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Student Name: Konstantinos AchyrkidisStudent University Email: karamanoras@gmail.comModule code: AHAN 7003

Module title: History of Astrology.

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Assignment title: Are scientific or religious priorities most significant in attempts to reform astrology?

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Introduction.

The challenge to assess Astrology’s history of reforms, either as the result of scientific or religious priorities, is quite different from explaining it (Astrology) by any single theoretical framework.1 Viewed and examined within a specific religious, philosophical, social and political background and equally importantly, from the perspective of individual practitioners working within a particular milieu though, this distinction

1 Liz Green, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, Culture AndCosmos, 12:1, pp. 3-29, Spring/Summer, p.3, [Hereafter Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’].

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 3 out of 28Word Count: 4222 becomes less definite.2 Liz Greene quoting Alexander Ruperti notes how astrology of each time was ‘a reflection of the kind of order each culture saw in celestial motions, or the kind of relationship the culture formulated between heaven and earth’.3 When astrology developed, Lilian Laishley adds, through the Mesopotamian culture and during the two millennia that stretched across the Greek classical era and the Renaissance, there were no definite boundaries between philosophy, religion, and science.4 Its proponents were what we today would call 'multi-disciplinary'.5 Laishley quoting Robert Ellwood and Barbara McGraw explains that amain component of any religion is that it situates the focus of life beyond the ordinary, mundane, physical existence and places it instead on a larger, extraordinary reality of 'something more'.6 For Paul Bembridge the tendency of science to extend space ad infinitum can evoke a “terrible sense of limitlessness”, which is perceived simultaneously in a “sense of imprisonment” as participation in terms of specialty is not for everyone.7 However, astrological heavens, are “sensed through profoundly meaningful motions and throughtheir wonderful bodily vastness, not empty but alive”; although still exclusive for persons with no familiarity

2 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p.3.

3 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p.3.

4Lilian Laishley, ‘Astrology as Religion: Theory and practice’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 1:2,(2007), pp. 172-188, p. 173, [Hereafter Laishley, ‘Astrology as Religion: Theory and practice.’]. 5 Laishley, ‘Astrology as Religion: Theory and practice’, p.173. 6 Laishley, ‘Astrology as Religion: Theory and practice’, p.174.7 Paul Bembridge, ‘Writing the Heavens in the Modern World’, presented on an Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism conference, January 30, 2010, p. 2, [Hereafter Bembridge, ‘Writing the Heavens in the Modern World’]

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 4 out of 28Word Count: 4222 with the tradition.8 Francesca Rochberg studying the sixthcentury BCE Babylonian omen series, suggests that the ancient scribes did consciously use two distinct but harmoniously complementary methods of selecting and interpreting their data, observation and theory, facts within ‘formal schemata’ or a wider mythical theory; in this paper such coexistence shall be examined within the historical facts of certain astrological reforms.9

Mesopotamian Astrology: The Origins of the practice.

According to Nicholas Campion, the origins of astrological practice are traceable deep within the astral religion of ancient Mesopotamia in the third and second millenniums BCE.10 The observation of the orbits of the planets, Campion adds, signified in the Mesopotamian heavens the distinction between order and disorder in theapplication of astral divination.11 This became more specific, according to Paul Bembridge, when Mesopotamian astrologers observed the more regular orbits of Venus andJupiter in contrast to the rest of the planets that appeared moving in different speeds and erratic orbits

8 Bembridge, ‘Writing the Heavens in the Modern World, p.9 Francesca Rochberg, ‘Empiricism in Babylonian Omen Textsand the Classification of Mesopotamian Divination as Science’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 119: 4, pp. 559-569, p. 263, [Hereafter Rochberg, ‘Empiricism in Babylonian Omen Texts and the Classification of Mesopotamian Divination as Science’]10 Nicholas Campion, ‘The Concept of Destiny in Islamic Astrology and its Impact on Medieval European Thought’, Aram 1:2, 1989, pp. 281-289, p. 281, [Hereafter Campion, ‘The Concept of Destiny in Islamic Astrology and its Impact on Medieval European Thought’]11 Nicholas Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World,2 Vols., (London: Continuum, 2008), I , pp.388, p.54, [Hereafter Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World,I.]

