
RH117 – Astrological Heritage: Enlightenment to Modern – Fall 2024-25
This course begins with the Late Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Most people believe that this is when belief in astrology died out in the West, but in actual fact ephemerides and astrological almanacs were among the first books to be printed on the new Gutenberg printing presses, right after the famous Gutenberg Bible. This 5 week course offers a survey of the historical periods up to the present incorporating astrologically significant events and discoveries.
This course will help students to understand how astrology continued to fit into the cultural milieu of each sequential historical period. Students will also be introduced to concepts such as Philosophy of Science, Comparative Religion, Theosophy, New Age and Postmodernism.
In this course, students will:
- See how astrology was embedded in mainstream culture and utilized on a regular basis
- Study how different astrological lineages and various cultural movements impacted the development of modern astrology
- Critique the intellectual shifts in religion and philosophy that led to the modern scientific and secular worldview, and the rejection of intuitive ways of knowing
- Explore how changes in 20th-century philosophy and science affected the arts and sciences, and how 21st-century research is moving toward a more inclusive world view
Weekly topics:
- 17th Century
- 18th Century
- 19th Century
- Theosophical Enlightenment
- 20th Century and beyond
This course can be taken as an elective for the Diploma program and will also count toward a certificate in Astrological Heritage OR Multi-Cultural Traditions.
Required reading:
Campion, Nicholas. A History of Western Astrology Volume II: The Medieval and Modern Worlds. Continuum: 2009.
Recommended reading:
Holden, Janes Herschel. A History of Horoscopic Astrology. American Federation of Astrologers, Inc.: 1996.
Perry, Marvin. Western Civilization, A Brief History. 11th edition. 2015.