Satya Astrology

Category: History

Know more about the history of western traditional astrology from Babylonians to the Arabs.

  • A Matter of Degree: Worldview in Elizabethan England

    A Matter of Degree: Worldview in Elizabethan England

    …Our dim eyes, which though they see the less,
    Yet are they blest in their astonishment,
    Imitate heaven, whose beauties excellent
    Are in continual motion day and night,
    And move thereby more wonder and delight.”

    − “Orchestra; or, A Poem of Dancing” by John Davies

    Considered England’s golden age, the Elizabethan Era spanned the latter half of the 16th century, coinciding with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Tudor heir of Henry VIII, Elizabeth ruled at a time when absolutism remained unchallenged and internal religious struggles had subsided, with Protestantism maintaining dominance. Externally, England successfully faced off against Catholic Spain and foiled various assassination plots, while the frugal policies of the Queen and her predecessors turned a bankrupt kingdom into a prosperous one, reaping the first benefits of overseas colonies and the subsequent expansion of Atlantic trade.

    Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, the Armada Portrait. The portrait was made to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada (depicted in the background).
    Elizabeth I of England, the Armada Portrait. Elizabeth’s hand rests on the globe, symbolizing her international power.

    The economic wealth and intellectual humanism of the English “Renaissance”—coupled with a highly stratified society ruled by an absolute monarch employing a highly effective network of spies—made Elizabethan England a place of stark contrasts. The relative stability and prosperity of the era saw the growth of an upwardly mobile middle class and a flourishing of the arts, particularly literature and theater, nurturing the genius of the likes of Milton, Shakespeare, and Donne, to name but a few. Caught between the tenets of the late Middle Ages and a rapidly changing world, heavily influenced by Christian thought and ancient Greek philosophy, the Elizabethan intellectual held many implicit beliefs that shaped the arts and literature of the age. At once foreign and wholly familiar to a contemporary Anglophone reader, the Elizabethan worldview represents one of the formative elements of modern Western thought. 

    Order

    The concept of order, or degree, held a central role in both the cosmic and the commonplace in such a stratified society, one where violence, plague, and poverty remained rampant, even as the higher classes enjoyed greater wealth and increasingly refined pleasures. The beginning of the Colonial Era, accompanied by massive advances in science and philosophy, presented Europeans with entirely new ideas, commodities and conceptions of civilization. This infinitely varied universe, albeit seemingly chaotic, was ruled by an archetypal “Law” protecting creation from dissolution; the political aspect of this perspective saw the Queen and her council as omnipotent representatives of earthly law. Chaos and order thus stood in opposition to one another, with the former representing the state of the cosmos before creation and the latter representing the unifying power of God that makes life possible. Mutability may have been ubiquitous in the sublunar sphere, but all changes fell within the plan of an omniscient Creator.

    This dualistic worldview helped justify the havoc of the Elizabethan lived experience, despite the assumed perfection of creation. The primordial Fall of Lucifer and the original sin committed by Adam and Eve were responsible for the distance between cosmic archetypes and chaotic reality. Sin and salvation formed counterparts to chaos and order, with sin increasing entropy and salvation bringing human souls closer to the organizing force of God’s will.

    Picturing Creation

    Great chain of being by Didacus Valades
    1579 drawing of the Great Chain of Being from Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana

    Three principal images illustrate the Elizabethan view of creation: The Great Chain of Being, corresponding planes, and The Great Dance. Often used complementarily, these images all integrated elements of Christian doctrine and Greek philosophy. Given the importance of God in Protestant England, each image served as a testament to the power of the Creator and the infinite logic of His creation.

    The Great Chain of Being was seen as stretching from the highest angels at the foot of God’s throne to the most insignificant inanimate object. This concept arranged the cosmos in a hierarchical series of classes, each possessing an aptitude, a certain attribute at which the members of that class excelled. Angels excelled at adoration, being capable of comprehending God directly; men excelled at learning; beasts in the strength of their desires and drives; plants in their capacity for growth; even rocks excelled in their durability. Each class also contained a primate, a head of the class that strove for the class above it: the dolphin among fish, fire among the elements, the king among men.

    Whereas The Great Chain presents a vertical framework for the universe, the concept of corresponding planes is horizontal. Correspondence had tied the movement of the heavens with the development of human affairs since ancient Babylon, most conspicuously through the practice of astrology. In correspondences the part resembled the whole, the micro the macro, and vice-versa: the sun represented the king, the ruler of the heavens and the ruler of the state, while the queen drew comparison to the moon, ruling over her court of stars. The order of the state was meant to resemble the order of the universe, and disorder in the heavens—that is, an unfortunate alignment of the planets—meant disorder in the state. Another parallel linked the composition of the cosmos and the composition of the human body, not unlike the ancient concept of the Zodiac Man. The architecture of the human soul was also projected onto natural phenomena. For Elizabethan literati, the virtue of love was comparable to the eternal light of fixed stars, while the tempests that shook the sky were likened to the passions that rack the human heart.

    The third conception of the universe was itself a kind of correspondence: The Great Dance. Described as “degree in motion”, in this model earthly, celestial, and divine hierarchies moved in varied paths within a perfect whole, from the movement of the angels to the dances of the royal court. The concept of creation as a musical act dates back to ancient Greece, and the Elizabethan Christian mind attributed man’s inability to hear this music to the corrupting influence of the Fall.

    The Dance of the Heavens

    In The Great Dance, the planets and stars were thought to dance to the music of the spheres, just as the kingdom moved under the direction of Queen Elizabeth, the primum mobile. While the average educated Elizabethan had access to Copernicus’ findings, the Ptolemaic geocentric model of the universe remained the predominant philosophical conception of man’s place in the cosmos. God and the angels moved in the realm of perfection beyond the sphere of the fixed stars, while the sublunary realm inhabited by men was a place of disorder and decay.

    The Elizabethan mind identified three moving forces of history: providence, fortune, and human character. Fortune, often depicted as a wheel, was continually in motion, subjecting kings and commoners alike to its “slings and arrows”. The wandering stars and the luminaries—now known as the seven classical planets—represented the influence of God’s changeless order on the sublunary sphere, forming the middle link between eternity and mutability. Sometimes associated with angels, the planets, like Nature, were forces without initiative, set in motion by the Creator. They were seen as acting on the physical predispositions of man determined by the combination of elements within each individual but were not considered to possess absolute power to bind or agency of their own.

    Both the Christian worldview and new advances in astronomy challenged the power of the stars as agents of fate. While the stars did not influence the immortal part of man, they present an open book relating the progression of earthly events, albeit an account often beyond the wit of man to read. The correspondence of planetary movements with human affairs implied a balanced system, a testament to God’s infinite wisdom. Astrology remained a significant and respected practice, with the work of William Lilly representing what was still a flourishing art in the 17th century.

    Man: The Supreme Commonplace

    All things within the sublunary sphere were seen as composed of the four Aristotelean elements: fire, air, water, and earth, themselves composed of the opposing qualities of hot and cold, dry and moist. A perfect mixture of these elements was eternal, while an imperfect mix meant a tendency toward death and decay. The effect of the elements, the influence of the stars, and God’s intervention determined how the world functioned, with the impermanence of life justified by the corrupting influence of the Fall. All things had their place within The Great Chain, with even the elements arranged hierarchically. Fire, considered the noblest element, rose upward, while heavy earth, trending downward, represented the dregs of the universe.

    Man at the center of the cosmos
    The Universal Man, Liber Divinorum Operum of St. Hildegard of Bingen, 1165

    Despite the Christian pessimism regarding the innately sinful, corruptible nature of humanity, man formed a nodal point in the Elizabethan chain of being, the connection between the material and the spiritual. One of the most important correspondence was the idea of man as a little world, containing all the elements of creation within himself but lacking in each. As during the Middle Ages, Elizabethan medical theory focused on the balance of the four humors, which corresponded to the four elements, within the human body. The predominance of a certain humor would mark the man, and their mixture formed his temperament, which caused character.

    This physical theory emphasized man’s proximity to nature and the influence of the planets over his internal and external life. However, the immortal part of man contained equal capacity for sin and salvation. Whereas angels understand creation intuitively, man must do so gradually through the use of discursive reason. Beginning in ignorance, a man’s first task was to know himself before he could learn about the universe and its Creator. Learning thus took on an ethical or religious quality, with knowledge gained through painstaking study bringing the individual closer to salvation and God.

    Brave New World

    Just as Elizabethan England enjoyed stability as continental Europe was caught in the throes of religious and territorial warfare, the Elizabethan worldview represented an immutable order governing an increasingly complex and unclassifiable world. Concepts such as the correspondences and The Great Chain could no longer command the mathematical precision of medieval thought; discoveries across the ocean and beyond presented Europeans with unfamiliar information that would not fit into older philosophies, which became increasingly metaphorical. At the center of this new kind of globalization stood the self-made man, increasingly drawn from the middle classes. From William Shakespeare to Sir Walter Raleigh, the learned man wrote plays and poetry, sailed to distant continents, and gazed at the stars, paving the way to the modern world we live in today.

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  • Abu Ma’shar: Persian Prince of Astrology

    Abu Ma’shar: Persian Prince of Astrology

    “Insofar as the higher bodies signify the things existing in this world through the powers of their natural motions, then what is the advantage of being ignorant of this knowledge?”

    Abu Ma’shar

    Sa’id Shadhan, a ninth-century Muslim student of astrology, recorded several anecdotes about his teacher, a man named Abu Ma’shar. On a trip to Baghdad, Abu Ma’shar was staying with a friend who also had some knowledge of astrology. Seeing that the Moon in Leo was squaring Mars, Abu Ma’shar advised his fellow travelers against embarking at that hour, as it boded ill for the journey. The other travelers laughed at what they considered superstition and embarked anyway. Abu Ma’shar remained with his friend and the two ate, drank, and conversed. A short while later, the ragged remnants of the group returned. They had been attacked by thieves, who had killed some of them and robbed the rest. The travelers, blaming Abu Ma’shar for their misfortune, pursued the astrologer with sticks and stones. Barely escaping, Abu Ma’shar swore never again to discuss “the science of [astrology] with the man in the street.”

    The protagonist of this colorful tale, Abu Ma’shar, was in many ways the foremost representative of his science in the Medieval Islamic world. The author of more than 50 works on astronomy and astrology, the most famous court astrologer in Baghdad, and an important proponent behind the preservation of the works of Aristotle and Ptolemy via translation into Arabic, Abu Ma’shar would become to astrology what Ptolemy was to astronomy. Known as Albumasar in Medieval Latin and Apomasar in Byzantine Greek, his texts in translation reintroduced astrology to regions where the art had all but disappeared, causing a revival in the West along with the general transmission of Hellenistic knowledge that sparked the European Renaissance.

    Origins

    Jafar ibn Muhammad Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi was born in Balkh, in what is now Afghanistan, at the end of the eighth century A.D. His birth year is typically recognized as 787, thanks to an anonymous horoscope cited in one of his works, but in all likelihood, Abu Ma’shar did not know his own nativity. Balkh itself was an important frontier city in the new Abbasid caliphate, conquered as recently as the seventh century. One of the principal urban centers in the Khorasan region, Balkh boasted the full religious, cultural and intellectual diversity of Central Asia. Known as Bactra by the Greeks, it had long been a Hellenistic outpost in the region and had since become a significant site for both Zoroastrians and Buddhists. The city also boasted significant Jewish, Nestorian, Manichean, and Hindu populations. A pro-Iranian intellectual elite, of which Abu Ma’shar was a member, dominated the city during the Abbasid era, having supported the new caliphate in their revolt against the Umayyad.

    Scholars at an Abbasid library. Maqamat of al-Hariri

    During the reign of al-Ma’mun (813-833), Abu Ma’shar moved to Baghdad, the capital city of an empire that stretched from the mountains of the Hindu Kush to the northern coast of Africa. The ringed city, one of the world’s largest at the time, was a commercial and scientific hub. The libraries of its “House of Wisdom” boasted more books than any other in the world, with an intellectual elite of Arab, Persian, Jewish, Nestorian, and Syriac scholars writing in the international scientific language of Arabic. Thanks to the work of prominent intellectuals such as Masha’allah and al-Kindi, the city was also the foremost center for astrological learning, a science that had been transmitted to Arab dominions from Egypt and the Mesopotamian city of Harran.

