Friday 18 October 2013

Scorpio's "quantistic" nature!


Scorpio is a mysterious sign, representing certain "oddities" and situations that apparently do not seem to be compatible with life itself. And as we will see here, it bears in its nature a somehow "quantistic" dimension!

To make you realize what I mean, just take a look at the painting above. It is made by a Scorpio painter, the Belgian Rene Magritte. It is a rather bizarre image...It shows a woman riding a horse in a forest. But it is not a "realistic" image, because the woman and the horse are crossing the trees in a rather "quantistic" manner...They themselves are "split" and they are crossing the trees on several planes...

I don't know whether Magritte had studied quantum physics or not, but this painting of his is a very good metaphor for what happens in the microcosm (on the sub-atomic level). The particles there are apparently "splitting" and crossing simultaneously different dimensions and planes...Scorpios - being "tiny" and representing the paradoxical nature and the power of the tiny and invisible things (i.e. of the subatomic, of radioactivity etc.) - are instinctively aware of this quantistic dimension of nature...

So, we might say that the sign of Scorpio represents certain "quantistic" fields of our lives. Take death for example. If you go downtown in the city you live and you walk among the generally careless crowd you will realize that death - although a powerful human phenomenon - seems to be totally absent in such a social context (unless some tragic event has occurred). And yet, just a few meters from where you are walking people might be dying in the private settings of some house, clinic etc.

Sex is  another "quantistic" activity associated with Scorpio. When we walk downtown or we find ourselves in some specific social (professional etc.) context then we realize that sex - although omnipotently dominating the human nature - is actually absent there. Every person around us is dressed and behaves "decently", avoiding any acute reference on this subject, which all in all still remains a taboo. And yet most of these seemingly "unscathed" from sex men and women - whom we see standing strict, proud and dignified in the everyday social contexts - they are having sex like frenzied steaming engines, once they find themselves with their usual or casual partner (or partners) in the privacy of an apartment, a hotel etc. This is what I call a "scorpionic quantum paradox" ...

It is not so hard to understand why death is a "quantistic" phenomenon in our lives. Meaning that it exists alright but at the same time "it doesn't exist"! Obviously, this "quantistic" dimension of death is somehow convenient and comforting to us humans. Eschewing death as some procedure that has nothing to do with us right now but constantly postponing it to some fuzzy and remote place and time in the future, certainly out of the reality plane we are living right now, that's an extremely convenient thing to the phenomenon of life! Otherwise, the ominous overwhelming heaviness of death would be constantly crushing us, every single day and moment, not permitting us to live, to feel good, to do things.

Alright so far. But why is sex "quantistic"? Because it actually is our ultimate resort against death! Through sex we become ONE with our partner, we experience the ONENESS of everything, of the entire Universe and we thus overcome the fragile destiny of the mortal individuality we are "entrapped" in! Not to mention that it is through sex that we somehow "multiply" and immortalize ourselves, that we propagate our species. And the undeniable fact is that the "quantistic" dimension of sex, its "social hypocrisy" and "dirtiness" adds a lot of fascination and power to it, it makes sex far more important and special to us!

Just picture what would happen if there was no "quantistic" dimension to sex and various passerby's were freely falling upon you the very moment you were getting our of your house - or walking on the street -  in order to have sex with you right on the spot! Wouldn't that be - as soon as the initial "bacchic libertinity" phase would tear off - a nightmare? Wouldn't that weaken sex? And the fact is that we human beings need sex to be unique, "dirty", fascinating and powerful, because ultimately we need a powerful antidote to death!

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Mercury astrologically - Striving to restore Unity


I am a Gemini man living in Athens, Greece. The ruler of my solar sign is Mercury. So, you understand why I love getting out of my house and going on shopping…The task to purchase the daily groceries provides me with the opportunity to justifiably go out of my house, to change environment and experience at first hand what’s going on in the “world”, to walk towards the market and interact with so many and diverse people

The street where I am buying most of my daily groceries - and I am having a cup of coffee too - is called “Hermes”. Actually “Hermes” is the Greek name of Mercury. So, I find it very appropriate that the central street of my neighbourhood, the one with the most intense commercial activity and social interaction is named after the ancient god of commerce and communications. I even conceived the content of this article in between my daily purchases and social interactions in the “Hermes” street…

In this daily itinerary of mine (and yours) to the market place several key functions of the Mercurian archetype are prominently present: getting out of our house, being on the move, experiencing the sights and sounds of our neighbourhood, meeting new things or persons, engaging into a (somehow superficial) conversation with our neighbours or any acquaintances we casually meet in our short itinerary to the market place or in it, exchanging money for goods. There is a lot of Mercury in all these activities, as this is the god of change and mobility, of communications, of reasoning and dialectics, of itineraries, of crossroads, interactions and commerce.

