Alexander Men. Orthodoxy and astrology. Modern Russian Orthodox Church and astrology

Good day to all! Once my friend asked how astrology does it get along with Christianity in me? It seemed to me that my answer was not entirely convincing. I wanted to expand on this topic a little on the blog. Perhaps this post will be an addition to my answer to a friend :)

In fact, it seems to me that between the real astrology and by sane faith there can be no contradiction. One and the other coexist peacefully in me. After all, the philosophical perception of astrology today is very different
from what it was 2 thousand years ago. Christianity even helps not to transform astrology into religion, as sometimes happens when astrologer- almost a prophet, but Natal chart - a fatal sentence of fate. Everything should have its place.

I recently came across an excerpt from an interview with Father Alexander Men. He is a very thoughtful person, so we are talking about the attitude of Orthodoxy to astrology. I hope, dear readers, you will find this interesting.

How does the Orthodox Church relate to astrology? Are there any differences with Catholicism on this issue? Is this attitude different today from that which existed in the Middle Ages?

You know, I could limit myself to one word, although I wouldn’t want to. I could say: no way. Because in Orthodox Church There is no such directive encyclopedia in which all questions could be answered, and if you take this encyclopedia, open it at the letter “a”, find “astrology”, and it says: “Don’t study!” This is not the case, of course. Astrology is acceptable if it does not claim to be an ersatz religion, as is often the case with us. If we take it at its scientific core, what does it consist of? That at the birth of a person the configuration of our planets solar system shields certain physical or other influences, acts on the newborn and thus leaves its mark on his character, although there is already the mark of genetics, and various pathologies, and so on. This means that there is some kind of cosmic influence, and there is nothing special about it. If this is proven statistically, then we will consider that we have another predetermination, like heredity.

Can we consider these factors to be fate? Christianity knows that there is something fatal in life. Let's say you inherited black eyes - you cannot repaint them. But in fact, in moral life, in spiritual life a Christian man challenges fate. He has no right to say: you know, my father was hot-tempered, so I can’t control myself. Thus, we would relieve ourselves of all responsibility for our behavior. Or, for example, I was born under the constellation Aquarius or some other, and there’s no escape.

I looked through several dozen volumes various studies on astrology, where extensive tables were given that, for example, everything famous generals or all famous prostitutes were born under the same star. But I don’t believe that this is exhaustive information, because it is necessary to carry out more pure experiments, more careful calculations. And, perhaps, on these same tables I can give even more examples that other people were born under the same stars and they did not make either commanders or women lung behavior, but they were completely normal people. So this is a scientific question, and it must be studied scientifically and faith should not be mixed in here. Astrology as a pseudo-religion is simply harmful. And Catholicism looks the same way, there is no difference in this.

Regarding the question of the Middle Ages, in the Middle Ages astrology was not held in high esteem. During the Renaissance - that's when it began! Here the Catholics were interested, and we were interested quite intensely. Ivan the Terrible, in particular, endlessly questioned astrologers. And all sorts of neo-pagans. And Hitler endlessly resorted to astrologers. When faith begins to waver, it immediately begins to be replaced by ersatz, since man is religious by nature. I am very surprised that astrology was not introduced in our time...

How do you personally feel about astrology?

Astrology is possible as a science when it says that we are influenced by the cosmos, materially and possibly spiritually. But it can also become a superstition. How? Tamara Globa’s articles very correctly say: when a person believes that astrology has tied him hand and foot, that he is already determined, that there is no escape, that there is no choice, then superstition begins - this is slavery begins.

Cosmic influence is not at all excluded, but this does not mean at all that a person is a slave. Thus, a person with a difficult character can become a saint, a person with a lazy temperament can eventually motivate himself to creative activity, any of us is free to choose our life with God and fight. Otherwise, it will be capitulation to fate, to fate, be it the stars or heredity. And we will nod that “my evil uncle has awakened in me,” as in famous fairy tale Schwartz, when the king said: “Now my aunt, an exceptionally evil woman, spoke to me.” This means that we are no longer responsible for anything and in fact find ourselves simply puppets in the hands of various forces, including the constellations...

