I Used to Read Birth Charts and Horoscopes Until I Learned... | Occult to Orthodoxy Series (Part 16) | Ep. 130
There was a time when I deeply identified with my signs. My Sun in Pisces, my Moon in Aquarius, my Rising in Libra, and thought that was simply how I was fated to show up in the world, forever.
Then I learned of my identity in Christ, and I realized that should be my true roadmap above all else.
This post is part 16 of my Occult to Orthodoxy series, where I share my honest testimony of leaving New Age spirituality and entering the Orthodox Church. Today we're talking about astrology: where it came from, what happens when we look to the stars for answers about who we are, and what the Orthodox Christian path offers instead.
My Story With Astrology
I came into astrology in college, while studying psychology and going through my Yoga Teacher Training. I had already begun rejecting the Christian God because of the messaging I was absorbing in university, and I was open to finding meaning and identity elsewhere.
When I first heard people in my yoga class talking about their sun, moon, and rising signs, I started to see astrology as something beyond the newspaper horoscopes I'd read as a kid. It felt like an advanced, spiritual psychology — a complex system that could map out an entire personality and destiny.
I learned that our whole natal charts could be read, not just sun signs, but where every planet sat at the exact moment of our birth, and what that meant about who we were and where we were headed.
Desperately seeking meaning and purpose, I became hooked. I started offering chart readings alongside tarot readings, yoga classes, and yes, lap dances at the strip club, genuinely believing I was meant to be a light in a dark place and help people evolve.
It wasn't until I encountered Christ that I began to see what a faulty system I had rooted my identity in. I wasn't just a Pisces Sun or an Aquarius Moon. I was a daughter of God, and following Him would be my surest way to discover who I truly was and what I was destined for.
I'm not a theologian, priest, or Orthodox authority. I'm just someone who has walked this road and wants to share what I've learned so far, while pointing you toward those much wiser than me, but for a beginner overview, let’s dive in.
What is Astrology?
At its core, astrology is the belief that the positions and movements of the sun, moon, planets, and stars influence human personalities, destinies, and earthly events. It assumes that everything — spiritual, psychological, and physical — is interconnected with the sky above.
This is different from astronomy, which is the scientific observation of the universe. Astronomy tells us how the stars move. Astrology claims to tell us what those movements mean for us.
For most of history, astronomy and astrology were the same discipline, practiced by the same scholars. But in ancient Babylon and Greece, those scholars only mapped the cosmos in the first place because they believed the planets and stars held divine significance over life on earth.
A Brief History of Astrology
Astrology has roots in ancient Mesopotamia, going back to the third millennium BCE. Building on early Sumerian foundations, the Babylonians eventually developed the twelve signs of the zodiac and the first personal natal charts.
To these cultures, astrology wasn't separate from religion. Every celestial body was viewed as the embodiment or voice of a god. The planet Venus, for example, represented the goddess Ishtar. Planetary movements and eclipses were never random; they were messages from the divine, decoded by trained diviners who advised kings and priests on the fate of the empire.
After Alexander the Great's conquests, Babylonian astrology spread into Greece, where it merged with mathematics and logic to create horoscopic astrology based on a person's exact time and place of birth. This system carried into Rome, where emperors routinely consulted astrologers as part of statecraft.
When Christianity spread through the empire, the early Church Fathers fiercely opposed astrology, because it replaced the Creator with the creation, binding people to fate rather than to God.
Astrology survived through Islamic scholarship and resurfaced during the Renaissance, then was pushed underground into mystical societies during the Enlightenment. It was reborn in the early twentieth century when spiritual thinkers merged ancient star maps with Carl Jung's psychology and theosophy — transforming astrology from literal prediction into the personality-based, "soul contract" framework most people know today.
What About the Zodiac in Ancient Synagogues?
I had a listener ask about the zodiac imagery found in the floor mosaics of first-century Jewish synagogues in Galilee — the very kind of synagogue Jesus would have entered to pray and teach.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick explains the key difference between pagan and Hebrew views of the heavens this way: in pagan astrology, the heavenly bodies were independent powers you were subject to. In the Hebrew understanding, the stars were part of God's governance of creation — subordinate, serving, never sovereign.
