It is necessary to distinguish between astronomy (Greek astron - star; nomos - law) and astrology (astron; logos - teaching).

The first arose to meet practical needs: calendaring, navigation, meteorology. Accumulating knowledge and improving methods, it gradually formed into an exact science.

Astrology originated in the bosom of the Chaldean pagan cult. It has the same relation to science as hepatoscopy (fortune-telling by the liver of animals) to physiology. Astrology has been refined in its developments and constructions for thousands of years, but has not changed its idolatrous essence one iota. It has always been a kind of pagan fatalism. The holy prophets denounced astrologers as being engaged in ungodly deeds: “Come down and sit on the dust, maiden, daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground: there is no throne, daughter of the Chaldeans<...>You are weary of your many councils; let the watchers of the heavens, and the astrologers, and the forerunners of the new moons, come forth and save you from what is about to happen to you. Here they are, like stubble: the fire burned them up; they did not deliver their souls from the flames ”(Is.47: 1, 13-14). St. Gregory the Theologian writes that she offends Divine Providence. "For many who were born under different stars, equal fate both at sea and in war. Whom the stars have tied together, they have not been tied together by the same end. And others, although the stars separated, the same death united ”(Word 5, about Providence). Its vitality is easy to explain. It is a substitute for true religion. Christianity, having the goal of correcting our sinful nature, requires spiritual and moral labors and deeds from a person. Astrology frees him from this work. The Word of God teaches that the devil is the author of all spiritual substitutions. Through astrology, he leads people away from God. Those who are carried away by horoscopes do not need to pray to God . It is enough just to adapt to the results of calculations. In our time, astrology is tenacious due to the isolation of most people from religious roots. Growing up outside of tradition, many people become victims of false spirituality.

The attitude of the Church towards astrology

Here is an excerpt from the definition of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church (November 29 - December 2, 1994) "On pseudo-Christian sects, neo-paganism and occultism":

4. Under these conditions, the old Gnostic cults are being revived and the so-called “new religious movements” are emerging, which are revising the entire system of Christian values, trying to find a worldview basis in the reformed Eastern religions, and sometimes turning to the occult and witchcraft. These movements deliberately undermine the centuries-old traditions and foundations of peoples, come into conflict with public institutions, and declare war on the Church of Christ.

5. Unfortunately, our countries have their own false prophets… Paganism, astrology, theosophical and spiritualist societies have revived…

13. The consecrated Council of Bishops, following the apostolic tradition, testifies: all of the above sects and "new religious movements" are incompatible with Christianity. People who share the teachings of these sects and movements, and even more so contribute to their spread, have excommunicated themselves from the Orthodox Church.

14. The Council of Bishops considers it unacceptable to use Orthodox symbols(icons, frescoes, images of temples and monasteries) in publications of an occult-pagan and sectarian nature, condemns the broadcasting of recordings of Orthodox music in radio and television programs that promote the above cults, and also does not bless the participation of Orthodox in events organized by the groups specified in this Definition.

Some astrologers do not agree with such a decision of the Orthodox Church and accuse its Hierarchy of incompetence and bias. But the one who read previous sections, it is unlikely to wonder why the Church treats astrology this way.

In general, one can make a small reproach to astrologers: having read a lot of books on astrology, and being inquisitive people in general, they have the darkest and most confused concept of Christianity, at the level of some fables. For all their erudition, they do not consider it necessary for themselves to get acquainted with the basic concepts of Christianity, to read several patristic books about faith, the Church and its Sacraments.

Astrologers about Christianity

Despite the apparent tolerance of astrology towards Christianity, the entire astrological teaching is imbued with a spirit of contempt for it. No matter how much astrologers publicly assure listeners of their respect for the Church, their teachers, the authorities of astrology, have their own opinion on this matter:

“The supposedly unique life of Christ has become a sacred symbol…” (K. G. Jung. On the Becoming of a Personality)

“What destroyed the earthly paradise of Job? Breaking the shackles of nature. The poet gives here to see how God turned into his other side, which is called the devil ... ”(K. G. Jung. Hymn to the Creator)

"The idea that the soul, in the course of one short term life in the body can merit either eternal heavenly bliss or eternal hellish torment, should be regarded as the most diabolical means ever invented of planting neuroses and corrupting fear of death. (D. Rudhyar. The need for a multi-level process-oriented psychology)

“Paul deflected the positive impulse of Christ into the realm of psychological escapism and emotional piety. The Christianity of Paul and most of the Fathers of the Church was a Jupiterian compensation for the function of Saturn destroyed by guilt, sin and repentance. (Ibid.)

