Description
This is the first comprehensive examination of astrology's origins and it examines the foundations of a major feature of popular culture in the contemporary west, one which has its origins in the ancient world. Campion explores the relationship between astrology and religion, magic and science, and explores its use in politics and the arts.
Beginning with the theories of the origins of religion in sun-worship, it spans the period between the first Paleolithic lunar counters around 30,000 BC and the end of the classical world and rise of Christianity. Campion challenges the idea that astrology was invented by the Greeks, and asks whether its origins lie in Near-Eastern religion, or whether it can be considered a decadent Eastern import to the West. He considers the evidence for reverence for the stars in Neolithic culture, Mesopotamian astral divination, Egyptian stellar religion, and examines attitudes to astrology and celestial prophecy in the Bible. He considers such artefacts as the mysterious, 15,000-year-old 'Venus of Lauselle', the reasons for the orientation of the pyramids, the latest theories on Stonehenge as a sacred observatory, Greek theories of the ascent of the soul to the stars and the Roman emporer Nero's use of astrology to persecute his rivals.
Author: Nicholas Campion
Publisher: Continnuum-3PL
Published: 06/16/2009
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.38lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.20w x 1.15d
ISBN13: 9781441127372
ISBN10: 1441127372
BISAC Categories:
- Body, Mind & Spirit | Astrology | General
- History | Ancient | General
Beginning with the theories of the origins of religion in sun-worship, it spans the period between the first Paleolithic lunar counters around 30,000 BC and the end of the classical world and rise of Christianity. Campion challenges the idea that astrology was invented by the Greeks, and asks whether its origins lie in Near-Eastern religion, or whether it can be considered a decadent Eastern import to the West. He considers the evidence for reverence for the stars in Neolithic culture, Mesopotamian astral divination, Egyptian stellar religion, and examines attitudes to astrology and celestial prophecy in the Bible. He considers such artefacts as the mysterious, 15,000-year-old 'Venus of Lauselle', the reasons for the orientation of the pyramids, the latest theories on Stonehenge as a sacred observatory, Greek theories of the ascent of the soul to the stars and the Roman emporer Nero's use of astrology to persecute his rivals.
Author: Nicholas Campion
Publisher: Continnuum-3PL
Published: 06/16/2009
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.38lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.20w x 1.15d
ISBN13: 9781441127372
ISBN10: 1441127372
BISAC Categories:
- Body, Mind & Spirit | Astrology | General
- History | Ancient | General
About the Author
Nicholas Campion is Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture and Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, UK.