Astrology has the same problems as religion; both concepts are irrelevant now.

(I was ranting this just before my wedding) It is only on very rare occasions that you suddenly feel the spirit of rebellion kicking in and that intense urge to be a full-blown heretic kicks in. I feel today is one such day. And like the many brave (and foolish) heretics, who have attempted this before me, I shall try to prove (and fail) once and for all why astrology is stupid and problematic for the 21st century! Extending the argument, based on some historical (and scientific) evidence, I’d also try to show how astrology and the ‘idea of religion’ are similar in some aspects and share some common problems. And what I wish to accomplish after I am done is absolutely nothing.

The idea for this story first came when my girlfriend (now wife) started talking about astrologers and how one of them had ruled out me ever marrying her. So, apart from being an article that uses facts and reasoning to wage war against (lacking a better word) ‘stupidity’, it is also an attempt to get back at that astrologer! Anyway, where do we start? Maybe some history with a teeny-tiny helping of sociological analysis?

Astrology through History

As far as historical analysis is concerned, astrology was based on the idea that mundane events can be predicted by studying the planetary configurations. The idea stems from the assumption that arbitrary configurations of celestial objects somehow dictates the trajectory of life of individuals. And this assumption was not too far-fetched, especially from the context of the state of science and reasoning before the age of Renaissance.

The popular narrative in the pre-renaissance era was that the universe was geocentric and that there was an absolute division separating the eternal (skies) and the far less interesting interactions of the things that everything we see around us is made up of. Interestingly, the ancient Greeks (read mostly Aristotle and people after him) believed that it was fire, water, air and earth that made up everything. It was also believed that heavenly bodies were not bound by laws of mortals (and hence were eternal). And thus, all the limited interactions (on earth) could be simply explained by the interactions of the four fundamental elements. So far so good!

Now, it was observed that the stuff that was eternal seemed to never change. The same spots on the sky would either stay static or would keep moving in the same patterns for years. But back on earth, things would break, change and basically behave in a way that was absolutely not eternal. And in the middle of all of this, someone figured out that there could be a correlation in the patterns of decay and growth in earth and the movement of some objects in the sky (eternal). Very correctly they could correlate the movement of the moon with the behavior of tides. For the other interactions, it was believed that the actual relations were so complex that no human mind could grasp them.

The idea of divination

Now, if one moves away from ancient Greece to many other societies in the past, one finds a recurring pattern of people attributing complex natural phenomenon with supernatural entities. Almost every society has had at some point in time ‘worshiped ’ some divine entity that was associated with some natural event (weather, health and so on). Also, it was (and still is) believed by most societies that the universe and everything that is contained in it, was a creation of a supernatural entity. Almost every society and culture has a creation myth with some common points binding them. So, we have a creation myth (how everything was created) and the belief that planets control some or most aspects of the puny human lives. You can already see where this is heading...

No you probably don’t.

You see it is not that simple. It is not like all of this idea of the importance of stars in governing our lives was pure hocus-pocus. On the contrary, it is very well known that ancient Egyptian farmers had developed the technique to use skies as a calendar. It was observed that the rising of Sirius (around mid-July) was the marker for the imminent annual flooding of the Nile. Tradesmen and travelers used the skies as a compass. So how then did this idea of worshiping celestial ideas evolve? And more importantly, why did all of the primitive societies develop this idea of weird divinity?

Well, cave-art shows us that the earliest societies had this idea of a ‘spirit’ in everything. All animals and things was believed to have this spirit. It was again probably a very normal thing to do back then. The differences between animate, inanimate, living and categories like these were not properly understood even 300 years ago. So just like the “inner voice” inside you guides you to do stuff (your spirit), it was rational to conclude that everything has some kind of a spirit. And then, it was observed that some random acts made certain spirits happy and that made life easier. It could have been a simple matter of equating correlation with causation. But then it was seen that if one appeased a particular spirit, that would lead to a good hunt. And then, when this pattern repeated itself a few times, it became a belief. And when the hunt did not go well in spite of the appeasement, it was considered that the spirit was simply unhappy. And that led to the people doing weird stuff (that later clung on as a part of the cultural heritage). And so we see how the idea of divination probably started taking shape. And this probably leads us to things like tea-leaf reading or palm-reading.

In ancient China, eclipses or sunspots were used as signals to indicate good or bad times for the emperor. The Sumerians and Babylonians looked at spots on the liver and other entrails of animals. The Babylonians in fact used sophisticated devices to keep track of gods (cosmic objects) in the sky. Venus as a matter of fact was an object of fascination for early civilizations. As the ‘evening star’ and the ‘light-bearer’ (since she was visible just before sunrise and thus ‘brought’ in the sun) she was worshiped in Babylon as “Ishtar” and was associated with battles. It should also be remembered that in the middle of all this, astronomers (a.k.a astrologers) were trying to make meticulous recordings of the orbs in the sky. It is a different matter that those observations were used to predict if it was a good time to go to war. But where did the zodiac signs come from?

The 12 horses of Alexander

How or why did we end up with 12 different zodiac signs? It turns out, it is a relatively new concept. The ancient Egyptians relied on a system of 36 constellations to do their astro(nomical/logical) analysis. However, the Babylons observed that the sun actually moved around quite a lot throughout the year. They arrived at the conclusion that the movement of the sun lasts for 360 days before starting from the same position again (a circle/cycle). Also, the Sumerians and Babylonians had developed a sense of geometry and used a sexagesimal number system (base 60).

To understand this, consider the Indian tradition of using fingers to count. Corresponding to every finger in your hand, there are three ‘marks’. So if one starts pointing to those marks with their thumbs, one could count 12 marks in a hand. And so the five fingers of the other hand can be used to keep a count of the number of times that 12 is multiplied. And so, one can handle upto 60 numbers. And this was the basis for Babylonian number system. And so, it is not very unsurprising that the year was considered to be of 60x6=360 days. And also, while the Babylonians were developing geometry, it was realized that the angle of equilateral triangles corresponded to their number system (it could also have been the other way round).

Anyway, so now that we know that the Babylonians loved the number 12 because that made calculations easier for them, we understand that they developed a calendar comprising of 12 months, each having 30 days. 30 days was another logical step because that corresponded to the time that the lunar cycle took (approximately). This was eventually adopted by the Greeks and then eventually started spreading all around. Historical evidence suggests that Hindu zodiac was adopted from the Greek Zodiac through communications with the Greek empire of Bactria. The conquests of Alexander the great is considered to be a major factor for the widespread dissemination of Greek ideas throughout the globe. And this is how we ended up with the 12 zodiac signs.

‘Jyotish’ and the Sanskritization of Greek astronomy

Jyotish is one of the six Vedanga. Vedanga are considered to be six auxilliary disciplines of Hinduism that are connected with the study of the Vedas. The six disciplines are:

a. Shiksha: phonetics, phonology, pronounciation

b. Chandas: prosody

c. Vyakaran: grammar and linguistic analysis

d. Nirukta: etymology

e. Kalpa: ritual instructions

f. Jyotish: Astronomy, astrology and time-keeping

The study of Hindu Astrology was gradually modified to include some aspects of Hellenstic (Greek) astrology as is evident from the ‘Yavanajataka’. It is believed that the idea of 12 zodiac signs were incorporated into the Hindu system from the Greek system. Interestingly, Hindu astrology had been relying on the sidereal zodiac system (using the movement of fixed stars to define signs) while Hellenic astrology had been relying on the tropical zodiac system (using the star positions at a fixed time, i.e. vernal equinox to define the other zodiacs). It was only after the introduction of the Hellenic astrology that the order of planets with respect to a 7 day week was fixed in India and with the Greek-Sanskrit integration culminating with the definition of a weekday by Aryabhatta.

But what has all of this got to do with things like wearing rings and stones?

