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Etymology

History

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Principles and practice

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Theological viewpoints

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 Scientific analysis and criticism

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Cultural impact

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Notes

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Astrology
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Astrology (disambiguation).

Astrology

Background

 History of astrology
 Astrology and science
 Astrology and astronomy
 Traditions, types, and systems
 Astrologers
 Astrological organizations
 Planets 
o Behenian
o Classical

Traditions
 Babylonian
 Hellenistic
 Islamic
 Western
 Jewish
 Hindu
 Chinese

Branches
 Natal
 Electional
 Horary
  Medical
 Financial
 Locational
 Psychological
 Meteorological
 Theology

Astrological signs
 Aries
 Taurus
 Gemini
 Cancer
 Leo
 Virgo
 Libra
 Scorpio
 Sagittarius
 Capricorn
 Aquarius
 Pisces

Symbols
 Planet
 Metals

 v
 t
 e

Part of a series on the

Paranormal

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Main articles

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Skepticism

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 Parapsychology

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Related

 v
 t
 e

Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since

the 18th century,[1] that claim to discern information about human affairs and
terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects.[2][3][4][5]
[6]
 Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd
millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems used to
predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine
communications.[7] Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they
observed in the sky, and some—such as the Hindus, Chinese, and the 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 Islamic world, and eventually Central and Western
Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems
of horoscopes 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.[8]: 83 
Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition and
was common in academic circles, often in close relation
with astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine.[9] 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 Calderón de la Barca. During the Enlightenment, however, astrology lost its
status as an area of legitimate scholarly pursuit. [10][11] Following the end of the 19th
century and the wide-scale adoption of the scientific method, researchers have
successfully challenged astrology on both theoretical[12]: 249 
[13]
 and experimental grounds,[14][15] and have shown it to have no scientific validity
or explanatory power.[8] 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.[16] In India, belief in astrology is long-standing,
widespread and continuing.

Etymology
Marcantonio Raimondi engraving, 15th century

The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia,[17] which derives from

the Greek ἀστρολογία—from ἄστρον astron ("star") and -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 astronomia). By the 17th
century, astronomy became established as the scientific term,
with astrology referring to divinations and schemes for predicting human affairs. [18]

History
Main article: History of astrology

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 Indians, Chinese, and Maya developed elaborate systems for predicting
terrestrial events from celestial observations. A form of astrology was practised in
the Old Babylonian period of Mesopotamia, c. 1800 BCE.[19][7] 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 Decanic astrology in Alexandria, creating horoscopic
astrology. Alexander the Great's conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread
to Ancient Greece and Rome. In Rome, astrology was associated with
"Chaldean 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 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.[9] At the end of the 17th
century, new scientific concepts in astronomy and physics (such
as heliocentrism and Newtonian mechanics) called astrology into question. Astrology
thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has
largely declined.[16]
Ancient world
Further information: Astrotheology and Babylonian astrology
Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky. [20]: 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 cycles were being noted as early as
25,000 years ago.[21]: 81ff  This was a first step towards recording the Moon's influence
upon tides and rivers, and towards organising a communal calendar. [21] 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.[22] By the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations
had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in
alignment with heliacal risings of the stars.[23]
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.[24] A scroll documenting
an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of
the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash (c. 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.[25] 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 Mesopotamia (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).[26] The Babylonians viewed celestial events
as possible signs rather than as causes of physical events. [26]
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 alchemy.[27]: 3, 4 
The ancient Arabs that inhabitated the Arabian Peninsula 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.
[28]
 Accordingly, they shaped their entire lives in accordance with their interpretations
of astral configurations and phenomena.[28]
Ancient objections

The Roman orator Cicero objected to astrology

The Hellenistic schools of philosophical skepticism criticized the rationality of

astrology. Criticism of astrology by academic skeptics such as Cicero, Carneades,
and Favorinus; and Pyrrhonists such as Sextus Empiricus 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. [29]
Cicero stated the twins objection (that with close birth times, personal outcomes can
be very different), later developed by Augustine.[30] 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.[31] 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.[32]
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, [33] and equally absurd that
small motions in the heavens cause large changes in people's fates.
Sextus Empiricus argued that it was absurd to link human attributes with myths
about the signs of the zodiac,[34] and wrote an entire book, Against the Astrologers,
compiling arguments against astrology.
Plotinus, a neoplatonist, 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 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.[35]
Hellenistic Egypt
Main article: Hellenistic astrology

1484 copy of first page of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli

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.[36]
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 Decanic astrology to
create Horoscopic astrology. This contained the Babylonian zodiac with its system of
planetary exaltations, 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.[37] 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of
planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis.
[38]
 The astrologer and astronomer 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." [39]
Greece and Rome
The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas
from Syria, Babylon, Persia and central Asia.[40] Around 280 BCE, Berossus, a priest
of Bel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island of Kos, teaching astrology and
Babylonian culture.[41] By the 1st century BCE, there were two varieties of astrology,
one using horoscopes to describe the past, present and future; the other, theurgic,
emphasising the soul's ascent to the stars.[42] Greek influence played a crucial role in
the transmission of astrological theory to Rome.[43]
The first definite reference to astrology in Rome comes from the orator Cato, who in
160 BCE warned farm overseers against consulting with Chaldeans, [44] who were
described as Babylonian 'star-gazers'. [45] Among both Greeks and Romans, Babylonia
(also known as Chaldea) became so identified with astrology that 'Chaldean wisdom'
became synonymous with divination using planets and stars.[46] 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 Hammon's fountain."[47]
One of the first astrologers to bring Hermetic astrology to Rome was Thrasyllus,
astrologer to the emperor Tiberius,[43] the first emperor to have had a court astrologer,
[48]
 though his predecessor Augustus had used astrology to help legitimise
his Imperial rights.[49]
Medieval world
Hindu
Main article: Hindu astrology
The main texts upon which classical Indian astrology is based are early medieval
compilations, notably the Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra, and Sārāvalī by 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.[50] English
translations of these texts were published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari
in 1963 and 1961, respectively.
Islamic
Main article: Astrology in medieval Islam

