Hellenistic Astrology & Plato’s Metaphysics
Introduction
In the third century of the Common Era, crafting images based on astrological formulas appears to have been a long-established practice. That much is evident from reading Iamblichus, but he gives few details. He also says that some Egyptians had mastered the use of ritual timing to the point that it made the use of materials in their rites irrelevant.
“The information contained in the astrological almanacs comprises only a very small part of the Hermetic system; and doctrine on the heliacal risings and settings of the stars, or the waxing and waning of the moon occupies the lowest place in the Egyptian account of the causes of things…..but they [the Egyptians] recommend that we ascend through the practice of sacred theurgy to the regions that are higher, more universal and superior to fate, towards the god who is the creator, without the aid of matter or anything other than the observation of the critical time for action.” – De Mysteriis, Book 8, 4, Clarke edition
The Hellenized world often synthesized a wide variety of ancient lore into a single system. The Greek lore of Homer and Hesiod were brought together as the Greeks united and expanded, and the philosophical ideas of Pythagoras and Plato united the gods of Egypt. Greek thinking took hold in Persia and Babylon with the Parthians forming astral cults under the name of Zoroaster or combined ancient Iranian gods with their Greek counterparts. By the first century, Rome had taken control of the entire region and tried to emulate the Greeks in practically every way. The old Roman and Etruscan gods followed the same model and were identified as their Greek counterparts based on astrological functions. Rome also occupied Egypt for six centuries and the same thing occurred there. By the time of the Christian emperors the gods of an entire region appear a jumbled mess. Egyptians were writing the names of their own gods as their Greco-Roman counterparts in Koine Greek or Latin, while their older languages were reserved for liturgical purposes.
The philosophers of this period found it rewarding to closely study and analyze the parallel mythologies of the gods. This was itself an important learning process that helped the philosopher grasp subtleties like the Theory of Forms. The Neoplatonists studied a structure of the cosmos that encompassed everything and revealed the underlying order of the gods’ many forms. The Neoplatonists used a three-fold hierarchy based on functions that made mythology accessible and their studies on the gods.
- Emperor Julian and the Gods of Rome
- Hephaestion of Thebes and the Gods of Egypt
- Hellenistic Astrology, 1st – 5th Century
- Temples and Images of Time and Space
- Thema Mundi
- Triplicity, Sect & Important Minor Dignities
- Ritual Petitions and Astrological Timing
- Ensouling Images and Foundational Principles
1. Emperor Julian and the Gods of Rome
There is no single “correct” source but Saturninius Secundus Salutius, or simply Salutius, is among the best sources for this place and time. A close friend and advisor of Rome’s last pagan Emperor, Julian, known as Julian the Apostate by Christian detractors, or as Julian the Philosopher by others. He was widely respected as a philosopher and for his brilliant intellect. Salutius’s small treatise On the Gods and Cosmos is an excellent source for the time, as well as the writings of Julian.
Julian had a deep reverence for the works of Iamblichus. He learned theurgy from Maximus of Ephesus, who had learned directly from Iamblichus. Julian’s early life was spent in the Greek-speaking eastern empire where he was raised as a Christian, until he became enthralled by the Platonist doctrines around the age of 20. He was introduced to Neoplatonism by Aedesius, a former student of Iamblichus. Julian was mainly taught by Eusebius of Myndus who is still remembered as a link in the “Golden Chain” of philosophers. Eusebius was strongly aligned with Plotinus with his approach of pure logic and contemplation and strongly rejected the mystic practices of Iamblichus and theurgy. He had once participated in a rite with Maximus of Ephesus where a statue of Hecate was “animated”, and it disturbed him for the rest of his life. Eusebius was shaken because he witnessed the statue take on a presence in the same way the other participants did. He believed that theurgy was dangerous and best avoided. His warnings had the opposite effect on Julian who was fascinated and became determined to learn this part of philosophy. Julian set off to learn from his new mentor Maximus. The departure wasn’t bitter, and Julian held warm feelings for his old teacher.
Julian was a prodigious learner and spent every moment engrossed in his studies. He became initiated in the Eleusinian and Mithraic mysteries, ordained as a priest of Apollo and learned from the most accomplished Neoplatonist philosophers of the time. He had no desire to rule Rome but circumstances forced it. Julian quickly proved to be a very capable military commander and politician in Gaul before the sudden death of his uncle Constantius made him Emperor at the age of 30.
Julian’s reign coincided with large factions of Christians vying for control of Rome. He surprised the population by disempowering Christians and issuing edicts for religious freedom, repairing the old temples and revoking punitive policies against pagans. His government was guided by Neoplatonist doctrines. He appointed the philosopher Salutius as one of his closest advisors, along with accomplished military officers and dismissing many corrupt bureaucrats. His government reforms and leadership style were unorthodox but by most accounts successful.
He devoted himself to philosophy as much as statecraft, writing orations to Helios and the Mother of the Gods. These works were the culmination of everything he had learned, describing his thought processes, visionary experiences and learning process in great detail, and explaining the rationale for syncretizing deities from more ancient times. These orations give a valuable and personal perspective of traditions that would soon vanish. He held Mithraism, the Chaldean Oracles, and the works of Iamblichus and Plotinus in especially high regard. Julian was incredibly knowledgeable in the writings of the classic philosophers like Plato as well as the older Greek lore. If he hadn’t been emperor he would have still been remembered as a highly accomplished philosopher of the time.
Julian’s surprising rise to power was overshadowed by his catastrophic downfall. After a successful start, he inexplicably set out to make war with the Sasanian Empire on the pretext of a relatively minor border dispute in what is now Iraq. The Persians tried to negotiate but were ignored and in 363 AD he led a military expedition to the Euphrates River. He composed his Hymn to the Mother of the Gods in 362 while passing through Phrygia (northwestern Turkey) where the mother goddess Cybele is thought to have originated.
