By Robert Powell
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Introduction: The Zodiac
A true understanding of the zodiac lies at the foundation of Astrogeographia. As Professor Otto Neugebauer (1899-1990) wrote in his great work A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy: "The natural reference system for the motion of the planets, moon and sun, are the fixed stars..." Once having grasped - through the application of "as above, so below" - that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the celestial sphere and the terrrestrial sphere, such that each place on the Earth corresponds to a star in the heavens, there is no other possibility for understanding the zodiac than in terms of the stars making up the signs of the zodiac. By way of illustration, returning again to the correspondence between Vienna and Aldebaran, there was a time when Vienna, under the Hapsburg dynasty, was the center of Europe. This perfectly mirrored the central position of Aldebaran in Taurus.
As shown in Robert Powell's Ph.D. thesis, published in book form under the title History of the Zodiac, the original definition of the zodiac made by the Babylonians early in the fifth century BC was specified by the two first magnitude stars Aldebaran at the center of Taurus and Antares in the middle of Scorpio such that the zodiacal locations of Aldebaran and Antares were defined to be 15 degrees Taurus and 15 degrees Scorpio. Once this central axis running through the middle of the signs of Taurus and Scorpio was defined by these two stars, the longitudes in the 30 degree divisions known as signs of other bright stars in the twelve zodiacal constellations could be ascertained. For example, the bright star Regulus marking the heart of the Lion was found to have a longitude of 5 degrees in the sign of Leo, the first magnitude star Spica marking the tip of the sheath of wheat held by the Virgin was determined to have a longitude of 29 degrees Virgo. In this way the original signs of the zodiac, coinciding more or less with the zodiacal constellations of the same name, were clearly defined. This original zodiac was used in antiquity not only in Babylonia but also in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and India, where it is still in use - in a modified form - to the present day. Now it is known as the sidereal zodiac (Latin sideris, "starry") in order to distinguish it from the tropical zodiac used by most present day astrologers (excluding India, where the sidereal zodiac is still used). In light of Astrogeographia the signs of the sidereal zodiac, since they
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are defined in relation to the stars, are also mirrored in specific regions on the Earth. For example, the earthly projection of the sign of Taurus coincides by and large with Europe. There is a symbolic significance to the alignment of Europe with the sign/constellation of Taurus. According to Greek mythology, Europe (Europa) is connected with Taurus. Europa was a daughter of King Agenor of Tyre. One day, while she played at Sidon's sea shore, Zeus, who was strongly attracted to the beautiful girl, appeared to her from the waves of the Mediterranean Sea in the shape of a magnificent white bull. Fascinated by the extraordinary creature, Europa mounted upon the bull's back. Instantly the bull plunged into the sea and eloped with her to the island of Crete. From this union the first king of Crete, Minos, was born, and the bull was set in the heavens as the sign/constellation of Taurus.
The research of Astrogeographia confirms Greek mythology. The earthly projection of the star Aldebaran at the center of the Bull (15 degrees Taurus) coincides with the city of Vienna, which for centuries was the center of the European Hapsburg empire. Now, with the expansion of the European Union to include a number of East European countries, Vienna is once again at (or near) the center of Europe. Already with the collapse of the iron curtain in 1989 - coincidentally the year in which the last ruling Hapsburg passed away - Vienna acquired a new sense of purpose as a gateway city to Central and Eastern Europe.
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About Robert Powell, PhD
Robert Powell was born in Reading, England in 1947.At school he discovered a love of mathematics, and went on to study at the University of Sussex, located near Brighton, England, where he was awarded a Master's degree in mathematics (statistics) in 1970.
Already in October 1969 he began a full-time teaching post as a lecturer at Brighton University (at that time called Brighton Polytechnic) in the Department of Computing and Cybernetics. He was a lecturer there from 1969 to 1976 in Mathematics and Statistics for undergraduate students taking their B.Sc. Degree in Computer Science.
In 1971 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. From its inception in 1971 until 1974 he was a tutor in mathematics for the Open University of the United Kingdom, teaching (during vacation time from Brighton University) courses in mathematics to undergraduate students.
During this time (in 1970/1971) he began to do research in the history of astronomy. For this research he used the library at the British Museum in London and also the library of the Warburg Institute, which is part of the University of London. While researching at the Warburg Institute he first discussed the possibility of doing a PhD thesis on the history of the zodiac with Dr. Charles Schmitt from the Warburg Institute. He left his post as lecturer in mathematics and statistics at Brighton University in July 1976 in order to pursue his research into the history of astronomy in London.
During the years 1976 and 1977 he became interested in Isaac Newton's research into astronomical chronology, a summary of which is included as Appendix II in his PhD thesis History of the Zodiac. On account of his research into Newton's chronology, later in 1977 he received an invitation from Georg Ungar to spend some time doing research at Dr. Ungar's Mathematisch-Physikalisches Institut in
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Dornach, near Basel, Switzerland, where he spent the next four years of his life (1978-1982). It was here that he met Konrad Rudnički, a professor of galactic astronomy, who expressed interest in his thesis on the history of the zodiac and suggested that he could submit it to an academic institution in Poland under his supervision.
After moving to Stuttgart, Germany, in 1983, he continued his research and studies, and began to investigate chronological aspects of Kepler's work, in particular his ideas presented in De stella nova concerning the star of Bethlehem. He studied the chronology of the Hebrew calendar at the time of Christ and found confirmation of Kepler's dating of the birth of Jesus to March 6 BC through applying astronomical chronology. The results of this research, which was carried out for more than a decade, were published in 1996 in his book Chronicle of the Living Christ.
His research on the history of the zodiac, Newton's chronology, and the application of astronomical chronology to dating the life of Christ, also became extended to the field of astrology, which is of interest in connection with the history of the zodiac. Like the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Kepler, he investigated the astronomical principles underlying astrology. On the basis of his research into the history of the zodiac he discovered that contemporary astrology has a completely different basis from the ancient astrology of the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and Hindus.
Through Professor Rudnički the possibility later came about that he
could submit his PhD thesis to the Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. This entailed writing a new, updated version of this thesis on the history of the zodiac, incorporating new research findings.
Obtaining his PhD was a thirty year odyssey, which had started in 1974 when he began writing down the results of the initial research on the history of the zodiac at the libraries of the British Museum and the Warburg Institute in London. It was finally submitted to the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2004 with the title The Definition of the Babylonian Zodiac and the Influence of Babylonian Astronomy on the Subsequent Defining of the Zodiac. After publicly defending his thesis in Warsaw, he was awarded a PhD for his original contribution to the history of science - or rather to the history of astronomy. The degree was conferred in March 2005. A revised and updated version of the PhD thesis was published by Sophia Academic Press in 2007 as a book under the title of History of the Zodiac.
