I read an article in the NYT yesterday which piqued my interest because it reminded me ever so much of the field of astrology. The article was called Social Scientist Sees Bias Within and it discussed the incredibly high and statistically impossible percentage of psychologists who claim, at least in public, to be politically liberal. “Social psychologists are a ‘tribal-moral community’ united by ‘sacred values’ that hinder research and damage their credibility — and blind them to the hostile climate they’ve created for non-liberals,” says University of Virginia professor Jonathan Haidt. Although I’m not quite sure what a “tribal-moral community” is, I am very sure that this statement applies equally well to astrologers as a group.
Maybe it’s because I live in the liberal bubble called San Francisco, but I can’t think of one local astrologer who is politically conservative, and most of us, me included, are so progressive we are practically falling off the left side of the continuum. Which, of course, leads to the other side of it – but that’s another story! Even at astrology conferences, however, I’ve observed that the vast majority of astrologers are left-leaning. This must be incredibly uncomfortable for conservative astrologers. Haidt noted that politically conservative psychology students stated that they “hid their feelings when colleagues made political small talk and jokes predicated on the assumption that everyone was a liberal.” I cannot help but wonder how many of my conservative colleagues also hide their true sentiments in the face of similar assumptions when astrologers gather.
Haidt notes that the social sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology) tend to attract liberals to begin with, but that the problem became more entrenched after the 1960s. This created a blind spot within the community, resulting in the near-systematic suppression of any idea that challenged these assumptions. He notes “If a group circles around sacred values, they will evolve into a tribal-moral community,” he said. “They’ll embrace science whenever it supports their sacred values, but they’ll ditch it or distort it as soon as it threatens a sacred value.” Now, I’m not someone who thinks that astrology can or should be “proven” by science, a field which is its own tribal-moral community. However, I recognize in myself the fear, quickly masked by anger, when yet another scientific study “disproves” astrology, and the thrill I catch when some new scientific thesis seems to support it. So I’m participating in this tribal-moral dynamic without being aware of it, at least until now.
Prayer for the day: May my blind spots be revealed to me.
I’m very interested in hearing others’ ideas and experiences on this subject. Shine a light for us!
Astrologer at Large Blog 
ever read Horary astrology by C.C. Zain?
I have the complete set of books from light.org
they give me reason to believe
thru researching world events
such as earth quakes
we Can Prove Astrology Is a Science.
Do you know Dennis Sutton?
Dennis Sutton’s article about our current state of the world is here: http://www.light.org/quarterly.cfm
see pages 11-14
Although they are somewhat few and far between, I’ve run into a few conservative astrologers. Robert Blashke was one. A number of the people around Project Hindsight as well. Then there is the grey area of the libertarian contingent. They all seem to keep a relatively low profile when it comes to expressing their beliefs in the astrological community, although there is a noticeable sense of annoyance or frustration sometimes when someone in a lecture will take it for granted that all astrologers are liberal or on the same page politically. I caught myself making the same assumption during a lecture recently when I cracked a joke (it was a Bush joke), and I kind of regretted it in retrospect when I learned that one of the guys in the audience who had helped me before the lecture was conservative.
Hi Chris, Yep, this is precisely what I mean. Blaschke WAS conservative and he’s not the only one but like I say, most
don’t come out in public at least in astrology audiences. Thanks for your comment, Chris.
I am a conservative who attended my first astrology conference 2yrs ago in Denver, just prior to the Obama presidential victory. I was surprised at all the liberalism, and disappointed. I instinctively remained on the side lines during all the pro Obama chatter.The excitement and elation discovering his birth time was nauseating. With the world and mankind in crisis, souls losing their way, and America spiraling downward uncontrollably, I would of liked to have seen more political diversity and discussion to solutions for change.
Katie.