Cosmos, Chaosmos and Astrology

COSMOS, CHAOSMOS AND ASTROLOGY

Cosmos, Chaosmos and Astrology:

Rethinking the Nature of Astrology

SOPHIA CENTRE MASTER MONOGRAPHS: VOLUME 1

Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture

University of Wales Trinity St David

Jennifer Zahrt, General Editor

© BERNADETTE BRADY 2014

First published by Sophia Centre Press in 2014.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publishers.

SOPHIA CENTRE PRESS

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Ceredigion, Wales SA48 7ED, United Kingdom

www.sophiacentrepress.com

ISBN 978-1-907767-40-1

ISBN 978-1-907767-63-0 (e-book)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue card for this book is available from the British Library.

Book Design by Joseph Uccello.

Printed in the UK by LightningSource.

ABSTRACT

This work explores the possible links between the practice of contemporary astrology with findings of chaos theory and complexity science. In this regard it joins other academic endeavours which have explored the chaosmological nature of different forms of literature, music, philosophy, and religion. Extensive as these other works are, as yet no research has been done to view the enigmatic subject of astrology in this light. The work considers a number of parallel paths. These paths are: creation mythology or vernacular ontologies; the philosophical framework of the period of the origins of astrology; and the implications of the relevance of chaos theory and complexity science in the human sciences. With these threads in place I map some of the philosophy and practices of astrology onto the findings of chaos theory and complexity. The work concludes by offering a view of astrology which is neither a pseudo-science looking for a causal agent nor a subject that requires a spiritual component. Additionally, while acknowledging a level of cultural relativism to astrology, I argue that there is also a level of philosophical absolutism evident in the subject’s consistent approach to its views on the union of sky and life. The work concludes by viewing astrology as a product of human intuition put to the service of the humanity’s need to bring a level of domestication to chaos in order to give meaning to life. In this regard it can be considered as one of humanity’s enduring subjects.

For

IRENE EARIS

(1946–2013)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Prof. Michael York who first introduced me to the thinking of Complexity and Patrick Curry for his encouragement and introducing me to the world of chaotic myths. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the influence on my thinking of Nicholas Campion with whom I have had many hours of conversations around the nature of astrology. I would also like to thank Darrelyn Gunzburg for her readings, comments to various versions of this work, and her support, which has enabled my thinking to find its voice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

Dedication

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

Chapter 1: Introduction

THE NATURE OF CHAOSMOS

THE NATURE OF COSMOS

THE ATTRIBUTES OF ASTROLOGY

Chapter 2: Creation Mythology, Three Paths to Order

ORDER CREATED BY EMERGENCE

CHAOSMOS, SUMPATHEIA AND OMENS

ORDER CREATED OUT OF CONFLICT

ORDER CREATED OUT OF INTELLECT

Chapter 3: The Privileging of Cosmos

THE RISE OF COSMOS

CHAOSMOS AND THE ‘HOCUS POCUS’ OF THE COMMON FOLK

Chapter 4: Astrology, the Question of Science or Spirit

THE PHILOSOPHICAL ORIGINS OF ASTROLOGY

COSMOS AND THE ENIGMATIC PRESENCE OF ASTROLOGY

Chapter 5: The Return of Chaos

LINEAR AND NON-LINEAR SYSTEMS

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF CHAOS THEORY AND COMPLEXITY

TWO TYPES OF CHAOS: ENTROPIC AND DETERMINISTIC

COMPLEXITY: A STATE OF BECOMING

FRACTALS AND THE PATTERNS OF LIFE

BIFURCATIONS: THE WAY THAT CHANGE ENTERS LIFE

RITUALS, SUPERSTITION AND OMENS

ATTRACTORS: THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE

Chapter 6: Mapping Astrology to Chaos and Complexity

QUALITY RATHER THAN EXACTNESS: LIFE AS COMPLICATED

SELF-SIMILARITY AND SCALE INVARIANCE: THE ASTROLOGICAL USE OF CYCLES

PHASE PORTRAITS AND HOROSCOPES

PLANETARY PATTERNS AND STRANGE ATTRACTORS

HOPF BIFURCATIONS: THE RANGE OF EXPRESSION WITHIN A PLANETARY COMBINATION

SADDLE POINTS AND HOMEOSTASIS: THE SENSITIVITY OF HOROSCOPIC POINTS

Chapter 7: Astrology and Chaosmos

CONCLUSION

Glossary of Technical Terms

CHAOS AND COMPLEXITY TERMS

ASTROLOGICAL TERMS

Bibliography

Index

LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION

THE POTENTIAL LINKS between the practice of contemporary astrology and the findings of chaos theory and complexity science are the focus of this work. In this regard it joins other academic attempts which have explored the chaosmological nature of different forms of literature, music, philosophy, and religion.¹ Extensive as these other works are, as yet, no research has been undertaken with a view to considering the subject of astrology in this light.

