ASTRO TRADING: Stars and Constellations

"..The origin of the constellations is still open to conjecture, for, though all nations since the dawn of history have recognised these ancient stellar configurations, and at one period or another employed them in some symbolic or representative capacity, the fact remains that the researches of archaeologists have failed to yield definite proof as to who first designed them and where they were first known..."

"..Possibly they were an endeavour on the part of some patriarch of the ancient world to grave an imperishable record of a great event, or a series of noteworthy occurrences in the world's history, for all posterity to read, and although no Rosetta stone has been found as yet to enable the present race of man to decipher their meaning, still the problem attacked by the ablest savants of all nations has yielded theories re- specting the origin and purposes of the constellations that cannot be far from the truth... "

"..There are many traditions that have emerged from the mists that shroud the distant past respecting the origin of the constellations, and the science of astronomy, and as that origin is antediluvian, the knowledge that we have of the subject must perforce be largely traditional in its character. An early tradition affirms that the immediate descendants of Adam cultivated a knowledge of the stars, and that Seth and Enoch inscribed upon two pillars, one of brick, the other of stone, the names, meanings, secret virtues, and science of the stars, with the divisions of the zodiac..."

"..The Babylonian Tablets, the oldest records extant, reveal that the Akkadians introduced their sphere and zodiac into Babylonia before the year 3000 B.C., and the zodiac of the Akkadians corresponds almost exactly with the signs we know to-day. It seems almost folly to endeavour to set the date of the invention of the constellations, for that period must approximate the age of the habitable world, and in all probability the stellar figures known to us were not designed at any one time, and lost their originality by the varying conditions that time has wrought in the past, for even in comparatively recent years there have been many attempts to alter them. .."

"..It is supposed that, at a time far remote, the Akkadians were conquered by the Semitic race, and that the con- querors imposed only their language on the conquered, adopting, it is said, the Akkadian mythology, laws, literature, and system of astronomy. At an early date in the world's history we find astronomy and astrology flourishing in China, India, Arabia, and Egypt. The early astronomical annals of the Chinese reveal the fact that, before the year 2357 B.C., the Emperor Yao had io Star Lore of All Ages y divided the twelve zodiacal signs by the twenty-eight / mansions of the moon. The Arabians are said to have received their astronomical knowledge from India, and in China, Arabia, and India we find an almost identical system, i.e., that of the Lunar Stations, or Lunar Mansions, employed to indicate the daily progress of the moon amid the stars. India has been claimed as the birthplace of the constellation figures, but modern research, says Allen, finds little in Sanscrit literature to confirm this belief. There is a controversy as to whether Indian astronomy was derived from Greece or independent of it..."

"...The Persians are said to have considered 3000 years ago that the whole heavens were divided up into four great districts, each watched over by one of the "Royal Stars," Aldebaran, Antares, Regulus, and Fomalhaut..".

"..The Egyptians, on whose early monuments the twelve zodiacal signs are found, acknowledged that they derived their knowledge of the stars from the Chaldeans, and they were in turn the teachers of the Greeks as early as the time of Thales and Pythagoras.."

"..The founder of the science of astronomy in

Greece

was Thales, the head of the Ionic School of Philosophy, a citizen of Miletus, who lived about 540 B.C. It is said that he first taught the Greek navigators to steer by the Little instead of the Great Bear. Eudoxus, a native of Cnidus, who lived about the fourth century b.c, a contemporary of Plato, was the first Greek who described the constellations with approximate completeness. He is reported to have visited

Egypt

and to have there received astronomical instruction. He wrote "The Enoption", or The Mirror, and "The Phenomena" or Appearances, both prose works and unfortunately not extant, but Aratus, the Alexandrine poet, versified the latter work about 270 B.C., and it has descended to our day. Aratus was a native of Soli in Cilicia, and Court Physician to Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia. He was a contemporary of Aristophanes, Aristarchus, and Theocritus, and he always mentions the constellations as of unknown antiquity. His sphere accurately represented the heavens of about 2000 B.C. His poem has been considered an authority on stellar nomenclature, and has been closely followed by all subsequent delineators of the constellation figures. This sphere of Eudoxus, which has been transmitted to us through the verses of Aratus, contained forty-five constellations, twenty in the northern hemisphere, twelve in the southern, and thirteen in the zodiacal group, the 12 Pleiades being considered as a separate constellation in addition to Taurus..."

"..Allen makes the following interesting reference to this famous poem: "When the poem entitled The Phenomena of Aratos was introduced at Rome by Cicero and other leading characters, we read that it became the polite amusement of the Roman ladies to work the celestial forms in gold and silver on the most costly hangings, and this had previously been done at Athens, where concave ceilings were also emblazoned with the heavenly figures..."

"..The Phenomena is the most ancient description of the constellations extant, and has been translated into all languages.Thus we find, as some one has put it, that astronomy like a golden thread runs through history and binds together all tribes and peoples of the earth and the girdle of stars we view nightly remains as the most ancient monument of the work of intelligent man, "the oldest picture book of all."

Source: ”Star lore of all ages; a collection of myths, legends, and facts concerning the constellations of the Northern Hemisphere”, 1911 by Olcott, William Tyler

THE 12 CONSTELLATIONS AND THEIR LORE

If you are interested in learning more about the ancient science of the sky, its origin, meaning and its practical use in measuring time cycles with its application to stocks and commodity trading you may want to read my book "Wall Street Watchman":

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