So began what would turn into an hour long conversation about astrology (obviously), Scripture, herbs and herbalism, and how Christians should or should not participate in the growing trends of spiritualism taking place in the West and what it means to ritualize things. Part of that conversation will be reiterated here, but this won’t be a reproduction of it. Hopefully I can say more here in a more cogent way. I am a better writer than I am at thinking and talking on the fly.
As people in the West decolonize and deconstruct, there is a growing interest in our relationship to Creation. This is, to quote Genesis, very good. As we grow more aware, as we remember that humanity is a creature among creatures, that we are formed from the same ground plants and animals come from, we are remembering that we have a fundamental connection to our world. We are always already in a widely interconnected relationship with the living things around us, but the modern world and technological advancement make is easy for us to imagine we live isolated from Creation, that “nature” is there, outside the city, reachable by highway, and that sometimes you have to pay to get into it. But nature isn’t out there, it’s right here, not just in the trees and flowers that grow in our lawns and parks, not just in the weeds and tufts of grass that grow in the cracks of our sidewalks and streets, and not only in the squirrels and birds that flit back and forth all day, everyday. “Nature” is as close as our own bodies, made of the soil, and as the breath we take in from the world. That awareness is opening the eyes of White people across the Western world to indigenous worldviews that recognize humans in the kind of natural web of relationship I described above.
The Twilight of Atheism?
In this blossoming new world, and I admit this is anecdotal, it seems that atheism doesn’t hold the kind of sway it did before 2016. At least, the kind of so-called “new atheism” present in the early 00’s and prevalent to about 2020. The “prophets” of this denomination of atheism1 were Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and the lesser-known Daniel Dennett.2 This hubristic, crass form of atheism peaked as it became clear that this worldview was incapable of replacing religion,3 was philosophically juvenile and vacuous, and, morally speaking, no better or worse than any religion they claimed to be able to leave behind in the pursuit of morality. As criticisms of Western worldviews have mounted, the specter of colonialism is seen undergirding their ideas.
Certainly, atheism isn’t dying nor is it going anywhere, but the religious awe in which these figures and these ideologies were held seems to have waned. The New Atheism claimed that nothing could be called true without the rigorous testing of a lab, and coincidently enough, the results of the lab coincided with and bolstered their worldview. Humans, by and large, do not function that way. We tend to believe in the transcendent and the spiritual, no matter what spirits or deities we put on the other side of those terms. As the sway of a strict materialism fell away, coinciding with the deconstruction and deconversion of many Christians, new spiritualities came to be popularly accepted, astrology being one of them. Spirituality is having a resurgence as people (again) begin to explore the occult, magic, and traditional-indigenous spiritualities and religions.
Is There Something To It?
As one of my friends, who’s kind of into astrology, says about it,
It’s bullshit. But there’s something to it.
Human beings are really good at pattern recognition. It helps us in so many ways, from knowing when our significant other is in a “mood” to being able to follow the rhythm of the seasons. By pattern recognition, when know when to take a different tone with our loved ones, when to plant seeds, and when to harvest. Pattern recognition helps us play the stock market, know the opposing teams plays, and on and on. This is hardwired into us. It shouldn’t be surprising then that ancient cultures across the globe from the Mayans to the Babylonians noticed patterns in the sky. What is interesting is that cultures across the globe noticed patterns between when a person was born, under which stars, and peoples’ temperaments.
This isn’t really where astrology ends, though. Along with temperament, people read their horoscopes (“Just for fun!” many will say) and take to heart the things written there, even if they take it to heart with a grain of salt. I know that’s a bit of an oxymoron, but I mean it. If a person claims to not take it seriously, then if nothing happens, there’s no investment, but if the day does go as planned by the stars, “That’s what it said!” We’ll get into this later, but this is the mode in which Scripture explicitly forbids consulting the stars.
To date, there is no scientific research that corroborates the idea that one’s sign has any bearing on one’s future or their personality.45 And yet, as a Christian who believes in prayer, I know how the scientific community interprets data against the supernatural. What I’m saying is that not everything can be chalked up to “pattern recognition.” I think much like prayer, there are things about the world that others are not willing to accept for any number of reasons. It might be said that I’m picking up patterns because when I ask God for something in the name of Jesus and it happens, I unfairly equate causation with correlation. It’s possible, but I don’t think that’s what happens. Similarly, there might be something to personality and star signs, but I don’t know, and like prayer, astrologically determined temperaments can neither be proven nor disproven. My big, personal take, is “Meh, maybe.”
