Letters

Leonardo, Vol. 7, pp. 187-192. Pergamon Press 1974. Printed in Great Britain LETTERS Readers’ commentsare welcomedon textspublished in Lwnardo. The Editors reserve the right to shorten lettersfor reasons of space. Letters should be written in English or in French. ON ASTROLOGY AND MODERN SCIENCE I was pleased to see such a strong response to my article in Leonardo 6, 121 (1973) in James R. Hein’s Note in this issue (Leonardo 7 , 151 (1974)). I freely admit that my knowledge of astrology is not as extensive as his, nor would I want it to be. I find the realities of life far too marvellous to wallow for long in the fantasies of others. I only took time from ecological and other concerns to write the article because I, like Jung in 1930, am concerned with the recent ‘darkening of the Western mind by occultism’. The bias that Hein detects is not personal but arises from the principles of modern science and logic. In fact, I first approached the subject with a bemused attitude, feeling that the discoveries concerning biological clocks and Gauquelin’s statistical work might lend some basis, however slight, to the ‘ancient science’. Much to my surprise, I discovered that astrology was a magical system and thus any attempt to correlate it with modem science was doomed to failure. In reading over Hein’s note, I noticed that he tends to reason by analogy, which is all well and good if not misapplied, as in his second paragraph when he draws an analogy between modern chemistry, alchemy and astrology. Correctly stated, the analogy should read : ‘As the valid science of modern chemistry arose from the ancient superstititions of alchemy, so the valid science of modern astronomy arose from the ancient superstitions of astrology.’ It is unfortunate that he fails to see the significance of the ‘principle of correspondences’, since it forms the very backbone of astrology! As stressed in my article, an astrological chart is merely a mapping of the planets and stars; it says nothing at all about events here on Earth until the astrologer evokes the principle of correspondences (whether he recognizes the fact or not) and interprets the chart. It is through the principle of correspondences that the astrologer assigns characteristics and qualities (e.g. the house of Pisces is associated with the sea). Actually, I do not agree with the ideas of Cicero and Pliny the Elder; I was merely stating historical information . As clearly pointed out in my article, the stars have been shown to have an ‘effect’ on Earth by acting as navigational aids in the migrations of warblers. The question of twins and the moment of conception is totally irrelevant to my analysis, since I show that it is the method of interpretation which is not valid. I agree that astrology continued to flourish in the 16thand 17th centuries while astronomy was first being established as a science but certainly by the 19th century it was no longer part of the mainstream of Western culture. In speaking of acupuncture, Hein commits another fallacy in reasoning by analogy. One cannot validly compare acupuncture with astrology since the former is a physical operation performed directly on the body while the latter employs symbols drawn on paper to be magically interpreted. If voodoo were found to be no longer a superstitition, then Hein would have a valid analogy upon which to draw. When he turns to discussing astrological axioms, he again misses the thrust of my argument. It makes absolutely no difference whether astrologers use the sideral or tropical zodiac, nor whether they include the outer planets. Furthermore, it does not matter what characteristics are assigned to the planets and houses, since it is the assigning process itself that is invalid. I am glad Hein agrees that my interpretation of the hypothetical chart is absurd-that was precisely the reaction I intended. However, it is the method of interpretation that is absurd, not the end result. Contrary to Hein’s statement, I did not change my mind about the origins of astrology. The correlation of animal migrations and changes in season with planetary and stellar movements is perfectly valid and was probably a...