Judicial astrology

Judicial astrology is the art of forecasting future events by calculation of the planetary and stellar bodies and their relationship to the Earth. The term "Judicial astrology" was mainly used in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance to mean the type of astrology that was considered to be heretical by the Catholic church, distinguished from the "natural astrology" such as Medical astrology and Meteorological astrology, which were seen as acceptable because they were a part of the natural sciences of the time. Today this distinction is largely obsolete.

odern Judicial astrology and skeptical treatment

Today, judicial astrology tends to be an obsolete distinction because between the Middle Ages and modern times other sciences have arisen and astrology has ceased to be one of the primary diagnostic tools in medicine and meteorological studies. In the modern world, all forms of astrology would fall under the broad heading of Judicial astrology because it is no longer one of the natural sciences, and there is no known causal mechanism to account for any sort of astrological influences which would be needed for it to regain such status.

Skeptics of astrology opine that if interpreting the celestial influences were actually real it could be proved by the scientific method.

Description and classical history

In the Middle Ages natural astrology would have been mainly focused on the diagnosis and the treatment of medical patients. For more information on this, see the article on medical astrology. An additional use would have been the application of astrology to determine future weather patterns based on the Aristotelian/Ptolemaic rationale that the planets cause change in the sublunary world by producing an efflux of elements and qualities. Every other branch was lumped together into the heading of 'Judicial astrology'. These included natal astrology, mundane astrology, horary astrology, and electional astrology.