After the fall of Rome, astrology went into a decline—actually more of a total eclipse—from which it did not recover until after A.D. 1200.
One of the reasons for its decline is that astrology became very linked with superstition during the Roman era. When Christianity became widespread, astrology was opposed as the work of the devil and its study vigorously discouraged. St. Augustine (354–430) was one of those in the early Church who vehemently preached against the practice of astrology.
Though there was little astrology practiced in Europe during this time, it did not disappear completely. It merely changed its principal residence for a time. In the Arab world astrology remained a serious science. One of the great and most renowned Arab astrologers is Albumassar (805–886), and translations of his writings found their way into Europe and were influential in turning the tide back toward astrology.
Another influence in turning the tide was the renowned Church figure St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). He lent legitimacy to the study of the stars when he declared, “The celestial bodies are the cause of all that takes place in the sublunar world.”
By the time of the Renaissance, astrology was in full bloom again. The Catholic popes now used astrology as a matter of course, and Leo X (1475–1521) had many astrologers on staff at the papal court. The di Medici family, the ruling princes of Italy from around 1400 to 1600, were great patrons of astrology along with arts and literature. Catherine di Medici was influenced by Nostradamus, the famous French astrologer and physician. He correctly predicted the death of her husband Henry II—and its exact circumstances—four years before it happened.
In the sixteenth century, a lonely and frightened young princess in prison, facing possible death, had her horoscope read by a Dr. John Dee. Dee told her that she would live to ascend to the throne. Throughout the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Dr. Dee continued to advise her on affairs of state as well as on her more personal affairs.
One of the famous names in astrology at that time is William Lilly (1602–1681), an English astrologer who accurately predicted the Great Fire of London. As a result, he was summoned before Parliament and charged with having conspired to set the fire. He was later acquitted.
Toward the end of the seventeenth century, astrology again fell into disfavor. The succeeding century was known as the Age of Enlightenment, and astrology was linked with superstition and occultism.
During these skeptical times, in 1781, Sir William Herschel discovered a new planet, first called Herschel and then renamed Uranus. This contributed to a growing feeling by the public that astrologers simply had their facts wrong when giving their chart of the heavens. Astrologers also had to accommodate to the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846 and the discovery of Pluto in 1930. This did not prove hard to do. Just as astronomers were doing, astrologers simply enlarged their vision of the universe. The three new planets are now very much a part of modern astrology.
The founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875 by Madame Helena Blavatsky started astrology on the comeback trail. The aims of the society were to encourage the study of comparative religions and to investigate unexplained laws of nature. The Theosophical Society played a large part in the revival of intellectual interest in astrology, and many prominent astrologers of the day were active in the society.
Around the turn of the century, two very popular astrologers helped to bring astrology to millions. In effect, they discovered the power of the media to promote ideas. Alan Leo, a British astrologer, published an influential magazine called The Astrologer’s Magazine. In 1914 he was taken to court for being a fortune-teller. The case was dismissed. In 1917 he was prosecuted again, and this time fined twenty five pounds. Alan Leo’s magazine, renamed Modern Astrology, flourished and gained many new converts to astrology. Leo lectured widely and wrote a number of astrology textbooks, still in use today. His were the first books that explained astrology to the layperson.
The famed astrologer Evangeline Adams has been called the First American Astrologer. Miss Adams’s reputation was established during her first visit to New York when she said that the hotel in which she was staying “was under the worst possible combination of planets, bringing conditions terrifying in their unfriendliness.” That night the hotel burned to the ground.
In 1914 (the same year as Alan Leo’s trial in England), Miss Adams was also brought to trial in America. She, too, was charged as a fortune-teller. In court she was given an anonymous horoscope to interpret. The horoscope was that of the judge’s son. Miss Adams’s reading was so accurate that the judge congratulated her, remarking that “the defendant raises astrology to the dignity of an exact science.” He dismissed the charge against her. By 1930 Evangeline Adams had a very popular radio program on astrology, which won hundreds of thousands of converts.
During World War Two, Nazi leaders used astrology for propaganda purposes. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, had a number of astrologers on his staff, among them one Karl Ernst Krafft, who translated and reinterpreted the predictions of Nostradamus in ways that seemed to favor the Nazi cause. Krafft fell from grace after Rudolph Hess’s defection to England. (The Nazis blamed astrology for Hess’s defection, saying he was “crazed by astrologers.”) Krafft later died in a concentration camp.
Beginning in the 1960s, we have seen a new resurgence of interest in astrology. It is not just popular with the younger generation or with those who read newspaper horoscopes every day. It is also the subject of serious research. More people are learning more about this oldest science all the time.
In 1988, astrology became headline news when a White House adviser revealed that First Lady Nancy Reagan, wife of President Ronald Reagan, regularly consulted a personal astrologer. Mrs. Reagan apparently used her astrologer’s advice to schedule key events and ppointments, both for herself and her husband. Understandably, this created a great stir in the media and the general public, who felt that astrology should not be a controlling factor in national politics. Mrs. Reagan defended herself, saying she sought the support and counsel of an astrologer, who became her confidante, only after her husband’s near-fatal brush with an assassin’s bullet on March 30, 1981. The astrological community has long understood that the Reagans consulted astrologers as far back as the 1960s, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California.
Nancy Reagan’s description of her relationship with her astrologer is interesting. Joan Quigley, the astrologer, became a psychological support for Mrs. Reagan, an intimate friend who listened sympathetically to her problems and anxieties. The value of this role of counselor and supporter is often overlooked when arguing the pros and cons of astrology and, indeed, is in itself a great benefit to those who seek the advice of an astrologer.
More and more, astrology has entered the mainstream of our culture. It is no longer considered out of the ordinary for people in business, commerce, banking, the law, the arts, politics––in fact, almost every major profession––to consult a personal astrologer.
