Astrology, a Serious Science?

Astrology is the neglected science of our times. Scorned by many as ‘beyond the bounds of rational thought,’ it is treated as something of a diversion even by many astrologers, afraid of claiming too much.

Yet astrology is the most ancient science of our world, held in the highest respect for thousands of years until our modern material science decreed anything which could not be measured physically was false.

Astrology has always gone hand in hand with a sophisticated astronomy, depending entirely on the precise astronomical positions of the planets to produce a horoscope. The physical and metaphysical, the material and spiritual, are simply the two sides of all creation. As we are body and spirit united in life. The ancients discovered this over many millennia, we ignore it at our peril.

This arrogance and prejudice has condemned us to live in a world where our spiritual life is discounted and materialism is everything. We are desperately the poorer for it and in mortal danger of a world spinning out of control in too many directions at once. Even where spiritual values are paramount, it is often at the cost of rational balance.

This is the price we must pay for abandoning the wisdom, the insight, the science of our forefathers, the knowledge of the greatest of the ancients. The scorn borne by astrology today discounts the many serious modern astrologers who have studied it and recognised the power of these subtle forces, even if they are too subtle to interpret precisely. But we equally dismiss virtually all the great minds and cultures of the ancients, down to Renaissance times, as gullible fools, because they recognised the power of astrology as central to their lives.

This blind bias in many scientific, secular or ‘rational’ circles against any serious mention of ‘spiritual’ or ‘the spirit’, anything suggesting there is a dimension and energy beyond physical forces, this dogmatic prejudice is unsustainable. Modern physics has already brilliantly revealed a dazzling physical realm so infinitely subtle it is virtually spiritual, with matter disappearing into the void, nothingness, and reappearing from the void : matter ultimately being created from nothing.

The discussion on Ancient Astrology and Modern Science describes how modern science itself is entering fantasy land, inventing a rush of hypothetical extra dimensions to try to define ultimate reality. Astrology has defined what these higher dimensions really are and demonstrates their reality on a daily basis but any physicist who even spoke to an astrologer would seriously risk his future. This cannot continue.

The fact astrology does work, does subtly operate on our lives at every moment, is the scientific basis for all our ancient faiths. These forces are beyond the physical, they are metaphysical or spiritual. The immediate implication of recognising this spiritual dimension is that we do have a Spirit, as countless individuals can testify from their own unforgettable experiences and as every religion in history has insisted. Heaven on Earth depends on this simple, rational recognition.

This spiritual understanding has been the basis of faith for centuries but it is time we moved beyond belief to recognise the sophisticated science which lies behind it all. It is time we recognised the spiritual facts of life.  See the 'Introduction' to Heaven on Earth

Unchristian and Fatalistic ?
Apart from ‘rational’ prejudice against astrology, one of the most common objections is that the influence of astrology undermines our free will. In fact, there is no contradiction. We are completely free to do whatever we want, limited only by our characters and situation.  Astrology tells us our characters come not from mere earthly circumstance but we are all celestial star children, God’s children, taking part in a divine drama. This question is explained more fully on the Astrology page.

The other charge levelled against astrology is that it is ‘unchristian.’  This is based on Old Testament verses which denounce the excesses of astrologers in very different times, almost three thousand years ago. There is no such prohibition in the New Testament.

Instead we have the wonderful story of the Magi paying homage to the infant Jesus and prophesying his future with their gifts. This story stretches credibility and is widely recognised as mythical rather than a literal history by many biblical scholars. This can only add to its significance as a deliberate creation of the Gospel writers. For centuries wrongly translated as ‘three kings,’ or merely ‘three wise men,’ the Magi are now properly translated in many Bibles as ‘astrologers.’  Astrologers are vividly portrayed as playing a significant symbolic role at the Birth of Christianity (see below.)

Heaven on Earth shows the astrology of the Tree of Life is most explicitly confirmed at the heart of the Christian hope for the future in the final chapter of the New Testament (Rev.22.2 below) and its Kabbalistic symbolism is studded throughout the Gospels. But astrology should be approached in the right spirit, just as all faiths.