself in that every astrological statement he makes must be provisional and open to doubt, in that he can never be sure whether the “real” bodies are still out there in the positions that they seem to be several hours/years later. 4) harding says that “the platonic concept of ideas would seem to distance us from the central nature of our being…” (p82), and that: “the more we address the idea of self in relation to what we perceive of the birth chart, the more we are forced to recognize that the self may not be one particular ‘thing’, and instead be more of a state of perception which is by no means as fixed a substance as either platonic forms or christian souls might suggest. “it may be important to recognize that in accepting the idea that there is an unchanging ‘true self’, which seems to exist at least partially outside of the centre of our experience, we not only ignore the very real paradox such a situation presents (if the true self is somewhere else, then what are we doing here?), we also see how the concept of form and archetype may contribute to creating a very considerable dualistic illusion; an illusion which astrology itself could actually dispel” (p87). as if trying to disprove plato’s belief in the ‘immortal soul’ he says: “yet what we claim as being ‘ourself’ often shifts dramatically during the course of life…. in other words, it is something capable of being constantly re drawn in the light of sensation, rather than as a fixed, unchanging entity”. to think that the fluctuations of the temporary personality disproves the immortality of the soul reveals at best a total misunderstanding of both concepts. what is more important here, however, is the contrast with the quantum physics viewpoint: “what we perceive as ourselves is only the localized projection of the totality of our true selves” (wolf/toben, the title page). “the real ‘i’ is beyond space time” (ibid. p108). “you cannot be aware of what is beyond space time but you can walk in this dream in contact with the higher consciousness that is the real you”⁸. 5) quantum physicists seem to have no problem with the concept of synchronicity. for example, f. david peat positively embraces it [as footnote 3]. this is what toben and wolf have to say: “ ‘unexplainable’, ‘psychic’, ‘parapsychological’ phenomena bombard our universe… the ‘unexplainable’ events described herein defy classical physics but are within the realm of understanding of the new physics. at the ‘ordinary’ level of consciousness, these events cannot be willed and are usually spontaneous and unpredictable” (pp65 66). jungian synchronistic events would clearly fit into this category. when attempting to come to terms with them, “there is no such thing as time’s direction at the quantum level. all events exist concurrently… bridges in the quantum foam can connect any event with any other event. thought is faster than light” (p72). for harding to say that astrology cannot be explained by synchronicity because of the time lapses involved would therefore, according to this view, be somewhat missing the point. from within our four dimensional universe we see synchronicity as a miraculous concurrence of seemingly unrelated events. if they originate from beyond spacetime, however, they are by definition not restricted by space and time. at the level of reality where synchronistic events originate, time as we perceive it does not exist. these events could not happen other than simultaneously, because that is all there is. thus it is reasonable to say, to use the scientific language, that quantum physics predicts synchronicity. causality clearly depends upon time. if time is an illusion and everything is simultaneous, by definition all events are acausal and harding’s idea that astrology is a “known causal system” must be wrong. harding must know that his theories about astrology are in total conflict with the most significant developments of twentieth century science. yet he doesn’t mention this once, preferring to carry on arguing his case as if relativity theory and quantum physics did not exist. if he has reservations about them or can disprove them, he should come out and say so. he has the problem that he is seeking to provide an explanation for astrology consistent with the phenomenological standpoint of reducing everything to the human. quantum physics could provide him with a great opportunity in that, bizarre though its findings are, it does explain the workings of the physical universe   it is science. unfortunately for him, he can neither acknowledge nor accept the findings because they lead to the very conclusion that he has decided in advance is false, that there is an above shaping this below (plato). as long ago as 1930 sir james jeans wrote a survey of quantum physics, still in its infancy, called the mysterious universe⁹. even then¹⁰ he could clearly see the implications, in that he chose as his epigram the famous passage from plato’s republic in which human life is compared to prisoners in a cave, unable to see the true light¹¹, and made several other references to plato later in the text. he believed that “the outstanding achievement of twentieth century physics (over and above the theories of relativity, quanta and quantum mechanics) is the general recognition that we are not yet in contact with ultimate reality”, immediately referring again to the same passage from plato¹². in these terms we would have to say that harding has been seduced by the illusion of the shadows on the wall. on that theme compare gary zukav: “…ossified structures of perception are the prisons in which we unknowingly become prisoners”¹³, and arthur koestler: “the limitations of our biological equipment may condemn us to the role of peeping toms at the keyhole of eternity. but at least let us take the stuffing out of the keyhole, which blocks even our limited view”¹⁴. ============================================================= i hope you have enjoyed this article. i have written in the past about other topics, including spirituality, metaphysics, psychology, science, christianity, and politics. all of those articles are on medium, but the simplest way to see a guide to them is to visit my website (click here and here). my most recent articles, however, are only on medium; for those please check out my lists. ============================================================== footnotes: 2. bantam, originally1975, my copy 1982 3. synchronicity, bantam, 1987, p167 4. in quantum physics, this was demonstrated by bell’s theorem 5. coincidences: chance or fate?, ken anderson, blandford, originally 1991, my edition 1995 6. discover astrology, aquarian press, 1991, p21 7. the astrology of personality, servire/wassenaar, originally 1936, my copy 1963, p177 8. the coincidence file, ken anderson, blandford, 1999, p119 9. cambridge university press, originally 1930, my copy 1947 10. the edition to which i have access is the 1947, by which time three lots of corrections have been incorporated. i believe that they are relevant only to scientific detail, however, and that what i discuss here was said in the earlier editions, thus 1930. 11. part 7, no7. in the 1974 penguin edition this passage can be found on p316. 12. as footnote 9, p111 13. the dancing wu li masters, fontana, 1980, p219 14. the roots of coincidence, picador, 1972, p140 cosmic program john ege wes hansen       3 i am a singer/songwriter interested in spirituality, politics, psychology, science, and their interrelationships. grahampemberton.com spiritualityinpolitics.com help status about careers press blog privacy terms text to speech teams

astrology consists of a number of belief systems that hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events or descriptions of personality in the human world. astrology has been rejected by the scientific community as having no explanatory power for describing the universe. scientific testing has found no evidence to support the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions.[1] where astrology has made falsifiable predictions, it has been falsified.[1]: 424 the most famous test was headed by shawn carlson and included a committee of scientists and a committee of astrologers. it led to the conclusion that natal astrology performed no better than chance. astrology has not demonstrated its effectiveness in controlled studies and has no scientific validity,[1][2]: 85 and is thus regarded as pseudoscience.[3][4]: 1350 there is no proposed mechanism of action by which the positions and motions of stars and planets could affect people and events on earth in the way astrologers say they do that does not contradict well understood, basic aspects of biology and physics.[5]: 249 [6] although astrology has no scientific validity, astrological beliefs have impacted human history[7] and astrology has helped to drive the development of astronomy. modern scientific inquiry into astrology is primarily focused on drawing a correlation between astrological traditions and the influence of seasonal birth in humans.[8][9][10] the majority of professional astrologers rely on performing astrology based personality tests and making relevant predictions about the remunerator's future.[2]: 83 those who continue to have faith in astrology have been characterised 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".[11] astrophysicist neil degrasse tyson commented on astrological belief, saying that "part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us. without that knowledge, without that capacity to think, you can easily become a victim of people who seek to take advantage of you".[12] the continued belief in astrology despite its lack of credibility is seen as a demonstration of low scientific literacy, although some continue to believe in it even though they are scientifically literate.[13] the foundations of the theoretical structure used in astrology originate with the babylonians, although widespread usage did not occur until the start of the hellenistic period after alexander the great swept through greece. it was not known to the babylonians that the constellations are not on a celestial sphere and are very far apart. the appearance of them being close is illusory. the exact demarcation of what a constellation is is cultural and varied between civilisations.[14]: 62 ptolemy's work on astronomy was driven to some extent by the desire, like all astrologers of the time, to easily calculate the planetary movements.[15]: 40 early western astrology operated under the ancient greek concepts of the macrocosm and microcosm, and thus medical astrology related what happened to the planets and other objects in the sky to medical operations. this provided a further motivator for the study of astronomy.[15]: 73 while still defending the practice of astrology, ptolemy acknowledged that the predictive power of astronomy for the motion of the planets and other celestial bodies ranked above astrological predictions.[16]: 344 during the islamic golden age, astronomy was funded so that the astronomical parameters, such as the eccentricity of the sun's orbit, required for the ptolemaic model could be calculated to sufficient accuracy and precision. those in positions of power, like the fatimid caliphate vizier in 1120, funded the construction of observatories so that astrological predictions, fuelled by precise planetary information, could be made.[15]: 55 56 since the observatories were built to help in making astrological predictions, few of these observatories lasted long due to the prohibition against astrology within islam, and most were torn down during or just after construction.[15]: 57 the clear rejection of astrology in works of astronomy started in 1679, with the yearly publication la connoissance des temps.[15]: 220 unlike the west, in iran, the rejection of heliocentrism continued up towards the start of the 20th century, in part motivated by a fear that this would undermine the widespread belief in astrology and islamic cosmology in iran.[17]: 10 the first work, falak al sa'ada by ictizad al saltana, aimed at undermining this belief in astrology and "old astronomy" in iran was published in 1861. on astrology, it cited the inability of different astrologers to make the same prediction about what occurs following a conjunction and described the attributes astrologers gave to the planets as implausible.[17]: 17 18 astrology provides the quintessential example of a pseudoscience since it has been tested repeatedly and failed all the tests.[14]: 62 science and non science are often distinguished by the criterion of falsifiability. the criterion was first proposed by philosopher of science karl popper. to popper, science does not rely on induction; instead, scientific investigations are inherently attempts to falsify existing theories through novel tests. if a single test fails, then the theory is falsified.[18][19]: 10 therefore, any test of a scientific theory must prohibit certain results that falsify the theory, and expect other specific results consistent with the theory. using this criterion of falsifiability, astrology is a pseudoscience.[18] astrology was popper's most frequent example of pseudoscience.[20]: 7 popper regarded astrology as "pseudo empirical" in that "it appeals to observation and experiment", but "nevertheless does not come up to scientific standards".[21]: 44 in contrast to scientific disciplines, astrology does not respond to falsification through experiment. according to professor of neurology terence hines, this is a hallmark of pseudoscience.[22]: 206 in contrast to popper, the philosopher thomas 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.[23]: 401 to kuhn, although astrologers had, historically, made predictions that "categorically failed", this in itself does not make it unscientific, nor do the attempts by astrologers to explain away the failure by claiming it was due to the creation of a horoscope being very difficult (through subsuming, after the fact, a more general horoscope that leads to a different prediction). rather, in kuhn's eyes, astrology is not science because it was always more akin to medieval medicine; they 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,[20]: 8 and so, "they had no puzzles to solve and therefore no science to practise."[20]: 8 [23]: 401 while an astronomer could correct for failure, an astrologer could not. an astrologer could only explain away failure but could not revise the astrological hypothesis in a meaningful way. as such, to kuhn, even if the stars could influence the path of humans through life astrology is not scientific.[20]: 8 philosopher paul thagard believed that astrology can not 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.[24]: 228 to thagard a further criterion of demarcation of science from pseudoscience was 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".[24]: 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.[24]: 228 [25]: 549 to thagard, astrologers are acting as though engaged in normal 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 viewed astrology as pseudoscience.[24]: 228 to thagard, astrology should not be regarded as a pseudoscience on the failure of gauquelin to find any correlation between the various astrological signs and someone's career, twins not showing the expected correlations from having the same signs in twin studies, lack of agreement on the significance of the planets discovered since ptolemy's time and large scale disasters wiping out individuals with vastly different signs at the same time.[24]: 226 227 rather, his demarcation of science requires three distinct foci: "theory, community [and] historical context". while verification and falsifiability focused on the theory, kuhn's work focused on the historical context, but the astrological community should also be considered. whether or not they:[24]: 226 227 in this approach, true falsification rather than modifying a theory to avoid the falsification only really occurs when an alternative theory is proposed.[24]: 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.[26]: 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. this poor reasoning includes appeals to ancient astrologers such as kepler despite any relevance of topic or specific reasoning, and vague claims. the claim that evidence for astrology is that people born at roughly "the same place have a life pattern that is very similar" is vague, but also ignores that time is reference frame dependent and gives no definition of "same place" despite the planet's moving in the reference frame of the solar system. other comments by astrologers are based on severely erroneous interpretations of basic physics, such as the general belief by medieval astrologers that the geocentric solar system corresponded to an atom. further, james noted that response to criticism also relies on faulty logic, an example of which was a response to twin studies with the statement that coincidences in twins are due to astrology, but any differences are due to "heredity and environment", while for other astrologers the issues are too difficult and they just want to get back to their astrology.[26]: 32 further, to astrologers, if something appears in their favour, they may latch upon it as proof, while making no attempt to explore its implications, preferring to refer to the item in favour as definitive; possibilities that do not make astrology look favourable are ignored.[26]: 33 from the quinean web of knowledge, there is a dichotomy where one must either reject astrology or accept astrology but reject all established scientific disciplines that are incompatible with astrology.[19]: 24 astrologers often avoid making verifiable predictions, and instead rely on vague statements that let them try to avoid falsification.[21]: 48 49 across several centuries of testing, the predictions of astrology have never been more accurate than that expected by chance alone.[2] one approach used in testing astrology quantitatively is through blind experiment. when specific predictions from astrologers were tested in rigorous experimental procedures in the carlson test, the predictions were falsified.[1] all controlled experiments have failed to show any effect.[19]: 24 in 1955, astrologer[28] and psychologist michel gauquelin stated that although he had failed to find evidence to support such indicators as the zodiacal signs and planetary aspects in astrology, he had found positive correlations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and success in professions (such as doctors, scientists, athletes, actors, writers, painters, etc.), which astrology traditionally associates with those planets.[27] the best known of gauquelin's findings is based on the positions of mars in the natal charts of successful athletes and became known as the "mars effect".[29]: 213 a study conducted by seven french scientists attempted to replicate the claim, but found no statistical evidence.[29]: 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.[30] 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 sample group was taken from a time where belief in astrology was more common. gauquelin had failed to find the mars effect in more recent populations,[a] where a nurse or doctor recorded the birth information. the number of births under astrologically undesirable conditions was also lower, indicating more evidence that parents choose dates and times to suit their beliefs.[31]: 116 shawn carlson's now renowned experiment was performed by 28 astrologers matching over 100 natal charts to psychological profiles generated by the california psychological inventory (cpi) test using double blind methods. the experimental protocol used in carlson's study was agreed to by a group of physicists and astrologers prior to the experiment.[1] astrologers, nominated by the national council for geocosmic research, acted as the astrological advisors, and helped to ensure, and agreed, that the test was fair.[31]: 117 [32]: 420 they also chose 26 of the 28 astrologers for the tests, the other two being interested astrologers who volunteered afterwards.[32]: 420 the astrologers came from europe and the united states.[31]: 117 the astrologers helped to draw up the central proposition of natal astrology to be tested.[32]: 419 published in nature in 1985, the study found that predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing "clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis".[32] scientist and former astrologer geoffrey dean and psychologist ivan kelly[33] conducted a large scale scientific test, involving more than one hundred cognitive, behavioural, physical and other variables, but found no support for astrology.[34] a further test involved 45 confident[b] astrologers, with an average of 10 years' experience and 160 test subjects (out of an original sample size of 1198 test subjects) who strongly favoured certain characteristics in the eysenck personality questionnaire to extremes.[34]: 191 the astrologers performed much worse than merely basing decisions off the individuals' ages, and much worse than 45 control subjects who did not use birth charts at all.[c][34]: 191 a meta analysis was conducted, pooling 40 studies consisting of 700 astrologers and over 1,000 birth charts. ten of the tests, which had a total of 300 participating, involved the astrologers picking the correct chart interpretation out of a number of others that were not the astrologically correct chart interpretation (usually three to five others). when the date and other obvious clues were removed, no significant results were found to suggest there was any preferred chart.[34]: 190 in 10 studies, participants picked horoscopes that they felt were accurate descriptions, with one being the "correct" answer. again the results were no better than chance.[14]: 66 67 in a study of 2011 sets of people born within 5 minutes of each other ("time twins") to see if there was any discernible effect; no effect was seen.[14]: 67 quantitative sociologist david voas examined the census data for more than 20 million individuals in england and wales to see if star signs corresponded to marriage arrangements. no effect was seen.[14]: 67 beyond the scientific tests astrology has failed, proposals for astrology face a number of other obstacles due to the many theoretical flaws in astrology[14]: 62 [19]: 24 including lack of consistency, lack of ability to predict missing planets, lack of connection of the zodiac to the constellations in western astrology, and lack of any plausible mechanism. the underpinnings of astrology tend to disagree with numerous basic facts from scientific disciplines.[19]: 24 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.[2]: 83 dean and kelly documented 25 studies, which had found that the degree of agreement amongst astrologers' predictions was measured as a low 0.1.[d][14]: 66 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.[2]: 83 georges charpak and henri broch dealt with claims from western astrology in the book debunked! esp, telekinesis, and other pseudoscience.[35] they pointed out that astrologers have only a small knowledge of astronomy and that they often do not take into account basic features such as the precession of the equinoxes. they commented on the example of elizabeth teissier who claimed that "the sun ends up in the same place in the sky on the same date each year" as the basis for claims 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 years period there would be a difference greater than 780,000 miles.[36]: 6 7 edward w. james, commented that attaching significance to the constellation on the celestial sphere the sun is in at sunset was done on the basis of human factors namely, that astrologers did not want to wake up early, and the exact time of noon was hard to know. further, the creation of the zodiac and the disconnect from the constellations was because the sun is not in each constellation for the same amount of time.