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Aside from his academic career, Robert Powell has also written books on a variety of other subjects, including the works written together with his wife, Lacquanna Paul. They are co-authors of the books Cosmic Dances of the Planets and Cosmic Dances of the Zodiac, which describe the work that Robert has been doing since he founded the Choreocosmos School of Cosmic and Sacred Dance in the year 2000. In turn, the work of the Choreocosmos School was made possible through the founding of the Sophia Foundation of North America in San Rafael in 1995 by Karen Rivers and Robert Powell. The Choreocosmos School offers a training in cosmic and sacred dance. A substantial number of people have graduated from the training and are now qualified to teach cosmic and sacred dance along the lines outlined in Cosmic Dances of the Planets and Cosmic Dances of the Zodiac. Currently Robert teaches courses in cosmic and sacred dance in six different countries.
The courses in cosmic and sacred dance are taught as a training in subtle eurythmic movement to classical music. (Rudolf Steiner was the inaugurator of eurythmy, which provides the foundation for cosmic and sacred dance). There are various levels of activity of the Choreocosmos School of Cosmic and Sacred Dance. Some of the courses are introductory in nature, teaching the cosmic dances of the four elements, the seven planets, and the twelve signs of the zodiac. These twenty-three cosmic dances embody a path following the archetype taught in the Middle Ages at the School of Chartres (Chartres Cathedral) in France. There the pupils were instructed in the mysteries of the elements relating to Mother Earth, then the mysteries of the planets having to do with the Cosmic Soul, and finally the mysteries of the zodiac pertaining to the World Spirit. The introductory courses of the School of Cosmic and Sacred Dance are concerned with outlining a path of experience - through music and movement - to these three levels. At the same time, supplementing the movement aspects of the courses, it is possible to engage in conversation and study activity focusing upon acquiring a deeper understanding of the elements, planets, and zodiacal signs in relation to the different levels of the human being. The whole is intended to lead to experience of the higher levels of Nature (four elements) and the cosmos (planets and zodiac). For more information about Choreocosmos, click here.
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Books by Robert Powell
Hermetic Astrology
A TRILOGY DEDICATED TO A NEW STAR WISDOM (ASTROSOPHY)
***
1. HERMETIC ASTROLOGY VOLUME I Astrology and Reincarnation
(1987; second edition 2007)
2. HERMETIC ASTROLOGY VOLUME II Astrological Biography
(1989; second edition 2007)
These two volumes on Hermetic Astrology are described below. To order either of these volumes click here or here.
3. CHRISTIAN HERMETIC ASTROLOGY The Star of the Magi and the Life of Christ (1991; second edition 1998)
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Origins of Star Wisdom
Unearthed in the mid-nineteenth century from ancient Ninevah, capital of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia, by British Museum archaeologists Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam, the Mul Apin - two clay tablets, named from the first line of a text describing the stars - was just one of some 10,000 cuneiform texts collected in the seventh century BC into the world's first library by Ashurbanipal, the last great king of ancient Assyria. The Enuma Elish creation account, which reached back to the dawn of time, also came from the excavations in the long undisturbed mounds on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, near the modern city of Mosul. In these broken, worn clay bricks fashioned twenty-five centuries ago, there were extraordinary tales of gods and goddesses, and of stars and planets. Indeed, as in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the Babylonian gods were always associated with the stars, including the "wandering stars," or planets (Greek planetos). The cuneiform tablets clearly showed that the Babylonian astronomers noticed five stars that moved in relation to the background of the fixed stars.1 They connected these five stars with the five gods belonging to the Babylonian pantheon: Ninib, Marduk, Nergal, Nebo and Ishtar.
From Babylonian cuneiform texts we know the characteristics of these five gods:2 Ninib, the god of justice; Marduk, the lord of wisdom; Nergal, the god of war; Nebo, the divine scribe; and Ishtar, the goddess of love. In addition to the five wandering stars visible to the naked eye, the movements of the Sun (Shamash) and Moon (Sin) were also observed against the background of the fixed stars (in the case of the Sun, this movement was deduced), making a total of seven planets.
Characteristics Babylonian Greek Roman
Characteristics Babylonian Greek Roman
"god of justice" Ninib Chronos Saturn
"lord of wisdom" Marduk Zeus Jupiter
"god of war" Nergal Ares Mars
"divine scribe" Nebo Hermes Mercury
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The Mul Apin tablets showed that the Babylonian astronomers observed that these seven planets always move within a belt through the same groupings of fixed stars, and that there were seventeen such groupings (constellations). Twelve of those constellations make up what we know today as the zodiac, or "circle of animals":
Mul Apin text name Translation Greek Zodiac Name Mul Lu Hung Ga3 The "Hired Man" Aries (the Ram) Mul Gud An Na The "Bull of Heaven" Taurus (the Bull) Mul Mash Tab Ba
Gal Ga The "Great Twins" Gemini (the Twins) Mul Al Lul The "Crab" Cancer (the Crab) Mul Ur Gu La The "Lion" Leo (the Lion) Mul Ab Sin The "Furrow" Virgo (the Virgin) Mul Zi Ba Ni Tum The "Scales of
Heaven" Libra (the Scales) Mul Gir Tab The "Scorpion" Scorpio (the Scorpion) Mul Pa Bil Sag The "Grandfather" Sagittarius (the Archer) Mul Suhur Mashû The "Goat Fish" Capricorn (the Goat) Mul Gu La The "Great One" Aquarius (the
Water-Carrier)
Mul Sim Mah The "Swallow" Pisces (the Fish)
The Mul Apin text included two other star paths - the "path of Anu," and the "path of Ea." As Anu was the Babylonian "God of the Sky," Ea was the "God of the Ocean," and Enlil was "Lord of the Wind," the fixed stars (forming the paths of Enlil, Anu, and Ea) were first and foremost seen by the Babylonians as the abode of divine beings.4 It is quite normal for the modern person to assume that - as with contemporaneous Egyptian, Australian, African, Oceanic, Asian, or later Greek and Roman mythology - the identification of the Babylonian pantheon with objects in the sky is a kind of innocent but erroneous imagination. This would be the gravest of errors, for both the mythic texts and the records of the Babylonian astronomers are testaments to an entirely different mode of consciousness and perception. These texts were made by individuals who possessed clairvoyance for the spiritual world. Though faded and continuing to
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fade amongst their peers at the moment when the scribes created these cuneiform tablets, the ancient clairvoyance allowed Babylonian priest-astronomers (for indeed, the inseparability of the divine deeds from the doings of the stars meant that the official Babylonian stargazers were simultaneously priests and astronomers) to see far beyond the physical realm, into the invisible world of the gods. Like the Orphic Hymns, the Enuma Elish is a cosmogony and cosmology, detailing the sequence of events involved in the creation of the cosmos - including the star path of the zodiac and the planetary wanderers upon that path.
