126-450: An astrological age is a time period which, according to astrology , parallels major changes in the development of human society, culture, history, and politics. There are twelve astrological ages corresponding to the twelve zodiacal signs in western astrology . One cycle of the twelve astrological ages is called a Great Year , comprising 25,772 solar years, at the end of which another cycle begins. Some astrologers believe that during
252-489: A Platonic Year . However the length of the ages are decreasing with time as the rate of precession is increasing. Therefore, no two ages are of equal length. Approximately every 26,000 years the zodiacal constellations, the associated sidereal zodiac , and the tropical zodiac used by western astrologers basically align. Technically this is when the tropical and sidereal "first point in Aries" (Aries 0°) coincided. This alignment
378-633: A mystic contemporary approach to precession, in Max Heindel 's astrology writings, it is described, that last time the starting-point of the sidereal zodiac agreed with the tropical zodiac occurred in AD 498. A year after these points were in exact agreement, the Sun crossed the equator about fifty seconds of space into the constellation Pisces. The year following it was one minute and forty seconds into Pisces, and so it has been creeping backward ever since, until at
504-483: A neoplatonist , argued that since the fixed stars are much more distant than the planets, it is laughable to imagine the planets' effect on human affairs should depend on their position with respect to the zodiac. He also argues that the interpretation of the Moon's conjunction with a planet as good when the moon is full, but bad when the moon is waning, is clearly wrong, as from the Moon's point of view, half of its surface
630-516: A "convincing distinction between astrology and astronomy that remains valid in the twenty-first century." Cicero stated the twins objection (that with close birth times, personal outcomes can be very different), later developed by Augustine . He argued that since the other planets are much more distant from the Earth than the Moon, they could have only very tiny influence compared to the Moon's. He also argued that if astrology explains everything about
756-400: A "rationalistic and critical thinker", was much more sanguine about astrology and critical of Pico's attack. Renaissance scholars commonly practised astrology. Gerolamo Cardano cast the horoscope of king Edward VI of England , while John Dee was the personal astrologer to queen Elizabeth I of England . Catherine de Medici paid Michael Nostradamus in 1566 to verify the prediction of
882-580: A Greek origin for Hindu astrology. The Indian techniques may also have been augmented with some of the Babylonian techniques. Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the three harmonies: heaven, earth and man) and uses concepts such as yin and yang , the Five phases , the 10 Celestial stems , the 12 Earthly Branches , and shichen (時辰 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes). The early use of Chinese astrology
1008-399: A belief that has influenced astrological thought since antiquity. In the early post- Hipparchus period, two schools of thought developed about the slow shift of the fixed sphere of stars as discovered by Hipparchus . One school believed that at 1 degree shift per 100 years, the sphere of fixed stars would return to its starting point after 36,000 years. The trepidation school believed that
1134-400: A communal calendar. Farmers addressed agricultural needs with increasing knowledge of the constellations that appear in the different seasons—and used the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities. By the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with heliacal risings of
1260-468: A decade but blend its influences with the previous age for a period of time until the new age can stand in its own right. In Nicholas Campion 's The Book of World Horoscopes there are six pages listing researchers and their proposed dates for the start of the Age of Aquarius indicating that many researchers believe that each age commences at an exact date. Many astrologers find ages too erratic based on either
1386-445: A desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. Nicholas Campion Nicholas Campion (born 4 March 1953) is a British astrologer and historian of astrology and cultural astronomy. He is the author of a number of books and currently pursues an academic career. Campion
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#17327731420601512-683: A fearful consideration for the sky and the stars, which they held to be ultimately responsible for every phenomena that occurs on Earth and for the destiny of humankind. Accordingly, they shaped their entire lives in accordance with their interpretations of astral configurations and phenomena. The Hellenistic schools of philosophical skepticism criticized the rationality of astrology. Criticism of astrology by academic skeptics such as Cicero , Carneades , and Favorinus ; and Pyrrhonists such as Sextus Empiricus has been preserved. Carneades argued that belief in fate denies free will and morality ; that people born at different times can all die in
1638-451: A given age, some events are directly caused or indirectly influenced by the astrological sign associated with that age, while other astrologers believe that astrological ages do not influence events in any way. Astrologers do not agree upon exact dates for the beginning or ending of the ages, with given dates varying by hundreds of years. There are three broad perspectives on the astrological ages: The following table of astrological ages
1764-446: A person's fate, then it wrongly ignores the visible effect of inherited ability and parenting, changes in health worked by medicine, or the effects of the weather on people. Favorinus argued that it was absurd to imagine that stars and planets would affect human bodies in the same way as they affect the tides, and equally absurd that small motions in the heavens cause large changes in people's fates. Sextus Empiricus argued that it
1890-582: A popular following supported by cheap almanacs. One English almanac compiler, Richard Saunders, followed the spirit of the age by printing a derisive Discourse on the Invalidity of Astrology , while in France Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire of 1697 stated that the subject was puerile. The Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift ridiculed the Whig political astrologer John Partridge . In
2016-401: A previously unknown way. Ulansey's analysis is based on the tauroctony : the image of Mithras killing a bull that was placed at the center of every Mithraic temple. In the standard tauroctony, Mithras and the bull are accompanied by a dog , a snake , a raven , a scorpion and two identical young men, with torches. According to Ulansey, the tauroctony is a schematic star chart . The bull
