with Carol Ferris
Western astrology traces the zodiac along the path of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun’s annual journey around the sky – initially abstracting the constellations of the sky into a perfect circle of 360º of longitude, ultimately settling into a circular structure based on the solar pivot points of the year, the solstices and the equinoxes.
Asian astrology traces the zodiac along the ecliptic, too, but it is the path of the Moon, not the Sun, and the Moon’s “lodges”, or xiu, along the ecliptic define the classic Han sky (as well as the nakshatras of the Jyotish sky). The Chinese star catalogues [roughly parallel in time with the Enuma Anu Enlil catalogues evolving in the ancient Near East] evolved under a succession of court astrologers employed by princes. In the Han dynasty (c 300 BCE – 250 AD) this sky, its rhythms and those attending to it created a system of management for royalty and peasant alike, designed to harmonize the human microcosm with the heavenly to ensure resonance and well being.
We’ll look at the two skies – the western zodiac (and to a certain extent, the polar stars and the heliacal rising and setting stars) and the Han Chinese. We’ll compare the two systems of writing that came from these observations – the oracle bones of the Chinese, the cuneiform or “heavenly writing” of the ancient Near East. We’ll compare the skies and their prescriptions to kings and emperors to embody the intent of heaven. And we’ll compare the different world views: a West where the Solar individual is primary; and the East where a lunar consciousness places the individual in a relational field.
Pre-recorded for instant access.
1 hr. 52 min. | includes video, audio and slides
All Levels
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