Latin translation of Abū Maʿshar's De Magnis Coniunctionibus ('Of the great conjunctions'), Venice, 1515

Astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars[51] following the collapse of Alexandria to

the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of the 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, who helped to
elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad, [52] 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.[53] Knowledge of
Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during the Latin translations of
the 12th century.
Europe
Dante Alighieri meets the Emperor Justinian in the Sphere of Mercury, in Canto 5 of the Paradiso.

See also: Christian views on astrology

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. [54][55]
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.
[56]
 Ptolemy's second century AD Tetrabiblos was translated into Latin by Plato of
Tivoli in 1138.[56] The 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. [57] 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,[58] though the system was used earlier in the East. [59] 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. [58]
In Paradiso, the final part of the Divine Comedy, the Italian poet Dante
Alighieri referred "in countless details"[60] to the astrological planets, though he
adapted traditional astrology to suit his Christian viewpoint, [60] for example using
astrological thinking in his prophecies of the reform of Christendom.[61]
John Gower in the fourteenth century defined astrology as essentially limited to the
making of predictions.[54][62] 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. [63][64] The fourteenth-century
sceptic Nicole Oresme however included astronomy as a part of astrology in
his Livre de divinacions.[65] 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. [65]
[66]
 The friar Laurens Pignon (c. 1368–1449)[67] similarly rejected all forms of divination
and determinism, including by the stars, in his 1411 Contre les Devineurs.[68] 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.
[69]

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.[70] His contemporary, Pietro Pomponazzi, a "rationalistic and
critical thinker", was much more sanguine about astrology and critical of Pico's
attack.[71]
Renaissance and Early Modern
See also: Renaissance magic

'An Astrologer Casting a Horoscope' from 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. [72] 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.
[73]
 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".[74]
Ephemerides with complex astrological calculations, and almanacs interpreting
celestial events for use in medicine and for choosing times to plant crops, were
popular in Elizabethan England.[75] In 1597, the
English mathematician and physician 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 astrological
houses.[76] 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. [76]
[77]
 While Hood's presentation was innovative, his astrological information was largely
standard and was taken from Gerard Mercator's astrological disc made in 1551, or a
source used by Mercator.[78][79]
Enlightenment period and onwards

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. [10][11] 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's Dictionnaire of 1697 stated that the subject was puerile.[10] The Anglo-
Irish satirist Jonathan Swift ridiculed the Whig political astrologer John Partridge.[10]
In the second half of the Seventeenth 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 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. [80]
Astrology saw a popular revival starting in the 19th century, as part of a general
revival of spiritualism and—later, New Age philosophy,[81]: 239–249  and through the
influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes. [81]: 259–263  Early in the 20th
century the psychiatrist Carl Jung developed some concepts concerning astrology,
[82]
 which led to the development of psychological astrology.[81]: 251–256,  [83][84]
Principles and practice
Advocates have defined astrology as a symbolic language, an art form, a science,
and a method of divination.[85][86] 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. [87] It uses the tropical
zodiac, which is aligned to the equinoctial points.[88]
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 signs of the zodiac (twelve spatial divisions of the ecliptic) and by
their aspects (based on geometric angles) relative to one another. They are also
considered by their placement in houses (twelve spatial divisions of the sky).
[89]
 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. [90]
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. [91] 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. [92][93] Together these relationships and
their interpretations are said to form "...the language of the heavens speaking to
learned men."[91]
Along with tarot divination, astrology is one of the core studies of Western
esotericism, and as such has influenced systems of magical belief not only among
Western esotericists and 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's The Spiral Dance, organised by planet,
as an example of the astrological lore studied by magicians. [94]
Hindu
Main article: Hindu astrology
Page from an Indian astrological treatise, c. 1750

The earliest Vedic text on astronomy is the Vedanga Jyotisha; Vedic thought later

came to include astrology as well.[95]
Hindu natal astrology originated with Hellenistic astrology by the 3rd century BCE, [96]: 
361 [97]
 though incorporating the Hindu lunar mansions. [98] 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.[99] The Indian techniques may also have been augmented
with some of the Babylonian techniques.[100]: 231 
Chinese and East Asian
Further information: 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 Five phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 Earthly Branches, and shichen (時辰
a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes). The early use of Chinese
astrology was mainly confined to political astrology, the observation of unusual
phenomena, identification of portents and the selection of auspicious days for events
and decisions.[27]: 22, 85, 176 
The constellations of the Zodiac of western Asia and Europe were not used; instead
the sky is divided into Three Enclosures (三垣 sān yuán), and Twenty-Eight
Mansions (二十八宿 èrshíbā xiù) in twelve Ci (十二次).[101] The Chinese zodiac of
twelve 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, and the cycle
proceeds through 11 other animal signs:
the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.
[102]
 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 (simplified Chinese: 紫
微斗数; traditional Chinese: 紫微斗數; pinyin: zǐwēidǒushù) are still used regularly in
modern-day Chinese astrology. They do not rely on direct observations of the stars.
[103]
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 instead of
the Ox, and the fourth animal the Cat instead of the Rabbit. The Japanese have
since 1873 celebrated the beginning of the new year on 1 January as per
the Gregorian calendar. The Thai zodiac 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 festival (now celebrated every 13–15 April), depending on the purpose
of the use.[104]

