© 2000 Curtis Manwaring
In the present time, astrology is still only a shell of what it once was in magnificence and glory. It is not, as many have supposed, knowledge that has been transmitted unbroken through the past 2 - 3 millennia. Nor was it gradually built up through observation. It was instead a grand insight by the ancients, based upon philosophical first principles which culminated in the times of Hermes Trismegistus [250 BC], that has gradually increased in misunderstanding ever since [1]. Most of the defining practices of Hellenistic astrology were lost by the time of the dark ages.
This knowledge eventually fell into the wrong hands and became misused, sometimes because of avarice and sometimes because it was in the hands of those not competent in its practice. By Valens' time [160 - 170 AD], there had already been an erosion of knowledge and heightened censure for the practice of astrology:
"This theory is now dishonored and banished ... But once it possessed a name which was looked upon with envy, when those before us were proudly confident in this and were made blessed [by it]." [2]
In the past, this was the reason such knowledge was guarded by initiation and kept in secret. The danger is that these methods will be taken out of context and misused without an understanding of the philosophical principles from which they were derived. However, it is not, in the information age, a time in which knowledge can be siphoned off. Some of the material is already out there, though the keys to its complete understanding remain hidden in the philosophical principles, of which I have laid out only the barest outline. So I have presented a few observations in the Astrology X-Files section, etc... in the hopes that it will help the public to understand the great complexity of Hellenistic astrology and help further its restoration. One should keep in mind that what I have written is my take on this subject, from which I have a limited view. The more recent the article, the more accurate.
Robert Schmidt, to the best of my knowledge, is the only one who properly understands hellenistic astrology as it was once practiced, having finally after 30+ years of studying come to a place where he "gets most of it". Neugebauer, Robbins, Pingree and other scholars have read the material and translated it for astronomical purposes, but their prejudice blinded them to the philosophical subtleties of Hellenistic astrology. Valens had a unique insight as to why some researchers will fail to accept the truth when it is discovered:
"Now the tracking down and straightening out of matters is made weak and worn out by fear; and when the intellect denies [itself] and is unstable in the calculation, it does not stay in the same [regions], but rather, as soon as it leaps elsewhere, it accepts the first oblivion. And though someone is of good purpose and fond of what is good, he easily becomes alarmed and chooses ignorance rather than a dangerous virtue..." [3]
Notes:
1. From a conversation with Robert Schmidt in Cumberland in early July 2000.
2. The Anthology, by Vettius Valens. Book VI. pg 62. Translated by Robert Schmidt © 1997. Published by The Golden Hind Press.
3. Ibid. pg 63.