2142-471: A strong emphasis on planetary conjunctions. This doctrine says that when all the planets were in conjunction that this cosmic event would mark the end of the world. Dionysius accurately calculated that this conjunction would occur in May AD 2000. Dionysius then applied another astronomical timing mechanism based on precession of the equinoxes . Though incorrect, some oriental astronomers at the time believed that
2268-541: A torch pointing up and the other a torch pointing down. These torch-bearers are sometimes depicted with one of them (torch up) holding or associated with a Bull and a tree with leaves, and the other (torch down) holding or associated with a Scorpion and a tree with fruit. Ulansey interprets these torch-bearers as representing the spring equinox (torch up, tree with leaves, Bull) and the autumn equinox (torch down, tree with fruit, Scorpion) in Taurus and Scorpius respectively, which
2394-413: Is Taurus , a constellation of the zodiac. In the astrological age that preceded the time of Hipparchus, the vernal equinox had taken place when the Sun was in the constellation of Taurus, and during that previous epoch the constellations of Canis Minor (The Dog) , Hydra (The Snake) , Corvus (The Raven) , and Scorpius (The Scorpion) – that is, the constellations that correspond to the animals depicted in
2520-664: Is a former Daily Mail astrologer, where he took over from John Naylor , the son of R. H. Naylor , the first sun sign astrologer . He was president of the Astrological Lodge of London from 1985 to 1987 and of the Astrological Association of Great Britain from 1994 to 1999. He published a number of books on the practice of astrology between 1987 ( The Practical Astrologer ) and 2004 ( The Book of World Horoscopes ). Concurrently with his activities as an astrologer Campion researched and published on
2646-686: Is a recent development by astronomers who are divorced from astrology, and cannot be assumed to be correct from the astrological perspective. While most astronomers and some astrologers agree that the fiducial point occurred in or around the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, there is no consensus on any exact date or tight timeframe within these three centuries. A number of dates are proposed by various astronomers and even wider timeframes by astrologers. (For an alternative approach to calibrating precession, see Alternative approach to calibrating precession in New, alternative, and fringe theories section below). As an example of
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#17327731420602772-595: Is always in sunlight; and from the planet's point of view, waning should be better, as then the planet sees some light from the Moon, but when the Moon is full to us, it is dark, and therefore bad, on the side facing the planet in question. In 525 BCE, Egypt was conquered by the Persians. The 1st century BCE Egyptian Dendera Zodiac shares two signs – the Balance and the Scorpion – with Mesopotamian astrology. With
2898-571: Is based are early medieval compilations, notably the Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra , and Sārāvalī by Kalyāṇavarma . The Horāshastra is a composite work of 71 chapters, of which the first part (chapters 1–51) dates to the 7th to early 8th centuries and the second part (chapters 52–71) to the later 8th century. The Sārāvalī likewise dates to around 800 CE. English translations of these texts were published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari in 1963 and 1961, respectively. Astrology
3024-405: Is concerned, one scholar of Mithraism, David Ulansey, has interpreted Mithras as a personification of the force responsible for precession. He argues that the cult was a religious response to Hipparchus's discovery of precession, which – from the ancient geocentric perspective – amounted to the discovery that the entire cosmos (i.e., the outermost celestial sphere of the fixed stars) was moving in
3150-612: Is impossible to state the exact date for the start of any astrological age and acknowledge that many astrologers believe the Age of Aquarius has arrived while many say the world is at the end of the Age of Pisces. Ray Grasse states in Signs of the Times that "there is considerable dispute over the exact starting and ending times for the different Great Ages." Paul Wright in The Great Ages and Other Astrological Cycles says that much of
3276-471: Is no ambiguity about the tropical zodiac used by western astrologers, the same cannot be said of the sidereal zodiac used by Vedic astrologers. Vedic astrologers do not have unanimity on the exact location in space of their sidereal zodiac. This is because the sidereal zodiac is superimposed upon the irregular zodiacal constellation, and there are no unambiguous boundaries of the zodiacal constellations. Modern day astronomers have defined boundaries, but this
3402-442: Is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person's personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems. Throughout its history, astrology has had its detractors, competitors and skeptics who opposed it for moral, religious, political, and empirical reasons. Nonetheless, prior to
3528-415: Is often called the fiducial point and, if the fiducial point could be found, fairly exact timeframes of all the astrological ages could be accurately determined if the method used to determine the astrological ages is based on the equal-sized 30 degrees per age and do not correspond to the exact constellation configuration in the sky. However this fiducial point is difficult to determine because while there
3654-520: Is only slightly different from the current measurement of approximately 1° every 72 years. Hipparchus' findings were later documented by the Alexandrian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in his seminal work, the Almagest (c. 150 CE), where he further refined and expanded upon Hipparchus' observations. Ptolemy's Almagest became the standard reference for astronomers for many centuries and solidified
3780-482: Is probable that there is no branch of Astrology upon which more nonsense has been poured forth than the doctrine of the precession of the equinoxes." Neil Spencer in his 2000 book True as the Stars Above expressed a similar opinion about the astrological ages. Spencer characterizes the concept as being "fuzzy", "speculative", and the least-defined area of astrological lore. Derek and Julia Parker state that it
3906-811: Is said to represent twelve different types of personality . It is based on cycles of years, lunar months, and two-hour periods of the day (the shichen). The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat , and the cycle proceeds through 11 other animal signs: the Ox , Tiger , Rabbit , Dragon , Snake , Horse , Goat , Monkey , Rooster , Dog , and Pig . Complex systems of predicting fate and destiny based on one's birthday, birth season, and birth hours, such as ziping and Zi Wei Dou Shu ( simplified Chinese : 紫微斗数 ; traditional Chinese : 紫微斗數 ; pinyin : zǐwēidǒushù ) are still used regularly in modern-day Chinese astrology. They do not rely on direct observations of
