Astrology Cuneiform Texts

[Albert_Timashev]

Any true science (both spiritual and materialistic) must be based on the objective facts, so the first question about Babylonian Astrology is the original source material.

As far as I'm aware, the only astrology cuneiform texts available to general public through academic publication are primitive omen diaries and interpretations. I never come across any theoretical astrology cuneiform texts describing the systematic views of ancient Babylonians on heavenly omens and any exact rules, laws, methods, etc.

At the same time, the clear systematic approach of Babylonians to math, geometry, astronomy and other fields of knowledge makes me suggest that there must be theoretical astrology texts describing at least the set of general rules of reading/interpretation of the celestial omens. Moreover, I suppose there must be a set of some general principles underlying the whole Astrology system, as well as a set of methods, and a truly scientific approach to the reading of celestial omens (since Babylonians clearly has the systems and the methods and followed truly scientific approach to math, geometry, and astronomical calculations).

Does anybody know such sources? Any published cuneiform texts or academic translations/studies? Can you post links or references here? It is extremely important because without sources all the discussions on Babylonian Astrology is nothing more than an idle speculation.

P.S. I heard that British Museum keeps many thousands of cuneiform tablets, many of them are about astrology, alchemy and other "pseudo-scientific" (as most scientists think) subjects -- and therefore never have been thoughtfully studied or translated. Do we have somebody in London, UK here? If so, can you just drop in a British Museum and check it out? Maybe to contact the staff of British Museum and try to find out what do they actually keep in their vaults

[Michael Erlewine]

Dear Folks,

As it so happens, one of my oldest friends is a professor at the Oriental Institute in Chicago, an expert in Babylonian languages.

I wrote to him and while he is not an expert in Babylonian astrology texts, he knows who is and has written to them, hopefully putting them in touch with me. I will try to find out what is available and how to access that information. I will post the links or whatever here.

[Rab_Wilkie]

Does anyone have contact info for Michael ("Omens Of Babylon") Baigent?
-=Rab

[Albert_Timashev]

For a start, while we wait for an information about original astrology texts, I'd like to share one book with those who are interested in the subject. The book is Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography by Wayne Horowitz. Just drop my a line and I will e-mail you the book in DjVu format.

[Rumen_Kolev]

Defenitely there is a whole wagon-load of books on Babylonian Astrology.

To start with I would recommend to everyone the mind-blowing treatment on the subject of

JEREMIAS ALFRED
Handbuch der Altorientalischen Geisteskultur'
Gruyter Verlag, Berlin-Leipzig, 1929

Be very careful with the authors after 1945 (except Weidner).
Most of them are very wrong as the whole mainstream Assyriology is.
Very careful with Kugler.
He was the one who made everything possible to falsify the history of the Babylonian Astronomy-Astrology!

There is a good reason for this.
You may inquire about the Babel-Bibel scandal in the beginning of the XXth century in Germany if you want to know more about the 'why's and 'how's.

There are also publications in original Akkadian- I will give you a separate list later.
But for now will mention about the tremendous work of
Virolleaud
L'Astrologie Chaldeenne
1908-1912 Paris
In Akkadian only !

These are what texts Virolleaud could find from ENUMA ANU ENLIL- good part of the original 70 tablets and many commentaries and other babylonian divination tablets...

But nowhere will you find a systematic 'Manual' of Babylonian Astrology. You must gather specks of gold from here and there bit by bit.

I edit and publish a special research journal on Babylonian Astrology.
It is called 'Babylonian Sky Observer'
I have published there several texts in their original Akkadian and in translation- including the first translation ever of tablet 57 from Enuma Anu Enlil made by me.

You can download a PDF with description of the first 4 volumes of these journals from:
http://www.starmedia.ne.jp/placidus/Pla ... actsvv.pdf

yours rumen

[Albert_Timashev]

Dear Rumen,

Unfortunately, I can read in English (and Russian) only. The text in any other language (e.g. German) requires translation for me (and for most modern astrologers). And when it turns to Astrology text, you know how it's difficult to make an adequate translation of it (the translator should be an astrologer him/her-self, or know astrology well enough, and/or work in a close contact with a professional astrologer). And the books you refered was published at the beginning of 20th century, so I guess they are very hard to find and especially to acquire to personal library.

So if you have the copies of the sources referenced in your post (and those you've just mentioned casually), would you be so kind to share them with all interested parties?

I think the DIAL (Digital International Astrology Library) of The International Astrology Research Center (C.U.R.A.) is the real breakthrough that will push the studies of the original astrology sources on.

The more people have an access to the source material, the more translations, studies, ideas and so on will appear. So if you have any sources you can share (in any language), share them with community, and they will be translated and studied in detail very soon.

Regards,
Albert

[Rumen_Kolev]

Actually the most serious research in Assyriology and Babylonian-SUmerian Astrosophy is in GERMAN !
And there are no translations of these in English !!
Sometimes I think that there is even a policy of not-translating them but probably I am wrong...

There was however a big uproar in 1902 over the findings of several of the foremost Assyriologists in the World.
The Most Conservative and Dogmatic levels (the same that crucified Jesus) from the Global 'Christian' Church and 'Mosaic' Judaism - rose as one against Delitzsch, Jeremias, Winckler and other brave scholars- to annihilate them and their ideas once and forever. And they did.....!
This whole question is extremely important not only for Assyriology, History and Astrology but also is a link in the eternal fight between the Truth and what is its opposite.

