Candidates for the FIRST EVER Astrology Chart

by Milky Way Maid

My reading has uncovered a couple of candidates for the first-ever, first recorded anyway, astrological chart. How long ago would you guess that we have a chart, with or without interpretation?

Perhaps you guess the source might be Babylon or one of the Mesopotamian civilizations. Not a bad guess. Or perhaps one from ancient Egypt, where we know that the knowledge of astronomy was also rather advanced.

In fact we do have a chart which astrologer Joan Quigley claimed was the earliest known horoscope. It was cast in 2767 BC, and the astrologer was supposedly the great Imhotep himself. Imhotep has won lasting fame as the architect of the great pyramid of Saqqara. (SOURCE: Astrology for Adults, Joan Quigley, 1969, in which she cites an article by Cyril Fagan included in the Jan. 1954 issue of American Astrology.)

Annoyingly, no details are included in this mention, not even of what the subject of the chart was. Perhaps it was a horary to answer the question, “Where did I put my copy of This Old Pyramid?”

But luckily enough, inside the book “The Origin of the Zodiac” is an illustration titled, “The Original 'Horoscope of Eternity' 2767 BC.” No attribution, no story about the astrologer. But hey, how many charts do you think survived from 2767 BC?

This illustration still doesn't tell us what Imhotep wanted to know from this chart. But maybe a description of the image will give us some clues at least.

The image shows a map of the sky, with the constellations fanned out across the middle. The original is translated into English. From left to right appear Leo, Cancer, Gemini and Taurus. Major stars are indicated around the sky: Regulus, Praeseppe, Procyon, Sirius, Aldebaran, Rigel, Betelgeuse, Castor, El Nath, and the Pleiades. Along the right-hand edge are marked the latitudes, from 20 degrees north at the top and marked at 10 degree intervals down to 30 degrees south at the bottom right. The horizon is clearly marked along with the “Equator of 2767 BC”; the intersection is marked “Vernal Equinox, 2767 BC.”

Puzzlingly, two horizons are indicated; one is for 2767 BC (28 degrees Cancer), and the other is for 1300 BC (27 degrees Cancer). It seems extremely unlikely that anyone would draw up a chart for a present year (2767 BC) with another year about 1400 years in the future --- yet a comment on page 207 of the “Origin” book would seem to explain how that is. “The Egyptians had a traditional celestial diagram which they copied from century to century, and although it was more traditional than contemporary it did represent a particular moment from which time was counted.” The Egyptians were interested in knowing when the first day of the Wandering Calendar returned to its ideal position in the Sothic Calendar. In other words, the return of the Vernal Equinox to its IDEAL position marked the end or start of another cycle.

In other words, Egyptians were more interested in astrology or astronomy as indicators of omens for the prosperity of the people in general, and as indicators of cycles. They were not, surprisingly enough, interested in making observations on which to base predictions. The Babylonians aka Chaldeans were the opposite; they could not have imagined making a chart and NOT making some predictions about it.

The same “Origins” book states that the earliest personal horoscope was cast in 410 BC, with no details offered whatever. However I managed to dig up further details: it was a birth chart set for April 29, 410 BC in Babylon (HoroscopesWithin.com). A translation of the cuneiform horoscope says: “Nisannu, night of the 14th(?), ... son of Shumu-usur, Shumu-iddina, descendant [---], was born. At that time the moon was below the Pincer of the Scorpion, Jupiter in Pisces, Venus in Taurus, Saturn in Cancer, Mars in Gemini. Mercury, which had set was not vis[ible]. [-] (Things?) will be propitious for you.” (Rochberg 1998: 56)

Other “oldest” documents include a record dated around 668-626 BC of astronomical observations with calculations of solar and lunar eclipses (and predictions for same). This is the Cerberus Slab of Hatra dated to the reign of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria. It shows the seven known planets with highly accurate calculations of planetary conjunctions and oppositions.

Older astrological records date to around 1645 BC in Babylon (Astrology.com). This probably refers to the Venus tables of Ammiza-duga, discovered in 1850 in Ninevah. This is a cuneiform tablet of observations of the rising and setting Venus that covered a span of 21 years – actually fragments of several tablets that science has had to reconstruct. You can browse a PDF about this discovery and how they dated the tablets on Caeno.org. Why only those 21 were recorded furnishes us with another mystery to solve.

