|
Home
| About |
Research |
Books |
Working Papers |
Store |
Contact
Medieval Predictive Astrology: The
Renaissance
The philosophical worldview taken by
Regulus Astrology LLC primarily rests on teachings of the
ninth century Arabic Astrologer Abū Ma’shar. This style of
astrology is a blend of Babylonian, Greek, Persian, and
Islamic influences which reached its intellectual height
during the Islamic Golden Age. Beginning in the 12th
century, a wave of translations helped bring the collected
scientific knowledge of Arab Civilization to Western Europe
in what many historians now define as the 12th
Century Renaissance, a predecessor to the more well-known
European Renaissance dating from the 14th to 17th
centuries.
Not unlike prior periods of
intellectual renaissance, the modern era has witnessed a
revival in older methods of astrology. Approached from the
perspective of the history of science, academics including
Otto Neugebauer, E. S. Kennedy, and David Pingree led the
first wave of translations in the second half of the 20th
century. Robert Zoller’s translation of Bonatti’s On
Arabic Parts in the early 1980s helped open the door to
this forgotten field for contemporary astrologers. In 1993,
Project Hindsight organized the first serious stab at
translating Arab, Greek, and Hebrew texts for the practicing
astrological community. The co-founders of the project were
Robert Schmidt, Robert Zoller, Ellen Black, and Robert
Hand. With a focus on the Hellenistic tradition, the work
of Project Hindsight continues today under the guidance of
Robert Schmidt.
The 2007 publication of Bonatti’s
complete Book of Astronomy, translated by Zoller
student Ben Dykes marked an accelerated unmasking of works
from prior eras. It is expected that within the next ten
years the majority of surviving ancient astrological texts
will be available in English translation.
Regulus Astrology LLC: Research
Projects
Since 1980, most of the revival of
Medieval Predictive Astrology has concerned itself with
history, translation of texts, and transmission/impacts on
culture. As important to understanding the practice of
astrology as these topics are, there is no guarantee that
these ideas remain relevant and their stated methods
actually work. What is required is systematic testing of
the assumptions and models behind Medieval Predictive
Astrology. To this goal Regulus Astrology LLC dedicates its
research efforts.
Completed Research Projects:
Rectification
A Rectification Manual: The American
Presidency is designed to provide concrete answers on
the mechanics of medieval predictive methods: how they can
be systematically employed, taught, and practiced by
contemporary astrologers viewed through the lens of natal
chart rectification. As the book’s introduction makes
clear, there is no current consensus on rectification
because the modern predictive toolbox is grossly under
specified. A three stage rectification method is proposed
which incorporates the full gamut of medieval predictive
techniques. Their application is sequenced such that the
robustness of each method is commensurate to the level of
uncertainty encountered during each stage of the
rectification process.
Rectification is an important
prerequisite to reconstructing the medieval astrological
model because delineation and prediction methods cannot be
tested, studied, or learned if data is incorrect.
Astrologers have long realized the limitations of sloppy
data and have compiled substantive data sets for research,
with birth data verifiable by an official birth certificate
the standard. Yet even the most meticulously verified birth
data falls short of what is actually required to test
medieval predictive techniques like primary directions. An
error in birth time as small as a few minutes generates an
error of a year or more when using directions as a
predictive tool. In order to recover the medieval
astrological model, a compilation of several hundred
accurately timed to-the-second nativities will be
necessary. The forty-two Presidential nativities included
in A Rectification Manual are a good start.
Current Research Projects:
Essential Dignities and the USA Independence chart
Essential dignities represent the core
building blocks of astrological delineation and prediction.
Yet systematic tests on the choice of triplicity, bound, and
decan rulers are missing from the literature. A
Rectification Manual presents evidence favoring
Dorothean triplicity rulers and Egyptian bounds and suggests
methods for conducting tests on a wider sample. The book
uses Chaldean decan rulers for al-mubtazz table scoring, but
recognizes the alternate set of decan rulers based on the
triplicity of signs more accurately judges physiognamy
(physical appearance).
Conducting further tests on Egyptian
versus Ptolemy’s bound rulers is one area of current
research. The ability of significators to produce
consistent changes as they move through the Egyptian bounds
by primary motion for a single figure (“Directing through
the Bounds”) is one of two ways that competing sets of bound
rulers can be tested. It’s a challenge I have taken up in
rectification of America’s July 4, 1776 Declaration of
Independence chart. The rectification is complete and
features a Sagittarius Ascendant, slightly later than the
well-known Sibly figure. So far, subjecting the Ascendant
to the Directing through the Bounds method has timed every
major social movement in American’s history – and this is
just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a finding so
revolutionary that in my estimation it will not only forever
settle the debate over choice of bound rulers but the
correct USA figure as well. It’s an exciting project which
will be released during 2008.
Research on the application of decan
rulers to judging physiognamy will follow.
|
