From Chaos To Cosmos

On the Origin of Astrological Thought

I would like to first clarify that it is not my aim to present a history of the development of astrological technique; as this would address the chronological transmission of the proto-astrological concepts of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations as well as how these became codified into the essentially Hellenistic system of planets, signs, houses and aspects – i.e., that which we have come to recognize as Western Astrology. Instead, I hope to (however briefly) examine the prehistoric origin of a worldview that would come to allow for astrological thinking – that is to say, the origin of astrological thought.

From Chaos to Cosmos

Many millennia ago, the human ancestor ventured down from the forest canopy and encountered the darkness, danger and chaos of life on the Earth’s surface. Certainly, the predatorial landscape had widened and, consequently, these ancestors were confronted with the unpredictability of existence. Many eons would pass as this creature evolved to become the anatomically modern human – yet the specters of unpredictability and chaos, though increasingly mitigated, remained. To make a very long story very short, the themes of chaos and unpredictability – those eternal and primary foes of human life – were the driving factors leading to humankind’s search for order. Humanity’s quest for predictable patterns, regularity and periodicity formed the first inkling of a cosmology – a study of the nature of the cosmos. This notion is made evident when we consider that the very word ‘cosmos’ was derived from the Greek kosmos, meaning “order, good order, orderly arrangement”. Chaos and cosmos had become perhaps the first opposing extremes of humankind’s emerging philosophical landscape.

In time, awareness of the cycles of cosmic periodicity necessitated that said cycles be measured and quantified – hence the development of the sexagesimal, or base-60 system by which humankind (still!) communicates all notions of space (angles, aspects, orientation, directionality, etc.) and time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, precessional ages, etc.). This system is distinct from the counting numbers (non-negative integers) used in arithmetical operations (Susan has 3 apples in her basket…), which were based on the decimal system and stem from our having a total of 10 digits, 5 on each hand. Suddenly, along with the advent of civilization (characterized by agriculture, animal domestication, urbanization, etc.) in ancient Sumer, humankind had a language which it could apply to geometry, astronomy, navigation, cartography, music and architecture. A mathematization of the cosmos – one component that would make astrology possible – was underway.

Archetypal Concentrations

Concurrent with the development of a quantitative astronomy was the infusion with a preexisting, qualitative mythology. Humanity, in its animism, had long been in the process of ensouling and anthropomorphizing nature and the cosmos. The planets (“wandering stars”, seen as distinct from the zodiac and canopy of fixed stars), particularly, had been invested with archetypal qualities and characteristics – Venus with beauty and fecundity; Mars with warfare and aggression; etc. Mythic personas and narratives were woven around the celestial objects and their various cycles in the heavens. A species of nominalism had also begun to take hold, wherein the naming of, and familiarity with, the planets, constellations and asterisms resulted in their cultural adoption and domestication in a sort of cosmic totemism. Over the course of many centuries – or, perhaps, millennia – the planets had acted as file folders into which humankind collated disparate anthropomorphic attributes and characteristics until, finally, each celestial body had come to represent a discrete archetypal concentration. This animistic mythologization, in conjunction with the new calculability of the cosmos (the sexagesimal system), would form the seedbed from which astrology, in theory and practice, would emerge.

Conditional Statements and Causality

The Enuma Anu Enlil are a series of tablets produced in cuneiform during the early-to-mid 2nd millennium BCE. These tablets are the primary source of the Assyro-Babylonian omenic literature of the period; that is to say, literature devoted to mundane astrological events, largely concerning the fate of the king and the state. These omens are presented in conditional statements, following the if/then logical formula (e.g., “If on the first day of Nisannu [March/April] the sunrise (looks) sprinkled with blood and the light is cool: (then) the king will die and there will be mourning in the country.”). Interpretations such as those found in omenic literature are relatively simple (though weirdly specific!) delineations made upon perceived causal cycles, set in motion by celestial bodies, made under direct observation.

This idea of cosmic causality and the deterministic paradigm, in due course, would lead to the development of Aristotle’s cosmology and meteorology (the Empedoclean elements in their natural order – from dense to rare: earth, water, air and fire – in the sublunary sphere; the seven aetheric planetary spheres; the sphere of the fixed stars and the zodiac; as well as the causal and temperamental relationship between these several planes); and it is upon the foundation of this worldview that all subsequent astrological theory is predicated.

Toward an Astrology

The convergence of essentially five factors: 1.) the development of the Sumerian sexagesimal system; 2.) the gradual mythologization (by several cultures, simultaneously) of celestial bodies and events; 3.) the Babylonian contribution of the zodiac and omenic literature; 4.) the introduction of Egyptian temporal and diurnal concepts, such as the ascendant, decans and asterisms; and 5.) the construction of a sufficient cosmology (the Aristotelian/Ptolemaic), one allowing for causality, into which the preceding components could be fitted, provided the necessary foundation upon which astrology, in the strictest sense, could be erected. It is from this point – but not before – that we may begin to embark upon a history of astrology.

Most importantly, I propose that the primary, pre-astrological impetus behind the codification of this system is deeply rooted in humankind’s prehistoric quest for order – to progress from chaos to cosmos.

[As this is just a blog post and not a proper research piece, you’ll have to forgive my taking a more cursory and generalized approach – but, it is hoped that this will provide a springboard for your further independent consideration of the subject. I view this post as a sort of outline-in-progress to much more developed work that I hope to produce in the future.]

Works Consulted:

Pedersen, Early Physics and Astronomy (1974), Cambridge University Press, 1993

Rudhyar, The Astrology of Personality (1936), Santa Fe: Aurora Press, 1991

Tester, A History of Western Astrology (1987), New York: Ballantine Books, 1989

Aristotle, On the Heavens, pdf retrieved online, 11/27/20

Aristotle, Meteorology, pdf retrieved online, 11/27/20

Enuma Anu Enlil, retrieved at: http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/astronomer/explore/enuma1t.html on 11/27/20