Devoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, and the Extension of the Religious Parliament Idea.
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WHEN we consider the absolute authority that astrology ex-
ercised under the Roman empire, we find it hard to escape
a feeling of surprise. It is difficult to think that people could ever
con si der astrology as the most valuable of alI arts and the queen
f sciences, and it is not easy for us to imagine the moral conditions
that made such a phenomenon possible, because our state of mind
to-day is very differeilt. Little by little the conviction has gained
ground, that alI that can be known about the .future, at least the
future of man and of hum an society,cis conjecture. The progress of
knowledge has taught man to acquiesce in his ignorance.
In former ages it was different: Forebodings and predictions
found universal credence. The ancient forms of divination, how-
ever, had fallen somewhat into disrepute at the beginning of our
era, likc the rest of the Greco-Roman religion. It was no longer
thought that the eagerness or reluctance with which the sacred hens
ate their paste, or the direction of the flight of the birds indicated
coming success or disaster. Abandoned, the Hellenic oracles were
silent. Then appeared astrology , surrounded with alI the pres-
tige of an exact science, and based upon the experience of many
centuries. It promised to ascertain the occurrences of any one's
life with as much precision as the date of an eclipse. The world
was drawn towards it by an irresistible attraction. Astrology did
away with, and gradually relegated to oblivion, alI the ancient
methods that had been devised to solve the enigmas of the future.
Haruspicyand the auguraI art were abandoned, and not even the an-
cient fame of the oracles could save them from falling into irre-
trievable desuetude. This great chimera changed religion as weIl
*c Translated from the French by A. M. Thielen.
~as--diviriàtion; its spirit penetrated 'everything. And truly, if, ,
som~ scholars still hold, the ~ain feature of scienc: is t~e ability t
predlct, no branch of learmng could compare wlth thIs one, il
escape its influence. -j
The success of astrology was connected with that of the Ori~
entai religions, which lent it their support, as it in turn h~lped themj'
We h~Ve seen how it forced itself upon Semitic p~ganism, how 4
transformed Persian Mazdaism and evensubdued the arrogailc~
of the Egyptian sacerdotal caste. Certain mystical treatises ascribe~
to the old Pharaoh N echepso and his confidant, the priest Petosiri~
nebulous and abstruse works that became, one might say, the BibI"
of the new belief in the power of the stars, were translated iilt "
Greek, undoubtedly at Alexandria, about the year 150 before oui
era. About the same time the Chaldean genethlialogy begail tô
spread in Italy, with regard to which Berosus, a priest of the go
Baal, who came to Babylon from the island of Cos, had previousl
succeeded in arousing the curiosity of the Greeks. In 139 a preto
expelled the "Chaldaei" from Rome, together with the Jews. Bu
aIl the adherents of the Syrian goddess, of whom there was quit
a 'number in the occident, were patrons and defenders of thes
Oriental prophets, and police measures were no more successfuf
in stopping the diffusion of their doctrines, than ln the case of the'i
Asiatic mysteries. In the time of Pompey, the senator Nigidius
Figult's, who was an atdent occultist, expounded the barbariail~
ur1lnography in Latin. But the scholar whose authority contributed
most to the final acceptance of sidereal divination was a Syrian,
philosopher ofeocyclopedic knowledge, Posidonius of Apamea, the
têacher of Cicero. The works of, that erudite and religious writer
influenc~d the development of the entire Roman theology more thafl
anything else:
-Utlder the empire, while the Semitic Baals and Mithra were
tritimphing, '1lstrology manifested its power everywhere. Duriilg
that period everybody bowed to it. The Cresars became its fervent
devotees, frequently at the expense of the ancient cuIts. Tiberiu
neglected the gods because he beli~~ed only in fatalism, and Otho,
blind I y confiding in the Oriental seer, marched against Vitellius îil
spite of the baneful presages that affrighted his officiaI. clergy. The
most earnest scholars, Ptolemy under the Antonines for instance,
expot1nded the principles of that pseudo-science, and the very best
minds received them. In fact, scarcely anybody made a distinction
between ast:ronomy and its illegitimate sister. Literature took up
this new and diffic111t subject. anri. as early as the tim~ of Augustt.1~
or Tiberius, Manilius, inspired by the sidereal fatalism, endeavored
to make poetry of that dry "mathematics," as Lucretius, his fore-
runner, had done with the Epicurean atomism. Even art looked
there for inspiration and depicted the stellar deities. At Rome and
in the provinces architects erected sumptuous septizonia in the like-
ness of the seven spheres in which the planets that rule our destinies
move. This Asiatic divination was first aristocratic-because the
obtaining of an exact horoscope was a complicated mat ter, and
consultations were expensive-but it promptly became popular, espe-
cially in the urban centers where Oriental slaves gathered in large
numbers. The learned genethlialogers of the observatories had un-
licensed colleagues, who told fortunes at street-crossings or ili barn-
yards. Even common epitaphs, which Rossi styles "the scull of
inscriptions," have retained traces of that belief. The custom arose
of stating in epitaphs the exact length of a life to the very hour ,
for thé moment of birth determined that of death :
Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet.
Soon neither important nor small matters were undertaken with-
out consulting the astrologer. Ris previsions were sought not only
in regard to great public events like the conduct of a war, the found-
ing of a city, or the accession of a ruler, not only in case of a mar-
riage, a journey, or a change of domicile; but the most trifling acts
of ev~ry-day life were gravely submitted to his sagacity. People
would no longer take a bath, go to the barber, change their clothes
or manicure their fingernails, without first awaiting the propitious
moment. The co.llections of "initiatives" (KaTapxat) that have comc
to uscontain questions that make us smile: Will a son who îs about
tobebo~nhave a big nose? Will a girl just coming into this world
i:lave gallantadventures ? And certain. precepts sound almost like
burlesque~ : he who gets his hair cut while the moon is in her increase
will bec9m~ bald,-,-evidently by analogy .
