Astral Worship

by J.H. Hill

In an article, entitled "Then and Now," published in the December number, 1890, of "The Arena," its author, a distinguished Unitarian D.D. of Boston, Mass., says. "Astronomy has shattered the fallacies of Astrology; and people have found out that the stars are minding their own business instead of meddling with theirs." Now, while it is true that modern Astronomy has superseded the ancient system, and people have ceased to believe that the stars are intervening in mundane affairs, nothing could be further from the truth than the assertion that "Astronomy has shattered the fallacies of Astrology;" and those of our readers who will accord to this work an unprejudiced perusal can hardly fail to be convinced that a large majority of the people of Christendom are dominated as much by these fallacies as were our Pagan ancestry--the only difference being a change of name. The dogmatic element of religion, which was anciently designated as Astrology, is now known as Theology.

Genres: Astrology, Religion

66 pages, Paperback

Published May 24, 2016

Reviews

[Joshua Kamp · Rating 3 out of 5]

The big picture the book presents is cohesive even if some claims are dubious (featuring a few passing comments here and there coming close to racism/antisemitism, as one may find in this kind of stuff from the late 1800s). It goes from an explanation of ancient astral religion and religious symbolism, and solar-based holiday calendars to a total ROAST of Christianity, which is presented as a corrupted version of this ancient astral worship, tweaked and redesigned to keep the wretched masses controlled and powerless. Toward the end, we get the whole dirty laundry overview: violent crimes of early zealots forcefully spreading the church, evil intentions of Constantine and the Council of Nicaea, burning of ancient libraries and dragging the west into the dark ages and illiteracy to prevent a free-thinking populace. It is passionately anti-Christian and kind of satisfying!

I will say that there is a lot in here that hits close to home in modern America. The author angrily condemns the teaching of an impending Judgment Day as cruel fearmongering predictions that never come true and always harm society... this is 100 years before 90s Christians would stoke up a rapture/end times craze over the coming new millennium. I want to include this part, to show one of many passages still so immediately pertinent to the situation of evangelicalism in the US:

"...the Sunday Sabbath is purely and entirely a human institution, and, being such, we must recognize all Sunday laws as grave encroachments upon constitutional liberty; and it behooves the advocates of individual rights to demand their immediate repeal; for unless a vigilant watch is kept upon the conspirators who secured their enactment, our fair land will soon be cursed by a union of church and State, the tendency in that direction having been indicated by the unprecedented opinion recently handed down by one of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court that this is a 'Christian Government.'"

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book with plenty of,sources a lot of neat ancient history

[Alan Fuller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good information but a lot of errors, such as the authors original biblical reference to the Sabbath edict.

[Jon]

One of the best books on astrolatry. Brilliant. Ive read it twice & on my 3rd pass