Nicholas Campion

Principal Lecturer
Nicholas Campion headshot

Background

Nicholas Campion is a historian with expertise in anthropology and the study of religions. He is Associate Professor of Cosmology and Culture, Principal Lecturer in the Institute of Education and the Humanities, and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology and Culture, the only academic Centre in the world to deal with cultural relationships with the sky and the cosmos. He is responsible for taking forward the Centre’s research and teaching activities, through supervising PhD students, sponsoring research projects, organising conferences and other events, and publishing research. He is Director of the Harmony Institute, set up in 2016 and  tasked with developing ideas set out in the 2010 book, ‘Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World’, by the University’s Patron, His Majesty King Charles III, then HRH The Prince of Wales, with Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly. 

Specialist Subjects

  • His core subject is the history, culture and philosophy of astrology, astronomy and cosmology.

Professional and/or Research Experience

Nicholas is Editorial Director of the Sophia Centre Press, which publishes in partnership with the University and includes the peer-reviewed journal Culture and Cosmos and the postgraduate journal, Spica.

Qualifications

  • BA History, Queens’ College, Cambridge 1975
  • MA Southeast Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1976
  • PhD Study of Religions, Bath Spa University, 2004

Languages Spoken

English

Professional Membership or Roles

International Committee, Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena (INSAP)
Social Studies of Space Network
Utopian Studies Society
Association Astroarchaeocaucasus
British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR)
European Society for the Study of Astronomy in Culture (SEAC)
International Society for the Study of Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture (ISAAC)
The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)
International Astronomy Union Working Group in Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture

External Recognition or Rewards

2022: Carlos Jaschek award for outstanding contribution to the study of Astronomy and Culture, European Society for the Study of Astronomy and Culture (SEAC).
2023: Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy