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 5 out of 28Word Count: 4222 and this needed a certain theory to be explained .12 A written record called the Venus tablet dating from the mid-second millennium BCE, Campion argues, may be the first written evidence of human deduction of divine powerto natural mathematical or cosmic laws.13 In this mode, the knowledge of the predictable patterns of the heavens that correlated with terrestrial events would be the natural outcome in Mesopotamian astrological practice.14 Particularly among the Mesopotamian, omen series the Enuma Anu Enlil along with Mul Apin, were useful sources for understanding the specific techniques of observation and the rationale of relating the planets with certain attributes.15 Rochberg though suggests that abstaining from not classifying that native discipline of omens as ‘science’ may help comprehending some aspects of this intellectual tradition or empiricism and systematization of knowledge.16 Each planet performed series of behaviorsrelated to deities, their colors, their periodic orbits during the year and the certain relationships of the planets with each other; something that reinforces Rochberg’s argument for an already established relationship between ‘scientific’ and ‘religious’ practices in which it may be suggested that the aspect oftime was particularly stressed.17

The Egyptian World.

12 Paul Bembridge, ‘Reading the Heavens in the Ancient World’ , presented at Exeter Center for the Study of Western Esotericism, Jan 30th, 2010, p.6, [Hereafter Bembridge, ‘Reading the Heavens in the Ancient World’]13 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.59.14 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.59.15 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.70.16 Rochberg, ‘Empiricism in Babylonian Omen Texts and the Classification of Mesopotamian Divination as Science’, p.561.17 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p. 70.

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The Egyptian world became more active in the Middle Eastregion after the political unification of the Nile Valleyaround 2850 BCE and the state seems to combine its flourishing with an intense relationship with the sky priesthood and divine monarchy.18 The New Kingdom in 1570 BCE coincided later with the cosmological revolution of Akhenaten (1973-1362 BCE) where first hints of star divination appeared thus indicating some original production of astrological methods besides cultural fusion.19 The interest of Egypt for Babylonian practical cosmology followed the trails of the Egyptian invasions in Palestine and southern Syria around 1483 BCE specifically through the town of Ugarit while to the eastcontacts with India are probable.20 Egyptian astronomy, probably comprised little mathematics but expressed integral opinion to the ritual government of politics andreligion; thus stressing the aspect of place, regarding astrological-cosmic influences.21 “It was magical and scientific and at its core moral” for Campion, making plausible any suggestion for an analogous assimilation of‘scientific’ and ‘religious’ trends in the founding of the primary material for the later astrological practice in the region.22

Jewish Religion.

The Jewish tradition regardless of its scarce references to planets and constellations in the Old Testament is an indicative source for the aforementioned Zoroastrian appeal to the doctrine of malefic and benefic planets andsigns and that suggested a certain attitude towards the aspect of choice and thus direction for astrological

18 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.87.19 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.83.20 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.67.21 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.88.22 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.88.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 7 out of 28Word Count: 4222 influences.23 The appropriation of divine patterns that followed cyclic seasons of nature under the scrutiny of the prophets characterized possibly the Jewish religion.24

Prophet Amos (8th Century BCE) accused the ten tribes of Israel for neglecting, “The One who made the Pleiades andOrion” but sided instead with “Saturn or Sakkuth”.25 On this account, of religious practice’s attribution of qualifications towards planetary behaviors, Bembridge locates the origin of Venus’s identification with Lucipher as the fallen angel, which Archangel Michael casts down due to Lucipher’s pride to compete divine order.26 Quoting prophet Isaiah, Bembridge highlights eloquently this religious attribution towards Venus, ‘Howart thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning’, thus constructing a certain attitude in the later Christian creed, astrology had consequently to confront in its periods of reform.27

Orfism.

Greene draws also some lines of correlation of astrology with early Greek cultic tradition, suggesting apossible tone posed from the side of ‘religion’ in the archaic formulations of astrological knowledge.28 Such

23 Bembridge, Reading the Heavens in the Ancient World, p.8.24 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p. 115.25 The Bible, Amos, 5:8 & 5:26, King James 2000, http://kj2000.scripturetext.com/amos/5.htm/ Bembridge, Reading the Heavens in the Ancient World, p.8.26 Bembridge, Reading the Heavens in the Ancient World, p.9.

