The origins of word ‘astrology’ lies in the Latin word ‘astrologia’ which means ‘account of the stars’ (Harper). The advocates of Astrology attempted to define astrology as the form of symbolic language, a form of art, a science and a kind of method of divination (Dietrich, p.305). Astrology can be defined as the study of the relationship between the positions and movements of the stars and other celestial bodies and the life which is present on the Earth. The Astrology is based on the assumption that there exists a positive correlation between the astronomical phenomena and events that take place on the Earth with humans. The astrologers work to find out the relationship between the heavenly bodies and how their movements and position affects the human life on Earth.
The West has devised the system of horoscopes which are believed to present and explain different facets of personality of an individual and gives predictions about the different future events that might going to happen in future in the life of an individual. These are predicted on the basis of the positions of the Sun, Moon and other planetary bodies at their birth time. Astronomical events are given much importance in many cultures such as among Indians, Chinese, and Mayans etc. They have attempted to develop an intricate and detailed system to predict the events of the Earth with the help of the movements of the celestial bodies.
If we peek into the history of astrology, it has been considered as a scholarly tradition and was widely used and accepted in the contexts of politics and academics, astronomy, alchemy , medicine etc. (Kassell,p.67-69). But with the emergence of different other sciences at the end of 17th century, astrology was called in to question which lead towards the loss of its theoretical and academic value.
Politics on the other hand is the study of systems of government, policies of public and their processes, political systems and political behaviors (American Political Science Association). The political scientists make use of both the humanistic perspective and scientific perspective and instruments and various methods to analyze the processes, systems and different political changes of different countries and regions around the globe.
On a deeper level, it is an immensely complex study of the political and public affairs and activities that take place in relation to seeking power and status. Now-a-days, the ever-evolving political tactics and activities adopted by the political parties constitute the rising complexity of the politics and the understanding of man’s unsatisfying lust for the power and position.
In this relation, Astrology studies the influences of the celestial bodies on the affairs of man. The subject of the discussion does not embody any well-defined and formulated theories to explain the relationship between the affairs of man and the effect of the movements of heavenly bodies on them. There exists only some historical manuscripts, stories, myths, anecdotes and beliefs that attempts to bridge a gap between the political happenings and movements of the planets. The rising question relates to the force that enforces the individual to seek a cause or an excuse for all such earthly happenings which results from the changes in the patterns and movements of the celestial bodies. It seems to be an egocentric perspective of the mind of man that acts as a psychological factor for the evolution of the doctrines of astrology. By adopting this perspective, the man attempts to find the reason behind his averse or good happenings in the domain of astrology just to provide him with a consolation of being accompanied by the heavenly or godly beings.
Background of Astrology
The origins of astrology among the Indo-European people can be traced back to the 3rd Millennium B.C. It had its roots in their system of calendar which was used to make predictions about the shifts in the season and to make predictions about the celestial cycles which were considered as the signs of divine communication (Koch-Westenholz). Another form of astrology was also experienced by the first dynasty of Mesopotamia (1950-1651 BCE). The astrology of Chinese was practiced in the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 BCE). The astrology of Hellenistic’s after 332 BCE got mixed with the astrology of Babylonians and with the Decanic astrology of Egyptians in Alexandria which leads towards the creation of horoscopic astrology. The conquests of Asia by Great Alexander lead towards the spread of astrology in Ancient Greece and Rome. Astrology got associated with ‘Chaldean Wisdom’ in Rome. When the Alexandria collapsed in 7th century, Islamic scholars took up astrology. They translated the Hellenistic text related to astrology into Persian and Arabic. Those Arabic texts were then transported to Europe during the 12th century and were translated into Latin. This helped in the initiation of European Renaissance. This happened when the major astronomers such as Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo started to practice as the court astrologers. The references to astrology also started to appear in the literary works of poets such as Dante and Chaucer and the playwrights such as Shakespeare and Marlowe.
With the emergence of the scientific disciplines like physics, chemistry etc., by the end of 17th century, astrology started losing its worth. It was later on rejected by the scientific community. It was declared having no scientific validity and reliability and possessing no strength of explaining the phenomenon of universe. The scientific study found no affirmations to strengthen and support the propositions laid by the traditions of astrology which lead towards the rejection of the astrology as being something scientific. It made falsifiable prophecies which hence proved wrong (Zarka,p. 420- 425).