Link to Orcid Profile

ORCID Research profile

Professional Publications

  • 2015: The New Age in the Modern West: Counter-Culture, Utopia and Prophecy from the late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day (London: Bloomsbury). http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-new-age-in-the-modern-west-9781350036819/
  • 2012: Astrology and Cosmology in the World’s Religions (New York: New York University Press). https://nyupress.org/books/9780814717141/
  • 2012: Astrology and Popular Religion in the Modern West: Prophecy, Cosmology and the New Age Movement (Farnham: Ashgate; London: Routledge, 2015). https://www.routledge.com/Astrology-and-Popular-Religion-in-the-Modern-West-Prophecy-Cosmology/Campion/p/b
  • 2009: A History of Western Astrology Vol. 2: The Medieval and Modern Worlds (London: Bloomsbury/Continuum). http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/a-history-of-western-astrology-volume-ii-9781441181299/
  • 2009: A History of Western Astrology Vol. 1: The Ancient World (London: Continuum), [first published as The Dawn of Astrology: A Cultural History of Western Astrology Vol. 1, The Ancient and Classical Worlds, (London: Bloomsbury/Continuum)]. http://www.
  • 1994: The Great Year: Astrology, Millenarianism and History in the Western Tradition (London: Penguin).
  • 2020: The Harmony Debates; exploring a practical philosophy for a sustainable future (Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press, 2020: in partnership with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the Sustainable Food Trust) https://sophiacentrepress.com/publ
  • 2018: (ed. with Jenn Zahrt) Astrology as Art: Representation and Practice (Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press). https://sophiacentrepress.com/publication/astrology-as-art/
  • 2018: (ed. with Chris Impey) Imagining Other Worlds: Explorations in Astronomy and Culture, Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press. https://sophiacentrepress.com/publication/imagining-other-worlds/
  • 2016: (ed.) Heavenly Discourses (Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press), Proceedings of the Heavenly Discourses Conference, University of Bristol, 14-16 October 2011. ISBN 978-1-907767-07-4 http://www.sophiacentrepress.com/book/heavenly-discourses/
  • 2016: (ed. with Dorian Greenbaum), Astrology in Time and Place: Cross-Cultural Currents in the History of Astrology (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing). http://www.cambridgescholars.com/astrology-in-time-and-place
  • 2016: (ed. with Barbara Rappenglück, Michael Rappenglück and Fabio Silva) Astronomy and Power: How Worlds are Structured (Oxford: British Archaeology Reports). https://www.barpublishing.com/book/astronomy-and-power-how-worlds-are-structured/
  • 2015: (with F. Pimenta, N. Ribeiro, F. Silva, A. Joaquinito and L. Tirapicos (eds), Stars and Stones: Voyages in Archaeoastronomy and Cultural Astronomy – a Meeting of Different Worlds (Oxford: British Archaeology Reports). http://www.barpublishing.com/
  • 2015: (with Fabio Silva), Skyscapes – The Role and Importance of the Sky in Archaeology (Oxford: Oxbow). https://www.oxbowbooks.com/9781782978404/skyscapes/
  • 2013: (with Liz Greene), Sky and Symbol (Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press). http://www.sophiacentrepress.com/book/sky-and-symbol/
  • 2011: (with Liz Greene), Astrologies: Plurality and Diversity (Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press). http://www.sophiacentrepress.com/book/astrologies/
  • 2010: Cosmologies: Proceedings of the Seventh Sophia Centre Conference, 2009 (Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press). http://www.sophiacentrepress.com/book/cosmologies-2nd-ed/
  • 2006: (with Patrick Curry), Sky and Psyche, Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Sky and Psyche (Edinburgh: Floris Books). https://www.florisbooks.co.uk/book/Nicholas-Campion/Sky+and+Psyche/9780863155666
  • 2025: ‘The Comets of 1618 and Astrological Prognostication in Seventeenth-Century England’, in Cliff Cunningham (ed.), Cosmic Events: The Three Comets of 1618 (Dordrecht: Springer, 2025).
  • 2025: ‘Countering the threat of space pollution: awareness raising via sustainability narratives’, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 385, 2023, ed. John Barantiine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025)
  • 2025: ‘Teaching the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David: The Postgraduate Reflexive Sky Journal’, Culture and Cosmos, Vol 29 no 1 and 2 2025 (paper delivered at the twelfth conference on the Inspiration of
