Midheaven: the concept of μεσουράνημα and the brawl over the house system.

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It may be interesting to propose a careful revision of the term Midheaven with which we usually identify the tenth cusp in an astral figure. The original term in Hellenistic literature, both in astronomical and astrological texts, is the Greek word μεσουράνημα, which later became Latin as «medium coeli». The relevance of this concept lies in the fact that the bitter dispute regarding house systems depends on its definition, especially that between the defenders of domification by counting of signs (house equals sign) versus the defenders of systems by trisection of quadrants (uneven houses).

In the first centuries of our era there were three different concepts of μεσουράνημα, which caused a problem of unsuspected consequences at the time, since these three definitions gave rise to three different ways of thinking about how to distribute the twelve astrological houses. The first conceptualization is the one that understands by Midheaven the complete thirty degrees of the tenth sign counted from the ascending sign in zodiacal order. The second conceptualization is the one that defines Midheaven as the nonagesimal degree of the ecliptic, that is, exactly ninety ecliptic degrees above the ascendant. The third conceptualization is the one that fixes the Midheaven in the exact degree where the ecliptic intersects with the local meridian, that is, with the great circle that travels the north-zenith-south-nadir path.

It becomes clear that the whole sign house system is based on the first definition, the equal house system is based on the second, and the quadrant house systems are based on the third. This is the heart of the whole debate. Well, the reason behind the predilection of Medieval and Renaissance astrologers for systems by division of quadrants is based on a stricter astronomical conceptualization of the «medium coeli», since the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars culminate their drag by primary movement when their diurnal arc reaches the intersection of the local meridian in the upper half of the celestial sphere, not when they pass through the tenth zodiacal sign from the ascendant sign, nor when they pass through the nonagesimal ecliptic degree.

The idea behind this precision is that the sky is not something static, but is in permanent motion. As a result, all celestial bodies reach a certain point in their diurnal arc where they attain the highest possible altitude according to their declination. Being the Midheaven, in any of the possible definitions, the place where the stars reach their maximum elevation, it is quite obvious that the ideas associated with the 10^th house such as advancement, promotion, profession, vocation, reputation and public image, derive of said elevated condition in the upper part of the celestial vault. Consequently, the exact point of highest elevation for the ecliptic degrees seemed the most logical choice under a more demanding astronomical and observational criteria.

However, it is clear to me from a long experience in traditional astrology that the resolution of the debate is to recognize that full-sign houses are extraordinarily useful for topical delineation purposes (meanings), while houses by division of quadrants are extremely necessary for determine the power or dynamism of the stars (angularity), so that a combined approach of both systems, topical and dynamic, is what gives the best results. The integration of both domifications, in practice, is something that takes time and experience. It is certainly not something recommendable for beginners, because it can confuse and make the learning process quite difficult for students, but for those who have already had more years of practice it is a necessary and beneficial effort. The integration of both approaches has come to generate a lot of consensus among the followers of medieval astrology of Perso-Arabic stamp.

Like many high-level colleagues, I have found in practice that the quadrant division house systems are also very useful in topical delineation, but it is convenient to contrast them with the whole sign house system to enrich and make the interpretation of astral figures more flexible. It can be somewhat complicated to have the same planet in a certain house by quadrant division, and in a different one by counting signs, but the fact that a planet can provide meanings to two adjacent houses enriches the astrologer’s hermeneutics, although at the same time it makes their work quite complex. Naturally, the integration of both systems can be somewhat messy at first, but eventually it is possible to learn to work in a coordinated and coherent way, trying to maintain balance in the midst of this duplicity in the domification.

Faced with the avalanche of misunderstandings and ill-founded criticisms on the part of the defenders of the whole sign house system against the systems by division of quadrants, it must be emphasized, from a traditional point of view, that it is a blunder to prefer only one system and completely discard the other, since the combination of both approaches, in an integrated work, was precisely one of the characteristic elements that distinguished the reform that gave rise to medieval astrology in the days of the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. But even before Mash’allah, Sahl ibn Bishr or Abu Ma’shar, some astrologers of the late Hellenistic period, such as Rhetorius of Egypt, had already begun to work with both forms of domification together. Consequently, a joint labor between both forms of houses constitutes a fundamental component in the good practice of our science.

Under a combined scheme of domification by whole signs and by quadrant trisection it will happen many times that a planet will be located in two different houses at the same time. Thus, for example, Jupiter could be in the beneficial 11^th house per quadrant and at the same time in the difficult 12^th house per whole signs. This would allow distributing the meanings associated with the planet in both locations simultaneously. And although it may seem strange at first, something similar did the Hellenistic astrologers with the meridian Midheaven, which usually transferred meanings of the 10^th house to the adjacent places of the 9^th and 11^th houses. This overlap was common then, as was the superposition of planets on different houses among the Arabs, obtained by counting whole signs and dividing quadrants.

In many cases the houses of both systems will be fairly close to coinciding, especially if the ascending degree is at the beginning of a sign and if, at the same time, the latitude of the location is neither too far north nor too far south. But if the degree of the ascendant is very late in the sign, then the difference between the two forms of domification will be radically noticeable. To avoid making the work of combining systems too confusing, it may initially be easier to use whole sign houses for topical delineation issues and quadrant houses to determine the dynamism or angularity of the planets. This would be the simplest option to solve the matter, and it is the one that many tend to promote today, but it is not the best or the most complete. With a little practice it is possible to go further, and also give topical capacity to domification by division of quadrants, since there are thousands of examples in interrogations and nativities where the whole sign house system does not seem to reflect very well the reality of the horary figure or the natal chart.

Now, one wonders which of the numerous options for domification by division of quadrants should be used in conjunction with the whole sign house system. Obviously I do not pretend to give an absolute answer for a topic that causes so many discussions and differences of opinion, but we can say with certainty that a good answer to this question will always involve an astronomical understanding of how the intermediate cusps are calculated and distributed in the celestial sphere, so that we can make a decision based on the knowledge of the mathematical and astronomical structure of each system, and having in view the logic of the algorithm behind each proposal, in order to assimilate the literal and symbolic meaning of each one of the possible options. What does not seem very smart is to use a certain house system simply because it is the one our teacher used, or because it is the fashionable one.