Jewish tradition never worshipped the planets as gods, and the rabbis held to the principle that there is no destiny written in the stars for those who belong to God. Human free will, prayer, and obedience to God could override any chart.
From an Orthodox Christian perspective, though, Jewish astrology is viewed through the same lens as pagan astrology: a distraction from the Creator and a potential doorway to deception.
What the Heavens Actually Say
The cosmos were originally meant to point us to God.
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." — Psalm 19:1
Paul builds on this in Romans 1, writing that what can be known about God is plain because His attributes have been revealed through what He made. Creation, including the heavens, genuinely bears witness to its Creator.
In Job 38, the morning stars sing together at creation — which the Orthodox tradition reads as a reference to angelic beings connected to the sun and moon "ruling" day and night in Genesis 1. The heavens aren't just physical objects; they're part of God's order of creation.
The Book of Jubilees puts it simply: all the signs of the stars, moon, and sun are in the hand of the Lord. Everything astrology claims to read is in His hand, not in the hand of fate.
St. Ignatius of Antioch, one of the earliest Church Fathers, describes the Star of Bethlehem as a sign that appeared in the heavens to announce Christ's birth to the angelic powers — kept secret from Satan. It wasn't an astronomical event. It was a cosmic announcement.
The Troparion of the Nativity captures this beautifully: those who once adored the stars were taught by a star to worship Christ, the true Sun of Justice.
God met the Magi — likely Babylonian or Persian astrologers — in the language they knew, and the star led them beyond that language entirely, to the feet of the One who made every star. When they found Him, they worshiped, and left by another way.
Their journey isn't a validation of astrology. It's a picture of how God can guide sincere seekers, even through imperfect means, to the truth found in Christ.
The Spiritual Dangers of Astrology
So if the heavens genuinely declare something true, why does the Church consistently warn against astrology?
In its New Age, pagan, and occult forms, astrology operates on the premise that forces outside of God — the movements of planets and stars — hold real power over your life, relationships, and future. Even casually checking a horoscope is turning to a source other than God for guidance and meaning.
As someone who practiced astrology for years before coming to Christ, I can say it often becomes a gateway into a larger spiritual ecosystem — tarot, psychics, channeling, and eventually contact with entities that don't come from God.
A few of the main Orthodox objections:
Denial of free will and fate. If the stars shape your personality, relationships, and fate, then what becomes of repentance? Of salvation? If you are the way you are because of the position of a planet at your birth, there's no meaningful sense in which you're choosing to sin or choosing to turn toward God — and that's a denial of the Gospel itself, which says you can change, that your passions can be transfigured.
Idolatry. Believing celestial bodies control human affairs replaces trust in God with trust in creation. Throughout Scripture, God gives something good, people worship the gift instead of the Giver, and the good thing becomes an idol. The stars were made as signs of God's glory and governance — but Israel repeatedly fell into worshipping "the host of heaven," which the prophets condemn again and again. Not because the stars are evil, but because giving creation the reverence that belongs to the Creator is always idolatry.
Spiritual deception and divination. The Church has historically viewed astrology as a form of divination, condemned by Church Councils as an opening to unholy spiritual influence. St. Augustine warned in The City of God that astrology is a trap set by deceitful spirits who plant false and dangerous notions in people's minds.
Misplaced identity. Identifying with a zodiac sign shifts your sense of worth and identity away from being made in the image and likeness of God. Every hour spent looking to the cosmos for identity and guidance is an hour not spent looking to God in Scripture, prayer, and the Church.
What Does Scripture Say?
The Orthodox Church doesn't view ancient paganism as a harmless misunderstanding of astronomy. It views it as a real historical encounter with rebellious spiritual powers who intercepted worship meant only for God.
The Septuagint states plainly in Psalm 95(96):5 that all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. St. Paul echoes this in 1 Corinthians 10:20, writing that what the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.
When the Babylonians looked at Venus and worshipped Ishtar, they were looking at a physical creation but directing worship to a spiritual entity. Fallen angels, driven by pride, gladly accepted this worship — disguising themselves as the "intelligences" behind the stars to keep humanity bound to cosmic fate.