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4032-638: Is the aspect of each planet to every other planet, where for example two planets 120° apart (in 'trine') are in a harmonious relationship, but two planets 90° apart ('square') are in a conflicted relationship. Together these relationships and their interpretations are said to form "...the language of the heavens speaking to learned men." Along with tarot divination , astrology is one of the core studies of Western esotericism , and as such has influenced systems of magical belief not only among Western esotericists and Hermeticists , but also belief systems such as Wicca , which have borrowed from or been influenced by
4158-407: Is the search for meaning in the sky. Early evidence for humans making conscious attempts to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles, appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that lunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago. This was a first step towards recording the Moon's influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organising
4284-401: Is where the equinoxes were located during the preceding "Age of Taurus" symbolized in the tauroctony as a whole. From this, Ulansey concludes that Mithraic iconography was an "astronomical code" whose secret was the existence of a new cosmic divinity, unknown to those outside the cult, whose fundamental attribute was his ability to shift the structure of the entire cosmos, and thereby to control
4410-654: The Tetrabiblos formed the basis of Western astrology, and, "...enjoyed almost the authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of a thousand years or more." The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas from Syria , Babylon, Persia and central Asia. Around 280 BCE, Berossus , a priest of Bel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island of Kos , teaching astrology and Babylonian culture. By
4536-561: The Hindus , Chinese , and the Maya —developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology , one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia , from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamic world , and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology
4662-511: The Latin translations of the 12th century . In the seventh century, Isidore of Seville argued in his Etymologiae that astronomy described the movements of the heavens, while astrology had two parts: one was scientific, describing the movements of the Sun, the Moon and the stars, while the other, making predictions, was theologically erroneous. The first astrological book published in Europe
4788-710: The Middle Ages accepted the Great Year of 36,000 years rather than trepidation. However some scholars gave credence to both theories based on the addition of another sphere which is represented in the Alfonsine tables produced by the Toledo School of Translators in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Alfonsine tables computed the positions of the sun, moon, and planets relative to the fixed stars. The Italian astronomer Cecco d'Ascoli , professor of astrology at
4914-611: The planets , and argued: And if you astrologers answer that it is precisely because of this distance and smallness that their influences are negligible, then why is it that you claim a great influence for the smallest heavenly body, Mercury? Why is it that you have given an influence to al-Ra's [the head] and al-Dhanab [the tail], which are two imaginary points [ascending and descending nodes] ? Martin Luther denounced astrology in his Table Talk . He asked why twins like Esau and Jacob had two different natures yet were born at
5040-472: The vernal equinox (also known as vernal point ) moving through the sidereal zodiac . Another method is to significantly vary the duration of each astrological age based on the passage of the vernal equinox measured against the actual zodiacal constellations . Each of those twelve sections of the Great Year can be called either an astrological age, Precessional Age, or a Great Month. The method based on
5166-442: The zodiac (twelve spatial divisions of the ecliptic ) and by their aspects (based on geometric angles) relative to one another. They are also considered by their placement in houses (twelve spatial divisions of the sky). Astrology's modern representation in western popular media is usually reduced to sun sign astrology , which considers only the zodiac sign of the Sun at an individual's date of birth, and represents only 1/12 of
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5292-546: The zodiac , a norming point near 9 degrees in Aries, the trine aspect, planetary exaltations, and the dodekatemoria (the twelve divisions of 30 degrees each). The Babylonians viewed celestial events as possible signs rather than as causes of physical events. The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE) and flourished during the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE), during which all
5418-799: The 1st century BCE, there were two varieties of astrology, one using horoscopes to describe the past, present and future; the other, theurgic , emphasising the soul's ascent to the stars. Greek influence played a crucial role in the transmission of astrological theory to Rome . The first definite reference to astrology in Rome comes from the orator Cato , who in 160 BCE warned farm overseers against consulting with Chaldeans, who were described as Babylonian 'star-gazers'. Among both Greeks and Romans , Babylonia (also known as Chaldea ) became so identified with astrology that 'Chaldean wisdom' became synonymous with divination using planets and stars. The 2nd-century Roman poet and satirist Juvenal complains about
5544-536: The 3rd century BCE, though incorporating the Hindu lunar mansions. The names of the signs (e.g. Greek 'Krios' for Aries, Hindi 'Kriya'), the planets (e.g. Greek 'Helios' for Sun, astrological Hindi 'Heli'), and astrological terms (e.g. Greek 'apoklima' and 'sunaphe' for declination and planetary conjunction, Hindi 'apoklima' and 'sunapha' respectively) in Varaha Mihira's texts are considered conclusive evidence of
5670-490: The 5th century AD preferred the trepidation theory but because they had observed the movement of the fixed stars by 25 degrees since ancient times (since around 1325 BC), they considered that trepidation swung back and forth around 27 degrees. The significant early exponent of the 'circular 36,000' years method was Ptolemy and, due to the status placed upon Ptolemy by later scholars, the Christian and Muslim astronomers of
5796-526: The Anno Mundi calendar marking the end of the world. Anno Mundi 6000 (approximately AD 500) was thus equated with the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world. Since this date had already passed in the time of Dionysius, he therefore searched for a new end of the world at a later date. He was heavily influenced by ancient cosmology, in particular the doctrine of the Great Year that places
