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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "chunk_id": "1911:astrology:3f83b26833a2",
    "title": "ASTROLOGY",
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    "verified_text": "astrology, the ancient art or science of divining the fate and future of human beings from indications given by the positions of the stars (sun, moon and planets). the belief in a connexion between the heavenly bodies and the life of man has played an important part in human history. for long ages astronomy and astrology (which might be called astromancy, on the same principle as \"chiromancy\") were identified; and a distinction is made between \"natural astrology,\" which predicts the motions of the heavenly bodies, eclipses, &c., and \"judicial astrology,\" which studies the influence of the stars on human destiny. isidore of seville (d. 636) is one of the first to distinguish between astronomy and astrology; nor did astronomy begin to rid itself of astrology till the 16th century, when, with the system of copernicus, the conviction that the earth itself is one of the heavenly bodies was finally established. the study of astromancy and the belief in it, as part of astronomy, is found in a developed form among the ancient babylonians, and directly or indirectly through the babylonians spread to other nations. it came to greece about the middle of the 4th century b.c., and reached rome before the opening of the christian era. in india and china astronomy and astrology are largely reflections of greek theories and speculations; and similarly with the introduction of greek culture into egypt, both astronomy and astrology were actively cultivated in the region of the nile during the hellenistic and roman periods. astrology was further developed by the arabs from the 7th to the 13th century, and in the europe of the 14th and 15th centuries astrologers were dominating influences at court. even up to the present day men of intellectual eminence like dr richard garnett have convinced themselves that astromancy has a foundation of truth, just as there are still believers in chiromancy or other forms of divination. dr garnett (\"a.g. trent\") insisted indeed that it was a mistake to confuse astrology with fortune-telling, and maintained that it was a \"physical science just as much as geology,\" depending like them on ascertained facts, and grossly misrepresented by being connected with magic. dr garnett himself looked upon the study of biography in relation to the casting of horoscopes as an empirical investigation, but it is difficult in practice to keep the distinction clear, to judge by present-day text-books such as those of dr wilde (_primer of astrology_, &c.). dr wilde insists on there being \"nothing incongruous with the laws of nature in the theory that the sun, moon and stars influence men's physical bodies and conditions, seeing that man is made up of a physical part of the earth.\" there is an obvious tendency, however, for astromancy to be employed, like palmistry, as a means of imposing on the ignorant and credulous. how far the more serious claim is likely to be revived in connexion with the renewal of research into the \"occult\" sciences generally, it is still too early to speculate; and it has to be recognized that such a point of view is opposed to the generally established belief that astrology is either mere superstition or absolute imposture, and that its former vogue was due either to deception or to the tyranny of an unscientific environment. but if the progress of physical science has not prevented the rehabilitation of much of ancient alchemy by the later researches into chemical change, and if psychology now finds a place for explanations of spiritualism and witchcraft which involve the admission of the empirical facts under a new theory (as in the case of the divining-rod, &c.), it is at least conceivable that some new synthesis might once more justify part at all events of ancient and medieval astromancy, to the extent of admitting the empirical facts where provable, and substituting for the supposed influence of the stars as such, some deeper theory which would be consistent with an application to other forms of prophecy, and thus might reconcile the possibility of dipping into futurity with certain interrelations of the universe, different indeed from those assumed by astrological theory, but underlying and explaining it. if this is ever accomplished it will need the patient investigation of a number of empirical observations by competent students unbiassed by any _parti pris_--a difficult set of conditions to obtain; and even then no definite results may be achieved. the history of astrology can now be traced back to ancient babylonia, and indeed to the earliest phases of babylonian history, i.e. to about 3000 b.c. in babylonia as well as in assyria as a direct offshoot of babylonian culture (or as we might also term it \"euphratean\" culture), astrology takes its place in the official cult as one of the two chief means at the disposal of the priests (who were called _bare_ or \"inspectors\") for ascertaining the will and intention of the gods, the other being through the inspection of the liver of the sacrificial animal (see omen). just as this latter method of divination rested on a well-defined theory, to wit, that the liver was the seat of the soul of the animal and that the deity in accepting the sacrifice identified himself with the animal, whose \"soul\" was thus placed in complete accord with that of the god and therefore reflected the mind and will of the god, so astrology is based on a theory of divine government of the world, which in contrast to \"liver\" divination assumes at the start a more scientific or pseudo-scientific aspect. this theory must be taken into consideration as a factor in accounting for the persistent hold which even at the present day astrology still maintains on many minds. starting with the indisputable fact that man's life and happiness are largely dependent upon phenomena in the heavens, that the fertility of the soil is dependent upon the sun shining in the heavens as well as upon the rains that come from heaven, that on the other hand the mischief and damage done by storms and inundations, to both of which the euphratean valley was almost regularly subject, were to be traced likewise to the heavens, the conclusion was drawn that all the great gods had their seats in the heavens. in that early age of culture known as the \"nomadic\" stage, which under normal conditions precedes the \"agricultural\" stage, the moon cult is even more prominent than sun worship, and with the moon and sun cults thus furnished by the \"popular\" faith it was a natural step for the priests, who correspond to the \"scientists\" of a later day, to perfect a theory of a complete accord between phenomena observed in the heavens and occurrences on earth. if moon and sun, whose regular movements conveyed to the more intelligent minds the conception of the reign of law and order in the universe as against the more popular notion of chance and caprice, were divine powers, the same held good of the planets, whose movements, though more difficult to follow, yet in the course of time came to be at least partially understood. of the planets five were recognized--jupiter, venus, saturn, mercury and mars--to name them in the order in which they appear in the older cuneiform literature; in later texts mercury and saturn