Sejarah astrologi

Sejarah astrologi mengkaji perkembangan astrologi dari masa ke masa dalam berbagai kebudayaan di berbagai belahan dunia. Astrologi merupakan suatu jenis kegiatan ramal-meramal terhadap bumi dan manusia berdasarkan berbagai pengamatan serta intrepertasi dari benda-benda langit seperti bintang dan konstelasinya, Matahari, Bulan, dan planet-planet. Penggiat astrologi mempercayai bahwa dengan memahami pengaruh planet-planet dan berbagai bintang terhadap peristiwa yang terjadi di Bumi mereka dapat memperkirakan dan mempengaruhi takdir atau jalan hidup dari suatu individu, kelompok, bahkan negara. Meskipun dalam kajian sejarah astrologi dulunya sempat dianggap sebagai bagian dari sains, saat ini praktik-praktik astrologi dinilai sama sekali bertentangan terhadap kaidah-kaidah ilmiah keilmuan modern.

Astrologi
Lambang astrologi
Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces
Cabang Astrologi
Chinese Decumbiture Electional Financial Hellenistic Horary Locational Psychological Meteorological Hindu
The planets in astrology
Sun Moon Mercury Venus Mars Ceres Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto
						Astrology project
Astrologers Astrological organizations Astrology and science

Praktik-praktik astrologi dapat terlacak di berbagai kelompok masyarakat atau kebudayaan dalam berbagai periode waktu. Astrologi memiliki asal-usul sejak zaman prasejarah dan terus berkembang hingga ke zaman modern, yang mana bisa dimengerti melalui kajian etnoastronomi–astronomi yang dipraktikan dalam masyarakat. Dalam kebudayaan Barat, yang mana astrologi disini berasal dari peradaban Mesopotamia dan kemudian berkembang pada peradaban Yunani Kuno, telah mengalami berbagai pengkajian oleh peneliti-peneliti terkait. Namun, terdapat pula tradisi astrologi yang berkembang pada kebudayaan masyarakat India yang tetap bertahan selama 2.000 tahun. Selain itu, sistem astrologi yang cukup kompleks juga dikembangkan oleh kebudayaan Tiongkok dan Mesoamerika, ketika saat itu seluruh masyarakat tengah mencari keterkaitan aspek sosial-religius terhadap makna dari benda-benda langit dan pergerakannya.

Kemunculan awal

Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for human meaning in the sky; it seeks to understand general and specific human behavior through the influence of planets and other celestial objects. It has been argued that astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made conscious attempts to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles.

Early evidence of such practices appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that lunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago; the first step towards recording the Moon’s influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organizing a communal calendar. With the Neolithic agricultural revolution new needs were also met by increasing knowledge of constellations, whose appearances in the night-time sky change with the seasons, allowing the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities. By the 3rd millennium BC, widespread civilisations had developed sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and are believed to have consciously oriented their temples to create alignment with the heliacal risings of the stars.

There is scattered evidence to suggest that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made during this period, particularly in Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia). Two, from the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (compiled in Babylonround 1700 BC) are reported to have been made during the reign of king Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BC). Another, showing an early use of electional astrology, is ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash (c. 2144 - 2124 BC). This describes how the gods revealed to him in a dream the constellations that would be most favourable for the planned construction of a temple. However, controversy attends the question of whether they were genuinely recorded at the time or merely ascribed to ancient rulers by posterity. The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records that emerge from the first dynasty of Mesopotamia (1950-1651 BC).

Astrologi di peradaban lampau

Mesopotamia

Babylonian astrology was the first organized system of astrology, arising in the 2nd millennium BC. There is speculation that astrology of some form appeared in the Sumerian period in the 3rd millennium BC, but the isolated references to ancient celestial omens dated to this period are not considered sufficient evidence to demonstrate an integrated theory of astrology. The history of scholarly celestial divination is therefore generally reported to begin with late Old Babylonian texts (c. 1800 BC), continuing through the Middle Babylonian and Middle Assyrian periods (c. 1200 BC).

By the 16th century BC the extensive employment of omen-based astrology can be evidenced in the compilation of a comprehensive reference work known as Enuma Anu Enlil. Its contents consisted of 70 cuneiform tablets comprising 7,000 celestial omens. Texts from this time also refer to an oral tradition - the origin and content of which can only be speculated upon. At this time Babylonian astrology was solely mundane, concerned with the prediction of weather and political matters, and prior to the 7th century BC the practitioners' understanding of astronomy was fairly rudimentary. Astrological symbols likely represented seasonal tasks, and were used as a yearly almanac of listed activities to remind a community to do things appropriate to the season or weather (such as symbols representing times for harvesting, gathering shell-fish, fishing by net or line, sowing crops, collecting or managing water reserves, hunting, and seasonal tasks critical in ensuring the survival of children and young animals for the larger group). By the 4th century, their mathematical methods had progressed enough to calculate future planetary positions with reasonable accuracy, at which point extensive ephemerides began to appear.

Babylonian astrology developed within the context of divination. A collection of 32 tablets with inscribed liver models, dating from about 1875 BC, are the oldest known detailed texts of Babylonian divination, and these demonstrate the same interpretational format as that employed in celestial omen analysis. Blemishes and marks found on the liver of the sacrificial animal were interpreted as symbolic signs which presented messages from the gods to the king.

