Astrologers and The New Heretics

By Andy Thomas

The New Heretics, by Andy Thomas
Purchase at: amazon.com or amazon.co.uk

This article is an adapted extract from Andy Thomas’s new book The New Heretics (Watkins Publishing). Originally written for non-astrologers, it nonetheless offers some insightful thoughts about astrology’s role in the face of harsh mainstream skepticism and how its profile as a positive tool in difficult times could – and should – be raised.

Astrology and New Heresies

Astrology is a remarkable tool, sometimes referred to as the only reliable “map of the psyche” that we have. Yet, despite its continued refusal to ever go away, even in this technocratic age, astrology is often taken for granted and unpromoted by its adherents – and too often attacked by skeptical assailants who seem ignorant of even its most basic workings.

Although not a practitioner myself, I am married to the professional astrologer Helen Sewell (a tutor for MISPA, the Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology) and have long believed that astrology deserves an active and public rehabilitation. The media has been unable to entirely ignore the recent and significant rise in those drawn to astrological thinking, especially since the pandemic gave people both worries about the future and time on their hands to inspire them to investigate the craft, but the new fascination is too often presented merely as a crutch for desperate seekers, instead of as the supportive and genuinely useful instrument that it can be.1

As an author and lecturer on so-called “alternative” subjects for three decades, my investigations have taken me into many areas, including consciousness studies and paranormal and “conspiracy” research. I have long been concerned at the high levels of polarization between the mainstream and the communities which hold such interests. My new book The New Heretics attempts to add a nuanced voice into the circus of divisions currently tearing sections of society apart over such areas. From attitudes which marginalise complementary medicine and psychical research to the condemnation of those who do indeed believe in conspiracies and lack trust in the establishment – and their views in reverse – the book takes a fresh look at how a better balance could be found in how we deal with polarized opinions. The New Heretics identifies precisely how we have become so split in numerous directions and explores why so many people are now questioning all kinds of orthodoxy to become the titular new heretics of our times, condemned to be objects of derision and dismissal without there being any attempts to actually understand them.

Although subtitled, for the convenience of categorization, Understanding the Conspiracy Theories Polarizing the World, the book goes far beyond this remit to explore the mainstream treatment of many “fringe elements”, scrutinising the future of freedom of expression in a censorious world and expanding into an treatise on our relationship to truth, technology, politics, paranormal research and the mystery arts – and the future of humanity itself. Within its pages, I explore astrology as one example of a phenomenon which has not received its dues and is widely misunderstood. It is notable, for example, that Wikipedia currently opens its entry on the subject with these loaded words:

Astrology is a pseudoscience that claims to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects. It has no scientific validity or explanatory power.

The Skeptic View

Discussions being obstructed to the point of invisibility in the name of the collective good can be observed in a number of the supposed fringe areas examined in The Hew Heretics. Some are especially inflammatory, either because they concern matters of health (bitter disputes over vaccinations, for instance) or because they potentially affect the way we deal with the environment (climate debates, etc.). Other subjects, however, are contended because they tap into fundamental arguments about the very nature of the universe around us and inflame the ire of scientists who cannot accept the validity of certain claimed phenomena. In terms of the esoteric, astrology has long been a major target for scientific attack and snorting ridicule and it is generally excised from any serious coverage. As ever, we hear from its critics, and occasionally from light entertainment advocates, but rarely its more intellectual proponents, robbed of the chance to defend their art.

The astronomer Brian Cox has been a major nemesis of astrologers in Britain (my home), while Neil deGrasse Tyson has needled them on the opposite side of the Atlantic. How, they argue, could celestial bodies possibly influence moods and events on Earth? In the next breath they seem happy to explain the electromagnetic and gravitational pulls exerted, however slightly, on our planet and its life by the Moon and planets, even remote Jupiter, which has a small but measurable influence on the Earth’s orbit. It is equally accepted that remote stars can shower the Earth with cosmic rays, known to affect communications, climate and even DNA among other things.2

Such skeptics have the loudest voices in the mainstream because they wield enormous influence on an already closed-minded journalistic world. Another popular scientist who falls into this bracket is geneticist Richard Dawkins, while the most famous arch debunker of alternative views was, until his death in 2020, magician James Randi. Dawkins and Tyson are both members of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), which Randi helped found and which supposedly exists to “promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims” but mostly winds up being an active debunking operation, the guidance of which permeates the establishment.

Despite this, there are significant numbers of perfectly respectable scientists whose own research into unusual phenomena, particularly psychic, disagrees with its rejection. Modern examples include Dean Radin, Dick J Bierman and Rupert Sheldrake, to name but a few. They tend not to be celebrities in the way that some popular scientists now are, and thus receive little mainstream exposure, but they are respected in their fields – though all are now reclassified by their intellectual peers as outsiders. They are in good company: historical figures who had an interest in what we now call psychic or psi phenomena include eminent philosophers and psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung (see below) and Immanuel Kant, and mathematician Alan Turing.