The Chinese may have drawn up charts around 7500 years ago, but they can definitely point to a owning the longest lunar calendar in existence, dating back to 2637 BC. The first named Chinese astrologer was Sima Qian, who wrote a book titled, “Records of the Grand Historian” (OnlineChineseAstrology.com) about the second century BC. To quote, “His history included detailed information on various methods of fortune telling and related astronomy topics to include a catalog of star names.” http://www.onlinechineseastrology.com/doc/Chinese-Astrology-101.pdf In ancient China, only emperors and other members of the royal family had access to personal horoscopes. The lives of ordinary people were not important enough to analyze with a birth chart.

Ancient Indians created records that show a highly developed knowledge of astrology as far back as 6500 BC, actual manuscripts can be dated only to 3700 BC. (The older ones are copies of originals.) These records show continuous observations from 6500 BC. We even have what is possibly the name of the oldest known astrologer: Pita Maha Siddhanta, who lived about 3000 BC. Pita was the author of books on Vedic astrology (SurfIndia.com).

But there are other candidates, too. We may not recognize them as charts, per se, but the ancient ones placed stones and other markers as a kind of observatory and calendar. This includes the most famous of stone placements at Stonehenge. There are even older stone structures. Consider the one called Adam's Calendar in southern Africa, which dates to possibly 75 THOUSAND years ago. That date is selected because that is when three now-recumbent stones would have aligned with the Orion constellation --- an alignment that Andrew Collins disputes (AndrewCollins.com).

Adam's Calendar, in South Africa, has engendered a great deal of publicity and discussion. The original walls are over a yard wide in many places, and have eroded to knee-high or even to the ground. It is interesting that they lie amid nearly 2,000 ancient gold mines.
The famous El Caracol observatory in Chichen Itza, Mexico (Yucatan region) dates to about 500 AD.

You May Also Wish To Read or Watch:
You may wish to watch a clip about Adam's Calendar on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH1wgwe6udo

Several pictures of different ruins at the Adam's Calendar sites are offered at http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sumer_anunnaki/esp_sumer_annunaki35.htm

Pictures and more theory are posted at http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/txsa_4_adams.htm

A two-hour documentary about Adam's Calendar is embedded on this web page: http://projectcamelotproductions.com/interviews/adams_calendar_documentary/adamscalendardocumentary.html

“Echoes of the Ancient Skies” by E.C. Krupp (Dover Publications) has lots of information about ancient astronomy including El Caracol and other sites in Mexico, China, Chaldea, Egypt, Cahokia, Scotland, Ireland, Britain and more.

“Astrology in the Middle Ages” by Theodore Otto Wedel (Dover reprint) talks about medieval English, French and Arabian astrology.

“The Origin of the Zodiac” by Rupert Gleadow (Dover reprint) is too small a book for all the territory that the author tries to cover: China, Persia and Babylon, Egypt, Plato and the Greeks, Mexico, Tibet, India, and Medieval astrology.

Cher -- Horoscope “Snapshot”

Cher -- born May 20, 1946 at 7:25 am Pacific Std. Time in El Centro, California
Source: Quinn quotes mother

Ascendant is 8 degrees 36 minutes of Cancer, Sun at 29 degrees Taurus, the MC is at 22 degrees 46 minutes of Pisces. The rest of the planets are as follows: Saturn at 21 degrees Cancer, Pluto at 9 degrees Leo, Mars at 13 degrees Leo, Neptune at 6 degrees Libra, Jupiter at 18 degrees Libra, Moon at 18 degrees Capricorn, Mercury at 16 degrees Taurus, Uranus at 16 degrees Gemini, North Node at 22 degrees Gemini, and Venus at 25 degrees Gemini.

A Taurus Sun with Moon in Capricorn and Cancer rising would produce someone who really wants to achieve a level of material success. There was the story of when she and Sonny Bono drove past a large mansion when they were still struggling; she remarked how she loved that house and wanted to live there one day. Wonder of wonders, but eventually she and Sonny did buy and love into that same house.
Her chart is interesting because it lets us follow lunations as they contact house cusps. In 1962, for example, the June lunation contacted her 12th house cusp, and in July it contacted her ascendant in Cancer. The July 31 an eclipse at 7 degrees Leo was close to her second house cusp with Pluto; and two weeks earlier the lunar eclipse at 24 degrees Capricorn was in her seventh house.