The entire existence of states and individuals, down to the
slightestincidertts; wàS thought to depend on the stars. The absolute
control they weré supposed toexercise over everybody's daily con-
dition, evenmodified the language in every-day use and left traces
in almost alI idio~s derived from the Latin. If we speak of a
martiàl, or a jovial character, or a lunatic, we are unconsciously
admit ting the existence, in these heavenly bodies (Mars, Jupiter,
Luna) of \their ancient qualities.
It must beacknowledged, however, that the Grecian spirit tried
to combat the folly that was taking hold of the world. and from the
time of its propagation astrology found opponents among the phI
losophers. The most subtle of these adversaries was the probabilis
Carneades, in the second century before our era. The topical argu
ments which he advanced, were taken up, reproduced, and devel'
oped in a thousand ways by later polemicists. For instance, Wer
alI the men that perish together in a batt~e, born at the same moment~,
because they had the same fate ? Or, on the other hand, do we no
observe that twins, born at the same time, have the most unlike
characters and the most different fortunes ?
But dialectics are an accomplishment in which the Greeks eve
excelled, and th~ defenders of astrology found a reply to every ob
jection. They endeavored especially to establish firmly the truth
of observation, upon which rested the entire learned structure o
their art : the influence of the stars over the phenomena of natur
and the characters of individuals. Can it be denied, they said, tha
the sun causes vegetation to appear and to perish, and that it put
animaIs en rut or plunges them into lethargic sleep ? Does not th
movement of the tide depend on the course of the moon ? .Is no
the rising of certain constellations accompanied every year by storms ?
And are not the physical and moral qualities of the different races!
manifestly determined by the climate in which they live ? The actio
of the sky on the earth is undeniable, and, the sidereal influences
once admitted, alI previsions based on them are legitimate. As soon
as the first principle is admitted, alI corollaries are logically derived
from it.
This way of reasoning was universally considered irrefutable..
nefore the advent of Christianity, which especially opposed it because
.
of its idolatrous character, astrology had scarcely any adversaries
except t.hose who denied the possibility of science altogether, namely,.!.'
the neo-academicians, who l}eld that man could not attain certainty,
and such radical sceptics as Sextus Empiricus. Upheld by the stoics,
however, who with very few exceptions were in favor of astrology ,.
it can be maintained that it emerged triumphant from the first
assaults directed against it. The only result of the objections raised
to it was to modify some of its theories. Later, the general weak-
ening of the spirit of criticism assui-èd astrology an almost uncon.i
tested domination. Its adversaries did not renew their polemics ;
they limited themselves to the repetition of arguments that had been
opposed, if not refuted, a hundred times, .and consequently seemed
worn out. At the court of the Severi any one who would have de-
nied the influence of the planets upon the events of this world would
ave been considered more preposterous than he who would admit
t to-day.
But, you will say, if the theorists did not succeed in proving
he doctrinal falsity of astrology, experience should have shown its
orthlessness. Errors must have..,occurred frequentlyand must have
een followed by cruel disillusionment. Having lost a child at the
ge of four for whom a brilliant future had been predicted, the
arents stigmatized in the epitaph the "lying mathematician whose
great renown deluded both of them." But nobody thought of deny-
ng the possibility of such errors. Manuscripts have been preserved,
wherein the makers othoroscopes themselves candidly and learnedly
xplain how they were mistaken in such and such a case, because they
had not taken into account some one of the data of the problem.
Manilius, in spite of his unlimited confidence in the power of reasoll,
hesitated at the complexity of an immense task, that seemed to
exceed the capacity of human intelligence, and in the second century,
Vettius Valens bitterly denounced the contemptible bunglers who
claimed to be prophets, without having had the long training neces-
sary, and who thereby cast odium and ridicule upon astrology, in
the name of which they pretended to operate. It must be remembered
hat astrology, like medicine, was not only a science ( È?TtO'T~P.)j ) , but
Iso an art ( TI.XJl'r] ) .This comparison, which sounds irreverent to-
ay, was a flattering one in the eyes of the ancients. To observe the
sky was as delicate a task as to observe the human body; to cast the
horoscope of a newly born child, just as perilous as to make a diag-
nosis, and to interpret the cosmic symptoms just as hard as to
interpret those of our organism. In both instances the elements
were complex and the chances of crror infinite. All the examples
of patients dying in spite of the physician, or on account oÎ him,
will never keep a person who is tortured by physical pain from ap-
pealing to him for help ; and similarly those whose souls were
troubled with ambition or fear turned to the astrologer for some
remedy for the moral feveitormenting them. The calculator, who
claimed to determine the moment of death, and" the medical prac-
titioner who claimed to avert it rcceived the anxious patronage of
peopl~ worried by this formidable issue. Furthermore, just as mar-
velou~ cures were reported, striking predictio'us wer~ called to mind
or, if need were, invented. The diviner had, as a rule, only a re-
stricted number of possibilities to deal with, and the calculus of
probabilities shows that he must have succeeded sometimes. Mathe-
matics, which fie invoked, was in his favor after all, and chance fre-
quently correct~çl mischance. Moreover. ctid not the man, who hao
.
-~- ---~4_4. _~~4-4.
.
a well-frequented consulting-office, possess a thousand means, if
he was clever, of placing alI the chances on his side, in the hàzardou~
profession he followed, and of reading in the stars anything ht ,
thought expedient ? He observed the eàrth rather than the sky,
and took care not to fall into a we.ll. !,
* * *
However, what helped most to make astrology invulnerable to ,
the blows of reason and of common sense, was the fact that i!l
reality, the apparent rigor of its calculus and its theorems notwith-
standing, it was not a science but a faith. W~ mean not. only that,
it implied belief in postulates that could not be proved-the saille
thing might be said of almost alI of our poor human knowledge,
and even our systems of physics and cosmology in the last analysis
are based upon hypotheses-but that astrology was born and reared
in the temples of Chaldea and Egypt. Even in .the Occident it neverj
forgot its sacerdotal origin and never more than hàlf freed itself
from religion, whose offspring it was. Here lies the connectio!l
between astrology a_nd the Oriental religions, and I wish to draw
the reader's special attention to this point.
