Astrology

Este articulo analiza la relacion entre esclavitud y adivinacion en Roma desde dos perspectivas diferentes: los esclavos como adivinos y sus consultas adivinatorias. El estudio de los textos antiguos permite concluir que los esclavos poseian una capacidad especial para la adivinacion natural y que su practica entraba en conflicto con la "artificiosa divinatio", dirigida por el sacerdocio oficial. (A.)

BM 49087 (1881-11-3, 1798) is a fragment from the obverse of a Late Babylonian tablet from somewhere in Babylonia. It measures 21+ × 37+ × 8.9+ mm (width × height × thickness) and comprises two columns on each side. Traces of a so-called firing hole can be seen in the space between the columns at its lower break. Traces of the last signs of the left column and part of the right column with the protases of omens are preserved. The first eight omens concern a person whose face is similar to that of gods (the name of the goddess Ereškigal can be read) or of various animals, followed by omens referring to descriptions of various parts of the eye. Omens comparing the face of a person with gods, demons and animals are preserved in three other sources: i. the physiognomic omen series alamdimmû tablet VIII (DIŠ pa-nu-šu GÍD.DA, “If his face is long”, see BÖCK 2000: 108–117; SCHMIDTCHEN 2018: 484–485); ii. in a commentary tablet  o alamdimmû (BÖCK 2000: 250–253); iii. in the second tablet of the sub-series to alamdimmû called šumma dea liballiṭka (VON SODEN 1981; SCHMIDTCHEN 2019: 95–111). Two omens on BM 49087 – the face of a lion (II 7’) and the face of a pig (II 4’) – duplicate omens from those three other sources but not in that sequence. Thus, BM 49087 could either be an excerpt tablet of the series alamdimmû or a tablet with extra-serial omens (aḫû omens).

The essay I wrote on the astrology research program (McRitchie, 2022) has drawn a critical review from G. Dean and I. Kelly (2023) that scarcely touches on my topics of effect-size findings in single-factor, multifactor, and automated whole-chart experimental results. They ignore the meta-analysis of current research and my discussion of emergent effects. Instead, they try to impugn all of astrology by arguments that date from the time of Cicero and Augustine.

When the writers of the Vedas or the Upanishads tried to represent what happened in Vaikuntha, they had no other means than the language at their disposal in the country/region where they lived. The language as we use it every day. Even if they used Sanskrit, the so-called language of the Devas, they had no other choice than the vocabulary of that holy language, and that vocabulary, though a bit special, consisted of words we use in our normal human language. If not, nobody would ever have understood that secret language in some sort of a hieroglyphical form.                                                                              The words of the Rishis, the wise men, who reached such a deep spirituality, that they knew/felt how the world of the Deities was organized, but they didn’t have a non-human language at their disposal to describe it. So, they used our material language, because they wanted to transmit a message to their fellow countrymen and to the world. They wanted to be read; so they had to be understandable

Health is a concern of all human beings. Some are blessed with robust health but beset with mental health issues. In this article, I have attempted to understand heath with reference to a Native’s birth chart and predict major illnesses like chronic conditions and acute events like Hospitalization.

The inferential inadequacies of statistical significance testing are now widely recognized. There is, however, no consensus on how to move research into a 'post  < 0.05' era. We present a potential route forward via the Analysis of Credibility, a novel methodology that allows researchers to go beyond the simplistic dichotomy of significance testing and extract more insight from new findings. Using standard summary statistics, AnCred assesses the credibility of significant and non-significant findings on the basis of their evidential weight, and in the context of existing knowledge. The outcome is expressed in quantitative terms of direct relevance to the substantive research question, providing greater protection against misinterpretation. Worked examples are given to illustrate how AnCred extracts additional insight from the outcome of typical research study designs. Its ability to cast light on the use of -values, the interpretation of non-significant findings and the s...

Une capsule temporelle est une œuvre de sauvegarde collective de biens et d'informations, comme témoignage destiné aux générations futures. Elle peut être intentionnellement créée et enterrée, souvent lors d’une cérémonie programmant la date de son ouverture, ou résulter d’une catastrophe, comme le site archéologique de Pompéi. Si les capsules temporelles remontent aux premières formes de civilisation écrite, comme en Mésopotamie, elles sont aussi au cœur des pratiques des artistes contemporains qui souhaitent constituer une archive de leur vie quotidienne, comme le faisait Andy Warhol. La description des capsules temporelles soulève des questions symboliques sur ce qu’une société ou un individu souhaite transmettre aux générations futures. Mais elle pose aussi des problèmes d’infrastructure matérielle. Comment stocker les objets dans une capsule temporelle de façon à constituer une totalité signifiante ? Comment conserver ces données de façon à ce qu’elles se préservent dans de...

This essay studies the notion of something as a microcosm of the macrocosm in medieval and early modern cultures from several perspectives. To gain deeper insights into this idea, it is necessary to understand medieval principles of astrology, ideas that were related to the Neoplatonic and Hermetic mindsets, two schools of philosophy and religion for which the concept of microcosm was central. Specifically, it is examined here from four perspectives, namely, the human mind/soul/imagination, the human body, cities and buildings, especially churches, as microcosms, and finally a work of art or image as an imago mundi that mirrors the whole. To this end, the analysis draws from visual and textual sources, enquires into iconographic types such as the zodiac man, intellectual milieus like the court of Alfonso X, interpretations appearing in Arabic texts and essential reading in this regard, including the Picatrix and al-Kindi's De radiis, plus some examples as far removed from the Christian medieval cultural horizon as the Indian Upanishads, Andrei Tarkovsky and Antoni Tàpies. This study is not only based on information from different fields of knowledge, mostly visual and religious studies, but also draws from anthropology of arts and philosophy.

