Excerpt from chapter four in: A Catholic Response to the New Age Phenomenon by the Irish Theological Commission in 1994. To see the contents of the whole chapter, click here.
"New Age Movement" is abbreviated as NAM.
Astrology has found a new popularity with the arrival of Hinduism into the west. A newspaper without one's 'stars' is unusual nowadays. One even finds astrologers being consulted regarding political events as we saw on Sky News during the 1992 British elections, and the astrologers got it right where the opinion polls got it wrong! They said that John Major's chart showed good signs for him, but not for the opposition. Consulting one's stars is part of the Yogic system of belief. There are essentially two forms of it. Natal astrology deals with individuals. Mundane astrology deals with world events and history. Accepting astrology reinforces the belief in the law of karma, as your chart may have 'good' or 'bad' signs for you right now, and this may apply to a country also.
Astrology was important in the ancient world, but Christianity dealt strongly with it, and for centuries it died down. It revived in Europe in the latter half of the nineteenth century with the rise of Theosophy, but it had remained popular in China, India and the Islamic world. It did not revive in the west until the twentieth century, but it has gained steadily in popularity ever since, with polls claiming that forty per cent of Americans now believe in it.
The claims of astrology have been thoroughly discredited by scientific research. The physical planets in the Universe do not direct and guide the lives of living beings, for they are non-living objects. Astrology belongs to the occult and the magic arts. See Understanding Cults and New Religions, 1987, p. 79. See also What your Horoscope Doesn't Tell You, Charles Stohmer, Word Publishing, 1988. This author is a former expert astrologer, who after some success with astrology decided to investigate its mysteries. He points out the occultic nature of this magical art, and agrees that there is nothing scientific about it.
Many Christians seems to think that it is harmless to consult an astrologer, and to follow the 'stars' in one's everyday life. This is not so, for one is being guided by a false system of mythology and ancient so-called 'gods'. For many it is the beginning of a journey that leads into the occult proper, and into other NAM activities that are dangerous to one's spiritual life. It also rejects the teaching of Jesus and the Church that we should trust Divine Providence in our daily lives. The need to know one's stars seems to stem from a need to have something in our lives under control when there is so much happening all around us that is not in our control.
