People may not realize it, but when they ask for your astrological sign, they’re probing into occultism. Seeking to find out if you’re an Aries, Taurus, or Capricorn, they’re harkening back to a long dark history of trying to extract secret knowledge and power from patterns in the stars.1 In the process, they are not only flirting with occult superstition, they’re assuming you do too. When people use the zodiac to find the exact alignment of celestial bodies at the time they were born, that’s called a “natal star chart.” A horoscope then is the reading of a natal star chart (from the zodiac), with the belief (from astrology) that that chart informs us about our character, luck, and upcoming events, giving us person-specific advice based on this mystical knowledge. That’s how horoscopes work. But Do They Really Work? Horoscopes kind of work, but not really. But Do They Really Work? Horoscopes kind of work, but not really. Horoscopes aren’t accurate, even on the science side of things. There are serious errors in the zodiac that none other than NASA has pointed out. Your natal star chart according to the zodiac probably doesn’t line up with where the stars actually were when you were born. That’s because there aren’t twelve, but thirteen, houses, and they move in ellipses, not circles. So they don’t occupy equal time-frames in the visible sky. Plus, there is planetary drift and gravitational shift. All of these indicate gradual migration and distortion over the last 3,000+ years since astrologers began charting the sky. To the extent that modern horoscopes rely on antiquated star charts, they aren’t even getting the star-gazing part right. Horoscopes are still fashionable today, but that’s in spite of systemic flaws in charting the stars. Horoscopes are pseudo-science, replacing knowledge with superstition and false beliefs. They not only lack predictive value, they’re obstacles to truth, wisdom, and understanding. Instead of turning to horoscopes for life direction and good fortune, we do better to seek God in prayer, spend time reading and studying Scripture, and seek counsel through godly Christian fellowship. After all, “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10 NIV).
This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author John Ferrer about his online article, “What’s Your Sign? Horoscopes, Astrology, and the Zodiac? ”
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