Quote by: "A.MEN ANSWERS QUESTIONS OF LISTENERS."
Alexander Men Foundation.
Compilation and literary recording by Anastasia Andreeva.
Editor Vladimir Ilyushenko. - M., 1999

Who is bothered by the stars, or Why does the Church not approve 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 patterns, which, of course, operate in the Universe, cannot interfere with a person’s faith in God. But the Church is still against it. Why? Maybe just because of fear of competition?

There is no doubt that in modern world horoscopes have turned into non-binding entertainment; few people check their accuracy. This is just an element of the market, nothing more. But this was not always the case. Initially, astrology is precisely the science that sought to understand man 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; bad weather makes us sad and feel bad.

And all because a person in his bodily component is also a part of nature. What's so absurd about the idea that some of his natural properties and even character traits can depend on the time of year and the 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 persistent and purposeful, Aries - stubborn, Libra - harmonious or striving for balance, Aquarius - kind, etc. No, everyone, of course, understands that when general horoscope Each person has his own individual qualities; no one believes in the complete unification of personality and no one talks about it. But there is, of course, a certain dependence and commonality; everyone has noticed this.

For example, my mother, before getting close to a person or making friends with him, always analyzes his zodiac sign. And even from this analysis it can already tell a lot about a person and knows what to expect from him, what his temperament is, what inclinations may appear. Is it bad? Forewarned is forearmed... And almost always her astrological findings have been 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 your zodiac sign. 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 draw up individual horoscopes to find out what is written in their family. I personally don’t know how to feel about this. On the one hand, everything is in the hands of God, for a believer this is obvious. And the Church teaches us that God’s providence 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 an individual horoscope can reflect this path? What does the Church think about this? Is it possible for a believer to get carried away by horoscopes and where is the line beyond which this hobby develops into an addiction that alienates a person from God?

Oksana Fedotova

Hieromonk Dorotheos (Baranov): “Do not succumb 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 free from obedience to the Church and its rules. The only thing that Christians run from and cannot come to terms with is sin, which can be expressed in different ways.

Sin has many faces and constantly appears in different, including intellectual, guises. If being seduced by 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 for the action of evil in this world.

One of the most common, albeit not the most dangerous, ways to damage the mind is to spread lies about the relationship between man and the cosmos. No one disputes that we have some kind of connection with everything we see. Here we are walking down the street in a 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 occurred, sometimes barely noticeable, and sometimes we cannot forget this different look all day. What can we say about the starry sky, into which humanity has been intensely peering for thousands of years? As programmers once joked: if you look at Windows for a long time, you 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 mutual arrangement? 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 the following lines: “An abyss has opened, it’s full of stars; / The stars have no number, the bottom of the abyss" . It is into the abyss that a person looks, turning his gaze to the sky. Fear of this abyss forces us to close ourselves off from it with some understandable earthly images. This is how constellations, names of planets and even similar ones appeared. human characters celestial objects. But there is no point in shielding yourself from the abyss. On the contrary, the contemplation of this majestic infinity is given to us because it echoes that abyss human soul which we feel within ourselves. Each of us at least once in our lives experiences such a moment when suddenly we look into our own depths and literally freeze at 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. Classic example The pseudoscience of astrology is such a lie. Any real science must have a subject and 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 zodiacal belt of constellations. On the basis of this, in general, not a natural, but a purely visual phenomenon, all “scientific” conclusions are based, as they say, on the tip of the tongue.