Names say much…Thus, we may deduce a lot of  Mercury’s astrological nature just out of its English and Greek name. Mercury has to do i.e. with the element mercury (quicksilver), with a strange metal that is fluid and is ever changing its form. There is even the word "mercurial" in the English language meaning "changeable, volatile, erratic, quick-witted"! And of course Mercury has to do with the word "market" (they both share the Latin radix "merx")! A "market" is a place where many and diverse people gather, where you can trade something, where you can deal in, sell and buy things and services.

The Greek name Hermes might not ring any particular bell to you. It will though if I tell you that the English word “sermon” is related to it! Thus Mercury has to do with a talk that has been properly methodized and structured, a talk containing irrefutable arguments so that it directs the audience to some specific, desirable conclusion. Under this point of view we all give small “sermons” everyday to the people around us so that we convince them for something, so that we achieve something out of them…

You see the Mercurian archetype is highly individualistic. It mostly takes care of our own personal interests. But its individualism has a gentler aspect too, as Mercury is constantly striving to restore some Unity between us and the others, to maintain a contact between us and the Wholeness.....

The Greek language will help us further to understand the astrological properties of Hermes / Mercury. The Greek verb “hermenevo” is tightly related to “Hermes” and it means “to interpret”…The “interpretation” of something, of a sentence, of a situation, behaviour etc. their “deciphering” and rendering in a clear, lucid and comprehensible manner is quintessential to Mercury - and absolutely essential to every human being.

To explain what I mean let me write you a sentence in Greek:

«H νόηση, η κινητικότητα, η αλλαγή, η διασύνδεση είναι κάποιες από τις βασικές ιδιότητες του Ερμή».

No doubt, that's “all greek” to you…You are suddenly “in the dark” here…You probably look at the above phrase but neither can you read it nor make any sense out of it. You might even feel confused and disorientated about it, urgently needing some "interpretation". Thus, most probably you will open a “Google translate” page and copy - paste the above phrase from Greek to English. You will get then something that goes like this:

"The cognition, mobility, changing the interface are some of the basic properties of Mercury"

This definitely makes some sense to you now. Of course the phrase "changing the interface"  is not very clear. The "Mercury in you" is immediately alerting you that there might be something wrong about it. Actually, the google's translation has not been very accurate in this case - it hasn't done a very good "interpretation" of the Greek phrase (I can see this thanks to my own Mercury). What I actually wrote in Greek is:

"Reasoning, mobility, change, interconnections are some of the basic properties of Mercury"

What you just experienced with the Greek phrase you actually experience constantly, everyday, almost at every single moment of your life: you try all the time to decipher things and situations around you (and in you), to figure them out, to make sense out of the innumerable and diverse instances and situations you encounter in your life: from the very moment you wake up in the morning and try to figure out where you are and what time it is, to you walking to the kiosk to buy a newspaper and to chat a little bit with the newspapers man, to the shortcut you take while driving with your car in order to get faster to your destination e.t.c. In all these instances you strongly activate your Mercury, trying to reason what's going on, trying to figure out how can you better adapt in your environment and take advantage of the circumstances around you in order to establish a good interconnection with the things and the persons around you and thus more easily and fully achieve your personal tasks.

Thus, a major Mercurian function is to bring things and situations into consciousness and to “reason” them out. Actually "to reason" is to try to understand a situation or a person, to make judgements upon it based on practical facts and situations you previously experienced. Meaning that a good "reasoner" must be curious and observant, a discerning person collecting and accumulating data and judgements over a wide spectrum of situations and facts. And that entails that s/he should have developed a multitude of virtual "information shelves" in his/her brains where s/he has inserted and catalogized those judgements and conclusions. Furthermore, s/he should be able to readily retrieve and combine - under any circumstances - the proper information, in order to smoothly interconnect with his/her environment and efficiently carry through any possible situation s/he encounters!