27Bible, Isaiah, 14:12, http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Isaiah-14-12/ Bembridge, Reading the Heavens in the Ancient World, p.9.28 Liz Greene, ‘The Influence of Orphic Beliefs on the Development of Hellenistic Astrology’, Culture and Cosmos, Vol. 9 no 1, Autumn/Winter 2005, p. 21, [Hereafter Green ‘The Influence of Orphic Beliefs on the Development of

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 8 out of 28Word Count: 4222 texts (Orfic) emerging from the sixth century BCE in northern Greece, Greene records, comprised a fluid aggregate of doctrines, rituals and sacred literature linked by a common theme and spreading to the Greek Romanworld.29 The specific beliefs Greene adds reflected earlier Egyptian, Babylonian, Phoenician, Iranian and Indian sources as well as Thracian and shamanistic practices similar to the Eleusinian mysteries.30 For Walter Burkert, Greene quotes, Orphism’s most important element was “the change it initiated in the concept of the soul”; the special individuality of a person was definitely a soul attribute, which survived after death.31

Alberto Bernabe and Ana I. Himenez St Cristobal, who studied a significant number of Orphic tablets, translatefrom the original text in the Derveni specimens, “the demons (guardians), enemies of souls turn out to be an obstacle”.32 In the Eleuthera and Milopotamus tablets, the reply of the soul to the guardians is: “I am the son of Earth and of starry Heaven”; while in the Cretan tablets it is also recited, “..but my race is heavenly”.33 Greeneexplains that Orphism was an “enigmatic approach through poetry rather than the rational cosmologies of Ionian philosophers as Thales (c.624-c.546 BCE)” in which it is the aspect of appropriation and magical use of astrological influences that is raised.34 The divinity of the elements in Orphic belief and their correlation to human body, gods and planets indicates possibly a primary

Hellenistic Astrology’]. 29 Green ‘The Influence of Orphic Beliefs on the Development of Hellenistic Astrology’, p. 21.30 Green ‘The Influence of Orphic Beliefs on the Development of Hellenistic Astrology’, p. 21-2.31 Green ‘The Influence of Orphic Beliefs on the Development of Hellenistic Astrology’, p. 23.32 Alberto Bernabe and Ana I. Himenez St Cristobal, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World: Instructions for the Netherworld, The Orphic Gold Tablets, (Lieden: Brill, pp. 139, 2008), p. 36, [Hereafter Bernabe & St Cristobal, The Orphic Gold Tablets]33 Bernabe & St Cristobal, The Orphic Gold Tablets, pp. 56, 57.34 Green ‘The Influence of Orphic Beliefs on the Development of Hellenistic Astrology’, p. 24.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 9 out of 28Word Count: 4222 empirical practice that consequently overlapped with astrology.35

Greek Philosophy.

A certain division of Greek thought, to Pre-Socratic’s who were concerned with grand questions of existence, eternity and structure of the cosmos; and Socratics arguing on the development of rational methods of investigation, found Plato (424-348 BCE) in the middle trying to synthesize these two polarities.36 Plato according to Campion established the foundation of western cosmology based on a predilection to mathematicalmodels of theorizing.37 Seen as if through “the dimension of cubes and everything that has depth” which “no city holds them in honor”; it was a rather ideal, geometrical aspect with contemporary investigators of Plato as “too arrogant” and in need for a “director”, as he proposed.38 Plato stressed the need for participation in the “true science of astronomy” and “the right use” of “that natural indwelling intelligence of the soul” in celestialmotions and identified himself as a useful “lawgiver” in this project where a certain empirical tone towards the ideal may be recognized later to be appropriated by Aristotle (384-322 BCE).39

35 Green ‘The Influence of Orphic Beliefs on the Development of Hellenistic Astrology’, p. 30.36 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.137.37 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.137.38 Plato, Republic,7, 528. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D7%3Asection%3D528b, [Hereafter Plato, Republic] /Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.151.39 Plato, Republic, 7, 530, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Rep.+7.530&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 10 out of 28Word Count: 4222

Methodologies and Epistemologies on the present paper’s religion - science distinction.

Greene’s discussion on the distinct attitudes of religious participation and scientific thought may reaffirm that those parallel historical lines of human activity are modern terms attributed to cultures during scientific research that do not substantiate any sharp distinction; nevertheless, separate religious or scientific groups are historically present.40 Actually, she adds there are observable internal processes within religious or scientific fields that may be more subtle and interdependent than later descriptions imply.41 The dominance of participation may for some astrologers, create religious or poetic sense; while the dominance of causality may, for some astrologers, promote scientific understanding but in essence, participation may be seen as a possible prerequisite of causality.42 In this respectRochberg’s comment of ‘conceptual devising for the sake of completeness or symmetry’, regarding Mesopotamian omens’ assimilation of observed facts within “scholastic schemata”, may in certain ways indicate a fusion of ‘scientific’ facts within ‘religious’ theories.43

The Hellenistic and Roman Worlds.

