Some Thoughts About Astrology And Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence – does it spell evil hyper-intelligent machines deciding that humanity’s messy days on Earth need to come to an end? Or will it give us the cure for cancer, effective environmental solutions, and warp drive to carry us to the stars? I don’t know, you don’t know – and neither do the legions of boosters and doomsayers who claim that they know.
Here’s a far smaller question: what will AI mean for astrology in particular? I don’t know the answer there either, but I’m asked about it quite a lot, so for what they are worth, here are my thoughts.
I see both positive and negative potentials as AI transforms the way we practice our craft. And transform it, it will – the one certainty is that, barring a total collapse of civilization, artificial intelligence is here to stay. We have to learn to live with it. I also believe that if we, as a society, are successful in coexisting with this new technology, that success will not rest on technological breakthroughs. It will rest on cultural, social, and legal decisions. More about that in a while.
What I plan to do as I explore this explosive topic with you is to bounce back and forth between pro-AI perspectives for astrology and negative ones. If you love AI, I’ll say some things you’ll hate. And if you hate it, I will say some things you’ll love. In the end, my aim is not to act as if I know the answer and arrive at some phony thumbs up or thumbs down bottom line – that would be nothing but an empty gesture, as if I were approving or disapproving of gravity. Again, I don't know where all of this will lead. All I know for sure is that AI is not going to disappear. We just have to learn how to live with it.
And please – no mean emails.
Let me start with . . .
THUMBS DOWN #1
Ask ChatGPT (or any of the other AI systems) about a configuration in your chart – say, transiting Saturn squaring your Cancer Venus. Instruct it to answer the question “in the style of Steven Forrest.” If you like my work, you will be impressed with what you’ll read. AI creates a pretty good approximation of my thinking and even my voice. No surprise – it read all seventeen of my books in a few nano seconds, memorized them, and quickly spat out a decent synthesis of what I would say about that Saturn transit.
What’s not to like? Well, call me selfish, but AI just stole my act! Do I get a penny for it? No! ChatGPT and its siblings are nothing but plagiarism software. What about intellectual property rights? What effect will legalizing this kind of robbery have on future astrological authors? What will it do to creativity – not to mention any prospect of financial survival – in our field?
A little while ago I mentioned how living with AI will require “cultural, social, and legal decisions.” Addressing this issue of plagiarism is maybe the clearest example of that. It’s a knotty problem, but that’s why God made lawyers.
THUMBS UP #1
Record players became popular between the 1890s and the 1910s and exploded in the 1920s. On top of that, by the early 1930s around 60% of households in the United States also had a radio. So who needed live musicians anymore? Flip a switch and you had all the music you could ever want. Who needed new composers? Wasn’t Beethoven good enough for you?
Many professional musicians were understandably horrified by these technological developments. With machines playing music perfectly, how could an honest piano player expect to make a living? Anyone could hear world-class pianists at home for free. It seemed sadly obvious that radio and records would spell the end of musicians and musicianship.
(By the way, in these statistics I am quoting, my apologies for the U.S. focus. They are the numbers I have at hand. I suspect they more-or-less reflect the general picture across the developed world at the time.)
The sense that radio and phonograph records would spell the end of music as a profession or even a hobby was a real fear – one that today sounds so bizarre that it’s easily forgotten. It’s hard to believe, but in 1942, the American Federation of Musicians actually succeeded in banning any recording of music for twenty-seven months. They also fought against recorded music in theaters. An ad campaign in 1930 used robots depicted as greedy musical instruments taking away work and livelihood from “honest human musicians.”
Doesn’t all of that runaway fear ring a familiar bell in the anti-AI world today? Will AI put an end to living astrologers – not to mention painters, designers, composers and so forth? But what actually happened because of radios and record players? Yes, sadly, by 1950 there were no longer any musicians left on planet Earth . . . Obviously, quite the opposite happened – recorded, transmitted music actually created a renaissance in popular music.
