Astral theology for serious (“orthodox”) Jews and Christians was not astrology as we have experienced it. That astrology is thoroughly pagan, as it assigns fate to nature. The presumptions in ancient Jewish and Christian astral theology were biblically sound; namely that, as creator of the celestial objects, God put them there not only to mark time, but also to assert his sovereignty over what happens in time—the course of human history. Serious Jews and Christians rejected astrological ideas such as the notion that the stars determined individual fate, primarily because the idea impinged upon or violated the sovereignty of God. But they did not reject the notion that celestial objects could be understood as messaging divine intent or the playing out of God’s sovereignty for the wise to understand.