NERONIAN ASTROLOGY

As its title suggests, the principal theme of the book is fatalistic astrology. This is the belief that human character and action are predetermined by fate. In his reaction to The Nero Prediction the eminent historian Michael Grant confirms that astrology was "so predominant and indeed universal in the Mediterranean world that it exceeded every religion in power and influence."

We know something about three of the astrologers who feature prominently in the story. Thrasyllus, close friend of the emperor Tiberius, was the towering intellect of his time. His son Tiberius Claudius Balbillus, born in Alexandria in about 3 AD, was equally eminent. Like his father he was a polymath, astrology was his principal interest, but not his only one. He served as Director of Alexandria's Museum and administrator of imperial buildings in Egypt. He also held other important administrative posts in the empire.

Ptolemy Seleucus is a shadier figure. He was Otho's astrologer (see Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Otho), so there is every reason to believe that he was also consulted by Otho's wife Poppaea. He successfully predicted that Vespasian would become emperor and afterwards became a fixture at Vespasian's court (Tacitus, Histories 2).

Only fragments of the astrological methods of Thrasyllus and his son survive in the commentaries of other writers, and nothing of Ptolemy Seleucus. However the substantial agreement between the two astrology manuals that have come down to us intact, the second century Tetrabiblos and the fourth century Matheseos, suggest that the basic tenets of astrological dogma were widely accepted and remain so up to the present day. One prominent exception is the familiar twelve house system where each of the houses is dedicated to a particular area of life: Character, Money, Misfortune, Power etc. Although these houses are featured prominent in the enormously popular Matheseos, they are hardly mentioned at all in Claudius Ptolemy's much earlier Tetrabiblos, although Ptolemy obviously has the equal house system in mind when describes the four cardinal points of the chart: the ascendant, mid heaven, descendant and the lower heaven or nadir of the chart.

Since the solar system is a vast chronometer with gigantic planets circling the sun with far greater predictability than any pendulum, then as now the current and future positions of the planets could be calculated with the use of astronomical tables. But so can the positions of the planets in the past, even the remote past. With the help of modern computer programs we can pin point the ever-changing positions of the planets during Nero's time with a higher degree of accuracy than the Neronian astrologers themselves.

The confluence of these two facts, our knowledge of ancient astrological dogma and our ability to recreate the positions of the ancient planets, gives us a key to unlock the secrets of the past. Where we know the date and time of birth of someone like Nero, we can re-create, with a fairly high level of confidence, what his astrologer would have told him lay in wait at any time in the future.

Fortunately Nero's date and time of birth have survived. So has the correct date of his death - two days later than commonly believed. In the notebooks of the astrologer Vettius Valens, who was active about fifty years after Nero's death, charts for an unnamed person's birth and death are positioned next to each other. The birth chart is for December 15, 37 AD at about sunrise, precisely the time specified for Nero by the historian Suetonius.

The death chart is cast for June 11, 68 AD, the day Nero died according to the ancient historian Cassius Dio who was a stickler for accurate chronology. What Vettius is trying to demonstrate is how a person's death can be predicted on the basis of the return of the planets to the same basic pattern of angular distances (aspects) from each other. Vettius' cryptic commentaries on these two horoscopes detail how Neronian astrologers could have predicted the day of Nero's death from his birth chart or perhaps how they actually did so.

It is no mystery why Vettius does not say that these charts are Nero's. Dabbling in imperial horoscopes (particularly concerning an emperor's death) had been a capital crime since Augustus's day.

The future is predictable and the key that unlocks its secrets is the movement of the planets. This was the dominant philosophical idea of Nero's time.

It was grounded on the assumption, popularized by the Stoics, that heaven and earth are mutually dependent parts of the same universal flux which is ordered by a predetermined sequence of cause and effect called fate or destiny. The belief was that since it is possible to make accurate predictions about the future movements of the seven planets as they circle the earth, one can make equally accurate predictions about the future of the men and women around whom they circle.
From earliest times these seven planets were identified with seven gods who interacted with each other rather like people do. The explanation of their changing inter-relationship was to be found in the constantly changing angular distance between them. Extrapolating from music, where certain chords are harmonious and others disharmonious, a system of "aspects" expressed in degrees was worked out, each of which was thought to indicate harmony or disharmony between two particular planets.

As it is in heaven so it is on earth, this was the belief. When the planets at an infant's birth were placed at disharmonious angular distances from each other (i.e. were unfortunately aspected), the infant's future could be expected to be unfortunate. The opposite was true if the infant was fortunate enough to be born under harmonious stars.
This is the bare essence of astrology. What follows is a summary of the way the ancients expanded this idea.

