Is the Medium the Message? A Consideration of Whether the Internet Can be Used Effectively for Astrological Consultations
Issue: Vol 13 No. 1 (2019) Special Issue: Inside the World of Contemporary Astrology
Journal: Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Subject Areas: Religious Studies
DOI: 10.1558/jsrnc.38061
Abstract:
While a large body of literature exists on the practice and validity of online religious activity and rituals, to date no literature exists investigating the validity of the online astrological consultation and whether or not the medium of the Internet can influence the connection between astrologer and client. My initial qualitative research with sixty-five astrologers, conducted between 2012 and 2014, revealed that over sixty percent of astrologers use the Internet for astrological consultations with clients. Taking this number as my dataset, my aim was then to investigate whether, when astrologers conducted consultations for clients online, the chart continued to have agency in creating a meaningful consultation space. My results showed that the online medium did not impact on the message or content of the consultation and that, as in face-to-face astrological consultations, the effectiveness and validity of the consultation was independent of the media used to hold it.
Author: Frances Clynes
References :
Arthur, Shawn. 2002. ‘Technophilia and Nature Religion: The Growth of a Paradox’, Religion 32.4: 303-14. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1006/reli.2002.0407.
Barlow, John Perry. 2000. ‘Crime and Puzzlement’. Online: http://w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Perry_Barlow/HTML/crime_and_puzzlement_1.html.
Bell, David. 2000. ‘Cybercultures Reader: A User’s Guide’, in David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy (eds.), The Cybercultures Reader (London: Routledge): 1-12.
Benedikt, Michael. 1991a. ‘Cyberspace: Some Proposals’, in Michael Benedikt (ed.), Cyberspace: First Steps (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): 119-274.
Benedikt, Michael. 1991b. ‘Introduction’, in Michael Benedikt (ed.), Cyberspace: First Steps (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): 1-25.
Brasher, Brenda E. 2004 [2001]. Give Me That Online Religion (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press).
Campbell, Heidi. 2005. Exploring Religious Community Online: We Are One in the Network (New York: Peter Lang).
Castells, Manuel. 2002. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Castells, Manuel. 2014. ‘Introduction’, in M. Graham, W.H. Dutton, and M. Castells (eds.), Society and the Internet: How Networks of Information and Communication Are Changing Our Lives (Oxford: Oxford University Press): v-vi.
Clynes, Frances. 2016. ‘An Examination of the Impact of the Internet on Modern Western Astrology’ (PhD diss., University of Wales Trinity Saint David).
Cornelius, Geoffrey. 1994. The Moment of Astrology (London: Arkana Books).
Cowan, Douglas. 2005a. ‘Online U-Topia: Cyberspace and the Mythology of Placelessness’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44.3: 257–63. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2005.00284.x.
Cowan, Douglas. 2005b. Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet (New York and London: Routledge).
Davis, Erik. 2004 [1998]. Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information (London: Serpents Tail).
George, Demetra. 2009. Astrology and the Authentic Self: Traditional Astrology for the Modern Mind (Lake Worth, FL: Nicolas-Hays Inc.).
Gibson, William. 1995 [1984]. Neuromancer (London: Harper Voyager).
Graham, Stephen. 2010. ‘The End of Geography or the Explosion of Place? Conceptualising Space, Place and Information Technology’, in Pramod K. Nayar (ed.), The New Media and Cybercultures Anthology (Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell): 90-108.
Gunzburg, Darrelyn. 2011. ‘How Do Astrologers Read Charts?’, in Nicholas Campion and Liz Greene (eds.), Astrologies: Plurality and Diversity: The Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture (Ceredigion: Sophia Centre Press): 181-200.
Heim, Michael. 1991. ‘The Erotic Ontology of Cyberspace’, in Michael Benedikt (ed.), Cyberspace: First Steps (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): 59-80.
Helland, Christopher. 2013. ‘Ritual’, in Heidi Campbell (ed.), Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds (London: Routledge): 25-40.
Hufford, David J. 1999. ‘The Scholarly Voice and the Personal Voice: Reflexivity in Belief Studies’, in Russell T. McCutcheon (ed.), The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion (London: Cassell): 294-310.
Jahoda, Gustav. 1969. The Psychology of Superstition (London: Allen Lane).
Jonveaux, Isabelle. 2015. ‘Virtuality as a Religious Category? Continuity and Discontinuity between Online and Offline Catholic Monasteries’ (trans. Gabrielle Varro), Online: Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, Religion on the Web: Proceedings of the Conference of the French Association of the Social Sciences of Religion 8:28-41.
Karaflogka, Anastasia. 2006. E-Religion: A Critical Appraisal of Religious Discourse on the World Wide Web (London: Equinox Publishing).
Levinson, Paul. 1999. Digital McLuhan (London and New York: Routledge).
Levinson, Paul. 2015. McLuhan in the Age of Social Media (Kindle Edition, Connected Editions).
McLuhan, Marshall. 1964. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
McLuhan, Marshall. 1978. ‘A Last Look at the Tube’, New York Magazine, 3 April.
O’Leary, Stephen D. 2004 [1997]. ‘Computers as Sacred Space: Communicating Religion on Computer Networks’, in Douglas E. Cowan and Lorne L. Dawson (eds.), Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet (New York; London: Routledge): 37-58.
Partridge, Christopher. 2006. The Re-Enchantment of the West. Vol. 2, Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture (London: Bloomsbury Academic).
Pearson, Joanne. 2002.‘Going Native in Reverse: The Insider as Researcher in British Wicca’, in Elizabeth Arweck and Martin Stringer (eds.), Theorising Faith: The Insider/Outsider Problem (Birmingham: Birmingham University Press): 97-113.
Pike, Kenneth L., Thomas N. Headland, and Marvin Harris. 1990. Emics and Etics: The Insider/Outsider Debate (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications).
Qvortrup, Lars. 2002. ‘Cyberspace as Representation of Space Experience: In Defence of a Phenomenological Approach’, in L. Qvortrup et al. (eds.), Virtual Space (London: Springer): 5-24. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0225-0_1.
Radermacher, Lindsay. 2011. ‘The Role of Dialogue in Astrological Divination’ (MPhil. thesis, University of Kent).
Robinson, Wendy. 2006. ‘Catching the Waves: Considering Cyberculture, Technoculture, and Electronic Consumption’, in David Silver and Adrienne Massanari (eds.), Critical Cyber-culture Studies (New York: New York University Press): 55-67.
Sharman-Burke, Juliet, and Liz Greene. 1997. The Astrologer, the Counsellor and the Priest (London: Centre for Psychological Astrology Press).
Soja, Edward W. 1996. Thirdspace (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers).
Stone, Allucquere Rosanne. 1991. ‘Will the Real Body Please Stand Up? Boundary Stories about Virtual Cultures’, in Michael Benedikt (ed.), Cyberspace: First Steps (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): 81-118.
Stenger, Nicole. 1991. ‘Mind Is a Leaking Rainbow’, in Michael Benedikt (ed.), Cyberspace: First Steps (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): 48-57.