Researchers of Astrology as a Social Phenomenon
In the United States, a major development has been the Seattle-based estab-
lishment of the Kepler College of Astrology and the Liberal Arts. In 2000, Kepler
College was authorized by the state of Washington to offer B.A. and M.A. degrees in
astrological studies. Although there are no formal methodological courses, Kepler stu-
dents are nevertheless encouraged to undertake their own research. To date, several
B.A. students have incorporated phenomenological investigations into their papers,
and the college hopes that as its M.A. program matures, methodologically based work
will become a standard part of the college’s activities. In the meantime, academically
sponsored sociological research into cultural astrology occurs only on an ad hocbasis
across the nation. For example, through the sociology department of the University of
California at Santa Barbara, Shoshanah Feher has conducted postgraduate research
into differences between, as she noted in an article she wrote in Perspectives on the
New Age,“those practitioners of astrology who utilize their craft as an instrument for
predicting future events and those who speak of it as one tool among many in a spiri-
tual quest.” Feher collected data at the United Astrologers’ Congress in New Orleans,
Louisiana, in 1989, and she is particularly interested in the way gender manifests in
the New Age movement.
In Spain, at the Universidad de Zaragoza, headed by Professor Jesús Navarro
Artigas of the Departmento Ingeniería Electrónica y Comunicaciones, a research pro-
ject has been launched in collaboration with the departments of philosophy and of
history and art that concerns the interdisciplinary character of the history of astrology.
This project was organized in 2001 into three main sections: astrology in antiquity:
origins and gnoseology; astrology and historiography; and astrology and science. The
first section is concerned with exploring such concepts as knowledge, myth, and div-
ination. The second section is attempting to classify the various astrological schools
and tendencies that have emerged in the West since the Age of Enlightenment. The
third section endeavors to develop a sociology of knowledge in which scientific and
astrological paradigms are compared and the study of their mutual interaction is
undertaken. For the University of Zaragoza, this project represents the first step of an
innovative venture.
In Great Britain, the Sophia Project, sponsored by the Sophia Trust, funds four
principle initiatives in its effort “to advance the scholarly study of astrology and cul-
tural astronomy in British institutions of higher education” (www.sophia-
project.org.uk). These include short-term research fellowships (of one to three
months) into any pre-1700 aspect of the history of astrology or cultural astronomy at
the University of London’s Warburg Institute. A second initiative is the “cosmology
and divination” modules at the University of Kent at Canterbury. These are part of
the mysticism and religious experience program and are divided between undergradu-
ate coursework and the postgraduate M.A. Both modules begin with astrology as a
divinatory practice in ancient, classical, Renaissance, and modern times.
The Sophia Project’s other two initiatives are more sociologically oriented.
These include sponsorships of the Research Group for the Critical Study of Astrology
(RGCSA) at the University of Southampton and the Sophia Centre for the Study of
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Contemporary Academic Study of Astrology