“The fact that humanity actually did not accept Christianity, or rather, distorted it so much that the comprehension of this great religion will begin (essentially anew) only in the Age of Aquarius, is directly related to the described barrier between the subtle and dense worlds.

The church also contributed to the process of strengthening the black wall, cementing the cracks that appeared in it and proclaiming own existence in the worlds above." (A. Underwater. Symbolic systems in the Ages of Pisces and Aquarius) - How astrologers want to rethink Christianity is easy to understand, for example, from the section "marriage and astrology"

G. Santo writes about the fulfillment of the Divine commandments: “Adam and Eve disobeyed the commandments of God and were expelled from Paradise. The umbilical cord was cut. Some people cannot even make up their minds to take this necessary step towards freedom.” (G. Santo. The union of heaven and earth. Philosophy of astrology.) Only the astrologer is silent that this "necessary step towards freedom" deprives a person of communion with God and makes him a slave of the devil. A person is free to fulfill the commandments of God and be in fellowship with Him, or to fulfill the anti-commandments of Satan with the corresponding consequences. There is no third way.

In vain they will tell us that astrology is a science and has nothing to do with religion - you cannot hide an awl in a bag. The scientific nature of astrology is nothing more than a shell, and its inner, main part can be attributed without stretch to the branch of Satanism. And this is not a superficial conclusion, such an assessment of astrology involuntarily leads to the study of books by famous authors, the "fathers" of astrology, who formed its teaching.

“Instead of accepting the whole, the Church separated herself from nature by rejecting the dark side of God. Claiming that some of our parts are demonic, she forced us to separate from these parts ... Jesus in his message specifically pointed to the acceptance of the whole. And until 600 AD, Christ and Satan were accepted as equal brothers, as two children of God. (G. Santo. The union of heaven and earth. Philosophy of astrology.) - in which "message" and by whom "accepted" the author did not specify.

This is the kind of god astrologers believe in: hence the astrological acceptance of evil and giving it "official" status. By the way, astrologers write the word "Satan" exclusively with capital letter. The actively perceived teaching of the Church unites man with God, but with whom will the teaching of astrology unite man? Comments, as they say, are unnecessary.

bible and astrology

Also in Old Testament The Lord, through the prophet Moses, forbade turning to magicians, astrologers and fortune-tellers.

Let us repeat the quotation from the prophet Isaiah, who, predicting the death of Babylon for her wickedness and pernicious practice of magic and astrology, on behalf of the Lord ironically says: maybe you can help yourself, maybe you can resist. You are weary of your many councils; let the watchers of the heavens, and the astrologers, and the forerunners of the new moons, come forth and save you from what is about to happen to you. Here they are, like straw; the fire burned them; have not delivered their souls from the flames…” (Isaiah 47:12-14).

“And do not listen to your prophets and your soothsayers, and your dreamers, and your magicians, and your astrologers, who say to you: you will not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy lies to you, to remove you from your land, so that I will drive you out and you will perish” (Jer. 27:9-10).

“Thus says the Lord: Learn not the ways of the Gentiles, and fear not the signs of heaven, which the Gentiles fear” (Jer. 10:2).

“... Do not go to wizards, and do not bring yourself to defilement from them. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:31).

“... And lest you, looking at the sky and seeing the sun, the moon and the stars [and] all the host of heaven, be not deceived and bow down to them and serve them, since the Lord your God has allocated them to all peoples under the whole sky. And the Lord [God] took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, that you might be the people of His inheritance. (Deut. 4, 19-20)

“Whether a man or a woman, if they call the dead or perform magic, let them be put to death: they must stone them with stones, their blood is on them” (Leviticus 20, 27).

“... You should not have a soothsayer, a fortuneteller, a fortune teller, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, a charmer, summoning spirits, a magician and questioning the dead; for every one who does this is abominable before the Lord, and for these abominations the Lord thy God casteth them out from before thy face; be blameless before the Lord thy God; for these peoples whom you drive out listen to soothsayers and soothsayers, but the Lord your God has not given you this” (Deut. 18:10-14).