The Hellenistic astrological cosmos for Campion was the development and systematization of Babylonian material

40 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p.2641 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p.26.

42 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p.26.43 Rochberg, ‘Empiricism in Babylonian Omen Texts and the Classification of Mesopotamian Divination as Science’, 563.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 11 out of 28Word Count: 4222 into a meaningful context based on an intricate system ofPythagorean mathematics.44 Roman astronomer Ptolemy (c.90-c.168 AD) in Alexandria, in the midst of influences from Christian, Gnostic, and Hermetic beliefs acted as a compiler of astrological theory and practice.45 Ptolemy tried to compromise his astrological doctrine within Carneades’ (214/3-129/8 BCE) and Cicero’s savage criticisms and set up his strategy on straddling between Plato and Aristotle.46 Thus, he combined the belief on thesoul, with natural effects as an aftereffect “of the changes that accompany the seasons” and adopting Pythagorean mathematics, provided a scientific basis for astrology – not in the Babylonian sense – while abstainedfrom the spiritual trends of Hermeticism and Mithraism.47 In Ptolemy’s scheme, the sub-lunar level – that is the terrestrial and atmospheric environment between Earth andMoon – raised more interest; with climatic and cultural influences considered crucial to the intelligent understanding of natal astrology.48 Each individual was interpretable within his certain cultural and geographic or climatic environment.49 Rochberg suggests that reducingthe criterion of empiricism to simple, sense-quantifiable

44 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.206, 208.45 Joshua Stein, ‘Cicero’s Use of Astronomy as Proof of the Existence of the Gods’, Culture and Cosmos, Proceedings of the INSAP IV Conference, p. 425, [Hereafter Stein, ‘Cicero’s Use of Astronomy as Proof of the Existence of the Gods.’].

46 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.208.47 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, Book I, Chapter 2, ‘That Knowledge by astronomical Means is Attainable, and How Far’, http://www.kronosofia.dk/frames/side/biblioteket/tetrabiblos/tetrabiblos.html#side2, [Hereafter Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos]/ Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.209.48 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.212.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 12 out of 28Word Count: 4222 data, presupposes a reality apart from the observer something that seems to have puzzled the astrological reformers of the past too.50 Stein finds in Cicero’s attacks, a philosophical anxiety to ascribe to an organized universe something more; extending beyond the partial, effectual relations among planets and terrestrial phenomena, which for Cicero can be attained through “divine sciences” and through perception of celestial harmony.51 Rochberg describes such enquiry for the unknown, in the case of Mesopotamia omen series, as “observed entities that could be imagined by extension and extrapolation from observed phenomena”; which in the case of Cicero as a Roman philosopher would not be expressed by symbolic thought but rational induction.52

Early Christian Church.

Tim Hegedus, in his ‘Early Christianity and Ancient Astrology’ notes that early Christian Church Fathers not only did they use previous summaries of the philosophical schools to argue against astrology, but they demonstrated the ability to formulate their own argument as well.53 Origen

49 Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, I, p.212.50 Rochberg, ‘Empiricism in Babylonian Omen Texts and the Classification of Mesopotamian Divination as Science’, 564./ Cicero, Somnium Scipionis or Dream of Scipio, Transl. by Andrew P. Peabody, Chapter Five: The Music of The Spheres, http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_cic_scipiodream.htm, [Hereafter Cicero, Somnium Scipionis]51 Stein, ‘Cicero’s Use of Astronomy as Proof of the Existence of the Gods’, p.426.52 Rochberg, ‘Empiricism in Babylonian Omen Texts and the Classification of Mesopotamian Divination as Science’, 564.53 Tim Hegedus, Early Christianity and ancient astrology, (New York: Peter Lang, 2007), p. 24, [Hereafter Hegedus, Early Christianityand Ancient Astrology]

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 13 out of 28Word Count: 4222 for instance posed the question regarding the insertion from his contemporary astrologers of notional (νοητός) signs in their calculations as distinct from actual, concrete or formed signs (μορφώματα); indicating thus an assault from the religious camp towards a method perhaps identical with Babylonian ‘schemata’ of astral divination.54 Other arguments of early Christian Church Fathers, against the effectiveness of astrology, are for example the precession of the equinoxes, or the “impossibility of the aspects”- the relations between signs; these may have provoked a possible force of pressure towards some argument that actually co formulated and later reformed astrology.55 One of these Church Fathers was St Augustine Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD) who wrote that celestial bodies have no direct impression on human intellect; explaining, “so it is impossible for the soul of a celestial body, if be animated, to make an impression on intellect and will by means of the motion of a celestial body”.56 In addition, Augustine acknowledged a higher unifying divine providence or “soul of the heavens” which affected only the will of soul-possessing beings, which “cannot be the cause of our acts of choice or understanding through the motion of the heavens” that is the planets and signs.57 Augustine still, accepted the need of the soul for external stimuli or “intellectual light” via the senses in order to understand nature’s order complying thus with

