Is Astrological Divination Relevant?

Astrology, a complex system of divination, seeks to discern patterns and meaning in celestial objects’ movements and their influence on human behavior. It can be considered a form of divination as it uses celestial patterns and movements to gain insight into past, present, and future events. However, the use of the term divination to define astrology is controversial, particularly within the astrological profession.

Some astrologers have proposed that astrology is essentially a process of divination, comparable to the Tarot or the I Ching. Astrologers should realize that they divine and should not proceed in the direction of using astrology as a type of reading or inference from cosmic influences. Astrology is a form of divination that holds that the stars, moon, and planets significantly influence the lives of people on earth.

The modern argument for astrology-as-divination has been around for some years, but its ramifications are not widely appreciated. Astrology is both an art and an inexact science, and should always be subject to interpretation due to its human influence. Divination is fortune telling, while astrology is a study of the planets and their influence.

In both astrology and divination, knowledge and prediction of the future are primary goals. However, does this warrant calling astrology a form of divination? The etymology makes clear that divination is not primarily about foretelling the future, but as the etymology makes clear (latin divi-, divinus), a unique mode of consciousness, mental pattern, or cognitive faculty is involved.

Is astrology a divination tool?

El Masry, a professional astrologist, began her career in 2019 after performing readings for friends and family. She compares her craft to meteorology, focusing on energy and paths, warning that free will must prevail. El Masry is a modern urban seer who cleanses auras and reads tarot cards for clients. She promotes her services on social media, a platform where modern astrology and divination thrive.

In Middle Eastern societies, divination practices are prevalent but often rejected by regional religions. In Islam, the study of celestial bodies is not prohibited, but using them to predict the future is. Islamic teachings often root divination practices in Islamic teachings, such as asking for blessings from sheiks and saints. While Islamic talismans protect against the ‘evil eye’, ideas involving divination are considered borderline blasphemous. Astrology exists in a delicate and temperamental societal balance, with ideas that involve divination being considered borderline blasphemous.

How true is Vedic astrology?

Astrology has been criticized by the scientific community for lacking explanatory power for describing the universe. Scientific testing has been conducted, but no evidence has been found to support the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions. Despite its status as a pseudoscience, astrology retains a position among the sciences in modern India. In 2001, India’s University Grants Commission and Ministry of Human Resource Development introduced “Jyotir Vigyan” or “Vedic astrology” as a discipline of study in Indian universities, stating that it allows for accurate predictions on time scale. This decision was backed by a 2001 judgement of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Despite widespread protests from the scientific community and Indian scientists working abroad, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition in 2004 that astrology was not a promotion of religion. In 2011, the Bombay High Court referred to the 2004 ruling when it dismissed a case challenging astrology’s status as a science. As of 2014, astrology continues to be taught at various universities in India, and there is a movement to establish a national Vedic University to teach astrology alongside the study of tantra, mantra, and yoga.

Is divination a real thing?

Divination has been a subject of criticism for centuries, with scientific community and skeptics dismissing it as superstitious. In antiquity, it faced criticism from philosophers like Cicero and Sextus Empiricus. The Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis, famously visited by Alexander the Great, was a significant figure in divination. Deuteronomy 18:10–12 and Leviticus 19:26 categorically forbid divination, but some biblical practices, such as Urim and Thummim, casting lots, and prayer, are considered divination.

Trevan G. Hatch disputes these comparisons, arguing that divination did not consult the “one true God” and manipulated the divine for the diviner’s self-interest. One of the earliest known divination artifacts, the Sortes Sanctorum, is believed to be Christian-rooted and uses dice to provide future insight. Despite these criticisms, divination continues to be a significant aspect of religious practice.

Does astrology really work?

Astrology is a belief system that suggests a connection between astronomical phenomena and human events or personality descriptions. However, it has been criticized by the scientific community for lacking explanatory power and lack of scientific validity. Scientific testing has found no evidence to support the premises or effects outlined in astrological traditions. The most famous test, led by Shawn Carlson, concluded that natal astrology performed no better than chance.

Astrology has not demonstrated its effectiveness in controlled studies and has no scientific validity, making it regarded as pseudoscience. There is no proposed mechanism by which stars and planets affect people and events on Earth in the way astrologers claim, which contradicts well-understood aspects of biology and physics.

Is astrology signs real?

The practice of astrology, which is based on the interpretation of the positions of celestial bodies, can be considered a scientific pursuit. Nevertheless, there is no empirical evidence to substantiate the assertion that astrology exerts any influence on an individual’s personality or life trajectory. This is because astrology is not a scientific discipline.

Does astrology count as divination?

Astrology is a divinatory practice that suggests that information about human affairs and terrestrial events can be discerned by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. It has been used in different cultures since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, with some cultures attaching importance to what they observed in the sky. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th-17th century BCE Mesopotamia, spreading to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamic world, and eventually Central and Western Europe.

Throughout its history, astrology has faced detractors, competitors, and skeptics who opposed it for moral, religious, political, and empirical reasons. Prior to the Enlightenment, astrology was generally considered a scholarly tradition and common in learned circles, often in close relation with astronomy, meteorology, medicine, and alchemy. It was also present in political circles and mentioned in various works of literature.

During the Enlightenment, astrology lost its status as an area of legitimate scholarly pursuit. Researchers have successfully challenged astrology on both theoretical and experimental grounds, showing it to have no scientific validity or explanatory power. Astrology lost its academic and theoretical standing in the western world, and common belief in it largely declined until a continuing resurgence starting in the 1960s.

