Editing Astrology

{{short description|Divination based on the movements of the stars}}
{{Hatnote group|{{About-distinguish-text|the divinatory pseudoscience|[[Astronomy]], the scientific study of celestial objects}}{{Other uses}}}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}
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{{Paranormal}}
{{Esotericism}}
<!-- "Astrology" is an uncountable noun, and it is used as such throughout the lead. It is not meant to suggest a connection between unrelated astrological systems (e.g. Chinese and Mayan), each of which could be referred to as "astrology". -->

'''Astrology''' is a range of [[Divination|divinatory]] practices, recognized as [[pseudoscientific]] since the 18th century,<ref>{{cite book |last=Hanegraaff |first=Wouter J. |author-link=Wouter Hanegraaff |title=Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture |year=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-19621-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02bfnhO0H8sC&pg=171 |page=171 |access-date=19 July 2022 |archive-date=26 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230126022539/https://books.google.com/books?id=02bfnhO0H8sC&pg=171 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Thagard|1978|p=229}} that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions of [[Celestial objects in astrology|celestial objects]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia | publisher = Oxford University Press | title = astrology | encyclopedia = Oxford Dictionary of English | access-date = 11 December 2015 | url = https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/astrology| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120719044917/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/astrology| archive-date = 19 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia | publisher = Merriam-Webster Inc. | title = astrology| encyclopedia = Merriam-Webster Dictionary | access-date = 11 December 2015 | url = http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/astrology}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy |first1= Nicholas |last1= Bunnin |first2= Jiyuan |last2= Yu |publisher= John Wiley & Sons |year= 2008 |page= 57 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LdbxabeToQYC&q=dictionary+philosophy+astrology&pg=PA57|isbn= 978-0-470-99721-5 |doi=10.1002/9780470996379 }}</ref><ref name="Thagard-1978">{{cite journal|last=Thagard|first=Paul R.|author-link=Paul Thagard|year=1978|title=Why Astrology is a Pseudoscience|url=https://philpapers.org/rec/THAWAI|journal=Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association|volume=1|issue=1 |pages=223–234|doi=10.1086/psaprocbienmeetp.1978.1.192639|s2cid=147050929|access-date=14 November 2018|archive-date=28 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328142123/https://philpapers.org/rec/THAWAI|url-status=live| issn = 0270-8647}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jarry |first1=Jonathan |title=How Astrology Escaped the Pull of Science |url=https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/pseudoscience/how-astrology-escaped-pull-science |website=Office for Science and Society |publisher=McGill University |access-date=2 June 2022 |date=9 October 2020 |archive-date=13 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813034228/https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/pseudoscience/how-astrology-escaped-pull-science |url-status=live }}</ref> Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in [[Calendrical calculation|calendrical]] systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications.<ref name="Koch-Westenholz-1995">{{cite book |last= Koch-Westenholz |first= Ulla |title= Mesopotamian astrology: an introduction to Babylonian and Assyrian celestial divination |year= 1995 |publisher= Museum Tusculanum Press |location= Copenhagen |isbn= 978-87-7289-287-0 |pages= Foreword, 11}}</ref>

Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the [[Hindu astrology|Hindus]], [[Chinese astrology|Chinese]], and the [[Maya civilization|Maya]]—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. [[Western astrology]], one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE [[Mesopotamia]], from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the [[Astrology in medieval Islam|Islamic world]], and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of [[horoscope]]s that purport to explain aspects of a person's personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.{{sfn|Bennett|2007|p=83}}

Throughout its history, astrology has had its detractors, competitors and skeptics who opposed it for moral, religious, political, and empirical reasons.{{sfn|Hughes|2004|p=87}}{{sfn|Pigliucci|2024}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fernandez-Beanato |first=Damian |title=Cicero's demarcation of science: a report of shared criteria |journal=[[Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A]] |year=2020 |volume=83 |pages=97–102 |pmid=32958286 |bibcode=2020SHPSA..83...97F |doi=10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.04.002 |s2cid=216477897 }}</ref> Nonetheless, prior to the Enlightenment, astrology was generally considered a scholarly tradition and was common in learned circles, often in close relation with [[astronomy]], [[Astrometeorology|meteorology]], [[Medical astrology|medicine]], and [[alchemy]].<ref name="Kassell-2010">{{cite journal |last= Kassell |first= Lauren |title= Stars, spirits, signs: towards a history of astrology 1100–1800 |journal= Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences |date= 5 May 2010 |volume= 41 |issue= 2 |pages= 67–69 |doi= 10.1016/j.shpsc.2010.04.001|pmid= 20513617 }}</ref> It was present in political circles and is mentioned in various works of literature, from [[Dante Alighieri]] and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] to [[William Shakespeare]], [[Lope de Vega]], and [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca]]. During [[the Enlightenment]], however, astrology lost its status as an area of legitimate scholarly pursuit.<ref name="Porter-2001" /><ref name="Rutkin-2006" />

Following the end of the 19th century and the wide-scale adoption of the [[scientific method]], researchers have successfully challenged astrology on both theoretical{{sfn|Biswas|Mallik|Vishveshwara|1989|p=249}}<ref name="Reidel-1978" /> and experimental grounds,<ref name="Carlson-1985">{{cite journal | last= Carlson | first= Shawn |title= A double-blind test of astrology |journal= Nature |year= 1985 |volume= 318 |pages= 419–425 |url= http://muller.lbl.gov/papers/Astrology-Carlson.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://muller.lbl.gov/papers/Astrology-Carlson.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |doi= 10.1038/318419a0 |issue= 6045 | bibcode = 1985Natur.318..419C| s2cid= 5135208 }}</ref>{{sfn|Zarka|2011}} and have shown it to have no scientific validity or [[explanatory power]].{{sfn|Bennett|2007}} Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing in the western world, and common belief in it largely declined, until a continuing resurgence starting in the 1960s.<ref name="Pingree-2025">{{cite encyclopedia |first1=David E. |last1=Pingree |first2=Robert Andrew |last2=Gilbert |date=14 February 2025 |title= Astrology - Astrology in modern times |url= https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/39971/astrology/35979/Astrology-in-modern-times |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date= 2 April 2025| quote = In countries such as India, where only a small intellectual elite has been trained in Western physics, astrology manages to retain here and there its position among the sciences. Its continued legitimacy is demonstrated by the fact that some Indian universities offer advanced degrees in astrology. In the West, however, Newtonian physics and Enlightenment rationalism largely eradicated the widespread belief in astrology, yet Western astrology is far from dead, as demonstrated by the strong popular following it gained in the 1960s.}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
[[File:Marcantonio Raimondi - Two Women with the Signs of Libra and Scorpio.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Marcantonio Raimondi]] engraving, 15th century]]

The word ''[[wikt:astrology|astrology]]'' comes from the early [[Latin]] word ''[[wikt:astrologia|astrologia]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=astrology |title = astrology |first = Douglas |last = Harper |author-link = Douglas Harper |work = [[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |access-date = 6 December 2011 |quote = Differentiation between astrology and astronomy began late 1400s and by 17c. this word was limited to "reading influences of the stars and their effects on human destiny." |archive-date = 27 June 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170627115223/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=astrology |url-status = live }}</ref> which derives from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|[[wikt:ἀστρολογία|ἀστρολογία]]}}—from [[wikt:ἄστρον#Ancient Greek|ἄστρον]] ''astron'' ("star") and [[wikt:-λογία#Ancient Greek|-λογία]] ''-logia'', ("study of"—"account of the stars"). The word entered the English language via Latin and [[medieval French]], and its use overlapped considerably with that of ''astronomy'' (derived from the Latin ''[[wikt:astronomia|astronomia]]''). By the [[17th century]], ''astronomy'' became established as the scientific term, with ''astrology'' referring to divinations and schemes for predicting human affairs.<ref>{{cite book |title = Oxford English Dictionary |chapter = astrology, n. |chapter-url = http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/12267 |edition = Third |date = December 2021 |publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] |quote = In medieval French, and likewise in Middle English, ''astronomie'' is attested earlier, and originally covered the whole semantic field of the study of celestial objects, including divination and predictions based on observations of celestial phenomena. In early use in French and English, ''astrologie'' is generally distinguished as the 'art' or practical application of astronomy to mundane affairs, but there is considerable semantic overlap between the two words (as also in other European languages). With the rise of modern science from the Renaissance onwards, the modern semantic distinction between ''astrology'' and ''astronomy'' gradually developed, and had become largely fixed by the 17th cent. [...] The word is not used by Shakespeare. |title-link = Oxford English Dictionary |access-date = 14 December 2011 |archive-date = 19 February 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150219052208/http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/12267 |url-status = live }}</ref>

== History ==
{{Main|History of astrology}}

[[File:P. 26 'The Zodiac Man' a diagram of a human body and astrological symbols with instructions explaining the importance of astrology from a medical perspective.jpg|thumb|upright|''The Zodiac Man'', a diagram of a human body and astrological symbols with instructions explaining the importance of astrology from a medical perspective. From a 15th-century Welsh manuscript]]

Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the [[Hindu astrology|Indians]], [[Chinese astrology|Chinese]], and [[Maya civilization|Maya]] developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. A form of astrology was practised in the [[Old Babylonian Empire|Old Babylonian]] period of [[Mesopotamia]], {{Circa|1800 BCE}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rochberg |first=Francesca |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSELAAAAIAAJ |title=Babylonian Horoscopes |date=1998 |publisher=American Philosophical Society |isbn=978-0-87169-881-0 |page=ix |language=en |author-link=Francesca Rochberg}}</ref><ref name="Koch-Westenholz-1995"/> ''Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa'' is one of earliest known Hindu texts on [[astronomy]] and astrology (''[[Jyotisha]]''). The text is dated between 1400 BCE to final centuries BCE by various scholars according to astronomical and linguistic evidences. Chinese astrology was elaborated in the [[Zhou dynasty]] (1046–256 BCE). [[Hellenistic astrology]] after 332 BCE mixed [[Babylonian astrology]] with Egyptian [[Decans|Decanic astrology]] in [[Alexandria]], creating [[horoscopic astrology]]. [[Alexander the Great|Alexander the Great's]] conquest of [[Asia]] allowed astrology to spread to [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome|Rome]]. In Rome, astrology was associated with "[[Chaldea]]n wisdom". After the conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe and [[Latin translations of the 12th century|translated into Latin]]. Major astronomers including [[Tycho Brahe]], [[Johannes Kepler]] and [[Galileo]] practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in the works of poets such as [[Dante Alighieri]] and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], and of playwrights such as [[Christopher Marlowe]] and [[William Shakespeare]].

Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition. It was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as [[astronomy]], [[alchemy]], [[meteorology]], and medicine.<ref name="Kassell-2010"/> At the end of the 17th century, new scientific concepts in astronomy and physics (such as [[heliocentrism]] and [[classical mechanics|Newtonian mechanics]]) called astrology into question. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined.<ref name="Pingree-2025"/>

=== Ancient world ===

==== Ancient applications ====

{{further|Babylonian astrology|Worship of heavenly bodies}}

Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky.{{sfn|Campion|2009|pp=2, 3}} Early evidence for humans making conscious attempts to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles, appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that [[lunar cycle]]s were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago.<ref name="Marshack-1991">{{cite book|last=Marshack |first=Alexander |title=The roots of civilization: the cognitive beginnings of man's first art, symbol and notation|year=1991 |publisher=Moyer Bell |isbn=978-1-55921-041-6 |edition=Rev. and expanded |pages=81ff}}</ref> This was a first step towards recording the Moon's influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organising a communal calendar.<ref name="Marshack-1991"/> Farmers addressed agricultural needs with increasing knowledge of the [[constellations]] that appear in the different seasons—and used the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Works and Days |author=Homer |date=2017-03-23 |publisher=[[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]] |isbn=978-0-674-99063-0 |edition=1st |location=[[London]], [[England]] |publication-date=1914-09-09 |pages=51–53 |language=en-uk |author2=Hesiod |others=Additional Research from [[:de:Alois Rzach|Prof. Alois Rzach]] |editor-last1=Page |editor-first1=T.E. (Litt.D.) |editor-link1=Thomas Ethelbert Page |series=[[Homeric Hymns]] |chapter=#1 — Hesiod's ''Works and Days''  |type=Collection (Didactic Poetry; Hymns; Epigrams) |lccn=16000741 |oclc=3125044 |ol=23303325M |author-link1=Homer |author-link2=Hesiod |access-date=2024-08-26 |editor-last2=Rouse |editor-first2=W.H.D. (Litt.D.) |editor-link2=W. H. D. Rouse |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/hesiodhomerichym00hesi_0/page/50/mode/2up?q=poseidon |via=[[s:Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica|Wikisource — ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica'']] |ol-access=free |translator-last=Evelyn-White |translator-first=Hugh Gerard |translator-link=Hugh Evelyn-White |title-link=Works and Days |df=dmy |quote=Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right time for men to go sailing. Then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless Poseidon the Earth-Shaker be set upon it, or Zeus, the king of the deathless gods, wish to slay them; for the issues of good and evil alike are with them.}}</ref> By the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with [[heliacal rising]]s of the stars.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of Archæoastronomy |last1=Kelley |first1=David H. |publisher=[[Springer Publishing]] |location=[[NYC]] |isbn=978-0-387-26356-4 |format=eBook |publication-date=2005-12-06 |page=268 |language=en-us |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cgEJu3iUwM0C |last2=Milone |first2=Eugene F. |others=Foreword by [[Anthony Aveni|Anthony F. Aveni]] |doi=10.1007/b137471 |lccn=2001032842 |oclc=62767201 |ol=7448852M |quote=…that the [[Dendera Temple complex|temple]] was aligned on the [[heliacal rising]] of [[Sirius]] ([[Sopdet]]) at the [[New Year]], as [[Norman Lockyer|Lockyer]] pointed out. |date=2022-03-19 |author-link1=David H. Kelley |author-link2=Eugene Milone |access-date=2024-08-26 |url-access=limited |doi-access=free |ol-access=free |chapter=Chapter 8.1.5: African Cultures — Egypt and Nubia – Alignments |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/exploringancient0000kell/page/268/mode/2up |df=dmy}}</ref>

Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. The [[Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa]] is thought to have been compiled in [[Babylon]] around 1700 BCE.<ref>Russell Hobson, ''The Exact Transmission of Texts in the First Millennium B.C.E.'', Published PhD Thesis. Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies. University of Sydney. 2009 [http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/5404/1/r-hobson-2009-thesis.pdf PDF File] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502104018/https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/5404/1/r-hobson-2009-thesis.pdf |date=2 May 2019 }}</ref> A scroll documenting an early use of [[electional astrology]] is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the [[Sumer]]ian ruler [[Gudea of Lagash]] ({{Circa|2144}} – 2124 BCE). This describes how the gods revealed to him in a dream the constellations that would be most favourable for the planned construction of a temple.<ref>From scroll A of the ruler Gudea of Lagash, I 17 – VI 13. O. Kaiser, ''Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments'', Bd. 2, 1–3. Gütersloh, 1986–1991. Also quoted in A. Falkenstein, 'Wahrsagung in der sumerischen Überlieferung', ''La divination en Mésopotamie ancienne et dans les régions voisines''. Paris, 1966.</ref> However, there is controversy about whether these were genuinely recorded at the time or merely ascribed to ancient rulers by posterity. The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records of the first dynasty of [[Babylon]] (1950–1651 BCE). This astrology had some parallels with [[Hellenistic]] Greek (western) astrology, including the [[zodiac]], a norming point near 9 degrees in Aries, the trine aspect, planetary exaltations, and the dodekatemoria (the twelve divisions of 30 degrees each).<ref name="Rochberg-Halton-1988">{{cite journal | title=Elements of the Babylonian Contribution to Hellenistic Astrology | last=Rochberg-Halton |first=F. | s2cid=163678063 | journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society | year=1988 | volume=108 | issue=1 | pages=51–62 | jstor=603245 | doi=10.2307/603245}}</ref> The Babylonians viewed celestial events as possible signs rather than as causes of physical events.<ref name="Rochberg-Halton-1988"/>

The system of [[Chinese astrology]] was elaborated during the [[Zhou dynasty]] (1046–256 BCE) and flourished during the [[Han dynasty]] (2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE), during which all the familiar elements of traditional Chinese culture – the Yin-Yang philosophy, theory of the five elements, Heaven and Earth, Confucian morality – were brought together to formalise the philosophical principles of Chinese medicine and divination, astrology, and [[Chinese alchemy|alchemy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sun |first1=Xiaochun | last2=Kistemaker |first2=Jacob | title=The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society | year=1997 | publisher=Brill | location=Leiden | isbn=978-90-04-10737-3 |doi=10.1163/9789004488755 | bibcode=1997csdh.book.....S |pages=3, 4}}</ref>

The ancient Arabs that inhabited the [[Arabian Peninsula]] [[Pre-Islamic Arabia|before the advent of Islam]] used to profess a widespread belief in [[fatalism]] (''ḳadar'') alongside a fearful consideration for the sky and the stars, which they held to be ultimately responsible for every phenomena that occurs on Earth and for the destiny of humankind.<ref name="al-Abbasi-2020">{{cite journal |last=al-Abbasi |first=Abeer Abdullah |date=August 2020 |title=The Arabsʾ Visions of the Upper Realm |url=https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0004/article/view/8301/8105 |journal=[[Marburg Journal of Religion]] |publisher=[[University of Marburg]] |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.17192/mjr.2020.22.8301 |issn=1612-2941 |access-date=23 May 2022 |archive-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523183640/https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0004/article/view/8301/8105 |url-status=live }}</ref> Accordingly, they shaped their entire lives in accordance with their interpretations of astral configurations and phenomena.<ref name="al-Abbasi-2020"/>

==== Ancient objections ====

[[File:M. Tullius Cicero, Capitoline Museum, Rome.jpg|thumb|upright|The Roman orator [[Cicero]] objected to astrology.]]

The [[Hellenistic philosophy|Hellenistic]] schools of [[philosophical skepticism]] criticized astrology, alongside all other beliefs.<ref>Diogenes Laërtius 9:80–88</ref> Criticism of astrology by [[Academic skepticism|academic skeptics]] such as [[Carneades]],{{sfn|Hughes|2004|p=87}} [[Cicero]],{{sfn|Fernandez-Beanato|2020}} and [[Favorinus]];{{sfn|Long|2005|page=184}} [[Pyrrhonism|Pyrrhonists]] such as [[Sextus Empiricus]];{{sfn|Long|2005|page=186}} and [[neoplatonist]]s such as [[Plotinus]],<ref>{{cite book | last=Long | first=A. A. | title=Science and Speculation. Studies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2005 |<!--165–191-->page=174 |editor1=Barnes, Jonathan |editor2=Brunschwig, J. | chapter=6: Astrology: arguments pro and contra |isbn=978-0-521-02218-7}}</ref>{{sfn|Long|2005|page=174}} has been preserved.

[[Carneades]] argued that belief in fate denies [[free will]] and [[morality]]; that people born at different times can all die in the same accident or battle; and that contrary to uniform influences from the stars, tribes and cultures are all different.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Richard |title=Lament, Death, and Destiny |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]] |year=2004 |page=87}}</ref>

[[Cicero]], in ''[[De Divinatione]]'', leveled a critique of astrology that some modern philosophers consider to be the first working definition of [[pseudoscience]] and the answer to the [[demarcation problem]].{{sfn|Fernandez-Beanato|2020}} The philosopher of science [[Massimo Pigliucci]], building on the work of the historian of science, Damien Fernandez-Beanato, argues that Cicero outlined a "convincing distinction between astrology and astronomy that remains valid in the twenty-first century."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pigliucci |first=Massimo |author-link=Massimo Pigliucci |date=January–February 2024 |title=Pseudoscience:An Ancient Problem |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=18, 19}}</ref> [[Cicero]] stated the twins objection (that with close birth times, personal outcomes can be very different), later developed by [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]].{{sfn|Long|2005|page=173}} He argued that since the other planets are much more distant from the Earth than the Moon, they could have only very tiny influence compared to the Moon's.{{sfn|Long|2005|pages=173–174}} He also argued that if astrology explains everything about a person's fate, then it wrongly ignores the visible effect of inherited ability and parenting, changes in health worked by medicine, or the effects of the weather on people.{{sfn|Long|2005|page=177}} The historian Stefano Rapisarda notes that the text is formally "equally balanced between ''pro'' and ''contra'', and no final or definite answer is given."<ref>{{cite book |last=Rapisarda |first=Stefano |title=Prognostication in the Medieval World |chapter=Traditions and Practices in the Medieval Western Christian World |publisher=De Gruyter |date=2020-11-09 |isbn=978-3-11-049977-3 |doi=10.1515/9783110499773-021 |pages=429–445}}</ref>

[[Favorinus]] argued that it was absurd to imagine that stars and planets would affect human bodies in the same way as they affect the tides, and equally absurd that small motions in the heavens cause large changes in people's fates.{{sfn|Long|2005|page=184}}

[[Sextus Empiricus]] argued that it was absurd to link human attributes with myths about the signs of the zodiac, and wrote an entire book, ''[[Against the Astrologers]]'' (Πρὸς ἀστρολόγους, ''Pros astrologous''), compiling arguments against astrology. ''Against the Astrologers'' was the fifth section of a larger work arguing against philosophical and scientific inquiry in general, ''Against the Professors'' (Πρὸς μαθηματικούς, ''Pros mathematikous'').{{sfn|Long|2005|page=186}}

[[Plotinus]], a [[neoplatonist]], had a lasting interest in astrology, including the question of how the world of humans could be affected by the stars, and (if so) whether astrology could predict events on Earth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adamson |first=Peter |title=Oxford Studies In Ancient Philosophy |chapter=Plotinus On Astrology |publisher=Oxford University PressOxford |date=6 November 2008 |isbn=978-0-19-955779-0 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780199557790.003.0009 |pages=265–292}}</ref> He argued that since the fixed stars are much more distant than the planets, it is laughable to imagine the planets' effect on human affairs should depend on their position with respect to the zodiac. He also argues that the interpretation of the Moon's [[conjunction (astronomy)|conjunction]] with a planet as good when the moon is full, but bad when the moon is waning, is clearly wrong, as from the Moon's point of view, half of its surface is always in sunlight; and from the planet's point of view, waning should be better, as then the planet sees some light from the Moon, but when the Moon is full to us, it is dark, and therefore bad, on the side facing the planet in question.{{sfn|Long|2005|page=174}}

=== Hellenistic Egypt ===

{{Main|Hellenistic astrology}}

[[File:Quadritpartitum.jpg|thumb|upright|1484 copy of first page of [[Ptolemy|Ptolemy's]] ''Tetrabiblos'', translated into Latin by [[Plato of Tivoli]]|alt=Ptolemy's ''Tetrabiblos'', the Hellenistic text that founded Western astrology]]
In 525 BCE, [[Egypt]] was conquered by the Persians. The 1st century BCE Egyptian [[Dendera Zodiac]] shares two signs – the Balance and the Scorpion – with Mesopotamian astrology.<ref>{{cite book | last=Barton | first= Tamsyn | title=Ancient Astrology | year=1994 | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-0-415-11029-7 |page=24}}</ref>

With the occupation by [[Alexander the Great]] in 332 BCE, Egypt became [[Hellenistic]]. The city of [[Alexandria]] was founded by Alexander after the conquest, becoming the place where [[Babylonian astrology]] was mixed with Egyptian [[Decans|Decanic astrology]] to create [[Horoscopic astrology]]. This contained the Babylonian zodiac with its system of planetary [[exaltation (astrology)|exaltation]]s, the triplicities of the signs and the importance of eclipses. It used the Egyptian concept of dividing the zodiac into thirty-six decans of ten degrees each, with an emphasis on the rising decan, and the Greek system of planetary Gods, sign rulership and [[four elements]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Holden | first= James Herschel | title=A History of Horoscopic Astrology | publisher=AFA | year=2006 | edition=2nd | isbn=978-0-86690-463-6 |pages=11–13}}</ref> 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis.{{sfn|Barton|1994|page=20}} The [[astrologer]] and astronomer [[Ptolemy#Astrology|Ptolemy]] lived in Alexandria. Ptolemy's work the ''[[Tetrabiblos]]'' formed the basis of Western astrology, and, "...enjoyed almost the authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of a thousand years or more."<ref>{{cite book | editor-last=Robbins | editor-first=Frank E. | title=Ptolemy Tetrabiblos | year=1940 | publisher=Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library) | isbn=978-0-674-99479-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/tetrabiblos0000ptol |page=xii "Introduction"}}</ref>

=== Greece and Rome ===

The conquest of [[Asia]] by [[Alexander the Great]] exposed the Greeks to ideas from [[Syria]], Babylon, Persia and central Asia.<ref>{{cite book | last=Campion | first=Nicholas | title=A History of Western Astrology |volume=I: The Ancient World | place=London |publisher=Continuum | year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4411-2737-2 |p=173}}</ref> Around 280 BCE, [[Berossus]], a priest of [[Marduk|Bel]] from Babylon, moved to the Greek island of [[Kos]], teaching astrology and Babylonian culture.{{sfn|Campion|2008|p=84}} By the 1st century BCE, there were two varieties of astrology, one using [[horoscope]]s to describe the past, present and future; the other, [[theurgic]], emphasising the [[soul|soul's]] ascent to the stars.{{sfn|Campion|2008|pp=173–174}} Greek influence played a crucial role in the transmission of astrological theory to [[Ancient Rome|Rome]].{{sfn|Barton|1994|p=32}}