But where from do things spring out to our consciousness? Out of our own unconscious! Out of the “underworld”! And Hermes / Mercury has a lot to do with the underworld (and consequently with our unconscious). You see, according to Greek mythology he is the god who escorts the souls of the deceased to the underworld! Thus, we might say that he stands at the very threshold between consciousness and unconscious. He somehow partakes of both. He stands high on the Olympus but he comes often down to earth - visiting regularly the underworld too! This mobility and flexibility of his - and his acute reasoning - is rendering Mercury the most suitable god to bring things into consciousness (out of our vast unconscious) and into the Light, to "decipher" the things (the situations etc.) and make them clear, comprehensible, understandable.

Hermes is an Olympian God but a somehow particular one. He does not have a permanent abode in Olympus (heavens) as the other eleven gods have, nor in the underworld. He is rather constantly  on the move. And he actually permeates all the three levels of existence: the heavens, the earthy world and the underworld (as we mentioned before he goes often "down under" as a "psychopompos", as the carrier of the souls). Actually he doesn't enjoy a very high status among the gods of Olympus as he carries the rather undignifying job of being their messenger - meaning that he is the one that most often gets in contact with the mortals. But exactly for this reason Mercury was much worshipped by the plain people. They were feeling that Mercury was better supporting and protecting their personal interests! He was even a trickster god (he stole Apollo's cattle) and he was thus favouring any kind of tricksters, like the merchants (they still trick us alright, at least most of them...).

Mercury is the youngest of the Olympian gods and he has thus to do with youth - and more precisely with adolescence. Adolescence is a transition stage between childhood and adulthood. And Mercury has a lot to do with transitions, crossroads and ambivalence in general. Mercury is ever seeking to reconnect us to Wholeness, to somehow return us to the state of absolute Union. You see during the first months of our life we innately carry within us this sense of "Union with everything", as we descend  and incarnate in our earthy bodies. But we loose this sense later on in our infancy and we then experience a very painful and traumatic sensation of “fragmentation” (which actually is the very first step in the process of us becoming fully conscious and independent individuals). The only "remedy" for a child to restore some sense of Unity with its parents and environment is to develop communication skills. By developing communication skills, by even rudimentary speaking and exchanging information with its parents the child develops a sort of cognitive “tenticles” that somehow interconnect it with the huge world around it and thus elementarily restore his/her lost sense of "Unity with Everything"…

Strange as it might sound, the astronomical hierarchy of our Solar system says a lot about the properties of each planet. Mercury is the first planet in that hierarchical order, barely out of the Sun. It is showered by the torrential "consciousness" energies of our Luminary but crucially it resides just a bit out of the Sun so that it doesn't get totally blinded by it! This fact has a major astrological implication: planet Mercury is able of "peeping" through the blinding "solar curtain", taking thus a glimpse of the rest of the solar system and of the dark, immense space lying beyond it! And while the somehow "autistic" Sun is totally absorbed by its own existence Mercury realizes (thanks to the strong "consciousness" energies he receives from its nearby star) that there is something beyond the Sun, something proportionally powerful and meaningful! Thus, Mercury is trying to reason over this world that lies "beyond the Sun", to understand its nature and to establish connections with it!

This stage, of Mercury becoming aware of the existence of non Solar words actually corresponds to the stage of the child loosing its primordial sense of "Unity with everything". They both are fragmenting and traumatic stages. So, what immediately does Mercury in order to "remedy" the fragmenting experience is to attempt restoring some sense of unity with those "alien" to the solar kingdom words. Mercury stands at the very boundary between these two worlds and it somehow has to bring them together, to interconnect them. And to achieve this he has first to understand the nature of these "newly found" non solar worlds and consequently spot any possible "dialoguing" elements between them and the solar kingdom he serves. That is why properties like "reasoning", "dialectics", "interconnection" are ultimately so important to Mercury! There are mere means to the end of restoring some sense of unification between the partial and the whole, between us and the vast "world out there".

Under this point of view, Mercury seems to be an earlier stage of Venus. Venus is aiming to bring  together similar (or complementary) things and to unify them. Mercury on the other hand is striving to achieve some elementary "dialogue" between any kind of disparate elements...

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas Gazis

Thursday 21 February 2013

RECOLLECT THE ASTROLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE YOU INNATELY POSSESS!


