Magical Medievals: It’s Written in The Stars (Part 1)
Written by Patricia Maniaci
While astrology is usually synonymous with the skeevy 1970s pickup line, "Hey babe, what's your sign?" and considered a pseudo-science (and that's being generous), it impacted every aspect of daily life for our medieval counterparts. "…the assertion of astrological power, for example the birth and death of animals or the weather, was no more (or less) pseudo-scientific than that assumed to control individual fortunes or political events." (Cary, 889)
We are familiar with natal astrology (what's your sign?), which began in the Fifth Century BCE in Babylon (Iraq); around the Second Century BCE, astrology gained a foothold in the scientific community and into mainstream Egyptian, Greek, and Roman culture.
Medieval astrologers made a logical distinction between the scientific aspect and open interpretation; semantically, there was no separation between the two, and they were more or less used interchangeably until the late Renaissance (1). During the Umayyad Caliphate, a significant exchange occurred between Islamic and Byzantium cultures, and celestial influence took center stage. Astrological theory and practice were appropriated not just from pre-Islamic Arabic (Zoroaster) culture but Asian and Jewish cultures as well.
Major contributors such as the Second caliph al-Mansur, who founded the City of Baghdad on the advice of his astrologers; the Seventh caliph al-Ma'mūn, who founded the House of Wisdom, a center for anyone who wanted to study the science of the stars, philosophy, medicine, use the observatory, read, translate, and write celestial texts); and Abū Ma'shar, a Persian astrologer who wrote over 40 works of astrological and celestial theory and used Aristotelian theories to help provide validating evidence for celestial influence, astrology's validity as a science strengthened.
While not as favorable in Christian Europe, astrological theory and application influenced everything from medicine and alchemy to theology and literature. Thanks to a misunderstanding (or intentional as to justify validity), Ptolemy the Mathematician (and astronomer and cartographer) got confused with Ptolemy the Egyptian Pharaoh, and the royal association with astrology began.
Early European Astrology lacked the mathematical and astronomical rigor of its Islamic cohort; still, the knowledge of the zodiac, constellations, planets, and their relationship with the seasons and the liturgical year was widely known. Celestial influence was accepted as a basis for most scientific speculation about nature and the universe. Astrology started to gain popularity with the translations of Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II). It continued into the Renaissance, even if much of what was written were translations of Arabic volumes.
Dominican Friar Albert Magnus, while known for contributions to the more complex sciences, translated enough astrological works to dived astrology into five sections: Introductions to the nature of the signs and planets; Nativities assessed celestial body imprint on a newborn at the time of birth; Revolutions considered the state of the heavens on the New Year providing annual predictions on the weather, politics, agricultural conditions, prices and the outlook for disease and epidemics; Elections determine the most auspicious times for events, such as weddings and coronations; and Interrogations casting a horoscope for a client for a specific question (Carey 892-3)
Polyglot cities of Toledo and Palermo provided centres of learning where people such as Adelard of Bath (Abū Ma'shar's Introduction to Astrology and al-Khwarizmi's full astronomical tables, the foundation of scientific astrology based on weighing the position of the planet), John of Seville (a most significant number of translations from Abū Ma'shar's and Māshāallāh), worked alongside each other with Islamic astrologers to translate the volumes these Arabic volumes for The Roman Church and royal patrons. It was because of these translations the position of Court Astrologer was created.
In addition to the court astrologer who wisely guided the nobility with complete honesty and no hidden agenda, astrology was used in medicine to diagnose and prevent illness. William English's De urina non visa, championed physicians trained in astrology as they served a much broader purpose in the medical profession. Let's pause here for a moment to give thanks to modern medicine. It's not perfect, but a physician isn't guessing your stomach hurts because Cancer is squaring off with Capricorn, and Mars is entering Scorpio.
However, not all scholars were okay with astrology. Ibn Sīnā, a physician and the Iberian philosopher Ibn Rushd, had major objections, along with those in the Christian West, as they argued that astrology was incompatible with God's Will. Commentaries written on Ptolemy and other early astrologers called into question the morality and rationality of astrology.
Despite the many objections to astrology, it has undeniably permeated our medieval counterparts' intellectual, political, medical, and cultural lives.
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