The planets:

Only seven planets (this number includes the sun and the moon) were known to the ancients. Each one had a distinct personality that originated in the god or goddess they represented. These, in order of their supposed distance from the earth, were:

Moon: Benevolent or malevolent depending on whether she is waxing or waning. A waning moon is generally malicious, while a waxing moon is more inclined to be benevolent. The moon represent the mother in a child's chart and the wife or mistress in an adult's.

Mercury: Neither benevolent or malevolent but easily influenced both by other planets and by its position in the chart. His gift is intelligence or cunning.


Venus: Benevolent. Her gifts are artistic skills, entertainment, romance and children.


The Sun: Generally neither benevolent nor malevolent.

Mars: Malevolent.

Jupiter: The most benevolent of all the planets. Our word "jovial" comes from Jupiter's astrological nature. In fact Jupiter is so benevolent that even normally unfortunate aspects with Jupiter are often pronounced fortunate.

Saturn: Generally malevolent.

The Lot or Part of Fortune: This point in the chart is found by counting anti-clockwise from the ascendant the same number of degrees as the sun is from the moon also when counting anti-clockwise. If the birth takes place at sunrise, the Lot of Fortune coincides with the moon. It was thought to predict good or bad material fortune depending on its position in the chart and whether it was influenced by benevolent or malevolent planets.



The aspects:

Even in Nero's day the earth was known to be an orb. The planets (Greek for "wanderers") were believed to circle this orb from west to east and therefore in the opposite direction to the apparent diurnal motion of the heavenly sphere to which the rest of the stars were fixed. Because the planets' orbital speeds were different, the angular distances between them, measured in degrees of longitude, constantly changed. Whenever the angular distance between two planets came within more or less ten degrees of any of five specific angular relationships, they were said to be in aspect. In order of declining power these aspects are:

1. Conjunct. The planets (A and B) share the same longitude as seen from earth (center) and therefore their qualities were believed to mingle. This aspect can be
either fortunate or unfortunate depending on which planets are involved.


.2. Opposition. The planets are on opposite sides of the celestial circle and are therefore separated by 180 degrees of longitude. Unfortunate since it sets the one planet against the other.

3. Square. Also known as quartile. The planets are separated by 90 degrees of longitude. Unfortunate because this is half of an opposition.


4. Trine. The planets are separated by 120 degrees of longitude. Fortunate.


5. Sextile. The planets are separated by 60 degrees of longitude. Fortunate because it is one half of a trine.



The arrows indicate the direction of apparent planetary movement.


The signs.



These are the twelve signs of the zodiac familiar to anyone who has turned to the astrological section of the daily paper. Each represents 30 degrees (one twelfth) of the zodiacal circle. Like the planets the signs have natures. In Nero's time the signs of the zodiac corresponded roughly to the constellations of the same name. They are ordered in the same sense as the motion of the planets: anti clockwise around the chart, beginning with Aries the ram and ending with Pisces the fishes. Each sign was believed to be ruled by a planet which was thought of as that planet's zodiacal house or domicile.

Aries (ruler Mars)
Libra (ruler Venus)

Taurus (ruler Venus)
Scorpio (ruler Mars)

Gemini (ruler Mercury)
Sagittarius (ruler Jupiter)

Cancer (ruler Moon)
Capricorn (ruler Saturn)

Leo (ruler Sun)
Aquarius (ruler Saturn)

Virgo (ruler Mercury)
Pisces (ruler Jupiter)




The angles.



These are the four cardinal points of the horoscope. The most important of these is the ascendant (ASC) which corresponds to the eastern horizon at the moment of birth where stars, whether visible or invisible, are rising. Next in importance is the mid heaven (MC) which is represented as being at right angles to the ascendant. The descendant (DES) represents the western horizon where stars are setting. Finally the imum caelum (IC) is the nadir of the chart.
In a world where nothing is believed to happen by chance, when a planet falls on one of these angles its importance is magnified. (The midheaven arrived at in this way does not always correspond with the astronomical midheaven.)


The houses.



In addition to dividing the zodiacal circle into twelve signs, it was further divided up into twelve houses. Each house was thought to yield predictions about a particular area of life. The first house begins with the ascendant which represents the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. The houses then proceed around the circle of the horoscope anti-clockwise, just as the signs do. It is presently unknown when this twelve house system came into widespread use.

