Sunday Edition #3 Astrology - What Sign Are You

SUNDAY EDITION #3

Astrology – What Sign Are You?

Almost every newspaper has it and you can find whole magazines dedicated to Astrology on your newsstand.  When you meet someone new these days they may start the conversation questioning you about your sign.  We all know what they mean, they want to know which constellation was prominent in the sky on the day you were born.  For me, being born in early November, it was the constellation Scorpio. But, then again, if I had been born in let’s say Australia, another constellation would have been looking over me as I was born.  I don’t know which constellation that is, but I know it would not be Scorpio.  That brings me to my first objection to the belief system espoused by the believers in astrology, the constellations that are said to be controlling factors in our life can only be seen north of the equator.  Fully half of the earth is not covered by the constellations said to control our fate.  Secondly, the astrological charts are divided up into twelve equal portions, one portion for each month. This makes for a pretty display but it is not true to reality.  Not all constellations are made equal.  Some are larger and some are smaller.  So someone said to be born under the control of one constellation may, in fact, have been born when another was actually overhead.  It is not a scientific system.

Some people, even some Christians, place real faith in horoscopes.  For non-believers the practice fills a need for a belief in something other than self and can be used to explain the successes and failures of life, “the stars were or were not aligned.” 

Believers in astrology will tell how they have all of the characteristics of their “star sign.”  In many cases this is due to self-fulfilling prophecy, they align their actions to what they believe is expected of them.  Some of the so-called characteristics are just the normal variants of human nature and the fact that they line up with the star sign is just coincidence.

The Church minces no words over her thoughts on the pseudo-science of astrology.  In her Catechism she says “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 22116)

In short, the belief in horoscopes is an offense against the first commandment.  The ancient world believed that the stars were gods and goddesses.

The New Age movement has reinvigorated many pagan beliefs and has ascribed them to the beginning of a new age, the Age of Aquarius where humanity takes control of the earth and its destiny with humanity becoming conscious of truth and some people who experience this will be recognized as leaders. Also, religion will be considered offensive, that it will be a new Dark Age.

But, I hear you saying, there is no harm in reading the silly horoscopes that we find in the newspaper is there?  Unfortunately, many people feel that way.  Let me ask you a question.  It would not be too dangerous to just crack a door open where a hungry bear is waiting on the other side to get in and eat you, I mean just a crack.  Open the door once and bear might not notice.  Do it again and still, he might see but be surprised and not be ready for you. The third time, you crack the door open and the bear comes tearing in and you are invited to lunch with him.  Why open the door to the devil by reading these little bits of nonsense.  The effect of reading these “harmless” predictions of your future will make you insensitive to the other novel New Age thinking that is invading your spiritual life.  Heaven help us on the day you read your horoscope that predicts you will be coming into some money and low and behold at lunchtime you find a twenty dollar bill on the floor! This coincidence places a wedge in the wall of your spiritual defenses. Taken to its end, on that day the crack in the door of your soul becomes terminally wide and you do not have the strength to resist and the enemy overcomes your defenses and bursts into your soul and you are his.  I am NOT exaggerating.

I will leave you with what the  Church Fathers say about this subject For this section I thank Catholic Answers (I have added the emphasis):

 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]). 

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 First Corinthians 4:11 [A.D. 392]). 

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]). 

"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

“Demons 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 2:16–17 [A.D. 307]). 

St.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 7:6:8–10 [A.D. 400]). 

"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]). 

“Every man twists for himself a rope by his sins. . . . Who makes a long rope? He who adds sin to sin. . . . 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. 22:13]. For ‘with the cords of his own sins everyone is bound’ [Prov. 5:22]" (ibid., 10:5).