Theological viewpoints
See also: Christian views on astrology, Jewish views on astrology, and Muslim
views on astrology
Ancient
Augustine (354–430) 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,[105] 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.[106]
Medieval

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 Islamic scholars, by suggesting that the
Will of God can be known and predicted.[107] 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.[108] 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.[109] Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (1292–1350),
in his Miftah Dar al-SaCadah, also used physical arguments in astronomy to
question the practice of judicial astrology.[110] He recognised that the stars are much
larger than the planets, and argued:
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 al-Ra's and al-Dhanab, which are two imaginary points [ascending and
descending nodes]?[110]

Modern

Martin Luther

Martin Luther denounced astrology in his Table Talk. He asked why twins like 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. [111]
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. [111]

— Martin Luther, Table Talk

The Catechism of the Catholic Church maintains that divination, including predictive

astrology, is incompatible with modern Catholic beliefs[112] such as free will:[106]
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.[113]

— Catechism of the Catholic Church

Scientific analysis and criticism

Main article: Astrology and science

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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.[114][115][116]: 1350  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. [15]: 424 [117][118] There is
no proposed 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.[12]: 249 [13] 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". [119]
Confirmation bias is a form of cognitive bias, a psychological factor that contributes
to belief in astrology.[120]: 344,  [121]: 180–181,  [122]: 42–48  [a][123]: 553  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.[121]: 180–181  Thus there are two distinct forms of confirmation bias
that are under study with respect to astrological belief. [121]: 180–181 
Demarcation
Under the criterion of falsifiability, first proposed by the philosopher of science Karl
Popper, astrology is a pseudoscience.[124] Popper regarded astrology as "pseudo-
empirical" in that "it appeals to observation and experiment," but "nevertheless does
not come up to scientific standards."[125] In contrast to scientific disciplines, astrology
has not responded to falsification through experiment. [126]: 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.[127]: 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 claiming 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;
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,[128]: 8  and so "they had no puzzles to solve and therefore no
science to practise."[127]: 401,  [128]: 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. [128]: 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.[5]: 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."[5]: 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.[5]: 228 [129]: 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.[5][129]: 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. [130]: 34 
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. ...
Astrology simply fails to meet the multifarious demands of legitimate reasoning.

— Edward W. James[130]: 34 

Effectiveness
Astrology has not demonstrated its effectiveness in controlled studies and has no
scientific validity.[8]: 85,  [15] Where it has made falsifiable predictions under controlled
conditions, they have been falsified.[15]: 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.[131]
[132]
 The double-blind experimental protocol used in this study was agreed upon by a
group of physicists and a group of astrologers [15] nominated by the National Council
for Geocosmic Research, who advised the experimenters, helped ensure that the
test was fair[14]: 420,  [132]: 117  and helped draw the central proposition of natal astrology to be
tested.[14]: 419  They also chose 26 out of the 28 astrologers for the tests (two more
volunteered afterwards).[14]: 420  The study, published in Nature in 1985, found that
predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing
"...clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis." [14]
In 1955, the astrologer and psychologist Michel Gauquelin stated that though he had
failed to find evidence that supported indicators like zodiacal signs and planetary
aspects in astrology, he did find positive correlations between the diurnal positions of
some planets and success in professions that astrology traditionally associates with
those planets.[133][134] The best-known of Gauquelin's findings is based on the positions
of Mars in the natal charts of successful athletes and became known as the Mars
effect.[135]: 213  A study conducted by seven French scientists attempted to replicate the
claim, but found no statistical evidence.[135]: 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.[136]
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.[132]: 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, physical, and other variables—but found no support
for astrology.[137][138] 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. [138]: 190 
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. [8]: 83  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.[8][122]: 83 
Many astrologers claim that astrology is scientific,[139] while some have proposed
conventional causal agents such as electromagnetism and gravity.[139] Scientists
reject these mechanisms as implausible[139] 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. [140]
Western astrology has taken the earth's 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.[141] The tropical zodiac has no connection to the stars, and as long as no claims
are made that the constellations themselves are in the associated sign, astrologers
avoid the concept that precession seemingly moves the constellations. [142] 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." [142] 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. [15]
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 claimed that, "The sun ends up in the same place in the
sky on the same date each year", as the basis for claims 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.[142]
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." [143] 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.[144] 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." [145] 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.
[146][147][144][148][149]
 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." [150]
Nicholas Campion, both an astrologer and academic historian of astrology, argues
that 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.[151] Roy Willis and Patrick Curry draw a
distinction between propositional episteme and metaphoric 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 wisdom (ethical, spiritual
and pragmatic)".[152] 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." [153][154]

Cultural impact

Mars, the Bringer of War

7:58
Mars, performed by the US Air Force Band

Venus, the Bringer of Peace

8:21

Venus, performed by the US Air Force Band

Mercury, the Winged Messenger

4:24

Mercury, performed by the US Air Force Band

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

8:01

Jupiter, performed by the US Air Force Band

Uranus, the Magician
5:20

Uranus, performed by the US Air Force Band

Problems playing these files? See  media help.