The Scientific View

Finding loud scientific advocates of astrology seems harder than for psi studies, but three books have been particularly useful in supporting its validity to outside eyes: John Anthony West’s The Case for Astrology (Viking Adult, 1991) does what its title suggests and lays out well-argued reasons for why astrology works, if not how, while Percy Seymour’s The Scientific Proof of Astrology (Quantum/Foulsham, 2004 – first published as Astrology: The Evidence of Science, Arkana, 1988) proposes a persuasive astronomical model for at least some astrological qualities. Seymour risked his career by proposing that the movement of the planets through the solar wind and electromagnetic fields could, in theory, influence genetic patterns at different times of the year, hence the distinctive personality characteristics of the “signs”. Richard Tarnas, meanwhile, whose book The Passion of the Western Mind was seen as a key academic text on modern civilization, was, tellingly, suddenly less popular in the intellectual world when he wrote Cosmos and Psyche (Barnes and Noble, 2006), the remarkable tome that convincingly connects the development of human history with astrological cycles.

The Mars Effect, by Michel and Françoise Gauquelin
Source: Micheletbderivative work: Quibik, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Too many academics, while purporting to be open-minded as a true skeptic should be, have effectively declared a very narrow band of reality which they believe to be valid; anything that appears to fall outside of this or cannot be immediately replicated in a laboratory (a very difficult ask given the many variables of existence) simply cannot exist to their minds or is deemed unworthy of investigation. The demands placed on procuring absolute proof in order to prove the existence of esoteric or paranormal phenomena have been raised so high and the goalposts shifted so often that in the end no science of any kind could ever make the grade. Scientists, naturally, deny this. In their admirable attempts to try, however, the heretics who have investigated the likes of psi phenomena and astrology have actually exceeded normal expectations, with repeated experiments and successful results beyond statistical chance, as the oft-quoted classic studies into the “Mars Effect” by Michel and Francoise Gauquelin demonstrate.3 Positive results have been established enough times to demand at least further pursuance. Yet we hear almost nothing about these findings in the mainstream.

The shocking truth is that much straightforward and supposedly accepted science is in itself tentative and often not repeatable, in what has been described as the “reproducibility crisis” – so why isn’t repeatability acknowledged when it is achieved?4 The quality of “apophenia” (seeing patterns that aren’t really there) is used to disdain the claimed personality correlations of astrology but those who believe human behaviour can be affected by very tiny stimuli maintain that the relative positions of planetary bodies in particular cannot be ruled out as having an effect. In truth, of course, ascendants aside, it is mostly the sun, moon and planets that are seen to matter in astrology, rather than the stars, which act mainly as a geographical backdrop to track our system’s movements, although a “fixed star” astrologer might disagree. It is extraordinary how many denigrators of astrology do not seem to grasp even its fundamentals, although the term “star sign” (over “sun sign”) can inevitably sound a little misleading.

Possible Mechanisms

What mechanisms, then, might underpin the workings of astrology? This is a question which practitioners and aficionados often seem blasé or even resistant about attempting to answer. Unfortunately, “it just is” doesn’t sound good on the outside. In a world that demands at least a modicum of evidence (not that this necessarily determines what people believe), a little theorising should not be seen as a bad thing if it makes observers more open-minded and brings them to the table. For all the attempted explanations involving cosmic mechanics, even the astrologers who try can struggle to produce causal explanations for all aspects of their subject, some of which do seem mysterious, hence the scientific sneers. The varying and at first sight contradictory systems of astrology around the world are used to denigrate the subject as a whole; however, they may work outside of traditionally mechanistic restrictions and there are more correlations between them than is acknowledged.

Astrology, then, in true definition terms, can perhaps be currently defined as “unscientific” – for now. But that could change. It might be, as quantum experiments appear to imply, that an imprint of consciousness, like a voice being recorded on magnetic tape, is somehow exerted by the collective decision that a certain aspect or transit represents specific values – which gives it a genuine presence of some kind in the communal psychic or mental “internet”. Perhaps we then all tune in to this permanent construct and interact with other resonating undercurrents which subtly affect our behaviour from thereon. This could also be the case with religion. It may have something in common with dowsing experiments in which someone “creates” an energy point in a room by choosing a spot and simply declaring it is there, before inviting other dowsers in to find it – which they usually can, a successful experiment I have witnessed for myself. The exact principles that might support such a system may not be understood, or have not yet been properly investigated, but this doesn’t mean the system cannot exist. Ongoing quantum research, although used too often to justify too much, may nonetheless yet reveal layers of reality which could make more sense of things in due course.

Given the fierce objections some have toward astrology (including, oddly, religious minds: my own interests in the paranormal have also been inexplicably debunked by people quite happy to believe in supernatural prophets and angels), all these debates would perhaps be meaningless were it not for the fact that many argue that astrology works for them. The “how” is plainly less important to practitioners. Certainly, psychological traits in people born at specific times of the year can appear uncannily repeatable and an astrological chart can describe an individual personality with bizarre accuracy, impressing even people who struggle to believe in astrology. Statistical research – when conducted without prejudice – suggests that this cannot merely be chance. That global events and historical patterns are also claimed to correlate with astrological cycles, as the likes of Tarnas appears to demonstrate, takes it to another level. In time, a more forensic approach to demonstrating how astrology at least might work could produce dividends of broader acceptance if we can reach beyond the current reluctance to explore this from both believers and non-believers.