Holy Fathers of the Church on astrology

The Holy Fathers of the Church throughout its history paid great attention to the fight against magic and astrology.

Tertullian: “Among the various occupations of men, it is impossible not to notice some arts or professions that favor idolatry. It is not even worth talking about astrologers, but since one of them took it into his head to justify himself by continuing to practice this profession, I intend to say a few words about this. I will not say that to place the names of false gods in the sky, to attribute to them, as it were, omnipotence, and to divert people from offering prayers to God, instilling in them the belief that their fate is invariably determined by the stars - that all this would be tantamount to worshiping false gods. But I affirm that in this case, astrologers are likened to fallen angels who departed from God to seduce the human race ... If magic is punishable, and astrology is its variety, then along with the appearance, the variety is also subject to condemnation. So from the time of the appearance of the Gospel, all kinds of sophists, astrologers, sorcerers, magicians, sorcerers must inevitably be punished ”(On idols).

Tatian, in his Oration Against the Hellenes, writes: “The demons made the people the victims of their apostasy. They, having shown people the order of the stars, like playing dice, introduced fate, which is alien to justice, for whether someone is a judge or a defendant, they became such by the definition of fate ... the demons invented fate. The reason for this for them was the placement of animals in the sky. For they conferred a heavenly honor upon the animals with which they lived after being cast out of heaven—the reptiles that swim in the waters, the quadrupeds that live in the mountains—in order that they might think that they too are in heaven, and that by means of the disposition of the stars they might prove that life on earth, alien to reason, agrees with reason: thus, whether someone is angry or patient, temperate or not temperate, who is rich or poor, this happens from the appointment of those who have birth; for the distribution of the Zodiac is the work of the gods. If the light of one of them, as they say, is stronger, then it takes away the glory of the others, and whoever is defeated now can again be the winner. They enjoy playing the seven planets like dice players. But we are above fate, and instead of wandering demons we know one unchanging Lord and, not obeying fate, we reject its legislators. (Speech against the Hellenes).

Blessed Augustine: “As for their various rantings about the influence of the stars and their imaginary experiments in astrological science, we must in every possible way protect the purity of our faith from them: with such verbal disputes they try to eliminate the impulse to pray in us, and in bad deeds that deserve the most just reproach, impious perversity disposes to accuse God, the creator of the stars, rather than a criminal man. (About astrologers)

Reverend Maxim Greek: “As I, created in Your divine image and likeness, that is, awarded the gift of free will, having received the power and action of goodness and righteousness - can I really be attracted to the commission of evil by the action of some unkind star, like dumb cattle, which the owner drags on a leash? No, I will never agree with this blasphemous teaching of mad astrologers, which deprives me of free will!

Astrology is not just horoscopes. It is a religious and philosophical doctrine based on the fact that the stars and planets influence the human personality. This refers to the predispositions of people, the difference in their characters, as well as fate.

The Christian Church has never had a positive attitude towards the teachings of astrology about the essence of the existence of the world. This is primarily due to the fact that in astrological teaching the human personality is seriously belittled and human freedom is violated. The Lord created people independent of the location of the stars and planets, and he himself was involved in the salvation of man.

According to the teachings of the Church, it is people who are the crown of God's creation, they are. The fate of a person is determined by his personal behavior and freedom of choice, and not by the specifics of the date or the location of the stars and planets. Of course, there are factors that influence a person from the outside, but, according to the teachings of the Church, they are under the control of God, and not the location of the heavenly bodies.

The negative attitude of the Church towards astrology has ancient roots. Even in times before our era, many astrologers were simultaneously engaged in witchcraft and sorcery, which could not be perceived positively from the side of faith in one God.

In astrological teachings, the features of mysticism, the uncertainty of the essence of human existence, can be seen. There is nothing in this doctrine that speaks of God in the Christian sense, and therefore Orthodox person cannot accept such a view of the world.

Astrology is not a science in the truest sense of this (this is its significant difference from astronomy). Astrological teaching is pseudo-scientific and appeals to the area of ​​the human worldview, in which, instead of God, the stars and planets that affect human life.

