Ancient Astrology: Egyptian Solar Cult and Mesopotamian Star Reading
King of France and attacks the divinatory practices of astrology in his De Vanitate [16]. In the following pages we will therefore analyze the struggle undergone by Astrology during the centuries from the 12th to the 17th century, seeking to understand the processes that led to the reformulation of the foundational bases of Astrology and how these are inextricably linked to the processes of formation of the foundational bases of Astronomy.
Part I: Sacred Astrology in Antiquity
Chapter 3: An Overview - The Egyptian Sun and the Stars of Mesopotamia
Two completely distinct ways of seeing the stars: that of Egypt with the idea of assimilation to the stars in the ascensional practice of worship. The pyramid texts report the pharaoh ascending to heaven and while ascending to heaven identifies with the various imperishable stars. In Mesopotamia instead there was a dynamic polytheistic cult in which the signs of heaven were read, that is, what the divinity wanted to communicate, and then responded with worship, amplifying its action, mitigating it, or even eventually canceling the action promised by the stars.
Chapter 4: The Stars in Egypt
The sources of purely astronomical information are:
- Sarcophagus lids from the Old Kingdom (2850-2181 BC) on which appear the "decans", stars or individual constellations accompanied by inscriptions that are not always comprehensible
- Sarcophagus lids from the Middle Kingdom (2133-1786 BC) in which diagonal stellar clocks appear where the decans are distributed over the 12 hours of the night and at 10-day intervals throughout the duration of the year
- Stellar clocks of the New Kingdom (1570 BC) in which the reference term is no longer the rising, but the superior culmination of the star
- From the XX Dynasty (1142-1135 BC) new stellar clocks
- Papyrus Carlsberg 1 (144 AD) however relating to the book of Nut which reports the journey of the decans along Nut's back and which is an almost identical copy of the representation inside the sarcophagus chamber in the Osireion
- Papyrus Carlsberg 9 a cycle to determine lunar phases
- A series of observation instruments, such as the merket, the palm, water clocks and sundials
- From 300 BC appear a series of Greco-Babylonian zodiacs, the most important of which is Dendera, in which distinct traditions are united, ancient Egyptian traditions and nomenclatures unite with astronomical observations probably much earlier and of plausibly Sumerian character
4.1 Predynastic Observations
4.2 Solar Cult and Ascension to Heaven
Unas addresses Nut: "This Unas comes to you, O Nut, This Unas comes to you, O Nut, He has thrown his father to Earth, He has released Horus behind him, His two wings grow like those of a falcon, Feathered like a hawk. His energy has sustained him, His magic has armed him."
Nut responds: "May you open your place in Heaven, In company with the stars of Heaven, For you are the Unique Star, companion of Hu, So that you may see him who stands above Osiris, for he commands the glorified, while you remain far from him. You do not belong to them, You will not be among them." Pyramid Texts, Unas, Invocation 245
4.3 Egyptian Cosmology
"Being you assigned to your mother Nut in her name of Sarcophagus; she has embraced you in her name of Sarcophagus; you are raised to her in her name of Mastaba." Pyramid Texts, 616, Invocation 364
"Above the sky there is total nothingness. Its limits to the south, north, west, east are not known.... There is no rising of souls there. There is no rising of Ra... There is no light there. There is no light in it... And it happens that darkness is there much more than what is in the Duat..." various passages from Pap. Carlsberg I, D.II, 20-35
"This region that is beyond the sky is totally devoid of light. Its boundaries are unknown in the direction of south, north, west and east. They are established in the primeval waters [...] There is no light for the Soul [...] Its kingdom is unknown to the south, north, west and east by spirits and gods. There is no light and every place in the Abyss is devoid of sky, while the entire Duat is devoid of earth." Text L of the image
Chapter 5: The Chaldeans and Star Worship
5.1 Chaldean Astrologers
The Babylonians instead had a dynamic polytheistic cult in which to maintain harmony between heaven and earth it was necessary on one hand to read what were the messages of the divinities, that is, to read the signs of heaven, with celestial and astronomical phenomena; on the other hand it was necessary to maintain good relations with the divinities through a series of cultic practices, liturgical rites, sacrifices, etc...
Generally therefore this harmony between heaven and earth in the 1st millennium BC was maintained by a series of figures such as:
- scribes or astrologers who read and interpreted celestial signs
- haruspices who read and observed animal entrails and had to correlate these signs together with other terrestrial signs
- exorcists, that is, those who were responsible for magical rituals with which omens could be mitigated in their meaning, strengthened or even completely neutralized
- reciters of lamentations who with the help of ritual songs had the task of placating the gods when they were enraged
There is perhaps an initial formation of the Zodiac.
Example of Cataloging
An example of text relating to the thirty-seventh year of reign of Nebuchadnezzar II: "Saturn in front of SIM (southwestern part of Pisces). On the morning of the second day a rainbow 'closed' to the west. On the night of the third day the Moon ahead by 2 cubits (1 cubit = 2°) [...] from the eighth of Adaru II to the twenty-eighth day the tide rose by 3 cubits and 8 fingers. 2/3 of a cubit to the tide [...] By order of the king victims were sacrificed. In this..."