5922-518: The Catholic Church maintains that divination, including predictive astrology, is incompatible with modern Catholic beliefs such as free will: All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal
6048-484: The Earth and commonly referred to as precession of the equinoxes ; secondly, that, due to the nature of the precession of the equinoxes, the progression of the ages proceeds in reverse direction through the zodiacal signs. Astrologers use many ways to divide the Great Year into twelve astrological ages. There are two popular methods. One method is to divide the Great Year into twelve astrological ages of approximately equal lengths of around 2156 years per age based on
6174-399: The Earth behaves like a spinning top, and tops tend to wobble as they spin. The spin of the Earth is its daily (diurnal) rotation. The spinning Earth slowly wobbles over a period slightly less than 26,000 years. From our perspective on Earth, the stars are ever so slightly 'moving' from west to east at the rate of one degree approximately every 72 years. One degree is about twice the diameter of
6300-529: The Egyptian concept of dividing the zodiac into thirty-six decans of ten degrees each, with an emphasis on the rising decan, and the Greek system of planetary Gods, sign rulership and four elements . 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis. The astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy lived in Alexandria. Ptolemy's work
6426-459: The English mathematician and physician Thomas Hood made a set of paper instruments that used revolving overlays to help students work out relationships between fixed stars or constellations, the midheaven, and the twelve astrological houses . Hood's instruments also illustrated, for pedagogical purposes, the supposed relationships between the signs of the zodiac, the planets, and the parts of
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#17327731420606552-493: The Enlightenment , however, astrology lost its status as an area of legitimate scholarly pursuit. Following the end of the 19th century and the wide-scale adoption of the scientific method , researchers have successfully challenged astrology on both theoretical and experimental grounds, and have shown it to have no scientific validity or explanatory power . Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing in
6678-409: The Enlightenment, astrology was generally considered a scholarly tradition and was common in learned circles, often in close relation with astronomy , meteorology , medicine , and alchemy . It was present in political circles and is mentioned in various works of literature, from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare , Lope de Vega , and Pedro Calderón de la Barca . During
6804-553: The Great's conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread to Ancient Greece and Rome . In Rome, astrology was associated with " Chaldean wisdom". After the conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe and translated into Latin . Major astronomers including Tycho Brahe , Johannes Kepler and Galileo practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in
6930-489: The Indian Calculation Method"(c. 800); "Tabulae probatae" or "az-Zig al-mumtan" (c. 830); Al-Battani , Albategnius , al-Zij (c. 880); and al-Sufi, Azophi (c. 965); Al Biruni (973–1048), "al Canon al Masud" or "The Masʿūdic Canon"; Arabic fixed star catalogue of 1 October 1112 (ed. Paul Kunitzsch); and "Libros del Saber de Astronomía" by Alfonso X of Castile (1252–1284). There exists evidence that
7056-512: The Latin astronomia ). By the 17th century , astronomy became established as the scientific term, with astrology referring to divinations and schemes for predicting human affairs. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians , Chinese , and Maya developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. A form of astrology
7182-848: The March equinox occurs in Aquarius . In 1928, at the Conference of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Leiden , the Netherlands , the edges of the 88 official constellations became defined in astronomical terms. The edge established between Pisces and Aquarius locates the beginning of the Aquarian Age around the year 2600. The Austrian astronomer Hermann F. Haupt [ de ] examined
7308-524: The Persian god Mithra . Cumont's continuity hypothesis led him to believe that the astrological component was a late and unimportant accretion. Cumont's views are no longer followed. Today, the cult and its beliefs are recognized as a synthesis of late-classical Greco-Roman thought, with an astrological component even more astrology-centric than Roman beliefs generally were during the early Roman Empire. The details remain debated. As far as axial precession
7434-513: The Roman god Mithras. The near-total lack of written descriptions or scripture necessitates a reconstruction of beliefs and practices from the archaeological evidence, such as that found in Mithraic temples (in modern times called mithraea ), which were real or artificial caves representing the cosmos. Until the 1970s most scholars followed Franz Cumont in identifying Mithras as a continuation of
7560-504: The Sun or Moon as viewed from Earth. The easiest way to notice this slow movement of the stars is at any fixed time each year. The most common fixed time is at the vernal equinox around 21 March each year. In astrology, an astrological age has usually been defined by the constellation or superimposed sidereal zodiac in which the Sun actually appears at the vernal equinox. This is the method that Hipparchus appears to have applied around 127 BC when he calculated precession. Since each sign of
7686-419: The Sun, incurs a precessional motion involving a slow periodic shift of the axis itself: approximately one degree every 72 years. This motion, which is caused mostly by the Moon's gravity , gives rise to the precession of the equinoxes in which the Sun's position on the ecliptic at the time of the vernal equinox, measured against the background of fixed stars, gradually changes with time. In graphical terms,
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#17327731420607812-603: The University of Bologna in the early 14th century, continued to have faith in trepidation but believed it swung 10 degrees in either direction. Copernicus refers to trepidation in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium published in 1543. Hipparchus' discovery of precession of the equinoxes may have created the Mithraic Mysteries , colloquially also known as Mithraism , a 1st – 4th century neo-Platonic mystery cult of
7938-642: The Western esoteric tradition. Tanya Luhrmann has said that "all magicians know something about astrology," and refers to a table of correspondences in Starhawk's The Spiral Dance , organised by planet , as an example of the astrological lore studied by magicians. The earliest Vedic text on astronomy is the Vedanga Jyotisha ; Vedic thought later came to include astrology as well. Hindu natal astrology originated with Hellenistic astrology by