54 Tim Hegedus, Early Christianity and ancient astrology, (New York: Peter Lang, 2007), p. 32.55 Tim Hegedus, Early Christianity and ancient astrology, (New York: Peter Lang, 2007), p. 33-4.56 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Vermon J. Bourke, transl., Book Three, part II, (London: Universityof Notre Dame Press, 1991), p. 31, [Hereafter Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles.]

57 Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, p. 32.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 14 out of 28Word Count: 4222 Aristotelian deduction of distinction between sciences and theology and ascribing in the latter the research of the divine within physical objects.58 That aspect of soul to external stimuli of course was not equal to what sacred scripture ascribed as “perception beyond manifestation”; but had set a definite chasm, later the occult revival had to deal with, through correspondences.59 In this way, Augustine recognized certain indirect relationships between lesser bodily lifeand celestial bodies’ influences.60

Medieval World: Western Europe and Islam.

Astrology disappeared from Western Europe in the fifth century AD after the combined impact of Germanic invasionsand hostility of Christianity.61 The Islamic world is responsible for the transmission of the legacy of Babylonian astral religion to medieval Europe during the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries AD.62 The Al-Biruni’s text Elements of the Art of Astrology, published in 1029 AD, included detailed rules for interpretation of nativities,and horoscopes cast for times of birth.63 The Golden Age

58 Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, p. 15/Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book VI, Part 1, [Hereafter, Aristotle, Metaphysics], http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.6.vi.html. 59 Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, p. 17.60 Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, p. 19.61 Campion, ‘The Concept of Destiny in Islamic Astrology’,p. 282.62 Campion, ‘The Concept of Destiny in Islamic Astrology’,p. 282.63 Campion, ‘The Concept of Destiny in Islamic Astrology’,p. 283/ Al-Biruni, The Book of Instruction in The Elements of The Art ofAstrology, edited, commentary by R. Ramsay Wright, pp. 129,131, 138, [Hereafter Al-Biruni, Elements of the Art of Astrology] http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=VbPna7GOoIEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=el&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 15 out of 28Word Count: 4222 for Islamic astrology stretches according to Campion between the tenth and eleventh centuries AD, when Shiite Princes and the tolerance of Shiism for Hermeticism and Pythagoreanism allowed further fusion and transmission for astrology indicating thus a less strict religious environment and strongly a synthetic attitude towards esoteric thought.64 This kind of astrology that emerged was a practical branch of knowledge affording insights into human biology, psychology, politics, economics, and meteorology supplying thus its believers with a potentially unifying theory of knowledge.65 It was a practice combining every advanced tool of its era from high Pythagorean mathematics to magical sympathies of talismans and medicine in a dialogue with destiny.66 Nevertheless, Bembridge suggests that the source of the rekindled interest in astrology in Europe must be sought back in 800 AD and the so-called Carolingian Renaissance when Alcuin of York (730/40-804) and other European scholars led a quest for all manuscripts with the lost knowledge of the ancient world.67 Bembridge recognizes an ensuing distinction within medieval thought between natural astrology and judicial thus reinserting perhaps again the empirical-theoretical debate.68

European Renaissance.

The reinstitution of astrology in Europe raised high-level polemics, with Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) as the leading figure supporting the advancement of judicial

64 Campion, ‘The Concept of Destiny in Islamic Astrology’,p. 283.65 Campion, ‘The Concept of Destiny in Islamic Astrology’,p. 284.66 Campion, ‘The Concept of Destiny in Islamic Astrology’,p. 287.67 Bembridge, ‘The Rise and Rise of Medieval Astrology’, p. 3.68 Bembridge, ‘The Rise and Rise of Medieval Astrology’, p. 8.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 16 out of 28Word Count: 4222 astrology.69 From his letters it is evident that he recognised and discussed the certain human dispositions, “bitter..Saturnine element”, as results of “natal stars” but he also focused on how through free choice of environment, “might eventually be alleviated”.70 His intention as an erudite scholar, doctor, priest and practitioner of astrology was to promote through his social place an appeal both to State and to Church to approve astrology.71 He promoted this propaganda-oriented,ideological and less technical campaign of astrological reform through his extended correspondence with leading political personalities in Europe.72 For Julia Cleve, Ficino’s paradox is explainable in a letter of his, wherehe notes how he wanted to reconcile genuine astronomers with Christians or philosophy and religion and implicitlythe wisdom of the pagan Magi with Orthodox Christianity.73