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
claims surfaced 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."[155] 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".[156] After John Hinckley's 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.[157]
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 claim 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."[158] 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."[b] 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. [158]
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.[159]: 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.
[159]: 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.
[160]
 Adorno drew a parallel with the phrase opium of the people, by Karl Marx, by
commenting, "occultism is the metaphysic of the dopes." [159]: 329 
A 2005 Gallup poll and a 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that
25% of US adults believe in astrology, [161][162] while a 2018 Pew survey found a figure of
29%.[163] According to data released in the National Science
Foundation's 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators study, "Fewer Americans
rejected astrology in 2012 than in recent years." [164] 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."[164] Astrology apps became popular in the late
2010s, some receiving millions of dollars in Silicon Valley venture capital.[165]
India and Japan

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, horary and karmic astrology.[166][167] Indian
politics have also been influenced by astrology. [168] It is still considered a branch of
the Vedanga.[169][170] In 2001, Indian scientists and politicians debated and critiqued a
proposal to use state money to fund research into astrology, [171] resulting in
permission for Indian universities to offer courses in Vedic astrology.[172]
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. [173]
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 Horse. Adherents believe that
women born in 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. [174]
[175]

Literature and music

Title page of 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.[176] 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. [177]
In the fifteenth century, references to astrology, such as with similes, became "a
matter of course" in English literature.[176]

Title page of 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,[178] while Christopher Marlowe makes astrological references
in his plays Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine (both c. 1590),[178] and Sir Philip
Sidney refers to astrology at least four times in his romance The Countess of
Pembroke's Arcadia (c. 1580).[178] 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." [178] George
Chapman's play, Byron's Conspiracy (1608), similarly uses astrology as a causal
mechanism in the drama.[179] William Shakespeare's attitude towards astrology is
unclear, with contradictory references in plays including King Lear, Antony and
Cleopatra, and Richard II.[179] Shakespeare was familiar with astrology and made use
of his knowledge of astrology in nearly every play he wrote, [179] assuming a basic
familiarity with the subject in his commercial audience. [179] Outside theatre, the
physician and mystic Robert Fludd practised astrology, as did the quack doctor
Simon Forman.[179] In Elizabethan England, "The usual feeling about astrology ...
[was] that it is the most useful of the sciences." [179]
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. [180] 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.[181]
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.[182] 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.[183] In 1937, another British composer, Constant
Lambert, wrote a ballet on astrological themes, called Horoscope.[184] In 1974, the
New Zealand composer Edwin Carr wrote The Twelve Signs: An Astrological
Entertainment for orchestra without strings.[185] Camille Paglia acknowledges astrology
as an influence on her work of literary criticism Sexual Personae (1990).[186]
Astrology features strongly in Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries, recipient of the 2013
Man Booker Prize.[187]

See also
 Astrology and science
 Astrology software
 Barnum effect
 List of astrological traditions, types, and systems
 List of topics characterised as pseudoscience
 Jewish astrology
 Scientific skepticism

Notes
1. ^ see Heuristics in judgement and decision making
2. ^ Italics in original.