As Mark Twain said, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Might the fear that AI will put flesh-and-blood astrologers out of business turn out to be quite the opposite of what will really happen? Might we be facing a technology-driven renaissance despite our resistance?
The fears those musicians from the previous century felt were not irrational – they just turned out to be unfounded. Every new technology has unpredictable side-effects. Not all of them are negative.
THUMBS DOWN #2
Let’s go back for a moment to someone asking ChatGPT what Steven Forrest would say about transiting Saturn squaring Venus. As I mentioned, AI actually does a creditable job of “stealing my act.” The words it generates sound pretty close to what I would say – close, but no banana. I’m better! I do a better job of adding in the nuances of meaning that come from the feeling of the rest of the chart and the rest of the current transit and progressions environment. AI can’t do that – at least not yet. Who knows where it will be a year from now, but right now I’m still ahead in the race even though I feel its nasty hot breath closing in on the back of my neck.
I’ve been at this work for sixty years now. I’m at the height of my powers as an astrologer. I can beat the machine – by a nose. But what about my students? What about the next generation of astrologers? One thing is certain in our craft: if you’re good at it when you’re twenty-five years old, you’ll be even better at it when you’re fifty – but that’s only true if you see compelling reasons to stick with it when you’re twenty-five and you have enough food on the table to fuel the process.
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I am profoundly concerned about what happens to that blossoming twenty-five year old astrologer today when he or she is up against an effective, inexpensive AI robot spitting out “what Liz Green would say.” Or Lynn Bell, or Robert Hand, or Chris Brennan, or Jeffrey Wolf Green . . .
Young astrologers are the future of our field. Will AI leave them so discouraged that they give up? Will it prevent them from taking that giant step into the alchemical cauldron that forges the true wizards in our craft – full-time astrological practice sustained over many years?
I don’t want to predict that sad outcome, but I do fear it.
THUMBS UP #2
A little while ago while thinking of the effect that radio and recording had on the music industry, I floated the possibility that, rather than putting us out of business, AI might trigger an explosion in astrology’s popularity. For my second Thumbs Up, I want to flesh out that happy thought.
Say that someone who happened to be born on September 7 reads a bit about being a Virgo, finds it helpful and accurate, and starts getting curious about the possibility of hiring a real astrologer to take a deeper look at his or her chart. That’s the merry sequence of events that has put roofs over our heads for a very long time. Going further, a quick Google search tells me that as of May 2025 about 27% of US citizens “believe in astrology.” Who knows what that figure really means, but it does point to a lot of people – if we accept that 27% number, it in fact spells about ninety million of them here in the USA alone. But how many of those people have actually taken the leap and contacted an astrologer? I don’t know the answer, but obviously it is far less than ninety million.
What’s stopping them?
Here are my three best guesses: basic human inertia, the scary emotional dimension of entering into revealing, one-sided intimacy with a stranger, and the fact that a good astrological reading costs you money that you might put to other uses.
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Asking ChatGPT a question about your chart – even an intimate one – in the privacy of your boudoir is a vastly less daunting prospect than hiring an astrologer. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it doesn’t involve plunging into a psychologically-naked relationship with a stranger.
I’m wildly guessing here, but I suspect that the number of people who have really strong feelings about astrology, pro or con, is rather small. I bet the majority of people in the world are mildly suspicious of it, but curious too. Imagine what would happen if we could reach that entire population. As all astrologers know, given a little exposure to the real thing, people are soon convinced that our craft is objectively real, manifestly helpful, and life-changing.
Will AI pour high octane fuel into that popularity-generating engine? We will soon know. Again, name your famous astrologer – what will happen if anyone can easily get a fair simulacrum of such an astrologer’s work on a whim and for pennies? The wider acceptance of astrology that will naturally result from all of that collective experience might very well balance out the various losses that we fear AI will generate.
Are we being paranoid when we should be celebrating?
