Babylonian astrology

First known system of astrology

Babylonian astrology was the first known organized system of astrology, arising in the second millennium BC. In Babylon as well as in Assyria as a direct offshoot of Babylonian culture, astrology takes its place as one of the two chief means at the disposal of the priests (who were called bare or "inspectors") for ascertaining the will and intention of the gods, the other being through the inspection of the livers of sacrificial animals (see omen).

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 ( 1800 BC), continuing through the Middle Babylonian and Middle Assyrian periods ( 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, and prior to the 7th century BC the practitioners' understanding of astronomy was fairly rudimentary. Because of their inability to accurately predict future celestial phenomena and planetary movement very far in advance, interpretations were done as the phenomena occurred or slightly before. By the 4th century BC, however, their mathematical methods had progressed enough to calculate future planetary positions with reasonable accuracy, at which point extensive ephemerides began to appear.

The history of Babylonian astrology shows the development of astronomical knowledge 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 the lunar eclipse of 18 January 672 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:
In the beginning of the year a flood will come and break the dikes. When the Moon has made the eclipse, the king, my lord, should write to me. As a substitute for the king, I will cut through a dike, here in Babylonia, in the middle of the night. No one will know about it. 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 mundane, 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.

Astrology was also incredibly important in a practice known as astral medicine. According to a kalendartext discovered, belonging to a mašmaššu priest in the late Babylonian period of Uruk named Iqīšâ, different remedies are created for patients for different days, depending on the date. +Month IV: First twelve lines of Iqīšâ's kalendartexte1Aries7Sheep blood, sheep fat, and sheep hair, you anoint.2Capricorn14Goat blood, goat fat, and goat hair, you anoint.3Libra21"Empty place", you anoint.4Cancer28Crab blood, or crab fat, you anoint.5Taurus5Bull blood, or bull fat, or bull hair, you anoint.6Aquarius12Eagle head, wing, and blood, you anoint.7Scorpio19"Empty place", you anoint.8Leo26Lion blood, lion fat, or lion hair, you anoint.9Gemini3Rooster head, blood, and wing, you anoint.10Pisces10Dove head, blood, swallow head, blood, you anoint.11Sagittarius17Anzu( bird?) head, Anzu( bird?) wing, Anzu( bird) blood, you anoint.12Virgo24šigušu barley flour, raven head, and raven wing, you anoint. Steele acknowledges that it is entirely possible that the practice of astral medicine is nothing more than a theoretical practice, devised by scholars of the time. Since several of the parts would have been expensive or otherwise impossible for the average Babylonian to obtain, this raises two possible situations. It is very possible that the whole concept of astral medicine in terms of the kalendartexte and other such sources were, as previously stated, simply theory and never intended for real use. However, Babylonian medicine contains a tradition known as Dreckapotheke, wherein the names of common ingredients are given names of often unpleasant sounding ones. It is also within the realm of possibility that the ingredients listed in the kalendartexte are following this tradition. The months were divided into groups of three, alternating by four, evenly split among the four lands. The first, fifth, and ninth months belonged to Akkad, the second, sixth, and tenth belonged to Elam, the third, seventh, and eleventh belonged to Amurru, and the fourth, eighth, and twelfth belonged to Subartu. Days of each month follows the same pattern, beginning with one for Akkad, two for Elam, three for Amurru, four for Subartu, five for Akkad, and so on. Deities of Mesopotamia were associated with certain times, days, and months. In more mythological belief, at the end of each day, the sun god, Shamash, retired to "the lap of heaven" to rest.

The first limitation was that the movements and position of the heavenly bodies point to such occurrences as are of public import and affect the general welfare. The individual's interests are not in any way involved, and we must descend many centuries and pass beyond the confines of Babylonia and Assyria before we reach that phase which in medieval and modern astrology is almost exclusively dwelt upon—the individual horoscope. In Babylonia and Assyria the cult centred largely and indeed almost exclusively in the public welfare and the person of the king, because upon his well being and favour with the gods the fortunes of the country were dependent, in accordance with the ancient conception of kingship.

The second limitation was that the astronomical knowledge presupposed and accompanying early Babylonian astrology was, though essentially of an empirical character, limited and flawed. The theory of the ecliptic as representing the course of the Sun through the year, divided among twelve constellations with a measurement of 30° to each division, is of Babylonian origin, as has now been definitely proved; but it does not appear to have been perfected until after the fall of the Babylonian empire in 539 BC. Similarly, the other accomplishments of Babylonian astronomers, such as their system or rather systems of moon calculations and the drawing up of planetary tablets, belong to this late period, so that the golden age of Babylonian astronomy belongs not to the remote past, as was until recently supposed, but to the Seleucid period; i. e. after the advent of the Greeks in the Euphrates Valley. From certain expressions used in astrological texts that are earlier than the 7th century BC it would appear, indeed, that the beginnings at least of the calculation of Sun and Moon eclipses belong to the earlier period, but here, too, the chief work accomplished was after 400 BC, and the defectiveness of early Babylonian astronomy may be gathered from the fact that as late as the 6th century BC an error of almost an entire month was made by the Babylonian astronomers in the attempt to determine through calculation the beginning of a certain year. In a general way, the reign of law and order in the movements of the heavenly bodies was recognized, and indeed must have exercised an influence at an early period in leading to the rise of a methodical divination that was certainly of a much higher order than the examination of an animal's liver. However, the importance that was laid upon the endless variations in the form of the phenomena and the equally numerous apparent deviations from what were regarded as normal conditions, prevented for a long time the rise of any serious study of astronomy beyond what was needed for the purely practical purposes that the priests as "inspectors" of the heavens (as they were also the "inspectors" of the sacrificial livers) had in mind.

Ashurbanipal was a king of Assyria who ruled in the seventh century BC from 668 to 625 BC. He was famous for assembling a great library of cuneiform tablets in Nineveh on the subjects of astrology, history, mythology, and science. Some of Assurbanipal's astrologers, such as Rammanu sumausar and Nabu musisi, became so adept at deducing omens from daily movements of the planets that a system of making periodical reports to the king came into being. Thus, Assurbanipal received swift messengers detailing "all occurrences in heaven and earth" throughout his kingdom and the results of his astrologer's examinations of them. He then used this information as a political weapon, and for the practical day to day running of his kingdom. After his death Nineveh fell to the Medes and the Chaldean Babylonians, and Assurbanipal's library was destroyed or dispersed.