This is the first comprehensive examination of astrology's origins and it examines the foundations of a major feature of popular culture in the contemporary west, one which has its origins in the ancient world. Campion explores the relationship between astrology and religion, magic and science, and explores its use in politics and the arts.

Beginning with the theories of the origins of religion in sun-worship, it spans the period between the first Paleolithic lunar counters around 30,000 BC and the end of the classical world and rise of Christianity. Campion challenges the idea that astrology was invented by the Greeks, and asks whether its origins lie in Near-Eastern religion, or whether it can be considered a decadent Eastern import to the West. He considers the evidence for reverence for the stars in Neolithic culture, Mesopotamian astral divination, Egyptian stellar religion, and examines attitudes to astrology and celestial prophecy in the Bible. He considers such artefacts as the mysterious, 15,000-year-old 'Venus of Lauselle', the reasons for the orientation of the pyramids, the latest theories on Stonehenge as a sacred observatory, Greek theories of the ascent of the soul to the stars and the Roman emporer Nero's use of astrology to persecute his rivals.

Astrology is a major feature of contemporary popular culture. Recent research indicates that 99% of adults in the modern west know their birth sign. In the modern west astrology thrives as part of our culture despite being a pre-Christian, pre-scientific world-view.

Medieval and Renaissance Europe marked the high water mark for astrology. It was a subject of high theological speculation, was used to advise kings and popes, and to arrange any activity from the beginning of battles to the most auspicious time to have one's hair cut.

Nicholas Campion examines the foundation of modern astrology in the medieval and Renaissance worlds. Spanning the period between the collapse of classical astrology in the fifth century and the rise of popular astrology on the web in the twentieth, Campion challenges the historical convention that astrology flourished only between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries.
Concluding with a discussion of astrology's popularity and appeal in the twenty-first century, Campion asks whether it should be seen as an integral part of modernity or as an element of the post-modern world.

An indispensable reference book for anyone interested in mundane astrology. Contains charts of countries worldwide and historically significant events and includes appendices listing degrees of planets and angles of over 400 charts.

Is astrology an art? How does art represent astrology and its practice? Is the visual language used by astrologers artistic? From Mesopotamia and Mediterranean culture to Mesoamerica and into the European Renaissance and the modern era, the nine chapters in this anthology explore the meanings of art and astrology, the iconography of astrology and the nature of its practice, the use of zodiac signs, and the portrayal stars and planets in literature and the visual arts. With contributions by Spike Bucklow, Ruth Clydesdale, Richard Dunn, Martin Gansten, Liesbeth Grotenhuis, John Meeks, Suzanne Nolan, Micah Ross, and Claudia Rousseau.

When you think of astrology, you may think of the horoscope section in your local paper, or of Nancy Reagan's consultations with an astrologer in the White House in the 1980s. Yet almost every religion uses some form of astrology: some way of thinking about the sun, moon, stars, and planets and how they hold significance for human lives on earth.

Astrology and Cosmology in the World's Religions offers an accessible overview of the astrologies of the world's religions, placing them into context within theories of how the wider universe came into being and operates. Campion traces beliefs about the heavens among peoples ranging from ancient Egypt and China, to Australia and Polynesia, and India and the Islamic world.
Addressing each religion in a separate chapter, Campion outlines how, by observing the celestial bodies, people have engaged with the divine, managed the future, and attempted to understand events here on earth. This fascinating text offers a unique way to delve into comparative religions and will also appeal to those intrigued by New Age topics.

The Sophia Centre Press presents an anthology comprised of a selection of papers from the 'Astrologies' conference, organised by the Sophia Centre, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and held in Bath on 24-25 July 2010. The broad range of topics explored in these papers reflects the impressive diversity of techniques and underlying philosophies infusing an enduring human perception of meaningful relationships between the heavenly bodies and life on earth.

The papers are grouped into three basic themes: the symbolism of astrologies, the history of astrologies within different cultural contexts, and the practice of various astrologies from both 'insider' and 'outsider' perspectives. Although astrology has been treated in many scholarly works as a monolithic entity, all of the papers in this book demonstrate one of the paradoxes of astrological thought and practice: the existence of a relatively stable tradition of cosmological and astral representations and ideas combined with an adaptability that has enabled astrologies to meld with different spheres of human endeavour in a variety of cultures.

Contributors include: Bernadette Brady, Nicholas Campion, Robert Collis, Martin Gansten, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Liz Greene, Darrelyn Gunzburg, Robert Hand, Jay Johnston and Garry Phillipson.