The Greek works and treatises on astrology that have corn
down to us, reveal this essential feature only very imperfectly. Th
Byzantines stripped this pseudo-science, always regarded suspiciously
by the Church, of everything that savored of paganism. Their pro..\
cess of purification can, in some instances, be traced from manu-
script to manu script. If they retained the name of some god or
hero of mythology, the only way they dared to write it was bXi
cryptography. They have especially preserved purely didactic treat;
ises, the most perfect type of which is Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos which
has been constantly quoted and commented upon ; and they have
reproduced almost exclusively expurgated texts, in which the prin-
ciples of the various doctrines are drily summarized. During the
classic age works of a different character were commonly read.
Many "Chaldeans" interspersed their cosmological calculations and
theories with moral consideration&-.and mystical speculations. In,
the first part of a work that he names "Vision" C"Opaut.. ) Critod-
emus, in prophetic language, represents the truths he reveals as a
secure harbor of refuge from the storms of this world, and he prcill~
ises his readers to raise them to the rank of immortals. Vettiu 1
Valens, a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius, implored them in sc If
emn terms, not to divulge to the ignorant .and impious the arcan4'
he was about to acquaint them with. Theastrologers liked tc asi
J.
'.-
sume the appearance ot tnCOrruptll>le and holy prlests and to con-
sider their calling a sacerdotal one. In fact, the two m:nistries
sometimes combined : A dignitary of the Mithraic clergy called
himself studiosus astrolo giae in his epitaph, and a member of a
prominent family of Phrygian prèlates celebrated in verse the science
of divination w hich enabled him to issue a number of infallible
predictions.
The sacred character of astrology revealed itself in some pas-
sages that escaped the orthodox censt:re and in the tone some of its
followers assumed, but we must go ft"rther and show that astrology
was religious in its principles as weIl as in its conclt"sions, the debt
it owed to mathematics and observation notwithstanding.
The fundamental dogma of astrology , as conceived by the
Greeks, was that of tmiversal solidarity. The wcrld is a vast organ-
ism, alI the parts of which are connected through an unceasing ex-
change of molecules or effluvia. The stars, inexhat'stible generatdrs
of energy , constantly act upon the earth and man-upon man, the
epitome of all nature, a "microcosm" whose every elemenf cor-
responds to some part of the starry sky. This was, in a few .words~
the theory formulated by the stoic disciples of the Chaldeans ; but if
we divest it of a)l the philosophic garments with which it has been
adorned, what do we find ? The idea of sympathy, a belief as old
as human society! The savage peoples also established mysterious
relations between all bodies and all the beings that inhabit the earth
and the heavens, and which to them were animated with a .1ife of
their own endowed with latent power, but we shall speak of this
later on, when taking up the subject of magic. Even before the
propagation of the Oriental religions, popular superstition in Italy
and Greece attributed a number of odd actions to the sun, the moon,
and the constellations as well.
The Chaldaei, however, claimed a predominant power for the
stars. In fact, fhey were regarded as gods par excellence by the
religion of the ancient Chaldeans in its beginnings. The sidereal
religion of Babylon concentrated deity, one inight say, in the lu-
minous moving bodies at the expense of. other natural objects; such
as stones, plants, anirtlals, which the primitive Semitic faith con-
sidered equally divine. The stars always retained this chara:cter ,
even at Rome. They were not, as to us, infinitely distant bodies
moving in space according to the inflexible laws of mecha:nics, and
whose chemical composition may be determined. To the Latins
as to the OrientaIs, they were propitious or baleful deities. whose
ever-changing relations determined the events of this world. ~..,î~
The sky, whose unfathomable depth had not yet been perceived,
was peopled with heroes and monsters of contrary passions, and
the struggle above had an immediate echo upon earth. By what
principle have such a quality and so great an influence been attrib-
uted to the stars ? Is it for reasons derived from their apparent
motion and known through observation or experience ? Sometimes.
Saturn made people apathetic and irresolute, because it moved most
slowly of alI the planets. But in most instances purely mythological
reasons inspired the precepts of astrology .The seven planets were
associated with certain deities, Mars, V cnus, or Mercury, whose
character and history are known to alI. Tt is sufficient simply to
pronounce their names to calI to mind certain personalities that may!
be expected to act according to their natures, in every instance. Tt
was natural for Venus to favor lovers, and for Mercury to assure
the success of business transactions and dishonest deals. The same
applies to the constellations, with which a number of legends are
connected; "catasterism" or translation into the stars, became the
natûral conclusion of a great many tales. The heroes of mythol-
-ogy, Qr even those of human society, continued to live in the sky
in the form of brilliant stars. There Perseus again met Andromeda,
and the centaur Chiron, who is none other than Sagittarius, was on
terms of good fellowship with the Dioscuri.
These constellations, then, assumed to a certain extent the good
and the bad qualities of the mythical or historical beings that had
been transferred upon them. For instance, the serpent, which shines
near the northern pole, was the author of medical cures, because it
was the animal sacred to JEsculapius.
The religious foundation of the rules of astrology , however ,
can not always be recognized. Sometimes it is entirely forgotten,
and in such cases the ruJes assume the appearance of axioms, or of
laws based upon long observation of celestial phenomena. Here
we have a simple aspect of science. The process of assimilation with
the gods and catasterism were known in the Orient long before
they were practiced in Greece.
The traditional outlines that we reproduce on our celestial maps
are the fossil remains of a luxuriant'mythological vegetation, and
besides our classic sphere the ancients knew another, the "barbarian"
sphere, peopled with a world of fantastic persons and animaIs.
These sidereal monsters, to whom powerful qualities were ascribed,
were likewise the remnants of a multitude of forgotten beliefs.
