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Sejarah astrologi

Revisi sejak 11 Desember 2017 20.36 oleh Nadiantara (bicara | kontrib) (→Mesoamerica)

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
Cabang Astrologi
The planets in astrology
Astrology project

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.

Mesir

In 525 BCE, Egypt was conquered by the Persians. The 1st century BCE Egyptian Dendera Zodiac shares two signs – the Balance and the Scorpion – with Mesopotamian astrology.

With the occupation by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, Egypt became Hellenistic. The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander after the conquest, becoming the place where Babylonian astrology was mixed with Egyptian Decanic astrology to create Horoscopic astrology. This contained the Babylonian zodiac with its system of planetary exaltations, the triplicities of the signs and the importance of eclipses. It used the Egyptian concept of dividing the zodiac into thirty-six decans of ten degrees each, with an emphasis on the rising decan, and the Greek system of planetary Gods, sign rulership and four elements. 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis. The astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy lived in Alexandria. Ptolemy's work the Tetrabiblos formed the basis of Western astrology, and, "...enjoyed almost the authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of a thousand years or more."

Romawi-Yunani

The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas from Syria, Babylon, Persia and central Asia. Around 280 BCE, Berossus, a priest of Bel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island of Kos, teaching astrology and Babylonian culture. By the 1st century BCE, there were two varieties of astrology, one using horoscopes to describe the past, present and future; the other, theurgic, emphasising the soul'sascent to the stars. Greek influence played a crucial role in the transmission of astrological theory to Rome.

The first definite reference to astrology in Rome comes from the orator Cato, who in 160 BCE warned farm overseers against consulting with Chaldeans, who were described as Babylonian 'star-gazers'. Among both Greeks and Romans, Babylonia (also known as Chaldea) became so identified with astrology that 'Chaldean wisdom' became synonymouswith divination using planets and stars. The 2nd-century Roman poet and satirist Juvenal complains about the pervasive influence of Chaldeans, saying, "Still more trusted are the Chaldaeans; every word uttered by the astrologer they will believe has come from Hammon's fountain."

One of the first astrologers to bring Hermetic astrology to Rome was Thrasyllus, astrologer to the emperor Tiberius, the first emperor to have had a court astrologer, though his predecessor Augustus had used astrology to help legitimise his Imperial rights.

Peradaban Islam klasik

Astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars following the collapse of Alexandria to the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of the Abbasid empire in the 8th. The second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur (754–775) founded the city of Baghdad to act as a centre of learning, and included in its design a library-translation centre known as Bayt al-Hikma 'House of Wisdom', which continued to receive development from his heirs and was to provide a major impetus for Arabic-Persian translations of Hellenistic astrological texts. The early translators included Mashallah, who helped to elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad, and Sahl ibn Bishr, (a.k.a. Zael), whose texts were directly influential upon later European astrologers such as Guido Bonatti in the 13th century, and William Lilly in the 17th century. Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during the Latin translations of the 12th century.

Astrology was taken up enthusiastically by Islamic scholars following the collapse of Alexandria to the Arabs in the 7th century, and the founding of the Abbasid empire in the 8th century. The second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur (754-775) founded the city of Baghdad to act as a centre of learning, and included in its design a library-translation centre known as Bayt al-Hikma ‘Storehouse of Wisdom’, which continued to receive development from his heirs and was to provide a major impetus for Arabic translations of Hellenistic astrological texts. The early translators included Mashallah, who helped to elect the time for the foundation of Baghdad, and Sahl ibn Bishr(a.k.a. Zael), whose texts were directly influential upon later European astrologers such as Guido Bonatti in the 13th century, and William Lilly in the 17th century. Knowledge of Arabic texts started to become imported into Europe during the Latin translations of the 12th century.

Amongst the important names of Arabic astrologers, one of the most influential was Albumasur, whose work Introductorium in Astronomiam later became a popular treatise in medieval Europe. Another was the Persian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer Al Khwarizmi. The Arabs greatly increased the knowledge of astronomy, and many of the star names that are commonly known today, such as Aldebaran, Altair, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Vega retain the legacy of their language. They also developed the list of Hellenistic lots to the extent that they became historically known as Arabic parts, for which reason it is often wrongly claimed that the Arabic astrologers invented their use, whereas they are clearly known to have been an important feature of Hellenistic astrology.

During the advance of Islamic science some of the practices of astrology were refuted on theological grounds by astronomers such as Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and Avicenna. Their criticisms argued that the methods of astrologers were conjectural rather than empirical, and conflicted with orthodox religious views of Islamic scholars through the suggestion that the Will of God can be precisely known and predicted in advance. Such refutations mainly concerned 'judicial branches' (such as horary astrology), rather than the more 'natural branches' such as medical and meteorological astrology, these being seen as part of the natural sciences of the time.

For example, Avicenna’s 'Refutation against astrology' Resāla fī ebṭāl aḥkām al-nojūm, argues against the practice of astrology while supporting the principle of planets acting as the agents of divine causation which express God's absolute power over creation. Avicenna considered that the movement of the planets influenced life on earth in a deterministic way, but argued against the capability of determining the exact influence of the stars. In essence, Avicenna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the extent that precise and fatalistic predictions could be made from it.

Eropa

Whilst astrology in the East flourished following the break up of the Roman world, with Indian, Persian and Islamic influences coming together and undergoing intellectual review through an active investment in translation projects, Western astrology in the same period had become “fragmented and unsophisticated ... partly due to the loss of Greek scientific astronomy and partly due to condemnations by the Church.” Translations of Arabic works into Latin started to make their way to Spain by the late 10th century, and in the 12th century the transmission of astrological works from Arabia to Europe “acquired great impetus”.