[26]: 25 this disconnection from the constellations led to the problem with precession separating the zodiac symbols from the constellations that they once were related to.[26]: 26 philosopher of science, massimo pigliucci commenting on the movement, opined "well then, which sign should i look up when i open my sunday paper, i wonder?"[14]: 64 the tropical zodiac has no connection to the stars, and as long as no claims are made that the constellations themselves are in the associated sign, astrologers avoid the concept that precession seemingly moves the constellations because they do not reference them.[36] 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."[36] sole use of the tropical zodiac is inconsistent with references made, by the same astrologers, to the age of aquarius, which depends on when the vernal point enters the constellation of aquarius.[1] some astrologers make claims that the position of all the planets must be taken into account, but astrologers were unable to predict the existence of neptune based on mistakes in horoscopes. instead neptune was predicted using newton's law of universal gravitation.[2] the grafting on of uranus, neptune and pluto into the astrology discourse was done on an ad hoc basis.[1] on the demotion of pluto to the status of dwarf planet, philip zarka of the paris observatory in meudon, france wondered how astrologers should respond:[1] should astrologers remove it from the list of luminars [sun, moon and the 8 planets other than earth] and confess that it did not actually bring any improvement? if they decide to keep it, what about the growing list of other recently discovered similar bodies (sedna, quaoar. etc), some of which even have satellites (xena, 2003el61)? astrology has been criticised for failing to provide a physical mechanism that links the movements of celestial bodies to their purported effects on human behaviour. in a lecture in 2001, stephen hawking stated "the reason most scientists don't believe in astrology is because it is not consistent with our theories that have been tested by experiment."[37] in 1975, amid increasing popular interest in astrology, the humanist magazine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by bart j. bok, lawrence e. jerome, and paul kurtz.[11] the statement, entitled "objections to astrology", was signed by 186 astronomers, physicists and leading scientists of the day. they said that there is no scientific foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the public against accepting astrological advice without question. their criticism focused on the fact that there was no mechanism whereby astrological effects might occur: we can see how infinitesimally small are the gravitational and other effects produced by the distant planets and the far more distant stars. it is simply a mistake to imagine that the forces exerted by stars and planets at the moment of birth can in any way shape our futures.[11] astronomer carl sagan declined to sign the statement. sagan said he took this stance not because he thought astrology had any validity, but because he thought that the tone of the statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology because there was no mechanism (while "certainly a relevant point") was not in itself convincing. in a letter published in a follow up edition of the humanist, sagan confirmed that he would have been willing to sign such a statement had it described and refuted the principal tenets of astrological belief. this, he argued, would have been more persuasive and would have produced less controversy.[11] the use of poetic imagery based on the concepts of the macrocosm and microcosm, "as above so below" to decide meaning such as edward w. james' example of "mars above is red, so mars below means blood and war", is a false cause fallacy.[26]: 26 many astrologers claim that astrology is scientific.[38] if one were to attempt to try to explain it scientifically, there are only four fundamental forces (conventionally), limiting the choice of possible natural mechanisms.[14]: 65 some astrologers have proposed conventional causal agents such as electromagnetism and gravity.[38][39] the strength of these forces drops off with distance.[14]: 65 scientists reject these proposed mechanisms as implausible[38] 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.[39] astronomer phil plait noted that in terms of magnitude, the sun is the only object with an electromagnetic field of note, but astrology isn't based just off the sun alone.[14]: 65 [40] while astrologers could try to suggest a fifth force, this is inconsistent with the trends in physics with the unification of electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force. if the astrologer insisted on being inconsistent with the current understanding and evidential basis of physics, that would be an extraordinary claim.[14]: 65 it would also be inconsistent with the other forces which drop off with distance.[14]: 65 if distance is irrelevant, then, logically, all objects in space should be taken into account.[14]: 66 carl jung sought to invoke synchronicity, the claim that two events have some sort of acausal connection, to explain the lack of statistically significant results on astrology from a single study he conducted. however, synchronicity itself is considered neither testable nor falsifiable.[41] the study was subsequently heavily criticised for its non random sample and its use of statistics and also its lack of consistency with astrology.[e][42] psychological studies have not found any robust relationship between astrological signs and life outcomes. for example, a study showed that zodiac signs are no more effective than random numbers in predicting subjective well being and quality of life.[43] it has also been shown that confirmation bias is a psychological factor that contributes to belief in astrology.[13]: 344 [44]: 180 181 [45]: 42 48 confirmation bias is a form of cognitive bias.[f][46]: 553 from the literature, astrology believers often tend to selectively remember those predictions that turned out to be true and do not remember those that turned 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.[44]: 180 181 thus there are two distinct forms of confirmation bias that are under study with respect to astrological belief.[44]: 180 181 the barnum effect is the tendency for an individual to give a high accuracy rating to a description of their personality that supposedly tailored specifically for them, but is, in fact, vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. if more information is requested for a prediction, the more accepting people are of the results.[13]: 344 in 1949 bertram forer conducted a personality test on students in his classroom.[13]: 344 each student was given a supposedly individual assessment but actually all students received the same assessment. the personality descriptions were taken from a book on astrology. when the students were asked to comment on the accuracy of the test, more than 40% gave it the top mark of 5 out of 5, and the average rating was 4.2.[47]: 134, 135 the results of this study have been replicated in numerous other studies.[48]: 382 the study of the barnum/forer effect has been focused mostly on the level of acceptance of fake horoscopes and fake astrological personality profiles.[48]: 382 recipients of these personality assessments consistently fail to distinguish between common and uncommon personality descriptors.[48]: 383 in a study by paul rogers and janice soule (2009), which was consistent with previous research on the issue, it was found that those who believed in astrology are generally more susceptible to giving more credence to the barnum profile than sceptics.[48]: 393 by a process known as self attribution, it has been shown in numerous studies that individuals with knowledge of astrology tend to describe their personalities in terms of traits compatible with their sun signs. the effect is heightened when the individuals were aware that the personality description was being used to discuss astrology. individuals who were not familiar with astrology had no such tendency.[49] in 1953, sociologist theodor w. adorno conducted a study of the astrology column of a los angeles newspaper as part of a project that examined mass culture in capitalist society.[50]: 326 adorno believed that popular astrology, as a device, invariably led to statements that encouraged conformity and that astrologers who went against conformity with statements that discouraged performance at work etc. risked losing their jobs.[50]: 327 adorno concluded that astrology was a large scale manifestation of systematic irrationalism, where flattery and vague generalisations subtly led individuals to believe the author of the column addressed them directly.[51] adorno drew a parallel with the phrase opium of the people, by karl marx, by commenting, "occultism is the metaphysic of the dopes."[50]: 329 false balance is where a false, unaccepted or spurious viewpoint is included alongside a well reasoned one in media reports and tv appearances and as a result the false balance implies "there were two equal sides to a story when clearly there were not".[52] during wonders of the solar system, a tv programme by the bbc, the physicist brian cox said: "despite the fact that astrology is a load of rubbish, jupiter can in fact have a profound influence on our planet. and it's through a force... gravity." this upset believers in astrology who complained that there was no astrologer to provide an alternative viewpoint. following the complaints of astrology believers, cox gave the following statement to the bbc: "i apologise to the astrology community for not making myself clear. i should have said that this new age drivel is undermining the very fabric of our civilisation."[52] in the programme stargazing live, cox further commented by saying: "in the interests of balance on the bbc, yes astrology is nonsense."[53] in an editorial in the medical journal bmj, editor trevor jackson cited this incident showing where false balance could occur.[52] studies and polling have shown that the belief in astrology is higher in western countries than might otherwise be expected.[13] in 2012, in polls 42% of americans said they thought astrology was at least partially scientific.[54]: 7/25 this belief decreased with education and education is highly correlated with levels of scientific knowledge.[13]: 345 some of the reported belief levels are due to a confusion of astrology with astronomy (the scientific study of celestial objects). the closeness of the two words varies depending on the language.[13]: 344, 346 a plain description of astrology as an "occult influence of stars, planets etc. on human affairs" had no impact on the general public's assessment of whether astrology is scientific or not in a 1992 eurobarometer poll. this may partially be due to the implicit association amongst the general public, of any wording ending in " ology" with a legitimate field of knowledge.[13]: 346 in eurobarometers 224 and 225 performed in 2004, a split poll was used to isolate confusion over wording. in half of the polls, the word "astrology" was used, while in the other the word "horoscope" was used.[13]: 349 belief that astrology was at least partially scientific was 76%, but belief that horoscopes were at least partially scientific was 43%. in particular, belief that astrology was very scientific was 26% while that of horoscopes was 7%.[13]: 352 this appeared to indicate that the high level of apparent polling support for astrology in the eu was indeed due to confusion over terminology.[13]: 362

contents preliminary remarks 1. what is astrology? 2. origins mesopotamia egypt 3. the world view of astrology in the hellenistic era on the empirical foundations of astrology in ancient times 4. the practice of astrology in the roman era 5. the astrology of the present esoteric astrology psychological astrology empirical investigations 6. astrology in other cultures 7. astrology and christianity history present 8. where does astrology stand today? 9. is astrology true? bibliography preliminary remarks in hardly any other area of religious studies today does so much disagreement prevail as in that of astrology. what does astrology have to do with religion? does it not belong rather to the field of thewrongly understoodnatural sciences, particularly to astronomy? these questions are often asked when one speaks of astrology. these are then followed by further, rather practical questions as well: is astrology really founded on experience, as followers claim, or is it not rather based on a naïve and false observation of the heavens, long surpassed by our modern astronomy? the following article would like to attempt a clear and understandable answer to these questions. it is obvious that the author answers the question of the origin and essence of astrology in connection with religious concepts; otherwise, this article would not be appearing here. as much as astrology is anchored from the beginning in european religious history, it is experiencing a certain renaissance again today. in connection with the press and with television, a quite simple variety presents itself to the public eye, which promises "stress on the job" or "a romantic evening" and often thereby refutes itself. but this is not the whole story of astrology. also in connection with new religious movements and in the framework of christianity, but in the framework of spiritual interpretations of the natural sciences as well, astrology has again become current in the past years and decades. that this present concern with it is not limited to daily horoscopes in newspaper columns is shown by views such as those of the benedictine father gerhard voss, who speaks out in favor of astrology in a christian context in his book astrologie christlich [1]. it is therefore worth following the footprints of astrology through history and the present in order to get an impression of where its roots lie and what still makes it so attractive today. the idea that astrology attempts to join a basically mythical world view with scientific observations can serve us as a guide. at the same time, it is interesting to follow the way in which astrology acts in regard to the traditional religions and, on the other hand, how these react to astrology.  30  a large portion of this article will be devoted to the history of astrology, for the main concern here is to give an overview of this millennia old phenomenon. as already mentioned, there are many disagreements on this subject, which can often be traced back to a very specialized and one sided view of astrology. the reason for this is not so much the one sidedness of these viewpoints as the great diversity within astrology itself. religious and mythological, psychological and natural scientific statements intersect in it. if we look in an encyclopedia of the natural sciences, we find under the heading "astrology" that we are concerned here with a misguided variant of orbital mechanics, because astrology also takes an interest in orbital mechanics and is therefore seen as a phenomenon of the natural sciences [2]. if, on the other hand, one consults an encyclopedia of theology or religious studies, its mythological and polytheistic content is usually referred to, whereby the belief in a multitude of star gods is then underlined [3]. reference works with an esoteric emphasis view astrology in its psychological, therapeutic sense, whereby all organic life is seen in one great spiritual context [4]. to understand modern astrology, it is therefore necessary to trace the way in which an originally mythical picture of the cosmos picks up natural scientific, medicinal, and psychological knowledge, as well as nature mystical and spiritual ideas, and forms all of these individual areas into a unique world view. but first a provisional explanation of what astrology actually is. what is astrology? if astrology is a tightrope walk between religion and scientific astronomy, then we already have a first definition. first of all: insofar as it views cosmos, humans, and nature as being reigned over and guided by powers and forces from beyond, astrology is religion. all the events in the cosmos and on earth are linked together by an invisible magic bond. only on the basis of this mysterious magical connection can astrology assume that the stars have something to do with the course of our lives, with our talents and weaknesses. in this regard, astrology is related to the nature religions. these also assume that nature is inhabited and governed by magical powers, demons, and gods. like the nature religions, astrology believes in a multitude of gods; it is polytheistic at its core. each planet and sign of the zodiac is the expression of a particular god or demon. but astrology is also sometimes accepted by religions which know only one creator god, like judaism, christianity, and islam. then the many star gods become angels and demons which are subordinated to the one god and, as such, understood as "instruments" of god. but in its scientific side, astrology is also very sober. it divides the heavens into geometrically exact sectors, calculateslike every astronomerthe orbits of the planets, and employs complicated calculations to obtain from the manifold movements of the earth and the heavenly bodies the horoscope. the word horoscope goes back to the greek and means roughly: "looking into the hour." by this it is meant that the astrologer, in accordance with the exact time a person is born, observes the heavens and calculates all the planets, as well as the sign of the zodiac rising over the eastern horizonwhich is then identified as "ascendant." he then prepares a chart which indicates the astronomically exact positions of the stars in relation to the place of birth. astrology is thus also quite simply astronomy, or better: its religious understanding of the cosmos is based on exact scientific calculations.  31  this double nature has long been known to scholars of religion concerned with the history and meaning of astrology. the classical philologist franz boll said it concisely: "astrology wants to be religion and science at the same time; that marks its essence [5]." by the time astrology became "religion and science at the same time"the oldest known personal horoscope is from the year 410 bc [6] it had already undergone a long period of development. but before we have a look at the history of astrology, a peculiar fact should be pointed out. astrology is not just a phenomenon of european religious history; it is to be found in all the great religions and in all culturesin more or less complex forms. those who went to the "expo," the 2000 world exposition of nations in hannover, germany, might have passed by the indian pavilion and noticed the astrologers stand. this is surely not such a marginal phenomenon as it may appear from the viewpoint of a characteristically secular society. today astrology is still a constituent part of a religiously influenced way of life in many parts of the world. whether in india or south america, even some scientists first consult an astrologer before embarking on longer official trips. but in this article, primarily the astrology of european religious history shall be featured, which, after all, is the main source of the many contemporary schools of astrology in europe and america. during birth the horoscope of the child is immediately calculated by astrologers. woodcut from j. rueff, de conceptu et generatione hominis, 1587. origins in the course of its almost five thousand year history within the framework of european cultures, astrology developed just gradually into a comprehensive world view with divinatory intentions. it has its roots in the first known cultic reverence of the heavenly bodies. one preliminary stage of astrology is thus the astral cult. some scholars of religion see in this reverence the very beginning of all subsequent religions on earth [7]. this generalization may be somewhat exaggerated, but if we look at the first and oldest records of religious reverence of the stars, something seems to speak for this speculation after all: around 3000 bc, the sumerian cuneiform, which was initially a pictographic script, was developed in the mesopotamian regionaround the area of present day iraq. later, the pictographs were transformed into the so called "line form." here the symbol for "god" is a star shaped arrangement of lines [8]. one could conclude from this that "god" and "star" have the same linguistic root in the sumerian cuneiform. later babylonian and assyrian inscriptions reveal a connection between "god" and "star" or "constellation" as well [9]. the oldest reliable record in which stars are provided with names is known to us, however, from around 1800 bc [10]. certainly, with this sumerian and ancient babylonian identification of "god" and "star," we cannot yet speak of astrology, for the latter presupposes a mathematical calculation of the heavenly bodies as well. this astral mythology shows merely that there is a cultic reverence of the stars which shapes the world view of astrology in advance. if we search for a beginning from which time on the heavenly bodies were also observed and calculated, we find as the oldest piece of evidence a record of the sumerian ruler gadea of lagash (ca. 2143 2124 bc), who describes how gods showed him in a dream which planet constellations were most favorable for the planned building of a temple [11]. this presupposes that these planet constellations could also be observed. thus we know that around 2100 bc the observation of the positions of the planets was already taken for granted.  other reports refer to revelations that were granted to selected individuals in ancient egypt. these indicate a time around 2500 bc in which astrology had its beginning.  32  the origins of astrology are therefore not only to be sought in the mesopotamian regionthe babylonian sumerian culture. ancient egypt also lays claim to being astrologys land of origin. in the hellenistic era and late antiquity, astrologers were often called "chaldeans" and "babylonians," which suggests an origin in mesopotamia. on the other hand, many hellenistic authors were convinced that astrology had been transmitted to the egyptians long before by the god hermes trismegistos. it is hardly to be determined today which tradition the original one is, or if the two run parallel to each other. the extant historical material is not sufficient for these purposes. and now to a few special features of mesopotamian and egyptian astrology. mesopotamia we thus know with certainty that stars had been equipped with names of and enjoyed cultic reverence by 1800 bc at the latest. the three brightest planets, the sun, moon, and venus (the sun and moon are referred to in astrology even today as planets), play a significant role in the later omen interpretation of enuma anu enlil (seventh century bc) [12]. there we find that the properties of certain gods are the same as those of the planets. thus, the properties of the ancient babylonian life and light giving god shamash correspond to the properties of the sun, the generally favorable properties of the god sin to those of the moon. the love and mother goddess, the healer and helper of vegetation ishtar corresponds then to venus [13]. it is remarkable that in the most ancient of times the moon god (sumerian nanna) had absolute priority. this changes later, and in some hymns the goddess venus (sumerian inanna) is revered as the queen of the heavens, crowned by the heavens and with the earth beneath her feet. this queen of the heavens returns as well in the egyptian goddess isis and in the christian reverence of mary. these three are seen as father, mother, and divine child. similar divine parents with divine child are known from the egyptian cult of horus and, later, from the christian faith. but also the other four planets, mercury, mars, jupiter, and saturn, are known in the omen texts of enuma anu enlil (seventh century bc). in the babylonian creation myths of enuma elish (ca. 1500 bc), the babylonian god marduk takes over leadership of the pantheon. in still later times, when culture and science bloom, the god nabu takes on an outstanding position. the properties of marduk are assigned to the planet jupiter, and those of nabu to the planet mercury. the planet gods each have certain spheres of influence which vary over the course of the sumerian babylonian culture, but which stabilize into a uniform picture in the astrological omen inscriptions of enuma anu enlil (seventy clay tablets of the comprehensive library of assurbanipal, 669 626 bc, king of ninive). the myths of the star gods describe which functions and capabilities these gods possess. these characteristics and spheres of influence are quite various and encompass influence upon natural phenomena, plants, animals, as well as upon fields of human activity such as craftsmanship or the political or cultic sectors. a short outline of these characteristics looks something like the following: the sun embodies life and light also beyond death, but also the death bringing drought. the moon is beneficial for life and growth in general; ishtar venus embodies as evening star, love, and as morning star, struggle; nergal mars, war and death; nabu mercury, knowledge and science; marduk jupiter, priestly and worldly rule; and nimib saturn, difficult (field)work and everything difficult and transitory [14].  