This anthology brings together chapters from astronomers, historians and writers who are inspired by the sky, and who originally gathered at the conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena at London's Gresham College in 2015. Its topics range from the representation and exploration of the sky in the arts, architecture and literature, and from the ancient world to the digital age.

The relationship between the human soul and the stars has been central to the spiritual and esoteric traditions of Western thought, and many other cultures, for thousands of years. Medieval Christians thought that heaven was located above the earth, beyond the stars. Our modern society, however, has largely severed the relationship between the human spirit and the sky.

This book explores ideas, beliefs and practices which meet at the boundary of psychology and cosmology, the universe and human imagination. This book addresses this special relationship from a variety of challenging and inspiring approaches.

The contributors include James Hillman, the founder of archetypal psychology and Jungian analyst; astrologer Liz Greene; Professor Neville Brown of Mansfield College, Oxford; Nicholas Pearson of the Temenos Academy; Professor Jarita Holbrook of the University of Arizona; Dr Angela Vos of the University of Kent; Bernadette Brady; Jules Cashford; Noel Cobb, the former editor of Sphinx; Cherry Gilchrist; Robert Hand; and Professor Richard Tarnas of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

When you think of astrology, you may think of the horoscope section in your local paper, or of Nancy Reagan's consultations with an astrologer in the White House in the 1980s. Yet almost every religion uses some form of astrology: some way of thinking about the sun, moon, stars, and planets and how they hold significance for human lives on earth.

Astrology and Cosmology in the World's Religions offers an accessible overview of the astrologies of the world's religions, placing them into context within theories of how the wider universe came into being and operates. Campion traces beliefs about the heavens among peoples ranging from ancient Egypt and China, to Australia and Polynesia, and India and the Islamic world.
Addressing each religion in a separate chapter, Campion outlines how, by observing the celestial bodies, people have engaged with the divine, managed the future, and attempted to understand events here on earth. This fascinating text offers a unique way to delve into comparative religions and will also appeal to those intrigued by New Age topics.

The word Harmony appears in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development no less than three times, yet with no definition. This anthology gathers together an interdisciplinary array of experts, academics and practitioners to explore what Harmony means and how we can use it.

One traditional view of Harmony holds that everything in the universe operates in a state of balance, another assumes the interconnectedness of all things - an idea central to ecological thought. Such thoughts also lead to action and policy decisions: for example, how do we conduct business, educate children, conduct business, protect the environment, resolve conflict and promote health and well-being in a world in which all things are fundamentally connected?

The chapters in this volume explore Harmony from a range of perspectives, historical and philosophical, academic and personal. Rather than suggesting fixed answers, the goal is to ask questions about how we relate to each other, engage with the wider environment, face the challenges of the modern world, and work towards holistic solutions for today's problems.

This book explores an area of contemporary religion, spirituality and popular culture which has not so far been investigated in depth, the phenomenon of astrology in the modern west. Locating modern astrology historically and sociologically in its religious, New Age and millenarian contexts, Nicholas Campion considers astrology's relation to modernity and draws on extensive fieldwork and interviews with leading modern astrologers to present an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the origins and nature of New Age ideology. This book challenges the notion that astrology is either 'marginal' or a feature of postmodernism. Concluding that astrology is more popular than the usual figures suggest, Campion argues that modern astrology is largely shaped by New Age thought, influenced by the European Millenarian tradition, that it can be seen as an heir to classical Gnosticism and is part of the vernacular religion of the modern west.

This book explores an area of contemporary religion, spirituality and popular culture which has not so far been investigated in depth, the phenomenon of astrology in the modern west. Locating modern astrology historically and sociologically in its religious, New Age and millenarian contexts, Nicholas Campion considers astrology's relation to modernity and draws on extensive fieldwork and interviews with leading modern astrologers to present an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the origins and nature of New Age ideology. This book challenges the notion that astrology is either 'marginal' or a feature of postmodernism. Concluding that astrology is more popular than the usual figures suggest, Campion argues that modern astrology is largely shaped by New Age thought, influenced by the European Millenarian tradition, that it can be seen as an heir to classical Gnosticism and is part of the vernacular religion of the modern west.

