Yet what practitioners commonly refer to as the ‘astrology community’ remains as ambiguous as it is aspirational. A once obscure subculture is flourishing with new networks of intellectual exchange and public engagement. Nonetheless, many practicing astrologers see themselves as part of a larger “metaphysical community” ( Campion 2009: 282), a self-image augmented by online platforms and social media. Like academics, astrologers can be a fragmented and often contentious bunch. Centuries of cultural transmission and codification have ensured continuity in basic horoscopic principles, but there is much variation in how astrologers today practice and even define their craft. With few institutions, collective rites, or central authorities to speak of, the field is an eclectic mix of interpretive styles, schools, and applications. Professional astrologers spend years privately learning and honing their skills and advising individual clients. Although enormously popular and multifaceted, astrology in the West is mostly a solitary endeavor. What attributes of occult sociality reinforce community, in the absence of explicit moral and doctrinal obligations, while safeguarding the privileges of individual autonomy?Īstrology, an oracular technology valued by many as a spiritual practice in its own right, offers an intriguing case in point. Such assumptions beg the question of how we might acknowledge and productively analyze the experiences of individuals who identify with occult ‘communities of practice’ ( Lave and Wenger 1991) and the structures of meaning and authority they provide, though they may be tenuous or heterodox. As in previous waves of occult experimentation, such tendencies reflect a radicalized spirit of epistemological individualism, prompting some observers to conclude that portable, customizable technologies of enchantment proliferating under the banner of ‘spirituality’ invariably undermine collectivist ethics and community formations traditionally associated with organized religion. In North America in particular, individuals disillusioned with conventional religious affiliations and authorities are more eager than ever to embrace esoteric and eclectic paths of metaphysical knowledge and personal growth. This approach complicates straightforward models of community as consensus, and at the same time challenges common stereotypes about the atomizing effects of alternative spiritualities.Īlternative spiritualities informed by New Age beliefs and occult practices such as astrology, divination, and ritual magic have never been more popular or pervasive as they have become in the age of digital and social media. I argue that the tension between notions of metaphysical community and professionalization, on the one hand, and the virtues of epistemological individualism and eclecticism, on the other, is a constitutive tension at the heart of Western metaphysical practice. At the same time, the flexibility and versatility of horoscopic symbols authorize diverse and idiosyncratic adaptations, creating patterns of discord and fragmentation often framed as characteristic of the astrology community. I argue that the ‘symbolic language’ attributed to celestial objects and patterns informs everyday speech acts and reinforces shared commitments to the authority of astrological tradition, in the relative absence of conventional structures of belief and belonging. This article examines the role of language as a key metaphor and medium of occult sociality among contemporary Western astrologers.
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