Saturday 22 November 2014

An original ancient horoscope (from the Oxyrhynchus collection)!



It doesn't seem like much but the image you see above depicts a  miraculously preserved ancient horoscope! It is a horoscope in its textual form that was habitual in that period and it derives from the Hellenistic Egypt, which is the cradle of modern, "horoscopic" Astrology! There, the ancient Greeks (in collaboration with Egyptian, Jewish etc. priests and scholars) created two thousand years ago an incredibly sophisticated Astrology, which is the precursor to the one we are practicing today.

This horoscope was found in the ruins of the Hellenistic city of Oxyrhynchus (160 km south of modern Cairo), which is located on the banks of a Nile's tributary. In this region the holly egyptian fish which in Greek is called "oxyrhynchus" (sturgeon) was abounding, hence the name of the city (which was the third largest in Hellenistic Egypt). It is a horoscope written on papyrus, which remained relatively intact for 18 whole centuries because it was buried in the Egyptian desert sand - in some ideal that is for its maintenance conditions. In fact this papyrus was found - along with thousands of others and dozens of horoscopes - in the ancient rubbish dump of the city of Oxyrhynchus!

As you can see, the above papyrus looks like eaten by bugs and it has major voids in it. The experts however managed (by the method of "crossword") to restore a large portion of the text. Let's see below its full "transcription":

(figure 2)

This is the horoscope of a person that was born (as you can see in the second paragraph of figure 2) in the third year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander (this was the way they were identifying a particular year back then, on the base of the emperor ruling at the time). The individual was born in the sixteenth day of the Egyptian month "Choiak", in the fifth hour of the night (five "nocturnal" hours after sunset that is). This puzzling date actually corresponds to the date December 14, 223 CE at 9 pm. You can see the modern version (created by "Solar Fire Gold") of this ancient horoscope below :


If you watch closely, you will notice that some of the planets in figure 2 are in a different sign than the one given in the above modern horoscope (i.e. the Moon according to figure 2 is in Pisces but in the above modern horoscope is in Aquarius. Venus is in Sagittarius in figure 2 but in Scorpio in the modern horoscope  - and Mars is ultimately not in Scorpio but in Sagittarius). Actually behind this controversy lies a short story. Or rather, three stories!

I am inviting you to check carefully the photo of the papyrus horoscope at the top of this article! You might notice there three different handwritings (meaning that three different people wrote something on this papyrus)! At the very top of the papyrus there is the first handwriting (with the large capital Greek letters). It is providing us the original info for this horocope (written as I mentioned in a textual form, according to the habit of that era). But at the bottom left of the papyrus there is a different handwriting. A rather feisty character, writing with "lowercase" letters and at an upward angle. Actually, this person is correcting the spelling of certain words in the original text (he is correcting i.e. the greek word for the sign of Capricorn - which is originally written as "Εγοκερω" - into its right form "Αιγοκερω". Such a rare misspelling for the sign of Capricorn indicates that the astrologer who wrote the original text in this papyrus was either very poorly educated or a Greek speaking foreigner - usually an Egyptian or Hebrew).

Finally, there is a third handwriting at the bottom right of the papyrus. This is the handwriting of a second astrologer who seems to be more competent than the first one - not only in terms of spelling but in calculating the planetary positions too. You see him revising the planetary positions indicated by the first (not very competent) astrologer, marking with a tick - better distinguished in figure 2 - each planetary position he is checking over. He has identified two erroneous planetary positions, which he is marking with a symbol that looks like a greek lambda (λ): the Moon which is not in the sign of Pisces but in Aquarius and Mars which is not in Scorpio but in Sagittarius! The impeccable modern astrological program "Solarfire Gold" fully concords with him! It puzzles us though the fact that although this secod astrologer seems to be far more competent he fails to produce the proper position  of Venus (it is in Scorpio, not in Sagittarius). Maybe the ephemeris or the almanac the second astrologer used to calculate the position of Venus was somehow flawed in Venus' case...

We can say that the man for whom this horoscope was cast was not very happy with the first astrologer. Thus he eventually requested a second opinion from an apparently more competent astrologer. And today we are in the position to know that his second choice was the right one!

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis

Wednesday 12 November 2014

A Fascinating Glimpse Into the Hellenistic Astrology through the miraculously Preserved Oxyrynchus Papyri !


The Oxyrhynchus papyri are a sort of time capsule miraculously preserving not only the literature but the daily life as well that was taking place some 2000 years ago, in the so called "Hellenistic Era"! Actually these papyri were discovered at an archeological excavation of an ancient rubbish dump near the Hellenistic city of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (one of the largest cities back then). Among some unknown-until-now literary works and many everyday, prosaic documents (like transactions' receipts, petitions and wedding invitations) there have been found many scraps of horoscopes - mostly in a textual form. These horoscopes are revealing to us the methods, the skills and the shortcomings of the astrologers of the time!

You may attend my online lecture "A Fascinating Glimpse Into the Hellenistic Astrology through the miraculously Preserved Oxyrynchus Papyri!" at the IAA's "Breaking down the Borders III" mega online Astrology Conference, taking place at the weekend Friday 14 - Sunday 16, November 2014. You will find my lecture at the "Traditional Track", on Saturday, Novemeber 15, 2014 - at 11:30 am U.S.A. EST time. At 4:30 pm European GMT time. At 3:30 am Australian EDT (Sun., Nov. 16, 2014)

Thomas Gazis  

Sunday 19 October 2014

A fatal kind of Synastry that resulted in Michelangelo's disfigurement!