    Abu Ma’shar, however, came to Baghdad not as an astrologer but as a student of the Hadith, the sayings and traditions of the prophet Muhammad and his followers. Suspicious of astrology, mathematics, and philosophy, Abu Ma’shar became embroiled in a disagreement with al-Kindi, then the most prominent Arab philosopher in the city. Al-Kindi advised Abu Ma’shar to study mathematics, and it was in his 47th year that he did just that. Devoting himself to the study of mathematics and the motions and significance of the celestial bodies, Abu Ma’shar would soon become the most famous astrologer in the Islamic world.

    We have many anecdotes relating Abu Ma’shar’s exploits and proficiency as a practicing astrologer, handed down by students such as Shadhan, or recounted in Ibn Tawus’ 12th-century Biographies of Astrologers. All contributed to the myth of the man. He cast the horoscope of an Indian prince, served as a court astrologer in Baghdad, and advised princes on many matters. He even accompanied the ruler al-Muwaffaq on his campaigns against the Zanj in Basra. He may have been epileptic and was apparently fond of drinking. Many of these anecdotes paint a portrait of an astute individual and talented astrologer not particularly given to either moral or intellectual rigor.

    For the most part, his reputation protected him from persecution, although he was once flogged during the reign of al-Musta’in for practicing astrology. He was also briefly imprisoned by Lenies, the king of the Persians, who was displeased by his predictions. The king promised to let him go free if his predictions proved true but threatened to kill him if they did not. Fortunately for the astrologer, he was right on the mark.

    Within the field of astrology, Abu Ma’shar’s principal contribution was that of synthesis. Working at the heart of the Abbasid caliphate during the golden age of Islam, he had access to Egyptian, Greek, Syriac, Persian, and Indian sources regarding the movements and attributes of the stars and planets. He frequently employed Indian techniques, treating the lunar nodes as equal in power to the luminaries. He also contributed to the number of lots and recognized as many as 25 conditions of the planets.

    Astrology and the Oneness of Wisdom

    At the heart of Abu Ma’shar’s philosophical justification for astrology—and, to some extent, at the heart of Islamic astrology in general—lay three key concepts. The first, tawhid, is an Islamic doctrine proclaiming a oneness of wisdom that parallels the essential oneness of God. This doctrine allowed Islamic thinkers to draw from the diverse sources of the ancient world in search of a unified, divine truth. The second, transmitted from distinctly pagan roots, was the Neoplatonic model of the cosmos. This concept had reached Islam by way of the city of Harran, in northwestern Mesopotamia, an influential center of Hermetic philosophy and astrology and the last refuge of the pre-Islamic Mandaeans.

    Ruins showing remains of a ancient university against the clear white clouds and blue sky
    Ruins of the Harran University

    The inhabitants of Harran resisted conversion until the 11th century, engaging star worship based on the Hermetica, texts attributed to the legendary Hermes Trismegistus. Their geocentric model of the cosmos consisted of three spheres. The outermost sphere was known as the divine sphere. The middle, or ethereal, sphere, contained the stars and the planets. Both revolved around the innermost hylic, or sublunar, sphere, where the four elements met in a state of constant change.

    For the Harranians, the human soul descended from the divine sphere to the earthly sphere, and so one’s spiritual journey involved striving to reconnect with this divine source. However, they believed that, instead of addressing the divine source in worship, it was better to address the stars and planets as intermediaries between the human and the divine. The form of this worship depended upon the respective attributes of each celestial body and thus relied heavily on astronomical observation and astrological knowledge.

    In recognizing this Neoplatonic approach to astrology, Abu Ma’shar attested to the scientific and religious reasons for studying the stars. Not only could their motions be scientifically predicted, but through the association between zodiac signs, planets, human behavior, and certain plants, animals, and elements, the astrologer could both predict the outcome of an event and even influence it through a practice known as theurgy.

    Abu Ma’shar explained the necessary techniques for working astrologers in his seminal work, The Great Introduction to the Science of Astrology, written around 850. With that and his Zij al-Hazarat, an astrological compendium drawing on Persian, Hellenic, and Indian sources and techniques, Abu Ma’shar attempted to reconstruct a unified “antediluvian” astrology as it had originally been revealed to humans by God.

    Main image shows Sun with a man seated beside a beast. Beneath that there are 5 images showing man involved in 5 different occupations as per the 5 traditional planets.
    Page of a 15th-century manuscript of the “Book of nativities” by Abu Ma’shar

    As opposed to the talisman-using Mandaeans of Harran, Abu Ma’shar’s primary interest lay more in predicting and justifying the course of history rather than influencing it. This brings us to the third pillar of Islamic astrology influencing his work, this time from Sassanian Persian roots: historical astrology. Initially introduced to the Arab world by caliph al-Mansur to solidify Abbasid legitimacy, historical astrology involved using mundane techniques such as transits to explain the course of history.

    In his now lost work, Book of the Thousands, Abu Ma’ashar used a system of conjunctions, Aries Ingresses, and profections to explain the course of history. He attributed the greatest importance to the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, the slowest-moving Hellenistic planets. Their conjunctions, spaced 120 degrees apart on the zodiac, occurred every 20 years, and every 260 years they moved into a new triplicity. The cycle of conjunctions would begin anew every 960 years, giving astrologers three main subdivisions to mark periodicity in history. Abu Ma’shar aimed to use the technique to predict the rise of tyrants or prophets and ultimately underscored the temporary nature of all human societies—including the Abbasid caliphate. The astrologer predicted that the caliphate would last for another three hundred years after his death, a prediction not too far off the mark from the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258.

    The Legacy of a Legend

    According to Ibn al-Nadim, a 10th-century bookseller, Abu Ma’shar died in Wasit, Iraq in 886 at around the age of 100. The astrologer’s fame outlived the astrologer himself, with his works commanding considerable influence and popularity in the Arab-speaking world for the next few centuries.

    His treatise On the Nativities of Men and Women circulated widely, with the 14th-century scholar Isfahani copying excerpts into his Kitab al-Bulhan. To the West, the abbreviated version of The Great Introduction became the first astrological manual to be translated into Latin, and Abu Ma’shar’s name became virtually synonymous with astrology in late Medieval Western Europe and Byzantine Eastern Europe. Flores Astrologie and the Book on Religions and Dynasties, two mundane astrology texts, saw translation into Greek and Latin and were much discussed by European thinkers, as did his Book of the Revolutions of the Years of the Nativities.

    Through his astrological treatises, his embracing of Hellenistic philosophy, and the promotion and preservation of the work of both Ptolemy and Aristotle, Abu Ma’shar influenced thinkers as diverse as Biruni, Albert the Great, and Roger Bacon. Ultimately, this colorful and accomplished character, through his prodigious literary output and synthesizing mind, became one of the core conduits by which Hellenistic astrology again moved west to experience yet another golden age in a radically different cultural context.

    References

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  • In the Footsteps of Angels: Medieval Arabic Astrology

    In the Footsteps of Angels: Medieval Arabic Astrology

    It is He who made the stars, so that they can guide you when land and sea are dark: We have made the signs clear for those who have knowledge.

    The Holy Qu’ran. 6:97

    Unifying the diverse fields of mathematics, philosophy, optics, and astronomy, Hellenistic astrology needed an environment conducive to higher learning to survive through the trappings of state-funded libraries, observatories, and schools. Once Rome fell, so too fell the instruments supporting the sciences in Western Europe. The region would remain too embroiled in territorial squabbles—and too suspicious of pagan sources of knowledge—to preserve the sciences of antiquity. The wealth and infrastructure of the empire would persist in the east within the territory of the Byzantine empire for another millennium but it would be a new power outside of Christendom that would take up—and ultimately improve upon—the “wisdom of the ancients”.

    In the century following the flight of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca, Islam would go from local sect to world religion. Arab tribal rulers came to govern a territory surpassing in size that of Rome with a distinctly multicultural population, each community boasting histories stretching back thousands of years. Though the invading Arabs would be initially hostile to indigenous scholarship, destroying Persian astrological texts they considered incompatible with Islam, the Arab elite would eventually come to embrace the intellectual and cultural heritage of the lands and people they now ruled. 

    Zodiac imagery and lunar mansions wheel, rich imagery.
    Celestial map, signs of the Zodiac and lunar mansions in the Zubdat-al Tawarikh, dedicated to the Ottoman Sultan Murad III in 1583.

    The Islamic Golden Age, a period of stability and prosperity stretching from the 8th to the 12th century, saw Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Persian, Syrian, and pagan intellectuals working alongside Arab thinkers in the prosperous Abbasid capital of Baghdad, translating, preserving, and improving upon an immense variety of fields, all in the scientific lingua franca of Arabic. By allowing initiates to read the will of Allah from the composition of the heavens, astrology was second only to the reading of the Quran in the sciences of this golden era.

    The work of prominent Arabic thinkers shaped astrology as wealth, cultural exchange, and innovation would allow for technical, mathematical, and philosophical advances surpassing those achieved in the Greco-Roman world. It was to be this flowering of knowledge that would then pass astrology—and many other founts of ancient learning—on to the West, sparking the Renaissance and the beginnings of modernity.

    Astrology within Islam

    The tribespeople of the Arabian Peninsula, as nomadic traders, were familiar with astrology, and they both used a lunar calendar and navigated through the desert by the stars. Islam ostensibly forbade the worship of the sun and moon but one Quranic doctrine would allow philosophers to draw upon and adapt pre-Islamic sciences to fit into a distinctly Islamic worldview. This doctrine, known as tawhid, took the oneness of God to imply the oneness of wisdom, with all knowledge deriving from an original, uncorrupted source despite its seemingly fragmented nature. Tawhid allowed scholars writing in Arabic to draw upon the work of their Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Hindu predecessors, regardless of the religious content of those sources.

    Abu Ma’shar was particularly instrumental to the integration of astrology into the Islamic worldview by attributing the field to the antediluvian prophet Idris/Enoch, fused with the neo-Platonic figure of Hermes Trismegistus. The prophet was said to have ascended to the seventh heaven, the Saturnian sphere of the cosmos, where he learned the art of reading the stars and the planets. Then, instead of ascending to paradise, he descended to Earth to share his newfound knowledge with humanity—although popular Islamic folklore has it that he left his sandals in heaven to allow himself to return.

    Main image shows Sun with a man seated beside a beast. Beneath that there are 5 images showing man involved in 5 different occupations as per the 5 traditional planets.
    Page of a 15th-century manuscript of the “Book of nativities” by Abu Ma’shar

    Both India and Sassanian Persia would absorb Hellenistic astrology in the first few centuries A.D. and both cultures would play a role in shaping Arabic astrology. The first astrology text to be translated into Arabic was “Siddhanda”, a Sanskrit text, in 770 A.D., and many prominent astrologers writing in Arabic, most notably Abu Ma’shar, Omar of Tiberias, and al Biruni, drew heavily from their Persian roots. There were also Hindu astrologers working in Baghdad alongside Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, and pagans but the primary source for Arab astrology remained Greek. The Arabs partly encountered it after conquering Alexandria and its eponymous library in 647, and their dealings with the Mandaeans in the city of Harran. 

    Located in what is now southeastern Turkey, Harran was a prominent center of pagan learning that survived well past the rise of monotheism in the region. Its inhabitants practiced a form of astral magic and held a distinctly neo-Platonic view of the universe. Respected as practitioners of what many Islamic thinkers considered an original belief handed down by God before the Flood, the Mandaeans would resist conversion until the 11th century. With the influence of Abu Ma’shar and other astrologers, their neo-Platonic worldview would come to underpin Arab astrology, with the planets treated as angels or otherwise signifiers of the one God that could be addressed or observed in His stead. Al Kindi, known as the “Father of Arabic Astrology”, would introduce the work of Aristotle, the second Hellenistic pillar supporting the Islamic sciences, and establish a vocabulary for philosophy in Arabic.

