Part of Fortune and Part of Spirit Part 2 with Quotations and Studied
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What Are Primary Directions? 1
The Basics: What are Primary Directions? 1 1 The Basics: What are Primary Directions? The technique known today as primary directions is one of the most ancient and renowned methods of astrological forecasting. It is also, as I hope to show in this book, one of the most powerful. From classical antiquity throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and even into the twentieth century, all the great names of western astrology have worked with primary directions.1 It was the predictive technique of Dorotheus and Ptolemy, of Māshāʾallāh and Abū Maʿshar, of Regiomontanus and Placidus, of Morin de Villefranche and William Lilly. To understand the traditional astrologers, we must understand primary directions. The primary motion The word primary refers not only to the pre-eminence of the technique, but to the primary motion on which it is based. This is simply the daily rotation of the earth around its axis, appearing to us as the rotation of the sky – complete with planets, stars, and the signs of the zodiac – around our place of observation.2 In approximately 24 hours not only the Sun, but every planet and zodiacal degree will rise in the east, culminate in the south (for an observer in the northern hemisphere), set in the west, and finally travel unseen across its lowest point in the north (the anti-culmination below the horizon) to the place where it will rise again. A planet or point in the zodiac rising at the eastern horizon is said to be conjunct the ascendant. When culminating, it is similarly conjunct the midheaven or medium caeli (MC); when setting, conjunct the descendant; and when anti-culminating, conjunct the lower midheaven or imum caeli (IC). -
Strategies of Defending Astrology: a Continuing Tradition
Strategies of Defending Astrology: A Continuing Tradition by Teri Gee A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology University of Toronto © Copyright by Teri Gee (2012) Strategies of Defending Astrology: A Continuing Tradition Teri Gee Doctorate of Philosophy Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology University of Toronto 2012 Abstract Astrology is a science which has had an uncertain status throughout its history, from its beginnings in Greco-Roman Antiquity to the medieval Islamic world and Christian Europe which led to frequent debates about its validity and what kind of a place it should have, if any, in various cultures. Written in the second century A.D., Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos is not the earliest surviving text on astrology. However, the complex defense given in the Tetrabiblos will be treated as an important starting point because it changed the way astrology would be justified in Christian and Muslim works and the influence Ptolemy’s presentation had on later works represents a continuation of the method introduced in the Tetrabiblos. Abû Ma‘shar’s Kitâb al- Madkhal al-kabîr ilâ ‘ilm ahk. âm al-nujûm, written in the ninth century, was the most thorough surviving defense from the Islamic world. Roger Bacon’s Opus maius, although not focused solely on advocating astrology, nevertheless, does contain a significant defense which has definite links to the works of both Abû Ma‘shar and Ptolemy. As such, he demonstrates another stage in the development of astrology. -
Balbillus and the Method of Aphesis Martin Gansten
Balbillus and the Method of aphesis Martin Gansten ORE THAN half a century ago, an annotated col- lection of early Greek horoscopes was published by O. Neugebauer and H. B. Van Hoesen, containing M 1 much valuable material for the study of ancient astrology. Perhaps inevitably, however, certain aspects of astrological pro- cedure were imperfectly understood by the two pioneers. I propose in this article to examine one such misconstrued topic, namely, the determination of a subject’s length of life by the method known as ἄφεσις, particularly as evinced in the two earliest literary horoscopes discussed by Neugebauer and Van Hoesen, both excerpted from the works of Balbillus (d. ca. 79 CE). The two systems of direction ἄφεσις, “sending out, release,” was one of the most promi- nent prognostic methods of classical Greek astrology, subse- quently known to medieval Perso-Arabic astrologers as at-tasyīr and to their Latin translators as athazir or directio.2 As the method had its foundation in the apparent diurnal rotation of the celestial sphere, sometimes known as the “primary motion” of the heavenly bodies (as opposed to their proper or “sec- ondary” motion along the ecliptic), it has been known since early modern times as primary direction.3 In what follows, I shall 1 O. Neugebauer and H. B. Van Hoesen, Greek Horoscopes (Philadelphia 1959). 2 The first scholarly treatment of the subject of ἄφεσις, unfortunately more notable for its sarcasm than for its illuminating properties, is found in A. Bouché-Leclercq, L’astrologie grecque (Paris 1899) 411–421. 3 This terminology derives from Placido de Titi (Placidus), who wanted to ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 52 (2012) 587–602 2012 Martin Gansten 588 BALBILLUS AND THE METHOD OF APHESIS prefer “direction” over other translations in current academic use, such as “prorogation” or “progression.” Historically, direction based on diurnal motion has taken two main forms. -
