A Christian View of Astrology — Perspectives from a Catholic Social Scientist.
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Despite my Catholic upbringing, I remain fascinated by Astrology.
Although I maintain a strong aversion to Tarot Cards, Psychic Readings, Mediums, Palmistry, Wicca and especially Ouija Boards — the Social Scientist in me cannot escape the accuracy and historical relevance of Astrology.
For me, Astrology has nothing to do with the New Age movement.
We are not talking about generic Newspaper Astrology in this article — as the focus here is more along the lines of Natal Charts and World Event Charts.
I do not worship the constellations, I do not place my faith in the Moon, I do not engage in Mythological Rituals and I do not pray to a celestial body.
Those activities are specifically and exclusively reserved for my Catholic Faith and my relationship with God.
The purpose that Astrology does serve, for me, is more of a statistical and analytical one, as someone who studies the individual and collective human condition.
Although the Biblical Scholar in me is ever weary of the purported “sorcery” element of Astrology, I can’t seem to get the past the idea that God was the one who created our Universe.
Within his infinite wisdom, could it be that there is a cosmic order to his creation? A cosmic order that, perhaps, we can learn from — to better understand World Events and the general themes of our life.
In many ways, Astrology brought me much closer to my Catholic faith and assisted me in developing a relationship with both God and Jesus Christ — the opposite of what the Church warns will happen if we “dabble with the stars.”
Astrology has a long history of being demonized by The Church, as a product of primitive misuse and primal misunderstanding.
Although the Mythology assigned to the constellations themselves is an ancient bone to be picked by the Catholic Church — the New Age Movement of the 1970’s, in particular, adopted a very fatalistic and dogmatic view of the discipline — one which was more reflective of primitive interpretation.
For example, when you read material published in the 1970’s by an astrologer like…