The Beliefs of Ancient Astrologers, Part 10: Origins and Conclusion

Transcript:

0:00
Hi everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology and today I'm doing the 10th and final part of my series on the beliefs of ancient astrologers. In today's episode, we're going to talk about origins, which means we're going to talk about where ancient astrologers believed that astrology itself came from. And as we do that, we will also conclude with some final remarks that come straight from the writings of ancient astrologers. So you can hear from ancient astrologers themselves about astrology, especially about the life and studies of an astrologer and about why we do astrology. So I really enjoyed doing this series. If you are just starting on this episode, I recommend working through the entire series from the beginning. I did the research that went into this series several years ago when preparing for a talk at a conference. And the talk itself was generated from the fact that as I was getting more serious about bhakti yoga, I wanted to know what the most likely beliefs of ancient astrologers were and whether they fit with my unfolding faith journey or not. I had some ideas about what ancient astrologers believed but it was, you know, it was it was kind of revealing to me that so many years in my practice, I really was unsure exactly of where and why where astrology ancient astrologers thought that it came from, why they practised, what kind of spiritual religious beliefs that ancient astrologers had about the world, soul, and so forth, and studying Hellenistic astrology meaning, the earliest form of horoscopic astrology that we know of, and are practising and 12, houses, 12, signs and so forth. You know, it comes from this earliest era of Hellenistic astrology, say, the last 500 years BCE into the turn of the Common Era practised widely in the Hellenistic and Greek speaking world, but also in India. So the series has also been a comparison between India and the Hellenistic region of the world at that time to look at what the the most likely widespread, you know, mystical or spiritual beliefs were.

2:14
Anyway, all that being said, let's talk a little bit about origins. One of the things that is really interesting is that astrologers pretty much unanimously believed that astrology had divine roots, and this plays out in different ways. In the east and the west, for example, you will find it'd be hard pressed to find any Indian astrologers who will not attribute the dissemination of astrological wisdom from Vedic sources, there are some who don't but that the that you'll find many people that say that this comes from God, the in India that this is divinely revealed. And that there are you'll find out when I was in India at a conference in Calcutta, one of the hosts of the conference gave a robust defence of the ancient origins of astrology or the almost like the antecedents of astrology, horoscopic, astrology in the rigveda and other ancient source sources. So that's certainly one belief that you'll find but again, I've not found one Indian astrologer today practising Jyotish or vedic astrology, who would not say that astrology did not come from God or from the gods or a particular God or from a divine source. And similarly, in the West, we have many different severally several different gods or semi divine figures that astrology is attributed to like Asclepius or Nechepso and Petosiris or Hermes Trismegistus. They're all Gods basically, they're all either gods are semi divine figures who receive or transmit astrology from a divine source. So that's important to know, it's important to know that this is where astrology was thought to come from, and what what was its purpose? Well, we've been visiting that throughout this series, I'll read you for some final quotes, but the the purpose very, basically was to assist the soul in its sojourn through the material world where the soul was thought of as distinct from the material energy that it is temporarily identified with in the form of a body and that there are also other realms or dimensions of consciousness.

5:03
And the downside of this one is the tendency to get caught up in the Wheel of Fortune which the stars in their turnings, the heaven in its turnings reflects. So we use the science to stay, you know, stay afloat in our vessel as we travel through this realm. And that's the gist of it. So given the popularity of the metaphysical ideas that we've explored in this series of talks, that were popular in both the east and the west at the time that we first see the appearance of birth charts the last 500 years BCE and given the most likely chains of transmission, philosophically and spiritually that led to the invention of the early system of horoscopic astrology, it's possible and I would say highly likely that the beliefs that we explored in the series were shared or practiced to some extent by most early astrologers. Can I say it for sure? No, but I have a strong feeling about it based on the research that I did and the the most likely transmission chains of thinkers and sages. On my own background in ayahuasca shamanism convinced me very early on in my experiences with, you know, the kind of prolonged experience in the in that sort of DMT world of ayahuasca. And it's much more than that, of course, too. But the plant medicine world really opened me up to the reality of spirit divinity, karma, transmigration of the soul, it opened me up to the meaningful, moral, beautiful, intelligible ordering of the cosmos, of the need for spiritual practice of the need for purification and healing, of the place that austerity plays within spiritual life. The importance that we have techniques of ecstasy. So studying all of this that I put together in this 10 part series, was really a confirmation for me that my astrological ancestors likely shared many of the same insights, values and beliefs that naturally came through 10 years worth of exploration in realms of both Iosco shamanism and yoga, what to speak of earlier, what I would call contemplative Christian roots.

