ASTROLOGIA MUNDA - Classical Astrologer Weblog

Book IV – Astrologia Munda
Introduction
However, after reading and studying William Ramesey’s book on mundane
astrology, I have found that while it is a rough gem, it is perhaps the closest
thing to what we could call a ‘text book’.
A brief History of Mundane astrology
Little research has been done in this area. But what we do know would be
profitable to outline here.
Mundane astrology probably has its roots in ancient 1
Chaldean or Babylonian
«omen» astrology that was largely centred on the fates of kings and kingdoms.
When western astrology first coalesced in the Hellenistic era, somewhere in the
late second century BC, there appears to be very, very little written or
mentioned about mundane considerations. It would appear that the extent of
mundane considerations did not stretch much further than general interrogations
and elections called katarchai, but these were closely associated to the personal
or genethlialogical astrology of the Greeks. The only early Greek author to deal
with mundane considerations was Ptolemy although it must have been known
of in the Greek astrology of the first and second century (C.E.) since even early
writers such as Vettius Valens includes mundane places in his descriptions of
the signs. For example, he writes,
«These zones are subject to Aries: the front, Babylonia; the head, Elymais; 2 the right, Persia; the
left, the vale of Syria 3 and the contiguous places; for the curve of the face, Babylonia; for the
breast, Armenia; under the shoulders, Thrace; for the belly, Cappadocia and Susa and the Red
Sea and Rhypara; 4 the hind parts, Egypt and the Persian Ocean.» 5
It is clear that Valens is referring to perhaps a much older system of assigning
countries to the signs through association to the actual parts of the constellation,
much as the earlier Decanates do rather than Ptolemy’s more «scientifically
rational» (howbeit short-sighted) method of quadrants and climes.
1 See Appendix for an examination of ancient omen lore.
2 A country of Persia between the Persian Gulf and Media
3 The region between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon
4 A small island of the Aegean Sea near Samus
5 Book I, Chapter 2 – The Anthology – by Vettius Valens, translated by Robert Schmidt and
published by Golden Hind Press (Project Hindsight Greek Track Volume IV) ©1993
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