Ancient Astrological Geography and Acts 2:9-11," W
Bruce M. Metzger, “Ancient Astrological Geography and Acts 2:9-11," W. Ward Gasque & Ralph P. Martin, eds., Apostolic History and the Gospel. Biblical and Historical Essays Presented to F.F. Bruce. Exeter: The Paternoster Press, 1970. Hbk. ISBN: 085364098X. pp.123-133. CHAPTER VII Ancient Astrological Geography and Acts 2:9-11 Bruce M. Metzger [p.123] According to the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit had come upon the disciples and they began to speak in other tongues, the multitude of the Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (2:7-11). This passage has given rise to several questions that have perplexed commentators. Why, for example, are these and no other countries specified? And if these countries, why are they cited in the order in which they now stand? In 1948 more or less satisfactory answers to both these questions seemed to be supplied in a brief article by Stefan Weinstock published in a British journal of the classics, in which the author drew attention to a somewhat similar list of names of countries in an astrological treatise compiled by Paulus Alexandrinus, who lived in the latter part of the fourth Christian century.1 In this treatise Paulus assigns to the several signs of the zodiac a dozen or more lands and nations, whose similarity to the list in Acts struck Winstock as remarkable. -
The Differences Between Western & Vedic Astrology Dr Anil Kumar Porwal
The Differences between Western & Vedic Astrology Dr Anil Kumar Porwal Zodiac The most foundational difference between Western and Vedic astrology is each system's choice of Zodiac. Western astrologers use the Tropical Zodiac, where the beginnings of the twelve signs are determined by the Sun's apparent orbit around the Earth, i.e. the onset of the four seasons, i.e. when the Sun crosses the Equator (going North at Spring which defines Aries and South in the Fall indicating the beginning of Libra) and its uppermost and lowest points (the Summer and Winter Solstices). Vedic astrologers, on the other hand, use the Sidereal Zodiac, which is based upon the physical positions of the constellations in the sky. They choose a starting point (most commonly the place in the sky opposite to Spica) for the beginning of Aries, and proceed in equal 30 degree segments for subsequent signs. While planets in signs are used extensively in Western astrology as the major definer of the expression of a planet, Vedic astrology uses signs differently, and reviewed in my article The Vedic Signs at: http://www.learnastrologyfree.com/vedicsigns.htm House System In addition, most modern Western astrologers use one of the many house systems that places the degree of the Ascendant as the beginning of the First House, with either unequally- or equally-sized houses. Vedic astrologers, by and large, use Whole Sign Houses, where the Ascendant can fall anywhere in the First House, and each house comprises all of one sign. Many also use Bhava/Shri Pati houses for a portion of their work. -
John Worsdale and Thomas Oxley
Placidean teachings in early nineteenth-century Britain: John Worsdale and Thomas Oxley Martin Gansten Abstract John Worsdale (1766 – c. 1826) has been described as something of a historical anomaly, perhaps the last representative of a dying astrological tradition, struggling uselessly against the rising tide of modernity. While this may be true with regard to the natural philosophy underpinning his view of how and why astrology works, Worsdale’s actual practices place him rather in the vanguard of an emerging modern astrology characterized by a modified Placideanism. Although the first stirrings of Placidean teachings were felt in Britain towards the end of the 17th century, they gained firm ground only after the subsequent hiatus of judicial astrology spanning most of the 18th. This paper examines the British adoption and transformation of the doctrines of Placidus, particularly as evinced in the writings of John Worsdale and those of his junior contemporary and occasional critic, Thomas Oxley (1789 – 1851). he history of modern astrology arguably begins in Italy, where, in 1650, the T Olivetan monk and professor of mathematics Placido de Titi (better known as Placidus, 1603 – 1668) published his Physiomathematica sive coelestis philosophia, ‘Physiomathematics or celestial philosophy’.1 According to his perhaps most famous statement, Placidus ‘desired no other guides but Ptolemy and Reason’.2 Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos being a most incomplete guide for a practising astrologer, the proportion of Placidus’ own reason in the resulting system was, for better or worse, correspondingly 1 Also known as Quaestionum physiomathematicarum libri tres, ‘Three books on physiomathematical questions’ and first published under the pseudonym Didacus Prittus Pelusiensis – pace Lynn Thorndike, who, in A history of magic and experimental science, vol. -