    Arabic Innovations

    While the philosophical basis for Arabic astrology relied on the works of Aristotle and a neo-Platonic worldview, its practice in the Islamic world depended on several innovations, both technological and theoretical. The astrolabe provided astronomers and navigators alike with an analog map of the heavens. For astrologers, it provided a quick way to calculate the ascendant, the first step in casting a horoscope.

    The zij, meanwhile, were Arabic ephemerides, tables containing astronomical data and formulas for calculating the rising times of various celestial bodies. Initially inspired by Ptolemy’s tables, Arabic astronomers and astrologers improved upon the model, often providing information related to trigonometry, chronology, and geography alongside strictly astrological data. The wealth of the Islamic world also supported both astrological schools and observatories, the former providing training for the best and brightest and the latter allowing Arabic astrologers to predict celestial movement with unprecedented accuracy.

    Jupiter rising with Mars turning cadent in the 7th house. Ruler of 7th is debilitated by being retrograde, in the 8th house and conjunct the South Node. Sun is in rulership in Leo in the house of its Joy in the 9th house.
    Foundation of Baghdad – a classic astrology election, 31 Jul 762 2:40 PM

    The city of Baghdad, the newly constructed Abbasid capital on the Tigris, would prove to be a particularly essential center of learning and was even founded according to a chart cast by Jewish Arab astrologer Mash’allah, among others. The placement of Jupiter rising in its domicile of Sagittarius ensured over four centuries of prosperity—although a malignant Mars in the 7th house of open enemies (in line with the Arabic tradition) would have other plans. But in its prime, the city was a beacon of learning, drawing intellectuals from across the Islamic world.

    The first Arabic astrology school was founded there in 777 A.D. by Jewish astrologer Jacob ben Tarik, and the Caliph Al-Mamun would construct the first observatory there in 829 A.D. Al-Mamun would also be responsible for founding the House of Wisdom, either a library or group of intellectuals that supported the translation of ancient texts from Persian, Sanskrit, Syriac, and Greek into Arabic that fostered the careers of both al Kindi and Abu Ma’shar. Contact with Greek sources would give Arabs access to the natural philosophy of Aristotle and Ptolemy, plus the mathematics of trigonometry, while connections to the Hindu east would give them the concept of zero, a decimal system, numerals, and algebra.

    By the early 9th century, when Omar of Tiberias wrote the texts that would eventually influence Latin astrologers, the astrology that he was using was by and large Hellenistic in content. The alterations from Hellenistic practice may have been due to the influence of Persian astrology, but many features would become fundamental for the development of horary and mundane astrology.

    The concept of orbs of light to measure aspects between two planets, rather than measuring aspects from sign, degree, or even bound, first appeared in Arabic astrology and would be carried into the medieval European tradition. Similarly, the first departure from the whole sign house system to quadrant houses is visible in Arabic language texts. Arabic astrologers also used a complex system of interferences with aspects, known as Alitifel, that few modern astrologers employ.

    Astrologer holding the celestial sphere and probing it.
    Title page for a 1504 German edition of De scientia motvs orbis, originally by Māshāʼallāh (740–815)

    Additionally, the work of Mash’allah and Abu Ma’shar would introduce a historical view of astrology based on conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, the slowest-moving visible planets. A prominent feature of Persian astrology, these conjunctions occur in some form every 20, 260, and 960 years and were seen as signifying momentous events in world history. Indeed, Abu Ma’shar would use these so-called “Great Conjunctions” to analyze the astrological conditions around both Jesus’ and Muhammad’s births and foretell the downfall of his own patron, the Abbasid Caliphate. Aries Ingress charts would become another important technique for mundane astrology, with Solar Return charts serving as their counterpart in natal astrology. 

    The system of lots, or parts, mathematically defined locations in a chart, would also become more prominent in Arabic astrology, especially in horary practices. While Ptolemy defined only the lot of Fortune, Arabic astrologers would use dozen of lots to predict everything from the debt of the native to the prospects of that year’s lentil harvest. Al Biruni, a philosopher and astrologer working in 11th century Afghanistan would provide a comprehensive list in his Elements of the Art of Astrology, complaining that “they increase in number every day”.

    The End of an Era

    The unified Arabic worldview—a fusion of neo-Platonic thought and Islamic doctrine—would intrigue the European Crusaders when they arrived in the Holy Land. However, the most important transit point of Islamic sciences, astrology included, would become the Jewish communities of Western Europe. From Moorish Spain to Renaissance Italy, most cities boasted a sizable Jewish community, some with considerably higher status than is typically assumed. 

    A scene of Ibn Ezra practicing Astrology with an Arabic manuscripts being held by the men that flank him to either side.
    An illustration of Ibn Ezra (center) making use of an astrolabe, ca 1235

    Perhaps the most famous Jewish astrologer, also a philosopher and poet, Ibn Ezra began the life of a roving scholar after increasing persecution pushed him out of his native Navarre. He wrote a dozen books on astrology, from mundane to medicinal, in Hebrew that contained techniques and philosophies prominent in Arabic sources.

    These works would see a Latin translation thanks to Pietro d’Abana, while other European Jewish intellectuals collaborated with priests to translate important Arabic works into Latin. This new flood of scientific knowledge from the East, some direct from Hellenistic sources and some from their improved Arabic equivalents, would ignite the intellectual fervor of the European Renaissance and bring about the birth of modernity.

    The works of Ptolemy, Omar of Tiberias, and Abu Ma’shar would inspire a whole new generation of astrologers and see the ancient science integrated into a distinctly Christian worldview. While some Latin astrologers would dismiss astrological techniques attributed to Arabic sources, William Lilly himself would cite the sayings of Abu Ma’shar, al Farghani, and al Kindi in Christian Astrology centuries later. Meanwhile, in the east, the Golden Era of Islam was drawing to a close and Mars was to have its revenge on the glimmering city of Baghdad. In 1248, Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, sacked the city, burning its libraries and making a pyramid from the skulls of its literati. The city would experience a similarly disastrous conquest by Timurlane in 1401 and never reclaim its former level of glory. The city that once preserved the “wisdom of the ancients” had seen its downfall foretold by the very art it helped survive the passage of the centuries.

    References

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  • Firmicus Maternus: A skeptic among the stars

    Firmicus Maternus: A skeptic among the stars

    Julius Firmicus Maternus (c. 280-c.360 A.D.), a retired Sicilian lawyer, was the astrologer that produced one of the lengthiest known textbooks on Hellenistic astrology in Latin. His work, the Mathesis (“the science [of astrology]”), was published in the mid-fourth century A.D. (either 337 or 355 A.D.). 

    His work is impressive. He wrote about the fundamentals of the astrological practice, making the Mathesis a particularly valuable textbook—many astrologers of the period, including Ptolemy and Valens, did not explain in their own work because they assumed that the reader already knew the basics. Additionally, he wrote delineations for each of the planets in each of the houses and signs, plus the aspects they could make between themselves. Unfortunately, however, there are some lacunae in various parts of his work.

    In this article, we are going to learn more about the life of Firmicus, the importance of the Mathesis, and what its contents offer the practicing astrologer.

    The history behind Mathesis

    Most of what we know about Firmicus comes from the Mathesis itself and his other work, The Error of The Pagan Religions. He was born and lived in Sicily, where he pursued a career in law. He eventually grew tired of his job and the risks associated with it and retired, pursuing studies in literature and science instead—which included astrology.

    In his books, Firmicus refers to himself using the title Vir Clarissimus and Vir Consularis, which indicates that he was a member of the senatorial class. He had, hence, the resources to pursue his studies without any encumbrances. This is also how he became acquainted with the consul Lollianus Mavortius, the person for whom the Mathesis was written. The astrologer tells us a story in the Mathesis about how Mavortius took care of Firmicus after a long, cold journey he had undertaken. After recovering, he and Mavortius spent long hours discussing Sicily and astronomy. Most of the astrological works of that time were written in Greek but Firmicus was apparently familiar with them and, for this reason, promised Mavortius to translate all of that knowledge into Latin.

    It took him a lot of time and effort to write all the eight books that compose the Mathesis. Researchers believe he took either seven years or 25 years to finish the book, and Firmicus admits multiple times that it was a difficult endeavor—he even considered giving up at times. Nevertheless, he managed to finish the book that would become one of the main resources for the study of ancient astrology from medieval times until today.

    The Mathesis

    Each of the eight books of the Mathesis is composed of multiple chapters that explain the fundamentals of astrology, both essential concepts and specific techniques. The first book explains his journey in writing the Mathesis, his history with Mavortius, and analyzes and refutes arguments against astrology.

    The second book is about the fundamental concepts of astrology: the signs, the planets, the subdivisions of the zodiac (decans and terms), the houses, the aspects, and some other technical details of relevance to the practicing astrologer, such as the antiscia—the connection between two signs based on how far they are from the solstices. The end of this book has a very interesting admonition to the astrologer regarding how they should conduct their business, what kind of moral code to follow, and what not to do. For example, Maternus warns students not to make predictions about the life of the emperor, which was valuable advice, since during the time of the Roman Empire doing so could lead to imprisonment or execution.

    The third book focuses on the Thema Mundi, the chart of the beginning of the universe, and how it was used as a didactic concept by the astrologers that preceded Firmicus. Most of it, however, is about the meaning of each of the planets in each of the houses. There are a lot of specific details in those chapters, such as whether the chart is diurnal or nocturnal, if there are aspects from other planets, and how this would influence the significations of the planet-house combination.

    The fourth book is mainly about the Moon and its aspects. This book also explains the Lot of Fortune and the Daemon and how to calculate the ruler of the chart and its meanings. There are some other technical concepts of interest in this book.

    Most of the fifth book has, unfortunately, been lost. The remaining chapters are about the positions of the angles in the chart (Ascendant, Descendant, Mid Heaven, and Imum Coeli), the positioning of the Ascendant, and, in the end, something that certainly would cover a lot of information: the significations of each of the planets in each of the twelve signs. Only the positions of Saturn and part of Jupiter have survived.

    The sixth book contains information about aspects between the planets and the luminaries (the Sun and the Moon) and also explains how to calculate ‘lots’ of specific themes: the father, the mother, illnesses, etc. This is very fascinating since it was thought for a long time that some of these ‘lots’ were initially created by the Arabs. Many of the ‘lots’ were first described by Firmicus since most ancient authors only used a few lots.

    Book seven is very technical, dealing with particular themes in a chart, beginning with charts of infants that were abandoned to die (sadly, a common practice in that cultural context) and ending with the occupations that one would have. Other themes include sexual matters, death, illnesses, and children.

    The eighth book is mainly about the fixed stars, including some interpretations. This theme was important for Firmicus and other ancient authors, although its importance has since diminished.

    Example Themes

    We can glimpse the depth of ancient astrological knowledge by reading the Mathesis. As an example, let’s look at some of the information that Firmicus give us about the Moon and its aspects with other planets. This will allow us to understand what other elements of the natal chart were of main importance in the analysis.

    If the waxing Moon is in aspect to Jupiter or is moving toward him, the natives will be fortunate, famous and rich; master of many great estates and wide possessions. (IV.III 1)

    But if the waning Moon is in aspect to Jupiter, the natives will be adopted; or exposed, and later returned to their parents. They seek income by their own efforts, and over a period of time receive advancement and achieve power and fame. (IV.III 2)

    The difference between these two indications is the Moon phase. Ancient astrologers usually considered the waxing Moon to be more benefic, as it is increasing in light. For the same reason, the waning Moon is not so great and can sometimes act as a malefic. In the aforementioned quotes, since Jupiter is a benefic planet, the difference is about the quality of the life of the native: in one case, he is born with fortune and fame; in the other, he has to struggle to achieve it. 

