Book "Mesopotamian Astrology"

[Abd-Allah Meyers]

Greetings,

Who is already familiar with the book "Mesopotamian Astrology - An Introduction to Babylonian and Assyrian Celestial Divination" by Ulla Koch-Westenholz, 223 pages, published in 1995 by The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern Studies, Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen?

Are any book reviews by competent astrologers known to date? On line? Can this book be well recommended?

Kind regards,

Abd-Allah Meyers

[Therese_Hamilton]

I believe this book began as a doctoral dissertation. If you can find it, it's very expensive. I paid about $75 for the book some years ago. You can probably find similar material at a much lower cost in Francesca Rochberg's books. I see that I lightly underlined passages I felt were important and wanted to remember. All together these passages total only a page or two. Much of the book is highly technical and refers to specific Mesopotamian texts. Still, it's a book to own if you want all the better known Mesoptamian references in your library. David Pingree covers much of the same material in his notes and Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia.

[Abd-Allah Meyers]

Dear Ms. Hamilton,

Thank you for your prompt and useful reply. I have borrowed the book from an astrological library, where it was recommended to me by the president of the astrological association to which the library belongs. His opinion is that ancient Babylonian astrology is, compared to e. g. the Hamburg School of Alfred Witte and followers, 'unscientific', inaccurate and scarcely more than obscure divination.

Leafing through the book shows that it does contain many astrological delineations. But, with so many books to read and time constraints, it is really worthwhile in this case?

If I have read your posting correctly, you seem to indicate 'no'.

Kind regards,

Abd-Allah Meyers

[Therese_Hamilton]

Dear Abd-Allah Meyers,

As you have borrowed the book, why not photocopy the pages that are useful for you rather than purchasing the book? Mesopotamian astrology is useful in a historical context, and provides a helpful study foundation for Hellenistic astrology. An interesting book to read is Gavin White's Babylonian Star Lore. But I cannot say how accurate it is in the academic sense. It's interesting to see the possible links between the Babylonian and later constellations.

Therese Hamilton

[Rumen_Kolev]

Hi Abd-Allah,

Of course you should copy and read the book by Koch-Westenholz IF you are interested in Astrology.
After all Babylonian Astrology is the source.

No matter how wrong may the author be at some points, it has a lot of useful info.
And there are no so many books on the topic that we wonder which one to read !

So, you are lucky to have the book for free!

[Rumen_Kolev]

There is one very very interesting thing about this book by Koch Westenholz !
Read pages 140-151. On these 11 and one half pages Westenholz discusses nine reports and one letter of the Babylonian astrologers-priests sent to the Assyrian king Asarhaddon on the occasion of a celestial event that hapenned in 669 BC, 16 Addaru = -668 sunrise 16 March = the cosmic set of the Moon in Addaru coincides with exact to 22 arc-min conjunction of Mars and Saturn in the fixed Libra.

At the time of the Cosmic Set of the Moon (at sunrise) a halo (22 degrees radius) of light appears and encircles the Moon together with Mars and Saturn low above the Western horizon and being in equilibrium around the ecliptic (held die Waage) [contra-parallel around the ecliptic and at the same altitude above horizon]. A really spectacular sight must this have been.


There is one very interesting fact here!
Westenholz described in detail the whole discussion between the Babylonian priests and the king, but she missed and did not mention one extremely important fact in the whole story.