Teodora on astrology

Astrology is probably the oldest human science, since the man has been observing the universe for a long time. The oldest reports of the phases of the Moon can be found on animal bones and are as old as 17,000 years.

In the beginning astrology was connected to religion. Different cultures believed in different deities, which were represented by the Sun and the Moon, as well as the five visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). Astrology was separated from the religion in the moment when the observance of sky became systematic, and the events in the sky were meaningfully connected to the events and development on Earth. That probably happened in the third millennium B.C.

The oldest known astrological text comes from Babylon and dates back to the year 1600 B.C. It was written on clay plates and was called Venus tablet of Ammizaduqa. The people of Babylon at that point did not yet know the zodiac as we know it today. Astrology in Babylon was exclusively political, connected with the study of the complete society in that period, with a special stress on places which symbolically represented the country. Their knowledge was rich and developed a strong astrological tradition when Babylon started hosting Greek scholars with their highly developed intellectual potential. This happened with the union of Babylon and Greece in the 6th century B.C. under the reign of Alexander the Great.

Astrology developed in the ancient Egypt relatively late. It seems their astrology and mathematics were relatively simple. Egyptians were very abstract philosophers and never developed a detailed systematic observance of the sky; they preferred the development of a symbolic comprehension of the Universe. The real astrology was developed in Egypt only after they developed a close relationship with Greeks in the fourth century B.C. Alexandria with its rich library became a great astrological study centre.

In the ancient Greece astrology was in its full swing in the period of the classic Greece - after the year 1,000 B.C. The first Greek astrologist is usually considered to be Thales. He operated in the transition period between the seventh and the sixth century B.C. He founded so-called Ionian school, which produced many scholars, such as Anaximander, Anaximenes and Pythagoras. Thales taught strict physical observance of the Universe and natural phenomena, and rejected the mythological way of development of science.

Pythagoras’s work was of great importance in the development of astrology. He organized his school on the island of Samos and had studied in Babylon for some time before that. His theory of numbers is very important, and is even nowadays one of the basics of astrology. He claimed that number one presented one-ness, unity; number two contrast, polarity; number three harmony and motivation… He taught that the whole Universe can be understood by the means of numbers. He spoke about the harmony of spheres – he believed that the planets emit tones with their movement and with the study of relationships between planets we can get musical accords.

Pythagoras’s teachings and his school produced many scholars, the most important of which were probably Plato and later Aristotle.

Plato worked in the transition period between the fifth to the fourth century B.C. In the beginning he was a Pythagorean, but he combined his philosophy with the knowledge of the Ionian and Eleatian schools (Eleatian philosophers were more spiritually oriented and did not rely on the material evaluation; they developed the principle of the Universe as the union of everything with everything). He placed the Earth in the absolute centre of the Universe and through that prevented any possibility of the development of the heliocentric model of the Universe. For him physical world was a complete illusion. He defended the theory of two worlds – the world of the ideal and the world of origin – the world in which we live and which is only a clumsy reflection of the world of the ideal. In that way he set foundations for astrology in a different way, since astrology always defended the axiom that ‘the way it is up, it is also down’. Platonists were and still are faithful advocates of astrology.

Plato’s student was Aristotle. He rejected Plato’s metaphysical model of the Universe, but he kept the geocentric system. Aristarhos (born in 310 B.C.) was the one who took the Earth out of the centre of the Universe and claimed that the Earth together with other planets revolves around the Sun. His theory was not accepted and the heliocentric model of the Universe had to wait until the sixteenth century A.D., before it came to life in the collective human conscience. Astrology first formally broke out in 280 B.C., when the Babylon priest Berosus opened a real ancient Greek school of astrology on the Greek island of Kos. Shortly after that a Greek school of astrology was also opened in Babylon.

The zodiac of twelve signs as we know it today was probably brought to light for the first time in the third century B.C.. According to the reports the first personal horoscope was made in 409 B.C. The oldest known epherimids origin in year 308 B.C. and the first reported use of zodiac degrees goes back to the year 263 B.C.

The earthly zodiac, which is called ascendant, and the twelve astrological houses developed slightly later. The first birth horoscope including the ascendant and the houses showed up only in the year 4 B.C.

