Astrology and Magic in 16th Century Europe

Introduction

Last time we saw how Astrology went through a period of decadence where the interpretation of stars was given in a totally fatalistic way, where stellar decrees were read by "judges" - the astrologers who provided unappealable responses from stars and planets. However, we saw that around the 14th century, foundations were laid for a new way of understanding astrology. With Albert Magnus, Dante, and Cecco d'Ascoli, we saw attempts to focus attention on the supremacy of human will over celestial influences. After the individual conquered a leading role, it became increasingly evident that humans could master their own destiny and thus influence the stars; the ground was therefore favorable for the development of an ancient type of astrology that was coming back into fashion.

The concept of free will and human action or art over one's destiny is closely connected to the concept of magic as the art of harmonizing with natural forces and using them for one's purposes. The stars are no longer unappealable judges, but rather, as an astrological motto that spread during this period states: "The Wise Man dominates the stars." Note that this idea of humans not merely being subject to natural forces against which they cannot fight, but instead being able to somehow use them for their purposes, is a thought very similar to our modern scientific thinking and vastly, immensely distant from medieval scientific thought.

We will see that what primarily characterizes the mages we will study in this century is an idea of being able to relate to nature not simply in a passive way, but also actively by harmonizing with natural forces and directing them. Studying nature, to imitate nature and replicate nature. Keep in mind that although these figures often had curious ideas that may appear strange, bizarre, etc. to us, nevertheless these figures represented the most advanced people of their time, most similar to our conceptual methods, most cutting-edge, and whose influence in the formation of modern thought cannot be underestimated. Fatalism and divination are the antithesis of a magic that instead wants to be the cause of events. It is no longer about receiving an idea of the future but projecting a productive image of the future.

Introduction to Hermeticism

In a previous chapter we saw how the inhabitants of an Arab province near the city of Harran considered themselves heirs to an angelic-planetary liturgy revealed by Hermes Trismegistus before the universal flood and having as post-flood references Terah, Abraham's father, and Abraham himself.

Indeed, from a purely historiographic point of view, it is difficult to trace a precise line describing the passages and evolutions of mystical and magical astrology preceding the 8th century; it is almost impossible at present to do so for texts preceding the 3rd century.

Babylonian

Certainly in the Mediterranean basin, numerous distinct traditions or currents met that gave rise to a plethora of nuances, movements, and cults, with sometimes formal, sometimes theological, and sometimes conceptual analogies. Indeed, to a tradition of Chaldean or Babylonian origin with a well-defined planetary astrological cult, an ascensional tradition of probably Egyptian origin was then added. These two currents naturally reunited in the Hebrew tradition as the biblical story of Abraham itself attests, coming from Ur of the Chaldeans and formed in Egyptian sanctuaries.

The Babylonian Cult was typically magical, where the Priest's task was to establish harmony, a telepathic connection with a specific angel or deity in order to direct and validate their action or mitigate their damage. For example, in case of an earthquake, there were a whole series of invocations to mitigate the earthquake's action, etc.

Egyptian

This entire literary genre, present in Hekhalot literature, finds strong analogies with ascensional themes and texts from the Egyptian tradition. Exemplary in this sense are the Pyramid Texts, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the Book of the Amduat.

Already in the Pyramid Texts, dating to the 5th and 6th dynasties and mirror of ancient Heliopolitan theology, as well as in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, much later but having a core traceable to the Old Kingdom, the pharaoh had to travel a path of magical ascent to heaven that would lead him to identification with imperishable stars, with the sun-god Ra-Atum, or with the god of the Underworld Osiris. The magical formulas of the texts were to help him during this crossing and protect him from enemies who would try to obstruct his path. These Dd-mdw, or "words to recite," had a truly ritual character that unfortunately can no longer be reconstructed for us, but which plausibly provided a basis for subsequent ascensional practices and cults.

In the Book of the Amduat, these practices are more formalized and fixed. In this book, the nocturnal Sun's journey passes through 12 rooms or places, each containing a demonic entity to be conquered through the invocation of a deity or angelic entity operated through the invocation of a special magical name.

Hebrew

The fact that in some currents of Judaism, angelic worship was placed in relation to a special astrological gnosis is indeed testified by the sefer ha kochavim, book attributed to the prophet Daniel and whose composition is dated during the Babylonian deportation (circa 590 BC). In it we indeed read a close relationship between angelic entities and planetary dispositions, a relationship that in more or less explicit ways will always remain underlying in a large number of similar traditions belonging to subsequent centuries: When astral influence causes vices and painful events, the Angel who presides over it does not operate because it is a Spirit of Good; it intervenes when the planetary disposition is...