8064-461: The Will of God can be known and predicted. For example, Avicenna's 'Refutation against astrology', Risāla fī ibṭāl aḥkām al-nojūm , argues against the practice of astrology while supporting the principle that planets may act as agents of divine causation. Avicenna considered that the movement of the planets influenced life on earth in a deterministic way, but argued against the possibility of determining
8190-406: The apparent positions of celestial objects . Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as
8316-426: The astrological forces believed at that time to determine human existence. That gave him the power to grant his devotees success during life and salvation after death (i.e., a safe journey through the planetary spheres and a subsequent immortal existence in the sphere of the stars). Though the one degree per hundred years calculated for precession of the equinoxes as defined by Hipparchus and promulgated by Ptolemy
8442-465: The concept of precession in the astronomical canon. The recognition of precession had profound implications for astrology, particularly in the development of the concept of astrological ages. As the equinoxes precess through the zodiac, they mark the beginning and end of these ages, each lasting roughly 2,160 years, based on the 12 zodiacal constellations. The shift from one age to another is thought to bring about significant cultural and spiritual changes,
8568-573: The death of her husband, king Henry II of France made by her astrologer Lucus Gauricus. Major astronomers who practised as court astrologers included Tycho Brahe in the royal court of Denmark, Johannes Kepler to the Habsburgs , Galileo Galilei to the Medici , and Giordano Bruno who was burnt at the stake for heresy in Rome in 1600. The distinction between astrology and astronomy was not entirely clear. Advances in astronomy were often motivated by
8694-502: The desire to improve the accuracy of astrology. Kepler, for example, was driven by a belief in harmonies between Earthly and celestial affairs, yet he disparaged the activities of most astrologers as "evil-smelling dung". Ephemerides with complex astrological calculations, and almanacs interpreting celestial events for use in medicine and for choosing times to plant crops, were popular in Elizabethan England. In 1597,
8820-550: The development of psychological astrology . Advocates have defined astrology as a symbolic language, an art form, a science , and a method of divination. Though most cultural astrology systems share common roots in ancient philosophies that influenced each other, many use methods that differ from those in the West. These include Hindu astrology (also known as "Indian astrology" and in modern times referred to as "Vedic astrology") and Chinese astrology, both of which have influenced
8946-466: The ecliptic, completing a full cycle approximately every 26,000 years. Hipparchus made this discovery while comparing his observations of the positions of stars with records from earlier astronomers, particularly those from Babylon. He noticed that the positions of certain fixed stars had shifted relative to the equinoxes over time, an observation that could not be explained by the prevailing astronomical models of his time. In his work, Hipparchus noted that
9072-520: The entire cosmic structure, turning the cosmic sphere so that the location of the spring equinox left the constellation of Taurus (a transition symbolized by the killing of the Bull), and the Dog, Snake, Raven, and Scorpion likewise lost their privileged positions on the celestial equator. The iconography also contains two torch-bearing twins ( Cautes and Cautopates ) framing the bull-slaying image – one holding
9198-534: The equinoxes for calculating the period "Era of the Flood" dated as 3360 BCE or 259 years before the Indian Kali Yuga , believed to have commenced in 3101 BCE. The 15th century Italian Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola published a massive attack on astrological predictions, but he did not object to all of astrology and he commented on the position of the vernal point in his day. Pico
9324-541: The equinoxes, there is a one-degree shift approximately every 72 years, so a 30-degree movement requires 2160 years to complete. An established school of thought is that an age is also influenced by the sign opposite to the one of the astrological age. Referring back to the precession of the Equinoxes, as the Sun crosses one constellation in the Northern Hemisphere's spring Equinox (21 March), it will cross
9450-431: The exact influence of the stars. Essentially, Avicenna did not deny the core dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the extent that precise and fatalistic predictions could be made from it. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350), in his Miftah Dar al-SaCadah , also used physical arguments in astronomy to question the practice of judicial astrology. He recognised that the stars are much larger than
9576-454: The failure of astrology to explain twins who behave differently although conceived at the same moment and born at approximately the same time. Some of the practices of astrology were contested on theological grounds by medieval Muslim astronomers such as Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and Avicenna . They said that the methods of astrologers conflicted with orthodox religious views of Islamic scholars , by suggesting that
9702-555: The familiar elements of traditional Chinese culture – the Yin-Yang philosophy, theory of the five elements, Heaven and Earth, Confucian morality – were brought together to formalise the philosophical principles of Chinese medicine and divination, astrology, and alchemy . The ancient Arabs that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam used to profess a widespread belief in fatalism ( ḳadar ) alongside
9828-546: The fifteenth century. In Paradiso , the final part of the Divine Comedy , the Italian poet Dante Alighieri referred "in countless details" to the astrological planets, though he adapted traditional astrology to suit his Christian viewpoint, for example using astrological thinking in his prophecies of the reform of Christendom . John Gower in the fourteenth century defined astrology as essentially limited to
9954-519: The first day of the fifth month in the Thai lunar calendar , or during the Songkran festival (now celebrated every 13–15 April), depending on the purpose of the use. Augustine (354–430) believed that the determinism of astrology conflicted with the Christian doctrines of man's free will and responsibility, and God not being the cause of evil, but he also grounded his opposition philosophically, citing