Contrary to the Greeks, the Romans treated astrology in a rather modern way and it appeared more on the level of foretelling. It was somehow degraded from a science into a less appreciated and unserious discipline.

The most important figure in the Roman astrology was Claudius Ptolomeus (born in the year 70 A.D.). He lived in Alexandria, which was then a Greek colony, and had at his disposal all the capacities of their famous library. With only two textbooks he set the basics of astrology for the following 1,500 years!!! The astronomy textbook was called Almagest and it was the basis of Copernicus’s work in the sixteenth century. The astrology textbook was called Tetrabiblos (‘four books’), which presented a summary of all astrological knowledge of the ancient Babylon and Greece. It is still an excellent referential astrology book of the twentieth century. Instead of the zodiac of twelve constellations Ptolomeus strongly advocated the use of the zodiac of twelve signs, which is used nowadays as well.

After the fall and disintegration of the Roman Empire in the fourth century A.D. science and learning in Europe strongly deteriorated and that included star science as well. During the Arabian expansion in the seventh century a piece of Europe was occupied as well. Arabians came into contact with the knowledge of ancient Greece and Rome, which stimulated their development of mathematics and different sciences.

Astrology occupied an important place in this process as well. The mathematical preciseness brought them to a special way of studying astrology and astronomy. The main Arabian contribution to astrology included the so-called Arabian points, among which the point of happiness is the best known.

The centre of Arabian astrology was expanded in particular in Spain between the 10^th and the 12^th century. The rest of Europe started waking up only after the 12^th century, when the mass translation of ancient Greek texts became a trend, as well as the revival of the Aristotle’s ideas of the basic need for the material observance of the Universe.

Thomas Aquinsky (13^th century) suggested a model which claimed that the planets ruled the body while the soul belonged to God. This model on one side shows a strong influence of Aristotle and on the other side the reconciliation with the Church, which was not happy with the ‘godly’ characteristics of planets.

Astrology bloomed in the period of renaissance. The number of the practitioners of astrology grew steeply and the scholars that were employed in castles by the upper class people among other things performed the astrological work as well. They advised people on the basis of astrology, although at the same time they had the function of the King’s ambassadors and spies (John Dee was the personal astrologist of Queen Elisabeth in the sixteenth century; Nostradamus was in the same century employed by the French Queen Catherine de Médicis).

The first appearance of astrology almanacs was marked in the fifteenth century, helping the astrology expand to East Germany, Poland and Hungary. The most important astrologists of that time were William Lilly (born in 1602), whose work ‘Christian astrology’ is even today the basic textbook of the horar astrology; Nicholas Culpepper (17^th century), Regiomontanus (born in 1436) and Placidus de Tito (born in 1603), who developed two new systems of astrological houses.

The 16^th century brought about a revolutionary change in star science. Nicolas Copernicus (1473 – 1543) developed his own concept of heliocentric system of the Universe after a long and tiring study of Greek astronomy. His work was continued by Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) in cooperation with a Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Brahe collected a mass of astronomical data, which was based on the factual, physical observance of planets.

All this data and the Copernicus’s basis made it possible for Kepler to completely develop the heliocentric model of the Universe as we know it today. The model was described by three basic laws, which are today called Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion:

1. The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.

2. The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times as the planet travels around the ellipse.

3. The ratio of the squares of the revolutionary periods for two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their semimajor axes.

 The new astronomic theory was completed by Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727), whose achievements were published in his book Principia.

The heliocentric model of the Universe had great consequences on the relationship between astronomy and astrology, since it has shaken the validity of the geocentric system in the collective conscience – the system that had always been the basis of astrology. The world was very excited about the new science that was being developed in the middle of the industrial and technological revolution. The discovery of Uranus at the end of the eighteenth century gave a hint of the vast possibilities of development of the new mechanistic science which advocated the mechanical (visible) connection between the parts of a whole. Everything that is invisible, and therefore internal, esoteric started losing its value. That resulted in an urgent retreat of astrology from the scientific models, the consequence of which was the loss of its influence and its range. It gradually disappeared from the universities and it was taught for the last time in 1779 at the university in Salamanca.