Julian’s rationale for his campaign has never been understood. He was experienced in war and had excellent military leaders to advise him. He was more than a devout philosopher and mystic. He was fully enraptured by his spiritual practices and almost saintly in many ways, controversially treating people of lower classes with respect. In the Senate he called himself “first among equals” and refused excess honors or flattery. He lived the life of a devout mystic and monk, only having one sexual partner in his life for a brief period, his wife. Every spare moment was spent in study, meditation and mysticism and he surrounded himself with equally devoted Neoplatonists. This is why his choice of war is so bizarre. He consulted numerous seers and diviners who advised him of many ill omens that guaranteed disaster for him. His close friend and advisor Salutius wrote to him and begged him to turn back before it was too late. Julian never explained his actions, so it only leaves room for speculation, but it’s bizarre that he disregarded so many diviners that he respected.
The historian Socrates Scholasticus wrote in “Church History” that Julian believed himself to be Alexander the Great. This claim was repeated by others and isn’t by itself unusual, but the circumstances of Julian’s death is. Shortly after engaging the Persians directly, Julian was wounded in his right side by a spear. It was not immediately life threatening but did cut his lower liver and intestine. His physician successfully disinfected and sewed up the wound. Three days later the intestinal stitching burst and Julian died at the age of 32 on the banks of the Tigris River, about 100 miles north of Babylon where Alexander unexpectedly died at age 32. His fatal wound was a spear to the right side, the same place Christ was stabbed by a Roman soldier, and the namesake of the religious movement that Julian clashed with. Christ was around 33 years old and resurrected after three days. Julian died after three days. In some sense, Christ conquered pagan Rome while Julian embodied its ultimate defeat in an ironic twist.
A Christian officer named Jovian was hastily chosen as emperor by the soldiers. Rome was forced to negotiate the withdrawal on humiliating terms, surrendering five Roman provinces to the Sasanids and allowing Persian annexation of Armenia, ending all Roman influence in the region. Jovian died only seven months later and one of his decrees was a ban on pagan divination and similar practices. Less than thirty years later Emperor Theodosius I issued the famous “Theodosian decrees” that criminalized pagans under severe penalties in all Roman territories.
2. Hephaestion of Thebes and the Gods of Egypt
Hephaestion of Thebes was born during Theodosius’s reign in Egypt and wrote three volumes on astrology. They contain information that other sources will not explicitly state: how to select astrological configurations for images of deities and the timing of rituals. Most of the names are the Greco-Roman equivalent and the details minimal, but enough information survives to fill in the blanks with a high degree of confidence.
Hephaestion of Thebes was a Hellenized Egyptian astrologer born in 380 or 390 AD, not long after Emperor Julian’s short but dramatic reign. In 415, he wrote a three-volume work on astrology called Apotelesmatika. Volume 3 contains a set of instructions for choosing astrological elections to consecrate the statues of seventeen gods, along with instructions for selecting times to perform ritual petitions and divination. In 2013 Eduardo Gramaglia translated book three and it was published by Cazimi Press and edited by Benjamin Dykes. This is the version that will be referenced here, supplemented with my own research of the Greek text.
Hephaestion consolidates older material by Dorotheus of Sidon (1st century BC), Claudius Ptolemy and others whose writings would otherwise have been lost. Dorotheus, Ptolemy and Valens were arguably the cornerstone of the system that the medieval Arabs established. Some sources Hephaestion quotes are not always identified like Nechepso and Petosiris, who are portrayed as an ancient Egyptian king and a priest of Thoth. The two are thought to represent a tradition in the same way Aristotle or Hermes were credited with medieval books.
In Volume 3, Hephaestion provides detailed instructions for choosing astrological configurations for crafting and consecrating sacred statues within temples so that they will be suitable for the god. He says that these instructions are “handed down from the wise Egyptians and other ancients” and doesn’t elaborate further. Whatever its origin, it provides instructions that Proclus and others omitted, or has been lost, in their writings on the use of statues and shrines.
Next to nothing is known of Hephaestion’s personal life other than he was a Hellenized Egyptian. He lived immediately before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. During his lifetime the Roman Catholic Church took on much of the governmental authority previously held by the Caesars. Any remaining religious freedoms in Roman territory, including Egypt, were quashed. All pagan temples and practices were outlawed and could be destroyed or reappropriated by the Church. Anyone who didn’t follow the Nicene doctrine was subject to criminal penalties along with social persecutions of all sorts. For a pagan Greek or Egyptian, the practices that involved pagan images would have been an undeniable proof of guilt.
In the two centuries prior, pagan philosophers had widely adopted the Neoplatonist view of the gods that emphasized the three major hierarchies. They had simplified ideas of emanations back into the original structure of upper, middle and lower. The realms of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades were ultimately the same as the Christian trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three hierarchies of divine chains emanated to produce a fourth world of matter as the Pythagorean Tetractys illustrated. The Chaldean Oracles that Emperor Julian and many other Neoplatonists held in high regard divided the World of Forms into the First Intellect, the World Soul, and the Demiurge, producing our world of matter. Beginning, middle and end were underlying the forms of matter. The identities of pagan gods followed this model in the period that Hephaestion lived and prove valuable for understanding their relationships.
Hephaestion provides a list of zodiac signs and the gods whose images are to be created with them, with an example of a solar and lunar configuration. The first, Fortuna, has much more detail than the others and serves as an example formula to contemplate. Their Greek and Roman names are used. The responsibility is on the reader to formulate the remaining astrological configurations and identify the planets that the god embodies.
Hephaestion’s three volumes will be my primary reference for astrological information and the Roman era Platonists for the gods themselves.
The Goddess Fortune [Fortuna, Tyche] when the Moon is in her own triangle [triplicity] and that of Venus, and well posited in Capricorn or in Cancer.
The “Mother of the Gods” in Leo, Taurus and Capricorn.
Demeter, Kore (Persephone) and Pluto in Virgo and Taurus.
Osiris in Pisces, Aquarius and Taurus.
Victory (Nike) in Virgo and Cancer.
Serapis in Taurus, Leo and Sagittarius.
Asclepius and Hygeia in Sagittarius and Pisces.
Dionysus in Virgo and Capricorn.
Heracles in Gemini and Leo.
Eros and the Graces [Charites] in the domiciles or exaltations of Venus.
Nemesis in those (domicile or exaltation) of Saturn [Capricorn, Aquarius and Libra].
