Astrology as the art of describing the world. Alden Taylor Mann.

Greek civilization synthesized many mythologies and religions. Among the extreme variety of gods and goddesses, there remains a strong correspondence of the main gods of the seven visible planets. The seasonal transformations of Dionysus and the 12 labors of Hercules, various legends were an astrological and astronomical scheme associated with seasonal and planetary phenomena. Abstraction, purification of the pantheon went in parallel with the search for Greek scientists and philosophers. They collected ancient ideas from Babylon, Chaldea, India and Egypt and tried to find logic in them (logos - words). Pythagoras (531 BC) used numbers to structure knowledge assimilated by others about the structure of the universe. He studied the relationship between natural numbers, the mechanism of thought, and the universe. His favorite aphorism: "Everything in the world is a number, but God is a mathematician." The Pythagorean school believed that the sequence of natural numbers had a deep meaning that extended beyond their ordinary qualities; they have their own archetypal meanings (the existence of internal logic in numbers was confirmed recently by the discovery of the Fibonacci series that govern the structure of plant life). Pythagoras believed that the mechanics of numbers stemmed from the cosmic "music of the spheres", planetary harmony; and that a musician who understands the numerological basis of music is able to arouse any emotion, sensation or idea in his listeners.
Every number is a symbol. It participates in the construction of a continuum: a structure that unfolds over time and makes sense because it connects the physical world with the world of thoughts and feelings. Already in modern times, K.G. Jung studied the properties of natural numbers and saw in them the key to understanding mental activity.

The universal structure governing all kinds of life in the universe was the subject of the search for Democritus, Aristarchus and Plato. The physicist Heisenberg said: “According to Plato, at the base of this very complex world, consisting of elementary particles and force fields, there is a simple mathematical structure that generates everything that we call the laws of nature.” However, the postulate of the unity of the world from stars to man was proclaimed in astrology long before Plato.

Plato also considered 4 elements as principles of action and state of matter. These 4 elements were: earth - the physical hypostasis of the world; water - emotional; air - intellectual; fire is spiritual. Now this classification may seem untenable in the way that 104 chemical elements have now been discovered, but it makes sense in relation to classes of phenomena. N. Calder, in his book “Key to the Universe”, describing the latest achievements of elementary particle physics, wrote: “The ancient Greek “fire” is not much different from the energy that, according to modern ideas, underlies everything that exists.” In traditional astrology, "fire" is energy, libido, spiritual impulse, vitality, "Water", traditionally defined as the element of emotions, sensuality, susceptibility, corresponds to the wave nature in the Universe, "air" - the element of thinking and communication, should probably be associated with the concept complementarity between particles and waves "Earth" is a correlate of the material nature of matter.
An outstanding astronomer and astrologer was Claudius Ptolemy (100-170). His classic work on astrology, Tetrabiblos, synthesized the ideas of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, Pythagoras, and Plato. This book remains the only source of ancient astrological thought. The Tetrabiblos introduced the first system of astrological houses. The names of houses according to Ptolemy are characteristic of the astrological method of that time:

1 - Horoscope
2 - Gates of Hell
3. Goddess
4. Lower sky
5. Fortune
6. Misfortune
7. Sunset
8. Death
9. God
10. Upper sky
11. Kind genius
12. Evil genius.
These houses reflected the pagan attitude to fate and the relationship between gods and people.
Astrology and Christianity.
As K.G. Jung, Christ was the symbol of the self, the total man. The archetype of the self determines the polarity and is a synthesized instrument that expresses the integrity of the psyche. Christ of Nazareth was at the same time the incarnation of God in man, and pointed to the possibility of the manifestation of God in any person.

The Old Testament describes the initial stages of human development from primitive unity through the Garden of Eden to the Fall. This metaphorically reflects the penetration of the religious impulse into the assembly of the gods of the Near East in early times. The Old Testament traces the collapse of primitive unity in the history of 12 tribes Israeli, corresponding to 12 signs of the Zodiac. The goal of the New Testament, with the help of Christ, is to unite the fragmented whole. His 12 disciples are another reflection of the 12 signs of the Zodiac. The prophecy of Christ about the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is aimed at revealing the divine crown of selfhood. The twelfth path of astrology is the possibility of uniting God with man. Variations in the development of the image of God in history were marked by a parallel relationship to the self. The Christian Trinity: Father-Son-Holy Spirit reflects the male priority and dogmatic patriarchy, which was corrected only when the Virgin Mary was exalted to the divine level in 1950.

