The origin of the concept of harm in astrology

In podcast episode 264, Chris Brennan and Benjamin Dykes discuss the origins of the concept of harm in ancient Hellenistic and medieval astrology.

Years ago I argued that the origin of the concept of harm was somewhat mysterious, as it was rarely mentioned by Hellenistic astrologers and was not usually defined along with the other classical “primary dignities”, accommodation, rise and fall.

Then suddenly, in the work of Rhetorius of Egypt, the last major Hellenistic astrologer of the 6th and 7th centuries, harm exists as a full-fledged concept and is considered alongside other important values.

In my book Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and FortuneI have speculated that this means that either A) harm was developed as a new concept by the late Hellenistic tradition, or alternatively B) the Rhetorius simply formalized a concept adopted by some earlier astrologers.

When I published my book in 2017, I seemed to find enough references to the concept in the earlier Hellenistic tradition to suggest that Rhetorius did not invent the concept out of thin air, but rather relied on an earlier tradition.

So my focus has been on creating a set of English terms to refer to the concept, starting with the Greek term enantiomer Rhetorius simply means “opposition” or “contradiction.” I settled on the terms “tribulation,” “exile,” and “antithesis.” Some of this process has been discussed Episode 44 of the Astrology Podcast.

Then a few weeks ago I came across an article written by Anthony from The Seven Star Horoscope earlier this year. Damage: Questionable distinction.

In this article, Anthony, who is familiar with my previous work on the matter through my Hellenistic course and reading my book, examines Hellenistic and early medieval references to damage to show how little this concept is mentioned and to challenge my conclusion about its development in my book.

While this article made some interesting points, it was clear that some references to damage in the earlier Hellenistic tradition were either overlooked or not recognized for what they were, or in some cases reduced to possible interpolations.

This prompted me to go back and do my own research on damage in the Hellenistic tradition. Horoi translation projectand we found a number of new links not reported in previous studies.

We’re releasing the results of this poll today as a handout to the discussion to coincide with the release of this podcast episode:

References to the concept of harm in Hellenistic astrology

These references leave no doubt that the concept of harm originated in earlier Hellenistic astrological traditions, dating back at least to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

Anthony declined an offer to join me on the podcast to discuss this topic.

When I spoke to Benjamin Dykes about this, he sent me a document he was preparing for his upcoming medieval astrology course, where he surveyed references to the concept in the early medieval tradition. To be notified when a course becomes available, sign up for the newsletter on Ben’s site:

BenDykes.com

Ben divided the references into three groups based on how medieval astrologers envisioned harm:

1. 1. Internal division and conflict
   2. Corruption, decay
   3. Foreign things, strangers, etc

Ben agreed to join me on the show to discuss this issue and review the various references we found to better understand the origins and application of this concept in traditional astrology.

Time signs

Here are some timestamps for the topics covered at various points in the episode:

00:00:00 Login
00:03:22 History of Hellenistic damage
00:12:24 Hellenistic references
00:19:34 Contradictions
00:37:57 Four elements
00:43:38 More Hellenistic references
00:58:37 Arabic terms
01:02:48 Fragments of the Middle Ages
01:30:41 Historical summary
01:35:00 Lack of unified view
01:44:52 Positive aspects of damage
01:58:39 Harm in Indian tradition
01:59:50 Dykes course

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Transcription

Here is the full transcript of this episode: Episode 264 Transcript

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