The horror is that the unconditional influence on us of the Sun, the Moon, even distant stars and the entire universe in general is of no interest to anyone. No one now remembers the most interesting, although not controversial, teaching of Vladimir Vernadsky about the noosphere or the relevant, but completely forgotten works the brilliant Alexander Chizhevsky about the relationship between cosmic and terrestrial phenomena. And in general, for now such a striking phenomenon of world philosophy as Russian cosmism lies hidden and awaits its researchers. Among the cosmists there were pseudo-religious philosophers and profound natural scientists, but they were all united by the common idea of ​​Russian cosmism: the mutual influence of the cosmos and man on each other. Not a subject for esoteric fortune-telling, but an area for a person to comprehend 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 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 “Nature”, and every fifth - “Science and life.” What a melancholy you feel when you see once inquisitive people in transport, buried in Swedish scanwords, American comics and local horoscopes. How cheap we sold ourselves...

Only a completely mentally lazy person, even if only superficially familiar with the ideas of cosmism, will not experience an aversion to 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 the 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, citing the entertaining nature of horoscopes. They can be compared to those who confidently cross a dangerous section of the road at a red light, looking carefully around and not seeing a single car. Maybe they won’t die, but for some reason the death toll statistics are only increasing. Therefore, when I am asked about my Christian attitude to astrology or the signs of the zodiac, I always answer with malicious irritation that I can’t imagine what would have happened to us if the Decembrist uprising had happened 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 compelling reason: it is painful to watch how our people, already heavily poisoned in the 90s by various Blavatskys and Roerichs, are trying to be stabbed to death with injections of astrological nonsense.

Newspaper "Saratov Panorama" No. 33 (961)

What is a horoscope? From point of view natural sciences, astrology is a pseudoscience, and from the point of view of Christian doctrine, an occult practice.

How to build an individual horoscope? How to correctly interpret a horoscope?

The horoscope takes into account the position of the planets depending on the signs of the Zodiac and the so-called “houses of the horoscope” (specially designated sectors of the firmament - it is believed that each “house” influences one or another area of ​​a person’s life). An individual horoscope is built on the basis of the date or even the moment of a person’s birth (and ideally also the place), however, based on the moment of birth, astrologers various schools and directions understand different things: the date of conception, the onset of labor in the mother, the moment of the first breath. This alone undermines confidence in horoscopes.

The interpretation of a horoscope, according to astrologers, is a creative procedure based on intuition. This also proves that astrology is not a science, since its method itself is far from objective.

The Church Fathers of different eras are sure that the stars cannot influence a person. Saint Nicholas of Serbia writes: “Man is above the stars.” The Monk John of Damascus clarifies: the weather can be predicted from the stars, but not the actions and fate of a person - a free being.

How to find out the future from a horoscope?

The Church generally categorically prohibits making predictions about the future. Even in the Old Testament, divination is called “an abomination to the Lord” (Deut. 18:14), and it is astrology that deals with divination.

John Chrysostom calls not to trust the predictions about “happy” and “unlucky” days, which modern horoscopes are full of, especially those published on the pages of popular glossy magazines: “If anyone believes that a day can be happy or unhappy, he will not try on an unhappy day. good deeds, thinking that due to the unfavorability of the day, he will work in vain and will not have time for anything. So, on the contrary, on a happy day he will not do anything, hoping that because of the happy day his own negligence will not harm him. … So, we must avoid the wiles of the devil, cast aside contrition of spirit and not watch the days of hating one and loving another.”

Grigory Theologian also believes that it is impossible to know the future from a horoscope - everything depends not on the “stars”, but on personal choice and naturally occurring circumstances: “For many born under different stars, an equal fate is both at sea and in war. Those who were connected by the stars were not connected by the same end. And others, although separated by the stars, were united by the same death.”

Accurate astrological forecast

However, in some cases, astrological forecasts are true. There are several explanations for this:
– random coincidence;
– suggestion (the astrologer predicted “a good day for buying real estate”, the person bought an apartment and believes that this happened as predicted; on the contrary, the astrologer predicted a bad day for business, the person still decided to carry out the transaction, was very nervous and as a result was deceived - failure he attributed it not to his psychological mood, but to the accuracy of the astrologer’s prediction);
- influence of dark forces.