33  kundurru (boundary stone) of the babylonian king melichipak ii. with sun, moon and venus. from: w. knappich 33. in the course of the expansion of omen interpretation based on planet positions beyond the borders of mesopotamia, the names of the gods were adapted to the various cultures and languages, but their characteristics remained for the most part unchanged. thus during the age of the greeks "nergal" became "ares," and in the roman era "ares" became "mars." and yet throughout these times he remained the planet god of war and death. "ishtar" became "aphrodite," then "venus"and though her warlike side from the babylonian era disappeared, she always remained the goddess of love and of horticulture. "marduk" became "zeus" and then "jupiter. [15]" the planet remained the same, and its elevated position as representative of kingly priestly power remained in essence unchanged as well. these at first greek, then roman planet gods survived european religious history, finally, up to the present. our seven day week isclearly traceable above all in the romance languagesnamed after the seven planet gods. in the practicae, annual astrological forecasts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these roman planet gods often appeared with their symbols in the form of woodcuts. at this time, it was still held that the planets were ruled by gods. the astrology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well, lies completely within this tradition. even if the majority of astrologers no longer speak of star gods, but understand them rather as "powers" existing in humans, the entirety of nature and the cosmos, the properties that the babylonian star religion had already formulated, remain basically unchanged. but more on that in the next section. the babylonian star cult is the core and the archetype of subsequent astrology. it also belongs to this cultic religious core that not only the seven planets but also the fixed stars and groups of fixed starsunited as constellationsare revered as gods. we know of many boundary stones dating from the period around 1200 bc which show various numbers of constellations engraved into them. the whole vault of the heavens is littered with constellations, and the number of sky gods is, accordingly, indeterminably large. a clear order is first established when the wide ribbon of the annual course of the sun is divided into twelve equal parts at 30° each. these sectors now divide the width of the solar orbit into a clear number of so called zodiac signs. together they form what in ancient greece was called the "zodiakos." translated, zodia means life form. this shows that "life" is granted to each sign, that it is revered as a divine (or demonic) being. also given to these animate zodiac signs, as to the planets, are certain properties and spheres of influence which correspond, in part, to the seasons. how the formation of the zodiac signs came about has not been completely explained. the classical philologist franz boll takes the view that the signs were not merely transferences from constellations onto the eclipticthe latter consist of several fixed stars and are, in contrast to the signs of the zodiac, variously largebut rather came about through the spatial division of the apparent solar orbit [16]. the zodiac signs are thusviewed astronomicallythe result of an intensive observation of the annual course of the sun. this begins with the spring equinox, continues through the summer solstice, the autumn equinox, and completes the cycle of the year again at the beginning of spring, whereby a cross of four cardinal points came about, each designating the beginning of a sign of the zodiac.  34  the twelve part division of the zodiac is first reported in a cuneiform inscription from the year 419 bc [17]. but how it came from the quartering of the solar orbit cycle to this twelve part division can hardly be reconstructed today. yet together with the planets, it forms the framework of astrology up to the present in the european tradition. in addition to the cultic reverence of the heavenly bodies, which in the sumerian and babylonian age revered the planets and signs of the zodiac as gods or the residence of gods, the scientific branch of astrology was also taking shapeobservational and calculating astronomy. it was reserved exclusively for the priests. the temple constructions served not only to honor the star gods, but also for the purpose of observation and calculation of the visible celestial bodies. this calculation was thus not merely science in our sense of the word, but belonged rather to the practice of religion. it served the study of the will of the star gods, viz., whether they would send war or times of peace, illness, hunger, or abundant harvests. the omen texts of enuma anu enlil also report the calculated positions and movements of the planets and their constellations with other planets [18]. dated specifications of the especially feared eclipses are known to date back to 747 bc [19]. likewise, the center of the sky, the zenith, and the rising in the east, the ascendant, could be precisely determined. from this time on, we can speak of an astrology in the sense of a combination of scientific observation and reverence of the stars as gods. even if not all the details can be explained here, it is thus clear how closely the cultic reverence of the heavenly bodies is tied to observational science, how astrology wants to be religion and science at the same time. the basic principle that makes up astrology is thereby outlined. it is the heartfelt faith that the cosmos is divinely ordered and governed, and that everything which happens in the heavens and which is calculable stands, mysteriously, in close relation to the events on earth. the mesopotamian astrology, with its developed methods of calculation, spread rapidly during the hellenistic period throughout the whole mediterranean region. in 280 bc, the babylonian marduk priest berossos founded an astrology school on the greek island of kos. he is said to have impressed the athenians with his forecasts so greatly that they dedicated a statue with a golden tongue to him [20]. around this time individual birth astrology also caught on. while the interests of the state and natural eventssuch as the weather and earthquakeshad formerly been observed by astrologers, horoscopes were now additionally produced for individuals. horoscopes were produced for the time of birth and in consideration of the birthplace, which were supposed to provide information about the course of ones life and predispositions. the oldest known surviving individual birth horoscopeas mentioned beforedates back to the year 410 bc. it can be said, in summary, that: characteristic of sumerian babylonian astrology is its pronounced cultic reverence of the heavenly bodies as gods and the contemporaneous development of precise methods for calculating their paths. about the egyptian tradition of astrology, we know that the precise calculation of the planets was less important. it is true that it also recognizes the religious unity of cosmos and human beings as its main concern, but in terms of details it accentuates other aspects.  35  egypt the sources which are able to inform us about the egyptian astrology date back, for the most part, no earlier than to the hellenistic period. many of these reports have today been collected in the twelve volume catalogus codicum astrologorum graecorum [21]. franz cumont compiled specifically the egyptian astrology [22]. some astrologers of late antiquity from egypt  like claudius ptolemy (100 178 ad)  see in egypt the original homeland of astrology [23]. but such claims are uncertain with regard to their historical value. in contrast to the sumerian babylonian astrology, the egyptian variety recognizes a historically more or less identifiable founder. according to many hellenistic writers, hermes trismegistos (hermes "three times as great"), who was revered as a god, taught selected disciples and priests magic and science, writing and astrology [24]. other writers  for example, ps. manetho [25]  report that hermes trismegistos carved the teachings of the magical effects of the heavenly bodies into the walls and columns of the most holy of temples. it has been handed down from the second century ad that a comprehensive collection of literature attributed to the god hermes thoth is said to have existed. clemens alexandrinus (150 211 ad) mentions forty two important books by hermes, of which four were devoted to astrology [26]. these lost hermetic writings are known as the "hermetica." hermes trismegistos is also the greek epithet of the egyptian god thoth. he, in turn, is connected in earlier times with the moon, later with the planet mercury (hermes). in later, hellenistic writings, he is the last representative of the dynasty of the gods and the first human being [27]. here a direct connection is made between gods (thoth) linked with planets (the moon, mercury) and the transmission of astrology as a doctrine. thus here, too, the astrological tradition points to astral religious sources. historically, the doctrines of hermes can be connected with the doctor and pyramid builder imhotep, who lived in the court of the king djoser (reigned 2668 2649 bc) during the time of his reign. the emergence of egyptian astrology thus lies around the middle of the third millennium bc, as can also be conjectured of the sumerian babylonian astrology. hellenistic writings report further divine revelations to selected individuals. thus, writings which were widespread in the hellenistic era and in late antiquity under the names nechepso and petosiris [28] are supposed to be traceable back to such revelations. the astrologer vettius valens (second century ad) reports that nechepso himselfpharaoh in the twenty sixth dynasty, 677 672 bcdescribed his revelation so: "it appeared to me, as i prayed the whole night and looked up to the heavens, that the sky opened up and out of the heavens sounded a voice. then a sky  blue robe, which depicted the night sky, wrapped itself around my body. and thus i experienced the whole immortal order in the movements of the universe. [29]" according to firmicus maternus (around 335 ad), petosiris is also supposed to have received hermes thoths revelations of the teachings of astrology. historically, he was probably a priest from the fourth century ad [30]. many astrological writings name petosiris in connection with nechepso, but they are also known as individual authors in the hellenistic period. together with the "hermetica," their writings constitute the "hellenistic vulgata."  36  the astrology of nechepso and petosiris was thus received through nature mystical or divine revelation. here, as well, knowledge of the "order and movements of the universe" is closely tied to a religious relationship of man and the universe. the egyptologist jan assmann describes this relation as "cosmotheism. [31]" the planets and stars are, as in the sumerian babylonian mythology, revered as gods, among whom especially the sun god re takes on an outstanding position. the worship of the sun god was so cultivated that, for a short time during the reign of amenophis iv (echnaton) from 1364 1347 ad, it was supposedly the only god of egypt. but the ancient egyptian moon god thoth (later isis became the moon goddess) and mercury had important functions as well. in addition to these, there were many bright fixed stars and constellations that were revered as deities. but much more important in egyptian astrology than the planet gods are the so called decades. similar to the way the sumerian babylonian astrology divided the solar orbit into twelve zodiac signs of 30° each, the egyptian astrologers arranged the annual solar orbit into thirty six uniform divisions of 10° each. the egyptians were familiar with the 365 days of the year and arranged them into thirty six weeks of ten days each. a ten day week was dedicated to a decade and the god or demon belonging to it. the oldest known decades date back to the fifth dynasty from 2500 2350 bc. denderas depiction of the egyptian zodiac with the decade gods has become famous, and can now be seen in the louvre in paris (see illustration). later the egyptian astrology took over the sumerian babylonian zodiac signs and adapted the decades to this system. thus, each of the 30° signs of the zodiac of was now subdivided again into three decades of 10° each. we still find this combination of zodiac signs and decades in horoscopes in some periodicals, when the predictions for individuals born under a particular sign are divided again into three parts. thus, some forecasts for the week or month read as follows: "aries, first decade , aries, second decade ," and so on. people born under a certain decade god or demon often received its name and were consequently connected with it throughout their lives. there was yet another division of the heavens in the egyptian astrology. each degree of the 360° cycle of the solar orbit was likewise specially named and assigned to a god or demon. these single degrees were called monomoiriai, and they were also considered in horoscope interpretation. the roman astrologer firmicus maternus (335 ad) traces this division back to hermes trismegistos, who is supposed to have revealed this doctrine to asklepios in twelve books. thus, the zodiac was populated by a multitude of gods and demons which were not, or not only, connected to the planets or fixed stars, but which occupied the systematically divided areas of the sky. these gods and demons then became decisive for humans when the sun passed through their particular region of the sky. but with this the interpretation of horoscopes became a very complicated affair. for every point through which the sun passed was determined by at least three gods or demons. the deity of a zodiac sign reigned a whole month, namely as long as the sun was passing through this sign. at the same time, the sun passed through one of the three decades of a sign of the zodiac, each one lasting for ten days. and on top of that were the single degrees which the sun passed through in a day. (by the way, the egyptian astrology is familiar with further divisions of a region with its particular godsthe so called borders: divisions of variously large degreesso that actually more than three gods determine the quality of a particular time of day. but these will not be further discussed here.) the old egyptian zodiac of dendera with the gods of the decades. from: gundel, board v. 8  37  the special thing about the egyptian astrology, as we know it from the hellenistic period, is that it developed a markedly sophisticated system of medicine: the iatromathematics. some astrological writings of this period carried this designation in their titles. each stone, each plant, each animal was assigned to a particular astral god; that means: in this stone or organism, the power of this god was at work. likewise, every human body, every organ, every larger body part, and each of the further subdivisions into which it was divided was assigned to a god of a zodiac sign, a decade god, or a monomoiriai god. if an organ became diseased, the cause would be connected with the corresponding deity or demon. this would be healed by administering corresponding plant or animal products inhabited by the same god. or antidotes would be sought which would battle the demon causing the illness.  this iatromathematics (iatros is the greek designation for doctor, and in the ancient world, but also in the middle ages and early modernity, every type of star observation and calculation was called mathematics) was not only in the hellenistic and roman periods, but also into early modern times the common medicine and is currently being rediscovered in various astrological and alternative medicines. like the sumerian babylonian astrology, which attempts to describe the great world scale events, as well as individual persons, in connection with the divine order of the cosmos, the egyptian astrology attempts to see this connection above all from the therapeutic or medicinal (heilkundlich) perspective. but in egyptian astrology, wellness (heil sein) does not just mean recovery from individual infirmities. the truly basic thought is a comprehensive one. each person is a microcosm in which all the divine powers of the cosmos are present in the various organs and parts of the body. if these powers are in harmony with each other, the person will be healthy and live in harmony with the macrocosm in which the same divine order prevails. both currents of astrology, the mesopotamian and the egyptian, flow together in the hellenistic period, are stimulated by other religions and philosophies, and find entrance into the great religionsinto judaism and christianity, and later islam as well. the world view of astrology in the hellenistic period as alexander the great conquers the orient and large parts of the mediterranean region in the fourth century bc and unites them into one empire, a lively cultural exchange takes place. astrology, as well, forges ahead unhindered from its mesopotamian and egyptian sources to greece and, later, further westward. in this hellenistic period, astrology has already coagulated into a fixed world view. despite differences from mesopotamian and egyptian astrology, and among hellenistic astrologers as well, there is nevertheless something which they have basically in common: 1. astrology recognizes gods in the planets, fixed stars, signs of the zodiac, and decades who express their will through their corresponding positions and constellations. the earth forms thereby the center of the world; the heavens with their star deities move about the earth as a closed sphere. 2. astrology assumes that its truth is proven through experience. this can be established by comparative observation of life on earth with the movements of the sky. these two statements need to be briefly explained.  38  hellenistic astrology wants to see human beings, nature, and cosmos in one comprehensive accord. the question that we ask ourselves today, namely how this accord of stars, nature, and humans is actually supposed to work, is answered by astrology by way of the principle of analogy and sympathy: according to this, the gods are not only bound to the heavenly bodies, but also invisibly present in the entire cosmos. thus, the god of the sun, who grants us light and warmth, is also present in us humans. if we encounter a person who conveys an exceptional "warmheartedness," "the sun" is at work in him. the human heart has become the residence of the sun. the presence of the suns power was also thought to be in plants and metals. gold corresponds to the brilliance of the sun and therefore the suns power is at work in this metal. in plants which were held to have exceptionally strong healing powers, the sun was likewise at work. all the other planets and signs of the zodiac were also thought to be connected to certain human characteristics and organs, animals, plants, and metals. in this way, an entire system of analogous relationships between the heavenly bodies and the things on earth was established. this system of analogiestied externally to objects, equipped internally with divine powersmakes up the world view of astrology up to the present. each particular thing we see exists for the hellenistic astrologers in one animate, divine context. also in modern astrology, it is always emphasized that merely analogous relations are described and notas is often assumedthe direct influences of the stars. closely connected to this sympathy and analogy of all cosmic powers is an astrological tradition which might better be called astral magic (astralmagie). we encounter it in a variety of greek papyrus scrolls concerned with magic, where only marginal use of astronomical calculations was made. more important here are the names of the individual gods of the heavenly bodies, which are used in a magical way  in medicine as well [32]. hellenistic astrology thus assumes that all of nature has a "spirited" (beseelt) or animate essence. and without this, the analogy would not work. those who today cannot believe in this "spiritedness" (beseeltheit) of all nature will have difficulties taking astrology seriously. those who believe in this animate natureas is the case with the nature religions and many new religious movementshave good prospects of accepting at least the world view of astrology. the world view of astrology just described refers only to the visible cosmos. the gods and demons or divine powers belong completely to this world. from a judaeo christian or islamic perspective, we would say: the gods of astrology belong to the creation. they are not themselves creators of the heavenly bodies or of humans, but rather they were themselves created. the greek philosopher plato speaks likewise in his dialogue "timaeus" of how the creator god created first the world and then the gods of the heavenly bodies. astrology is thus thoroughly capable, by nature, of comfortably adapting its world view to judaism, christianity, and islam; for the creator god of these religions, who created the world, also created the heavenly bodies and their gods. on this basis, the great monotheistic religions were also able to accommodate the polytheistic astrology without thereby infringing upon their central creeds. and so it happened as well that astrology was taken up in all three religions. this did not happen without conflictastrology was in part fiercely combatedbut time and again it found new followers.  