The Secrets of the Vaulted Sky: Astrology and the Art of Prediction (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, I wanted to see into the future, and if the future was blank and inscrutable, the past would have to do..." (more)
Key Phrases: stellar rays, ancient astrologers, other astrologers, Abu Mashar, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spanning the development of astrology from Sumerian origins to Nazi court astrologers, Berlinski's ruminative but shallow history seeks to rescue it from what he sees as the misconceived derision of modern science. The author of A Tour of the Calculus remains coyly agnostic about astrology's validity. He calls it a "finely geared tool for the resolution of practical problems" and cites many successful predictions and a statistical study supposedly verifying the "Mars effect" on athletic talent, but when faced with the incoherent, metaphorical techniques by which astrologers interpret their charts, he can only shrug that since smart people used to listen to astrologers, there must be something to it. If not rational, Berlinski argues that astrology is at least "rationalistic," in that "the peculiar nature of astrological thought has returned in all the sciences, in disguised form." Unfortunately, this provocative point is made through facile comparisons-medieval notions of heavenly "influences" anticipate Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetism and sociobiology, for example, while 15th-century medical astrological charts are "the forerunner of such diagnostic devices as CAT scans"-that illuminate neither ancient nor modern thought. Physicists will object to Berlinski's contention that they account for "action at a distance" no better than astrologers do, while philosophers will blanch at his superficial take on the conundrums of causality and determinism. No more edifying are the self-consciously literary vignettes (the dying Copernicus "took his breath in long, slow, wet, ragged gasps, a bubble of pale phlegm forming on his lips") with which Berlinski "humanizes" this intellectual history. Readers looking for real intellectual meat behind the author's ostentatious erudition and metaphysical pseudo-profundities will go hungry.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Few Americans realized during the 1980s how much the resident of the White House resembled emperors of ancient Babylon and Rome: like them, President Reagan consulted astrologers. A gifted science writer, Berlinski not only links personalities (the Great Communicator waves at Berossos of the Chaldeas) but also interweaves grand themes: science melds with religion, and metaphysics fuses with politics in a narrative of surpassing color and drama. Though Berlinski approaches his topic with intelligent skepticism, he acknowledges the creative ingenuity and even the scientific acumen of many of its founders. He also expresses deep empathy for the credulous humans who have spun astrological meanings out of their own yearnings for some way of seeing into the turbulent future, some way of glimpsing cosmic significance in the hurly-burly of everyday life. And with piquant episodes culled from millennia of material, Berlinski gives astrology hauntingly human faces: a shrewd soothsayer confronts a cruel tyrant with a laconic--and accurate--prophecy of how they both shall die; an imprisoned astrologer unnerves a Nazi leader with uncanny predictions about the fuhrer's death. Berlinski acknowledges that modern science has driven astrology into society's subterranean margins, yet he mischievously exposes the stubborn persistence in physics and sociobiology of the same magical thinking that once pervaded astrology. Berlinski gives readers good reason to relish this irreverent foray into an exotic if dubious art. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1 edition (October 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151005273
• ISBN-13: 978-0151005277
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #318,185 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Brief Historical Book on Premonitional Astrology, September 25, 2007

By	Magickal Merlin "Wizard" (Death Valley-SoCal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secrets of the Vaulted Sky: Astrology and the Art of Prediction (Hardcover)

This book should not be dismissed as trite information on historical divination.Many people have either mocked astrology or were spellbound by it ,through the ages.Yet,the interest in predictions based on astrological events has never waned and flourishes currently.And maybe its more popular today,thanks to our freedom of the press and the cyber-space facts at our fingertips.For a small book,concerning such a vast topic like astrology,it's packed with interesting stories about the night-stars and its impact on our global cultural history.The validity of star-observations and its potential meanings have always been argued over the years.Yet,no one can dispute the affect that the influence of the celestrial stars and planets have had on our human deciding actions ,through the centuries and foreseeably beyond tomorrow.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astrology and Richard Dawkins, April 25, 2008

By	Raymond C. Togtman (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this book to be an illuminating and engaging account of the history of astrology, from Assyrian times to the present. Some parallels are drawn to developments in modern science, such as quantum entanglement. I am surprised that the other reviews here have missed one of the book's main themes: the similarity between astrological and Darwinian accounts of human behavior. Just as astrologers said that human behavior is inclined but not compelled by the planets, so Richard Dawkins says that our genetic endowment inclines but does not determine our conduct.

3.0 out of 5 stars Title is very misleading but good history., June 4, 2009

By	John J. Wright (Albany,NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The title of this book is VERY misleading. It claims to tell of the art of prediction. There is really no info at all on how the ancients came up with there predictions. Or any info on how you yourself can use astrology. Instead it is history of certain societies who did employ astrologers in there courts. Well it is pretty much fact that the ancients did use Astrology so where are the SECRETS? There was really no work done at all on what predictions these ancients made and if they ever did come to pass. I think the title and sub title are very misleading. This book was presented as more of a occult book but is a bland history. He gets 3 stars simply becouse his history is accurate IMO not for enjoyabilty. Stay away if you are looking for occult science.