Christianity warns believers that it is necessary to understand the essence of the greatness of the human person. The Lord Jesus Christ takes on human flesh, which is subjected to deification. Man is exalted to the highest degree unity with God. Therefore, the doctrine that speaks of the impact of an inanimate creation on a person cannot be applicable, because, according to, the whole world depends on a person, and not vice versa.

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In the service of the Divine Liturgy, there is still a mention of people who, at a certain moment, had to leave their church. This practice took place in the first centuries of Christianity. were a special category of people who wanted to become Christians, but before being baptized they were not.

In the Christian Church of the first centuries, there were special institutions of catechumens, in which lectures were given on the fundamentals of the dogma and moral teaching of the Church. Priests were the main teachers, and catechumens were the listeners. In ancient times, it was impossible to come to the temple alone and immediately receive the sacrament of baptism. First, a person prepared for this great event in his life. He recited the basic truths. That is why the Church calls these people catechumens.

The catechumens could have several years of conversation and teaching before accepting the sacrament of baptism. They were allowed, even obligated, to attend Sunday services. The catechumens attended evening worship and liturgy. True, at the liturgy only the first part of the service was available to the catechumens. Then they left the temple. In addition, those preparing for holy baptism (the catechumens) should have already led a pious life, striving for moral purity.

At the end of the catechumens courses, people preparing to be baptized could take the appropriate examinations on knowledge of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Only if the clergyman saw a sincere desire to unite with God in the holy sacrament and an awareness of the approach to this, baptism was performed. After that, the person was already called faithful.

Now the Russian Orthodox Church is reconsidering its attitude to astrological science, having ceased to combine it with sorcery and idolatry. The church recognizes astrologers as scientists, and the church should not have contradictions with science.

In the leadership of the Christian Churches there is no consensus on the issue of recognizing astrology as a science that is permissible for a Christian to practice. The most progressively thinking hierarchs of the Church treat astrology like any other science.

So on May 25, 2002, in the program “The Word of the Shepherd” (ORT, 8:55), the chairman of the Department of External church connections Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill(now - Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'), for the first time in the recent (since 1917) history of the Russian Orthodox Church, declared the positive attitude of the Orthodox Church towards astrology, explaining that he meant astrology as a science, and excluding predictions of human fate from it, and the so-called. "newspaper horoscopes".

Father Alexander Men noted: “Astrology is permissible if it does not claim to be an ersatz religion, as is often the case with us... Astrology as a pseudo-religion, of course, is simply harmful... Astrology is possible as a science. Then she says that we are influenced by the cosmos, materially and, perhaps, spiritually. But it can also become superstition... When a person believes that astrology has bound him hand and foot, that he is already determined, that there is no escape, that there is no choice, then superstition begins - this begins slavery. It is possible that in addition to the influence of heredity, in addition to the influences of various physical ones, the Cosmos also influences a person. But this does not mean at all that a person is a slave ... we are no longer responsible for anything ... we turn out to be just puppets in the hands of various forces, including the constellations.

In the early 1990s, the Russian Orthodox Church, along with the entire country, found itself in new historical conditions that required fundamentally different methods of working with the flock compared to the Soviet period. The main problem Then there were and still are various kinds of totalitarian sects that actively involve people in their sphere of influence, rejecting the traditional forms of spiritual life. The main danger of such sects is that they seriously pollute the minds of people with ideological surrogates, hindering the spiritual development of those who find themselves in their sphere of influence.

As a result, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, which met in 1994, took place against the backdrop of spiritual chaos and bacchanalia of all kinds of sects, in which Russia plunged at that time. Therefore, the Council adopted a very harsh resolution in which almost all non-canonical areas of spiritual life were condemned as incompatible with the teachings of christian church. The decision of the Council on this matter was literally the following:

5. Unfortunately, our countries have their own false prophets, leading, in particular, the so-called “Cathedral of New Holy Rus'” (Mother of God Center), “White Brotherhood”, “Church of the Last Testament” (a group of false Christ Vissarion). Paganism, astrology, theosophical and spiritualist societies were revived, once founded by Helena Blavatsky, who claimed to possess some kind of “ancient wisdom” hidden from the uninitiated. The “Teaching of Living Ethics”, introduced into circulation by the Roerich family and also called “Agni Yoga”, is being intensively promoted.