Well, as it turns out, the concept of wearing jewels has been associated with the idea of social class. It is well documented that in the primitive societies, jewels could be worn only by the elites (a tradition that continues to some extent to this day). It was also considered (after the idea of zodiac was well entrenched in the collective minds) that certain stones contained special powers. This idea is echoed in the idea of the “Navaratna”. The preference of choosing the stones has changed over the years. While earlier the stones were classified on the basis of colour, later on, each zodiac sign began to be identified with a particular stone. And in the same way, certain stones started being associated with certain attributes. It is documented evidence that Jewish gem traders in the 18th century started marketing gemstones using this popular notion.

Now, jewels have always been associated with the elites and powerful as a way of flaunting their social status. And so, the concepts like “Navaratna” as a jewel makes sense given that Hindu astrology has been around for a long time. And this is where things get interesting. A study of astronomy tells us that every celestial body has unique spectroscopic attributes. And probably based on the same idea, the notion of colors was attributed to the zodiac nine “planets” in Vedic astrology. It has always been said that certain gemstones ‘absorb’ some energies. While that makes no scientific sense (to me at least), it is always easy to play with the emotions of the gullible. And hence, a mixture of half-baked science, mythology, faith and marketing have helped astrology flourish.

Modernity and the wrath of superstitions

Superstitions are not a human-only trait. B.F. Skinner reported superstitious behavior in pigeons. And so, it is trivial to conclude that humans are more or less superstitious. With the growth in industrial mechanisms and the subsequent betterment in the standard of living, more and more people are gradually scaling up the ladder of economic and social progress.

Now in the last 100 or so years, the science has progressed quite a bit. And still the belief in superstition is quite strong. But why?A look into psychology might suggest that people are prone to seek refuge into the supernatural during times of chaos, stress or uncertainty. That is an essentially human trait that almost all of us has felt at some point. And that is what that led to the development of religion in the first place.

Earlier in the article I mentioned how the cave-art from different places suggests that people believed in the idea of spirits and their influence in day-to-day activities. And I also mentioned how that gave rise to the idea of different ceremonies and rituals aimed at appeasing the spirits. This behavior gradually led to the worshiping of the different kinds of ‘natural’ deities, leading to polytheism and eventually monotheism. It appears that one reason why both religion and astrology could develop through centuries was that they gave people respite in an uncertain world that people could not make sense of.

But then in the modern age of science, is religion or astronomy a harmful superstition. Well, I dare not talk about religion on account of the amount of sentiment associated with it. But then what about astronomy? Well, there is really no way to lead ourselves away from confirmation bias. Over the years, astrology (and religion) has been the refuge of people. And the general consensus is that it works. Gemstones, which were earlier reserved only for the elites are becoming more and more commonplace on account of the increasing ability among people to be able to afford them. And this is giving way to things like pseudo-medicine, alternative medicine and culminating in conspiracy theories (anti-vaxx among others).

There is also a tendency to “choose” to believe in science. There is a section of people who outright reject evolution and promote conspiracy theories (flat earth). And all of this is being propagated at an astonishing rate via social media platforms. So are they harmful superstitions? I think yes.

Conclusions

This (very) long rant started because of the conversation that my girlfriend (now wife) reportedly had with an astrologer. And as the historical evidence shows, the science of studying the stars has been a thing with civilizations for like, forever. But then during the Enlightenment age when people figured out that relying on stars was probably a bad way to rely on for making decisions and that cholera in London was probably due to the sewage handling and not because someone called Venus was angry, the things changed. Centuries into enlightenment, and we still have someone declaring that I would not be proposing my girlfriend because “the stars say so” and not because my thesis is on fire.

Anyway, in conclusion, it is very unlikely that saying “touch wood” and touching a mutilated piece of tree that was providing oxygen to your grandparents half a century ago is probably unlikely to save you from much bad luck. And the same probably applies to gemstones and the imaginary dude (or lady) who my girlfriend prays to every night to make me a little less weird.