Exploring the Origins and Evolution of Astrological Magic

What is Astrological Magic?

Astrology and magic have been key to the development of the human mind since prehistoric times. In this article I will show astrology to be a tradition with roots over 30,000 years old that propelled the human mind and civilization forward, directly resulting in math, art and even writing. It culminated with a system of thought that produced unusually advanced human achievements in the Bronze Age through Late Antiquity and helped propel the early Islamic kingdoms to great heights.

This system of thought was a complex religion of the stars that permeated every aspect of life and fused the movements of the heavens with ritual and religious activities. Core elements of this star religion survive in obscure esoteric texts such as The Picatrix (Ghayat al-Hakim) and Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation), as well as the writings of Plato and Aristotle.

Astrological magic is a type of magical practice that involves working with the spirits and symbolism of the planets, stars, and other celestial bodies to achieve specific goals or outcomes. This type of magic is based on the principles of astrology, which links the movements and positions of the planets with influences and events on Earth.

The practice is intimately tied to its namesake: astrology. Astrological magic can take many forms, from creating talismans to complex ceremonies and rituals. Practitioners of astrological magic use various tools and techniques, such as astrological charts, talismans, metals, herbs, gems, and other items associated with the planets and zodiac signs.  For the purposes of this article, I will refer to the practice of astrological magic as occult or religious activities with the purpose of interacting with the spiritual beings embodied in the planets and stars. The highly sophisticated practice of creating astrological talismans is referred to as “The Science of Images” in The Picatrix.   

All around the world in ancient times, elaborate rites took place in megalithic temples and structures that were carefully designed to reflect the patterns of the heavens.

Section 1: The History and Origins of Astrological Magic

1.1 History and Origins

The origins of astrological magic in the western world are traced back to the ancient Persians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks, who developed complex systems of astrology and used them for both divination and magic.  The Egyptians and Babylonians themselves claimed its origins to be tens of thousands of years old.

It enjoyed widespread popularity and patronage among many Islamic rulers and philosophers for a millennium.  Astrological magic was also practiced in medieval Europe and spread during the Renaissance, when scholars and magicians like Cornelius Agrippa, Marsilio Ficino, and Giordano Bruno explored the connections between astrology and magic. The primary text for this period was the Picatrix, compiled around 1000 CE from hundreds of older sources.

However, it is difficult to determine the exact age of astrological magic, as magical practices have existed in all cultures. The use of astrological symbolism and astrology itself is far older than recorded history. It is likely that astrological magic has been practiced in some form for the majority of human history and is beginning to experience a renewed interest among some people today.

1.2 Stars, Magic and Consciousness

Astronomy is the study and observation of the stars, using careful observation and mathematics to determine their operations, properties and positions to understand the physical universe. Astrology is the study of the movements and positions of celestial bodies to interpret their influence on human affairs and the natural world.

Magic is the act of conveying a request to something non-physical in the hopes that it will lend assistance of some sort; the most popular forms of this practice are deemed religions. Temple worship is magic taken to its highest form, constructed for the sole purpose of people making contact with the unseen world. The most common in the Western world today are known as churches and mosques. The rituals that take place are standardized and have always served as a source of social unity for the surrounding community.

The obscure practices of small secret groups are typically termed occult or magic. What is now termed magic or occult practices are religious rites that are poorly understood, marginalized and often kept relatively hidden for various reasons. They are also part of human history from the very earliest times.

Elaborate funerary rites to honor the deceased were conducted by Neanderthals more than 100,000 years ago, as were shamanic rites to bring luck to a hunting party. The earliest known instances of agriculture in both the Old and New World were accompanied by rites intended to attract the favor of nature for a successful planting and harvest. Many of these prehistoric farms are now showing evidence of fertility and harvest rites coinciding with the spring and autumn equinox, which is an example of early astrological magic.

It must be understood that until the past few centuries, what we now call astronomy (the branch of science), and astrology (the pseudo-science) were one and the same. After the Industrial Age and the widespread push of materialism into our culture, astronomy enjoys the status of a respected science while astrology was thrown to the dustbin of witchcraft and superstition. Today, astrology is most often encountered as mass-produced predictions in magazines and vague statements connected to sun signs. For the purposes of this article, I will be referring to astrology in its older sense: a companion of the science we now call astronomy requiring tremendous expertise.

Today we are told that spirit does not exist, and consciousness is only a byproduct of the physical; we are no more than bags of meat and our mind is a collection of chemical processes in the brain. Before this, people saw everything as interconnected. Gods, spirits, and nature were one and the same. What we see with our physical eyes is only a fraction of a vast ecosystem of spiritual beings in an endless cyclic web of existence.

The Greek Platonist philosopher Proclus Lycius wrote in his tract “On the Priestly Art” the principles of sympathies and attracting divine forces through images and materials of similar nature, as well as stones and herbs “breathing” the emanations of the stars, which can unite under certain circumstances.”Thus, all things are full of gods, the things on Earth full of the celestial gods, and the things in Heaven full of the subcelestial gods, and they progress, each series being multiplied, down to the last things; for the things in the One before all, these are manifested in all things.”

For our ancestors, the sun gave the light that sustains our existence, but it also has a spirit that emanates through our world. The moon governed the tides of the ocean and had a spirit as old as time itself, flowing into the earth and influencing life in a myriad of ways, as did every light in the cosmos. Not only did they pour their influences on the earth, but they could also be harnessed and even contacted to some extent using certain techniques. These techniques are part of what is now called astrological magic.

This practice was the single biggest factor driving the development of human civilization.

The first human to notice the repeated correlation between the moon’s position and an important act of nature, such as seasonal changes, would have wanted to use this knowledge to ensure survival. With a little intuition and observation, rudimentary math could be applied to the sun’s rising and setting and the moon’s position among the stars. For the first human to apply it successfully and pass the knowledge to another, the bright spirits that ensouled the luminaries would be honored for this gift and those having the skill valued by their community. These people would have been what are now called shamans.

Mathematics would have begun, and the seed was planted for the advanced calculations that would one day allow human beings to set foot on the moon itself, among every other achievement. As the science of the stargazers developed, so did math. Math is integral to astrology; in ancient Greece, astrologers were called “Mathematikos” because of their expertise with complex calculations.

Navigation, crucial to our survival and day-to-day life even today, has largely been replaced by the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. The operation of GPS satellites is based on precise astronomical principles, including orbital mechanics and timekeeping, artificially mimicking what what once done with the human mind.

On the simplest scale, the sun and stars provided a reliable compass at all times and oriented the observer to north, south, east and west. In the northern hemisphere, this is called Solar Noon. The Sun reaches its highest point in the sky at solar noon, which occurs roughly around midday. To determine north or south direction, when the sun is at its highest (most directly overhead), it will point south. To find east and west directions, you can use a simple shadow stick. Place a straight stick upright in the ground and mark the tip of its shadow. Wait for some time (about 15 minutes) and mark the new tip of the shadow. The line between the two marks points from west to east, with the first mark being west.

At night the stars also provide a solution.  Polaris is a fixed point in the northern sky (the North Star), very close to the North Celestial Pole. To find true north using Polaris, locate Polaris by identifying the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) and drawing an imaginary line from the two outer stars of the Dipper’s bowl. This line points directly to Polaris. The direction Polaris is seen is north. To find east and west, the prominent constellation of Orion provides the answer. he three stars that make up Orion’s Belt are a useful reference for east-west direction. When Orion is visible in the night sky, draw an imaginary line through the three stars of Orion’s Belt. The line points roughly from west to east, with the right-most star in Orion’s Belt (as you face Orion) being in the east.

These are the most rudimentary but reliable techniques used since remote prehistory. During recorded history, the stars provided far more sophisticated cartography and navigational abilities. To name but a few notable examples, Polynesians are known for their remarkable navigational skills, which relied heavily on celestial observations. They used the position of stars, particularly the rising and setting of certain stars on the horizon, to determine directions and navigate the vast Pacific Ocean. For example, the star Sirius, known as the “Star of Hawaii,” was used for navigation in the Polynesian islands.

Ancient Egyptians used the star Sirius, also known as the “Dog Star,” to help predict the annual flooding of the Nile River. This celestial event marked the beginning of their calendar year and was crucial for agriculture and navigation along the Nile.

The astrolabe was widely used by ancient Greeks and Romans for celestial navigation. The instrument allowed them to measure the altitude of celestial objects above the horizon accurately. This knowledge was applied to determine latitude based on the height of the North Star (Polaris) above the horizon. Incredibly sophisticated artificacts such as the Antikythera Mechanism show that the stars were responsible for the first known computer, dating back to 200 BCE or before, functioned as a remarkably precise analog computer, allowing its Greek owners to accurately calculate and predict precise locations and times for any astronomical body and eclipse many decades in advance. This incredible feat of engineering in ancient times is only known to us through sheer luck, discovered in the ruins of a Greek shipwreck. One can only wonder at what else may have been in use at the time that has been lost to history.

Like Prometheus giving us fire, the stars gave numbers to the human race. Later, they gave us writing.

As we explore the ancient roots of astrological magic, it’s fascinating to see how the exchange of astronomical knowledge along the Silk Roads, detailed in this UNESCO article, played a pivotal role in shaping the practices and beliefs that underpin the complex relationship between the stars, magic, and human consciousness.

1.3. Astrological Magic

There is a little-known practice called “electional astrology”. Electional astrology is a branch of astrology that involves choosing the most favorable time for a specific event or activity in order to increase the likelihood of success or positive outcomes. The word “electional” refers to the act of choosing or selecting. In electional astrology, astrologers use the positions and movements of the planets to identify auspicious moments for various activities.

Electional astrology is used for a wide range of purposes, such as selecting a wedding date, launching a new business, signing a contract, beginning a journey, or initiating a battle or even an entire war. It is based on the principle that the movements and energies of the planets can have a significant impact on human affairs and events, and by choosing an auspicious time, individuals can align themselves with these energies and increase the likelihood of success and positive outcomes. Going back to our prehistoric ancestors, the use of the sun and moon to plan the successful planting and harvesting of crops would be the use of electional astrology.  Speaking a prayer and giving an offering to the sun and moon before planting would be a ritual act of astrological magic. The fact that we now consider timing as a basic principle of agriculture doesn’t negate its astrological origins or the people doing it viewing the sun and moon as spiritual beings.

The uses of electional astrology were not limited to mundane activities like farming or beginning a project. It was also used by ancient priesthoods and magicians throughout the world to choose favorable times for ritual magic. Fertility rites date far back into prehistoric times and were performed on the spring equinox. Historical artifiacts show it was also used as far back as the Copper and early Bronze Age for selecting favorable times of prayer and ritual as well as preparing herbal medicines.

Astrological talismans are objects, usually made of metal or stone, that carry the energy and influence of a particular planet, star, or other astrological spirit and can influence both its owner and their surroundings. They are created according to specific astrological correspondences and are often inscribed with symbols, sigils, and images that represent its celestial spirit. The use of specialized electional astrology to create talismans is the astrological component of “The Science of Images”.

Section 2: Deep Antiquity of Astrology and Links to Magic

 In Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age, Oxford anthropologist Richard Rudgley presents strong evidence that astrology has existed for at least 40,000 years. He emphasizes the striking similarities of myths across the globe over vast distances and time that cannot be explained by chance alone, He argues that prehistoric people were far more advanced than commonly believed and that they developed complex systems of learning that have largely been forgotten. A key theme of the book is the central role of shamans in the development of civilization, who were highly attuned to the movements of the stars and planets, and that they used this knowledge to develop complex systems of timekeeping, navigation, and agricultural planning.