By the 13th century astrology had become a part of everyday medical practice in Europe. Doctors combined Galenic medicine (inherited from the Greek physiologist Galen - AD 129-216) with studies of the stars. By the end of the 1500s, physicians across Europe were required by law to calculate the position of the Moon before carrying out complicated medical procedures, such as surgery or bleeding.

Influential works of the 13th century include those of the British monk Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195–1256) and the Italian astrologer Guido Bonatti from Forlì (Italy). Bonatti served the communal governments of Florence, Siena and Forlì and acted as advisor to Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. His astrological text-book Liber Astronomiae ('Book of Astronomy'), written around 1277, was reputed to be "the most important astrological work produced in Latin in the 13th century". Dante Alighieri immortalised Bonatti in his Divine Comedy (early 14th century) by placing him in the eighth Circle of Hell, a place where those who would divine the future are forced to have their heads turned around (to look backwards instead of forwards).

In medieval Europe, a university education was divided into seven distinct areas, each represented by a particular planet and known as the seven liberal arts. Dante attributed these arts to the planets. As the arts were seen as operating in ascending order, so were the planets in decreasing order of planetary speed: grammar was assigned to the Moon, the quickest moving celestial body, dialectic was assigned to Mercury, rhetoric to Venus, musicto the Sun, arithmetic to Mars, geometry to Jupiter and astrology/astronomy to the slowest moving body, Saturn.

Medieval writers used astrological symbolism in their literary themes. For example, Dante's Divine Comedy builds varied references to planetary associations within his described architecture of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, (such as the seven layers of Purgatory's mountain purging the seven cardinal sins that correspond to astrology's seven classical planets). Similar astrological allegories and planetary themes are pursued through the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.

Chaucer's astrological passages are particularly frequent and knowledge of astrological basics is often assumed through his work. He knew enough of his period's astrology and astronomy to write a Treatise on the Astrolabe for his son. He pinpoints the early spring season of the Canterbury Tales in the opening verses of the prologue by noting that the Sun "hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne". He makes the Wife of Bath refer to "sturdy hardiness" as an attribute of Mars, and associates Mercury with "clerkes". In the early modern period, astrological references are also to be found in the works of William Shakespeare and John Milton.

One of the earliest English astrologers to leave details of his practice was Richard Trewythian (b. 1393). His notebook demonstrates that he had a wide range of clients, from all walks of life, and indicates that engagement with astrology in 15th-century England was not confined to those within learned, theological or political circles.

During the Renaissance, court astrologers would complement their use of horoscopes with astronomical observations and discoveries. Many individuals now credited with having overturned the old astrological order, such as Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, were themselves practicing astrologers.

At the end of the Renaissance the confidence placed in astrology diminished, with the breakdown of Aristotelian Physics and rejection of the distinction between the celestial and sublunar realms, which had historically acted as the foundation of astrological theory. Keith Thomas writes that although heliocentrism is consistent with astrology theory, 16th and 17th century astronomical advances meant that "the world could no longer be envisaged as a compact inter-locking organism; it was now a mechanism of infinite dimensions, from which the hierarchical subordination of earth to heaven had irrefutably disappeared". Initially, amongst the astronomers of the time, "scarcely anyone attempted a serious refutation in the light of the new principles" and in fact astronomers "were reluctant to give up the emotional satisfaction provided by a coherent and interrelated universe". By the 18th century the intellectual investment which had previously maintained astrology's standing was largely abandoned.

India

The main texts upon which classical Indian astrology is based are early medieval compilations, notably the Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra, and Sārāvalī by Kalyāṇavarma. The Horāshastra is a composite work of 71 chapters, of which the first part (chapters 1–51) dates to the 7th to early 8th centuries and the second part (chapters 52–71) to the later 8th century. The Sārāvalī likewise dates to around 800 CE. English translations of these texts were published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari in 1963 and 1961, respectively.

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.

Tiongkok

Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the three harmonies: heaven, earth and man) and uses concepts such as yin and yang, the Five phases, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 Earthly Branches, and shichen (時辰 a form of timekeeping used for religious purposes). The early use of Chinese astrology was mainly confined to political astrology, the observation of unusual phenomena, identification of portents and the selection of auspicious days for events and decisions.

The constellations of the Zodiac of western Asia and Europe were not used; instead the sky is divided into Three Enclosures (三垣 sān yuán), and Twenty-eight Mansions (二十八宿 èrshíbā xiù) in twelve Ci (十二次). The Chinese zodiac of twelve animal signs is said to represent twelve different types of personality. It is based on cycles of years, lunar months, and two-hour periods of the day (the shichen). The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat, and the cycle proceeds through 11 other animals signs: the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.Complex systems of predicting fate and destiny based on one's birthday, birth season, and birth hours, such as ziping and Zi Wei Dou Shu (simplified Chinese: 紫微斗数; traditional Chinese: 紫微斗數; pinyin: zǐwēidǒushù) are still used regularly in modern-day Chinese astrology. They do not rely on direct observations of the stars.

The Korean zodiac is identical to the Chinese one. The Vietnamese zodiac is almost identical to Chinese zodiac except the second animal is the Water Buffalo instead of the Ox, and the fourth animal is the Cat instead of the Rabbit. The Japanese have since 1873 celebrated the beginning of the new year on 1 January as per the Gregorian Calendar. The Thai zodiac begins, not at Chinese New Year, but either on the first day of fifth month in the Thai lunar calendar, or during the Songkran festival (now celebrated every 13–15 April), depending on the purpose of the use.

Mesoamerika

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.  

Astrologi modern

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