We could interpret the twelfth house as subconscious needs -- so the lunation there would activate them and bring them closer to the surface. She took action when the lunation occurred on her ascendant. This was the time period when she moved out of her mother’s house and in with some friends. In August of that year, a New Moon at 6 degrees Virgo was in her third house -- bringing a possible change in environment. A lunation in September at almost 6 degrees Libra conjuncted Neptune in her fourth house. Finally the October New Moon at 4 degrees Scorpio conjuncted her fifth house cusp -- and according to her biographer, that is the month that she met Sonny Bono. The rest is history, as they say. Her marriage to Sonny could well have been fated; the Moon in the seventh is part of a yod. The Moon is inconjunct both Uranus and Mars.

Also you can see how lopsided her chart is -- seven planets on the eastern side would scream her need to be noticed. Funny how the only aspect the Sun makes is a trine to Neptune, but that would suggest her glamorous image and also the music and recording career.

Saturn rises, and rules the seventh house of partners. She depended on someone older to protect her and mentor her into the music business. Saturn in the first also describes her low self-esteem. She was truly an ugly duckling type: awkward, bad skin, shy, sullen. She is also dyslexic -- but once she reads a script she knows it verbatim.

It was difficult for her to reconcile her need for discipline with a great need for freedom and personal expression. This is expressed in the T-square between the Saturn in Cancer, Moon opposite in Capricorn, and Jupiter in Libra in the fourth house. T-squares, by the way, often burst through with pent up energy in the empty leg of the T. Here, that is the tenth house of career. She also has a problematic conjunction of Mars and Pluto in Leo in the second house, square Mercury in Taurus in the eleventh. All that Mars-Pluto energy is very combustible, especially in a Fire sign, so it is lucky she has the outlet of musical (Taurus) communications (Mercury).

You may not know that she had a sideline of rehabbing and redecorating houses for resale. The also taps into that energy of the T-square but focuses on the Jupiter in the fourth house leg. I am told that she did quite well in that business, altho a couple times disputes with workmen broke into the news when they alleged she did not pay overtime.

Now the brassy, trashy image is receding from the limelight as she has retired from touring, and has not made a movie in several years. She has come a long way, tho, from the ugly duckling in El Centro.

What Kind of Pope Will Benedict Be?

The current Pope was recently in the United States on an official visit. I had hoped to post this article before he arrived, but such is life. I want to take this opportunity to illustrate the effects of transits on a natal chart.

Fortunately, we have his birth data. He was born Joseph Ratzinger in Marktl, Germany on April 16, 1927 at 4:15 am. If you have some astrological software you can print out your own chart to follow along. Otherwise, the data yields a chart with 19 degrees Pisces rising and 25 degrees Sagittarius on the Midheaven. The first house is quite crowded with Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Sun and Chiron all occupying that sector. Venus at 29 Taurus is in the 2nd House, and Mars, North Node, and Pluto in the 4th House. Neptune in Leo is in the sixth, and the Moon in Libra is in the seventh, with Saturn high in the ninth in Sag.

The most striking thing about the chart is the Jupiter-Mercury conjunction in late Pisces, plus Uranus in the first degree of Aries. Jupiter is the natural ruler of Sag and ninth-house matters, which include publishing, higher education, religion and law. With Sag in the tenth house of career, it is interesting that Ratzinger has pursued a career that has spanned all four areas.

We will get to more about his career arc in a moment, but first let me show a couple more aspects. Another prominent item is the Mercury (with Uranus) square Mars in Gemini. This is a person who loves to argue, sometimes someone who flies off the handle over little things. But with a trained intellect, this can be channeled into a person who is skilled in the art of debate, which is really arguing but with rules. The Mars energy is energetic and vociferous in stating the rightness of his position, and is no doubt the driver behind his nickname, “God’s Rottweiler”.
His Moon at 14 Libra in the seventh House squares his Pluto at 13 Cancer. This angular placement in cardinal signs makes for a very energetic and dynamic personality. His is both intensely emotional and deeply analytical. When set to a task, he acts like a good detective in gathering his data and then breaking it down to analyze it.