Philosophers of the Roman era identified the planets as gods and distinguished them in hierarchies. There were the planetary beings, but also Encosmic and Sublunar or mundane gods, all of which were interlinked. A god higher in the Golden Chain could descend into the form of a lower god and take on attributes of that level. The simplest example is the creative principle of light descending to become the Sun.
The hierarchical structure of the Neoplatonists can be very confusing, especially when comparing stories from different sources and eras. Homer and Hesiod are from the same period but often portray the same gods differently. In the early Roman era, they all seem to have been combined freely but few people explained or fully understood the underlying rationale. The confusion caused philosophers like Plotinus to dismiss it and Iamblichus to attempt reconciling the “Many and the One” which had become an idea most people couldn’t understand. This was doubtlessly one of the reasons that the monotheistic religions became dogmatic in their doctrines; the idea of a formless source couldn’t fit the worldview of many people.
To make sense of them, it’s important to keep in mind the Great Chain of Being and Theory of Forms which is emanations, multiplying and combining as it descends like the Tetractys. The scheme of beings according to the Chaldean Oracles can be summarized as one source, which emanates three different tiers of being and ultimately culminates in the world of matter in a four-fold structure. Each tier contains potentially endless beings, in the same way the cosmos has endless stars, and the earth has endless creatures.
Oracles of Zoroaster, translated by W. W. Wescott
I’m referencing what remains of the Chaldean Oracles heavily because it was regarded as second only to Plato by most Neoplatonist philosophers of the time. Julian referred to himself as “an initiate of the seven rays”, which points to this book and the Mithras cult.
I’ve attempted to consolidate most of the cosmological descriptions from Pythagoras to the Neoplatonists in this chart. In the center is the Pythagorean emanation of the Tetractys which is, for me at least, the most comprehensive reference point. I’m not illustrating the Tetractys as the more familiar ten points because I’m trying to convey the triad emanating the fourfold world of matter. This is key to grasping the seemingly contradictory and confusing mythologies of gods and astral emanations.
The fourth tier is everything that we can see and sense and the three tiers above that is everything behind the curtain that we cannot sense. The three-dimensional world of matter is the fourth tier in the chain. Everything below the realm of Intellect or Nous has visible counterparts in the sky, water and earth. An imperceptible world of upper, middle and lower is behind all of it. We each have a direct counterpart in the three parts of our soul as Plato explained the composition of our psyche. This triad is the inner world and the fourth is the outer world of matter.
Salutius, the close friend and advisor to Emperor Julian, explains the divine nature of fables and their layers of symbolism and how hierarchies are identified through Pythagorean terms of emanation and harmony. He explains that linking gods to the cosmos and processes of nature frequently reveals the activities of the gods overlapping and appearing on multiple levels, in the same way the Monad becomes a multitude of numbers. A fable conceals truths from the unworthy and compels others to philosophize.
“They also represent the activities of the Gods. For one may call the world a myth, in which bodies and things are visible, but souls and minds hidden. Besides, to wish to teach the whole truth about the Gods to all produces contempt in the foolish, because they cannot understand, and lack of zeal in the good, whereas to conceal the truth by myths prevents the contempt of the foolish and compels the good to practice philosophy.”
Julian shares this sentiment in his Hymn to the Mother of the Gods and Hymn to Helios. He defends the myths as the highest forms of wisdom. Interpreting them requires using all the mental and spiritual faculties to perceive the truths hidden beneath the outer appearance, just like the material world with its trappings that hypnotize us through the senses. Julian also valued mythology for the ceremonies and pageantry that allowed people incapable of philosophy to still honor and interact with the gods.
Iamblichus explains at length that what we now refer to as “myths” depict the divine order, not as it really exists but in images and symbols we can recognize. Those images and symbols are found throughout creation and have links to their source that are otherwise unintelligible. A ritual enactment of a mythical story using those images and symbols establishes a link to its origin. The actions create sympathy by directly participating in the divine order. For example, a ritual act of lighting a fire has a symbolic link to the creation of the Sun by creating a sympathetic resonance, like a tuning fork. The action and symbolism can awaken part of the human soul that is linked to the Sun and when it stirs, the imagination can receive impressions directly from it through intuition that has been amplified by the event. A mythical story is itself an image.
Iamblichus says of rituals,
“It imitates the order of the gods, both the intelligible and that in the heavens. It possesses eternal measures of what truly exists and wondrous tokens such as have been sent down hither by the creator and father of all, by means of which unutterable truths are expressed through secret symbols, beings beyond form brought under the control of form, things superior to all image reproduced through images, and all things brought to completion through one single divine cause, which itself so far transcends passions that reason is not even capable of grasping it.” (De Mysteriis, I:21, Clark)
Closely examining the underlying order of a deity’s mythology and rites can reveal the astrological correspondence of a season, planet, group of stars or a combination of all. Hephaestion intended for the reader to know it for themselves, but all clues for us today are helpful. The syncretization of gods can appear to be a labyrinth but they’re ultimately “images reproduced through images” as Iamblichus put it. Iamblichus explains in many ways that rituals are enacting a process which “imitates the order of the gods” using images and symbols. The myth itself is an image or symbol of the unintelligible.
Manilius is another authoritative source for this period and his work informed others for several centuries. He writes in Astronomica (30 BC – 37 AD) of the Roman gods who had dominion in particular astral spheres:
“Pallas (Minerva) watches over the Woolbearer (Aries);
Cytherea (Venus) over Taurus;
Phoebus (Apollo) the shapely Gemini;
You, Cyllenius (Mercury), over Cancer;
and Jupiter, you yourself rule Leo with the Mother of the Gods;
Virgo who bears ears of grain belongs to Ceres;
and the forged scales to Vulcan;
quarrelsome Scorpio clings to Mars;
Diana cherishes the hunting man part horse (Sagittarius);
and Vesta the contracted stars of Capricorn;
opposite Jupiter is Aquarius, the star of Juno;
and Neptune acknowledges his own Pisces in the upper air.”
This list is using Roman gods to denote planets and the twelve zodiac signs. Some are easily recognized through their dignities in western astrology but others don’t fit that scheme as easily. They require their mythologies to be examined, in their Greek and Roman forms, before their role becomes clearer.