Let Them be for Signs and Appointed Times
Scriptures relationship with stars is interesting. There’s no explicit prohibition against astrology, per se, though there are several places that forbid divination.6 Divination is a “ritual action employed to determine the will, knowledge, or plan of deities.”7 It is also used across cultures to determine the future of individuals and nations, discern spirits, diagnose problems or sicknesses, and any number of things. Astrology, in the ancient world the Israelites lived in, was only one among many kinds of divination, including reading flight patterns of birds (augury), reading the entrails of sacrificial animals, the pattern of a drop of oil in water, and even the shape of a person’s body. Practicing divination was what nations did, instead Israel was to seek wisdom, counsel, and knowledge only from the God with whom they were in covenant, namely Yahweh, the Creator of heaven and earth.
Yet we see astrological-like things happening all throughout scripture, though more in some places than others. We can’t get anywhere in our discussion of the stars without first looking at their creation in Genesis.
And God said, Let there be luminaries in the firmament of the heavens to separate between the day and between the night. And let them be signs for appointed times and for days and for years. And they shall be luminaries in the firmament of the heavens to shine upon the earth. And it was so. Genesis 1:14-15
In the ancient world the Israelites lived in, surrounded by Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, and others besides, the sun, moon, and stars were associated with the gods and other powerful spiritual beings. To consult the stars in this ancient world was to consult the gods and spirit beings that were thought to rule the heavens and the earth. Genesis, doing more than giving us a “how” of creation (read more here), is giving us a worldview. In Genesis, the sun and moon and stars do have governing authority over time and seasons, but it was a derivative authority. They have a priestly job to divide day from night and to maintain the yearly rotation of agricultural-liturgical feasts that celebrate and commemorate Yahweh’s life with Israel. Can they be consulted? Genesis gives no indication of that, but there are other places in Scripture that do, or at least hint toward that idea.
Psalm 19 opens, “The heavens recount the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands.” When people quote this verse, they’re typically thinking generally of the wonders of the sky and of space. This is true, in that in them we see the majesty of God’s creation, and if these are only a reflection, than what must the Creator be like? But when you have Genesis 1 in mind when you read Genesis 19, you can see we’re not talking about the heavens and the skies, generally, but the sun, moon, and stars placed in the firmament. And with that in mind, verse 4 becomes very interesting.
In all the earth their line stretches out, and their words to the end of the world.
This “line” that stretches out to the end of the world, is very likely the Zodiac, and it’s the twelve signs of the Zodiac in the heavens and in the firmament that tell of God’s glory. In the inspired imagination of the Psalmist, the signs of the Zodiac proclaimed God’s glory and majesty to the world. This, in turn, goes directly into a proclamation of the beauty of Torah. For the Psalmist, something about Torah, in which was inscribed the nature of reality, God’s glory, the sun, and the Zodiac all resonated together. It is in Torah, after all, that the liturgical calendar of Feasts are recorded.
A Woman Clothed with the Sun
One of the clearest example of “astrological theology” in Scripture is found in Revelation 12:1-6. It would be best to quote in full.
And a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she was pregnant and crying out in birth pains and was in torment with child. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a fiery red dragon! He had seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads were seven crowns. And his tail dragged down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child in order that he could devour him when she gave birth to the child. And she gave birth to a son, a male, who will shepherd all peoples with an iron staff. And her child was snatched away to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where a place had been prepared for her by God, in order that there they might nourish her for one thousand two hundred sixty days.
From early on a correlation between this sign and the constellation Virgo was noticed, though from time to time it took brave theologians to say this out loud. Sergei Bulgakov of Eastern Orthodox fame saw reflections of many ancient astrologies in the woman and the twelve stars on her head as the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Apocalyptic (meaning “unveiling”) literature is highly symbolic, and what better symbolism to speak to all (known) humanity than the stellar signs of the night sky, the signs that people all over the world believed spoke about the destiny of people and nations? I’m not sure how the signs in Revelation line up exactly with the celestial bodies, or whether they do at all, but the symbolism is hard to ignore.