    Not only the aspect is important—one should know if the Moon is approximating to the other planet (“applying”) or separating from it. The approximation appears in the aforementioned quotes, so here is what the separation of the Moon from Jupiter indicates:

    If in a nocturnal chart the waxing Moon, moving away from Jupiter, is carried toward Mars, great power is predicted: control of great states and regions. But it also indicates anxieties and dangers. […] (IV.X 1)

    But if the waxing Moon is moving away from Jupiter toward Mars by day, the natives will be exposed, be slaves, or wretched beggars. They will suffer illness and afflictions, slavery which is like captivity, and lose their life in a violent death. (IV.X 2)

    The waning Moon in this situation wastes paternal and maternal inheritance, destroys the parents when the native is young, and imposes the burden of extreme beggary. (IV.X 4)

    When the Moon is separating from one planet, it can be moving towards another. This is important in chart analysis and combines the symbolic meanings of the planets. The Moon separating from Jupiter as it approaches Mars can indicate power or misfortune, depending on other factors.

    Besides the importance of the Moon phase, there is the fundamental value of sect: whether the chart is diurnal or nocturnal. Mars is a nocturnal planet and therefore the waxing Moon separating from Jupiter and approaching Mars by night is positive; but by day, it is negative.

    The waning Moon is likewise negative and Firmicus does not distinguish the chart sect in this case: only bad predictions are given here. If Jupiter gives good things, Mars tends to waste these gifts and bring suffering; the exception depends on other astrological factors, as we’ve seen before.

    These examples show us how the Mathesis is valuable in teaching us the complexity of ancient astrology. The abundance of examples based on the positioning of the planets considering multiple possibilities helps us understand the rationale behind Hellenistic astrology, something that most authors fail to explain clearly.

    After the Mathesis: A Christian Firmicus against the Pagans

    The second work of Firmicus that has survived to the present day is known as “The Error of the Pagan Religions”. It is estimated to have been written around the year 347 A.D. Since there is some debate about when the Mathesis was finished, it is not known whether Firmicus wrote this work before or after the completion of the Mathesis.

    The emphasis in this other work was on attacking Paganism and defending Christianity. The mystery cults were the main focus of the attack. This brings some questions to the modern researcher: how did Firmicus reconcile astrology with Christianity? Did he consider them mutually exclusive?

    Interestingly, there is no mention of astrology in The Error of the Pagan Religions. It is possible that Firmicus did not consider that his attack included astrology but only other aspects of Paganism. Another hypothesis is that he converted after the writing of the Mathesis, if it preceded The Error. In any case, both are very informative of the situation of the Roman Empire in the mid-fourth century A.D., including its view on the importance of astrology, the Christianization of the Empire, and all the controversy that it caused.

    References

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  • Vettius Valens: Soldier of Fate

    Vettius Valens: Soldier of Fate

    Those who have trained themselves in the prognostic art and in the truth keep their minds free and out of bondage. They despise Fortune, do not persist in Hope, do not fear death, and live undisturbed […] They are alien to all pleasure or flattery and stand firm as soldiers of fate.”

    Vettius Valens

    Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C., by the second century A.D. Alexandria had become Rome’s second-largest city—and its foremost scientific capital. Scholars writing in Greek mined Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hellenistic sources in the multicultural metropolis, creating a vibrant intellectual scene centered on the city’s legendary library. The city’s renowned religious tolerance and its association with two major astrologers made Alexandria virtually synonymous with the practice of Hellenistic astrology. The first astrologer, Ptolemy, cemented his place in the history of astrology with Tetrabiblios, his systematic treatise of astrology in explicitly scientific terms. The second, Vettius Valens, penned a seminal work of Hellenistic astrology, Anthologies, a vibrant guide to contemporary astrological practices, becoming a legendary figure for successive generations of astrologers.

    Widely considered a younger contemporary of Ptolemy, Valens does not mention Ptolemy in his work and primarily uses astrological formulas that predate Ptolemy’s spherical trigonometry methods. While later scholars would associate Valens with Alexandria, he never explicitly mentions the city. Valens is identified as a native of Antioch, at the time the third-largest city in the Roman Empire. Antioch too had a strong astrological reputation. Then the capital of Roman Syria, Antioch had been founded by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander’s generals, in 300 B.C., according to auspicious conditions determined by his army’s soothsayers. The general intended to found a city that could parallel Babylon, itself the cradle of astrology. Ptolemy chose this capital of Roman Syria as the center for his division of the known world into quadrants. Furthermore, Antioch’s patron goddess, Tyche, represented Fortune—a key component of Valens astrological worldview. Regardless of where Valens was from and where he traveled to, the multicultural nature of these two cities, and to a similar extent, the Roman Empire as a whole, fostered a Hellenistic astrological tradition that blended Egyptian, Chaldean, Greek, and Roman practices into a syncretic spiritual art. And it is largely thanks to Vettius Valens and his Anthologies that an understanding of this art and its practices has survived to the present day. 

    Vettius Valens: The Pious Astrologer

    The entirety of the biographical information scholars have about Valens can be traced back to his musings in Anthologies. The final volume of the work is dated to the mid 170s, meaning that Valens lived at least until the outbreak of the Antonine Plague in the empire.

    A chart in Book II of Anthologies, first identified as Valens’ own by scholar David Pingree, notes the nativity’s date of birth as February 8, 120 A.D. Valens never claims the chart as his own, but does advise his students to know their own charts and to use them in their astrological practices. Valens initially uses the chart to demonstrate why the native’s mother predeceased their father. Further details show them traveling abroad at age 34, taking a sea voyage plagued by storms and pirates, making friends with superiors, and running the risk of being ruined by a woman. The image that Valens presents of himself is somewhat more reserved. Valens attests to moving to Egypt in search of astrological knowledge and paying large sums to avaricious teachers but learning no secret wisdom. The astrologer then withdrew into ascetic life for some time before devoting himself wholeheartedly to the study of astrology.

    Valens was most productive between 152 and 162, and his career as a working astrologer spanned the reign of the emperors Antonius Pius (138-161) and Marcus Aurelius (161-186). He also admits to eventually finding a “learned man” that he studied under, and the nigh-sacred student-teacher relationship is a major theme in Anthologies. The work itself is addressed to Valens’ students, as a practical guide to the various techniques of the era. Valens seems happy to graciously share his knowledge but warns his students to show him proper due and to avoid sharing secrets with the uninitiated—threatening curses from the gods if he is not properly heeded. 

    The spiritual underpinning of Anthologies is Stoicism, a widespread philosophy in the empire, with an emphasis on Fortune and Fate and the importance of accepting one’s role in the scheme of the universe. Valens likens the struggle of the individual to the work of an actor—although we cannot choose the role given to us by the universe, we can choose how we play it. His faith in the prognostic power of astrology is akin to religious feeling. Whereas Ptolemy set forth a secular understanding of astrology that reconciles the art with Aristotelian natural philosophy, Valens classifies it as “a sacred and venerable learning […] something handed over to men by god so that they may share in immortality.” In learning the prognostic art, the astrologer learns a “cosmic piety” that allows them to accept the omnipotence of fate and frees them from anxiety. Valens peppers Anthologies with quotes from Cleanthes, Homer, and Euripides alongside his own musings on life, fate, and mortality. 

    Anthologies: Structure and Core Concepts

    Valens’ Anthologies represents one of the longest and most detailed works of Hellenistic astrology that have survived to modern times. Whereas it lacks the systematic, scientific bend of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblios, it expounds on the key concepts of astrology and how to use them in what is essentially a textbook for the working astrologer. The first two books of Anthologies are dedicated to a general overview of astrological principles, from the significance of planets and the zodiac signs to the tropical houses. The next six books are largely devoted to two topics that were of particular interest to Valens. The first was the calculation of lifespan. The second involves determining the ruling planet of a particular period of a person’s life, or “chronocratorship”. Valens presents several methods for each of these, which vary between regions or individual astrologers, relaying methods developed by his predecessors and clarifying them via his personal experience. The ninth and final book consists of miscellaneous fragments

    To demonstrate these various techniques, Valens includes 123 horoscopes of citizens from all over the Empire. These horoscopes do not contain names, dates, or diagrams, and were either used by Valens to illustrate general astrological information or to explain a method for calculating length of life or placement of crisis periods. In the 1950s, Austrian scientific historian Otto E. Neugebauer demonstrated the veracity of these charts. One, used for calculating crisis periods, was later identified as the horoscope of Roman Emperor Nero. Without the horoscopes included in Anthologies, scholars would not have such a clear perspective of how charts were calculated and used in the heyday of Greco-Roman astrology. 

    In addition to compiling some regional variations and unique astrological processes in Anthologies, Valens also cites several ancient astrologers, from Abraham to Zoroaster, who made contributions to the art but whose own work has not survived. Valens credits each of these with a specific innovation but often laments their confusing or obtuse style. He frequently cites Critodemus, one of these ancient astrologers, for both his cryptic style and techniques such as a specific method for annual profections outlined in his now-lost work Vision. Valens also mentions Nechepso and Petosiris, Egyptian astrologers that he considered ideal practitioners of the art. 

    Valens’ Legacy

    It’s unclear how famous Valens was during his lifetime, but his reputation only grew after death. The current translations of Anthologies are largely based on a 5th-century Greek manuscript. An unknown author added a tenth book, known as the Additamenta, with an analysis of the birth and death of Emperor Valentinian III (July 2, 419 – March 16, 455).

    Valens’ work was translated into Middle Persian and then Arabic, and the astrologer enjoyed an elevated reputation among medieval Muslim astrologers such as Mash’allah and Ibn al-Nadim, who knew him as Al-Rumi (the Byzantine). Arab astrologers popularly attributed a chart of Mohammed to Valens, drawn up for the King of Persia when Mohammed was a threat to his kingdom. Legend has it that Valens predicted Mohammed’s success, and the King, in a fit of fury, threw the astrologer in prison. The 12th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos also attributed the chart of the founding of Constantinople to Valens. It was through these anecdotes that Valens’ work found its way to Western Europe.

    16th century English collector John Dee preserved a manuscript of Valens’ work in his library, and the first modern critical edition of Anthologies was released in 1908 by Wilhelm Kroll. In 1986, David Pingree released a second critical edition still widely in use today. In many ways, Valens’ legacy was eclipsed in the West by that of Ptolemy, even while he enjoyed considerable fame in the East. But it is thanks to Vettius Valens and his anthologies that a snapshot of Hellenistic astrology, its core concepts, spiritual underpinnings, and practices—as well as many of its original voices—survives to this day. 

    References

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  • Claudius Ptolemy: A Sage Head in the Clouds

    Claudius Ptolemy: A Sage Head in the Clouds

    Mortal as I am, I know that I was born for only one day. But when I see the stars circling their orbits, my feet no longer touch the ground.

    Claudius Ptolemy

    The year 100 A.D. saw the Roman Empire at its greatest territorial extent under Emperor Trajan. A territory stretching from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to the Caspian Sea in the East lay under the rule of one man, and that man employed astrology as the primary tool by which to judge his fortunes. Trajan’s predecessor, Nerva, backed his claim to the throne with his horoscope, which allegedly foretold his aptitude as emperor. Trajan’s successor, Hadrian, himself an avid astrologer, managed to accurately foretell the time of his own death. The predictions of the astrologer Antigonus of Nicaea ensured that Hadrian’s successor was Antoninus Pius and not Pedanius, an ill-fated and disinherited relative. For the better part of 70 years, the Empire was largely at peace, blessed with a series of competent rulers and a smooth process of succession in part overseen by the consultation of horoscopes and other key astrological portents.

    Into this golden era, when the emperor of the Western world was chosen by the celestial bodies, Claudius Ptolemy was born. A Roman citizen of the province of Egypt, Ptolemy worked as a research professor at the Library of Alexandria. The Library, considered the foremost center of learning in the classical world, boasted some 700,000 papyrus scrolls, and had supported the work of philosophers, mathematicians, and thinkers such as Euclid, Hippocrates, and Hipparchus, who established the modern tropical zodiac and collected the first significant catalog of stars, forming the base for Ptolemy’s work.

    Fostered by this environment of peace and learning, Ptolemy produced significant works in mathematics, astronomy, astrology, geography, optics, and music. In the treatise on astronomy that would later become known by its Arabic name, the Almagest, Ptolemy outlined the geocentric model of the universe that would guide astronomers until Copernicus, and his work Geography influenced European and Middle Eastern cartography until the beginning of European colonial expansion. In this essay, however, we will focus on Ptolemy’s third major work, known as Tetrabiblios, or “Four Books”, and how it outlines the vital connections between astrology and astronomy and sets forth many of the principles of modern Western astrology still in practice today. 

    A Mathematician Among the Stars: Ptolemy’s Worldview

    Surprising for someone who wrote seminal texts on both astronomy and astrology, Ptolemy did not consider himself either an astrologer or an astronomer. He chose instead to classify the Almagest as a work of mathematics. This was, to some extent, the norm of the day, but it helps to explain the philosophy that for Ptolemy defined the connection between the two fields.

    In the Almagest, he identified 48 constellations and mapped the positions of 1000 stars, while also developing predictive models for the movement of celestial bodies (most notably accounting for retrograde, the periods in which certain planets and stars appear to move backward in the sky), all using mathematics and data as his primary tools. Astronomy was thus a method of studying “the movements of the sun, moon, and stars in relation to each other and the earth.”

    Astrology, in contrast, meant understanding “the changes [the heavens] bring about in that which they surround”—in other words, how the movement of celestial bodies impacts life on Earth. In many ways, astrology was astronomy’s raison d’etre, as developing predictive mathematical models for far-off planets and stars mattered only in so much as they could help generate the horoscopes that would help the Empire determine who was most fit to rule. 

    From Andreas Cellarius Harmonia Macrocosmica, 1660/61. Chart showing signs of the zodiac and the solar system with world at centre.
    Scenography of the Ptolemaic cosmography

    This also explains why a mathematician would pen a treatise on astrology. Arguably as influential as his Almagest, Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblios is a compendium of Hellenistic astrology that made the author’s name synonymous with astrology for millennia. For many astrology involved the interpretation of fate and divine will, but Ptolemy took a distinctly secular and scientific approach, attempting to explain astrology in terms of Aristotelian natural philosophy. He sought to provide a rational foundation for astrology by systematically presenting its principles and subjecting them to rigorous analysis.

    Whereas the markedly Stoic Manilius (and most early astrologers besides) saw astrology as a method to understand the will of a deity or deities, for Ptolemy it was about understanding a simple process of cause and effect. Borrowing from earlier Greek thinkers, Ptolemy ascribed primary importance to planetary influence. To him, all life was, at its core, identical, and the diversity of life on Earth was due to the diversity of environmental factors. The constellations, planets and fixed stars were one such factor. He theorized that the planets and stars transmitted a kind of energy to the Earth, much like light, that in turn interacted with and affected the lives of men. Ptolemy also softened much of Manilius’ fatalism surrounding astrology, in a way addressing astrology’s imperfection as a predictive art. While the influence of celestial bodies may be fixed, how they manifest can change, explaining why certain predictions come to pass and others do not.

    Tetrabiblios: Key Concepts

    Ptolemy identifies two main predictive applications of astrology. The first, general astrology, deals with large phenomena such as the weather, the environment, cities, and countries. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius, purportedly foretold by astrological conditions, is one such example. The second, genethlialogical or natal astrology, concerns the destiny of individuals, most notably deciphered via the calculation of the horoscope. It is worth noting that Ptolemy gave prime importance to the moment of conception, but given the impossibility of knowing it exactly, relied on the time of birth as measured via an astrolabe.

    In the Almagest, Ptolemy provides a comprehensive guide for mathematically calculating astronomical positions, and many of the techniques described therein were later refined by Islamic scholars. Many subsequent astrologers, unable to perform the complex calculations necessary to predict planetary or stellar movement, would rely on precalculated tables. The Tetrabiblios is in many ways an extension of the Almagest, providing readers with sufficient astrological lore to interpret mathematical data. 

    Portrait of Ptolemy
    Claudius Ptolemäus, Picture of 16th century book frontispiece

    In Tetrabiblios, Ptolemy establishes a system of attributes for the planets, according to the most primal elements or qualities that were thought to make up the universe: hot and cold, moist and dry. This same logic underpinned the humor system, which was the foundation for Hippocratic and Galenic medicine. Instead of Manilius’ Zodiac Man, Ptolemy outlines a Planetary Man, which in much the same way draws a connection between parts of the body and celestial influences, simply with planets instead of constellations taking the leading role.

    Interestingly enough, Ptolemy’s emphasis on planetary influence may have helped astrology survive into the Christian era. No more was fate attributed to machinations the Greco-Roman pantheon, but instead to ostensibly secular planets and stars. As Hellenistic philosophers and scientists had already determined, celestial bodies influence the seasons, the tides, and the weather—isn’t it only logical to suppose that they influence human life as well? As the planets moved through the signs of the tropical zodiac, this influence would wax or wane.

    Ptolemy goes on to outline several other important tenets of astrology, at times diverging from Manilius and other astrologers on certain points he believed to be based more on superstition than rational analysis. In addition to the planets, he attributed positive and negative power to some fixed stars, even those outside of the Zodiac.

    In place of Manilius’ dodecatemoria division of the signs, Ptolemy divided each constellation into five parts, called horia, each assigned to a certain planet and possessing planetary qualities. He also made further subdivisions of the signs known as termini. He solved the issue of division of mundane houses, or topoi, and explained why certain aspects are harmonious while others are unharmonious. A sextile, for example, connects Aires to Gemini, two masculine signs, whereas a square connects Aires to Cancer, a masculine sign to a feminine sign. Aspects connecting signs of the same gender are considered positive or harmonious, whereas aspects connecting opposite genders are considered more of a negative influence.

    Ptolemy also outlines how to calculate life span via the prorogator. His system involved identifying the dominus vitae, or the dominant planet at the time of birth, and calculating the distance between its starting point (the “aphetic” place) and the ominously named point of destruction (or the “anaretic” place). The difference in degrees between these two positions could then be converted into time. 

    Aristotle, Ptolemy and Copernicus are standing and discussing. A ship in the background represents one of the arguments for the movement of the Earth: just as the motion of a moving ship need not affect the motion of something moving inside the ship, so the motion of the moving Earth need not affect the motion of something moving on the Earth.
    Aristotle and Ptolemy discuss with Copernicus their respective views on the movements of the Sun and the Earth.

    The Ages of Man

    An interesting and influential system that Ptolemy outlines—one that does not appear in the works of earlier astrologers—is the division of one’s life into seven stages.

    Each stage is purportedly ruled by a planet, as Hellenistic astronomy recognized seven planets, including the Sun and the Moon. The duration of each stage could, like lifespan, be determined by the return of the ruling planet to its original position, known as apokatastasis.

    The first phase, or infancy, is ruled by the Moon. The second, childhood, is ruled by Mercury, while the third (identified with the Lover) is ruled by Venus and lasts through adolescence to early adulthood. The next and longest stage is ruled by the Sun and represents the prime of life. The next fifteen or so years are ruled by Mars, and the following 12 or so are ruled by Jupiter. The last stage, representing the descent into senility, is ruled by Saturn. These stages were immortalized in Jacques’ speech from Shakespeare’s As You Like It. 

    In addition to expanding on the principles outlined in Almagest, Ptolemy also provides a section in Tetrabiblios that represents an astrological extension of his work in Geography. Dividing the known world into four sections with the center at the site of the city of Antioch, Ptolemy assigned each quadrant astrological qualities; for example, he classified Europe, the northwestern quadrant of the map, with fire attributes, and Libya, in the southwest, with water attributes. He then went on to describe the tendencies of the various ethnic groups in the world based on these astrological alignments. 

    The Influence of Ptolemy on Modern Astrology

    From his post in Alexandria, Claudius Ptolemy drew on Babylonian, Chaldean, Persian, Egyptian, and Greek sources for his research. In turn, he produced three major works in three distinct fields, although Hellenistic thinkers may have classified them all simply as different applications of mathematics. The tenets in Geography, the Almagest, and Tetrabiblios held sway in each field for over 1000 years, and, refined as they were by subsequent scholars, came to underpin much of the cultural and scientific awakening of the European Renaissance. 

    In terms of astrology, Ptolemy’s influence was two-fold. First, in outlining what he believed to be the parts of the field solidly based on reason, he presented a systematic account of Hellenistic astrology that would become the virtual textbook for subsequent astrologers. He also managed to settle certain astrological disputes, such as the division between mundane houses, and provide the predictive mathematical tools still used by astrologers today. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, he ensured that the study of astrology did not end with the Roman Empire. By attempting to consolidate the field with rational inquiries and scientific processes, rather than with Greco-Roman religious beliefs, he made the field more secular, and thus more adaptable to a new religious worldview.

    This shift of emphasis away from Apollo and Minerva to Jupiter and Mercury may have ensured that astrology would continue to play a large role in the lives of nobles in later Christian states, either through medical astrology or through the predictive power of horoscopes. More still, Ptolemy’s insistence on examining the universe as a rational system of cause and effect embodies the spirit of scientific inquiry that would shape the modern world we live in.

    References

    • Astrology: A history by Dr. Peter Whitfield (2001)
    • A Scheme of Heaven by Alexander Boxer
    • The Fated Sky: Astrology in History by Benson Bobrick
    • Ptolemy in Wikipedia.com
    • Tetrabiblios by Cladius Ptolemy, trans. Frank Egleston Robbins

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  • Hellenistic Astrology: Rationalizing Fate

    Hellenistic Astrology: Rationalizing Fate

    When Alexander the Great returned to Babylon, headed back west after having conquered as far as the foothills of the Himalayas, Chaldean soothsayers reportedly warned him that his death was imminent. They may have even placed an ordinary man on the throne of Babylon, hoping he would absorb the brunt of the misfortune, but to no avail. By the evening of June 11th, 323 B.C., the young conqueror was dead, struck down at the age of 32 by disease or poison. He left behind the largest empire the world had ever seen, although it was not fated to outlast him as a unified whole for long. After 40 years of infighting, nominally Greek successor states controlled stretches of land from Macedonia in the west to the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms in the east.

    The three hundred years that followed, now known as the Hellenistic period, saw Greek people, language, and culture spread to the far corners of the known world and, conversely, the transmission of knowledge and belief systems from east to west in an unprecedented mixing of cultures. It would be this very mixture that would give rise to a new form of astrology, distinct from the omen texts of the Babylonians: Hellenistic astrology.

    Alexandria: The Birthplace of Astrology

    On the banks of the Nile, Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s commanders and possible half-brother, founded the dynasty that would rule the land of the pharaohs for the next three centuries. Ptolemaic Egypt’s crown jewel was the coastal city of Alexandria, an economic and cultural hub whose state-sponsored library drew intellectuals from all over the Hellenistic world. The library of Alexandria may have contained up to 400,000 scrolls at its peak, as the city commanded a book trade that stretched as far as modern-day Sri Lanka.

    The city itself was populated by three principal ethnic groups: Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews, all of whom would contribute to the fomenting field of astrology. The Egyptians had their own indigenous astrology, primarily tied to 36 groups of fixed stars, known as decans, that would be transposed onto the 360-degree Babylonian circle of the heavens and influence the development of the house system. The Greeks would bring their philosophy and mathematics, and the Jews, thanks to an extended imprisonment in Babylon, would bring key concepts of Mesopotamian star worship.

    The exact origins of Hellenistic astrology, like much of the period’s history, are shrouded in mystery. Later astrologers would attribute the field’s development to a cast of semi-legendary figures. The most well-known of these, Hermes Trismegistus, is credited with the writing of the diverse Hermetica, a variety of texts that would become the basis for Hermetic philosophy. Though many writers identified him as an Egyptian Greek, this Hermes was probably a semi-diety representing the cultural fusion taking place in Ptolemaic Egypt as a syncretic fusion of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes. Various Hermetic writings, including 100 aphorisms known as the Centiloquium, discussed astrology, especially in trying to establish planetary rulership over all sorts of things in nature. Nechepso and Petosiris, Egyptian astrologers identified as pharaoh-priests, were credited with a dialogue that espoused key astrological concepts without complex mathematical descriptions. The Jewish prophet Abraham and even Zoroaster, among others, were also listed as proto-astrologers in this emerging art. No full texts attributed to these authors have survived to the current day, but later hellenistic astrologers such as Vettius Valens would cite these figures when outlining the lineage of the field—although even he would complain of the cryptic nature of their writings.