The Adaptation of Babylonian Methods in Greek Numerical Astronomy
FIgure 1. A Babylonian tablet (B.M. 37236) listing undated phases of Mars according to the System A scheme. By permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. This content downloaded from 128.122.149.96 on Thu, 04 Jul 2019 12:50:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Adaptation of Babylonian Methods in Greek Numerical Astronomy By Alexander Jones* THE DISTINCTION CUSTOMARILY MADE between the two chief astro- nomical traditions of antiquity is that Greek astronomy was geometrical, whereas Babylonian astronomy was arithmetical. That is to say, the Babylonian astronomers of the last five centuries B.C. devised elaborate combinations of arithmetical sequences to predict the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies, while the Greeks persistently tried to explain the same phenomena by hypothe- sizing kinematic models compounded out of circular motions. This description is substantially correct so far as it goes, but it conceals a great difference on the Greek side between the methods of, say, Eudoxus in the fourth century B.C. and those of Ptolemy in the second century of our era. Both tried to account for the observed behavior of the stars, sun, moon, and planets by means of combinations of circular motions. But Eudoxus seems to have studied the properties of his models purely through the resources of geometry. The only numerical parameters associated with his concentric spheres in our ancient sources are crude periods of synodic and longitudinal revolution, that is to say, data imposed on the models rather than deduced from them.1 By contrast, Ptolemy's approach in the Alma- 2 gest is thoroughly numerical. -
Catalog Just Check the Methods You Want
Dear Friends, Thank you for your interest in our software. The Cosmic Patterns Software team is dedicated to developing the highest quality and standard in astrology software. Requests and suggestions from our customers drive our software development. Therefore, you, our clients and customers, are also part of the team. Without your support and participation, the work would not be possible. We are committed to developing software that is beautiful and easy to use. Very often software becomes more difficult to use as it becomes more powerful. However, this is not the case with our software. Each new version is more powerful and flex- ible, and yet easy to use. Astrology has evolved over thousands of years in many cultures and there are a seemingly endless number of techniques, theories, applications, and features that can be added to our programs. If you have any technique in mind that is not in our programs, let me know. Our three main products are Pegasus, Kepler, & Sirius. We also have the World's Best and Largest Collection of Interpretive Reports. These report options are not stand alone programs. They require Kepler, Sirius, or Pegasus to run. We take special pride in providing excellent customer support, and we work very hard to create not only a beautiful, easy to use, thoroughly debugged program at a reasonable price, but also to support every customer as well. Most customers pre- fer to use e-mail to contact us. Our email address is [email protected] We answer e-mail within 1 business day. You can call us during business hours (9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday) at 1-352-373-1504. -
The Tetrabiblos
This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com %s. jArA. 600003887W s ♦ ( CUAEPEAJr TERMST) T »|n 2E SI m -n_ Til / Vf .eras X ,8 ¥ 8JT? 8 i 8 %8 $ 8 »! c? 8 U 8 9 8 17? £ 8 9 7 u ?2 it 7 9 7 1?„ *1 It' 9 7 T?76 ?x U7 *S V? <* 6 9.6 6 5 v76 cf 6 9 6 *8 ?? A$6 0 5 »2 rf 5 U5 ni * a <* 5 \b 6** *l <? 5 U*6* <* 4 M 94 ?* <J 4 U4 9 *j? tic? 4 U4 9 4 9" \ ______ - Of the double Figures . the -first is the Day term.. the secontl.theNioht. * Solar Semicircle.-. A TiJ ^= tx\ / Vf lunar Df 03 1 8 t K « U Hot & Moist. Commanding T S IL S Jl nj i...Hot icDrv. Obeying ^ n\ / vf-=X %...HotSc Dry Moderately Masculine Diurnal. .TH A^/at %... Moist StWarnv. Feminine Nocturnal. B S Trj tit. Vf X y.. Indifferent . long Ascension Q «n«j^5=Tr^/ ~}..- Moist rather Warm.. ifibvl Z».* vy set X T W H I* ? k J . Benetic •-. Fixed tf «a TH. sas 1? <? Malefic. Bicorporeal _H ttj / X 0 y.... Indifferent.. Tropical °3 Vf \l J* iQMasculine. Equinoctial T ^i= ^ ^ Feminine . Fruitful d n\ X y Indifferent . Beholding icof..\ H & <5|/ &Vf I> \%Dj.. Diurnal. Equal Fewer. ...) 7* -rrK]=fi=-x ^J- 4 % } .Nocturnal . The Aspects 8 A D *^n{)'. -
A Golden Thread: the Transmission of Western Astrology Though Cultures by Demetra George
