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This book gathers contributions on the topic of astrology in the West during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from 1914-2022. It is the first collection exclusively devoted to a period that has been mostly neglected by historians of astrology, who have mostly devoted themselves to the ancient, medieval and early modern periods. Uninterested in vindicating or debunking astrology, contributors consider its cultural impact, its relation to historical events, and the ways in which it has changed in the last century. The broad range of subjects on modern Europe and the US include the relation of astrology with indigenous thought, interwar Polish astrology, and the relation of American astrologers to COVID. A bibliography of studies of modern astrology on a global basis is also included. This collection is a thoughtful contribution to the history of astrology and the sociology of belief as well as carrying significant implications for twentieth and twenty-first century history broadly.
List of contents
1. Introduction - William Burns .- 2. Modern Western Astrology as a Form of Indigenous Thought - Nicholas Campion .- 3. Astrology, Modernity and the Disputed Nature of Self - Garry Phillipson .- 4. Science of the Stars: WWI and the Professionalization of Astrology in the US - Patricia Cecil .- 5. The Power of a Name: Albert the Great, the Speculum astronomiae, and Legitimization of Astrology and Astrological Magic in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries - Scott E. Hendrix .- 6. Astral and hermetic symbolism in Béla Hamvas' Tabula Smaragdina - Péter Kecskés .- 7. Friends, foes and frenemies: The social relations of planets - Lakshmi Srinivas .- 8. Images of Blood, Stories of the Stars: Astrology in its Shifting Cultural Context - Arthur Williamson .- 9. American Astrologers and Covid-19 - William Burns.