Transits:


While the stars at the moment of birth were believed to paint the fundamental portrait of a person's future, their influence was thought to be constantly, though ephemerally, modified by the subsequent movement of the planets. Therefore if the astrologer wanted to discover whether some specific time in the future was favorable or unfavorable, he would look up his star tables for the positions of the planets at that time and then draw them into the birth chart so that they formed a second ring outside the first. These secondary planets were called the transits. They were thought to influence the birth planets in precisely the same way as the birth planets influenced each other.
Just as the planets of any day subsequent to birth (the transits) were thought to influence the birth planets, the planets of another person, when drawn into the birth chart, predicted how these two people were destined to interact.
This is a broad overview of Neronian astrology - there were other computational techniques then in use that introduced so many variables that it was possible for the unscrupulous (or perhaps self-deluded) astrologer to justify telling his client whatever he or she wanted to hear. This is why astrology was so seductive, and so dangerous.

Rate this post: (data provided from NewsGator Online)

HOROSCOPE

In astrology, a horoscope is a chart or diagram representing the positions of the planets, other celestial bodies, and sensitive angles at the time of any moment in time or any event, such as a person's birth. The term horoscope is derived from Greek words meaning, "a look at the hours." Other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, natus, birth chart, astrological chart, celestial map, sky-map, nativity, cosmogram, Vitasphere, soulprint, radix, or simply chart, among others.

A horoscope (or astrological chart) - Y2K Chart -- This particular chart is calculated for January 1, 2000 at 12:01:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time in New York City, New York, USA. (Longitude: 074W00'23" - Latitude: 40N42'51")

Introduction
Opinions about the validity of astrology, or its classification as a pseudoscience are considered in the head article on astrology.
Using an ephemeris and a table of houses an astrologer calculates the geocentric positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets for a specific time and place in order to erect a formatted horoscope. This diagram, called a chart is a stylized map of the heavens. The Sun or the Earth is placed in the centre (depending on whether the ephemeris was heliocentric or geocentric) with the remaining elements around the outside: the planets, the lunar nodes, the ascendant and midheaven, and the houses. Then the angles between the planets are determined. These angles are the astrological aspects. Different systems of tri-secting arcs produce houses of different size.
In common usage, the word horoscope also refers to the astrologer's interpretation of the astrological chart.
In particular, many newspapers and magazines carry horoscope columns, describing planetary positions and influences for the various astrological signs. Most astrologers regard those as nearly worthless, since a horoscope is actually highly personalized, and cannot be generalized to thousands of readers.

