Astronomy and Astrology E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

In the Middle Ages, Astronomia - one of the Seven Liberal Arts - was as much about astrology as astronomy. In fact the two disciplines only parted company in the seventeenth century, as the materialistic world-view gained greater prominence. Where once human destiny was connected to stars and planets, and spiritual or soul qualities were associated with the natural world, now the cosmos was seen as consisting of gases, fire and dead rock. Rudolf Steiner brings a new spiritual perspective to our study of the heavens. Humanity, he says, is intimately connected to cosmic beings, who in turn are related to planets and stars. There is meaning in the cosmos. Although Steiner rejects the simplistic notion of the planets determining our lives and behaviour, he makes a clear connection between the heavenly bodies and human beings. Whilst criticizing the superficial nature of much astrology, Steiner shows that as individuals, and with the guidance of spiritual beings, we choose an appropriate time of birth to match the destiny we are to live. This enlightening anthology, expertly collated by Margaret Jonas, features excerpts of Steiner's work on the spiritual individualities of the planets, the determination of human characteristics by the constellation at birth, the cultural epochs and the passage of the equinox, cosmic influences on the individual and humanity, life in the planetary spheres between death and rebirth, solar and lunar eclipses, comets, and much more.

Leseprobe

RUDOLF STEINER (1861–1925) called his spiritual philosophy ‘anthroposophy’, meaning ‘wisdom of the human being’. As a highly developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern and universal ‘science of spirit’, accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unprejudiced thinking.

From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of many activities, including education (both general and special), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. Today there are thousands of schools, clinics, farms and other organizations involved in practical work based on his principles. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development. Steiner wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY

Finding a Relationship to the Cosmos

RUDOLF STEINER

Compiled and edited by Margaret Jonas

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2012

Earlier English publications: see Sources section

Originally published in German in various volumes of the GA (Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. For further information see Sources. This authorized translation is published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

All material has been translated or checked against the original German by Christian von Arnim

Translation and selection © Rudolf Steiner Press 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978 1 85584 306 6

Cover by Andrew Morgan Design Typeset by DP Photosetting, Neath, West Glamorgan

Contents

Introduction by Margaret Jonas

1. How does theosophy regard astrology?

2. Prophecy: its nature and meaning

3. Cosmic influences on the individual and humanity

4. The subtle impact of the stars

5. The human being as expression of the constellations and the planets

6. Understanding the human form out of the universe

7. The changing vision of the universe

8. The forces of the planets

9. The spiritual individualities of the planets

10. The human being’s inner cosmic system

11. The planetary spheres and life between death and rebirth

12. The spiritual preparation of the human body between death and a new birth

13. The human being and his pattern in the stars

14. The forces of the earth and the constellation at birth in determining human characteristics

15. The revelation of the stars at death

16. Human and cosmic rhythms

17. Solar and lunar eclipses

18. Comets and other cosmic phenomena

19. The cultural epochs and the passage of the equinox

20. Michael and the manifestation of the divine spiritual

Notes

Sources

Suggested further reading

Note on Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures

Introduction

How did Rudolf Steiner view the connection between astrology and astronomy? Did he perceive one at all? In one sense his whole work embraces both. There is hardly a lecture that does not relate the human being to the cosmos in some way; it is an intrinsic part of the anthroposophical world-view. As these lectures and extracts will show, we are created by cosmic beings who are connected to planets and stars, which are not perceived as dead rock or mere gas. That there is meaning in the stars is naturally difficult for the astronomer to accept without undergoing the necessary preparation of widening his or her thinking and understanding. It becomes more complex when the question of astrology is introduced. In the Middle Ages, Astronomia (one of the Seven Liberal Arts) was as much astrology as astronomy, whereas nowadays ‘astronomy’ is reserved for understanding the physical attributes of the universe—mainly size, distance, speed and so on. ‘Astrology’ gives meaning to the stars and planets. It can be said to be a ‘soul level’ of understanding, whilst beyond that a third term is sometimes used: ‘astrosophy’—wisdom of the stars, a spiritual level. In fact if any of the three ‘levels’ is carried out with true understanding of what is really involved, the other two are present also. Astrology and astronomy parted company around the seventeenth century; though figures like Sir Isaac Newton continued to look at horoscopes, the notion of stars and planets being connected to human destiny disappeared for astronomers who were holding to an increasingly materialistic world-view, which left no room for spiritual or soul qualities manifesting in the natural world. Astronomers may reject astrology as superstition, but what do they offer in its place? Speculation becomes dogma and they look for explanations rather than meaning. Concepts such as ‘millions of galaxies’, ‘light years’, ‘black holes’, ‘red dwarfs’ render the vast interstellar spaces so infinitely empty that we may be filled with a cold terror. Following space probes on radio telescopes or tracking planets on computer programs becomes an intellectual abstraction which equally separates us from meaning in the universe, whilst giving the illusion of understanding to the one staring at a screen from the comfort of home or workplace. ‘Naked-eye astronomy’ can be one attempt to redress the abstraction, but may still leave us without meaning.

