I've been reading the histories of Polybiius (Punic Wars around 250bc-lots of battles at sea and on land between Rome and Carthage) and watching the Sun gradually catching up to Mars. Right now, while the Sun is in the way, we can only know where Mars is by reading charts and following the numbers that gauge its progress around the ecliptic. I have mentioned before, this is the kind of knowing Plato (writing about a century before Punic Wars) was trying to foster in so many of his writings. Going beyond the limits of the senses to the spiritual - we can't know Mar's whereabouts through the senses only, but must exercise our minds to deduce its location. This 'knowing' came to be celebrated as a cult in later centuries, called Gnosticism.
It wasn't popular in Plato's time though, which had a little, but not all, to do with the trial and execution of his teacher, Socrates. This form of knowing only became popular in the west long after Plato was writing. By the time this form of knowing became an entrenched social movement scant few followers had access to the actual writing of Plato, much less knowledge of the cycles of the planets. The Macedonian Hellenistic empire that followed Plato's times had long since given way to the Romans and the Romans in turn were falling to the Goths.
I have read that Augustine of Hippo (writing around 400ad) never learned Greek though he wanted to, and that he originally had great hopes of learning about the lunar eclipse cycle from the Manichean Faustus. Faustus had a big reputation and Augustine was told by many, "that's the man you want to meet, he'll be able to tell you everything you want to know." Pardon the quotes, don't mean to be misleading about rigorous documentation, especially regarding the famous figure {who came to be 'known' in German legend as a magician in league with the devil.} The statement in brackets is based on a wikipedia paragraph suggesting the original Faust, behind the German legend, was the Manichean Augustine debated in Contra Faustum. That paragraph and link has been deleted. There is now a link to an article about Johann Faust born around 1480. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_Faust
Sorry for the confusion!
Well, apparently Faustus did not know much of anything about planetary cycles. He was just a charismatic guy who knew a minimum about astronomy/astrology and preached a rather forbidding path to salvation. Augustine ended up publishing responses to counter the preachings of Faustus around the time Rome was succumbing to the invading Gothic warriors. Augustine espoused a message of inclusion and forgiveness and pointed out how the pacifist impoverished Christians were the only ones spared by the invaders.
Faustus was not a Gnostic, his learning originated further to the east than the teachings handed down from Plato. My point here is that by the time of Rome's fall and the subsequent rise of Christianity, few people in that area of the world had access to good information about planetary cycles. Gnosticism was a faint shadow of the kind of knowledge advocated by Plato.
I try to understand the rise of Christianity in the context of history, it helps me understand the changing fortunes of astrology (ha ha).
Well this morning I was taking a break from Polybius and the ascent of the Romans and meditating on the soul. I recalled that it was in the context of talking about the soull that I first heard of Plato in elementary school. The nuns were fond of talking about the soul, the ones at my school were from the Sisters of St. Joseph. Maybe that's a more philosophical order than some others. They wore the complete habit back in those days with the rigid bib and triangle head thing atop a complete face encircling enclosure. It was like their whole head waa encased in a special white wrap of thick linen. A white frame rose from that wrap to form a slightly concave platform just a few inches above the head, and yards of black silky fabric was draped in layers over the whole set up. When they weren't teaching in the class, or playing with the children at recess, or chatting among themselves, they could be seen touching the beads on the rosary that hung from the waist.
That was my first exposure to women meditating in moments between interactions with others.
My reverie of nuns and philosophy of the soul led to Socrates and his trial. I could only find the year, not the month or day he drank the tea. Then I went back to the year of the Thirty Tyrants. With the financial backing of Cyrus the Younger, Spartan warriors got the better of Athens and Sparta installed a group of thirty men to govern the famously democratic city. Their brief and bloody rulership came to be known as The Thirty Tyrants and lasted from the end of 404B.C. to the beginning of 403B.C..
The chart is for the beginning of 403bc when a group of Greek exiles were organizing the battle to overthrow the Spartan sponsored group of tyrants.
The first thing that got my attention was Uranus meeting Neptune which happens about once every 150 years. If you take a minute or two to examine the chart you will notice another historic lineup -Jupiter and Saturn in Libra. That meet up of Uranus and Neptune is a much bigger deal, but the Jupiter Saturn meeting adds interest to an already rare occasion.
I guess that's enough from me today. It is dark now and the skies are clear. I have a date with a beginner's telescope and the dark side of heaven.
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