The Divergence of Astrology & Astronomy

The Divergence of Astrology & Astronomy

“Astrology and astronomy were archaically treated together, and were only gradually separated in Western 17th century philosophy (the “Age of Reason”) with the rejection of astrology. During the later part of the medieval period, astronomy was treated as the foundation upon which astrology could operate.

Since the 18th century they have come to be regarded as completely separate disciplines. Astronomy, the study of objects and phenomena originating beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, is a scienceand is a widely-studied academic discipline. Astrology, which uses the apparent positions of celestial objects as the basis for the prediction of future events, is defined as a form of divination and is regarded by many as a pseudoscience having no scientific validity.”

“Astrology was widely accepted in medieval Europe as astrological texts from Hellenistic and Arabic astrologers were translated into Latin. In the late Middle Ages, its acceptance or rejection often depended on its reception in the royal courts of Europe. Not until the time of Francis Bacon was astrology rejected as a part of scholastic metaphysics rather than empirical observation. A more definitive split between astrology and astronomy in the West took place gradually in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when astrology was increasingly thought of as an occult science or superstition by the intellectual elite. Because of their lengthy shared history, it sometimes happens that the two are confused with one another even today.”

“For a long time the funding from astrology supported some astronomical research, which was in turn used to make more accurate ephemerides for use in astrology. In Medieval Europe the word Astronomia was often used to encompass both disciplines as this included the study of astronomy and astrology jointly and without a real distinction; this was one of the original Seven Liberal Arts. Kings and other rulers generally employed court astrologers to aid them in the decision making in their kingdoms, thereby funding astronomical research. University medical students were taught astrology as it was generally used in medical practice.”

“Astronomy and astrology diverged over the course of the 17th through 19th centuries. Copernicus didn’t practice astrology (nor empirical astronomy; his work was theoretical), but the most important astronomers before Isaac Newton were astrologers by profession – Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei. Newton most likely rejected astrology, however (as did his contemporary Christiaan Huygens), and interest in astrology declined after his era, helped by the increasing popularity of a Cartesian, “mechanistic” cosmology in the Enlightenment.

Also relevant here was the development of better timekeeping instruments, initially for aid in navigation; improved timekeeping made it possible to make more exact astrological predictions—predictions which could be tested, and which consistently proved to be false. By the end of the 18th century, astronomy was one of the major sciences of the Enlightenment model, using the recently codified scientific method, and was altogether distinct from astrology.”

[Above are excerpts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology_and_astronomy ]

After the occupation by Alexander the Great in 332BC…

“After the occupation by Alexander the Great in 332BC, Egypt came under Greek rule and influence, and it was in Alexandrian Egypt where horoscopic astrology first appeared. The endeavor to trace the horoscope of the individual from the position of the planets and stars at the time of birth represents the most significant contribution of the Greeks to astrology. This system can be labeled as “horoscopic astrology” because it employed the use of the ascendant, otherwise known as the horoskopos in Greek.

The system was carried to such a degree of perfection that later ages made but few additions of an essential character to the genethlialogy or drawing up of the individual horoscope by the Greek astrologers. Particularly important in the development of horoscopic astrology was the astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy , whose work, the Tetrabiblos laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition. Under the Greeks and Ptolemy in particular, the planets, Houses, and Signs of the zodiac were rationalized and their function set down in a way that has changed little to the present day. Ptolemy’s work on astronomy was the basis of Western teachings on the subject for the next 1,300 years.”

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Not Faust!

Not Faust!

Maimonides answered an inquiry concerning astrology, addressed to him from Marseilles. He responded that man should believe only what can be supported either by rational proof, by the evidence of the senses, or by trustworthy authority. He affirms that he has studied astrology and that it does not deserve to be described as a science. The supposition that the fate of a man could be dependent upon the constellations is ridiculed by him; he argues that such a theory would rob life of purpose and would make man a slave of destiny.”

Pasted from <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Jewish_views_of_astrology>

(Maimonides (113?-1204 AD) was a Torah scholar and physician.)

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides>

Astrology is not specifically mentioned in the Torah…

Jewish views on astrology:

“Astrology is not specifically mentioned in the Torah, the five books of Moses. There are two commandments which have been used by some authorities as a basis to forbid the practice. However, the Hebrew word Mazalot is used twice in the Jewish Bible, and it literally means “constellations” or “zodiac” (See Book of Job 38:31-33, & II Kings 23:5)

You shall not practice divination or soothsaying. (Leviticus 19:26, New JPS)

When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of the nations. Let no one be found among you who…is an auger, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorceror, one casts spells…..For anyone who does these things is abhorrent to the LORD… (Deuteronomy 18:9-12, New JPS)

These commandments are understood by some rabbinic authorities as forbidding astrology, while others limit these mitzvot to other forms of soothsaying, and thus view astrology as permissible.”

Pasted from <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Jewish_views_of_astrology>

In 525 BCE Egypt was conquered by the Persians so

Egyptian astrology was likely affected by the Persian conquest of Egypt in 525 BCE, followed by the Macedonians under Alexander. Ptolemy then influenced the West:

“In 525 BCE Egypt was conquered by the Persians so there is likely to have been some Mesopotamian influence on Egyptian astrology.

After the occupation by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, Egypt came under Greek rule and influence. The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander after the conquest and during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, the scholars of Alexandria were prolific writers. It was in ‘Alexandrian Egypt’ that Babylonian astrology was mixed with the Egyptian tradition of Decanic astrology to create Horoscopic astrology.