The first definite reference to astrology in Rome comes from the orator [[Cato the Elder|Cato]], who in 160 BCE warned farm overseers against consulting with Chaldeans,{{sfn|Barton|1994|p=32–33}} who were described as Babylonian 'star-gazers'.{{sfn|Campion|2008|pp=227–228}} Among both Greeks and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]], Babylonia (also known as [[Chaldea]]) became so identified with astrology that 'Chaldean wisdom' became [[synonym]]ous with [[divination]] using planets and stars.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Parker |first1=Derek |last2=Parker |first2=Julia |title=A History of Astrology | year=1983 |publisher=Deutsch |isbn=978-0-233-97576-4 |page=16}}</ref> The 2nd-century Roman poet and satirist [[Juvenal]] complains about the pervasive influence of Chaldeans, saying, "Still more trusted are the Chaldaeans; every word uttered by the astrologer they will believe has come from [[Jupiter (mythology)|Hammon's]] fountain."<ref>{{cite wikisource |author = Juvenal |author-link = Juvenal |translator-last = Ramsay |translator-first = George Gilbert |translator-link = George Gilbert Ramsay |title = Satire VI: The Ways of Women |wslink = Juvenal and Persius/The Satires of Juvenal/Satire 6 |date = c. 100 |publisher = [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]] |publication-date = 1918}}</ref>

One of the first astrologers to bring [[Hermetic astrology]] to Rome was [[Thrasyllus of Mendes|Thrasyllus]], astrologer to the [[emperor]] [[Tiberius]],{{sfn|Barton|1994|p=32}} the first emperor to have had a court astrologer,{{sfn|Barton|1994|p=43}} though his predecessor [[Augustus]] had used astrology to help legitimise his [[Imperialism|Imperial]] rights.{{sfn|Barton|1994|p=63}}

=== Medieval world ===

==== Hindu ====
{{main|Hindu astrology}}

The main texts upon which classical Indian astrology is based are early medieval compilations, notably the ''[[Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra|{{IAST|Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra}}]]'', and ''[[Sārāvalī]]'' by {{IAST|Kalyāṇavarma}}.
The ''Horāshastra'' is a composite work of 71 chapters, of which the first part (chapters 1–51) dates to the 7th to early 8th centuries and the second part (chapters 52–71) to the later 8th century. The ''Sārāvalī'' likewise dates to around 800 CE.<ref>[[David Pingree]], ''{{IAST|Jyotiḥśāstra}}'' (J. Gonda (Ed.) ''A History of Indian Literature'', Vol VI Fasc 4), p.81</ref> English translations of these texts were published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari in 1963 and 1961, respectively.

==== Islamic ====
{{main|Astrology in medieval Islam}}

[[File:Translation of Albumasar Venice 1515 De Magnis Coniunctionibus.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Image of a Latin astrological text |[[Latin]] translation of [[Albumasar|Abū Maʿshar's]] ''De Magnis Coniunctionibus'' ('Of the great [[Conjunction (astronomy and astrology)|conjunctions]]'), [[Venice]], 1515]]

Astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars<ref>{{cite book |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam |first1=Salim |last1=Ayduz |first2=Ibrahim |last2=Kalin |first3=Caner |last3=Dagli |publisher=Oxford University Press |year= 2014 |page=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=or-6BwAAQBAJ&q=philosophy+astrology+university&pg=RA1-PA515|isbn=978-0-19-981257-8 }}</ref> following the collapse of [[Alexandria]] to the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid empire]] in the 8th. The second Abbasid [[caliph]], [[Al Mansur]] (754–775) founded the city of [[Baghdad]] to act as a centre of learning, and included in its design a library-translation centre known as ''Bayt al-Hikma'' 'House of Wisdom', which continued to receive development from his heirs and was to provide a major impetus for Arabic-Persian translations of Hellenistic astrological texts. The early translators included [[Mashallah ibn Athari|Mashallah]], who helped to elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad,<ref>{{cite book|author=Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad|title=The chronology of ancient nations|year=1879|publisher=London, Pub. for the Oriental translations fund of Great Britain & Ireland by W. H. Allen and co.|lccn=01006783|chapter=VIII}}</ref> and [[Sahl ibn Bishr]], (''a.k.a.'' ''Zael''), whose texts were directly influential upon later European astrologers such as [[Guido Bonatti]] in the 13th century, and [[William Lilly]] in the 17th century.<ref>{{cite book | author=Houlding, Deborah  | title=Essays on the History of Western Astrology | publisher=STA| year=2010 | pages=2–7 | chapter=6: Historical sources and traditional approaches}}</ref> Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during the [[Latin translations of the 12th century]].

==== Europe ====

[[File:Meister von San Vitale in Ravenna 004.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Dante Alighieri]] meets the Emperor [[Justinian I|Justinian]] in the Sphere of [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]], in Canto 5 of the ''[[Paradiso (Dante)|Paradiso]].'']]

{{See also|Christian views on astrology}}

[[File:Isidor von Sevilla.jpeg|thumb|upright|right|The medieval theologian [[Isidore of Seville]] criticised the predictive part of astrology.]]

In the seventh century, [[Isidore of Seville]] argued in his ''[[Etymologiae]]'' that astronomy described the movements of the heavens, while astrology had two parts: one was scientific, describing the movements of the Sun, the Moon and the stars, while the other, making predictions, was theologically erroneous.{{sfn|Wood|1970|p=5}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Etymologiae |author=Isidore of Seville |year=c. 600 |pages=L, 82, col. 170}}</ref>

The first astrological book published in Europe was the ''Liber Planetis et Mundi Climatibus'' ("Book of the Planets and Regions of the World"), which appeared between 1010 and 1027 AD, and may have been authored by [[Gerbert of Aurillac]].<ref name=Campion44>{{harvnb|Campion|1982|p=44}}.</ref> [[Ptolemy|Ptolemy's]] second century AD ''[[Tetrabiblos]]'' was translated into Latin by [[Plato Tiburtinus|Plato of Tivoli]] in 1138.<ref name=Campion44/> The [[Dominican order|Dominican]] theologian [[Thomas Aquinas]] followed [[Aristotle]] in proposing that the stars ruled the imperfect 'sublunary' body, while attempting to reconcile astrology with Christianity by stating that God ruled the soul.<ref>{{harvnb|Campion|1982|p=45}}.</ref> The thirteenth century mathematician [[Campanus of Novara]] is said to have devised a system of astrological houses that divides the [[prime vertical]] into 'houses' of equal 30° arcs,<ref name=Campion46>{{harvnb|Campion|1982|p=46}}.</ref> though the system was used earlier in the East.<ref>{{cite book |last=North |first=John David |year=1986 |title=Horoscopes and history |publisher=Warburg Institute |pages=175–176 |chapter=The eastern origins of the Campanus (Prime Vertical) method. Evidence from al-Bīrūnī}}</ref> The thirteenth century [[astronomer]] [[Guido Bonatti]] wrote a textbook, the ''Liber Astronomicus'', a copy of which King [[Henry VII of England]] owned at the end of the fifteenth century.<ref name=Campion46/>

In ''[[Paradiso (Dante)|Paradiso]]'', the final part of the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the Italian poet [[Dante Alighieri]] referred "in countless details"<ref name="Durling-1997">{{cite journal |title=Dante's Christian Astrology. by Richard Kay. Review |last=Durling |first=Robert M. |journal=Speculum |date=January 1997 |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=185–187 |quote=Dante's interest in astrology has only slowly been gaining the attention it deserves. In 1940 Rudolf Palgen published his pioneering eighty-page "Dantes Sternglaube: Beiträge zur Erklärung des Paradiso", which concisely surveyed Dante's treatment of the planets and of the sphere of fixed stars; he demonstrated that it is governed by the astrological concept of the "children of the planets" (in each sphere the pilgrim meets souls whose lives reflected the dominant influence of that planet) and that in countless details the imagery of the Paradiso is derived from the astrological tradition.&nbsp;... Like Palgen, he [Kay] argues (again, in more detail) that Dante adapted traditional astrological views to his own Christian ones; he finds this process intensified in the upper heavens. |jstor=2865916 |doi=10.2307/2865916}}</ref> to the astrological planets, though he adapted traditional astrology to suit his Christian viewpoint,<ref name="Durling-1997"/> for example using astrological thinking in his prophecies of the reform of [[Christendom]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Dante and the Doctrine of the Great Conjunctions |author=Woody, Kennerly M. |journal=Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society |year=1977 |volume=95 |issue=95 |pages=119–134 |quote=It can hardly be doubted, I think, that Dante was thinking in astrological terms when he made his prophecies. [The attached footnote cites Inferno. I, lOOff.; Purgatorio. xx, 13-15 and xxxiii, 41; Paradiso. xxii, 13-15 and xxvii, 142-148.] |jstor=40166243}}</ref>

[[John Gower]] in the fourteenth century defined astrology as essentially limited to the making of predictions.{{sfn|Wood|1970|p=5}}<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=3197718&pageno=9 |title=Confessio Amantis |author=Gower, John |year=1390 |pages=VII, 670–84 |quote=Assembled with Astronomie / Is ek that ilke Astrologie / The which in juggementz acompteth / Theffect, what every sterre amonteth, / And hou thei causen many a wonder / To tho climatz that stonde hem under. |access-date=2 July 2013 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924093459/http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=3197718&pageno=9 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wedel |first=Theodore Otto |chapter=Astrology in Gower and Chaucer |pages=132–156 |title=The Medieval Attitude Toward Astrology: Particularly in England |url=https://archive.org/stream/medivalattitud00wede |url-access=registration |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1920}}</ref> The influence of the stars was in turn divided into natural astrology, with for example effects on tides and the growth of plants, and judicial astrology, with supposedly predictable effects on people.{{sfn|Wood|1970|p=6}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Star-crossed Renaissance |publisher=Duke University Press |author=Allen, Don Cameron |year=1941 |page=148}}</ref> The fourteenth-century sceptic [[Nicole Oresme]] however included astronomy as a part of astrology in his ''Livre de divinacions''.{{sfn|Wood|1970|pp=8–11}} Oresme argued that current approaches to prediction of events such as plagues, wars, and weather were inappropriate, but that such prediction was a valid field of inquiry. However, he attacked the use of astrology to choose the timing of actions (so-called interrogation and election) as wholly false, and rejected the determination of human action by the stars on grounds of free will.{{sfn|Wood|1970|pp=8–11}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Nicole Oresme and the Astrologers: A Study of his Livre de Divinacions |publisher=Harvard University Press; Liverpool University Press |author=Coopland, G. W. |year=1952}}</ref> The friar [[Laurens Pignon]] (c. 1368–1449)<ref>{{cite book |title=Laurens Pignon, O.P.: Confessor of Philip the Good |publisher=Jean Mielot |author=Vanderjagt, A.J. |year=1985 |location=Venlo, The Netherlands}}</ref> similarly rejected all forms of divination and determinism, including by the stars, in his 1411 ''Contre les Devineurs''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Veenstra |first=J. R. |title=Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text and Context of Laurens Pignon's 'Contre les Devineurs' (1411) |publisher=Brill  |year=1997 |isbn=978-90-04-10925-4 |pp=5, 32, passim}}</ref> This was in opposition to the tradition carried by the Arab astronomer [[Albumasar]] (787–886) whose ''Introductorium in Astronomiam'' and ''De Magnis Coniunctionibus'' argued the view that both individual actions and larger scale history are determined by the stars.{{sfn|Veenstra|1997|p=184}}

In the late 15th century, [[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]] forcefully attacked astrology in ''Disputationes contra Astrologos'', arguing that the heavens neither caused, nor heralded earthly events.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dijksterhuis |first1=Eduard Jan |title=The mechanization of the world picture |date=1986 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ}}</ref> His contemporary, [[Pietro Pomponazzi]], a "rationalistic and critical thinker", was much more sanguine about astrology and critical of Pico's attack.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Martin |first=Craig |title=Pietro Pomponazzi |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pomponazzi/ |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |year=2021 |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=27 February 2019 |archive-date=17 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190317225213/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pomponazzi/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Renaissance and Early Modern ===

{{see also|Renaissance magic}}

[[File:Robert Fludd's An Astrologer Casting a Horoscope 1617.jpg|thumb|right|'An Astrologer Casting a Horoscope' from [[Robert Fludd|Robert Fludd's]] ''Utriusque Cosmi Historia'', 1617]]