While the Porphyry system simply divides the ecliptic segments of each quadrant into equal parts, being a pretty straightforward option to calculate, the Alchabitus system trisects the segments of the diurnal semi-arc of the ascendant for each quadrant, so that the division is based in ascensional time and not in a division of local space. In contrast, the Campanus system trisects every quarter of the prime vertical equally, that is, of the great circle that goes from the east point to the west point, passing through the zenith and the nadir, and then projects the division onto the ecliptic. The Regiomontanus system trisects every quarter of the celestial equator in equal parts, projecting the derived circles onto the ecliptic, while the popular Placidus system places the cusps in every sixth of the ascensional time of the ecliptic degrees, thus linking the houses with the division of planetary hours.

In my personal case, the Alchabitus system is by far the chosen one since, by dividing the diurnal arc of the ascending degree equally, it maintains the same logic of time displacement that we use in the Primary Directions, thus being an ideal domification scheme to be used in conjunction with this classic prognosis technique in a functional and consistent way. In addition, the division of houses by ascensional times of the diurnal arc of the horoscope or hour marker, gives us a work with a system based on a fundamental symbolic sense, since every astral figure starts from the ascendant, and the notion of angularity of the houses depends precisely on the primary movement of the celestial sphere, being the angular houses those that move from the four angles, the succeeding ones those that come from behind in the primary movement, and the cadent ones those that have already passed through the angles and lost their angularity condition. In these three positions lie the differences in strength or dynamism offered by the three types of houses to the planets positioned within them.

Now, to adopt a house system, it is necessary to get head first into the astronomical architecture of each proposal. Once it is well understood how the intermediate cusps are constructed, the symbolism behind each particular algorithm begins to be gradually clarified. And if in parallel a historical review of its origins is carried out, sooner or later it ends up finding the most suitable domification model for the function that corresponds to houses in astrology, which on the one hand is topical, but on the other it is dynamic, that is, it encompasses both meanings and angular force. And in the latter lies the key to understanding what is important when choosing, because between the end of the Hellenistic period and the beginning of the Middle Ages, all this disquisition reached its point of maturity and good sense. But from then on, and especially since the Renaissance, everything was confused and deformed, so it is necessary to investigate the origins of the problem.

Recapitulating what has already been said, there are three successive steps in the process of integrating the house system by whole signs with a house system by quadrant trisection. For students, first it is necessary to work with a single system in order to avoid confusion and unnecessary entanglement in the learning process. Then, for more advanced practitioners, proceed to work with the whole sign house system for topics related to accidental significators (topical function) and with a quadrant division system to determine the force or angularity of the planets (dynamic function). Finally, for astrologers with more experience, it is beneficial to move towards the full integration of both domification systems to interpret the topical or qualitative function, so that the meanings for a planet located in different houses are extracted under each of the two systems. At the same time, the domification of houses by quadrant trisection is also used to determine the dynamic or quantitative function. The latter is the way of working that the ancients used, but it requires agile handling and discrimination criteria that can only be acquired after a long time of practice.

To conclude, it should be noted that other options for the division of quadrants that differ from the one I have suggested are perfectly valid, insofar as they are based on a good understanding of the calculation and geometric structure of domification, together with the elaboration, from of this, of a logical argumentation and a symbolic interpretation that gives a reasonable basis to the preference, or at least an explanatory criterion that goes beyond the blind imitation of a house system whose formulation is unknown as much as that of its possible competing alternatives. And so, going back to the beginning of the question, it is essential to understand that the three historical definitions of the Midheaven do not have to throw us into an insoluble dilemma. Rather, they should invite us to carry out the task of studying in detail the astronomical coordinate systems and the reference points in the celestial sphere on which the different algorithms are built to domificate an astral figure.

China and the Great Conjunction: glimpses of an Asian future

This is the foundation chart of the People’s Republic of China, proclaimed by the infamous genocidal and pedophile Mao Zedong on October 1, 1949, at 3:01 p.m. in Beijing. The photo that accompanies this astral figure shows that precise historical moment, when the tyrant inaugurated his dictatorship. The ascendant of the map falls at 01°33′ Aquarius, with the Moon being peregrine, angular and waxing in conjunction with the cusp from 03°03′. It is, without a doubt, the radix of a deeply collectivist and gregarious nation, where individuality weighs very little in relation to the importance of general well-being.

Both the minor conjunction of the two misfortunes, namely Mars and Saturn, which occurred on March 31, and the great conjunction of the chronocrators Jupiter and Saturn, will be perfected next December 21 at the zero degrees of Aquarius, that is practically at the ascendant of China and within orb with the Moon. The conjunction of both malefics closed less than one degree from the ascendant in question. The great conjunction of the chronocrators, which includes a powerful triplicity change, will make it just over a degree from the first cusp of the Asian giant. China is already mobilizing its game pieces to take advantage of the pandemic that nowadays has the world on its knees.

The astrological events reviewed indicate a shift in the geopolitical center of gravity from the West to the East, and more specifically from the United States to China, a country that will triumph in the fight for world domination for the next decades. This will begin the historic Asian Century. Countries such as Japan and South Korea will also play a prominent role within this new order, although with a much more modest scope. It will be China who directs the destinies of the world, controlling the economy, as it has done so far, but above all international politics. But the Chinese way of doing things is far from being compatible with our most fundamental concepts of freedom and individuality.

The cyclopean Eurasian Land Bridge and its rail transport lines are a concrete manifestation that a new silk road will dominate commerce and culture in the coming decades. The investment has been huge. Thanks to it the Chinese Communist Party, together with its satellite companies, will build the largest commercial infrastructure project in all of human history. There will be 68 countries involved and more than 65% of the population under the economic and diplomatic rule of China, including almost all of Europe, which will operate as the western link of the route and key strategic pole under the tentacles of this Asian Leviathan.