The modern Western astrology
The modern western astrology is based on the twelve signs of zodiac based on the basis of the exact moment of the stars and planets and their relative positions at the time of birth of an individual. It makes use of the tropical zodiacs which are aligned in accordance with the equinoctial points (Lewis). These are also analyzed in terms of their placement in the houses (Hone, 21-89). There are twelve houses or zodiac signs according to which this division is made. Virtually, they are considered to show the relationship between the time and place of the specific event. This relationship exists between the seven planets, which signify different tendencies such as war and love; twelve zodiac signs and the twelve houses.
ASTROLOGY AND MODERN POLITICS
Politics can be considered as a part of our everyday life. Whether one is working in a office or working as a government official, one is intimidated by the harassment of others as well as stimulated and motivated by the hope of getting some rewards. Politics can provide one with fame, respect, popularity, wealth and power but to achieve all these, one should possess the traits of leadership, communication, confidence, domination and the ignition to serve the mankind. If this is analyzed in light of astrology, these traits are a result of the positioning of the Sun, moon and other planets at the time of one’s birth. One acquires these traits as a result of the position of the celestial bodies at the birth time.
If viewed from the theoretical perspective, astrology was a unique predictive branch of knowledge, which in terms of method and substance had nothing to do with divination but in practice the astrologers make use of both their gift of knowledge and prediction to reveal the divine plans for the years to come (Grafton, p.81).
There existed strong connections between the astrologers and the rulers in the past. The rulers used to appoint astrologers to predict about their future fate and destiny. If we look into the history of astrology and politics, historians of astrology has paid attention to the politics (Warburg, p.199-304). Virtually, the political history does not seem to have any direct interest in the discourse of astrology as a way of developing a political theory, lawful acts or empowerment. This is somewhat striking in the view of the past historical studies that demonstrate and analyze many different ways in which the astrology has affected the politics in the past.
If we analyze the historiography of the astrology and that of politics they seem to share two common assumptions;
- One of the universal and autonomous phenomena of the society is politics.
- The politics of Renaissance can be approached best as the phase of transition in which the state or the city provided the context for violent contentions between the different suppliants of societal monopoly over violence.
Against this background, the politics of Renaissance unknowingly paved a way for the absolutism of the 17th century. Astrology, with this shared background, is commonly regarded as something which affects the facts related to rules and changing either its historical contents or its solidity. More exactly historians have used three ways in which the astrology affected the politics of the past and the present as well ;
- Relationship between astrology and the ruler: The first is the relationship that existed between the ruler and the astrologer. In the ancient times, astrology was approached as a thing which had the power to shape the path of action of the ruler. That was because the ruler had his belief on astrology. But there was some contradiction in this belief system. The ruler kept a distance in terms of paying heed to astrological advice. This distance often showed itself evidently in the rejection of the unpleasable predictions made by the astrologers. Therefore, according to historians, astrologers used to modify the predictions to make the ruler happy and escape his displeasure ( Broecke). This show that the ruler’s approach towards astrology was not that on the acceptance of truth but they took it as a tool towards gaining success. This overall pattern of astrology seemed to shape the path of action of the ruler in two ways; firstly through its power attributed to protect the body of the ruler against any kind of misfortunes and secondly through its attributed power of protection against the other rulers. This become obvious from the passages in Bernard’s Capp’s chapter on “Alamnacs and Politics”,
“The most famous mediaeval astrologers were drawn towards the courts of kings and princes. Their patrons valued their medical skills, and perhaps still more their ability to predict the outcome of wars and rebellions” (Capp, p.67).
- Relationship between astrology, Rulers and the ruled: The second important influence of astrology on the politics displayed itself in relationship between the ruler and the ruled. It basically used to work on the beliefs and the concepts of the ruled regarding astrology. Their beliefs either stabilized the political power of the ruler to strengthen his reign or destabilized the political power of the ruler to weaken his reign.
- Relationship between astrology, subjects and rules: The third important influence of astrology on the politics manifested itself in the relationship between the subjects and the rule. This approach towards astrology legitimized it as something which could become a basis of legitimizing rebellion against a given reign.