Astrology in England was the one that survived the period of stagnation from the second half of the eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth century best, and it is therefore no coincidence that it was this country in particular where its rehabilitation started. A great role in the revival of astrology in the nineteenth century was played by the Theosophical Society, which was founded by Mrs. Blavatsky in London. Alan Leo (born in 1860), the leading astrologist in the transition period between the nineteenth and the twentieth century, also comes from this part of the country. He wanted to lift astrology onto a higher level, since until then it existed only in the form of foretelling the future. It had to become a means of an insight into oneself and also the means of the transformation of oneself. He formed an astrological department within the Theosophical Society, which survived his death in 1917 and became the ancestor of the later British astrological organizations. Charles Carter continued his work and wrote a lot of educational books.

The next step in the development of the new age astrology was made by an American, Dane Rudhyar, the founder of the humanistic astrology which takes a person as the central point of the horoscope. He believed that the person’s comprehension of life should teach the astrologist something new, instead of the fatalist explanation of the positions of planets at birth.

The great psychologist Carl Gustav Jung was not directly engaged in astrology but through certain ideas he set the foundations for the psychological astrology.

Since the end of the World War II astrology has been becoming all the more popular, many specialized magazines have been published, astrologists have been founding different schools connected with psychology and psychoanalysis, which extracted this old science from prejudices and numerous superstitions.

 LITERATURE

1.Kathleen Burt: Archetypes of the Zodiac

2.Ariel Guttman, Kenneth Johnson: Myths of astrology

3.Liz Greene: New Insights in Modern Astrology

4.Alice Baily: Esoteric Astrology

5.Mile Dupor: Ne vjerujte, provjerite (Don’t believe it, check  it)

6.Catherine Aubier: The Encyclopaedia of Astrology

7.A.Martine: Astrology, Love and Sex

8.Patrick Moore: Atlas of the Universe

♈ Nerve ends in head and face are the most sensitive. They will become turned on if you gently pat them on forehead or play with their hair. The ear lobes are also sensitive and you can breathe into their ears.

♉ Throat and neck; slide slowly with your palm over their neck, kiss them, you can also tease them with gentle bites on the back side of the neck.

♊ The most sensitive parts of the body are palms and arms; kiss their arms or suck their fingers, each separately. The inside part of their arms is also very sensitive.

♋ They are mostly turned on by gentle, deep kissing, but the most sensitive parts of their body are their breasts, especially while teasing their nipples.

♌ Their back is very sensitive, all the way down to the rump; gentle scratching the back works for him, and you try to turn her on by sliding down her back towards the loins with something soft, it can also be a soft brush.

♍ The area between the legs and lower part of the abdomen is very sensitive. They will also be turned on by a massage of the abdomen in the direction of the bellybutton.

♎ Loins and the bottom; they feel turned on if you caress, pat and playfully pinch their bottom

♏ The most sensitive part of their body are genitals. He is already turned on if he puts tight trousers on and she if she crosses her legs and moves around a little in this position. They are both turned on by oral teasing of the genitals.

♐ Men respond to erotic touches of hips and thighs, women respond also to hair (play with it, brush it, gently pull it); the inner part of the thighs with gentle sliding of a tongue over the part between the knees and pubic region.

♑ Both sexes like a massage that starts at the loins of the back and with light strokes continues up on the both sides of the back; circle with your tongue on the neck vertebrae; very sensitive spots include the bellybutton, outer part of the knees and the armpits.

♒ The sensitive parts include the ankles and calves; you can gently slide with your palms over the ankles and calves slowly moving up; all the touches have to be gentle, since everything else turns them off.

♓ Their feet are very sensitive, they enjoy the massage and caressing of their heel and instep, as well as sucking their toes; Pisces become even more open to sexual pleasures if they wet their feet before making love.

In astrology planets connected to sex and love also include Mars (energy, physical instinct, penetration), Venus (our wishes, relationships with others, shows the spot of pleasure, our values), and Pluto, which in itself is very asexual, like an amoeba. In a combination with other planets and aspects Pluto can point to obsessions; it is a planet of the beginning and the end, of transformation, sex, violence.