                                                                 Michelangelo 

It is an irony that Michelangelo, the man who produced some of the finest works our world has ever seen and who glorified earth with heavenly beauty, was physically "ugly" himself! And not just ugly but actually disfigured! Not by nature but out of an act of violence inflicted upon him by one of his fellow students bearing the name Pietro Torrigiano!

Torrigiano was anything but a minor personality. In time he would become a great artist himself. He is accredited as the person who kick-started the British Renaissance (he escaped to England after injuring Michelangelo - as the latter was a protegee of the omnipotent Florentine family of the Medici)! Torrigiano was gifted alright but somehow unlucky too, as he was born at the same time and place as Michelangelo. This meant that he was condemned to live at the shadow of Michelangelo's towering geniusness. Thus, it does not surprise us at all the fact that he was very jealous of him.

All in all, he was a tough, "macho" kind of man (he was even drafted at some point as a mercenary soldier). Obviously he was longing for any kind of pretence that would offer him the chance to unleash his smouldering grudge towards Michelangelo. And this chance was  given to him on a day when the two were copying - as apprentists - side by side some frescoes. Michelangelo made some snide remark to Torrigiano who was so much enraged by it that he punched him on the nose, breaking it.

According to Torrigiano's own testimony of the event:

"This Buonarroti (Michelangelo) and I used when we were boys to go into the Church of the Carmine to learn drawing from the chapel of Masaccio. It was Buonarroti’s habit to banter all who were drawing there; and one day, among others, when he was annoying me, I got more angry than usual, and clenching my fist, gave him such a blow on the nose, that I felt bone and cartilage go down like biscuit beneath my knuckles; and this mark of mine he will carry with him to the grave."

There is obviously too much jealousy and animosity involved in the Michelangelo - Torrigiano relationship (especially from Torrigiano's part). And since the quality of a relationship depends largely on the type of Synastry that is formed between its members it seems as though the Michelangleo - Torrigiano Synastry was not a particularly happy one. And as we will soon see, indeed it wasn't!

We do have in our disposition the complete birth data for Michelangelo (his time of birth as well) so we can cast his complete natal chart (you may see it below). He was a double Pisces (Sun and Moon in Pisces) with a Sagittarius Ascendant! His natal Moon and the ruler of his horoscope (Jupiter) are both residing in his Second House (in a very "solid", down to earth and artistic House, that is)! His Sun is conjuncted by the ultra-energetic and bellicose planet Mars. Being a double Pisces he was meek alright but he was probably exhibiting as well some sudden Martian outbursts!


We know as well Torrigiano's date of birth: November 24, 1472 (Old Style of course - Julian Calendar). As you can see below Torrigiano was a Sagitturius with a Virgonean Moon. And as in Michelangelo's case he has a bellicose Sun / Mars conjunction too (in a fiery sign this time - no coincidence he is described as a man with a rather violent temper):


Although we don't know Torrigiano's time of birth we can still conduct a decent synastric study for these two Italian Renaissance artists. You may see their Synastry below (Michelangelo's chart in the inner wheel and Torrigiano's in the outer one):


We should start with the fact that their solar signs (Pisces and Sagittarius) are inharmonious. Although they traditionally share the same ruler - Jupiter - their natures (feminine - masculine, aquatic - igneous) are quite different and it is very hard for them to find some common ground. Michelangelo's and Torrigiano's respective Marses are not helping them either in that sense, as they are forming a square aspect among them - magnifying and exacerbating even the most trivial friction in their interaction. And since both their Marses are aspecting their respective Plutos' too the slightest friction among them was producing extreme turmoil in their souls and was thus escalating into a deadly hostility - as if their very existence were in jeopardy!

If we had to associate envy with a specific planet then most probably this would be Saturn (and Saturn is particularly envious in front of accomplishments, recognition and fame). And in the current Synastry Torrigiano's Saturn is forming a harsh square aspect to both Michelangelo's Sun and Mars! This means that Torrigiano was feeling somehow inadequate in front of Michelangeo. He must have been cultivating in his soul a deadly envy for the latter's brilliance, vivacity and talents! And as he was a couple of years senior to Michelangelo he probably tried to control and manipulate him, untill things escalated into that famous punching!

You see, although Torrigiano was too "macho", his Virgonean Moon was very sensitive to criticism.  Thus, Michelangelo's remarks seem to have upset him rather excessively and disproportionately to the occasion. And this due to the fact that Michelangelo's Mars and Pluto are forming stressful and somehow "corrosive" aspects with Torrigiano's Moon in Virgo.

This brief synastric analysis would be rather incomplete if we did not mention the fact that Torrigiano's Sun, Mars and Venus are all "falling" in Michelangelo's Twelfth House. The Twelfth House is a somehow "debilitating" area of the chart. Thus, if you are a tough guy you don't want your Sun and your Mars to fall in some other guy's Twelfth House - especially if you consider him a competitor of yours. In such an eventuality, you feel rather weak and confused when interacting with that guy. We might say that Torrigiano was somehow feeling "belittled" even by Michelangelo's mere presence! And that's a very discomforting sensation to someone who has not worked with himself and has not experienced the transcendental "Ego dissolution" state as a potentially "elevating" thing...The only alternative left then to the "raw" kind of people - in order for them to jump out of the numbing and humiliating limbo of the Twelfth House - is to resort to spasmodic acts and to an apparently unmotivated aggression...

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis