Astrology
Astrology is the practice of reading terrestrial affairs from celestial configurations. Historically inseparable from astronomy (Kepler cast horoscopes; court astrologers advised princes), it was marginalized by the scientific revolution but persists as a mass cultural phenomenon.
Marxist assessment
- Marx and Engels treated religion and occultism as forms of alienated consciousness — real human powers projected onto imaginary subjects.
- Engels' analysis of early Christianity as a social movement wrapped in religious fantasy applies: astrology's popularity indexes real anxieties (precarity, powerlessness) seeking orientation where materialist politics has failed to provide it.
- The post-1960s astrological revival tracks neoliberal atomization: individualized fate replaces collective struggle.
- Infrared discourse criticizes astrology culture among the online left as symptomatic of idealism — change your birth chart, not the world.