We can see that Rudolf Steiner struggled with the question of astrology. On the one hand he makes clear that there is a connection between stars and human beings, but on the other he appears uncomfortable with what is generally thought of as astrology, and certainly he rejects the notion of stars and planets determining our lives and behaviour. This rejection is not as simplistic as might be supposed, for freedom lies in our thoughts not in our will: ‘Read my Philosophy of Spiritual Activity1 and see how much importance I attach to the point that one should not ask about the freedom of the will. The will lies deep, deep down in the unconscious, and it is nonsense to ask about the freedom of the will. It is only of the freedom of thoughts that we can speak... Man must become free in his thoughts, and the free thoughts must give the impulse to the will—then he is free.’2

It is in our will that our karmic intentions are stored, intentions which have been prepared during the long period spent between lifetimes in the company of spiritual beings of the planetary spheres and beyond. But can these intentions be read in a horoscope? Whilst criticizing the superficial nature of much astrology, Steiner shows that we do indeed attempt to choose an appropriate birth time to match the destiny which we are to live out. The ability to make use of this will depend on the level of development of the astrologer concerned. (The whole question of ‘unnatural’ births’, e.g. induced or by Caesarean section, or indeed in vitro fertilization is too complex to be discussed here.) The opening essay from 1905 makes clear how Steiner regarded the necessary ‘qualifications’ for this interpreting, how ideally the level of Intuition—that of being able to become one with the object perceived in order to receive its meaning—must be reached. On occasions he himself made use of horoscopes as we can see in the case of the ‘special needs’ children.

It can be argued that astrology has come a long way since Steiner’s lifetime, less and less is the view a deterministic one. Many astrologers today embrace a spiritual world-view that often includes reincarnation and karma. Most certainly they look at the soul characteristics, which they interpret from a horoscope, and realize that everything depends on what the individual has made of the starry inheritance. They no longer speak in absolute terms of good fortune or great danger but recognize that each individual will have a unique relationship to a pattern that may be identical for dozens of people. With this view it can be a valuable tool in therapy or counselling. It should be evident that popular ‘sun sign’ columns in papers or on websites are not what are meant here. That people are gullible over horoscopes has been demonstrated by the French researcher Michel Gauquelin who gave identical interpretations of what was in fact the horoscope of a notorious murderer to a number of satisfied clients! Further examples have been demonstrated on television programmes of people receiving the same interpretation worded in a very generic way and being delighted that it describes them so well. This sort of general interpretation and uncritical appraisal is probably more what Steiner had in mind to criticize. But even with the more serious astrologers he would ask: why should it be that this is so? From where or what does your information derive? In short, tradition is not enough. The astrologer today would be required to understand the human and cosmic connections as deeply as possible.

Steiner was also critical of what he felt was unduly egotistic in wanting to know one’s destiny from a horoscope. This may be the case for someone who is told that he or she has such and such fine qualities or abilities, but it can also be the case that we can learn more about our weaknesses and difficulties from the birth chart, though, as he pointed out to Elisabeth Vreede, this does not mean we should try to avoid challenging periods.3 We should avoid being tempted to ‘fear’ the planets. It is said that one of his many lectures was planned for a day when planetary aspects were considered very ‘bad’ and local organizers suggested changing it, which he firmly refused to do, with apparently no serious consequences! He was not, however, averse to choosing a propitious time for an event when it meant that a deed performed in some way echoed or, rather, spoke back to the cosmos in the sense of the verse quoted at the end of the selection. This is shown by the time chosen for the powerful ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone of the first Goetheanum in Dornach in 1913. He placed a document with the stone, which included the wording that Mercury as evening star was setting in the sign of Libra: ‘... for the work of anthroposophy on the 20th day of September 1880 after the Mystery of Golgotha, that is 1913 after the birth of Christ when Mercury as the evening star stood in libra.. .’4 His co-worker Elisabeth Vreede, who became the first leader of the Section for Astronomy and Mathematics, has written about the significance of this.5

