Editing Astrology (section)

=== Western politics and society ===

In the West, political leaders have sometimes consulted astrologers. For example, the British intelligence agency [[MI5]] employed [[Louis de Wohl]] as an astrologer after it was reported that [[Adolf Hitler]] used astrology to time his actions. The War Office was "...interested to know what Hitler's own astrologers would be telling him from week to week."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JrdVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6779,6948658&dq=hitler-astrologer&hl=en | title=The Strange Story of Britain's "State Seer" | newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald | date=30 August 1952 | access-date=21 July 2012 | archive-date=25 February 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225130002/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JrdVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6779,6948658&dq=hitler-astrologer&hl=en | url-status=live }}</ref> In fact, de Wohl's predictions were so inaccurate that he was soon labelled a "complete charlatan", and later evidence showed that Hitler considered astrology "complete nonsense".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/mar/04/nationalarchives.secondworldwar | title=Star turn: astrologer who became SOE's secret weapon against Hitler | newspaper=The Guardian | date=4 March 2008 | access-date=21 July 2012 | location=London | first=Richard | last=Norton-Taylor | archive-date=2 September 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902040137/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/mar/04/nationalarchives.secondworldwar | url-status=live }}</ref> After [[John Hinckley|John Hinckley's]] [[Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan|attempted assassination]] of US President [[Ronald Reagan]], first lady [[Nancy Reagan]] commissioned astrologer [[Joan Quigley]] to act as the secret White House astrologer. However, Quigley's role ended in 1988 when it became public through the memoirs of former chief of staff, [[Donald Regan]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Regan | first=Donald T. | title=For the record: from Wall Street to Washington | year=1988 | publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich | location=San Diego | isbn=978-0-15-163966-3 | edition=first | url=https://archive.org/details/forrecordfromwal00rega }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author=Quigley, Joan | title=What does Joan say?: my seven years as White House astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan | year=1990 | publisher=Birch Lane Press | location=Secaucus, NJ | isbn=978-1-55972-032-8 | url=https://archive.org/details/whatdoesjoansaym00quig }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | author=Gorney, Cynthia | title=The Reagan Chart Watch; Astrologer Joan Quigley, Eye on the Cosmos | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73606295.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+11%2C+1988&author=Cynthia+Gorney&pub=The+Washington+Post+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&edition=&startpage=c.01&desc=The+Reagan+Chart+Watch%3B+Astrologer+Joan+Quigley%2C+Eye+on+the+Cosmos | access-date=17 July 2012 | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=11 May 1988 | archive-date=24 July 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724212326/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73606295.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+11%2C+1988&author=Cynthia+Gorney&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=c.01&desc=The+Reagan+Chart+Watch%3B+Astrologer+Joan+Quigley%2C+Eye+on+the+Cosmos }}</ref>

There was a boom in interest in astrology in the late 1960s. The sociologist [[Marcello Truzzi]] described three levels of involvement of "Astrology-believers" to account for its revived popularity in the face of scientific discrediting. He found that most astrology-believers did not think that it was a scientific explanation with predictive power. Instead, those superficially involved, knowing "next to nothing" about astrology's 'mechanics', read newspaper astrology columns, and could benefit from "tension-management of anxieties" and "a cognitive belief-system that transcends science."<ref name="Truzzi-1972">{{cite journal | title=The Occult Revival as Popular Culture: Some Random Observations on the Old and the Nouveau Witch | last=Truzzi |first=Marcello | journal=The Sociological Quarterly | year=1972 | volume=13 | issue=1 | pages=16–36 | jstor=4105818 | doi=10.1111/j.1533-8525.1972.tb02101.x}}</ref> Those at the second level usually had their horoscopes cast and sought advice and predictions. They were much younger than those at the first level, and could benefit from knowledge of the language of astrology and the resulting ability to belong to a coherent and exclusive group. Those at the third level were highly involved and usually cast horoscopes for themselves. Astrology provided this small minority of astrology-believers with a "''meaningful'' view of their universe and [gave] them an ''understanding'' of their place in it."{{efn|Italics in original.}} This third group took astrology seriously, possibly as an overarching religious worldview (a ''sacred canopy'', in [[Peter L. Berger]]'s phrase), whereas the other two groups took it playfully and irreverently.<ref name="Truzzi-1972"/>