Ficino’s translation of the Corpus Hermetica can be the point where probably esotericism meets astrology in Europe and a new cosmology emerges with more freedom and assertiveness towards sacred scriptures.74 Ficino’s student Pico de Mirandola (1463-1494) admitted the old notion of micro-macrocosm and indicated a tendency towards Jewish mysticism, natural or sympathetic magic and thus the manipulation of essential psychic forces that connected humans with celestial bodies.75 Additionally Pico related biblical prophecy with divine

69 Nicholas Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Mediaeval and Modern World, 2 vols, II, (New York: Continuum, 2009), p. 99, [Hereafter Campion A History of Western Astrology II].

70 The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, 8 vols., vol.4 no.45, trans. School of Economic Science (London 1975-2009), [Hereafter Ficino, Letters]71 Julia Cleve, ‘Ficino’s Approach to Astrology as Reflected in Book VII of his Letters’, Culture and Cosmos, 7:2, pp. 63-70,Autumn/Winter 2003, pp. 63-4, [Hereafter Cleve, Ficino’s Approach to Astrology]72 Cleve, ‘Ficino’s Approach to Astrology’, pp. 63-4.73 Cleve, Ficino’s Approach to Astrology, 63-4.

74 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 102.75 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 102.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 17 out of 28Word Count: 4222 inspiration and dismissed calculation of horoscopes and auspicious moments since astrologers were subject to influences as well; while in his work, Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem, published in 1493 he combined critical and reforming attitude towards astrology.76

Among astrologers, one group of astrologers admitted Pico de Mirandola’s ideas and showed the way towards reformation.77 What they found is that astrological predictions were wrong with no basis on astronomy since constellations shifted in relation to the zodiac signs.78 They sought for reference in Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, blamed Arabic superstitions for the “undignified condition” and tried to divest judicial astrology from the parts that did not rely on reason or observation with Albert Ligghe (1490-1542) as exemplary figure.79 Among the reformers then, there was another division exemplified by astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), that wanted to abandon the entire astrological model for what could onlybe measured in planetary and celestial motions; perhaps astrictly scientific turn but not impervious to the cultural milieu it emerged.80 They wanted to keep records of events, which coincided with astronomical cycles observing the correlations in order to restore the truly accurate astrology once again.81 Kepler having studied mathematics visioned a geometrical universe where forms progressed through time; so he adopted in his research the correlation of planetary conjunctions with triangles in the points of conjunction formed as they moved in meaningful relationships among planets.82 Additionally another reformer was Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) who observing a nova in 1572 in the constellation Cassiopeia tempered the unchanging and perfect

76 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 101, 103.77 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 104.78 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 106.79 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 106.80 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 106.81 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 106.82 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 136.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 18 out of 28Word Count: 4222 Aristotelian territory beyond the Moon.83 His characteristic attitude towards astronomy was that he aimed for accuracy of measurements than radical changes and accepted the divine living world influenced by Ficinian Neoplatonism.84 By the end of the seventeenth century, astrology had lost its rationale in the medievaltheory of natural influence and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) had effected through his discoveries on Venus phases, a definite blow to non-experimental Aristotelianism by applying new physics based on his studies of motion, which was profoundly significant for astrology’s future credibility.85

Esotericism’s Role for Reforms in Astrology.

The eighteenth century with its scientific rationalismhad coexisted with the literally “occult” revival making ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘Illuminism’ possibly mutually interchangeable even if apparently hostile.86In the nineteenth century, the esoteric culture with its Theosophical proponent Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891), gave another ideological turn to astrology; since the waron secularism she opened and the insertion of her occult,oriental cosmology or “cosmogenesis” and “cosmic evolution”, helped familiar with astrology ideas of Neoplatonism and ritual magic to re-emerge from the underground providing new world mythologies.87 Applying a certain mythopoetical narrative to record her esoteric doctrine, Blavatsky adopted a scholastic esotericism to synthesize the past wisdom with contemporary scientific developments or “the two conflicting Titans Science and

83 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 133.84 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 133.85 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 144.86 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 196-7/ H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Los Angeles: The Theosophy Company 1982, p. 2, 36, http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd-hp.htm