Meanwhile, the United States will lose power and influence, falling second or third in the ranking of geopolitical relevance. This is thanks to the constant flow of investment from Wall Street to Beijing and Shanghai, since the greed and betrayal of the American bankers do not recognize limits of prudence or loyalty. China’s technological dominance will be one of the cornerstones of its hegemony in the next era of artificial intelligence, robotic automation, and digital surveillance over population. We are moving towards an era of authoritarian totalitarianism and population control, with the favor of that strange Chinese hybrid between political communism and economic capitalism, richly financed by speculators in the Manhattan financial district.

Ahead we have the triplicity change of the great conjunctions. It will be two centuries of mutation from earth to air. Jupiter represents the rich, abundance and liberties. Saturn signifies the poor, the precariousness and restrictions. It is the latter who is favored in his diurnal domicile, while Jupiter is harmed and dominated by Saturn in the sign of his lordship. With China ahead, we shall enter an Orwellian world, where politics consists of scientific administration of scarcity and the strict control of the masses through the digital surveillance network. Any Tibetan, Uighur, or Mongolian could testify broadly to what is coming for the world, but their voices have been silenced for decades in the concentration camps in northwest China.

The delusional hippie dream of an aquarian universal brotherhood in consciousness and freedom is broken into a thousand pieces. It is better to remove the diving helmet of our own thoughts and look out the window of reality. And I mean literally go out and look. Around midnight it is possible to see Jupiter and Saturn closer every day on the eastern quadrant of the sky. The future is almost here … It is in the battle against the dark ages, oh Kalki, where your warriors will be consecrated to the kiss of immortality!

 

A twisted case of Horary Astrology.

A few weeks ago I worked on a horary consultation that had a curious outcome, a result that I share here to propose a reflection on the scope of our art. I think what happened illustrates quite well the strange ways destiny has to manifest itself in our lives. The story may seem somewhat fiddling, but looking more in depth we can discover an interesting dimension regarding the inevitable. A young woman contacted me because of an aesthetic intervention that she wanted to have. It was a subtle tattoo to simulate eyebrows, since she thought she had very few. I received the consultation through a video call on Monday, July 15 2019 at 9:34 p.m. in Reñaca, Viña del Mar, Chile. The specific question was: Will my eyebrows intervention have a good result? I publish this consultation and its outcome under the express authorization of the consultant, but keeping her identity in complete reserve as required by the ethics of the craft.

According to considerations before judgment we have a radical chart before us, so it can be interpreted with the certainty that it speaks about the consulted subject. We observe the ascendant at 09°17′ Pisces, being Jupiter, and secondarily the Moon, the significators of the consultant and her eyebrows. Since it is a question of aesthetics, that is, a matter related to physical appearance and not surgery for health reasons, we will be concerned with zodiacal state and local determination of the ascendant ruler and the Moon, regardless of 6^th house or associated significators. It will be ideal to find a 1^st house regent and a nocturne luminary in good condition, associated by a good aspect to Venus, natural signifier of beauty. It would also be promising to find Venus angular and well dignified.

What do we find at the analysis of this astral figure? Unfortunately Venus is not as we would have expected, finding her peregrine in the middle of Cancer, moving fast, oriental and having dominion over the ascending degree as almuten domus. It is also under combustion, so its light is being severely impeded by solar fire. Sadly, it does not have essential dignity to resist such burning since it travels through a degree in which she feels like being strayed. On the other hand we have Jupiter, regent of the ascending sign, being very well dignified and positioned, having strength by domicile and nocturne triplicity in the middle of Sagittarius, as well as being inside an angular house with elevation over midheaven, while applying by trine to Mars, natural signifier of surgeries, cuts and incisions. Unfortunately, that strengthened Jupiter is retrograde and separating from a contrantiscion with the relevant Venus. The Moon is waxing and applying by antiscion to Jupiter, being in hayz and succedent, but mixing night triplicity with a severe detriment, and moving slowly through Capricorn, where it is being afflicted by applicative conjunction with retrograde Saturn. Nonetheless, the reception of Venus by the Moon through opposition stands out.

What could we conclude from all of the above? The consultant will have a well-performed aesthetic procedure that will leave her satisfied with good results (reception of Venus by the Moon, high essential dignity of Jupiter) but will suffer from an acute and intense pain that will make her regret the moment (combustion of Venus, retrogradation of Jupiter in contrantiscion with Venus, detriment of the Moon in conjunction with retrograde Saturn). Although she will be happy when looking herself in the mirror, the experience will leave her with a bad memory. The prediction result was completely fulfilled but in a mysterious way, which we might even consider twisted. On the intervention’s day everything developed normally. The procedure was carried out impeccably, without problems or delays. The consultant confessed to me that, while receiving small cuts and punctures in her eyebrows, she remembered my words wondering at what point would feel the pain that I had predicted. “Pablo was wrong!” she thought. The intervention concluded successfully, with minimal physical discomfort and almost no bleeding. But fate had not finished yet its own work.

After the process, the esthetician asked the consultant for authorization to take a picture of her newly intervened eyebrows, in order to record the visual effect achieved. The cell phone with which she intended to take the picture was huge, almost as big as a tablet. Its large size surprised our client, who had not seen before an artifact of those dimensions. Behold, in an inexplicable awkwardness, the beautician approached the device to the client’s face and dropped the heavy smartphone directly on the nasal septum and the girl’s eyebrows, giving her an accurate and brutal strike. The pain was so powerful that our protagonist cried for half an hour without being able to stop, while the beautician, desperate and not knowing what to do, fell apart in apologies. She swore to the girl that she had never made a mistake like this in all his years working, even though she took pictures of all his clients, both before and after the proceedings. Once the facts were completed, the consultant called to tell me that the pain was of such magnitude that she deeply regretted, but more by having doubted my oracle than by the intervention itself.

