Hellenistic Astrology

Prologue of the book "HERMETIC ASTROLOGY: RECLAIMING THE

HELLENISTIC SYSTEM
The Astrology that we call 'Hellenistic' arose in Egypt and the area of the Sea
Mediterranean after the conquest of Alexander the Great. Although the manuscripts most
Ancient ones date from the 4th to the 2nd century BC, their expansion and development lasted
until the 6th century of our era. In Hellenistic Astrology, hence its importance,
we found the precedents of all the Astrology subsequently practiced in the world
Western.

During that time, under the shadow of the temples on the banks of the Nile, a generation arises
Egyptian astrologers who write in Greek, a language that was widely spoken at the time. Greece
Classical was part of the past, and the ancient dialects had unified into a language
common: koine. Just as today publishing in English ensures a great
diffusion, the same occurred with Hellenistic Greek, which by the way was no longer the same as the
from Homer or Hesiod. Such development and flourishing of astronomy1extended until
quite advanced the Roman conquest and expansion.

In investigating the origins of astrological practice, some scholars have directed their
attention to Babylon, others to India. Based on the evidence so far existing, we can
to admit that there was more or less developed astrology in all cultures, but the
development of horoscopic astrology, with a defined system of house division, based on
in the horoscopes (which in Greek means ascendant), belongs to Hellenistic Egypt.
Babylon, the tradition is very ancient, but not 'horoscopic,' rather referring to prophecies and
predictions for the kings and empires, according to a study of the tables
cuneiform. Not a single one of these ancient documents refers even indirectly—
Bouché Leclercq suggests in his monumental (although skeptical) work 'Astrology'
"Greek"—to the "Genealogy," or prediction of an individual destiny based on the
position of the stars at the moment of birth. Chaldean astrology mainly deals with
with exaltations, heliacal elevations, some lunar phenomena, and even
meteorological, without making a defined use of what we today call "houses" or "regents of
signs.

That the cradle of astronomy was found in Babylon is something few doubt today.
In day, and it is from the observations of Mesopotamia that we have extracted the basic data of
our celestial coordinates: the ecliptic, the zodiac signs, and most of the
planets. This form of Astrology was transferred to India, Persia, Egypt, and there it quickly
it developed into shape. Great Chaldean priest-astronomers like Berosus and
Kidenas, as the chronicles of the time show, were found teaching on the islands.
Greeks and the Nile delta. This is how the sidereal theology of the Babylonians is enriched.
by advanced astronomical discoveries, such as the precession of the equinoxes, for
Hipparchus, and also through Stoic thought, subsequently reaching the heights
stages of the Roman Empire. Astrology was promoted by both men of letters

1
It is important to note here that the division between 'astronomy' and 'astrology' is later than Ptolemy. In fact, Claudius
Ptolemy of Alexandria seems to have been the first to separate his astronomical observations and discussions
geometric-mathematics, gathered in a gigantic astronomical treatise in 13 books, or 'Mathematical Syntax' (translated
to Arabic as "Almagest"), from his "Apotelesmatica" or analysis of stellar influence, which is included in his "Tetrabiblos".
In Hellenistic culture, qualifiers such as 'astronomer' or 'mathematician' ('mathematikós') were widely applied to the
scholar in mathematics, geometry, astronomy, astrology, etc.
like for men of science, in the great centers of culture, mainly in
Alexandria, the cultural center par excellence of that period, possibly only matched in
some feeling for the city of Pergamum, home to the other great library. Astrological art
then, for the first time in known history, it was extended to all social classes, and
it was finally sponsored by the emperors. Thus, without omitting the recognition of the
Babylonian origin, it is undeniable that a much more complex system of Astrology
horoscopic developed in Egypt and Hellenistic Greece2 .