Looking at the table above, it is striking how the ancient Babylonians gave almost exactly the same names to the zodiacal constellations as did the Greeks. One must refrain from assuming that the Babylonian priest-astronomers imposed these patterns and their associated myths upon the heavens. Although when we look to the night sky we see only the constellational patterns that we have learned from years of seeing "connect-the-dots" drawings, this in no way can be thought of as similar to what the ancient Babylonians experienced. Their clairvoyance afforded them an actual supersensory experience of the intrinsic essence or "beings" of the stars, with all of their variegated qualities, capacities, and "physiognomies."
Some twenty-five centuries ago, the Babylonian stargazers became the world's first real astronomers, in the sense that their stargazing shifted from a strictly devotional activity to one whose systematic practice allowed them to make empirical descriptions - detailing the motion of the planets and the composition of the zodiacal path traveled by those planets - that would serve as the foundation for all subsequent astronomical science. The Mul Apin clay tablets from Ashurbanipal's great seventh century BC library were permanent remembrances of a vast accumulation of astronomical knowledge from many centuries before 700 BC, while also, in their transition to a mathematical/empirical astronomy, already representing an unfolding "forgetting" of the stars and planets as actual "gods" or beings.
The Zodiac and the World's First Horoscope
Within two centuries after King Ashurbanipal collected the Enuma Elish, Enuma Anu Enlil, Mul Apin, and other cuneiform texts into his great library, the Babylonian priest-astronomers had made a further refinement of their picture of the "Paths of the Gods." In two cuneiform texts dating from 475 BC and excavated from Babylon, the zodiacal constellations are divided into twelve 30-degree signs.5 This is the
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original or sidereal zodiac (sidereal means "pertaining to the stars"). The sidereal zodiac is defined in such a way that: the star Aldebaran ("Bull's eye"), at the center (15 degrees) of the constellation of Taurus, is in the middle of the sign of Taurus; and the star Antares ("Scorpion's heart"), at the heart of the constellation of Scorpio, is at 15 degrees Scorpio, in the middle of the sign of Scorpio (see Figure below).
These two stars comprise the fiducial axis, the defining axis of the sidereal zodiac given by the remarkable fact that Aldebaran and Antares lie diametrically opposite one another in the zodiac and are located at the center of their respective zodiacal signs. The stellar longitudes of other zodiacal fixed stars are determined in relation to this axis. For example, the beautiful star cluster in the neck of the Bull, the Pleiades, is at 5 degrees Taurus; the two bright stars marking the heads of the twins, Castor and Pollux, are at 25½ degrees and 28½ degrees Gemini; the first magnitude star Regulus, marking the heart of the Lion, is at 5 degrees Leo; the first magnitude star Spica, marking the tip of the sheath of wheat held by the Virgin, is at 29 degrees Virgo, etc. A Babylonian star catalog thought to date from the fourth century BC lists the bright zodiacal stars in terms of the twelve signs of the sidereal zodiac.
This refinement of the zodiac into twelve equal signs might seem at first glance to be a convenient and arbitrary scheme, but the sidereal zodiac that they codified is anything but arbitrary. The 30-degree divisions reflect the clairvoyant perception of the exact extent of the influence of the spiritual beings underlying the twelve constellations of the zodiac. The Babylonian stargazers learned this arrangement not in abstract, geometrical terms, but as living pictures of the cosmic beings standing behind the stars. Those pictures were originally imparted to them by their teacher Zaratas (Greek: Zoroaster). The Persian-born Zaratas was a relative of King Cyrus the Great (sixth century BC) and came to Babylon in the wake of Cyrus' conquest of the city in 539 BC. He was soon acknowledged as a great teacher by the Babylonian priesthood. His fame was such that Pythagoras came to Babylon to receive initiation from him.6
Initiated by the sublime Being of the Sun, Ahura Mazdao, so that his clairvoyance extended beyond the Sun to the mighty beings of the zodiac, Zaratas spoke of four "royal stars" - Aldeberan, the Bull's Eye, the central star of Mul Gud An Na, the "Bull of Heaven"; Regulus, the Lion's Heart, shining from Mul Ur Gu La, the Lion; Antares, the glowing red ember of Mul Gir Tab's (Scorpio's) heart; and Fomalhaut, beneath the stream of water spilling from the urn of Mul Gu La, "The
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Great One" (Aquarius). To his clairvoyant perception, raised up from the shifting seasonal zodiacal patterns as seen from the earth, the four royal stars and their enveloping constellations marked for Zaratas the cosmic directions of space. Aldeberan he knew as the "watcher in the East"; Antares the "watcher in the West"; Regulus, the "watcher in the North"; and Fomalhaut was the "watcher in the South." Thus, Taurus - Scorpio marked the East-West (fiducial) axis, while Leo - Aquarius marked the North-South. Each of these Holy Beings was flanked on either side by other majestic spiritual beings, embodied in the zodiacal images of the Crab, the Twins, and so on. 7
Zaratas's clairvoyance allowed him a panoramic vision of Time as well as Space, and he saw the imminent arrival of a period when humanity would no longer see these Holy Beings of the cosmos, nor even accept that such Beings existed. He understood that in this approaching period of spiritual darkness, humanity would need a science of the cosmos that would in veiled form express the cosmic mysteries, since the spiritual reality standing behind them would be lost. The mathematical exactitude that emerges from the astronomical texts of this period of ancient Babylon shows that Zaratas succeeded in this, the heart of his task as a teacher of the Babylonian astronomer-priests.
For many centuries before Zaratas's time, the Babylonian astronomers had concerned themselves with reading omens in the sky for the benefit of royalty. Inspired by his knowledge of the future unfolding of human history, into an age of increasing individualism and materialism, Zaratas introduced an entirely new art of prophecy, one that sought to describe the destiny of every individual human being. His clairvoyance permitted him to see the descent of the soul from cosmic heights, down through the planetary spheres, to Earth. Zaratas could also see that the planetary configurations at birth held the secret of the soul's destiny. Through a divinely inspired suite of initiation practices, he taught the Babylonian stargazers this faculty of beholding the voyage of the soul into incarnation.