13. The Consecrated Council of Bishops, following the apostolic tradition, testifies: all of the above sects and “new religious movements” are not compatible with Christianity. People who share the teachings of these sects and movements, and even more so contribute to their spread, have excommunicated themselves from the Orthodox Church.

Thus, the decision of the Council, excommunicating members of various sects and “alternative religious movements”, does not say that astrologers are excommunicated from the church, although astrology itself is placed on the same level as paganism and theosophy. However, most astrologers are not members of any sect or religious movement. In addition, astrology as a science is not condemned by the council, which, by the way, Metropolitan Kirill said in his speech. As is clear from the message, it was only the members of the sects who excommunicated themselves, and not the astrologers.

Another thing is that the conservative-minded part of the clergy a priori believes that it is sinful to engage in astrology, although this opinion is not confirmed either by the dogmas of the Faith or by the works of the Holy Fathers ( except for Tertullian. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that Tertullian at the end of his life became close to the Montanists and broke with the church, which he reproached for inconsistent implementation of the principles of asceticism and martyrdom. Therefore, firstly, he was uncompromising not only in relation to astrology, but also to the then leadership of the church, and, secondly, his opinion is not the opinion of a consistent supporter of official church ), nor the decrees of bishops' councils.

In fact, this decision of the Bishops' Council was opportunistic. If astrology in the early 90s, thanks primarily to the efforts of Pavel Globa (thanks to him for this), had not gained such wide popularity in Russia, then it would not have caused such a sharply negative attitude of the ROC. Otherwise, only religious sects would fall under the decree.

For example, in 1891, 100 years earlier, in the official Bible Encyclopedia, the article “Magi” explicitly admitted that the Magi were astrologers and that “science and philosophy acquire their true meaning and proper power only when they obediently and humbly bow at the feet of Jesus” .

Philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, in his article “On the Russian People’s Schism,” spoke even more clearly: “In the World Church there is a place for everything human, only it is necessary that this human be applied to the cause of God, and not to arbitrary and random tasks. The cause of God, however, requires only free consent from the human will, so that it does not impose on it its own arbitrary boundaries and definitions - personal, national or some other: but all these human features, revealing themselves before the action of God, must become private means for complete revelation. divine-human life."

The most remarkable thing in this context is that in 1990 this biblical encyclopedia with the same article “Magi” was republished with the blessing of holy patriarch All Rus' Alexy 2nd.

Thus, both in 1891 and in 1990, the Russian Orthodox Church classified astrology as a science and philosophy, and not as a religious sect.

And only after 1994, the Church began to treat astrology more negatively due to the fact that it (astrology) was widely used in its activities by the organizers of totalitarian sects and “alternative religious movements”.

Let's hope that gradually the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church will recognize astrology not only as a secular, but also as a spiritual science, designed to help believers in understanding the Divine Law.

Astrologers:

Boris Romanov, Sergei Yevtushenko

14.09.2003

Added and corrected

21.03.2005

The presented text is part of a large article "Astrology in the Light of Christian Teaching". Full text of the article - .

Why does the church reject astrology?

Maxim Kaskun

How does the Church view astrology?

Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov (Moscow) answers.

Through the pages of the program Russian hour - questions and answers - 2009-06-23

Who gets in the way of the stars, or Why does the Church disapprove of astrology?

I have always not really understood why our Orthodox Church does not like horoscopes so much, why it does not approve of interest in them and does not favor astrologers. It would seem that an innocent fascination with stellar and natural laws, which, of course, operate in the Universe, cannot interfere with a person in his faith in God. But the Church is still against it. Why? Maybe just out of fear of competition?

There is no doubt that in modern world horoscopes have become non-committal entertainment, their reliability is rarely verified by anyone. This is just an element of the market, nothing more. But it wasn't always like that. Initially, astrology is precisely a science that sought to know a person and the Universe, the laws by which they live, because no one will argue with the fact that winter is different from autumn, and spring from summer. All these natural factors affect us, from bad weather we are sad and feel bad.