39  an important point concerning the acceptance of hellenistic astrology among ancient scholars is also its compatibility with the geocentric world view of greek natural science and cosmology. claudius ptolemy (100 176 ad) attempted, in his astrological text "tetrabiblos," to adapt the divinatory astrology in the egyptian tradition to the natural scientific world view by leaving out all references to revelations and limiting himself completely to a sober presentation [33]. but no contradiction arose thereby, for aristotle, whose scientific authority in cosmological questions remained unchallenged until the early modern period, likewise saw gods in the luminous stars whose effects reach beyond the ether into the sublunar world. other astrologers of late antiquity viewed astrology in connection with the wisdom of the priests. thus, marcus manilius reports that it was gods who had inspired the priests on the euphrates and on the nile to their knowledge of the laws of the cosmos [34]. stoic influence is clearly recognizable in manilius astrological world view. here saturn and his children, performs official duties by farmer, craftsman, banker etc. from: garin 100. on the empirical foundations of astrology in ancient times with its mythical and natural philosophical world view astrology is not yet complete, though, for it would like to make concrete statements about imminent events or about a persons talents. and it thus assumes that such prognoses and statements can be made in terms of the particular positions of the heavenly bodies. to demonstrate this with a very simple example: if, in the sky, mars and venus stand in opposition to one another, i.e. if they are located at a 180° angle to each other, then not only is the god of war mars battling the goddess of love venus, but there is also an analogous situation on earth, where it is a question of the battle between war and peace. now astrology, from its beginnings on, claims that it relies upon experience. already the mesopotamian omen interpretation, as we know it through the omen tablets of enuma anu enlil, makes clear the importance given to empirical confirmation. this reliance upon experience is put forth as the main argument by all the great astrologers of the ancient world, but also of later times. for example, johannes kepler (1571 1630) argues in defense of astrology: "belief in the aspects (the positions of the heavenly bodies is meant) is conferred above all by experience, which is so clear that only someone who has not examined it with their own eyes can deny it. [35]"  one can object here immediately: if astrology is so plain to see, then why are so few contemporary scientists convinced of it?  but this objection lies on yet another plane. first it is important to note that astrologers in all epochs rely first of all upon experience when they put forth justification for astrology. the above mentioned omen tablets of enuma anu enlil, part of the library of king assubanipal (669 626 bc, king in ninive), show us an amazing system of astronomical observations. the astrologers worked according to the following method: an observation in the sky was registered with date and time of day and its characteristics were described exactly. parallel to this, all political and naturally occurring events were likewise recorded. this was continuously repeated, and in this way continuous records spanning many centuries came to be, records which minutely checked the phenomena of the heavens against the events on earth, compared these with older records, and completed them with new observations. the assyrologist carl bezold, who translated a large portion of these clay slabs, describes this so: "whenever the predicate p applies to subject s in the skies, also on earth the predicate p applies to subject s. [36]"  40  here is another simple example: "if on the fifteenth day of the month the full moon is observed together with the sun, the mighty enemy will level his weapons against the country on the fifteenth day the full moon was seen with the sun may the king know and consider this. [37]" in the first part of the text, the general observation is described: whenever on the fifteenth of the month there is a full moon and the sun and the moon can be seen simultaneously, there are hostile actions. then comes the concrete observed case: it has now been seen  and then follows the empirically established forecast: there will thus be hostile actions. many texts then confirm the forecast with the addition: " and the expected event indeed took place." the truth content can no longer be checked today. however, many of the researchers who have concerned themselves with these texts are in agreement that the babylonian astrologers seriously endeavored to erect an astrological system that rested completely on empirical data. but here the position of the astrologers must also be considered. they were simultaneously priests and performed an important political function in the government. the example above shows that the astrological forecast was meant for the king. we can therefore assume that astrology was an important method for making important political decisions. time and again over the course of astrologys history and up to today, there have been attempts to justify astrology empirically. likewise, since around 200 bc certain philosophers and astronomers have criticized astrology. this critique sometimes only takes aim at particular statements of astrology, whereby it is fundamentally held to be true. some critics, however, reject astrology altogether as useless. the practice of astrology in the roman era the roman empire made possible not only the unhindered spread of judaism and christianity throughout the entire mediterranean region; many other religions and, naturally, astrology as well were now able quickly to reach destinations everywhere. astrology offered a multifaceted and confusing picture in the time of the roman empire. in mesopotamia and egypt, it was reserved exclusively for the priests who stood as advisors at the side of the rulers. only gradually did an astrology which was accessible to individuals in the population develop. horoscopes were now no longer just produced for kings and important governmental events, but also for individual persons. concerning the course of ones life, marriage, riches or poverty, type of deathforecasts were now produced for all the important stages on lifes way. it has been pointed out earlier that the oldest known birth horoscope dates back to the pre roman era, from the year 410 bc in mesopotamia. this individual astrology made it possible for many more or less gifted astrologers to turn their trade into a profitable source of income.  41  from around 200 bc, astrology, along with other magical arts, experienced an enormous boom in popularity, especially in the framework of roman folk religion. many citizens of rome carried small, inscribed sheets of papyrus around with them from which they could read which hours of the day were or were not favorable for which activities. questions about health, but also about everyday affairs such as a trip to the hairdresser, were determined astrologically. everything turned on whether a day or an hour was "favorable" or "unfavorable" for a particular action. behind this was the view that every day and hour was ruled by its own particular gods of the celestial bodies. thus it was believed that an astrologically "correctly" chosen doctors appointment would be supported by the gods currently in power. an astrologically "falsely" chosen appointment, on the other hand, had the effect that the corresponding gods worked against ones intentions. in the learned classeswhich included the roman emperorastrology was heatedly discussed. above all, an opportunity was provided by the athenian philosopher carneades, who came in 156 bc as an ambassador to rome and argued vehemently against the practical astrology. his most important arguments were: 1. the heavenly bodies are too far from the earth to exercise an influence. 2. children who are born at the same moment lead, regardless, totally different lives (he offers as an example: when homer was born, other people were certainly also born, but who became neither poets nor famous). 3. conversely, many people simultaneously die en masse in catastrophes and wars despite various horoscopes. 4. the fine fluid which comes from the heavenly bodies and which is breathed in at the time of a persons birth and determines his character is changed by the different weather conditions at various birthplaces such that the influence of the heavenly bodies is also totally different in the various cases. many among the learned were convinced by these arguments and likewise did not believe in the possibility of producing an exact forecast on the basis of the stars. nevertheless, the vast majority of aristocrats remained faithful to the world view of astrology and particular astrological practices.  how is this to be explained? the belief in the gods who populated the entire heavens and the earth was not shaken, and not even carneades doubted their existence. the fundamental influence of the heavenly bodies on the earth was also undisputed, as carneades fourth thesis shows. it was likewise undisputed that each person had a particular destiny which he could not escape. many philosophers professed this as well. specially responsible for the progress of each destiny wereindependent of astrologythree goddesses, called "moirae" in greek and "parcae" in latin. thus, it was not the astrological world view which was disputed, but rather the arrogance in thinking that precise predictions were possible for every event. gaius julius caesar (100 44 bc) provided an example of this "learned" astrology which rejected the "vulgar" forecasts. he was also skeptical of predictions. he thus paid no attention to many warnings from fortune tellers, including the one which  according to legend  prophesied the attempt on his life in the ides of march, to which he after all fell victim. on the other hand, caesar revered the goddess and the planet venus personified together as the progenitrice of his family. it was said that he would ascend to the planet venus after his death. also belonging to the planet venus is the zodiac sign "taurus," under which caesar was born and which he raised as a heraldic figure to a symbol of the state. the emperor augustus did similarly with his birth sign "capricorn." the comet which appeared in 44 bc, the year of caesars death, was likewise interpreted in politics as a sign from the gods.  42  the subsequent emperors were all more or less followers of astrology. many had a whole army of astrologers at their side who produced and evaluated especially the birth horoscopes of children from influential families. paradoxically, some of these emperors banned the practice of astrology several times within the city limits of rome. as a result, many astrologers were forced to leave rome. there were various reasons for this. above all, the fear of losing power was great. astrologers could predict the death of an emperor by simple means or declare some rival of the emperor as successor and justify this with the destiny of the stars. we know of a similar case from the new testament: the evangelist matthew tells of the three "magi from the east," who come before king herod and seek the new born king of the jews, because they had seen "his star." herod is afraid and has all new born sons killed [38]. all kings and emperors had this fear. they knew of the power of astrologers, and they were convinced of the power of these omens. in addition to obviously failed forecasts, spectacular successes were also reported time and again. the emperor domitian was initially opposed to astrology; however, this is because an early and violent death had been predicted for him while he was still young. this prompted him to ask an astrologer how he himself would die. he told him he would be torn to pieces by dogs. to disprove the astrologer, he quickly had him beheaded and immediately burned. but then the stake at which he was being burned collapsed and the body of the astrologer fell to the ground, upon which dogs immediately pounced on him and tore him to pieces. from that time on, domitian was a follower of astrology. in daily life as in politics, astrology played an almost undisputed role. but how did the science and philosophy of late antiquity stand with regard to astrology? the inferior interpretation of the stars which was widespread among the population provoked the mockery of some poets with its forecasts. the poet ennius made fun of the astrologers who professed the ability of showing others the way to riches but who never themselves attained riches. other poets, such as petronius or lucilius, mocked the predictions of the exact hour of death which did not after all come true. things looked quite different regarding the world view of astrology and forecasts which were kept more general. here, the state of the natural sciences as well as philosophy and religion offered enough material not to fundamentally doubt astrology. not only the religions, but also most natural scientists and philosophers saw the cosmos and the earth below as "spirited." the spirit in all things made the mysterious connection to the heavenly bodies appear plausible. hardly a philosopher or scientist doubted, therefore, the influence of these bodies. but they distinguished themselves from simple fortune telling in that they saw the "influence" of the stars more generally, so that the heavenly bodies caused tendencies or merely "indicated" them. above all, it was important for them to show that every individual could resist the influence of the stars by virtue of their reason.  43  among these "learned" astrologers were not just many roman emperors, but also the majority of philosophers and poets until the end of late antiquity; thus, for example, the politician cicero, the neo platonic philosopher plotinus, the poets virgil, ovid, and horace. marcus manilius (around the beginning of the common era) and claudius ptolemy (100 178 ad) were expressly representatives of the learned astrology. claudius ptolemys astrological writings, the "tetrabiblos," shaped the astrology of the subsequent centuries up to the modern era and is also considered a standard work of modern astrology [39]. from marcus manilius, we have the oldest surviving complete astrological textbook. this "astronomica" was written around the beginning of the christian calendar. in poetic form but nevertheless systematically, it explains the cosmos in a stoic sense as a divine order with its astrological laws [40]. other important astrologers from the time of the roman empire include teucros, antiochos, nigidius figulus, dorotheos, manetho, vettius valens, firmicus maternus, paulos alexandrinos, hediodoros, hephaiston of thebes, and others. the astrology of late antiquity, with its two lines of "vulgar" and "learned" forms, is finally not just the model for all subsequent astrology throughout the entire middle ages and into the seventeenth century, but also for contemporary astrology. the basis for both traditions is formed by the writings of the hellenistic vulgata, thus the writings which are traced back to hermes trismegistos and to nechepso petosiris. additionally, there was the influence of many babylonian astrologers. of special importance was the marduk priest berossus, [41] who  an uncertain tradition has it  is supposed to have founded an astrology school on the island kos. it should be mentioned briefly here that astrology lived on in a hardly modified form in the middle ages. in the sixth century ad, rhetorios appears in the byzantine empire as a compiler of the astrological tradition, following especially the egyptian hellenistic line.  an important impulse for the astrology of the middle ages is given by various arabian astrologers who, under muslim rule, further develop the "mundane" astrology (concerning meteorological and social events). in the year 762, the jewish astrologer messahalla, who converted to islam, determined the date of baghdads founding. in the eighth century ad, al kindi and his disciple abumassar appear. they are concerned with mundane problems as well, with the so called "great conjunctions," which were supposed to give information about important political events and developments concerning the entire human race. [42]  the astrology of the middle ages reaches the heart of europe, in addition to the byzantine line especially by way of the arabian science which is taught in toledo and salamanca, and experiences a renewed flourishing with the renaissance. astrologys confrontation with science, philosophy, theology, and society in the middle ages and early modernity has been treated in detail in two collected volumes by patrick curry and paola zambelli [43]. claudius ptolemy as a father of the astrology. woodcut of e. schön (1515). from: ptolemy 6. the astrology of the present now we skip over many important stages along the way to see what unites contemporary astrology with its ancient predecessors. and we can do this with a clear conscience because astrology lives on through the centuries almost unchanged in its popular as well as its learned versions. into the seventeenth century, the ancient planet gods remain in the beliefs of most people. they are responsible for good and bad harvests, for war and peace, for sickness and recoveryand that holds also within the christian churches. here the heavenly bodies are understood as the instruments of god. the parisian cardinal and rector of the sorbonne, pierre dailly (petrus alliacus, b. 1350), writes a "concordantia astronomiae cum theologia" which extends its predictions to the year 1789. without controversy, popes, kings, and rulers consult astrology in religio political questions. jewish and christian theologians, as well, concern themselves with it in theory and practice; in germany phillip melanchthon, who translates and edits claudius ptolemys tetrabiblos, [44] stands out among them. one of the most outstanding astrologers in england is william lilly (1602 1682) [45]. we will now take a look at how things stand with the astrology of the present.  44  right at the beginning, the question presents itself to the religious scholar: why, at all, did astrology survive the great progress made in the natural sciences, which, since nicolas copernicus (1473 1543), abolished the old geocentric world view? how, despite the revolutionary findings concerning orbital mechanics, despite the immeasurable expanse and diversity of the cosmos, do people still come to believe in astrology today? first of all it must be said that in the eighteenth centuryas a matter of fact not definitively until the beginning of the nineteenthastrology disappeared from recognized science and recognized christian theology. nicolas copernicus, galileo galilee, johannes kepler, isaac newton, and gottfried w. leibniz, but also many theologians, humanists, scientists, and artists, such as the above mentioned phillip melanchthon, marsilio ficino, willibald pirckheimer, and johannes stöffler, but also albrecht dürer [46] they were all still convinced of astrology and other magical arts. into the eighteenth century, it was held for self evident among scientists that divine powers were at work in nature and in the cosmos. moreover, johannes kepler (1571 1630), one of the most important representatives of the copernican world view, explained why, in his opinion, astrology was still valid, independent of a geocentric or heliocentric perspective [47]. on this question, he expresses himselfanticipating all subsequent criticismthus: "the doubt, whether the heavens or the earth go round, does not cast doubt upon astrology, for it has nothing to do with the latter; for it is enough for the astrologer to see how the rays of light come from the east, then from the position of midday, and finally from the west and then disappear. it is enough to know when two planets are seen next to each other and when they stand in opposition and which angle they form in regard to one another. why does the astrologer, or much less all of nature on earth, need to ask how this happens? in truth as little as the farmer needs to ask how it becomes summer and winter, though he orients himself in these terms nonetheless." thus, for him the light of the planets and the angular relationships from the perspective of the earth are crucial for astrology. he describes the light, apart from its natural properties (color, warmth), as a vehicle which transports the nonmaterial properties contained in the heavenly bodies to the earth. in addition, the angular relationships of the heavenly bodies, whose light rays intersect on earth, form certain mixtures of special characteristics which thus impregnate all organic life at the time of birth. the opinion among scientists, that nature functioned according to mechanical and not according to magical laws, was accepted only gradually. this applied to chemistry and biology, as well as to physics and astronomy, which until that time were almost unimaginable without divine powers. the first scientist who quite consciously wanted to ban all magic, all belief in the hereafter or in gods once and for all from scientific research was robert boyle (1627 1691). every form of theology and even ethics were also to be divorced from science, forboyle believednature and the cosmos were nothing more than a gigantic mechanical clockwork, the explanation of which required no magical or divine powers.  astrology was thereby, along with all magic and belief in gods or demons, done for with regard to science.  45  esoteric astrology the increased precision of scientific methods and a theology dedicated to rationality are to be credited with the fact that astrology is excluded from recognized culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. nevertheless, astrology experiences a revivalnot, of course, within the progressing natural sciences, but first within esoteric circles. in 1875, the so called "theosophical society" was founded. its founders declared that they had been instructed by beings from beyond, by masters. from them, they had received the assignment of making known the esoteric doctrines contained in all religions. they relied particularly on buddhist and hindu doctrines, but also on mystical christian and jewish traditions which they interpreted in their own way. it was above all their concern to speak, against modern natural science, again of the spiritual nature of the world, filled with magical and divine powers. all of nature, stones, plants, animals, were once again, as in ancient times, filled with mysterious divine powers. according to theosophical teachings, the accepted natural sciences are incomplete, because they only investigate the outer hull of nature. that which is at work in natureanimate, spiritual powersis thereby disregarded. thereforeaccording to the theosophiststhe planets cannot be seen as only dead, physical bodies either. it is true that they are this as well, but in them lie living essences which work through them. on this basis, astrology was able to develop anew at the end of the nineteenth century. the planets and the signs of the zodiac were now seen again, in addition to their natural properties, as gods from which mysterious rays radiate. these mysterious rays influence or cause all the events on earth. the englishwoman alice ann bailey (1880 1949) wrote one of the books fundamental to the world view of modern astrology under the title esoteric astrology [48]. here the various planets and signs of the zodiac, with their corresponding powers and functions, are explained. the visible cosmos with all its heavenly bodies reflects, according to alice bailey, a certain heavenly hierarchy. she is also concerned with an astrological cosmic interpretation of christ in this heavenly hierarchy. in addition, she advocated the view that a "new age" would begin with the imminent "second coming of christ." alice bailey revived the astrological world view by explaining the cosmoslike the ancient astrologersspiritually. the planets corresponded to certain spiritual beings. and she also explained the imminent "second coming" astrologically in terms of the imminent "age of aquarius. [49]" this "age of aquarius" is based upon an actual astronomical calculation, according to which the beginning of spring wanders slowly through the zodiac due to a certain movement of the earths axis and, at the end of the twentieth century, exits the sign "pisces" and enters that of "aquarius." now this change is also supposed to be connected with a higher level of spiritual development among humans. astrology once again raised the claim of providing a spiritual interpretation of the world and at the same time using scientific knowledge for this purpose. the ancient concern of astrology, to be religion and science at the same time, was thereby also taken up once again. however, practical guidance in the production of horoscopes was not provided by alice bailey herself. she was much more concerned to present the entire cosmos as a divinely guided order.  