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history and philosophy of astrology

Top 10 Astrologers of All Time

This is a list of the most famous and most influential astrologers of all time. The list mainly covers astrologers who played an important role in the astrological tradition over the past 3,000 years, and it does not include any astrologers who are still alive today, or who lived relatively recently.  I plan to compile […]

Categories
history and philosophy of astrology

Speech from the Final Kepler College Graduation

The final graduation ceremony for Kepler College of Astrological Arts and Sciences took place on Sunday, May 27, 2012, starting at 8:00 PM in New Orleans, Louisiana. Kepler lost its ability to grant accredited degrees after some laws were changed in the state of Washington in 2010. Over the past two years the last group […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

Do Not Associate Astrology With 2012

Over the past few years a well-meaning group of astrologers called the Cosmic Intelligence Agency has led a campaign to “make 2012 the year of astrology.”  Their goal is to use some of the hype surrounding predictions about the significance of the year 2012 to draw greater attention to astrology and the astrological community as […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

Does the Natal Chart Reveal Everything?

An astrology student from Kepler asked me a question recently: “Does the natal chart reveal everything that happens to a person? Why or why not?” This was my somewhat impromptu response: My first impression as I think about this question is that even though it seems very specific, there is a way in which it […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

The Origins of Horary Astrology

I posted a video on the origins of horary astrology today on YouTube, as a response to a video that Kevin Burk recently posted on the subject. The specific point of the video was to counter an assertion made by Burk that horary is one the oldest branches of astrology, when in fact I would […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

2012 and Millenarianism

I recently realized that I may have been a bit too brash last year in my declaration that people who are freaking out about 2012 need a reality check.  Now, I don’t really feel the need to recant that statement so much as I feel the need to explain my position a bit better than […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

The Antikythera Mechanism Was Used for Astrology

In 1901 a group of sponge divers discovered a complex mechanical device lying at the bottom of the ocean, just off the coast of a Greek island named Antikythera.   The device subsequently became known as the Antikythera mechanism. It was found amongst the remains of a shipwreck that took place sometime around the early 1st […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

The Transmission of Hellenistic Astrology to India

Over the course of the past century researchers have discovered that Hellenistic astrology was transmitted to India sometime around the 2nd century CE. Inklings of this transmission were noted in the late 19th century, for example by the historian August Bouché-Leclercq in his 1899 work L’astrologie grec, although it was not until the middle part […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

Starting A New Website With Electional Astrology

Recently a friend asked me a question about which electional chart is more important when you are starting a new website.  The question is essentially whether the chart for the idea of the website is more important, or whether it is the registering of the domain or the launch of the website itself. The question […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

The Questionable Origins of the Exaltations in Astrology

Current academic scholarship tells us that the exaltations are one of the few techniques that were directly inherited and incorporated into the Hellenistic system from the Mesopotamian tradition of astrology, and at the present time this transmission is assumed to have occurred by the majority of historians in the field, both astrologer and academic alike.[1] […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

On The Use of Mythology in Astrology

I wrote this paper on the use of mythology as a device in astrological delineations a few years ago while I was still attending Kepler College . I think that I initially wrote the paper because I was kind of annoyed by the subject matter and I wanted to focus on more precise techniques, having […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

Fate, Free Will and Determinism in Astrology

I’ve been of the opinion for a while now that astrology is fundamentally deterministic, and that the majority of astrologers approach the subject with a more or less deterministic mindset, whether they consciously acknowledge it or not. In fact, the vast majority of astrologers seldom even realize just how deterministic their unspoken assumptions about astrology […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

A Reply to Glenn Perry’s Article ‘From Ancient to Postmodern Astrology’

I just finished reading a surprisingly misinformed article by Glenn Perry in the latest issue of the NCGR Journal titled From Ancient to Postmodern Astrology, Toward a New Synthesis. Normally I would just let the uninformed ramblings of some random astrologer pass by without taking much notice and then continue on about my day, but […]

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history and philosophy of astrology

Ignorance Is Bliss

So this girl that I work with approaches me the other day and tells me that she needs my help. She is obviously distressed about whatever the matter is, and for some reason she thinks that I can do something to help her. I asked her what the problem was, and she basically said, in […]