Today, science is so well established as the path to knowledge via observation, experimentation and the weighing of evidence that it’s hard to credit its roots in the occult alchemy and astrology of times past. But just a few hundred years ago, many of the pioneers of modern science — figures such as Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Robert Boyle, Paracelus, Carl Linnaeus, William Harvey — devoted much of their lives to what we now think of as superstition. For instance:
Isaac Newton (1642-1726) is the poster child for this Janus-like view of the world, “not the first of the age of reason [but] the last of the magicians,” in the words of economist John Maynard Keynes, who bought many of Newton’s alchemical papers at auction in 1936. Newton, more than any individual, ushered in the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment that followed, giving us theories of gravity and mechanics, creating the science of optics, and co-discovering calculus. His Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, published in 1687, set science on the road it’s been on ever since. Yet his thoroughly modern way of looking at the world was eclipsed by his fascination with the spiritual, in particular his obsession with the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelations, from which he prophesied that the “messianic age” would begin in 2060.
Paracelcus, (1492-1541) the Swiss “father of toxicology” and one of the inspirations for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was equal parts empiricist and occultist. On the one hand, he championed experimentation and observation (publicly burning copies of earlier physicians Galen and Avicenna, whom he considered alchemists) while simultaneously seeking “divine knowledge” in the Bible. Mankind’s duty was to reveal God’s hidden messages, he asserted, science and religion being two sides of the same coin.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) is one of the founding figures of astronomy thanks to his insight that planets don’t move in circular orbits around the sun (circles being divinely ordained), but in ellipses. His understanding of how planets moved was key to Newton’s simple (in retrospect) law of gravitational attraction. Living in a time and place when astronomy and astrology co-existed, Kepler’s appointment as “imperial mathematician” to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II gave him the opportunity to practice both approaches to knowledge. So, while casting horoscopes for the royal family, he was also busy analyzing the movement of Mars relative to background stars leading to his groundbreaking (spacebreaking?) three laws of planetary motion.
In the space of a few hundred years, alchemy yielded to chemistry, astrology gave way to astronomy, and healing based on “the four humors” surrendered to our modern, empirical view of medicine. In a nutshell, experimentation — what worked and what didn’t — won over belief and faith. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details, but the overall trend — from the time when 14th century Oxford scholars were fined 5 shillings if they contradicted Aristotle to today’s peer-reviewed papers that invite criticism — was unstoppable once the Scientific Revolution got underway. And for that we can thank those mavericks who ventured beyond the traditions of their day.
Barry Evans (he/him, barryevans9@yahoo.com) would love to share a beer or two with any of the above.
This article appears in Through Mark Larson’s Lens 2025.