Comment on Are Pisces prone to by Ramiro Sofronie

A reanalysis of the early 4th C. BCE cuneiform texts BM 53282 and BM 47494 and the evidence they provide for early, personal zodiacal divination. It is suggested that the 2½° "ki" rising or setting at the moment of birth served to identify each child with a particular zodiacal sign, thereby best accounting for the zodiacal signs found on the personal seals recovered from Hellenistic Uruk, for example, and closely pre-figuring the classical horoscopus.

Astrology, the mother of our base sciences of Astronomy, Medicine and Psychology has developed an erroneous reputation in the Western world. But during ancient times it was an honored and respected field of study, which impacted and permeated the lives of all. Even the Rabbis of the Talmudic times were not exempted from this knowledge. In fact, we know that many of them were considered outstanding astrologers. Their deep understanding of the workings of the universe, their profound experience in energetic and spiritual issues, their acute comprehension of human nature, were the tools that allowed them to guide a generation of people that had lost all their possessions and were at risk of losing also their identity as a nation and more importantly, the loss of their religious path to a new level of understanding of life, faith, respect, forgiveness, love, and profound connection with the Source of All. It is my interest to discover if such knowledge could serve our generation, to recreate once again our tradition, to rekindle the spark of faith in our people, to assume the role of being “the light unto the nations” with pride and humbleness. I hope also that this delving into the ancient knowledge will serve as a key to open our hearts and minds and inspire the new generations to take the torch of Torah and keep walking the path that Abraham started almost six thousand years ago.

During the 17th century some astrologers attempted to reform the subject of astrology and align it with the newly emerging experimental methods of natural philosophy (science). Francis Bacon was in favor of a scientific astrology and Johannes Kepler proposed specific reforms. While astrologers had no more difficulty in accepting the Copernican hypothesis than did most scientists of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, they lacked a means of establishing measurable units in their subject, particularly in regard to nativities. During the mid 17th century John Goad applied the astrological scientific methodology of the time, mostly data collection and correlation, to meteorological astrology and produced a major work on the subject. In it he analyzed the geocentric angular separations between the planets, Sun and Moon, and correlated them with weather records he made over several decades. Goad’s Astro-Meteorologica was probably the greatest single effort to make a science out of astrology in the 17th century. Unfortunately, his research was conducted at a time before instrumentation and statistical methodologies for processing data were readily available.

David Clive Rubin, 2019

The Jewish Bible emerged against a backdrop of paganism and astrolatry, surrounded by the greatest civilizations of the ancient world. A millennium later, in enclaves of the Sasanian Empire of pre-Islamic Iran, a melting-pot of heterogeneous religious and ethnic communities dominated by Zoroastrian culture, the Babylonian Talmud, the culmination of generations of Rabbinic oral discussion of Torah law, was born. Divinatory practices prevalent in the pagan cultures of Classical Antiquity were seemingly reviled in both the Bible and the Talmud. Yet, beneath that apparent veneer, there was evidence of an attitude towards celestial phenomena that paralleled that of contemporaneous culture, the cognition of a relationship between the stars and the Earth that belied a wholesale rejection of astrological belief. Whilst spurning astral religion, both the Jewish Bible and the Talmud incorporated a cosmology and attitude that recognised the significance of the celestial bodies beyond the physical. This paper seeks to analyse the nature and extent of that attitude, comparing and contrasting the Bible and the Talmud’s conception of the heavenly bodies’ significance. It will also seek to clarify the relationship of the conceptual worlds of the Tanach’s authors and classical Rabbinic Judaism [Talmudic] to astrology (and its various categories), to determine whether or not the rabbis’ theological stance vis-à-vis astrology differs substantially from that of the Bible.

2018

In its original Babylonian and Egyptian contexts, astrology was the interpretation of celestial signs and omens sent by the gods as warnings to rulers and the elite. Roman fondness for Stoicism fertilized the growth of astrology in the Greco-Roman world, which developed into a natural science, fully integrated with the prevailing cosmology. Astrology became popularized, and anyone who could afford some level of the service knew basic features of his natal chart. The chapter explains the various forms and purposes of judicial or divinatory astrology: “mundane” (heavenly effects on regions), “genethlialogical” (heavenly effects on a life from its birth or conception), “horary” (heavenly effects on the present moment), and “catarchic” (heavenly effects on the future). The chapter also provides an historical sketch of classical astrology, from Babylonian origins through the major surviving handbooks, and an elaborated ancient example of a natal chart (of the emperor Hadrian), its methods, and interpretation.

European Journal of Science and Theology, Vol 11, No 2, Page No. 55-64, , 2015

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the most common forms of future prediction used by the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Macedonians and Romans. Astrology, for example, examined celestial configurations to foretell the destiny of individuals. Ancient societies also predicted the future through the symbolic interpretation of dreams (oniromania), by inspecting the internal organs of sacrificed animals (hieroskopia), by examining the behaviour and flight patterns of birds (oionomanteia), through inductive or artificial divination (eutehnón, tehnikón) and through observing various natural phenomena that were interpreted as "good" or "bad" omens. This paper has two principal aims. First, is to use the comparative analysis to illustrate the similarities and differences in how ancient societies used divination systems to predict and interpret the future and destiny of mankind. The second one is to examine the impact of those systems in modern societies. Although rudiments of the ancient systems have been modified in modern times, they remain almost unchanged in some rural areas and are evident in Macedonian folk beliefs, and contribute to fatalistic attitudes.

This new series offers concise, accessible, and lively accounts of central aspects of the ancient world. Each book is written by an acknowledged expert in the field and provides a compelling overview, for readers new to the subject and specialists alike.

The Planetarian, 2021

The star of Bethlehem is a popular and standard topic in many planetaria all over the (Christian) world. Since the production of dome planetariums started in the 1920s, the most common story that is told deals with a great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Alternatives are hardly discussed in the public, although it has long been known amongst researchers that there was no special astronomical phenomenon that coincides exactly. Here, I present a brief discussion of all suggestions, including an analysis of the nova question with my recently developed, data-driven method that was successfully presented to the public. The goal is not to present an explanation, because there is no historical proof that the star existed at all. This paper is dedicated only to the suggestion of a narrative in the planetarium that communicates that this star is a symbol with a function in the story. Additionally, it provides the possibility to demonstrate a huge variety of astronomical objects and their appearance to the naked eye.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science, 2020

https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.013.198 In ancient Mesopotamia, all five planets visible to the naked eye were known and studied, along with the Moon, the Sun, the stars, and other celestial phenomena. In all Mesopotamian sources concerning the Moon and the planets, be they textual or icono­graphical, the astronomical, astrological, and religious aspects are intertwined. The term “astral science” covers all forms of Mesopotamian scholarly engagement with celestial entities, including celestial divination and astrology. Modern research on Mesopotamian astral science began in the 19th century. Much research remains to be done, because im­portant sources remain unpublished and new questions have been posed to published sources.