Especially significant for the Babylonian astronomer-priests was the passage of the Moon around the zodiac. They regarded the Moon as the gateway for the soul on its voyage into incarnation, and they could behold the "descent of the stork" at the moment of conception, descending from the Moon to unite with the seed of the quickened embryo. By focusing their spiritual gaze on the Moon they could gain awareness of the moment of birth of the incarnating soul.8 With this threefold knowledge of the sidereal zodiac of twelve equal signs, the moment of conception, and the planetary configurations at birth, the
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Babylonian astronomer-priests could read the "omens" for an individual's birth. Thus originated the world's first horoscopes. The oldest known horoscope - preserved on another clay tablet dug up from Babylon by British archaeologists in the middle of the nineteenth century - has been dated to April 29, 410 BC, and is cast in terms of the geocentric planetary positions in the sidereal zodiac.9
Ancient Astrology in a New Form
The modern continuation of the ancient Babylonian astrological practices - but now including modern astronomical knowledge - constitutes what could be called The Astrological Revolution, which is the title of the book by Kevin Dann and Robert Powell from which the foregoing sections The Origin of Star Wisdom and The Zodiac and
the World's First Horoscope are drawn. This website is intended to
give an expanded perception of the deeper significance of this new approach to the stars, and to enable interested readers to follow up on this new approach with horoscopes, as outlined in the the section
Horoscopes Old and New. By way of a summary, the present-day
dates of passage of the Sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac originally defined by the Babylonians are as follows:
View Zodiac Dates
The term "fixed stars" was used because they believed these stars never change their position in relation to one another, therefore appearing to be fixed upon the globe of the heavens. Modern astronomy has shown that the fixed stars are subject to minute shifts in position over tens of thousands of years. But this movement is so slight that during the course of the last five thousand years there has been very little change from the patterns of the constellations as they were at the time of the Babylonians.
Robert Powell, History of the Planets.
The convention in reproducing the cuneiform character translation from the ancient Akkadian is to use upper-case letters, separated by a period. The "Bull of Heaven," (Taurus) for example, is written: MUL.GUD.AN.NA. For
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ease of reading, we have dropped the period notations, and italicized the letters: Mul Gud An Na.
Babylonian mythology largely derived from the older Sumerian mythology, and was written in Akkadian, a Semitic language using the cuneiform script. The reader is referred to the foundational work by Robert Powell, History of
the Zodiac for all references to the history of the zodiac.
In his The Life of Pythagoras, Porphyry says: "In Babylon [Pythagoras] associated with the other Chaldeans, especially attaching himself to Zaratas [=Zoroaster], by whom he was purified from the pollutions of his past life." The
Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library, p. 125.
Robert Powell, Christian Hermetic Astrology: The Star of the Magi and the
Life of Christ, pp. 15-24.
Robert Powell, Christian Hermetic Astrology, pp. 22-23.
Abraham Sachs, "Babylonian Horoscopes," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 6, 1952, pp. 49-65.
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Conception (Epoch) Chart
The incarnating human being influences (inspires) the future parents to come together to provide the physical body needed for the approaching incarnation. When the egg is fertilized in the mother's womb, the human being sends down the spirit seed to unite with the fertilized egg. "The spiritual germ woven by ourselves is lost at the moment when the physical germ, which we shall have to assume on Earth, is engendered through the act of conception" (Rudolf Steiner). In ancient times the sending down of the spirit seed to unite with the fertilized egg was seen clairvoyantly as the "descent of the stork," since the spirit seed appears to clairvoyant perception like a stork. When the stork was seen, it was known that a child was on its way. In terms of the epoch (conception) chart, the moment of the sending down of the spirit seed is computed using the hermetic rule retrogressively from the birth chart, utilizing the interchange of the position of the Moon and the Ascendant or its opposite.1 Hermetic astrology, so-called because it is based on the application of the ancient Egyptian hermetic rule for determining the horoscope of conception, consciously includes - in addition to the birth - the moment of conception (epoch) as an important part of the process of incarnation. At this moment there begins the building up of the etheric body from the cosmic ether, and the weaving of the "karmic cross" into the etheric body, as described in detail in Hermetic Astrology, volume II.
The epoch chart gives a picture of the structure of the etheric body, containing the basic life force. Research shows that the moment of death is often indicated by transits to the epoch chart. This discovery highlights the significance of the epoch chart in hermetic astrology. For example, in the case of the German Romantic poet Novalis (1772-1801):
Death g-Saturn (25½º Cancer) - conjunct - Epoch Sun (25½º Cancer) And in the case of the Austrian spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925);
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These are just two examples illustrating the research finding that the moment of death is often indicated by transits to the epoch/conception chart.
All this goes to show that the conception (epoch) chart, which is central to hermetic astrology, is highly significant. It has been largely neglected in the history of astrology, although working with the conception chart was a part of ancient Egyptian and Babylonian astrology. As Ptolemy states in the Tetrabiblos:
Since the chronological starting-point of human nativities is naturally the very time of conception, but potentially and accidentally the moment of birth, in cases in which the very time of conception is known either by chance or by observation, it is more fitting that we should follow it in determining the special nature of body and soul, examining the effective power of the configuration of the stars at that time.3
One of the reasons for the neglect of the conception horoscope in astrology is that the application of the hermetic rule to find the epoch from the birth chart is complex and open-ended. Now, through the Astrofire computer program developed by Peter Treadgold, the various possibilities for the epoch can be seen at a glance, and with a little practice and experience it is relatively easy to determine the actual conception horoscope.4 This opens - or rather re-opens - a vast new realm of research intrinsic to the roots of astrology.
To summarize: the moment of the epoch is the time when the archetype of the physical body known as the spirit seed is sent down to unite with the fertilized egg in the mother's womb. At this moment the soul feels a great sense of loss, amounting to bereavement. The spiritual germ of the physical body has already descended to Earth, whereas we still dwell in the spiritual world. And now a vehement feeling of bereavement sets in. We have lost the spiritual germ of the physical body. This has already arrived below and united itself with the last of those successive generations, which we have watched. We ourselves, however, are still above. The feeling of bereavement becomes violent. And now this feeling of bereavement draws out of the universe the needful ingredients of the world ether. Having sent the spiritual germ of the physical body down to Earth and remained behind?we draw etheric substance out of the world ether and form our own etheric body.5
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Out of this sense of loss begins the weaving of the etheric body from the cosmic ether, parallel to the formation of the physical body (embryo) in the mother's womb. This is the key significance of the epoch chart: it indicates the start of life, the beginning of the formation of both the physical body (through the spirit seed) and the etheric body (in relation to the Moon's orbit of the sidereal zodiac). Against this background it can be understood why transits to the epoch chart might be significant at the moment of death, which is the moment the etheric body withdraws from the physical body. In the course of further research into these hitherto hidden and mysterious connections, it became evident that the two epoch charts (hermetic and geocentric) relate to the physical and etheric bodies, respectively. At conception the hermetic chart - related to the level of the Sun - gives a picture of the spirit seed of the physical body, and the geocentric chart gives a picture of the primary impulse from the surrounding etheric cosmos on the building up of the etheric body.
