Other religions and movementsDraft · awaiting advisor review

Can Christians use astrology, tarot or “manifesting”?

In short

The Bible forbids seeking guidance through divination and omens, and it treats the stars as God’s handiwork, not guides to our fate. “Manifesting” treats the universe, or God, as something to steer with our thoughts. Christians are called instead to trust God with the future. Not every glance at a horoscope is the occult, though, and fear is not the answer.

The Objection

Horoscopes and tarot are harmless fun or a tool for reflection. Nobody thinks the cards control the future. And “manifesting” is just positive thinking, like praying with confidence.

Put as its strongest advocates would put it.

The Christian Case

Historical evidence
These practices are common, and mostly casual. In a 2024 Pew survey, 30% of US adults consulted astrology, tarot cards or a fortune teller at least once a year; most said it was for fun, but 17% of those under 30 said they give helpful insights.
Scripture
The Bible forbids divination and consulting omens, and mocks the Babylonian astrologers who could not save themselves. In Ephesus, new believers burned their books of magic.
Scripture
The stars are God’s work and declare his glory; they are signs of seasons, not guides to our fate. The Christian answer to anxiety about the future is trust: “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”
Philosophical argument
“Manifesting” teaches that thoughts and words attract what we want. It is close to the prosperity gospel: it treats the universe, or God, as something to be steered, and it implies that people who suffer simply believed wrongly.
Christians differ
Christians differ on the wise men in Matthew 2. Some see them as astrologers whom God met where they were, without approving astrology; others stress that the star led them to worship Christ, away from their old practice.

Where the Evidence Is Weaker

Most people who read horoscopes don’t treat them as religion, and the Bible’s warnings were written against serious divination, not newspaper columns. Christians should be careful not to treat every casual use as the occult.

Arguments to Avoid

Frightening people with lurid stories of the occult.
Mocking people who turn to these practices out of anxiety or loneliness.
Presenting Christian prayer as a technique for getting what you want.

Read for Yourself

Deuteronomy 18:9–14

⁹When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, ¹¹Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. ¹²For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. ¹³Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. ¹⁴For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.

Isaiah 47:12–15

¹²Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. ¹³Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. ¹⁴Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. ¹⁵Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.

James 4:13–15