Astrology and Horoscopes
AstrologyClub
contact[at]astrologyclub.org

In what way is astrology congruent with the paradigm shift we are currently undergoing?

The philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn suggested that paradigm shifts occur in science when too much anomalous data accrues that cannot be accounted for under existing assumptions, theoretical models, and hypotheses. The anomalous data amassed over the twentieth century in various scientific disciplines was of such magnitude that the fundamental assumptions of classical science had been comprehensively undermined.

Bell‘s theorem of nonlocality; the great contributions to quantum mechanics from Bohr, Heisenberg, and Schrodinger; Einstein‘s theories of relativity; the sciences of complexity and chaos; Lovelock‘s Gaia Hypothesis; and the mounting evidence of ecological damage and impending environmental catastrophe have all suggested that the metaphysical assumptions of the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm and the value system underneath its auspices are in need of fundamental change and revisioning.

Previous revolutions in worldview share a common bond with the current epistemological and ontological upheaval: revolutions of this magnitude do not occur overnight but only are integrated into societies through slow, successive stages of acceptance.

However, the crucial difference with the current deconstruction of worldview is that it is occurring from the inside out. Whereas previous world turnings have occurred when an unsuspecting band of marginal, disenfranchised but brilliant outsiders–Christ’s apostles, the early scientists–challenged and clashed with the authority of its day, this current revolution is occurring by way of the cultural authorities and institution themselves. Science is deconstructing its own assumptions through its own methodology.

The building blocks of the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm are being taken away by its own proponents bit by bit to allow for something new that transcends but includes the models of classical science. The edifices of the Enlightenment and classical science–linear, solid, firm, and right-angled–are being removed for the structures of the new paradigm–organic, dynamic, fluid, shape shifting, and ambiguous.

More specifically, the metaphysical assumptions of Classical science, namely, that matter is primary, subjectivity and objectivity are radically split, the universe is completely contingent and mechanistic in character are being replaced with new ultimate assumptions with how the ways “are” and how the way things “work”: consciousness is primary to matter, subjectivity and objective realities may be causally linked and fundamentally two sides of one dimension, and that the universe is purposive, creative, and emergent.

As historians of astrology are quick to point out, astrology was not conclusively discredited by science but dismissed out-of-hand due to a complete disagreement on metaphysical foundations. The circular metaphysical “peg” of astrology didn’t fit into the square metaphysical “hole” of science and thus was stripped of any legitimacy it once attained.

The assumptions of the emerging new paradigm are much more congruent with the philosophical and methodological assumptions of astrology. If consciousness is indeed primary (or at least in relationship to matter and not a byproduct of the brain) it is much more comfortable to see human beings and planets as resting upon, or an external manifestation of, consciousness or awareness.

If one assumes that the observer dependence and nonlocality of the quantum level is applicable to the macroscopic plane of reality, then the immense physical distances between earth and the other planets of the solar system isn’t an issue that negates astrological suppositions. Finally, if the universe is an ensouled, purposive, and creative flux of energy then one’s subjectivity and life enfoldment can be seen as isomorphic and congruent with the larger dynamics of the universe-at-large.

It is this “seeing through” by way of scientific methodology that has allowed a complete, yet continuing, deconstruction and transformation of old frameworks and assumptions that is opening a visionary porthole into the deep structures of consciousness and the universe. These deep structures1–ambiguous, animated, evolving, protean, and congruent with the astrological conception of the universe–may never be observable. However, the intuition of mystics, philosophers, and theologians that some ground of being that pulses the radical diversity of the universe into being may just now be in the process of being scaffolded by the new sciences.

Last updated on February 18, 2017 at 1:42 pm. Word Count: 647