The Horoscopic Place
The Encounter between Astrologer and Client
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.38058Keywords:
Astrology, horoscope, cosmology, sacred space, storied landscape, Emile Durkheim, Henri LefebvreAbstract
This article investigates whether astrology is an alternative spiritual practice associated with divination, an occurrence beyond normal human experience. Between July 2015 and July 2016 I conducted semi-structured interviews with seven astrologers who had each been practicing, writing, and teaching astrology for twenty-?ve years or more. The interviews concentrated on understanding the space set aside by the astrologers to focus on the horoscope. The results revealed that the astrologers considered the repetitive behaviour of preparation for the consultation a ritual, re?ecting Emile Durkheim’s views that a special place set aside and reinforced by ritual became sacralised. As the astrologers discussed the storied landscape of the horoscope, a moment of recognition by the client allowed the astrologer to see more deeply into what Henri Lefebvre called the lived space of the imagination. The ensuing conversation opened the way to a much greater depth of understanding between both astrologer and client and generated insights that did not require a connection with the supernatural.
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Bezza, Giuseppe. 2014. ‘Representation of the Skies and the Astrological Chart’, in Brendan Dooley (ed.), A Companion to Astrology in the Renaissance (Leiden & Boston: E.J. Brill): 59-86. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004262300_004.
Brady, Bernadette. 2011. ‘The Horoscope as an “Imago Mundi”: Rethinking the Nature of the Astrologer’s Map’, in Nicholas Campion and Liz Greene (eds.), Astrologies, Plurality, and Diversity (Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press): 47-62.
Bucklow, Spike. 2014. The Riddle of the Image: The Secret Science of Medieval Art (London: Reaktion Books).
Campion, Nicholas. 2012. Astrology and Popular Religion in the Modern West: Prophecy, Cosmology, and the New Age Movement (Farnham: Ashgate).
Casey, Edward S. 1997. ‘How to Get from Space to Place in a Fairly Short Stretch of Time: Phenomenological Prolegomena’, in Lucy R. Lippard (ed.), The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society (New York: New Press): 13-52.
Casey, Edward S. 2001. ‘Body, Self, and Landscape’, in Paul C. Adams, Steven D. Hoelscher, and Karen E. Till (eds.), Textures of Place: Exploring Humanist Geographies (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press): 403-25.
Craighead, Meinrad. 1986. The Mother’s Songs: Images of God the Mother (New York: Paulist Press).
Curry, Patrick. 1999. ‘Astrology’, in Kelly Boyd (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Historians and Historical Writing (London: Fitzroy Dearborn): 55-57.
Curry, Patrick. 2005. ‘The Historiography of Astrology: A Diagnosis and a Prescription’, in Günther Oestmann, H. Darrel Rutkin, and Kocku von Stuckrad (eds.), Horoscopes and Public Spheres: Essays on the History of Astrology (Berlin: W. de Gruyter): 261-74. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110925128.261.
Durkheim, Emile. 1995 [1912]. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (trans. Karen E. Fields; New York: The Free Press).
Fields, Karen E. 1995. ‘Translator’s Introduction: Religion as an Eminently Social Thing’, in Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (trans. Karen E. Fields; New York: The Free Press): xvii-lxxviii.
Fuller, Robert C. 2001. Spiritual, but Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America (New York: Oxford University Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/0195146808.001.0001
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books).
Greenwood, Susan. 2009. The Anthropology of Magic (Oxford: Berg).
Hunger, Hermann (ed.). 1992. Astrological Reports to the Assyrian Kings (State Archives of Assyria, 8; Helsinki: Helsinki University Press).
Hunger, Hermann, and David Pingree. 1989. Mul.Apin: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform (Archiv für Orientforschung, 24; Austria: Verlag Ferdinand Berger & Sohne Gesselschaft).
Hunt, Stephen J. 2003. Alternative Religions: A Sociological Introduction (Aldershot: Ashgate).
Knott, Kim. 2005. The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis (London: Equinox Publishing).
Lane, Belden C. 1998. The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The Production of Space (trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith; Oxford: Basil Blackwell).
Parpola, S. 1970. Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal Part 1 (Germany: Butzon & Kevelaer).
Pike, Kenneth. 1967. ‘Etic and Emic Standpoints for the Description of Behaviour’, in Donald C. Hildum (ed.), Language and Thought: An Enduring Problem in Psychology (Princeton, NJ: D. Van Norstrand): 28-36.
Radermacher, Lindsay. 2011. ‘The Role of Dialogue in Astrological Divination’ (MPhil. Thesis, Theology and Religious Studies, University of Kent).
Straughn, Ian B. 2014. ‘The Aptitude for Sacred Space’, in Claudia Moser and Cecilia Feldman (eds.), Locating the Sacred: Theoretical Approaches to the Emplacement of Religion (Princeton, NJ: Oxbow Books): 165-80.
Tallis, Raymond. 2017. Of Time and Lamentation: Re?ections on Transcience (Newcastle Upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing). Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv5cg85x.
Tweed, Thomas A. 2015. ‘Space’, in S. Brent Plate (ed.), Key Terms in Material Religion (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic): 223-30.
Published
2019-05-08
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Gunzburg, D. (2019). The Horoscopic Place: The Encounter between Astrologer and Client. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 13(1), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.38058