To be a little more specific about this passage, the woman would be associated with the constellation Virgo, and in the autumnal months, the sun passes through the constellation, effectively “clothing” the woman during the day. There are times when the moon is at the feet of the star-woman as well. In fact, once upon a time, in the year 3 BC, on September 11 and for about two hours, the sun, Virgo, and moon were aligned in just this pattern. It may not be coincidental, then, that Jesus was in fact born in or around the year 3 BC. As Virgo traverses the sky, Draco follows or perhaps a composite constellation of Claws, Scorpio, and Libra follow her, appearing to chase her, across the sky into the wilderness. All this was revealed to John while in a vision on the Island of Patmos while he was “in the Spirit on the Day of the Lord” (Rev. 1:10).
The Stars and the Christian
So, what? That was the question I had when I first read about the astrological symbolism of Revelation. What am I supposed to do with this information? As far as I know, Scripture still forbids divination, even though there seem to be positive examples of reading the stars, not only here in Revelation or in Psalm 19, but also the fact that the magi, astronomers from the East, knew the king of Israel was born because they “saw his star at its rising” (Matt. 2:2), notwithstanding that Daniel was made head of the astronomers in Babylon.
If we put all these pieces together, beginning with the creation of the stars in Genesis, I think a picture begins to emerge. Scripture wants to make it abundantly clear that there is one Creator, and that Creator is Yahweh, God of the Israelites, and no one else. No one else is worthy of worship, except, as it were, the Morning Star, Yahweh’s Son Jesus. The luminaries in the sky are given authority over the appointed times as well as the cycles of day, night, and seasons, but they function in the heavens in a similar way to humanity in the Garden. They have dominion, but only to rule in the way Yahweh rules, and to extend his kingdom into their realm.
Because divination is forbidden, consulting the stars for insight into the lives of any individual or nation is forbidden. What that means is we are not allowed to approach the stars for wisdom and knowledge. To do so would be to replace the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. In the worldview of Scripture, the celestial bodies do have wisdom and knowledge, but they are not our source. Instead, by being brought into covenant with the Creator, he himself becomes our source of wisdom, knowledge, and daily living. It’s not coincidental that in forbidding the worship of angels (associated with celestial beings are they are), Paul says that in Jesus are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).
There is an appropriate relationship between the stars, the knowledge they hold, and the people of God, but it is a knowledge that must be given by grace, not coerced by ritual. That is a funny, tricky balance that I don’t know how to “do,” if “doing” it is even a thing. There doesn’t seem to be any indication that the Psalmist was trying to foretell anything in his observation of the line of the Zodiac, nor does it seem like John was actively pursuing star-knowledge on Patmos. In John’s case, he seems to be caught by surprise all along the way, as the meaning of stellar symbols are given to him while he was “in the Spirit.”
I think it’s okay, maybe even good, to ask God, the Creator of heaven and earth, to give us wisdom and knowledge. He is, after all, the Revealer of Mysteries (Dan. 2:47). I even think it’s fine to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the stars, but once the stars become the thing, we’ve lost sight of Jesus and begin to slip into idolatry. I’m not the kind of person who says, “better safe than sorry,” when there are examples of good coming from Scripture about any topic, but I am the kind of person who says, “Listen to the Spirit.” And I mean really listen, slow down and listen, and don’t disobey. Astrology is cool at the moment, and there might be temptation to feign communion with the Spirit to do what we want, but I think that’s a dangerous game. So, worship Jesus, follow the Spirit, honor the Creator, and then look to the stars.
As a final treat in your crash course on astro-biblical theology, here’s an Egyptian version of Saggitarius, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the locust figures from Revelation 9:7-10
And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads were something like crowns similar in appearance to gold, and their faces were like men’s faces,and they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions, and they had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariotsrunning into battle. And they have tails similar in appearance to scorpions, and stings, and their power to injure people for five months is in their tails.
Barry, John D., David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder, eds. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.
Wow so interesting!! I’m glad you went down this rabbit hole 👀
Interesting! Especially about the 'twilight' of a certain kind of atheism. My most recent article was on that same topic:
https://eliotkern.substack.com/p/blind-faith