Benson Bobrick - The Fated Sky: Astrology in History

My grandfather, who was a devoutly religious scholar and a bishop of the Methodist Church, acknowledged in his old age that he had once been persuaded, reluctantly, to consult an astrologer about the whereabouts of a wallet he had lost. The wallet had all sorts of valuables in it and he had looked everywhere for it in vain. The astrologer cast a chart for the questionWhere is my wallet?and after examining the planets, told him, correctly, where it could be found. That both pleased the bishop and annoyed him. Many years later, he was still clearly abashed. He had too honest a mind to dismiss it, but he couldnt explain it either. And so in my own mind, too, this story curled a question mark over the entire subject which, some forty years later, I at last began to explore. As a student of history, I took the long view, which in the end proved indispensable for getting my bearings right. This book is the result.

Astrology may be a suspect subject, at least to some; the history of astrology can scarcely be to anyone who cares about the history of ideas. In recent years, that history in all its aspects has benefited from the work of a number of fine scholarsJohn D. North, Michael Molnar, Robert Zoller, James Herschel Holden, Patrick Curry, David Plant, Nicholas Campion, J. Lee Lehman, Tamsyn Barton, Anthony Grafton, William R. Newman, Hilary Carey, Annabella Kitson, Demetra George, Laura Ackerman Smoller, Robert Hand, and John Frawley, among the more prominentwho have made it possible to glimpse the true sweep and compass of the art. Invaluable work is also being done daily by Project Hindsight, dedicated to the recovery and translation of the classic Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew works; and by ARHAT, the Archive for the Retrieval of Historical Astrological Texts. Both deserve to be better known. All my cordial contacts with the American Federation of Astrologers and the Astrological Association of Great Britain were also fruitful of results.

I have indeed relied on the labors of many, but those who helped in any direct or coordinate way with the making of this book are absolved of any errors it contains. Among family, friends, colleagues, associates, and helpful correspondents, I am happy to name: Eleanor Bach, James and Peter Bobrick, Robin Brownstein, Herschel Farbman, John Frawley, Svetlana Gorokhova, Nancy Griffin, Peter Guttmacher, Hagop Merjian, Gloria Mulcahy, Peter Murkett, Pamela Robertson, George and Gene Rochberg, David Roell, Lora Sharnoff, Edward W. Tayler, P. L. Travers, Richard and Bea Wernick, and Danielle Woerner, among others, who over the years contributed something of value, however indirectly, to the text. My dedicated agent, Russell Galen, stood foursquare behind the book from the start; my editor, Bob Bender, was exemplary as always in allowing me to work in my own way. His assistant, Johanna Li, helpfully attended to details. Three hometown hauntsMocha Joes, Amys Bakery Arts Cafe, and The Cafe Beyondoften provided sustenance and a home away from home. Throughout, Hilary and the twins, Zuzu & Jasper, did much to keep my spirits up. I am grateful to them all.

The universe, eternity, the infinite are typified by the sphereOn a sphere every point is a center, and every point is the highest point, and this explains the puzzle of time and space. There never was a beginning of time, and there never will be an end. Time always is. Any number of trillions of years hence, and any numberpast, and you are just as near the end, or the beginning, of Time as now, and no nearer. This moment is the center of Time; this instant is the highest point in the revolving sphere. The same with that other form of Time, Space. There is no end to Space, and no beginning. This point where you now stand, this chair, this tree, is the center of Space; it all balances from this point. Go to the farthest fixed star andyou have only arrived at Here. Your own doorstep is just as near the limit, and no nearer. This is the puzzle of puzzles, but it is so.

JOHN BURROUGHS, Journals, January 13, 1882

A MERICA WOULD NEVER have been discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 had it not been for the thought of Arab astrologers in Baghdad in the 9th century A.D. When Columbus set sail on the great western voyage that carried him to Americas shores, he had biblical prophecy to inspire him, Arab astrology to guide him, and various practical aids that three continental astrologers, who were also mathematicians, had supplied: the planetary tables of Regiomontanus; a map drawn up by Paolo Toscanelli; and an ephemeris prepared by Samuel Zacuto, who later made the splendid astrolabe of iron used by Vasco da Gama in his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. These were all of use to Columbus in his celestial calculations and his navigation of the open sea. He also used an astrolabe and quadrant to determine the altitude of stars, set his hourglass by the transits of the Sun, depended on the North Star to fix magnetic north, and judged the time of night by the constellation of the Great Bear. He overawed the natives of one island by his ability to predict a lunar eclipse, and drew with some success on astrological lore to predict the weathertaking his ships to shelter, for example, in the port of Santo Domingo because an aspect between Jupiter and Mercury seemed to portend a tropical storm. Yet Columbus could not proceed solely by the sky. Knowledge of celestial navigation in Europe was wanting, and so, for the most part, he relied on a magnetic compass to measure his course or direction, and on his own method of dead or deduced reckoning to estimate his position on the main.