The simple statement that Mercury stood in Libra brings us to another consideration that complicates the practice and understanding of both astrology and astronomy and is one reason why the adherents of the latter often reject the former. An astronomical explanation is needed here. The zodiac comprises those constellations against which the planets are seen to move; it is also called the ecliptic, and is found to be at an angle to the earth’s equator. Moreover the earth wobbles slightly on its axis, a movement called nutation. This results in the phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes, meaning that if one takes the spring equinox to coincide with the first degree of Aries, as most astrologers do, then the starry backdrop is no longer seen to coincide. At the time of Christ they did coincide, but before and after different constellations could be seen, which are taken to mark great cultural ages (see extract no. 19). Thus today the remaining stars of the constellation of Pisces can be seen here, and within a century or two those of Aquarius will rise. Most western astrologers—in the East it is different, Indian astrology (jyotish) uses the sidereal, i.e. the starry constellations for horoscopes—with some exceptions use the so-called ‘tropical’, meaning that it takes its basis from the beginning of Aries at the spring equinox. It would take too long in this introduction to discuss the reasons for this or the pros and cons. One justification for using the tropical zodiac, quite apart from tradition, comes from a statement by Johannes Kepler who was court astrologer to the Duke of Wallenstein, casting horoscopes as well as peering through the newly invented telescope at the moons of Jupiter. He still understood the earth as an ensouled being and had a feeling for the difference the coming of Christ made to the earth, writing that: ‘A certain image of the zodiac and of the whole firmament is imprinted by God in the soul of the earth.’6

Heinz Walther describes this further as follows: ‘The aura of the earth has absorbed into herself the image of the zodiac. The earth now bears firmly its image, the earth to which the beneficent gods by that decisive event gave a new direction into the sense of the world plan. The sun ... defines by its annual course the division of the zodiac as it is decisive for us today.. .’7 In other words, with the coming of Christ to the earth its etheric aura was penetrated by the Christ Being from the sun to allow an imprint from the constellations to occur. There is plenty of evidence of the suitability of the tropical zodiac for understanding a human being’s earthly path and destiny. More spiritual considerations however may be revealed by the actual constellations. The use of these has been found to work better for the biodynamic method of farming and gardening, though differing research results have been produced by the fact of differing opinions as to the constellations’ actual boundaries. See the work of Maria Thun in her annual sowing and planting calendar.8 Her insights are based on Lili Kolisko’s pioneering experiments studying the effect of planetary movements on metal solutions.9 Nick Kollerstrom, by contrast, uses different boundaries in his annual calendar, based on Robert Powell’s research into the sidereal zodiac.10 It may surprise some people that the Mercury in Libra event refers not to the actual constellation but to the ‘tropical sign’. Thus for earthly deeds Kepler’s words can be shown to have some significance, for Steiner’s comments on these followed not long after the laying of the foundation stone event. Nevertheless this question of ‘which zodiac’ is unresolved both within anthroposophical circles and outside. Another unresolved question is what happens in the more northerly (or southerly) latitudes beyond 67°. Certain signs do not rise or set and a normal horoscope cannot be cast. Yet considerable numbers of people live in these regions—Scandinavia, Canada and Siberia for example. This points to the need for much further understanding of how the mystery of birth and earthly destiny descends from out of the planetary spheres, which has hardly begun.

With the spread of Arabic science in Europe, ancient astrological texts came to be translated and circulated. However the notion of a fixed fate also arose—It is written— which is hard to detach from astrology today and which led inevitably to the rejection of it as mere superstition as people discovered a greater freedom in their own thinking and a greater autonomy in their life paths. Rudolf Steiner aimed to show that it is not necessary to reject any connection with the stars and planets in order to be a fully modern person, and indeed the pursuit of it with the right understanding gives a far greater meaning to our earthly lives. Moreover the spiritual beings are waiting to hear from human beings on earth, for remarkable as it may sound we are the religion of the gods: ‘Thus the gods have the image of the human being before them as their highest ideal, their religion.’13 It is in this spirit that one may presume to attempt an understanding of how astrology relates to this ideal human being.

‘We will then realize that while people looked to the constellations of the stars in ancient times to understand human destiny on earth, we must now look to the human being, permeated by the Christ substance here on earth while possessing full humanness, who then lights up for the universe. The human being lights up as the star of humanity after having gone through the portal of death.’14

Isis-Sophia, the heavenly wisdom perceived by ancient peoples as arrayed in a cloak decorated with stars, can be our guide on this journey. In conclusion may we also remember, as the final extract shows, that our connection to the heavenly bodies is maintained by the grace of the Archangel Michael, the Spirit of our age.