After exporting, so to speak, Babylon, its ancient wisdom to Egypt and India, among
Others, a great exchange emerges in the dawn of the Christian era. It is highly likely
that one or more works from the Hellenistic period have been translated into Sanskrit3 , those that
They were possibly of great influence in the development of Vedic astrology. Much of the
the Vedic system is original, like the nakshatras4 , although a certain Hellenistic influence
it seems to become evident when considering the number of Sanskrit words that are Greek in
its origin, and they have no meaning in Sanskrit.5

The Backgrounds in Greece

Despite the man's question about free will and human freedom in the face of
hado, or the inevitable, plus the old penchant for 'predicting the future', is now clearly
discernible in the West in the early Homeric texts, a complex was needed
combination of factors—mythical, philosophical, and religious—to introduce Astrology
in Greek rationalist thought. The most evident precedents are perhaps found
in Pythagorean doctrine, with its worship of harmony, geometry, and proportion
mathematics, its insistence on the interdependence of all parts of the universe, and
his conception of number as essence.

The "new era" of the Socratics leads us directly to Plato and his "Timaeus", which
it contains a gigantic cosmological model with which most astrologers
Hellenistics seem to have been familiar. Robert Schmidt goes as far as to
to assert that the entirety of astrology during this period was based on this
"model of the cosmos" from the Timaeus, according to which there exists a cosmic consciousness, "animal" in
the Greek sense, 'zoon', which has a soul, that is capable of knowing the human being.
cosmic consciousness, represented by a straight line, contacts the sublunar sphere of the
elements at a point called 'semeion'. The observable celestial phenomena are by
following the expressions of the internal mechanisms of that cosmic consciousness.

The conquest of Alexander the Great and the expansion of Hellenistic culture marked a great
change of mindset in the classical world, as the ancient ideal of the Greek republic
gives rise to a comprehensive concept of 'world government' or 'universal empire'. A
global religion gradually displaces local cults, and the idea grows of
humanity in the consciousness of man, who quickly turns his gaze to the heavens.

2
Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans
3
Contrary to those who assume that horoscope astrology originated in India, David Pingree believes that one of
the primary sources of all Vedic astrology was the Yavanajataka, a translation into Sanskrit of a text
astrological in Greek carried out in the 2nd century before our era.
4
Divisions of the zodiac into 27 or 28 sectors, equivalent to the daily movement of the Moon.
5
For example, quote Schmidt, kentron, in Greek, means angle, kendra in Sanskrit, has no meaning, with the
angle exception in the astrological context.
In the year 300 before our era, the school of the Stoics, founded by Zeno and
Chrysippus teaches that everything that exists has a body (soma) and is known to us by the
contact with the sense organs. Through a short path, they arrive at the same idea of the
Socratic philosophers, the theory of man-microcosm, image and compendium of
"macrocosmos" the world. The human being can know the Cosmos for being composed of
his same substance: man is the likeness of the world, and the world is the model of
man6 .

However, what predestined the Stoics to be the first to introduce Astrology

to Greek thought, was its unshakeable faith in the legitimacy of prediction
future, with Astrology being a very special and particular form of it. Having
higher beings, there was no reason to think that they would not communicate their designs to the
human mind. In this ascetic school of thought, the firm believers gathered
in determinism and, consequently, in the certain possibility of "predicting." Posidonius
The Stoic was specifically the one who introduced Astrology to rationalist minds.
Greeks as a coherent explanation of the world, defining man as "the
"contemplator and expositor of the heavens"; nature itself had predestined man.
to contemplate the sky and its perpetual movements.

Posidonius of Rhodes7he was the first to invent the modern version of the tropical zodiac
using the vernal point as a fixed point at the beginning of 0º of Aries. Disciple of Hipparchus,
Posidonius was born around 130 BC and died around 51 BC. He seems to have been a
recognized traveler, and a great authority in Astrology, and illustrious Roman figures
They sat to listen to his lectures. Among them was the enlightened writer.
Cicero, senator and speaker of the Roman benches, who alongside the great astronomer
Geminus seems to have been a direct disciple of Posidonius. From his extensive treatise 'De
"Divination" ("On Divination") provides us with valuable information about the criticisms of the
contemporary to Astrology, especially those of the high intellectual class. In the
in the second book of this treatise, Cicero dedicates an extensive space to elucidate the problem of
Astrology connected with the truth or falsehood of human capacity to predict the
future, astonished himself that deep and elevated thinkers believed it
possible, especially the Stoics, whom he holds in high regard. Moreover, it is curious to note
that one of the arguments used by the current opponents of Astrology, namely, the
the problem of the natal charts of twins has already been presented by Cicero as a
weighty argument against Astrology.