Zoolatry was abandoned in the temples, but people continued to
regard as divine the lion, the ~ull, the bear, and the fishes, which
the Oriental imagination had seen in the starry vault. Old totems
of the Semitic tribes or of the Egyptian divisions lived again, trans-
formed into constellations. Heterogeneous elements, taken from
alI the religions of the Orient, were combined in the uranography
of the ancients,. and in the power ascribed to the phantoms that it
evoked, vibrates the indistinct echo of ancient devotions that are
often completely unknown to us.
Astrology , then, was religious in its origin and in its principles.
It was religious also in its close relation to the Oriental religions,
especially those of the Syrian Baals and of Mithra; finally, it was
religious in the effects that it produced. l do not mean the effects
expected from a constellation in any particular instance: as for ex-
ample the power to evoke the gods that were subject to their domi-
nation. But l have in mind the general influence those doctrines
exercised upon Roman paganism. ,
When the Olympian gods were incorporated among the stars,
when Saturn and Jupiter became planets and the celestial virgin a
sign of the zodiac, they assumed a character very different from
the one they had originally possessed. It has been shown how, in
Syria, the idea of an infinite repetition of cycles of years according
to which the; celestial revolutions took place, led to the conception
of divine eternity, how the theory of a fatal domination of the stars
over the earth brought about that of the omnipotence of the "lord
of the heavens," and how the introduction of a universal religion
was the necessary result of the belief that the stars exerted an in-
fluence upon the peoples of every climat.e. The logic of alI these
consequences of the principles of astrology was plain to the Latin
as weIl as to the Semitic races, and caused a rapid transformation
of the ancient idoiatry. As in Syria, the sun, which the astrologers
called the leader of the planetary choir, "who is established as
king and leader of the whole world," necessarily became the highest
power of the Roman pantheon.
Astrology also modified theology, .by introducing into this pan-
theon a great number of new gods, some of whom were singularly
abstract. Thereafter man worshiped the constellations of the firma-
ment, particularly the twelve signs of thezodiac, every one of which
had its mythologic legend; the sky (Caelus) itself, because it was
r:onsidered the first cause, and was sometimes confused with the
supreme being; the four elements, the antithesis and perpetual trans-
mutations of which produced alI tangible phenomena, and which
were often symbolized by a group of animaIs ready to devour each
other; finally, time and its subdivisions.
~;}~ :
The calendars were religious before they were secular ; thei~
purpose was not, primarily, to record fleeting time, but to ObServ
~the recurrence of propitious or inauspicious dates separated by p
riodic intervals. It is a mat ter of experience that the return of cer
tain moments is associated with the appearance.of ce~tain phenomena
they have, therefore, a special efficacy, and are endowed with a sacre4
character. By determining periods with mathematical exactness, aSf
trology continued to see in them "a divine power ," to use Zeno's terni
Time, that regtùates the course of the stars and the transubstantiatiort
,-
of the elements, was conceived of as the master of the gods and the
primordial principle, and was likened to destiny. Each part of its
infinite du ration brought with it some propitious or evil movement
of the sky that was anxiously observed, and transformed the ever
modified universe. The centuries, the years and the seasons, placed
into relation with the four winds and the four cprdinal points, the
twelve months conriected with the zodiac, the day and the night,
the twelve hours, alI were personified and deified, as the authors o
every change in the universe. The allegorical figures contrived for
these abstractions by astrological paganism did not even perish wit
it. The symbolism it bad disseminated outlived it, and until the
Middle Ages these pictures of fallen gods were reproduced in
definitely in sculpture, mosaics, and in Christian miniatures.
Thus astrology entered into alI religious ideas, and the doc-!
trines of the destiny of the world and of man harmonized with its
teachings. According to Berosus, who is the interpreter of ancien
Chaldea.n theories, the existence of the universe consisted of a se rie
of "big years," each having its summer and its winter. Their sum
mer took place ~hen alI the planets were in conjunction at the sam
point of Cancer, and brought with it a general conflagration. O
the other hand, their winter came when alI the planets were joine
in Capricorn, and its result was a univers al flood. Each of thes
cosmic cycles, the du ration of which was fixed at 432,oooyears ac
cording to the most probable estimate, was an exact reproductio
of those that had preceded it. In fact, when the stars resume
exactly the same position, they were forced to act in identically th
same manner as before. This Babylonian theory, an anticipation o
that of the l'eternal return of things," which Nietzsche boasts of
having discovered, enjoyed lasting pop~larity du ring antiquity, and
in various forms came down to the Renaissance. The belief tha
the world would be destroyed by fire, a theory also spread abroa
by the Stoics, found a new support in these cosmic speculations.
Astrology. however, revealed the future not only of the Imi
verse, but also of man. According to a Chaldeo- Persian doctrine,
accepted by the pàgan mystics, a bitter necessity compelled the
souls that dwell in great numbers on the celestial heights, to descend
upon this earth and to animate certain bodies that are to hold them
in captivity. In descending to the earth they travel through the
spheres of the planets and receive some quality from each of these
wandering stars, according to its positions. Contrariwise, when
cleath releases them from their carnal prison, the)' return to their first
habitation, providing they have led a pious life, and if as they pass
through the doors of the superposed heavens they divest themselves
of the passions and inclinations acquired during thèir first journey,
to ascend finaIly, as pure essence to the radiant abode of the gods.
There they live forever among the eternal stars, freed from the
tyranny of destiny and even from the limitations of time.
This alliance of the theorems of astronomy with their old be-
...liefs supplied the Chaldeans with answers to alI the questions that
men asked concerning the relation of heaven and earth, the nature
of God, the existence of the world, and their own destiny. Astrol-
ogy was reaIly the first scientific theology .HeIlenistic logic ar-
ranged the Oriental doctrines properly, corpbined them with the
stoic philosophy and built them up into a system of indisputahle
grandeur ," an ideal reconstruction of the universe, the powerful
assurance of which inspired Manilius to sublime language when he
was not exhausted byhis efforts fo master an ill-adapted theme.