Let's take a closer look here. St. Augustine draws attention to the fact that “from the ridicule and deception of evil spirits ... the superstitious and disastrous art of divination sometimes actually reveals to the soothsayers something from the past and the future and tells them a lot of things that are later partly justified by events.” However, later, having confused and confused the person, evil spirits throw him into the abyss of failure - and this is in the best case! In the worst case, the consequences will affect spiritual life: a person will lose faith in God, trust in the Church and die. This is reminiscent of the technique of “thimblers” and other street charlatans: a person is “allowed” to win a little, in order to then take away a huge amount from him.

There are many things that can be cited to refute astrology. various facts- in particular, back in the late 1960s, former astrologer M. Gokvelin conducted a study. He compared more than five thousand horoscopes and came to the conclusion that their predictions were inaccurate and unreliable. So, by trusting horoscopes, you risk seriously miscalculating.

Main reasons negative attitude Orthodoxy to astrology were formulated in the sections “The True Mechanism of Astrology” and “Good and Evil in Astrology or What is Astropsychology”. In this section we will summarize and conclude the conversation on the topic of Christianity and astrology.

The Orthodox Church, for twenty centuries since its founding, has viewed astrology as a branch of magic and witchcraft, warning its children against getting carried away with them. This view is not erroneous or exaggerated, which is confirmed, among other things, by the words of the astrologers themselves.

The attitude of Orthodoxy towards astrology and other occult practices is based on the Holy Scriptures, the decrees of the Councils and the works of the Holy Fathers. But before showing it, it’s worth citing a few quotes reflecting the astrologers’ view of Christianity.

“As Anthony Storr wrote: “The terrifying and primitive aspects of the soul remain terrifying and primitive unless they are united with the whole and therefore are not united with other people. A demon remains demonic if he is separated from the divine from which he takes his origin." Unfortunately, the Judeo-Christian religion, having become generally accepted, maintains this separation. Instead of accepting the whole, the Church has separated itself from nature through rejection dark side God." (G. Santo. Union of heaven and earth. Philosophy of astrology)

"The idea that the soul, within one short term life in the body can deserve either eternal heavenly bliss or eternal hellish torment, should be considered as the most diabolical means ever invented for instilling neuroses and the corrupting fear of death."

"Paul rejected the positive impulse of Christ into the channel of psychological escapism and emotional piety. The Christianity of Paul and most of the Church Fathers was a Jupiterian compensation for the Saturn function, destroyed by guilt, sin and repentance." (D. Rudhyar. The need for a multi-level process-oriented psychology)

Once again about the connection of astrology with magic or witchcraft:

"Historically, astrology is a branch ancient magic, that is, it represents the esoteric doctrine of the pre-Christian era." (K. Selchonok. Astropsychology)

Statements in a similar vein are not something unusual for astrologers and are characteristic not only of the mentioned authors.

Bible and astrology

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

“Stay with your sorceries and with your many sorceries, which you have practiced since your youth; maybe you will help yourself, maybe you will resist. You are tired of your many advice; let the observers of the heavens and astrologers and the foretellers of the new moons come forward and save you from what must happen to you. Behold, they were burned up like stubble; they did not deliver their souls from the flames..." (Is. 47:12-14).

“And do not listen to your prophets and your fortune tellers 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, that they may remove you from your land, and that I may drive you out. you and you perished." (Jer.27, 9-10)

“Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the pagans and do not fear the signs of heaven, which the pagans fear” (Jer. 10: 2).

"...Do not go to wizards, and do not allow yourself to be desecrated by them. I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19, 31).