(An "International Academy of Astrology" online course by the IAA's instructor Thomas Gazis)

Since I was a kid I had an intellectual fond for the “bearded guys”. I mean I loved the 1960’s hippies alright but I had a very special kick for the ancient Greek philosophers. Some great philosophers were living almost next to my house in Athens. And they were speaking a language very similar to the one I was speaking. So, from early on in my life I felt a particular connection to them. My little adolescent “getaways” consisted of me visiting the ancient “Agora” (forum) under Acropolis - a vast area full of ruins lying below the majestic Parthenon - day daydreaming there that I was suddenly meeting on a street turn Socrates and that I was engaging on a conversation with him…

Back then little did I know that the Greek philosophers (and mainly Socrates, Plato and Heraclitus) would come very handy to me later on in my life, when I started teaching Astrology. You see the major complaint of my astrology students is that astrology consists of so many diverse and disparate elements that the student is hardly able to memorize the properties of each one of them, let alone proceed to a proper synthesis of all those disparate elements, and thus to an effective natal chart interpretation! As an eternal “parroting” adversary I am totally sympathizing with my students. Personally, I have always been a fervent advocate of the “critical thinking” and even of the “sentimental approach” to knowledge.

From the “bearded guys” I knew that true knowledge means inter-relating the disparate elements and unifying them instead of fragmenting them. But back then - on my late twenties - I did not know any available method that would help me to unify the so many and apparently inconsistent astrological elements.

Then an epiphany occurred to me! I started studying thoroughly the teachings of the foremost humanistic astrologer Dane Rudhyar. Rudhyar helped me enormously realize how unifying the astrological knowledge is and how much is based upon principals that in reality are not just astrological but universal. And I knew from the aforementioned great philosophers that those principles are somehow “implanted” in every human being’s brains! Actually, Socrates and Plato advocated the thesis that we human beings harbor inside us a primordial “super knowledge” of all things - although on a somehow fuzzy state. Thus, the only thing we have to do, in order to get “knowledgeable” on some field is to bring into focus and make conscious in our brains the respective fuzzy knowledge we already possess!

That was it! Suddenly I realized that I didn’t have to “impose” any kind of “knowledge” to my students. I just had to become a sort of “intellectual midwife” and simply assist them in delivering on their own the astrological knowledge they already possessed! And that meant that I had to work with them in a totally opposite way, “from inside out”. I had to avoid at any cost the “academic teaching” (to present them stuff that they should uncritically accept and memorize) and help them “give birth” to those astrological principals they already possess! And consequently expand and “build” upon those principals, which the students carry “incorporated” in them. Because whatever is “unconsciously incorporated” in us carries the potential of becoming crystal clear to us at some point - if properly “triggered”!

My firm conviction is that students don’t have to “be taught” astrology, they don’t need to painstakingly memorize hundreds of properties, qualities and attributes of signs, planets and symbols! They already know astrology and the only thing they have to do is simply “recollect” it!

To read more please visit the IAA website to read the syllabus as well as to register for my new course.


Thomas Gazis

Friday 25 January 2013

Astrological Concepts in Ancient Greek Folklore - The "Keares"!


The ancient Greeks were energetic, optimistic and fun loving people. They were very pious and spiritual as well! Their attitude towards destiny was an advanced and rather modern one. Not only they deeply believed in destiny but they had developed some elaborate theories, myths and overall a particularly rich literature about it! When we come down to astrology, they did not conceive one, but they amazingly conceived certain so-called "proto-astrological" views.

Actually, the ancient Greeks were using a very descriptive and fascinating term for destiny. They used to call it: «HEMARMENE». Well, that's a term we cannot easily render in English. You see, the word «hemarmene» is the present perfect participle of the verb «Meiromai», which means: «from a dividable whole I am taking a particular portion that has been exclusively allotted to me». «Hemarmene» then is «that particular set of experiences that has been predetermined to occur to each one of us, for some deeper purpose».

This deeper purpose was defined by the Greeks as «NECESSITY» ("Ananke" in Greek). The law of ananke - necessity was above every other law. "Even the gods don’t fight against ananke" they used to say. But if the law of «Necessity» was omnipotent, man was powerful too (and this fact alone differs «Hemarmene» from «Kismet» or from any other kind of "destiny"). To the Greeks, each man was a unique, autonomous, highly valued «unit», a unit that almost rivaled the Gods!

