IS ASTROLOGY FATALISTIC OR DETERMINISTIC?
Short answer: No, absolutely not.
Long answer:
Astrology does not predict concrete events or outcomes. Your birth chart delineates your reactions to experiences, natural inclinations or areas of difficulty (but not the exactly predetermined experiences as such) under the “cosmic imprint” you received at the moment of birth.
It was perfectly reasonable for the ancients to see an intrinsic all-ness (not all-one-ness in the New Age sense) permeating every level of existence, a “divine breath“ omnipresent in the natural world, an interconnectedness of everything with everything. Of course, there were different schools of thought in antiquity, especially if you look a the ancient Greeks and their ways of conceptualizing reality, sometimes openly clashing and butting heads with a different school. However, the concept of reality that has been a part of humanity since the most remote of times has always been characterized by some sort of overarching understanding that we as human beings are not divorced from Nature, the Gods or the cosmos, and that what happens “above“ is somehow reflected “below“. The key to making sense of this, if one is open-minded enough to do so, is to grasp that conscious awareness makes all the difference.
The reason why the scientific community rejects astrology is based on the scientific view’s built-in inability and unwillingness (the latter being a consequence of the former) to recognize a provable correspondence between the planetary movements and human life on earth. The proponents of materialism have taken the human consciousness out of the equation, having figuratively and, of course, literally, ceased to place the earth aka humans at the center of the solar system. This is a shift in perspective that not only affects astronomical calculations, but the human being’s metaphysical role in the solar system. I am by no means advocating a return to the geocentric model, and neither is any astrologer that I’m aware of – it is the rejection of a purely philosophically geocentric, or human-centric, approach that makes up a huge part of why science refuses to put the human being into the cosmic playing field and relate it to the movements and cycles in the “as above, so below“ sense. The other factor, of course, is the scientific method itself, which only permits a certain set of agreed-upon avenues of thought, a specific set of data that is permitted for collection and evaluation, and a highly reglemented system of how the scientific method is to be employed in theory and practice.
To even suggest a correspondence between celestial bodies and events on earth, and consequently the human consciousness, is, therefore, completely absurd and laughable to the proponents of modern mainstream science. The concept of consciousness is highly questioned in the materialistic worldview, which will rather see humans as bio-robots than ensouled beings, as this would imply a divine element that is absolutely verboten within the modern scientific paradigm.
Astrology is neither fatalistic nor deterministic because it in no way negates or undermines free will. On the contrary: It is a tool for cultivating a conscious awareness and understanding of one’s intrinsic ways of reacting to experiences, computing them, evolving emotionally and responding to the world in general. It is a precise method for detecting certain potentials within one’s own personality as well as global events and cycles (using predictive techniques that do not “predict“ the concrete events, but help anticipate likely developments within a clearly circumscribed ballpark of options). As sentient, ensouled human beings that are part of a grander cosmic scheme, non-New Age (!) astrology equips us with a powerful awareness and comprehension of the significance of certain “celestial“ conditions.
Reiterating the previous paragraph’s beginning, “Astrology is neither fatalistic nor deterministic because it in no way negates or undermines free will“, I will also add, “In order to be truly effective, practical and useful, astrology requires the development and sophistication of one’s character, ego, self-awareness, spirit, intellect, or, in short: Educated consciousness.“ Therein lies a key the significance of which cannot be overstated. Without the intentional use of one’s own free will, based on the refinement of one’s individual character (in turn based on the principle KNOW THYSELF), astrology can have no meaning in itself any more than a sentence has meaning without understanding the language in which it is written. For a consciousness-deriding doctrine to try and “debunk“ a millennia-old art and science (yes, science) that was born out of a mindset so much more elevated and wholistic than the ultra-limiting materialistic paradigm that only found its way into the mainstream in the late 1700s, requires quite a lot of self-importance and arrogance. Which, in fact, is exactly what has seduced the scientific community to declare itself the sole arbiter of reason and truth, when all their worldview permits them to perceive and define reality with is an extremely narrow set of authorized methods and modes of thought. It is like being unable to understand a language because someone has declared half of its alphabet as bunk and unworthy of use because it doesn’t support their desired outcome according to their dogma (reminiscent of the utterly irrational, yet scientifically accepted, idea of “junk“ DNA).
Therefore, I dare say that the hardcore-materialistic paradigm operating in the world today is much more fatalistic and deterministic than astrology could ever be. Modern science not only negates humanity’s interconnectedness with Nature and planet earth itself (unless it’s to support a certain profit-driven agenda that likes to paint humans as the root of all evil in the world), it wants to negate the soul and consciousness aka the prerequisites for free will itself! It is a truly destitute and pitifully restricted worldview that aims to rob us – under the guise of “progress” – of any deeper meaning, understanding or sense of purpose besides purely carnal and material concerns. It is the diametrical opposite of the mindset from which astrology has emerged, which encourages sophisticated intelligence and self-mastery instead of “Follow the Dogma“.
© Olivia Solner
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Edmund Joseph Sullivan (1869-1933), illustration for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam