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CHINESE ASTROLOGY

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Bianca
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« Reply #15 on: August 31, 2007, 06:06:48 pm »

                                                        



Xiang Yi Fu.
(The Study of Celestial Phenomena).
Beijing: ca. 1580.
Manuscript.
Chinese Rare Book Collection,
Asian Division (97.1)
 
Scholars in ancient China studied the natural phenomena of the sky to determine their effects on human destiny. The illustration on the right depicts an eclipse, indicating bloodshed and fighting in the country and the future overthrow of the top official (emperor). In contrast, the illustration on the left, showing a rabbit in the moon (rather than a man, as in European folklore), is a good omen. A bright moon indicates that prosperity is at hand.


http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/heavens.html
« Last Edit: August 31, 2007, 06:38:01 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #16 on: August 31, 2007, 06:13:25 pm »

                                                  
                                                                   Gen'y Yoshida.
                                                                   Hkan hikets shusei.
                                                                   Tokyo: Sshid, 1882.
                                                                   Japanese Section,
                                                                   Asian Division (97)



Japanese Calendar, 1882
Believing that the movements of the heavens and earth controlled human affairs, ancient scholars in East Asia studied astrology and geomancy (divination by line or geographical features) to develop calendars that determined the seasons and human activities. The displayed volume contains calendars followed by the Japanese in their daily life.


http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/heavens.html
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Bianca
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« Reply #17 on: December 13, 2007, 08:00:19 pm »








Ancient Chinese Astronomy: New insights from old information





- 26 Nov 2007
By Nigel Henbest 
 
China has the world’s longest-running observations of the sky: though based in astrology, they are
of unique importance to astronomy today.

In 210 BC, the great First Emperor of China was buried near Xi’an with his famous Terracotta Army of full-sized clay warriors. According a contemporary account, his own tomb – yet to be excavated –
was even more lavish, containing a fabulous double map: “Below was a map of the Earth. The hundred rivers of the Empire were modeled in mercury: cleverly designed machines made the rivers flow.
Above everything was the starry vault.”

 
This map reflected the crucial role that the sky played in ancient Chinese thought. The heavens weren’t remote from everyday life. The sky was a mirror of the Earth.

Every time that something unexpected occurred in the sky, it showed a disruption on the Earth – which, in effect, meant somewhere in China. To pinpoint exactly where, the Chinese split the stars
into 283 small constellations, representing different parts of the Empire.

On 7 December, AD 185, for instance, Chinese astronomers spotted a brilliant new star and reported: “A guest star appeared within the Southern Gate. It was as large as half a mat; it
showed the five colours and it scintillated.”

The Astronomer Royal alerted the Emperor, and decisive action was taken against the region corresponding to the Southern Gate. “The governor of the metropolitan region Yuan Shao punished
and eliminated the middle officials… and several thousand people were killed.”

The Chinese astronomers kept watch from a raised platform, where four observers faced north, south, east and west; while a fifth lay on his back and looked straight upwards – surely the best job! The next morning they reported to the Astronomical Bureau, which kept records from 206 BC to AD 1912 – the longest-lived bureaucracy the world has ever seen.

Today, astronomers can mine this ancient archive for unique information on astronomical events.
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Bianca
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« Reply #18 on: December 13, 2007, 08:02:00 pm »








New insights from old information





British astronomer Richard Stephenson, who taught himself ancient Chinese and is now a leading expert on the astronomy of the Far East, has looked into the “guest star” of AD 185. He identifies the Southern Gate as the two bright stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri. And he concludes that the guest star was so brilliant that it had to be a nearby supernova – the most violent kind of stellar explosion.

 
Led by the Chinese results, Stephenson has pinpointed where the explosion occurred. And here astronomers studying X-rays from the Cosmos with the orbiting Chandra Observatory have located the incandescent fireball still expanding from the 2000-year-old explosion.

“One of the key things is that you have a definite date,” Stephenson explains, “so you know precisely how long the remnant has been evolving.”

The Chinese observations can also indicate how bright the supernova was. “In the case of a supernova seen in AD 1006,” Stephenson continues, “the Chinese said it was so bright that you could see things on the ground by its light.”

These ancient observations really come into their own with the supernova spotted in July AD 1054. A star exploded in the constellation we know as Taurus, shining so brilliantly it was visible in daylight for 23 days.

Today, in this location we find the twisted wreck of the long-dead star: the Crab Nebula. It’s powered by a collapsed core of the old star, which lurks at the centre of the nebula as a pulsar – a super-dense ball of neutrons only 25 km across, spinning around 30 times a second.