Man however was but a part of a greater whole, a part of a process in evolution. Necessity is an almighty power that imposes specific, individual destinies to each man, so that the totality of these destinies pays tribute to the evolution of the «Whole». We indeed encounter here some original and advanced ideas, which are largely shared by our modern astrological worldview too. Thanks to these ideas the road was somehow open to astrology, in the ancient Greek world. Maybe we begin to understand now the fact of the rapid diffusion of astrology in Greece, soon after the military expedition of Alexander the Great in Mesopotamia.

The way was already paved centuries ago, as the Greeks profoundly believed in a predetermined by a superior force destiny - from the very beginning of their history. They would not take any important step unless they were first assured that the "geist" was propitious to them (and by "geist" I mean the moment, the place, the people, the overall conditions etc.). Thus, they were continuously studying the omens to find whether destiny was in their favor or not. And they were so obsessed with it that they often journeyed hundreds of kilometers, in order to reach the two famous oracles of "Delphi" and "Dodona" and learn about their future. Predicting the future somehow became a holy art to them.

So, even if astrology was not indigenous, the soil in Greece was fertile for its diffusion. Actually, the widespread concept of «Hemarmene» immensely facilitated the introduction and diffusion in Greece of a doctrine that apparently was worshiping the stars - and thus was initially regarded by the rational Greeks as barbaric. But astrology soon became rife in this ancient land, bringing forth radical changes in Greek culture. Already in the 3rd century BC the Stoics were regarding «Hemarmene» as an astrological rather than as a religious - theological concept.


All in all, the Hellenistic Greeks had developed a very propitious to astrology philosophical frame and an "astrology-friendly" general outlook on life. And this they achieved having no actual astrological background at all, led only by their advanced awareness and penetrative logic!

Before proceeding, I have to admit here that this is a new field and much research has to be done in the future. I personally drew my conclusions mainly out of the work of the famous English archeologist and author Jane Harrison. Harrison studied attentively some secondary figures in ancient Greek folklore called «KEARES» («KEAR» in its singular form). Some «Keares» are represented on ancient Greek pots and urns and most of them look like fast-paced feathered women, like ugly fairies or some sort of giant bees bearing a human face. Very similar to the Keares seem to be the so-called "Harpies".

A pair of  Harpies

The ancient Greeks had a very strong tendency to «anthropomorphize» everything! They were actually attributing human characteristics to their gods, to invisible entities, even to abstract concepts!  No surprise then that they had "anthropomorphized" even the viruses and the "bad vibes"!

For instance, when someone was falling seriously ill in ancient Greece people would say: "s/he has been possessed by the "Keares"". And with the word "Keares" they did not mean some kind of demons. They rather meant microorganisms or viruses! Surprisingly enough, the Greeks had invented a virus concept two thousand five hundred years ago!

Furthermore, the Greeks had «anthropomorphized» even the vibrations of each elusive moment! According to the ancient Greeks, when we experience some dark, "heavy" and bad moments it is because the "Keares" have intruded the place we are in, festering the atmosphere! And as long as they are present, every ongoing moment becomes unpropitious and adverse and things get really precarious!

The Keares are not necessarily bad. Good Keares exist as well. We might say that the Keares somehow represent the good or the bad astrological influences of the moment. There is ample testimony of this in certain preserved ancient pots and urns with Keares depicted on them. These depictions elucidate pretty well the nature of the Keares.
Hercules slaying a Kear

The figure you see above is easily recognizable, I think. He is the famous hero and semi-god Hercules! As you can see, he is about to slay a strange creature, which actually turns to be a Kear! This Kear has a grotesque, ugly face and can be taken either as a virus or a "bad vibration", a bad moment. In both cases, Hercules eliminates the virus - or the negative vibration.

There is often an interchange between the "Keares" and the "Harpies". The following representation (taken from a vase)  is depicting a scene from the famous banquet that the blind prophet Fineas held in honor of the Argonauts. According to the story, everything was flowing smoothly at this banquet when suddenly some "Harpies" invaded the hall and festered the atmosphere. You can notice Fineas on the very right, lying stunned on his couch, while two good daemons (or "Boreads") are chasing away the Harpies, brandishing their swords.

The famous Fineas banquet (with the "Harpies" on the left chasen away by the Boreads)

Luckily for us, the ancient Greeks were one of the most civilized and cultured ancient people. They bequeathed to us a plethora of works of art and literature, so we have today a clear picture of their culture and folklore. And sometimes, as we browse their enormous inheritance, we stumble upon true "gems". You may see below, for example, an amazing scene hinting to astrology. It is a scene painted on an ancient Greek vase and it depicts one of the most dramatic scenes of  the famous Homeric epic of Iliad. Achilles and Hector are dueling to death, while god Mercury stands amidst them balancing on a scale the influences of the fleeting moment, in order to decide whose soul he should escort to the underworld!

