A Scheme Of Heaven by Alexander Boxer review: An enthusiastic and exhilarating history of astrology

A Scheme Of Heaven: Astrology And The Birth Of Science

Alexander Boxer                                                                                             Profile £25 

Rating:

Most newspaper horoscopes are rubbish, though I still occasionally glance at my ‘stars’. Blame my being a child of the Sixties (the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and all that). But I’m also aware, as this book confirms, that the history of science is deeply interwoven with astrology. 

Add to that my sense that astrologers had a sophisticated system for trying to comprehend the universe and such alternative world pictures are not only intrinsically fascinating but offer potentially useful insights for our Earth-bound culture.

But, surely, astrology today is nothing more than the very definition of a pseudo-science? Alexander Boxer, a professional data scientist, has sought to investigate if there is any basis to astrologers’ claims.

In A Scheme Of Heaven, Alexander Boxer, a professional data scientist, seeks to investigate if there is any basis to astrologers’ claims about the links between astrology and science

Enthusiastic, level-headed and with a good turn of phrase, he leads his readers on an exhilarating trajectory through the history of astrology.

For long periods, the words astronomy and astrology were interchangeable. One of Boxer’s skills is explaining how innovations in the former related to the latter. Take the discovery (probably by the Babylonians) of the ecliptic, the imaginary line the Sun describes through the heavens over the course of a year, passing through the constellations that constitute the 12 signs of the zodiac. 

Twice annually, the Sun is in such a position that the hours of day and hours of night are equal. These are the equinoxes (meaning ‘equal night’). By tradition, the starting point of the ecliptic is the Sun’s position on the spring equinox – currently within the constellation Pisces.

However, the Greek astronomer Hipparchus discovered in – astonishingly – about 130 BC that this starting spot moves very, very slowly around the ecliptic, eventually passing through all the zodiac constellations, spending about 2,125 years in each. So it’s the Age of Pisces now, but will eventually be the Age of Aquarius.

Today ‘humanistic’ astrology is enjoying a renaissance as a branch of psychotherapy. Dabblers can buy astrological software capable of computing and lining up virtually anything. Boxer demonstrates this with a chart that shows the price of Bitcoin shadowing planetary movements.

He can get a bit geeky, but never too much. His basic argument is modest – humans love discerning patterns, including those between the heavens and events in their daily lives, and astrology can be an intriguing way of going about this.