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The Future of Astrology

The Future of Astrology

In the tenth episode of the show I discuss the future of astrology with Austin Coppock, who is the President of the Association for Young Astrologers (AYA).

AYA is organizing a pre-conference workshop at the NCGR conference in Philadelphia next week that will showcase a range of different talks by members of the organization.

We thought that it would be good to discuss some of the different trends that we have seen happening recently in the astrological community, and how some of these themes might play out in the coming decades.

Unsurprisingly this turned out to be a huge topic to cover, and the show is a bit longer than usual, clocking in at a sold 2 hours and 18 minutes.

You can scan some of the main points that we discussed by reading the show notes below:

Show Notes

  • We start with an astrology news segment.
  • Introducing AYA, and talking a little bit about the organization.
  • Where is astrology headed in the future?  What will be some of the main themes in coming generations?
  • Any evidence from the past that could inform us about the future?
  • Which traditions or types of astrology seem to be becoming more popular?
  • Recent resurgence of interest in traditional astrology.
  • Recent popularity of Evolutionary Astrology.
  • Indian astrology becoming popular in the west since the late 1980s.
  • Role of psychology and counseling?
  • Using astrology for psychological analysis vs. predicting concrete external events.
  • The synthesis of modern and traditional astrology, and the philosophical, technical and ethical issues that come up.
  • The law of attraction and issues related to it: what is in our control vs. what is not?
  • Brief digression about fate, free-will, and determinism as an issue that astrologers have to deal with.
  • Different ways in which astrology is being used. What does an astrologer do?
  • Value judgements and interpretive distinctions like benefic & malefic, strong vs weak, etc.
  • Dealing with the rulership issue: modern vs. traditional.
  • The recent Queer Astrology Conference in San Francisco, and some of the themes that came up there.
  • What does the astrology of the next few decades say about the future of astrology?
  • Not just counselors- research and para-academic roles for astrologers?
  • Myth as an interpretive principle in astrology.
  • New asteroids and planetary bodies. The solar system is still expanding.
  • Possibly new scientific discoveries?  Swiss researchers recently found evidence that the lunar cycle may affect sleep patterns.
  • Potential problems with skeptics?
  • Ability to hold multiple viewpoints, and the issue with adopting specific positions versus acknowledging multiple truths.
  • The increasing interest in western astrology in China.
  • The haphazard nature of the transmission of astrology.

Transcript

A full transcript of this episode is available: Episode 10 transcript

Download or Stream the Podcast

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8 comments
  • Hi Chris
    In regards your fears regarding skepticism against astrologers, and that there are more skeptics on wikipedia, you may be interested in this video:
    http://www.astrologer.com/tests/wp.htm
    Which came up on a thread at skyscript:
    http://skyscript.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7845

    I happen to be someone who agrees with you with regards the skeptical attacks on ‘fringe’ subjects like astrology and homeopathy (to continue your example) and it seems like there’s a strong core team of individuals who are very organised in controlling information and data and patrolling it in a kind of ‘thought police’ way, dictating what is or is not acceptable, through mediums like wikipedia.

    • Hi Paul,
      Thanks for this! I’ve been following some of the stuff that has been going on on Wikipedia lately, and I appreciate Robert Currey’s efforts to point out the campaigns that some skeptic groups have been launching in order to control the astrology pages. Unfortunately I feel like Wikipedia is a lost cause at this point for astrologers simply because the skeptics outnumber us, and for that reason they will be able to control the mainstream message about those subjects as a result of that. That is why I set up sites like The Astrology Dictionary though, in order to provide an alternative to Wikipedia, so that I don’t have to put a bunch of work into an article only to have it deleted by someone simply because they don’t like astrology. That is really the only way that I think that we can fight stuff like that at this point.

  • Hi Chris!

    Thanks for a great podcast, I really enjoyed listening. As a counseling/holistic astrologer and student of homeopathy, it was right up my alley:)

    Here are my 2 cents about the organization of skeptics against astrology and homeopathy. Both seem like a favorite target, but whereas homeopathy presents a problem for pharmaceutical companies and everyone connected to them (universities, governments) , astrology doesn’t really threaten any particular industry/lobby group. It certainly challenges the status quo, but not against any one group of people who stand to lose a lot of money if it were ever proven. For that reason, I don’t see that astrology would suffer from a deliberate and sustained (funded) attack the same way that homeopathy does. However, I think it’s likely that the pharmaceutical giants are only too happy to fund skeptic organizations and those groups may lump astrology in with homeopathy along with anything else they’re not interested in trying to understand. As for the organizations themselves, once they get an injection of funds, then it’s easy to find a talking head with some degrees to represent the group with mainstream credibility.

    On the surface astrology may not appear to have much in common with homeopathy, besides being the favorite bones for skeptics to gnaw on, but in my opinion, both sciences can be used to support the emergence of the individual in a way that’s unparalleled. Maybe the possibility of a paradigm shift that they’re desperately resisting is what threatens the naysayers most of all?

    Anyhow, thanks again for the podcasts and for The Astrology Dictionary; I agree that this is the way to go about sharing information.

  • i wish 2013 chris could see the twitter rise of astrology, and people sharing their charts, talking about houses, talking about transits, placing importance on celestial bodies beyond the sun… just within about the past year. it’s quite something.

    • I was just thinking this the other day as well, after seeing a thread on Twitter where a bunch of 20-somethings shared their Sun, Moon, and rising signs. It is so wild seeing how many young people know their Ascendant now. It definitely wasn’t the case 10 years ago when I was in my 20s.

  • Hi Chris,
    This is quite something important.
    Using astrology for psychological analysis vs. predicting concrete external events really going to be a viral topic to discuss across on the all platforms.
    I agree with my other reader, astrology doesn’t target any particular organisations/ companies so that it become a threat to them and give good competition.
    In Indian community astrology is treated as God gifted talent. In western communities it is treated as hobby/ entertainment way. Either way no negative to astrology, not at all.
    It continues to flourish in future.

  • The whole sign system is really getting quite common for sure. And astrology in general is moving more into the hands of horoscope enthusiasts, with apps getting popular now like CoStar, and people subscribing to their horoscope sign’s Instagram story, etc. There are also astrology and Tarot readings at a regular party I attend here in Los Angeles, where the target patron would be in their 20s. It seems like young people have this great need to understand, and are incorporating astrology into things like apps and social media – which wouldn’t have taken predictive astrology in order to foresee. The whole sign system, from my own observations, makes a natal chart easier to understand for a beginner or an enthusiast – as it can be redrawn as just simply a table with the signs, houses, and planets in a three-column/multi-row format; instead of our traditional wheel chart. As astrology pushes further and further into pop culture (as it’s done over the last century), I think there will be a need to make the deeper parts of astrology (ie, which planets are in which houses and signs etc) more available and less intimidating to non-astrologers. And so now we have this table-style chart using the whole sign system, and it is gaining some decent momentum. Call me a luddite, but it drives me just utterly bonkers to see someone post that column/row style birth chart to Reddit when they would like a quick online reading.