ASTRO-PSYCHOLOGY

 

Ancient Astrology, Psychology & Religion

 

In the previous lecture we showed how, to the astronomer theologians, contemplation of the sky had become the source of a mystic union with the divine stars. The sublime joy of ecstasy, which brings man into communion with the sidereal gods, gave him but a foretaste of the bliss which is in store for him when after death his soul, ascending to the celestial spheres, shall penetrate their mysteries. The transient exaltation, which illumines his intelligence here below, is a dim foreshadowing of the intoxication which will be wrought in him by the immediate prospect of the stars and the full comprehension of truth. The most ideal pursuits of the sage in this world are but a faint adumbration of a blessedness which will be perfected in the life to come.

 

Thus astral mysticism based upon a psychological experience the construction of a complete doctrine of immortality. It glorified its ideal of earthly life and projected it into the life beyond. These ideas, as they spread throughout the Roman world, could not fail to modify profoundly the whole conception of man’s destiny.[1]

 

What conception was formed of the bliss reserved for the elect who were raised to the stars?

We have seen that the mysteries of Bacchus and Thracian Orphism represented immortality as a sort of holy intoxication; the faithful, sharing the banquet of the gods, rejoiced with them forever at a feast liberally supplied with wine. These beliefs were combined with sidereal eschatology, only the locality of the repast was transferred to the new Olympus, and the idea of a celestial banquet was to survive up to the end of paganism and to impose itself, at any rate as a symbol, even on Christianity.

 

But Plato had already ridiculed those who looked upon ceaseless wine-bibbing as the highest reward of virtue, and the author of the Epinomis already conceived eternal life as the contemplation of the most beautiful things which eye can perceive - that is, the constellations. This idea was developed in the sidereal cults, and Posidonius was to set forth in stately language how the contemplation of the sky and the study of the stars is the preparation for another existence, in which human reason will know the fullness of the sublime joy which a transient ecstasy causes here below. As soon as it is delivered from the trammels of the flesh, the soul will soar to these lofty regions, whither it has hitherto been unable to escape except at intervals. Flying across the immensity of space, it will reascend to the stars from which it descended.[2]

 

This psychology, which owed its triumph to the astrological cults of Asia, professed to establish a sevenfold division in the soul, to which correspond seven creations. It taught that our soul descends from the height of heaven to this sublunary world, passing through the gates of the planetary spheres, and thus at birth the soul acquires the dispositions and the qualities peculiar to each of these stars. After death it regains its celestial home by the same path. Then, as it traverses the zones of the sky, which are placed one above the other, it divests itself of the passions and faculties which it had acquired during its descent to earth, as it were of garments. To the moon it surrenders its vital and alimentary energy, to Mercury its cupidity, to Venus its amorous desires, to the Sun its intellectual capacities, to Mars its warlike ardour, to Jupiter its ambitious dreams, to Saturn its slothful tendencies. It is naked, disencumbered of all sensibility, when it reaches the eighth heaven, there to enjoy, as a sublime essence, in the eternal light where live the gods, bliss without end.[3]

 

Itself [the soul] a fiery essence, it is kin to the gods which glitter in the firmament. Thus the contemplation of the heaven becomes a communion. The desire which man feels to fix his eyes long upon the star-spangled vault, is a divine passion which transports him. A call from heaven draws him towards the radiant spaces. In the splendour of the night his spirit is intoxicated with the glow which the fires above shed upon him. As men possessed, or as the corybantes in the delirium of the orgies, he gives himself up to ecstasy, which frees him from the trammels of his flesh and lifts him, far above the mists of our atmosphere, into the serene regions where move the everlasting stars. Borne on the wings of enthusiasm, he projects himself into the midst of this sacred choir and follows its harmonious movements.[4] Then he partakes in the life of the luminous gods, which from below he sees as twinkling in their radiance of the ether; before the appointed hour of death he participates in their divinity, and receives their revelations in a stream of light, which by its brilliance dazzles even the eye of reason.[5]

 

Such are the sublime effusions in which the mystic eloquence of a Posidonius delights. [6]

 

This mystic contemplation of heaven, source of all intelligence, will be the religious ideal of lofty spirits. The astronomer Ptolemy, who of all savants of antiquity had perhaps the most influence on succeeding generations, will forget his complicated calculations and his arduous researches to sing of this intoxication. We have preserved the following lines of his[7]:

 

“Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day, but when I follow the serried multitude of the stars in the circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth; I ascend to Zeus himself to feast me on ambrosia, the food of the gods.”[8]

 

When the Greeks learned to recognize the five planets known in antiquity, they gave them names derived from their character. Venus, whose brightness Homer had already celebrated, was called “Herald of the Dawn” (Hesphoros) or “Herald of Light” (Phosphoros) or on the other hand “Vespertine” (Hesperos), according as she was considered the star of the morning or of the evening (the identity of these two being not yet recognised). Mercury was named the “Twinkling Star” (Stilbon), Mars, because of its red colour, the “Fiery Star” (Pyroeis), Jupiter the “Luminous Star” (Phaethon), Saturn the “Brilliant Star” (Phainon), or perhaps taking the word in another sense, the “Indicator.” Now, after the fourth century other titles are found to supersede these ancient names, which are gradually ousted from use. The planets become the stars of Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Zeus, Kronos. Now this seems due to the fact that in Babylonia these same planets were dedicated respectively to Nebo, Ishtar, Nergal, Marduk, and Ninib. In accordance with the usual procedure of the ancients, the Greeks substituted for these barbarous divinities those of their own deities who bore some resemblance to them.... Thus the names of the planets which we employ today, are an English translation of a Latin translation of a Greek translation of a Babylonian nomenclature.[9]

 

 

The Psychology of Astrology

 

What is remarkable about the principle of the Zodiac is the fact that it catches in a net, as it were, the main areas or aspects of a person’s character and life... Even from this brief survey it becomes clear that the ancient system of twelve houses preserves a great deal of human experience... At the very least it would serve the astrologer as a kind of reminder as he considers the answers to possible questions asked of him. At the same time, it is a great psychological tool, one that was designed long before modern psychology and psychiatry evolved.[10]