What happened should make us reflect on how fragmentary and reduced is our ability to understand the ten thousand paths that becoming can travel to realize its own plans. In astrology it is common to know the end of matters, to the point of being able to predict the outcome of all kinds of issues, from the smallest to the largest, from the most pedestrian concerns of individuals to the most thorny issues of a republic. However, the path that destiny will travel to manifest the judgment of the stars always remains arcane and inaccessible. The wisdom of King Solomon makes sense when in Ecclesiastes 11: 5-6 he tells us that: “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good”. But, we add here, something will germinate as promised by the seed, perhaps not in the field but in the garden; perhaps not in the garden but in the mast; maybe not in the mastic but even under your bed.

Harran, threshold of the astral lore.

Harran, once known as Carrhae, is a dusty town in southeastern Turkey, on the border with Syria, a location that has existed as an uninterrupted human settlement since the Neolithic period. It was part of the northernmost region of Mesopotamia at the time of the Assyrian Empire, and for centuries it served as a cultural hinge between the Byzantine and the Islamic world, in addition to having been an important commercial exchange point and forced passage of caravans of camels loaded with merchandise. However, its main virtue is to have served as cultural and religious capital of the Sabians, the last pagans of the Middle East. This mysterious people spoke Syriac as their native language, adored the stars and gave birth to some of the greatest mathematicians and astrologers of the high Middle Ages among its conical houses.

A famous story tells us that the Muslim caliph al-Ma’mun (786-833) went through Harran with his army towards a campaign. Observing the Sabians had seven temples dedicated to the worship of planets and luminaries, warned them that if they had not yet converted to Islam or to any of the monotheistic religions tolerated by the Qur’an by the time he returns from war, then he would destroy them. Concerned about this terrible threat, the Sabians sent emissaries to Baghdad to consult with Muslim jurists, learning that Koranic law endured the faithful of three religions, apart from the Islamic ones: the Jews, the Christians and the Sabians. Of course, nobody knew in all the Earth who the sacred book referred to with this last denomination. Neither fools nor careless, the inhabitants of Harran decided to identify themselves as Sabians, claiming that their founding prophet had been Hermes, the same one that Muslims call Idris and the Jews Enoch. On the other hand his sacred book, they explained, was the Corpus Hermeticum, next to Plato’s dialogues which they also held in high esteem. They would roll back their religion to such remote times that it preceded Patriarch Abraham, called Ibrahim by the Arabs.

Fortunately for the Sabians, the Caliph did not return alive from that military campaign, but the encounter with his threats had allowed them to find a Koranic excuse to continue existing under a disguise. In practice, the Sabian religion was a polytheistic astral cult, a direct heir to the astrolatry of Babylon, who after the conquests of Alexander the Great had become Hellenized enough to mix easily with hermetic and platonic ideas. That Greek substrate gave their wisdom a certain tone of universality, along with a more refined philosophical discourse. The lunar god Sin was the protector of Harran, and possessed the most colorful and prominent temple of the seven buildings. They offered sacrifices and prayers amid the thick smoke of incense and burning myrrh.

We know that there were two different groups of Sabians. There were the pagans of the popular cult, quite superstitious and rudimentary, who surely did not distinguish themselves much from the polytheists that Mohammed had expelled from around Mecca a few centuries earlier. On the other side were the learned Sabians, a small group of scholars, astrologers, mathematicians, translators and physicians such as Thabit Ibn Qurra (826-901). Their wisdom reached such a level that they were appointed as advisors to the rulers of the Abbasid Caliphate and illustrious members of the House of Wisdom of Baghdad (Beit al-Hikma).

One of the last among these great sages was Al-Battani (858-929), to whom we owe the calculation of the tropic year with stunning precision for the time: 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds, with an error of only 2 minutes and 22 seconds. Al-Battani ended giving up to surrounding pressures and converted to Islam, like many of the Sabians after him. It is known that this people maintained their astral religion until the beginning of the 11th century, when the latter embraced the faith of their Arab neighbors or died. To them we owe, among other things, the survival of hermetic texts, both philosophical and technical. They also made the first translations from Greek and Syriac to the Arabic language of numerous texts by Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus. Harran served as a temporary refuge to Damascius, Simplicius and five other Neoplatonic philosophers who had been fleeing from Athens after the definitive closure of the Platonic Academy, a closing forced by the sad edict of Justinian I, Christian emperor of Byzantium. Thus the small city became the nostalgic scene of the last Greek pagans and their heirs, the last Mesopotamian pagans.

It seemed right to honor them with these few lines, since I owe them so much. The image shows part of the archaeological site of Harran, with the arch and walls in ruins of what was a mosque built in medieval times. In the background the so-called “astrologers’ tower”, probably an old minaret. Of the seven temples to the planets there are only a few foundations that, after the destruction propitiated by the Muslims, were used as a base to erect the walls of an Islamic university, now also disappeared.

Destiny: an astral tragicomedy.

There is an interesting biographical episode, whose rarity may tempt some to challenge its authenticity, starring a famous astrologer and German mathematician of the sixteenth century. I mention it to illustrate the accuracy of the classical astrologer in a tragicomic way, and incidentally to induce a reflection on the limits of personal freedom before predestination. I refer to the curious story of Valentin Naibod (1523-1593), a well-known scholar nobody could take lightly. He is recognized for his studies on the average annual displacement of the Sun, the establishment of the Naibod key for the calculation of primary directions, and for the publication of the “Enarratio Elementorum Astrologiae”, in addition to being famous due to the eccentricity of his customs. Along with his remarkable contributions to astronomy and astrology, Naibod was the protagonist of a macabre anecdote that serves to exemplify the inexorable force of the Anareta.