[[Renaissance]] scholars commonly practised astrology. [[Gerolamo Cardano]] cast the horoscope of king [[Edward VI of England]], while [[John Dee]] was the personal astrologer to queen [[Elizabeth I of England]]. [[Catherine de Medici]] paid [[Michael Nostradamus]] in 1566 to verify the prediction of the death of her husband, king [[Henry II of France]], made by her astrologer Lucus Gauricus. Major astronomers who practised as court astrologers included [[Tycho Brahe]] in the royal court of Denmark, [[Johannes Kepler]] to the [[Habsburgs]], [[Galileo Galilei]] to the [[Medici]], and [[Giordano Bruno]] who was burnt at the stake for heresy in Rome in 1600.<ref>{{cite book | last=Campion | first=Nicholas | title=An Introduction to the History of Astrology | publisher=ISCWA | year=1982 |isbn=978-0-9508412-0-5 |page=47}}.</ref> The distinction between astrology and astronomy was not entirely clear. Advances in astronomy were often motivated by the desire to improve the accuracy of astrology.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Pico+and+the+historiography+of+Renaissance+astrology.-a0251858267|title=Pico and the historiography of Renaissance astrology|work=Explorations in Renaissance Culture|author=Rabin, Sheila J.|date=2010|access-date=10 February 2016|archive-date=24 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224144607/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Pico+and+the+historiography+of+Renaissance+astrology.-a0251858267|url-status=live}}</ref> Kepler, for example, was driven by a belief in harmonies between Earthly and celestial affairs, yet he disparaged the activities of most astrologers as "evil-smelling dung".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Caspar |first=Max |title=Kepler |date=1993 |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=0-486-67605-6 |location=New York |pages=181–182 |translator-last=Hellman |translator-first=C. Doris |oclc=28293391 |translator-link=C. Doris Hellman}}</ref>

[[Ephemeris|Ephemerides]] with complex astrological calculations, and [[almanac]]s interpreting celestial events for use in medicine and for choosing times to plant crops, were popular in Elizabethan England.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution | publisher=Yale University Press |last=Harkness |first=Deborah E. | year=2007 | page=105 | isbn=978-0-300-14316-4}}</ref> In 1597, the English [[mathematician]] and [[physician]] [[Thomas Hood (mathematician)|Thomas Hood]] made a set of paper instruments that used revolving overlays to help students work out relationships between fixed stars or constellations, the midheaven, and the twelve [[House (astrology)|astrological houses]].<ref name="Harkness-2007">{{cite book | title=The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution | publisher=Yale University Press |last=Harkness |first=Deborah E. | year=2007 | page=133 | isbn=978-0-300-14316-4}}</ref> Hood's instruments also illustrated, for pedagogical purposes, the supposed relationships between the signs of the zodiac, the planets, and the parts of the human body adherents believed were governed by the planets and signs.<ref name="Harkness-2007"/><ref>{{cite AV media | title=Astronomical diagrams by Thomas Hood, Mathematician | publisher=British Library | date=c. 1597 | medium=Vellum, in oaken cases | location=British Library }}</ref> While Hood's presentation was innovative, his astrological information was largely standard and was taken from [[Gerard Mercator|Gerard Mercator's]] astrological disc made in 1551, or a source used by Mercator.<ref>{{cite conference | url=http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/staff/saj/hood-astrology | title=The astrological instruments of Thomas Hood | access-date=12 June 2013 | author=Johnston, Stephen | book-title=XVII International Scientific Instrument Symposium |date=July 1998 | location=Soro}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=Dee, Mercator, and Louvain Instrument Making: An Undescribed Astrological Disc by Gerard Mercator (1551) | author=Vanden Broeke, Steven | journal=Annals of Science | year=2001 | volume=58 | issue=3 | pages=219–240 | doi=10.1080/00033790016703 | s2cid=144443271 }}</ref> Despite its popularity, Renaissance astrology had what historian Gabor Almasi calls "elite debate", exemplified by the polemical letters of Swiss physician [[Thomas Erastus]] who fought against astrology, calling it "vanity" and "superstition." Then around the time of the [[SN 1572|new star of 1572]] and the [[Great Comet of 1577|comet of 1577]] there began what Almasi calls an "extended epistemological reform" which began the process of excluding religion, astrology and [[anthropocentrism]] from scientific debate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Almasi |first=Gabor |date=February 11, 2022 |title=Astrology in the crossfire: the stormy debate after the comet of 1577 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033790.2022.2030409 |journal=Annals of Science |volume=79 |issue=2 |pages=137–163 |doi=10.1080/00033790.2022.2030409 |pmid=35147491 |s2cid=246749889 |access-date=7 June 2023 |archive-date=7 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607031259/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033790.2022.2030409 |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1679, the yearly publication [[Connaissance des Temps|La Connoissance des temps]] eschewed astrology as a legitimate topic.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-521-57291-0 |editor-last=Hoskin |editor-first=Michael |location=Cambridge |page=220}}</ref>

=== Enlightenment period and onwards ===

[[File:Seven spiritualists 1906.jpg|thumb|[[Middle-class]] Chicago women discuss spiritualism (1906).]]

During [[the Enlightenment]], intellectual sympathy for astrology fell away, leaving only a popular following supported by cheap almanacs.<ref name="Porter-2001">{{cite book | title=Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World | publisher=Penguin | last=Porter|first= Roy|author-link=Roy Porter | year=2001 | pages=151–152 | isbn=978-0-14-025028-2 | quote=he did not even trouble readers with formal disproofs!}}</ref><ref name="Rutkin-2006">{{cite book|last= Rutkin|first= H. Darell|year= 2006|chapter= Astrology|editor1= K. Park|editor2= L. Daston|title= Early Modern Science|series= The Cambridge History of Science|volume= 3|pages= 541–561|publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]]|chapter-url= https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-science/astrology/17E3D5BB41AE55616C6B9AB7949FE0F1|isbn= 0-521-57244-4|quote= As is well known, astrology finally disappeared from the domain of legitimate natural knowledge during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although the precise contours of this story remain obscure.|access-date= 6 June 2022|archive-date= 22 December 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221222192125/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-science/astrology/17E3D5BB41AE55616C6B9AB7949FE0F1|url-status= live}}</ref> One English almanac compiler, Richard Saunders, followed the spirit of the age by printing a derisive ''Discourse on the Invalidity of Astrology'', while in France [[Pierre Bayle|Pierre Bayle's]] ''Dictionnaire'' of 1697 stated that the subject was puerile.<ref name="Porter-2001"/> The [[Anglo-Irish]] [[satire|satirist]] [[Jonathan Swift]] ridiculed the [[Whiggism|Whig]] political astrologer [[John Partridge (astrologer)|John Partridge]].<ref name="Porter-2001"/>

In the second half of the 17th century, the [[Society of Astrologers]] (1647–1684), a trade, educational, and social organization, sought to unite London's often fractious astrologers in the task of revitalizing astrology. Following the template of the popular "Feasts of Mathematicians" they endeavored to defend their art in the face of growing religious criticism. The Society hosted banquets, exchanged "instruments and manuscripts", proposed research projects, and funded the publication of sermons that depicted astrology as a legitimate biblical pursuit for Christians. They commissioned sermons that argued Astrology was divine, Hebraic, and scripturally supported by Bible passages about the [[Biblical Magi|Magi]] and the sons of [[Seth]]. According to historian Michelle Pfeffer, "The society's public relations campaign ultimately failed." Modern historians have mostly neglected the Society of Astrologers in favor of the still extant [[Royal Society]] (1660), even though both organizations initially had some of the same members.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pfeffer |first=Michelle |title=The Society of Astrologers (c.1647–1684): sermons, feasts and the resuscitation of astrology in seventeenth-century London |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |date=2021 |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=133–153 |doi=10.1017/S0007087421000029 |pmid=33719982 |s2cid=232232073 |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:630ab701-eb53-4efc-b1f3-05146f9e8957 |access-date=2 January 2023 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031907/https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:630ab701-eb53-4efc-b1f3-05146f9e8957 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Astrology saw a popular revival starting in the 19th century, as part of a general revival of [[Spiritualism (beliefs)|spiritualism]] and—later, [[New Age]] philosophy,{{sfn|Campion|2009|pp=239–249}} and through the influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes.{{sfn|Campion|2009|pp=259–263}} Early in the 20th century the psychiatrist [[Carl Jung]] developed some concepts concerning astrology,<ref>{{cite book | author=Jung, C.G. | title=C.G. Jung Letters: 1906–1950. | publisher=Princeton University Press | location=Princeton, NJ | isbn=978-0-691-09895-1 | author2=Hull | editor-first=Gerhard | editor-last=Adler | others=in collaboration with Aniela Jaffé; translations from the German by R.F.C. | year=1973 | quote=Letter from Jung to Freud, 12 June 1911 "I made horoscopic calculations in order to find a clue to the core of psychological truth." | url=https://archive.org/details/letters0001jung }}</ref> which led to the development of [[psychological astrology]].<ref>{{harvnb|Campion|2009|pp=251–256}}: "At the same time, in Switzerland, the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was developing sophisticated theories concerning astrology&nbsp;..."</ref><ref>Gieser, Suzanne. ''The Innermost Kernel, Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli's Dialogue with C.G.Jung'', (Springer, Berlin, 2005) p. 21 {{ISBN|3-540-20856-9}}</ref><ref>Campion, Nicholas. "''Prophecy, Cosmology and the New Age Movement. The Extent and Nature of Contemporary Belief in Astrology.''"(Bath Spa University College, 2003) via {{harvnb|Campion|2009|pp=248, 256}}.</ref>

== Principles and practice ==
Advocates have defined astrology as a symbolic language, an [[art]] form, a [[science]], and a method of divination.<ref>''The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica'', v.5, 1974, p. 916</ref><ref>Dietrich, Thomas: ''The Origin of Culture and Civilization'', Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, 2005, p. 305</ref> Though most cultural astrology systems share common roots in ancient philosophies that influenced each other, many use methods that differ from those in the West. These include Hindu astrology (also known as "Indian astrology" and in modern times referred to as "Vedic astrology") and Chinese astrology, both of which have influenced the world's cultural history.

=== Western ===

[[Western astrology]] is a form of [[divination]] based on the construction of a [[horoscope]] for an exact moment, such as a person's birth.<ref>{{cite book |editor=[[Philip P. Wiener]] |title=Dictionary of the history of ideas |year=1974 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York |isbn=978-0-684-13293-8 |url=http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=DicHist/uvaBook/tei/DicHist1.xml;brand=default; |access-date=16 July 2011 |archive-date=25 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110925152742/http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=DicHist/uvaBook/tei/DicHist1.xml;brand=default; |url-status=live }}</ref> It uses the tropical zodiac, which is aligned to the [[Equinox|equinoctial points]].<ref>James R. Lewis, 2003. ''The Astrology Book: the Encyclopedia of Heavenly Influences''. Visible Ink Press. Online at Google Books.</ref>

Western astrology is founded on the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies such as the Sun, Moon and planets, which are analysed by their movement through [[Astrological sign|signs]] of the [[zodiac]] (twelve spatial divisions of the [[ecliptic]]) and by their [[Astrological aspect|aspects]] (based on geometric angles) relative to one another. They are also considered by their placement in [[House (astrology)|houses]] (twelve spatial divisions of the sky).<ref>{{cite book |last=Hone |first=Margaret |title=The Modern Text-Book of Astrology |year=1978 |publisher=L. N. Fowler |location=Romford |isbn=978-0-85243-357-7 |pages=21–89}}</ref> Astrology's modern representation in western popular media is usually reduced to [[sun sign astrology]], which considers only the zodiac sign of the Sun at an individual's date of birth, and represents only 1/12 of the total chart.<ref>{{cite book |last=Riske |first=Kris |title=Llewellyn's Complete Book of Astrology |year=2007 |publisher=Llewellyn Publications |location=Minnesota, US |isbn=978-0-7387-1071-6 |pages=5–6; 27}}</ref>

The horoscope visually expresses the set of relationships for the time and place of the chosen event. These relationships are between the seven 'planets', signifying tendencies such as war and love; the twelve signs of the zodiac; and the twelve houses. Each planet is in a particular sign and a particular house at the chosen time, when observed from the chosen place, creating two kinds of relationship.<ref name="Kremer-1990">{{cite journal | title=Horoscopes and History. by J. D. North; A History of Western Astrology. by S. J. Tester |last=Kremer |first=Richard | journal=Speculum | year=1990 | volume=65 | issue=1 | pages=206–209 | jstor=2864524 | doi=10.2307/2864524}}</ref> A third kind is the aspect of each planet to every other planet, where for example two planets 120° apart (in 'trine') are in a harmonious relationship, but two planets 90° apart ('square') are in a conflicted relationship.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Pelletier, Robert |author2=Cataldo, Leonard | title=Be Your Own Astrologer | pages=57–60 | publisher=Pan | year=1984}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author=Fenton, Sasha | title=Rising Signs | pages=137–9 | publisher =Aquarian Press | year=1991}}</ref> Together these relationships and their interpretations are said to form "...the language of the heavens speaking to learned men."<ref name="Kremer-1990"/>

