These articles on the history of astrology
in the Renaissance were originally published in the Mountain Astrologer.
You can start the series at the Astrology in the Renaissance
Main Page.
In February of 1524, Renaissance astrologers reported that
there was both a
Great Conjunction of Jupiter and
Saturn and a conjunction
of all the ancient planets in Pisces.
The reaction to this significant astrological event is an interesting example of
the confluent trends in Renaissance astrology.
The availability of printing
allowed for wide publication of the many diverse views regarding the effects
of the conjunction. Since the conjunction took place in a water sign, many
prognostications focused on the possibility of flooding. Some more sensational
predictions asserted that there would be a world wide deluge on the order of Noah's Flood.
Other, more sober analyses predicted
an abundance of rain and snow.
Indeed it appears that it was a very wet and rainy year according to a
day-by-day meteorological diary kept by a Bolognese astrologer.
Lynn Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume V
(New York, Columbia, 1941) page 231.
There was also much controversy
among astrologers over the propriety
of using the Great Conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter as a predictive technique.
This practice was criticized as an Arabic technique, improperly replacing the
older Ptolemaic use of eclipses. A number of astrological treatises on the
conjunction of 1524 took the opportunity to decry not only the reliance on Great
Conjunctions, but also the use of solar revolutions, neither of which was set
forth in Ptolemy's
Tetrabiblos. Nevertheless, despite a certain trend to Ptolemaic
practice, most astrologers continued to use the techniques handed down from Arabic
astrology.
We should note that modern astrological
software reveals that the Great
Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter took place on January 30, 1524 before all of the
seven planets were together in Pisces. On February 13, 1524 Mercury entered Pisces
and all of the traditional planets were in Pisces, except for the Moon in Gemini.
On February 20, 1524 Venus entered Aries with the Moon in Sagittarius.
Along with the revival of classical knowledge of
art and literature, the Renaissance saw the rebirth of classical philosophy
and science. We have already noted the effects of the revival of Ptolemaic
astrology. Astrology also had an important part in play in the Renaissance
rediscovery of Neo-Platonic and Hermetic philosophy.
Marsilio Ficino's
translation of the
Corpus Hermeticum attributed to the sage Hermes Trismegistus
stimulated much research and writing into esoteric subjects like astrology,
magic and alchemy.
Astrology in the Renaissance
was acclaimed as the Queen of the Sciences,
capable of providing an explanation for the birth, growth and decline of all
things in the Material World. The Zodiac and the planets, the Celestial World,
provided a key link in the Great Chain of Being, acting as the essential
intermediary between the Divine World of Platonic Ideas and Angels and the
Material World, composed of the four elements of air, earth, fire and water.
Astrology provided a window into a
Cosmos filled with beauty and harmony,
where spiritual correspondences united all things in existence.
The beauty of the Renaissance world view is apparent, not only in
its architecture, paintings and literature, but in its astrology,
as exemplified by the writings of such astrologers and philosophers
as John Dee, Robert Fludd, Cornelius Agrippa and Marsilio Ficino.
Yet astrology entered an abrupt decline
as the beginning of the
seventeenth century ushered in the Enlightenment. Contrary to the
beliefs of some modern authors, astrology was not so much disproved
in the early 1700's, but rather went out of fashion. The primary cause
for the decline of astrology was the increasing acceptance of a mechanical
theory of causality.
By denying the existence of the realm of the spirit,
the study of astrology, a spiritual science, became untenable. Where in the
Renaissance science and religion did not essentially disagree, the Enlightenment
begat a conflict between the scientific and spiritual that has continued to this day.
The lack of a unified schema of
knowledge has produced a societal
schizophrenia where biologists cannot talk to theologians, and mystics
are dismissed by philosophers. Renaissance astrology represents the
highest development of not only astrological theory and technique, but
of an astrology that was not estranged from all of the other branches
of knowledge.
The study and knowledge of Renaissance astrology increases
the accuracy and scope of our modern astrologies, but its ability to unify
both mechanical and spiritual causality, to heal the breach between science
and religion, is perhaps its greatest legacy.
