In ancient times astrology had its place – it was thought that the arrangement of stars in the sky had bearing on human life. The stars were grouped into zodiacs – figures with stars at certain anatomical points. The signs of the zodiac were given attributes: the goat Capricorn was stubborn, the fish Pisces was dreamy, watery – if you happened to be born in one of the periods of the year into which the zodiac was divided you took on the attributes of the sign. The pseudoscience became more complicated – divination and birth charts, every move and decision made attributed to some function of the star sign, or position of moon and planets at the time of birth.
We now know astrology is rubbish. It developed into astronomy and the stars in the sky that look so close together were discovered to be million, even billions of miles apart in the universe. The separate stars of any zodiac sign can have no influence on each other. The universe is a huge, incomprehensibly enormous place. The reign of astrology is over, welcome to the proper observational science of astronomy.
Except that some people still believe in the mumbo jumbo of astrology. Just like other people believe in a creation myth that denies the existence of fossils, hence the reign of dinosaurs, the whole development of life through the vehicle of evolution by natural selection. People once believed that the earth moved round the sun, or the earth was flat, or that thunder was a reflection of the anger of some ancient god sitting above the clouds. They don’t now. As humanity develops, as our knowledge of the processes of life improves, as the same science that gives us electricity, heat, light and computers (on which to do our star charts!) tells us unequivocally that the tenets of astrology, or alchemy, or indeed the myths of flood or creation are wrong – some people still deny it.
Well, good luck to them. As the French poet and fabulist Jean La Fontaine put it, in the 18th Century -
Ye horoscopers, waning quacks,
Please turn on Europe’s courts your backs,
And, taking on your travelling lists
The bellows-blowing alchemists,
Budge off together to the land of mists.
Read the full poem here