    Chances are, however, that many tenants of astrology entered Greek by way of translated Babylonian texts. Both Vitrivius and Jewish historian Josephus refer to Berossus, a Mesopotamian astrologer and historian who founded a school for astrology on the Greek island of Kos, near present day Bodrum, Turkey, at around 280 B.C. Kos was at the time under Ptolemaic control. The island had also become a major center for Hellenistic medicine as the site of the Hippocratic medical school, and this proximity may have contributed to the later role astrology played in the medical practices of the premodern world. At his school in Kos, Berossos was said to have taught students the art of astrology while translating Mesopotamian texts into Greek. The astrologer’s statue reputedly once stood in Athens, its golden tongue symbolizing the accuracy of his predictions.

    From the Celestial Sphere to the Horoscope

    Whether from the teachings of Berossos or the increased association between Mesopotamia and Greek-speaking peoples, astrology and the cultural significance of the heavens began to grow in the Hellenistic world. Prior to contact with Mesopotamian star worship traditions, Greek astronomy was relatively undeveloped. The Greeks used the stars primarily for naval navigation or agriculture, and so they had identified only a few northern constellations and had only descriptive names for the planets.

    There was no association between the Greek pantheon and the celestial bodies; rather, the Greek gods were more akin to your every day, quarrelsome humans, simply with superhuman abilities. Similarly, there was no concept of the immortal soul. But once the Greeks came in contact with the religions of Mesopotamia and Persia, they were quickly won over by the perceived “mysticism” of these eastern faiths. The rise of the fatalistic cult of Tyche, or Fortune, and the mysterious Mithraism, popular in the 4th and 5th centuries B.C., saw Greek worshipers increasingly drawing on eastern depictions of the gods and the cosmos.

    By 400 B.C., Plato wrote of the planets in association with the Greek pantheon; Ishtar had become Aphrodite, Marduk, Zeus. The Romans would adopt this system, giving the planets the names they still hold today. The quarrelsome gods of Greece had become planetary deities who could sway human destiny—and, accordingly, whose will could be interpreted through the observation of the heavenly bodies.

    The mystic aspects of astrology were relatively new to the Greeks. However, they had a long and developed history of both philosophy and mathematics capable of crafting a systematic art (rather, a protoscience) out of semi-religious star worship. The idea of the celestial sphere was developed as early as the 5th century, and Archimedes was building models of it by the 3rd century. Astrologers continued to use Babylonian arithmetical calculations until the development of trigonometry, but the geometrical model was much easier to visualize and would be perfected by future generations. Eventually, the work of Hipparchus and Ptolemy allowed for precise prediction of planetary positions, and also contributed technical terminology to help pinpoint the celestial bodies. In the most basic rational view, the heavens consisted of positive and negative forces moving in geometric patterns. 

    Greek philosophers too had much to say about astrology. Aristotle saw the stars as divine beings and argued that their regular motion could only be explained through some kind of divine intelligence. Plato in turn developed the concept of the demiurge, the intelligent creator who set the planets in motion and whose plans would ultimately be read by that motion. This interrelation became known as “cosmic sympathy” and is most famously characterized by the phrase “as above, so below.” Different astrologers—and critics of astrology—would all cite the prevailing philosophies of their era, from Middle Platonism to Neopythagoreanism as well as Stoicism, the most popular system of belief in the Hellenistic world.

    Principal Techniques in Hellenistic Astrology

    Regardless of the influence that different contemporary philosophies had on individual astrologers, Hellenistic astrology itself was built from technical terminology and concepts that made it a rationalized system in its own right. All astrologers had more or less the same associations within the fourfold system, still used in modern astrology, of the planets, signs, houses, and aspects. Each planet was given rulership over certain zodiac signs, acting within those signs as a lord in his dominion. Astrologers recognized four major aspects and conjunction, with the sextile (60 degrees) and the trine (120 degrees), plus conjunction, generally considered benefic associations, while squares (90 degrees) and oppositions were generally viewed as negative aspects. Hellenistic astrologers also made use of a system of mutual reception—when two aspecting planets are in each other’s dominion in terms of sign, exaltation, triplicity, decan or bound—that added another layer of nuance to the reading of a native’s chart.

    The planets were therefore interpreted in terms of their positions within signs, in relation to each other, and within the 12 houses. Hellenistic astrologers used the whole sign house system until the 2nd century A.D., wherein the whole of the rising sign represented the first house, and all other houses corresponded to the signs as they progressed from the ascendant. The Greek propensity for dualities meant that the idea of positive and negative forces became the system of benefic and malefic luminaries, while signs were classified as either male or female. Each of the four elements was associated with three signs, and the resulting triplicities (for example, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius as members of the fire triplicity) would have a significant influence of the practice of Hellenistic astrology. Astrologers also considered sect, whether the native was born during the day or at night, as a prominent factor in determining their fate.

    Ptolemy, perhaps the most scientific of the Hellenistic astrologers, attributed the four qualities (wet and dry, hot and cold) to the planets, and strengthened the bond between medicine and astrology in terms of sign rulership of different parts of the body. He would also outline a basic system in which the different planets would rule the different periods of an individual’s life, providing an extremely influential rulership structure that would still be a part of the Western psyche in Shakespeare’s time.

    The majority of the astrology practiced in the Hellenistic world was natal, concerned with the fortunes and fate of individuals. As in Babylon, mundane astrology remained prominent, as did electional astrology, providing auspicious times for the founding of cities and the like. Limited evidence of a horary tradition survives, although that branch would develop further with medieval and early Renaissance astrologers. Unlike modern psychological natal astrology, Hellenistic astrology was not limited to foretelling the disposition of the native but involved a number of powerful predictive techniques.

    Valens, for instance, spends much of his Anthologies expounding different techniques for calculating the length of life, as well as for determining the time-lord of a period in the native’s life. Through a process known as profection, the Hellenistic astrologer could determine when a certain planet in the native’s chart would be “activated” and gain special power over a certain period of the individual’s life. Other astrologers, from Manilius and Dorotheus to Firmicus Maternus, would build on the same agreed-upon principles with their own practices, creating a complex and evolving field that developed thanks to a balance between standardization and innovation.

    An Empire is Born

    By the 1st century B.C., traces of this system could be found all across the Hellenistic world. Charts from practicing astrologers showcased these new techniques and by the 1st century A.D. a number of manuals on the arts, from the verse of Manilius’ Astronomica to Valens hands-on Anthologies and Ptolemy’s widely influential, if somewhat dry Tetrabiblios, had appeared. These works, despite their differences and innovations, represented a widespread and standardized practice that combined a rationalized form of planetary worship with the most popular philosophies of the day, plus cutting-edge mathematical processes.

    From the contributions of disparate cultures, the astrologers of the Hellenistic world had developed a systematic way to determine the fate of the individual. While Greek would remain the scientific lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean for centuries, a growing power in the west would soon eclipse the Hellenistic successor states of Alexander’s short-lived empire. This new power, Rome, would in turn absorb the cultural and scientific advancements of the Hellenistic world and, with it, astrology. As early as 139 B.C., the Praetorian edict expelled all astrologers from Italy, showing that astrology in Rome was still largely practiced by foreigners. But as astrology in the rising Roman state ceased to be a foreign concept and became a more significant part of life, it began to inhabit a new seat of power.

    Astrologers writing in Greek had provided the philosophical and scientific structure that would remain largely unchanged until the early Middle Ages, but it would be the Romans who would give it an unequivocal political status. From the victories of Augustus Caesar until the rise of Christianity, Roman emperors would rule or fall, kill or be killed as foretold by the planetary “dance of the gods.”

    References

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  • The Fault in our Stars: Marcus Manilius and Western Astrology

    The Fault in our Stars: Marcus Manilius and Western Astrology

    At our birth we begin to die, and our end depends on our beginning

    – Marcus Manilius, Astronomica, trans. Thomas Creech

    Shortly before the beginning of the Christian era, the Roman Republic underwent a series of monumental shifts. The assassination of Julius Caesar on the infamous Ides of March, 44 B.C., threw the republic into a civil war, from which it emerged in 31 B.C. as an empire under the rule of Augustus Caesar.  

    These political shifts came with other changes in the Roman world, notably the rise in the prestige of astrology. A proto-scientific form of divination, Roman astrology was built on Greek, Babylonian, and Egyptian astronomy and mathematics combined with aspects of the Roman polytheistic pantheon. It was during the reign of Tiberius, the second Roman emperor, that the oldest surviving comprehensive astrological text was written: Marcus Manilius’ Astronomica. Very little is known about Marcus Manilius himself, except that he was a poet, mathematician, and astronomer. Astronomica is his sole surviving text, and much of what we know about the poet can be derived from the text itself.

    Like Lucretius’ Epicurean text De rerum natura (On the nature of things), Astronomica is a lengthy didactic poem written in hexameter. Unlike its Epicurean counterpart, Manilius’ text focuses on what was then the cutting edge of Roman astrology, all told from a distinctly Stoic perspective of the universe. While not as well-known as Roman poets such as Virgil, or as famous as prominent astrologers such as Ptolemy, Manilius nonetheless produced a text that managed to summarize complex mathematical procedures in verse while laying the groundwork for what would become modern Western astrology. By delving into the style, content, and worldview of this fundamental text, the reader will come to understand how the verses of Manilius’ Astronomica still echo in our collective understanding of astrology today.

    Roman astrology in the first century A.D.

    Prior to Augustus’ reign, the Roman’s primary methods of divination involved observing the flight of birds, known as augury, and examining the livers of sheep, known as haruspicy. During the rule of Augustus and his successors, however, the importance of astrology within the empire blossomed, with many emperors having their own court astrologers. Augustus himself prominently featured the symbols of his astrological sign, Capricorn, in palatial art and even coins. In contrast to earlier, animal-related divination methods, astrology used rigorous mathematical analysis to provide emperors, among others, with valuable predictions about their fortunes, their projected lifespan, and even the chain of imperial succession. It was perhaps this feature that underpinned the influential role this formerly Greek divination practice began to play in the Roman Empire.

    Few astrological texts predating Astronomica survive, the most notable being the Hermetic Writings, horoscopes penned by an anonymous astrologer 100 years before Manilius’ seminal work. Similarly, while Manilius does not include example horoscopes in Astronomica, neither the basic form used by preceding astrologers nor the precursor of the modern natal chart first used by Byzantine astrologers, the geometry of the circle of the Zodiac and its subdivisions plays a large role in the work.

    Astronomica: Structure and Key Concepts

    Astronomica consists of five mostly complete books, with one extended passage in the fifth book lost to time, though some experts speculate that the initial work could have been up to eight books in length. Three key features demonstrate the maturity of the field of astronomy at the time of Manilius’ writing. First, the identification of astrological positions around the ecliptic; second, clear rules for interpreting those positions; and third, the use of technical terminology.

    The first book begins by outlining Manilius’ concept of the universe, which he defines as being created out of the four elements, ruled by a divine spirit and governed by reason. It then delves into the Greek model of the heavens, upon which Manilius and many other early astrologers based their investigations. This model involved two spheres, the first being the Earth, at the center of the universe, and the second being the firmament, the hollow sphere upon which the stars were thought to be fixed. The Sun, Moon, and planets were said to revolve around the Earth in the space in between the two spheres. The first book concludes with a discussion of constellations, comets, and the origin of the Milky Way.

    From Andreas Cellarius Harmonia Macrocosmica, 1660/61. Chart showing signs of the zodiac and the solar system with world at centre.
    Scenography of the Ptolemaic cosmography

    In book two, Manilius begins to discuss the characteristics of the 12 signs of the Zodiac. He does so in part by linking the sign to its symbol: Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, and so forth. The signs are further classified as masculine or feminine (in line with the Hellenistic notion that odd numbers are masculine and even numbers are feminine) as well as hot or cold, moving or fixed, and even nocturnal or diurnal. Interestingly, he proceeds to delve further into each sign’s characteristics based on their Olympic protectors. This too differs from modern astrology, as most later astrologers would focus more on the planet associated with each sign rather than the Roman deity. In Manilius’ conception, the god of war, Mars, was the patron of Scorpio, whereas Aries, more commonly associated with the planet Mars in later astrological practices, was associated with the Roman goddess Minerva. Manilius also links each sign to a certain section of the body in a diagram commonly known as the Zodiac Man. This key concept likely predated Astronomica but played a significant role in medical practices prior to the emergence of scientific empiricism. Manilius then presents the concept of aspects or significant angles within the birth chart. Points on the ecliptic within 10 degrees of each other are said to be in conjunction, whereas a 60 degree angle between two points represents harmony and a 90 degree angle represents conflict. Further important angles include the sextile, a 120 degree angle, and opposition when two point face each other across the chart. Each of the 12 signs is also divided into a further 12 parts, known as dodecatemoria, each consisting of 2.5 degrees of the ecliptic.

