Syllabus

Abu Ma’shar’s Kitab Al Mudhal Al Kabir Ilm Ahkam An-Nujum (Book of the Great Introduction to the Science of the Judgement of the Stars) is one of the most influential astrological texts in history, making the art of astrological judgments accessible to the public & laypeople on a scale not previously found before. Abu Ma’shar states in the beginning of his Mudhal that the purpose of this book was to compile many disparate sources and opinions on astrology into a single source and that this is the first book one reads when they want to enter into learning the science (‘ilm) of astrology.

The aim is then that this book would be taught in a classroom setting with a teacher to instruct you in the introduction to this science. As if a math teacher was walking you through a math textbook to learn the introduction to the principles, concepts, and foundations of math. This book instructs the student of astrology in a complete treatment of the knowledge they need for making judgements of how the planet’s movements will change the conditions of things on Earth. Abu Ma’shar provides the philosophical and practical framework to form delineation.

We will apply Abu Ma’shar’s text in our classroom as a guide for teaching astrology in the modern era. We will supplement further information from his teachers, students, and contemporaries to give a full perspective of the intellectual tradition of Medieval Islamicate Astrology as inherited from the Hellenistic, Babylonian, African, Indic & Perisan Worlds.

Course Content

• Theories of Astral Influence by Abu Ma’shar

• Arguments and Proofs in Defense of Astrology

• Monotheistic astrology in the Islamicate World

• Aristotelian Natural Philosophy and Neo-Platonic thought syncretized with Islamic theology

• The 4 Elements and their connection to Zodiac signs and Planets

• Reasoning for the Tropical Zodiac, 12 Zodiac Signs, and Elemental Ordering

• Introduction to Stellarium and Celestial Sphere

• Cosmology of the Heavenly Spheres in the 9th Century

• Learning scoring methods to judge planetary condition

• Rationale behind Essential Dignities (Domicile, Exaltation, etc.)

• Sudivisions of the Zodiac (Dodecatemoria, Terms, Decans, 9th Parts, Degrees)

• Aspects & Geometrical relationships between signs and planets

• Classifications of the Planets

• Clasifications of the Zodiac Signs

• Significations of the 12 Houses

• Division of Planetary Days and Hours

• Mechanics of planetary motion in geocentric astronomy

• Configurations and assemblages of the planets in 21 ways

• The Lots, their reason, and interpretation; 7 Hermetic Lots, the lots of the 12 Houses, Lots of the World Years, and Interrogations