As will become clearer, the astrological associations were putting mythologies and nature into the form of sacred numbers and were not arbitrary. In addition to Hephaestion’s three volumes, I’ll use Manilius and Firmicus Maternus as references. The Hermetic Lots can be reliable indicators as well. Many of the Lots have the names of Hellenistic gods and are calculated from specific planets, which can reveal that god’s planetary association and the reason for it.
At first it may appear to the outside observer like pareidolia, finding nonexistent patterns in random information (seeing animals and faces in clouds as an example). With enough symbolism, a person can shoehorn any interpretation to fit. But that is very the mental faculty that the philosophers intended to be used while keeping it grounded in reason. It’s a delicate balance between the intuitive and logical parts of the mind. Using only one excessively makes for imbalance. Without the rational faculty to keep it in check, the intuitive mind will become hypnotized and chase phantoms, like a person using intoxicants excessively or having a “Pollyanna” personality. It’s blissful but reality will eventually disrupt it, sometimes painfully. On the other hand, shutting out the intuitive imagination causes a disconnected and isolated perception that’s dismal and empty, devoid of meaning and just as imbalanced. Plutarch, who was a priest of Apollo, repeatedly emphasized that sacred images, stories and symbols must be kept in check through philosophy and reason.
By bridging symbolism with a coherent order, the reader will begin to understand myths like the Neoplatonist philosophers studied them. Emperor Julian learned this process and wrote about it. His writings are helpful but going through the thought process itself is what matters most, enabling a person to grasp the Theory of Forms through astrological events. They knew the myths differed and the planet associations were not always consistent. Getting too caught up in “which is the correct one” can miss the forest for the trees. Zeus in his form of a distant sky father could choose to act more directly by taking on the form of the planet Jupiter, or the Sun. In either case he is descending from the higher heavens to enter the planetary sphere. The gods frequently changed forms to do many things just as the Monad becomes infinitely complex numbers.
The myths were intended to illustrate processes that anyone could perceive at a surface level but also use them as a reference point for connecting many complex things. The intuitive imagination has the urge to find connections everywhere and the myths provide a structure that’s vital for keeping the reasoning faculties involved. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, this is where the soul first looks outside of the cave and experiences pain by the overwhelming sunlight. He goes back to reexamine the shadows, then reflections in water, eventually looking at the night sky before finally seeing the sun. In myths, a god entering a cave signifies a celestial being (stars or planets) entering the physical in the darkness of the underworld. But there is even more to this symbolism. The underground temples used by the cult of Mithras, collectively known as Mithraeums, are beautifully decorated with astrological images. What little is known of the Mysteries of Eleusis involved elaborate ceremonies in caves. This is a tradition reaching back tens of thousands of years. Archaeo-astronomers are increasingly discovering that ancient cave paintings are highly sophisticated and accurate star maps aligned to the equinoxes and solstices with astonishing expertise. Astrology has become synonymous with the sky above but for most of human history it had an equally important chthonic or underworld aspect. The Sun enters the underworld every evening at sunset and spends exactly half the year there altogether. The heavens and earth linking together, immortal spirits to mortal bodies, was central to understanding and developing the soul. A rite for Demeter and Persephone would take place in a cave for the same reasons as a rite for Zeus and the Olympians would occur on a mountaintop.
The myths were always regarded to have been gifted to humans directly from the gods they portray. According to Julian, philosophers must ultimately comprehend them for themselves.
“Now I think ordinary men derive benefit enough from the irrational myth which instructs them through symbols alone. But those who are more highly endowed with wisdom will find the truth about the gods helpful; though only on condition that such a man examine and discover and comprehend it under the leadership of the gods, and if by such riddles as these he is reminded that he must search out their meaning, and so attains to the goal and summit of his quest through his own researches; he must not be modest and put faith in the opinions of others rather than in his own mental powers.” Julian the Emperor, Hymn to the Mother of the Gods
Julian emphasized the importance of knowing and understanding over blind belief. All the philosophers and sages shared this opinion. I’m often referencing Julian as a matter of personal preference for his clear writing style and the fact that he studied philosophy in the same century as Hephaestion of Thebes.
A major difference between Hellenistic astrology and it’s more technical medieval form is that the former had much more of an overt emphasis on pagan gods in the astral spheres. The house divisions were called “temples”. Temples, in the ordinary sense, are special portions of physical space and matter that allow one or more gods to descend into it so that human beings and nature can be closer to them. The extreme efforts that ancient people made to design temples with sacred number and astronomical alignments in the architecture takes on a new meaning when the relationship between “houses” and “temples” are contemplated in an astrological sense. The heavens are limitless in its primordial form and creation is only possible because its raw elements are divided and combined in endless cycles. The underlying mathematical principles that govern this process are what unifies everything and are part of the sympathy between matter and spirit.
Many of the astrological formula Hephaestion provided are not singular planets, but significant aspects between planets and the luminaries, in the same way that Caput Draconis and Cauda Draconis, the Head and Tail of the Dragon, is the eclipse of the Sun and Moon.
3. Hellenistic Astrology, 1st – 5th Century
Heaven, Earth & Underworld
In volume two Hephaestion elaborates on the rising of the Dog Star in the month of Epiphi or “third month of the season of the waters” which is the Sothic calendar. For those who are unfamiliar with Egyptian history, the Dog Star is Sirius, or a goddess called Sopdet (“skilled woman”) and the season of the waters refers to the Nile flooding, which gave life to the fertile land of the Nile Valley situated in a vast desert. The heliacal rising of Sirius coincided with the floods and was the basis of Egyptian time divisions since 3000 BC, and likely much earlier based on evidence at Nabta Playa (5500 to 3400 BC). The Egyptian science of the stars underwent changes during its immense history but the Sothic calendar was the very foundation of its timekeeping.
