Late Babylonian Astrology

174
John M. Steele

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1871
Personal Horoscopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1872
The Zodiac in Late Babylonian Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1872
Calendrical Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1873
Astral Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1873
Other Forms of Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1874
Cross-References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1874
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1874

Abstract
The last five centuries BC saw the development of several new forms of
astrology in Babylonia. Key to these new astrological techniques was the
invention of the zodiac in about 400 BC. These new forms of astrology include
personal horoscopes, astral medicine, and the exploitation of geometrical rela-
tionships between the position of heavenly bodies. Several Late Babylonian
astrological doctrines were later adopted within Greek astrology.

Introduction

Traditional Babylonian celestial divination as exemplified by the omen series

Enūma Anu Enlil interpreted a wide range of celestial phenomena as omens
pertaining to the king and the country. The conquest of Babylonia first by the

J.M. Steele
Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies, Brown University, Providence,
RI, USA
e-mail: john_steele@brown.edu

C.L.N. Ruggles (ed.), Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, 1871

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_193,
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
1872 J.M. Steele

Persians in the sixth century BC and then by the Greeks in the fourth century BC
and the incorporation of Babylonia into large empires controlled by foreign rulers
led to a decrease in the relevance of traditional celestial divination: There was no
longer a Babylonian king for the omens to relate to, and many of the traditional
enemies of Babylonia referred to in the omens were now part of the same empire.
In its place grew new forms of personal astrology whose predictions were directed
at individuals.
The sixth to the fourth century BC also saw major developments in scientific
astronomy in Babylonia. One of the most important of these developments was the
invention of the zodiac (Britton 2010). The zodiac provided a range of opportunities
for the development of new astrological techniques (Koch-Westenholz 1995).

Personal Horoscopes

Horoscopic astrology aims to predict the future life of an individual based upon the
celestial circumstances at the moment of birth. Babylonian horoscopic astrology
grew out of the tradition of celestial omens and birth omens (Rochberg 2004). Only
about 30 Babylonian horoscopes have been identified (Sachs 1952; Rochberg
1998), perhaps because these texts would have been taken (and sometimes
destroyed?) by the person who commissioned the horoscope rather than remaining
in the archives of the astronomer who compiled the horoscope.
A typical horoscope contains a statement of the date and time on which “the
child was born” (only occasionally is the child named); a collection of the positions
of the moon, sun, and planets at that moment; reports of any eclipses and the date of
a solstice or equinox that took place near the date of birth; and sometimes the dates
of the first and last visibilities and stations of the planets. The positions of the moon,
sun, and planets are usually given by the sign of the zodiac. Sometimes, positions
are given more precisely in degrees within the signs of the zodiac. Most of the
astronomical data in the horoscopes seems to have been calculated using contem-
porary astronomical theories rather than taken from the observational records
(Rochberg-Halton 1989; Steele 2000). The horoscopes occasionally include brief
predictions for the life of the child, although normally no astrological interpretation
of the astronomical data is given (we must presume that this was communicated
orally to the customer).
A few texts which contain information on how the astronomical data in the
horoscopes was interpreted astrologically have been studied (Sachs 1952; Reiner
2000), but many more remain unpublished. It is also likely that there existed oral
traditions for interpreting horoscopes in addition to the written material.

The Zodiac in Late Babylonian Astrology

Many texts provide information on the use of the zodiac in ate Babylonian astrol-
ogy. Each sign of the zodiac was divided into five regions, each of which was
174 Late Babylonian Astrology 1873

assigned to one of the five planets (Jones and Steele 2011), which held significance
for how a planet’s position within that part of the zodiacal sign was interpreted.
This doctrine is known also in Greek astrology, where it is called the “terms”.
A similar doctrine called “the secret place” (Akkadian: bı̄t nisirti) assigns each of
˙
the planets a specific position in the zodiac where its astrological importance was
increased. A series of astrological tablets, some of which contain drawings of the
signs of the zodiac, refers to the “secret places” of the planets and the occurrence of
lunar eclipses (Weidner 1967).
The relative placement of the planets in different signs of the zodiac was also
important. Particular significance is given to the case where planets are positioned
three signs apart, six signs apart, and in other geometrical relationships (Rochberg-
Halton 1988). Many of these relationships are also known from later Greek
astrology.

Calendrical Astrology

Another development in Babylonian astronomy which utilized the zodiac was the
practice of calendrical astrology which uses mathematical schemes to relate dates in
the year with positions in the zodiac which are then interpreted astrologically. The
mathematical schemes which are used in calendrical astrology rely upon the idea of
a schematic year of 360 days in which each month has 30 days. In this schematic
year, the sun will move through the zodiac at a mean speed to 1 per day. Thus, days
in the schematic year correspond directly to positions in the zodiac, with the first
day of the first month of the year corresponding to the position Aries 1. Two
mathematical schemes are built upon this system. The first scheme, referred to
as the dodecatemoria scheme by scholars, uses the fact that if the mean sun moves
1 per day, then the mean moon will move 13 per day (this is because in 1 month of
30 days, the sun will have moved 30 , and so the moon will have traveled
once around the zodiac plus this 30 to catch up with the sun, in total 390 ,
which divided by 30 days equals 13 per day). The second scheme, known as the
kalendertext scheme, manipulates the first scheme to produce a motion of 277 per
day (Brack-Bernsen and Steele 2004).
Both the dodecatemoria and the kalendertext schemes connect a day in the year
with a position in the zodiac (when these schemes were used, it is likely that dates in
the schematic calendar were simply equated with dates in the actual calendar).
These positions in the zodiac were associated with things such as the ingredients to
be used in making medical remedies, temples and other cultic places, trees, plants,
stones, and cities in Babylonia.

Astral Medicine

A long history of connecting celestial objects and medicine in Babylonia existed

back into the second millennium BC, but there was a significant expansion of
1874 J.M. Steele

the role of astronomy within medicine in the Late Babylonian period (Heeßel 2005,
2008; Geller 2010). New developments included the association of illnesses with
signs of the zodiac and the use of the kalendertext scheme to determine what
ingredients should be used to make a remedy on a given day.

Other Forms of Astrology

A range of other forms of astrology was practiced in the Late Babylonian period.
For example, two tablets from Uruk relate planetary conjunctions and other astro-
nomical phenomena with weather (Hunger 1976), and another tablet makes
predictions for the value of commodities in the market from the positions of the
planets. Many Late Babylonian cuneiform tablets containing astrological texts
have not yet been studied, and there are undoubtedly many more aspects of ate
Babylonian astrology still to be discovered.

Cross-References

▶ Babylonian Observational and Predictive Astronomy

▶ Mesopotamian Calendars
▶ Mesopotamian Celestial Divination

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