Similarly the two birth charts (hermetic and geocentric) relate to the "I" and astral body of the human being. At birth the hermetic chart, which is connected with the level of the Sun, reveals the goal of the incarnating human being as an "I" coming into a new incarnation upon the Earth in order to fulfill a destiny. And the geocentric chart at birth, which is the traditional astrological chart, has always been called the "map of the soul" - this clearly relating to the level of the astral body, which is the bearer of the soul (sometimes called the soul body). Against this background it is evident that every human being has four horoscopes, relating to the four levels of the human being:
hermetic conception horoscope physical body geocentric conception horoscope etheric body geocentric birth horoscope astral body hermetic birth horoscope "I"
The hermetic horoscope, also known as the Tychonic chart (after the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, 1546-1601), is the same as the geocentric horoscope except that the planetary positions are heliocentric rather than geocentric - click here to order, and see the section Horoscopes Old and New (click here) for further clarification and for instructions as to how these four horoscopes relate to the four levels of the human being.
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1
Robert Powell, Hermetic Astrology, volume I, Appendix 1, describes the hermetic rule and its historical background.
2
According to the hermetic rule, the Moon at epoch is the same as the Ascendant at birth, which in the case of Rudolf Steiner was 19½° Libra.
3
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos III. 1 (trsl. F.E. Robbins, pp. 223-225).
4
See details of the Astrofire program in the Astrofire section of this website.
5
Rudolf Steiner, Man's Being, His Destiny, and World Evolution, p. 32.
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Hermetic Rule Applied
Shortly before midnight -- under a nearly full Moon on the tail of the Lion, which was opposite the Sun in the middle of Aquarius-- on February 25, 1861, in the tiny Austro-Hungarian village of Kraljevec, attended by a midwife, Franziska Steiner gave birth to her first child. Two days later, on February 27, the baby boy was taken a couple of miles to the St. Michael church in the neighboring village of Draskovec to be baptized. Perhaps Frau Steiner and her husband Johannes - a telegraph operator at the little out-of-the-way Kraljevec railroad station on the Puszta plain near the border of what is today Croatia and Hungary - along with giving thanks to St. Michael for their son's recovery (he had been bleeding at birth), also gave thanks to Boldogasszony, the "blessed lady" of Hungarian folk legend, who helped women during childbirth. It is very likely that around the time of conception of their son Rudolf they had spoken of the "arrival of the stork" -- referring to the widespread folk notion that the stork "brought" children to their parents. Such beliefs about the stork that help to make sense of the mystery of birth have their origins in an even deeper mystery -- the mystery of conception.
In earlier times - for example, in ancient Egypt - there existed a subtle differentiation between two different conceptions -- physical conception and conception of the ka. Translating the subtle knowledge of the ancient Egyptians into modern terms, we can affirm that physical conception consists of the fertilization of the egg by the sperm, which is then embedded in the wall of the womb. On the other hand, what was the conception of the ka? The ka was perceived not only as the source of a person's vital force, corresponding approximately to the Chinese chi, the Hindu prana, and the ether of the alchemists, but as an actual "body" attached to the human being. In the language of the alchemical tradition, the conception of the ka would be called etheric conception - the coming into existence of the etheric body (ka) thought of as a subtle body of life energy surrounding and interpenetrating the physical body. Clearly the moment of origin of the physical body is physical conception. Similarly, the moment of origin of the ka or etheric body is the etheric conception, which for the ancient Egyptians was identical with the descent of the stork.
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The ancient Egyptians, as we shall see below, even had a cosmic rule specifying when the etheric conception takes place, a rule which has to do with the Moon, thus indicating that whereas the physical conception is an earthly event, etheric conception is an event belonging to the Moon sphere, thought of as the cosmic realm bounded by the orbit of the Moon. Modern scientific knowledge is not accustomed to thinking of the pre-existence (prior to conception and birth) of the soul, but this was almost universally accepted in antiquity, where the soul was said to exist in cosmic realms - in the so-called "planetary spheres" - prior to coming into earthly incarnation.
According to Professor B.L. van der Waerden in his excellent survey of the origins of horoscopic astrology, "The soul comes from the heavens, where it partook of the circulation of the stars. It unites itself with a body and forms with it a living being. This explains how human character comes to be determined by the heavens."1 This notion underlying horoscopic astrology can be traced back to the Babylonians, stemming from the teachings of Zaratas:
The notion that the soul descending from heaven takes on the characteristics of the planetary spheres through which it passes, before it enters into corporeal existence, and that after death it makes its journey through the heavens in reverse direction and with opposite effect - this derives from the same religious circles as those in which the doctrine of the voyage of the soul through the spheres had developed: the later Babylonian astral theology.2
According to the ancient Babylonian tradition of horoscopic astrology inaugurated by Zaratas, the Moon sphere was the last stage of the descent of the soul, the region where the incarnating human being dwells at the moment of conception, having descended there from the fixed-star realm through the seven planetary spheres. It is interesting to consider this tradition insofar as it helps us to understand the mystery of conception and, indeed, the whole cosmological background of astrology, which originated with the Babylonians. According to the teaching of this tradition, either simultaneously with or shortly after the occurrence of the physical conception, the soul released something known as a spirit seed, which then descended from above. The moment when the spirit seed descends from the Moon sphere to unite with the fertilized egg is the image that was clairvoyantly perceived in ancient times as the "descent of the stork" - depicted widely in Egyptian hieroglyphs. The modern folk belief about the stork bringing the child was a dim memory of the ancient clairvoyant image of the "spirit seed" - the spiritual archetype of the physical body that is built up in the highest cosmic realm, the zodiacal
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sphere, prior to the soul's descent through the seven planetary spheres. Approaching the end of its descent into incarnation, with the inspiration of the soul from its cosmic vantage point in the Moon sphere, etheric conception occurs close to the time of the physical conception. Modern astrological research into the Egypian cosmic rule for specifying the moment of etheric conception shows that it usually takes place shortly after fertilization. For the Egyptians, the appropriate cosmic moment of conception was specified by a principle known as the hermetic rule. Although ascribed to the great teacher of the ancient Egyptians, Hermes Trismegistus, the hermetic rule was known also to the Babylonians, as there are examples of Babylonian horoscopes in which the horoscope of conception is presented alongside the horoscope of birth. The conception horoscope belonged very much to the original astrology of the Egyptians and Babylonians, as an expression of the mystery of the soul's descent into incarnation. The Hermetic Rule