"...And lest, when you look up to heaven and see the sun, the moon and the stars [and] all the host of heaven, you are deceived and worship them and serve them, since the Lord your God has allocated them to all the nations under the whole heaven And the Lord [God] took you and brought you out of the iron furnace out of Egypt, that you might be a people for His inheritance.” (Deut.4, 19-20)

“...There shall not be found among you one who leads his son or daughter through fire, a soothsayer, a soothsayer, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, a charmer, a conjurer of spirits, a magician, or a questioner of the dead; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and for this reason The Lord your God drives them out of abominations from before you; be blameless before the Lord your God; for these nations whom you drive out listen to fortunetellers and soothsayers, but the Lord your God has not given you this” (Deut. 18:10-14).

In the New Testament, the attitude towards sorcerers has not changed:

“The works of the flesh are known; they are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, disagreements, [temptations,] heresies, hatred, murder, drunkenness, disorderly conduct and the like. I preface He told you, as before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:19-21).

“Blessed are they who keep His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and to enter into the city through the gates. But without are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices iniquity” (Rev. 22). , 14,15).

Council decrees and rules

72nd Rule of St. Basil the Great: “Whoever has given himself over to sorcerers or the like will be subject to penance for the same amount of time as a murderer.”

36th rule of the Council of Laodicea: “It is not fitting for the sanctified or the clerics to be magicians or charmers, or number tellers, or astrologers, or to make the so-called precautions, which are the bonds of their souls. We commanded those who wear them to be cast out of the Church.”

24th rule of the Council of Ancyra: “Those who practice magic and follow pagan customs or introduce certain people into their houses, for the sake of seeking magic or for the sake of purification, are subject to the rule of five years of repentance, according to the degrees established: three years of prostration and two years of prayers without communion of the Holy Mysteries.” .

61st rule of the Sixth Ecumenical Council: “Those who surrender themselves to the magicians, or the so-called hundred-leaders (the oldest Magi), or others like that, in order to learn from them what they want to reveal to them, in accordance with the previous paternal decrees about them, should be subject to the rule of six years of penance. The same penance should be imposed on those who who lead bears or other animals to the ridicule and harm of the simplest, and combining deception with madness, pronounce fortune-telling about happiness, about fate, about genealogy and many other similar things, likewise the so-called cloud-catchers, charmers, makers of protective talismans and sorcerers; Those who are stubborn in this and do not convert and do not run away from such destructive and pagan inventions are determined to be completely thrown out of the Church, as well as sacred rules command. For what is the communion of light into darkness, as the Apostle says: or what is the laying down of the Church of God from idols; or what part the faithful have with the unfaithful; What kind of agreement does Christ have with Belial? (2 Cor. 6:14-16)."

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, old Gnostic cults are being revived and so-called “new religious movements” are emerging, which revise the entire system of Christian values ​​and try to find a ideological basis in the reformed eastern religions, and sometimes turn to the occult and witchcraft. These movements purposefully undermine 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 been 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 unacceptable the use Orthodox symbols(icons, frescoes, images of temples and monasteries) in publications of an occult-pagan and sectarian nature, condemns the broadcast of recordings of Orthodox music in radio and television programs promoting the above cults, and also does not bless the participation of Orthodox Christians in events organized by the groups specified in this Definition.

Sometimes astrologers express dissatisfaction, indignant that the Church takes it upon itself to prohibit something. But the fact is that the above decrees apply to Orthodox Christians, i.e. to those who participate in the sacraments and life of the Church. She forbids them to engage in occultism, including astrology, since she must protect her children from everything that separates them from God and deprives them of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Church cannot prohibit anything from the occultists themselves, since they are outside it.

Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church about astrology

From the first centuries of Christianity, the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church warned about the destruction of astrology for the soul.

One of the earliest mentions of astrology is found in the Didache or “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” - a monument of the first century, read in ancient times during divine services along with Holy Scripture: “My child! Do not be a bird fortuneteller, since (bird fortune telling) leads to idolatry, nor a spellcaster, nor an astrologer, nor a sorcerer, do not want to look at this, for from all this idolatry is born.”