* * *

Extracts of a more purely astronomical nature have not been included as this compilation is not intended for the specialist and they would require much explanation, but suggestions for further reading are to be found at the end. Other important omissions are the many lectures on the connections between spiritual hierarchies and the planets because this is a lengthy study in its own right. Also omitted is the correlation of philosophical world-views and the zodiac for the same reason, and likewise other specialized material such as eurythmy gestures, planets and zodiac. Steiner’s legacy in this whole area was carried on most worthily by Elisabeth Vreede, whose astronomical letters15 cannot be recommended enough for providing elucidation of many of Steiner’s statements. Other researchers such as Willi Sucher and Robert Powell have made valuable contributions even if methods and views differ. There is a growing body of work in the United States and in Germany also, originally pioneered by Guenther Wachsmuth and Werner Böhm.

Margaret Jonas

1. How does theosophy regard astrology?

In this early essay of 1905, written for the theosophical journal Luzifer-Gnosis, which Rudolf Steiner also edited, he sets the scene for the whole later development of his cosmology within anthroposophy. He also states the necessity of realizing that one can only really practise astrology if one takes into account successive earth lives, and moreover works upon oneself in order to reach the level of development he called Intuition—meaning not the rather vague sense for the significance of something coming to a person, which is ordinarily meant, but the capacity to be able to so unite with a percept or being that its true nature is revealed to one.

Another question was asked: ‘How does theosophy relate to astrology?’

To begin with, it has to be said in this context that very little is known currently as to what astrology really is. Because what is often presented as such in handbooks is a purely outer compilation of rules the deeper meaning of which is hardly ever explained. Methods of calculation are specified by means of which certain constellations of the stars at the time of a person’s birth or for the timing of some other important event can be determined. Then people say that such constellations have this or that meaning without any indication being given as to why it might be so or, indeed, merely how it might be so. It is therefore not surprising that people in our age consider all these things to be nonsense, bogus and superstition. Because the whole thing appears to be based on quite arbitrary assertions, made up out of thin air. At best, people say that everything in the world is probably connected and that therefore the constellation of the sun, Venus and moon at the birth of a person might very well have an effect on his or her life, and suchlike. But true astrology is a wholly intuitive science and requires the development of higher supersensory powers of perception in those who wish to practise it, and these powers can only be present in a minimum number of people today. And even if we just wish to explain its basic character this requires dealing with the highest cosmological problems as set out in spiritual science. That is why only a few very general points can be made here.

The system of the stars, to which we human beings belong, is a whole. And human beings are connected with all the forces in this system of stars. Only gross materialism would believe that the human being is connected with the earth alone. We only need to look at the relationship between the human being, the sun and the moon as set out in the Akasha Chronicle.16 It will be seen from this that there was a stage of human development in primeval times in which human beings lived on a celestial body which still consisted of the sun, moon and earth together. That is why human beings today still have forces in their nature which are related to those of these celestial bodies. These relationships still today govern a link between the effects of these celestial bodies and what happens in the human being. However, these effects are very different from the effects of a purely material nature to which alone science today refers. The sun, for example, affects human beings through something which is quite different from what science calls gravity, light and heat. Equally, there are relationships of a supersensory nature between Mars, Mercury and the other planets and human beings. On that basis, anyone who has the disposition can gain an idea of a web of supersensory connections between the celestial bodies and the beings who inhabit them. But raising such connections to the level of clear, scientific understanding requires the development of the forces of a very high level of supersensory vision. Only the highest degrees of intuition which human beings can reach are sufficient. Not the kind of blurred and semi-visionary dreaming which is now so frequently called intuition, but the most pronounced inner capacity of the senses which can only be compared to mathematical thinking.

Now there were, and still are, people in the esoteric schools who can pursue astrology in this sense. And what is written in the accessible books on this subject did in some way and at some time come from such esoteric teachers. The only thing is that anything connected with these things is inaccessible to conventional thinking, even when it is written in books, because understanding them itself requires profound intuition. And what was then transcribed of the real matters that these teachers taught by those who themselves did not understand such matters will hardly, of course, give people trapped in the current way of thinking a favourable impression of astrology. But it must nevertheless be said that even such books are not altogether worthless. Because the less people understand what they are transcribing, the better the transcription they make. They do not spoil it through their own wisdom. That is why astrological writings, no matter how obscure their origins, always contains pearls of truth for those who are capable of Intuition—but only for those. In general, astrological writings are, of their kind, better even than those of many other branches of knowledge.