“Hamlet’s Mill” is another groundbreaking work that explores the relationship between mythology, astronomy, and the evolution of the human mind.  One of the book’s key themes is that most ancient myths and symbols are based on a common system of astronomical knowledge and were a method of encoding and transmitting complex information about the stars and the natural world that could be easily understood and remembered. This resulted in common themes underlying widely different mythologies: sacred numbers such as seven and the cyclical nature of events. The spread of writing and the rise of monotheism resulted in the decline of this system of knowledge and had a profound impact on human consciousness.

These two books began a trend that continues today, where the common perception of our modern society as the pinnacle of human achievement and our ancestors as dumb savages is being chipped away. The technical achievements and sophistication of the ancients are being recognized and appreciated more and more by the average person, in large part due to the popularity of ancient alien theorists like Zechariah Sitchin and Erich Von Daniken.

Both popularized the notion of “alien ancestors” driven by the idea that ancient people were incapable of equaling or surpassing us today. Our modern technology is still incapable of replicating the pyramids of Giza. The Mayan astronomer-priests, also builders of incredible pyramids, possessed knowledge of the universe unequaled until only a few decades ago with the aid of computers. These are only two of many examples that something important went missing in our world. The common factor of these mysterious and inexplicable accomplishments is the worship of the planets and stars. The records of these cultures all describe bizarre, otherworldly beings giving them their advanced knowledge, which many now believe were extraterrestrials.

The other theory gaining popularity is that extraterrestrials were not involved, but that there existed people in ancient times who possessed knowledge far beyond our comprehension. The strange “star beings” were encountered in visions attained through intense spiritual practices and imparted highly advanced knowledge to the seers. These ideas take at face value the accounts of shamans, magicians and seers of the past, who possessed a body of knowledge that has been almost completely erased from modern society, much of which is of an advanced astrological nature.

The ancient astral priests were not ignorant religious fanatics, but polymaths who possessed genius intellects much like Nikola Tesla and Ramanujan in the early 20^th century. Both had little formal education and obtained their ideas from an unseen source outside of themselves; meditative focus and intuition in the case of Tesla and directly from a deity that Ramanujan encountered in dreams.

Graham Hancock’s “Ancient Apocalypse” became wildly popular after its release in 2022, which proposed that human beings were once capable of attaining advanced knowledge through methods that are now scorned and that a star-based religion once dominated the world. Hancock’s work continues to provoke controversy and criticism.

What doesn’t draw criticism from any side of the debate is the evidence that our ancient ancestors were not just heavily interested in astrology, they were obsessed with it. This is evidenced in the earliest written records of human history.

2.1 Prehistoric Times According to Late Antiquity

“The rest of mankind, however, having fallen away from this only true religion, and gazing in awe upon the luminaries of heaven with eyes of flesh, as mere children in mind, proclaimed them gods, and honored them with sacrifices and acts of worship, though as yet they built no temples, nor formed likenesses of mortal men with statues and carved images, but looked up to the clear sky and to heaven itself, and in their souls reached up unto the things there seen.”

–Eusebius, commenting on Sanchuniathon’s History of the Phoenicians

One of the most influential and mysterious civilizations of the ancient world were the Phoenicians.  Renowned for their expertise in shipbuilding and navigation, the people of Canaan established international trade routes throughout the Mediterranean in the Bronze Age but were equally famed for their secrecy. They are credited with the invention of the syllabic alphabet, later adopted by the Greeks and still used today, although their scant written history credits their alphabet to the Egyptian god Thoth.

The early Catholic Church father Eusebius commented on some parts of the History of the Phoenicians as recorded by Philo of Byblos, the rest of which is still lost.  According to the Phoenicians, the first deities of mankind were the sun, moon, and stars, a view that is also echoed by Plato in Timaeus: “I suspect that the sun, moon, earth, stars, and heaven, which are still the gods of many barbarians, were the only gods known to the aboriginal Hellenes.”

According to the Platonic philosopher Proclus, the very first temples were caves. “The most ancient of mankind then, before temples were raised to divinity, consecrated caves and dens to the gods.” Recent discoveries are proving the words of Proclus correct.

2.2 Europe: 40,000 Years Ago

 At first glance, stars and underground caverns have no obvious link. Modern thinking separates the spiritual worlds into duality, heaven and hell, above and below, but recent discoveries are beginning to vindicate the ancient Greek claims. The oldest known artworks are elaborate paintings deep inside European caves dating back forty thousand years. Once inside, the viewer is surrounded by striking and detailed images of animals on the walls, often in an enormous circle.

Although the Chauvet Cave simply appears as a beautiful work of art if taken at face value, on closer inspection it begins to look familiar. A procession of real animals and other strange mythological creatures, seemingly at random. 35,000 years later, we have one thing today that looks similar, used worldwide in more or less the same form, and is universally understood: the Zodiac. The word itself originates in ancient Greece as zōdiakòs kýklos (ζῳδιακός κύκλος), meaning “cycle of animals” or “circle of animals”.

The Zodiac as it is known in Western astrology for the last 2,000 years

There is also an altar in this cave, with evidence of burnt offerings.  This is a religious activity that is still performed in our world 35,000 years later.  It is immediately obvious that this cave was a sacred place for the people who used it, just as Proclus and other great thinkers of antiquity claimed of our most ancient ancestors.

This could simply be a case of bias confirmation. As anyone who looks at the clear night sky can attest, there are infinite patterns to find in the thousands of visible stars. Most any image could be made to fit in the night sky.  However, a growing body of evidence is showing complex astronomical designs in these mysterious caves.

Chantal Jeques-Wolkiewiez, a French paleo-astronomer, has presented evidence of over 130 prehistoric caves in southern France to be oriented to important solar points, most often the sunrise or sunset on the equinox or solstice. Most of the narrow entrances to these caves are precisely positioned so that the rays of the rising sun filled the cave only on those precise days. (1) The odds of this occurring by chance are quite literally astronomical.  Furthermore, this is evidence that people ten thousand to over thirty thousand years ago may have understood the Procession of the Equinox, a discovery that is credited to the Greeks only some two millennia ago.

Inside these caves, some of the oldest artifacts ever discovered are found to be lunar and solar calendars carved on bone plates, created over 30,000 years ago. (1) There is also evidence that some of the constellation signs as we know them today are the same as those used tens of thousands of years ago.

1. Lloyd, Ellen. Astonishing Lunar And Solar Calendars Created 30,000 B.C. – Ancient Pages

2.Brian Hayden and Suzanne Villeneuve. “Astronomy in the Upper Paleolithic?” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 21:3, 331–55 01Hayden & Villeneuve_col.indd (cambridge.org)

2.3  Ice Age Zodiac (25,000 Years Ago)

‘It is said then that the men who dwelled of old in Egypt when they looked up to the cosmos, and were struck with astonishment and admiration at the nature of the universe, supposed that the sun and moon were two eternal and primal gods, one of whom they named Osiris, and the other Isis, each name being applied from some true etymology…. Some say also that the fawn-skin cloak is hung about him as a representation of the spangling of the stars…..'”Isis” too, being interpreted, means “ancient,” the name having been given to the Moon from her ancient and eternal origin. And they put horns upon her, both from the aspect with which she appears whenever she is crescent-shaped, and also from the cow which is consecrated to her among the Egyptians. And these deities they suppose to regulate the whole world.”

Diodorus, as quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea (260 – 341 AD), Praeparatio Evangelica

Popular culture often depicts all people before our time as dumb, superstitious savages having contributed little of relevance to us. The older, the worse. What if we are still using some of the same astronomical images from ten to thirty thousand years ago?

The Venus of Laussel is an 18-inch-high carving of a nude woman. It is painted with red ochre and was carved into the limestone of a rock shelter in the commune of Marquay, in the Dordogne department of south-western France. The carving is associated with the Gravettian Upper Paleolithic culture (approximately 25,000 years old). It is currently displayed in the Musée d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux, France.

Venus of Laussel, 25,000 years old

R. Gabriel Joseph drew the conclusion that the figure was the personification of the moon, indicated by the crescent moon in her right hand decorated with thirteen grooves. There are 13 new moons in a solar year, and females have 13 menstrual cycles in a year. According to Joseph, the pregnant goddess holds the crescent moon in her hand, and the 13 cuts in the crescent moon represent the 13 menstrual cycles and 13 lunar cycles during a solar year, demonstrating an awareness of this association 20,000 years ago. The menstrual cycle, pregnancy and the moon personify the Hermetic idea of “As Above, So Below”: every cosmic cycle has smaller corresponding cycles on earth and vice versa.

The Lascaux Cave was discovered in 1940 and found to contain over 600 perfectly preserved and intricately detailed paintings. The paintings have been dated to approximately 17,000 years ago.  For perspective, it should be considered that the Sumerian culture dates back 5,500 years ago. The world as it existed 17,000 years ago would be unrecognizable to us today, with sea levels hundreds of feet lower and giant creatures roaming the earth of which today we have only a few fossils, such as the Wooly Mammoth, the Saber Toothed Tiger, the Giant Beaver that measured nine feet in length, and the Teratorn bird possessing a wingspan of almost 30 feet.

The most famous section of the cave is The Hall of the Bulls where bulls, horses, and stags are depicted. The four black bulls, or aurochs, are the most prominent of the 36 animals. One of the bulls is 17 feet long, the largest animal discovered so far in cave art. The bulls appear to be in motion.

Most of the ancient star maps known to us contained approximately 48 groups of stars depicted mostly as a mixture of animals, humans, or anthropomorphic creatures.  Each culture had their own individual variations, but the overall theme was similar. We know nothing of the people who created these images and therefore cannot deduce for certain what all of these pictures represent or the layout they chose.  However, the paintings as a whole bear a striking resemblance to ancient star maps.

The four black bulls are of interest because the bull has represented the constellation of Taurus in western astrology to the present day. In the image below, a human figure is depicted directly to the left of the auroch, in exactly the same manner as the well-known constellation of Orion the Hunter facing Taurus the Bull.

Taurus and Orion (Photograph: Ancient Astronomy)

The figure below is another representation of Taurus, strikingly similar to the traditional astrological image. There are seven dots painted above the shoulders of the bull, matching the seven stars of the Pleaides.

Taurus and the Pleiaedes (Photo: Ancient Astronomy)

Elsewhere, Cervus the Stag is painted on the cave wall exactly as the Greeks depicted in their star maps two thousand years ago:

Archaeo-astronomers have also found that these constellations identifiable to us today are not only perfectly proportionate but were positioned on the cave walls to reflect their exact position in the night sky outside the cave during the solstice. The people who designed the paintings would have possessed an excellent knowledge of arithmetic, geometry and measurement. The research is continuing, and the Cambridge Archaeological Journal and Bradshaw Foundation are excellent sources for updates on future discoveries.