The gods were also believed to present themselves in the celestial images of the planets or stars with whom they were associated. Evil celestial omens attached to any particular planet were therefore seen as indications of dissatisfaction or disturbance of the god that planet represented. Such indications were met with attempts to appease the god and find manageable ways by which the god’s expression could be realised without significant harm to the king and his nation. An astronomical report to the king Esarhaddon concerning a lunar eclipse of January 673 BC shows how the ritualistic use of substitute kings, or substitute events, combined an unquestioning belief in magic and omens with a purely mechanical view that the astrological event must have some kind of correlate within the natural world:

Ulla Koch-Westenholz, in her 1995 book Mesopotamian Astrology, argues that this ambivalence between a theistic and mechanic worldview defines the Babylonian concept of celestial divination as one which, despite its heavy reliance on magic, remains free of implications of targeted punishment with the purpose of revenge, and so “shares some of the defining traits of modern science: it is objective and value-free, it operates according to known rules, and its data are considered universally valid and can be looked up in written tabulations”. Koch-Westenholz also establishes the most important distinction between ancient Babylonian astrology and other divinatory disciplines as being that the former was originally exclusively concerned with mundane astrology, being geographically oriented and specifically applied to countries cities and nations, and almost wholly concerned with the welfare of the state and the king as the governing head of the nation. Mundane astrology is therefore known to be one of the oldest branches of astrology. It was only with the gradual emergence of horoscopic astrology, from the 6th century BC, that astrology developed the techniques and practice of natal astrology.

India

In India, astrology, or jyotish, is a “vedanga”, one of the “sciences” necessary for

understanding the vedas the sacred texts. A vibrant tradition of astrology has

survived in India in an unbroken tradition since Greek horoscopic astrology was

imported and combined with Hinduism in the first century CE. It remains an active

part of Indian life and has both a presence in the temples and in mundane life. It is

used at the highest levels of politics: the date and time for Burmese independence in

1948 and the proclamation of the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1971 were chosen on

astrological grounds. The most widespread use of astrology is in marriage – to

confirm the prospective marriage partner and to arrange the date of the wedding.

Indian astrology’s interpretative functions are just one phase in a process in which, as human beings are creations of the cosmos, but not separate to it, they are active participants in it. There is therefore a second stage to the astrological process, which is to engage with whatever information the astrologer has imparted. The omens of future difficulties dispatched by astrological configurations can be dealt with by apotropaic rituals designed to avert a future problem or by prayer, meditation, ritual, pujas (purifications), and talismans. The Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon provides an example in a Buddhist context. Around the base of the central 321-fthigh gilded stupa are located eight shrines to the planetary rulers of the days of the week the Sun (Sunday), the Moon (Monday), Mars (Tuesday), Mercury (Wednesday before noon), Rahu (the Moon’s north node, Wednesday afternoon), Jupiter (Thursday), Venus (Friday), and Saturn (Saturday). Dispatched by their astrologers, local people engage quietly with one of the planetary shrines, meditating in front of it, contemplating its beauty, making offerings of flowers, and pouring water or milk over it and lighting incense to carry prayers to heaven The principle is quite simple: if one is suffering from an excess of Mars – a fever perhaps or violent threats or spiritual agitation – one may counter this by performing the appropriate ritual at the Venus shrine, whose nature is calm and peaceful. On another occasion, perhaps, the solution might be to attend to the Mars shrine precisely in order to persuade the Martian principle in the cosmos to call off its threats. There are nine planets in Indian astrology: the seven traditional planets and the Moon’s north and south nodes (Rahu and Ketu). The organized planetary rituals are therefore known as nava (nine) graha (planet) rituals. Kemper (1980) described a navagraha ritual in Sri Lanka. The ritual begins with a prepubescent girl preparing a string of nine-strands, one for each planet, which then protects the client against malign planetary influence or signification. The priest then uses the string to conduct the ceremony while Buddhist monks chant protective verses, which reinforce the auspicious power of the girl and the planets as embodied in the string. Indian astrology is unique among the highly codified “cosmic” forms in that it survives in a very similar form to that practiced in the second century, unlike China where communism disrupted traditional learning and Europe, where “high” and “middling” astrology almost disappeared in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The academic study of its claims and practices therefore offers insights into wider Indian culture, as well as to studies of Indian archaeoastronomy.

Oseania

Traditional Polynesian astronomers tended to be divided into two groups: the sky

watchers, whose task was to watch for omens, keep the calendar, and arrange rituals

and festivals, and the wayfinders, who presided over the knowledge necessary for

navigation. The examination of celestial omens conforms to a broad definition of

astrology. In New Zealand, the Maori developed a class of experts, tohunga

kokorangi, who were versed in the entire range of celestial lore, including the

measurement of celestial positions and evaluation of their significance; Best (1955)

referred to these practices as “natural astrology”. An example of Maori practice

includes the following: a lunar occultation – when the Moon passes directly in front

of a certain star – is a potentially difficult military omen. If the star reappears when

the Moon has passed, it was said, a fort will be captured. One informant reported

that “the star knows all about the coming trouble. . . Just before the battle of Orakau

we saw this sign..As we were a war party of course our warriors made much of this

omen” (Best 1955, p. 68). The tohunga kokorangi would watch the sky for omens,

communing with celestial deities and purging his soul. If the tohunga kokorangi

saw a dangerous sign, such as a comet, he would recite ritual formulae in order to

defuse the threat and protect his people.

He may even have been actively engaging with the sky, acting as a cocreator, for

there was a belief that certain men, with sufficient power, could cause a solar halo to

appear at will.  

Catatan

Daftar Pustaka

Buku

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