Popular Astrology (the most famous example being “sun sign” astrology) is often regarded as a flagrant pandering to the masses. Yet its appearance in Almanacs and dream interpretation manuals are responsible for the introduction of Astrology into America and its overall acceptance. This lecture traces the rise of popular Astrology from The Book of Knowledge (a pre-Revolutionary war occult periodical) to civil war publications to Evangeline Adams’s astrology booklets in the 1920s. Along the way we will examine the unique role that women played in the popularization of Astrology here in the United States (both as astrologers and mass market audience) and how Trash Astrology gave the American public its first taste of eastern religions, feminism, and psychology. The point of this lecture is to show that “trash” astrology is more than a necessary evil; it’s the reason why Astrology is still around.