A rapid blossoming
It is too easy for our modern thinking to conclude that sciences and
complex disciplines, such as Astrology, gradually developed as a product of
observations and experience of centuries of attempts and failures. However, the absence of
manuscripts prior to the 4th century BC, in the case of Astrology of Egypt
Hellenistic, they give rise to suspicion of a surprising speed of hatching and development, which had
place in the short span of 50 to 75 years. This led Robert Schmidt to a conclusion
important: Astrology was not empirically developed through observations of
over the centuries--such integrity and coherence achieved in such a short span of time,
They speak of the work of a man, or a school of men. The number of fragments
compiled by Franz Cumont in the Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum,
6
"Greek Astrology" Bouché Leclercq, pp. 28 - 34
7
The island of Rodo (Rhodes), Greece, became one of the most important astrological centers of its time.
they seem to support this criterion, although there is a constant reference in the texts to 'the
ancient.
Which should not be surprising, since unfortunately the writings have not survived.
original works of the founders of the Hellenistic school, but only those of the writers.
comments about them, among them Dorotheus of Sidon, Vettius Valens of
Antioch, and Ptolemy of Alexandria, possibly the three astrological currents
main ones of the time. However, it is worth asking whether the fact that there are no
Written testimonies prior to the Hellenistic period necessarily indicate the absence of a
ancestral oral tradition passed down from generation to generation in earlier times,
especially in Babylon. That the Greeks began to put in writing the
Astrological knowledge does not necessarily imply that many of those ideas have not
pre-existing in Babylon in a germinal form, or even developed.
Arab astrologers began to practice natal astrology after the translation into
Arab of Doroteo and Ptolemy, in themselves very different lines. Although Mash'allá
It mentions Valens, and there is a possibility that his Anthology has been translated into
Arabic, there are not enough references in the literature of this language that
demonstrate familiarity with Vettius Valens, and there is no doubt that the history of the
Astrology would have been very different if Valens had been translated and studied.
another part, the translation from Greek by Ptolemy caused great problems in
its interpretation, since Greek and Arabic are very different languages.
In summary, the Hellenistic astrological corpus appeared around the 4th century BC as
an already organized system. Hermes "Mercurius" Trismegistus—we read in the "Mathesis" of
Firmicus Maternus is the legendary figure who appears as the founder. Firmicus continues:
We have written in these books (that is, the Mathesis) all the teaching that Mercury and
Hanubio arrived at Esculapio; and Nechepso and Petosiris explained; and later wrote
Critodemus, and all the other experts in this art8 Among the specifically written texts
attributed to Hermes are found, according to Masha Alla (or Masala, an Arab astrologer of
Middle Ages9 ) 16 textos sobre Astrología Natal, 5 sobre Horaria y Eleccional (que emplea
formulas in the style of the okleroi parts), other meteorological writings, and some works
in Medical Astrology that uses the decans. Saint Clement of Alexandria attributes to
about 42 treaties on the mythical Hermes. The pharaoh Nechepso and the high priest
Petosiris, it is stated in the Mathesis, were the receptacles of hermetic knowledge. A
Extensive astrological treatise, supposedly of his authorship, was written or translated into Greek.
prior to the Christian Era. Numerous quotes and references in literature
Hellenistic astrology refers to the same, as if it had truly been a source.
important for all subsequent astrology.