References
1. ^
 Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (2012).  Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in
Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 171.  ISBN  978-0-521-19621-5.
 Long, H. S. (2003).  "Astrology". In Carson, Thomas; Cerrito, Joann (eds.).  New Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Thomson/Gale. pp. 811–813. ISBN 0-7876-4005-0. p. 811.
 Thagard 1978, p. 229.
2. ^ "astrology". Oxford Dictionary of English. Oxford University Press. Archived from  the original on
19 July 2012. Retrieved  11 December  2015.
3. ^ "astrology". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Inc. Retrieved  11 December  2015.
4. ^ Bunnin, Nicholas; Yu, Jiyuan (2008).  The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy. John
Wiley & Sons. p.  57. doi:10.1002/9780470996379. ISBN 9780470997215.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Thagard, Paul R.  (1978). "Why Astrology is a Pseudoscience". Proceedings
of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. 1: 223–
234.  doi:10.1086/psaprocbienmeetp.1978.1.192639. S2CID  147050929.
6. ^ Jarry, Jonathan (9 October 2020).  "How Astrology Escaped the Pull of Science". Office for
Science and Society. McGill University. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b Koch-Westenholz, Ulla (1995). Mesopotamian astrology: an introduction to
Babylonian and Assyrian celestial divination. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
pp.  Foreword, 11. ISBN 978-87-7289-287-0.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Jeffrey Bennett; Megan Donohue; Nicholas Schneider; Mark Voit (2007). The
cosmic perspective  (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson/Addison-Wesley. pp.  82–
84.  ISBN  978-0-8053-9283-8.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b Kassell, Lauren (5 May 2010). "Stars, spirits, signs: towards a history of astrology
1100–1800". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and
Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 41 (2): 67–
69.  doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2010.04.001.  PMID  20513617.
10. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Porter, Roy  (2001). Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern
World. Penguin. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-0-14-025028-2.  he did not even trouble readers with
formal disproofs!
11. ^ Jump up to:a b Rutkin, H. Darell (2006).  "Astrology". In K. Park; L. Daston (eds.). Early Modern
Science. The Cambridge History of Science. Vol.  3.  Cambridge University Press. pp.  541–
561.  ISBN  0-521-57244-4. 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.
12. ^ Jump up to:a b Vishveshwara, C. V.; Biswas, S. K.; Mallik, D. C. V., eds. (1989). Cosmic
Perspectives: Essays Dedicated to the Memory of M.K.V. Bappu  (1. publ.  ed.). Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.  ISBN  978-0-521-34354-1.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b Peter D. Asquith, ed. (1978).  Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the
Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 1  (PDF). Dordrecht: Reidel.  ISBN  978-0-917586-05-
7. Archived  (PDF)  from the original on 9 October 2022.; "Chapter 7: Science and Technology:
Public Attitudes and Understanding". science and engineering indicators 2006. National Science
Foundation. Archived from the original on 1 February 2013. Retrieved 2 August  2016. 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]"...  " 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.
14. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Carlson, Shawn (1985).  "A double-blind test of
astrology"  (PDF). Nature. 318 (6045): 419–
425.  Bibcode:1985Natur.318..419C. doi:10.1038/318419a0. S2CID  5135208.  Archived  (PDF) fro
m the original on 9 October 2022.
15. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Zarka, Philippe (2011).  "Astronomy and astrology". Proceedings of the
International Astronomical Union. 5  (S260): 420–
425.  Bibcode:2011IAUS..260..420Z. doi:10.1017/S1743921311002602.
16. ^ Jump up to:a b David E. Pingree; Robert Andrew Gilbert.  "Astrology - Astrology in modern
times". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved  7 October  2012. 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.
17. ^ Harper, Douglas. "astrology". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved  6
December 2011.  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."
18. ^ "astrology, n.". Oxford English Dictionary  (Third ed.).  Oxford University Press. December
2021.  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.
19. ^ Rochberg, Francesca (1998).  Babylonian Horoscopes. American Philosophical Society.
pp.  ix. ISBN 978-0-87169-881-0.
20. ^ Campion, Nicholas (2009).  History of western astrology. Volume II, The medieval and modern
worlds (first  ed.). Continuum.  ISBN  978-1-4411-8129-9.
21. ^ Jump up to:a b Marshack, Alexander (1991).  The roots of civilization  : the cognitive beginnings of
man's first art, symbol and notation (Rev. and expanded ed.). Moyer Bell.  ISBN  978-1-55921-
041-6.
22. ^ Evelyn-White, Hesiod; with an English translation by Hugh G. (1977).  The Homeric hymns and
Homerica (Reprinted ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp.  663–677.  ISBN  978-
0-674-99063-0.  Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an
 end, is the right time 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
23. ^ Aveni, David H. Kelley, Eugene F. Milone (2005). Exploring ancient skies an encyclopedic
survey of archaeoastronomy  (Online  ed.). New York: Springer. p.  268. ISBN 978-0-387-95310-6.
24. ^ 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 PDF File Archived 2 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine
25. ^ 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.