The mathematics of religion is also interesting. God the son serves as an intermediary between the two poles: the Father of Light and the Holy Spirit of primary Darkness. Within the triad, the third again relates to unity and becomes the fourth. In Alchemy, this is called the axiom of Mary, which says: “One makes two, two makes three, three makes one as the fourth. While God is characterized by a triad within a circle, a triad within a circle is also a sign of selfhood. The relationship between three and four is one of the main topics in both astrology and religion. In astrology there are 4 elements and 3 ways of functioning with the help of which all influences can be conveyed (4x3= 12). Previously, Christianity used both tripartite images (Father - Son - Holy Spirit) and quaternary images - the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Four Evangelists, the Four Sacred Beasts. The relationship of numbers with life values ​​became the subject of research by new receivers of astrological philosophy - alchemists.

Alchemy

Monastic Christian orders and Arab philosophers, each in their own way, developed classical mathematics and astrology. The two pictures of the world developed by them served as the basis for the formation of synthetic philosophy around the 2nd century. The Hermetic schools, the Neoplatonists, and some pre-Christian sects also contributed to it. The coordinating link of the two models of the world (Arabic and Christian) was Time. The prototype of the new model was the teachings of Plato. Plato assumed that there is a world of pure ideas (archetypes), gods and states created from static geometric forms. When God decided to create the real world, he translated the ideal pattern into changeable images that correspond to the natural series of numbers. Thinkers and religious figures of the Middle Ages liked to present their cosmological models graphically. The most common cosmological model was the circle - the Mandala. The mandala at that time was widespread: the geocentric solar system of Ptolemy, Arabic astrolabes and navigational instruments, clocks, and horoscopes. The concept of perfection was associated with the circle, and it served to designate God and the human Spirit. By the end of the 10th century, there was also a revival of astrology, as the year 1000 AD was associated with Biblical prophecies about the end of the world, and astrology became the most important predictive tool.

Alchemy сделала новый шаг в развитии Мандалы. They tried to create a miniature inner universe that reflected the outer universe, the correlation of micro- and macrocosm. The mandalas of the alchemists were images of the world mind, which was getting closer and closer to the real world. At the same time, the compilation of projections of the mandala image onto the celestial sphere (horoscopes) began. Early chemical models were supposed to reflect the unity of existence. Alchemists gradually began to study not only the static realities of life, but also its temporary manifestations.

Theosophical revival

Astrology was also in a lethargic state until the founding of the Theosophical Society by H.P. Blavatsky (1831 - 1891). E.P. Blavatsky traveled a lot in the Far East - Tibet, India, China, Ceylon. Her mission was determined, as she believed, by the secret White Brotherhood of the initiated lamas of Tibet, with whom she was physically connected. She also saw her task as reintegrating the religious ideas of the East and the thinking of the West. The main work of H.P. Blavatsky was the book “The Secret Doctrine”, which describes the world development over millions of years and thousands of civilizations. This book pays tribute to astrology as the main language of the new world.

The theosophical movement awakened the public's interest in the life of the soul as a compensation for the Darwinian materialism of the Victorian era. Астрологи, получившие импульс от теософского общества находились под влиянием неординарных нравственных воззрений E.P. Blavatsky. The society's pre-eminent astrologer was Alan Leo (1860-1917), whom Margaret Hone called "Father of Modern Astrology".

Here is what A. Leo wrote: “The time has come when the Chaldean and Assyrian religions must be returned and the truth about our fate, which the stars say, must be revealed. The religion of timeless wisdom has taken strong roots in today's Western society, among those who have thrown off the shackles of dogma and prejudice. Their leaders, by the power of reason and purity of life, are able to turn the tide of evolution into the channel of progress and freedom. But