Mars, the god of war, and Venus, the goddess of love had a child names Eros. When Eros grew up he fell in love with Psyche and their only child was called Pleasure. Now pay attention to this symbol – the union of Eros and Psyche.

According to the four elements we can also see how the signs fit to one another in love. Fire and air signs fit one another best (♈,♌,♐ and ♊,♎,♒) – they are future oriented and are prepared to experiment; and earth and water signs (♉,♍,♑ and ♋,♏,♓) fit together – they live more in the past, are more passive and conservative. If we have the combination fire-earth, later in the relationship it is demonstrated how fire burns the earth and the earth puts the fire out. If the combination is fire-water, fire changes water’s aggregation – it changes it into steam, and the water puts out the fire. In the combination air-earth there is a lot of dust, we cannot see and it is very painful.

If we look at the partnership in the astrological map we definitely need to take into consideration also the 7^th house among others. It shows us what we expect from the relationship. The researches have shown that if we get married or start living in a joint household before the age of 29, we choose a partner according to the 4^th or the 10^th house (which we also call the parent axis), and after the age of 29 we have more possibility to get married or choose a partnership according to the 7^th house.

Men’s Venus (physical attraction) shows who men love; his Sun shows the way he behaves, and his Moon shows who he marries. Women’s Venus shows how they react and love, they like the man their Mars shows, and her Sun tells who she is going to marry, but only if she marries until the age of 29 or 30. We try to find all other relationships according to the 7^th house.

   JANKO BOHAK – for the exam 18/6/2005 Answer to the question:   2. typology – astrology (zodiac system) 

In the beginning zodiac was a time measurement. Nobody knows how and when it started being used for the assessment of a personality and the insight into future. The first known personal horoscope dates back to year 410 B.C., zodiac however definitely existed even before that. When Plato wrote about astrology in 365 B.C., the signs were still ruled by gods and goddesses connected to the mythology of Babylon, Egypt and Assyria.

Typology is the main branch of astrology and has twelve types (twelve star signs as we know them today). One part of typology is always in a shadow (that which is unclear, unadjusted to the present, touches on our complexes and through that the archetypes). Typology in the psychological astrology (we have more types of astrology) points to deeper dynamics in a person. Each astrological sign occupies thirty degrees, and twelve zodiac signs present twelve energies the world consists of and which follow one another as months in a year and seasons. We know four natural elements with three signs belonging to each of the elements (fire, earth, air and water), three qualities with four signs for each of them (cardinal, fixed and mutable qualities), and two polarities, each of which includes six signs (male or positive and female or negative polarity). Each sign is ruled by one planet. Planets are actors on a stage of presenting our own selves. We divide them into:

-   personal (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) – they show what we are like as people, help find dynamics of the personal part of ourselves

-   social (Jupiter, Saturn) – they show how environment influences on us and how we are included in the environment we live in

-   over-personal or transpersonal (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) – a part of us consisting of the experience of all humanity.

 Fire or subjective perception 

These signs transcend the subconscious, accept things on the basis of an idea, they present that which pushes us forward, it is about life itself, spirit, intuition and initiation. Expressiveness of the fire signs presents the radiation of the universal energy, which is essential. Their optimism gives light to the world. Fire is the element of strong emotions, initiation, enthusiasm, anger and jealousy. The key words for these signs are fearless impulsiveness, purity of spirit, power of approval, honesty, recognition, self-deceit, extrovert expressiveness and impatience.

-   ARIES: the cardinal quality, positive male sign. It is all about the breakthrough of an idea, influence and people managing ability, they are a kind of an instinctive intuitive leader. The sign is ruled by Mars and traditionally occupies the 1^st house. The energy of the Aries can be described in the following words - courage, aggressiveness, boldness, initiation, quick excitement, impatience, selfishness, inflexibility, self-sufficiency, stubbornness. Stress – intuitive type.

-   LEO: the fixed quality, positive male sign. It is all about the measures of the heart, focusing the energy, accepting the essence of idea. If they sense, then they perceive the meaning of an idea. The sign is ruled by (the only star) Sun and traditionally occupies the 5^th house. The energy of a Leo can be described in following words – power, glow, pride, leadership, royalty, loyalty, non-deviousness, dogmatism, laziness, sense of paternity, dedication, arrogance. Stress – self-centred intuitive type.