26. ^ Jump up to:a b Rochberg-Halton, F. (1988). "Elements of the Babylonian Contribution to
Hellenistic Astrology". Journal of the American Oriental Society.  108  (1): 51–
62.  doi:10.2307/603245. JSTOR 603245. S2CID  163678063.
27. ^ Jump up to:a b Sun, Xiaochun; Kistemaker, Jacob (1997).  The Chinese sky during the Han:
constellating stars and society.  The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society.
Leiden: Brill.  Bibcode:1997csdh.book.....S.  doi:10.1163/9789004488755.  ISBN  978-90-04-
10737-3.
28. ^ Jump up to:a b al-Abbasi, Abeer Abdullah (August 2020).  "The Arabsʾ Visions of the Upper
Realm".  Marburg Journal of Religion.  University of Marburg.  22  (2): 1–
28.  doi:10.17192/mjr.2020.22.8301. ISSN 1612-2941. Retrieved  23 May  2022.
29. ^ Hughes, Richard (2004).  Lament, Death, and Destiny. Peter Lang. p.  87.
30. ^ Long 2005, p. 173.
31. ^ Long 2005, pp. 173–174.
32. ^ Long 2005, p. 177.
33. ^ Long 2005, p. 184.
34. ^ Long 2005, p. 186.
35. ^ Long 2005, p. 174.
36. ^ Barton 1994, p. 24.
37. ^ Holden 2006, pp. 11–13.
38. ^ Barton 1994, p. 20.
39. ^ Robbins 1940, p. xii, 'Introduction'.
40. ^ Campion, 2008. p. 173.
41. ^ Campion, 2008. p. 84.
42. ^ Campion, 2008. pp. 173–174.
43. ^ Jump up to:a b Barton, 1994. p. 32.
44. ^ Barton, 1994. p. 32–33.
45. ^ Campion, 2008. pp. 227–228.
46. ^ Parker, 1983. p. 16.
47. ^ "Juvenal, Satires. (1918). Satire 6". www.tertullian.org. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
48. ^ Barton, 1994. p. 43.
49. ^ Barton, 1994. p. 63.
50. ^ David Pingree, Jyotiḥśāstra (J. Gonda (Ed.) A History of Indian Literature, Vol VI Fasc 4), p.81
51. ^ Ayduz, Salim; Kalin, Ibrahim; Dagli, Caner (2014). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
Science, and Technology in Islam. Oxford University Press. p. 64.  ISBN  9780199812578.
52. ^ Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (1879). "VIII". The chronology of ancient nations. London, Pub.
for the Oriental translations fund of Great Britain & Ireland by W. H. Allen and
co.  LCCN  01006783.
53. ^ Houlding, Deborah (2010). "6: Historical sources and traditional approaches". Essays on the
History of Western Astrology. STA. pp. 2–7.
54. ^ Jump up to:a b Wood, 1970. p. 5
55. ^ Isidore of Seville (c. 600).  Etymologiae. pp.  L, 82, col. 170.
56. ^ Jump up to:a b Campion, 1982. p. 44.
57. ^ Campion, 1982. p. 45.
58. ^ Jump up to:a b Campion, 1982. p. 46.
59. ^ North, John David (1986). "The eastern origins of the Campanus (Prime Vertical) method.
Evidence from al-Bīrūnī". Horoscopes and history. Warburg Institute. pp. 175–176.
60. ^ Jump up to:a b Durling, Robert M. (January 1997). "Dante's Christian Astrology. by Richard Kay.
Review". Speculum.  72  (1): 185–187.  doi:10.2307/2865916.  JSTOR  2865916.  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. ... 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.
61. ^ Woody, Kennerly M. (1977). "Dante and the Doctrine of the Great Conjunctions".  Dante
Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society. 95 (95): 119–134.  JSTOR  40166243. 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.]
62. ^ Gower, John (1390).  Confessio Amantis. pp. VII, 670–84. 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.
63. ^ Wood, 1970. p. 6
64. ^ Allen, Don Cameron (1941).  Star-crossed Renaissance. Duke University Press. p.  148.
65. ^ Jump up to:a b Wood, 1970. pp. 8–11
66. ^ Coopland, G. W. (1952).  Nicole Oresme and the Astrologers: A Study of his Livre de
Divinacions. Harvard University Press; Liverpool University Press.
67. ^ Vanderjagt, A.J. (1985). Laurens Pignon, O.P.: Confessor of Philip the Good. Venlo, The
Netherlands: Jean Mielot.
68. ^ Veenstra, 1997. pp. 5, 32, passim
69. ^ Veenstra, 1997. p. 184
70. ^ Dijksterhuis, Eduard Jan (1986).  The mechanization of the world picture. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
71. ^ Martin, Craig (2021). Pietro Pomponazzi.  Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics
Research Lab, Stanford University.
72. ^ Campion, 1982. p. 47.
73. ^ Rabin, Sheila J. (2010).  "Pico and the historiography of Renaissance astrology".  Explorations in
Renaissance Culture. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
74. ^ Caspar, Max (1993).  Kepler. Translated by Hellman, C. Doris. New York: Dover Publications.
pp.  181–182.  ISBN  0-486-67605-6. OCLC  28293391.
75. ^ Harkness, Deborah E. (2007).  The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the Scientific
Revolution. Yale University Press. p. 105.  ISBN  978-0-300-14316-4.
76. ^ Jump up to:a b Harkness, Deborah E. (2007).  The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the
Scientific Revolution. Yale University Press. p.  133. ISBN 978-0-300-14316-4.
77. ^ Astronomical diagrams by Thomas Hood, Mathematician  (Vellum, in oaken cases). British
Library: British Library. c. 1597.
78. ^ Johnston, Stephen (July 1998).  "The astrological instruments of Thomas Hood". XVII
International Scientific Instrument Symposium. Soro. Retrieved 12 June  2013.
79. ^ Vanden Broeke, Steven (2001). "Dee, Mercator, and Louvain Instrument Making: An
Undescribed Astrological Disc by Gerard Mercator (1551)". Annals of Science.  58  (3): 219–
240.  doi:10.1080/00033790016703.  S2CID 144443271.
80. ^ Pfeffer, Michelle (2021). "The Society of Astrologers (c.1647–1684): sermons, feasts and the
resuscitation of astrology in seventeenth-century London". The British Journal for the History of
Science. 54 (2): 133–
153.  doi:10.1017/S0007087421000029.  PMID  33719982. S2CID  232232073.
81. ^ Jump up to:a b c Campion, Nicholas (2009). History of western astrology. Volume II, The
medieval and modern worlds (first  ed.). London: Continuum.  ISBN  978-1-4411-8129-9. At the
same time, in Switzerland, the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was developing
sophisticated theories concerning astrology  ...
82. ^ Jung, C.G.; Hull (1973). Adler, Gerhard (ed.).  C.G. Jung Letters: 1906–1950. in collaboration
