Astrology, Religion and Christianity - Yasmin Boland
The Great American (Manifesting) Eclipse 2024​​ - Top Banner

Astrology, Religion and Christianity

By Christine Hirlehey

From its inception, astrology and religion have been intimately intertwined as it was developed as a religious practice in Ancient Babylon. However, due to conflicts between the astrological idea of predetermination, and the importance that Christianity places in free will, astrology has often sat uncomfortably within Christianity, though it has many famous Christian followers.

This article will look at the birth of astrology and how it was central to Babylonian religion, but how adaptions to astrology during Greek and Roman times made it difficult to thrive under Christianity. It will also look at how some famous Christian theologians have tried to justify astrology within a Christian framework.

Babylonian Origins

The earliest evidence of astrology comes from Mesopotamia, among the Babylonians and Assyrians, starting around 2000 years ago. It is known as Chaldean astrology as it is thought to have been developed by the Chaldeans, that occupied the area from the 10th to mid-6th centuries BC. Evidence for their practices primarily comes from a library of clay tablets collected for the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

The Babylonians believed that the heavenly bodies that occupied the firmament that surrounded the Earth were divine entities, most of which circled the Earth in a regular pattern. The recognised planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) as well as the Sun and the Moon, broke the pattern of the other bodies and seemed to move independently, and therefore were viewed as powerful gods that acted independently, and each was ascribed a domain of influence.

The Babylonian astrologers, that were also priests, used their knowledge to interpret messages about the desires of the gods and the state of the world; focussing their concern on king and country rather than individuals. For example, the position of the celestial bodies could indicate a storm or war is a god was unhappy, or a period of prosperity if the gods were pleased. One clay tablet records the prediction: ‘when a halo surrounds the Moon and Jupiter stands within it, the king will be besieged’. Interpretation was primarily based on what had happened when the stars and planets were previously in the same positions, believing that when the planets occupied the same space, similar events would occur. The Babylonians also believed that disasters indicated by the stars could be avoided if appropriate rituals were conducted to appease the gods, such as substituting an effigy for the king and causing the predicted divine misfortune to befall the effigy.

Babylonian astrology was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, who renamed the stars after their own gods, giving us the names we are familiar with today. But astrology did not have the same central role in religion as it had in Babylon. The Greeks and Romans used ‘omens’ to determine the will of the gods, and these could take may different forms. Almost any unusual circumstance, for example a calf being born deformed, could be an omen. The motions of the stars could be interpreted for omens, but so could the state of the innards of a sacrificed animal.

The Problem of Personal Horoscopes

It is in Greece and Rome where the popularity of personal horoscopes becomes apparent. Leaders, such as the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, consulted astrologers and used their horoscopes to legitimise their position in society, but horoscopes also seem to have been popular in general. The author Juvenal complained in his satires about the wealthy woman who placed excessive faith in the words of astrologers.

It is with personal horoscopes where discomfort with astrology seems to have emerged. The Roman Emperor Nero banished an astrologer from the city for providing Nero’s horoscope to one of his rivals, mainly out of fear that his horoscope would be used against him. Astrologers were banned on numerous subsequent occasions for similar reasons, and astrologers could be accused of magic and witchcraft.

It is this kind of personal astrology, rather than the universal astrology practiced by the Babylonians, that seemed to have been problematic for Christians. In the 13th century theologian Roger Bacon suggested that the movement of the stars was regulated by angelic intelligence, and therefore moved in a way that reflected God’s divine plan. This was a universal view of astrology that was considered an acceptable Christian interpretation. Meanwhile much earlier the famous Christian writer Augustine, focussing on personal horoscopes, pointed out that astrology left no room for the operation of God’s grace, and suggested that if successful predictions were made from the stars it must be due to the intervention of the Devil.

This first form of astrology seems to have been acceptable to Church fathers. At the start of the 1500s Pope Leo X founded a chair in astrology at the papal university, and other universities followed suit. But in 1586 Pope Sixtus V condemned personal horoscopes, outlawing astrology for Christians in Europe.

You can find more information on your own horoscope at my site Numerology Sign.

Christian Justification of Astrology

Despite Vatican condemnation, astrology continued to be practiced by many theologians, and was sufficiently well known to make its way into the ‘pop-culture’ of the era. Chaucer was careful to give his Canterbury pilgrims characteristics consistent with the Signs under which they were born, and Shakespeare often referred to the power of the stars in his plays.

The late 16th century Christian philosopher Descartes, who spent much time pondering proof the existence of god, was also a believer in astrology.  He suggested that the position of the planets at the moment of a person’s birth was important because immediately after birth the brain tissues set themselves and conserve throughout life the first impression that they received.

Psychiatrist Carl Jung similarly believed in astrology, but ascribed to the idea of synchronicity, suggesting that the planets do not cause events, but are symbols of cosmic forces and reflect and synchronise with events on Earth, which play out according to God’s plan.

Jewish religious scholars have also looked to make sense of astrology within their religious framework. Rabbi Joel C. Dobin argues that astrology is religious based on the conviction that men, God and the universe exist in unity, and that man and the universe ‘swim in the sea of space-time whose substance is God’, suggesting the same kind of synchronicity suggested by Jung.

Conclusion

For the majority of its history, Christianity has looked on astrology with deep suspicion, as the idea of fate that can be written and read in the stars conflicts with the central Christian ideal of free will. The original Babylonian astrologers did not believe that the stars told a future that was fixed in stone, but rather reflected the will of the gods, it was only later that the idea of a person’s personality and destiny being written in the stars emerged. Despite condemnation, many Christian still believe in astrology, in a way that is closer to the original Babylonian belief. They argue that the everything created by God exists in synchronicity, and therefore that God’s stars are related to what happens with God’s men, and that by understanding the stars, we can gain a deeper understanding of God and his creation.

The Great American (Manifesting) Eclipse 2024​​ - Hero Banner