﻿Astrology can be seen as a set of divinatory practices
linked to world-views that attempt to express a specific approach to human experience
through a language based on elements of celestial mechanisms. Astrology is, therefore,
an umbrella term referring to a diverse set of rituals and theoretical positions. This diversity
can lead to conflicting techniques, theories, world-views and ideas about its field of action.
Welcome to an episode on 20th-century Astrology in Western Esotericism.
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Hello everyone, I’m Dr Angela Puca and welcome to my Symposium.
I’m a PhD and a University lecturer and this is your online resource for the academic study of
Magick, Paganism, Esotericism, Astrology, and all things related to occult and esoteric practices.
This video is a special one because it is a collaboration with my friend Filip Holme,
host of the channel Let’s Talk Religion. Filip is academically trained in Religious Studies
and holds a Master’s degree on the subject. He specialises in Islam,
with a particular focus on Sufism and Mysticism. His YouTube channel covers
a broad range of topics related to religion from an academic perspective.
So, make sure to check out his video on Astrology in the Islamicate World
to get a full picture on this topic! Now, on to our topic …
Astrological almanacs circulated and were sold throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet, there
was a phase of significant decline throughout the West, with the partial exception of England where
an astrological subculture continued to exist. Indeed, by the turn of the 20th century,
astrology saw a revival. Interestingly though, as Olav Hammer points out,
compared to previous ages, 20th-century Astrology had gone through a series of transformations that
defined how Astrology is perceived today. Let’s analyse them in order.
The first one is that 20th-century astrology got combined with a variety
of other belief systems developed both in the late 19th and through the 20th centuries.
This saw a syncretism particularly with theosophically inspired Occultism and
interpretative tools inspired by Carl Gustav Jung.
Second, classical or traditional astrology was associated more with
prognostication and specific claims about the correlation between celestial events
and outward human behaviour while in contemporary Astrology there is more
of an emphasis on the study of behavioural dispositions, traits, and personality. So
here we see the impact that psychology had on Astrology, from the 20th-century onwards.
Three, the presence of numerous independent Astrologers,
disseminating their ideas more easily, thanks to cheaper and widely available printing technology,
as well as popular media. This change has brought about a considerable divergence
of views on matters such as what symbols should be used in interpreting a chart: midpoints,
asteroids, trans-Plutonian planets, and so on, which of several fundamental but conflicting
technical systems is valid, house divisions for instance, how certain elements should be combined
in chart interpretation and which should be considered more important in the birth chart. In
the case of psychological astrology, what model of human personality is the most appropriate.
The flourishing of a varied astrological community has also led to the revival and
development of different forms of divination besides the interpretation of birth charts.
For instance, the diverse versions of mundane Astrology that attempt to cast horoscopes for
nations and organizations, or financial Astrology to predict fluctuations on the stock market,
and even ‘astrological traditionalism which rejects the psychological interpretation of
charts and attempts to go back to Renaissance and Mediaeval methods of predicting one’s destiny.’
Astrology has also experienced ambivalent and conflicting
adaptations to the cultural context of modernity. For instance, some cosmological doctrines
employed in pre-modern astrology ceased to exist, such as the geocentric model of the solar system
and the Aristotelian distinction between sublunar and celestial worlds.
Also, recent philosophical, astronomical and physical models
used to explain the underlying astrological ideology resulted in a partial endorsement of
older theories, such as that of correspondences. An interesting theoretical move in a time when
many Esotericists seem to be fond of theories of instrumental causality.
However, older theories are often unsystematically mixed with new theories – for instance,
mechanical causality, Jungian theories of synchronicity and other explanatory models.
Astrology sees the apparent contradiction of being widely practised and talked about,
yet rejected by the dominant belief system of what is deemed “real” or
“factual”. In the past, Astrology was frequently employed in political decision-making while in
the contemporary Western world, the few cases when divination has been
similarly used - as during the Reagan era - have caused substantial bewilderment and controversy.
Also, the kind of criticism that Astrology faces has changed compared to older times.
Although even in the past there were critics to astrological interpretations, they were more
based on abstract and philosophical aspects or the nature of that interpretation, targeting
the different fates of people born at the same time, the lack of a plausible modus operandi for
astrological influences and the discrepancies between tropical and sidereal zodiacs.
Contemporary opponents, on the other hand, follow empirically-oriented and scientistic approaches.
Such sceptical responses typically hint at the failure of Astrologers in controlled
experimental settings to correlate charts with personality profiles with any rate of success
higher than chance. In this current paradigm, several Astrologers attempted to validate
their practices in empirical research; the most publicised of these attempts
have been the statistical studies carried out by Michel Gauquelin.
Then, also In pre-modern times, Astrologers would usually practise their craft
as independent agents. While contemporary Astrologers have the option of learning the
craft through structured courses, become members of organised bodies and even to disseminate
their ideas and advertise their practices through dedicated media, including social media.
In addition, while pre-modern Astrology was treated as an arcane science in a male-dominated
society and hence dominated by male practitioners, ‘contemporary astrology is integrated in a cultic
milieu that is largely constituted by women, and is hence practised by many women,’ as well.
This is it for today’s video highlighting some philosophical aspects of Astrology in
comparison to previous times and ages where Astrology was practised and conceptualised.
Don’t forget to check out Filip’s video, you find it linked in a pinned comment.
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Bye for now.
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