Hephaestion presents astrology in a form that is seemingly different from the medieval era. The information is given in much less detail and much of its terminology is ancient pagan lore. The planets are portrayed less as lights in the sky and more as gods interacting that result in endless combinations of events in our world. The geocentric worldview that has chains of gods surrounding the earth and carried through the four winds are spoken of as much more real than we are accustomed to. The astrologers of the medieval era lived in a world where monotheism was interpreted strictly and forced to translate older pagan books in terms that were acceptable. Their books are written in far more detail but some of the Greco-Egyptian worldview is gone. The impression on the reader’s imagination is much more mechanical and harder to visualize the figures of Zeus and Hermes “hurling rays” and “bearing spears” in the form of the sky’s lights.
Early astrologers of the Hellenistic era looked at each house or sign division as an abode for gods. Each was a temple that connected the heavens and the underworld. The cosmos was ultimately divided into three primordial realms: the sky, the earth, and the underworld. Each was inhabited by gods and goddesses that together made life. The meaning is the same but the word “house” doesn’t convey the same impression as temple. Imum Coeli or “bottom of the heavens” in Latin is much less straightforward than stake of the underworld. Earth sounds different than Hades.
The result is that the astrology becomes more removed from the myths. The cosmos is harder to visualize as living beings with spirits entering and exiting the world. The cosmos seems less alive and devoid of personality. Without that view, it’s more difficult to understand the reverence that the theurgists had for astrology as a deeply spiritual practice.
The most important window of time and space, from both an astrological and spiritual perspective, was the ascendant and eastern horizon, which was the entrance to the physical world signifying birth, beginnings, and the point on the horizon where the sun and other planets rose each day. The Midheaven was the highest point of the heavens where the gods emanated their actions fully. The descendant, or seventh house, was the western horizon where the sun set and Egyptians considered the passage to the afterlife. The descendant signifies the descent to Hades and the angle of the Imum Coeli, or fourth house, the lowest point of the underworld. The four angles in the chart correspond to the Sun’s four changes in seasons.
The stakes or angles act as windows between the world of matter, time and space, and the spiritual worlds that intersect. Among other things, an astrological chart represented the heavens and underworld intersecting to create our visible world through the geometric Form most sacred to the Pythagoreans, the twelve-faced docecahedron. The dodecahedron contained all possible geometric shapes and was encircled by the ecliptic and twelve zodiac signs, or dodecatropos in Greek. An astrological chart was a microcosmic symbol of a fractal universe. For the Greeks it was three primordial realms: the heavens ruled by Zeus, the underworld of Hades and surrounded by Oceanos, the primordial ocean that contained the visible earth and had its physical counterpart in the ocean.
A heavy focus on the twelve houses as the heavens intersecting with the underworld, influencing nature and the seasons, portrays the events shown in a person’s birth chart as a microcosmic piece of an infinite cycle. A natal horoscope’s first house and ascendant didn’t just signify the moment of birth and the physical body exiting the womb but was also a reflection of the Sun rising to form a new day, in a cycle of endless days, months, years and eras.
Iamblichus emphasized that the spiritual component of astrology was the most important aspect. Hellenistic astrology books can be difficult to understand because the writers did not explain things in detail like the medieval astrologers. One reason for this is that astrology itself was a mystery tradition just like Hermeticism, Mithraism, the Eleusinian rites and so on. Firmicus Maternus, Vettius Valens and most of the important sources tell the reader to not reveal the information to the uninitiated and often provide the bare minimum details. This point of view made astrology a method of deep spiritual contemplation on an individual person’s relationship to the universe as the dialogues of Hermes Trismegistus explains the human soul to be.
The first through sixth houses didn’t only represent the world that we live in every day but was the domain of the chthonic: Hades, nature gods, and terrestrial spirits (or simply demons in later thought) inhabited this sphere. Celestial beings like the Sun took on a chthonic form when they set below the western horizon, like Re traveling the Duat in his solar boat every night. The houses were windows of time and space for the celestial gods to exert their influence in different ways by commanding the natural forces that resided in each. Venus in her celestial form commanded different spiritual forces than she did while she was Queen of the Underworld. Some houses strengthened them and weakened others, depending on their nature. It allowed for infinite combinations with an underlying mathematical structure in the way Pythagoras described all of existence.
As the Platonic philosophers made clear with the Theory of Forms, all that is visible reflects higher principles that are invisible. The Sun in its physical guise of light and heat was the Form of light on a lower plane. The Sun was alive and had a spirit that could be perceived through dreams and altered states of consciousness. Iamblichus described the gods in Book 3 of De Mysteriis appearing to the mind’s eye in various images of light that symbolized their nature and function. For many Greeks, he appeared as Helios. To Egyptians, he appeared as Re and to Chaldeans he took on the image of Shemesh. They did this by activating the sunthemata or “token” embedded in the human soul; the sympathetic relationship between the token and the god caused the soul to perceive it through imagination. The quality of the vision wasn’t always reliable according to Iamblichus. It could be diluted by distorted imagination or phantasia arising from attachment to the physical desires of the body. Divination methods such as astrology were useful tools for gaining clarity.
For Iamblichus, a powerful vision of Helios had more value if an astrological chart was also interpreted to discern the activities of the Sun and the rest of creation. The human faculties are flawed and limited; more context and detail could be gained by exercising more than one. Theurgists looked at an astrological chart as a map of each god’s actions, affecting the natural world as well as the individual’s physical body and life.
As I have examined with the foundations of the tropical zodiac, there was a very important emphasis on the four divisions of the seasons where light and dark played out their endless struggle to engulf the earth. On the summer solstice, the earth is overwhelmed with the Sun’s light and experiences only a few hours of darkness. On the winter solstice the opposite occurs and darkness engulfs the world. On the equinoxes light and dark achieves a perfect but very brief balance. In the spring that moment of balance is followed by increasing light until it peaks in summer and then follows with another perfect but brief balance in the sign of Libra, the autumn equinox. The darkness slowly begins to increase until the cold winter solstice arrives, and this continues endlessly. The solstices are marked by the first degree of their respective zodiac signs: the first degree of Cancer in summer and Capricorn in winter. The equinoxes are marked by the first degree of Aries in spring and Libra in autumn.
The signs govern the type of activity and influence that the planets will have when they reside in their sky temple. The four markers of the solstice and equinox form a cross or X that is called the “cross of matter” in ancient lore. As we will later, the imagery and symbolism of the signs plays a significant role in the mythology of different gods.