87 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 230.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 19 out of 28Word Count: 4222 Theology”.88 English astrologer Walter Old (1864-1929) better known as Sepharial related closely his practice toTheosophy.89 For Campion “the foundation was set for an astrology, which downplayed prediction and ignored the trivia of life focusing instead on self-awareness and spiritual growth”.90 Millenarian concepts with the imminent Age of Aquarius and reincarnation doctrines as well as the law of retribution or karma were the basic elements of this astrology.91 Alan Leo (1860-1917) was theproponent of esoteric astrology who merged his technique within mass produced astrological texts.92 His contribution was the Sun sign and the importance he gave to Solar Logos as divine reason in the techniques of astrological interpretation; “perhaps as great a change”,Campion asserts, “as the development of horoscopes in theHellenistic world”.93 Campion notes that Leo actually ‘chose deliberately to initiate such reform without whichmodern astrology would be significantly different”.94 Leo dismissed physical characteristics and created the environment for future descriptions of astrological signsusing abstract descriptions and concepts for sign attributes as well as character analysis and thus inherent possibilities for the individual.95 In this respect, he did not ignore science but he saw in every person’s astrological features, the struggle for the “personal equation”; and he put knowledge within the wisdom narrative of human initiation where the “Master” was the idealized prototype.96 He equalled morality to 88 H.P, Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Pasadena: Theosophical University Press1976, 2 Vols., facsimile of 1877 edition, p. X, [Hereafter, Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled], http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/isis/iu1-00in.htm#beforetheveil89 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 230.90 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 230.91 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 231.92 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 232.93 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 233-4.94 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 124.95 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 234/ Alan Leo, The Progressed Horoscope, (London: L. N. Fowler, pp. , 1906),pp. 23, 194, [Hereafter Leo, The Progressed Horoscope]96 Leo, The Progressed Horoscope, pp. 5, 8.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 20 out of 28Word Count: 4222 science “applied to conduct” in the scope of the ideal state when “we shall be ruling our stars in truth” perhaps suggesting a more popular profile for astrology.97

Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) as the exponent of the astrologythat coincided with depth psychology in the 1930s’ Europe, is exemplary of certain esoteric tones as well.98 Astrology for Rudhyar followed both the popular track forthe individual with no spiritual interests along with a separate esoteric branch in parallel.99

Robert Zoller presents another astrologer, American Theosophist, Presbyterian minister writer, academic and occult investigator Marc Edmund Jones (1888-1980).100 Jones participated in esoteric groups along with his academic studies and wrote short historical surveys in order to justify his argument due to scarce previous investigation on the historical field.101 Zoller refers toJones’ “misconceptions” equally to his contribution, since he regarded as historical evidence what Blavatsky had esoterically surmised; but Zoller again recognises inJones, his vision for an astrology non-predictive, non-fatalistic with no recognition for medieval benefic or malefic planets but an astrology of ‘possibilities’ or ‘potentialities’.102 Features of astrology attributed to Jones according to Zoller, are innovative concepts as theseven planetary pattern types (Splash, Bundle, Locomotive, Bowl, Bucket, Seesaw, Splash).103 Zoller raises the element of control of destiny in Jones’

97 Leo, The Progressed Horoscope, p. 17.98 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 248.99 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 248.100 Robert Zoller, ‘Marc Edmund Jones and New Age Astrologyin America’, Culture and Cosmos, Col. 2 no 2, Autumn/Winter 1998, p. 39, [Hereafter Zoller, ‘Marc Edmund Jones and New Age Astrology in America.’]101 Zoller, ‘Marc Edmund Jones and New Age Astrology in America’, p. 42-47.102 Zoller, ‘Marc Edmund Jones and New Age Astrology in America’, pp. 47-9.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 21 out of 28Word Count: 4222 astrology, which Zoller concludes opened the door to the ‘humanistic’ psychological astrology of Rudhyar.104

The Twentieth Century Scientific World.