7:25
So, anyway, I also can't help but that point out that it is widely believed that many ancient philosophers in the West likely participated in the eleusinian mysteries, including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Plutarch, Cicero, to name just a few. And that the mystery rituals, they were allowed for priests priestesses, hierophants, initiates and those undergoing ceremony for the first time those who had already participated in one and those who had attained a special state of contemplative awareness. There were different kinds of qualifications. In other words, that might have allowed someone to take part in these mysteries and initiations. But the point is that they were most likely psychedelic in nature, there's great arguments to be made, that some of these ancient Mystery Schools literally involved the ingestion of psychedelics. And I have to say, as someone who spent 10 years doing that, that I think it's highly likely that the kinds of insights about the nature of reality, the mind the soul, that there is this completely, I mean, one of the things that I was kid does, like many people who experienced DMT will have the same almost identical experience, which is just that this world is not all that there is we're looking around thinking that our picture of the physical cosmos, and the material world is kind of it and that's, it's far from it. And so I think that that insight in that awareness, and that other kinds of intelligence that come through psychedelic experiences might have had a very big impact on early astrologers What to speak of crazier ideas about, you know, space travelling sages, I mean, literally, in the Bhagavad Purana. You know, there are sages flying around in aeroplanes like this is a really ancient text so, and they're playing around in aeroplanes, propelled by their mind and propelled by mantra. So what does that you know, I just think that the ancient world and some of the mysteries of the ancient world are far stranger than we can possibly imagine, as Terence McKenna liked to say, and I think astrology is some kind of spiritual science that is not just a cultural artefact of people mythologizing and making things up. It's it's something really different from that because I've seen over time that its ability to be Use as a regular divinity story.

10:02
Technology is profound. A lot of people will just kind of say, Oh, it's kind of an ancient psychological personality profiling device. And that's actually so far from what it is. That in some ways that's exactly what modern astrologers have made it to be. But in ancient astrology, you know, it was, it was a science and it was a divination. And it was not the kind of science that we think of as a science now. Anyway, there's a lot of argumentation about diffusion, did it come from the east, to the west, from the west to the east, because we have Indian astrologers practising. And there's lots of debates about that. And I find that there's just too much chest thumping about that issue. So I don't want to get into it, because I don't really care personally, who came up with it, it's divine, wherever it came from. And, you know, we should recognise that these things are going to transcend, you know, time, place and circumstance and the relative material sense. So, it's really, you know, in other words, astrology is a trans karmic language, which means that it's a language that is not part of the conditioned material world, it may be filtered through the conditioned material world and the language may need adjusting for different circumstances and people at different times and places in order that the symbols addressing the lives that were living at different relative moments in the stream of time and history. But the language itself is trans karmic. And, you know, in my mind, people who don't believe that are not doing astrology, they're doing something else. And I'm not saying that the other thing that they're doing doesn't have value, I just don't think that it's astrology. That's my belief.

12:11
Let's take a look at some of the quotes. This is really important. So I'm going to read you a few quotes, then I'm going to conclude with a letter to the student of astrology. Now, these quotes are gathered in a nice, one nice place and there's many more but I have my, my Hellenistic libraries still in storage of them. Not at all. I'm not usually at my office, I have all my stuff. But as you guys know, I'm in the process of moving, all my stuff is in storage. So Chris Brennan's book, Hellenistic astrology, great book, it's one of the source texts along with Demitra George's book that I use in my course for supplementary reading, and the section that he has on some of the philosophy of ancient astrology. Here comes Vettius Valens, giving us a quote about astrology, its origins, and why we do it, then this is coming from the Hellenistic era for God in His desire that man should for know the future brought this science into the world. So there it is divine in origin, "a science through which anyone can know his fate in order to bear the good with great contentment and the bad with great steadfastness." So in other words, we're not getting elated by good things, and we're not getting freaked out by bad things. "Accordingly, then the initiates of this art, those wishing to have knowledge of the future will be helped because they will not be burdened with vain hopes will not expand grievous midnight toil will not vainly love the impossible, nor in a like manner will they be carried away by their eagerness to attain what they may expect, because of some momentary good fortune. A suddenly appearing good often grieves men as if it were an evil, suddenly appearing evil causes the greatest misery to those who have not trained their minds in advance." So it's possible that valance was a stoic. It doesn't really matter, because the exact same idea is being shared by many astrologers in the ancient world. This has a divine origin, and it's meant to help us ride through the waves of this world which we can get caught up in. This is why the planets are called grahas, grabbers in part, the wandering stars that represent our wanderings in the material energy.