10080-621: The fixed stars first moved one way, then moved the other way – similar to a giant pendulum. It was believed that the 'swinging' stars first moved 8 degrees one direction, then reversed this 8 degrees travelling the other direction. Theon of Alexandria in the 4th century AD includes trepidation when he wrote Small Commentary to the Handy Tables . In the 5th century AD, the Greek Neoplatonist philosopher Proclus mentions that both theories were being discussed. The Indians around
10206-536: The gods revealed to him in a dream the constellations that would be most favourable for the planned construction of a temple. However, there is controversy about whether these were genuinely recorded at the time or merely ascribed to ancient rulers by posterity. The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records of the first dynasty of Babylon (1950–1651 BCE). This astrology had some parallels with Hellenistic Greek (western) astrology, including
10332-637: The history of astrology and cultural astronomy. His book on millenarianism, The Great Year (1994), was described by Daily Telegraph journalist Damian Thompson as "a monumental study of historical schemes". In 1997 he founded the peer-reviewed journal Culture and Cosmos . Campion is Associate Professor in Cosmology and Culture, Director the Sophia Centre, Principal Lecturer in the Institute of Education and Humanities, and programme director of
10458-525: The human body adherents believed were governed by the planets and signs. While Hood's presentation was innovative, his astrological information was largely standard and was taken from Gerard Mercator's astrological disc made in 1551, or a source used by Mercator. Despite its popularity, Renaissance astrology had what historian Gabor Almasi calls "elite debate", exemplified by the polemical letters of Swiss physician Thomas Erastus who fought against astrology, calling it "vanity" and "superstition." Then around
10584-503: The making of predictions. The influence of the stars was in turn divided into natural astrology, with for example effects on tides and the growth of plants, and judicial astrology, with supposedly predictable effects on people. The fourteenth-century sceptic Nicole Oresme however included astronomy as a part of astrology in his Livre de divinacions . Oresme argued that current approaches to prediction of events such as plagues, wars, and weather were inappropriate, but that such prediction
10710-400: The modern calendar developed by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century AD commencing with the birth of Jesus Christ at AD 1 was influenced by precession of the equinoxes and astrological ages. Dionysius' desire to replace Diocletian years (Diocletian persecuted Christians) with a calendar based on the incarnation of Christ was to prevent people from believing the imminent end of the world. At
10836-426: The occupation by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, Egypt became Hellenistic . The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander after the conquest, becoming the place where Babylonian astrology was mixed with Egyptian Decanic astrology to create Horoscopic astrology . This contained the Babylonian zodiac with its system of planetary exaltations , the triplicities of the signs and the importance of eclipses. It used
10962-585: The opposite sign in the spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere (21 September). For instance, the Age of Pisces is complemented by its opposite astrological sign of Virgo (the Virgin); so a few refer to the Piscean age as the 'Age of Pisces-Virgo'. Adopting this approach, the Age of Aquarius would become the Age of Aquarius-Leo. In his writings Ray Grasse also espouses the link between each sign of
11088-566: The pervasive influence of Chaldeans, saying, "Still more trusted are the Chaldaeans; every word uttered by the astrologer they will believe has come from Hammon's fountain." One of the first astrologers to bring Hermetic astrology to Rome was Thrasyllus , astrologer to the emperor Tiberius , the first emperor to have had a court astrologer, though his predecessor Augustus had used astrology to help legitimise his Imperial rights. The main texts upon which classical Indian astrology
11214-433: The position of the vernal equinox had shifted by about 2° relative to the stars over the course of a century, which implied a slow, continuous motion of the celestial sphere. This discovery was groundbreaking because it revealed that the celestial sphere was not as fixed as previously thought. Hipparchus' calculation of the precession rate was remarkably close to the modern value, estimating it at roughly 1° per century, which
11340-402: The pre-boundary overlap. Many astrologers consider the entrance into a new astrological age a gradual transition called a " cusp ". For example, Ray Grasse states that an astrological age does not begin at an exact day or year. Paul Wright states that a transition effect does occur at the border of the astrological ages. Consequently, the beginning of any age cannot be defined to a single year or
11466-615: The precessional cycle was 24,000 years which included twelve astrological ages of 2,000 years each. Dionysius believed that if the planetary alignment marked the end of an age (i.e. the Pisces age), then the birth of Jesus Christ marked the beginning of the Age of Pisces 2,000 years earlier. He therefore deducted 2,000 years from the May 2000 conjunction to produce AD 1 for the incarnation of Christ. The renowned Persian Jewish astronomer and astrologer Masha'Allah (c.740 – 815 CE) employed precession of
11592-520: The present time the Sun crosses the equator in about nine degrees in the constellation Pisces. Based on this approach, it will thus be about 600 years before it actually crosses the celestial equator in the constellation Aquarius. However this is only one of many approaches and so this must remain speculation at this point of time. Symbol for Pisces : [REDACTED] When the March equinox occurs in Pisces . Symbol for Aquarius : [REDACTED] When
11718-540: The publication of sermons that depicted astrology as a legitimate biblical pursuit for Christians. They commissioned sermons that argued Astrology was divine, Hebraic, and scripturally supported by Bible passages about the Magi and the sons of Seth . According to historian Michelle Pfeffer, "The society's public relations campaign ultimately failed." Modern historians have mostly neglected the Society of Astrologers in favor of
11844-528: The question of when the Age of Aquarius begins in an article published in 1992 by the Austrian Academy of Science: with the German title "Der Beginn des Wassermannzeitalters, eine astronomische Frage?" ("The Start of the Aquarian Age, an Astronomical Question?"). Based on the boundaries accepted by IAU in 1928, Haupt's article investigates the start of the Age of Aquarius by calculating the entry of
11970-536: The same accident or battle; and that contrary to uniform influences from the stars, tribes and cultures are all different. Cicero , in De Divinatione , leveled a critique of astrology that some modern philosophers consider to be the first working definition of pseudoscience and the answer to the demarcation problem . Philosopher of Science Massimo Pigliucci , building on the work of Historian of Science, Damien Fernandez-Beanato, argues that Cicero outlined