2. Relating Ice Age art with astronomy (bradshawfoundation.com)

2.4  Ice Age Zodiac (17,000 to 10,000 Years Ago)

The Magdalenian culture is estimated to have existed from 17,000 to 10,000 years before the present time throughout central Europe. Many well-preserved artifacts have been discovered in caves in France.  The Madeleine cave revealed a wealth of artifacts showing a comparatively high degree of culture, including numerous pieces of intricately carved jewelry, woven fabrics, and beautiful sculptures created with remarkable artistic skill of animals extinct for over 10,000 years, including mammoths and European reindeer.

One artifact shows a carving of the figure associated with the Virgo constellation:

Painting of Virgo in Madeleine Cave (Photo: Ancient Astronomy)

Most remarkable about this figure is that is mimics exactly the layout of the Virgo constellation, lying down with the arms and legs in a provocative pose.  Virgo, the Virgin, implies chastity rather than the sexual overtones seen in the figure. However, the mythology of Virgo is related to female youth and fertility, a maiden rather than a virgin.

Like the images of Taurus found in the Lascaux Cave, this is another example of an astrological symbol that we use in today’s world, exactly as it was perceived 10,000 to 17,000 years ago.

As incredible as this figure is, the remains of the Magdalenian culture reveal even more fascinating information. Various artifacts have been found inscribed with symbols that look very much like the letters of writing systems that are more familiar to us.

Upper Paleolithic writing recovered from Magdalenian cave sites (top) compared to characters in three early written languages: (b) Indus valley signs, (c) Greek and (d) Runic. Settegast (p. 28) after Forbes and Crowder, 1979

This is not an isolated incident, and the Magdalenian culture is not the only prehistoric culture that used a set of symbols that look eerily familiar when compared to each other.  This will be explored in depth in the next chapter. These symbols, originating ten to seventeen thousand years ago, passed through time in the possession of various peoples in far-flung corners of the region and may form the basis of the most widely used form of writing in the world today.

2.5 Ice Age Temple and Observatory

In the mountains twenty miles north of Harran, which will be explored in section 4, and just above the source of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, is what has been declared the world’s first temple: Gobekli Tepe.

Until its discovery, the Sumerians were credited with creating the foundations of civilization 5,000 years ago and the people of the Ice Age assumed to be primitives barely surviving on the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.  Gobekli Tepe turned this all on its head.  While mammoths and other giant Ice Age still animals roamed the earth, a mysterious group of people in 9,600 BCE constructed a sprawling megalithic complex over 20 square miles. Gobekli Tepe is circular groups of megalithic pillars, 10-50 tons (20,000 to 100,000 pounds) and 10-20 feet tall, that dwarfs Stonehenge in every possible way.  Over the next 1500 years more structures were built until it was suddenly and inexplicably buried in 8000 BCE. An abundance of organic material has allowed for thorough radiocarbon dating.

There is no evidence of a learning process before its construction. The builders carried out this colossal project with expert use of surveying, quarrying, transporting 10–50-ton stones uphill, organizing a labor force, and employing highly skilled artists who decorated many pillars with sculptures in high relief, the most difficult carving skill that requires chiseling away the surrounding stone to create the impression of the figure emerging from the stone. They also managed to feed and sustain their workforce 1,000 feet above the valley, with no regular water or food sources.

Artists rendition of the construction of Gobekli Tepe (Image Source: National Geographic)

Interestingly, keen readers of Plato will recognize its date of construction as the exact date which Solon claimed the advanced kingdoms of the region were destroyed by cataclysmic floods and earthquakes. Around 600 BCE, the Egyptian priests of Sais told Solon that nine thousand years prior, civilization had been destroyed, which Plato recorded in Timeaeus and Critias. The prehistoric ancestors of the Greeks were wiped out as well as the legendary people of Atlantis. This date also aligns with the findings of modern science, with the end of the Younger Dryas period suddenly halting a thousand years of global freezing temperatures and ocean levels rising 300-400 feet. This is the time period when most of the giant Ice Age animals such as mammoths and saber-toothed tigers were suddenly made extinct. This is now believed by some researchers to be the origin of the global deluge stories from around the world, including the well-known Flood of Noah from the Bible. The builders of Gobekli Tepe would rank among the legendary Prediluvians or “People Before the Flood” mentioned in ancient texts many thousands of years later.

When Gobekli Tepe was constructed, agriculture began. The surrounding area has produced evidence of wheat crops, vineyards, and even breweries over 10,000 years old. People corralled pigs, cattle and sheep in settlements that ranged from small villages to small cities made of mud brick structures and streets.

The complex is universally acknowledged as a temple due to the abundant evidence of ceremonial activity and the overwhelming appearance of religious beliefs. The stones are adorned with Ice Age animals as well as intricate symbols and anthropomorphic figures, many of which are very similar to the deities found in the temples of ancient Iraq thousands of years later.

For over a century, the Sumerians had been credited by academia as the creators of civilization but Gobekli Tepe turned this assumption on its head. It was widely held that complex religion developed as a result of the rest of civilization’s privileges. The discovery of Gobekli Tepe changed the prevailing thought to “religion created civilization” and not the other way around.  The temple was built first, and then the trappings of civilization suddenly sprung up around it.

In recent years, some archaeo-astronomers have claimed that there is evidence of Gobekli Tepe also functioning as an observatory or was at least designed on astronomical patterns. (2) According to this research, many of the animal carvings on the pillars correlate to the positions of star groups in the night sky while the complex was inhabited, and they claim that much of the complex was oriented to the rising of Sirius. Furthermore, a unique half circle symbol that frequently appears on many pillars, nicknamed “the handbags” are precisely oriented to the solstice and equinox points of the time period, the half circle representing the sun on the horizon. This theory is disputed by the people currently excavating the site for several reasons, but it should be noted that stellar alignments are very difficult to prove or disprove conclusively when there is no recognizable writing available.

As stated earlier, many of the oldest human markings in the world from have been recognized as efforts to quantify time using the sun and moon, which directly results in mathematics. Considering that the builders demonstrated remarkably sophisticated abilities in all other areas of human learning, to include math, is seems very unlikely that they did not also possess a considerable degree of astronomical knowledge as well. Whether or not they directly employed stellar patterns in the layout of the temple like the or used it to observe the stars like the later ancient cities of the region will probably never be known. It should be noted that at the time of this writing, less than 10% of the site has been excavated and other secrets that have been hiding for ten thousand years remain buried.

Regardless, the builders and inhabitants of this enigmatic place demonstrated what was only credited to people almost 5,000 years later: the key components of human civilization. Architecture, art, religion, math, social structure and agriculture, the latter of which requires precise timekeeping. All of these are the results of humans watching the stars. They only lacked one thing to put them on equal footing with the accomplishments of the Sumerians: a standardized system of writing. The stars seem to have provided that, too.

1. Martin B. Sweatman* and Dimitrios Tsikritsis. “Decoding Gobekli Tepe With Archaeoastronomy: What Does the Fox Say?” Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 17, No 1, (2017), pp. 233-250. School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh.

Section 3: Writing of the Stars

“Here, O king, is a branch of learning that will make the people of Egypt wiser and improve their memories. My discovery provides a recipe for memory and wisdom. But the king answered and said ‘O man full of arts, the god-man Thoth, to one it is given to create the things of art, and to another to judge what measure of harm and of profit they have for those that shall employ them.’

“And so it is that you by reason of your tender regard for the writing that is your offspring have declared the very opposite of its true effect. If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.

“What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only the semblance of wisdom, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much while for the most part they know nothing. And as men filled not with wisdom but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.”

           Plato, “Phaedrus:, commenting on the invention of writing

 Until only a few thousand years ago, writing was limited to pictographs which were mainly used as mnemonic devices to assist in the transmission of oral knowledge over centuries or even many thousands of years. Advanced systems of mnemonics, techniques for remembering vast amounts of information, were used to accurately transmit volumes of information orally from generation to generation. The Druids still fascinate many people today and the aura of mystery around them is due in part to their refusal to write any of their sacred knowledge, which died with them. Despite his disdain for the ancient Britons, Julius Caesar showed an admiration for the Druids in his memoirs, having observed their astounding knowledge of the stars, natural medicines, healing, divination abilities and the vast amounts of knowledge they were able to perfectly memorize without the aid of writing.

The Greek philosophers employed mnemonic systems, as did many great thinkers of the medieval and Renaissance era.  In Phaedrus, Plato does not hide his contempt for the growing reliance on writing, bluntly stating that relying on the written word over oral transmission destroys the natural human capacity to understand and remember vast amounts of knowledge, as well as inevitable misunderstandings based on “expertise” obtained only from reading and lacking a real understanding of the writers’ intent. Plato credited the Egyptian god Thoth with the invention of writing.

The Sumerians are widely credited with the first system of writing, known as cuneiform, which was a highly useful but unwieldy system of complicated wedge-shaped figures stamped in clay with a stylus.

Around the same time five thousand years ago, the ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom used hieroglyphics, “the writing of the Gods” for which they are still widely known.  These were an equally complex system of picture symbols and glyphs used to represent both sounds and ideographic ideas. These beautiful but unwieldy symbols were used to adorn temple walls and tombs for over 3,000 years, until approximately 600 BCE when hieratic and demotic became the most widespread form of writing in Egypt.

During the late Bronze Age, approximately 3,300 years ago, the Phoenicians, or Canaanites of the Bible, are credited by most historians with the invention of the syllabic alphabet which is used in most languages today. 22 symbols each represented a specific sound, allowing anyone who knew the sounds of the 22 symbols to easily read the words.

The impact of this invention on humanity cannot be overstated.  This invention paved the way for widespread literacy, a skill that was once limited to the elite classes was now easily accessible and resulted in writing becoming widespread in the Iron Age. The Greeks quickly adopted the system, and later the Romans and Arabs, all whose alphabets form the basis of more than half the written languages of the world today. The Sanskrit language of India, which previously had no writing system, adopted the idea and the Vedic literature was committed to writing after thousands of years of oral transmission.

 The ancient Israelites, who also resided in Canaan and had longstanding relations with the Phoenicians, the latter who helped build Solomon’s temple, quickly adopted the Phoenician alphabet. The ancient Hebrew language was a very close relative of the neighboring Canaanite dialects. It is the sacred language of the ancient Jewish people that provides an intriguing clue to the astral origin of writing which I will return to shortly.

3.1 Origin of Writing According to Phoenician Lore

 Historians widely credit the Phoenicians with the invention of writing as we know it today, including Herodotus, the “Father of History”. In the 5^th century BCE, Herodotus credits the Phoenician prince Cadmus with introducing the alphabet to the Greeks. The Phoenicians themselves tell another story of its origins in what little survives of their written history. The History of the Phoenicians is a valuable and underappreciated piece of history because the person who transmitted it, Philo of Byblos, was a Hellenized Canaanite who put into writing their history according to Sanchuniathon, a priest who lived thousands of years prior.

According to Sanchuniathon, knowledge “started with Taautus who was first of all under the sun to discover the use of letters and the writing of records.” This god of Byblos was the Logos of the Egyptian Tehuti or Thoth and the Greek Hermes, and the Alexandrians credit him with their Corpus Hermeticum. This clerk of the underworld and the scribe of the gods bore a tablet, pen and palm-branch (the Phoenix-tree). He attended the judgement of the souls, invented writing and served as a wise teacher and a peacemaker.

