The stars have ever had an awe-inspiring fascination for mankind, and men have sometimes attached peculiar and foundationless importance to their movements and their positions, seeing in them signs and portents of future happenings, and linking with them the fate of health and prosperity. So strong has been this superstition that much fear, unhappiness, and sickness have resulted from the false assumption that the position of the planets at the time of one's birth and at various stages of his career can influence his actions and undermine his health in a way beyond his control.
Christian Science completely dispels all superstitious beliefs in material influences through the revelation that God is the only power, and that He is the infinite divine Principle, governing and controlling His own perfect creation in harmony. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy says on pages 333 and 334: "The ancient Chaldee hung his destiny out upon the heavens; but ancient or modern Christians, instructed in divine Science, know that the prophet better understood Him who said: 'He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?'" And in the next paragraph she says: "Astrology is well in its place, but this place is secondary. Necromancy has no foundation,—in fact, no intelligence; and the belief that it has, deceives itself."
It is well to note that the word "astrology" is, according to Webster, the term applied to "the pseudo science which treats of the influences of the stars upon human affairs, and of foretelling terrestrial events by their positions and aspects;" and "astronomy," according to the same authority, is "the science which treats of the celestial bodies, their magnitudes, motions, constitution, etc." Although in the absolute sense of creation the one infinite divine Principle is seen as the only law and government of its spiritual creation, or universe, including man, yet it is not with the second but the first aspect of the stars, and with the baneful effects of believing that there is any truth whatever in the claims of matter to influence men, that this article is concerned.
