Astrology basics

Hellenistic astrology

Also known as: hellenistic astrologygreek astrologyancient astrologyancient greek astrologytraditional astrologyhellenistic astrology charthellenistic chart calculatorfree hellenistic chartwhole sign housesvettius valensvalensdorotheusptolemy astrologypaulus alexandrinusfirmicus maternuspersian astrologyarabic astrologyabu masharal-biruniproject hindsightchris brennan

Hellenistic astrology is the astrology written in Greek in the Mediterranean world from about the 1st century BCE to the 7th century CE, mostly under the Roman Empire. It reads a chart with the seven visible planets, whole-sign houses, sect, essential dignities, lots and time-lord techniques such as annual profections and zodiacal releasing.

Hellenistic astrology is the astrology written in Greek in the Mediterranean world between about the 1st century BCE and the 7th century CE. The name refers to the Greek language and learning of the period rather than to a single country, and most of the surviving texts were written under the Roman Empire, many of them in Alexandria and other cities of Egypt. The authors usually named are Dorotheus of Sidon, who wrote a long poem on the subject, Vettius Valens, whose Anthology is a practical collection of methods and worked examples, Claudius Ptolemy, author of the Tetrabiblos, Paulus Alexandrinus, and the Latin writer Firmicus Maternus.

The tradition did not end with Rome. Persian and Arabic astrologers such as Abu Ma'shar and al-Biruni translated the Greek works, carried them eastward, added their own techniques and passed them on, and through Latin translations the material reached medieval Europe. Much of it faded after the Renaissance, and modern Western astrology grew along a different path. The Hellenistic texts returned to attention in the 1990s, when Project Hindsight, led by Robert Schmidt, began publishing English translations, and a later generation of scholars and astrologers built on them. Chris Brennan's book Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune, published in 2017, is the best-known modern overview.

Several habits set this tradition apart from the astrology most people meet today. It works only with the seven visible planets, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, because Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were not known. Its houses are whole-sign houses: the sign that rises on the eastern horizon is the first house, the next sign is the second, and so on around the circle, so a house is a sign and not a slice of space cut by degrees.

A chart is first sorted by sect, the division into day charts and night charts, which decides which planets are treated as more helpful or more difficult. Each planet is then looked at through its essential dignities: the signs it rules, the sign of its exaltation, and the triplicity, bound (term) and face it occupies. The tradition also uses lots, points computed from the Ascendant and the distance between two planets, of which the Lot of Fortune and the Lot of Spirit are the best known.

The second large group of methods concerns timing. Annual profections move the Ascendant one sign per year of life and name a lord of the year. Zodiacal releasing, described by Valens, divides life into periods that follow the signs from a lot. The Persian firdaria, a later addition, assign periods to the planets. In the tradition these techniques show which planet and which area of life are emphasised in a given stretch, and they are not read as fixed events.

Hellenistic astrology is a historical tradition, not a science, and what it says about a chart is not advice or a forecast. It is best read as a way of understanding how astrologers of the ancient world thought about the sky and about human life.

AstroSensus has a free traditional chart that uses the same tropical positions as its Western chart, with no other ephemeris. It offers two doors, Hellenistic and Persian and Arabic. The chart shows sect, whole-sign houses, the dignities (domicile, exaltation, Dorothean triplicity, Egyptian bounds and faces), the seven Hermetic lots, the current profection year and its lord, zodiacal releasing from the Lot of Fortune and the Lot of Spirit at levels 1 and 2, and the firdaria. A birth time is needed. There is no AI and no account, and the data stays only in the session.