Having recently gone through his seventieth solar revolution, and after calculating on his own nativity the directions he had tried to perfect with his works of spherical astronomy, Naibod determined he was about to enter an astrological period of great danger to his life on the occasion of a direction of Saturn. So he decided to accumulate a large amount of water and food to proceed to lock himself in his house during the entire life-threatening period. He secured the door with the keys, blocked all the windows and closed the curtains so that could not even enter the light. He lay down on the bed and there he waited for the end of the cycle. But some criminals who passed by believed that the house remained without residents when they saw it completely closed, so they wanted to enter to plunder. After breaking the door, they entered quickly to avoid being seen, but their surprise was great when they met the astrologer, who reacted with shock. They did not take long to stab him to death in order to steal quietly and avoid being denounced. The deadly prognosis that our friend had tried to avoid was fulfilled, because the goddess Fortuna does not usually make concessions with anyone.

In the Stoic philosophy of the great Seneca we read: «Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt», destiny leads to whoever accepts it, drags whoever resists it. Would it have been possible to better face Saturn’s primary direction and elude death? It is evident that dying is inevitable, the issue here is rather about postponing it to prolong life. In the apocryphal Arabian Centiloquius (Kitab al-Tamara) attributed to Claudius Ptolemy, we can find suggestive phrases like this one: “He who knows can avoid numerous events of the stars, because having known his nature he will be able to prepare himself before they arrive”. This short exhort may seem an invitation to evade astrological predestination. It is undoubtedly a fascinating enigma to solve if we try to elucidate clearly what concept of determinism the ancient astrologers handled. At times they seem to think it possible to make some decisions in time to avoid some evils predicted by the study of heavens. But in other occasions, like in the bizarre history of Naibod, this possibility acquires borders that end up in black comedy. I am sure that nobody has the definitive answer to this question, which from time to time resuscitates among those of us who actively work with clients in the predictive field. But perhaps, more than the answer, it is the question itself that makes our art as enigmatic as it is disconcerting.

Astrology, predestination and free will.

With regard to predestination and its conflict with free will, the debate has been quite extensive and heated. It is an exciting subject, with profound philosophical consequences, and for which I am asked with some frequency. As I am not a philosopher but an astrologer, I have to try to answer from the discipline that concerns me. My intention is to show that the relationship between fate and human freedom is much more fluid and permeable than it seems. Although the issue is not without controversy, a reasonable perspective is possible to reconcile both extremes. Let’s assume first that astrology poses a predictable universe model and therefore organized around a deterministic notion, although not necessarily causal. I refer to a determinism in the broad sense, not circumscribed to the strict logic of cause – effect that we inherit from the thought of Aristotle or from the mechanistic paradigm of Isaac Newton.

Astrological determinism is far from resembling that universe of watchmaking gears that emanates from classical physics. On the contrary, it is an organic determinism, more similar to the simultaneous interrelation of the organs and tissues of a living being. With exceptions such as that of Al-Kindi (801-873 AD), who was one of the most aristotelian among Arab astrologers, many celestial augurs rejected the theory of astrological causation or direct stellar influence, leaning rather on the idea of a synchronic confluence in which the events of heaven and earth occurred in a coordinated manner. The conception of a causal line was tempting for some, because it tended to resolve in reasonable terms the awkward situation of having to account for this strange oracle of magical-Babylonian origin. From Greek philosophy, which at that time was an expression of the most exquisite rationality, a causal link could be established between the stars and terrestrial life. However, astrologers less well versed in the Aristotelian and Stoic lucubrations continued to maintain a vision of concurrency and simultaneity of the celestial symbols. In this way, sustaining a deterministic cosmos does not necessarily imply a view of causality, as evidenced by Cicero’s famous definition of destiny in De Divinatione.

That vision of cosmic synchrony had some compatibility with a third position, much more archaic and magical-religious, where the celestial bodies are the visible face of the gods, whose will is manifested to men through the movement and position of the planets. However, the three versions have in common the idea of a pre-existing fate, which can be known in advance. In them the notion of an intelligible universe is also evident, whose action expresses a meaning and perhaps also a purpose. This intelligibility of the firmament opens up the possibility of prediction within a deterministic framework, or what is the same, within a knowable future of finite possibilities. This, obviously, comes into conflict with the ideological foundations of modernity, where the future is open, unknown, of infinite possibilities, and whose crystallization depends on the exercise of freedom. Therefore, the ancestral vision of a time with predetermined possibilities tends to be annoying for the mentality in vogue. But we will return to this topic a little later.

When I say that the astrological cosmos is predictable and deterministic, I mean that the ability of the astrologer to predict the events that lie ahead depends on a conception where the celestial signs indicate the quality of time and its propensity to manifest itself in concrete events. The mantic arts in general conceive a closed or pre-established future, since if it were not determined in advance it could not be the object of divination. Then a tremendous philosophical problem arises, because if life is predestined, what place has free will? And worse, if human actions are predetermined, what moral responsibility can be attributed to people for their actions? Well, these complex questions arise precisely by the same way of posing the question of destiny. Maybe there is another way to approach the problem.

The destiny or fatum is that supernatural power that imposes itself on the life of men with the force of the inevitable, guiding the events to an end not chosen, although not necessarily negative, since the destiny also can sometimes overcome the personal aspirations and expectations. In Orphic mythology this force appears in the form of Ananke, personification of the inevitable and the inescapable necessity to which both gods and mortals are subject. She was represented as a serpentine being, intertwined with her eternal companion Cronos, the lord of time. Thus, destiny and time extended throughout the universe, giving rise to the network of existence. Ananke was mother of the three Moiras, those primal goddesses who distributed fate to each being and determined the duration of the thread of life.

And what about free will? Few people are aware that, just as the notion of destiny has an undeniable pagan root, the idea of free will arose from the discussions of the Judeo-Christian theologians. The rabbis and bishops of the first centuries of the common era were very interested in debating with the pagans about this idea that the gods and / or the stars determined the course of human destiny, because this basic belief of paganism came into contradiction with the moral doctrine that makes man responsible for his sins. If destiny exists and it is inexorable, it was predestined that Adam and Eve should disobey! If so, the fault would be God’s and not man’s. Starting from this point, the theologians strove to throw down the idea of predestination, postulating that God had granted man the gift of freedom to act according to good or evil. By doing God’s will, expressed in the sacred scriptures, good was done and the salvation of the soul was achieved in the hereafter. But in the opposite corner, the Stoic philosophers, all of them heathens, defended a very different position; the universe is predetermined to the last centimeter by destiny, and man can only liberate himself interiorly from his mundane attachments to attain peace and happiness, since matter, time and space are subject to an inevitable causal determinism.