The hermetic rule or rule of Hermes is an ancient astrological law for determining the horoscope of conception retrogressively from the day and hour of birth. It stems from the ancient hermetic astrological corpus that was a sort of "bible" for Greek and Egyptian astrologers in the early centuries of their practice.3
Relating the moment of conception to the moment of birth, the hermetic rule holds the key-astrologically speaking-to the building up of the physical body in the womb during the embryonic period of development. It states that:
The zodiacal location of the Moon at the moment of conception is in line with the Ascendant-Descendant axis at the moment of birth. In order to grasp the astrological significance of the moment of conception, we shall take a look "behind the scenes" at the events leading up to conception. This entails a leap of consciousness to grasp the esoteric reality underlying the incarnation of the human being which, of course, was known to the Egyptians and Babylonians. The Egyptians, from whom the hermetic rule derives, had a highly developed esoteric cosmology in which subtle aspects of the human being were cognized beyond the level of the physical body. The Ascendant-Descendant axis is the position of orientation taken up by the human being while in the zodiacal sphere of fixed stars during the formation of the "spirit seed" - the spiritual archetype of the physical body. Then follows the descent of the human being from the zodiacal
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sphere through the seven planetary spheres bearing with him or her the spirit seed-diminishing in size from sphere to sphere from its initial expansion in the zodiacal realm of fixed stars. During this descent through the planetary spheres a "vehicle of consciousness" for the individuality is built up. The Egyptians called this the ba, often depicted as a human-headed falcon. In the alchemical tradition it is called the astral body. As the name indicates - astral ("of the stars") - this "body" is built up from the planetary spheres, the planets being considered as moving stars (Greek: planetai). Just as the spirit seed is formed in the zodiacal sphere as the archetype of the physical body from the circle of the twelve sidereal signs of the zodiac, so - in light of the Babylonian tradition - the astral body is shaped as a vehicle of consciousness appropriate for the incarnating individual from the seven planetary spheres in the descent through the planetary spheres.
From this brief survey of the ancient tradition, it is evident that the spirit seed and the astral body are two primary astrological realities or aspects of the human being. Both exist as spiritual archetypes, which become individualized in the process of incarnation. That which individualizes the spirit seed is the choice of Ascendant, which then acts as a focal point for the building up of the spiritual archetype of the physical body according to the zodiacal signs. That which individualizes the astral body is the choice of planetary positions for the horoscope at birth, by means of which a suitable vehicle is formed for the individuality to bring its talents and faculties to expression. Here the composition of this vehicle (astral body) becomes differentiated by way of the background zodiacal influence of the Sun, Moon, and five planets.
During the process of incarnation the spirit seed and the astral body work into the formation of the physical body and the vehicle of consciousness of the individuality. The whole descent into incarnation is made with a view to arriving on the Earth at the cosmic moment when the planetary configuration (hermetic and geocentric) of the chosen birth chart becomes actualized. The moment of birth is thus the goal of the incarnating human being. Essential to arriving at this goal is the moment of conception, occuring (on average) some nine months prior to the moment of birth.
Given the choice of zodiacal location of the Sun at the moment of birth, the period of embryonic development determines more or less when the moment of conception should take place. In the course of nine months the Sun-on its apparent path around the zodiac-moves through three-quarters of the zodiacal circle, i.e., through nine of the
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twelve zodiacal signs. Thus, during an average gestation period of nine months, the zodiacal location of the Sun at the moment of birth is nine signs advanced from its position in the zodiac at the moment of conception. Once the Sun's position at birth is chosen, its approximate zodiacal location at the conception is specified, the element of variation being dependent on whether the embryonic period turns out to be longer or shorter than nine months.
The hermetic rule specifies the moment of conception more exactly. Going back from the moment of birth to the beginning of the embryonic period of development, the Moon's location in the zodiac at the moment of conception is the same either as that of the Ascendant chosen for the moment of birth, or as that of its opposite, the Descendant. Thus, given the choice of Ascendant for the moment of birth, chosen already long in advance in the zodiacal sphere of fixed stars, the zodiacal location of the Moon at conception is also specified in advance to be one of two possibilities. As we shall see in the next example of an application of the hermetic rule, karmic considerations can also play into the predetermination of the planetary configuration at the moment of conception, just as they play a role in the choice of planetary configuration at the moment of birth.
An Application of the Hermetic Rule
Because Rudolf Steiner always celebrated his birthday on February 27 (his date of baptism), hardly anyone knew that his birthday was actually on February 25.4 Taking the stated time and date of Rudolf Steiner's birth as 11:15 PM on February 25, 1861 at Kraljevec, the zodiacal longitude of the Ascendant and the Moon are computed to be 17º25' Libra and 24º43' Leo, respectively. Applying the hermetic rule, this means that the Moon's zodiacal longitude at etheric conception must have been about 17º or 18º Aries or Libra, with an Ascendant of 24º43' Leo or Aquarius. Returning nine calendar months from February 25, 1861 leads back to May 25, 1860, and referring to an ephemeris for this time it is evident that the Moon was at about 18º Libra around midday on June 1, 1860. This date appears, at first sight, to be a possible date for the etheric conception, as calculated by the hermetic rule, and bearing in mind that his parents married on May 16, 1861. In fact, at 12:12 PM on June 1, 1860 the Ascendant at Kraljevec was 24º48' Leo and the Moon was at 19º48' Libra in the sidereal zodiac. Applying the hermetic rule, this fits well with the computed birth data, and could have been the moment of etheric conception. If indeed it was, then the birth time has to be corrected from 11:15 PM, to 11:25 PM, to yield for this moment (considered as the planned moment of birth) an Ascendant at 19º34' Libra and the
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Moon's position at 24º48' Leo in the sidereal zodiac, exactly fitting the hermetic rule.
Given the open-endedness of the hermetic rule (e.g., in the case of Rudolf Steiner the Moon was at 18º Aries two weeks earlier on May 19, and was again at 18º Aries two weeks after June 1, on June 15, 1860), where several alternative dates of etheric conception are possible, how may we be certain that the correct date has been found?
There are several viewpoints to be considered. First, it can happen that there is some indication of the approximate length of the embryonic period. It is rare that the parents know the exact date of the physical conception, but if it is known the etheric conception as determined by the hermetic rule must lie close to it in time. Sometimes there is an approximate indication, e.g., "the child was born one week premature". Such indications, when stemming from medical sources, usually reckon with a pregnancy of ca. 270 days, which means-if one week premature-an embryonic period of ca. 263 days. Here again the hermetic rule is given an approximate date around which the etheric conception must have taken place, in which case it is no longer a completely open-ended rule.
