Astrology in European Religious History: Its Philosophical Foundations through the Ages

Cover HalfTitle Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction a) Astrology in the Present Day b) Astrology Historically and Critically c) Religion – Science – Astrology What Is ‘Astrology’? What Is ‘Religion’? What Is ‘Science’? Structure and Reasoning Selecting and Restricting Sources 1 The Structure of Astrology I: An Analogy between the Cosmos and Humans 1.1. Astrology in the Geocentric Model 1.1.1. Mesopotamian Omen Astrology 1.1.2. Astrology in the Early-Modern Period 1.2. Astrology in the Heliocentric Model 1.2.1. Johannes Kepler 1.2.2. Isaac Newton 1.3. Carl Jung and Thomas Ring’s Psychological-Symbolic Reinterpretation of Astrology 1.3.1. Carl Jung 1.3.1.1. Carl Jung’s ‘Case of Synchronicity’ 1.3.2. Thomas Ring 1.3.2.1. Thomas Ring’s ‘Revision of Astrological Thought’ 2 Astrology and Science in the Present Day 2.1. From Knowledge of ‘Divine Wisdom’ to Excluding Mythical Worldviews 2.2. Astrology as a ‘Science of Space and Time’ – Jean Claude Weiss 2.3. The Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Accident from an Astrological Perspective 2.4. Critical Objections to Astrology 2.4.1. Karl Popper 2.4.2. Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno 2.4.3. Paul Feyerabend 2.5. The ‘Experience’ Argument in Astrology 2.5.1. Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker 2.5.2. The Evidence Argument in the Past and the Present Day 2.5.3. Empirical Studies: The ‘Mars Effect’ 2.5.4. Digression: Empirical Methods in Mesopotamian Omen Astrology 3 The Structure of Astrology II: Celestial Deities and Intelligible Nature 3.1. Property Names and Deity Names for Planets from the Sumerian to the Roman Period 3.2. Plotinus’ ‘One’ and the World Soul 3.3. Intelligible Cosmos and Celestial Deities in Twentieth-Century Esoteric Astrology 3.4. Thomas Aquinas and the Stars’ ‘Spiritual Substances’ 3.5. Philipp Melanchthon and the Vital Cosmos 3.6. Martin Luther and Celestial Beings Contrary to the First Commandment 3.7. Father Gerhard Voss and the Divinely Infused Cosmos 3.8. Digression: How Religious Is the Astrological Worldview? In Search of a Suitable Transcendent Term 3.9. The ‘Divinity’ of Spaces: The Zodiac in the 360o Sphere of the Ecliptic 3.9.1. The Primacy of the Tropic over the Sidereal Zodiac 3.9.2. The Mythological and Intelligible Interpretation of the Sections of the Ecliptic in the Ancient World and the Modern Period 3.9.2.1. Origins 3.9.2.2. Constellations and Signs of the Zodiac in the Modern Period 3.9.2.2.1. Alice Ann Bailey 3.9.2.2.2. Carl Jung 3.9.2.2.3. Fritz Riemann 3.9.2.2.4. Thomas Ring 3.10. Conclusion 4 Astrology as a Misunderstood Science 4.1. John David North and the Physical Premises of Astrology 4.1.1. Aristotle’s Meteorology 4.1.2. Aristotle’s Ether and Celestial Souls 4.1.3. Elements and Qualities in Greek Natural Philosophy 4.1.4. Stoic Meteorology 5 Astrology in the Context of Modern Societies 5.1. Astrology’s Hermeneutical Principle 5.2. Astrology and Individualised Construction of Meaning in the Present Day Bibliography Reference Books and Encyclopaedias