    The second book ends with a discussion of the fixed circle of the observer and the dodecatropes, 12 sections of the ecliptic dependent on the observer’s location and time that later became what are currently known as houses. Manilius’ text is the first notable work to mention the system of houses, which he called templa,although he merely gave each generic positive or negative associations. A century later, Vettius Valens would outline the concepts now associated with each of the houses.

    The third book, considered the most mathematically complex in Astronomica, is mostly dedicated to the discussion of sortes, also known as lots, significant positions on the natal chart. The most important of these was the ascendant, or the sign rising on the horizon at the time of the horoscope. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t until the 20th century that astrologers began to prioritize the sun sign over the rising sign in horoscopes. Other important lots included the descendant, the aptly named lot of fortune, and the prorogator, which was used to calculate a subject’s projected life span.

    Opening page shows brown text on yellow background with intricate blue design on left
    The opening page of the poem Astronomica by the Roman poet Manilius.

    The fourth book delves into a number of concepts originating in Egyptian astrology, especially decans. Consisting of 36 groups of stars located south of the ecliptic, decans were used to calculate time in ancient Egypt and gradually became deified, eventually being portrayed in Islamic art. The fifth and final book recounts the myth of Andromeda and Perseus, notable for containing a number of characters immortalized as constellations. Manilius uses the myth to explain the significance of paranatellonta, stars that rise simultaneously with a given zodiac sign. These stars, such as the Hyades, helped astrologers calculate horoscopes even in the event of cloud cover. He ends the work by meditating on the elaborate structure of the heavens that allows the astrologer to see the workings of fate, which he attributes to the divine intelligence ruling the universe.

    The Influence of Manilius on Western Astrology

    In the coming centuries, many Greco-Roman scholars, including Vettius Valens and Claudius Ptolemy, would build upon and expand the concepts first outlined in Astronomica. The text itself languished in relative obscurity during the Middle Ages, and was first rediscovered in 1416 by Poggio Bracciolini, an Italian humanist. It was translated into English in 1697 by Oxford-educated poet and translator Thomas Creech. Manilius is often associated with famous classicist AE Houseman, who spent the first thirty years of the 20th century editing Astronomica and is largely responsible for bringing the Latin poet to the attention of Western scholarship. In 2009, Katharina Volk published Manilius and His Intellectual Background, the first English language text on Manilius and Astronomica. While the concepts outlined by Manilius arguably form the foundation of Western astrology, Astronomica is not widely read, likely because of the complex mathematical nature of the text. Nevertheless, a few key features point to the way in which Manilius’ writings influenced contemporary concepts of astrology.

    The first, a product of the complex mathematical nature of Astronomica, is the composition of the natal chart. Many of the key features that Manilius outlines in the second and third books are recognizable even to amateur astrologers today. A circular chart with two layers, the outermost, representing the 12 signs of the zodiac, revolving around the innermost, representing the 12 mundane houses, which are fixed based on the position of the observer, is the basic outline for any contemporary horoscope. While the main qualities associated with both Zodiac signs and the mundane houses have developed considerably since Manilius, the basic layout remains the same. Accurate calculations of the boundaries between signs and houses remained mathematically impossible until the works of Ptolemy a century later, and most contemporary astrologers use ephemerides, or precalculated tables, today, as using different mathematical processes can still yield different results. Manilius also set forth the division of the birth chart into quadrants via lines connecting the ascendant and descendant and the midheaven and the immum coeli, or lower midheaven. The system of aspects, or key angles existing between two or more points on the ecliptic, is still in use as well.

    The second vital feature of Manilius’ text has to do not just with its content but with the worldview he espouses. Considered by many classicists an inherently Stoic text, Astronomica is written with the assumption of a divine, reasoning creator that rules the universe through an orderly system of cause and effect. Similar to Plato’s concept of cosmic sympathy, Manilius asserts that the careful observer can make sense of the order of the universe by observing its natural features. Indeed, as he writes, “nature is nowhere concealed”. While this worldview reinforces a sense of fate and interconnectedness, it also encourages further investigation of the natural world in search of knowledge. While astrology is considered a pseudo-science by some today, astrologers in the 1st century A.D. employed the cutting edge of mathematics and astronomy to construct birth charts.  In fact, Poggio Bracciolini may have looked to Manilius’ text primarily as a source of information about comets and other celestial bodies, at a time when the Greek model of the universe was being called into question. As mentioned earlier, the diagram of the Zodiac Man was also a significant resource for physicians prior to the advent of modern medicine.

    While not as well-known as works by contemporary poets like Lucretius, or as fully developed as later astrological writings, Marcus Manilius’ Astronomica nonetheless lays the groundwork for contemporary Western astrology. By outlining key terms and plotting the geometric organization of the natal chart, as well as introducing the major aspects and the system of houses, Manilius gave astrologers vital tools still in use today. Furthermore, by examining the world around him in a manner both artful and rigorous, he arguably espoused a worldview that called for the continual advancement of scientific knowledge, using whatever tools are available to the observer.

    References

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  • Astrology, Power and the Roman World

    Astrology, Power and the Roman World

    In the early years of the Roman Empire astrology was held in high regard. It was seen as a legitimate way of predicting the future of individuals, including the powerful, such as the Roman emperors. As an art and a science, astrology had an intricate philosophy and complex techniques that allowed the astrologer to uncover the path of someone’s life, their motivations, their career, love life, and even the length of their life and time of their death.

    Furthermore, the popularity of astrology made it an important asset for emperors and politicians. It had an impact on popular opinion, as people were familiar with the symbols of the zodiac and the planets. As the practice of astrology allowed the understanding of one’s future and that of others, emperors made use of it to better govern according to their interests. In this article, we will touch upon the relationship between astrology and power in the Roman Empire, and how astrology was viewed as a legitimate and politically valuable practice.

    Caesar Augustus and Capricorn

    Augustus was the first Roman emperor, ascending in the chaos that marked the end of the Roman Republic. His rise came at a time of great change, as the entire Roman government came under the control of a single individual. With that, Augustus not only ascended to power but also popularized himself as a divine being of the uttermost importance, above regular humans.

    One resource that he made use of to increase his popularity was astrology. On one hand, it was widely recognized popular knowledge; on the other, its predictions about the fate of all were seen as reliable. Augustus published his own natal chart as a way to demonstrate to the public that he was destined to rule.

    Another association that he made use of was the sign of Capricorn, which he claimed as his own Sun sign and whose symbol he put on official coins. The symbolism of this move was significant: in the Northern Hemisphere, when the Sun is in Capricorn, the day starts to grow in length once again following the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. In this sense, Augustus’ association with Capricorn was an approximation with the glory of the Sun recovering its power, indicating that, after all the civil wars that preceded him, there was finally time for peace.

    Astrologers in the Imperial Court: Thrasyllus

    The successor of Augustus was Tiberius. He had been in exile on Rhodes, an island in the Aegean Sea, before he became emperor. There, according to legend, he had a consultation with the astrologer Thrasyllus, who visited him in his house. He was impressed with the knowledge of this astrologer, who said that he would succeed Augustus as the next emperor. Tiberius, however, had a tyrannical habit after consultations: he would throw the astrologer off the cliff his house was on.

    Half-length portrait of Tiberius emperor of Rome, from behind, facing towards the right, surrounded by an etched frame with swept centres and corners
    Tiberius, emperor of Rome

    So, after the Thrasyllus made such an auspicious prediction about him, he decided to test the astrologer: he asked what Thrasyllus predicted for himself in that very moment. After some quick calculations, the astrologer became terrified and said that he was in imminent fatal danger.

    Impressed, Tiberius decided that, instead of throwing him off a cliff, he should make Thrasyllus his official astrologer when he became emperor. Thus, Thrasyllus became the first known court astrologer in the Roman Empire.

    This unprecedented post brought rewards and recognition to Thrasyllus. Unfortunately, his works have not survived to the present day, but we know that he wrote a treatise named Pinax in which he mentions Nechepso, Petosiris, and Hermes, three of the mythic founders of astrology.

    An astrologer being such an important consultant for the emperor indicates the importance given to astrology in the Roman Empire. Through the information provided by it, Tiberius could make better decisions on topics such as war and politics, and even persecute opponents according to their natal charts.

    Tamsyn Barton, in her book Ancient Astrology, mentions that Thrasyllus saved the life of many by assuring Tiberius that he had many years of life left. This was necessary because the discovery of natal charts indicative of power could lead to the execution of the owner of that chart, eliminating the risk of him becoming emperor by murdering the current one.

    Court Astrologer to three Emperors: Balbillus

    Another famous astrologer from the early years of the Roman Empire was Balbillus. Some authors, including Chris Brennan, believe that he was the son of Thrasyllus, which indicates some sort of astrological lineage.

    Balbillus was the court astrologer for Claudius, Nero and Vespasian. Besides being an advisor for the most powerful figures of the empire, Balbillus also held important offices in Egypt, where he was born. According to Brennan, he was the high priest of the temple of Hermes in Alexandria, overseer of all imperial buildings and sacred sites in Egypt, and the head of the Museum and Library of Alexandria.

    After his death, a festival called the Balbillea was held in the city of Ephesus to pay homage to him. These festivals were maintained from the year 85 A.D. until the mid-third century.

    Just like during the reign of Tiberius, astrology in Balbillus’ time could also lead to the death of people. Barton mentions that, when Nero was in power, Balbillus recommended the infamously blood-thirsty emperor kill various senators to avoid the risks imposed by the passage of an ominous comet. This advice was quite the opposite of the kind that Thrasyllus gave to appease the fears of Tiberius; the researcher Benson Bobrick even says that Balbillus, under the reign of Nero, showed himself to be a man of unquenchable malice, as he was responsible for the death of many.

    Astrology in honorable positions

    The powerful positions given to Thrasyllus and Balbillus, alongside the importance given to astrology by Augustus, demonstrate the value placed on this knowledge in the Roman Empire. Astrology was held in high regard, at least in the sense that the knowledge of the stars and the fates that they decreed was potentially powerful and, for this reason, dangerous.

    We can suppose that part of the reason for Tiberius to murder astrologers that came to him was a way of keeping them from using their predictions for conspiracy or personal gain. On the other hand, as Bobrick suggests, he could have been reassuring himself of the quality of their predictions: after all, if they could not predict their own death, how could they reliably predict anything? With this, he could be sure as well that the astrologers were not just flattering him.

    However, this cruel measure inflicted on astrologers was in no way indicative of disdain for astrology. There was nothing seen as superstitious in how powerful emperors dealt with astrologers, who functioned as valuable advisors. It is different from what we see in the relationship between Ronald Reagan and astrology, as Barton points out. In Roman times, astrology was understood as a legitimate way of knowing the truth of the cosmos and discovering the fate of  individuals.

    For that same reason, practicing astrology was not always a bed of roses: astrologers were frequently at risk of imprisonment, banishment, and execution.

    Astrologers in danger

    In the year 139 B.C., according to the Roman historian Valerius Maximus, astrologers and worshipers of Zeus Sabazios were banished from Rome and Roman Italy.

    A century and a half later, when Augustus reached old age, in 11 A.D., he forbade private astrological consultations, especially about someone’s death. This was possibly a way of preventing the prediction of his own death or, worse still, the hatching of an astrologically backed conspiracy to kill him for his power.

