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.

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. (1928-1991)

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. (Hammer, 2006, pp. 136–141)

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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References:
Hammer, O. (2006) ‘Astrology V: 20th-century’, in Hanegraaff, W. J. (ed), Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, Leiden, London, Brill, pp. 136–141.

First uploaded 29 Jan 2022