And all because a person in his bodily component is also a part of nature. What is so ridiculous in the idea that some of his natural properties and even character traits can depend on the season and month of his birth? After all, they depend on heredity, on genes ... So ancient observers noticed that people born at the same time, under the same sign, have a number of similar properties and qualities. Taurus, for example, are stubborn and purposeful, Aries are stubborn, Libra is harmonious or striving for balance, Aquarius is kind, etc. No, everyone, of course, understands that when common horoscope each person has his own individual qualities, no one believes in the complete unification of personality and does not talk about it. But there is certainly a certain dependence and commonality, everyone noticed this.

Here, for example, my mother, before getting close to a person, making friends with him, always analyzes his zodiac sign. And even according to this analysis, it can already say a lot about a person and knows what to expect from him, what temperament he has, what inclinations can manifest. Is it bad? Warned - means armed ... And almost always her astrological conclusions were confirmed in practice. They, in fact, are taken from practice - from relationships with people. On dating sites today it is also fashionable to be primarily interested in the sign of the zodiac. If you start a family with a person, why not try to find out what to expect from him?

When they tell me that, for example, Libra does not get along well with Aries, this does not become a reason not to communicate with this person, but at least I can be prepared for some pitfalls. Again, what's the downside? In my opinion, there is only one plus.

Some are still trying to make individual horoscopes to find out what is written in their family. I personally don't know how to deal with this. On the one hand, everything is in the hands of God, for a believer this is obvious. And the Church teaches us that the providence of God cannot be predicted. The Holy Fathers say that God is omniscient and knows in advance all our actions and deeds and provides for us, leading us to salvation. Maybe, individual horoscope able to reflect this way? What does the Church think about this? Is it possible for a believer to get carried away with horoscopes, and where is the line beyond which this hobby develops into an addiction that alienates a person from God?

Oksana Fedotova

Hieromonk Dorofey (Baranov): "Do not give in to injections of astrological nonsense!"

A person, regardless of what and how he believes, can be carried away by anything. The Church does not impose any prohibitions either on its members or on people who are free from obedience to the Church and its rules. The only thing Christians run away from and cannot reconcile with is sin, which can be expressed in many different ways.

Sin has many faces, it constantly appears in different, including intellectual, guises. If seducing to gross carnal sins is no longer enough, then the most reliable way to remove a person from God is to make him mentally and spiritually disabled. To cripple the mind of a person in general, and a Christian in particular, is a dream and the main motivator of the action of evil in this world.

One of the most common, though not the most dangerous, ways to damage the mind is to spread lies about the relationship between man and the cosmos. No one argues that we have some kind of connection with everything that we see. Here we are walking along the street in the crowd and suddenly we meet eye to eye with a person walking towards us. Whether we like it or not, a mutual influence has already taken place, sometimes barely noticeable, and sometimes we cannot forget this different look all day long. What can we say about the starry sky, into which mankind has been peering tensely for thousands of years. As programmers used to joke: if you look at Windows for a long time, you will soon realize that Windows is looking at you.

Something similar happened with space. People stare at it for too long. Do stars, planets and their relative positions influence us? Of course, they influence, but the fact is that it is not at all the way it is described in horoscopes and all kinds of astrological forecasts. Mikhail Lomonosov has these lines: “The abyss has opened, full of stars; / Stars have no number, the abyss of the bottom " . It is into the abyss that a man looks into the abyss, turning his gaze to the sky. Fear of this abyss forces one to close oneself from it with some understandable earthly images. This is how constellations, the names of the planets, and even human-like characters of celestial objects appeared. But it is pointless to close from the abyss. On the contrary, the contemplation of this majestic infinity is given to us because it echoes the abyss of the human soul that we feel in ourselves. With each of us, at least once in a lifetime, such a second happens when we suddenly look into our own depths and literally freeze from what we see. Our own abyss opens before us, and the task is to fill this abyss, that is, to comprehend our place in the world. Astrology offers a too primitive and, most importantly, false way to solve this problem.

As you know, the most terrible and destructive lie is the one in which there is a grain of truth. A classic example of such lies is the pseudoscience of astrology. Any real science must have a subject and a method of research. Astrologers still cannot clearly formulate either one or the other. All calculations of astrology are based on the movement of the Sun visible from the Earth during the year along the zodiac belt of the constellations. On the basis of this, in general, not a natural, but a purely visual phenomenon, all “scientific” conclusions are built, based, as they say, on the tip of the tongue.