As we said, Jupiter rules religion, and so it was very convenient for us astrologers that he chose to enter the priesthood and so validate that traditional assigning of that area to that planet. He was ordained in Germany on June 29, 1951. Many of these dates, by the way, were found in Wikipedia and other places on the internet, so that is always a good place to start if researching a famous person. By 1959, he also entered higher education as a career, when he became a professor in Bonn, then in Munster, then in Tubingen. In 1972 he also founded a theological journal called ‘Communio’ -- all of these activities are also Jupiter-ruled.

In March, 1977, Ratzinger was named archbishop, and in June was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II. This period is influenced by the transit of Jupiter over his natal Venus in Taurus. So his chart ruler, Jupiter -- on his ascendant at birth, in the traditional sign it ruled, Pisces, transits over the lesser benefic, Venus in the second house, bringing a type of gift and lifts him to another level of influence. We might note also, that Pope John Paul II was a native Taurus, so the Venus also points to the source of his good fortune. In the same period, Ratzinger also benefited from Mars trining natal Mars and his North Node (significant growth towards one’s destiny) AND Saturn enters his sixth house (denoting a period of greater responsibility and hard work in his job).

In late November 1981, the next click of the celestial gears is heard when Ratzinger was named by John Paul II to head the organization that he has become most identified with, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This occurred almost exactly when transiting Saturn conjuncted his natal Moon in Libra in the seventh house. This appointment brought him much greater prominence, thrust him into the public eye -- the Moon also denotes the public, and the placement above the horizon puts him in a very public life. The appointment gave full vent to his talents as a vociferous and no-nonsense ‘enforcer’ of canonical law. He muzzled those who did not toe the ‘party line’ and ventured rather too far afield in the speculative or political arenas. Among those who were affected were: some outspoken liberation theologians in Latin America (condemning liberation theology twice in, 1984 and 1986), Leonardo Boff was suspended, while others were reputedly reduced to silence. Eleven years after his death, the writings of Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello were the subject of a "notification". U.S. Father Charles Curran, who questioned church teaching against artificial birth control, was removed from his teaching position at The Catholic University of America in Washington in 1987. Recently, Pope Benedict made a similar judgment about Jesuit Father Roger Haight, who was banned from teaching Catholic theology over his book touching on the divinity and salvific mediation of Jesus.
Now you know why he was called “God’s Rottweiler”.

But we continue. Transiting Saturn continued to loop the zodiac, till it entered Cancer in June 2003. (Remember his North Node is at 0 degree Cancer and his Pluto at 13 degrees Cancer.)I believe that it was about that time that most analysts felt he was most likely to succeed John Paul II, whose health was seriously deteriorating with the progression of Parkinson’s disease. Ratzinger was not elected till April 2005, and by that time Saturn, the bestower of honors and high rank (if you have been working hard and diligently) was past an exact conjunction to those natal placements. But it was trine his natal Jupiter in Pisces -- Jupiter, again! Transiting Jupiter was also close to his natal Moon (squaring his natal Pluto also), a transiting North Node was at 22 Aries near his Sun, transiting Sun on his Mercury -- so you can see that the sentiments of the College of Cardinal were most likely to swing his way.

A chart for the date of his election, April 19, 2005, has 5 degrees Libra rising with Jupiter at 11 degrees, and Saturn high at 21 degrees Cancer, for those who want to reconstruct a chart for that event. Let me add that Pluto also figures in here as an influence when death is a necessary event for other things to happen; ie a new Pope cannot be named till the previous one dies. The same is true in cases of royal ascension, or in matters of estates and wills.

There has been much speculation over how long Pope Benedict will serve. And I regret that I cannot offer too much to resolve that point. He has a natal Sun trine Neptune which often denotes a long life, even if the person has to conserve his or her energies. But he has already reached his eighties, and has fulfilled that potential in his chart. The election chart’s ruler, Venus, is in Taurus, a fixed sign -- and this seems to point to him being in office a number of years, probably at least five, possibly seven when a progressed Venus will aspect the chart Jupiter.
Only time will tell just how many years Pope Benedict will have the opportunity to affect the Catholic Church’s direction, but I feel it is clear from the many cardinal planets, that he will be a surprisingly active. Maybe he feels the years slipping away from him, but he will not let any grass grow under his feet while in office. He feels there is so much in his in-box, and will push himself to clear as much as possible while he can.

Oh, a trivia note: the meeting between Pope Benedict and George W Bush was the 25th between a pope and president. There have been five pontiffs and 11 American leaders involved.