Along with [[tarot divination]], astrology is one of the core studies of [[Western esotericism]], and as such has influenced systems of [[magic (paranormal)|magical]] belief not only among Western esotericists and [[Hermeticism|Hermeticists]], but also belief systems such as [[Wicca]], which have borrowed from or been influenced by the Western esoteric tradition. [[Tanya Luhrmann]] has said that "all magicians know something about astrology," and refers to a [[table of correspondences]] in [[Starhawk|Starhawk's]] ''[[The Spiral Dance]]'', organised by [[planets in astrology|planet]], as an example of the astrological lore studied by magicians.<ref>{{cite book | title=Persuasions of the witch's craft: ritual magic in contemporary England | publisher=Harvard University Press | author=Luhrmann, Tanya | year=1991 | pages=147–151 | isbn=978-0-674-66324-4}}</ref>

=== Hindu ===

{{Main|Hindu astrology}}

[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Page from an Astrological Treatise.jpg|upright|thumb|Page from an Indian astrological treatise, c. 1750]]

The earliest [[Veda|Vedic]] text on astronomy is the ''[[Vedanga Jyotisha]]''; Vedic thought later came to include astrology as well.<ref>{{cite book|last=Subbarayappa|first=B. V.|editor=Biswas, S. K. |editor2=Mallik, D. C. V. |editor3=[[C. V. Vishveshwara|Vishveshwara, C. V.]] | title=Cosmic Perspectives | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PFTGKi8fjvoC&pg=FA25 | date=14 September 1989 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-34354-1 | pages=25–40 | chapter=Indian astronomy: An historical perspective | quote=In the Vedic literature Jyotis[h]a, which connotes 'astronomy' and later began to encompass astrology, was one of the most important subjects of study... The earliest Vedic astronomical text has the title, Vedanga Jyotis[h]a...}}</ref>

Hindu natal astrology originated with Hellenistic astrology by the 3rd century BCE,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pingree |first=David |title=Indian Astronomy |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |date=18 December 1978 |volume=122 |series=American Philosophical Society |issue=6 |pages=361–364 <!--p. 361--> |jstor=986451}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=From Alexandria to Baghdād to Byzantium. The Transmission of Astrology | author=Pingree, David | journal=International Journal of the Classical Tradition | year=2001 | volume=8 | issue=1 | pages=3–37 | jstor=30224155 | doi=10.1007/bf02700227| bibcode=2003IJCT...10..487G | s2cid=162030487 }}</ref> though incorporating the Hindu lunar mansions.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=620756 | title=The Circle of Stars: An Introduction to Indian Astrology by Valerie J. Roebuck. Review | author=Werner, Karel |author-link=Karel Werner | journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies | year=1993 | pages=645–646|doi=10.1017/s0041977x00008326 | volume=56| issue=3 | s2cid=162270467 }}</ref> The names of the signs (e.g. Greek 'Krios' for Aries, Hindi 'Kriya'), the planets (e.g. Greek 'Helios' for Sun, astrological Hindi 'Heli'), and astrological terms (e.g. Greek 'apoklima' and 'sunaphe' for declination and planetary conjunction, Hindi 'apoklima' and 'sunapha' respectively) in Varaha Mihira's texts are considered conclusive evidence of a Greek origin for Hindu astrology.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Notes on Hindu Astronomy and the History of Our Knowledge of It | author=Burgess, James | journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland |date=October 1893 | pages=717–761 | jstor=25197168}}</ref> The Indian techniques may also have been augmented with some of the Babylonian techniques.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pingree |first=David |s2cid=128083594 |title=Astronomy and Astrology in India and Iran |journal=Isis |date=June 1963 |volume=54 |series=The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society |issue=2 |page=232 <!--229–246--> |jstor=228540 |doi=10.1086/349703|bibcode=1963Isis...65..229P}}</ref>

=== Chinese and East Asian ===

{{Further|Chinese zodiac}}

[[Chinese astrology]] has a close relation with [[Chinese philosophy]] (theory of the three harmonies: heaven, earth and man) and uses concepts such as [[yin and yang]], the [[Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)|Five phases]], the 10 [[Celestial stem]]s, the 12 [[Earthly Branches]], and [[Chinese units of measurement|shichen]] (時辰 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes). The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly confined to [[History of astrology|political astrology]], the observation of unusual phenomena, identification of [[Omen|portent]]s and the selection of auspicious days for events and decisions.{{sfn|Sun|Kistemaker|1997|pp=22, 85, 176}}

The constellations of the Zodiac of western Asia and Europe were not used; instead the sky is divided into [[Chinese constellations|Three Enclosures]] (三垣 sān yuán), and [[Twenty-Eight Mansions]] (二十八宿 èrshíbā xiù) in twelve Ci ([[:zh:分野|十二次]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Stephenson|first1=F. Richard|title=Chinese roots of modern astronomy|date=1980-06-26|journal=[[New Scientist]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqkoAAAAMAAJ&q=Chinese%20roots%20of%20modern%20astronomy%20Stephenson,%20F.%20Richard|volume=86|issue=1207|pages=380–383}}</ref> The Chinese zodiac of twelve [[Astrological sign#Chinese zodiac signs|animal signs]] is said to represent twelve different types of [[personality]]. It is based on cycles of years, lunar months, and two-hour periods of the day (the shichen). The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the [[Rat (zodiac)|Rat]], and the cycle proceeds through 11 other animal signs: the [[Ox (zodiac)|Ox]], [[Tiger (zodiac)|Tiger]], [[Rabbit (zodiac)|Rabbit]], [[Dragon (zodiac)|Dragon]], [[Snake (zodiac)|Snake]], [[Horse (zodiac)|Horse]], [[Goat (zodiac)|Goat]], [[Monkey (zodiac)|Monkey]], [[Rooster (zodiac)|Rooster]], [[Dog (zodiac)|Dog]], and [[Pig (zodiac)|Pig]].<ref>Theodora Lau, ''The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes'', pp&nbsp;2–8, 30–5, 60–4, 88–94, 118–24, 148–53, 178–84, 208–13, 238–44, 270–78, 306–12, 338–44, Souvenir Press, New York, 2005</ref> Complex systems of predicting fate and destiny based on one's birthday, birth season, and birth hours, such as ''ziping'' and [[Zi wei dou shu|Zi Wei Dou Shu]] ({{lang-zh|s=紫微斗数|t=紫微斗數|p=zǐwēidǒushù}}) are still used regularly in modern-day Chinese astrology. They do not rely on direct observations of the stars.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=raKRY3KQspsC&q=astrology+in+China+Springer&pg=PA76 | title=Astrology in China | publisher=Springer | encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures | year=1997 | access-date=22 July 2012 | editor=Selin, Helaine|editor-link=Helaine Selin| isbn=978-0-7923-4066-9 }}</ref>

The [[Korean zodiac]] is identical to the Chinese one. The [[Vietnamese zodiac]] is almost identical to the Chinese, except for second animal being the ''[[Water buffalo (zodiac)|Water Buffalo]]'' instead of the ''[[Ox (zodiac)|Ox]]'', and the fourth animal the ''[[Cat (zodiac)|Cat]]'' instead of the ''[[Rabbit (zodiac)|Rabbit]]''. The<!--'''Japanese zodiac''' includes the ''boar'' instead of the ''[[Pig (zodiac)|Pig]]'',{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} and the--> Japanese have since 1873 celebrated the beginning of the new year on 1 January as per the [[Gregorian calendar]]. The Thai zodiac <!--includes a ''[[naga (mythology)|Naga]]'' in place of the ''[[Dragon (zodiac)|Dragon]]''{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} and -->begins, not at [[Chinese New Year]], but either on the first day of the fifth month in the [[Thai lunar calendar]], or during the [[Songkran (Thailand)|Songkran]] festival (now celebrated every 13–15 April), depending on the purpose of the use.<ref>{{cite web|title=การเปลี่ยนวันใหม่ การนับวัน ทางโหราศาสตร์ไทย การเปลี่ยนปีนักษัตร โหราศาสตร์ ดูดวง ทำนายทายทัก ('The transition to the new astrological dates Thailand. Changing zodiac astrology horoscope prediction')|url=http://www.myhora.com/%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C/%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%87%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C-004.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103152835/http://www.myhora.com/%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C/%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%87%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C-004.aspx|archive-date=3 January 2011|df=dmy-all}} (in Thai)</ref>

== Theological viewpoints ==

{{see also|Christian views on astrology|Jewish views on astrology|Muslim views on astrology}}

=== Ancient ===

[[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] (354{{ndash}}430) believed that the determinism of astrology conflicted with the Christian doctrines of man's free will and responsibility, and God not being the cause of evil,{{sfn|Veenstra|1997|pp=184–185}} but he also grounded his opposition philosophically, citing the failure of astrology to explain twins who behave differently although conceived at the same moment and born at approximately the same time.<ref name="Hess-2007">{{cite book |last=Hess |first=Peter M.J. |title=Catholicism and science |year=2007 |publisher=Greenwood |location=Westport |isbn=978-0-313-33190-9 |page=11 |edition=1st |author2=Allen, Paul L.}}</ref>

=== Medieval ===

[[File:Avicenna.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|A drawing of [[Avicenna]] ]]

Some of the practices of astrology were contested on theological grounds by medieval Muslim astronomers such as [[Al-Farabi]] (Alpharabius), [[Ibn al-Haytham]] (Alhazen) and [[Avicenna]]. They said that the methods of astrologers conflicted with orthodox religious views of [[Ulema|Islamic scholars]], by suggesting that the Will of God can be known and predicted.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Saliba |first=George | author-link=George Saliba | year=1994b | title=A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam | publisher=[[New York University Press]] | isbn=978-0-8147-8023-7 | pages=60, 67–69}}</ref> For example, Avicenna's 'Refutation against astrology', ''Risāla fī ibṭāl aḥkām al-nojūm'', argues against the practice of astrology while supporting the principle that planets may act as agents of divine causation. Avicenna considered that the movement of the planets influenced life on earth in a deterministic way, but argued against the possibility of determining the exact influence of the stars.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Belo|first=Catarina|title=Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and Averroes|date=2007-02-23|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]|isbn=978-90-474-1915-0|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004155879.i-252|page=228}}</ref> Essentially, Avicenna did not deny the core dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the extent that precise and fatalistic predictions could be made from it.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last = Saliba |first = George |author-link = George Saliba |encyclopedia = [[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |title = AVICENNA viii. Mathematics and Physical Sciences |date = 17 August 2011 |orig-date = First published 15 December 1987 |volume = 3 |url = https://iranicaonline.org/articles/avicenna-viii |access-date = 26 May 2023 |pages = 88–92 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200220161012/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/avicenna-viii |archive-date = 20 February 2020 |url-status = live}}</ref> [[Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya]] (1292–1350), in his ''Miftah Dar al-SaCadah'', also used [[physics|physical]] arguments in astronomy to question the practice of judicial astrology.<ref name="Livingston-1971">{{Cite journal | title=Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century Defense against Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation | first=John W. | last=Livingston | journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society | volume=91 | issue=1 | year=1971 | pages=96–103 | doi=10.2307/600445| jstor=600445}}</ref> He recognised that the [[star]]s are much larger than the [[planet]]s, and argued: <blockquote>And if you astrologers answer that it is precisely because of this distance and smallness that their influences are negligible, then why is it that you claim a great influence for the smallest heavenly body, Mercury? Why is it that you have given an influence to {{lang|ar|al-Ra's}} [the head] and {{lang|ar|al-Dhanab}} [the tail], which are two imaginary points [[Orbital nodes|[ascending and descending nodes]]]?<ref name="Livingston-1971"/></blockquote>

=== Modern ===

[[File:Martin Luther by Cranach-restoration.jpg|thumb|upright|Martin Luther]]
[[Martin Luther]] denounced astrology in his [[Table Talk (Luther)|''Table Talk'']]. He asked why twins like [[Jacob and Esau|Esau and Jacob]] had two different natures yet were born at the same time. Luther also compared astrologers to those who say their dice will always land on a certain number. Although the dice may roll on the number a couple of times, the predictor is silent for all the times the dice fails to land on that number.<ref name="Luther-2017">{{Cite book |last=Luther |first=Martin |title=Martin Luther's Table Talk |publisher=Gideon House Books |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-64007-960-1 |page=502}}</ref>

{{blockquote|What is done by God, ought not to be ascribed to the stars. The upright and true Christian religion opposes and confutes all such fables.<ref name="Luther-2017"/>|Martin Luther, ''Table Talk''}}

The [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]] maintains that divination, including predictive astrology, is incompatible with modern [[Catholicism|Catholic]] beliefs<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Stravinskas |editor-first=Peter M.J. |title=Our Sunday visitor's Catholic encyclopedia|year=1998|publisher=Our Sunday Visitor Pub.|location=Huntington, Ind.|isbn=978-0-87973-669-9|edition=Rev.|page=111}}</ref> such as free will:<ref name="Hess-2007" />

{{blockquote|All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.<ref>{{cite web|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church - Part 3|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c1a1.htm|access-date=8 July 2012|archive-date=25 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925062519/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c1a1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>|Catechism of the Catholic Church}}

== Scientific analysis and criticism ==

{{main|Astrology and science}}

{{Paranormal|main}}

[[File:Karl Popper.jpg|thumb|upright|Popper proposed falsifiability as something that distinguishes science from non-science, using astrology as the example of an idea that has not dealt with falsification during experiment.]]