What Philo of Byblos contributed to the understanding of history would have been completely lost had it not been for the “Father of Church History”, Eusebius of Caesarea (260 – 341 AD). His major work History of the Church quotes the writings of Philo that were available to him at the time, often for the purpose of demonizing the non-Christian peoples of the time.  Not all of the writings have survived, but what has been preserved is significant. These writings were called into question for millennia, until tablets were discovered in Ebla that confirmed much of the writings as of authentic Phoenician origin, as well as tablets discovered in the ruins of Ugarit.

Eusebius preserved fragments of these writings from being lost to history. In the original translation, Tauutus or Thoth is named as “Tauutus, son of Mizor (or Mizraim). This name will be familiar to keen readers of the Bible, Mizraim being the descendant of Ham (in Hebrew pronounced Kham or Cham), son of Noah, and credited with the founding of Egypt. The name for Egypt in Hebrew is Mizraim. Interestingly, the name of Egypt in their own tongue is “Khem” or “Khemet”, although the relationship between the two is a matter of dispute.

Elsewhere in the History of the Phoenicians, Taautus is described as a prehistoric sage of Egypt: “’Taautus, whom the Egyptians call Thoth, excelled in wisdom among the Phoenicians, and was the first to rescue the worship of the gods from the ignorance of the vulgar, and arrange it in the order of intelligent experience. Many generations after him a god Sourmoubelos and Thuro, whose name was changed to Eusarthis, brought to light the theology of Tauutus which had been hidden and overshadowed, by allegories.”

I believe it is highly unusual, and significant, that Philo of Byblos does not credit his Phoenician ancestors for the invention of the alphabet.  National and religious pride was as strong 2,000 years ago, if not more so, than today. Historians of the time were biased as much as today, often disparaging foreigners, conquered peoples and enemies as well as whitewashing their own history when it suited them. An invention that changed the world would rightfully be an enormous source of pride, yet Philo blatantly credits it to an Egyptian god long before him. He would not have done this if it was not the valuable history passed down to him.

The famous Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, Egypt’s oldest written texts, support Philo’s account. In 2002, in the underground tunnel walls of the pyramid of King Unas, a section of writing that had long evaded translation was found to be in a Semitic language: proto-Canaanite. Dr. Richard Steiner, a professor of Semitic languages and literature, discovered that the inscriptions were spells for warding off snakes in an ancestor language of Phoenician and Hebrew. The language was deciphered and found to be 5,000-year-old Semitic verses written in Egyptian characters. (1) It is even more unusual because many experts assume that Egyptian elites would have held some degree of prejudice against foreigners and a Canaanite spell inside of a Pharaoh’s tomb indicates some level of respect.

The Pyramid Texts themselves date to 2500 BCE, but many experts believe that its contents and origins are much older, from the founding of the first Egyptian dynasties. Either way, the snake spells provide a direct link between the Old Kingdom and ancestors of the Phoenician and Israelites, as Philo of Byblos wrote almost 3,000 years later.

Yeshiva University News

Richard Steiner, Professor at Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Deciphers Semitic Serpent Spells in Egyptian Pyramid – Yeshiva University News (yu.edu)

3.2 Jewish Mysticism

Twenty-two foundation letters: He placed them in a circle…. He directed them with the twelve constellations.

— Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation)

 As stated in the previous section, the ancient Jews of the late Bronze Age readily adopted the same system of 22 letters used by the Phoenicians over 3,000 years ago in the First Temple period until the letter style was changed to the more familiar Ashurit or “square script” after their return from the Babylonian captivity around 2,500 years ago. This letter style is still used today in Modern Hebrew and the ancient writing came to be known as “Kitav Ivri” or Paleo-Hebrew.

It is the Hebrew letters themselves that I will examine now and show that the origin of most alphabets used today likely originated as depictions of the stars. Arguably the most important text of what later became known as Kabbalah, the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation or Book of Formation) directly correlates the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet to the cosmos. The origins of Sefer Yetzirah are debated, with some attributing its origins to medieval Kabbalists around one thousand years ago while many scholars argue that the writing style is more befitting the late Second Temple or Talmudic period around 1,700 to 2,000 years ago. The short text itself claims to have originated with the Patriarch Abraham and is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud. Regardless, the text is short enough to easily be memorized and transmitted orally at any period, provided the recipient possessed a knowledge of Hebrew.

Sefer Yetzirah is short and cryptic. Most of the book is the correlation of each letter and sound of the ancient Hebrew language with a corresponding zodiac sign or planet, element, time unit, number, geometric figure and a part of the human body and spirit. Sefer Yetzirah is comparable to Pythagorean and Hermetic philosophy with its emphasis on the interconnected nature of the human soul with God and the cosmos through sound and number, as well as the sacred language itself. The letters of that language directly point to the stars.

As stated in the previous section, Philo of Byblos credited Egypt as the source of Phoenician, and by extension, ancient Hebrew writing. In 1912 Flinders Petrie discovered a script in Egyptian caves that came to be known as “Proto Sinaitic” which he credited as the prehistoric ancestor of writing in the region. His contemporaries Hugh Moran and David Kelley disputed the theory largely due to Petrie lacking a common organizing principle available to all people. The human experience is infinitely varied and the rapid spread of a fixed set of symbols would have required a pre-existing relationship familiar to everyone: the skies.

They turned their attention to ancient astronomy both in the Middle East and China and found correlations between the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the 22 Chinese calendar signs or ganzhi from the early Shang dynasty and 28 Lunar Mansions or Lunar Stations. Later researchers found further connections between the Ugaritic alphabet and 30-day lunar zodiac.

In recent years, Brian Pellar noticed the strong emphasis of the Sefer Yetzirah on the connection of the Hebrew letters and celestial bodies. He analyzed it at face value and found that if the Phoenician or Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise, a pattern emerges that strongly matches eleven constellations of the Egyptian solar zodiac. He also found that this applied not only to Canaanite letters, but also the Chinese Lunar Mansions, Hieratic Egyptian and hieroglyphs, and even older inscriptions from six to seven thousand years ago.

These groups of stars provide the organizing principle common to all peoples of the time, as every society would have required some variant of the lunar and solar zodiacs for farming at a minimum. This validates Plato and Philo’s account of the invention of letters: Thoth, the moon god of Egypt, gave it to mankind and it spread from there. The Sefer Yetzirah, infamous for its paradoxical depth and simplicity, seemingly hides their origin in plain sight and provides the link between the ancient Israelites and the surrounding kingdoms of the Bronze Age.

By the time recorded history began 5,000 years ago, observation of the stars directly resulted in math, agriculture, art, religious thought, science, organization with calendars, and finally writing. All of these are the core components of what we now call civilization and every branch of human learning. It was the desire to perfect the science of the stars that drove the creation of ancient observatories, henges, and megalithic structures with precision and perfection that amazes people to this day. It is no exaggeration to state that everything we have in our daily lives all originates there, one way or another. The written words of this article itself are the product of stargazers from thousands of years ago.

Section 4: Astrological Magic: Bronze Age Through Late Antiquity

The use of astrological talismans was widely known around 2,000 years ago, as evident from the writings of Iamblichus (250 – 330 CE), the Neoplatonist philosopher and magician who penned “De Mysteriis” or “On the Mysteries of the Egyptians”. Although he included few specific instructions for their use, he described the process of creating them and vouched for their effectiveness.

One of history’s greatest tragedies was the multiple fires that destroyed the Library of Alexandria.  After Alexander the Great established his new Egyptian city of Alexandria, he ordered that all written texts in the ancient world would have a copy in his library, the largest in the world. Historical, religious and scientific thought from east and west was consolidated, much of it already ancient at the time. Alexandria became a hub for intellectuals in Late Antiquity, with such thinkers as Euclid studying there, whose writings on geometry remain perfect and unchanged in schools to this day.

Much of the written history and collective knowledge of Egypt, Greece, Persia and many more civilizations perished in the multiple destructions of the library and will unfortunately remain lost for all time. Much, if not most, of the region’s history before Alexander is still murky at best. The very existence of the Sumerians remained totally unknown and buried until ruins were first excavated in the 1800s.  Human history before the middle Bronze Age is still lost, with enigmas like Stonehenge reminding us of many rich and lost chapters.

What little we know of the Iron Age and Bronze Age is from fragments that managed to survive the passage of time. Before the Bronze Age, virtually nothing is known from written records because the only writing systems used were purely pictographic and now impossible to translate. Human history before the Bronze Age collapse (1,200 BCE) is mostly a black hole of unknowns. Legends and oral traditions carry little credibility and the ruins of once-great cities, like the Sumerians, quickly disappear into the earth.

What is clear is that astronomy and astrology in the region was highly regarded and in use from the earliest times. Until approximately 500 BCE, records and artifacts indicated that something more akin to sidereal astrology and interpreting omens was the standard practice.

The tropical zodiac became widespread in the region by the time of the Greek occupation of Egypt and is still used in the west today. Tropical astrology divides the sky based on the seasons, distribution of light and dark, the equinoxes and solstices.  Aries will always be the start of spring in the tropical system, whereas sidereal astrology focuses primarily on the stars themselves. Sidereal astrology remains popular in India today.

When the Persian king Cyrus the Great famously conquered Babylon in 539 BCE without resistance, he brought with him a caste of priests known as the Magi, described as “magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers” in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 2. Under the Achaemenid Empire, Persian thinking spread from the Indus Valley all the way to Egypt, which came under Persian rule soon after Babylon.

Greece, Babylon and Egypt were all under Persian rule for the next two centuries until Alexander the Great created his international Greek empire. Historical records and artifacts show the sudden, fully developed emergence of the twelve-sign zodiac and natal astrology during this period throughout the region.

Tropical astrology, and much of astrology in general, is heavily based on the principles of sacred geometry. It is interesting to note that tropical astrology also burst onto the scene shortly after the teachings of Pythagoras and the subsequent Greek philosophers grew in influence. The writings of the Pythagoreans themselves all claim that he received his knowledge from studying abroad, much of it in Egyptian temples as well as with the Magi in Babylon and the eastern regions. Considering the severe backlash and violent reprisals against the Pythagoreans and his successors by both the ruling classes and peasant mobs of the ancient Greek city-states, a foreign source seems to be a foregone conclusion.

It will probably always remain a mystery, but the timing and circumstances are odd. There is no evidence but it is possible that tropical astrology was reserved for the elites of Egypt long before it became common practice, in addition to the more ancient and traditional Decans. Considering the deep Greek veneration of Egyptian antiquity in the Ptolemaic era, it is difficult to imagine them replacing something that wasn’t already there long before, or at the very least carrying strong endorsements from respected Egyptian priests. The effect of Egypt on Greece was so deep that one could rightfully claim that the Greeks invaded Egypt’s lands but Egypt colonized Greek minds.

Adding further weight to the argument of Persian origin is the very nature of the tropical zodiac: the eternal cycle and perfectly symmetrical divisions of light and dark between the solstice and equinox, endlessly repeating itself every spring. The importance of light and dark fits the philosophy of Zoroastrians perfectly, who are universally credited with not only planting the seeds of monotheism in the region, but also dualism. At the core of Zoroaster’s teachings is that all of creation is a cosmic struggle of light and dark, with Ahura Mazda who is the light and all good eternally opposed by Agra Mainyu, the darkness and all evil. No matter what stars are rising on the equinox or solstice, the annual cycle of light and dark will always remain constant. The underlying philosophy of both Zoroastrian cosmology and the tropical zodiac fit and reflect each other perfectly..