Second, failing any indication whatsoever as to the length of the embryonic period, there is the argument of probability-approximately 270 days being the mean duration of a human pregnancy. In the example under consideration the interval from June 1 to February 25 amounts to 269 days, which is more probable than an interval of 255 days leading back to the date June 15 as a possible date of etheric conception. Likewise, 269 days is more probable than an interval of 283 days leading back to a possible date of etheric conception on May 19. Therefore the intervals of 255 days and 283 days yield the two next most probable dates of etheric conception after the most probable date of June 1, given by the hermetic rule-in this particular example-as dates when the Moon was at 18º Aries in the sidereal zodiac. The probability diminishes still further for an interval of 242 days (27 days less than 269) or 296 days (27 days more than 269) where, since the Moon makes an orbit of the sidereal zodiac in 27.32 days, the Moon was again at 18º Libra in the sidereal zodiac as it was on June 1, 269 days before the birthdate. According to the argument of probability then, June 1, 1860 was the most probable date for etheric conception in Rudolf Steiner's incarnation.
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Probability is not the only consideration, however, as premature and overdue births do occur. If other indications are not present, then the third consideration-in order to decide between several possible dates of etheric conception-is the astrological validity of the planetary configuration at the moment of etheric conception. Thus the several possible planetary configurations at etheric conception yielded by the hermetic rule may be compared with the birth configuration for similarities. This comparison may be extended to include the death configuration in the case of the conception chart of a historical personality (assuming the date of death is known). Finally, if the previous incarnation is known through karmic research, then just as the birth chart can be compared with the hermetic and geocentric birth/death charts of the previous incarnation, so the conception chart may also be compared with them for similar aspects or planetary alignments in the sidereal zodiac.
As an example of these considerations, let us look at the conception chart of Rudolf Steiner computed for June 1, 1860 from the point of view of its astrological validity.
View
Note that the word epoch denotes the horoscope for the moment of etheric conception.
Here with the birth horoscope of Rudolf Steiner, for the sake of comparison with the epoch (conception) horoscope, where the fulfillment of the hermetic rule (interchange of Moon and Ascendant) can be seen between the two horoscopes:
View [pdf "Rudolf Steiner B"]
Most remarkable in the conception chart computed for June 1, 1860 is the exact geocentric conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. This striking relationship between Venus and Jupiter is taken up again in Rudolf Steiner's geocentric birth chart, where these two planets are more or less in exact opposition. This lends support to the astrological validity of the conception chart computed for June 1, 1860.
Further, if the conception chart computed for June 1, 1860 is correct, then the Ascendant at Rudolf Steiner's birth has to be corrected from 17º25' Libra (computed for the stated birth time of 11:15 PM) to 19º35' Libra (computed as the birth time of 11:25 PM according to the hermetic rule). Now, the geocentric sidereal longitude of Saturn at
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Rudolf Steiner's death was 19º33' Libra, so Saturn was exactly transiting (orb 0°02') the degree of the zodiac computed to b e the Ascendant according to the hermetic rule. This lends considerable weight to the astrological validity of the Ascendant of 19º 35' Libra, which is the authentic Ascendant according to the hermetic rule if June 1, 1860 was the date of conception. This confirmation of a birth time of 11:25 PM with an Ascendant of 19º35' Libra is based on the concept of a transit, i.e., that at the moment of Rudolf Steiner's death there was an exact transit of Saturn over the position of the Ascendant at his birth.
View [insert pdf "Rudolf Steiner b-d geo"]
1
B.L. van der Waerden, Science Awakening, volume II, p. 147.
2
Hans Lewy, Chaldean Oracles and Theurgy, p. 146.
3
Wilhelm und Hans Georg Gundel, Astrologumena, p. 147. This corpus consisted of Greek astrological writings composed in Hellenistic Egypt-primarily in Alexandria-during the first two centuries B.C. Fragments of these writings were preserved and transmitted to later Greek astrologers. Common to the writings of the hermetic astrological corpus is that they are invariably attributed to the "ancient Egyptians"-including Hermes and also Nechepso and Petosiris among these venerable founding fathers of astrology. In the fragments attributed to Nechepso and Petosiris-written in the form of instructions from the priest Petosiris to the king Nechepso-there are some references to the hermetic rule. (See Robert Powell, Hermetic Astrology, volume I, Appendix I for an English translation of these fragments.) You may wonder why the astrological rule for calculating the horoscope of conception is referred to as the hermetic rule and not the rule of Petosiris, the named authority for this rule in each of the fragments stating this ancient astrological tenet. The reason for this appears to be the fact that Nechepso and Petosiris were regarded simply as mediators of the teachings of Hermes. Thus Hermes was recognized as the originator of this astrological rule, which then was entrusted to the "divine men" Nechepso and Petosiris. For example, Firmicus Maternus (4th Century AD) in his great work on astrology-the eight books of the mathesis-speaks of "most powerful Hermes" entrusting his secret to these "divine men". Similarly, a papyrus of AD 138 states that Nechepso and Petosiris "established" their teachings upon Hermes. Nechepso and Petosiris composed their astrological works in Egypt during the second century BC and fragments of these works-transmitted to later Greek astrologers-were collected by Ernst
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Riess. Rudolf Steiner's collaborator Elisabeth Vreede (1879-1943) translated the hermetic rule from Greek into German. She encouraged my teacher Willie Sucher (1902-1985) to apply this rule in his astrological research.
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A letter dated February 25, 1921, from Eugenie von Bredow, one of Rudolf Steiner's pupils in the Esoteric School, shows that she knew this:
My revered Master: Today, on the day which is actually the day of birth of your Individuality in this incarnation (whilst hitherto we always held it to be February 27), I would like to express to you in true commemoration my warmest good wishes for your well-being . . . The time of Rudolf Steiner's birth (11:15 PM) was communicated to the theosophical astrologer Alan Leo by Rudolf Steiner himself. Alan Leo utilized this time and the date February 27, 1861, generally acknowledged as Rudolf Steiner's birthday, to cast a horoscope. Here it is not known whether Rudolf Steiner communicated this time as being exact, or whether he stated it as "less than an hour before midnight." (If the latter holds true, clearly Alan Leo interpreted it to be 11:15 PM local time.)
The original horoscope cast in 1909 by Alan Leo for the incorrect date of February 27 was reprinted repeatedly until in 1980 the Dutch astrologer Jan Kampherbeek eventually published a correct horoscope, cast for February 25, 1861 at 11:15 PM.