How to cast a horoscope
In order to understand and visualize the spherical geometry of the construction of a horoscope, we need to begin with some basic terms.
The techniques described here belong to western astrology.
1.The native refers to the time and place of the event being charted, and considered to be at the centre of the celestial sphere. This term is a general one that includes not only birth times as they are commonly understood, but any event for which a horoscope may be drawn.
2.The celestial sphere is a sphere of arbitrary radius upon which the items appearing on the horoscope are projected without regard to their distance from the native.
3.The plane of the equator is the plane of the earth's equator projected into space.
4.The plane of the ecliptic is defined by the orbits of the earth and the sun. For practical purposes the plane of the equator and the plane of the ecliptic maintain a constant inclination to each other of approximately 23.5°.
5.The plane of the horizon is centred on the native, and is tangential to the earth at that point. In a sphere whose radius is infinitely large this plane may be treated as nearly equivalent to the parallel plane with its centre at the earth's center. This greatly simplifies understanding the geometry of the horoscope. Some writers on astrology have considered the effects of parallax, but most would agree that (apart from that of the Moon) they are relatively minor, and are beyond the scope of this article.
6.The axis of the plane of the horizon has end points above, the zenith, and below, the nadir.
7.The zodiac refers to a band on the celestial sphere containing the signs. It is centered on the ecliptic, and its width is sufficient to allow for the fact that the orbits of the moon and all other planets are not parallel to the plane of the ecliptic. It is approximately 18º wide. 8.The medium coeli or mid-heaven is the point on the ecliptic that is furthest above the plane of the horizon; its opposite point is known as the imum coeli. For events occurring where the planes of the eccliptic and the horizon coincide the limiting position for these points is at 90º from the ascendant.
9.The ascendant is the eastern point where the ecliptic and horizon intersect. Its opposite point in the west is the descendant. In draughting a horoscope the ascendant is traditionally placed as the left-hand side point of the chart. During the course of a day, because of the earth's rotation, the entire circle of the ecliptic will pass through the ascendant and will be advanced by about 1º. This provides us with the term rising sign, which is the sign of the zodiac on the native's ascendant.
10.The sun sign is the sign of the zodiac in which the sun is located for the native. This is the single astrological fact most familiar to people. If an event occurs at sunrise the ascendant and sun sign will be the same; other rising signs can then be estimated at approximately two hour intervals from there.
11.The houses are a series of twelve divisions of the plane of the ecliptic. Astrologers have devised at least nine different ways of calculating these house divisions. Just as this article does not seek to discuss the validity of astrology, it is also beyond its scope to attempt to resolve questions which may be disputed among astrologers. The use of a particular system of house division is often more a result of what calculations are available than of any conscious consideration of one system's merits over that of another. Similarly, explanations in this article based on the Equal House System are not meant to give any theoretical preference to that system; it is simply the system whose geometry is easiest to understand. In the case of the Equal House System the ecliptic is divided into twelve equal houses of 30º each. The first house begins at the ascendant and the others are numbered counterclockwise from that point. The first six are therefore below the horizon, and the other six are above. The positions of these houses remains fixed relative to the native. The signs and planets all move through the twelve houses during the course of a day, and the planets move through the signs over the course of months or years.
12.Most astrologers use the tropical zodiac in which the astrological year begins with the vernal equinox, when the sun crosses the celestial equator and enters the sign of Aries. This is a matter of some dispute with those who favor the sidereal zodiac which takes into account the precession of the equinoxes. Because of a "wobble" in the earth's axis of rotation over a period of about 26,000 years the point at which the vernal equinox advances in the sky by about 50 seconds of arc every year. Advocates of the sidereal zodiac believe that the position of the signs should be fixed relative to the constellations. Adherants to the tropical view are content to use a view of the heavens as seen 2000 years ago as still valid for work today.
A cusp is the boundary between two signs or houses. For some the cusp includes a small portion of the two signs or houses under consideration.
The chart thus begins with a framework of 12 houses. Upon this the signs of the zodiac are superimposed. In an equal house system the cusp between any two houses will fall at the same degree for each of the signs. Thus for a native whose ascendant is at 12º of Leo, the second house will begin at 12º of Virgo, the third at 12º Libra, and so on. In house systems that take into consideration the effects of the angle of intersection between the planes of the horizon and the ecliptic, the calculations are more complicated. For these calculations it is essential to know the latitude of the event. Tables are available for these calculations, but they are now normally calculated by computer. Most computer programs allow the user to choose from a variety of house systems. The most commonly used is the Placidus system.
Longitude is also necessary in order to determine the position of the ascendant. This is because charts use Local Time. Time zones were developed in the 19th century as a by-product of the development of railways. This permitted train schedules to be written based on the certainty that any two places in a time zone used the same time. In reality there is an hour's difference between points at the beginning and end of a 15º average time zone. For political reasons the time zones cannot all be the same size. It would not be practical for a time zone boundary to cut through the middle of a town or small country. Time zone boundaries were also the subject of political manipulation in the Pacific islands when they sought to be the first places on earth to see the new millennium. Adjustments are therefore made for the difference in one's actual longitude and the longitude of the nominal meridian associated with clock time.
Having established the relative positions of the signs in the houses, the horoscopist positions the sun, moon and planets at their rightful celestial longitudes. Some astrologers also take note of minor planetary bodies, fixed stars, asteroids (for example, Chiron) and other mathematically calculated points and angles such as the Ascendant (ASC), the MC, the DC, and the IC, the Vertex, Equatorial Ascendant, etc. Many astrologers also use what are commonly referred to as Arabic Parts (or Greek Lots), the most famous of which is the Part of Fortune (Pars Fortuna).
To complete the horoscope the astrologer will consider the aspects or relative angles between pairs of planets. Certain aspects are considered more important than others. Those generally recognized by the astrological community are conjunction (0º), opposition (180º), square (90º), trine (120º) and sextile (60º). Other aspects are used by some astrologers. Understandably these aspects are more significant when they are exact, but they are considered to function within an orb of influence, the size of which varies according to the importance of each aspect. Thus conjunctions are believed to operate with a larger orb than sextiles. Most modern astrologers use an orb of 10º or less.
Reference: Dona Marie Lorenz, Tools of Astrology: houses, Topanga, Eomega Grove Press, 1973

Rate this post: (data provided from NewsGator Online)

