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“Eisler … has brought out the full force of this [solar and lunar influences on the seasons] in a passage which I cannot forbear from quoting:
‘If people believe, and indeed know, their calendar (the change of their climatic seasons) to be determined by the position of the sun relative to certain stars, just appearing or disappearing before sunrise or after sunset; and if they know that their solar year is roughly divided into twelve months by the phases of the moon taking place in the neighbourhood of certain groups of fixed stars – it is natural that they should be driven to the conclusion that the periodic changes of weather (heat, cold, rain and storms) and the sprouting, fruiting and withering of all vegetation, are regulated by the apparent serpentine movement of the sun and moon past the milestones of their celestial journey, i.e. the various constellations appearing and disappearing in their wake or heralding their advance.’
The classical examples are the heralding of the annual flood of the Nile by the heliacal rising of Sirius, the sprouting of cereals in Mesopotamia by that of Spica, and the Italian grape-harvest by Vindemiatrix.”
“It was said that a disciple of the Babylonian astronomer Berossus, who emigrated to Cos in about -280, was the originator of horoscopes; and Eisler considers it safe to conclude that the application of celestial observations to the fates of individuals, the ‘democratisation of astrology’ as Pelseneer calls it, was started by exiled Babylonian ‘star-clerks’ some time in the -2nd century.
In the preceding centuries there were certainly strong parallels between Babylonian and Chinese predictions, as was shown in a classical paper by Bezold. He set side by side a number of statements made in cunieform tablets, most of which came from the library of King Ashurbanipal (-7th cent., but were copies of texts from as far back as the -14th), and in the Thien Kuan Shu chapter (ch. 27) of the Shih Chi (Historical Record) of Ssuma Chhien, written about -100, but undoubtedly containing astronomical and astrological traditions of much older date. For example:
(a) Cuneiform: If Mars, after it has retrograded, enters Scorpio, the King should not be negligent of his watch. On so unlucky a day, he should not venture outside his palace.
Shih Chi: If (the) fire-(planet) (Mars) forces its way into the hsiu Chioe then there will be fighting. If it is in the hsiu Fangf or the hsiu Hsing this will be hateful to kings.
e α, ξ Virginis … f π and other stars in Scorpio … g Antares and σ Scorpionis …
(b) Cuneiform: If Mars is in (name of constellation missing) to the left of Venus, there will be devastation in Akkad.
Shih Chi: When Ying-Huo (Mars) follows Thai-Pai (Venus), the army will be alarmed and despondent. When Mars separates altogether from Venus, the army will retreat.
(c) Cuneiform: If Mars stands in the house of the Moon (and there is an eclipse), the King will die, and his country will become small.
Shih Chi: If the Moon is eclipsed near Ta-Chioj this will bring hateful consequences to the Dispenser of Destinies (the Ruler).
j … Ta-Chio is a single star (Arcturus), a paranatellon of the hsiu Khang. Paranatellontes asteres, or ‘corresponding stars’, as the Greeks called them, are extra-zodiacal stars or constellations which rise, culminate and set at the same time as the zodiacal constellations (in Greece), or which culminate at the same time as a given hsiu (in China).
(d) Cuneiform: If the Northern Fish (Mercury) comes near the Great Dog (Venus), the King will be mighty and his enemies will be overwhelmed.
Shih Chi: When Mercury appears in company with Venus to the east, and when they are both red and shoot forth rays, then foreign kingdoms will be vanquished and the soldiers of China will be victorious.”
“Then there were prognostications based on the decan-stars (the ten-day stars of modern nautical almanacs), that is to say, those paranatellons the heliacal risings and settings of which can be used to determine the exact hour if the date is known, or the exact date if the time is known. (This was the origin of the term ‘horoscope’ for such a star was a horoskopos, ‘hour-pointer’ or ‘hour-observer’.) These were studied by the Egyptians as early as -2000. The Greeks called them leitourgoi (‘stars on duty’) or theoi boulaioi (‘advisory gods’), and considered that every ten days one was sent as a messenger from those above to those below, and vice versa (i.e. setting and rising).”
"Wu Lin-Chhuan (+1249 to +1333): “The cosmic period (yuan) is one of 129,600 years, divided into 12 hui of 10,800 years each.c
c The yuan which Wu Lin-Chhuan uses here is not the same as that of the astronomers. The San Thung calendar of -7 made it 4617 tropical years, and the Sau Fên calendar of + 85 made it 4560. Both these were rationally based on recurrences of lunations, eclipse periods, etc ... But the yuan here referred to is one of the smaller Indian kalpas. Although it equals 36 Babylonian saros periods, its origin was probably arbitrary, in that the hui is the same as the ‘Great Year’ which Aetius ascribes to Heracleitus ... This was arrived at by taking 30 as the shortest time in which a man could become a grandfather, i.e. one generation, and multiplying that by 360 ...
When heaven and earth, in their revolutions, attain the eleventh hui (hsü), all things are closed down, and all men and beings between heaven and earth come to nothingness.
After 5,400 years the position hsü is past, and when the middle of the twelfth hui (hai) is reached, that heavy and gross matter which, in solidifying, had formed the earth, becomes dissipated and rarefied, joining with the tenous matter which had formed the heavens, and uniting in one single mass; this is called Chaos (hun-tun).
This mass then acquires an accelerating rotational movement, and when the position hai is coming to its end, the material reaches its darkest and most dense condition.
At the point chêng, the Great Period begins again and a new era opens; it is the beginning of the first hui, tzu.
Undifferentiated chaos persists, hence it is called the Great Beginning (Thai Shih) and also the Great Oneness (Thai I).
Thenceforward, light gradually increases. After another 5,400 years, in the middle of the position tzu, the lightest part of the mass separates and rises, forming sun and moon, planets and fixed stars. These are the signs of heaven.
5,400 years more and tzu comes to an end. Thus it is said ‘Heaven is opened (constituted) in tzu. However, the heavier portions of the Chhi, though remaining at the centre, have still not condensed to form the earth, so as yet it does not exist.
When the middle of the second hui, chhou, is reached, the heaviest Chhi condences forming earth and rocks, and its liquid part becomes water, which flows and does not solidify, while its caloric part becomes fire, burning and never going out. Water, fire, earth and rocks each have their special forms and constitutes the earth. Thus it is said ‘Earth is opened (constituted) in chhou. 5,400 years more and chhou comes to an end. Another 5,400 years, and the middle of the third hui, yin, is reached, and now human beings begin to be born between heaven and earth. Thus it is said ‘Man is born in yin.’”
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