THUMBS DOWN #3
The very idea of artificial intelligence seems to invoke futurism – mag lev trains, flying cars, and cute robots cleaning our houses. All of that may come to pass, but let’s also recognize a powerful counter-current: AI might imprison astrology in the grips of the past. Or to be more precise, AI could keep astrology in the grips of today . . . which, starting tomorrow, becomes the past.
My reasoning is pretty simple here. ChatGPT and its ilk are essentially conservative forces. They mine existing work. If somebody asks this “plagiarism software” for a natal chart analysis in the style of Steven Forrest, the machine will undoubtedly zip through The Inner Sky and spit out something based on that book which I wrote over forty years ago. I’m still proud of The Inner Sky and there’s not much in it that I would change, but you get the picture: it’s old work. And everything astrological that’s in print or e-form today is old work too. Obviously nothing that will be published tomorrow is available today.
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Because of its nature as plagiarism software, what if artificial intelligence puts a damper on new astrological thought, writing, and teaching? What if it stalls the development of astrology, limiting it to where it stands here in early 2026?
This might sound strange, but the trouble is that the astrology of 2026 is actually pretty great. If AI can do a 90% perfect job of reproducing it in cheap, personalized form, what does that do to the evolutionary momentum of our field?
An obvious logical objection arises to what I am saying here. There is no doubt that AI can create new ideas and do creative synthesis, but will it? Is that what people will ask it to do? Add this effect to the general discouragement of younger astrologers as they attempt to compete with effective, inexpensive AI interpretations and I fear a future in which the endless, productive creative tension between yesterday’s old guard and tomorrow’s rising generation is gutted. Again, I am proud of The Inner Sky, but I know there are younger astrologers out there who can take it further – stand on my shoulders, so to speak. Will that happy reality still be true in a generation? I can only hope so. AI has the potential to destroy it.
FINALLY, THUMBS UP #3
Imagine a world in which many more people were conversant with astrology. Most of us in the field would agree that such a development would make planet Earth a better place. Naturally I’ve got a particular love for evolutionary astrology. I like to imagine billions of people using it and thus receiving convincing, individualized proof that their lives are meaningful – that nothing is truly random or happens without purpose, and that we are all souls on an evolutionary journey. Widespread exposure to serious, conscious astrology could trigger a significant spiritual awakening across the planet. Better relationships, better timing in all our enterprises, and more peace on earth – what’s not to like?
Even with astrology stalled at its current developmental stage, with the fruits of our craft made vastly more available via artificial intelligence all of those happy scenarios could come true. The positivity of that development might counter-balance any of these losses or fears that are concerning me in this essay. Astrology is good for the human soul – and the more souls it touches, the better.
This sheer pro bono argument might be the most powerful one of all in support of an astrology driven by artificial intelligence.
“IN CONCLUSION”
. . . it’s too early to conclude anything.
Where will this classic manifestation of Pluto-in-Aquarius carry us? What I’ve expressed here are just my own thoughts and they are obviously all over the map. I’m confident that there is much that I have missed and that probably some of what I’ve said is wrong. My lack of “a position” is intentional. Faced with any unprecedented, emerging, high stakes situation, anxiety naturally arises. It can lead to a compulsion to come up with premature answers . . . any answers, whether they’re right or wrong. That’s almost always a mistake.
The one point I am relatively certain about is one I made at the beginning of this rumination: if as a society we are successful in coexisting with this new technology, that success will not rest on technological breakthroughs. It will rest on cultural, social, moral, and legal decisions. It’s about our values and how we collectively frame the purpose of being alive.
Those are things that astrologers have been thinking about for a long, long time. In practical terms, since AI is not going to go away, we need to start reflecting on how to live with it. As astrologers, we are in a good position to help with that process – and if some of my more encouraging thoughts here prove accurate, I think that our voices in the cultural debates will soon be getting louder and drawing more attention. How could it be otherwise as astrology’s star rises still higher?