Mirrors of the Past: Time and Historical Consciousness in Contemporary Western Astrology

Summary

Astrology's use of history blends linear and cyclical time, creating a 'astrological historicity' that informs predictive forecasts. Drawing on examples from North American astrologers, the article argues that this temporal orientation, rooted in New Age metaphysics and psychodynamic theories, reinforces therapeutic spirituality but also enables social and political critique, including awareness of racial injustice. Astrology serves as a cultural resource for expressing disillusionment with political-economic systems, beyond mere entertainment or therapy.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract How do invocations of history inform speculative discourses in Western astrology? This article examines how events from the recorded past factor into predictive forecasts among professional astrologers for whom celestial patterns are indicative of shifting and evolving world-historical trends. Drawing on examples from prominent voices in the North American astrology community, across a range of commercial and social media platforms, I outline the parameters of what I call “astrological historicity,” a temporal orientation guided by archetypal principles closely associated with New Age metaphysics and psychodynamic theories of the self. I argue that while such sensibilities reinforce an ethos of therapeutic spirituality, they are not so narrowly individualistic as to preclude social and political considerations. Astrological historicity is at times a vehicle for culturally resonant expressions of historical consciousness, including critical awareness of historical legacies of racial and social injustice that directly link the past to the present and foreseeable future. Furthermore, while astrological accounts of history emulate aspects of modern historicism, including its orientation toward linear temporality and developmental themes, they rely on a nonlinear framework predicated on recurring cycles, correspondences, and synchronicities, bringing a complex heterotemporality to bear on world-historical circumstances. In seeking to understand the moral and political entailments of this area of occult knowledge production, this article aims to shed light on astrology’s cultural appeal not just as popular entertainment, spirituality, or therapy, but as an intellectual and cultural resource for many people searching for ways to express their frustration and disillusionment with reigning political-economic systems and authorities.

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