In this context there is a comment which should not be omitted. There is currently the greatest confusion about the term Intuition. It must be clearly understood that science today, if it is familiar with the concept of Intuition at all, is only so in the field of mathematics. Among all our sciences this is the only field of knowledge based on pure inner perception. But such inner perception does not exist just with regard to spatial dimensions and figures but also with regard to all other things. Goethe,17 for example, attempted to establish such an intuitive science in the field of botany. His ‘archetypal plant’ in its various stages of metamorphosis is based on inner perception. Reason enough for current science to have no idea of the importance of Goethe in this respect. For many higher fields, theosophy provides knowledge through inner perception. Its observations about reincarnation and karma are based on it. It should come as no surprise that people who have no idea of what is important in Goethe are also totally incapable of understanding the sources of theosophical teaching. Precisely the deeper study of valuable writings such as Goethe’s Metamorphosis of Plants could be excellent preparation for theosophy. Of course many theosophists, too, lack patience in this respect. But once one has worked one’s way through to an understanding of what is important by means of such an intuitive work as we have just mentioned, full of life as it is, one will find where the path leads. Nevertheless, the laws of astrology in turn are based on intuitions of a kind in comparison to which the knowledge of reincarnation and karma is still very elementary.

These observations are undeniably hardly comprehensive, but they might nevertheless give a vague idea about a matter of which most of those who fight it have no knowledge and of which many of those who defend it have rather skewed ideas. But what you should not do, is take an understanding of these things as an impractical activity without value and without any bearing on real, practical life. When they find their way into the supersensory worlds, human beings grow not just in terms of their knowledge but above all in moral terms and in their soul. Even a vague idea of their position in the context of the stellar system acts on their individual character, on their actions and the direction they give to the whole of their existence. And to a much greater extent than many people today imagine, the progress of our social life depends on the progress of human beings on the path to supersensory knowledge. Anyone with some insight knows that our current social situation is only an expression of the materialism which underlies our knowledge. And once such a kind of knowledge is replaced by a spiritual one, then the outer conditions of our life will also improve.

2. Prophecy: its nature and meaning

This long out of print public lecture has been included because it deals considerably with the nature of foretelling the future—one traditional role of astrology now partly superseded in the West by a more ‘counselling’ approach. It is remarkable that Kepler’s horoscope for Wallenstein18 was a ‘blind’ reading. As with ancient peoples, a more psychic faculty was perhaps also working in Kepler. Steiner goes on to encourage us to look at the rhythms in our lives—working with events that happened at particular ages— and from there, the importance of seven-year life periods. He makes clear that one does not look to the stars as causes of events but to indicate the timing—a cosmic clock in fact. That this timing is incorporated into our etheric body at conception is shown in a later extract. The respect for seership performed in tranquillity with devotion is also evident.

Words spoken by Shakespeare’s most famous character, ‘There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy,’19 are, of course, perfectly true. But no less true is the saying composed by Lichtenberg, a great German humorist, as a kind of rejoinder: ‘In philosophy there is much that will be found neither in heaven nor earth.’ Both sayings are illustrations of the attitude adopted nowadays to many things in the domain of spiritual science. It seems inevitable that widespread circles, especially in the world of serious science, will repudiate such matters as prophecy even more emphatically than other branches of spiritual science. If in these other branches of spiritual science—in many of them at least—it is difficult to draw a clear line between genuine research and charlatanism, or maybe something even worse, it will certainly be admitted that wherever supersensible investigation touches the element of human egoism, there its dangers begin. And in what realm of higher knowledge could this be more apparent than in all that is comprised in the theme of prophecy as it has appeared through the ages! Everything covered by the term ‘prophecy’ is closely connected with a widespread—and understandable—trait in the human mind, namely, desire to penetrate the darkness of the future, to know something of what earthly life in the future holds in store.

