THE MOTHER OF ALL SCIENCES

A l'alta fantasia qui mancò possa;
ma già volgeva il mio disio e 'l velle,
sì come rota ch'igualmente è mossa,
l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.
Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy:
But now was turning my desire and will,
even as a wheel that equally is moved,
The love which moves the sun and the other stars.
Dante's last line in Paradise

I have been studying Astrology for almost forty years, but should confess that I rarely mention this fact to anybody. People in General have a tendency of labeling you with a quick judgment without going in depth about it, either they think you are an inoffensive nut, of which seems to be an abundant crop around us all the time, or they will lionize you with endless questions about their Zodiac sign, their particular destiny, specially when it come to matters of love, and their prospect to become rich, and powerful!

And also I do not want to become trap in to mounting an Apology for Astrology when confronted by our common, but misguided scientifically oriented know it all individual, who feel he  is a champion for progress, and modernity, and believe Astrology to be a remnant  of the dark ages of Mankind. It soon become banal, repetitive, and boring to go through the same cliche arguments, encountering a deep ignorance of this Magna Science, with these supposed educated, and enlightened modern individuals.

But how can we blame them?

Either you posses a well developed Intuition that allow you to grasp subjective concepts, and you believe in Astrology a priori, or you rejected it based in the common educational zeitgeist of our times, and the limited information,  you posses of it, given to you by our formal education who pass the sacred commandment that Science had discarded Astrology to the dustbin of useless superstitions since the Seventeenth Century. You would be the first to be surprised to find thesis now days arguing the lack of Empirical evidence against Astrology by the scientist of those days!

Like that of Mr. David Kemp. October 2003 Dissertation Thesis (M.A.) Dept. of Religion, Concordia University, 2003

However, frankly I am not interested in debating Astrology from an Empirical point of view, simply because the domain of Astrology belongs to the SUBJECTIVE a Realm no less Real just because does not belong to our objective material, Science oriented based on experiment, and physical evidence type of mentality, who reduce to nonexistent, and non real to anything it can’t measure, weight, or perceive in the physical Universe. Discarding Spirit, the Knowing Self, and our very much Ontological Being as irrelevant, as if our subjective self wouldn’t exist, just because they say so!

Once again; Astrology it is not the field, or the object of study of astronomers, period. And I would advice them to stop pontificating in to a field they do not know anything, If you want a medical opinion, you consult a physician, if a legal advice a lawyer, if shoes a cobbler, etc. Why then rely on an astronomer to tell us about Astrology when this Magna Science have little to do with physical astronomy, and more with Psychology, Metaphysics, Mythology, Anthropology, and similar fields of our modern age, not to talk of other fields little known to the average individual, like Theurgy, Mythology, Symbolism, Archetypes, far more important to understand the essence of Astrological studies, that have nothing to do with vibrations, or gravitation forces, or magnetic fields, as some misguided self professed astrologers pressured by the need to appear as knowledgeable, and being accepted as legit, in their ignorance bend their knee, to those who attack them with the aforementioned argument of lack of scientific proof!

Astrology is as exact, as the knowledge, and wisdom of the Astrologer, period. Nothing to do with the validity of Astrology itself, no different from any other field of Human knowledge where you look for advice by someone who not only is qualified in the field, but you desire to be the best, like if with an illness being take care by a wise, and knowledgeable physician, rather than a bad, or a mediocre one. Astrology is a field where quality matter as well.

In ancient cultures, and today so called primitive societies the function of the Shaman it is not only associated with the healing practices, but also with the Religious aspects of life, the Shaman not only posses the knowledge of the objective, the herbs, roots, of plants, animals, minerals, etc. But also roams the the world of spirits, to bring a holistic healing to the patient, unlike our sophisticated modern approach, were the physician treat the body, and send you somewhere else for psychiatric consultation!

Contemporary physicians somewhere along the line of our Western culture lost the ability to do a Holistic healing, since our thinkers and philosophers, discarded the subjective realm of Spirit, our physicians concentrated in treating the tangible, as a result the need of a so called pseudo-sciences are now required to feel the void of such disastrous oversight, as proof of that, our mental wards, and our streets are awash with those desperate souls we call the mad, usually homeless, and picking garbage to survive. And since telling them that their sickness is non existing, or the product of some chemical imbalance, treatable by drugs, in a lot of cases ineffective, or counterproductive, doesn’t help. Modern Medicine, despite it’s unquestionable advances, it’s being incapable of bridging the void left by the annihilation of the Soul.  You think with all the advances of modern medicine, they could help these desperate individuals, with surgery, drugs, therapy, etc. An increase of mental disorders is common, even in the children, and college students.

So the pseudo scientific, Psychologist have replaced the Shaman!

