Ptolemy Tetrabiblos or Quadrripartite Being Four Books Of The Influ... | |
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Ptolemy Tetrabiblos or Quadrripartite Being Four Books Of | |
The Influence Of The Stars newly TRANSLATED From the | |
Greek paraphrase Of Proclus With A Preface + MASSIVE FOOT | |
NOTES + APPENDIX CONTAINING - Extracts From The Almagest | |
Of Ptolemy AND The Whole Of his Centiloquy . By - J. M. | |
ASHMAND[1] | |
Sir Isaac Newton has the following remarks in regard to | |
the origin of Astrology:--"After the study of Astronomy | |
was set on foot for the use of navigation, and the | |
gyptians, by the heliacal risings and settings of the | |
stars, had determined the length of the solar year of 365 | |
days, and by other observations had fixed the solstices, | |
and formed the fixed stars into asterisms, all which was | |
done in the reigns of Ammon, Sesac, Orus, and Memnon," | |
(about 1000 years before Christ), "it may be presumed | |
that they continued to observe the motions of the | |
planets, for they called them after the names of their | |
gods; and Nechepsos, or Nicepsos, King of Sais," [772 | |
B.C.], "by the assistance of Petosiris, a priest of gypt, | |
invented astrology, grounding it upon the aspects of the | |
planets, and the qualities of the men and women to whom | |
they were dedicated *1; and in the beginning of the reign | |
of Nabonassar, King of Babylon, about which time the | |
thiopians, under Sabacon, invaded gypt" [751 B.C.], | |
"those gyptians who fled from him to Babylon, carried | |
thither the gyptian year of 365 days, and the study of | |
astronomy and astrology, and founded the a era of | |
Nabonassar, dating it from the first year of that king's | |
reign" [747 B.C.], "and beginning the year on the same | |
day with the gyptians for the sake of their calculations. | |
So Diodorus: 'they say that the Chald an in Babylon, | |
being colonies of the gyptians, became famous for | |
astrology, having learned it from the priests of gypt.'"-- | |
Newton's Chronology, pp. 251, 252. | |
The arcana of Astrology constituted a main feature in the | |
doctrines of the Persian Magi; and it further appears, by | |
Newton's Chronology, p. 347, that Zoroaster (although the | |
ra of his life has been erroneously assigned to various | |
remoter periods) lived in the reign of Darius Hystaspis, | |
about 520 B.C., and assisted Hystaspes, the father of | |
Darius, in reforming the Magi, of whom the said Hystaspes | |
was Master. Newton adds, p. 352, that "about the same | |
time with Hystaspes and Zoroaster, lived also Ostanes, | |
another eminent Magus: Pliny places him under Darius | |
Hystaspis, and Suidas makes him the follower of | |
Zoroaster: he came into Greece with Xerxes about 480 | |
B.C., and seems to be the Otanes of Herodotus. In his | |
book, called the Octateuchus, he taught the same doctrine | |
of the Deity as Zoroaster." | |
The world is divided into two parts, the elemental region | |
and the thereal. The elemental region is constantly | |
subject to alteration, and comprises the four elements; | |
earth, water, air and fire. The thereal region, which | |
philosophers call the fifth essence, encompasses, by its | |
concavity, the elemental; its substance remains always | |
unvaried, and consists of ten spheres; of which the | |
greater one always spherically environs the next smaller, | |
and so on in consecutive order. First, therefore, around | |
the sphere of fire, GOD, the creator of the world, placed | |
the sphere of the Moon, then that of Mercury, then that | |
of Venus, then that of the Sun, and afterwards those of | |
Mars, of Jupiter, and of Saturn. Each of these spheres, | |
however, contains but one star: and these stars, in | |
passing through the zodiac, always struggle against the | |
primum mobile, or the motion of the tenth sphere; they | |
are also entirely luminous. In the next place follows the | |
firmament, which is the eighth or starry sphere, and | |
which trembles or vibrates (trepidat) in two small | |
circles at the beginning of Aries and Libra (as placed in | |
the ninth sphere); this motion is called by astronomers | |
the motion of the access and recess of the fixed stars." | |
(Probably in order to account for the procession of the | |
equinoxes.) "This is surrounded by the ninth sphere, | |
called the chrystalline or watery heaven, because no star | |
is discovered in it. Lastly, the primum mobile, styled | |
also the tenth sphere, encompasses all the before- | |
mentioned thereal spheres, and is continually turned upon | |
the poles of the world, by one revolution in twenty-four | |
hours, from the east through the meridian to the west, | |
again coming round to the east. At the same time, it | |
rolls all the inferior spheres round with it, by its own | |
force; and there is no star in it. Against this primum | |
mobile, the motion of the other spheres, running from the | |
west through the meridian to the east, p. 3 contends. | |
Whatever is beyond this, is fixed and immovable, and the | |
professors of our orthodox faith affirm it to be the | |
empyrean heaven which GOD inhabits with the elect."-- | |
Cosmographia of Peter Apianus (named Benewitz), dedicated | |
to the Archbishop of Saltzburg, edited by Gemma Frisius, | |
and printed at Antwerp 1574. | |
The practice of observing the stars began in gypt in the | |
days of Ammon, as above, and was propagated from thence, | |
in the reign of his son Sesac, into Afric, Europe, and | |
Asia, by conquest; and then Atlas formed the sphere of | |
the Libyans" [956 B.C.], "and Chiron that of the Greeks | |
[939 B.C.]; and the Chald ans also made a sphere of their | |
own. But astrology p. xii was invented in gypt by | |
Nichepsos, or Necepsos, one of the Kings of the Lower | |
gypt, and Petosiris his priest, a little before the days | |
of Sabacon, and propagated thence into Chald a, where | |
Zoroaster, the legislator of the Magi, met with it: so | |
Paulinus; | |
References | |
1. https://www.academia.edu/93744348/Ptolemy_Tetrabiblos_or_Quadrripartite_Bei… | |
Date Published: 2023-04-08 02:25:11 | |
Identifier: ptolemy-tetrabiblos-or-quadrripartite | |
Item Size: 193512152 | |
Media Type: texts | |
# Topics | |
ptolemy | |
asrosophia | |
astrosophism | |
esoteric astrology | |
esotericism | |
occultism | |
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deemphasize | |
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