Predicting with the Stars
Suppose that every time a person looked up at the stars, he or she could predict the outcome of his or her daily life, such as marriage, death, or even future career paths. From the early days of the Babylonians to present day, astrology has played a key role in the lives of many individuals, but how does one know that it is reliable? Often confused with astronomy, the study of celestial bodies in the universe, astrology is used as a way to predict one’s future based off of the positioning of the solar system. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, three witches are responsible for predicting the future outcome of the character Macbeth. With roots in southern Babylonia, astrology is the study of the influences the positions of the stars and the planets have on human behavior and future outcomes.
Originating over six thousand years ago, astrology is a science that requires the analysis of the positions of celestial bodies in space. The Chaldeans, a tribe from southern Babylonia, used he stars as guidance and the phases of the moon to create months, which typically lasted about twenty-nine to thirty days (Bakich). In analyzing the phases of the moon, constellations were then created, and through the discovery of constellations came the zodiac, or “circle of animals” (Bakich). The zodiac was then split into twelve subdivisions known as signs, and “each sign represents a space in the zodiac ruled by one of the twelve constellations” (Bakich). These zodiacs are believed to show the characteristics of the people within the zodiac (Bakich). Not only did astrology play a major role for the Chaldeans, but astrology existed in Elizabethan times as well.
Once astrology was established in Babylonian times, it played...
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...me king. Astrology expands into multiple branches as it’s explored further into each planet and each zodiac, and it becomes a very widespread topic.
Astrology is the study of the positions of celestial bodies and their effects on human behavior. It is said that each zodiac creates the characteristics of each individual and is able to predict future outcomes. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, three witches were able to predict Macbeth’s future as king. These witches also showed Macbeth three apparitions meant to give him a sense of false confidence, but actually occurred in three unexpected ways. Six thousand years ago, astrology was discovered simply as a means to know when was the appropriate time to crop or to sow. Little did the Caldean’s know that what they discovered would lead to so much more insight on the stars and the planets and their effects on human lives.
Ancient Pueblo Indians had a great understanding of astronomy. All of the pueblos in the canyon were aligned to match the movements of the sun and moon. Also, they marked their complexes with daggers and spirals to keep up with the moon cycles and sun movements. The film explains that the moon moves north for nearly ten years and then south for about ten years. To fully understand this cycle of the moon, Pueblo people had to study it for years in order to build their Pueblos in relations to it. The sun however, was different because it set and rose in the same position. The concept of building structures in an astronomical pattern this complex cannot be found anywhere else.
...ge Movement: the Extent and Nature of Contemporary Belief in Astrology', (PhD Thesis, University of the West of England, 2004) Part 1, Chapter 2, Millenarianism p 31
Willis, Roy. and Curry, Patrick . Astrology Science and Culture. Pulling Down the Moo. (Oxford: Berg 2004)
For instance, people believed the future was written in the stars. In its first address to the audience, the Chorus states that Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed lovers”, that is to say that fate (meaning a power often vested in the movements of the stars) controls them. This sense of fate permeates the play, and not just for
Macbeth is very superstitious and this is shown when he believes the prophecy that Banquo's offspring would become Kings.
Destiny or fate is a controversially talked about subject that has arised for many years. ‘Destiny is referred to as a predetermined course of events.’ Many people, especially in Shakespearean times, believe that God has a life plan for every individual. A sense of destiny in its oldest human sense is the soldier’s fatalistic image of the ‘bullet that has your name on it’ or the moment when ‘your number comes up’ or a romance that was ‘meant to be.’ Many Greek legends and tales teach the futility or trying to outmanoeuvre an inexorable fate that has been correctly predicted. Today we have people that can ‘predict out future’ whether we nowadays still have the belief in the stars and the ability to read them is another controversial matter. Elizabethan astrology fascinated many prominent Elizabethans. The subject is mentioned in every single one of Shakespeare’s plays. At the time the play Romeo and Juliet was published Robert Burton was the astrologer of the era. In Shakespeare’s plays astrology was often critical to the plots when the actions and events surrounding characters are said to be ‘favoured’ or ‘hindered’ by the stars. In the tempest the main character is said to be based on John Dee, who was a famous astrologer and scholar in the Elizabethan era. Destiny is the idea of necessity ‘everything in the world is conditioned and takes place according to necessity.’ ‘Fatalism is based on the assumption that everything in the world and in peoples lives is predetermined by natural or super natural forces, that God set everything out.’ Destiny also mans ‘dragged by force.’ If Romeo would have stayed in his, not gone to the Capulet’s party, left the party when Capulet saw him would all this of happened? That is the idea of destiny...
Even to the casual observer, using just the ability of the human eye, there is a noticeable order in the manner of the movement of the celestial objects as they travel across the sky. The Sun, Moon, and the stars, all have a discernable pattern to their rising and setting. Upon closer observance, one might notice slight seasonal changes in the relative location on the horizon where the Sun rises and sets. Alternatively, one can notice more drastic variations in the Moon's relative position, the timing of it's appearances, and the variation of the portion of the Moon that is illuminated on any given night. In addition, the stars, if tracked even for a short period, clearly have a pattern to their rising and setting on any given night. Again on careful observance over a period of time one can see that there is a seasonal variation to the location of some stars, with some not being visible at certain time of the year, and others appearing instead. Finally, still with the naked eye, if one were to place close attention, one would notice that some of these "stars" do not follow the same pattern, and seem to follow different rules. So, what do the observable facts all add up to? Are there rules of order that the celestial objects follow? If one were to study the celestial objects long enough, could one discover the rules and be able to accurately predict the movements of celestial objects with accuracy? Surely, peoples of ancient civilizations pondered the same type of questions.