-   SAGITTARIUS: the mutable quality, positive male sign. The sign is ruled by philosophical measures, it accepts the educational applicability of an idea, it is motivated by the expansion in space and it deals with the wide range of an idea. It is ruled by Jupiter and traditionally occupies the 9^th house. The energy of Sagittarius can be described in following words – broad-heartedness, sense of philosophy, amicability, liberality, exuberance, tirelessness, good humour, carelessness, superficiality, negligence of details. Stress – contemplative intuitive type.

 Earth or objective perception 

These signs show the inner understanding of how physical world functions, energy of persistence, patience and self-discipline. Due to the inner understanding of physical transitoriness the tendency to safety is a constant challenge. They deal with the transformation of the universal energy into a physical shape. The key words for these signs include life in a physical world, physical sense of form, practicality, self-discipline, creativity and conventionality (exterior politeness, a pure habit).

-   TAURUS: the fixed quality, negative female sign. This sign perceives within the aesthetic and quantity measures, there is a form in the matter. It piles up, builds and redeems everything that grows. The sign is ruled by Venus (earthly) and traditionally occupies the 2^nd house. The energy of Taurus can be described in following words – consistency, loyalty, comfort, pleasure, dogmatism, slowness, jealousy, possessiveness, conservatism, tolerance. Stress – formal sensory (emotional) type.

-   VIRGO: the mutable quality, negative female sign. It deals with the work and functional measures; it is that earthly sign which wants to make some more out of an object, to make it more applicable, and is never satisfied, it is never good enough. It perceives while analyzing and functions precisely and methodically. The sign is ruled by Mercury (earthly) and traditionally occupies the 3^rd house. The energy of Virgo can be described in following words – being analytical, precise, accurate, forgetful, methodical, sophisticated, efficient, critical, narrow-minded, pedantic and petty. Stress – analytical sensory type.

-   CAPRICORN: the cardinal quality, negative female sign. It is essentially dependent on the position in the social environment; the perception is classificatory, hierarchical. People in this sign are the masters in their business, like clear and proven things (tradition, quality). They understand life as including a lot of patience and sacrifice. The sign is ruled by Saturn and traditionally occupies the 10^th house. The energy of Capricorn can be described in following words – being prudent, strongly goal oriented, constructive, ambitious, careful, organized, including cold logic of success, assessing obligations, assessing time possibilities and limitations, being greedy, sadistic and misanthropic. Stress – structural emotional type.

 Air or objective evaluation 

These signs make assessments on the basis of intellect, conscience. It presents all that our life connects, it is the kingdom of ideas and air is the element of the intellect. The expressiveness of the air signs include the transformation of the universal energy into the mental patterns, the acquisition of objectivity, perspective and rational approach. The key words for these signs include living through understanding, rationality, the need to socialize, adjustment through understanding, socialization, respecting others as individuals and life through concepts and principles.

-   GEMINI: the mutable quality, positive male sign. This sign assesses diversity, connectivity of ideas, multidirectional communication and it wishes to play with ideas. The assessment is based on the cultural communication, how to say certain things and in how many different ways. The sign is ruled by Mercury (air) and traditionally occupies the 3^rd house. The energy of Gemini can be expressed in following words – being communicative, curious, considerate, playful, handy, inconstant, lying, exaggerative, superficial, restless, leaning onto the stronger. Stress – variously cultural mental type.

-   LIBRA: the cardinal quality, positive male sign. This sign assesses the situation, the comparability of an event, and includes a strong problem of powerlessness which is reflected in its dependence. Assessment takes place in the mutual relationship. The mental comprehension of beauty is very important. The personal instinct is contrary to the objective assessment. The sign is ruled by Venus (air) and traditionally occupies the 7^th house. The energy of Libra can be described in following words – balance, harmony, fulfilment through the opposite sex, adjustment of contrasts, tendency to refinement, charm, gracefulness, insecurity. Stress – comparatively aesthetical mental type.

-   AQUARIUS: the fixed quality, positive male sign. The sign has systematic measures of objective evaluation; it demonstrates a very collective energy. People in this sign a lot of times sacrifice themselves for others, and can sometimes look cold for their dryness of idea. The intellect presents the energy of Aquarius, they find absolute truth very important – sometimes even on the account of emotions; they lack warmth, love theory and biological deficiencies are not important. The deepest motivation is to find the absolute truth. The sign is ruled by Saturn, but has been assigned to Uranus after it had been discovered. The sign traditionally occupies the 11^th house. The energy of Aquarius can be described in following words – being distant, objective, reasonably persistent, creative in idea, honest, enlightened, rebellious, abstract, eccentric and dominant. Stress – structurally principled mental type.

 Water or subjective evaluation 

These signs make the assessment of life through the subconscious apparatus. It includes a sophisticated field of life and it is everything that is hidden, dynamic and without shape. They change the universal energy into the energy of emotion. They exercise the control over the fears of own imperfection and inappropriateness through the emotional response. The key words for these signs include sensitivity, search for the answers in the subconscious, intuition (emotional), purification, psychological sensitivity, deep dependence and the need for privacy.

-   CANCER: the cardinal quality, negative female sign. It uses the intimate measures, assesses shyly, timidly and it is difficult for this sign to structure feelings. It is a root, a cradle, as one big uterus, out of which we come to life. The energy of Cancer is connected to all the beginnings of life, the creation. The sign is ruled by Moon and traditionally occupies the 4^th house. The energy of Cancer can be described in following words – imagination, maternity, emotional sensitivity, exaggerate concern, exaggerate sensitivity, susceptibility, protection of intimacy and roots, defensiveness, laziness (to be always at home). Stress – intimate emotional type.

-   SCORPIO: the fixed quality, negative female sign. It can be a pool or a puddle; they have very instinctive energy; everything that has piled up can blow up and that as strongly as in an explosion, so that something new can be formed. They include a lot of erotic passion, extreme jealousy, clashes with instincts and demand for pure emotional belonging. After Pluto had been discovered it came to rule this sign, but before that Mars had ruled it and the sign traditionally occupies the 8^th house. The energy of Scorpio can be described in following words – intensity, depth, penetrative force, being strictly purpose oriented, with incredibly strong will, destructive, passionate, persistent, possessive, oppressive aggressive, sadistic. Stress – deeply emotional type.

-   PISCES: the mutable quality, negative female sign. Everything that has happened has to be decomposed. The energy of Pisces is the least personal, the least emotional. They expose a great dreaminess; they do not have a real contact with reality. They mix with the whole universe, and a complete surrender is present. The sign of Pisces is a symbol of a relationship with the invisible, great spiritual measures, suffering as a symbol of happiness. They have to learn how to evaluate life correctly. After Neptune had been discovered it came to rule this sign, but before that Jupiter had had that task and the sign traditionally occupies the 12^th house. The energy of Pisces can be described in following words – being intangible, susceptible, unselfish, dreamy, merciful, chaotic, illusive, dependent, idealistic, bohemian and artistic. Stress – transcendental emotional type.

Astrological houses are the earthly manifestations of the twelve star signs and present twelve different fields of life. The symbol of the houses claims that the way things are up (in the sky) they are also down (on Earth). The gods (planets) in the sky talk to one another. At birth a planet symbolically lands in our life and casts anchor into one part of our lives. This is where we gradually activate ourselves. We have three levels of activity:

-   personal (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th house)

-   social (5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th house)

-   universal (9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th house)

Ascendant presents the hour of birth, the entrance into incarnation; it is personal and active throughout life and expresses the images of an individual in the world outside. In the psychological sense it describes our personality, our identity. Ascendant, with the energy of a sign, shows us how we enter life and what the meaning of our life is. Through the sign a certain ascendant is in, we can find out what a person looks like physically – it is the mask we wear. Ascendant is the reality, dharma of the soul. Ascendant describes the way of growing up and development, while the Sun sign always determines what a person develops into, what he or she has to and wishes to become.

Best regards,

Teodora Erhatič