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Astrology
The Dawn of Astrology (Volume 1) by Nicholas Campion
£40.00
Second hand / Antiquarian
The Dawn of Astrology – A Cultural History of Western Astrology
Volume 1: The Ancient and Classical Worlds
Published: Continuum Books, London 2008
Condition: Fine, dust jacket in protective cellophane wrapper. Pages clean and unmarked.
"This first volume comprehensively charts Western astrology from 30,000 BCE to the 17th century, with particular focus on its magical, political and apocalyptic movements and use in everyday life throughout history.This is the first in a two-volume history of Western astrology, a survey which stretches from Paleolithic lunar counters 30,000 BCE, to popular astrology in the 21st century. Most general histories of astrology have focused on the period between classical Greece and the seventeenth century, excluding both preceding cultures and modern developments. By contrast this book includes Neolithic culture, Mesopotamian astral divination and Egyptian stellar religion from the early period, and the development of popular astrology and New Age cosmology from the eighteenth century to the present. While there is some reference to astrology's technical history the emphasis is cultural, religious and philosophical.The book's original argument focuses on the interplay of three explanatory models of astrology which originated in Mesopotamia and Greece; the stars are seen either as signs, measures of time, or influences.Other themes include astrology's shift from an elite, authoritarian practice to a popular democratic one as it moved from Mesopotamia to the classical world, and the arguments about the relationship between the spirit and the stars which coloured Gnostic and Christian attitudes to astrology. Astrology is considered in relation to magic, politics and apocalyptic movements and, throughout, the theory of astrology is related to examples of its use at all levels of society.Astrology is the practice of relating events on earth to patterns in the sky. Most histories of the subject follow a conventional scheme in which astrology begins in the 3rd-1st centuries BCE but here this narrow definition is challenged. It concludes that European astrology emerged as a combination of the technical structure developed in Babylon together with Egyptian theories about the relationship between the soul and the stars."
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Procession of the Night Theatre by J.M. Hamade
£21.99
By light, unites the Indian nakshatra, the Chinese xiu, the Arabic manzil, and more, in a comprehensive study of the lunar stations through their many significations, magics, and delineations. By darkness, proceeds through dream-logics and poetry familiar to the labyrinths of One Thousand and One Nights. Each night a lunar station…
Procession is about the lunar zodiac in all its grandeur. Unlike the familiar 12 sign zodiac of the Sun, the 27-28 fold circle of the Moon still maintains her starry retinue in full. Though astrological correspondences are given their proper weight, including interpretations for the seven primary planets in each station, this book is at its core an exploration of teeming sidereal imagery.
Accordingly Procession may be read as an ongoing story. All the same, for astrologers, magicians, and luna-philes alike, as the most complete reference on the subject to date.
De Radiis by Al-Kindi
£38.99
2nd hardback edition.
Abū Yaʿqūb ibn Ishāq al-Kindī (c.800-870CE) De Radiis (On The Stellar Rays) proposes that all things emit rays that operate on all other things, producing an interplay of causes and effects from the stars down to material objects. The rays pouring down from the celestial harmony of the stars, constellations, and planets, he thought, accounted for the efficacy of astrology. Living beings, likewise, were the source and destination of rays, and humans out of all creatures were a “small world” or microcosm unto themselves, and therefore humans are able to cause things (whether themselves or others) to move and change. Sound “rays”, emitted through speech, song, and music could effect magical change by the same principle.
De Radiis provides a concise, comprehensive physical and magical theory using the philosophy of the Greeks, which Al-Kindi had a hand in translating into Arabic at the start of the Islamic Golden Age. This edition of De Radiis comes from a back translation into Latin from a lost Arabic original. Together with practical manuals of Arab magic, such as Picatrix, the theoretical treatise De Radiis had a profound impact on the Western esoteric tradition during the ensuing thousand years.
This new translation, by Scott Gosnell, translator of The Collected Works of Giordano Bruno and writer on the history and future of science and magic, rendered into clear, fresh language; it is an essential part of any complete esoteric library.
Constellation Myths by Eratosthenes, Hyginus and Aratus
£8.99
'Athena seized the writhing serpent and hurled it into the sky, and fixed it to the very pole of the heavens.' The constellations we recognize today were first mapped by the ancient Greeks, who arranged the stars into patterns for that purpose. In the third century BC Eratosthenes compiled a handbook of astral mythology in which the constellations were associated with figures from legend, and myths were provided to explain how each person, creature, or object came to be placed in the sky. Thus we can see Heracles killing the Dragon, and Perseus slaying the sea-monster to save Andromeda; Orion chasesthe seven maidens transformed by Zeus into the Pleiades, and Aries, the golden ram, is identified flying up to the heavens.
This translation brings together the later summaries from Eratosthenes' lost handbook with a guide to astronomy compiled by Hyginus, librarian to Augustus. Together with Aratus's astronomical poem the Phaenomena, these texts provide a complete collection of Greek astral myths; imaginative and picturesque, they also offer an intriguing insight into ancient science and culture. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe.
Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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