Astronomers and physicists are short in understanding how neutron stars change as they grow older. With the Crab Pulsar, the Chinese observations provide a unique piece of information: the pulsar’s age. We know that it was born exactly 953 years ago.

The Chandra Observatory has also pinpointed pulsars within supernova remnants that - according to Stephenson - are the fireballs from stars the Chinese saw explode in AD 386 and 1181.

Sometimes, the imperial astronomers were treated not to a guest star, but to a “broom star” – a fuzzy object that crawled across the sky, sweeping the sky with its tail. In 240 BC, they set down the world’s first record of the celestial visitor we now know as Halley’s Comet.

In AD 530, the Chinese recorded Halley’s Comet with more precision: “On 1 September, it was one degree to the northwest of Xiatai [a star in Ursa Major].” These early fixes on the comet’s orbit meant that European mission controllers could predict its 1986 apparition with greater accuracy, enabling them to send the Giotto spacecraft through the comet’s heart with unerring precision.



Could Chinese Astronomers predict eclipses of the sun and moon? - Read on to find out....
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Bianca
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« Reply #19 on: December 13, 2007, 08:04:13 pm »







Ancient Chinese Eclipse Predictions





The Chinese were also careful to record eclipses of the Sun – a portent of doom that would directly affect the Emperor or his family. “There was a total eclipse in 181 BC,” says Stephenson, “and the Emperor’s dowager was really alarmed by it: she died two years later.”

 
An eclipse features in the earliest astronomical record in the world, from the Chinese city of Anyang. Around 3000 years ago, a diviner inscribed a question on an oracle bone – a polished shard of animal bone: “Diviner Ge asks if the following day will be sunny or not.” He pushed in a red-hot needle, and interpreted the ensuing cracks.

Twenty-four hours later, the diviner inscribed the actual answer to the question. In this case, something rudely interrupted the sunshine: “Three flames ate the Sun, and big stars were seen.”

This is clearly an account of a total solar eclipse. The “flames” were the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, with the brighter stars and planets becoming visible during the darkness of totality.

To astronomers’ eternal gratitude, Diviner Ge recorded that the eclipse fell on the 52nd day of the 60-day lunar month. In 1989, NASA researchers calculated when a total solar eclipse would have been seen in China on the 52nd day of any month. The only date that fits is 5 June 1302 BC – making this eclipse the most ancient exactly dated astronomical event.

This eclipse isn’t important only as a record-breaker. It reveals new information about the Earth’s rotation. Astronomers know that our day is gradually getting longer, due to the influence of the Moon’s gravity – that’s why we have to occasionally insert “leap seconds” to our clocks. But the rate of slowing isn’t constant.

By studying exactly where eclipses have been seen over the past millennia, Stephenson has tracked the variation in the Earth’s rotation rate. As well as the Moon’s influence, he has to invoke minute changes in the Earth’s shape as the surface bounces back from the weight of ice sheets that burdened northern lands during the last Ice Age: “especially in the area around the Gulf of Bothnia, the land’s still rising at quite a rate.”

These results are showing – in a way the ancient Chinese could never have predicted – that their scrutiny of the heavens has indeed been mirrored in the planet under their feet!

 
Read more about humankind’s quest to understand the heavens, from ancient times to the 21st century, in The History of Astronomy by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest (Cassell Illustrated)!





More info from Amazon.com
More info from Amazon.co.uk

For more information

An interactive tour of Chinese Astronomy
http://www.dragonskies.org/dragon_skies.html

Comprehensive coverage of Chinese astronomy
http://www.chinapage.com/astronomy/astronomy.html


http://www.firstscience.com/home/articles/space/ancient-chinese-astronomy-new-insights-from-old-information-page-1-1_39812.html
« Last Edit: December 13, 2007, 08:06:15 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #20 on: January 07, 2008, 11:22:45 am »

Hi Bianca ,

I am interested in Astrology because all the horoscopes I read for me are strangely correct concerning my general character. But I only read the ones that seem to be by someone who knows what they're doing and not the trashy ones. The profile I read for someone born on the 6th of July totally matches me.That came from a book called 'The secret Language of Birthdays'

A friend recently explained to me that I'm an Earth- Goat(sheep),From what my attributes are supposed to be based on this,again it is uncannily accurate about me!   ....it appears that my secret animal is the tiger.  I think I was born just before dawn but not 100% on that ..I think it was around about 4 am. I don't know what that signifies.

My questions are , is there any sort of common link or technique between the Western Astrology and Chinese Astrology?