with Aniela Jaffé; translations from the German by R.F.C. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press. ISBN 978-0-691-09895-1.  Letter from Jung to Freud, 12 June 1911 "I made horoscopic
calculations in order to find a clue to the core of psychological truth."
83. ^ 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
84. ^ Campion, Nicholas. "Prophecy, Cosmology and the New Age Movement. The Extent and
Nature of Contemporary Belief in Astrology."(Bath Spa University College, 2003) via Campion,
Nicholas, History of Western Astrology, (Continuum Books, London & New York, 2009) pp. 248,
256, ISBN 978-1-84725-224-1
85. ^ The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, v.5, 1974, p. 916
86. ^ Dietrich, Thomas: The Origin of Culture and Civilization, Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists,
2005, p. 305
87. ^ Philip P. Wiener, ed. (1974). Dictionary of the history of ideas. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-
0-684-13293-8.
88. ^ James R. Lewis, 2003. The Astrology Book: the Encyclopedia of Heavenly Influences. Visible
Ink Press. Online at Google Books.
89. ^ Hone, Margaret (1978). The Modern Text-Book of Astrology. Romford: L. N. Fowler. pp. 21–
89.  ISBN  978-0-85243-357-7.
90. ^ Riske, Kris (2007). Llewellyn's Complete Book of Astrology. Minnesota, USA: Llewellyn
Publications. pp.  5–6, 27.  ISBN  978-0-7387-1071-6.
91. ^ Jump up to:a b Kremer, Richard (1990). "Horoscopes and History. by J. D. North; A History of
Western Astrology. by S. J. Tester". Speculum.  65  (1): 206–
209.  doi:10.2307/2864524.  JSTOR  2864524.
92. ^ Pelletier, Robert; Cataldo, Leonard (1984). Be Your Own Astrologer. Pan. pp.  57–60.
93. ^ Fenton, Sasha (1991). Rising Signs. Aquarian Press. pp.  137–9.
94. ^ Luhrmann, Tanya (1991).  Persuasions of the witch's craft: ritual magic in contemporary
England. Harvard University Press. pp.  147–151.  ISBN  978-0-674-66324-4.
95. ^ Subbarayappa, B. V. (14 September 1989). "Indian astronomy: An historical perspective". In
Biswas, S. K.; Mallik, D. C. V.;  Vishveshwara, C. V.  (eds.).  Cosmic Perspectives. Cambridge
University Press. pp.  25–40.  ISBN  978-0-521-34354-1. 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...
96. ^ Pingree, David (18 December 1978). "Indian Astronomy".  Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society.  122  (6): 361–364.  JSTOR  986451.
97. ^ Pingree, David (2001). "From Alexandria to Baghdād to Byzantium. The Transmission of
Astrology".  International Journal of the Classical Tradition. 8  (1): 3–
37.  Bibcode:2003IJCT...10..487G.  doi:10.1007/bf02700227. JSTOR 30224155.  S2CID 1620304
87.
98. ^ Werner, Karel  (1993). "The Circle of Stars: An Introduction to Indian Astrology by Valerie J.
Roebuck. Review". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.  56  (3): 645–
646.  doi:10.1017/s0041977x00008326.  JSTOR  620756.  S2CID 162270467.
99. ^ Burgess, James (October 1893). "Notes on Hindu Astronomy and the History of Our Knowledge
of It". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 717–
761.  JSTOR  25197168.
100. ^ Pingree, David (June 1963). "Astronomy and Astrology in India and Iran". Isis. The
University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society. 54 (2): 229–
246.  Bibcode:1963Isis...65..229P. doi:10.1086/349703.  JSTOR  228540.  S2CID 128083594.
101. ^ Stephenson, F. Richard (26 June 1980).  "Chinese roots of modern astronomy".  New
Scientist. 86 (1207): 380–383.
102. ^ Theodora Lau, The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes, pp 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
103. ^ Selin, Helaine, ed. (1997). "Astrology in China".  Encyclopaedia of the History of
Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer. ISBN 9780792340669.
Retrieved 22 July  2012.
104. ^ "การเปลีย
่ นวันใหม่ การนับวัน ทางโหราศาสตร์ไทย การเปลีย ่ นปี นักษั ตร โหราศาสตร์ ดูดวง
ทำนายทายทัก ('The transition to the new astrological dates Thailand. Changing zodiac astrology
horoscope prediction')". Archived from the original  on 3 January 2011. (in Thai)
105. ^ Veenstra, J.R. (1997). Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text
and Context of Laurens Pignon's "Contre les Devineurs" (1411). Brill. pp. 184–185. ISBN 978-90-
04-10925-4.
106. ^ Jump up to:a b Hess, Peter M.J.; Allen, Paul L. (2007). Catholicism and
science  (1st  ed.). Westport: Greenwood. p. 11.  ISBN  978-0-313-33190-9.
107. ^ Saliba, George  (1994b). A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the
Golden Age of Islam. New York University Press. pp. 60, 67–69.  ISBN  978-0-8147-8023-7.
108. ^ Belo, Catarina (23 February 2007).  Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and
Averroes. Brill. p. 228.  doi:10.1163/ej.9789004155879.i-252.  ISBN  978-90-474-1915-0.
109. ^ "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
110. ^ Jump up to:a b Livingston, John W. (1971). "Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth
Century Defense against Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation".  Journal of the
American Oriental Society. 91 (1): 96–103. doi:10.2307/600445.  JSTOR  600445.
111. ^ Jump up to:a b Luther, Martin (2017).  Martin Luther's Table Talk. Gideon House Books.
p. 502.  ISBN  978-1640079601.
112. ^ Stravinskas, Peter M.J., ed. (1998). Our Sunday visitor's Catholic
encyclopedia (Rev.  ed.). Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor Pub. p. 111.  ISBN  978-0-87973-
669-9.
113. ^ "Catechism of the Catholic Church - Part 3". Retrieved  8 July 2012.
114. ^ Sven Ove Hansson; Edward N. Zalta.  "Science and Pseudo-Science". Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved  6 July 2012.  [...] advocates of pseudo-sciences such as
astrology and homeopathy tend to describe their theories as conformable to mainstream science.
115. ^ "Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic's Resource List". Astronomical Society of the