  • 2025, ‘Creating a Curriculum in Cultural Astronomy: Further Thoughts with Attention to Definitions of Culture, and Educational and Methodological Theory’, SEAC 2023 conference publication (forthcoming 2024). From a paper delivered at the 29th Annual Confe
  • 2025, ‘Time, Disease and Harmony with the Heavens: Reconsidering Astrological Medicine in the Sevententh Century’ in L. Kostuch, S. Konarska-Zimnicka, B. Wojciechowska (eds) Medicina antiqua, mediaevalis et moderna. Historia, filozofia, religia. III', (
  • 2025: ‘Religious Time’ in the Cultural History of Religion, Vol 4, The Enlightenment, ed. Brett McInelly (London: Bloomsbury, 2024).
  • 2025: ‘Religious Time’ in the Cultural History of Religion, Vol 6, The Modern Age., ed. Marion Bowman (London: Bloomsbury, 2025).
  • 2023: ‘Teaching Cultural Astronomy: An Update from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David], in Cultural Astronomy and Ancient Sky Watching, Proceedings of the SEAC conference, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 6-8 September 2021. ed. Penka Maglova (Plo
  • 2023: ‘Modern Western Astrology as a Form of Indigenous Thought and Practice’, in William Burns (ed.), Astrology and Western Society from the First World War to COVID (London: Palgrave MacMillan 2023).
  • 2022 ‘Belief’ in George D. Chryssides and Amy R. Whitehead (eds), Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion (London: Routledge, 2022), pp. 9-13.
  • 2022 ‘Exploring Theory in Skyscape Archaeology: Symbols, Materiality, Relationality and Rhizomes, in Fabio Silva and Liz Henty, Solarizing the Moon: Essays in Honour of Lionel Sims (Oxford: Archaeopress 2022), pp. 182-199.
  • 2022: The Planets in Alchemy and Astrology (Medieval and Renaissance), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science, (Oxford University Press: Oxford 2022).
  • 2021: ‘Astrology in Greek and Roman Culture’, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science, (Oxford University Press: Oxford 2021).
  • 2021: ‘Johannes’ Kepler’s Political Cosmology, Psychological Astrology and the Archaeology of Knowledge in the Seventeenth Century’ in Sonja Draxler, Max E. Lippitsch and Gudrun Wolfschmidt (eds), Harmony and Symmetry: celestial regularities shaping human
  • 2020: ‘The Value of Skyscape Archaeology’, Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, Vol. 6 no 1, Sumer Solstice 2020, pp. 94-7.
  • 2020: ‘Einstein’s Cosmic Religion’, Intersections of Religion and Astronomy, ed. Aaron Ricker, Danny Dinnel and Christopher Corbally (London: Routledge, Religion and Science series), pp. 115-126.
  • 2020: ‘Dark Skies, Wellbeing and the Wonder of the Sky’, Dark Sky Journal Vol. 1 no 1.
  • 2020: ‘Harmony and the Crisis in Early Modern Cosmology: the Political Astrology of Jean Bodin and Johannes Kepler’, in Astrology versus Anti-Astrology in Early Modern Europe: Changing Paradigms in the History of Knowledge, Ed. Charles Burnett and Ovanes
  • 2020: ’Astrology’ in the Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism, ed. Egil Asprem, Leiden: Leiden: Brill).
  • 2019: ‘Astrology in Greek and Roman Culture’, in Peter Read (editor- in-chief), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • 2019: ‘Astrology’ in the Sage Encyclopaedia of the Sociology of Religion (ed. Adam Passamai and Anthony J. Blassi), London: Sage.
  • 2018: ‘Astronomy, Ethics and the Planets’, Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry Vol. 18, issue 4,
  • 2018: ‘Utopia and Just War: the Invasion of Iraq in 2003’, in Libros dela Corte, no 16, AÑO 10, Primavera-Verano, 2018’, pp. 253-266,
  • 2018: ‘Adventures in Space: Harmony, Sustainability and Environmental Ethics’ in Nicholas Campion and Chris Impey (eds), Imagining Other Worlds: Explorations in Astronomy and Culture, Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press, pp. 69-85.
  • 2017: ‘The Importance of Cosmology in Culture: Contexts and Consequences’, in Abraao Jesse Capistrano de Souza (ed.), Cosmology (Rijeka: InTech Open, 2017), pp. 3-17.
  • 2016 ‘Astronomy and Culture in the Eighteenth Century: Isaac Newton’s Influence on the Enlightenment and Politics’, in Jean Paul Hernandez, Cesar Gonzalez Garcia . Giulio Magli, Davide Nadali, Andrea Polcaro and Lorenzo Verderame (eds), Astronomy in Past
  • 2016 ‘Archaeoastronomy and Calendar Cities’ in Daniel Brown (ed.), Modern Archaeoastronomy: from Material Culture to Cosmology, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 865, 2016, pp. 1-7.
  • 2015: ‘Religion, Archaeology and Modern Calendar Buildings: A study of Avon Tyrrell House in England’, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, Special Issue: Religion, Archaeology and Folklore, Volume 28.2 (2015), pp. 176-90.