Several examples of the boards (pinakes) that astrologers used to lay out an image of the heavens have survived from antiquity, along with a few references to their use in literary, ritual, and documentary texts.  More elusive are the stones that astrologers placed on these boards to mark the positions of the sun, moon, planets, and other points.  Some scholars have suggested that representations of planetary deities in the form of engraved amuletic gems were used as such stars, raising the possibility that these gems had wider ritual functions.  In order to better understand the function and status of such tokens, this essay draws on a variety of sources to reconstruct the practice of astrological consultations using pinakes and stars, as well as related “magical” rites.  These reconstructions suggest that the stones set out as stars on the pinakes primarily served indexical functions, orienting practitioners and clients to the heavens and the signs to be read there.  The indexical function of this astrological equipment was relatively stable across different cultural and ontological contexts, even if in some of those contexts the stones could be understood to mediate the semiosis of the stars and/or beings with which they were identified.

Hermija filozof Izrugivanje paganskim filozofima I Pavle, blaženi apostol, je govorio očiglednu stvar kada je, pišući Korinćanima, koji stranstvuju u Lakonskoj Grčkoj 1 : Ljubljeni, govoreći kako je pokazano napred, mudrost ovoga sveta ludost je pred Gospodom. 2 Čini mi se da je svetska mudrost svoj početak primila od otpadanja anđela. To je uzrok što filozofi, besedeći jedni s drugima, uspostavljaju dogmate koji niti su saglasni niti govore o istom. Neki od njih govore o duši da je vatra, poput Demokrita, ili pak stoici kažu da je to vazduh. Neki pak da je um, neki da je kretanje, kao na primer Heraklit, neki pak da je para koja se uzdiže, neki da je to sila koja ističe sa zvezda, Pitagora pak broj koji se kreće. Neki, kao Hipon, da je u pitanju voda koja pravi decu 3. Drugi opet misle da je to element od drugih elemenata. Za neke je to harmonija, poput Deinarha. Za neke pak, kao što je to Kritija, krv. Neki pak drže da je duh. Neki da je monada, a to opet Pitagora. I stari filozofi suprotna mišljenja. Koliko pričanja o tome? Koliko pokušaja? Koliko sofista koji se nadgornjavaju pre nego tragalaca za istinom?

This chapter is written in czech language and is dedicated to one of the greatzest figures of the Assyrian Church of the East. The chapter presents not only a biography of Ebedjesu (Abdisho bar Berikha), but above all a complete bi-lingual edition of the Arabic text with a Czech translation of the magnificent sermon of this Nestorian thinker. The essence of Christian faith is expounded here in Arabic rhyming prose, the so-called saj´. The value of this contribution is enhanced by the fact that this short sermon has been translated into Czech as only the second Western language (subsequent to the translation into Italian undertaken by G.-M. Gianazza SDB).

I have made a humble attempt to summarise my own articles, published on Academia.edu, and propose a timeline for the forthcoming Adverse Events. The referenced articles are:
1) THE_CELESTIAL_SLING_SHOT,
2) SPECULATING_ON_THE_END  
3) COVID_19_AS_THE_DIVINE_BLESSING
4) NUMEROLOGICAL_VALIDATION_OF_EVENT_TIMINGS
5) IMPACT_OF_MULTI_PLANET_CONJUNCTIONS 

The first article (1) identifies an extra-terrestrial event as the harbinger of widespread destruction and loss of lives on the Earth. Probabilities of such an event are indicated in terms of the Numerology of Event Timings (4).

In the second article (2) we have asserted how excesses of varying kinds - population, industrialisation, accumulation of wealth, deceit in public life, among others could lead to the end of our civilization as borne out by the timelines of historical epochs.

In the next article (3) we have asserted COVID-19 as the extra-terrestrial slingshot, which has claimed half-a-million lives and still defies an effective preventive medicine.

This work builds on the work of both esoteric and post-structural philosophers, presenting a jargon-free vision of metaphysical foundations for the post-foundational age. A detailed exploration of the logic of relations is used to re-envision spiritual traditions in a way true to the creative spirit of this age. It does not, however, merely rehash perennial philosophy or the cliches of non-dualism. It critically builds on tradition to pave a way forward, making possible a re-birth of esoteric science along more context-sensitive lines, making possible a more nuanced and self-aware approach to science, both mainstream and esoteric sciences like astrology—and all kinds of knowledge—as modes of creative becoming up to the task of divining and playing on the great open system of time.

Na Península Ibérica, houve um notável interesse no movimento dos astros, principalmente, durante o reinado de Afonso X de Castela. Nesse período ocorreu a tradução de textos astronômicos e filosóficos da Grécia e do Oriente em um movimento que ficou conhecido como a Escola de Tradutores de Toledo. Nos séculos XV e XVI, esse foi tema de muitas impressões, entre as quais figuram os primeiros reportórios dos tempos, produções que atendiam a demanda por textos astronômicos e astrológicos. Neste trabalho, com base na análise descritiva da terceira edição da Chronographia ou reportorio dos tempos, impressa em 1594, e da biografia de seu autor, André de Avellar, apresentam-se considerações sobre o valor testemunhal dos reportórios remanescentes e anotações interpretativas sobre 19 itens lexicais patentes no livro primeiro da obra, intitulado Do tempo e suas partes, empreendidas com base na transcrição do excerto e de acordo com os pressupostos metodológicos da lexicografia histórico-varia...