What purpose did astrology serve at its beginning? Professor Jastrow continues: “In Babylonia as well as in Assyria . . . astrology takes its place in the official cult as one of the two chief means at the disposal of the priests . . . for ascertaining the will and intention of the gods.” The sun, moon and planets were considered the homes of the Babylonian gods and were named after them. The priests believed that a correct interpretation of the movements of these bodies would reveal what the gods were about to do. Thus, astrology was religious from its beginning. It was a form of divination by means of omens.

What Is God’s View of Astrology?

We have noted that astrology is a form of divination and also involves looking for omens. God’s view of such things is expressed at Deuteronomy 18:10, 12: “There should not be found in you anyone who . . . employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens . . . For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah.”

Consider what happened to the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel when “they began to bow down to all the army of the heavens,” in the days of King Hoshea. We read: “Therefore Jehovah got very incensed against Israel, so that he removed them from his sight,” causing them to go into captivity to Assyria in 740 B.C.E.​—2 Ki. 17:16, 18.

The Bible associates divination and looking for omens with spiritism. (Deut. 18:10, 11) A person who practices such things can come under the influence of “wicked spirit forces.” (Eph. 6:12) Could such demonic forces convey knowledge of future events to someone here on earth?

Interestingly, we read in the Bible of a girl who “used to furnish her masters with much gain by practicing the art of prediction.” Apparently some of the things this girl foretold came true, as is the case with some predictions of astrologers today. But what was responsible for this girl’s abilities at prediction? The Bible states that she was under the influence of “a spirit, a demon of divination.”​—Acts 16:16.

The connection between spiritism and astrology is equally clear today. “It was and still is closely related to other pseudo sciences and superstitions such as palmistry, numerology, and the use of charms and magic,” says The World Book Encyclopedia. Thus, astrologer Sybil Leek claims to be a witch. And, in addition to his abilities at astrology, Maurice Woodruff declares that he is a clairvoyant and has extrasensory perception (ESP).

So it is the influence of wicked spirits or demons, not the method of divination itself (in this case astrology), that “accounts for occasional accurate predictions by astrologers. Showing that the particular method of divination (whether by astrology, casting lots or otherwise) is not really important is the comment of Professor L. A. Waddell:

“In recording several of the ways in which divining was practised in Tibet, a mediæval Chinese observer wrote: ‘Notwithstanding the variety of their methods of divination, and their unskillfulness in their mode of examining, they are quite frequently surprisingly accurate.’ This criticism still holds good.”

But in spite of a degree of accuracy, by far the majority of astrological predictions go unfulfilled. For example: Astrologers forecast earth-wide floods for the years 1186 and 1524, but no such floods occurred. In 1939 the leading astrologers of Britain said that there would be no war and, when that prediction failed, they foretold that the war would end the following year with the defeat of Hitler. But World War II dragged on until 1945. More recently, Hindu astrologers predicted that the world would end early in February 1962. Devout Hindus sat up all night in anticipation of this. But, again, nothing happened.