Tertulian: “Among the various human occupations one cannot fail to notice some arts or professions that are conducive to idolatry. It is not even worth talking about astrologers, but since one of them decided to justify himself in continuing to engage in this profession, I intend to say a few words on In this regard, 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 - so that all this is tantamount to the worship of false gods. I argue that in this case, astrologers are like fallen angels who departed from God to seduce the human race... If magic is punishable, and astrology is its variety, then along with the form, 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" (About idols).

Tatian in his “Speech against the Hellenes” writes: “The demons made people the victims of their apostasy. They, having shown people the order of the stars, like those playing dice, introduced fate, which is alien to justice, for whether someone is a judge or a defendant, they became such by the determination of fate.. The demons invented fate. The reason for this was the placement of animals in the sky, for they awarded heavenly honor to the animals with which they lived after being cast down from heaven - the reptiles that swim in the waters, the four-legged animals that live in the mountains - in order to think. that they too are in the heavens, and in order to convince, through the arrangement of the stars, that life on earth, alien to reason, agrees with reason: thus, whether someone is angry or patient, self-controlled or intemperate, rich or poor, one is so by purpose those who dispose of the 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 with the seven planets like dice players. But we are above fate, and instead of wandering demons we know one unchanging Lord and, not submitting to fate, we reject its lawgivers." (Speech against the Hellenes).

St. Augustine: “As for their all kinds of ranting 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 debates they try to eliminate in us the impulse to pray, and in bad, deserving of the most just censure, deeds with with unholy perversity one tends to blame God, the creator of the stars, rather than the human criminal." (About stargazers)

Saint Basil the Great: "... anyone who allows the influence of a birthday, honors necessity, fate and fate and, affirming this as much as he can, distracts people from faith in God and from piety, calls the deeds of the Babylonians glorious. For astrology is an invention of the Chaldeans , who say that what exists depends on itself, and not on God, and, subordinating events to the flow of the stars, drive out Providence, which governs human affairs, so that prayer and piety have no power ... "

St. Anthony the Great: “If good and evil deeds do not begin from us, not by our action, but are forced by birth, then why do legislators establish what is by will and what is not by will. And why do judges honor the doing of good, but punish evildoing. Then the thief and the robber had no sin, and no one would catch them by the hand, since the location of the stars prompts them to do this... Those who perish easily are accustomed to dealing with demons, and not only make the luminaries guilty of evil, but [thereby] themselves The Creator of the luminaries was slandered as the creator of evil and destruction... So the will of everyone exalts good and evil; and not necessity or chance, or the location of the stars, our sins would not be held against us if we acted one way or another because of the stars. art."

Saint John Chrysostom: “Notice the wisdom of the Creator, notice the power. God placed lights in the sky so that they would shine over the earth. And for signs, they say, for times, and days, and years (v. 14). What does it mean: for signs? Astrologers, with their fortune-telling, which have no basis in reality, have proven the futility of their hopes for astrology. That nothing can be determined from the stars regarding human life, Isaiah testifies to this, saying: let the observers of the heavens and astrologers and foretellers of the new moons and those who see signs appear. They will tell you what must happen to you (Is. 47:13). Regarding human life, the sky does not give any indications. Do you want to know what signs it gives? (clear sky- approx. ed.). The stars show such phenomena - and this is according to God’s love for mankind, so that the sailor, seeing a sign, avoids danger, so that the farmer, knowing the time of winter, cultivates the land in advance.”

St. John of Damascus: “We, created free by the Creator, are the masters of our affairs. And if we do everything due to the flow of the stars, then what we do, we do out of necessity. What happens out of necessity is not a virtue , nor vice. And if we have neither virtue nor vice, then we are unworthy of either rewards or punishments, just as God will turn out to be unjust, giving blessings to some and sorrows to others. Even more than that: since everything is led and driven by necessity, then. there will be neither God’s government in the world, nor God’s providence for creation.”