12096-415: The same time. Luther also compared astrologers to those who say their dice will always land on a certain number. Although the dice may roll on the number a couple of times, the predictor is silent for all the times the dice fails to land on that number. What is done by God, ought not to be ascribed to the stars. The upright and true Christian religion opposes and confutes all such fables. The Catechism of
12222-525: The second half of the 17th century, the Society of Astrologers (1647–1684), a trade, educational, and social organization, sought to unite London's often fractious astrologers in the task of revitalizing astrology. Following the template of the popular "Feasts of Mathematicians" they endeavored to defend their art in the face of growing religious criticism. The Society hosted banquets, exchanged "instruments and manuscripts", proposed research projects, and funded
12348-520: The soul. The thirteenth century mathematician Campanus of Novara is said to have devised a system of astrological houses that divides the prime vertical into 'houses' of equal 30° arcs, though the system was used earlier in the East. The thirteenth century astronomer Guido Bonatti wrote a textbook, the Liber Astronomicus , a copy of which King Henry VII of England owned at the end of
12474-446: The spring equinox point over the parallel cycle (d = – 4°) between the constellations Pisces and Aquarius and reaches, using the usual formula of precession (Gliese, 1982), the year 2595. However Haupt concludes: Astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying
12600-531: The stars. Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa is thought to have been compiled in Babylon around 1700 BCE. A scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash ( c. 2144 – 2124 BCE). This describes how
12726-760: The stars. The Korean zodiac is identical to the Chinese one. The Vietnamese zodiac is almost identical to the Chinese, except for second animal being the Water Buffalo instead of the Ox , and the fourth animal the Cat instead of the Rabbit . The Japanese have since 1873 celebrated the beginning of the new year on 1 January as per the Gregorian calendar . The Thai zodiac begins, not at Chinese New Year , but either on
12852-443: The still extant Royal Society (1660), even though both organizations initially had some of the same members. Astrology saw a popular revival starting in the 19th century, as part of a general revival of spiritualism and—later, New Age philosophy, and through the influence of mass media such as newspaper horoscopes. Early in the 20th century the psychiatrist Carl Jung developed some concepts concerning astrology, which led to
12978-548: The tauroctony – all lay on the celestial equator (the location of which is shifted by the precession) and thus had privileged positions in the sky during that epoch. Mithras himself represents the constellation Perseus , which is located directly above Taurus the Bull: The same location occupied by Mithras in the tauroctony image. Mithras' killing of the Bull, by this reasoning, represented the power possessed by this new god to shift
13104-525: The time it was believed that the Resurrection and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus. The current Anno Mundi calendar theoretically commenced with the creation of the world based on information in the Old Testament . It was believed that based on the Anno Mundi calendar Jesus was born in the year 5500 (or 5500 years after the world was created) with the year 6000 of
13230-423: The time of the new star of 1572 and the comet of 1577 there began what Almasi calls an "extended epistemological reform" which began the process of excluding religion, astrology and anthropocentrism from scientific debate. By 1679, the yearly publication La Connoissance des temps eschewed astrology as a legitimate topic. During the Enlightenment , intellectual sympathy for astrology fell away, leaving only
13356-439: The total chart. The horoscope visually expresses the set of relationships for the time and place of the chosen event. These relationships are between the seven 'planets', signifying tendencies such as war and love; the twelve signs of the zodiac; and the twelve houses. Each planet is in a particular sign and a particular house at the chosen time, when observed from the chosen place, creating two kinds of relationship. A third kind
13482-409: The uncertainty related to the astrological ages is because many astrologers have a poor understanding of the meaning of the astrological symbolism and "even poorer historical knowledge". Though so many issues are contentious or disputed, there are two aspects of the astrological ages that have virtually unanimous consensus—firstly, the theorized link of the astrological ages to the axial precession of
13608-500: The vernal point moving through the randomly sized zodiacal constellations or sidereal zodiac and, instead, round all astrological ages to exactly 2000 years each. In this approach the ages are usually neatly aligned so that the Aries age is found from 2000 BC to AD 1, Pisces age AD 1 to AD 2000, the Aquarian Age AD 2000 – AD 4000, and so on. This approach is inconsistent with the precession of the equinoxes. Based on precession of
13734-482: The vernal point to shift into (sidereal) Aquarius age 144 years later as a one degree shift takes 72 years. Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726–27 ) determined the cause of precession and established the rate of precession at 1 degree per 72 years, very close to the best value measured today, thus demonstrating the magnitude of the error in the earlier value of 1 degree per century. The Earth, in addition to its diurnal (daily) rotation upon its axis and annual rotation around
13860-526: The western world, and common belief in it largely declined, until a continuing resurgence starting in the 1960s. The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia , which derives from the Greek ἀστρολογία —from ἄστρον astron ("star") and -λογία -logia , ("study of"—"account of the stars"). The word entered the English language via Latin and medieval French , and its use overlapped considerably with that of astronomy (derived from
13986-692: The works of poets such as Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer , and of playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare . Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition. It was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as astronomy , alchemy , meteorology , and medicine. At the end of the 17th century, new scientific concepts in astronomy and physics (such as heliocentrism and Newtonian mechanics ) called astrology into question. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined. Astrology, in its broadest sense,