A Golden Thread: The Transmission of Western Astrology Though Cultures By Demetra George Most contemporary practitioners and adherents of astrology assume that the kind of astrology that is generally taught and practiced today is the way it has always been done. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The discipline of western astrology has gone through many transformations in its four thousand year recorded history as it has passed though the cultures of the Babylonia, India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Islam, Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Seventeenth century through Victorian England, and twentieth century America. At each stage, these various cultures adapted the doctrines of astrology to the world views of their own societies and philosophies, and, in the process, mistranslated, misunderstood, and deleted, while sometimes innovating and improving upon what was inherited from their predecessors. Let us take a brief journey through time and follow the track of this ancient wisdom that refuses to be denied and forgotten. Mesopotamian Origins Just as the fourth millennium Tigris-Euphrates river valley is generally accepted as the cradle of civilization with the invention of writing, so among the earliest cuneiform texts are the astrological omens, the seedbed of the western astrological tradition. Throughout the Babylonian and Assyrian (second and first millenniums B.C.E.) cultures, the planets were considered to be one of the manifestations of their gods, and their movements and appearances were thought to reveal the intentions of the gods. Astrologer-priests meticulously observed and recorded the omens of the planetary gods and conveyed this information to the kings so that they might rule the land in accordance with divine intention. -
Astrological Glossary A
Astrological Glossary A Afflicted: An antiquated term that continues to be used to describe a planet that has unfavorable aspects; squares, oppositions, and quincunxes. Air Signs: Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. Anaretic degree: The final degree (29th degree) of any sign; also known as the degree of fate. Many astrologers believe that signs in the 29th degree – especially water signs – lend a considerable measure of intuitive, empathic and psychic ability to the native with planets in this degree. Angles: The lines of the chart wheel which lie at 0 degrees (the ascendant), 90 degrees (the I.C.), 180 degrees (the descendant), and 270 degrees (the M.C.). These are major points in a chart and represent Cardinal Qualities. Angular: A cardinal point in the horoscope Angular Houses: Houses 1, 4, 7, and 10 of the horoscope, which are positioned closest to the charts primary angles; ascendant, nadir, descendant, and Midheaven. Arabic Parts: Sensitive points on a chart developed by Arabic astrologers. These are calculated by adding the positions of two factors in the chart (e.g., Moon and Ascendant) and subtracting the position of a third factor. (e.g., Sun). Aquarian Age: A time period of approximately 2,160 years where the influence of Aquarius is prominent. An astrological age lasts for approximately 2,160 years and precesses or moves backward through the Zodiac. Also known as Precession. Some astrologers believe that the Age of Aquarius starts at approximately the new millennium. However, because of the discrepancy inflicted on the calendar by Pope Gregory, who gave us the Gregorian Calendar (which we still use today), the original timing was temporarily deviated from. -
Robert Zoller's Medieval Astrology
GVIDONIS BONATI ON THE ARABIC PARTS translated from the original Latin text by: b Robert Zoller. www.new-library.com/zoller © Copyright 2000 New Library Limited All rights reserved BONATTI ON THE ARABIC PARTS Copyright © 1980, revised 2000 by Robert Zoller All Rights Reserved INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION The following is an extract of the work of Guido Bonatti translated from Latin into English from Guidonis Bonati Forliviensis Mathematici de Astronomia Tractatus X universum quod iudiciariam rationem nativitatum, aeris tempestatum attinet, comprehendentes. Adiectus est Cl. Ptolemaei liber Fructus, cum utilissimis Georgii Trapezuntii Published in 1550, Basel. The translation is of the second part of Bonatti’s treatment of Revolutions of the Year of the World, which is the fourth part of the work and covers columns 626 – 664. The work seems to have been written for delivery as a series of lecturers. This gives it a rather disjointed continuum and requires careful reading. Special attention should be given to the beginning where Bonatti intermeshes Albumassar’s view with his own. This is again done with Alchabitius at the end. Minimal editing and standardising of the English has been undertaken so as to allow the thinking and practice of the medieval astrologer to shine through the translation. The work examines the ancient doctrine of Arabic parts. For a proper understanding of them the reader should have a working knowledge of natal chart erection and interpretation as well as a basic knowledge of horary and electional astrology. Greater detail on these areas and a fuller understanding of the parts as well as other important aspects such as profections and the revolutions of the nativities is to be found in the [Foundation Course on Medieval Astrology] (for the beginner) and the [Diploma Course on Medieval Astrology] as well as in other materials found on this website [Tools and Techniques].