This cycle of the ages was given different names by different cultures. To the Greeks it was the great year broken down into four periods: iron, bronze, silver and gold, each year having distinct characteristics of manifestation. The sages of ancient India called it the Yuga cycle. The most common name for this cycle was coined by the Romans as the ‘procession of the equinox’. Ancient star watchers observed that certain constellations followed the same path in the sky as the sun. This is also seen through examination of the mayan calendars. These 12 constellations make up the zodiac and are considered the most important. Twice each year on the day of the equinox ancient astonomers realized that overtime the constellations were not in the exact place in the sky that they had been in the year before. The stars seemed to be moving backwards in the sky, a movement known as the procession of the equinox or the wobble of the earth. At the birth of Jesus the constellation Aries was becoming less dominant in the sky and the constellation pisces was moving in to take its
Tarot is one of the oldest card games in Europe which has long been associated with the occult and is often grouped with other future-predicting methods used by clairvoyants and psychics. However, Tarot’s origins were actually far simpler than that of predicting the future. The original intent of Tarot cards was the same as all other games; they were designed for fun and entertainment. Tarot cards originated in the 1400s in Italy as a fun game which reflected the culture and history of the time period. Tarot was created originally for the ruling class in Italy, but the game quickly spread to the common people (“Tarot History”). Italy in the fifteenth century was very Catholic and still ruled by a monarchist government. Italy was also the birthplace of beautiful art and many artists, and unsurpris...
One of the most read sections in the paper today is the astrological page. Why is that? It's because people look for easy answers to their everyday problems. But most people would not believe that their horoscope was probably someone else's horoscope from the day before. People will try to make what they read really happen. So if your horoscope for today said that you are going to have a great day and you'll be in a good mood, you probably will have a day like that, only because you read it early in the day and that person who wrote that influenced you to try and actually make a great day for yourself. Coming from personal experience, one of my exgirlfriends read our horoscope on if we were going to be a long lasting couple. She was very much into the whole tarot card readings and into astrology. She would read them every day. I suppose you can already figure out what the horoscope said? Yes, it said that we weren't going to last.
For centuries, people from all latitudes have been fascinated by the night sky. The unreachable stars, the Moon, the comets and all the events happening in the sky, fired up imaginations and became symbols of life and death, of war, peace and the passing of time and the seasons. The movement of the stars was used to establish the time for planting and harvesting, to prepare for the long winters and to try to discover the future and destiny, the eternal unknown destiny of the human race. Three large human groups, the Mayans, the Aztecs and the Zapotecs populated the Central and Southeastern regions of Mexico long before the discovery of the continent by Columbus. These ancient cultures developed a very complex knowledge of Astronomy and built a large number of structures destined to be used as observatories. They made precise measurements and kept records of all the important events in the skies. This paper will explore some of the most important discoveries of these ancient astronomers and the precision of the alignments of their buildings. It will also establish the importance the astronomical knowledge had in their lives and societies.
Fate, being always truly unknown and seemingly static, is not something that one should tamper with. It leads all decisions and outcomes, if one so chooses to believe in the concept of predestination. In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, three witches decisively go against their orders and toy with the lives of thousands of people by telling riddles of the future and it’s biddings. Evidently, all those who were given a glance into their future by the meddling trio soon let sanity slip through their fingers and fell into their eventual demise. Banquo, who being told of his kins’ fortune and fames soon to come, grows weary of his friend and is soon killed out of fear. Although his timidity was wise, it did not help him in living to see such foretellings. Lady Macbeth, although she never directly spoke to by our mischievous trinity, suffers along with the fate of the others when she allows herself to cover herself in the tendrils of greed and lust. When one allows themselves to be engrossed in the words of another stranger, though how plausible the words may be, they will fall just as Macbeth did. At first, he was not keen on getting his hands dirtied to fulfill such preposterous fortunes, but soon fell short of his mind and destroyed the vast majority of Scotland and of himself. Fate is a dangerous and unavoidable truth in life, it can destroy the ability of free will and the freedom that living should bring you.
It was not up until 200 years ago that people started identifying their zodiac sign with the position of the Sun. So when a person is asked what is his or sign, the Sun was passing through on the day that person was born. This can be demonstrated on a birth chart. Our birth charts are special "sky maps" which reflect the quality of the exact moment we drew our first breath. With that first breath, we each began our own incredible hero's journey through life on planet Earth. The birth positions of the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto all play their own unique symbolic roles as messengers and ambassadors of the universe.
Astronomy is a natural science focusing on the study of celestial objects such as moons, stars, planets, nebulae and galaxies. Astronomy is considered to be one of the oldest natural sciences; early civilizations throughout history such as the Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks performed methodical observations of the sky. The Babylonians had different astronomical records regarding the position of the moon, sun and stars, on the other hand the Egyptians used astronomy to know the time and afterwards they developed a calendar based on the solar year. The following paper will focus on the ancient Greek astronomy, interestingly the origin of the word astronomy is Greek it comes from two words; astron meaning "star" and nemien refers to "to name". This paper will explain and highlight the methods used, famous figures and the achievements attained during the ancient Greek astronomy era.
Superstition is the fear of what is unknown and mysterious, but does it in fact impact our everyday actions? In the play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare superstition is a significant contribution to the characters actions. An analysis of Macbeth reveals that superstition causes insanity, rash decisions, and affects how people conduct their lives. Showing in fact, that superstition has a significant impact on thoughts and actions.