The horror lies in the fact that no one is interested in the unconditional influence on us of the Sun, the Moon, even distant stars and, in general, the entire universe. No one now remembers the most interesting, albeit indisputable, teaching of Vladimir Vernadsky about the noosphere or the relevant, but completely forgotten works of the brilliant Alexander Chizhevsky on the relationship between cosmic and terrestrial phenomena. And in general, while lying under a bushel and waiting for its researchers is such the brightest phenomenon of world philosophy as Russian cosmism. Among the cosmists were pseudo-religious philosophers and deep natural scientists, but they were all united by the general idea of ​​Russian cosmism: the mutual influence of the cosmos and man on each other. Not a subject for esoteric fortune-telling, but the area of ​​comprehension by a person of his place in the Cosmos, which is a single home created for everything that exists.

Considering the depth and scale of the task formulated by Russian cosmism and looking back at our dull modernity, one can only ardently regret that, apparently, the time when every third family in the USSR subscribed to the popular science magazine "Priroda", and every fifth - "Science and Life". What anguish one finds when one sees in transport the once inquisitive people buried in Swedish scanwords, American comics and local horoscopes. How cheaply we sold ...

Only a completely mentally lazy person, even if only superficially acquainted with the ideas of cosmism, will not experience disgust for astrological intellectual perversion. As for the competition between the Christian worldview and astrology, it cannot exist for one simple reason: how can one compare faith in the Creator of the universe with faith in heavenly objects created by Him? The scale is too different...

It is a pity, of course, for people who do not feel the danger of even a slight passion for astrology, referring to the entertaining nature of horoscopes. They can be compared to those who self-confidently cross a dangerous section of the road at a red light, carefully looking around and not seeing a single car. Maybe they will not die, but for some reason the statistics of the dead only increases. Therefore, when people ask me about my Christian attitude to astrology or the signs of the zodiac, I always answer with sarcastic irritation that I can’t imagine what would have happened to us if the Decembrist uprising had taken place in August, and not in December, and if Herzen had been awakened Augustinians. And answering the question posed at the beginning, we can say that the Church does not approve of astrology for one very good reason: it is painful to watch how our people, already heavily poisoned in the 90s by various Blavatsky and Roerichs, are trying to stab to death with injections of astrological nonsense.

Newspaper "Saratov panorama" No. 33 (961)

The Holy Fathers of the Church throughout its history paid great attention to the fight against magic and astrology. So, for example, St. Maxim the Greek said: “As I, created in Your divine image and likeness, that is, awarded the gift of free will, having received the power and action of goodness and righteousness - can I really be attracted to the commission of evil by the action of some unkind star, like dumb cattle, which the owner drags on a leash? No, I will never agree with this blasphemous teaching of mad astrologers, which deprives me of free will!

Tertullian: “Among the various occupations of men, it is impossible not to notice some arts or professions that favor idolatry. It is not even worth talking about astrologers, but since one of them took it into his head to justify himself by continuing to practice this profession, I intend to say a few words about this. I will not say to place the names of false gods in the sky, to attribute to them, as it were, omnipotence and to divert people from offering prayers to God, instilling in them the belief that their fate is invariably determined by the stars - all this would be tantamount to worshiping false gods. But I argue that in this case, astrologers are likened to fallen angels who departed from God to seduce the human race ... If magic is punishable, and astrology is its variety, then along with the appearance, the variety is also subject to condemnation. So from the time of the appearance of the Gospel, all kinds of sophists, astrologers, sorcerers, magicians, sorcerers must inevitably be punished ”(On idols).

Tatian, in his Oration Against the Hellenes, writes: “The demons made the people the victims of their apostasy. They, having shown people the order of the stars, like playing dice, introduced fate, which is alien to justice, for whether someone is a judge or a defendant, they became such by the definition of fate ... the demons invented fate. The reason for this for them was the placement of animals in the sky. For they conferred a heavenly honor upon the animals with which they lived after being cast down from heaven—the reptiles that swim in the waters, the quadrupeds that live in the mountains—in order that they might be thought to be in heaven, and that by means of the disposition of the stars they might prove that life on earth, alien to reason, agrees with reason: thus, whether someone is angry or patient, temperate or not temperate, who is rich or poor, this happens from the appointment of those who have birth; for the distribution of the Zodiac is the work of the gods. If the light of one of them, as they say, is stronger, then it takes away the glory of the others, and whoever is defeated now can again be the winner. They enjoy playing the seven planets like dice players. But we are above fate, and instead of wandering demons we know one unchanging Lord and, not obeying fate, we reject its legislators. (Speech against the Hellenes).