The debate between pagan philosophers and Christian theologians ended, argumentum ad baculum, with the triumph of the freedom of action proposed by the latter. Consequence of that is that in the western mentality, free will is a dogma of unquestionable faith, to the point of being defended by those who are opposed to the church, the synagogue, the mosque and everything that smells similar. It is a theological triumph unparalleled in universal history. But since astrology is an ancient science, in which elements coming from any culture made use of it, it could not but survive in its core that pagan and deterministic element. However, also the free will of theologians found a place in it. How is it possible? The intermediate position that reconciles both perspectives is known as “compatibilism” and is based on a mild determinism. It argues that destiny and free will are compatible to the extent that we assume a deterministic universe in which a subject capable of making choices between the options that are presented as a result of predestination operates. Finding that bulky wallet on the bus seat was clearly predestined, but it is my free choice to keep the money or look for an ID to return it to its owner. And although there are situations in which we have almost no choice, this does not deny that we have that freedom to choose most of the time.

From traditional astrology it is better to think in terms of choices than in absolute free will. The fact that we do not control time or the flows of becoming, and that much of the ups and downs of life were not desired or anticipated by us, shows that we live in a deterministic world, in which the vicissitudes of fate define fundamental issues such as the country and city in which we were born, the parents that we got, the woman we fall in love on that party, the illness that took us to the hospital, the collapse of our business in the middle of the economic crisis, or simply the day of our inevitable death. If we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that the most important and determining events of our lives were not the result of our desires; they simply happened in spite of us, starting with the birth itself. All these apparent accidents that condition the events, coordinated with the symbolic text of the firmament, constitute what astrology means by destiny.

In the Middle Ages the renowned Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), theologian and Christian philosopher, tried to address the issue. After much caviling he proposed a maxim that is repeated again and again by astrologers: the stars tilt, but do not force. It was not strange that he was interested in it, since his teacher had been the famous Albertus Magnus, bishop and theologian, but also naturalist, alchemist, geographer, herbalist, astrologer and for that time, magician. The question of astrological determinism occupied the most brilliant minds of humanity for many centuries, enough proof that astrology is not a simple superstition of lots of ignorant people.

What Thomas Aquinas says is that the stars can not force you to proceed in one direction, but they do incline the events and forces of becoming to a particular side. The possibility of choosing, and not an absolute free will, will present us with alternatives. Or we let ourselves be dragged by the current of the astral river or swim against it. The will acquires a central role here, since only a man of tenacious persistence can persevere swimming upriver. Since a will of iron is not usual, in most cases the current actually drags people to where they have not chosen. Have you noticed that when carrying out our careful plans, the situation usually presents so many unforeseen events that the process and the result are never exactly what one had planned? A Turkish dervish once told me that effort belongs to man, but the result depends on God. It is a pious way of seeing it, in which the same truth that we raise is hidden. There is an interaction between what is predestined and what man chooses to do. Not always our choices lead to a satisfactory result, because they have entered into contradiction with destiny. Other times our actions flow with the river of existence, and in coordination with the sky, what is expected is obtained. Hence the advantage that gives the knowledge of the future, because if you know the quality of time is possible to choose the right moment to do anything successfully. This is known as elective astrology, a branch of the ancient astrological tradition that seeks to anticipate the facts and take advantage of that knowledge to obtain favorable outcomes.

Regarding the moral responsibility of people in a deterministic framework, by assuming the freedom that every human being has to choose the course of their actions against predestined events, we must also assume as an inevitable consequence that every conscious subject is fully responsible for their acts. Maybe in life we come across someone who drives us crazy, and our bad temper makes us prone to outbursts of anger, but that does not rid us of moral responsibility if we cause injuries in a fit. Then, in a deterministic framework, moral responsibility is much greater, because as alternatives are closing and limiting, our uncertainty decreases and we have much greater clarity to decide and assume the consequences.

There are people who, due to low social status at bith, have a much more limited degree of freedom. It is the case of poverty and slavery, which unfortunately continues to exist on our planet in a veiled way. Others are fortunate and are born under very advantageous conditions of life, where there is no lack of money or opportunities. The powerful fate, which the Greeks knew as Εἱμαρμένη (Heimarmene), decrees for some the easy and for others the difficult. While among the Hindus there is an individual karmic explanation to account for the apparent injustices of life, among the Stoics a causal determinism of a general or cosmic order is invoked; but both the fortunate and the unfortunate, in their different levels of freedom, have a certain degree, larger or smaller, to choose the nature of their actions. I have met dispossessed people with the most kind and compassionate nature, as I have met with the most cruel and malicious wealthy people. Of course, the opposite is also true, since there are poor people who take pains to harm the rest and wealthy people who try to help sincerely. Statistical frequency is not my issue. I try to suggest that in spite of the pre-established conditions, and often outside of one’s own will, there is also the possibility of choosing and being morally responsible for said elections.

At the beginning we noticed the evident conflict between the traditional view of destiny and the consciousness of individual freedom that characterizes the modern subject. Predestination upsets the contemporary mentality and poses a threat to our psychological need to feel completely free to satisfy our desires. I believe that in this there is a sign of a certain collective immaturity, a form of denial of experiences of frustration, but it is also the result of the efforts of the theologians and apologists of the first centuries of Christianity. Anyway, it is clear that the astrological predestination does not empower the astrologer to know everything beforehand, since there is the human potential to choose, and even, by force of willful tenacity, turn the course of events. Astrology determines categories or types of objects, people and situations, but can not predict anything down to the smallest detail. In this sense, it poses a categorical determinism that leaves enough space for the emergence of the human will. In particular, astrology is not going to tell us which is the favorite rock band of the subject that stole my bicycle, but with a Horary Chart it can help us by indicating the type of place it is in, if it is whole or was already sold in parts, and even what general appearance the thief has.