Still, the most likely source of the twelve signs, tropical zodiac, and natal astrology, all of which became traditional western astrology as we know it today, are the Persian Magi, exchanging knowledge with the priesthoods of Babylon and Egypt 2,000 to 2,500 years ago. The fact that it emerged fully developed and was enthusiastically adopted by different cultures makes a strong argument that its origin was the upper echelons of the Persian priesthood long before the Aechamaenid Empire.

It was quickly adopted by every culture it was introduced to because of its prestigious and hitherto secret status.

In any case, astrology already had considerable antiquity by the time of the Roman Empire, and it had been used specifically for magical practices long before.

4.1 Mesopotamia

Until recently it was generally agreed that all branches of human learning, including pure mathematics as a byproduct of astronomy and astrology, originated with the Sumerians over 5,000 years ago. Our methods of timekeeping and measurement have changed very little from its Sumerian foundations, based on the Sun and the stars of the zodiac. They also factored in the cycles of the Moon. In an integer sense, the Moon takes 30 days to complete its circle around the Earth. That circle is split into 360 units, which are hours. Each of these hours is split by 60 and 60 again to create seconds of time. All of this fits with everything we know about number usage. The main difference between the Sumerian system and our present decimal system is that the Sumerians used a 60 and 10 base combined, whereas the decimal system employs a 10 base in all cases.

The Sumerians/Babylonians used a system of mathematics that used base 60, which is the reason why we still have 60 seconds to the minute and 60 minutes to the hour. They also invented the 360-degree circle, which was also subdivided into minutes and seconds. In addition, they used a standard unit of length that is believed to be 99.88 centimeter – almost exactly equivalent to the modern meter. The Sumerians’/Babylonians’ double-kush of 99.88 centimeter was reproduced by means of swinging a pendulum with a beat of one second 240 times to define a unit of time they called a ‘gesh’. The Sumerians/Babylonians also developed an elaborate system of ritual timekeeping based on the movements of the Moon with 360 days per year, 360 hours per month and 360 gesh (240 seconds) per day. From their unit of length the Sumerians derived units of weight and capacity that are very close to the kilo and the liter. In short, the Sumerian astrologer-priests invented the Metric system.

Some evidence also points to far more sophisticated knowledge surrounding astronomy and astrology in ancient times. The Constant of Nineveh, also known as the Sacred Number of Nineveh or the Nineveh Constant, is a numerology formula that was discovered in the ancient city of Nineveh, located in present-day Iraq, dating back at least 2,700 years. It was used by the priesthoods for performing mathematical calculations using numbers of over two hundred trillion.

The Constant of Nineveh is calculated by adding the numbers assigned to the letters in the name of a particular deity, and then reducing the sum to a single digit. The resulting number is believed to have symbolic and mystical significance related to the deity in question.

There are various versions of the Constant of Nineveh, each associated with a different deity, and the formula and correspondences may vary depending on the source. One well-known example is the Constant of Ishtar, which is calculated by adding the values of the letters in the Akkadian name of the goddess Ishtar (the Babylonian equivalent of the Sumerian goddess Inanna), and reducing the sum to a single digit. The resulting number, which is 15 in this case, is considered to be sacred to Ishtar and may be used in divination, magic, or other spiritual practices associated with the goddess.

Regardless of the speculation, the Nineveh Constant also contains more than numerology. According to Maurice Chatelain, formerly a NASA aeronautics engineer, it is the astronomical constant of the universe. Unfortunately, Chatelain’s mathematical discovery remains largely ignored because of his stated belief in extraterrestrials, but what he found was staggering. In short, Chatelain showed that the mathematical formulas within the Nineveh Constant calculated the movements of the cosmos equal to the most advanced astrophysicists using modern technology. Furthermore, he found a slight discrepancy: it was off by one twelve-millionth of a day every year. The mistake is microscopic, but he continued to investigate and concluded that in 12 million years, the calculations of the Nineveh Constant will be one day short.  He concluded that the number must have been first computed almost 64,800 years ago when it would have had perfect accuracy.

In short, the astrologer priests of ancient Mesopotamia were performing mathematical calculations that computers would have struggled with until only a few decades ago.  This unbelievably complex system gave rise to ongoing speculation of extraterrestrial contact in remote times in the belief that ancient people were brutes and incapable of exceeding our modern civilization. There is no evidence for aliens, but the records that have survived the passing of time explicitly state that the priests received their knowledge from their ancestors and directly from the gods: the stars and planets. It was accomplished with extensive prayer, contemplation and ritual.

Some of the oldest cuneiform tablets to be translated are prayers to the stars, passed down from Sumerian times. Many tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal are instructions for performing astrological magic. Elaborate carvings survive from inside the royal palace at Nimrud that depict the king performing ceremonies and interacting with the gods while wearing planetary symbols on a necklace. Only the highest-ranking advisors and priests were allowed in the room. (Figure 1 and 2) (6).

The king is often shown surrounded by at least one “Apkallu”, also known as the “Seven Sages”. The earliest references to the Apkallu are found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest religious texts on earth and originating in Sumerian religion. They were described as demigods who were credited with imparting advanced knowledge to humans as well as assisting in the founding of ancient Sumerian cities. The seven Apkallu were often identified as seven planetary deities in many important texts such as the Enuma Elish, who gave advanced knowledge of the stars and planets to humans. (7)

(865-860 BCE) Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II wearing a necklace with pendants of planetary deity symbols. From left to right, Adad, Ashur, Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar. The king is flanked by two eagle-headed Apkallus (not shown). Photo from the British Museum

(865-860 BCE). (From left to right). The king wearing a necklace with the sigils of Sin, Shamash, Ashur, and Ishtar. Photo from the British Museum

The religion of ancient Mesopotamia was astrological in every sense.  Although the pyramids of Egypt are better known, the pyramidal temples, or ziggurats, of ancient Mesopotamia and Persia are no less impressive. These colossal structures were artificial mountains intended to place the priests in closer contact with the gods. The ziggurats were built with a rectangular base and somewhat like a stepped pyramid, and with the top platform housing a shrine in which the astral deity could dwell inside.  The earliest ziggurats date back before the Sumerians to the mysterious Ubaid period (5000-4100 BCE), some of whose original ziggurats were refurbished thousands of years later by Babylonian kings.

The Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century BCE wrote that the purpose of the structure was to enable Marduk (Jupiter) to descend into the temple and enable direct contact with the priests and priestesses inside, the latter of which had sexual encounters with the god inside the shrine to bring fertility to the crops.  Around five hundred years later, Diodorus Siculus wrote that Babylonian astronomers also used the ziggurats as star observatories.

In the late 1800s, Henry Rawlinson examined the remains of several ziggurats and compared them to the descriptions of Herodotus and the medieval poet Nizami. He found that the bricks were manufactured and painted so that each of the seven platforms was a different color, corresponding to the colors assigned to each planet in Chaldean astrology. This created a giant astral structure which corresponded to the seven heavens. Rawlinson’s writings were widely accepted until they fell out of fashion in recent years, dismissed as wishful thinking on his part mainly due to discrepancies in the color schemes and some ziggurats not having seven steps.  However, new evidence has come to light that support the notion.  Many translated cuneiform tablets as well as archaeological findings point to a widespread system of astral architecture from at least the beginning of the Neo-Babylonian period (800 BCE). (3)

The Sumerian king Gudea of Lagash, who ruled over 4,000 years ago, is recorded in an ancient clay tablet to have received a dream from the god Ningursu for constructing his temple based on the position of the constellation of what is now known as Pegasus. This temple was not only an enormous astrological talisman, but the instructions of the dream are the earliest recorded example of electional astrology utilized for a complex undertaking.

Stars and planets were frequently invoked in prayers dating back to 4,000 years ago, with the purpose of the prayers aligning with the characteristics of the star or planet.  Mars was often invoked for protection and victory in battle. The influence of Jupiter was often requested to heal the sick. A husband or wife experiencing marriage difficulties prayed to Venus to bring love into their marriage and calm marital disputes, just as Picatrix and the later Solomonic grimoires describe.

A prayer to Ursa Major, the Great Bear, was intended to bring vengeance on an enemy. A very similar invocation to Ursa Major for vengeance is found in the later Egyptian PGM, and in Book 3, Chapter 7 of Picatrix many thousands of years later. (5)

The earliest known lapidaries are of Babylonian origin, some dating as early as the third millennium BCE, as are the practice of herbal medicines gathered at astrologically auspicious times. Divination was also advised to be used in conjunction with the prescribed herbal medicines. In some tablets, a partner who specialized in divination was advised to assist in the operations as a diagnostic tool, the most frequent form being the examination of augury or seeing patterns in animal entrails. Illnesses were said to come from both malevolent stellar influences as well as from the earth or underworld.

Frequently, the magician, or “exorcist”, is instructed to draw a circle in the dirt while cutting the roots and while compounding the astral medicines. In some instances the tablets instruct the user to provide a cake made of flour to the plant’s spirit before cutting it as well as communicating with the spirit, much like shamans continue to do today all over the world. The practice of using ground and floor circles continue thousands of years later in most European grimoires, such as the Key of Solomon and Lemegeton. (8) Stephen Skinner identified the use of a circle as a key component of Solomonic magic in his excellent work “Techniques of Solomonic Magic” and “Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic” examining earlier uses of the circle in Egyptian sources. The use of a circle is not mentioned in Picatrix or any related astrological magic text.

Aside from some Solomonic manuscripts containing occasional astrological timing instructions, the only loose parallel in Picatrix is the creation of the mirror in Book 4 Chapter 7. The mirror contains the names of the seven winds corresponding to seven angels, days, and hours, somewhat similar to the operations in Heptameron and Lucidarium Artis Nigromantice to invoke the aerial spirits and angels of the seasons. This is admittedly a loose connection as a similar mirror is found elsewhere in “Apollonius of Tyana’s Great Book of Talismans” whose origins are Greek but was extensively translated and preserved in Arabic texts. This work also emphasizes seasons while Picatrix does not.

The lists are intricate and the uses of plant medicines vast. Often, the tablets instruct that the herbal mixtures first be exposed to a specific star or star cluster before administering it to the patient.  Many of the characteristics of the stars carry the same meaning found in later medieval works of astrological magic such as the Quindecum Stellas and the writings of Albertus Magnus.  The light of Vega, Lyra, Orion and Bootes are frequently used to irradiate the plant mixtures. Interestingly, the constellation of Ursa Major, known to the ancient Mesopotamians as “the Wagon” is identified with Ishtar as well as Venus. When the planet was not available to provide light for the plant mixtures, the magician was advised to invoke Ishtar under the light of the Big Dipper. While this constellation is frequently invoked for acts of vengeance, it appears that its benefic influence was seen as highly effective at driving away illnesses, much the same as the malefic Mars in medieval sources.

The earliest known examples of melothesia, better known as the Zodiac Man, are also found among the tablets, with Mars linked to kidney ailments and spleen ailments and Jupiter governing the spleen and stomach. (9)

Techniques for practicing medicine in medieval and Renaissance Europe 4,000 years later was little different than the ancient Babylonians. Divination by augury was largely replaced by horary astrology according to popular sources such as William Lilly and Marsilio Ficino, but the practice of gathering herbs at astrologically fortunate times, as well as irradiating the mixtures under the light of planets and stars, was the same, and continued on until the advent of modern medicine around a century ago had largely replaced it. Many rural communities in the United States continued to employ “root doctors”, Hexenmeisters, or traditional healers in the late 20^th century for many common ailments.