Pacific.
116. ^ Hartmann, P.; Reuter, M.; Nyborga, H. (May 2006). "The relationship between date of
birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence: A large-scale
study". Personality and Individual Differences.  40  (7): 1349–
1362.  doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.017.  To optimise the chances of finding even remote
relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and intelligence we
further applied two different strategies. The first one was based on the common chronological
concept of time (e.g. month of birth and season of birth). The second strategy was based on the
(pseudo-scientific) concept of astrology (e.g. Sun Signs, The Elements, and astrological gender),
as discussed in the book Astrology: Science or superstition?  by Eysenck and Nias (1982).
117. ^ Culver, Roger B.; Ianna, Philip A. (1988). Astrology True or False?: A Scientific
Evaluation. Prometheus Books. ISBN 9780879754839.
118. ^ McGrew, John H.; McFall, Richard M. (1990).  "A Scientific Inquiry into the Validity of
Astrology"  (PDF).  Journal of Scientific Exploration. Vol. 4, no.  1. pp. 75–83. Archived  (PDF)  from
the original on 9 October 2022.[unreliable source?]
119. ^ "Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists". The Humanist,
September/October 1975. Archived from  the original on 18 March 2009.; The
Humanist Archived 7 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine, volume 36, no.5 (1976); Bok, Bart
J.; Lawrence E. Jerome; Paul Kurtz (1982). "Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186
Leading Scientists". In Patrick Grim (ed.).  Philosophy of Science and the Occult. Albany: State
University of New York Press. pp.  14–18.  ISBN  978-0-87395-572-0.
120. ^ Allum, Nick (13 December 2010). "What Makes Some People Think Astrology Is
Scientific?".  Science Communication. 33 (3): 341–
366.  CiteSeerX 10.1.1.598.6954. doi:10.1177/1075547010389819.  S2CID 53334767.  This
underlies the  Barnum effect. Named after the 19th-century showman Phileas T. Barnum—whose
circus provided "a little something for everyone"—it refers to the idea that people believe a
statement about their personality that is vague or trivial if they think it derives from some
systematic procedure tailored especially for them (Dickson & Kelly, 1985; Furnham & Schofield,
1987; Rogers & Soule, 2009; Wyman & Vyse, 2008). For example, the more birth detail is used in
an astrological prediction or horoscope, the more credulous people tend to be (Furnham, 1991).
However, confirmation bias means that people do not tend to pay attention to other information
that might disconfirm the credibility of the predictions.
121. ^ Jump up to:a b c Nickerson, Raymond S. Nickerson (1998). "Confirmation Bias: A
Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises".  Review of General Psychology. 2. 2  (2): 175–
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Sources
 Barton, Tamsyn (1994). Ancient Astrology. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-11029-
7.
 Holden, James Herschel (2006). A History of Horoscopic Astrology (2nd ed.).
AFA. ISBN 978-0-86690-463-6.
 Long, A.A. (2005). "6: Astrology: arguments pro and contra". In Barnes,
Jonathan; Brunschwig, J. (eds.). Science and Speculation. Studies in Hellenistic
theory and practice. Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–191.
 Robbins, Frank E., ed. (1940). Ptolemy Tetrabiblos. Harvard University Press
(Loeb Classical Library). ISBN 978-0-674-99479-9.
 Beck, Roger (2007). A brief history of ancient astrology. Malden, MA: Blackwell
Pub. ISBN 978-0-470-77377-2. OCLC 214281257.
 Rochberg, Francesca (10 July 2018). "Astral Sciences of Ancient Mesopotamia".
In Keyser, Paul T.; Scarborough, John (eds.). Oxford Handbook of Science and
Medicine in the Classical World. Oxford University Press. pp. 24–
34. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734146.013.62. ISBN 978-0-19-973414-6.
 Ruggles, C. L. N.; Saunders, Nicholas J. (1993). Astronomies and cultures :
papers derived from the third "Oxford" International Symposium on
 Archaeoastronomy, St. Andrews, UK, September 1990. Niwot, Colo.: University
Press of Colorado. ISBN 0-87081-319-6. OCLC 28929580.
 Campion, Nicholas (7 July 2014). "Astrology as Cultural Astronomy". Handbook
of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. New York, NY: Springer New York.
pp. 103–116. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_16. ISBN 978-1-4614-6140-1.
 Grim, Patrick (1990). Philosophy of science and the occult. Albany: State
University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-0204-5. OCLC 21196067.

Further reading
 Campion, Nicholas (1982). An Introduction to the History of Astrology. ISCWA.
 Campion, Nicholas (2008). A History of Western Astrology. The Ancient World
(vol. 1). London Continuum. ISBN 9781441127372.
 Kay, Richard (1994). Dante's Christian Astrology. Middle Ages Series. University
of Pennsylvania Press.
 Parker, Derek; Parker, Julia (1983). A history of astrology. Deutsch. ISBN 978-
0-233-97576-4.
 Tester, S. J. (1999). A History of Western Astrology. Boydell & Brewer.
 Veenstra, J.R. (1997). Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and
France: Text and Context of Laurens Pignon's "Contre les Devineurs" (1411).
Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10925-4.
 Wedel, Theodore Otto (1920). The Medieval Attitude Toward Astrology:
Particularly in England. Yale University Press.
 Wood, Chauncey (1970). Chaucer and the Country of the Stars: Poetical Uses of
Astrological Imagery. Princeton University
Press. ISBN 9780691061726. OCLC 1148223228.

External links
 Digital International Astrology Library (ancient astrological works)
 Biblioastrology (www.biblioastrology.com) (specialised bibliography)
 Paris Observatory
 Astrology – Merriam-Webster
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