To explain the relationship between astrology, predestination and free will I usually use an analogy. Suppose we sail at sea. Our ship is exposed to the impulse of the marine currents and the winds, which drag it in a certain direction. They are the forces of destiny signed in the stars. However, as captains of the ship we can take the situation and be responsible for the ship, take the helm of the will and direct the sails of the intellect, using the winds and currents in our favor, in order to reach the desired port. Because navigating safely involves a good deal of knowledge, it is a good idea to have the navigation maps provided by astrology.

In this way, our attitude towards the inevitable depends completely on us, and that action is conditioning the possibilities of expression of our own destiny, so that we are not passive puppets moved by the threads of doom. On the contrary, we are participatory agents in the configuration of destiny, determining a part of it by the exercise of our degree of freedom in choosing our actions against the manifestation of the predestined. Then, that the universe is subject to determinism simply means that it is intelligible, by presenting an identifiable and understandable order for the intellect. Finally, it is important not to forget a fundamental principle. Fate, from the metaphysical point of view, must be transcended. Hence the search for platonic anabasis, that ascent of the soul through the seven planetary spheres to reach the empyrean, beyond the Saturn region, where time does not exist and therefore, the Ananke no longer rules. That is the final goal – or destiny – to which every man and woman should direct their ship.

A brief commentary on planetary essences

by Pablo Ianiszewski F.

Why do we talk about benefic and malefic planets? Does it not predispose us to conceive existence from a negative point of view? Ancient astrologers had no qualms about recognizing a duality of light and darkness, of life and death, of creative and destructive forces throughout creation. From Zoroaster to Heraclitus, from Viasa to Hermes, the recognition of cosmic dualism is fundamental in all reflections on nature, both in the East and the West. Ignoring this reality does nothing to suppress the polarity that organizes the structure of the universe.

As I have noted elsewhere, traditional astrology has strong philosophical roots. The primal qualities of nature, articulated by Aristotle, are of special relevance to understanding why certain celestial bodies are beneficial and others are not. All beings can be reduced to four essential essences, which account for their intrinsic nature, namely the qualities of hotness, coldness, wetness, and dryness. From the combination of hot and dry comes the fire; from cold and wet, the water rises; from hot and wet comes the air; and from cold with dry the earth rises. It is these four elements that give substance to everything that exists, including the essential nature of the planets. In this context, Saturn is cold and dry; Jupiter is hot and wet; Mars is hot and dry; the Sun is hot and dry; Venus is cold and wet; Mercury is cold and dry; the Moon is cold and wet.

Anyone with a basic knowledge of agriculture, or who has observed for some time the conditions of nature, will know that hot and wet (jungle) is very favorable for life. The cold and wet (coast) is also propitious, but not so much. The hot and dry (desert) often hinders the development of life, while the cold and dry (tundra) is terribly hostile to everything alive. Here is why there are some planets designated as benefic and others malefic. Jupiter is benefic because it is moderately hot and wet. Venus is the lesser benefic because it is moderately cold and wet. Saturn is the great malefic because it is extremely cold and dry. Mars is the lesser malefic because it is extremely hot and dry. The Sun is relatively benefic because it is moderately hot and dry, but can act as malefic when its heat is greatly increased. The Moon is relatively benefic because it is moderately cold and wet, but becomes evil when it is in the waning phase. Finally Mercury changes according to the accidents and conditions with which it is related, being variable in coldness and dryness. It is so in astrology, benefic is the pro-life and evil the opposite of it.

If more than three thousand years of meticulous observation of nature by philosophers, astrologers and alchemists is not convincing enough, then make your own observations to corroborate or rule out the existence of a natural reality beyond the subjective needs of the human ego. Of course, we accept the existence of those who do not want to deal with reality, preferring what makes them feel more secure. We do not want to snatch them from that position. These words are addressed to those who wish to get out of the psychological maze and look beyond the defensive strategies we use to deal with our anxiety before the world. Nature exists and can teach us much, but for this we must lose our fear and accept existence with its lights and shadows. Life is duality. Denying dualism is one of the roots of neurosis; to transcend it is the goal of the spiritual path.

Astrology & Urbanism: the magical foundation of Baghdad

By Pablo Ianiszewski F. / Edited by P. James Clark

The battered city of Baghdad hides an astounding story of which few people are aware. The life of its busy streets has not always been accompanied by bombings and devastation. Its birth takes us back to t time when Magic was part of everyday life. Although its location was the site of several human settlements since the second millennium BC, the foundation of the city itself dates back to the 8th century.

Caliph Al-Mansur (714-775 AD), second ruler of the Abbasid dynasty, wanted to build a majestic capital for his reign, for the city of Damascus in Syria still had the memory of its former Umayyad rulers. It was thus that the new Caliph, after careful exploration of the region, decided to establish his capital to the east, in a splendid place bathed by the waters of the Tigris and protected by the shadow of date palms. But a good geographical location was not enough. In order to begin the work, he had to choose the right time by consideration of the influence of the stars to ensure long-term stability and strength of the city. That was how the magical founding of Baghdad was conceived.

The work was carried out by two reputed astrologers of the time, the Persian Naubakht Ahvazi and the Jew Mashallah ibn Athari. Both sages worked, along with a handful of students, in the long process of selecting a promising day and time to begin building the city. They made extensive calculations of celestial movements and positions, in an age where all operations had to be performed by hand. When searching for a suitable date in advance, they made use of their knowledge in Elective Astrology, that branch of celestial art in charge of choosing the most favorable astrological moments to successfully perform some important task. Used by the Babylonians for almost all civil and religious activity of a certain magnitude, the Caliph could not but use it for his great city. Like everything in this Hermetic science, astrological choices are based on the principle that the end is hidden in the beginning, so that the outcome of any enterprise depends on the quality of the time in which it began. Hence, with regard to the construction of a city, it is imperative to start the work at a duly selected moment.

