Verity and the Question of Primary and Secondary Scholarship in Astrology, From the paper originally titled ‘Perils of the Occult Mentality’

Author: Geoffrey Cornelius
Abstract: The type of thinking employed in astrology is at root non-positivistic and metaphorical, a combination which, as a study in-itself, is academically acceptable only as a literary, poetic or imaginative exercise. Treated as a mode of knowledge this thinking is usually denigrated as a leftover remnant of naive idealism or worse still, occultism. There therefore exists an abyss between the prevailing epistemology and astrologers who understand that their practice concerns real knowledge of the world. Can – and should – the academy bridge the gap, or will the astrologers tumble into it?
Keywords: non-positivistic, metaphorical, occultism, epistemology
Notes:
Publication: Astrology and the Academy: papers from the inaugural conference of the Sophia Centre
Issue:
Dated: 2004
Pages: pp 103 – 113