Blessed Augustine: “As for their various rantings about the influence of the stars and their imaginary experiments in astrological science, we must in every possible way protect the purity of our faith from them: with such verbal disputes they try to eliminate the impulse to pray in us, and in bad deeds that deserve the most just reproach, impious perversity disposes to accuse God, the creator of the stars, rather than a criminal man. (About astrologers).

Even in the Old Testament, the Lord, through the prophet Moses, forbade turning to magicians, astrologers and fortune-tellers.

Let us repeat the quotation from the prophet Isaiah, who, predicting the death of Babylon for her wickedness and pernicious practice of magic and astrology, on behalf of the Lord ironically says: maybe you can help yourself, maybe you can resist. You are weary of your many councils; let the watchers of the heavens, and the astrologers, and the forerunners of the new moons, come forth and save you from what is about to happen to you. Here they are, like straw; the fire burned them; have not delivered their souls from the flames…” (Isaiah 47:12-14).

“And do not listen to your prophets and your soothsayers, and your dreamers, and your magicians, and your astrologers, who say to you: you will not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy lies to you, to remove you from your land, so that I will drive you out and you will perish” (Jer. 27:9-10).

“Thus says the Lord: Learn not the ways of the Gentiles, and fear not the signs of heaven, which the Gentiles fear” (Jer. 10:2).

“... Do not go to wizards, and do not bring yourself to defilement from them. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:31).

“... And lest you, looking at the sky and seeing the sun, the moon and the stars [and] all the host of heaven, be not deceived and bow down to them and serve them, since the Lord your God has allocated them to all peoples under the whole sky. And the Lord [God] took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, that you might be the people of His inheritance. (Deut. 4, 19-20)

“Whether a man or a woman, if they call the dead or perform magic, let them be put to death: they must stone them with stones, their blood is on them” (Leviticus 20, 27).

“... You should not have a soothsayer, a fortuneteller, a fortune teller, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, a charmer, summoning spirits, a magician and questioning the dead; for every one who does this is abominable before the Lord, and for these abominations the Lord thy God casteth them out from before thy face; be blameless before the Lord thy God; for these peoples, whom you drive out, listen to soothsayers and soothsayers, but the Lord your God has not given you this” (Deut. 18: 10-14).

Here is an excerpt from the definition of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church (November 29 - December 2, 1994) "On pseudo-Christian sects, neo-paganism and occultism":

4. Under these conditions, the old Gnostic cults are being revived and the so-called “new religious movements” are emerging, which are revising the entire system of Christian values, trying to find a worldview basis in the reformed Eastern religions, and sometimes turning to the occult and witchcraft. These movements deliberately undermine the centuries-old traditions and foundations of peoples, come into conflict with public institutions, and declare war on the Church of Christ.

5. Unfortunately, our countries have their own false prophets… Paganism, astrology, theosophical and spiritualist societies have revived…

13. The consecrated Council of Bishops, following the apostolic tradition, testifies: all of the above sects and "new religious movements" are incompatible with Christianity. People who share the teachings of these sects and movements, and even more so contribute to their spread, have excommunicated themselves from the Orthodox Church.

14. The Council of Bishops considers it inadmissible to use Orthodox symbols (icons, frescoes, images of churches and monasteries) in publications of an occult-pagan and sectarian nature, condemns the broadcasting of recordings of Orthodox music in radio and television programs that promote the above cults, and also does not bless the participation of Orthodox in events organized by the groups specified in this Definition.

Some astrologers do not agree with such a decision of the Orthodox Church and accuse its Hierarchy of incompetence and bias. But one who has read the previous sections is unlikely to wonder why the Church treats astrology this way.

In general, one can make a small reproach to astrologers: having read a lot of books on astrology, and being inquisitive people in general, they have the darkest and most confused concept of Christianity, at the level of some fables. For all their erudition, they do not consider it necessary for themselves to get acquainted with the basic concepts of Christianity, to read several patristic books about faith, the Church and its Sacraments.