The trajectory of this work is to consider a number of parallel paths: creation mythology or vernacular ontologies; the philosophical orientation of the culture that placed astrology in its national thinking; and the implications of the relevance of chaos theory and complexity science in the human sciences. With these threads in place I will follow the leads of Cristiana Farronato when considering Umberto Eco’s literary work, Tim Clark when considering Alfred Whitehead’s philosophy, Fredrick Ruf when considering the philosophy of William James, and Jean-Godefroy Bidima when considering Gilles Deleuze’s comments on music. Applying a similar line of thinking to astrology I argue that the phenomenon of a lived life has given rise to a vernacular set of astrological tenets and practices which mirror, even if somewhat crudely, the current findings within chaos theory and complexity science. Accordingly my research offers a view on the nature of astrology suggesting that it is neither a pseudo-science nor a spiritual subject but is instead a product of the human desire to domesticate chaos, a blending of the chaosmic notion of sumpatheia with the cosmic surety of heavenly numbers.

This first chapter establishes the attributes of the three central themes of the work: chaosmos, and the notion of sumpatheia; cosmos; and astrology.

THE NATURE OF CHAOSMOS

It was Hesiod (c. 750–650 BCE) who offered the first known comments on Chaos (the place). He spoke of Chaos in his creation myth as, ‘verily at the first Chaos came to be’, thus naming it as the first thing or place that existed and from Chaos the gods emerged, first Erebus and the Black Night and then the Day.² For Hesiod the gods, once born, stayed away from ‘gloomy Chaos’ living instead in the glorious heavens propped up with ‘silver pillars’.³ Later Plato (c. 427–348 BCE) carried this idea forward and defined his cosmos as the outcome of the bringing of order to disorder, ‘because he [the god] believed that order was in every way better than disorder’.⁴ In this regard the Greek concepts of Kosmos and Chaos were a pair involved in a creative union. Kosmos came from Chaos and was beautiful order, the order which is understandable, knowable, reliable and, therefore, defined by Plato as containing Reason. In contrast, Kosmos’ non-gendered parent, Chaos, brought to mind infinite and unending space, the abyss or gulf with no limits, the place from which elements of the Kosmos fought to be released, or to crawl free, either by natural emergence, or as was the case in the Babylonian creation mythology of Marduk and the chaotic force of Tiamat, by force and bloodshed.⁵ In this context Chaos became defined as disorder, and disorder remained the dominant definition of Chaos from the classical period to the twentieth century.

Both Kosmos and Chaos were also ‘located’ in the heavens; Kosmos touched the earth through heavenly order and Chaos by heavenly disorder. The continuity of order, however, was not assumed and the sky needed to be watched for any signs of the emergence of Chaos. Many letters written to the Assyrian kings in the seventh century BCE by their astronomer/astrologer/priests were concerned with the phases of the moon and its regularity against their established order of the lunar calendar. An example of such letters stated that, ‘if the moon becomes visible on the 1st day: reliable speech; the land will become happy’ or in contrast, ‘if the moon becomes visible on the 30th day there will be a rumour of the enemy’.⁶ Every month a priest needed to observe the full moon for, ‘if the moon and the sun are in balance: the land will become stable…if on the 14th day the moon and the sun are seen together [in the sky]: reliable speech, the land will become happy’.⁷ In contrast, the priest Issar-sumu-eres warned the king that, ‘If the moon does not wait for the sun but sets: raging of lion and wolf’.⁸ Rituals could be used to minimise or neutralise the rumblings of chaos, and thus the astronomer/astrologer/priests were sentries standing on the edge of, and guarding, the ordered world.

Nearly two thousand years later when the heavenly order was accepted as the norm, the idea of chaos (the state) was still associated with a disordered heaven. The Welsh historical commentator, Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100–1155), described the zodiac signs losing their order as the herald of approaching chaos,

The Twins shall surcease from their wonted embrace, and shall call the Urn unto the fountains. The scales of the Balance shall hang awry until the Ram shall set his crooked horns beneath them. The tail of the Scorpion shall breed lightnings, and the Crab fall at strife with the Sun. The Virgin shall forget her maiden shame, and climb up on the back of the Sagittary. The chariot of the Moon shall disturb the Zodiac, and the Pleiades shall burst into tears and lamentation.⁹

The sky in disorder was also William Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) omen for the eruption of chaos. In his play Troilus and Cressida he described such a time as,

Sans check, to good and bad: but when the planets

In evil mixture to disorder