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Your zodiac sign is not what you
think it is
One of the reasons for offering the chart calculation service is to help clear up one of the most widespread scientific misconceptions of our time - concerning the definition of the signs of the zodiac. Apart from India, where the tradition of Vedic astrology still holds to the original definition from ancient Babylon of the signs of the zodiac (nowadays known as the sidereal zodiac), the rest of the world has adopted the tropical zodiac of Greek astronomers in place of the original sidereal zodiac. The historical background to this is discussed at length in History of the Zodiac - click here. The consequence of the adoption by western astrologers of the tropical zodiac, which originally was not a zodiac but a calendar, is that a mistaken conception of the zodiacal signs has become widespread in the whole world (with the exception of India). Now millions of people believe that they are born in a particular zodiacal sign, whereas in fact they were not born in that sign.
To give an example: someone born on March 25 generally believes that they are an "Aries", whereas the Sun on March 25 is actually in Pisces - click here to view the Sun's location in the signs of the sidereal zodiac throughout the yearly calendar cycle. It is correct to say that someone born on March 25 in the northern hemisphere was born in the month of Aries in the tropical calendar, which was the predecessor of the tropical zodiac. However, in terms of the sidereal zodiac, they were born with the Sun in Pisces. For someone born on March 25 in the southern hemisphere it is accurate to say that they were born in the month of Libra in the tropical calendar - with the Sun in Pisces in the sidereal zodiac. The Sun's location in the sidereal zodiac - in this example in the sign of Pisces for someone born on March 25 - remains the same whatever the location on the Earth might be. From everywhere on the Earth, looking up to the Sun it is located against the background of the same fixed star for everyone on the Earth at that moment in time. However, as the cycle of the seasons (tropical calendar) is the reverse in the southern hemisphere of that in the northern hemisphere, the date March 25, which falls in the month of Aries at the beginning of spring in the northern
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hemisphere, falls in the month of Libra (opposite Aries) at the beginning of autumn in the southern hemisphere.
From a consideration of the basic finding of Astrogeographia that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the starry heavens and the earthly globe, it should be evident that also the horoscope is based on the relationship of our solar system to the background of the starry heavens - in other words: sidereal, which means "of the stars". Moreover, as shown conclusively by the research presented in Hermetic Astrology, volume I click here, it is the location of the Sun, Moon and planets in the sidereal zodiac, which comprises the birth horoscope. Since most people (with the exception of those living in India) have a mistaken conception of their zodiacal sign and their entire horoscope, the chart calculation service is provided to enable one to know one?s true sign and horoscope. People using this chart calculation service are generally interested in knowing their sidereal sign and horoscope. However, it is also possible to request one's tropical sign and horoscope. And moreover, one can specify "tropical" or "sidereal" for all the variety of horoscopes offered - horoscopes of conception and birth: geocentric, heliocentric, Tychonic (hermetic), etc.
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Astrogeographia
"As above, so below"
(The law of correspondences attributed to the Egyptian initiate Hermes Trismegistus)
Astrogeographia is a new science concerning the correspondence between stars in the heavens and earthly geographical locations such that each star is mirrored at a specific location on the Earth.
Alnitak and the Great Pyramid at Giza
"The pyramids exhibit stellar alignments: the bases are aligned meridionally (north to south) with the stars. The Great Pyramid has four shafts pointing meridionally towards important stars relating to the rebirth cult. One points directly to Orion's Belt - more specifically to Al Nitak, the lower star in Orion's Belt. Correlating this star to the Great Pyramid, we can see the same pattern of layout between the three pyramids of Giza with the three stars of Orion's Belt..." (Robert Bauval-Adrian Gilbert, The Orion Mystery).
In light of Astrogeographia, just as the Great Pyramid at Giya corresponds to the star Alnitak, so the city of Alexandria corresponds to the star Alnilam - Alnitak and Alnilam being two of the three stars in the belt of Orion. Moreover, the ancient city of Ephesus (on the west coast of present-day Turkey) corresponds to the star Bellatrix marking the left shoulder of Orion. [click here]
HERMETIC ASTROLOGY
Astrogeographia is applicable not only to places on the Earth but also to individual horoscopes. The method of casting horoscopes in hermetic astrology is based on the teachings of Hermes from ancient Egypt, and also upon the ancient star wisdom of the Babylonians and Greeks. This means that your horoscope - based on hermetic astrology - is different from the usual horoscope drawn up by contemporary western astrology. In fact, four horoscopes are generally drawn up for each person in hermetic astrology. To learn
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more about this unique and comprehensive approach to understanding yourself, consult the various entries on this website and make use of the chart calculation service or the Astrofire program, which enables the application of the law of Hermes to find the conception (epoch) horoscope that, when computed from both the geocentric and the heliocentric/hermetic/Tychonic standpoint yields two of the four horoscopes mentioned above - the other two being the geocentric and the heliocentric/hermetic/Tychonic horoscopes of birth.
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Horoscopes Old and New
Traditional astrology works solely with the geocentric birth chart. Hermetic astrology, based on a deeper understanding of the different levels of the human being, works with four birth charts for each person - each horoscope relating to one of the four aspects of the human being. These four aspects are: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the "I" (self) of the human being (as comes to expression, for example, if one says: "I myself believe?"). In contrast to the physical body, which is clearly identifiable and can be objectively described, the nature of the "I" is spiritual and less easy to characterize - and this is where hermetic astrology is helpful, as it can come to a characterization of something that is otherwise intangible. Hermetic astrology takes into account not only the "I" and the physical body, but also that which mediates between them and which is also of a subtle (invisible) nature: the etheric body, also known as the life body, and the astral body, which is the bearer of the human being's instincts and passions, as well as the soul activities of thinking, feeling, and the will.
What are the horoscopes relating to these four aspects of the human being? The next section of this website describes the significance of the two perspectives: heliocentric and geocentric. The heliocentric perspective relates to the level of the Sun (Helios) and the geocentric to the level of the Earth (Ge or Gaia). In addition there is the helio-geocentric viewpoint of the Tychonic (hermetic) perspective based on the astrological system of the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). This Tychonic perspective includes the heliocentric perspective and yet at the same time maintains the Earth at the center, which is the case for the incarnated human being. The Tychonic viewpoint is also called hermetic, because it was the perspective of the ancient Egyptians, as described in Robert Powell's books Hermetic Astrology, volumes I and II. Hermetic astrology includes the hermetic perspective of the ancient Egyptians in addition to the geocentric viewpoint that was the astrological perspective of the Babylonians. Therefore, each human being has a hermetic horoscope of birth as well as a geocentric birth chart, whereby the hermetic horoscope - because it is helio-geocentric - includes the heliocentric horoscope.