The vague and irrational notion of "sympathy" is transformed
into a deep sense of the relationship between the human soul, an
igneous substance, and the divine stars, and this feeling is strength-
ened by thought. The contemplation of the sky has become a com-
munion. During the splendor of night the mind of man became
intoxicated with the light streaming from above ; born on the wings
of enthusiasm, he ascended into the sacred choir of the stars and
took part in their harnloniotls movements. "He participates in tlieir
immortality, and, before his appointed hour, converses with the
gods." In spite of the subtle precision the Greeks always main-
tained in their speculations, the feeling that permèated astrology
clown to the end of paganism never belied its Oriental and religi0t1;;
origin.
The nlost essential principle of astrology was that of fatalism.
As the poet says :
"Fata regunt. orbem, certa stant omnia lege."
,
The Chaldeans werethe first...toconceivethe irlea of an in-
~;J- L ~~~ ~~ ~~, ~~U~.~..
flexible necessity ruling the universe, instead of gods acting in th
\vorld according to their passions, like men in society. They noticec
that an immutable law regulated the movements of the celesti
bodies, and, in the first enthusiasm of their discovery they extende
its effects to alI moral and social phenomena, The postulates o
astrology imply an absolute determinism. Tyche, or deified fortune
became the irresistible mistress of mortals and immortals alike, an
was even worshiped exclusively by some under the empire. Out
deliberate will never plays 1'nore than avery limited part in ou
happiness and success, but, among the pronunciamentos and in th
anarchy of the third century, blind chance seemed to play with th
life of every one according to its fancy, and it can easily be un der
stood that the ephemeral rulers of that period, like the masses, sa
in chance the sovereign disposer of their fates.
The power of this fatalist conception du ring antiquity may b
measured by its long persistence, at least in the Orient, where it
, originated. Starting from Babylonia, it spread over the entire Hel-
lenic world, as early as the Alexandrian period, and towards the
end of paganism a considerable part of the efforts of the Christian
apologists was directed against it. But it was destined to outlast
alI attacks, and to impose itself even on Islam. In Latin Europe,
in spite of the anathemas of the Church, the belief remained con-
fusedly al ive alI through the Middle Ages that on this earth everJ"-
thing happens somewhat
"Fer ovra delle rote magne,
Che drizzan ciascun seme adalcun fine
Secondo che le stella son campagne."
The weapons used by the ecclesiastic writers in contending
against this sidereal fatalism were taken .from the arsenal of the
old Greek dialectics. In general, they were those that alI defenders
of free will had used for centuries: determinism destroys respon-
sibility; rewards and punishments are absurd if man acts under a
necessity that compels him, if he is born a hero or a criminal. We
shall not dwell on 'these metaphysicaI.. discussions, but there is one
argument that is more closely connected with our subject, and there-
fore should be mentioned. If we live under an immutable fate, no
supplication can change its decisions; religion is unavqiling, it is
useless to ask the oracles to reveal the secrets of a future which
nothing can change, and prayers, to use one of Seneca's expressions,
are nothing but "the solace of diseased minds."
And, àoubtless, some adepts of astrology.. like the Emperor
iberius, neglected the practice of religion, because they were con-
vinced that fate governed aIl things. Following the example set by
he stoics, they made absolute submission to an almighty fate and
joyful acceptance of the inevitable a moral dut y, and were satisfied
to worship the superior power that ruled the universe, without de-'
manding anything in return. They considered themselves at the
mercy of even the most capriciousfate, and were like the intelligent
slave who guesses the desires of his master to satisfy them, and
knows how to make the hardest servitude tolerable. The masses,
however, never reached that height of resignation. They looked at
astrology far more from a religious than from a logical standpoint.
The planets and constellations were not only cosmic forces, whose
favorable or inauspicious action grew weaker or stronger according
to the turnings of a course established for eternity ; they were deities
who saw and heard, who were glad or sad, who had a voice and
sex, who were prolific or sterile, gentle or savage, obsequious or
arrogant. Their anger could therefore be soothed and their favbr
obtained through rites and offerings ; even the adverse stars were
not unrelenting and could be persuaded through sacrifices and ~uppli-
cations. The narrow and pedantic Firmicus Maternus strongly as-
serts the omnipotence of fate, but at the same time he invokes the
gods and asks for their aid against the influence of the stars. As
late as the fourth century the pagans of Rome who were about to
marry, or tb make a purchase, or to solicit a public office, went to
the diviner for his prognostics, at the same time praying to Fate for
prosperity in their undertaking. Thus a fundamental antinomy
manifested itself alI through the development of astrology , which
pretended to be an exact science, but always remained a sacerdotal
theology.
Of course, the more the idea of fatalism imposed itself and
spread, the more the weight of this hopeless theory oppressed the
consciousness. Man felt himself dominated and crushed by blind
fôrces that dragged him on as irresistibly as they kept the celestial
spheres in motion. Ris soul tried to escape the oppression of this
cosmic mechanism, and to leave the slavery of Ananke. But he no
longer had confidence in the ceremonies of his old religion. The new
pbwers that had taken possession of heaven had to be propitiated
by new means. The Oriental' religions themselves offered a remedy
against the evils they had created, and taught powerful and mys-
terious processes for conjuring fate. And side by side with astrot-
bgy we see magic, a more pernicious aberration, gaining ground.
If, from the reading of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, we pass on t
read a magic papyrus, our first impres$ion is that we have stepp
from one end of the intellectual world to the other. Here we fin
no trace of the systematic order or severe method that distinguish the
work of the scholar of .t.,.lexandria. Of course, the doctrines of
astrology are just as chimerical as those of magic, but they are
deduced with an amount of logic, entirely wanting in works o
sorcery, that compels reasoning intellects to accept them. Recipe.
borrowed from medicine and popular superstition, primitive prat..'
tices rejected or abandoned by the sacerdotal rituals, beliefs repu:
diated by a progressive moral religion, plagiarisms and forgerie
of literary or liturgic texts, incantations in which the gods of al'
barbarous nations are invoked in unintelligible gibberish, odd andj
disconcerting ceremonies,-all these form a chaos in which the im~~:
agination loses itself, apotpourri in w?ich ~n arbitrary s.yncretis
J'
seems to have attempted to create an mextncable confusion.