  • 2015: Campion, Nicholas and Gale Dreyer, Ronnie, ‘Indian Astrology’, in David Kim (ed.), Modern History of Asian Religions, Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp 163-191.
  • 2015: Campion, Nicholas and Gale Dreyer, Ronnie, ‘Indian Astrology’, in David Kim (ed.), Modern History of Asian Religions, Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp 163-191.
  • 2015: ‘Astronomy, Community and Modern Calendar Buildings’, in Abbott, B.P. (ed.) Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VIII: City of Stars, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, vol. 501 (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacifi
  • 2015: ‘Babylonian Astrology’ in Helaine Selin (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag, 2015.
  • 2015: Nicholas Campion, ‘Cosmos and Cosmology’, in Robert Segal and Kocku von Stukrad (eds), Vocabulary for the Study of Religion (Leiden: Brill,2015), pp. 359-64.
  • 2015, ‘Defining Astrology in Ancient and Classical History’, in 2015: (N. Campion, F. Pimenta, N. Ribeiro, F. Silva, A. Joaquinito and L. Tirapicos (eds), Stars and Stones: Voyages in Archaeoastronomy and Cultural Astronomy – a Meeting of Different Worlds
  • 2014: Campion, Nicholas, ‘Astrology as Cultural Astronomy’, Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy (ed. Clive Ruggles) (Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag, 2014), pp. 103-116.
  • 2014: ‘Astrology’ in Christopher Partridge (ed.) Routledge Handbook of the Occult (London: Routledge).
  • 2014: ‘John Whiteside Parsons’ in Christopher Partridge (ed.) Routledge Handbook of the Occult (London: Routledge), pp. 320-3.
  • 2014: ‘The legacy of classical cosmology in the Renaissance: William Shakespeare and astronomy’, Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, Vol 14, no 3, pp. 331-9. eds., Kim Malville, Xenophon Moussas and Michael Rappenglück. ISSN (Online): 2241-8121
  • 2014: ‘Astronomy and the State: time, space, power and the foundation of Baghdad’, in Michael Rappenglűck, Barbara Rappenglück and Nicholas Campion (eds.) Astronomy and Power (Cambridge: British Archaeology Reports), pp. 233-9.
  • 2013: ‘The 2012 Phenomenon in Context: Millenarianism, New Age and Cultural Astronomy’, in Ivan Šprac and Peter Pehani (eds.), Ancient Cosmologies and Modern Prophets, (Lubljana: Anthropological Notebooks year XIX, supplement, 2013), pp. 15-31.
  • 2011: ‘Masters Level Education in Archaeoastronomy at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’ (with J. McKim Malville), in Clive Ruggles (ed.), Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy: Building Bridges Between Cultures, Proceedings of International Astro
  • 2011: ‘Was there an Egyptian Revolution in Ptolemaic Astronomy?: Stars, Soul and ’, Journal of Cosmology, Vol. 13, (2011), pp. 4174-86.
  • 2011: ‘Astronomy and the Soul’, in Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka and Atilla Grandpierre (eds.), Astronomy and Civilisation in the New Enlightenment, Analecta Husserliana, The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, Vol. CVII, (Heidelberg: Springer, 2011), pp. 24
  • 2010: ‘A Review of Academic Literature on Astrology: 1. The Ancient World’, Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 1 no. 2 (2010).
  • 2009: ‘L’Etat cosmique: astronomie at théory politique’, Planétariums, L’Associations des Planétariums de langue française, May 2009, pp. 33-4. 2008: (with Jarita Holbrook), ‘Cultural Astronomy: A Conversation about Degree Programs & Research Questions
  • A fuller list of my media work is on my website https://nicholascampion.org/
  • Nicholas Campion, ‘The Spotlight Network on The New Age in the Modern West’, interview with Logan Crawford, 1 August 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2gUJoWsSdI
  • Nicholas Campion, ‘A Spatial Dimension of Heaven’, interview with Paul Gillingwater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao_EVxO13pg
  • Nicholas Campion, ‘The Modern Revival of Astrology’, The Astrology Podcast, 29 June 2017. https://theastrologypodcast.com/2017/06/29/modern-revival-of-astrology-with-nick-campion/
  • Nicholas Campion, ‘History of Astrology and Cultural Astronomy’, Ad Astra, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FzvaHB1GwQ
  • Patrick Curry and Nicholas Campion, ‘Prophecy and Power, with Patrick Curry and Nicholas Campion’, The Astrology Podcast, 7 May 2024. https://theastrologypodcast.com/2024/05/07/prophecy-and-power-with-patrick-curry-and-nicholas-campion/

Available to Supervise Doctoral Students

Yes