Are there more types of Astrology from other cultures?

I really have been struck by it's accuracy in 'predicting' character.Obviously it can't possibly take into account how you are raised and other things concerning 'phenotype'.So it would seem that we are born with some elements to our character already mapped out so to speak and that we are probably not a totally clean slate waiting to be stamped with a  personality and certain culture in our youth.....As you can see I'm trying to work it around into some sort of scientific explanation. I have thought about it a fair bit and it is very useful for considering the definition of science ,or getting a different 'angle' on science. I'm at the point where I do consider Astrology to be a kind of 'science' in itself.
   What amazes me is that it does appear in Western culture aswell as Chinese and possibly other cultures ,,I don't know coz I haven't really looked into that YET. But I have been speculating that perhaps Astrology is a remnant of some ancient age of science that got so advanced that it could even determine character simply based on birthdate !! And that todays astrology may merely be the remnant of a far more detailed 'science' ...  (The academics would string me up for this  Tongue )
Astrology seems to be accurate for some and not so accurate for others... 

 I might become an Astrologer  Tongue

I do take it seriously now though.

« Last Edit: January 07, 2008, 11:36:27 am by Mark Ponta » Report Spam   Logged
Bianca
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« Reply #21 on: January 07, 2008, 09:07:24 pm »



RAPHAEL'S "ASTROLOGIA"

Vatican City







"The priest, the soldier and the prostitute are thought to be the members of the three oldest professions in the world. However popular this myth may be, it is incorrect. There is a fourth 'oldest' profession, one that may in fact be older than the ancient institutions of church, army and brothel. This fourth profession is that of the astrologer. Believe it or not, believe in it or not, astrology has been around since the beginning of the 'civilized' world and probably originated long before human beings began to live together in cities (the meaning of the word 'civilization').


It's important to remember that despite modern-day skepticism, astrology has a long and venerable history. The greatest thinkers and philosophers of Greece and Rome were astrologers. In the Elizabethan and Stuart eras in British history, every trained physician was an astrologer. The greatest herbalist in the history of medicine, Nicholas Culpeper, was a gifted astrologer. Galileo Galilei was astronomer and astrologer. Sir Isaac Newton was both astrologer and alchemist while busily at work inventing calculus and discovering the laws of gravity. Napier, inventor of logarithms, was an astrologer. Even in the body of the Catholic Church which has both decried and condemned the art of astrology in more recent times, two great theologians, Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas saw the practice of astrology as consistent with a belief in God. Nonetheless, the Church still condemns the ancient art and many modern Christians believe it to be the devil's work.

Science has taken a hand in the proceedings as well. The 'age of reason' relegated astrology to the realms of superstition and even now many scientists take obsessive and irrational delight in pouring scorn upon its practice in order to disprove it. Regardless of these assaults, astrology is resurgent in the current era. For anyone who reads, watches TV or surfs the net, there are readings, predictions and services of all kinds. Every island of information in the seemingly endless stream of 'dot.coms' across the worldwide web has the daily blast for each sign of the Zodiac. Despite the fact that many people claim not to believe in it, astrology is more than ever a subject widely written upon and widely read."

« Last Edit: January 07, 2008, 09:52:27 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #22 on: January 07, 2008, 10:04:40 pm »

QUOTE

Mark:


My questions are , is there any sort of common link or technique between the Western Astrology and Chinese Astrology?

Are there more types of Astrology from other cultures?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Mark,

Most of the prominent (better known) Systems of Astrology are in this Section:

Chinese, Maya, Arab etc.  You can tell which they are by the headings.



The most common one in the West beside our own is the Indian (JYOTISH/VEDIC/HINDU) 

I only know one astrologer that practices the Chinese also.  He now lives in your country, Australia.

I cannot tell you how the Chinese and the Western versions relate to one another.  But I think
you could find out the answer to that better in your own country.

Should you seriously consider studying the Western method, I would strongly recommend
boning up on Greek Mythology.  The planets seem to strangely embody the qualities of the
Greek gods after whom they were named......

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yes, the Horoscope is a 'map' to the character of the individual.  That is the reason Astrology
is so widely practiced by psychologists, starting with C.C. Jung - you'll find some of his articles
on the subject here too.

Because of FREE WILL, the future cannot easily be predicted by the horoscope, only the circumstances.

e.g.  Benezir Bhutto's chart did predict 'hard circumstances', but they may have not been so fatal, had
she not decided to stand up and put her head out of the armoured car.....the irony is that from that
point on, her future was very bright, which may still happen due to her 'martyrdom".

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