Science and Spirituality: Twin Pillars of Astrological Thought

by Shelley Jordan

Generally speaking, today’s astrology aspires to two realms: the spiritual and the scientific. Anyone who harbors hopes for astrology’s future at the university should consider these distinctly different, complex realms, actually twin pillars of astrological thought. The impetus from these two thought systems will determine where astrology lands - in the sciences or the humanities – if it ever arrives at all.

The spiritual realm is speculative. Research and technical development are less important. Statements made about the sacred often go unquestioned. For many, their authoritative sources give them undeniable validity, as in the Bible or the Qur’an. Intuition is dominant.

In the scientific realm, truth is endlessly questioned and tested for reliability. Techniques are developed, models and procedures are created, measured.

The work of the Gauquelins obviously falls in the category of the scientific. Reincarnational astrology is clearly situated within the spiritual domain. The scientific and the spiritual need not be mutually exclusive approaches, but academia will see them as such.

Even in the domain of the spiritual, claims about past lives should be disclosed as speculative, symbolic, metaphoric, or simply the product of the astrologer’s imagination. To do less is a misrepresentation, because who can possibly know another's past lives with any genuine certainty? By what supernatural power can past lives be comprehended? Call a dream by its name. A dream can have a kind of truth and beauty, but it’s still a dream.

While reincarnation is currently conspicuous in some circles, its acceptance is not a prerequisite for the astrological model. When karma does creep into astrological discourse, it occasionally appears in a somewhat spiritually and intellectually naïve manner.

For instance, the following statement is not only entirely groundless, it is potentially damaging to the vulnerable person seeking astrological information:

“About eighty percent of Fourth House Pluto individuals have a series of prior-life experiences in which their emotional needs have not been successfully met by one or both of their parents".

Where do these numbers come from, the Bureau of Vital Statistics? On whose authority is that statement made?

Discussions of past lives and karma are often confused, baseless and inflated. Originating in the Hindu religious tradition, karma most accurately translates merely as “habit” (Karl Potter, Presuppositions of India’s Philosophies).

It wouldn’t hurt to ask how much do we, in the industrialized 21st century, honestly understand about the operative conditions of karma? Frequently in astrology, just writing a book grants immutable authority on highly complex philosophical topics that otherwise require years of study.

If astrology is to enter the university, it will have to face its limitations. It has enough problems with credibility due to its centuries-long addiction to prediction, which implies a future carved in stone - we’re mere mindless puppets attached to planetary strings. Throwing past lives into serious astrology only muddies up an already fallible system gravely in need of renovation if it’s going to be accepted as an area for scholarly study.

Reincarnational astrology will not survive in today’s universities, except as a cultural artifact. If the university setting is a goal, it must be anticipated that today’s astrology will surely change once it becomes the center of serious academic study. Revision occurs within every academic field. This is inevitable if astrology’s home is in the sciences. If astrology’s destination is the humanities, it will continue to be the focus of historians and sociologists in a field that has only recently developed. Change will undeniably occur, but of a different nature.

Having a realistic vision of astrology’s future at the university level will involve confronting some of the tradition’s most sacred cows, like prediction, exaltations, detriments and the concept of the malefic, to name only a few. There may ultimately be a schism between spiritual and scientific astrologies – between the sacred and profane.

If some astrologers insist on mentioning past lives and presenting themselves as having access to a mystical knowledge that none of the rest of us can retrieve, then they are morally obligated to disclose that they are endowed with superpowers beyond the norm. Accountability is the beginning of maturation. Astrology provides a rich enough symbolic language of the interior without needing to resort to past lives, which are best left to theologians or mystics.

Astrology’s great gift lies in its ability to describe a person’s inner world, what makes them tick. In this aspect, astrology can enhance our tolerance and compassion for other people by helping us understand another person’s behavior. It also aids in self understanding, which is a prerequsite for spiritual growth.

The work of the Gauquelins indicates that astrology may be at an unprecedented threshold – objective study and research could potentially shape an astrology that is unrecognizable one century from today. Knowing the difference between the scientific and the spiritual is a necessary preface to a new astrology, whatever it may be.


-- 'Each soul has its own religion' This means that according to his evolution so man knows the truth and the more a man knows, the more he finds there is to learn. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan