Astrology / History

Ancient Greek

    
    The second major Lonian philosopher was Anaximander (b. 610 B.C.), who believed that the Universe was contained within the rim of a huge wheel filled with fire. The holes in the rim, through which the fire could be seen, were the planets and the stars. Anaximander was also the first philosopher we know of who speculated that the sky contained separate spheres through which the planets travelled, a concept which was to dominate astronomical thought up to the 17th century. He also postulated the existence of the "Unlimited", a boundless reservoir from which all things come and to which all things return. This is the first mention of the 'Law of Return of all Things' that is still central to the cyclical concepts of astrology. As an indication of the broad skills of the founders of astrology it is of interest that Anaximander also made the first known map of the Earth.
    
    Greece at this time was divided politically into many city-states: Athens, Sparta, Thebes and so on - the diversity of which harboured different philosophical schools. The Greeks also founded colonies around the Mediterranean and at one of these, Elea in southern Italy, the Eleatic school was founded by Xenophanes of Colophon (c 580-472 B.C.). In contrast to the "materialism" of the Lonian School, the Eleatic philosophers were more "spiritual", believing that physical change was essentially illusion, and that therefore observational astronomy was not a reliable guide to the true nature of the Universe. In fact both schools were working with such limited knowledge that to the modern eyes the differences between them seem slight, but the fact that this discussion went on 2,500 years ago indicates just how old is the discussion between "scientific" and "intuitive" astrologers. Xenophanes' main contribution to posterity was his dismissal of the human-like deities of Homeric myth who lied, stole and fornicated, and his postulation of a single universal deity. In this he summed up the concept of the Universe as a Unity with a single creator and guiding intelligence, a concept that lies at the very foundations of astrology.
    
    The third Lonian philosopher was Anaximenes (c550B.C.), who is regarded as an important figure in the development of astronomy, although little is known of his work. The notion of 'macrocosm and microcosm' 'as above, so below', so central to astrological theory, is often traced back to Anaximenes, and it is possible that he made a contribution to astronomy in the observation of the obliquity of the ecliptic. He also seems to have thought that the stars were like nails attached to transparent spheres of crystalline material that turned around the Earth like a hat on a head. The belief in crystalline spheres persisted, like many other ancient notions right up to the work of Johannes Kepler in the 17th century.
    

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