Mississauga Centre RASC

                            107th Meeting

                                                                                  Speakers’ Night  

           

 

Day:                Friday June 6, 2008

 

Chair:                Randy Attwood

 

Speaker:          Dr. Roger Beck

                     

 

Ancient Astrology in the Culture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans

 

Dr. Roger Beck is Emeritus Professor in Classics at the University of Toronto.  Among his many publications is  “A Brief History of Ancient Astrology”.

 

Astrology is non-scientific and was no better in the ancient world. Essentially it is the same art as it was 2,000 years ago.  In the second century CE, Ptolemy codified astronomy and fixed it as it was in his time.  His book “The Almagest” or “The Great Putting Together” in 4 papyrus rolls was the essential text till Renaissance times.  In the Almagest, Ptolemy considered astronomy as a theoretical philosophy – things done primarily with the mind but with some observation as well.  In contrast to today, the ancients were biased to the theoretical over the practical; thinking was the most important thing.  Observation was kept  to a minimum and then you started thinking of things and their causes. 

 

There were three main branches of philosophy.   First of all there is the invisible and immutable which is God or theology, the prime mover who started the whole thing moving and is in charge of the lesser deities and movement of bodies.  In second place is mathematics which includes arithmetic and geometry and the study of things that are visible but immutable such as matter in motion, time and including the celestial bodies and astronomy.  Thirdly, there is the mutable and visible or what we would call physics.

So, in the hierarchy there is a preference for the unchangeable and immutable.  Things that don’t change like God and the stars are superior.  Astronomy is a superior form of science in the ancient world – astronomical bodies move but do not seem to change.  Astrology is a continuation of making future predictions from astronomy of the bodies.  Astrology makes predictions – the effects of celestial bodies in the environment i.e. planet Earth.   Ptolemy, however, is far removed from astrology because large events (hurricanes and wars) can overrule individual horoscopes.

 

All horoscopes are specific for a certain time and place on the Earth’s surface.  Roger described the clock face (the horizon and the ascendant (rising zodiac) and descendant.  Ancient astrologers did not factor in the obliquity of the ecliptic nor the size of each sign.  Astrology assigned each 1/12 th part to a different place. Some places had to do with marriages, family, enemy , friends etc.  The places indicate good and bad fortune.  Add 7 hands – the planets which include the naked eye planets and the Sun and Moon.  These planets move counterclockwise whereas the clock face moves clockwise, except when a planet is in retrograde.   Knowing a birth date, one knows the position of the planets at that time and a horoscope is set up. 

 

How do you read a horoscope?   The planets also have character because they are divine people.  Mars deals with war and is bad whereas Venus is feminine love and is good.  Planets are changeable and in bad sign like Scorpio, the good planet weakens and the bad one strengthens.  For Ptolemy, the aspects, or relationship of planets to each other, was most important, with opposition being a bad aspect and hexagon or triangle relationship being good.  Of note is that the planets are constantly shifting.  Because there are a huge number of combinations and almost limitless number of outcomes, the best way out is to look after an event and pick up the combination that worked.  So it is virtually hopeless to predict because so many things can happen.  For an astrologer, it was best to take a life lived and watch the aspects that occurred in the person’s life. 

 

Dr. Beck gave an example of the horoscope of Ceronius Rufus Albinus born on March 14, 303 CE. showing where the planets were at the time of birth using tables not observations.  If the first order horoscope did not give a good match to the person’s life, then a counter-planet or antiscium could be used e.g. the opposite point of the planet.  Even 3rd order and 4th order horoscopes could be cast until they matched actual events in the life.

 

Horoscopes are thus after-the-event exercises.  The primary horoscope could not give a major prediction of its own accord. 

 

 

Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary  Chris Malicki, Secretary                               back to Miss Centre. meeting reports page
Mississauga Centre RASC