Nathan S. French, Associate Professor of Religion & International Studies, Miami University
What might stars have to do with American democracy? Perhaps you thought of the 50 stars symbolizing the union of states on the U.S. flag. Beyond these, how might the stars, appearing to twinkle each night, affect democracy, if at all?
In 2025, a U.S. survey found that each day at least 58% of Gen-Z and younger millennials check their horoscope – a forecast of a person’s future, believed to be informed by the positions of the planets and stars relative to a particular day or time. When questioned as to why they consult their horoscope, respondents indicated that they use it to inform decisions related to their education, career, relationship, wellness, and finances. TikTok, one of the more popular platforms for Gen-Z social media users, counts almost 6 million posts with the hashtag #astrology. Astrology apps are reportedly a $12 billion dollar industry.
The idea that celestial bodies, spirits, or other forces might have an impact on life on Earth is not an unreasonable observation. Consider, for example, how the phases of the moon relate to the tides. Equally, reflect on how the movement of the stars in the night sky is relative not only to the daily rotation of the Earth on its axis, but also to the tilt of the Earth on its axis as it orbits around the sun. However, the idea that specific placements of stars, planets, and other astronomical bodies has a specific and personal effect upon individuals and their fates is one often challenged by contemporary scientists as well as many religious and spiritual practices.
How Americans engage with the supernatural, spiritual, paranormal, parapsychological or other related ideas, sometimes called by scholars “the occult,” invite us to think about how members of the general public make decisions regarding their daily lives, their families, and even their politics. Considering how prominent Americans have engaged with such modes of reasoning invites us to consider the types of reason – both public and private – that we might value in our civic discourse and within our democracy.
Spiritualism and Astrology in American Public Life
A glance at U.S. history shows that Americans have long had questions about how the stars or unseen, supernatural realms might affect their day-to-day lives. Among the most famous – or, for some Americans, infamous – examples of such engagement with the supernatural in the White House were the séances hosted by Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882), who was married to the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and sought the counsel of spiritualists and mediums to build her ability to “lift the veil that separates the living and the dead” and commune with her recently deceased child, Willie.
Spiritualism emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in western New York. Many academics trace its origins to two young girls, known as the Fox sisters, who claimed to be able to hear mysterious knocking on walls and doors that signaled communications from beyond this physical realm. Spiritualism emerged out of varying American spiritual practices, including Mesmerism and New England Transcendentalism. As Robert S. Ellwood has noted, spiritualists were often seen as “progressive” in their politics, supporting the abolition of enslavement in the United States, women’s rights, and other economic and social reforms. Yet, such communities were often fluid – forming and dissolving quickly in response to various pressures and demands.
This might explain why American engagements with spiritualism in the White House seem so uneven. In addition to Mary Todd Lincoln, Jane Pierce (1806-1863, married to the fourteenth President of the United States, Franklin Pierce), and Florence Harding (1860-1924, married to the twenty-ninth president, Warren G. Harding) both consulted with spiritualists and mediums in the hopes of speaking with the dead. Harding’s astrologer, Madame Marcia Champney, who later claimed to have predicted Harding’s eventual victory in the U.S. presidential race and his “sudden, violent, or peculiar death,” before the end of his term.
Most recently, Nancy Reagan (1921-2016), who was married to President Ronald Reagan (in office, 1980-1988), received widespread media attention, including a front page story in Time magazine, when it was claimed by President Reagan’s former Secretary of the Treasury that Nancy had consulted with San Francisco astrologer Joan Quigley. In her own memoir, My Turn, Reagan acknowledged that “while astrology was a factor in determining Ronnie’s [i.e., President Reagan’s] schedule, it was never the only one, and no political decision was ever based on it.” She noted, however, that astrology was “one of the ways I coped with the fear I felt after my husband almost died,” referring to the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981. In addition to astrology, Nancy Reagan also cited consultation with religious authorities, such as the Reverend Billy Graham, as she wrested with the attempt on the president’s life.
In each case, these first ladies discussed their engagement with spiritualism and astrology as an attempt to deal with loss, foster resiliency amid uncertainty, and answer unknown questions. Often, each woman faced considerable public criticism of their consultation with such forms of spiritualty.
The Academic Study of Religion and Astrology, Spiritualism, and Parapsychology
American engagements with spiritualism, astrology, parapsychology, and the supernatural are not unique to the United States. Across Greek, Roman, Persian, Islamic, and Christian cultures, the usage of the stars, the beliefs in communications with spirits (ancestral and otherwise), and other explorations of the cosmos have been held to answers to questions of meaning, purpose, and orientation in this life and the next. At times, these engagements with the cosmos occur within or alongside other religious traditions, while, at others, such engagements are seen as unacceptable to other religious communities. Consider, for example the history of the “witch trials” in Salem, Massachusetts, which often involved practicing Christians fearing usages of witchcraft. Yet, each Christmas, many of those same American Christian communities commemorated the biblical “magi” (or the “Three Wise Men,” “Three Kings”), described in the Gospel of Matthew in the Christian New Testament who are understood to have followed a sign in the stars to the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. Some biblical translations refer to these magi as “astrologers.”