However, if we observe, more closely, how magic operates, w j
find that it starts out from the same principles and acts along th
~same line of reasoning as astrology. Born during the same period
in the primitive civ.ilizations o~ th~ Orient, both were based on ,
number of common Ideas. Maglc, Ilke astrology, proceeded from th .
principle of universal sympathy, yet it did not con si der the relationj
existing between the stars, traversing the heavens, and physical orj
moral phenomena, but the relation between whatever bodies there'
are. It started out from the preconceived idea that an obscure butt
constant relation exists between certain things, certain words, certainf;
persons. This connection was established without. hesitation be-J!
tween: dead material things and living beings, because the primitive
races ascribed a soul and existence, similar to those of man, to every-
thing surrounding them. The distinction between the three king-:
doms of nature was unknown to them ;they w~re "animists." The
life of a person might, therefore, be linked to that of a thing, a t.ree,
O! an af!imal, in such a manner that onedied if the ot.her did, andthat
any damage suffered by.one was also sustained by its inseparable
associate. Sometimesthe relation was founded on clearlyintelligible
grounds, like a resemblance between the thing and the being, as
where, to kill an enemy, one pierced a waxen figure supposed to
represent him. Or a contact, even merely passing by, was believed
to have created indestructible affinities, for instance where the gar-
ments of an absent person were operated upon. Often, also, these
imaginary relations were founded on reasons that escape us: like the
qualities attributed by astrology to the stars, they may have !>een
deriv~d from old beliefs the memory of which is lost.
Like astrolQgy, then, magic was a science in some respects. First,
like the predict.ions of its sister, itwas partly based on observation-
observation frequently rudimentary, superficial, hast y, and erroneous,
but nevertheless important. It was an experimental discipline.
Among the great number of facts noted by the curiosity of the
magicians, tbere were many that received scientific indorsement
later on. The attraction of the magnet for iron was utilized by the
thaumaturgi before it was interpreted by the natural philosoph~rs..
In the vast compilations that circulated under the venerable names
of Zoroaster or Hostanes, many fertile remarks were scattered
among puerile ideas and absurd teachings, just as in the Greek trea-
tises on alchemy that have corne down to us. The idea that knowl-
edge of t.he power of certain agents enables one to stimulate the
hidden forces of the univer$e into action and to obtain extraordinary
results, inspires the researches of physics to-day, just as it inspired
the claims of magic. And if astrology was a perverted astronomy,
magic was physics gone astray.
Moreover, and again like astrology, magic was a science, be-
cause it started from the fundamental conception that order and law
exist in nature, and that the same cause always produces the same
effect. An occult ceremony, performed with the same care as an
experiment. in the chemicallaboratory, willalways have the expected
result.. To know the mysterious affinities that connect alI things is
sufficient to set the mechanism of the universe into motion. ~ut
the erroi- of the magicians consisted in establishing a connection
between phenomena that do not depend on each other at alI. The
act. oi exposing to the light, for an instant, a sensitive plate in ~
camera,then immersing it,..according to given recipes, in appropriate
liquidst and of making the pictt1i-e of a relative or friend appear
tbereon is a magical operation,. but. based on real actions and reac-
tions, instead o{ on arbitrarily a:ssumed sympathies and antipathies.
Magic, therefore, was a science groping in the dark, and 1ater be-
came "a bastard sister of science," as Frazer puts it.
But; like astrology , magic was religiot1s in origin, and always
remained a bastard sister of religion. Both grew up together in
the temples of the barbarian Orient. Their practices were, at first,
part of the dubiot1s knowledge of fetichists who claimed to bave
control over the spirits that peopled nature and animated everything,
and who claimed that they communicated with these spirits by means
of rites known ta them!'elve!' alon~. Magic ha!' been cleverly c1~finec1
"as "the strategy of animism." But, just as the growing powe
ascribed by the Chaldeans to the sidereal deities transformed th
original astrology , so primitive sorcery assumèd a different characte
when the world of the gods, conceived after the image of man, sep-
arated itself more and more from the realm of physical forces and be-
came a realm of its own. This gave the mystic element which al
ways entered the ceremonies, a new precision and development. By
means of his charms, talismans, and exorcisms, the magician now
communicated with the celestialor infernal "demons" and compelled
them to obey him. But these spirits no longer opposed him with
the blind resistance of mat ter animated with an uncertain kind of
life; they were active and subtle beings having intelligence and will-
power. Sometimes they took revenge for the slavery the magician
attempted to impose on them and punished the audacious operator,
who feared them, although invoking their aid. Thus the incantation
often assumed the shape of a prayer addressed to a power stronger
than man, and magic became a religion. lts rites developed side
by side with the canonical liturgies, and frequently encroached on
them. The only barrier between them was the vague and constantly
shifting borderline that limits the neighboring domains of religion
and superstition.
* * *
This half scientific, half religious magic, with its books and its
professional adepts, is of Oriental origin. The old Grecian and
ltalian sorcery appears to have been rather mild. Conjurations to
avert hai1-storms, or formulas to draw rain, evil charms to render
fields barren or to kill cattle, love philters and rejuvenating salves,
old women's remedies, talismans against the evil eye,-all are based
on popular superstition and kept in existence by folk-lore and char-
latanism. Even the witches of Thessaly, whom people credited with
the power of making the moOn descend from the sky, were botanists
more than anything else, acquainted with the marvelous virtues of
medicinal plants; The terror that the necromancers inspired was due,
to a considerable extent, to the use they made of the old belief in
ghosts. They exploited the superstiti;;-us belief in ghost-power and
slipped metal tablets covered with execrations into graves, to bring
mis fortune or death to some enemy. But neither in Greece nor in
ltaly is there any trace of a coherent system of doctrines, of an
occult and learned discipline, nor of any sacerdotal instruction.
