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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
Astrology
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This Rock
Volume 6, Number 2
 February 1995 
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THE pagan world was dominated by belief in astrology. Pagans believed that the stars were divinities or that they were controlled by divinities. Because of this common pagan belief, the Old Testament contains repeated injunctions against star-worship (Deut. 4:19, 17:3, 2 Kgs. 17:16, 21:3-5, 23:4, Jer 8:2, 19.12-13, Zeph. 1:4-6).
Today some Christians are influenced by revived paganism in the form of the New Age movement. Some have even suggested Christianity originally held many occult beliefs, such as astrology. But the early Christians, like the early Jews, were vehemently opposed to astrology, even attributing it to a demonic origin. The Church Fathers, no slouches, wrote against astrology to protect their flocks.
Tatian
"Such are the demons; these are they who laid down the doctrine of Fate. Their fundamental principle was the placing of animals in the heavens [as constellations] . . . these they dignified with celestial honor, in order that they might themselves be thought to remain in heaven and, by placing the constellations there, might make to appear rational the irrational course of life on earth. Thus the high-spirited and he who is crushed with toil, the temperate and the intemperate, the indigent and the wealthy, are what they are simply from the controllers of their nativity. For the delineation of the zodiacal circle is the work of the 'gods' . . . . But we are superior to Fate, and instead of wandering demons, we have learned to know one Lord, who wanders not" (Address to the Greeks 9 [A.D. 170]).
Pseudo-Clement
"Therefore the astrologers, being ignorant of such mysteries, think that these things [the disasters brought about by demons inspiring human sin] happen by the courses of the heavenly bodies; hence also, in their answers to those who go to them and consult them as to future things, they are deceived in very many instances. Nor is it to be wondered at, for they are not prophets; but, by long practice, the authors of errors find a sort of refuge in those things by which they were deceived and introduce certain 'climacteric periods,' that they may pretend a knowledge of uncertain things. For they represent these 'climacterics' as times of danger, in which one sometimes is destroyed, sometimes is not destroyed, not knowing that it is not the course of the stars but the operation of demons that regulates these things; and those demons, being anxious to confirm the error of astrology, deceive men to sin by mathematical calculations, so that when they suffer the punishment of sin, either by the permission of God or by legal sentence, the astrologer may seem to have spoken the truth" (Recognitions of Clement 9:12 [A.D. 221]).
"[A]s usually happens when men see unfavorable dreams, and can make nothing certain out of them, when any event occurs, then they adapt what they saw in the dream to what has occurred; so also is [the] mathematics [of astrology]. For before anything happens, nothing is declared with certainty; but after something has happened, they gather the causes of the event. And thus often, when they have been at fault and the thing has fallen out otherwise, they take the blame to themselves, saying that it was such and such a star which opposed and that they did not see it; not knowing that their error does not proceed from their unskillfullness in their art, but from the inconsistency of the whole system" (ibid. 10:12).
Hippolytus
"How impotent [the astrologers'] system is for comparing the forms and dispositions of men with names of stars! We know that those originally conversant with such investigations have called the stars by names [which were given to promote recognition of the stars by others interested in them]. But what similarity is there of these [constellations] with the likeness of animals, or what community of nature are regards conduct and energy, that one should allege that a person born in Leo should be irascible [like a lion] and that one born in Virgo moderate [like a virgin] or one born in Cancer wicked [like a crab]?" (Refutation of All Heresies 4:37 [A.D. 228]).
Lactantius
"[D]emons are the enemies and harassers of men, and on this account [the sorcerer Hermes] Trismegistus calls them wicked angels; so far was he from being ignorant that from heavenly beings they were corrupted, and began to be earthly. These were the inventors of astrology, and of soothsaying, and divination, and those productions which are called oracles, and necromancy, and the art of magic, and whatever other evil practices these men exercise, either openly or in secret" (Divine Institutes 2:16-17 [A.D. 307]).
"[Demons] brought to light astrology, and augury, and divination; and though these things are in themselves false, yet they themselves, the authors of evils, so govern and regulate them that they are believed to be true. . . . Thus by their frauds they have drawn darkness over the human race, that truth might be oppressed, and the name of the supreme and matchless God might be forgotten" (Epitome of the Divine Institutes 28 [A.D. 317]).
Synod of Laodicea
"They who are of the priesthood or of the clergy shall not be magicians, enchanters, [planetary] 'mathematicians,' or astrologers" (canon 36 [A.D. 362]).
Athanasius
"They [Christian astrologers] have fabricated books which they call books of tables, in which they show stars, to which they have given the names of saints. And therein they have inflicted on themselves a double reproach, those who have written such books, because they have perfected themselves in a lying and contemptible science [astrology], and as to the ignorant and simple, they have led them astray by evil thoughts concerning the right faith, established in truth and upright in the presence of God" (Easter Letter 39:1 [A.D. 367]).
Basil
"[T]hose who overstep the borders, making the words of Scripture ["And God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens . . . and let them be for signs and for seasons'" (Gen. 1:14)] their apology for the art of casting nativities [horoscopes], pretend that our lives depend upon the motion of the heavenly bodies, and thus the Chaldeans read in the planets that which will happen to us. By these very simple words 'let them be for signs,' they understand neither the variations of the weather nor the change of seasons; they only see in them, at the will of their imagination, the distribution of human destinies" (Hexaemeron 6:5 [A.D. 370]).
John Chrysostom
"Where then are they who set up the power of a nativity [horoscope] and a cycle of times against the doctrines of the Church? Who has ever recorded that another Christ appeared, that such a thing took place? . . . Of what kind of cycle then would you speak? For there was never another Sodom, or another Gomorrah, nor another Flood." (Homilies on Matthew 75:4 [A.D. 370]).
"For many [Catholics] entirely disbelieve the resurrection; many fortify themselves with the horoscope; many adhere to superstitious observances, and to omens, and auguries, and presages" (Homilies on 1 Corinthians 4:11 [A.D. 392]).
Augustine
"Now I had also repudiated the lying divination and impious absurdities of the astrologers. . . . [and] I turned my thoughts to those that are born twins, who generally come out of the womb so near one to another that the small distance of time between them (however much force they may contend that it has in the nature of things) cannot be noted by human observation or be expressed in those [planetary] figures which the astrologer is to examine that he may pronounce the truth. Nor can they be true, for looking into the same figures he must have foretold the same things of Esau and Jacob, whereas the same things did not happen to them. He must therefore speak falsely or, if truly looking into the same figures he must not speak the same things. Not then by art but by chance would he speak truly" (Confessions 7:6:8-10 [A.D. 400]).
"Let us now answer the astrologers. And how do they attempt to prove that Jesus was under Fate? Because, they say, he himself said, 'My hour is not yet come' [John 2:4]. . . . Well, let them believe Christ when he says, 'I have power to lay down my life and to take it up again; no man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself, and I take it up again' [John 10:18]. Is this power then under Fate? Let them show us a man who has it in his power when to die, how long to live; this they can never do. . . . Even if Fate were from the stars, the Maker of the stars could not be subject to their destiny. Moreover, not only Christ had not what you call Fate, but not even you have it, nor I, nor that man there, nor any human being whatever" (Homilies on John 8:10 [A.D. 416]).
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