Life on Earth would not exist without the brilliant objects we see in it; we would not be here without the light and heat of the Sun, and the rhythmic, tidal, biologically-vital, influences of the Moon. From earliest recorded history and in all societies the stars and planets, indeed the entire sky, have been a source of meaning for human affairs. In many cultures the heavenly bodies speak to humanity and, often, humanity talks back. Sometimes the stars speak for themselves as divine entities. In much western art and literature they become metaphors, underpinning narratives - and discourses - which explore or dramatise the human condition, as in the epic narratives of modern, cinematic science fiction. And for millennia human beings have imagined a journey to the heavens. This dream finally became a reality on 12 April 1961 when Yuri Gagarin made his single, historic orbit of the Earth. This date inaugurated the period of human space travel, and has a claim to be one of the most significant moments of human history.

The Heavenly Discourses conference was a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Gagarin's achievement, held at the University of Bristol and sponsored by the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. This volume brings together selected papers from that conference and provides a valuable resource in the emerging discipline of Cultural Astronomy.

From the editorial by Nicholas Campion:

All the papers published here deal with the human relationship with the sky, for that is the brief of Culture and Cosmos. Faced with the task of organizing the papers into themes, it became clear to me that one practice pervaded most of the submissions: alchemy. And one process was dominant: transformation. Magic is then above all a practice, a word which reminds us that it has practical consequences. And that consequence, our contributors conclude, is personal transformation. Such transformation may take us closer to the divine, or make us more self-aware, or may enhance good fortune. But it always locates the individual within the transformative process, rather than apart from it.

We begin with two papers which I have categorized as 'Theory'. Michael Harding muses on the meaning of magic in relation to Wittgenstein and Heidegger, while Jos Manuel Redondo takes us back to the Platonism of Late Antiquity on which so much of the European tradition is based.

We then move on to 'Practice', beginning with Liz Greene's sweeping account of 'Gemstone Talismans in Western Magical Traditions', Claire Chandler's examination of one text in the collection we know as the 'Greek Magical Papyri'. M. E. Warlick then focuses on the alchemical 'Transgendering of Mercury', and Karen Parham considers the key alchemical text, the Aurora Consurgens.

The section on 'Transformation and Ascent' represents a different kind of practice. Alison Greig begins with an exploration of 'Angelomorphism and Magical Transformation in the Christian and Jewish Traditions', and Christine Broadbent moves to Islamic mysticism in her paper on 'Celestial Magic as the Love Path The Spiritual Cosmology of Ibn 'Arabi'. Hereward Tilton moves into the early modern world in his study of 'the Invocation of Planetary Spirits in Early Modern Germany', and Joscelyn Godwin in his paper on 'Astral Ascent in the Occult Revival'. Sue Lewis completes this section with a paper on a little known (outside the community of students and practitioners of modern western astrology) school of astrology, popularly known as 'Huber Astrology'.

Finally, staying in the modern world, we conclude with two papers on 'Ritual', Jane Burton's research into the magical rituals of modern spirit mediums and witches, and Lilan Laishley's observations on rituals designed to dispel negative karma in modern Indian astrology.

It is hoped that this volume will provide a valuable addition to the scholarly literature on astrology and magic. It also contributes to our understanding of the emerging discipline of cultural astronomy in both the ancient and modern worlds.

New Age culture is generally regarded as a modern manifestation of Western millenarianism - a concept built around the expectation of an imminent historical crisis followed by the inauguration of a golden age which occupies a key place in the history of Western ideas. The New Age in the Modern West argues that New Age culture is part of a family of ideas, including utopianism, which construct alternative futures and drive revolutionary change.

Nicholas Campion traces New Age ideas back to ancient cosmology, and questions the concepts of the Enlightenment and the theory of progress. He considers the contributions of the key figures of the 18th century, the legacy of the astronomer Isaac Newton and the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg, as well as the theosophist, H.P. Blavatsky, the psychologist, C.G. Jung, and the writer and artist, Jose Arguelles. He also pays particular attention to the beat writers of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s, concepts of the Aquarian Age and prophecies of the end of the Maya Calendar in 2012. Lastly he examines neoconservatism as both a reaction against the 1960s and as a utopian phenomenon.

The New Age in the Modern West is an important book for anyone interested in countercultural and revolutionary ideas in the modern West.