Originally the adepts in this dubious art were despised. As late
:I.S the periorl of A 11g11~tU~ they were 2"enerally f'ql1ivocal heg2:ar-
women who plied their miserable tracte in the lowest quarters 01 mt:
slums. But with the invasion of the Oriental religions the magician
began. to receive more consideration, and his condition improved.
He was honored; and feared even more. During the second century
scarcely anybody would have doubted his power to calI up divine
apparitions, converse with the superior spirits and even translate
himse:lf bodily into the heavèns.
Here the victorious progress of the Oriental religions shows
itself. The Egyptian ritual originally was nothing but a collection
of magical practices, properly speaking. The religious community
imposed its will upon the"gods by means of prayers or even threats.
The gods were compelled to obey the officiating priest, if the liturgy
was correctly performed, and if the incantations and the magic
words were pronounced with the right intonation. The well-in-
formed priest had an almost unlimited power over alI supernatural
beings on land, in the water, in the air, in heaven and in hell. N 0-
where was the gulf between things human and things divine smaller ,
nowhere was the increasing differentiation that separated magic
from religion less advanced. U ntil the end of paganism they re-
mained so closely associated that it is sometimes difficult to distin-
guish the texts of one from those of the other.
The Chaldeans also were past masters of sorcery, weIl versed
in the knowledge of presages and experts ln conjuring the evils
which the presages foretold. In Mesopotamia, where they were con-
fidential advisers of the kings, the magicians belonged to the offi-
cial clergy; t11ey invoked the aid of the state gods rn their incanta-
tions, and their sacred science was as highly esteemed as haruspicy
in Etruria. The immense prestige that continued to surround it,
assured its persistence after the fall of Nineveh and Babylon. Its
tradition was still alive under the Cresars. and a number of enchanters
rightly or wrongly claimed to possess the ancient wisdom of Chal-
dea. .
And the thaumaturgus, who was supposed to be the heir of the
archaic priests, assumed a wholly sacerdotal appearance at Rome.
Being an inspired sage who received confidential communications
from heavenly spirits, he gave to his life and to his ~ppearance a
digqity almost equal to that of the philosopher. The common people
soon confused the two, and the Orientalizing philosophy of the last
period of paganism actually accepted and justified alI the super-
stitions of magic. Neo-Platonism, which concerned itself to a large
extent with demonology , leaned more and more towards theurgy ,
qnd w~s finallr completelr absorbec1 br it,
But the ancients expressly distinguished "magic," which wa~
always under st"spicion and disapproved of, from the legitimate an~
honorable àrt for which the name "theurgy" was invented. The ter~
"magician" (p.ayo..) , which applied to ali performers of miracles~
properly means the priests of Mazdaism, and a weli attested tra ,
dition makes the Persians the authors of the real magic, that calle
"black magic" by the Middle Ages. If they did riot invent it-be
cause it is as old as hl'manity-they were at least the first to place i
upon a dcctrinal foundation cand to assign to it a place in a clearly
formulated theological system. The Mazdian dlalism gave a ne
power to this perniciol'S knowledge by coriferring upon it the char-
acter that wili distinguish it henceforth.
Ùnder what influences did the Persian magic come into exist-
ence ? When and how did it spread ? These are questions that are,
,
not weIl elucidatèd yet. The intimate fusion of the religious doc-"
trines of the Iranian conquerors with those of the native clergy , which
took place at Babylon, occl'rred in this era of belief, and the magi-
cians that were established in Mesopotamia combined their secret.
traditions with the rites and formulas codified by the Chaldean
sorcerers. The universal cl'riosity of the Greeks soon took note
of this marvelovs science. Naturalist philosophers like Democritus,
the great traveler, seem to have helped themselves more than once
from the treasure of observations collected by the Oriental priests.
Withot't a dot'bt they drew from these incongruous compilations,
in which trt'th was mingled with the absurd and reality with the
fantastical, the knowledge of some properties of plants and min-
eraIs, or of some experiments of physics. However, the limpid
Hellenic genius always turned away from the misty speculations
of magic, giving them but slight consideration. But towards the end
of the Alexandrine period the books ascribed to the half-mythical
masters of the Persian science, Zoroaster, Hostanes and H ystaspes,
were transJated into Greek, and until the end of paganism those
names enjoyed a prodigious au~hority. At the same time the Jews,
who were acquainted with the arcana of the Irano-.Chaldean doc-
trines and proceedings, made some of the recipes. known wherever
the dispersion brought them. Later,"' a more immediate influence
was exercised upon the Roman world by the Persian colonies of
Asia Minor, who retained an obstinate faith in their ancient national
beliefs.
The particular importance attributed to magic by the Mazdians
is a necessary consequence of their dualist system, which has been
treated by us before. Ormuzd, residing in the heavens of light, is
opposed by his irreconcilable adversary, Ahriman, ruler of the under-
world. The one stands for light, truth, and goodness, the other for
darkness, falsehood, and perversity. The one commands the kind
spirits which protect the pious believer, the other is master over
demons whose malice causes alI the evils that afflict humanity. These
opposite principles fight for the domination of the earth, and each
creates favorable or noxiou~ animaIs and plants. Everything on
earth is either heavenly or infernal. Ahriman and his demons, who
surround man to tempt or hurt him, are evil gods and entirely
different from those of which Ormuzd's host consists. The magician
sacrifices to them, either to avert evils they threaten, or to direct
their ire against enemies of true belief, and the impure spirits re-
joice in bloody immolations and delight in the fumes of flesh burn-
ing on the altar. Terrible acts and words attended alI immolations.
Plutarch mentions an example of the dark sacrifices of the Mazdians.
"ln a mortar ," he says, "they pound a certain herb called wild garlic,
at the same time invoking Rades ( Ahriman) , and the powers of
darkness, then stirring this herb in the blood of a slaughtered wolf,
they take it away and drop it on a spot never reached by the rays
of the sun." A necromantic performance indeed.
