Chaldean Astrology/Astronomy (Chaldeans Invented Astronomy)
Chaldean Astrology/
Astronomy (The
Great Chaldeans
Invented Astronomy)
علم التنجيم علم الفلك الكلداني
The present distinction between astronomy and astrology is only relatively recent. In fact, most of those considered to be the founders of modern scientific astronomy, including
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543),
Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) and
Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) were competent astrologers. The origins of astrology lie long before these intellectual giants however, and although the starry heavens have been used by man as a guide since time immemorial, the art now designated as astrology is considered to have originated with the Chaldeans, in
Babylon,
Mesopotamia, (now
Iraq) around the fourth millennium BC. It was practiced in the temples, where it was blended with religious elements and was an important resource for farmers as well as physicians. It is thought to have spread to
Egypt around the third millennium BC.
Spread of Chaldean Astrology into Egypt,
Greece, and
Rome
CHALDEAN astrology was diffused far and wide before the fall of Babylon in the sixth century
B. C., and it long survived that historic event. Before the beginning of the
Christian Era, Babylonian astrological notions had spread into Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
W. F. Albright, in the following statement, gives a very brief and comprehensive summary of the facts about it:
"The scientific importance of the Chaldaean astronomical records was well known to
Aristotle, who commissioned his pupil
Callisthenes to investigate them, which he did in the year 331 B. C. In the following decades the Babylonian scholar
Berossus, who founded a
Greek astrological school at Cos about 280 B. C., made the first translations of Babylonian astronomical texts into Greek, followed probably by others, since it has been lately shown by Schnabel and Schaumberger that
Geminus (of
Tyre?), the pupil of
Posidonius, published Greek versions of Babylonian astronomical tables in the early first century B. C. About 250 B. C. a distinguished Chaldaean astrologist and writer, named
Sudines (Shum-iddin), was active at
Pergamum.
Apparently Chaldaean astrology was favorably received from the outset in most Greek philosophical circles, and even
Hipparchus became an adept.
"The first Greek to popularize it in Egypt may have been
Critodemus, and it was embraced there with such extraordinary ardor that Egypt became the classical land of astrological „research,‟ in the second century B. C. (
Cumont, L'
Egypte des Astrologues,
Brussels,
1937), thanks to the activity of two native
Egyptians,
Nechepso and
Petosiris (c.
150 B. C.). It is quite possible that these
Egyptian astrologers simply took advantage of the situation to popularize an Egypto-Chaldaean astrology dating back to the
Persian period, to which the legendary Ostanes must have belonged."
1
1 W. F. Albright, From
Stone Age to
Christianity, pp. 262, 263.
Though astrology was known far back in the time of the
Roman Republic, it is in the
Empire that it became very popular among the
Latins.
Cato, in his treatise
De Agricultura (written between 234 and 149 B. C.), refers to the Chaldean astrologers as active in his country then.2 In 139 B. C. they were expelled from Rome by Cneius
Cornelius Hispallus. But in time they returned. There is evidence that
Julius Caesar was inclined to astrology.
Cicero, his contemporary, denounced it as charlatanism. The emperor
Augustus Caesar believed in it, and
Marcus Manhius, a
Roman astrologer, compiled a treatise on the subject, entitled
Astronomica, which he dedicated to this Roman ruler.
Propertius (30-15 B. C.) lamented the fact that exploitation by astrology was common.3
Juvenal mentions that the women of his time were greatly interested in it.4
Suetonius reveals that many of the emperors of the first century
A. D. 2
esteemed astrology very highly.5 Horoscopes were made of the sons of leading families as soon as the babies were born.
Tiberius and
Nero favored it to the extent that they had in their employ the two Thrasylli, father and son, who were noted astrologers
. In the works of
Tacitus, Juvenal, and
Aulus Gellius frequent mention is made of the Chaldaei or mathematici. Because astrology often became in volved in politics and unfavorable prognostications were made concerning those in power, some of the emperors most devoted to this superstition expelled the astrologers from Rome.6
Chaldean Numerology is always performed in synergy with Chaldean Astrology, and are inseparable. Numerological analysis always precedes that of the
Natal Chart, both sharing the same objectives. Chaldean astrology is based on the
Sidereal Zodiac and the
Equal house system. Its predictive methods are primarily based on the Luminary
Planets: the
Sun and Moon.