Astrology, Shamanism, Mythology, and Psychology have been dumped in to pseudo sciences. Nevertheless the proliferation here and there of all kind of supposedly quack entrepreneurs that cash in the ignorance of the general population, and the less informed people, I do not deny the abundant of charlatans that take advantage of an opportunity when they see it, and that is the point I want to make, despite the benefits brought by Science, there is plenty, no, a wide vacuum the size of Texas, for these charlatans, and this of course obey to a need for this subjective if you wish but nevertheless valid Knowledge, otherwise people wouldn’t be looking for alternative methodologies not based in Scientific evidence, if Scientific methodologies could satisfy them, do they?

In antiquity Astrology had little to do with predicting someones future, so call Astrology is just a late branch by the name of Judicial Astrology, or Horoscopes. The Ancient cultures like the Chaldean, Maya, Egyptian, Chinese, originally had a Religious connotations, tied to their particular beliefs, and the reason why our planets in the Solar system bear the Latin names of the Gods Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc. originally the study of Astronomy was limited to the movement of the visible Heaven, and their  apparent revolution around the Earth. This marked Religious rites, and festivals tied to their particular Cosmology, and Mythologies.

Now please do not dismiss all this as nonsense of the ancients, in lack of a better knowledge, testament of that knowledge were the many achievements of their cultures, left in stone for us to see to our days. The Maya were not the first culture of Mexico to develop the calendar they have become famous for. The Olmec, and the Toltec, the mother culture of Mexico, who predate the Maya civilization are known to have made calendrical engravings similar to those of the Maya, which up to date it is more accurate than our own.

Contemporary Man dismisses easily the profound knowledge of ancient Man which of course was not based on the deductive Scientific methodology of our days, as much as in inductive reasoning, like keen observation of phenomena and their cyclic recurrence, their relations not only with the natural environment, but  also with their subjective world or that we call the realm of Spirit. We also ignore the relationship they observed between the so called Microcosm that included our physical realm, like the place of our living,  house, town, kingdom, family etc. As well as the subjective inner world and the Macrocosm, the daily moving of the firmament above their heads, Stars, Constellations and Planets for them this was a wisdom based in Symbols, that they tied with their correspondent Omens.

You also may sneer at this, but in fact they accomplished a lot using these methods as an example we can cite Chinese Medicine, a system based in a Cosmology, based in the Yin, the Yang, the five Elements, and other factors, no different than Astrology. Chinese Medicine is officially recognized not only in China, but in many other countries as well, Astrology lacks official recognition, but on the other hand, can be even more popular all around the world.

Astrology it is based in a old, and profound Cosmology:

Proto-Cosmos; The Supreme generator of the Archetypes this would correspond to the Ain Soph of the Kabalist  The Absolute God Non-Manifested, as opposed to Immanent.

The Ayo-Cosmos, also named Megalo-Cosmos, as God Immanent, The manifest.

The Macro-Cosmos or the Adam Kadmon of the Hebrews, or the the Insan-al-Kamil (Perfect Man)of the Muslims.

The Deutero-Cosmos or second  Cosmos the world of Matter, this is our common realm of Existence.

The Meso-Cosmos, or middle Cosmos, (This is the sphere of the Soul, the Subjective, or what is called the Pneumaticon, the Barzak.

The Trito-Cosmos, the pure world of Spirit.

The Micro-Cosmos the infinite small Universe.

It is from this order that Astrology manifest as a Holistic method, and it is easy to fathom it’s depths and concerns of this Mother of all Sciences, Astrology it is concerned with almost every field of Human Knowledge like Geogenics, Cosmogenesis, Theogony, Cosmology, Ontology, etc.

However if we take a long time, and space to describe Astrology in it’s totality, generally we can divide Astrology in the following fields:

Astronomy = Celestial body mechanics, (The origins of Geometry, Math, Calculus, Optics, etc. in order to calculate Astronomical phenomena)

Astrology  =  Psychology, and the study of characters.

Astrosophy= Philosophical study of the Heavens.

Archeometry=Not the new branch of Archeology, but from Archetype, Arqueometry, the study of Symbols, and Analogy.

This is a rough sketch, Astrology has many other known fields of application, were it can be used Medicine, Agriculture, Biology, Geology, Gemology, Metallurgy, Chemistry, Chromatics, Perfumes, Arts, etc.

The list can go on, and on, a True Astrologer should be a person with the most diverse, and encompassing Knowledge, a wise Man, a sort of Merlin, a Magician, the real thing, not a trickster, but a Magi, form the Latin Magister, (Master) as in it’s roots, ‘Magnus’ = Great, like the ancient Chaldean Magi.

