Following on from "The History of Western Astrology Volume I", Nicholas Campion examines the foundation of modern astrology in the medieval and Renaissance worlds. Medieval and Renaissance Europe marked the high water mark for astrology. It was a subject of high theological speculation, was used to advise kings and popes, and to arrange any activity from the beginning of battles to the most auspicious time to have one's hair cut. Nicholas Campion examines the foundation of modern astrology in the medieval and Renaissance worlds. Spanning the period between the collapse of classical astrology in the fifth century and the rise of popular astrology on the web in the twentieth, Campion challenges the historical convention that astrology flourished only between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Concluding with a discussion of astrology's popularity and appeal in the twenty-first century, Campion asks whether it should be seen as an integral part of modernity or as an element of the post-modern world.

Table of Contents

The Early Medieval World; The Twelfth Century Renaissance; The Thirteenth Century: Magic and Politics; Medieval Cosmology; The High Middle Ages; The Fifteenth Century: the pagan revival; Reform and Revolution; Renaissance Magic; The Seventeenth Century: the Last Flowering; Decline; The Newtonian Revolution; The Esoteric Enlightenment; The Radical Sky; The Revival of Horoscopic Astrology; The Theosophical Enlightenment; The Psychological Cosmos; Astrology in Popular Culture; Science and Scepticism; Astrology as a Modern Religion; Astrology and the Post-Modern Condition.

Author Biography

Nicholas Campion is senior lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wales, Lampeter.