Rev. Maxim the Greek: “As I, created in Your divine image and likeness, that is, awarded the gift of free will, received the power and effect of goodness and righteousness - can I, by the action of some unkind star, be drawn to commit evil, like dumb cattle , whom the owner drags on a leash? No, I will never agree with this godless teaching of crazy stargazers, which deprives me of free will!

Modern astrology has undergone a number of changes compared to ancient astrology, and the presented quotes may seem irrelevant to some, but this is not so. The Holy Fathers criticize astrology for the fact that, while endowing a person with negative qualities, deprives him of freedom, making the stars and planets, and through them God, the perpetrators of evil. Now astrologers say that the location of the stars at the time of birth does not make a person good or evil, but only shows what kind of person he is, just as a clock dial shows the time, but does not create it. However, this does not change the essence: astrology still recognizes the forcible endowment of a person with certain moral properties. By doing this, she deprives him of moral freedom and slanderes the Creator, Who supposedly creates some good, and others “full of hatred, cruel, vengeful, ungrateful, lazy, stingy, treacherous.” Not to mention the fact that, according to a number of astrologers, a person should “be his own chart,” i.e. consciously acquire the qualities contained in it, including negative ones. This does not bother astrologers, since they have their own view of what is negative and what is not. As Rudhyar said, "Nothing in the card should be considered bad or harmful." In addition, no matter how much astrology evolves and moves away from the deification of the planets that existed in ancient times, no matter how much it hides behind psychology, it does not cease to be an occult practice, a way of communication between a person and fallen spirits.

Some astrologers do not stop to say that astrology helps a person to know the will of God. This idea must be recognized as completely false, and not only in connection with the above quotes. To find out the will of God you do not need to go far, since it has already been announced by God himself and is contained in the Gospel. The will of God is for people to believe in God not arbitrarily, but as He himself revealed to believe, to keep His commandments, and where they stumbled, to repent and correct themselves. If a person has formed distorted ideas about God and the commandments, does not consider it necessary to learn them, grossly violates the commandments, without even understanding what other “will of God” he wants to learn from the astrologer? It's like having cancer and treating a cough as one of its symptoms. In the light of what has been said, you should know that whoever turns to an astrologer not only will not learn the will of God from him, but will also grossly violate it, resorting for help to forces hostile to God.

For an Orthodox person, a passion for astrology is a sin, the degree of which depends on his involvement in this practice. If he simply believes in the "yellow" astrology widely presented in the media, it will be superstition, like belief in omens, which is an obstacle to the path of spiritual life. A person must not only believe in God, but also believe in God, trust Him. Any superstitions steal this trust to a greater or lesser extent, transfer it to the subject of their vain faith and, thus, exclude God from a person’s life, destroy active faith in Him, leaving a dry, rational recognition of His existence, which demons also have. If someone goes to visit an astrologer, this will be tantamount to turning to a sorcerer and a grave sin, classified as mortal, as killing the soul for God and separating the sinner from Divine grace until he brings repentance and returns to the path of God.

The Holy Fathers of the Church throughout its history paid great attention to the fight against magic and astrology. For example, St. Maximus the Greek said: “As I, created in Your divine image and likeness, that is, awarded the gift of free will, received the power and effect of goodness and righteousness - can I, through the action of some unkind star, be drawn to commit evil, like dumb cattle, which the owner drags along on a leash? No, I will never agree with this godless teaching of crazy stargazers, which deprives me of free will!”