14:33
He also said "those who engage in the prediction of the future and the truth having acquired a soul that is free and not enslaved," enslaved by what, by Fortune, by the ups and downs of the material world, from our mind, to our environment to the current events on the news channels. "They do not think highly of fortune and do not devote themselves to hope, nor are they afraid of death. But instead they live their lives undaunted by disturbance by training their souls to be confidence." There's the belief in the soul, the belief in God, the belief in the wheel of fortune and the belief that astrology is here to help us walk through that wheel without getting lost. "Neither rejoice excessively in the case of good nor become depressed in the case of bad but instead are content with whatever is present. Those who do not desire the impossible are capable of bearing that which is preordained through their own self mastery, and being estranged from all pleasure or praise, they become established as soldiers of fate."

15:29
So what does it mean to be happy within, not based on circumstance, not based on temporary material designations. I'm a man or a woman, I'm richer, I'm poor, I have this like or dislike, all of these things that are a part of our material existence. If we try to hang our hat on them, they present us with pain over and over and over again. cycles of elation and pain, and the soul is disturbed by this. Firmacus Maternus also says, "This study will most successfully bring us to the point where our souls will despise everything which is considered evil or good in human affairs. For when we learn of the approach of difficulties, we despise the threat of evil. Because we have learned from our doctrine about things to come, we do not shrink from dangerous once foretold by recollection of its majesty, our souls have formed themselves to withstand these things we are not overcome by bad fortune nor elated by promise of high office, thus fortified by stable reason we cannot be oppressed by ill fortune nor overjoyed at the expectation of good." I think the nicest way of putting it is this is cosmic Mr. Rogers, you are beautiful, just the way you are, just as you are. "First of all, it is necessary to consider that even for events that will necessarily result the unexpected is apt to cause delirious confusion and mad joy while for knowing habituates and trains the soul to attend to distant events as though they were present and prepares it to accept each of the arriving events with peace and tranquillity." That's Ptolemy.

17:25
Here's another quote, "Hermes and Zoroaster, say that the philosopher's as a class are superior to fate because they neither rejoice in her good fortune for their master over pleasure, nor they thrown by all evils, she sends, they always lead an inner life." So having an inner life is we use astrology so that we, it's a strange thing, because astrology is focused on the fluctuations of fortune, but actually, it's used to cultivate and amplify the inner life in relation to it. So I want to read you guys to close on this series. Have one of my favourite passages from Maternus, called the life and training of an astrologer. And I'm just I'm going to paraphrase some of it or skip over a little parts of it, because it's long, but this is from Mathesis. And I will leave us with the this as, you know, just a call for what kind of life we astrologers live, why we why we're doing what we're doing, and and how to be a good student. You know, we're always students as astrologers. So, anyway, here it goes.

18:38
"Now you whoever you are, who tried to read these books," these are instructional books on astrology. "Since you have received the whole knowledge of this divine science, and are now endowed with the secrets of the stars. And have learned the first principles of the art, shape yourself in the image and likeness of divinity so that you may always be a model of excellence. He who daily speaks about the gods or with the gods must shape his mind to approach the likeness of divinity," so that we have the instruction to become spiritualized in our consciousness. "Therefore, study and pursue all the distinguishing marks of virtue. And when you've trained yourself in these, be easy of access, so that if anyone wishes to consult you about anything, they may approach you without fear." So be accessible to people. I carried a copy of this on my desk for many years, and read it very often. I don't have it with me now. But this shaped my own approach, for example, be easy of access. I've always, throughout my whole career have believed in making free content, donation based content need based tuition. So there's always some element of my work that makes that anyone can be accessing astrology. That's what ancient astrologers taught. If anyone wishes to consult you about anything, they may approach without fear. "Be modest, upright, sober, eat little be content with few goods so that the shameful love of money may not defile the glory of this divine science. Try with your training and principle to outdo the training and principles of worthy priests for is necessary that the acolyte of the sun and the moon and the other gods through whom all earthly things are governed should so educate his mind always that it'd be proved worthy by the attestation of all mankind." In other words, you got to be in a clean spiritual place and you have to be a good person. And I'm not saying that I've mastered that but this if this isn't the backbone of our practice, we're not doing astrology. "See that you give your responses publicly in a clear voice, so that nothing may be asked of you which is not allowed either to ask or to answer." He gives an admonition not to get involved in politics as an astrologer which I find very interesting. "He says have a wife a home many sincere friends be constantly available to the public keep away from all quarells, do not undertake anything any harmful business do not at any time be tempted by an excess income keep away from all passion of cruelty. Never take pleasure in others, quarells, or capital sentences are fatal enmities. Employ peaceful moderations in your dealings with other people that avoid plots and shun disturbance and violence. Bind your friends loyalty to you with strong ties, be careful to keep your honesty uncorrupted in all your activities. Never stain your self respect. By becoming a false witness. Never ask interest on money lest you accumulate an increase in income from the needs of others. Do not give or take an oath, especially if it has to do with money. To erring men, especially those bound to you by ties of friendship, show them the right road of life so that trained in your principles, they will easily avoid the errors of life.... In drawing up the charter do not wish you to show up the vices of men to clearly but whenever you come to such a point, delay your response with a certain modest reticence lest you seem not only to explain but also to approve what the evil course of the stars decrees for the man."