Interest in prophecy is connected not only with curiosity in the ordinary sense but with curiosity concerning very intimate regions of the human soul. The search for knowledge concerning the deeper interests of the human soul has met with so many disappointments that earnest, serious science nowadays is unwilling to listen to such matters—and this is really not to be wondered at. Nevertheless it looks as though our times will be obliged at least to take notice of them, and also of the subjects of which we have been speaking in previous lectures and shall speak in the future. As will be known to many of you, the historian Kemmerich has written a book about prophecies, his aim being to compile facts that can be confirmed by history and go to show that important happenings were precognized or predicted in some way. This historian is driven to make the statement—at the moment we will not question the authenticity of his research—that there are very few important events in history which have not at some time been predicted, conjectured and announced in advance. Such statements are not well received in our time; but ultimately, in the sphere where history can speak with authority, it will not be possible to ignore them because proof will be forthcoming, both in respect of the past and of the present, from outer documents themselves.

The domain we are considering today has never been in such disrepute as it is nowadays, nor regarded as so dubious a path of human endeavour. Only a few centuries ago, for instance in the sixteenth century, very distinguished and influential scholars engaged in prognostication and prophecy. Think of one of the greatest natural scientists of all time and of his connection with a personage whose tendency to be influenced by prophecies is well known: think of Kepler, the great scientist, and his relations with Wallenstein. Schiller’s deep interest in this latter personality was due in no small measure to the part played in his life by prophecy. The kind of prophecy in vogue in the days of Kepler—and only a couple of centuries ago leading scientific minds all over Europe were still occupied with it—was based upon the then prevailing view that there is a real connection between the world of the stars, the movements and positions of the stars, and the life of the human being. All prophesying in those times was really a form of astrology. The mere mention of this word reminds us that in our day, too, many people are still convinced that there is some connection between the stars and coming events in the life of individuals, and even of races. But prophetic knowledge, the prophetic art as it is called, was never so directly connected with observation of the movements and constellations of the stars as was the case in Kepler’s time.

In ancient Greece an art of prophecy was practised, as you know, by prophetesses or seeresses. It was an art of predicting the future induced by experiences arising perhaps from asceticism or other experiences leading to the suppression of full self-consciousness and the presence of mind of ordinary life. The human being was thus given over to other powers, was in an ecstatic condition and then made utterances which were either direct predictions of the future or were interpreted by the listening priests and soothsayers as referring to the future. We need only think of the Pythia at Delphi who under the influence of vapours rising from a chasm in the earth was transported into a state of consciousness quite different from that of ordinary life; she was controlled by other powers and in this condition made prophetic utterances. This kind of prophecy has nothing to do with calculations of the movements of stars, constellations and the like. Again, everyone is familiar with the gift of prophecy among the people of the Old Testament, the authenticity of which will certainly be called into question by modern scholarship. Out of the mouths of these prophets there came not only utterances of deep wisdom which influenced the life of these Old Testament people, but foreshadowed the future. These predictions, however, were by no means always based upon the heavenly constellations as in the astrology current in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Either as the result of inborn gifts or ascetic practices and the like, these prophets unfolded a different kind of consciousness from that of the people around them; they were torn away from the affairs of ordinary life. In such a condition they were entirely detached from the circumstances and thoughts of their personal lives, from their own material environment. Their attention was focused entirely on their people, on the weal and woe of their people. Because they experienced something superhuman, something reaching beyond the individual concerns of human beings, they broke through the boundaries of their personal consciousness and it was as though Yahweh himself spoke out of their mouths, so wise were their utterances concerning the tasks and the destiny of their people.

Thinking of all this, it seems evident that the kind of divination practised at the end of the Middle Ages, before the dawn of modern science, was only one specific form and that prophecy as a whole is a much wider sphere, connected in some way with definite states of consciousness which a human being can only attain when he throws off the shackles of his personality. Astrological prophecy, of course, can hardly be said to be an art in which a human being rises above his own personality. The astrologer is given the date and hour of birth and from this discovers which constellation was rising on the horizon and the relative positions of other stars and constellations. From this he calculates how the positions of the constellations will change during the course of the person’s life and, according to certain traditional observations of the favourable or unfavourable influences of heavenly bodies upon human life, predicts from these calculations what will transpire in the life of an individual or of a people. There seems to be no kind of similarity between this type of astrologer and the ancient Hebrew prophets, the Greek seeresses or others who, having passed out of their ordinary consciousness into a state of ecstasy, foretold the future entirely from knowledge acquired in the realm of the supersensible. For those who consider themselves enlightened, educated people today, the greatest stumbling block in these astrological predictions is the difficulty in understanding how the courses of the stars and constellations can possibly have any connection with happenings in the life of an individual or a people, or in the procession of events on the earth. And as the attention of modern scholarship is never focused on such connections no particular interest is taken in what was accepted as authentic knowledge in times when astrological prophecy and enlightened science often went hand in hand.