Types of Astrology

The astrology that concerns itself with analysing the character and predicting the future of the individual on the basis of the horoscope is called natal, or genethliacal astrology. But if the analogical and organic type of thinking peculiar to astrology has any validity, then other areas of inquiry ought to be susceptible to astrological interpretation as well. There are two main types commonly employed.

Mundane astrology concerns itself with large-scale phenomena - wars, natural cataclysms, the fat years and the lean, and long-term political and psychological trends. The theory is that, just as the various planets and signs are supposed to symbolize and 'influence' the various parts and organs of the body, so the whole of the earth is divided into areas of affinity and influence. Moreover, corporations, nations and races are held to represent more-or-less recognizable spiritual organisms or entities - which makes a kind of intuitive if not rational sense (even the most insensitive tourist knows that the Germans are different from the French who in turn are different from the Spanish). It sometimes seems that the typology of astrology can account for these differences more satisfactorily than anything in history or sociology. But, unfortunately, casting a horoscope for a nation, or a race, or even a corporation is a perilous enterprise, and conclusions drawn from such a horoscope are even less justifiable and demonstrable than those drawn from a birth horoscope.

Nevertheless, it appears that mundane astrology antedates the more familiar natal sort. The earliest known horoscope dates back only to the 5th century B.C., while it is known that astrologers in Babylon were making mundane predictions much earlier. The temples and monuments of ancient Egypt were erected and inaugurated according to astrological considerations as well. Unfortunately, nothing is known of the methods employed by these early mundane astrologers. But since the structure and coherence of astrology invalidates the premise that it was developed empirically and willy-nilly by imaginative priests, it is at least conceivable that in the past a valid mundane astrology existed, the letter or spirit of which has been lost.

The third type of astrology, horary astrology, is based upon the analogous theory that the horoscope of any given moment determines the meaning of that moment, not only insofar as it applies to a child born at that time but to anything whatsoever that is 'born'. Thus a question may be asked and a chart erected for the moment of inquiry, making horary astrology a sort of astrological I CHING.