46  william f. allan william f. allan (1860 1917), known as "alan leo"alan the lionbecause he was born under the sign leo, had already provided for the practical side of astrology, the interpretation of horoscopes. as an englander, he was also a member of the theosophical society, and he founded an astrological periodical in london and an astrological publishing house with branches in paris and new york. anyone who wanted could receive a "shilling horoscope" through his publishing house. for a small fee, each interested party would receive their own sign of the zodiac, ascendant, and the position of the planets at the time of birth on copied sheets. each person could thus read what "his" sign and "his" ascendant meant in a short overview [50]. the basis for these interpretations were the ancient descriptions of the heavenly bodies. for example, those with the planet and war god mars in the ascendanti.e. rising on the eastern horizonmake their appearance brisk and aggressively like the roman god of war. those with venus in this position will attract attention with their physical beauty like the roman goddess of love. in this way, each person is to be given a short orientation regarding what his or herin a theosophical sensepersonal predisposition and purpose in life is. in this esoteric astrology, teachings known from buddhism and hinduism, in particular, are also integrated. along with christ, buddha also plays a central role in theosophy. this refers not only to the person buddha, but also to his doctrines of karma and rebirth, which flowed not only into the general theosophical teaching but also into esoteric astrology. the doctrine of karma and rebirth means that a persons character and his experiences are determined by the sum of his deeds in past lives. the horoscope thus informs the astrologer about this karma, i.e. about the character and the resulting tasks in life. "karmic horoscope analysis," which operates with special methods and which is offered today by some astrology schoolsfor example, astrodata in zurichwas then developed from this approach [51]. the transition from esoteric astrology to practical horoscope interpretation is thus indefinite, and it is difficult to determine exactly where esoterically motivated horoscope interpretation crosses over into a popular astrology with its everyday forecasts. so much can be said, though: with alan leos commercially pursued astrology, disseminated on printed pages, the path was paved for modern horoscope interpretation in the mass media. newspapers and magazines now made the swift spread of very brief daily, weekly, and yearly horoscopes possible. the theosophical background often played hardly any role at all anymore, even if references to "rebirth" and "karma" appeared in newspaper horoscopes from time to time. popular astrology was often only concerned anymore to satisfy a certain curiosity and a need for certainty about character and imminent events. especially in the 1920s, this newspaper astrology experienced an enormous increase in popularity which could be built upon in the second half of the twentieth century [52]. today, everyone can look up their horoscope for the day or week in a newspaper and check how accurate the character descriptions and forecasts are. it is quite easy to get the impression that these statements, which are often kept very general, allow almost no serious test of their accuracy, or that they have no concrete relation to ones personal affairs at all. now this generalizing popular astrology is extremely questionable in terms of the foundations and calculation methods of astrology itself. the horoscope alone, which is gained through astronomical calculation and which provides the basis for every interpretation, suggests a very differentiated predisposition for each person. this is to be traced back to the fact that the exact positions of the planets and their angular relations to one another, as well as the positions of the zodiac signs and the houses, each have their own special meaning. depending on the speed of the various planets and the rotation of the earth, these positions change quite rapidly. thus, each horoscope is dependent upon the exact time and place of birth and changes with the slightest deviation. if the constantly changing starry skies are to be the basis and mirror image of the predispositions of each human being, then only very few people have the same horoscopesnamely, only those who are born at the same time and place. the popular astrology assumes that concrete statements and forecasts are possible for everyone who has the same sign.  47  of course, esoteric astrology can hardly be blamed for the fact that the popular astrology exists as well; just as little as the ancient learned astrology was to be blamed that astrological fortune telling existed in the time of the roman empire. nevertheless, alan leos shilling horoscopy seems to have been a triggering event, which, with its simplified and mass produced horoscope interpretation, also addressed needs, which did not only refer to individual insights in the esoteric sense, but which also provoked a simple and everyday type of curiosity. today, esoteric astrology is especially widespread in some of the new religious movements such as theosophy, anthroposophy, and above all in the organizations of the "rosicrucians." today, the "rosicrucian community," founded by max heindel in 1909, publishes across europe the ephemerides with the exact positions of the planets, which are indispensable for every practitioner of astrology. these ephemerides contain all the important data for a time frame of fifty or a hundred years [53]. but this esoteric astrology is also incorporated into the non organized and individualized environment of the esoteric scene. in many astrology schools as well, astrology is taught by way of esoteric doctrines, whereby it is often just a matter of very general references or fragmentary allusions to "karma" and "rebirth." a binding form of esoteric astrology in the form of a clearly defined doctrine is hardly discernable here. psychological astrology in addition to theosophy, the developing psychology at the end of the nineteenth century also prepared the way for astrology. this psychological astrology picked up the thread of psychoanalysis, which concerned itself with the "unconscious" regions of the human mind. the psychologist carl gustav jung (1875 1961) attempted to decode the rich symbolic world of our nightly dreams. in the process, he came across images and symbols time and again which also appear in the myths and fairy tales handed down to us. this led him to the idea that the gods of the heavenly bodies in astrology are actually pictures of our mind. the various gods of the heavenly bodies are accordingly not independent beings, but rather images which lie unconsciously dormant in our mind and now populate the vault of the heavens as a mirror of our mind. thus, for example, the various tales about the love goddess venus or the god of war mars are actually stories which humans repeatedly experienced and then at some time ascribed to gods. they were then projected onto the heavens as stories of gods. in this wayaccording to jungastrology came about. it read now in the course of the stars that which actually went on in the human mind. carl gustav jung did not believe in newspaper horoscopes, but he did believe in the possibility that astrology could inform us about the human mind andon a very general levelabout the future of important historical developments. some astrologers and also psychologists after him took this up, for example, the well known psychoanalyst fritz riemann [54]. these psychologists see in the horoscope, thus in the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of birth, a key to discovering the basic structure of a persons character. thus, they assume that a persons particular dispositions and difficulties, but also disturbing influences from the surrounding environment can be recognized with the horoscope. in this way, astrology has found its way into some forms of practical psychological consultation [55].  48  this psychological astrology does not view human life as subject to the dictates of the stars, as some astrologers of other schools of thought see it. it assumes that the horoscope allows us to identify merely a persons predispositions such as, for example, whether an individual possesses more artistic or more technical abilities. whether and how these abilities are later realized is ascribed by psychological astrology to other factors such as upbringing and other environmental factors. the horoscope is therefore used as a basis for a rather consultation oriented praxis. here, however, the following should be remarked from the scientific point of view. if psychological astrology identifies in the horoscope only predispositions which can develop in quite diverse ways, the difficulty results that a persons horoscope and the actual constellation of problems no longer necessarily correspond to one another. how then can the agreement between a persons horoscope and character be tested? how exactly can a horoscope interpretation which takes the time of birth as its foundation realistically assess a grown person? empirical proof is obviously difficult. most astrologers working in a psycho diagnostic framework assess the situation likewise so. as justification why astrology is nevertheless able to provide meaningful information concerning a persons character, franz riemann, for example, expresses the view that personal experience in consultation verifies the correctness of the horoscope. the dispositions visible in the horoscope are thenaccording to riemanncovered up and their unfolding is blocked by external influences. the horoscope then helps in once again uncovering the buried dispositions. this psychological astrology thus relies upon the personal experience in direct dialogue between client and astrologer. it thus follows that scientific evidence, in a strict sense, for the correspondence of horoscope and psycho diagnosis is probably not possible. among other reasons, astrology is therefore also not a recognized science. in contrast to psychology. it is a scientifically recognized discipline because it works with certain empirical and theoretical methods. it is true that astrology is supported by experience as well, but it has difficulties identifying empirically testable results and consequently enjoys hardly any scientific recognition. but even if it were recognized through empirical results, theoretical conclusions which conflict with currently accepted scientific methods would follow. this means: if astrology were confirmed with empirical results, there would consequently have to be a connection between the heavenly bodies and very specialized predispositions in a person which could only be derived from the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of birth. but such an explanation would exceed every currently accepted scientific explanation of the connection of cosmos and human being andin a broader sensefall back on religious explanations. concerning its empirical side, psychological astrology is thus limited to personal experience. in terms of its theoretical conclusions, namely that there is a connection between cosmos and human, it can hardly do without religious explanations.  49  these religious explanations arise in the following manner: first, psychological astrology identifies an analogous relationship between the heavenly bodies and a persons dispositions. it thus records that the position of the planets in the sky above at the time of a persons birth shows the same character images (corresponding to the ancient mythical descriptions) which this person then has as properties. this discovery of analogies depends, as described above, on personal experience. now the explanation cannot, however, be left at this: that an analogous relationship is simply discovered. there must be some kind of connection between the heavenly bodies and humans which establishes these analogies. but how should this connection between planets located extremely far awaythe planet pluto is not even visible from the earth with telescopesbe explained? many psychological astrologers attempt to clear up this problem by setting up hypotheses. it is interesting to see how, in doing so, they fall back once again on the ancient religious ideas. the astrologer thomas ring (1892 1983) sees in the ancient planet gods and their descriptions "principles" which describe natural and mental processes. these principles are "powers of the living," or "powers of totality," which are at work in the entire cosmos and "encompass everything which lives. [56]" with this it is meant that not only are we and nature around us filled with life, but that the whole cosmos with all the heavenly bodies is a living organism as well. the planets are accordingly not just a collection of inanimate material, but are rather equipped with living powers which are also found in the human psyche and in nature. the connection between the heavenly bodies and humans is thus not one which is, according to current standards, scientifically explainable. the analogousand this means: simultaneousconnection between the heavenly bodies and humans is not explained through physical effects, such as light or gravitation, but rather through "living powers" which are at work in the whole cosmos, but with which we only come into contact by way of our psyche. but here we have arrived at the ancient astrology once again. in ancient times the belief in a "world soul" went without saying. this world soul, which filled the entire cosmos and enveloped every particular thing, was able to explain the connection of the human being with the most distant cosmic occurrences. johannes kepler and isaac newton still believed in an "anima mundi," a world soul, which could explain astrological and magical events. we thus see that psychological astrology in fact begins with experiences from the praxis of psychology but, from these, draws religious conclusions. in this respect, it is very close to esoteric astrology. it is therefore also no wonder that the two are often not distinguished at all in modern astrology. in the framework of the esoteric and many new religious movements, the two schools can often hardly be separated. to many followers, it also seems to be quite unimportant which explanations are behind astrology. for the most part, an interest in psychological insights and self knowledge stand in the foreground. the question of the explanation for astrology is answered by many interested parties by, usually only very indefinitely and generally, ascribing it to either a spirituality or to the natural sciences [57]. in the german speaking world, but also in other countries, there is, in the meantime, a multitude of astrology schools which view their task mainly in the psycho diagnostic direction. nevertheless, no unambiguous classification can be made here. some schools, like astrodata in zurich, quite consciously impart esoteric subject matter as well, such as, for example, in the "karmic horoscope analysis." others specialize in astrological healing or economic diagnoses. it can, however, be said that the psycho diagnostic interests in astrology account for the largest portion of modern astrology.  50  empirical investigations in addition to psychological and esoteric tendencies in modern astrology, there are also efforts to scientifically, i.e. empirically, justify astrology. here it is not enough to refer to personal experience; rather, representatives of this line of thought want to find empirically confirmed data. we recall that the classical philologist franz boll was cited at the beginning of this article as saying that astrology wants to be religion and science at the same time. now, the empirical research is the attempt to provide astrology with a basis measuring up to current scientific requirements. empirical astrology is thus the third path which astrology takes in the twentieth century. in the 1920s, some astrologers began to collect statistical data, and thereby to convince skeptics as well. at this time the astrologer herbert v. klöckler, for example, investigated 5000 horoscopes for special astrological correspondences of accidents, crimes, and also particular talents of painters, poets, and lawyers. he and other astrologers saw therein a tendency toward the confirmation of astrology. yet he did not consider his results as definitely confirmed, and thus they are, scientifically viewed, of hardly any value [58]. the most comprehensive and well known attempt to date to find someand even the smallestclue which would verify astrology through statistical investigations was carried out in the 1970s by the french psychologist michel gauquelin. on the basis of a total of 35,907 birth horoscopes, he tested whether peoples career choice could be verified astrologically. he wanted to determine whether individuals with the same job would prove to have similar horoscopes. he presented his findings in his book cosmic influences on human behavior, which also appeared in german in 1983 [59]. first of all he discoveredalthough fundamentally a follower of astrologythat the newspaper horoscopes are entirely incorrect. thus it turned out that, statistically, there were not, among professional soldiers or athletes, for example, even slightly more people born under "aries" or "scorpio" as in other professions. popular astrology suggests such results, because it sees in the signs "aries" and "scorpio" especially battle ready and aggressive individuals who are ascribed a high level of physical strength. however, gauquelin also came to the conclusion that a careful investigation of individual planetary positions indeed shows a tendency towards certain professions. thus, in an above average number of cases, soldiers and athletes were said to have the planet mars in the zenith position. similarly, this was true of the planet jupiter for politicians, the moon for authors, and the planet saturn for scientists. this would also correspond to the classical gods of the heavenly bodies, according to which mars is the god of war, jupiter the god of religious and political power, the moon the god or goddess of wisdom, and saturn the god of solid matter. what gauquelin determined, however, isassuming his information is correcta purely statistically average value from many thousands of people, which cannot make any statement about the development of a particular individual. in other words, from a particular horoscopeaccording to gauquelinat best a certain general tendency towards particular professions can be determined with a certain level of probability, which says nothing about the realization of this disposition in the particular case.  51  in this study, many astrological assumptions of newspaper astrology and also some more detailed horoscope interpretations fall flat. for gauquelin, however, something still remains of astrology. many scientists have consequently concerned themselves with this investigation. some of them have rejected it as insufficient. others, for example the psychologist hans jürgen eysenck, have recognized it as reliable [60]. the discussion concerning this study is still being carried on by scientists today and remains open. the typical opinion among scientists regarding this study is summed up in the statement of the english astronomer g.o. abell: "i have strong suspicion that gauquelins results will turn out to be misleading. but if they should turn out to be even partially correct, this would be a huge milestone in the determination of cosmic influences on humans. [61]" a further investigation was published in 1997 by the biologists klaus peter endres and wolfgang schad [62]. here as well the concern was to find even the smallest clues which could help identify an astrological connection. they did not investigate horoscopes, but rather began far more generally. the wanted to determine if and how various organisms, especially plants and marine organisms, react to the various phases of the moon. that the moon exercises some kind of influence on the earthfor example, that it causes ebb and tideis undisputed. but here the concern was to check whether the moon phasesnew moon, full moon, waxing and waning quarter moonare "recognized" by plants and animals, and if they act accordingly. above all, they wanted to find out if they also behave so when all external factors, like moonlight, ebb, and tide, are ruled out. it was thus a question of determining whether the "mysterious powers" between the heavenly bodies and life on earth assumed by astrology actually exist. the results from many, partly very complicated experiments showed two groups of organisms. no rhythms at all which could be connected to the phases of the moon could be recognized in the growth and behavior of some of the investigated plants and animals. but in the case of many other species, a rhythm which accorded with the moon phases could indeed be determined. thus, some plants and animals reacted with their growth or reproductive behavior only at full moon, others only at new moon, and still others only at waxing or waning quarter moon. the individual and quite complicated experiments shall not be described here in detail. but the two biologists are convinced that they have brought together enough material for a scientifically reliable judgment. according to these results, it seems certain that many plants and animals have an "inner clock" which dictates certain patterns of behavior independent of external influences. this "inner clock" runs conspicuously parallel to certain phases of the moon, even if these plants and animals "cannot see" the moon, i.e. if they are covered up over long periods of time in the laboratory. now, what does this tell us about astrology? is astrologyassuming the results are correctthereby proven? the initial question was whether there are any demonstrable indications of influences of the heavenly bodies at all, beyond the known physical ones. and here the two biologists claim: in many cases there are indeed such indications, in other cases there are none.  52  if we now consider just the positive results, the following must be said: in those places where there is an indication of an influence by the moon, we cannot really speak of an "effect." the examples show, rather, that plants and animals behave temporally parallel to the moon phases. we can thus only state that two events happen analogously. we cannot scientifically confirm whether this is coincidence or whether mysterious powers are at work which have remained concealed to science till now. let us recall the mesopotamian omen interpretation of king assurbanipals library. there the astrologersnot, by far, as scientifically, but basically very similarlylikewise discovered an analogous relationship between the wandering "star gods" and many events on the earth with the help of observations spanning centuries. whether that was really always the case can no longer be confirmed. but the astrologers assumed that they could make these observations. they likewise assumed therebyas described abovean analogy between the appearances in the sky and on the earth. perhaps they knew or suspected something of this analogous relation which, in certain cases, can be revealed today by exact scientific means. however, this study does not provide much help for horoscope interpretation. for the evidence of analogies between phases of the moon and the behavior of organisms can only be shown in some cases, and various exceptional cases at that. it remains the case that evidence of analogous events between the course of the celestial bodies and events on earth could very well be shown in the future. this means: the foundations of astrology cannot be called "nonsense" right from the start. nevertheless, horoscope interpretation, as it is pursued in practical astrology, will hardly be able to be experimentally proven. here the question of astrologys truth will, in the future as well, remain a matter of personal experience and decisionas is the case in of every religious teaching. astrology in other cultures up to now, we have only considered astrology in the framework of european history. but astrology also exists in most other cultures and in all the great religions. in germany, chinese astrology, above all, has become well known. but also native american, indian, and celtic astrology have found a certain audience here. all of these forms of astrology have much in common: the heavenly bodies and nature on earth are filled with gods, demons, and spirits. there is no object which could not house a spirit or from which magical powers could not be emitted. and thus, the heavenly bodies, above all the sun and moon, are also the residences of powerful gods. at the same time, every people on earth is familiar with astronomical observation of the movements of the heavenly bodies, especially the characteristic behavior of the sun and moon. and from these observations, these peoples develop their calendar and divisions of time. the orbit of the sun, the time span between full moons, also the regular movements of the other planets or, for example, the rotation of the "big dipper" constellation around the north starnone of this has escaped the people of all cultures. and they have thus organized their lifetimes, celebrated, and directed their daily routines according to these rhythms. all peoples felt themselves in constant contact and exchange with spirits and gods, whereby the gods of the heavens counted as particularly powerful.  