Astrology

   The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "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" (CCC 2116).
   
   The pagan world was dominated by belief in astrology. Pagans believed
   that the stars were divinities or that they were controlled by
   divinities. Apollo was the god of the Sun, his sister Diana was the
   goddess of the Moon, and the known planets were named after gods as
   well (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). Because of this
   common pagan belief, the Old Testament contains repeated injunctions
   against star-worship (Deut. 4:19, 17:3, 2 Kgs. 17:16, 21:3Jer. 8:2,
   19:12Zeph. 1:4
   
   In the New Testament age, astrologers taught that all things were in
   the grip of Fate, which could assign one destiny to one man and
   another destiny to another. Fate was extremely powerful and sometimes
   was even said to rule the gods. However, what destiny Fate would
   assign to a man could be determined by reading the stars.
   
   Today some Christians are influenced by revived paganism in the form
   of the New Age movement. Some even suggest that Christianity
   originally held many occult beliefs, such as astrology. But the early
   Christians, like the early Jews, were vehemently opposed to astrology,
   even attributing it to demonic origin.
   
   The Church Fathers were willing to impose strong sanctions against
   astrology to protect their flocks. In A.D. 120, the noted
   mathematician Aquila Ponticus was excommunicated from the Church at
   Rome for astrological heresies. In the quotes below, Augustine records
   that such sanctions were still in force in his day, three centuries
   later, and could result in a person's being excommunicated.
   
   
   
    Tatian the Syrian
    
   "[Under the influence of demons] men form the material of their
   apostasy. For, having shown them a plan of the position of the stars,
   like dice-players, they introduce Fate, a flagrant injustice. For the
   judge and the judged are made so by Fate, the murderers and the
   murdered, the wealthy and the needy--[all are] the offspring of the
   same Fate" (Address to the Greeks 8 [A.D. 170])
   
   
   
    Tatian the Syrian
    
   "Such are the demons; these are they who laid down the doctrine of
   Fate. Their fundamental principle was the placing of animals in the
   heavens [as constellations] . . . these they dignified with celestial
   honor, in order that they might themselves be thought to remain in
   heaven and, by placing the constellations there, might make to appear
   rational the irrational course of life on earth. Thus the
   high-spirited and he who is crushed with toil, the temperate and the
   intemperate, the indigent and the wealthy, are what they are simply
   from the controllers of their nativity. For the delineation of the
   zodiacal circle is the work of the 'gods' . . . . But we are superior
   to Fate, and instead of wandering demons, we have learned to know one
   Lord, who wanders not" (ibid., 9).
   
   
   
    Tertullian
    
   "We observe among the arts also some professions liable to the charge
   of idolatry. Of astrologers, there should be no speaking even; but
   since one in these days has challenged us, defending on his own behalf
   perseverance in that profession, I will use a few words. I allege not
   that he honors idols, whose names he has inscribed on the heaven, to
   whom he has attributed all God's power. . . . One proposition I lay
   down: that those angels, the deserters of God [demons] . . . were
   likewise the discoverers of this curious art [astrology], on that
   account also condemned by God" (Idolatry 9 [A.D. 211]).
   
   
   
    The Recognitions of Clement
    
   "Therefore the astrologers, being ignorant of such mysteries, think
   that these things [the disasters brought about by when demons inspire
   human sin] happen by the courses of the heavenly bodies; hence also,
   in their answers to those who go to them and consult them as to future
   things, they are deceived in very many instances. Nor is it to be
   wondered at, for they are not prophets; but , by long practice, the
   authors of errors find a sort of refuge in those things by which they
   were deceived, and introduce certain 'climacteric periods,' that they
   may pretend a knowledge of uncertain things. For they represent these
   'climacterics' as times of danger, in which one sometimes is
   destroyed, sometimes is not destroyed, not knowing that it is not the
   course of the stars but the operation of demons that regulates these
   things; and those demons, being anxious to confirm the error of
   astrology, deceive men to sin by mathematical calculations, so that
   when they suffer the punishment of sin, either by the permission of
   God or by legal sentence, the astrologer may seem to have spoken the
   truth" (Recognitions of Clement 9:12 [A.D. 221]).
   
   
   
    The Recognitions of Clement
    
   "[A]s usually happens when men see unfavorable dreams, and can make
   nothing certain out of them, when any event occurs, then they adapt
   what they saw in the dream to what has occurred; so also is [the]
   mathematics [of astrology]. For before anything happens, nothing is
   declared with certainty; but after something has happened, they gather
   the causes of the event. And thus often, when they have been at fault,
   and the thing has fallen out otherwise, they take the blame to
   themselves, saying that it was such and such a star which opposed, and
   that they did not see it; not knowing that their error does not
   proceed from their unskillfulness in their art, but from the
   inconsistency of the whole system. . . . But we who have learned the
   reason of this mystery know the cause since, having freedom of will,
   we sometimes oppose our desires and sometimes yield to them. And
   therefore the issue of human doings is uncertain, because it depends
   upon freedom of will. . . . And this is why ignorant astrologers have
   invented to themselves the talk about 'climacterics' as their refuge
   in uncertainties" (ibid., 10:12).
   
   
   
    Hippolytus
    
   "How impotent [the astrologers'] system is for comparing the forms and
   dispositions of men with names of stars! For we know that those
   originally conversant with such investigations have called the stars
   by names given reference to propriety of signification and facility
   for future recognition. But what similarity is there of these
   [constellations] with the likeness of animals, or what community of
   nature are regards conduct and energy, that one should allege that a
   person born in Leo should be irascible [like a lion] and that one born
   in Virgo moderate [like a virgin] or one born in Cancer wicked [like a
   crab]?" (Refutation of All Heresies 4:37 [A.D. 228]).
   