We can imagine the new strength which such a conception of
the universe must have given to magic. It was no longer an in-
congruous collection ot popular superstitions and scientific observa-
tions. It became a reversed religion: its nocturnal rites were the
dreadful liturgy of the infernal powers. There was no miracle the
experienced magician might not expect ta perform with the aid of
the demons, providing he knew how to master them ; he would in-
vent any atrocity in his desire to gain the favor of the evil divinities
whom crime gratified and suffering pleased: Rence the number of
Împious practices performed in the dark, practices the horror of
which is equaled only by their absurdity: preparing beverages that
disturbed the senses and impaired the intellect; mixing subtle poi-
sons extracted from demoniac plants and corpses already in astate
of putridity ; immolating children in order to read the future in their
quivering entrails or to conjure up ghosts. AlI the satanic refine-
ment that a perverted imagination in astate of insanity could con-
ceive pleased the malicious evil spirits; the more odious the mon-
strosity, the more assured was its efficacy. These abominable prac-
tices were sternly suppressed by the Roman government. Whereas,
in the case of an astrologer who had committed an open trans-
gression, the law was satisfied with expelling him from Rome-
whither he generally soon returned,-the magician wàs put in the
uuv Lnr. vrr.L~ ...VU". .
same class with murderers and poisoners, and was subjected to the
very severest punishment. He was nailed to the cross or thrown
to the wild beasts. N ot only the practice of the profession, but even
the simple fact of possesing works of sorcery made any one subject
to prosecution.
However, there areways of reaching an agreement with the
police, and in this case customwas stronger than law. The inter-!
mittent rigor of imperial edicts had no more power to destroy an
inveterate superstition than the Chri~tian polemics had to cure it.
It was a recognition of its strength when State and Church united
to fight it. Neither reached the root of the evil, for they did no
deny the reality of the power wielded by the sorcerers. As long a
it was admitied that malicious spirits constantly interfered in huma
affairs, and that there were secret means enabling the operator t
dominate those, spirits or to share in their power, magic was in-;
destrt,ctible. It appealed to too many human passions to remai
tinheard. If, on the one hand, the desire of penetrating the mys
te ries of the future, the fear of unknown misfortunes, and hopej
always reviving, led the anxious masses to seek a chimerical cer
tainty in astrology , on the other hand, in the case of magic, th
blinding charm of the marvelous, the entreaties o.f love and ambition;
the bitter desire for revenge, the fa~cination of crime, and the in-j
toxication of bloodshed,-all the instincts that are not avowable and
that are satisfied in the dark, took turns in practicing their seduc-
tions. Durlng the entire life of the Roman empire its existence(
continued, and the very I:nystery that it was compelled to hide iff"
increased its prestige and almost gave it the authority of a revela-
.
bon. ~
A curious occurrence that took place towards the end of the fifthî
;
century at Beirut, in Syria, shows how deeply even the strongest"
intellects of that period believed in the most atrocious practices of'
magic. One night some students of the famous law-school of that
city attempted to kill a slave in the circus; to aid the master in ob-
taining the favor of a woman who scorned him. Being reported
they had to deliver up their hidden volumes, of which those oi
Zoroaster and of Hostanes were found, together with those written
by the astrologer Manetho. The whole city was agitated, and
searches proved that many young men preferred the study of the
illicit science to that of Roman law. By order of the bishop a sol-
emn auto-da-fé was made of all this literatut:e, in the presence of
the city officiaIs and the clergy, and the most revolting passages
were read in public, "in order to acquaint everybody with the con-
ceited and vain promises of the demons," as the pious writer of the
story says.
Thus the ancient traditions of magic continued .to live in the
Christian Orient after the fall of paganism. They even outlived the
domination of the Church. The rigorous principles of its mono-
theism notwithstanding, Islam became infected wifh those Persîan
superstitions. In the Occident the evil art resisted persecution and
anathemas with the same obstinacy as in the Orient. It remained
alive in Rome all through the fifth century, and when scientific astrol-
ogy in Europe went down with science itself, the old Mazdian dual-
ism continued to manifest itself, du ring the entire Middle Ages in
the ceremonies of the black mass and the worshiping of Satan, until
the dawn of the modern era.
* * *
Twin sisters, born of the superstitions of the learned Orient,
magic and astrology always remained the hybrid daughters of sacer-
dotal culture. Their existence was governed by two contrary prin-
ciples, reason and faith, and they never ceased to fluctuate between
these two poles of thought. Both were inspired by a belief in uni-
versaI sympathy, according to which OCCtùt and powerful relations
exist between human beings and dead objects, aIl of which possess
a mysterious life. The doctrine of sidereal influences, combined
with a knowledge of the immutability of the celestial revolutions,
caused astrology to formulate the first theory of absolute fatalism,
whose decrees might be known beforehand. But, besides this rig-
orous determinism, it retained its childhood faith î~ the divine stars,
whose favor could be secured and malignity avoided through wor-
ship. In astrology the experimental method was reduced to the
completing of prognostics based on the supposed character of the
stellar gods.
Magic also remained half empirical and half religious. Like
our physics, it was based on observation, it proclaimed the constancy
of the laws of nature, and sought to conquer the latent energies of
the mat&ial world in order to bring them under the dominion of
man's wiU. But at the same time it recognized, in the powers that
it claimed to conquer, spirits or demons whose protection might be
obtained, whose iU-wiU might be appeased, or whose savage hostility
might be unchained by means of immolations and incantations.
AU their aberrations notwithstanding, astrology and magic were
not entirely fruitless. Their counterfeit learning has been a genuine
help to the progress of human knowledge. Because they awakeneq
-;
chimerical hopes and fallacious ambitions in the minds of their;
adepts, researches were undertaken which undoubtedly would never
have been started or persisted in for the sake of a <:Iisinterested love;
of truth. The observations, collected with untiring patience by the,
Oriental priests, caused the first physical and astronomical discov-
eries, and, as in the time of the scholastics, the occult sciences led
to the exact ones. But when these understood the vanity of the
astounding illusions on which astrology and magic had subsisted,
they broke up the foundations of the arts to which they owed their
birth.
c