53  we do not want to analyze the individual astrological systems here. one thing, however, can be said: all the various forms of astrology presuppose a similar spiritual world view. and simultaneously people observe the heavens scientifically and classify them as well as the course of the year with its celebrations and events. all forms of astrology thus want "to be religion and science at the same time," as was said at the beginning about european astrology. and something else is conspicuous. chinese astrology came about at around the same time as mesopotamian and egyptian, namely around 2700 bc. it also has a twelve part division of the zodiac, with other "animals," however. is there perhaps a historical connection between chinese and mesopotamian astrology? we do not know for sure. a mesopotamian influence is not to be ruled out. but we know: indian astrology was demonstrably influenced by mesopotamian astrology. it has not only the twelve part division of the zodiac, but also took over their designations. this is easily explained in terms of the lively trade between mesopotamia and india. most astonishing, however, is the fact that the american incas had the twelve part zodiac long before columbus reached the continent. the aztecs and mayas in central america had likewise developed an astrology which shows striking similarities to egyptian astrology [63]. but how could the egyptian astrology have made it across the atlantic ocean? or did native american astrology come to this amazing similarity quite independently? perhaps the researcher thor heyerdahlwho sailed in a papyrus boat from egypt across the atlantic to prove that the egyptian pyramid builders came to america long before columbus and there founded the "indian" culture or at least influenced itwas right. one thing can be said for sure: all the great cultures and religions were and are closely bound to astrology. astrology and christianity let us return now to european astrology. for here astrology has stood in close interrelation with christianity for two thousand years. how do they act in regards to one another, if christianity proclaims the one god who created the world including the heavenly bodies, while astrology views the heavenly bodies and nature as full of magical gods and powers? history the bible addresses astrology indirectly in some places without, however, clearly explaining in detail. many are surely familiar with the "star of bethlehem" which is reported in the gospel of matthew (mt 2). there the story is told of three "magi from the east" who have seen a special star. the magi understood this star as a sign which announced the birth of a new "king of the jews." now they sought him in jerusalem and finally found him in the baby jesus. if this story is historically true, then the magi were very probably priests who were followers of astrology from the persian region. for these were well known throughout roman empire at the time of jesus. but even if it is not true, the authors of the gospel according to matthew knew of the "magi from the east" and built them into the birth story of jesus. the christian theologian tertullian (ca. 160 220 ad) advocated because of this traditional story the view that astrology and magic were valid until the time of jesus birth in bethlehem. however, now that god had shown himself in the person of jesus, astrology became superfluous. since the three magis homage to the baby jesusaccording to tertullianit is no longer necessary to revere or consult the gods of the heavenly bodies [64].  54  but all in all, astrology was very controversial in the beginnings of christianity. a large number of the early christians rejected astrology. many, like justinus (ca. 100 165 ad), for example, saw in the gods of the heavenly bodies foreign gods or angels that had fallen from god [65]. others criticized the far too unreliable horoscope interpretation. for the most part, however, astrology was rejected because it was classified among the non christian, "heathen" religions and their practices, and the "new" religion, christianity, no longer needed it. however, there was also a thoroughly positive attitude towards astrology. this had less to do with horoscope interpretation as rather with the symbolism and image world of astrology. many astrological symbols were already common in some currents of judaism and flowed quite naturally into christianity. the largest number of astrological symbols are found in the revelation of john. thus, the astrologically important numbers four, seven, and twelve occur in quite central passages. right in the first chapter, seven stars are mentioned which are represented as seven angels (rev. 1:20). the septet of stars referred in the ancient world to the seven known planets: sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, saturn. in chapter 12, a woman is mentioned who appears in the sky, clad in the sun, beneath her feet the moon and on her head a crown with twelve stars. she is quite reminiscent, down to the details, of the mesopotamian ishtar, who corresponds to the planet venus and the egyptian isis, and who is also connected with the moon. hermann gunkel and hugo gressmann, two representatives of the "religious history school" (religionsgeschichtliche schule) in göttingen, have dealt with the influence of mesopotamian astrology on the new testament and especially on the revelation of john [66]. it has also been handed down to us that in the early period of the church, but also in the middle ages and early modern period, the twelve disciples of christ are identified with the twelve signs of the zodiac [67]. we still find traces of this in leonardo da vincis painting of "the last supper," which was produced between 1495 and 1498. here the twelve disciples are represented with characteristic markings and gestures of the twelve zodiac signs [68]. in the middle ages, astrology was considered  under aristotelian influence in theology, as well  a science. great christian theologians, like hildegard von bingen (d. 1179), meister eckhard (1260 1327), or the franciscan roger bacon (1214 1294), included astrology in their teachings. thomas aquinas (1225 1274) explained the relationship of christianity and astrology most clearly. according to him, the heavenly bodies affect the physical condition of humans and the sensual inclinations. whether physical passions or inclinations regarding professionevery worldly bond is determined by the heavenly bodies. however, every human has also the possibility to avoid the influences of the celestial bodies. the more he overcomes sensual inclinations, makes use of his reason, and devotes himself to god, the better is he able to master the passions and with them the influence of the stars. thomas did not think that the vast majority of mankind was capable of this. events such as war were proof enough of that for thomas [69]. a basic stance of the church regarding astrology resulted. as long as astrologers practiced a "judicial" (judgment passing) astrology for individuals, it was not allowed and was combated as a heathen faith. here the powers of the heavenly bodies stood clearly opposed to the christian creator god and the individuals free decision in favor of this god. but as long as a "natural" astrology  the astrologia naturalis  gave information about weather or found application in medicine, it was allowed.  55  the renaissance brought once again an enormous boom in popularity for astrology in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. this was because interest in science and art, and especially in the ancient world increased. pope leo x valued astrology so highly that he established a professorship of astrology at the papal university in 1520. protestant theologians as well, such as philipp melanchthon (1496 1565), ardently practiced astrology. but despite this great sympathy on both the roman catholic as well as the protestant sides, there were also critics. and this criticism was hardly different from that of the early christian period. above all martin luther (1483 1546) saw a danger in the belief in the powers of the heavenly bodies. luther did not want to accept any other powers next to the one god who took human form in jesus christ [70]. in addition, there were some astrological forecasts which were not fulfilled, and thus luther made some mocking remarks about astrology. but sometimes luther was not so sure after all. for he wrote a very detailed foreword in 1527 for a very detailed and religio politically important forecast by the astrologer johann lichtenberger [71]. in it he said that, though the heavenly bodies cannot effect anything, they can yet announce events. it speaks for the vast influence of astrology in both great confessions that luthers horoscope led to a heated debate between protestant and roman catholic astrologers. the reason for this was his indefinite time of birth [72]. present we recall that astrology re emerged in the twentieth century in connection with the esoteric and with psychology. and like other esoteric ideas as well, astrology soon found new followers in the christian church. thus, the question concerning what kind of relationship the have regarding one another today arises. now we know that astrology believes in many gods of the heavenly bodies or hidden "powers." these are all at work in the cosmos. in terms of its foundations, astrology thus has no problem in recognizing one creator god who created this cosmos, as is the case in christianity. it is not so simple the other way around. the history of christianity has shown how difficult or impossible it was to recognize nature religions, magic, and "foreign" gods. the so called "catechism of the catholic church" of 1993 has the following to say on the matter: "all forms of divination should be rejected behind horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, fortune telling, and the consultation of a medium lies the will to power over time, history, and finally over people, as well as the desire to put the secret powers at ones disposal. this contradicts the loving awe filled respect which we owe god alone. [73]" astrology thus appears here in connection with divination and fortune telling of all types. it is not designated as nonsense or superstition here. on the contrarythe various forms of fortune telling turn to "secret powers" which count as real. the catechism describes the conscious use of these powers as harmful and in contradiction to the christian faith. the main message here is that fortune telling is the attempt to win power for oneself against the god of the christian faith.  56  there are, nevertheless, an astonishing number of christian theologians who officially advocate astrology. one of the most well known is the benedictine father gerhard voss, who deeply regrets that this article on astrology appears in the catechism. he explains his position in the book astrologie christlich. gerhard voss is of the opinion that astrology does not belong to the magical practices, and that it can be used with critical reason. he also believes that the modern church is no longer attractive for many people because it lacks a closer relation to the cosmos and nature. he says: "the exclusion of astrological wisdom from the church is indicative of the loss of the cosmic dimension of church life in theology, liturgy, and preaching.[74]" father voss believes that some things esoteric, like astrology, also belong in christian theology. he is not alone in this view. after all, because of the publication of his book, he was able to compose the article "astrology" in the most important german language theological lexicon of the roman catholic church, the lexikon für theologie und kirche, and likewise the article "astrology" in the lexikon der religionen [75]. despite his support of astrology, gerhard voss also sets conditions for astrology. first, the christian faith has absolute priority over any form of astrology. second, the horoscope should not be used to obtain forecasts, for astrology cannot and should not make precise predictions. he primarily understands the horoscope, as does psychological astrology, as a mirror image of the human spirit. practically, he sees the possibility of employing the horoscope as an image for meditation, as a key to meditative experience. thus we see that opinions concerning astrology within the roman catholic church quite radically diverge. many theologians, for example the well known church critic eugen drewermann, hold astrology for simple superstition and thus reject having anything to do with it. thus, the views on astrology vary from mocking rejection, serious warning of its dangers, and serious occupation with it. opinions on this subject could hardly be more diverse. a similar picture is also offered in the evangelical church. here there is no explicit ban on astrology. but skepticism predominates among the majority of theologians nevertheless. many hold astrologylike eugen drewermannfor superstition. some see in it a means of raising oneself above god, and of using other "gods" for this purpose. but certain evangelical theologians defend astrology, for example, christoph schubert weller in his book does god speak through the stars? (spricht gott durch die sterne?)[76] he, too, would like to see astrology understood as a medium for psychological insight. the opinions concerning astrology display a similar spectrum as that within the roman catholic church, or also in luthers age: the discussion excites emotions and moves between mockery, serious rejection or warning, as well as serious acceptance. where does astrology stand today? in the second half of the twentieth century, astrology experienced a great boom in popularity in germany and switzerland, but also in other european countries and in north america. in germany, the german federation of astrologers (dav) was founded as a trade union on october 16, 1947 at the astrologically calculated time of 10:06 am. in 1950 there were around one hundred members and this number has grown to over six hundred professional astrologers since then. in addition to this union, many independent astrology schools arose which offer seminar programs for training as a professional astrologer, organize conventions, publish periodicals, and support research.  57  regardless of what we think of astrology, it is there and it enjoys growing popularity in both its popular as well as its more serious varieties. when we seek its place in the contemporary religions and religious currents, we find it in the traditional religions, in hinduism and in buddhism, in islam as well as christianity. but above all we encounter it today in the realm of the esoteric. but it is not quite so simple regarding the esoteric as it is with the traditional religions which we can describe clearly. the term "esoteric" outlines today a realm, or better: a way of life in which quite diverse doctrines from various religions are loosely assembled. hardly an insider or outsider knows exactly what belongs to the esoteric and what does not. we can only roughly indicate that meditation and psychology, the belief in karma and reincarnation, magic, astrology and a belief in the hereafter, as well as health and ecology can belong to it. the word "esoteric" actually comes from ancient greece and means teachings which were spread only in an inner circle of the few initiated, and which had to be kept secret from the outer world. the importance of secrecy lay in the fact that these teachings were supposed to be protected from falsification and preserved in their original form. contemporary esoterica is a very broad and diverse movement which actually practices the opposite. it is quite present in the public eye, with course offers, periodicals, and a hardly manageable number of books. insofar as it has no binding beliefs, esoterica is distinguished from the traditional religions. no authority decides over "true" or "false." on the one hand, this gives followers a high measure of freedom in the choice of doctrines and practices. on the other hand, it gives no protection against all too simple interpretations. some popular forms of astrology are an example of how simplified conclusions can be drawn from a very sophisticated doctrine. if we classify astrology in the vaguely defined and hardly organized realm of the esoteric, we can see that modern astrology is astonishingly well organized by way of the trade union and independent schools. in contrast to the many fragmented esoteric teachings, the astrologers union and most of the astrology schools attach great importance to picking up the tradition of the "classical astrology" of european religious history. contemporary astrology thus understands itself quite consciously as a continuation of its millennia old history. modern astrology has to date received only little attention in religious studies scholarship. the existing works on the subject place modern astrology in the context of western esoterica. thus, christph bochinger sees its importance especially in the doctrines of the world epochs which have again gained currency in the expectation of a "new age." [77] similarly for antoine faivre [78] and wouter hanegraaff, [79] modern astrology is a part of western esoterica. is astrology true? it has already been said: religious scholarship does not ask whether a religion or a religious notion is true or not. we can only determine that there are people who report certain religious experiences and ideas. insofar as astrology claims a scientific side in addition to its religious implications, it is true that it is also subject to scientific judgments. in conclusion, both of these aspects shall now be briefly discussed.  58  in the current age, astrologys right to existence is often called into question because it is viewed as wrongly understood science, as superstitiously interpreted astronomy. if this applied without qualification to astrology, a basic rejection would be legitimate from the perspective of religious scholarship, namely, as long as astrology cannot provide any reliable empirical and theoretical evidence. but we have seen how closely astrology is tied to religious notions, and we should therefore also view it in a religious context. the matter of the nature religious image of the cosmos which astrology teaches, the mysterious connection between the heavenly bodies and human beings, can no more be settled with present day scientific methods than the question whether there is life after death, purgatory, or karma and reincarnation. when astrology views the cosmos as a living organism, this is thus a religious idea such as we know from, and respect as such in, nature religions. but astrology also claims to be provable by means of experience. on this subject, we can only observe that the scientific empirical evidence which speaks in favor of astrology, as well as personal experiences which are expressed, are contested in science. a sure judgment in religious studies cannot be expected from this angle in the near future. it would thus be better if we proceeded without asking about the "truth" of astrology. instead, we could look at the practical applications of astrology and, from there, seek a practicable answer. modern astrology can be divided, quite roughly, into a popular and a more seriously practiced form. but it must be said that the division between the two is hardly to be determined. much of what is offered in the field of astrology moves between these two in a gray zone which, in terms of its sincere justifications, is difficult to pin down. the two extreme positions, however, can be well determined. currently, the most widespread form of astrology is the popular one which presents itself both in daily newspapers and in special esoteric periodicals. it often contradicts concrete experience so clearly that every serious foundation must be denied. here each person can individually examine how often character descriptions and forecasts are really correct or not, or how general such statements are that they are almost always correct. it is a conspicuous fact that this popular astrology is hardly interested in a serious explanation or investigationbe it religious or empirical. on the other hand, there is a seriously practiced astrology, which understands itself mainly as practical diagnostic. in this way, it is used today in some forms of psychological consultation and alternative medicine. in terms of its effects, it can only be judged by those involved. advocates of this type of astrology emphasize time and again that a horoscope can never really predict what will happen to a person, but that it merely gives information in the form of a mirror image of dispositions. on the one hand, this serious astrology builds, in part, upon very sophisticated empirical studies whose results, yet, remain scientifically disputed. advocates of this line of thought also admit this and thus support their position with the purported fact that it is sufficiently confirmed through personal experience to be able to apply it meaningfully.  