Introduction and a Question about Definitions

[Tyrin Price]

Hello!

My name is Tyrin Price and I am a humble "certified" Medieval Astrologer. I will be a panel member on a gotomeeting web presentation on "Traditional" astrology in a couple weeks. There will be another Medieval Astrologer, who I believe has a diploma from Robert Zoller's course, and a couple of astrologers studying the Hellenistic tradition on the panel.

The purpose of the presentation is to give an overview of "Traditional" or "Classical" astrology... almost like a sales pitch to show modernists what this fascinating study has to offer. The first hurdle to cross has to do with definitions. Hellenistic and Medieval traditions span fairly specific time periods and geographic regions, but what exactly is "Traditional" or "Classical" astrology? In a practice session tonight the idea was put forth that "Traditional" and "Classical" are general terms while Hellenistic and Medieval are specific to times and places.

Does this sound like an accurate initial assessment?

[Estebon Duarte]

I find that to be a suitable assessment from the point of view of "Medieval" and "Hellenistic" Astrologers. Followers of Lilly might take offense to this as they seem to have an affinity for the term "Traditional" astrology. But realistically Medieval Astrology is the term coined for followers of Robert Zoller's techniques and Hellenistic Astrology is more often than not associated with techniques proposed(?) by Robert Schmidt.
While many will disagree with that, though if you examine the backgrounds of those who support either you will find them rooted in one of these translators viewpoints.
I personally have gone with the term "Western Predictive Astrology" as I have been instructed by Zoller and have begun to lean toward early Persian Astrological authorities for techniques. In the end no modern english speaking person interested in a reading has the time or inclination to understand how I practice my Astrology, they want the benefit of its techniques. The term Western Predictive Astrology is free from both Modern and Vedic inferences.

[Abd-Allah Meyers]

Good morning,

Perhaps I am mistaken but to me there seem to be some significant general differences between 'Hellenistic' and 'Medieaval' astrologies, although the latter derives from the former. These differences appear often but not always related to the cultural shift from Pagan to Abrahamic traditions. For example, Medieaval astrology seldom if at all still refers to the 3rd Place as 'Place of the Goddess'.

Hellenistic astrology still seems connected to underlying 'feminine' notions like Gaia and Chaos, Medieaval astrology much less if at all, generally beginning with Being or the Monad and ignoring Non-Being or the Great Vacuity.

Therefore it seems more reasonable to me not to lump the two together and that there are specialists for each, e. g. Robert Schmidt for Hellenistic, Robert Zoller for Mediaeval.

Best regards,

Abd-Allah Meyers