   
   
    Hippolytus
    
   "It has been easily made evident to all that the heresy of the Peratae
   is altered in name only from the [art] of the astrologers. And the
   rest of the books of these contain the same method, if it were
   agreeable to anyone to wade through them all" (ibid., 5:10).
   
   
   
    Lactantius
    
   "[D]emons are the enemies and harassers of men, and on this account
   [the sorcerer Hermes] Trismegistus calls them wicked angels; so far
   was he from being ignorant that from heavenly beings they were
   corrupted, and began to be earthly. These were the inventors of
   astrology, and of soothsaying, and divination, and those productions
   which are called oracles, and necromancy, and the art of magic, and
   whatever other evil practices these men exercise, either openly or in
   secret" (Divine Institutes 2:16
   
   
   
    Lactantius
    
   "[Demons] brought to light astrology, and augury, and divination; and
   though these things are in themselves false, yet they themselves, the
   authors of evils, so govern and regulate them that they are believed
   to be true. . . . Thus by their frauds they have drawn darkness over
   the human race, that truth might be oppressed, and the name of the
   supreme and matchless God might be forgotten" (Epitome of the Divine
   Institutes 28 [A.D. 317]).
   
   
   
    Synod of Laodicea
    
   "They who are of the priesthood or of the clergy shall not be
   magicians, enchanters, [planetary] 'mathematicians,' or astrologers"
   (canon 36 [A.D. 362]).
   
   
   
    Athanasius
    
   "They [astrologers] have fabricated books which they call books of
   [astrological] tables, in which they show stars, to which they have
   given the names of saints. And therein of a truth they have inflicted
   on themselves a double reproach, those who have written such books,
   because they have perfected themselves in a lying and contemptible
   science [astrology], and as to the ignorant and simple, they have led
   them astray by evil thoughts concerning the right faith established in
   truth and upright in the presence of God" (Easter Letter 39:1 [A.D.
   367]).
   
   
   
    Basil the Great
    
   "[T]hose who overstep the borders, making the words of Scripture ["And
   God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens . . .
   and let them be for signs and for seasons,'" Gen. 1:14] their apology
   for the art of casting nativities [horoscopes], pretend that our lives
   depend upon the motion of the heavenly bodies, and thus the Chaldeans
   read in the planets that which will happen to us. By these very simple
   words 'let them be for signs,' they understand neither the variations
   of the weather nor the change of seasons; they only see in them, at
   the will of their imagination, the distribution of human destines.
   What do they say in reality? When the planets cross in the signs of
   the Zodiac, certain figures formed by their meeting give birth to
   certain destinies, and others produce different destinies" (The Six
   Days Work 6:5 [A.D. 370]).
   
   
   
    John Chrysostom
    
   "Let us show forth by our actions all excellencies of conduct, and
   kindle abundantly the fire of virtue. For 'you are lights,' he [Paul]
   says, 'shining in the midst of the world' (Phil. 2:15). . . . And in
   fact a deep night oppresses the whole world. This is what we have to
   dispel and dissolve. It is night not among heretics and among Greeks
   only, but also in the multitude on our side, in respect of doctrines
   and of life. For many [Catholics] entirely disbelieve the
   resurrection; many fortify themselves with the horoscope; many adhere
   to superstitious observances, and to omens, and auguries, and
   presages" (Homilies on 1 Corinthians 4:11 [A.D. 392]).
   
   
   
    Augustine
    
   "Now I had also repudiated the lying divination and impious
   absurdities of the astrologers. . . . [and] I turned my thoughts to
   those that are born twins, who generally come out of the womb so near
   one to another that the small distance of time between them (however
   much force [astrologers] may contend that it has in the nature of
   things) cannot be noted by human observation or be expressed in those
   [planetary] figures which the astrologer is to examine that he may
   pronounce the truth. Nor can they be true; for looking into the same
   figures he must have foretold the same of Esau and Jacob, whereas the
   same did not happen to them. He must therefore speak falsely, or if
   truly, then, looking into the same figures he must not speak the same
   things. Not then by art but by chance would he speak truly"
   (Confessions 7:6:8
   
   
   
    Augustine
    
   "To whom then must we make an answer first--to the heretics or to the
   astrologers? For both come from the Serpent, and desire to corrupt the
   Church's virginity of heart, which she holds in undefiled faith"
   (Homilies on John 8:10 [A.D. 416]).
   
   
   
    Augustine
    
   "[E]very man twists for himself a rope by his sins. . . Who makes a
   long rope? He who adds sin to sin. How are sins added to sins? When
   the sins which have been committed are covered over by other sins. One
   has committed a theft. So that he may not be found out to have
   committed it, he seeks the astrologer [to prove his innocence]. It was
   enough to have committed the theft. Why will you add sin to sin?
   Behold! Two sins [are] committed! When you are forbidden to go to the
   astrologer, you revile the bishop. Behold! Three sins! When you hear
   it said of you, 'Cast him forth from the Church,' you say, 'I will go
   to the party of Donatus [the Donatist schism].' Behold! You add a
   fourth sin. The rope is growing. Be afraid of the rope. It is good for
   you to be corrected here, when you are scourged with it, that it may
   not be said of you at the last, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him
   forth into outer darkness' [Matt. 22:3] For 'with the cords of his own
   sins everyone is bound' [Pr. 5:22]" (ibid., 10:5).
   
   
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      Last modified May 25, 1996.