Christian Astrology?

Can someone be an orthodox Roman Catholic and still believe in astrology?  Surprisingly, and controversially, the answer is ‘Yes’, at least according to Marsilio Ficino (d. 1499), philosopher, theologian, priest, and magus (‘magician’, in the tradition of the Magi).  

Writing in Florence at the climax of the Middle Ages, Ficino was part of a group of late Medieval intellectuals who unwittingly prepared the way for the coming Renaissance by reviving interest in Classical culture and by celebrating the human condition (Humanism). 

Balancing Greco-Roman wisdom with Judeo-Christian theology proved challenging. Sadly, the great promise of Ficino’s Renaissance was soon hijacked by secular pragmatists; 500 years later, we are still struggling to awaken from our Machiavellian nightmare.

At first glance, Classical paganism and Judeo-Christian monotheism would seem strange bedfellows, but Fincino & Co. imagined that a bridge could be found in a shared reverence for Nature. Paganism finds divinity in Nature while Judeo-Christianity grounds Natural Law in the divine. 

Judaism is particularly clear on this point. God communicates the Law in two ways, through Written Torah, contained in the first five Books of the Judeo-Christian Bible, and through Oral Torah, manifested as the processes of Nature. There are not two Torahs, only one; but that one Torah is expressed in two very different media.

Divination in general and astrology in particular play major roles in Classical cosmology. Christianity, for its part, rejects as ‘gnostic heresy’ any suggestion that human affairs are governed by the positions and momenta of celestial bodies. A philosophical rapprochement between the two ideologies would seem impossible; but Ficino found a way forward.

The key lies in our understanding of the relationships between Humanity, Nature (‘stars’), and Divinity (God). ‘Lumpen astrology’, the sort found on page 2 of your local ‘rag’, suggests that the stars directly control, or at least influence, our fate. This Ficino rejects. Such ‘astrological determinism’ encroaches on God’s sovereignty, depreciates the role of Justice in the unfolding of events, and compromises our Free Will.

Instead Ficino suggests that everything that is reflects the mind of God. That includes both celestial mechanics and human sociology. Since both reflect the mind of God, they may be treated as reflections of each other.  So we can use the ‘science of astrology’ to help us decode the panentheistic ‘pattern of divinity’. As such, Ficino’s astrology is an extension of the Mosaic tradition of supplementing the study of Scripture (Written Torah) with the study of Nature (Oral Torah), and vice-versa.  

Christianity continues this tradition via the all-inclusive doctrine of logos.  Specifically, Christ is the logos through whom all things come to be and without whom nothing that comes to be comes to be (John 1: 3). 

Ficino makes it clear that logos is not a mechanical process divorced from its end product. Rather logos ‘infuses’ its external expressions (panta) with its own eponymous pattern. Everything that is, is Imago Dei. To be is to be ‘God-like’. To the extent that something is, it is (God-like); to the extent that it is not, it is not.  

Perhaps Ficino’s complex and controversial position on matters astrological is best captured in the title of one of his essays: “Divine law cannot be made by the heavens but may perhaps be indicated by them.”

Unfortunately, Ficino’s syncretism did not win the day. In fact, Ficino may be the last great European philosopher to suggest that the study of Nature and the study of Scripture were complementary paths to Wisdom. Rather, the ethos of the Renaissance-Enlightenment called for the study of Nature specifically in order to debunk Revelation. Our insatiable compulsion to rid the world of God hijacked both science and philosophy and held them captive for 400 seemingly interminable years, the true Dark Age of Western civilization.  

It was not until the 20th century that thinkers would again look to the stars to probe the mind of God.  This recovery crystallized in the work of James Joyce. Early in Ulysses (1922), he writes about ‘the signatures of all things I am here to read’. Translation: Nature is an Urgent Owl with a coded message from God! In fact, Joyce’s entire corpus is just that. 

Joyce maps Homer’s Odyssey, Roman Catholic liturgy, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, et al., onto ‘events’ in Dublin on June 16, 1904. This fractal-rich world reproduces patterns (logoi) everywhere, everywhen, across all scales (all 60 orders of magnitude). How then could the events of any day not harmonize with the music of the spheres? 

While Classical cosmology might be reconciled with Christian theology, Machiavellian ethics (“the end justifies the means”) could not. The grip of our Machiavellian Captivity has recently loosened, but we still see its remnants in the press inflamed pseudo-conflict between Science and Religion.

Many of the major issues for contemporary civilization live on the border of science and spirituality. For example, we need science to show us ways to manage climate change, but we need spirituality to motivate us to act.

So our initial question might have to be rethought. Instead of asking, “Can someone be an orthodox Roman Catholic and still believe in astrology?”, perhaps we should be asking, “Can anyone be an orthodox Roman Catholic and not believe in astrology?”

Image: Van Eyck, Jan. Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife. 1434, oil on wood, 82.2 × 60 cm. Main Collection, National Gallery, London, NG186.

Like Ficino’s astrology, which seeks hidden divine patterns in nature, The Arnolfini Portrait is filled with symbols—each object reflecting deeper theological, philosophical, and even astrological significance. The convex mirror at the center of the painting, reflecting the unseen, echoes the idea that celestial mechanics and human affairs are interconnected reflections of the divine mind.

Much like Ficino’s belief in the signatures of all things, van Eyck’s meticulous realism reveals a world where every detail is imbued with meaning, suggesting that nothing in nature (or art) exists by accident.