Astropro's Website Of the Week Award ©1998 by Richard Nolle

AUG 17, 1998 - Astrophysicist's View of Astrology is a mouthful! Actually, I'm abbreviating: the full title is An Astrophysicist's Sympathetic and Critical View of Astrology. The skinny on this site by Victor Mansfield is that it's a must-read, if you happen to harbor any interest at all in the relationship between astrology and the scientific world view. Don't drop by expecting a fine example of the webmaster's art. Astrophysicist's View boasts no bells, no whistles, no fancy JavaScript multimedia wizardry. (But there are virtues to simplicity: Web Site Garage rates Vic's HTML design excellent.) Other than a single illustration - a contemporary woodcut illustrating the seven-planet Pisces alignment of 1524 - and a few simple diagrams, it's just an essay. But WHAT an essay! It's so good that, although I originally planned just to read it online, I ended up deciding to print out the whole 15 pages to study them in detail.

An Astrophysicist's Sympathetic and Critical View of Astrology is replete with tanatalizing theoretical speculations about the possible ties between astrology and quantum mechanics: acausality, nonlocality, observer involvement and the whole nine yards. If you think astrology is irrational, then you have to toss out quantum mechanics as well. This may be news to a lot of scientific pundits, but astrologers have recognized the acausal nature of the cosmic connection for many centuries - at least as far back as Plotinus (3rd Century CE), as Mansfield notes. Seeing the possibility of a convergence between quantum theory and the cosmic craft, Mansfield believes "that an astrology fully integrated into our modern western intellectual tradition can be a more powerful force for the transformations our culture so desperately needs," and "that science has at least as much to gain from an appreciation of astrology." All of which can be a real eye-opener for astrophiles who think the science types are astrological idiots, and the science types who dismiss astrology out of hand as an a priori impossibility. Reason enough for both types to check out An Astrophysicist's Sympathetic and Critical View of Astrology, I should think. And if, as I suspect, all of this makes you want to learn what else Vic Mansfield might have to say, then by all means you'll also want to drop by his home page.

AUG 14, 1999 UPDATE: Somebody seems to have pulled the plug on An Astrophysicist's Sympathetic and Critical View of Astrology. If the site comes back, I'll let you know.

Richard Nolle, Certified Professional Astrologer phone or fax 480-753-6261 - email rnolle@astropro.com Box 26599 - Tempe, AZ 85285-6599 - USA on the World Wide Web at http://www.astropro.com