Scripture is consistent on this point:
"There shall not be found among you anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens... for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord." — Deuteronomy 18:10-12
"Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them." — Jeremiah 10:2
Seeking guidance, identity, or knowledge of the future from any source other than God falls squarely within what Scripture forbids — and astrology, as we've inherited it, fits that description.
What Do The Church Fathers Say?
The Orthodox consensus is that astrology, divination, and horoscope-reading are fundamentally incompatible with the Christian faith.
Human beings were not made for the stars — the stars were made for humanity. Allowing them to dominate your life turns God's creation into an idol. And the Church teaches that human destiny is governed by God's providence and our own free will, not by planetary alignment. Consulting astrologers is viewed as a rejection of God's guidance in favor of occult forces.
For a deeper dive into the patristic perspective, I'd point you to Fr. Alexander Karloutsos's article "Astrology is Astrolatry" on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America's website, goarch.org.
But What About When My Chart Feels Accurate?
I want to be honest here, because I think this is the question that keeps a lot of people tethered to astrology even after hearing all the theological arguments.
When you go deep into a natal chart — moon sign, rising sign, planetary placements — it can feel eerily accurate. (I'm not talking about generic newspaper sun-sign predictions, which I think are nonsense. I mean the deeper layers.)
I've asked myself whether the placement of the cosmos at our birth could shape some of our natural inclinations or struggles. But I think it's far more likely that our genetics, our environment (culture, upbringing) and our spiritual inheritance, meaning ancestral patterns and family struggles, are what shape those inclinations.
When those things control us rather than us them, the Church Fathers call that living in the passions, which can lead us into sin. And Orthodox Christianity understands sin and virtue as matters of free will, not fate.
Even if you still deeply resonate with your natal chart, that's okay. But like the Magi who took a different road home after encountering Christ, the invitation is to bring all those inner parts of yourself to Him, so He can heal and transform you into who you're truly meant to be.
Where To Go From Here
If astrology has become a regular source of guidance in your life, if you're making decisions based on planetary transits, or your natal chart has become the primary lens through which you understand yourself, the Church Fathers are unanimous that this pulls us away from God, not toward Him.
Whatever you're looking for in astrology — purpose, identity, direction — you can find that, and so much more, in Christ and His Church.
If you want to go deeper, I highly recommend Fr. Stephen De Young and Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick's 2020 Christmas episode of Lord of Spirits, "Taught by a Star to Worship the Sun of Righteousness." Jonathan Pageau's Symbolic World and Deacon Seraphim Rohlin's work on ancient cosmology are also wonderful resources.
And if you're somewhere on this journey between the birth chart and the baptismal font, I want you to know: there is a way home. The Church is ancient and patient and full of grace. And Christ is already looking for you.
This is part 16 of the Occult to Orthodoxy series. Next time, we're covering psychedelics — the final episode in this series before we move into some upcoming interviews. Subscribe to Raised & Redeemed so you don't miss it.
Sources & Further Reading
Fr. Stephen De Young & Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, "Taught by a Star to Worship the Sun of Righteousness," Lord of Spirits Podcast, Ancient Faith Ministries, December 24, 2020
Deacon Seraphim Rohlin & Joshua Sturgill, "The Art of Imitating Heaven," The Symbolic World Podcast, Episode 431
Jonathan Pageau, "On Astrology," The Symbolic World
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, "Astrology is Astrolatry," goarch.org
Watch the Full Episode
🎥 I Used To Read Birth Charts & Horoscopes Until I Learned… | Occult to Orthodoxy Series (Part 16) | Ep. 130
🎙️ Podcast: Raised & Redeemed on Spotify
🎥 YouTube: Michaela Nikolaenko Channel
📌 If this resonates, please:
✅ Subscribe for Part 17 of the Occult to Orthodoxy Series
✅ Share this with someone who’s spiritually searching
✅ Leave a comment with topics you want me to address
✅ Join my membership for specific inquiries and response videos
Coming Up Next
Coming up next: In the next episode, we will be talking about an Orthodox Christian perspective on psychedelics.