1. “Magi.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., n.d. Web. 06 May 2023. https://www.britanniccom/topic/Magi.
2.  Bidez, Joseph and Franz Cumont. The Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Dover Publications,1956.

• Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. New York: Routledge, 2001.
• Neugebauer, Otto. The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. New York: Dover Publications, 1969.

3. Peter James. “Ziggurats, Colors, and Planets: Rawlinson Revisited.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, January 2008
4. Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza, Vol. VI, Part I, Government Press, Cairo, 1946, pg 45
5. “Astral Magic in Babylonia”. (pg 23-24)
6. Wall Reliefs: Ashurnasirpal II at the North-West Palace – World History et cetera
7. The Seven Sages of Sumer: A Babylonian and Assyrian Myth of the Wise and the Damned by W.G. Lambert and A.R. Millard (2000)
8. “Astral Magic in Babylonia” (pg 25 – 48)
9. “Astral Magic in Babylonia” (56 – 60)

4.2 Egypt

Equally if not more mysterious is Egypt. Like the Sumerian cities, Egyptian civilization suddenly flourished around 5,000 years ago, creating the pyramids for which it is world famous and establishing a reputation for magic and wisdom which endures to this day. The origins of Egyptian astrology are difficult to determine with certainty, as much of the early history of ancient Egypt is shrouded in mystery, myth and contradicting legend.  According to Plato, Egypt was founded over 10,000 years ago.  Although Plato’s statements have been widely derided by academia, considerable evidence pointing to the Sphinx’s age as at least 7,000 years has recently come to light. Regardless, there is evidence that the Egyptians were practicing sidereal astrology as far back as the Old Kingdom period (c. 2686–2181 BC) and sophisticated astronomy over 9,000 years ago. It is an unfortunate fact that most of Egypt’s mysteries will remain just that: mysteries. After the Library of Alexandria burned, most of Egypt’s written knowledge burned with it.  The writings of the Greeks in Egypt perished during the early years of the Arab occupation a few centuries later.

Scant clues remain of Egypt’s predynastic period, but one of the most significant is of an advanced astronomical and astrological nature: Nabta Playa, nicknamed “Egypt’s Stonehenge”. Discovered in the desert around 50 miles from Abu Simbel, famous for the rock-cut temples commissioned by Ramesses II, Nabta Playa is a stone observatory over nine thousand years old. It was created when the area was a wet, green savannah and was used for thousands of years.

It consists of a circle of stones that was modified in stages over thousands of years. It appears to have originally been precisely aligned with the summer solstice in 7500 BCE, and over the next two millennia there were megalithic stones added and cut into the bedrock, including three large stones to reflect Orion’s Belt. (1) The main purposes appear to have been precisely marking the summer solstice which coincided with the rainy season, and to track the movements of specific stars such as Vega and Orion, and possibly Sirius. Found in the sand under Nabta Playa was a giant stone sculpture of a cow, and numerous cattle bones were found buried around the site. Two of the oldest deities of the Egyptians were Hathor and Nuit, goddesses of the night sky and encompassed all of the stars. Hathor and Nuit were depicted as a cow, and the oldest book of Egyptian star lore bears Nuit’s name, which I will return to shortly.

Interestingly, it was the Old Kingdom that produced the most advanced architecture around 2500 BCE, the Giza pyramids. They still produce awe and speculation to this day. The largest was constructed with 2.3 million limestone blocks, each created with such precision that a razor blade still cannot fit between them.  Stones weighing 25 – 80 tons were transported more than 500 miles. The advanced knowledge required to construct these pyramids, which many argue couldn’t be replicated with modern technology, fuels controversy to this day. Some people argue that they couldn’t have been built without technology that surpasses our own. Like the Mesoamerican pyramids of the New World, strong arguments have been put forward showing that Giza and the rest of Egypt’s incredible architecture was designed along the patterns of the stars and sacred geometry.

I believe the Giza pyramids are a perfect example of the unique genius of ancient priesthoods. Star worshippers whose knowledge of advanced mathematics and the natural world, coupled with eidetic memories and limitless creativity obtained through altered states of consciousness and religious rites, enabled their construction not through lost technologies or aliens, but with ingenious application of relatively simple tools. What we lack today is their ability to harness the human mind’s ingenuity. We now get only glimpses of this ability from a rare person like Tesla or Ramanujan. This way of thinking, common to the ancient stellar priests, gradually degenerated over time until only fragments and legends remain. Whatever the truth may be, what isn’t in doubt is that a star-worshipping cult achieved one of, if not the greatest feats of engineering in human history.

One of the earliest known references to astrology in ancient Egypt is found in the famous Pyramid Texts, a collection of funerary texts inscribed on the walls of royal pyramids during the Old Kingdom. These texts contain references to the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as to the constellations and the cycles of the heavens. Egyptians were advanced in the practice of sidereal astrology in this time period and used the Decans as their primary means of timekeeping and astrological practices.

The oldest physical evidence of the Decans goes back over four thousand years to the late Old Kingdom in Egypt where 36 images of gods were found engraved on the coffin lids of pharaohs and are detailed in the Book of Nuit, a collection of ancient Egyptian stellar lore. The high level of sophistication and development suggests that the Decans have an even older origin, possibly originating in the legendary and mysterious predynastic times of Egypt. The reader will recall that the observatory in Nabta Playa was accompanied by a megalithic stone sculpture of a cow, a symbol of Nuit as well as Hathor.

Western astrology has deep roots in Claudius Ptolemy’s writings (approximately 100 CE), who compiled all the known astronomical and astrological knowledge of Greece and Egypt at the time. Ptolemy consolidated and included what was sometimes conflicting systems, such as the Terms or Bounds of the Egyptians and Babylonians (or Chaldeans).

Although Egypt was renowned in the ancient world for its deep antiquity, sophisticated wisdom and especially magic, few detailed and practical written instructions exist of both Egyptian astrology and magic. The Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) is one of the few practical instruction manuals we currently have.  The age of its contents vary from the the sixth century BCE to the Roman occupation of Egypt (approximately 400 AD). Much of it is fragments, intended to be used as notes for what was otherwise learned only through direct apprenticeship. However, some astrological magic procedures are among its contents.

Firmicus Maternus, around 300 CE, wrote high praises of the Decans and stated that they were used to great effect for prediction and miracles. “Nechepso, the most just emperor of Egypt and a truly good astrologer, by means of the Decans predicted all illnesses and afflictions; he knew which Decan produced which illness and which Decans were stronger than others. From their different nature and power he discovered the cure for all illnesses, because one nature is often overcome by another, and one god by another.”

This statement by Maternus is closely echoed in the cyptic passage of Picatrix, Book 2 Chapter 11: “You should know that in the aforesaid discussion of the faces (Decans) of the signs there is the greatest secret of great benefit, that cannot be understood except by deep study……This is because one planet has the power to impede the effects of another planet, and the power of a Term is more powerful than the power of a face and the power of a face is more powerful than the power of a sign.”

The best example of Egyptian astrological magic to survive fully intact is in the Sacred Book of Hermes to Asclepius, estimated to be 1,800 to 2,000 years old. In it, detailed instructions for healing illnesses using talismans of the 36 Decans are provided. In recent years it has been translated and published in English by Joao Pedo Feliciano and Jake Stratton Kent, the former providing the oldest surviving images from the text.

1. Brophy, TG; Rosen PA (2005). “Satellite Imagery Measures of the Astronomically Aligned Megaliths at Nabta Playa” (PDF) Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry.

4.3 Persian Magi

Perhaps best known today for their role in the story of the birth of Jesus, the “Three Wise Men” who followed the stars from the east to find the infant Jesus Christ and present him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh are generally believed to refer to the Persian Magi, who were still venerated at the time Christianity was just beginning. The age of the Persian Magi is not known with certainty, as much of their early history is shrouded in myth and legend and ancient Persian records of them are scarce. According to ancient Greek sources, the Magi were a priestly caste of the Medes, a people who inhabited what is now northwestern Iran around the 8th century BC. However, it is possible that the origins of the Magi date back even further than this, to the prehistoric religions of the Indo-Iranian peoples who lived in the region.

The Magi played an important role in Persian religion and politics, and they were known for their knowledge of astrology, magic, and divination. They were highly respected by the Persian kings and were believed to possess supernatural powers. The word magic itself bears their namesake; the Greek philosophers revered them and their title became synonymous with the practice. In the biblical story of the birth of Jesus, the Magi traveled from the East to Jerusalem to pay homage to the newborn king of the Jews, indicating that they were known and respected beyond their own land. The exact age of the Persian Magi is difficult to determine, but their influence on ancient Iranian religion and culture is well established. (1)

Zoroastrian holy scriptures such as the Avesta also confirm this, the hymns stating that the planets and stars had a direct influence on human affairs. Rituals were simple, often recommending an offering of grain or fruit and a talisman to seek the celestial gods’ intervention in an individual’s life. (2)

Like the Egyptians, many Greeks attributed immense antiquity and value to Persian thought, with Aristotle among others placing the life and teachings of Zoroaster around 6,000 BCE. According to many Greek sources, the Magi were skilled in the art of creating talismans and were known to use them in their practice of astrology and magic.

According to many Greek sources, the Magi were skilled in the art of creating talismans and using supernatural means to produce effects in the natural world. In Greece, the title Magos and Magi (plural) spawned the word Mageia to describe the activity they were known for, which eventually became “magic” and remains so today. Herodotus clearly defined the Magi as skilled interpreters of dreams and omens. In Cyropaedia, the famous soldier and scholar Xenophon described the role of the Magus as an authority in all religious matters as well as providing the education for future emperors to produce a “sage and philosopher-king”, much like the later role of Aristotle in the life of Alexander the Great as his personal tutor from childhood.

It was the Greeks who consolidated the astronomical and astrological knowledge of the region during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt and developed what is now termed Hellenistic astrology, which was quickly adopted by the Romans and early Islamic rulers. The endless cycles of light and darkness and their precise balancing act, combined with the harmonics of Pythagorean thought, became the lens that was used to understand and interpret the light of the stars in the tropical zodiac.

As stated in section 4.2, I believe the Magi are likely the single biggest source of astrology that we use today. The Persian rule over Babylon and Egypt is when the long-established sidereal systems of both ancient kingdoms was combined, syncretized and consolidated into the system that was soon codified by the Greeks, who were also conquered by the Persians a few centuries prior. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, it was adopted by the early Islamic rulers, helping to usher in the Islamic Golden Age.

For more information on the impact of the Magi on our world, please read The Magi – Astrologers, Magicians & Forgotten Pioneers of Western Civilization? – Cosmic Artifacts

1. DASTUR FIROZE M. KOTWAL (July 1990), A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PARSI PRIESTHOOD, Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 165-175

4.4  Harran

 A considerable amount of the instructions found in the first book of Picatrix are copied from the writings of Thabit Ibn Qurra, a famous mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, and linguist from Harran.  He lived over 1,100 years ago and was employed by the Caliph of Baghdad. One of his many duties was to translate into Arabic the writings of Greek philosophers and those of other nations, including that of his home city of Harran.