The fact is that astrology, regardless of its provenance or mysterious workings, is one more alternative area that is not fairly represented, despite the fact that respected figures such as Carl Jung openly used it. If the skeptics are right that astrology is only apophenia, where individuals project onto a self-analysis system that helps them identify personal traits and gather their thoughts, which is how some people use astrology and may be how Tarot works, it is harder still to comprehend the establishment vitriol, when neither lives nor the world are at risk.

Isaac Newton in 1689
Source: Godfrey Kneller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

And yet, for all the endless debunking and the mainstream refusal to represent it seriously, as noted above interest in astrology has – to the torment of said skeptics – risen markedly in recent years. Perhaps some minds are just seeking solidity and context in uncertain times but maybe there is also a growing awareness that this ancient art continues on because it embodies something patently useful. Daily horoscopes, the one consistent mainstream acknowledgment of the subject, are indeed mostly meaningless entertainment and not taken seriously by most professional astrologers but their presence nonetheless demonstrates an enduring demand. Before we dismiss newspaper astrologers too quickly, though, we should remind ourselves that the late astrological columnist Jonathan Cainer was one of the highest-paid journalists in Britain. And before critics dismiss all astrology, those who assert that this superstitious art should have been superseded by “Newtonian physics” long ago continually have to be reminded that Isaac Newton was in fact, as we know, a practising astrologer.

Integration

Mystery arts such as shamanism, spiritualism and mediumship are all treated with similar contempt to astrology but, tellingly, not only do they also refuse to lie down but some, specifically shamanism with its bison-horned US Capitol invaders and fashionable interest in mind-enhancing “plant medicines”, are proliferating. In the same way that belief in conspiracies seems to increase the more it is lambasted, the appliance of science as a weapon to destroy magical thinking has instead stimulated defences which have ensured the survival of these interests. Why, then, not reflect this more fairly in establishment circles and embrace the fascination, acknowledge its presence properly and try to understand it? What are the self-elected decriers so afraid of? We would probably learn as much about politicians by examining their astrological charts and casting Tarot cards for them as by listening to their empty spin.

It is hoped by the more open-minded academics that there may come a time when the paranormal and esoteric are made sense of by quantum developments and the “New Physics” rather than combatted by them; for that to happen we must hope that the pride that maintains their incompatibility is dropped in favour of integration. Losing derogatory terms like “woo-woo” to describe the state of credulous believers would help. A lack of discernment in some wide-eyed mystics doesn’t aid the credibility of investigation, admittedly, but it is more constructive to be in the company of people prepared to believe in something with reasonable evidence than those who deny from the start – and have often never studied what they are denying – and refuse to shift no matter what is presented.

A little real skepticism, which doesn’t leap to a belief but always considers evidence, is healthy and might help the alternative world if it were applied more than it sometimes is. The regretful reality, however, is that many who claim to be true skeptics today have fallen into a default position of outright debunking – and they currently control the establishment conversation. When polarization is replaced by integration and science broadens to apply itself to areas it now shies away from, bracing itself to consider that they might not be so unscientific after all, perhaps the likes of astrology won’t be such pariahs in future.

Notes:
1 – “The anxieties and apps fuelling the astrology boom” by Hilary George-Parkin, 9 February 2021, BBC Worklife, available at: www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210205-why-astrology-is-so-popular-now
2 – “What is the gravitational force felt on Earth from the other planets in our solar system?”, Astronomy Beta, available at: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/13022/what-is-the-gravitational-force-felt-on-earth-from-the-other-planets-in-our-sola/13027. A concise explanation of how cosmic rays may have shaped life on Earth (implying that they still influence it today) can be found in “Cosmic Rays as the Source of Life’s Handedness” by Susanna Kohler, 20 May 2020, AAS Nova, available at: https://aasnova.org/2020/05/20/cosmic-rays-as-the-source-of-lifes-handedness/
3 – “The Gauquelin Work” by Geoffrey Dean, Astrology and Science, available at: www.astrology-and-science.com/g-hist2.htm
4 – “Repeatability and Reproducibility” by Charlotte Cialek, 23 April 2020, GenoFab, at: https://blog.genofab.com/repeatability-vs-reproducibility. Peer review journal Nature goes into more detail in “1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility” by Monya Baker, 25 May 2016, Nature, available at: www.nature.com/news/1-500-scientists-lift-the-lid-on-reproducibility-1.19970

Published in: Timelords Magazine, Jun. 2022.

Author:
Andy Thomas
Find out more about Andy and his work at: www.truthagenda.org
The New Heretics, ISBN 978-17867857-6-3, 432 pages, Watkins Publishing, is available from all mainstream retailers in the US, UK, Australia and beyond. Details, reviews and content lists can be found at: https://truthagenda.org/the-new-heretics/

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