The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia, which derives from the Greek words ἀστρολογία (star) and -λογία (logia). By the 17th century, astronomy became established as the scientific term, with astrology referring to divinations and schemes for predicting human affairs.

Does astrology have to do with the universe?

Astrology claims that astronomical bodies have influence on people’s lives beyond basic weather patterns, depending on their birth date. However, this claim is scientifically false. Numerous studies have disproven that astronomical bodies affect people’s lives according to their birth date. For instance, Peter Hartmann and his collaborators studied over 4000 individuals and found no correlation between birth date and personality or intelligence.

In one famous experiment, Shawn Carlson fine-tuned the method so that various independent scientists agreed it was scientifically sound and fair. As published in Nature, he found that the astrologers could do no better at predicting the future than random chance.

Fundamentally, there are four forces of nature: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. If an object affects a person, it must do so by interacting through one of these fundamental forces. For example, strong acid burns skin because the electromagnetic fields in the acid pull strongly enough on your skin molecules that they rip apart. A falling rock crushes you because gravity pulls it onto you. A nuclear bomb will vaporize you because of nuclear forces.

Each of the fundamental forces can be very strong, but they all die off with distance. Electromagnetic forces typically extend from nanometers to kilometers. Sensitive equipment can detect electromagnetic waves (light) from the edge of the observable universe, but that light is exceptionally weak.

The placebo effect is a psychological effect that makes people feel better when they believe in a useless method. This effect has been scientifically verified, and many pseudo-scientific treatments, such as crystal healing and homeopathy, help people through the placebo effect. Sticking to scientifically proven treatments gives the benefit of the belief and the benefit of the treatment’s action. For example, instead of reading a horoscope each morning, going for a walk is proven to be good for body and mind, and your belief in its effect will also help you.

In conclusion, astrology and other natural phenomena have no significant impact on people’s lives beyond basic weather patterns. Astrology, on the other hand, relies on the placebo effect, where the belief in a treatment does not actually make a person feel better.

What does Sadhguru say about astrology?

Sadhguru discusses the influence of horoscopes and the planets on our lives. He emphasizes that people often seek advice from horoscopes, focusing on the right time, wrong time, rahukalam, and gunakalam. He also discusses the issue of people seeking happiness in marriage and questioning the compatibility of their partner. Sadhguru suggests that if a partner shows unexpected madness, it may be better to leave them. He also discusses the importance of aligning the planets properly for stepping out of one’s house. Sadhguru encourages readers to subscribe to his newsletters for weekly updates on the latest blogs.

Is there any truth to astrology?

Astrologers argue that Sun-sign predictions, such as “Virgoans will meet someone new and exciting today”, are nonsense. However, they still maintain that our personalities are influenced by the location of the Sun, Moon, and planets at the time of our birth. A 2003 study by former astrologer Geoffrey Dean and Professor Ivan Kelly of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, compared the results of personality trait tests of over 2000 “time twins” with indistinguishable astrological birth charts. The researchers found no significant correlations among the twins, contradicting the claims of astrology.

Does astrology really matter?

A review of the scientific literature reveals no evidence that astrology has a significant impact on personality. From an external standpoint, astrology is regarded as a pseudoscience, with the superficial aspects of scientific methodology. While astrology may appear to be a scientific field from an external perspective, an attempt to identify the fundamental elements of science within it may prove to be a futile endeavor.

What does Islam say about astrology?

The earliest Islamic stance against astrology can be traced back to individuals such as Abd al-Jabbar and Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi, who sought to justify the causal influence of celestial beings on terrestrial life forms. Historical texts like Kitab al-Daraj provide evidence of the presence of astrology in early Islam. However, even before these individuals, historians and theologians like Al Hashimi sought to justify the role of astrology in influencing Islamic adherents’ religion.

Al Hashimi, through philosophers like Masha Allah, explored the possibility of the influence of stars on one’s morality and religion in general. He cited Masha Allah’s idea that the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s birth was a result of a coming together of celestial objects, essentially pointing to the inherent birth of Muhammad as a result of astrological events. Both Masha Allah and Al Hashimi draw upon similarities but draw upon their inherent stance in pointing to the planets, stars, and other celestial beings as the primary means by which divine rule is exercised, i. e., how God emanates control over all life forms.

Early Muslims relied on the sun and moon to determine important things such as the direction of Mecca, fasting times for Ramadan, and the beginning and end of each month. They used astrology and the position of the planets to predict the health and well-being of individuals, with eclipses in Libra, Aquarius, or Gemini being predictions of worldwide plagues, and comets or shooting stars being predictions of famine and sickness.

Many interpretations of the Quran point to astrology as that which goes against the fundamental principles preached by the Islamic religious tradition. Astrology ultimately points to the role of celestial beings in influencing terrestrial life and the everyday lives of individuals, ultimately hindering their destiny. Various excerpts from the Quran are interpreted to disprove this theory, with the Quran in Surah Al-Jinn suggesting that any such presence of extraterrestrial influence on mankind is not plausible and is therefore haram (forbidden) in Islam.

The Hadith, a reference to the instructions and practices of Muhammad, encourages adherents of the Islamic faith to embody the concept of astrology. Muhammad made various claims regarding the legality/illegality of astrology with regards to the Islamic religious tradition, such as the belief that rain is a bounty bestowed only by Allah (God). The Hadith makes specific mention to the stars, suggesting that those who suggest rain originates as a result of a star are a disbeliever in Me (Allah).

This works to fundamentally embody the concept of astrology and the consequent belief in the idea that celestial beings have an influence on anything other than what enshrined in the Quran and Hadith as shirk (blasphemy), leading one to leave the fold of the religion.