22:22
So in other words, when we see character faults, or even, you could say just darker, heavier things in a birth chart, Firmicus Maternus is telling us to be caution. Be careful about how we talk about those things. So that we, you know, it's kind of like to deliver things by degree, be careful when you talk about the difficult things. Keep away at all times from the enticements of the shows, lest anyone think you are a patron of this kind of thing. For the priest of the gods must be apart from low base pleasures. He's talking of course about different kinds of hedonistic activities. When you've equipped your mind with the characteristics and protections of virtue approach with confident boldness of mind, this book, as well as the following books which we have written on forecasting from the stars. But if your mind is straight in any way from these principles, which we have laid down about human character, see that you do not approach the mysteries of this doctrine with a perverse instinct of curiosity or sacrilegious rashness. Do not intrust the secrets of this religion, that the sinful greed of men's minds for one should not initiate souls of depraved men into the holy rituals. This divine science cannot at any time adhere to a mind captured and stained by wicked greed and always sustains the greatest loss when it is defamed by improper intentions."

23:42
Now this is my favourite part, "therefore be pure and chaste. And if you've separated yourself from all kinds of wicked activities which destroy the spirit, and if the desire for the right way of life is freed you from any suspicion of crimes, and if you conduct yourself as one mindful of the Divine seed, approach this work and commit to memory, the following books on astrology. In this way, having attained the true knowledge of this divine art, when you calculate the destinies of men and chart the course of their lives, you will be directed not so much by your reading of books, but also by the conclusion of your own divine reasoning. Thus, your own divinely inspired ideas may be of more profit to you than the traditions of the written word alone." Well, that couldn't be a clear instruction on where we're finally going with all of this, which is to become a part of the oracular healer, or divinatory transmission that comes through a chart. The chart is a servant of the process of divination. Sometimes we approach the chart as if it's all technique, history. And if we just know the proper techniques, then we can read it but according to ancient astrologers, if we are not, in a sense a temple for the stars, if we're not a, you know, a clean vessel and I don't think that means we have to be perfect, but it means we have to be working to be pure in mind and heart committed to God and committed to the gods and service of the souls in the material energy and to help them walk through it with greater freedom. If we're not walking that kind of life and embodying it, then we'll have books but we won't have that divine spark, that divine inspiration that is needed in order for book knowledge to become divine knowledge. So this, to me is the most inspiring set of passages that I've kept with me and read over and over and over again, throughout the years I read it to my students typically in class near the end of their programmes. We talk about the lifestyle and how to keep a good practice as an astrologer.

26:02
So that's what I have. I hope you guys have enjoyed the series learned a lot from it gotten a lot out of it, it has been a real joy and pleasure to share it with you. Don't forget my new class ancient astrology for the modern mystic starts in June. This is coming up in just a few months here. If you want to study astrology and enter into that, that sacred lineage of people who have devoted their minds and spirits to this spiritual science then you can check it out on my website, nightlight astrology calm. There is need based tuition available for people who are struggling you can we can work something out, we never like to turn people away. There are payment plans and also there's an early bird rate if you want to save about $500 off on the course. So hope to see you guys in class soon. And thanks for listening to this series. I would love to hear your thoughts and reflections on Final thoughts and reflections on the series in the comment section below. Alright, take it easy, everyone. Bye.