As Nicholas Campion argues in his Astrology and Cosmology in the World’s Religions, Americans have often turned to the usage of spiritualist, “New Age,” astrological and other techniques in times of political division, conflict, and uncertainty. As American relationships to institutional relationships continue to become less communal and more private, Campion argues, it is possible that such spiritualisms might increase. Surveys from the Pew Foundation indicate that “Gen-Z,” those born 1995-2007, are among the least religious generations in U.S. history if measured by daily practices and institutional affiliations. As a result, we might assume that for Gen-Z and generations to follow, engagements with astrology and other forms of individual spirituality, as understood by Campion, will continue to be popular.
Astrology, Spiritualism, and Public Reason in the United States
Engagements with astrology, parapsychology, and the supernatural are by no means limited to these examples, but the examples of Nancy Reagan, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Jane Pierce – as well as ongoing usages of the same by Americans today – reveal that often individuals turn to astrology or other practices much as they might to other forms of religion or spirituality – in times of stress, need, or loss. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz, in his Interpretation of Cultures (1973), argued that part of the social function that human religions and spiritualities play is to address the question and problem of suffering. “As a religious problem,” Geertz argued, “the problem of suffering is, paradoxically, not how to avoid suffering but how to suffer, how to make sense of physical pain, personal loss, worldly defeat, or the helpless contemplation of others’ agony something bearable, supportable – something, as we say, sufferable.” Nancy Reagan, as well as repeated surveys of Americans engaging with various religions and spiritualities today, suggest that this continues to be true.
Yet, we should ask, what role such the private engagement with religion and spirituality play as part of our public conversations. Some Americans might express skepticism at the utility of such things as a matter of policy-making. Poor Richard’s Almanack, published from 1733-1758 by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), mocked the usage of astrology to determine the ideal time to plant agricultural products are make major decisions. Franklin satirized an over-dependence on the stars in his Poor Richard’s, arguing that eclipses were nothing more than natural, predictable phenomena discerned by the application of reason, and mathematics to the observed universe. Franklin’s satire suggests his commitment to the idea that methods of scientific reason, rationality, and common sense would be more welcomed sources as part of public decision-making than an over-reliance on the stars and supernatural or paranormal forces outside the limits of human observation and reason.
The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides expansive space for Americans to explore meaning through astrology, spiritualism, religions, science, or many other possible practices. Equally, it forbids the government from formally establishing a religion, effectively preventing the government from telling you what to believe. While some Americans find within astrology and spiritualism an ability to find patterns, understand personal decisions, and find meaning in daily life, civic participation often requires those same Americans to seek common perspectives with those who might not agree with such patterns, decisions, or meaning. Civic decisions require engagements with shared, public evidence and conversations. Engagements with personal religious and spiritual expressions invite us to start conversations with others seeking out commonality, not difference – even if, for some Americans, what we hold in common are astrological signs identified long before we were born.
Questions for Class Discussion
- Think about a time that you had to make a big decision. What sources did you use to make that decision? Why? Would others agree with your usage of that source? Would they question it?
- Imagine if the President of the United States announced a major policy decision during a special national speech. What types of evidence might the President provide that would convince you of the soundness of that decision? What types of evidence would you reject? If you learned, later, that the President had consulted with an astrologer or spiritualist, would that change your mind? Why or why not?
- Imagine that you’re at a local meeting of your city’s government. Which type of evidence would be more likely to convince the city council of a new course of action – an astrological reading or an economic survey? Why do you think so?
Media & Videos
Molly Worthen, “Talking Ghosts and Bold Women: The Weird World of Spiri tualism in the 19th Century,” NHC Education Programs, 2022 (link)
“Does Humanity Still Believe in Magic?” Religion for Breakfast, 2018 (link)
Crash Course, “The Supernatural & Religion,” Crash Course, 2025 (link)
Scholarship
Nicholas Campion, Astrology and Cosmology in the World’s Religions (New York: New York University Press, 2012).
Robert S. Ellwood, “Occult Movements in America,” Encyclopedia of American Religious Experience, edited by Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams (New York: Charles Scribner’s and Sons, 1988), pp. 711-722
Benjamin T. Gurrentz, “Spiritualism – Timeline, Movement,” Association of Religion Data Archives, accessed December 1, 2025 (link)
Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams. Encyclopedia of American Religious Experience. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988.
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