While Mashallah and Naubakht sought the most suitable astrological moment, the latter’s family helped to design the city, drawing inspiration from the Sassanid capital of Gur, today Firuzabad, in Persia. They decided to give a circular shape to the floor, emulating the celestial vault and the movement of its luminous inhabitants, for just as the square represents the earth, the circle always evokes the sky. Circumference is the fundamental symbol of cycles, where time and motion are linked to the beginning and end of everything. It is the perfect figure par excellence, with its infinite sides equidistant from the invisible center, from which all possibilities of manifestation flow. In the circle we find the base of the oriental mandala, symbol of the universe and the graphic synthesis of the totality. A thousand years ago, the Baghdad plant was perfectly round for a compelling reason: it was thought to be a reflection of Heaven on Earth, bringing Paradise down.

It is speculated that the planimetry of the city may have been expressly designed to shape the celestial order by the arrangement of palaces, mosques and other public buildings, reflecting in the earth the positions of the stars for the day of its foundation. The idea of organizing the layout of the buildings according to an astronomical pattern was not new for the time. The Egyptians had already disposed much of their buildings following a scheme of celestial imitation, as the engineer and researcher Robert Bauval demonstrated in the 1990s. Although this type of thesis is not easy to prove, it is not crazy either, although it tends to raise bitter controversies with the most orthodox archaeologists and historians. In any case, the extension of the present city has more than surpassed the original circular plant, becoming a good example of this so typical modern disorder, a chaos in constant expansion that attends to nothing more than to demographic and economic pressures. In the 8th century, you can imagine, archetypal principles were attended that, by elevation, reflect a harmony and beauty that we have lost in our crowded and alienating cities.

And what day did the astrologers choose to found the city? In order to answer this it is inevitable to complicate matters a little and resort to the technical language of astrology. The chronicle recorded by the Persian mathematician and astrologer Al-Biruni indicates that the work began sometime on Saturday, July 31, 762, but he does not mention the time to lift the horoscope, as the astral chart does not have the cusps pointed out. However, knowing the rules of the art, it is possible to find the exact time and restore the angles of the figure. Given this, the team of astrologers could only have chosen 14:40 local time for the meridian of Baghdad. At that moment Jupiter was highly strengthened in his regency and term of Sagittarius, in hayz and stationary before turning direct, located right on the Ascendant. These factors are providential for traditional astrology, announcing political stability, economic prosperity, development of science and the arts, promotion of education, as well as justice, tolerance and cultural diversity. The astral chart in question was correctly found by the linguist and astrologer James H. Holden, to whom we owe the magnificent work “A History of Horoscopic Astrology”.

Unfortunately the Moon, which is fundamental in every elective chart, is peregrine, void of course and in via combusta on the horoscope of Baghdad, but the astrologers probably tried to mitigate these afflictions with two mutual receptions to Venus and Saturn, sadly not very effective because their lack of aspect, and a beneficial applicative trine to the Part of Fortune. However, we must remember that no astrological choice is perfect. Due to the great complexity of the firmament, it is inevitable that some negative factors will develop. Mars, the planet of war, opposes Jupiter and the Ascendant from the Seventh House, which among other things governs enemies. No wonder then that Baghdad was besieged and ravaged by the invasion of the Mongols under Hulagu Khan in 1258. The hordes of the steppes were brutal, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the city. In 1401 it was destroyed again by Timur, and in the following centuries had to endure the invasions of the Ottoman Turks.

It is ironic from a modern perspectice, that the round city of Baghdad was formerly known as Madinat as-Salam, the City of Peace. What is not taken into account is that the Abbasid capital was the jewel of civilization, knowledge and culture for half a millennium. The well-known Caliph Harun al-Rashid, great-grandson of Al-Mansur and fifth in line of succession in the dynasty, was who, next to its son and successor Al-Ma’mun, raised in the city the House of Wisdom (Bait Al-Hikmah), the most important center of studies of the time, with an extraordinary library where hundreds of translations were made to render the Greek philosophers into Arabic, along with the rishis of India, the wise men of Egypt and the Magicians of Persia. It was a kind of emulator of the great library of Alexandria in the heart of Iraq. Alchemy, chemistry, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, botany, zoology, geography and cartography were developed. Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Euclid, Hippocrates, Galen, Charaka, Sushruta, Aryabhata and Brahmagupta were translated, among many others. There worked the greatest scholars of the Middle East, such as the mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, the philosopher and polymath Al-Kindi, the renowned doctor Hunayn ibn Ishaq and the astrologer Thabit ibn Qurra. It was the golden age of Islam. In the House of Wisdom, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Sabeans and Zoroastrians met, leaving aside all their sectarian differences, joining forces in the pursuit of knowledge.

Baghdad was the richest city in the world and the intellectual beacon of its time. It came to have more than one million inhabitants, being the most populated city of its time. The stories of The Thousand and One Nights were told in its streets, while the song of the muezzin was heard from the minaret of the mosques, which rivaled in beauty with the walls of Babylon or the Mausoleum of Helicarnassus. In their observatories the movement of the stars were measured, in their taverns mystical poetry was recited, while in their gardens politics, philosophy and theology were discussed with the sound of the lute and the nay flutes behind. Let us not forget either that it is precisely in this same region of the globe that civilization itself arose, where writing, wheel, brick, agriculture, sailing, gardens, even the notion of city was invented. Iraq is the very cradle of science, religion and culture. The plunder and destruction of this long war, now transferred to the tribal and sectarian realm, has caused an irreparable loss for humanity. There are thousands of archaeological pieces that have disappeared in the midst of the war, fundamental parts of the history of humanity, not to mention the atrocities that have had to suffer the people of the country. The hordes of Mars are back, this time with bullets, drones and explosives. On the other side, religious fanaticism boils explosively, contributing to the destruction But Baghdad will rise again, as it has done many times in the past, or at least we hope so.