    Contemporary to Tiberius, a man named Marcus Scribonius Libo Drusus was accused of consulting astrologers, magicians, and dream interpreters, and of hiring one of them to use magic against the imperial family and senators. He was accused of planning a coup and committed suicide before the trial. Astrology was being used in conspiracies, and right after the accusation of Libo, the Roman Senate passed a decreed against astrologers and diviners, even executing two men because of it.

    Other similar events occurred throughout the history of the Roman Empire. The capacity to uncover the future, including the fate of emperors, would make astrologers not only powerful but dangerous. For this reason, politicians found it necessary to regulate their power.

    On one hand, we have Thrasyllus, a celebrated and honored astrologer guiding the emperor Tiberius; on the other, we have people like Libo and his astrologers, who were persecuted and executed for practicing the same art. The relationship between Roman emperors and astrological art was directly related to the kind of things that astrologers could know.

    The use that Augustus made of astrology to highlight his natal chart as proof of his right to rule was similar to the later practice of executing political rivals due to features of their own charts that identified them as risks to the emperor’s power. The presence of astrologers in court was important for the same reason that private astrologers predicting the death of emperors was dangerous and forbidden. Astrology was knowledge, and knowledge is power.

    Not surprisingly, we find an important astrologer of the 4th century, Firmicus Maternus, asserting in his book, the Mathesis, that no astrologer could ever predict the future of the emperor. Firmicus depicted the emperor as above the power of the planets and closer to God. As so, he advises astrologers not to try to make this kind of prediction and not to accept clients that want it. By putting the emperor above the stars, Firmicus was probably trying to mitigate the risk of persecution upon him and even his eventual readers – after all, Firmicus was a senator. If there was any suspicion that he was making predictions about the life of the emperor, he would certainly have been severely punished.

    Today we live in a very different world, and it is fascinating to imagine a time when astrology was taken so seriously that wars were begun, and people were executed based on the path of the stars. Even if some politicians today may be interested in astrological advice, the general sense is that nobody should rely too heavily on it. As we saw, the case was radically different in the Roman Empire.

    Bibliography

    • BARTON, Tamsyn. Ancient Astrology.
    • BOBRICK, Benson. The Fated Sky: Astrology in History.
    • BRENNAN, Chris. Hellenistic Astrology.
    • Thrasyllus at hellenisticastrology.com
    • FIRMICUS MATERNUS. Mathesis.
    • WHITFIELD, Peter. Astrology: A History.

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  • Heavenly Writings: The Babylonian Origins of Astrology

    Heavenly Writings: The Babylonian Origins of Astrology

    Sky and Earth both produce portents; though appearing separately, they are not separate, for sky and earth are joined.

    – Babylonian Diviner’s Manual

    Almost 3,000 years ago, in what is now Iraq, soothsayer-scribes stood atop stepped ziggurats, gazing up at the sky. Known as ummanu, these learned men would record what they saw on wet lumps of clay, using a reed stylus to cut cuneiform characters into the clay. But what were they looking for, and what bearing did the heavens have over human affairs in ancient Mesopotamia? In the answer to these questions lies the very roots of astrology.

    It was the Sumerians who, in addition to creating the cuneiform writing system, first identified and named the constellations. By 1700 B.C., observing the sky was one of the primary ways in which Babylonian ummanu deciphered omens from the gods, alongside examining the livers of sacrificed animals. But, in contrast to variations in sheep viscera, astronomical phenomena were regular. As avid list makers, the Babylonians discovered that, with the right data, anything from the motion of Venus to the timing of eclipses could be predicted. Before the invention of trigonometry or even the concept of orbital planetary movement, the Babylonians managed to develop mathematical functions that could effectively predict the motion of the heavenly bodies. They penned tablet after tablet of astrological compendia and developed new and increasingly scientific methods for reading the heavenly writings of their gods.

    By the last century B.C., the great cities that had made Mesopotamia a center of political, spiritual, and scientific innovation for millennia had fallen into decline. Foreign domination, first by the Persians and then the Alexandrian Greeks, meant that the wedge-shaped cuneiform script fell out of use in favor of Aramaic and Greek. State support for astrology decreased as political power shifted, and the Hellenistic world expanded to reach from the shores of the Adriatic to the Indus River Valley. But even as the wealth and power of Mesopotamia dwindled, its intellectual accomplishments were carried far beyond its borders, turning a local phenomenon into one of the cornerstones of the Hellenistic world.

    The Babylonian Worldview

    In many ways, Babylonian astrology was a byproduct of ancient Mesopotamian religious beliefs. Prosperous and well-organized cities in the fertile areas surrounding the Euphrates and Tigris rivers were ruled by kings, who at times extended their rule over greater or lesser areas in the region in history’s first empires. Each city had its principal patron god among the Mesopotamian pantheon, often featured in the epics that scribes recorded on cuneiform tablets.

    In addition to their earthly duties, Babylonian kings were considered representatives of the gods on Earth. A king’s responsibility to maintain a balance between his kingdom and the heavens was symbolized by his tending to a sacred tree. Kings would, in the governance of their kingdoms, err from time to time and provoke the wrath of the gods. Fortunately, the gods would not seek revenge without first issuing a warning, whether through portents or dreams.

    Eclipses were particularly ill omens, and Mesopotamian sources record instances of installing a dummy king during eclipses to avoid harm befalling the real king. Other astrological portents would grow in importance as the field developed over almost two millennia. The twin roles of the ummanu, that class of scholar-soothsayers, was to school the king in these portents, as well as perform rituals to restore the king’s purity. Their knowledge was said to have come to mankind from apkallu, hybrid half-animal half-human beings that lived on Earth in times past.

    Black and white crop of full engraving plate scan - from Plate 5 of the work "A second series of the monuments of Nineveh: including bas-reliefs from the Palace of Sennacherib and bronzes from the ruins of Nimroud ; from drawings made on the spot, during a second expedition to Assyria" (AH Layard)
    Bas-relief at an entrance to a small temple in Nimroud depicting battle of Marduk vs Tiamat – story from Enūma Eliš

    Many contemporary scholars believe that Babylonian astrology as such arose from the combination of star worship and the observations of celestial events as necessitated by calendar-making. In the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic, the gods created the heavens to mark the passage of time. Each luminary—the Sun, the Moon, and the five visible planets was each linked to certain gods. Jupiter, for example, represented Marduk, the head Babylonian deity and the protagonist of the Enuma Elish, while Venus represented Ishtar, the goddess of love, battle, fertility, and storms. As omens, each planet was eventually associated with the benefic or malefic nature that would translate into Hellenistic astrological practices.

    Astrology in Babylon

    The first form of astrology practiced in Mesopotamia was what by modern standards would be called “mundane” astrology. It did not deal in the fates or fortunes of individuals (apart from the king) and instead focused on the welfare of the city or kingdom as a whole. From their observations of the sky, the ummanu would record celestial phenomena on clay tablets that would be delivered to the king with an interpretation. These interpretations could be drawn from previous instances in which a given celestial event occurred, or via association. The king could then, in turn, send queries in return to the ummanu, an early but recognizable form of the relationship between astrologer and client. Predictions might relate to significant meteorological events, warfare, crops, and famine, or any other aspect of the state’s well-being, but there was no assumption of any cause and effect relationship between astrological occurrences and earthly matters. The Babylonians also practiced a form of astral medicine, with varying remedies based on the date and zodiac sign.

    The knowledge we have of astrology in ancient Mesopotamia comes largely from tablets penned by the ummanu. The earliest sources were compendia listing the rising and setting times of heavenly bodies, star charts, or omen texts. The Enuma Anu Enlil is the oldest known astrological compendium, listing over 7,000 omens over the course of 70 clay tablets. The omens were likely first written down during the Old Babylonian period and refer to an even older oral tradition, but the copy that has survived is from the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal’s library at Niveh and was likely written in the 7th century B.C.

    Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
    Cuneiform tablet: commentary on Enuma Anu Enlil, tablet 5, ca. late 1st millennium B.C.

    It was around this time that the Babylonians developed a number of key astrological innovations. First, astronomers began to record the daily position of the visible planets in early ephemerides known as Astronomical Diaries. Eventually, linear functions of time were developed to measure planetary velocity. These mathematical processes, along with the immense amount of data that Babylonian astronomers had amassed, allowed for effective predictions of celestial phenomena. This meant that, instead of making observations just before or slightly after an event, astrologers could predict planetary positions in both the past and the future, allowing them to forecast eclipses and other important omens and—as we will soon see—calculate the earliest horoscopes.

    By 400 B.C., the Babylonians had also identified the ecliptic as the path of the Sun, thus delineating the 12 constellations of the zodiac still in use today. As fixed stars, known as “normal” stars, played such a vital role in the Babylonian calendar, the Babylonian zodiac was fixed sidereally (in relation to stars) rather than tropically (in relation to the equinoxes and solstices). The passing of the four seasons coincided with the rising of the brightest stars in the fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. While each constellation of the zodiac is a different size, the Babylonians eventually divided the sky into twelve 30° arcs and used each segment to identify the position of a planet at any given time. They also grouped the zodiac signs into four groups of three based on a 120° aspect, an early form of triplicities, and established “secret houses” for each planet, the origin of Hellenistic exaltations.

    Once these developments had occurred, texts began to appear describing planetary positions with signs of the zodiac. With these come the very first horoscopes. Twenty-eight such texts, written between 400 and 100 B.C., survive to the current day. These texts include no version of a birth chart, a relatively modern invention, but instead consist of the client’s name, a list of planetary positions at the native’s date of birth, and little to no interpretation. The appearance of Greek names among the clients reflected the growth of foreign influence within Mesopotamia. By 125 B.C., Parthinian domination in the region meant a virtual end to Mesopotamian arts and sciences, but astrology itself would survive to flourish in other lands.

    The Legacy of Babylonian Astrology

    The reason behind the shift in Babylonian astrology from mundane to natal is unclear. However, it is likely that the splintering of political power in the region and foreign invasion meant less state support for astrology, such that astrologers may have begun to practice for wealthy private clients. Regardless, the practice of rulers referring to astrologers to decipher celestial omens remained a popular practice through the Hellenic and Roman eras while the practice of natal astrology continues to this day.

    How did the unique Mesopotamian system for deciphering celestial omens become so influential? The Jews learned of astrological and religious practices of the region during their Babylonian captivity (587-539 B.C.), eventually recording them in their scriptures. In 290 B.C., a Babylonian scholar and astrologer reportedly founded a school on the Greek island of Kos, and throughout the Hellenic world astrologers were often known as “Chaldeans”, a term referring to Babylonians. But it was in India and Ptolemic Egypt that Babylonian astrology would find the most fertile ground. Babylonian astrological practices reached Egypt as early as 500 B.C., where they merged with indigenous astrological practices and star lore. By the time of Ptolemy, the Egyptian city of Alexandria would be considered the center of Hellenistic astrology, a syncretic proto-science boasting a blend of Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek influences. Meanwhile, the first 49 tablets of the Enuma Anu Enlil reached northern India by the 4th century B.C., thanks to the Persians, and astrological materials soon began appearing in Sanskrit, including the 1st century A.D. text Garga Samhita. Lastly, in the addition to the impact Babylonian astrology would have on everything from the fates of Greek merchants to the succession of Roman emperors, researcher Ulla Koch–Westenholz identified in the practice the early elements of what would become a science. First, for the ummanu of Mesopotamia, the heavenly bodies operated by logical rules. These rules could be deciphered through the collection of data over time in early ephemerides. Lastly, the collection of data and consistent observation lead to the first “if x, then y” statements in the form of omen statements. In this way, the words and writings of Babylonian astrologers, gazing at the skies from atop their ziggurats some three millennia ago, still echo in our world today.

    References

    • Astrology: A History by Dr. Peter Whitfield
    • The Fated Sky by Benson Bobrick
    • Babylonian Astrology, Wikipedia
    • Babylonian Horoscopes By Francesca Rochberg
    • Study of Babylonian Observations sign boundaries by Gray and Steele
    • Studies on Babylonian Goal-Year Astronomy Part I by Gray and Steele
    • Babylonian Goal-Year Astronomy by Jennifer Gray
    • Hellenistic Astrology – The Study of Fate and Fortune by Chris Brennan
    • History of Horoscopic Astrology by James Holden

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