4. Temples and Images of Time and Space
Both luminaries are seen as chariots that travel an almost parallel path in the sky. The Sun’s path is the ecliptic (taken from the word eclipse) and the Moon’s orbit is a slightly different one. The Sun’s “temples” on his path are the twelve houses or signs of the zodiac and the Moon has 28 mansions. Their intersections are the nodes. Their paths are depicted as a giant serpent or dragon encircling the earth; one intersection towards the north is its head and the other nearer the south is the tail.
The Moon and Sun pass each other once a month with the New Moon and see each other across the heavens in the Full Moon. When their paths perfectly cross, a solar eclipse occurs. When their view of each other is blocked, a lunar eclipse occurs. From our point of view on earth, they are both the exact same size and fulfill similar functions, lighting the day and night and mediating for the stars and earth.
When they’re imagined as living beings endlessly traveling from one temple to another the imagery is more intuitive. Each temple is populated and characterized by its stars above and the corresponding season below; they both govern the seasons, containing the months, and that window of time is characterized by the temples they’re in. The Sun in the midsummer temple of Leo will take on the bright golden nature of a lion, and his arrival in the spring temple of Taurus will have the nature of a bull plowing the fields. His lunar counterpart works with him harmoniously there to make the fields grow, and she takes on the same nature. There she takes on bull characteristics like horns, reflecting the waxing crescent Moon that appears there when the Sun reaches the spring equinox. They can be imagined as beings performing rites in each temple, wearing different costumes and performing pageants with the temple’s celestial and terrestrial occupants.
Cybele’s chariot pulled by lions is the lunar goddess in Leo and the Sun is the lions. Both support each other in this form because the signs of Cancer and Leo are side by side, each temple being their exclusive rulership. No other planet is exalted in them. Cancer belongs to the Moon but this sign is where the summer solstice occurs and the Sun engulfs the earth in light. Leo follows and his heat increases.
Likewise, the Sun will take the form of a young man riding a horse-drawn chariot in Aries or as the lion itself in Leo. A chariot pulled by bulls is the lunar goddess at her full strength in Taurus. The Moon goddess with bull horns on her head is acting more on her own in Taurus while a lion by himself is more of the nature of the Sun by himself. The lunar goddess holding a mirror is her function as the collector and reflector of the sky’s lights and astral rays. When either one of them is fully absorbed in the nature of the higher sphere of stars, they will take on a form that imitates that group of stars. We can see this in many lunar mansion images and it extends to the other planets as well. The variety of forms may seem counterintuitive but it must be kept in mind that they are forming time and infinite varieties of events. Priesthoods and mystery schools taught initiates methods to alter their consciousness and perceive the spiritual forms around them. Close study of symbolism and the cycles of time gave them the means to comprehend and understand visions of infinity that can’t be understood purely through logic and the senses.
Jacob’s Ladder by William Blake, 1799
The ancients viewed time as endless threads of light forming a giant web or lattice. One of them having the potential to take on many forms simultaneously is natural and reflects the fractal nature of everything. All of it combines into endless chains of spirits ascending and descending to Gaia or earth, called the Golden Chain, Jacob’s Ladder, and so on. Their form will reflect the sky’s temple and the events below. Consequently, the human beings below who perceive and understand it can perform actions at that time which imitates it, synchronizing and enhancing the sympathy between them.
Manilius is a primary source for the Hellenistic era, contemporary with Dorotheus, and his Astronomica is the earliest to assign a special quality or “joy” to each house. Regardless of what the zodiac sign is, some houses cause a planet to “rejoice” simply by being there because the qualities of the house are very similar to its nature. For example, the twelfth house is the most malefic and Saturn rejoices there, being the greater malefic. Manilius referred to these as temples of their respective planets. The joys are overlooked by most but when they’re viewed as the actions of gods then these placements can be much more significant, especially when images are made of multiple planets. Images for enhancing dreams and divination would make the third and ninth houses a much more important factor.
Hephaestion and Julianus also emphasize the sect of the planets as a source of joy. The diurnal planets (Saturn, Jupiter and Sun) rejoice by day and the nocturnal planets (Mars, Venus and Moon) rejoice by night. Mercury can do both. Hermes is a dual-natured intermediary who can traverse all worlds, blend in and act in many more domains than the others. Mercury can also change genders to act in male or female signs of either sect.
This is important when analyzing the actions of gods in ancient stories. Myths that are often dismissed as crude superstitions with bizarre violence and sexual elements are symbols representing celestial events.
5. Thema Mundi
Signs where each planet rejoices according to Hellenistic sources.
The Thema Mundi (Cosmos Genesis in Greek) is another important piece of the Hellenistic world whose importance was diminished over time. It was a horoscope that appeared in Ptolemaic Egypt depicting the birth of creation when everything was perfect.
All of the planets are in 15 degrees of their sign, making the placement of Mercury and Venus impossible. The former cannot be more than 28 degrees from the Sun and the latter no more than 47. Some people have dismissed it as evidence that the astronomers of the time were so unknowledgeable that they couldn’t properly measure those planets in the sky. This is not only an arrogant assumption, but it’s proven false by Hephaestion making multiple references to the equator and the order of the stars changing in the north and south hemispheres. Close examination of the Thema Mundi also reveals that it was made with the accurate circumference of the earth in consideration. Its apparent simplicity masks much deeper principles that progressively reveals the interconnected web of time, space and astral rays the more it is examined.
The Thema Mundi was a contemplative symbol for astrologers of this period. The planetary placements were physically impossible, but deep contemplation forced specific thought processes that continuously reveal important principles. Some were closely interwoven with principles underlying many creation myths.
6. Triplicity, Sect & Important Minor Dignities
Triplicity rulers are another dignity that was considered more heavily in the Hellenistic era. Their importance and function were eventually regarded as a measure of planetary strength and of less importance than rulership and exaltation. Rather than being a singular indicator of medium strength, they were of vital importance for indicating the beginning, middle and end. The triad corresponds to the three Empyrean realms of Heaven, Earth and the Underworld. Triplicity is crucial for understanding Hephaestion’s instructions for images and ritual petitions.