59  one can thus say that this serious astrology strives toward a synthesis between "science," "personal experience," and "religion," which makes it difficult, indeed, for scientists with strict standards to recognize astrology as science as well. but it remains to be said that astrology is there and is being practiced. at some universities in south america, asia, and africa (for example, in cairo) and also at the university of riga in latvia, astrology is taught. this is certainly also because its importance in the history of religions, including the history of christianity, is just now being discovered anew. apart from its often criticized practical application, its religious historical meaning is certainly great enough to be dealt with also in the context of religious studies. on this, the classical philologist franz boll once again, who expresses himself concerning the historical importance of astrology thus: "the most important thing about the history of astrology is that it shows the connections of peoples with a clarity and irrefutability as are hardly to be exposed anywhere else. perhaps in it alone have east and west, christians, muslims, and buddhists understood one another without difficulty." [80] bibliography: bailey, alice ann. esoteric astrology. new york, 1951. bezold, carl. astronomie, himmelsschau und astrallehre bei den babyloniern. heidelberg, 1911. bochinger, christoph. "new age" und moderne religion. gütersloh, 1994. boll, franz. sternglaube und sterndeutung  die geschichte und das wesen der astrologie. leipzig, 1931. bouché leclercq, a. lastrologie grecque. paris, 1899; brussels, 1963. ccag (catalogus codicum astrologorum graecorum). brussels, 1898 1953. cramer, frederick h. astrology in roman law and politics. philadelphia, 1954; ann arber (mich.), 1997. cumont, franz. légypte des astrologues. brussels, 1937. curry, patrick. astrology, science and society  historical essays. new hampshire, 1987. curry, patrick. prophecy and power: astrology in early modern england. cambridge, 1988. dossin, georges. "prayer to the gods of the night." revue dassyriologie et darchologie orientale. paris, 1933. 32. endres, klaus peter/schad, wolfgang. biologie des mondes  mondperiodik und lebensrhythmen. leipzig, 1997. eysenck, hans jürgen/nias, david. astrology  science or superstition? london, 1982. faivre, antoine. access to western esoterism. new york, 1994. faivre, antoine. esoterik im überblick. freiburg, 2001. faivre, antoine/voss, karen claire. "western esotericism and the science of religion." in: numen 42/1995, 48 77. falkenstein, adam. "wahrsagung in der sumerischen überlieferung." in: la divination en mésopotamie ancienne et dans les régions voisines. paris, 1966. gauquelin, michel. cosmic influences on human behavior. london, 1976. gressmann, hugo. "die hellenistische gestirnreligion." in: beihefte zum alten orient, heft 5. leipzig, 1925. gundel, hans georg. weltbild und astrologie in den griechischen zauberpapyri. münchen, 1968. gundel, wilhelm/gundel, hans georg. astrologumena  die astrologische literatur in der antike und ihre geschichte. wiesbaden, 1966. gunkel, hermann. schöpfung und chaos in urzeit und endzeit. göttingen, 1921. haack, friedrich wilhelm. astrologie. münchen, 1988. hanegraaff, wouter j. new age religion and western culture: esotericism in the mirror of secular thought. leiden, 1996. justinus. dialog mit dem juden tryphon, kap. lv 2, trans. philipp haeuser, in: bibliothek der kirchenväter. münchen, 1917. hübner, wolfgang. zodiacus christianus  jüdisch christliche adaptionen des tierkreises von der antike bis zur gegenwart. königstein, 1983. jastrow, morris. die religion babyloniens und assyriens. bd. ii. gießen, 1912. kaiser, otto, ed. texte aus der umwelt des alten testaments, bd. 2, 1 3. gütersloh, 1986 1991. kepler, johannes. weltharmonik. max caspar, ed. münchen, 1939. kepler, johannes. warnung an die gegner der astrologie  tertius interveniens. fritz krafft, ed. münchen, 1971. klöckler, herbert v. astrologie als erfahrungswissenschaft. leipzig, 1927. knappich, wilhelm. geschichte der astrologie. frankfurt/main, 1988. lichtenberger, johann. die weissagunge des johannis lichtenbergers. trans. stephan rodt. wittenberg, 1527. lemay, richard. abu masar and latin aristotelism in the twelfth century. beirut, 1962. lilly, william. a facsimile edition of christan astrology. london, 1985. facsimile of the london, 1647 edition. loth, otto. "al kindi als astrologe." in: morgenl. forschungen, festschrift für h.l. fleischer. leipzig, 1875. ludolphy, ingetraut. luther und die astrologie. in: zambelli, paola: astrologi hallucinati   stars and the end of the world in luthers time. berlin, 1986. mayer burstein, stanley, trans. the babyloniaca of berossus. malibu, 1978. manilius, marcus. astronomica  astrologie. wolfgang fels, trans. and ed. universal bibliothek reclam 8634. stuttgart, 1990. mertz, bernd a. die lichter des himmels geben zeichen  astrologie und christentum. bern, 1990. molnar, michael r. the star of bethlehem: the legacy of the magi. new brunswick, n.j., 1999. neugebauer, o./hoesen, h.b. van. greek horoscopes. philadelphia, 1959. pingree, david. the thousends of abu masar. london, 1968. ptolemy, claudius. tetrabiblos. reprint of 1553 ed. berlin, 1923. reprint of 1923 ed. mössingen, 1995. ptolemy, claudius. tetrabiblos (greek english). ed. and transl. f.e. robbins. cambridge, mass., 1980. reiner, erica/pingree, david. babylonian planetary omens. p 1: enuma anu enlil : tablet 63: the venus tablet. malibu, 1975. riemann, fritz. lebenshilfe astrologie  gedanken und erfahrungen. münchen, 1986. riess, ernestus. nechepsonis et petosiridis fragmenta magica. göttingen, 1892. ring, thomas. astrologische menschenkunde. bd. i. freiburg/br., 1990. rochberg halton, francesca. "aspects of babylonian celestial divination: the lunar eclipse tablets of enuma anu enlil." archiv für orientforschung, beiheft 22. horn, 1988. sachs, abraham j. "babylonian horoscopes." journal of cuneiform studies, vol. 6. boston, 1952. pp. 49 75. soldt, wilfred h. van. solar omens of enuma anu enlil. tablets 23 (24)  29 (30). leiden, 1995. schubert weller, christoph. spricht gott durch die sterne?  astrologie, gesellschaft und christlicher glaube. münchen, 1993. seidl, ursula. die babylonischen kudurrn reliefs  symbole mesopotamischer göttheiten. göttingen, 1989. tertullian. über den götzendienst, kap. 9. trans. heinrich k. kellner, in: bibliothek der kirchenväter: tertullian bd. 1. münchen, 1912. thomas de aquino. opera omnia xxii, questiones disputatae de veritate. vol. i. rome, 1975. voss, gerhard. astrologie  christlich. regensburg, 1990. warburg, aby. "heidnisch antike weissagung in wort und bild zu luthers zeiten" (sitzungsberichte der heidelberger akademie der wissenschaften 26. abh.). heidelberg, 1920. pp.12 16, 19. winckler, hugo. "himmels  und weltbild der babylonier als grundlage der weltanschauung und mythologie aller völker." in: der alte orient, ed. by vorderasiatischen gesellschaft. bd. 3, h. 2/3, leipzig 1903.  60  reference works and periodicals: astrologie heute: zeitschrift für astrologie, psychologie und esoterik. claude weiss, ed. zürich, since 1986. francis santoni: the complete ephemerides 2000 2050. paris, 1995. handbuch religionswissenschaftlicher grundbegriffe. bd. ii. stuttgart, 1990. katechismus der katholischen kirche. oldenbourg, 1993. lexikon der astrologie. bd. i. peter moore, ed. stuttgart, 1989. lexikon des geheimwissens. horst e. miers, ed. münchen, 1993. lexikon der religionen. hans waldenfels, ed. freiburg/br. 1996. footnotes: 1] voss, gerhard. 1990. 2] lexikon der astronomie, 1989. 3]handbuch religionswissenschaftlicher grundbegriffe, 1990. 4] lexikon des geheimwissens, 1993. 5] boll, franz. 1931. pg. 72. 6] sachs, abraham j. 1952, pp. 49 75. further cuneiform horoscopes from the period between 290 and 50 bc in o. neugebauer/h.b. van hoesen. 1959, pg. 161. 7] for example, hugo winckler, 1903. following winckler, also the "panbabylonian school." 8] boll, franz. 1931. pg. 11. 9] ibid. 10] dossin, george, 1933. pg. 32. 11] from scroll a of the ruler gadea of lagash, i 17  vi 13. kaiser, otto, ed., 1986 1991. pp. 23 27. first in: falkenstein, adam. 1966. 12] in the omen texts of enuma anu enlil, omen interpretations from the standpoint of the sun, moon, and venus appear most often, whereby the solar and lunar eclipses were especially observed and viewed as menacing signs. rochberg halton, francesca: 1988. reiner, erica/pingree, david: 1975 and 1981. soldt, wilfred h. van: 1995. 13] boll, franz. 1931. pg. 11. 14] ibid. 15] "planeten" in: paulys realenzyklopädie der klassischen altertumswissenschaften, pg. 2027. 16] boll, franz. sphära. hildesheim, 1967. pp. 182 188. 17] knappich, william. 1988. pg. 39. 18] reiner, erica/pingree, david. 1975. tablet 63: the venus tablet. soldt, wilfred h. van. 1995. tablets 23 (24)  29 (30). 19] rochberg halton, francesca. 1988. 20] knappich, wilhelm. 1998. pg. 47. 21] cumont, franz, et. al. ccag (catalogus codicum astrologorium greacorum). brussels, 1898 1953 22] cumont, franz. légypte des astrologues. brussels, 1937. 23] ptolemy, claudius. 1980. book i, 3. pg. 31. 24] gundel, wilhelm/gundel, hans georg. 1966. pg. 10. 25] ps. manetho. apotelsmata v (vi), pg. 1 and following. 26] clemens of alexandria. stromateis. book vi, 35, 2 37, 1. 27] he is called "divine" (jeiov), for example, in ccag iv 81, 5. 28] riess, ernestus. 1892. 29] vettius valens. anthologien ii, 3. translated into german: gundel, wilhelm/gundel, hans georg. 1966. pg. 30. 30] spiegelberg, wilhelm. "eine neue spur des astrologen petosiris." heidelberg: sitzungsberichte der heidelberger akademie der wissenschaften, 1922, 3rd abh. 31] assmann, jan. stein der zeit  mensch und gesellschaft im alten ägypten. munich, 1995. pg. 59. 32] gundel, hans georg. 1968. 33] ptolemy, claudius. 1980. 34] manilius. 1990. book i: 46 65. 35] kepler, johannes. 1939. pg. 22. 36] bezold, carl. 1911. pg. 36. 37] jastrow, morris. 1912. pg. 480. 38] matthew 2. literature on the star of bethlehem: molnar, michael r. 1999. 39] the reformist theologian and humanist phillipp melanchthon undertook a german translation with a foreword full of praise. this translation was reprinted twice in the twentieth century. ptolemy, claudius. 1553, 1923, and 1995. 40] manilius, marcus. 1990. 41] mayer burstein, stanley. 1978. 42] loth, otto. 1875. lemay, richard. 1962. pingree, david. 1968. 43] curry, patrick. astrology, science and society  historical essays. new hampshire, 1987. zambelli, paola. astrologi hallucinati  stars and the end of the world in luthers time. berlin, 1986. 44] ptolemy, claudius. 1553, 1923, 1995. 45] lilly, william. 1985. facsimile of the london, 1647 edition. on astrology in england of the early modern period: curry, patrick. 1988. 46] on dürers melancholia i: panofsky, erwin. 1990. böhme, hartmut. 1997. 47] kepler, johannes. 1971. point 40. 48] bailey, alice. 1951. 49] on the age of aquarius, see, for example: bailey, forster. wandlung esoterischer werte. lorch, 1956. 50] astrologie heute  zeitschrift für astrologie, psychologie und esoterik, nr. 26, aug./sept. 1990. pg. 24. 51] see, for example: weiss, jean claude. 1994. 52] boll, franz. 1931. pg. 213. 53] the current edition for the timeframe 2000 ad 2050 ad is in five languages and contains, in comparison with the previous edition for 1900 2000, more precise astronomical data. francis santoni, 1995. 54] riemann, fritz. 1986. 55] hans bender speaks in a foreword of "a great number of rational people  among them a whole row of psychotherapists  who use the birth constellation as a practical diagnostic tool." in: ring, thomas. 1990. pg. x. 56] ring, thomas. 1990. pg. 3. 57] a written survey of followers of astrology which is currently in the evaluation phase shows that a vast majority favors a mixture of natural scientific and spiritual explanations. 58] klöckler, herbert v. 1927. 59] gauquelin, michel. 1976. 60] eysenck, hans jürgen/nias, david. 1982. 61] eysenck/nias. 1984. 62] endres, k. p./schad, w. 1997. 63] knappich, wilhelm. 1988, 22ff. 64] tertullian. 1912. pp. 148 150. 65] justinus. 1917. pg. 84. 66] gunkel, hermann. 1921. gressmann, hugo. 1925. 67] many examples, among them also of jewish reception, have been compiled in: hübner, wolfgang. 1983. 68] mertz, bernd a. 1990. pp. 140 153. 69] thomas de aquino. 1975. questio 5, art. 9 et 10. 70] ludolphy, ingetraut. in: zambelli, paola. 1986. pp. 101 107. 71] lichtenberger, johann. 1527. 72] warburg, aby. 1920. 73] catechism of the catholic church. 1993. article 2116. 74] voss, gerhard. 1990. pg. 23. 75] lexikon der religionen. 1996. 76] schubert weller, christoph. 1993. 77] bochinger, christoph. 1994. 124, 208 219. 78] faivre, antoine. 1994, 1995, 2001. 79] hanegraaff, wouter j. 1996. 80] boll, franz. 1931. pg. 58.

survey after survey on the state of religion in the united states paints a similar picture of faith in decline. just in the last decade, according to pew research center, the percentage of americans who describe themselves as christian has decreased from 77% to 65%, while the number of religiously unaffiliated is up from 17% to 26%. atheists, at an estimated 4%, continue to make up a very small fraction of the population, but that number is double what it was a decade ago. this supposed secular shift becomes much more dramatic when focusing on younger generations of american adults, and when considering specific religious behaviors that may better reflect deep commitment to a faith, such as frequent attendance at religious services. around 40% of millennials today are religiously unaffiliated, and less than half of americans attend church at least once a month. more broadly, religious ideas, symbols, lessons, and conversations are increasingly absent from american public life. atheists and champions of secularism are emboldened by such trends. they view the decline of religion and its influence on culture as a sign that humans are becoming more enlightened   that people are moving beyond antiquated supernatural beliefs and toward a more evidence based and rational approach to life. they imagine a purely secular humanist future in which people will no longer turn to faith for guidance and inspiration. regardless of the state of traditional religion, however, there is not much reason to believe people can ever become truly secular. human beings are an inherently spiritual species, and striving to reject this part of our nature undermines our ability to flourish. spirituality and the religious traditions that help shape and regulate our spiritual lives play vital roles in the human quest for meaning, which is central to our psychological, social, and physical health as well as to our economic growth and prosperity. we should thus be skeptical of claims that we are growing less religious and of attempts to eradicate religion from the human experience. religious substitution the popular belief that human beings can move beyond religion to become fully secular beings is based on a cultural learning, or blank slate, view of religion. according to this view, people's attitudes, interests, beliefs, and goals are shaped entirely by their social environments. the assumption is that people are born non religious, and that they come to hold a range of supernatural and related religious beliefs as a function of enculturation. to support the cultural learning view, advocates point to the fact that people from different cultures have distinct religious beliefs, and that these beliefs often change over time as a result of education, scientific discovery, and engagement with people who hold different beliefs. the cultural learning approach does have value: it helps explain the diversity of religious faiths and why believers tend to follow the specific religious traditions in which they are raised. but it also neglects a growing body of research on the psychology of religion and spirituality. the dogmas, rituals, and related practices that distinguish or unite different faiths are certainly influenced by our families, communities, and broader cultures, but cultural learning is only part of the story. ignoring other aspects of our spiritual nature has led many to overestimate the extent to which society has secularized. fewer people today may be identifying as religious and attending religious services, but there is scant evidence that they are abandoning spiritual pursuits and supernatural beliefs altogether. it would be more accurate to describe many current trends as evidence not of secularization, but of religious substitution. regardless of what people think about the religious beliefs and practices of past generations, today's americans overwhelmingly hold beliefs that go beyond a purely scientific view of the natural world. a 2003 gallup survey found that around three fourths of americans endorse some type of paranormal belief   in other words, they believe in such things as ghosts, witchcraft, reincarnation, astrology, telepathy, or clairvoyance. what's more, the less people are engaged in traditional religious practices, the more inclined they are to hold alternative supernatural and paranormal beliefs. for instance, pew found that people who do not frequently attend church are twice as likely to believe in ghosts as are regular churchgoers. the baylor religion survey similarly observed that the less often people attend religious services, the more likely they are to hold paranormal beliefs; the individuals least likely to endorse paranormal beliefs are those who go to church at least once a week. other surveys have shown that young adults are less likely than older adults to describe themselves as religious but are more likely to hold a range of alternative spiritual and paranormal beliefs. and the most "secular" regions of the country are where new age and pagan beliefs and practices thrive. such trends are not confined to the united states. a survey of canadians found that though young adults are less likely than older adults to believe in god and jesus christ as the son of god, they are equally or more likely than older adults to believe in life after death, the existence of angels, and people's ability to communicate with the spiritual realm. surveys in the united kingdom and sweden also show that belief in ghosts has been rising in recent decades. many who claim to reject all things religious and spiritual are frequently interested in what i describe as supernatural lite beliefs. these beliefs are often not explicitly supernatural, but they certainly require a leap of faith and have qualities that mimic traditional religious beliefs. they also tend to invoke the language of science and technology, at least superficially, making them more palatable to those who imagine themselves as data driven secularists. this includes the belief that intellectually and technologically advanced extraterrestrial visitors are monitoring us and have helped shape the development of our societies. when i started exploring the idea of religious substitution, i was surprised to learn the extent to which americans are attracted to supernatural lite beliefs. a 2012 national geographic poll found that 79% of americans believe that the government is keeping secrets about ufos from the public, and 55% indicated that they believe the government threatens those who witness a ufo. other surveys indicate that around half of americans believe that intelligent aliens are monitoring human activity. once again, studies in both the united kingdom and united states show that the less people identify as religious, the more likely they are to believe in ufos and that intelligent alien beings are monitoring us. when i dug into the specific beliefs people hold about ufos and alien visitors, i noticed a number of similarities between these beliefs and traditional religious beliefs. for instance, alien visitors are often depicted as having godlike powers and serving a protective function. these enlightened beings, believers claim, are here to watch over humans and help us reach our full potential so that we can one day join a larger cosmic community. some beliefs implicate aliens in the creation of the major world religions, proposing that all the different faiths will one day be united. other supernatural lite religious substitutes include empirically unsupported practices and products promoted by wellness gurus, transhumanist aspirations such as indefinite life extension or transferring human consciousness out of a mortal body, and certain conspiracy theories. of course, many of those who reject religion also don't believe in aliens, conspiracy theories, ghosts, witchcraft, astrology, spiritual energy, psychic abilities, or the healing power of crystals, but that does not mean they lack a spiritual side. according to a pew survey, about one third of atheists report frequently feeling a deep sense of spiritual peace and well being, 35% say they often wonder about the meaning and purpose of life, and 54% indicate that they often feel a sense of wonder about the universe. atheists, like believers, also exhibit a teleological bias   a tendency to think about the world in terms of design and purpose, and to believe that things are meant to be   even if they explicitly reject religious explanations. surveys of scientists indicate that some atheist scientists embrace the idea of a spiritual atheism, or a way to approach deep existential questions in less traditional ways. advocates of secularism often view science and religion as having an antagonistic relationship, but studies indicate that most scientists do not share this attitude. elaine howard ecklund, a rice university sociologist and director of the school's religion and public life program, has conducted extensive research with her colleagues on how scientists view religion and negotiate scientific and spiritual issues. in one large survey of university professors, scientists in the fields of physics, biology, chemistry, sociology, economics, political science, and psychology were asked to indicate which of the three following statements about religion best describes their own views: "there is very little truth in religion," "there are basic truths in many religions," and "there is the most truth in only one religion." in every discipline surveyed, the majority of scientists indicated that there are basic truths in many religions   63.5% held this view at the low end (physics professors) while 76.2% held it at the high end (sociology professors), for an average of 71% across fields. in another survey, researchers found that only 15% of scientists believe that science and religion are always in conflict. an international survey conducted by ecklund's team also found that the majority of scientists in countries such as the united states, france, italy, and taiwan believe that science and religion are not in conflict because they speak to distinct realties. less than a quarter of scientists in every surveyed country said that science has made them less religious. the differences between theists and atheists shrink even more when researchers probe deeper than self reported beliefs, which often fail to fully reveal how the human mind works   especially when it comes to spiritual ideas and experiences. researchers who have reason to believe people are either unable to fully access, or unwilling to completely disclose, how they are being influenced by certain experiences can turn to the body's physiological responses as indicators of a person's psychological state. when people experience emotions such as fear or anxiety, for example, they also undergo physical changes in the body, such as fluctuations in heart rate and levels of cortisol (a hormonal indicator of stress). anxiety also increases the skin's electrical conductance, which can be measured through a small device attached to the finger. in one study, psychologists at the university of helsinki sought to determine the physiological effects of daring god to do harmful things and whether those effects differ between atheists and theists. their hypothesis was that if atheists do not in any way believe in god, then challenging god to hurt people should not cause them any distress. but if at some underlying level, religious ideas regarding a deity do affect atheists, then atheists might show physiological signs of stress after challenging god