The Ancient Universe

One of the most difficult stumbling blocks to overcome for newcomers to classical astrology is understanding and accepting the different worldview that astrology developed in. Without accomplishing this step, many of the techniques and characteristics of the art seem random and disconnected. However, once the philosophical and structural systems of astrology have been properly explained, the interconnectedness of the entire art is much more apparent and easier to appreciate.

Before that can happen, it is necessary to re-envision the structure of the universe. While science has shown us that the Earth revolves around the Sun which revolves around the center of our galaxy, astrology sees it quite differently. Astrologers consider the geocentric universe (that the Sun and other planets revolve around the Earth) to be a more practically useful picture.

To be clear, this is not a form of science denial. The two worldviews are not entirely mutually exclusive as heliocentrism (with the Earth revolving around the Sun) is objective, yet geocentrism is a more accurate representation of our subjective experience from our location in the universe. It is this experience that astrology seeks to explain and that astrological charts depict.

Visible cosmology is a significant component of the medieval universal model. This visible cosmology is the order of the cosmos that can be ascertained with the unaided human eye. The pieces of this cosmology are the stars, the Sun and Moon, and the five visible planets; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. While it is clear that there are an innumerable amount of bodies beyond these listed, it is important to remember that the word "planet" originated as a differentiation between stars that appeared to move independently and those that appeared to move as a collective.1 This apparent motion is, of course, only occurring due to our perspective on the face of the Earth. While this definition has changed to better fit with the current objective viewpoint, it is important to remember its origins and Earth-based beginnings.2

This apparent motion of the planets also served another purpose; establishing the order of the planets based on perceived distance. The faster moving planets were considered to be closer to the Earth, while those that moved slower were thought of as being further away. The Moon, for example, stays in a sign of the zodiac for only about two and a half days, and was considered the closest planet to the Earth. Saturn, by contrast, stays in a sign for about two and a half years, placing him furthest from our position on the Earth.

The planets were then placed in concentric spheres where superior spheres completely enveloped those below them. Saturn's sphere enveloped Jupiter's, Jupiter's contained Mars's, etc, all the way down to the Earth which was the center that these other spheres revolved around. The image below is a diagram showing this system.

The Sublunar Sphere

Before discussing the planetary spheres, it is best to divert our attention back home.

The Earth and the space immediately adjacent to it (the atmosphere) constituted a special place in medieval cosmology that was called the "sublunar sphere"; the sphere beneath the Moon. This sphere had several special properties that distinguished it from the celestial spheres of the planets. The most significant of these features is that generation and corruption could occur on Earth, but did not occur in the heavens. Beings could be born, grow, diminish, and die on Earth which served a stark contrast to the ever-present and continuously moving planets and stars.

The sublunar sphere also contains the four classical elements earth, water, air, and fire. The interactions and transmutations of these elements sparked change in the world and in individual beings. The fluctuations of these elements as they transformed in their cycle initiated seasonal changes, behavioral changes in living beings, age transitions, and even the course of illnesses.

These elemental shifts were mostly caused by celestial influence, most significantly those of the Sun and Moon. This is most easily observed by the changing of the seasons which occur in response to the changing amount of light and heat the Sun provides a given region on Earth.

The Heavenly Spheres

Beyond the sublunar sphere are the spheres of the planets. There are seven planets, and each planet gets their own sphere. No planet can enter the sphere of another, but the planet can be anywhere within its own sphere. This allows them room to experience their perigees and apogees (their closest and furthest distances from the Earth).

In classical astronomy, the retrograde motions of the planets were explained by Ptolemy's epicycles. Each planet would move along these smaller circles during the course of their general motion along their sphere. This general motion is called the deferent. The image to the side depicts this motion more clearly.

The planet in the image moves along the deferent circle, but also moves above and below it along its epicycle. When a planet is on the inside of its deferent it is retrograde or is appearing to move backwards. This is why retrograde planets appear brighter in the sky; they are closer to the Earth.  Conversely, a planet that is on the other side of its deferent is in direct motion. The entire motion of a planet along its deferent and epicycle is enclosed within its sphere.

The planetary spheres were assigned their order based on apparent planetary speed. The Moon is closest, then Mercury, followed by Venus, the Sun sits in the middle of the planets, Mars's sphere is above this, Jupiter's sphere is superior to Mars, and finally Saturn is placed in the final sphere.

The spheres of the Sun and the Moon are a bit different from the others. These two planets do not experience retrograde motion, so they have no epicycles and their sphere only contains the deferent circle.

The Spheres Beyond

Above the sublunar sphere and the seven spheres of the planets rests the eighth sphere. This eighth sphere houses the fixed stars and constellations and moves almost imperceptibly slowly. These stars are called fixed not because they do not move, but because they do not move independently of one another. This sphere and the countless stars within it move as a group.

The eighth sphere was originally conceptualized as the second to last sphere, but over time the precession of the equinoxes caused too large of a gap between the constellations and the signs of the zodiac that they originally roughly coincided with. To make up for this, a ninth sphere was introduced sometime in the early middle ages. This ninth sphere houses the signs of the zodiac. It is unique in that there is no motion or matter associated with this sphere and it exists as a purely spiritual or mathematical space that retains the integrity of the tropical zodiac by giving it a home.

The final sphere in the geocentric universal model belongs to the Prime Mover. This sphere is responsible for diurnal motion. As the name implies, diurnal motion happens once a day and causes the stars to rise in the east, culminate in the south, set in the west, and travel under the Earth to rise in the East again in a continuous circuit.

The Prime Mover originated in the writings of Aristotle who conceived it as a divine will or being that moves everything while not being moved by anything itself. He called this the Unmoved Mover. The notion of the Prime Mover being a divine figure would continue in Medieval Christendom where it was associated with God. The spheres beyond the fixed stars were themselves analogous to Heaven.

This Heaven not only housed the divine, but also souls. In the Chaldean tradition, the soul journeyed from this outer heaven into the universe. Before reaching its new body and being born, the soul would travel downwards, through the spheres of the planets. This is where the soul would acquire the influences of its natal positions that it would carry throughout its new life.

A similar doctrine occurs at the time of death, where the souls of the departed traveled back up the planetary spheres. During this return voyage, the soul would relinquish various evils back to the planets in an effort to reobtain its spiritual purity for a final reunion with the divine. A similar experience can be seen in Dante Alighieri's work The Divine Comedy.

Conclusion

While the classical conceptualization of the universe is definitely different from the one we were taught in school, it is no less valid. Every time an astrological chart is cast, it is cast with the location of the event or question as its center and the planets are placed respective to that center. This symbolically places that event in the center of its own universe and gives it a sense of significance that is lost in the heliocentric model.

Notes

1 The Greek used was 'planetes aster' which translates to "wandering star". That is, those few stars that appeared to wander around independently, as opposed to the fixed stars that moved in a giant collective. This gives us the original and still useful definition of a planet as being an objects viewed from Earth that moves independently from the fixed stars.

2 In 2006 the definition of planet was changed to accommodate for stricter guidelines after the discovery of dwarf planet Eris. This definition had three parts: 1) it must orbit the Sun or some other star 2) its gravitational force must be large enough to make it spherical 3) it must clear out its immediate orbital path of all debris.