Hermetic Astrology
The Hermetic movement of Philosophy, originally pagan, seems to have originated in
Middle East, and gathers nuances from both Hellenistic and Chaldean as well as Phoenician, in addition to a
undeniable and ancient Egyptian origin. Like all Gnostic doctrine, the candidate performed
his training more in wisdom and knowledge than in faith. The goal of the
8
Iulius Firmicus Maternus, Eight Books of Mathematics, Chapter 4, paragraph 5. Prologue (Ed. W. Kroll and F. Skutsch).
Teubner 1968, p. 196. There is an English translation by Jean Rhys Bram, edited by David McCann (Ascella).
This treaty by Firmicus Maternus (4th century of our era) is an extensive work written in Latin, which has the virtue
to gather the earliest sources of the Hellenistic tradition, and to include material not found in others
writings.
9
CCAG, I, pages 81-82. The Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, by F. Cumont, gathers hundreds of
fragments without attribution, several of which can be attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, or to the hermetic school, if Hermes-
Mercury (Toth in Egypt) has been a group of men or school of thought.
teaching was, of course, a eventual communion with the divinity through the
recognition of one's own internal divinity. This idea of immanence opposed
notably to the concept of the Transcendent God of the then emerging Christianity.
legacy of this Gnostic philosophy reaches us through the Corpus Hermeticum, a
collection of manuscripts that groups the philosophical writings that survived. In a
At the time, they were thought to be remnants of Egyptian books older than the very text itself.
Pentateuch, although the date attributed to these today is no earlier than the year 310 of our era,
at least in the present form. However, these writings of incredible depth
philosophical are filled—with as Blavatsky already warns in her Secret Doctrine,
opinion later confirmed by scholars on the subject—of adulterations and
Christian interpolations.

In addition to this Corpus Hermeticum, Robert Zoller explains10, also survived a

a body of practical literature, consisting of alchemical, magical texts and
astrological attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, reluctantly dismissed by academics.
One of them is the Liber Hermetis, which is supposed to contain the astrological teachings.
from the mythical sage. However, it reaches us as a translation into Medieval Latin
Is this the same text that constituted the source for all authors?
Hellenistic, like Valens, Hephaestus, Dorotheus, and Ptolemy himself, who were
Are they reorganizers of material, rather than creators? Is this the text—the sought-after source?
Wilhelm Gundel, the editor of this Latin text with commentary, believes that this is the case. Without
embargo, recognized scholars like David Pingree, the very editor of Valens' text,
it suggests that, conversely, the same Liber Hermetis constitutes a compilation of texts
Hellenistic figures like Manilius, Valens, Dorotheus, etc.

Our Medieval Arab Heritage

According to Robert Zoller, modern Western Astrology is a product of a later period.
review of this art carried out at the end of the 19th century. Astrology that was reintroduced in
The West at that time had already become a very diluted version of this.
ancient discipline. The Astrology practiced in the Renaissance (17th century) surpassed that of
Middle Ages, and was characterized by its complexity in calculations and its return to the sources.
Greeks, especially Ptolemy. In contrast, medieval Astrology depended on
translations into Latin of Arabic texts, and in some cases, like that of Abraham Ibn Ezra,
from Hebrew to Latin, with Old French as an intermediary.

The Arabs, upon establishing the Caliphate in the 7th century, grouped certain fragments.
remaining Hellenistics that were dispersed, and for several centuries they were concerned
to assimilate, in their own way, the cultural and scientific inheritance of Antiquity. This is
how they became experts and skilled practitioners in so many disciplines, astrology among them
them. Zoller clarifies that such excellence was due to the fact that despite the destruction of
the Library of Alexandria, much of the cultured population of the Middle East that was
under the control of Islam in the 7th century remained intact, and the new rulers
Muslims surrounded themselves with the most learned Byzantines, Persians, Syrians, and mathematicians.
Indians and the Alexandrian philosophers. And the Arabs, even while at war with all of them
towns did not hesitate to take advantage of that knowledge. The West, by that time
sunk in darkness and barbarism, was unable to do something similar. Astrology
the paganism of the end of the Hellenistic period became acceptable to Islam (and secretly to

10
The Book of Hermes. Spica Editions. Translated by R. Zoller. Introduction.
Christianity) with the intermediate step of hermetic philosophical astrology, created before the
Islam in the early centuries of Christianity11.

However, there are no remaining signs of that astrology of the pagan religion.
since between the universalist approach of Hellenistic philosophy and the revision of the texts
by Arab astrologers between the 8th and 10th centuries, all trace of the hermetic cult seems
having been lost. However, Hermetic Tradition, like the cults of Gnosticism,
had reached a large number of adherents among the cultured population of the ancient world.

11
See the Introduction to the English translation of the Liber Hermetis, by Robert Zoller. Spica Publications,
1988.