AMAZING ENCOUNTER WITH DESTINY

Ram's remarkable experiences with Naadi Shastra (NadiAstrology) Had a meeting with Destiny last month. By appointment. I was not very sure whether it was Destiny that I met or an imposter in his garb. Whoever it was, it was an amazing experience. Just to be sure that it wasn't an imposter, I managed to get appointments for a few friends and sent them along too. Now, when I sit back and analyze the happenings, I am beginning to feel that it was indeed Destiny that we had all met, in person. So unassuming and casual he was, yet so chilling and so uncompromisingly to the point. Wondering what that was all about?! Well, it was my appointment with the Naadi reader. We could perhaps begin with a brief about what the word Naadi means. It refers to a very small arc of the zodiac of dimension ranging from 1/150 of a sign to 1/600 of a sign (12 minutes to 3 minutes of arc). There are many ancient Naadi astrological texts that are extant – some dealing only with astrological implications and some combining the features of palmistry and astrology. Of the former kind are texts like Bhrigu Naadi, Dhruva Naadi, etc., while texts in the Tamil language like Saptarishi Naadi belong to the latter category. Persons born with each given segment of arc as the ascendant, are said to be subject to definite life patterns and their unfoldment is expressed in terms of planetary transits. Based on this scheme of astrological interpretation, a vast body of manuscripts have been recorded on palm leaves and stored at various places, purportedly many centuries ago. This is what the reader that I went to had to narrate about the history of the Naadi palm leaf collection that he was using.
Court Astrologers He belonged to a family of Naadi readers whose forefathers were court astrologers to the kings of yore -- some 1500 years ago. The collections have been in the possession of their family since then and they were based in the temple town of Vaitheeswaran Koil in the state of Tamil Nadu. Of late, they have begun to migrate to other places carrying a portion of their heirloom. But they still maintain their strong links with their family back home and keep this pursuit of Naadi reading within the confines of the family members. He also said that the Tamil manuscripts were translated from the Sanskrit originals many more centuries earlier. Without specific dates being quoted, the time spans mentioned by him were more approximations than exact.
108 Categories in a ThumbprintThe process began by taking an appointment with the person about two weeks in advance. Naadi readers are a busy lot nowadays. On the appointed day, my sister and I reached his residence at 8 in the morning. We were asked to record our thumb impressions (right thumb for males and left for females) on small sheets of paper, along with our names (it was not required to give our real names if we so desired). It was explained to us that thumb impressions were divided into 108 categories for the purpose of this particular Naadi reading. It would be first ascertained to which of those 108 categories our respective thumb impressions corresponded to and then a search for the associated palm leaf collections will be made. We were given a typed notice mentioning the charges applicable for this service and it was specifically mentioned that we should be prepared to wait until the evening if necessary to complete the process of searching. This search process itself had two dimensions -- one in which we had no part, that being an internal search to locate palm leaves corresponding to the impression given, and the second which was a joint search involving the reader and us to locate the specific leaf that corresponded to each of us.

Rate this post: (data provided from NewsGator Online)

Astrology

1.The study of the positions and aspects of celestial bodies in the belief that they have an influence on the course of natural earthly occurrences and human affairs.

2.Obsolete. Astronomy.

Astrology, form of divination based on the theory that the movements of the celestial bodies—the stars, the planets, the sun, and the moon—influence human affairs and determine the course of events. Celestial phenomena have been the object of religious sentiment since earliest times (see moon worship; sun worship). The Chaldaeans and the Assyrians were the first to discard their sky gods in favor of a nondeistic system of divination founded upon astronomy and numerology. They saw the heavenly bodies as exerting an influence upon the lives of individuals and the destinies of empires. Generally, future events were believed determined beforehand by a universal order that was a result of the motions of the planets and stars. The practices of astrology spread throughout the ancient Middle East, Asia, and Europe, but with the rise of Christianity, which emphasized divine intervention and free will, interest in astrology subsided, although astrologers continued to flourish. During the European Renaissance astrology as a form of divination regained popularity, due in part to the rekindled interest in science and astronomy. The European astrologer, considered a scholar exploring the mysteries of the universe through science and reason, was held in high esteem in the community for many years. However, in the 16th and 17th cent., Christian theologists waged war against astrology. In 1585 astrology was officially condemned in a bull of Pope Sixtus V, and in 1631, Pope Urban VIII reinforced this with another bull. At the same time the astronomical work of such men as Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo was undermining the tenets of astrology. Astrology, however, continued to be practiced. All of the aforementioned scientists remained practicing astrologers, as did other great thinkers such as Descartes and Newton; moreover, Copernican theory did not find sudden and widespread acceptance. Gradually, however, astrology declined, although this form of divination is still very much alive. One's horoscope is a map of the heavens at the time of one's birth, showing the position of the heavenly bodies in relation to the 12 “houses” or signs through which they pass (see zodiac) and their positions in relation to each other. Each house has as its “lord” one of the heavenly bodies; the one in the “ascendant” is the one of greatest significance to the inquirer, supposedly endowing him with his temperamental qualities, his tendencies to particular diseases, and his liability to certain fortunes or calamities.

Rate this post: (data provided from NewsGator Online)