Carl Gustav Gung’s (1865-1961) contribution to astrological practice is its therapeutic aspects he examined, along with philosophical and religious research. 105 He mixed Hermeticism and Christianity and anthropomorphized the geometrical archetypes of Plato, described as manifesting in human psyche.106 Numbers for Gung were conceivable, both as sacred according to Pythagoreans and practical, depending on the user; thus, objective reality is given certain subjective features bythe consciousness of the observer or practitioner; something that can also describe what Babylonian scribes did in their astral divination.107 In history, archetypesfor Gung were as ‘dry riverbeds’ flooding and drying again; using the planetary alignments for boosting their passage.108 Gung in fact replaced the ‘subconscious’ animal signs with which Babylonian diviners had embellished their observations, with hyperconscious forces less earthly bound, cosmic in their origin and effect, but still unconscious to humanity.109 This model

103 See Index I./ Here are non usual patterns (unlike trigons, sextiles, squares etch) of how planets are scattered or polarized in certain fields of the chart arecodified accordingly/http://astrology.about.com/od/thebirthchart/ig/Chart-Reading/chartpatterns.htm104 Zoller, ‘Marc Edmund Jones and New Age Astrology in America’, p. 52.105 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 252.106 Campion ,A History of Western Astrology II, p. 253.107 Carl Gustav Gung, Man and His Symbols, (Athens: Arsenidis,1964), pp. 320, p.40, [Hereafter Gung, Man and His Symbols].108 Campion A History of Western Astrology II, p. 253.109 Gung, Man and His Symbols, pp. 102-3.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 22 out of 28Word Count: 4222 became one of the core interpretative schemes of late-twentieth-century astrology.110 Gung though, left no indication on how he worked with horoscopes, something the interested analysts had to explore personally.111 The radical astrology of Gung, according to Campion, “undercut any tendency to believe in it as a manifestation of universal order” since it appealed mostly to collective unconscious rather to unifying Divinity.112

French statistician Michel Gauquelin (1928-1991), is forCampion the most important figure in the twentieth century, regarding his attempt to prove scientifically astrology’s actual function.113 Gauquelin for Campion, wasstrongly affiliated with Keppler’s ideas to clarify astrology from any ‘unnecessary’ overtone. 114 Unlike Keppler though, he was interested solely with the existence of correlations of celestial patterns with terrestrial events and he had no philosophical concern atall.115 One of his findings was the famous ‘Mars effect’- the statistically significant link between Mars’ positionat birth and sporting success of subjects – which was a major indication of proof.116

Conclusion.

From the above it emerges that astrology has used both the religious and the scientific tracts in a complex and interwoven manner in order to evolve and adjust, participating in a dialectic relationship.117 For Greene

110 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 253.111 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 253.112 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 254.113 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 271-2.114 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 271-2.115 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p. 131.116 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 273.117 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p. 29.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 23 out of 28Word Count: 4222 mantic experiences – a religious term to describe perhapsthe more scientific analogy of prognostication – within astrological practice may signify a religious trend; in terms of esotericism, the continuity of correspondences suggests a whole theory for such possibilities for a timecontinuous.118 Historically astrology has been able to hold steadily a “tradition of symbolic forms while adapting itself to a vast variety of cultural settings”; thus using both scientific and religious trends to express its ideas.119 Campion argues “that astrology as a cultural phenomenon found a safer home with religious studies than among sociologists and psychologists” and regards astrology having “a more religious background” but that does not disprove the scientific camp’s role, inthe past though, sometimes even becoming the home for reforms (Kepler, Brahe, Gauquelin, Gung and others).120 All interpretations therefore, Greene concludes, of a mechanistic or inhabited by a deity heavens or a predictable future, are beliefs open to discussion according to the religious perspective and cultural bias of the astrologer; thus indicating a wider philosophical framework than the strictly scientific or even the religious.121 Reformers of astrology besides their specific orientation, religious or scientific, it is emerging from the examples addressed in this paper that they were fully participant in their cultural environments; thus reflecting the most of the synthesis they could afford plus the certain dominant or alternative tendencies of the particular society and era.

These two trails of human activity and thought – scienceand religion – are parts of human history and their distinction in an age of dialectics is more of a tool to work this dialectic in a world of a vast diversity. Reformers of astrology were mostly polymaths. This rigidly exclusive distinction - so close to the present cultural environment - of religious practice and

118 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p. 29119 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p. 29120 Campion, A History of Western Astrology II, p. 282.121 Greene, ‘Is Astrology a Divinatory System?’, p. 29.

Konstantinos Achyrkidis, StNo: 30001068 Page 24 out of 28Word Count: 4222 scientific method, in essence remains a significantly unique process of fusion, in the collective unconscious. Religion incorporating divine order in space and time combined the mass application of its ritual with the individual non-conformity of its unique founders to the apparent reality. Science stressing the dynamic rearranging of the apparent relations of events with astrological heavens worked in complementary ways to appease the religious appeal for unity in diversity.

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.

Index I :

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