to cause harm. in the first experiment, researchers brought atheist and theist participants into a laboratory and instructed them to read aloud a number of statements, including sentences such as, "i dare god to turn all my friends against me." they also directed them to read neutral statements and statements that were offensive but did not involve god. while participants read these statements aloud, the researchers measured their physiological arousal via skin conductance. the researchers also asked participants to self report how uncomfortable making these statements made them feel. as one might expect, theists reported higher levels of distress than atheists after daring god to do harmful things. for the physiological response, however, theists and atheists showed similar levels of heightened physiological arousal when provoking god. the researchers also conducted a second experiment to address the possibility that the physiological effects observed were due to the specific types of harm being proposed, not the fact that the participants were provoking god. after all, even if people do not believe in god, daring god to do bad things could trigger a stress response because of the negativity of the provocation. to rule this possibility out, the researchers asked participants in the second study to read additional statements that involved identically harmful outcomes but did not invoke god, such as, "i wish my friends would turn against me." the findings only further confirmed that atheists experience distress at the physiological level when provoking god: atheists exhibited significantly higher skin conductance when reading aloud the harmful statements that involved god than when reading aloud the harmful statements that did not involve god. in other words, it was the spiritual aspect of these negative statements, not their pernicious content, that triggered the greatest distress response from atheists. atheists may not consciously believe in god, then, but they exhibit a bodily stress response identical to that exhibited by believers when provoking him. in sum, the findings of research using diverse methodologies, measures, and populations are at odds with the view that human beings are becoming a secular species. as our societies become more individualistic, safe, and affluent, people may be breaking away from the traditional shared belief systems that bind individuals and communities together, but our spirituality remains an immutable aspect of our nature. religiosity and the search for meaning like all organisms, humans are engaged in the struggle for survival. our bodies are made up of a variety of systems that work in concert to keep us alive, and much of this requires no conscious attention from us   we don't have to think about breathing, for example. in fact, our brains regulate many bodily processes without our conscious attention. yet humans are unique from other organisms in several important ways, especially in terms of our cognitive capacities. the cognitive capacities that rely on our conscious awareness have played a vital role in helping us form complex societies, bend nature to our will, and make the types of scientific discoveries and technological innovations that grant us safer, longer, more comfortable lives. at a fundamental level, then, human beings are conscious thinkers. we want to solve problems and make sense of the world. and because we are highly self aware, we also want to make sense of our own existence. we ask existential questions about meaning and purpose, and we must grapple with existential uncertainties and fears. we are organisms in search of transcendent meaning. we don't just want to live; we want our lives to matter. we long to feel like part of something larger and more enduring than our brief mortal lives. a large body of research indicates that religious and spiritual pursuits uniquely contribute to our search for meaning. theists are more likely to find meaning in their lives than atheists, and highly religious individuals are more likely to discern meaning than those who are less religious. the more people engage in religious practices such as prayer or attending religious services, the more they view their lives as meaningful. and compared to those who are not very religious, those who are highly religious are better able to perceive meaning in the face of difficult life events. though many studies show that religion provides and protects meaning, my research team was interested in the question of whether the human need for meaning is why people are religious to begin with. this might help us understand not only the function of religion, but also why individuals who abandon traditional religion turn to religious substitutes. in other words, does the human need for meaning orient us toward spiritual and religious interests? is our inherent spirituality somehow tied to our inherent quest for meaning? to determine whether the need for meaning is a driver of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices, my colleague andrew abeyta and i drew on past theory and research regarding the human need to belong. behavioral and social scientists have long argued that humans have a fundamental need to belong. as a corollary, social psychologists have posited that even though belonging is a basic human need, the degree of that need should naturally vary between individuals. that is, everyone needs relationships, but some people might be especially focused on obtaining and maintaining social bonds (high need to belong), whereas others are not (low need to belong). we proposed that if meaning, like belonging, is a basic human need, it would also vary between people   in other words, some people may think about meaning frequently and intently, while others do not. to measure the need for meaning, we modified the need to belong questionnaire to focus on matters of meaning instead of belonging. in our questionnaire, research participants rated their level of agreement with statements such as, "i have a strong need to find a sense of meaning or purpose in life," and, "[i]t bothers me a great deal when i feel like my life lacks meaning or purpose." we then conducted studies in which we administered our need for meaning questionnaire, questionnaires assessing other psychological traits that have been shown to predict religiosity, and measures of religious belief and spiritual experiences. again, all human beings have a need for meaning. but if religion and spirituality are motivated in part by this need, the people who score the highest on our need for meaning questionnaire should be the most religious and spiritual. and this is precisely what we found. people who scored high on the need for meaning, when compared to those who scored low on this need, were more likely to believe in god, feel committed to religion, and report having spiritual experiences. these effects remained when statistically controlling for other hypothesized cognitive, emotional, social, and personality drivers of religion. in fact, we observed that the need for meaning is not just a predictor, but the strongest predictor of religion and spirituality. these findings suggest that our spiritual nature is rooted in our existential nature. faith helps provide meaning, and the need for meaning orients us toward faith. based on this work, i suspect that those who are called to religious and related vocations score especially high on the need for meaning scale. my team just completed a study that found that the need for meaning also predicts the type of volunteering and philanthropic behavior that often goes hand in hand with religious faith. the need for meaning thus orients people toward religion and spirituality. but what about religious substitutes, such as paranormal and supernatural lite beliefs? my research team also explored this question, and we similarly found that higher need for meaning is associated with a greater attraction to a range of non traditional beliefs, especially among the religiously unaffiliated and atheists. for instance, we found that higher scores on the need for meaning predicted the endorsement of various supernatural and paranormal ideas like the belief in reincarnation, horoscopes, and mindreading, but that these effects were largest, and sometimes only statistically significant, among atheists. we also conducted several studies focused on beliefs in ufos and alien visitors. in this work, we replicated previous research showing that the less religious people are, the more likely they are to hold a range of beliefs about intelligent alien visitors monitoring and even influencing the lives of humans. we also found that atheists are more likely to hold these beliefs than theists. using statistical modeling, we discovered support for the proposal that people who aren't particularly religious, as well as non believers, are more inclined to believe in ufos and alien visitors than believers because they lack a strong sense of meaning and are thus more actively searching for meaning than their more religious counterparts. this research offers empirical evidence for the idea that those who have not internalized an established religious, existential structure through which to understand the world are searching for something to fill the void. this makes them more attracted to a number of paranormal and supernatural lite ideas, including the belief that we are not alone in the universe and that intellectually and technologically superior beings are watching over us. researchers have found other evidence supporting the assertion that our existential nature   our need for meaning and purpose   motivates spirituality and religiosity. studies show that when people experience threats to meaning, they become more religious, spiritual, and willing to take leaps of faith. these findings are not restricted to the university laboratories of research psychologists, either; psychologists at the university of auckland observed that at the same time religious faith was decreasing in new zealand, it increased among those who were personally affected by a devastating earthquake that killed 185 people. another study that focused on google search trends across 16 nations found that higher than usual weekly searches for life threatening diseases predicted higher search volumes the following week for religious terms such as god, jesus, and prayer. a third study of individuals in uganda, sierra leone, and tajikistan discovered that the greater exposure to war people experienced, the more likely they were to participate in christian and muslim religious groups, even years after the war. such findings suggest that people may increasingly turn to spiritual ideas and beliefs in response to the current coronavirus pandemic. it appears that when people face existential threats that challenge the meaning of their lives by reminding them of their mortality and the uncertainty of the future, they often turn to spiritual and religious beliefs. however, this does not necessarily signal a revival of traditional religion. just because increased anxieties related to meaning heighten spiritual interests does not mean individuals will be driven to join religious groups or start attending religious services. many people   particularly those in individualistic, affluent societies   will instead engage in private spiritual practices or turn to religious substitutes. duty, self control, and existential agency why do religious substitutes fail to offer meaning? one theory is that traditional religions do a better job of promoting close familial, social, and community bonds than the alternatives. in fact, a large body of research has established a strong link between social relationships and meaning. belongingness increases one's sense of meaning, whereas loneliness, social exclusion, and alienation decrease it. similarly, the people who are most resilient against existential anxiety are those who feel socially supported and valued. since traditional religions tend to privilege duty to family and community over more self focused aspirations, they facilitate the kind of interdependence that makes people feel supported and valued. many alternative spiritual beliefs do not offer any moral guidelines for family and community life. they do not promote the type of social duty that builds strong relationship bonds. and they lack the historical and institutional scaffolding that generates transcendent meaning for individuals by weaving people together across place and time. indeed, many religious substitutes reflect the individualism of our modern times: they encourage a more self focused and hedonic search for meaning. it might feel liberating to take a buffet style approach to spiritual needs, but there is not much reason to believe that, for most people, trying to fashion a personalized meaning framework will be successful. even within more traditional religions such as christianity, there are reasons to be concerned about the influence of individualism, which is distorting faith into more of a self help focused, egocentric enterprise. research also indicates that traditional religion serves a self regulatory function that benefits one's sense of meaning. religious beliefs and practices promote self control. when people attend religious services, study religious texts, pray, and interact with fellow believers, they are better able to discern and pursue personally and socially constructive goals, monitor their own behavior, avoid the types of environments and situations that encourage maladaptive choices, and navigate the life stressors that may otherwise lead to unhealthy behavior. studies have found that by facilitating order and structure, self control positively contributes to meaning. religious substitutes, on the other hand, often lack any self regulatory qualities or the institutional and social support systems that help people regulate their behavior. critics of religion often portray faith as restrictive   as a form of psychological and social control. in reality, for many believers, religion is a source of freedom. this is because it promotes what i call existential agency   the sense that one has the ability to pursue a meaningful life. without social and cultural structures that successfully inspire social duty and self control, people are vulnerable to a crisis of existential agency along with feelings of despair, purposelessness, and hopelessness. human beings have an inherent spiritual nature that is at least partially driven by the need for meaning. but to actually help people successfully find meaning, raw spirituality benefits from being shaped and regulated by a belief system that shepherds people together into stable family structures and moral communities, promoting behavior that is self disciplined, goal directed, and supportive of procreation and family life. it is vital to see how these facets of what traditional religion provides are connected to its social benefits. some people are sympathetic to religion because they view it as serving important societal needs, but they downplay religion's spiritual component. they imagine that religion has many social, psychological, and health benefits because it promotes strong interpersonal, familial, and community relationships. in other words, they view religion in purely sociological terms, ignoring its intrapsychic nature. but religion is more than a social institution; the spiritual dimension of religion is clearly vital to its social power. in fact, spirituality and sociality work hand in glove. spiritual cognition and social cognition rely on the same intuitive processes. studies show that the more religious people are, the higher they score on measures of moral concern for others. in other words, when we experience feelings such as love, compassion, and awe, we are using the very intuitive cognitive processes that spirituality implicates. spirituality thus acts as an invisible thread connecting individuals in ways that purely rational and empirically guided thinking cannot. thus spirituality, especially when it is regulated by religion, enhances social life. indeed, studies find that prayer makes people kinder toward others and more likely to forgive relationship partners and friends. prayer also increases relationship satisfaction among couples, and couples that pray together experience greater feelings of unity and trust. in a recent study, my team asked both theists and atheists to describe in writing what gives their lives meaning. for both groups, social relationships were the most frequently mentioned sources of meaning. believers, however, were more likely than non believers to emphasize relationships. believers were also more likely to view their lives as meaningful. this suggests that religious belief may play an important role in promoting the relational bonds that help make life feel meaningful. religious beliefs and practices such as prayer, which enable people to feel connected to and supported by god, also help meet social needs when individuals experience social loss, loneliness, and societal marginalization. in short, faith provides social support when other sources are unavailable. powered by purpose it's difficult to deny the role that faith plays in providing meaning to our lives. yet in their search for meaning, people today are increasingly turning to beliefs that may not reliably generate or maintain meaning. this has negative ramifications for society   many of which we are now encountering. for starters, viewing life as full of meaning is associated with a wide range of positive health outcomes in both the physical and mental senses. a team of medical researchers in the field of cardiology found that people who have a strong sense of purpose in life are at reduced risk for cardiovascular events and other life threatening conditions. this finding has a certain logic to it: when people believe they have an important purpose in life, they are motivated to take care of their physical, mental, and social health. they are better able to manage the various challenges and stressors of life. the perception of meaning is also a protective factor against depression, anxiety, problem drinking, drug abuse, and suicide. in dark times, meaning is a light, a source of hope and inspiration for human beings grasping to make sense of their own existence. the motivational power of meaning also has important implications beyond mental and physical health. people who view their lives as meaningful and purposeful are better positioned to pursue the types of educational and work goals that lead to financial security and upward mobility. for example, a sense of purpose in life has been found to predict future income and net worth. more broadly, experiments conducted by my research team and other behavioral scientists find that when people's attention is focused on what gives their lives meaning, they become more optimistic, self confident, and goal focused. in other words, meaning promotes agency. building on this research, in a recent study i conducted with my colleague john bitzan under the auspices of the sheila and robert challey institute for global innovation and growth, we found a connection between meaning in life and entrepreneurship. among americans with aspirations to start a business, the more they believed in their ability to live a meaningful life (existential agency), the more they felt motivated to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions. more broadly, we found that greater existential agency was positively associated with greater support for economic freedom. these effects remained statistically significant and strong when controlling for a range of other variables such as political ideology, age, and income. in short, meaning in life promotes the entrepreneurial spirit that has played a vital role in making our nation flourish. humans are a spiritual species because we are a cognitively advanced and existentially driven species. our pursuit of meaning and purpose has inspired us to build thriving communities and societies, cure diseases, feed and clothe the poor, create beautiful works of art, and find innovative solutions to many pressing problems. meaning motivated spirituality breathes life into the world. though our spiritual nature can be twisted to cause harm and suffering, trying to deny or suppress this vital aspect of the human condition will not make the world or our lives any better. whether people like it or not, spirituality is fundamental to the human experience. clay routledge is a professor of psychology at north dakota state university, fellow at the challey institute for global innovation and growth, senior fellow at the institute for family studies, nonresident scholar at baylor university’s institute for studies of religion, and faculty affiliate at the human flourishing program at harvard’s institute for quantitative social science. advertisement forgot password? | manage my account

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supported by spirituality, astrology and a desire to express power over nature are a few of the reasons people seek such motifs, experts say. by milena lazazzera reporting from london the black dappled white panther, sometimes curling around the wrist as a bracelet, sometimes crouched low as a brooch or glaring from a choker, is cartier’s most emblematic animal. but it is not the only one. tigers striped with black spinels and emerald studded crocodiles gripping dials in their teeth were among the many animal inspired timepieces cartier put on display at the recent watches & wonders fair in geneva, serving as a prelude to the brand’s nature sauvage high jewelry collection to be introduced later this month. in an email, pierre rainero, cartier’s image, style and heritage director, highlighted what he called the “visual richness” and “evocative power” of animal motifs to explain why they are a mainstay for the brand. cartier’s new call of the wild is timely, with all sorts of animals, from insects to mammals, recently claiming more territory in the jewelry world. van cleef & arpels and boucheron have been expanding their menagerie of bejeweled beasts: new brooches shaped as frogs, horses or pandas at van cleef & arpels and new renderings of the family’s former house cat wladimir by boucheron. at tiffany & company, the cockatoo designed initially by jean schlumberger for the bird on a rock brooch has been nestled on pearls or a watch, while bulgari (serpents) and chanel (lions) have been reimagining their favorite motifs. “for its first foray into fancy fauna at the end of last year, pomellato chose the scarab, while mighty african beasts such as lions, zebras and elephants inspired a series of de beers’ engagement rings that were unveiled in january.

 supported by spirituality, astrology and a desire to express power over nature are a few of the reasons people seek such motifs, experts say. by milena lazazzera jewelers are increasingly exploring the technology’s potential to create new worlds in online campaigns. by jessica bumpus ‘as a woman, i really imagine each piece for myself first,’ one designer said. by kathleen beckett high and fine jewelry collections are now featuring the classic piece. by nazanin lankarani small independents emphasize their strengths at the film festival. by milena lazazzera in 2019, flooding undermined a historic pulpit in st. mark’s basilica. the italian jewelry brand pomellato is underwriting its restoration. by kathleen beckett kintsugi, the japanese art of mending pottery, has inspired designers around the world. by tanya dukes the project was part of a 20th anniversary celebration of the house’s nudo collection. by jessica bumpus the latest trend puts one gem on top of another, boosting total carat counts   and prices. by ming liu the italian jewelry house pomellato is featuring the stones in a new collection.