The scientific community rejects astrology as having no explanatory power for describing the universe, and considers it a [[pseudoscience]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author1=Sven Ove Hansson|author2=Edward N. Zalta|title=Science and Pseudo-Science|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=6 July 2012|quote=[...] advocates of pseudo-sciences such as astrology and homeopathy tend to describe their theories as conformable to mainstream science.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Andrew|last=Fraknoi|title=Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic's Resource List|url=http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/pseudobib.html|publisher=Astronomical Society of the Pacific|access-date=13 January 2007|archive-date=30 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230053308/http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/pseudobib.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hartmann |first1=P. |last2=Reuter |first2=M. |last3=Nyborga |first3=H. |date=May 2006 |title=The relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence: A large-scale study |journal=Personality and Individual Differences |volume=40 |issue=7 |pages=1349–1362 <!--p. 1350-->|doi=10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.017}}</ref> Scientific testing of astrology has been conducted, and no evidence has been found to support any of the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zarka |first=Philippe |title=Astronomy and Astrology |journal=Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union |year=2011 |volume=5 |issue=S260 |page=424 |doi=10.1017/S1743921311002602 |bibcode=2011IAUS..260..420Z |url=https://zenodo.org/record/890932 |doi-access=free |access-date=16 September 2019 |archive-date=18 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818112236/https://zenodo.org/record/890932 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Astrology True or False?: A Scientific Evaluation |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=1988 |first1=Roger B. |last1=Culver |first2=Philip A. |last2=Ianna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OhoRAQAAIAAJ|isbn=978-0-87975-483-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGrew |first1=John H. |last2=McFall |first2=Richard M. |title=A Scientific Inquiry into the Validity of Astrology |journal=Journal of Scientific Exploration |volume=4 |number=1 |pages=75–83 |year=1990 |url=http://www.skepticalmedia.com/astrology/Scientific%20Inquiry%20into%20Astrology.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.skepticalmedia.com/astrology/Scientific%20Inquiry%20into%20Astrology.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref> There is no proposed [[Scientific modelling|mechanism of action]] by which the positions and motions of stars and planets could affect people and events on Earth that does not contradict basic and well understood aspects of biology and physics.<ref>{{cite book |editor3-last=Vishveshwara |editor3-first=C. V. |editor1-last=Biswas |editor1-first=S. K. |editor2-last=Mallik |editor2-first=D. C. V. |title=Cosmic Perspectives: Essays Dedicated to the Memory of M. K. V. Bappu |year=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-34354-1 |edition=1st |p=249}}</ref><ref name="Reidel-1978">{{cite book | editor=Peter D. Asquith |title=Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 1 |year=1978 |publisher=Reidel |location=Dordrecht |isbn=978-0-917586-05-7 |url=http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/Articles/astrology.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/Articles/astrology.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}; {{cite web |title=Chapter 7: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding |url=https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/c7/c7s2.htm |work=science and engineering indicators 2006 |publisher=National Science Foundation |access-date=2 August 2016  |quote=About three-fourths of Americans hold at least one pseudoscientific belief; i.e., they believed in at least 1 of the 10 survey items[29]"...&nbsp;" Those 10 items were extrasensory perception (ESP), that houses can be haunted, ghosts/that spirits of dead people can come back in certain places/situations, telepathy/communication between minds without using traditional senses, clairvoyance/the power of the mind to know the past and predict the future, astrology/that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives, that people can communicate mentally with someone who has died, witches, reincarnation/the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death, and channeling/allowing a "spirit-being" to temporarily assume control of a body. |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201220040/https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/c7/c7s2.htm |archive-date=1 February 2013  |df=dmy}}</ref> Those who have faith in astrology have been characterised by scientists including Bart J. Bok 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".<ref>{{cite web|title=Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists|publisher=The Humanist, September/October 1975|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/astrology.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318140638/http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/astrology.html|archive-date=18 March 2009}}; [http://thehumanist.org/the-humanist-archive/ The Humanist] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007094955/http://thehumanist.org/the-humanist-archive/ |date=7 October 2011 }}, volume 36, no.5 (1976); {{cite book |title=Philosophy of Science and the Occult |chapter=Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists |year=1982 |publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany |isbn=978-0-87395-572-0 |pages=14–18 |author=Bok, Bart J. |author2=Lawrence E. Jerome |author3=Paul Kurtz |author-link3=Paul Kurtz |editor=Patrick Grim}}</ref>

[[Confirmation bias]] is a form of [[cognitive bias]], a [[Psychology|psychological]] factor that contributes to belief in astrology.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Allum |first=Nick |title=What Makes Some People Think Astrology Is Scientific?, p. 344 |journal=Science Communication |date=13 December 2010 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=341–366 |doi=10.1177/1075547010389819|url=https://repository.essex.ac.uk/6076/1/allum-astrology2009.pdf}}</ref>{{sfn|Nickerson|1998|pp=180–181}}{{sfn|Eysenck|Nias|1982|pp=42–48}}<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=Jean-Paul |editor1-last=Caverni |editor2-first=Jean-Marc |editor2-last=Fabre |editor3-first=Michel |editor3-last=Gonzalez |title=Cognitive biases |year=1990 |publisher=North-Holland |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-0-444-88413-8 |page=553}}</ref>{{efn|see [[Heuristics in judgement and decision making]]}} Astrology believers tend to selectively remember predictions that turn out to be true, and do not remember those that turn 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.{{sfn|Nickerson|1998|pp=180–181}} Thus there are two distinct forms of confirmation bias that are under study with respect to astrological belief.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nickerson |first1=Raymond S. |title=Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises |journal=Review of General Psychology|year=1998 |volume=2 |series=2 |pages=<!--175–220-->180–181 |doi=10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175 |issue=2 |citeseerx=10.1.1.93.4839|s2cid=8508954}}</ref>

=== Demarcation ===

Under the criterion of [[falsifiability]], first proposed by the [[philosopher of science]] [[Karl Popper]], astrology is a pseudoscience.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Stephen Thornton |editor=Edward N. Zalta |title=Karl Popper|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|year=2018}}</ref> Popper regarded astrology as "pseudo-empirical" in that "it appeals to observation and experiment," but "nevertheless does not come up to scientific standards."<ref>{{cite book |last=Popper |first=Karl |title=Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-28594-0 |edition=Reprinted}}{{rp|44}}
* The relevant piece is also in {{cite book |last=Schick|first=Theodore Jr.|title=Readings in the Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Postmodernism|year=2000|publisher=Mayfield Pub|location=Mountain View, CA|isbn=978-0-7674-0277-4 |pages=33–39 |ref=none}}</ref> In contrast to scientific disciplines, astrology has not responded to falsification through experiment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cogan |first=Robert |title=Critical Thinking: Step by Step |year=1998 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=978-0-7618-1067-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/criticalthinking0000coga }}</ref>{{rp|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.<ref name="Wright-1975">{{cite journal |last=Wright |first=Peter |title=Astrology and Science in Seventeenth-Century England |journal=Social Studies of Science |year=1975 |pages=399–422 | doi = 10.1177/030631277500500402 |pmid=11610221 |volume=5|issue=4 |s2cid=32085403 }}</ref>{{rp|401}} Kuhn thought that, though astrologers had, historically, made predictions that categorically failed, this in itself does not make astrology unscientific, nor do attempts by astrologers to explain away failures by saying that creating a horoscope is very difficult. Rather, in Kuhn's eyes, astrology is not science because it was always more akin to [[Medieval medicine of Western Europe|medieval medicine]]; astrologers 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,<ref name="Kuhn-1970" />{{rp|8}} and so "they had no puzzles to solve and therefore no science to practise."<ref name="Wright-1975" />{{rp|401;}}<ref name="Kuhn-1970">{{cite book |last=Kuhn |first=Thomas |title=Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science [held at Bedford College, Regent's Park, London, from July 11th to 17th 1965] |year=1970 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-09623-2 |edition=Reprint |editor=[[Imre Lakatos]] |editor2=[[Alan Musgrave]] |url=https://archive.org/details/criticismgrowth00laka }}</ref>{{rp|8}} 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.<ref name="Kuhn-1970" />{{rp|8}}

The philosopher [[Paul Thagard]] asserts that astrology cannot 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.<ref name="Thagard-1978" />{{rp|228}} To Thagard a further criterion of demarcation of science from pseudoscience is 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."<ref name="Thagard-1978" />{{rp|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.<ref name="Thagard-1978" />{{rp|228}}<ref name="Hurley-2005" />{{rp|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 views astrology as pseudoscience.<ref name="Thagard-1978" /><ref name="Hurley-2005">{{cite book |last=Hurley|first=Patrick|title=A concise introduction to logic |year=2005 |publisher=Wadsworth |location=Belmont, Calif.|isbn=978-0-534-58505-1|edition=9th}}</ref>{{rp|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.<ref name="James-1982" />{{rp|34}}

{{blockquote|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.&nbsp;... Astrology simply fails to meet the multifarious demands of legitimate reasoning.|Edward W. James<ref name="James-1982">{{cite book|last=James|first=Edward W.|title=Philosophy of science and the occult.|year=1982|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=978-0-87395-572-0|editor=Patrick Grim}}</ref>{{rp|34}}|title=|source=}}

=== Effectiveness ===

Astrology has not demonstrated its effectiveness in [[Experiment|controlled studies]] and has no scientific validity.{{sfn|Bennett|2007|p=85}}{{sfn|Zarka|2011}} Where it has made [[falsifiable]] predictions under [[Scientific control|controlled conditions]], they have been falsified.{{sfn|Zarka|2011|p=424}} One famous experiment included 28 astrologers who were asked to match over a hundred natal charts to psychological profiles generated by the [[California Psychological Inventory]] (CPI) questionnaire.<ref>{{cite web |last=Muller |first=Richard |title=Web site of Richard A. Muller, Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley |access-date=2 August 2011 |year=2010 |url=http://muller.lbl.gov/homepage.html |archive-date=12 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190312032922/http://muller.lbl.gov/homepage.html |url-status=live }}''My former student Shawn Carlson published in Nature magazine the definitive scientific test of Astrology.''<br />{{cite web |last=Maddox |first=Sir John |title=John Maddox, editor of the science journal Nature, commenting on Carlson's test |year=1995 |access-date=2 August 2011 |url=http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/astrology.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912144554/http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/astrology.html |archive-date=12 September 2012 |df=dmy }} ''"...&nbsp;a perfectly convincing and lasting demonstration."''</ref><ref name="Smith-2010">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Jonathan C. |title=Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit |year=2010 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Malden, MA|isbn=978-1-4051-8123-5}}</ref> The [[Blind experiment#Double-blind trials|double-blind]] experimental protocol used in this study was agreed upon by a group of physicists and a group of astrologers{{sfn|Zarka|2011}} nominated by the [[National Council for Geocosmic Research]], who advised the experimenters, helped ensure that the test was fair<ref name="Carlson-1985"/>{{rp|420;}}<ref name="Smith-2010" />{{rp|117}} and helped draw the central proposition of [[natal astrology]] to be tested.<ref name="Carlson-1985" />{{rp|419}} They also chose 26 out of the 28 astrologers for the tests (two more volunteered afterwards).<ref name="Carlson-1985"/>{{rp|420}} The study, published in [[Nature (journal)|''Nature'']] in 1985, found that predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing "...clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis."<ref name="Carlson-1985" />

