Claudius Ptolemy
Our life is full of recurring phenomena that are called, in a more mathematical formulation, cyclic phenomena. This includes the 24-hour rotation of the Earth around itself, the 365.24-day orbit of the Earth around the Sun and the 29.5-day orbit of the Moon around the Earth, but in relation to the Sun!
We could argue that repetition is imposed on the physical level by nature itself! It has passed as a phenomenon in every form and kind of human activity. At work, education, science ..
Main manifestation and result of recurrence is time. Think that without cyclic repetition even the concept of time could not be assessed.
Many ancient peoples studied and recorded the movements of the Sun and planets as a form of this repetition. Greeks were found in a higher level of civilization when these concepts fleshed, therefo they studied more than other peoples, in philosophical and scientific - Astronomical level, the effects of perpetual repetition.
Horoscopic Astrology that flourished from the 1st century. BC, in Ancient Greece, was based precisely on the circular repetition of celestial phenomena. Attempted to explain how and why the Sun was passing from summer soltice every 365 days, and this was (and still is) the work of Astronomy. Astrology emerged when people considered that along with the cyclical phenomena it would be feasible to predict the human actions and life. Since astronomers could predict the Sun's and Moon's place during a specific period in the future, why couldn' t astrology predict human actions (see positions, acts upon them etc.) in the future?
Before answering this question let's look what the ancient Greek Kybaleion says about the universe:
1) The universe is a living organism that all parts are interrelated,
2) the same laws apply to all levels of human, stars, all creatures,
3) Everything in the world is subjected to a dynamic evolution, as all vibrate, flow and mutate.(read more)..
Kybaleion as the theoretical foundation of Horoscopic Astrology essentially dictates how Claudius Ptolemy and other astrologers of the first century. A.D., implement the theory of Tropical Astrology which remains unchanged until today. The second law of Kybaleiou clearly states that the same laws apply to humans and to the planets, the stars and the Moon. So the planets acquired human character and qualities, bad, cold, etc. The way was then open for Horoscopic Astrology to interpret the future and conquer scientists and ordinary people of that epoch (and for some, up to now!).
During the 20th century a brilliant astrologer, Dane Rudyar, gave a new meaning in Astrology helping her escape from the suffocating tightness of futurology. The weirdest thing is that he always used the same principles of Ancient Greek Kybaleion even though he avoided to mention it directly.
Dane Rudyar said that the basic concept of Astrology is to help people discover what they are really hiding inside them. There are not good and bad planets or good and bad conjunctions and genera aspects in the natal horoscope of every human being. There is only the form that our Solar System had at the time he was born. The Natal Horoscope, if interpreted correctly by an astrologer can reveal the potentialities of a person. Until then these potentialities exist in a latent state.
What else do we see here but a holistic view of man and the solar system? What else despite the implementation of the first and the second law of Kymvaleiou? (See above)
Man is part of the whole, an organization that interacts with nature and thus the universe. People are made from the same materials as the universe. Man can be, as we smugly say, the highest form of existence of matter, but it is also an integral part of nature that can not live outside her.
Psychological Astrology of Rudyar has been detached from the simplistic model inspired by the Greek Astronomers and Astrologers of the 1st AD Century, as it acquired philosophical meaning. The concept of self-awareness developed by Plato and other Greek philosophers inherent in psychological Astrology of Rudyar. While it is exceeding the outdated religious dogma, "good - evil"!
In the next article we will develop the relationship between Psychological Astrology and Astrology of the 13 Signs of the Zodiac.
Vasilis Kanatas, Delphi, April 2013