Dorotheus and Hephaestion make clear that all the triplicity lords are important, and not one planet acting as the sole significator with the others having little or no purpose. The triplicity scheme is significantly different than that used in the medieval period. There are no participating triplicity lords and one triplicity lord is not assigned based on day or night. All three are of equal importance and their placement indicates how much support they can give.
Hephaestion also follows the model of Dorotheus by considering triplicity the more important dignity. His work was not translated into Arabic nor used in codifying Arabic astrology in the medieval period, when Claudius Ptolemy and Valens were the primary sources. Domicile and exaltation were given precedence over triplicity, which was considered an intermediate level of strength and above the bounds and decans. This is not to say that these two dignities aren’t factors in Hephaestion’s system, they are, but triplicity is a primary factor.
Hephaestion, like Dorotheus, doesn’t combine dignities to find a ruler or Almuten. He puts more focus on the decans and the twelfth-parts in lieu of the Almuten. The sect of a planet is of critical importance. An otherwise debilitated planet in its sect still has some dignity and it can be the difference in malefic planets helping or damaging the native. This is important to keep in mind for those who are accustomed to using medieval or Renaissance era systems of astrology and want to use this more ancient methodology.
The triplicity rulers of this era are also different than that of the later systems of astrology, which consist of only two or an additional third participating ruler. There are three rulers of each triplicity and they represent the beginning, middle and end, respectively.
7. Ritual Petitions & Astrological Timing
For ritual petitions, Hephaestion’s information is brief but concise: the Ascendant is the petitioner and the beginning of the matter, the Midheaven the god petitioned and its actions, and the Imum Coeli or fourth house indicates how well the petition will be received. The seventh house or Descendant signifies the sacrifice/offering made to the god petitioned. In other words, the Midheaven is a celestial god acting on the request sent from the Ascendant. The Imum Coeli or the seat of Tartarus is the Underworld receiving the message from the celestial world via the Axis Mundi running from the top of the heavens, through the center of the earth and out the bottom. Hades, having sovereignty over the earth, carries it out in the world of matter.
This simple formula can be of help when navigating the vast amount of detailed instructions for petitions in Picatrix and provide a simplified foundation. It should be noted that the house attributions in the Hellenistic period differ slightly to the scheme later established by the medieval Arabs, the sixth and seventh houses being the biggest difference.
By looking at Hephaestion’s examples of elections, derived from Dorotheus, a framework for ritual petitions can be found. The desired effects of a ritual petition should mirror the astrological timing it uses. If the desired events can be seen playing out in the chart then the gods petitioned can easily influence that outcome.
For example, if the chart can be interpreted as a successful journey occurring, then the astral world can influence those events with their full strength. But the reverse holds true. If the chart shows troubles and failure, the astral gods petitioned will have little strength or willingness to help.
The ancients’ analogy of the helm of a ship is a symbolic example of the soul’s interactions with the astrological forces of the heavens. We are ships and our lives are a journey, and the celestial forces are the ocean and atmosphere. The astral rays can be thought of as weather and water currents and astrology is a means to measure it. Before setting sail, we would want to check the conditions. If the winds and currents are turbulent and flowing opposite to the destination, then a difficult or unsuccessful journey can be expected. But if it is measured and indicates favorable conditions, it makes sense to use that information to our advantage. An astrological election is the use of a forecast, and a petition serves as a sail that allows the winds to easily propel the ship across.
It can be helpful to visualize it with the threefold cosmos as depicted by every ancient culture on earth. The threefold spherical universe would be the heavens above and the god as the midheaven, the Imum Coeli as the bottom of the underworld, and the flat disc of the physical world as the ascendant in the east and the descendant in the west.
This is the ultimate threefold world of spirit. The houses of astrology that depict their relationship with the physical spherical world, based on the four angles (four directions, four points of the equinox and solstice) are easily reconciled by placing them side by side.
The four angles or stakes are the points where the higher threefold world, two dimensional, becomes physical and three dimensional, like the third and fourth rows of the Pythagorean Tetractys. The dodecahedron that Plato says is the geometric shape of the earth and universe corresponds to the division of twelve signs/houses. It provides a means to comprehend the invisible World of Forms becoming the visible world of matter in a chain of emanations that endlessly reflect and refract.
Visualizing the operation as the heavens and underworld working together provides a helpful context. The petitioner is the ascendant, the helm, which always signifies the beginning of something and the individual. The petitioner is the conduit between the heavens and the earth. The ninth house is the divine decree. The top of the celestial pole, the midheaven, is the celestial seat of government and the actions that result from the most powerful part of the sky.
The underworld carries out the decree in the world of matter. Because matter is finite, it needs elemental substances and the astral rays it contains, placed at the entrance to the underworld in the descendant. The fourth house stake is the other end of the celestial pole. It is Tartarus, the seat of Hades’ authority in the underworld and its deepest point. Its house ruler carries the message between above and below and ensures that the flow of communication finishes in an optimal manner.
Examine the first house, particularly the ascendant, midheaven, Sun and Moon. The outcome is successful when benefics are rising and culminating, benefic fixed stars are rising, and the Lot of Fortune favorably placed. Know the beginning and the potential actions, then make the end agree.
First House/Ascendant – Petitioner; Inception of Event
Tenth House/Midheaven – God petitioned and Action
Seventh House/Descendant – Sacrifice offered and Success
Fourth House/Imum Coeli – Outcome; nature of the matter itself
The ascendant, its ruler and lord of the tenth house or midheaven should aspect each other and be unafflicted. The Moon is the secondary significator and should apply to the ruler of the ascendant or tenth, and its sign ruler unafflicted. The signs and significator planets used should suit the nature of the petition.
The offerings should correspond to the sign in the descendant. If Virgo descends, wheat, flowers or something relating to agriculture are acceptable. Correspondences for natural materials are plentiful in works of traditional astrology. The petitioned gods who embody the signs and planets should also be of a compatible nature. For instance, Saturn would not be petitioned for matters that are of Venus like love or aesthetics. There is an abundance of myths that contain possibilities, like pomegranates or the narcissus flower for Persephone. Texts like the Greek Magical Papyri also have many lists of materials used in ancient rites that may be feasible to use.