Ibn Qurra’s small book “On Images” contains seven different sets of instructions for creating astrological talismans for very different purposes. He states that they are the teachings passed down through the Sabean priesthood of Harran, and if the reader fully understood the principles behind all seven along and had expertise in astrology, he or she could harness the spiritual forces of the stars and planets to succeed in any magical endeavor.

Harran is notable for its relationship with the surrounding Islamic kingdoms. In the early years of Islam’s rise in the region, the inhabitants were presented with the choice of converting or facing death for their ancient religion of the stars and planets. Instead, they claimed to be “Sabeans” who are briefly mentioned in the Quran as “People of the Book” and are to be protected from persecution as pagans. They claimed their Prophet to be Hermes Trismegistus (or Enoch) and their holy scriptures the Hermetica. Their claim was accepted and they enjoyed recognition, protection and patronage from the surrounding Muslim kingdoms for centuries until later rulers turned against them before the city was sacked and largely destroyed by Mongolian armies in 1251.

Harran is an ancient city located in southeastern Turkey, near the border with Syria. The city has a long and rich history, dating back to at least the Bronze Age, four to five thousand years ago. The earliest known reference to Harran comes from an inscription by the Akkadian king Naram-Sin, who claimed to have conquered the city in the 23rd century BC. The city continued to play an important role throughout the ancient period, serving as a center of trade and learning for the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians.  Throughout its history, it was a renowned center of learning, famous for its scholars, their remarkable expertise in the science of the stars and the feats of magic performed by their priests. The city itself was designed with sacred geometry and the layout of its temples reflected the patterns of the seven planets.  In the Book of Genesis Chapter 12, the patriarch Abraham left Harran at the age of 75.  A literal translation of the ancient Hebrew states that Abraham had “made spirits” while in Harran and brought them with him to Canaan.

In recent years Harran has enjoyed a renewed popular interest after the discovery of Gobekli Tepe, only 25 miles to the north. Harran lies in the valley directly below this remarkable site, dubbed “The World’s First Temple”. Gobekli Tepe is shocking for both its age and incredible size. Constructed at least 12,000 years ago and deliberately buried, it dwarfs Stonehenge in every way, its megalithic pillars weighing 10-40 tons and numbering in the hundreds, possibly thousands, each bearing intricate carvings of incredible artistic skill.  No direct archaeological evidence exists to link the two; Harran is estimated to have been first settled around 5,000 BCE, with some recent excavations revealing artifacts dating from 6,000 to 7,000 BCE. However, their mysterious star religion is gaining interest, in part for its links to other prehistoric mysteries of the region.  The Egyptologist Selim Hassan states that the Giza Pyramids were sacred to the priests of Harran, part of a region-wide star cult and the pyramids long having been their site of pilgrimage since ancient times. (1)

The ancient city of Harran continues to stand today and many of its inhabitants live in the unique “beehive” houses for which the city was always known, and continues to gain popularity as a tourist destination. Even more fascinating are the records which describe the design of the city itself. Harran was carefully designed with Hermetic principles and the layout reflected the cosmos, symbolically bringing the heavens to the earth.

Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza, Vol. VI, Part I, Government Press, Cairo, 1946, pg 45

4.5  Ancient Israel and Judea

King Solomon is still synonymous with wisdom and occult knowledge. Flavius Josephus reports that he witnessed a Jewish exorcist named Eleazar performed a cure on an epileptic patient in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian using a ring which was made according to instructions passed down from King Solomon. According to Josephus, many miracle workers and magicians throughout Judea possessed various manuscripts that claimed to have originated with Israel’s legendary king.

Even more compelling is that Daniel, the Israelite seer famed for escaping a den of lions, was himself the chief of the Magi in Babylon, as stated in Daniel 2:48.  During the Jewish captivity of 597-538 BCE, Daniel impressed King Nebuchadnezzar with his ability as a seer and dream interpretation and was promoted to his position. Daniel is not counted among the Prophets among Jews today but his reputation was strong enough for his book to have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The significance of Daniel and his close association to the Magi is significant because it was the Persian King Cyrus who freed the Israelites from captivity and returned them to their homeland where they reconstructed not only their temple but also standardized their holy books into what is now called the Torah and Tanakh, or Jewish Bible. The ancient Paleo-Hebrew writing was replaced with the Ashurit or “square script” which modern Hebrew uses today. Flavius Josephus even states that Daniel’s tomb was located in the Persian city of Ecbatana, capitol city of the Medes, which Herodotus claimed was the birthplace of the original Magi.

The Testament of Solomon, a Greek text probably originating in the first century, contains an extensive list of angel and demon names, each corresponding to a planet, star or one of the 36 Decans. The text contains blatantly Christian ideas but is widely thought to also contain Jewish material from the Second Temple period. The Testament of Solomon gained a degree of popularity in the Byzantine Empire, where it was incorporated into the Magical Treatise of Solomon (also known as the Hygromanteia), a forerunner of the 15^th century Key of Solomon.

The Jewish book of magic Sefer ha Razim, dated to approximately 300 CE, likely originated in a Jewish community within the Byzantine Empire, and consists of rituals intended to contact the astrological forces of the heavens. The Sefer Yetzirah, which may also date to this time period or even earlier, is a meditation device for linking the human soul to the stars and planets, and, ultimately, to God.

Although astrology is strongly eschewed by Jews, the idea of heavenly and earthly correspondence was not. Josephus states that the very layout of Moses’ tabernacle was designed according to the patterns of the heavens, as was the Menorah. In fact, astral lore is present throughout ancient Jewish thought, the key difference being that Jews served the God of Israel first and foremost. They did not deny the existence or avoid the astral forces venerated by neighboring kingdoms.

The three Books of Enoch are largely the descriptions of a mystic ascent through the heavens in dream visions, detailing the encounters with astrological forces. The practitioners of Merkavah 2,000 years ago wrote of similar encounters in the writings collectively termed Hekhalot, or Palace, literature. Like many Hermetic and Gnostic mystics, their goal was to ascend through and beyond the astrological spheres and bring their souls to God, outside and encompassing the astral spheres.

4.6 Nabateans

The beautiful city of Petra in Jordan remains one of the most awe inspiring wonders of the ancient world. Constructed around 2,400 years ago, it was the capitol city of the Nabateans, a Arabic tribe of merchants who inhabited the region and were renowned as incense and spice traders. The Nabateans may have been descendants of the Edomites from early biblical scriptures.  Deep inside a canyon, they expertly carved enormous structures into the rock walls and incorporated drainage as well as rainwater collection, which made the city an artificial oasis in the desert, with the surrounding rock walls serving as a natural fortress. The city’s sophistication is as impressive as any modern construction, possibly even more as it was built without the advantage of modern machinery.

The Greek-style architecture is one of Petra’s most striking features and many people know it from the film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” as the hidden temple which housed the Holy Grail. The city itself was abandoned for unknown reasons in the first century.

Jane Taylor, who spent over two decades living in the region and studying the history and remains of its ancient inhabitants, called the Nabateans “one of the most gifted peoples of the ancient world”.  The were fiercely independent with an excellent military force and earned the respect of the Romans after successfully resisting the Roman efforts to conquer them.  By the first century, the Nabateans had become a thriving and wealthy kingdom that was peacefully assimilated into the Roman Empire under Pax Romana.  Many of their art styles became popular among Romans, who themselves adopted parts of it.

The Nabatean religion gradually faded away along with their language after the decline of the Roman Empire. They adopted Aramaic as their language and the Arabic alphabet and the majority converted to Islam or Christianity by the late first millennia. The population emigrated to various parts of the region.  It was in Iraq where a large part of what would later become a substantial part of the Picatrix was written by Ibn Washiyya, “The Nabatean Agriculture”, bearing their namesake. The book contains a great deal of information relating to astrology, magic, and the combination of both.

Ibn Washiyya claimed the origins of the information to be over 20,000 years old.  Scholars believe he copied from a 5th-century text that also contained Greek and Roman ideas. The Nabateans cited in this book are not believed by modern scholars to be the former builders of Petra. A thousand years ago, the name “Nabatean” had become something of a class or caste label, referring to sedentary farmers.  The nomadic Arabs looked down on the way of life, believing it to be inferior to their own. Regardless, Nabatean Agriculture contains authentic practices and philosophy from pre-Islamic Arabia, much of it bearing a strong similarity to the writings of Iamblichus. Instructions for astrological timing to harness the influences of the seven planetary gods and fixed stars are in the book, and even references the ancient Babylonian god Tammuz as well as Nasr, the latter enjoying prominence in the southern Arabian peninsula before the rise of Islam.

4.7  Greece

Greece was the melting pot where the wisdom of the ancient world was consolidated and crystallized. After Greece began to emerge from its Dark Ages, contact with the Persians and Egyptians began the process of their rise to prominence. 2,500 years ago Pythagoras brought the wisdom of Egypt to Greece and laid the foundation for Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid and the many of the greatest thinkers in all of history.  2,300 years Alexander the Great conquered the Mediterranean, Middle East and parts of India, and consolidated the knowledge of the conquered territories in Alexandria. It was in this period that Hellenistic astrology was developed, which is the foundation of the later medieval and Reniassance astrologers.

Phoenicians were the earliest known globalists, building an international maritime trade empire but left virtually no records. The Greeks followed in their footsteps through conquest and established the foundations of western civilization. Greece laid the foundations for democratic governments, a professional and full-time military force, and not least the first public learning institution founded by Plato in 347 BCE: the Academy. Reason and rationalism were born in Greece.

Plato and other Greek thinkers are still revered today by modern students of philosophy. In Alexandria, Euclid penned his perfect work on geometry and after 2,000 years, not a single flaw has been found. What most westerners are unaware of or are reluctant to acknowledge is that Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and most other influential Greek figures were magicians and occultists in every sense of the word, and obtained their most valuable knowledge from Egyptian priesthoods and other more ancient nations. This was proudly recorded in the writings they left us. Alexander, who united a warring band of city-states and forged them into a global empire in only a decade was conceived and birthed according to careful astrological timing, meant to birth a mighty military conqueror.  Socrates habitually meditated in public to silently converse with his “daimon” or spirit, who gave him his most profound thoughts.

Pythagoras is considered the founder of Greek philosophy. Although he left no written records himself, his successors overwhelmingly agreed that the main source of his knowledge was the Egyptian priesthoods. Many Platonic and Neoplatonic writers also stated that he spent time studying with the Magi in Babylon, among others, before bringing the once-secret knowledge to the Greek and Italian city-states. Considering the vast mathematical knowledge required for Egyptian engineering, Egypt seems an indisputable source. Pythagoras was a mystic and magician in every sense, which later philosophers unashamedly stated and practiced themselves.

Many have made compelling arguments that Plato was initiated into the Pythagorean mysteries and included them in his writings without identifying them as such. The teachings of Pythagoras, like other mystery schools, were strictly for oral transmission. Plato could have preserved the teachings for later generations in writing without breaking any oaths by not explicitly identifying them as such. What is clear is that astrological magic was part of the Greek mysteries, explicitly stated by Iamblichus in the second century. The Hermetic tradition, which came about in Ptolemaic Egypt, continued to influence Islamic esoteric thought over a thousand years later, becoming a tradition of its own within the Islamic world.