In 1955, the astrologer and psychologist Michel Gauquelin stated that though he had failed to find evidence that supported indicators like [[Astrological signs|zodiacal signs]] and [[Astrological aspects|planetary aspects]] in astrology, he did find positive correlations between the [[Diurnal motion|diurnal positions]] of some [[Planets in astrology|planets]] and success in professions that astrology traditionally associates with those planets.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pont |first=Graham |title=Philosophy and Science of Music in Ancient Greece |journal=Nexus Network Journal |year=2004 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=17–29 |doi=10.1007/s00004-004-0003-x|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gauquelin |first=Michel |title=L'influence des astres: étude critique et expérimentale |year=1955 |publisher=Éditions du Dauphin |location=Paris |lang=fr}}</ref> The best-known of Gauquelin's findings is based on the positions of Mars in the [[natal chart]]s of successful athletes and became known as the ''[[Mars effect]]''.<ref name="Carroll-2003">{{cite book |last=Carroll|first=Robert Todd|title=The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions |year=2003 |publisher=Wiley |location=Hoboken, NJ |isbn=978-0-471-27242-7}}</ref>{{rp|213}} A study conducted by seven French scientists attempted to replicate the claim, but found no statistical evidence.<ref name="Carroll-2003" />{{rp|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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Benski |first=Claude|others=with a commentary by [[Jan Willem Nienhuys]] |title=The "Mars Effect: A French Test of over 1,000 Sports Champions |year=1995 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, NY |isbn=978-0-87975-988-9|display-authors=etal}}</ref>

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 number of births under astrologically undesirable conditions was also lower, indicating that parents choose dates and times to suit their beliefs. 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, where a nurse or doctor recorded the birth information.<ref name="Smith-2010"/>{{rp|116}}

Dean, a scientist and former astrologer, and psychologist Ivan Kelly conducted a large scale scientific test that involved more than one hundred [[cognitive]], [[behavioural]], [[physiology|physical]], and other variables—but found no support for astrology.<ref>{{cite news |last=Matthews |first=Robert |title=Astrologers fail to predict proof they are wrong |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1439101/Astrologers-fail-to-predict-proof-they-are-wrong.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1439101/Astrologers-fail-to-predict-proof-they-are-wrong.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=13 July 2012 |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=17 August 2003 |location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="Dean-2003" /> Furthermore, a [[meta-analysis]] pooled 40 studies that involved 700 astrologers and over 1,000 birth charts. Ten of the tests—which involved 300 participants—had the astrologers pick the correct chart interpretation out of a number of others that were not the astrologically correct chart interpretation (usually three to five others). When date and other obvious clues were removed, no significant results suggested there was any preferred chart.<ref name="Dean-2003">{{cite journal |title=Is Astrology Relevant to Consciousness and Psi? |last1=Dean |first1=G. |last2=Kelly |first2=I. W. |journal=Journal of Consciousness Studies |year=2003 |volume=10 |issue=6–7 |pages=175–198}}<!--p. 190--></ref>

=== Lack of mechanisms and consistency ===

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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bennett |first=Jeffrey O. |title=The Cosmic Perspective |url=https://archive.org/details/astronomymediawo04lopr |url-access=registration |year=2007 |publisher=Pearson/Addison-Wesley |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-8053-9283-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/astronomymediawo04lopr/page/82 82–84] |edition=4th}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Bennett|2007}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eysenck |first1=H. J. |last2=Nias |first2=D. K. B. |title=Astrology: Science or Superstition? |year=1982 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-05806-7 |page=83}}</ref>

Many astrologers believe that astrology is scientific,<ref name="Chris-2012">{{cite news |last=Chris |first=French |title=Astrologers and other inhabitants of parallel universes |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/feb/07/astrologers-parallel-universes |work=The Guardian |date=7 February 2012 |access-date=8 July 2012 |location=London |archive-date=28 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128233226/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/feb/07/astrologers-parallel-universes |url-status=live }}</ref> while some have proposed conventional [[Causality|causal agents]] such as [[electromagnetism]] and [[gravity]].<ref name="Chris-2012"/> Scientists reject these mechanisms as implausible<ref name="Chris-2012" /> 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.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Michael |editor-last=Shermer |title=The Skeptic encyclopedia of pseudoscience |year=2002 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Cal. |isbn=978-1-57607-653-8 |page=241}}</ref>

Western astrology has taken the earth's [[Precession#Axial precession (precession of the equinoxes)|axial precession (also called precession of the equinoxes)]] into account since Ptolemy's ''[[Almagest]]'', so the "first point of Aries", the start of the astrological year, continually moves against the background of the stars.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tester | first= S. J. | title=A History of Western Astrology | year=1987 | publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=978-0-85115-255-4 |page=161}}</ref> The tropical zodiac has no connection to the stars; tropical astrologers distinguish the constellations from their historically associated [[Astrological sign|sign]], thereby avoiding complications involving precession.<ref name="Charpak-2004" /> 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."<ref name="Charpak-2004"/> 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.{{sfn|Zarka|2011}}

Astrologers usually have only a small knowledge of astronomy, and often do not take into account basic principles—such as the precession of the equinoxes, which changes the position of the sun with time. They commented on the example of [[Élizabeth Teissier]], who wrote that, "The sun ends up in the same place in the sky on the same date each year", as the basis for the idea 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-year period there would be a difference greater than 780,000 miles.<ref name="Charpak-2004">{{cite book |last1=Charpak |first1=Georges |last2=Broch |first2=Henri |year=2004 |orig-date=2002 |title=Debunked!: ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DpnWcMzeh8oC&pg=PA6 |others=Translated by Bart K. Holland |location=Baltimore |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0-8018-7867-1 |at="Astrology in a Vacuum", pp. 6–7}}</ref>

=== Reception in the social sciences ===

The general consensus of astronomers and other natural scientists is that astrology is a pseudoscience which carries no predictive capability, with many philosophers of science considering it a "paradigm or prime example of pseudoscience."<ref>{{cite book | last=Grim | first=Patrick | title=Philosophy of Science and the Occult | publisher=State University of New York Press | publication-place=Albany | date=1990 | isbn=0-7914-0204-5 | oclc=21196067 |page=15}}</ref> Some scholars in the social sciences have cautioned against categorizing astrology, especially ancient astrology, as "just" a pseudoscience or projecting the distinction backwards into the past.<ref>{{cite book | last=Beck | first=Roger | title=A Brief History of Ancient Astrology | publisher=Blackwell Pub | publication-place=Malden, Massachusetts | date=2007 | isbn=978-0-470-77377-2 | oclc=214281257}}</ref> Thagard, while demarcating it as a pseudoscience, notes that astrology "should be judged as not pseudoscientific in classical or Renaissance times...Only when the historical and social aspects of science are neglected does it become plausible that pseudoscience is an unchanging category."{{sfn|Thagard|1978}} Historians of science such as Tamsyn Barton, [[Roger Beck]], [[Francesca Rochberg]], and [[Wouter J. Hanegraaff]] argue that such a wholesale description is anachronistic when applied to historical contexts, stressing that astrology was not pseudoscience before the 18th century and the importance of the discipline to the development of medieval science.{{sfn|Barton|1994}}{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2012}}{{sfn|Beck|2007}}<ref>{{cite book | last=Rochberg | first=Francesca | editor-first1=Paul T. | editor-first2=John | editor-last1=Keyser | editor-last2=Scarborough | title=Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World | chapter=Astral Sciences of Ancient Mesopotamia | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2018-07-10 | pages=24–34 | doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734146.013.62| isbn=978-0-19-973414-6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Taub | first=Liba | title=The Rehabilitation of Wretched Subjects | journal=Early Science and Medicine | publisher=Brill | volume=2 | issue=1 | year=1997 | issn=1383-7427 | doi=10.1163/157338297x00023 | pages=74–87| pmid=11618896 }}</ref> R. J. Hakinson writes in the context of [[Hellenistic astrology]] that "the belief in the possibility of [astrology] was, at least some of the time, the result of careful reflection on the nature and structure of the universe."<ref>{{cite journal | last=Hankinson | first=R.J. | title=Stoicism, Science and Divination | journal=Apeiron | publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH | volume=21 | issue=2 | year=1988 | issn=2156-7093 | doi=10.1515/apeiron.1988.21.2.123 | page=| s2cid=170134327 }}</ref>

[[Nicholas Campion]], both an astrologer and academic historian of astrology, argues that [[Cultural astronomy|Indigenous astronomy]] is largely used as a synonym for astrology in academia, and that modern Indian and Western astrology are better understood as modes of cultural astronomy or [[ethnoastronomy]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Campion | first=Nicholas | title=Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy | chapter=Astrology as Cultural Astronomy | publisher=Springer New York | publication-place=New York, NY | date=2014-07-07 | pages=103–116 | doi=10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_16| isbn=978-1-4614-6140-1}}</ref> Roy Willis and [[Patrick Curry]] draw a distinction between propositional ''[[Wiktionary:ἐπιστήμη|episteme]]'' and metaphoric ''[[Wiktionary:μῆτις|metis]]'' in the ancient world, identifying astrology with the latter and noting that the central concern of astrology "is not knowledge (factual, let alone scientific) but {{em|wisdom}} (ethical, spiritual and pragmatic)".<ref>{{cite book | last1=Willis | first1=Roy | last2=Curry | first2=Patrick | title=Astrology, Science and Culture | publisher=Routledge | date=2020-05-19 | isbn=978-1-003-08472-3 | doi=10.4324/9781003084723| s2cid=242002348 }}</ref> Similarly, historian of science Justin Niermeier-Dohoney writes that astrology was "more than simply a science of prediction using the stars and comprised a vast body of beliefs, knowledge, and practices with the overarching theme of understanding the relationship between humanity and the rest of the cosmos through an interpretation of stellar, solar, lunar, and planetary movement." Scholars such as [[Assyriologist]] Matthew Rutz have begun using the term "astral knowledge" rather than astrology "to better describe a category of beliefs and practices much broader than the term 'astrology' can capture."<ref>{{cite journal | last=Niermeier-Dohoney | first=Justin | title=Sapiens Dominabitur Astris: A Diachronic Survey of a Ubiquitous Astrological Phrase | journal=Humanities | publisher=MDPI AG | volume=10 | issue=4 | date=2021-11-02 | issn=2076-0787 | doi=10.3390/h10040117 | page=117| doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World | chapter=Astral Knowledge in an International Age: Transmission of the Cuneiform Tradition, ca. 1500–1000 B.C. | publisher=BRILL | date=2016-01-01 | doi=10.1163/9789004315631_004 | pages=18–54| isbn=978-90-04-31563-1 | last1=Rutz | first1=Matthew T. }}</ref>

== Cultural impact ==

=== 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>

=== India and Japan ===

[[File:Bdrates of Japan since 1950.svg|thumb|right|Birth (in blue) and death (in red) rates of Japan since 1950, with the sudden drop in births during hinoeuma year (1966)]]

In India, there is a long-established and widespread belief in astrology. It is commonly used for daily life, particularly in matters concerning marriage and career, and makes extensive use of [[electional astrology|electional]], [[horary astrology|horary]] and [[karmic astrology]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=BV Raman Dies |publisher=New York Times, 23 December 1998 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/23/world/bangalore-venkata-raman-indian-astrologer-dies-at-86.html |access-date=12 May 2009 |first=Michael T. |last=Kaufman |date=23 December 1998 |archive-date=16 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116014608/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/23/world/bangalore-venkata-raman-indian-astrologer-dies-at-86.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Fame and Fortune |author=Dipankar Das |url=https://www.lifepositive.com/fame-and-fortune/ |access-date=2 August 2016 |archive-date=16 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816094857/https://www.lifepositive.com/fame-and-fortune/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Indian politics have also been influenced by astrology.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/428081.stm | title=Soothsayers offer heavenly help | work=BBC News | access-date=21 July 2012 | date=2 September 1999 | archive-date=3 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201858/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/428081.stm | url-status=live }}</ref> It is still considered a branch of the [[Vedanga]].<ref>"In countries such as India, where only a small intellectual elite has been trained in Western physics, astrology manages to retain here and there its position among the sciences." David Pingree and Robert Gilbert, "Astrology; Astrology in India; Astrology in modern times". [[Encyclopædia Britannica]], 2008</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last = Rao |first = Mohan |date = October–December 2001 |title = Female foeticide: where do we go? |url = http://issuesinmedicalethics.org/094co123.html |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101103000514/http://issuesinmedicalethics.org/094co123.html |archive-date = 3 November 2010 |journal = [[Indian Journal of Medical Ethics]] |publisher = 	Forum for Medical Ethics Society |volume = 9 |issue = 4 |pages = 123–124 |pmid = 16334916}}</ref> In 2001, Indian scientists and politicians debated and critiqued a proposal to use state money to fund research into astrology,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/010531_vedic.shtml |title=Indian Astrology vs Indian Science |work=BBC |date=31 May 2001 |access-date=17 June 2009 |archive-date=7 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407182922/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/010531_vedic.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> resulting in permission for [[List of universities in India|Indian universities]] to offer courses in Vedic astrology.<ref>{{cite web|title=Guidelines for Setting up Departments of Vedic Astrology in Universities Under the Purview of University Grants Commission |url=http://www.education.nic.in/circulars/astrologycurriculum.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512154221/http://www.education.nic.in/circulars/astrologycurriculum.htm |archive-date=12 May 2011|publisher=Government of India, Department of Education |access-date=26 March 2011 |quote=There is an urgent need to rejuvenate the science of Vedic Astrology in India, to allow this scientific knowledge to reach to the society at large and to provide opportunities to get this important science even exported to the world}}</ref>

