Chaldean Astrology
The early kingdoms of Mesopotamia, in the
area now known as modern day Iraq, basically consisted of Babylonia on
the southern plain and Assyria in the northern. Earlier references to
Chaldea are not known but the territory seems to have been settled by
semi-nomads from Arabia, who occupied Ur, “of the Chaldeans” and the
neighboring territories. The first known reference to the name Chaldea,
is found in the annals of Ashirnasirpal II, king of Assyria (884 to 859
BC). The land of Chaldea is located south of early Babylonia and borders
the head of the Persian Gulf between the Arabian Desert and the delta of
the Euphrates. The Assyrians called the area, now known as Southern
Iraq, Kaldu and by the Babylonians, Kasdu.
The Assyrians, who came on the scene about 1000 years later, quickly
became a leading power owing to their military and administrative
skills. Although Babylon remained the cultural center, political power
continually shifted back and forth between the Assyrian and Babylonian
governments. During the latter years, Chaldean Kings played an important
role by ruling and maintaining separate borders between Assyria and
Babylon. This period became the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. The Persian
conquest into Babylon ended the history of the Babylonians in BC 539.
The Persians continued to rule the Babylonian peoples until Alexander
the Great conquered the land in 330 BC. Upon Alexander’s death,
Seleucid, one of his generals, claimed ruler ship over the land and
began to Hellenize the region. This period became known as the Seleucid
Period. During this period, the scribal school at Erech remained active
and continued to flourish; collecting ritual text and further developing
astrology.
Of Gods and Humans
The basic characteristic of Mesopotamian religion was its view of the
numina (spiritual force) behind natural phenomena. Each act of nature
was believed to be the force of some god who had the appropriate
appearance in external form. The pantheon of gods covered everything and
extended from the highest god, to the various gods of different winds to
even the god of a pickax and shovel.
Omens, as they were known, considered everything under the Sun: wind
direction, rain, abundance of crops and cattle, fog, mist and even the
coloration of clouds at sunset. Most omens were associated with natural
mundane events along with meteorological and celestial phenomena. Omens
upheld ancestral beliefs that heaven and Earth were complimentary
without one having more influence over the other. Crop failures,
pestilence, wars, even the death of a nobleman were thought to depend
upon natural events, the Moon and planetary synodic cycles.
The gods held positions of power in the heavens and each person would
serve and petition his personal god who took interest in him and his
personal needs and fortune. The gods were expected to take care of immediate problems and sometimes the
gods were badgered if they didn’t do so. Through every situation
the individual was likely to seek divine guidance through omens,
that he might interpret the will of the gods. From the farmer to
the kings and rulers, such guidance by divine instruction was
sought in all matters of importance. Over time, many records of
daily lunar activity and periodic solar eclipses were developed
and kept for each and every day of the year along with each omen
that accompanied the event. Through their empiricism the
Chaldeans developed theories that the same phenomena would recur
in cycles.
One of the cycles was discovering seasonal alignments with fixed
stars. This discovery marked a turning point in post-neolithic
communities. It gave them a sense of religious evidence that the
Earth and heaven were complementary. This is the probable basis for
their cosmological-religious beliefs.
The usefulness of the fixed star markers must have been
discovered early as they are mentioned in the fifth tablet of the
creation myth the Enuma elish. It states that the Babylonian god,
Marduk, determined the seasonal boundaries and defined the divisions
by setting up three constellations for each month for the
twelve-month year. The sets of three constellations were set up into
four groupings. The four cardinal points came about by using the
summer solstice as a mooring peg. Once established, the Babylonians
followed the Sun along the ecliptic, referred to as the Way of Anu.
The year was divided into approximate 90-day periods, depending on
the length of the Moon's lunation. These are recorded on tablets
known as "astrolabes", the earliest of these tablets dating around
BC 1100. By this, we know that the Babylonians had knowledge of the
sun’s motion, phases of the moon and periodicities of certain
planets. However, it wasn’t until the Seleucid period that the
Chaldeans began to develop their science and religion into an art.
By the fourth century BC, the Greeks were becoming aware of the
Egyptian and Mesopotamian cosmic views. At that time, the Greeks
were making rapid advances in the field of mathematics and astronomy
and were primed for the view that advancing knowledge of the cosmos
was identical with a growing knowledge of the divine. Long before,
the Greeks had already structured their religious beliefs with a
host of human-like gods that ate, drank, fought and begot children.
By the time of the Seleucid period, many of the renowned Greek
thinkers were ready to accept and further the idea that the heavens
not only indicated but also might cause terrestrial events. The old
Mesopotamian mundane astrology was being transformed into what would
become the personal astrology of Hellenistic Greece. The age of
astrology was about to be born.
The astrological methodologies that are studied on this site are
derived from a time period in Chaldean history that dates back to
the Pre-Seleucid period from BC 530 to BC 332.
see Zodiac Sign of
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