What is World Astrology?
World astrology is the application of astrology to understand political, religious, and agricultural changes, natural diasters, pandemics, are rulership.
It is the oldest application of astrology that comes to us from the cuneiform texts in the Babylonian traditions. These astrologers understood the planetary motions to have an impact on the world, society, the natural world, and politics. The development of natal astrology, which is used for understanding an individual’s fate, does not become formally established until the Hellenistic periods in Egypt. Through the subdivisons of the zodiac (such as the Dodecatemoria, Decans, or Bounds), these establish proto-natal delineations that then get further fleshed out in the Helleniatic world. We see world astrology theory of delineations written by famous astrologers such as Ptolemy who lay the framework of Eclipses, Lunations, and the Aries Ingress as being important moments that shift the events of this world. However, it is not a main feature of the Hellenistic world. The practice makes its way into the Persinate and Indic world, fusing the astrological with local indigenous traditions of planetary cycles which give rise to World Astrology. Astrology then becomes used to understand how the world was created and formed in different stages over thousands and thousands of years.
The Medieval Islamicate astrologers such as Masha’allah ibn Athari (8th C.) lay out the foundation of the practice for showing the shifting of dynasties, empires, building cities, and conquest. When Masha’allah turned 21, he helped found the horoscope for the city of Baghdad, which gave rise to a major cultural hub of education, scholarship, and knowledge in the Islamic Golden Age. Persian, Zoroastrian, Indic, and Babylonian ideas of history and planetary timing all fuse together to form a cohesive system and theory of the world with Abu Ma’shar in the 9th Century.
Their students and contemporaries, would go on to write over 100 texts on world astrology, such as Al Biruni, Sijzi, Labban, Junawadi, Al- Isfahani, Al- Battani, and Musa ibn Nawbakht.
This system of world astrology that is developed comes at a time when the Abbasid Dynasty is at the height of their conquest in Arabia, and when they come into contact with astrology and astrologers, they want to use the sciences to make sense of the rise and coming of their empire and Islam as a religion. Astrologers would use the 20 year cycle of Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions to shows the shifting of religions, dynasties, law, and society. Al Junawadi tells us the following about their conjunction:
“Great matters, that of prophets, kings, and dynasties are understood through in cycles of the superior ones from the coming of Adam to the coming of our king. And as Jupiter is the indicator of all matters related to faith and law and Saturn is the indicator of all matters related to dynasties and the passing of customs, they together are the natural indicators of the history of religions, dynasties, kings, and world events" Junawadi, 15-16th C. trans. Olomi
They would take the conjunction of 571 C.E in Scorpio to represent not only the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) but also the rise of Islam as a religion, and the empire of the Arabs. In this horoscope, Libra was Rising in Mecca signaling to astrologers that the just rule of Islam was signified by the sign, its lands signified by the conjunction in Scorpio, and the people signified by Cancer, where the Moon was.
Masha’allah stardardized interpretations of the Aries Ingress known as The Revolution of the Years of the World when the Sun enters tropical 0º Aries every year marking the beginning of the Equinox showing the increase in daylight, birth of spring following the Persian holiday Nowruz, and triumph of light over the darkness of winter. This was understood as a renewal of the world and the conditions of the world in nature, but also for politics, for rulers, and for dynasties. In fact, whenever the Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions are cast, they don’t usually take the exact date they conjoin but they find the nearest Aries Ingress because they are more concerned about how the conditions of the world will change, and the revolution shows us exactly that.
To predict the shifts of religions and dynasties they would examine the element of the Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions and when they shift to show a change in global power, the rise of new dynasties and families, the fall of old empires and dynasties, changes in political alliances, plagues, natural disasters and things on a larger scale. Whenever the elemental conjunction shifted into the next element every 200-240 years, the astrologers warned their patrons to heed the influence of the planetary motion and to act accordingly. Astrologers have been very influential in Caliphs and rulers more broadly making political decisions, timing for invasion, and being pro-active to protect their people.
Scholar and Historian Ali A Olomi relays the following story about Abu Ma’shar’s correct prediction for the 9th Century Caliph Al-Mut’azz coming into power:
“In the 9th C, Al Mu’tazz languished under arrest by his cousin Caliph Al-Musta'in. Little did he know his lot was about to change as the astrologer Abu Ma’shar had predicted his rise to the caliphate A thread on the greatest Persian astrologer Abu Ma’shar & astrology.
The Abbasid caliphate was wracked with a crisis of succession as competing military units vied for power. As a result, Al Mu’tazz was placed under house arrest. Abu Ma’shar, a skilled astrologer had fallen on hard times under the reign of Al-Musta'in, the caliph had asked him to make a prediction, which turned out unfavorable. When the prediction came true, Al-Musta'in had him flogged. Famously, Abu Ma’shar said, “I hit and got hit.” We are told by Al Tanukhi, down on his luck and in financial woes, Abu Ma'shar cast a horoscope for Al Mu’tazz and predicted that after a struggle he would come into the caliphate. He wrote down his prediction and horoscope on a cloth and secretly passed it to Al Mu’tazz. His predication came true and in payment, the new caliph made Abu Ma’shar the court astrologer and rewarded him richly with land and money. Abu Ma’shar’s skills in prediction were legendary.” - Ali A Olomi
Astrologers of the current era would look at the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction in Aquarius in 2020 and portend major seismic changes to come for the next 20 years. They would warn of the fragmenting of empires, fall of old dynasties, pestilent winds, plagues, corruption of the law, usurpations, harm to the elderly and the stranger. They would warn of new orthodoxies and heresies, new systems of control and surveillance, and an era of greed, apathy, and loneliness. However, with that they would predict champions of women, youth, and children to rise against corruption, hold those in power to account, and establish justice and harmony with humanity and the Earth. The 2020 Aries Ingress would foretell the events for not only the next 20 years but the next 240 years.
2020 Aries Ingress Horoscope cast via Astro-Seek
Compare this with the 1226 Conjunction in Aquarius that foretold the end of the Abbasids and the rise of the Mongol empire. This period is the most astrologically and historically similar to the present moment. At the height of the Islamic golden age and empires, there were cracks beginning to form the fragmenting of an empire. By 1258, the Mongols seized Baghdad effectively marking the end of the Abbasid rule. Hulagu Khan famously patroned astrologer Al-Tusi who saw this moment as a time favorable for their rise. Here is a depiction of the seige from a manuscript:
Similarly, after the height of American imperialism, the hegemon is losing control over the world and is re-acting violently against its own people to cling on to this imperial, colonial, wealth. The astrology shows now is a time of shifting empires and power from the past 200 years into something different. Aquarius is the sign of the stranger, so the Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions would show the rise of strangers, travellers, working class, the poor, immigrants, and those abandoned and forgotten by society forming new dynasties and shaping society. Conjunctionalism is only one part of world astrology, it can be broken down further into the following categories:
Historical Astrology: The use of astrology to understand history and where humanity is in the planetary timeline of Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions, dawrs, fardar, quarters, progressions, transfers, and millenniums.
Annaversaries: The use of casting horoscopes to interpret the conditions of an empire, land, or city at any given time using revolutions, eclipses, quarters, progressions, lunations, or transfers.
Events: The use of omens and important events to interpret conditions of politics such as Ascension horoscopes, foundation horoscopes for cities, catastrophes, the beginning of war, the signing of treaties, court decisions, and omens such as meteors, halos, rainbows, and thunderstorms.