change places. these five planets were identified with the great gods of the pantheon as follows:--jupiter with marduk (q.v.), venus with the goddess ishtar (q.v.), saturn with ninib (q.v.), mercury with nebo (q.v.), and mars with nergal (q.v.). the movements of the sun, moon and five planets were regarded as representing the activity of the five gods in question, together with the moon-god sin (q.v.) and the sun-god shamash (q.v.), in preparing the occurrences on earth. if, therefore, one could correctly read and interpret the activity of these powers, one knew what the gods were aiming to bring about. the babylonian priests accordingly applied themselves to the task of perfecting a system of interpretation of the phenomena to be observed in the heavens, and it was natural that the system was extended from the moon, sun and five planets to the more prominent and recognizable fixed stars. that system involved not merely the movements of the moon, sun and planets, but the observation of their relative position to one another and to all kinds of peculiarities noted at any point in the course of their movements: in the case of the moon, for instance, the exact appearance of the new crescent, its position in the heavens, the conditions at conjunction and opposition, the appearance of the horns, the halo frequently seen with the new moon, which was compared to a \"cap,\" the ring round the full moon, which was called a \"stall\" (i.e. \"enclosure\"), and more of the like. to all these phenomena some significance was attached, and this significance was naturally intensified in the case of such a striking phenomenon as an eclipse of the moon. applying the same method of careful observation to the sun and planets, and later to some of the constellations and to many of the fixed stars, it will be apparent that the body of observations noted must have grown in the course of time to large and indeed to enormous proportions, and correspondingly the interpretations assigned to the nearly endless variations in the phenomena thus observed. the interpretations themselves were based (as in the case of divination through the liver) chiefly on two factors:--(1) on the recollection or on written records of what in the past had taken place when the phenomenon or phenomena in question had been observed, and (2) association of ideas--involving sometimes merely a play upon words--in connexion with the phenomenon or phenomena observed. thus if on a certain occasion the rise of the new moon in a cloudy sky was followed by victory over an enemy or by abundant rain, the sign in question was thus proved to be a favourable one and its recurrence would be regarded as a good omen, though the prognostication would not necessarily be limited to the one or the other of those occurrences, but might be extended to apply to other circumstances. on the other hand, the appearance of the new moon earlier than was expected was regarded as an unfavourable omen--prognosticating in one case defeat, in another death among cattle, in a third bad crops--not necessarily because these events actually took place after such a phenomenon, but by an application of the general principle resting upon association of ideas whereby anything premature would suggest an unfavourable occurrence. a thin halo seen above the new moon was pictured as a cap, and the association between this and the symbol of royalty, which was a conical-shaped cap, led to interpreting the phenomenon as an indication that the ruler would have a successful reign. in this way a mass of traditional interpretation of all kinds of observed phenomena was gathered, and once gathered became a guide to the priests for all times. astrology in this its earliest stage is, however, marked by two characteristic limitations. in the first place, the movements and position of the heavenly bodies point to such occurrences as are of public import and affect the general welfare. the individual's interests are not in any way involved, and we must descend many centuries and pass beyond the confines of babylonia and assyria before we reach that phase which in medieval and modern astrology is almost exclusively dwelt upon--genethliology or the individual horoscope. in babylonia and assyria the cult centred largely and indeed almost exclusively in the public welfare and the person of the king, because upon his well-being and favour with the gods the fortunes of the country were dependent in accordance with the ancient conception of kingship (see j.g. frazer, _the early history of kingship_). to some extent, the individual came in for his share in the incantations and in the purification ritual through which one might hope to rid oneself of the power of the demons and of other evil spirits, but outside of this the important aim of the priests was to secure for the general benefit the favour of the gods, or, as a means of preparing oneself for what the future had in store, to ascertain in time whether that favour would be granted in any particular instance or would be continued in the future. hence in \"liver\" divination, as in astrology, the interpretations of the signs noted all have reference to public affairs and events and not to the individual's needs or desires. in the second place, the astronomical knowledge presupposed and accompanying early babylonian astrology is essentially of an empirical character. while in a general way the reign of law and order in the movements of the heavenly bodies was recognized, and indeed must have exercised an influence at an early period in leading to the rise of a methodical divination that was certainly of a much higher order than the examination of an animal's liver, yet the importance that was laid upon the endless variations in the form of the phenomena and the equally numerous apparent deviations from what were regarded as normal conditions, prevented for a long time the rise of any serious study of astronomy beyond what was needed for the purely practical purposes that the priests as \"inspectors\" of the heavens (as they were also the \"inspectors\" of the sacrificial livers) had in mind. true, we have, probably as early as the days of khammurabi, i.e. c. 2000 b.c., the combinations of prominent groups of stars with outlines of pictures fantastically put together, but there is no evidence that prior to 700 b.c. more than a number of the constellations of our zodiac had become part of the current astronomy. the theory of the ecliptic as representing the course of the sun through the year, divided among twelve constellations with a measurement of 30 deg. to each division, is also of babylonian origin, as has now been definitely proved; but it does not appear to have been perfected until after the fall of the babylonian empire in 539 b.c. similarly, the other accomplishments of babylonian astronomers, such as their system or rather systems of moon calculations and the drawing up of planetary tablets, belong to this late period, so that the golden age of babylonian astronomy belongs not to the remote past, as was until recently supposed, but to the seleucid period, i.e. after the advent of the greeks in the euphrates valley. from certain expressions used in astrological texts that are earlier than the 7th century b.c. it would appear, indeed, that the beginnings at least of the calculation of sun and moon eclipses belong to the earlier period, but here, too, the chief work accomplished was after 400",
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