In 1953, the sociologist [[Theodor W. Adorno]] conducted a study of the astrology column of a Los Angeles newspaper as part of a project examining mass culture in capitalist society.<ref name="Nederman-1981">{{cite journal|title=Popular Occultism and Critical Social Theory: Exploring Some Themes in Adorno's Critique of Astrology and the Occult|journal=Sociological Analysis|date=Winter 1981|volume=42|first1=Cary J. |last1=Nederman  |first2=James Wray |last2=Goulding |doi=10.2307/3711544 |jstor=3711544 |name-list-style=amp }}</ref>{{rp|326}} Adorno believed that popular astrology, as a device, invariably leads to statements that encouraged conformity—and that astrologers who go against conformity, by discouraging performance at work etc., risk losing their jobs.<ref name="Nederman-1981" />{{rp|327}} Adorno concluded that astrology is a large-scale manifestation of systematic [[irrationalism]], where individuals are subtly led—through flattery and vague generalisations—to believe that the author of the column is addressing them directly.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Stars Down to Earth: The Los Angeles Times Astrology Column|author=Theodor W. Adorno | journal=Telos |date=Spring 1974 | volume=1974 | issue=19 | pages=13–90 | doi=10.3817/0374019013|s2cid=143675240 }}</ref> Adorno drew a parallel with the phrase [[opium of the people]], by Karl Marx, by commenting, "occultism is the metaphysic of the dopes."<ref name="Nederman-1981" />{{rp|329}}

A 2005 [[Gallup (company)|Gallup]] poll and a 2009 survey by the [[Pew Research Center]] reported that 25% of US adults believe in astrology,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/16915/Three-Four-Americans-Believe-Paranormal.aspx |title=Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal |last=Moore |first=David W. |publisher=[[Gallup (company)|Gallup]] |date=16 June 2005 |access-date=29 September 2013 |archive-date=19 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919195101/https://news.gallup.com/poll/16915/three-four-americans-believe-paranormal.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/#eastern-or-new-age-beliefs-evil-eye |work=Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths |title=Eastern or New Age Beliefs, 'Evil Eye' |date=9 December 2009 |publisher=[[Pew Research Center|Pew Research Center's]] Religion & Public Life Project |access-date=29 September 2013 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930025708/http://www.pewforum.org/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/#eastern-or-new-age-beliefs-evil-eye |url-status=live }}</ref> while a 2018 Pew survey found a figure of 29%.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gecewicz |first=Claire |title='New Age' beliefs common among both religious and nonreligious Americans |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/ |access-date=2022-06-06 |website=Pew Research Center |date=October 2018 |language=en-US |archive-date=6 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220606230114/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/ |url-status=live }}</ref> According to data released in the [[National Science Foundation|National Science Foundation's]] 2014 ''Science and Engineering Indicators'' study, "Fewer Americans rejected astrology in 2012 than in recent years."<ref name=NSF>{{cite web |url=https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-7/c7h.htm |title=Science and Engineering Indicators: Chapter 7.Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding |publisher=National Science Foundation |access-date=24 April 2014 |archive-date=24 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140424094559/http://nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-7/c7h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The NSF study noted that in 2012, "slightly more than half of Americans said that astrology was 'not at all scientific,' whereas nearly two-thirds gave this response in 2010. The comparable percentage has not been this low since 1983."<ref name=NSF /> Astrology [[Mobile app|apps]] became popular in the late 2010s, some receiving millions of dollars in [[Silicon Valley]] [[venture capital]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Griffith |first=Erin |date=2019-04-15 |title=Venture Capital Is Putting Its Money Into Astrology |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/style/astrology-apps-venture-capital.html |access-date=2022-06-06 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=6 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220606031807/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/style/astrology-apps-venture-capital.html |url-status=live }}</ref>