In short, the German assyriologists discovered that Astrology is the foundation of all religions and cultures of all times and all people and it all came from Mespotamia-Sumeria in around the era of Gemini: 5,000 - 6,000 BC.
They also discovered that the Old and even many things from the New Testament are direct off-shoots from this first Revelation-Astro-Philosophy.

You know how the story about the Flood got word by word transmitted in the Genesis from the Cuneiform tablets, right ?

So the Dogmatics from the Judaism and the Church felt attacked and responded mightily.
Kugler Franz from the order of Societas Jesu- a brilliant mind combining vast knowledge of languages (including Akkadian) with Astronomy and Mathematics annihilated the Pan-Babylonians.

One of them- Weidner Ernst- was a good opponent of Kugler and managed to give him some serious blows BUT the world wanted Kugler to be the right one....
From Kugler and Weidner, it was Kugler who was the better mathematician and astronomer and this turned out to be decisive in the battle that raged for 7 years between 1907 and 1914...

From around 1945 more or less the Pan-Babylonianism seized to exist and only traces are found here and there in single scholars-outcasts like Papke Werner. From the main-stream scholars of today Only Simo Parpola has some respect for the Pan-Babylonians and has read them. He even extolls Jeremias Alfred.
But Parpola is on the top of Assyriology. He can do it.
If you are a scholar not on the very top, you are finished the moment you say few good words for the Pan-Babylonians.

As for me, I do not have anything against the Church or the Judaism or the jews for that matter, but for the Truth.
The right way to look at this is that even the mainstream Judaism (and what trickled to Christianity) is a Treasure-Vault for Ancient Knowledge.
The jews preserved one version of the most ancient stories...
Except the super-dogmatic branch, there are, thanks God, also other traditions in Judaism. Hassidism, Kabbala, Enochian Judaism...
[[[If it was not for the 'bright' branch of the Judaic tradition (Jesus being one of them!), the 'dark forces' would have taken over the world long time ago!]]]

However, I believe that the Assyriology and History were falsified in the name of dogmas!
More than this!
I have the ultimate proof that will restore the Pan-Babylonians as scholars fighting for the Truth!
It is a discovery that will destroy once and forever the other dogmatic Kuglerian-Neugebauerian camp which is in the moment absolutely dominant in the whole world.
They will be soon finished, Gods willing!
And a new Era will dawn

[Rumen_Kolev]

There is one old fellow assyriologist from the 1900- Jastrow.
He wrote in English on Mesopotamia.
I have read him only here and there though.
I am not sure how good is he.

Of course in English you can find many modern academic authors on Babylonian Astrology.
But no-one it seems has a clear picture in his (or her) head of what is that !

They of course are mostly opponents of Astrology and cannot grasp the set of attitude that AstroSophy is.
This is their big problem and one of the source for their many errors.
The other source is that they do not practice what they research- they do not watch the Sky.
This is even bigger problem.
In the end they are brainwashed and arrogant in their succeeding to get away with their nonsense unpunished!
Who to start with?
Ulla Koch-Westenholz ! She wrote the book 'Mesopotamian Astrology'
A typical viewpoint of a good mainstream, politically-correct Assyriology.
Huge errors, with one of which I will deal briefly here.

She rejects the fact that the first tablets of Enuma Anu Enlil date from Sargon the Great and Ur III.
However the facts are absolutely for this dating.
There is one omen in EAE which mentions Sargon by name.
Also EAE mentions the nomadic tribe GUTI and that tribe happened to have existed only for several hundred years around 2300 BC and not after 2000 BC. (Sargon the Great is around 2300 BC in modern dating, the Guti come after him.)

So, obviously she think that she can fool us .

[Michael Erlewine]

This from my old friend Matthew Wolfgang Stolper, Professor of Assyriology and the John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago. Here writes:

… Anyhow, the obvious reference is the book by Francesca Rochberg, Babylonian Horoscopes (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1998), which will have a lot of text-critical stuff, but it will also give you a lot of other bibliography, including various articles of hers.

Also an article called "Babylonian Horoscopy: the Texts and their Sources," In:
Swerdlow, N. M. [Editor], Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divination. (Cambridge; The MIT Press; 1999), pages 39-60.

And if you want something plain and simple, her article on Babylonian Astrology in the Anchor Bible Dictionary--about three pages, maybe some bibliography.

Question is, do you want horoscopic astrology in the proper narrow sense, or all sorts of celestial divination (which goes back a lot earlier and has a much larger literature)?

Generally speaking, though, you might find a couple of on-line resources useful for this

The on-line catalogue of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (with entries only back to about 1975, I think). The search page is at:
http://oilib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/opac/clearsearch

Also a searchable guide to electronic resources concerned with the ancient Near East:
http://www.etana.org/abzu/

He may send more details, in which case I will post them here.

[David_Mastrogiovanni]

I thought I should inform you all that the link Michael provided as to, "Also a searchable guide to electronic resources concerned with the ancient Near East", is no longer valid and it is now; http://www.etana.org/etact