God Mercury weighing the fate of each warrior
If we observe well this picture then we will notice that on the plates of the scales (held by god Hermes/Mercury) there aren't the usual weights but two Keares instead! These Keares represent the current Hemarmene of each hero, the way he is fatally related to the "spirit" of the ever shifting moment (that now becomes victorious and now becomes deadly to him). Thus these two Keares on the scales might very well represent the natal charts of the two heroes and their current "transits"!

Apart from the Keares, another astrology related figure in ancient Greece might be the wine god Dionysus. Historians and archeologists agree that Dionysus and Orpheus (with the latter probably being another  personification of Dionysus) are the most enigmatic gods in the Greek Pantheon. We know for sure that Dionysus was the god of nature's «Augmentative Force», the god that was assisting beings and plants to grow, prosper and thrive. Thus, Dionysus personifies life's vital forces. The remarkable thing is that the Greeks used to represent Dionysus in four distinctive forms: one as a bull, one as a lion, one as a snake or an eagle and one as a drunken, joyful man!

Tim Shaw's modern sculpture of a Dionysian frenzy (Dionysus depicted as a Bull)

Now, obviously, these four representations have something to do with the four zodiacal signs of the fixed cross (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. The Eagle stands for Scorpio since it is his alternative occult symbol while the slightly drunken - and thus somehow transcendental - and euphoric man stands for Aquarius).

What is the deeper meaning behind all this? Today we know that the determination of the year’s duration was of paramount importance to ancient people (think only of Stonehenge). In remote antiquity, equinoxes and solstices were taking place in the constellations of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Thus, these four constellations were considered by the archaic people as the four «portals» that are opening the respective seasons.

The concept of the «four portals» is central to the teachings of the prominent 20th-century astrologer - philosopher Dane Rudhyar, as well! Rudhyar posits that the four fixed signs represent the release of the four fundamental universal powers:

«the power released toward the formation of an individual being (Taurus), the power released by the individual being (Leo), the power released toward the formation of the universal being (Scorpio) and the power released by the universal being (Aquarius)».

My own hypothesis is that Dionysus personifies these four distinctive universal powers, so depending on the occasion he is represented by one of the aforementioned "zodiacal" images. Oddly enough the same theme of the four fixed signs is repeated in the gospels and in Byzantine icons, with the four apostles taking, in this case, the part of Dionysus.

The four "beasts" of the gospel

With what we have said so far, it becomes obvious that the Greeks had developed a philosophy and a religion that comprised many astrological (in essence) concepts. Although astrology was not rife in Greece until the third century BC we have indications that certain Greeks were thinking astrologically already back in the so-called archaic period!

Take Homer, for example. In many of his verses (written around the 8th century BC) he emphasizes the fact that the destiny of each man is predetermined. But what really surprises is us is a particular verse, where he literary makes a rather astrological statement!


Homer actually writes:  

«Then among them, wise Polydamas was first to speak, the son of Panthous; for he alone looked at once before and after. Comrade was he of Hector, and in the one night were they born: howbeit in speech was one far the best, the other with the spear»!

(the translation courtesy of  the "Perseus Tuft" project)


Although I do not exclude the possibility of this "same night  birth" of Hector and Polydamas having some simpler, "hemerological" connotation (people born on the same calendric day sharing same fates), it seems an astrological statement to me. You see, Homer was born in Ionia, Asia Minor, in an area that had straight ties with both the Middle East and Mesopotamia (where astrology was rife).

This Homer's "astrological" statement is not the only one we encounter in the archaic Greek literature. The Orphic Hymns (written even before Homer’s epics - but comprising certain subsequent additions) include several astrological hints. In the «Hymn to the Stars» for example, there is a verse that goes:

 «Oh stars, you that determine the fate of everything!»

Don't you think that this is an astrological statement? A statement made more than 2500 years ago...

The important fact is that the Greeks - although they never developed a proper «astrological body of knowledge» - they had conceived astrological concepts long before astrology’s official diffusion in Greece.

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis


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(This article is an excerpt from the lecture that Thomas Gazis gave at the international Astrology conference of Arousa - Spain in June 1998).