Particularly important in the development of horoscopic astrology was the astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy, who lived in Alexandria in Egypt. Ptolemy’s work the Tetrabiblos laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition. The earliest Zodiac found in Egypt dates to the 1st century BCE, the Dendera Zodiac.”

Modified from <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Astrology_in_Hellenistic_Egypt>

The most famous predictions about European and world affairs

The famous Nostradamus:

“The most famous predictions about European and world affairs were made by the French astrologer Nostradamus(1503–66), however many astrologers dispute whether many of his prophecies were based on astrology. Nostradamus became famous after the publication in 1555 of his work Centuries, which was a series of prophecies in cryptic verse. The obscure predictions have been interpreted as relating to a great variety of events, including the French and English Revolutions, and the Second World War.

In 1556 Nostradamus was summoned to the French court by Catherine de Medici and commissioned to draw up the horoscopes of the royal children.

According to Francis Bacon in his essay Of Prophesies Nostradamus foretold the death of King Henry II of France: “When I was in France, I heard from one Dr Pena, that the queen mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the king, her husband’s, nativity to be calculated, under a false name; and the astrologer (Nostradamus) gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a duel; at which the queene laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges and duels; but he was slaine, upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the staffe of Montgomery going in at his beaver.” Although Nostradamus later fell out of favour with many in the court and was accused of witchcraft, Catherine continued to support him and patronized him until his death.”

Pasted from <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mundane_astrology>

We have lost our ability to see the night sky

“The night sky and studies of it have a historical place in both ancient and modern cultures. In the past, for instance, farmers have used the state of the night sky as a calendar to determine when to plant crops. Many cultures have drawn constellations between stars in the sky, using them in association with legends and mythology about their deities.

The anciently developed belief of astrology is generally based on the belief that relationships between heavenly bodies influence or convey information about events on Earth. The scientific study of the night sky and bodies observed within it, meanwhile, takes place in the science of astronomy.

The visibility of celestial objects in the night sky is affected by light pollution. The presence of the Moon in the night sky has historically hindered astronomical observation by increasing the amount of ambient lighting. With the advent of artificial light sources, however, light pollution has been a growing problem for viewing the night sky.”

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_sky>

Is it simple irony that we, the Faustian Civilization, have lost our view of God? Or are we deceived?

Until less than a few hundred years ago – a blip in the history of humans (a half-million years) – every person could – probably did – look up into the sky at night and have his own intimate relationship with God. The stars drew upward, and inspired awe, fear, and worship. It was easy to imagine that the stars dominated our lives in some way.

Our ancestors lived with the night sky. They found their gods up there, and small wonder because there is nothing as awe-inspiring as the sight of the Milky Way on a moon-less night.

But most of us never see it. This is a new development in the history of humanity that we give little thought to. We don’t see it, are never astonished, and never experience that direct connection with God.

Our ability to connect with and know our gods has been cut off: electric lights, indoor city living, ambient light pollution, TV, computers and the eight-hour work day have separated individuals from the stars – the root of religion. This has happened in less than two hundred years.

We have no personal sight of God. Humans are directed to turn to others to discover their intimate relationship with God. Our personal contact with God is replaced by images that tell us how to believe and how to act. People of Faust’s time were already questioning their priests. It is ironic that the movement that returned Christianity to the people, spawned the industrial boom that shut out God. Perhaps it’s not ironic at all, for the same movement removed the magic.

…And then they took away the sky. We no longer know the stars as our ancestors did – an intimate part not just of human life, but of life itself.

We are incapable of that personal experience of God. The cathedral is rendered invisible by light – and the worshippers have forgotten they are in it. The routine experience of agape is gone.

What does it mean when our direct connection to God is cut off? Men are being diverted, enclosed, put to sleep slowly, over generations, and they forget their connection to the sky, the nightly enchantment: their transport. Their wildness is gone. They forget they had no masters. Is this our Faustian bargain: our technology blocking us from the sight of God – our prison walls? Is this Hell, and are we locked in it – we who have never seen the face of God or tasted the eternal joy of heaven?

Magic – necromancy in Astrology

Magic – necromancy in Astrology:


Goethe’s Faust:

Astrologer. Receive with reverent awe star-granted hours
By magic’s spells enthralled be Reason’s powers,
And in its stead, arising far and free,
Reign glorious, daring Phantasy!
What you desired so boldly, be it now perceived;
It is impossible, therefore to be believed.

A Disputatio, or Inquiry Concerning the Art of Astronomia, or Astrologia

From the original Faust Book manuscript of 1580(?):

A Disputatio, or Inquiry Concerning

the Art of Astronomia, or Astrologia

XIII:

“One time after Doctor Faustus had been contriving and producing such horoscopes and almanacs for about two years he did ask his spirit about the nature of astronomia or astrologia as practiced by the mathematici.
The spirit gave answer, saying: My Lord Fauste, it is so ordained that the ancient haruspices and modern stargazers are unable to forecast anything particularly certain, for these are deep mysteries of God which mortals cannot plumb as we spirits can, who hover in the air beneath Heaven where we can see and mark what God bath predestined. Yes, we are ancient spirits, experienced in the Heavenly movements. Why, Lord Fauste, I could make thee a perpetual calendar for the setting of horoscopes and almanacs or for nativity investigations one year after the other. –Thou hast seen that I have never lied to thee. Now it is true that the Patriarchs, who lived for five and six hundred years, did comprehend the fundamentals of this art and became very adept. For when such a great number of years elapse a lunisolar period is completed, and the older generation can apprise the younger of it. Except for that, all green, inexperienced astrologi have to set up their horoscopes arbitrarily according to conjecture.”



Pasted from <http://lettersfromthedustbowl.com/Fbk2.html>