In February 2011, the [[Bombay High Court]] reaffirmed astrology's standing in India when it dismissed a case that challenged its status as a science.<ref>{{Cite news|date=3 February 2011|first=Hetal |last=Vyas |title=Astrology is a science: Bombay HC |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/astrology-is-a-science-bombay-hc/articleshow/7418795.cms |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110206024139/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Astrology-is-a-science-Bombay-HC/articleshow/7418795.cms |archive-date = 6 February 2011 |access-date = 1 January 2023 |url-status = live |work=[[The Times of India]] |language=en}}</ref>

In [[Japan]], strong belief in astrology has led to dramatic changes in the fertility rate and the number of abortions in the years of [[Fire (wuxing)|Fire]] [[Horse (zodiac)|Horse]]. Adherents believe that women born in [[Bingwu|''hinoeuma'']] years are unmarriageable and bring bad luck to their father or husband. In 1966, the number of babies born in Japan dropped by over 25% as parents tried to avoid the stigma of having a daughter born in the hinoeuma year.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1bTGN21ev2MC&q=hinoeuma&pg=PA22 | title=Japanese childrearing: two generations of scholarship | year=1996 | access-date=22 July 2012| isbn=978-1-57230-081-1 | last1=Shwalb | first1=David W. | last2=Shwalb | first2=Barbara J. | publisher=Guilford Publications }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uAOrAAAAIAAJ&q=hinoeuma&pg=PA22 | title=The Political Economy of Japan: Cultural and social dynamics | year=1992 | access-date=22 July 2012| isbn=978-0-8047-1991-9 | last1=Kumon | first1=Shumpei | last2=Rosovsky | first2=Henry | publisher=Stanford University Press }}</ref>

=== Literature and music ===

[[File:Woman in the Moon.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Title page of [[John Lyly|John Lyly's]] astrological play, ''The Woman in the Moon'', 1597]]

The fourteenth-century English poets [[John Gower]] and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] both referred to astrology in their works, including Gower's ''[[Confessio Amantis]]'' and Chaucer's ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]''.<ref name="Wedel-2003"/> Chaucer commented explicitly on astrology in his ''Treatise on the Astrolabe'', demonstrating personal knowledge of one area, judicial astrology, with an account of how to find the ascendant or rising sign.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Chauncey |title=Chaucer and the Country of the Stars: Poetical Uses of Astrological Imagery |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1970 |url=https://archive.org/details/chausercountryof0000unse |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-691-06172-6 |oclc=1148223228 |pages=12–21}}</ref>

In the fifteenth century, references to astrology, such as with [[simile]]s, became "a matter of course" in English literature.<ref name="Wedel-2003">{{cite book | title=Mediæval Attitude Toward Astrology, Particularly in England | publisher=Kessinger | last=Wedel | year=2003 | orig-date=1920 | pages=131–156 | chapter=9: Astrology in Gower and Chaucer | isbn=978-0-7661-7998-1 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V9lVQVyb9M4C&q=%22Confessio+Amantis%22+Gower+astrology&pg=PA133 | quote=The literary interest in astrology, which had been on the increase in England throughout the fourteenth century, culminated in the works of Gower and Chaucer. Although references to astrology were already frequent in the romances of the fourteenth century, these still retained the signs of being foreign importations. It was only in the fifteenth century that astrological similes and embellishments became a matter of course in the literature of England.<br />Such innovations, one must confess, were due far more to Chaucer than to Gower. Gower, too, saw artistic possibilities in the new astrological learning, and promptly used these in his retelling of the Alexander legend—but he confined himself, for the most part, to a bald rehearsal of facts and theories. It is, accordingly, as a part of the long encyclopaedia of natural science that he inserted into his ''Confessio Amantis'', and in certain didactic passages of the ''Vox Clamantis'' and the ''Mirour de l'Omme'', that Astrology figures most largely in his works&nbsp;... Gower's sources on the subject of astrology&nbsp;... were Albumasar's ''Introductorium in Astronomiam'', the Pseudo-Aristotelian ''Secretum Secretorum'', Brunetto Latini's ''Trésor'', and the ''Speculum Astronomiae'' ascribed to Albert the Great.}}</ref>

[[File:Astrologo Fingido Calderon de la Barca title page 1641.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Title page of [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca|Calderón de la Barca]]'s ''Astrologo Fingido'', Madrid, 1641]]

In the sixteenth century, John Lyly's 1597 play, ''The Woman in the Moon'', is wholly motivated by astrology,<ref name="De Lacy-1934">{{cite journal | title=Astrology in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser |last=De Lacy |first=Hugh | journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology |date=October 1934 | volume=33 | issue=4 | pages=520–543 | jstor=27703949}}</ref> while [[Christopher Marlowe]] makes astrological references in his plays ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'' and ''[[Tamburlaine]]'' (both c. 1590),<ref name="De Lacy-1934"/> and [[Sir Philip Sidney]] refers to astrology at least four times in his [[Romance (heroic literature)|romance]] ''[[The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia]]'' (c. 1580).<ref name="De Lacy-1934"/> [[Edmund Spenser]] uses astrology both decoratively and causally in his poetry, revealing "...unmistakably an abiding interest in the art, an interest shared by a large number of his contemporaries."<ref name="De Lacy-1934"/> [[George Chapman|George Chapman's]] play, ''[[The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron|Byron's Conspiracy]]'' (1608), similarly uses astrology as a causal mechanism in the drama.<ref name="Carroll-1933">{{cite journal | title=Astrology in Shakespeare's Day |first=Camden, Jr. |last=Carroll | journal=Isis |date=April 1933 | volume=19 | issue=1 | pages=26–73 | jstor=225186 | doi=10.1086/346721| s2cid=144020750 }}</ref> [[William Shakespeare|William Shakespeare's]] attitude towards astrology is unclear, with contradictory references in plays including ''[[King Lear]]'', ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'', and ''[[Richard II (play)|Richard II]]''.<ref name="Carroll-1933"/> Shakespeare was familiar with astrology and made use of his knowledge of astrology in nearly every play he wrote,<ref name="Carroll-1933"/> assuming a basic familiarity with the subject in his commercial audience.<ref name="Carroll-1933"/> Outside theatre, the physician and mystic [[Robert Fludd]] practised astrology, as did the quack doctor Simon Forman.<ref name="Carroll-1933"/> In Elizabethan England, "The usual feeling about astrology&nbsp;... [was] that it is the most useful of the sciences."<ref name="Carroll-1933"/>

In seventeenth century Spain, [[Lope de Vega]], with a detailed knowledge of astronomy, wrote plays that ridicule astrology. In his pastoral romance ''La Arcadia'' (1598), it leads to absurdity; in his novela ''Guzman el Bravo'' (1624), he concludes that the stars were made for man, not man for the stars.<ref>{{cite journal | title=The Attitude of Lope de Vega toward Astrology and Astronomy | author=Halstead, Frank G. | journal=Hispanic Review | volume=7 |issue=3 |date=July 1939 |pages=205–219 |jstor=470235 | doi=10.2307/470235}}</ref> [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca|Calderón de la Barca]] wrote the 1641 comedy ''Astrologo Fingido'' (The Pretended Astrologer); the plot was borrowed by the French playwright [[Thomas Corneille]] for his 1651 comedy ''Feint Astrologue''.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Calderon's Astrologo Fingido in France |author=Steiner, Arpad | journal=Modern Philology | volume=24 |issue=1 |date=August 1926 |pages=27–30 |jstor=433789 | doi=10.1086/387623|s2cid=161217021 }}</ref>

{{listen
 | type         = music

 | filename     = Holst- mars.ogg
 | title        = Mars, the Bringer of War

 | filename2    = Holst- venus.ogg
 | title2       = Venus, the Bringer of Peace

 | filename3    = Holst The Planets Mercury.ogg
 | title3       = Mercury, the Winged Messenger

 | filename4    = Holst The Planets Jupiter.ogg
 | title4       = Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

 | filename5    = Holst- uranus.ogg
 | title5       = Uranus, the Magician
 | description5 = All performed by the [[US Air Force Band]]
}}
The most famous piece of music influenced by astrology is the orchestral suite ''[[The Planets]]''. Written by the British composer [[Gustav Holst]] (1874–1934), and first performed in 1918, the framework of ''The Planets'' is based upon the astrological symbolism of the planets.<ref>{{cite book |last=Campion |first=Nicholas |title=A History of Western Astrology |volume=II: The Medieval and Modern Worlds |year=2009 |place=London |publisher=Continuum |isbn=978-1-4411-8129-9 |edition=1st |pages=244–245}}</ref> Each of the seven movements of the suite is based upon a different planet, though the movements are not in the order of the planets from the Sun. The composer [[Colin Matthews]] wrote an eighth movement entitled ''Pluto, the Renewer'', first performed in 2000, as the suite was written prior to Pluto's discovery.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=6045052 | title='Pluto the Renewer' is no swan song | publisher=National Public Radio (NPR) | date=10 September 2006 | access-date=13 June 2013 | author=Adams, Noah | archive-date=26 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026063146/http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=6045052 | url-status=live }}</ref> In 1937, another British composer, [[Constant Lambert]], wrote a ballet on astrological themes, called ''[[Horoscope (ballet)|Horoscope]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ashtonarchive.com/ballets/1938.htm |title=Frederick Ashton and His Ballets 1938 |publisher=Ashton Archive |year=2004 |access-date=2 August 2016 |author=Vaughan, David |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050514074649/http://www.ashtonarchive.com/ballets/1938.htm |archive-date=14 May 2005 |df=dmy }}</ref> In 1974, the New Zealand composer [[Edwin Carr (composer)|Edwin Carr]] wrote ''The Twelve Signs: An Astrological Entertainment''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://sounz.org.nz/works/show/10611 | title=The Twelve Signs: An Astrological Entertainment | publisher=Centre for New Zealand Music | access-date=13 June 2013 | archive-date=5 November 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105110414/http://sounz.org.nz/works/show/10611 | url-status=live }}</ref> for orchestra without strings.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=Harrison |editor1-last=Ryker |title=New Music in the Orient: Essays on Composition in Asia Since World War II |year=1991 |place=Netherlands |publisher=F. Knuf |isbn=978-9060275528 |page=34}}</ref> [[Camille Paglia]] acknowledges astrology as an influence on her work of literary criticism ''[[Sexual Personae]]'' (1990).<ref>Paglia, Camille. ''Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays''. Penguin Books, 1992, p. 114.</ref> The American comedian [[Harvey Sid Fisher]] is known for his comedic songs about astrology.<ref>{{cite news |last=Strauss |first=Neil |title=Songs About Astrology From a Thrift-Store Singer: Harvey Sid Fisher at Fez |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 27, 1995 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/27/arts/pop-467095.html?pagewanted=1 |access-date=2025-04-02}}</ref>

Astrology features strongly in [[Eleanor Catton]]'s ''[[The Luminaries]]'', recipient of the [[2013 Man Booker Prize]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Catton |first1=Eleanor |author-link=Eleanor Catton |title=Eleanor Catton on how she wrote The Luminaries |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/11/eleanor-catton-luminaries-how-she-wrote-booker-prize |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=10 December 2015 |date=2014-04-11 |archive-date=22 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222082427/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/11/eleanor-catton-luminaries-how-she-wrote-booker-prize |url-status=live }}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Astrology and science]]
* [[Astrology software]]
* [[Barnum effect]]
* [[Glossary of astrology]]
* [[List of astrological traditions, types, and systems]]
* [[List of topics characterized as pseudoscience|List of topics characterised as pseudoscience]]
* [[Jewish astrology]]
* [[Scientific skepticism]]
* [[Worship of heavenly bodies]]

== Notes ==

{{notelist}}

== References ==
 
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==

* [http://cura.free.fr/DIAL.html Digital International Astrology Library] (ancient astrological works)
* [http://www.biblioastrology.com/en/index.aspx Biblioastrology (www.biblioastrology.com)] (specialised bibliography)
* [https://bibnum.obspm.fr/exhibits/show/astronomy_astrology/bibliography Paris Observatory]

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[[Category:Astrology| ]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]