This Magna Science symbolized by the Incense, like one of the offering to the Child Jesus in the Gospels, is not understood but for the few, in reality has nothing of the occult, but that scape to our modern sensibilities, and to the crass specialization of modern Science were an individual has a great knowledge of very little. As of today Science it is too much focused on the objective, and the study of physical phenomena, ignoring anything else, it lacks the Antithesis to their Thesis, to be able to find a Synthesis, that would capture the Spirit of this Mathesis that is Astrology.

For a long time modern Man has been polarized to the left side of the brain, the rational, logical, mathematical side, it is time to start exploring the depths of his right side, the Intuitive, emotional, subjective, sub-conscious  side of his brain. Psychoanalyst  Carl Jung have pointed to the dangers of this behavior, that now more than a disequilibrium in an individual personality, is a form of pathology  endemic in modern Man. We see Humanity in a path of self destruction, and it is the reason why the more these individuals try to suppress Astrology, and many other so called pseudo-Sciences, the more these practices seem more resilient, and sprout here,  there, and all over the place, since there is a great need for an Integration of the personality, that would bring balance, Peace, and Wisdom to a much needed suffering World.

The ancients of diverse Civilizations were very aware of the relationship between the outer Cosmos to the inner Cosmos, as witness the analogy of the 72 heartbeats per minute of Man to the 72 years that take the Sun to move one degree on the Ecliptic. Or the 4 heartbeats per breath and the correspondence with the four Seasons of the year. Or the 18 breath per minute, and the 25,920 per day corresponding to the Platonic Year, a complete revolution of the Zodiac.

It is now well known as to how the Ancients observed these relationships to the point of aligning the construction of their Sacred Temples to the movements of the Earth Axis in relationship with the Stars, paying particular attention to the Equinoxes, and Solstices, (March 21, June 22, September 21, December 22,) This was not done as many speculate with Agricultural concerns in mind which is an obvious deduction, since they possessed a calendar and new how to count, but with Religious, Magical intentions, to symbolize the conjunctions of the Heavens, with Spiritual phenomena in an Ontological way.

For anyone in doubt you can witness in the pyramid of Chitchen-Itza in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico the return of Kukul-Kan (Feathered Serpent) every Equinox. The Inti Raymi, El Amarre del Sol (Roping of the Sun) in the Incan fortress of Sacsayhuaman in Peru where the Quechuas perform their Ritual in the Winter Equinox June 24. Or a shaft of light in Abu Simbel, for most of the year, the inner sanctum of the main temple at Abu Simbel is shrouded in darkness.On two days, traditionally the anniversary of the birthday and coronation of pharaoh Ramses II, a shaft of sunlight pierces the gloom, illuminating statues of gods and the king in the temple’s inner sanctum. On February 22, a day celebrating the king’s birthday and again on October 22, a day celebrating his coronation, sunlight illuminates seated statues of the sun gods Re-Horakhte and Amon-Re, as well as a statue of king Ramses II. The statues sit in the company of the Theban god of darkness, Ptah (who remains in the shadows all year).

Astrology is based fundamentally in the awareness of the relationship between the movements of the Heavens, to the Cosmic Rhythm of our inner Being, and on the realization that the whole Universe, it is a living Entity, and above all, an indivisible One, were every part is related to any other one by the fact of its Unity.

Generally Modern Man has lost the sensibility, and connections to this Rhythm, its sense of Sacredness is diminished and with it a lack of purpose, and meaning are lost, the sense of belonging to Pachamama (Mother Earth) it is sorely missing. We could talk endlessly at the consequences of such unbalance, but that would be material for another essay, let us just say that when the Universe and Man align, and Harmonize in a mutual relationship, it is at that point that the right natural events take place (Kairos). To be aware of this it is not a matter of Faith, however it helps, but a matter of being sensitized by the Knowledge, and Realization that we are One with the Cosmos.

I still long to be approached with questions such as: What do you think of the History of Civilizations through the Light of Astrological Ages?

Or if the Gospel of Mathew was wrote by a Jew, intended to convert Jewish people to Christianity, how come the writer come with the story of the Magi, knowing full well that the Chaldean Magi would be anathema to the regular Jew.

What Mark was trying to say when: And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.

And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the Goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?

And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.Mark XIV, 13-15

Or John:And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

⁷And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. Revelations IV. 5,6.

What is the relationship between the Sefer Yetzirah and Astrology?

Why Easter changes dates year, to year?

Or the influence of Marsilio Ficinio,  Astrological thought in Sandro Botticelli painting of the Spring.

Dante’s, and Plato’s works, and their Astrological significance.

This, and many other question, rather than the common, mundane, and trivial fortune, in love an finances…Oh, well, maybe one of these days!

Advertisement