The incantations for the petition have many possibilities as well. Many hymns and invocations from the Hellenistic world survive to the present day and some can even be spoken aloud in their original language with some effort and ingenuity. Thomas Taylor’s translations of the Orphic Hymns are not precise and that wasn’t his intent. Taylor’s goal was practical and he wanted to preserve the hexameter structure, which wasn’t possible when translating the Greek words to English. A great many of the invocations and rituals in Picatrix are also well suited. For those who wish to put forth the effort, reciting a relevant part of a myth that reflects the desired outcome would not be out of place. These principles of rituals are explained in the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Chapter 10, attributed to Heinrich Agrippa.
Iamblichus and Proclus are excellent sources as well. Prayer and incantations are unfortunately overlooked today because many mainstream religions made a poor impression and fail to explain the original methods and purpose. Long ago prayer involved a great deal of meditation and altered states of consciousness, much like the mantras of Hinduism or lengthy prayers of the Sufis. Proclus explains it eloquently in his Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, and Iamblichus provides one of the oldest practical guides from ancient times.
8. Ensouling Images and Foundational Principles
In the same sentence that he quotes the ancients, Hephaestion says that a statue made of wood should also be used in preparation. Creating statues using lost wax casting or sand casting was the preferred method of Thabit Ibn Qurra for crafting talismanic images. Using wax or clay to sculpt the statue mold that will be disintegrated with molten metal and solidify into the statue is the most common method now, but wooden models are equally viable. He adds that these instructions are to be used for statues, images, or figures carved in relief. It is worth noting that effigies of Osiris, made of grain seeds, were made as ritual objects and planted at astrologically auspicious times. In this way, Osiris could incarnate physically as the crops every year.
He doesn’t specify that statues should be made in this way, nor does he address sacred statues or images in jewelry sculpted in relief, which were also prevalent. These require a great deal of time and it presents a dilemma with precise astrological timing. Porphyry and Proclus address this in their treatises on statues, saying that the astrologically timed moment to observe is when the synthemata is added to the statue. This can mean adding an herbal mixture to the statue or a carved symbol, establishing a link to that moment. Synthemata is a spiritual idea that is known through something that can be perceived.
Hephaestion explains some optimal planetary configurations and some to be avoided, like the eclipse and oppositions from malefics, Sacred objects and statues are to be prepared, built and dedicated as follows:
“…when the Moon is suitably posited in the triangle of Jupiter, and when this star is in harmony with her, that is to say, in the same triangle (triplicity), and let the Sun be configured similarly, and let Saturn chance to be posited alike in the same triangle.”
In this example, both the Luminaries are implied to be in a fire sign.
For lunar elections, the Moon and Jupiter should both be in the fiery triplicity, a trine. The Sun in a fiery triplicity is his own triplicity rulership, along with Saturn. Triplicity is clearly important in these elections. It’s strongly implied that the example uses the Sun and Moon in Aries, Leo or Sagittarius because that is the only logic for emphasizing Jupiter and then Saturn with day and night charts.
For the Moon election formula, Saturn is not mentioned. Hephaestion is using schematics that are two thousand years old. Dorotheus of Sidon explains this for each of the signs. For instance, Aries has three planets for day and three for night; all are triplicity rulers and the order indicates the level of support that each provides.
“The lords of the triplicity of Aries by day are the Sun, then Jupiter, then Saturn; and by night Jupiter, then the Sun, then Saturn.” (Dorotheus, Carmen Astrologicum, Book 1, Chapter 1, David Pingree, p. 161-62)
Hephaestion chooses his words sparingly and carefully, but they reveal an underlying order: male gods are assigned to masculine diurnal signs and the female gods to feminine nocturnal signs. The single exception is Dionysus with two female signs, but he is personified by Mercury who encompasses different genders and natures, as does his mythology.
Triplicity rulers should be considered the primary significators unless he specifies otherwise, like Fortuna. He specifies where the Moon and Venus should be placed. The Graces are clearly Venus because Hephaestion explicitly states that the domiciles and exaltation of Venus are to be used. The Moon should apply to trine the significator unless something else is stated, and the sect of the chart should match the significator.
The other rules for inceptions, according to Hephaestion, generally follow that of the medieval and Renaissance astrologers with a few exceptions. Oppositions and squares to malefics are severely debilitating. In volumes one and two, Hephaestion repeatedly indicates that he considers the eclipse especially harmful. He also makes mention of the degrees of exaltation for each planet, and if the opportunity to use them presents itself they should be utilized.
Sun and Moon
“…when the Moon is suitably posited in the triangle of Jupiter, and when this star is in harmony with her, that is to say, in the same triangle (triplicity), and let the Sun be configured similarly, and let Saturn chance to be posited alike in the same triangle.”
This seems to be elections only for statues or talismans of the Sun and Moon.
In this example, both the Luminaries are implied to be in a fire sign. The Moon is in Aries which makes for an excellent solar election, provided the Sun is in a fire sign too, and the triplicity rulers preferably in a fire sign. At a minimum they should not be seriously afflicted. No images are specified, but a scarab or Re for the Sun is a suitable choice.
Isis with bull horns for the Moon in Taurus is an obvious choice, provided that the earth triplicity rulers are suitably configured. Optimally, the Moon would trine Venus and separate from a trine to Mars. Firmicus Maternus alludes to the Moon and Mars having a volatile nature and that configuration should be handled with care. Mars should not be seriously afflicted as he is the other earth triplicity ruler. Realistically, Venus should take priority after the Moon.
The same rules will apply to either of the luminaries in any sign. The triplicity rulers will be the secondary factors.
The Jewish Prophet Daniel is best known for his interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in the biblical book that bears his name. The story is of a highly advanced display of extrasensory perception that changed history. The king had a disturbing dream and ordered it to be interpreted without disclosing any context or contents of the dream. This was done to ensure that the answer could only come from a divine power, forcing the seer to first accurately perceive all the contents of the dream itself, with no hints of any kind, and only then provide the interpretation.
This statement by Aristotle sums up perfectly why theurgical operations fail. The pure part of our soul requires our imagination to communicate…and imagination is fickle.