FOUR BOOKS ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS
Rendered from the Greek paraphrase of Proclus by J. M. Ashmand
Few figures have done as much as Claudius Ptolemy to safeguard and pass on the astrological and astronomical learning of the classical and ancient world. Any serious student of Traditional Astrology must reckon with this encyclopaedic work, which is not only a treatise on the stars but also a cosmology that held sway until the 18th century. It is easy, of course, to mock an outlook that places the Earth at the cosmic center and calls it the sublunary sphere. Yet our current understanding suggests that the Universe is, as far as we know, infinite. In an infinite universe, it seems to me, every point could claim to be the center. Scientists, too, are sometimes less than scientific. The fact remains that, for our purposes, this framework still has something to offer.
In practical terms, the Moon exerts the most immediate influence on the Earth—our point of reference. She governs the tides, affects vegetative growth and menstrual cycles, and even shapes the weather itself.
What is commonly called the Ptolemaic Universe consists of concentric circles extending from the Earth to the eighth sphere of the Fixed Stars, also known as the Empyrean. This cosmology is as much spiritual as it is physical, and it is decidedly moral in character; no apologies are offered for its political incorrectness.
Ptolemy was, above all, a compiler. His material reached him from Egypt, Greece, Chaldea, Babylonia, and beyond. More importantly, he found himself in Alexandria at the height of its prominence, a city alive with intellectual and spiritual ferment. In the Tetrabiblos, Ptolemy plainly draws on a wide range of sources. The cosmology he articulated has come to bear his name. Whatever one thinks of Ptolemy’s standing, he remains essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the celestial arts. His influence on Renaissance astrologers was, in itself, profound.
BOOK THE FIRST
PROEM
The preliminary studies for astronomical prognostication, O Syrus, are two. The first, both first in order and first in power, leads to knowledge of the configurations of the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, and of their relative aspects to one another and to the Earth. The second considers the changes that their aspects produce, through their natural properties, in the objects under their influence.
The first of these studies has already been explained in the Syntaxis 1 to the fullest practicable extent, for it is complete in itself and of essential utility even without being combined with the second. The present treatise will be devoted to that second study, which is not equally self-complete. This work shall nonetheless be guided by the regard for truth that philosophy demands. Since the material quality of the objects acted upon renders them weak and variable, and difficult to grasp accurately, no positive or infallible rules can be set forth here—unlike the first doctrine, which is always governed by the same immutable laws. On the other hand, a due observation of most of those general events whose causes evidently trace to the Ambient shall not be omitted.
It is, however, a common practice among the vulgar to slander everything that is difficult to attain. Surely those who condemn the first of these two studies must be considered totally blind, whatever arguments may be produced in support of those who impugn the second. There are also persons who imagine that whatever they themselves have not been able to acquire must be utterly beyond the reach of all understanding; while others again will consider useless any science of which—although they may have often been instructed in it—they have failed to retain the recollection, owing to its difficulty of retention. In reference to these opinions, therefore, an endeavour shall be made to investigate the extent to which prognostication by astronomy is practicable, as well as serviceable, before detailing the particulars of the doctrine.