Tertulian: “Among the various human occupations one cannot help but notice some arts or professions that are favorable to idolatry. It’s not even worth talking about astrologers, but since one of them decided to justify himself in continuing to engage in this profession, I intend to say a few words on this matter. I will not say that placing the names of false gods in the sky, attributing to them, as it were, omnipotence, and turning people away from offering prayers to God, instilling in them the belief that their fate is invariably determined by the stars, is all tantamount to the worship of false gods. But I argue that in this case, astrologers are like fallen angels who departed from God to seduce the human race... If magic is punishable, and astrology is its variety, then along with the species, 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 “Speech against the Hellenes” writes: “The demons made people victims of their apostasy. They, having shown people the order of the stars, like those playing dice, introduced fate, which is alien to justice, for whether a judge or a defendant, they became such by the definition of fate... the demons invented fate. The basis for this was the placement of animals in the sky. For they awarded heavenly honor to the animals with whom they lived after being cast down from heaven - reptiles that swim in the waters, four-legged animals that live in the mountains - in order to make them think that they too are in heaven, and to convince them through the arrangement of the stars that life on earth, alien to reason, agrees with reason: thus, whether someone is angry or patient, whether someone is temperate or not, whether someone is rich or poor, this happens according to the purpose 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 now defeated can again be victorious. They enjoy playing with the seven planets like dice players. But we are above fate, and instead of wandering demons we know one unchanging Lord and, not submitting to fate, we reject its lawgivers.” (Speech against the Hellenes).

St. 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 in us the impulse to pray, and in bad, deserving of the most just censure, deeds with with unholy perversity one tends to blame God, the creator of the stars, rather than the human criminal.” (About stargazers).

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 its wickedness and destructive practice of magic and astrology, on behalf of the Lord says with irony: “Stay with your sorceries and with your many sorceries, which you have practiced from your youth; Maybe you’ll help yourself, maybe you’ll resist. You are tired of your many advice; Let the observers of the heavens and the astrologers and the foretellers of the new moons come forward and save you from what is about to happen to you. Here they are, like straw; the fire burned them; They did not deliver their souls from the flames...” (Isa. 47:12-14).

“And do not listen to your prophets and your fortune tellers 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 in order to remove you from your land, and so that I will drive you out and you will perish” (Jer. 27:9-10).

“Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the pagans and do not fear the signs of heaven, which the pagans fear” (Jer. 10: 2).

“...Don’t go to wizards, and don’t bring yourself to the point of being desecrated by them. I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:31).

“...And lest you look up to heaven and see the sun, the moon, and the stars [and] all the host of heaven, and be deceived and worship them and serve them, since the Lord your God has allocated them to all the nations under the whole heaven. But the Lord [God] took you and brought you out of the iron furnace out of Egypt, that you might be a people for His own possession.” (Deut.4, 19-20)

“Whether it be a man or a woman, if they call forth the dead or practice magic, they shall surely be put to death: they shall be stoned; their blood shall be on them” (Leviticus 20:27).

“...There shall not be among you one who guides his son or daughter through fire, a soothsayer, a fortune-teller, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, a charmer, a conjurer of spirits, a magician, and one who inquires of the dead; For everyone who does this is an abomination to the Lord, and for these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you; be blameless before the Lord your God; For these nations, whom you are driving out, listen to fortunetellers and soothsayers, but the Lord your God has not given you that” (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, old Gnostic cults are being revived and so-called “new religious movements” are emerging, which revise the entire system of Christian values, try to find an ideological basis in the reformed Eastern religions, and sometimes turn to the occult and witchcraft. These movements purposefully undermine 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 been 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 unacceptable the use of Orthodox symbols (icons, frescoes, images of temples and monasteries) in publications of an occult-pagan and sectarian nature, condemns the broadcast of recordings of Orthodox music in radio and television programs promoting the above cults, and also does not bless the participation of Orthodox Christians in events organized by the groups specified in this Definition.

Some astrologists do not agree with this decree of the Orthodox Church and accuse its hierarchy of incompetence and bias. But anyone 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 in general being inquisitive people, they have the darkest and most confusing concept of Christianity, at the level of some kind of fable. Despite all their reading, they do not consider it necessary for themselves to familiarize themselves with the basic concepts of Christianity, to read several patristic books about the faith, the Church and its Sacraments.