The third relationship of astrology with that of subject and rules is of particular importance in relation to the early modern political period. This has led towards the argument that the experiences of intimate astrological discourse during the 17th century and causes of rebellion and civil war placed considerable impact on the validity and the reliability of astrology. In other words it can be established that, the early modern astrology not only placed an impact on the politics but also politics also had an impact on the status of astrology ( Broecke).
The ancient Renaissance foretellers like Paola Zambelli or Nicolette Mout, used interpretations of the astrological predictions as tools through which the entire society of the political subject could be seduced towards one ruler instead of another (Rushe,P.322-323; Moutt, p.9-19).
Apart from these, in the Islamic realm, the astrology seemed to have substantial political and social implications. There were two major cases related to the history of Iran. These are Comet 1402 D1 and the others were the very uncommon synchronicity of Saturn with that of Mars during the 14th Century AD. Both these happening took place in the two periods of scienticfic research and activities at the Observatory of Maragha(AD 1259–1283, 1283–ca.1320, respectively). That observatory was founded by Ilkhanid dynasty of Iran (AD 1265–1344). The phenomena of Comet 1402 D1 presents an out-standing example of how the astrological doctrines effected the course of history ( Mozaffari,p 359-368 ). These phenomenon became the cause of wars or natural calamities like epidemics.
If we look into the history of the modern Western politics, many political leaders took consultations from astrologers at one time or another. Louis de Wohl was an astrologer who worked for the British Intelligence Agency named MI5. It was also acclaimed that Hitler employed astrology to manage and time his actions. The office of the war was interested to know what the astrologers of Hitler would update him with from week to week (The Strange Story of Britian’s State Seer). But the predictions of Louis de Whol turned out to be completely inaccurate from time to time and Hitler, later, completely turned against astrology claiming it to be total nonsense (The Guardian ).
After an attempted assassination of the president of US Ronald Regan by John Hinckley, the first lady Nancy Regan took the services of astrologer, Joan Quingley as the secret agent of White as astrologer. But later in 1988, his role was terminated when it became open to the public through the reports of former chief of staff, Donald Regan (Regan, Quigley).
The effect of celestial events on the course of history
All the above mentioned political historical relations and events shows how the simple celestial events and happenings such as changes in the positions of the planets or visibility of comets, can markedly effects the course of the history , with outstanding and evident social and political changes.
The political and social events that took place during the medieval and early Renaissance era, when viewed from the egocentric perspective of the mind of man, should be evaluated to some magnitude as the result of the celestial happenings and astronomical causations, rather than on the basis of the rational or logical explanations.
In the broader sense, the relationship between astrology and it’s impinged on history, manifests the relation that exists between the minds of human beings and the material or physical words outside and it represents a marked example. Though it seems to make no sense that there exists a cause-effect relationship between the celestial happenings and the particular events of the history, no one can underestimate the power and influence of such beliefs on the mind of human beings. This could be taken as one of the reason why the astrology changed the natural course of whole history.
The egocentric perspective of the human mind was the principle cause behind the formulation of the eternal principles in the cosmic viewpoint of human beings. Not only the astronomy or astrology reflects upon the egocentric viewpoint, the natural philosophy of Aristotle also reflects on the egocentric mind ( Mozaffari,p. 359-368). The belief that there existed an interaction between the celestial happenings and the terrestrial events became a basis of the formulation of the initial prognostication in the history and later developed as astrological convictions. In opposition, they took over the part of consciousness of the mind of the humans which leads towards the creation of psychological perspectives and ultimately developed into the physical outcomes in the concrete world.
CONCLUSION
In the light of the above discussion and reflections upon astrology, history of astrology and its relation to human mind and politics, it become evident that astrological beliefs do played an influential part in the developing the course of political history partly and the history of the world, at large. The doctrines of astrology had directly affected the consciousness of human mind and as a result its mind streams. The astrological beliefs penetrated deep into the consciousness of the human mind and as a result physically appeared in the concrete world and prompted history to move in a certain direction. This whole effect was so obvious and extended that it leads to the emergence of the history of astrology.
The brief review of the political history in relation to astrology also makes it clear that the egocentric human mind was molded in accordance with the dogmas of astrology. It was used by the emperors and the rulers to retain and acquire power and to maintain social and political order. It determined the destiny of the rulers, the ruled and the subjects.
Thus, quite many beliefs of astrology influenced the modern politics.
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