This issue of Culture and Cosmos includes seven significant papers on the history of astrology, covering a range of periods and approaches. Roger Beck's 'The Ancient Mithraeum as a Model Universe. Part 2', touches on archaeoastronomy and classical religion 1]. Helena Avelar and Charles Burnett's analysis of a twelfth century horoscope cast by Abraham the Jew examines the technical practice of medieval astrology. Lindsay Starkey's paper on Mellin de Saint-Gelais and John Calvin, and Scott Hendrix's on Galileo, concern theoretical contexts for the European astrology of the middle ages and Renaissance. Richard Angelo Bergen's 'Paradise Lost and the Descent of Urania: from Astrology to Allegory' deals with literature, Hakan Kirkoğlu's 'Ilm-i nudjum and 18^th century Ottoman Court Politics' examines the political uses of astrology, and Graham Douglas's 'Trystes Cosmologiques: When L vi-Strauss Met the Astrologers' explores one of the twentieth century's most important anthropologist's attitudes to astrology 2]. Anything L vi-Strauss said about astrology is of interest by definition, in view of his authorship of a remarkable series of seminal works (The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949), Tristes tropiques (1955), Structural Anthropology (1961), Mythologiques (1964), The Raw and the Cooked (1964), and The Savage Mind (1966). L vi-Strauss, coming last chronologically in this journal, also has the last word. In response to a question about the surrealist Andr Breton, L vi-Strauss replied:

I knew Andr Br ton well - we were very close for a period of time; but I won't go as far as him. I wouldn't say that it holds secrets] - but it is perhaps one of the signs that secrets exist which we don't understand, and I feel impelled to say, that we will doubtless never understand.

It is precisely this lack of understanding which motivates historians: with just a little more evidence, we hope, perhaps we will understand the world a little better. And perhaps, then, the papers in this issue will take us a little closer to understanding astrology's appeal, claims, role, nature, function, ideology, world-view and cultural significance.

Dr Nicholas Campion,
University of Wales Trinity Saint David

1] Part 1 was published as Roger Beck, 'The Ancient Mithraeum as a Model Universe. Part 1', in Heavenly Discourses, ed. Nicholas Campion (Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press, 2016), pp. 21-31.

2] For comparison see Nicholas Campion, 'Surrealist Cosmology: Andr Breton and Astrology', Culture and Cosmos 6, no. 2 (Autumn/Winter 2002): pp. 45-56.

Part of the 'What Do We Believe?' series, this title explores astrology's past and present, its claims and appeal. It also explains what astrologers really believe.

First issue of the Culture and Cosmos journal

This issue of CULTURE AND COSMOS presents a collection of articles that delve into the intersections between textuality and cultural astronomy and astrology. Clifford J. Cunningham and G nter Oestmann discuss a robust collection of verse concerning the discovery of new astronomical bodies at the turn of the nineteenth century. Dorian Knight explores a potential covert encoding of astronomical observation in poetic form in the Eddic myth H vam l, suggesting how this astronomical knowledge aids in unraveling the mythological content of the narrative. Karen Smyth discusses the role of technical astronomical and astrological expressions in medieval literature by authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Adelard of Bath, among others. Then, Kirk Little performs a literary analysis of Washington Irving's 1832 tale, 'The Legend of the Arabian Astrologer'. Moving from a fictional Egypt to a real one, Guiliano Masola and Nicola Reggiani examine a curious papyrus, dated to 194 CE, that offers insight into the role astrology may have played in everyday life in ancient Eygpt. Finally, Reinhard Mussik presents a research note about a fascinating text from former East Germany in terms of its Marxist cosmology. Together these articles display the myriad angles from which one can approach the intersections of literary analysis and cultural astronomy and astrology. -Jennifer Zahrt, editor

New Age culture is generally regarded as a modern manifestation of Western millenarianism - a concept built around the expectation of an imminent historical crisis followed by the inauguration of a golden age which occupies a key place in the history of Western ideas. The New Age in the Modern West argues that New Age culture is part of a family of ideas, including utopianism, which construct alternative futures and drive revolutionary change.

Nicholas Campion traces New Age ideas back to ancient cosmology, and questions the concepts of the Enlightenment and the theory of progress. He considers the contributions of the key figures of the 18th century, the legacy of the astronomer Isaac Newton and the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg, as well as the theosophist, H.P. Blavatsky, the psychologist, C.G. Jung, and the writer and artist, Jose Arguelles. He also pays particular attention to the beat writers of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s, concepts of the Aquarian Age and prophecies of the end of the Maya Calendar in 2012. Lastly he examines neoconservatism as both a reaction against the 1960s and as a utopian phenomenon.

The New Age in the Modern West is an important book for anyone interested in countercultural and revolutionary ideas in the modern West.