Entire volumes could be written on the intellectual accomplishments of the Greeks after Alexander’s conquest. The common perception is that people of this time period were superstitious and primitive, but Greek thinkers knew the earth was spherical, measured the earth’s diameter almost perfectly, understood the heliocentric model of the universe, and even hinted at knowledge of the Americas, just to name a few. The Greeks are the first to have recorded knowledge of the atom.

It was the Greeks who consolidated the astronomical and astrological knowledge of the region during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt and developed what is now termed Hellenistic astrology, much of which was quickly adopted by the Romans and early Islamic rulers. Most of these texts are just recently becoming available in English, largely due to a small group of dedicated individuals involved with Project Hindsight who have worked tirelessly to reconstruct the ancient knowledge and make widely available.

While Rome undoubtedly had an immense and lasting impact on the world, and its emperors employing astrologers successfully for important decisions, the advent of Christianity and subsequent Dark Ages of Europe saw the practice all but die in what was once the western Roman Empire. It was the early Islamic rulers who consolidated the knowledge of the Greeks while founding their kingdoms and astrology contributed to the Golden Age of Islam, sometimes in ways that changed the course of human history.

Section 5: Islamic Golden Age

 Shortly after the Roman Empire collapsed and the Dark Ages started in Europe, the rise of Islam began. The early Arab Caliphs inherited knowledge of the mysterious priesthoods of Egypt, Babylon, and Persia. After the Prophet Muhammed won the Battle of Badr in 624 and established the religion of Islam in Mecca, the Arab Conquests of the next century quickly established the rule of the Caliphs over a vast area from Spain in the west to Afghanistan in the east, to include Egypt, Persia, and Babylon.  Like Ashurbanipal and Alexander, some Caliphs paid for the best scholars in the region to consolidate and translate the most prized writings of the time into Arabic. Greek wisdom was held in particularly high regard.

The first Caliph of Baghdad, al-Mansur, was a patron of all the sciences, including astrology. Masha’allah ibn Athari, a Zoroastrian, and Nawbakht Ahvazi, a Persian Jew, both renowned astrologers, were hired by al-Mansur. They were tasked to choose an astrologically favorable time for his ground-breaking ceremony that established Baghdad as his new capital city, giving the city a prosperous birth horoscope. Within a generation of its founding, Baghdad prospered as an unrivaled center for intellectuals. By the middle of the 9^th century, the academy Baytul-Hikmah or “House of Wisdom” had the largest library in the world and in the 10^th century was the most populous city in the world, surpassing Constantinople in wealth and size. The second caliph launched lavishly funded efforts to translate knowledge from around the world into Arabic, with Greek texts among the most desired. New advancements in papermaking allowed all branches of science to be consolidated, shared and studied, including astrology and magic. It was in this period that Thabit Ibn Qurra wrote the knowledge of Harran’s priesthood in Baghdad. Al-Kindi wrote what was to become some of the foundational texts of Arabic astronomy and astrology, as did Abu Mashar and Masha’allah.

Sufi mystics took an interest in astrological magic as well. In 13^th century Egypt, the mystic, mathematician, and philosopher Ahmed al-Buni wrote his famous Shams al-Maarif al Kubra (Book of the Sun of Gnosis) which remains infamous among Muslims to this day. This immense tome contains extensive prayers, elaborate meditations, amulets and natural magic but also contains a great deal of astrological magic but of a much different character than the Ghayat al-Hakim.  The sacred properties of numbers, letters and Quranic verses are combined with astrological timing in numerous ways to produce complex talismans of number and letter squares.

Around this time, the Ghayat al-Hakim, later known as Picatrix, was put into writing for the first time. Its author is still unknown and will likely remain a mystery. The author compiled astrological magic instructions from over 200 different sources, some of it clearly of Greek origin and even more from pre-Islamic kingdoms of the Middle East. Like the Sabeans of Harran, the author consolidated the pagan lore with the philosophy of Aristotle and Neo-Platonism which was acceptable at the time. Most of the book was blatant heresy by both Islamic and Christian standards, and the author carefully refrained from endorsing the practices, only stating what some people had written in the past and not explicitly instructing the reader to replicate the practices. Picatrix remains the most thorough document in history that contains the star religion of ancient times.

Astrology enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the Islamic world, and court astrologers were often employed as close advisors of kings and nobility. Astrologers were typically consulted for all important decisions, from coronations to initiating battles and even entire wars. Sultan Mehmet II took his place among world conquerors in 1453 when he successfully invaded Constantinople, employing the advice of astrologers heavily in his strategy. The last of the Eastern Roman Empire and a famous Christian city became Istanbul, a hub of Muslim power. Mehmet’s campaign quickly turned his relatively small Turkish kingdom into the Ottoman Empire, a significant global power with few rivals until its downfall in the First World War. Astrologers played a key role in founding Baghdad and a much more significant role in the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Cosmic Conquerors: How the Ottomans Used Astrology to Topple Constantinople – Cosmic Artifacts

Ottoman astrologers were consulted for building projects and renovations, and even had an important role in minimizing the damage done by the Bubonic Plague. Ottoman nobility employed astrologers to record the birth times of their children and create astrological talismans for them, carefully configuring them with their natal horoscopes.

Electional astrology was not limited to the ruling class, it enjoyed popularity among the masses of the Islamic world. It was so popular that auspicious times were even chosen for mundane activities like scheduling a haircut by some people. Weddings, business transactions, travel, animal husbandry, and all normal activities of life were commonly timed with electional astrology by many Muslims throughout their history. It was only after fundamentalist groups such as Wahabbis began to grow and exert greater social control in recent centuries that the practice became taboo in varying degrees and largely declined in popularity.

Section 6: Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Around the 10^th century, the compilation of all known astrological magic at the time, the Picatrix, was written in Arabic. In the 13^th century, it was translated into Latin and Spanish at the behest of Alphonso the Wise, King of Spain, from where parts of it spread throughout Europe. For a time, Spain was a melting pot of scholarship like Alexandria a millennium before. Christians, Jews and Muslims lived side by side and learned from each other, including esoteric subjects. Many of the most important Kabbalistic books were probably put into writing in medieval Spain.

Electional astrology began to enjoy an upsurge elsewhere in Europe during the medieval period. The famous astrologer Guido Bonatti enjoyed a successful career choosing auspicious times for Italian nobility in the 1200s, even rising to the position of advisor to Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.  Bonatti’s first brush with fame began when he assisted in the timing and planning of military maneuvers for the Count of Montefeltro. Bonatti informed the count that he would successfully repel his enemies but suffer a wound. The count took his predictions seriously and was prepared with the necessary medical supplies, saving his life when he was wounded exactly as predicted.

The Crusades are widely credited with bringing Europe out of the Dark Ages. Europeans had contact with learned Muslims and brought to Europe advanced math, science, medicine, and the Muslim astrologers’ knowledge of the stars. The Renaissance brought with it a renewed interest in ancient wisdom; the philosopher and personal physician to the Medici family, Marsilio Ficino, was tasked with translating into Latin the writings of Plato and the Greek manuscripts that are now known as the Hermetica.  Astrology, and especially astrological magic, straddled a fine and dangerous line between a respected practice and a capital crime. In Europe, possession of Picatrix would most likely result in a death sentence by religious authorities.

Marsilio Ficino, in his “Three Books on Life” compiled a tremendous amount of knowledge of astrological medicine, much of which he successfully used for his wealthy patrons. Most of his knowledge came from Picatrix but he carefully disguised his sources. Albertus Magnus, the church father and mentor to Saint Thomas Aquinas, experimented with the use of astrological talismans, including constellations and the lunar mansions. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa devoted his entire second book to astrological magic in his famous “Three Books of Occult Philosophy”, many parts of which directly drew upon the Picatrix. Astrological magic in Renaissance Europe was generally allowed but its practitioners could easily suffer harsh penalties if they did not carefully present themselves and their work in a Christian light. After the Enlightenment period. astrological magic went into decline in Europe, with only vague traces of it surviving in some manuscripts of the Key of Solomon. The planetary attributions of the pentacles have been debated in recent years as more manuscripts come to light. By the Industrial Age and the advent of modern astrology, astrological magic as it existed at its height had ceased to exist.

Section 7: Twenty-First Century

Until the 20^th century, the Picatrix only existed only in manuscript form. In the early 2000s, a translation was published in English for the first time but much of the astrological verbiage was lost in translation. In 2010 Christopher Warnock and John Michael Greer published the definitive version of Picatrix in English based on the Latin manuscripts. Warnock had been part of an ongoing effort by a group of modern astrologers to revive the forgotten practices of astrology as it existed prior to 1700.

Since the early 2000s, some academics and astrologers have dedicated themselves to translating long-forgotten astrological texts from the Renaissance, medieval and earlier eras and attempting to understand and revive the practices. Their efforts are allowing more people to unravel and understand the labyrinth of mysteries in Picatrix. Chris Warnock teaches numerous courses in Renaissance astrology and sells talismans created from the instructions in Picatrix. He has also collaborated with numerous others to publish other medieval astrological magic texts, such as the Book of the Treasure of Alexander and the Quindecum Stellas, and continues his efforts to bring once-obscure texts to the public. Clifford Hartleigh Low has delivered numerous lectures and provided free material online based on his research from a medieval standpoint, intending to encourage further understanding and restoration of the practice. The numbers are currently small but steadily growing as more and more material becomes available. Dr. Liana Saif has spent years translating Arabic manuscripts and plans to publish a definitive Arabic-English translation of the Ghayat al-Hakim. In 2021, Gideon Bohak and Charles Burnett published a translation of Ibn Qurra’s writings, “Thabit Ibn Qurra On Talismans” based on newly discovered manuscripts

The renewed interest in Picatrix has prompted considerable speculation by fans of H.P. Lovecraft that the infamous “Necronomicon” of horror fiction is in fact based on Picatrix. Fans of the horror genre will recognize the Book of the Dead not only from Lovecraft’s stories but from the “Evil Dead” franchise, “Castlevania” and many others. Lovecraft himself stated that the book and its author, the “Mad Arab” magician Abdul Alhazred were purely his own inventions. Access to a copy of Picatrix in Lovecraft’s lifetime was highly unlikely. The speculation is not unfounded, however. The Necronomicon of Lovecraft’s stories has numerous parallels to the Picatrix. The Necronomicon’s origins were from the medieval Arab world and contained instructions for ritual contact with prehistoric gods of the region, the Elder Gods of the Necronomicon that originated from the stars long before human civilization existed. The Necronomicon was feared, forbidden and suppressed throughout its history, existing only in hand-written manuscript form for over a thousand years, as was the Picatrix. It is fair to say that the Picatrix is the closest thing to the real Necronomicon in the world.

The book is certainly a valuable and unique artifact, the product of a mysterious part of human history that lasted for thousands upon thousands of years. More and more ancient megalithic ruins are unearthed every day and the celestial patterns become more difficult to ignore. The human race and the stars once enjoyed a relationship lasting tens of thousands of years. This relationship gifted us with the tools that built everything we enjoy today, even the machines that brought human beings to the moon itself.  We have become increasingly alienated from the earth, the night sky and even the innermost parts of our own minds. Mental illness grows more and more rampant. Artificial Intelligence is emerging and will render the human mind inferior according to the opinions of some. Perhaps now, more than ever, the time is right to look back at our ancestors and their incredible accomplishments with a different attitude. Maybe they had something that technology cannot give us: our living connection to the cosmos that created us.