14112-426: The world's cultural history. Western astrology is a form of divination based on the construction of a horoscope for an exact moment, such as a person's birth. It uses the tropical zodiac, which is aligned to the equinoctial points . Western astrology is founded on the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies such as the Sun, Moon and planets, which are analysed by their movement through signs of
14238-410: The zodiac and its opposite sign. Hipparchus of Nicaea (c. 190–120 BCE) is often credited with the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes, a fundamental astronomical phenomenon that plays a crucial role in the concept of astrological ages. Precession refers to the gradual shift in the orientation of Earth's axis of rotation, which causes the positions of the equinoxes to move slowly westward along
14364-432: The zodiac is composed of 30 degrees, each astrological age might be thought to last about 72 (years) × 30 (degrees) = about 2160 years. This means the Sun crosses the equator at the vernal equinox moving backward against the fixed stars from one year to the next at the rate of one degree in seventy-two years, one constellation (on average) in about 2148 years, and the whole twelve signs in about 25,772 years, sometimes called
14490-433: The zodiacal constellations has a flaw in that from the reckoning of classical-era astronomer/astrologers like Claudius Ptolemy , many constellations overlap, a problem only eliminated in the past 200 years by the adoption of official constellation boundaries. For example, by 2700 CE the vernal point will have moved into Aquarius, but from a classical-era point of view, the vernal point will also point to Pisces due to
14616-415: Was a valid field of inquiry. However, he attacked the use of astrology to choose the timing of actions (so-called interrogation and election) as wholly false, and rejected the determination of human action by the stars on grounds of free will. The friar Laurens Pignon (c. 1368–1449) similarly rejected all forms of divination and determinism, including by the stars, in his 1411 Contre les Devineurs . This
14742-542: Was absurd to link human attributes with myths about the signs of the zodiac, and wrote an entire book, Against the Astrologers (Πρὸς ἀστρολόγους, Pros astrologous ), compiling arguments against astrology. Against the Astrologers was the fifth section of a larger work arguing against philosophical and scientific inquiry in general, Against the Professors (Πρὸς μαθηματικούς, Pros mathematikous ). Plotinus ,
14868-424: Was aware of the effects of precession of the equinoxes and knew that the first point of Aries no longer existed in the constellation of Aries. Pico not only knew that the vernal point had shifted back into Pisces , he stated that in his time, the vernal point (zero degrees tropical Aries) was located at 2 degrees (sidereal) Pisces. This suggests that by whatever method of calculation he was employing, Pico expected
14994-497: Was compiled by Neil Mann, giving commonly cited durations for each era, as well as developments in human history typically believed to have been influenced by the vernal equinox sign of their age. He notes that the claims of zodiac influences on human history are biased, relying on widely varying dates for events and selective cherry picking of evidence. Definitive details on the astrological ages are lacking or disputed. The 20th-century British astrologer Charles Carter stated that "It
15120-668: Was in opposition to the tradition carried by the Arab astronomer Albumasar (787–886) whose Introductorium in Astronomiam and De Magnis Coniunctionibus argued the view that both individual actions and larger scale history are determined by the stars. In the late 15th century, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola forcefully attacked astrology in Disputationes contra Astrologos , arguing that the heavens neither caused, nor heralded earthly events. His contemporary, Pietro Pomponazzi ,
15246-485: Was mainly confined to political astrology , the observation of unusual phenomena, identification of portents and the selection of auspicious days for events and decisions. The constellations of the Zodiac of western Asia and Europe were not used; instead the sky is divided into Three Enclosures (三垣 sān yuán), and Twenty-Eight Mansions (二十八宿 èrshíbā xiù) in twelve Ci ( 十二次 ). The Chinese zodiac of twelve animal signs
15372-673: Was practised in the Old Babylonian period of Mesopotamia , c. 1800 BCE . Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa is one of earliest known Hindu texts on astronomy and astrology ( Jyotisha ). The text is dated between 1400 BCE to final centuries BCE by various scholars according to astronomical and linguistic evidences. Chinese astrology was elaborated in the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE). Hellenistic astrology after 332 BCE mixed Babylonian astrology with Egyptian Decanic astrology in Alexandria , creating horoscopic astrology . Alexander
15498-535: Was taken up by Islamic scholars following the collapse of Alexandria to the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of the Abbasid empire in the 8th. The second Abbasid caliph , Al Mansur (754–775) founded the city of Baghdad to act as a centre of learning, and included in its design a library-translation centre known as Bayt al-Hikma 'House of Wisdom', which continued to receive development from his heirs and
15624-677: Was the Liber Planetis et Mundi Climatibus ("Book of the Planets and Regions of the World"), which appeared between 1010 and 1027 AD, and may have been authored by Gerbert of Aurillac . Ptolemy's second century AD Tetrabiblos was translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli in 1138. The Dominican theologian Thomas Aquinas followed Aristotle in proposing that the stars ruled the imperfect 'sublunary' body, while attempting to reconcile astrology with Christianity by stating that God ruled
15750-472: Was to provide a major impetus for Arabic-Persian translations of Hellenistic astrological texts. The early translators included Mashallah , who helped to elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad, and Sahl ibn Bishr , ( a.k.a. Zael ), whose texts were directly influential upon later European astrologers such as Guido Bonatti in the 13th century, and William Lilly in the 17th century. Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during
15876-573: Was too slow, another rate of precession that was too fast also gained popularity in the 1st millennium AD. By the fourth century AD, Theon of Alexandria assumed a changing rate (trepidation) of one degree per 66 years. The tables of the Shah (Zij-i Shah) originate in the sixth century, but are lost, but many later Arabic and Persian astronomers and astrologers refer to them and also use this value. These later astronomers-astrologers or sources include: Al-Khwarizmi , Zij al Sindhind or "Star Tables Based on
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