One of the reasons for its decline is that astrology became very linked with superstition during the Roman era. When Christianity became widespread, astrology was opposed as the work of the devil and its study vigorously discouraged. St. Augustine (354–430) was one of those in the early Church who vehemently preached against the practice of astrology.
Though there was little astrology practiced in Europe during this time, it did not disappear completely. It merely changed its principal residence for a time. In the Arab world astrology remained a serious science. One of the great and most renowned Arab astrologers is Albumassar (805–886), and translations of his writings found their way into Europe and were influential in turning the tide back toward astrology.
Another influence in turning the tide was the renowned Church figure St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). He lent legitimacy to the study of the stars when he declared, “The celestial bodies are the cause of all that takes place in the sublunar world.”
By the time of the Renaissance, astrology was in full bloom again. The Catholic popes now used astrology as a matter of course, and Leo X (1475–1521) had many astrologers on staff at the papal court. The di Medici family, the ruling princes of Italy from around 1400 to 1600, were great patrons of astrology along with arts and literature. Catherine di Medici was influenced by Nostradamus, the famous French astrologer and physician. He correctly predicted the death of her husband Henry II—and its exact circumstances—four years before it happened.
In the sixteenth century, a lonely and frightened young princess in prison, facing possible death, had her horoscope read by a Dr. John Dee. Dee told her that she would live to ascend to the throne. Throughout the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Dr. Dee continued to advise her on affairs of state as well as on her more personal affairs.
One of the famous names in astrology at that time is William Lilly (1602–1681), an English astrologer who accurately predicted the Great Fire of London. As a result, he was summoned before Parliament and charged with having conspired to set the fire. He was later acquitted.
Toward the end of the seventeenth century, astrology again fell into disfavor. The succeeding century was known as the Age of Enlightenment, and astrology was linked with superstition and occultism.
During these skeptical times, in 1781, Sir William Herschel discovered a new planet, first called Herschel and then renamed Uranus. This contributed to a growing feeling by the public that astrologers simply had their facts wrong when giving their chart of the heavens. Astrologers also had to accommodate to the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846 and the discovery of Pluto in 1930. This did not prove hard to do. Just as astronomers were doing, astrologers simply enlarged their vision of the universe. The three new planets are now very much a part of modern astrology.
The founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875 by Madame Helena Blavatsky started astrology on the comeback trail. The aims of the society were to encourage the study of comparative religions and to investigate unexplained laws of nature. The Theosophical Society played a large part in the revival of intellectual interest in astrology, and many prominent astrologers of the day were active in the society.
Around the turn of the century, two very popular astrologers helped to bring astrology to millions. In effect, they discovered the power of the media to promote ideas. Alan Leo, a British astrologer, published an influential magazine called The Astrologer’s Magazine. In 1914 he was taken to court for being a fortune-teller. The case was dismissed. In 1917 he was prosecuted again, and this time fined twenty five pounds. Alan Leo’s magazine, renamed Modern Astrology, flourished and gained many new converts to astrology. Leo lectured widely and wrote a number of astrology textbooks, still in use today. His were the first books that explained astrology to the layperson.
The famed astrologer Evangeline Adams has been called the First American Astrologer. Miss Adams’s reputation was established during her first visit to New York when she said that the hotel in which she was staying “was under the worst possible combination of planets, bringing conditions terrifying in their unfriendliness.” That night the hotel burned to the ground.
In 1914 (the same year as Alan Leo’s trial in England), Miss Adams was also brought to trial in America. She, too, was charged as a fortune-teller. In court she was given an anonymous horoscope to interpret. The horoscope was that of the judge’s son. Miss Adams’s reading was so accurate that the judge congratulated her, remarking that “the defendant raises astrology to the dignity of an exact science.” He dismissed the charge against her. By 1930 Evangeline Adams had a very popular radio program on astrology, which won hundreds of thousands of converts.
During World War Two, Nazi leaders used astrology for propaganda purposes. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, had a number of astrologers on his staff, among them one Karl Ernst Krafft, who translated and reinterpreted the predictions of Nostradamus in ways that seemed to favor the Nazi cause. Krafft fell from grace after Rudolph Hess’s defection to England. (The Nazis blamed astrology for Hess’s defection, saying he was “crazed by astrologers.”) Krafft later died in a concentration camp.
Beginning in the 1960s, we have seen a new resurgence of interest in astrology. It is not just popular with the younger generation or with those who read newspaper horoscopes every day. It is also the subject of serious research. More people are learning more about this oldest science all the time.
In 1988, astrology became headline news when a White House adviser revealed that First Lady Nancy Reagan, wife of President Ronald Reagan, regularly consulted a personal astrologer. Mrs. Reagan apparently used her astrologer’s advice to schedule key events and ppointments, both for herself and her husband. Understandably, this created a great stir in the media and the general public, who felt that astrology should not be a controlling factor in national politics. Mrs. Reagan defended herself, saying she sought the support and counsel of an astrologer, who became her confidante, only after her husband’s near-fatal brush with an assassin’s bullet on March 30, 1981. The astrological community has long understood that the Reagans consulted astrologers as far back as the 1960s, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California.
Nancy Reagan’s description of her relationship with her astrologer is interesting. Joan Quigley, the astrologer, became a psychological support for Mrs. Reagan, an intimate friend who listened sympathetically to her problems and anxieties. The value of this role of counselor and supporter is often overlooked when arguing the pros and cons of astrology and, indeed, is in itself a great benefit to those who seek the advice of an astrologer.
More and more, astrology has entered the mainstream of our culture. It is no longer considered out of the ordinary for people in business, commerce, banking, the law, the arts, politics––in fact, almost every major profession––to consult a personal astrologer.