“From a historical point of view, astrology is a fascinating subject…it has traversed not only time but also many cultures with different philosophical and religious views.
-Dr Luís Ribeiro
Astrology remains one of humanity’s most enduring and enchanting interests. Like stars, coruscating in the darkness infinite, it has been a guide to all civilizations, casting light on the tenebrous and enigmatic world of human experience. Ancient peoples were keenly aware of the impact of hidden forces on daily life. They turned to astrology to interpret and predict behaviours, events, and ventures.
Accordingly, global astrological traditions are richly textured, reflecting the range, depth, and adaptability of human ideas. The Astra Project approaches these traditions from the viewpoint of intellectual history. First conceived in 2018, it aims to advance “the understanding of the historical, cultural, and scientific role of astrology in the pre-modern world”. Multidisciplinary since its inception, the project team includes a starry array of international scholars from Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, and several other countries.
The Thinker’s Garden recently spoke with the Astra Project’s co-founder, Dr Luís Ribeiro. Ribeiro, a researcher at the University of Lisbon, described the initiative as a way to examine astrology “as a scientific subject with its inner intricacies and methodologies for forecasting”.
Emblem for wisdom. From George Wither’s A Collection of Emblemes Anciente and Moderne, London (1635)
The Custodian: The Astra Project brings together a vast network of practitioners and scholars from a variety of different countries and cultures. Could you tell us more about how the project came together?
Dr Luís Ribeiro: Helena Avelar and I came up with the idea to create the Astra Project in late 2018. She had just finished her dissertation on the workbooks of a fifteenth-century astrologer and I was in the middle of mine on the Jesuits and astrology. Helena’s dissertation and our conjoined research focused heavily on the changes in the methodology and concepts used in pre-modern astrological practice. So the idea was to create a hub where several academics could explore the history of astrology not so much as a cultural and social phenomenon, but as a scientific subject with its inner intricacies and methodologies for forecasting. One that could connect the development of these concepts with the parallel progress of cosmology, mathematics, and instruments.
So we began to draft a project, and with the valuable support and feedback of our PhD supervisors, Professors Charles Burnett, of the Warburg Institute, and Henrique Leitão, of the University of Lisbon, the Astra Project was born. At least its first initial proposal. We presented the ideal to some renowned researchers of the history of astrology the field such as Dorian Greenbaum and David Juste, who adhered to it right from the start.
At that time Charles Burnett was organising a conference at the Warburg Institute to signal the publication of his translation of The Great Introduction by Abu Ma’sar. He had invited Helena and me to give a pre-conference workshop on medieval methodologies of astrology, and it was at that conference that the Astra Project was presented to the public and the various scholars who were attending. Right from the start the project grew becoming a partnership between the CIUHCT research centre of the history of science and the Warburg Institute. The IKGF consortium was also a partner until its very recent conclusion.
We had planned a large international conference for 2020, but the pandemic came and like everything else it was postponed. We took advantage of the fact that many of the researchers in the field were now confined to their homes and the advances in video calls and began the ad Astra podcast where we interviewed many researchers in the field.
The project suffered off big blow in early 2021 with the sudden passing away of Helena, who was its coordinator. The first online workshop of the project was produced at the end of 2021, and after a pause of some months, it is now proceeding and growing. In the coming months we will finally have the international conference and some new activities are on the horizon.
C: What most lured you to the study of astrology?
LR: From a historical point of view, astrology is a fascinating subject. First, it is old, it had its beginnings when human beings started to attribute some order and meaning to the world and to nature. And, despite not being currently accepted as a valid form of knowledge, it is still an important and pervasive part of our culture. In fact, it has traversed not only time but also many cultures with different philosophical and religious views.
This makes astrology an important transcultural phenomenon, and not just in a historical sense. I had an interest in it and had studied for many years before embarking on my academic career, and I was always interested in its history and practices of old. Helena, who was my partner, was the first to address it academically and I followed. Once I had my degree and MA in history, specifically art history, I was challenged to move into the field of the history of science, where I developed my PhD and am now engaging new research projects.
My specific allure to astrology in the pre-modern world is its intrinsic connection with the development of cosmology, mathematics and astronomy. The latter, before the seventeenth century, had as its main application the computation of correct astronomical data for astrological use. Therefore they cannot be seen as two completely separate entities as they became in the eighteenth century and are in our modern world.
C: Your doctoral dissertation explored Jesuit views and uses of astrology. What was particularly unique about the Jesuits’ approach to astrological practices?
LR: The Jesuits are a very interesting group. They became early on avid researchers of nature and science and were strong contributors to the shaping of modern science. One of their most impactful actions was to create a global network of colleges which beyond mere schools, became also active research centres. So the Jesuits explored almost every facet of early modern science. Astrology was among these sciences, as it was always been until the end of the seventeenth century.
The Catholic Church was never accepting of astrology due to its prognosticatory practices. To put it simply and briefly, they view the knowledge of the future as something only privy to God and a direct affront to human free will. If astrology through the motions of the stars could forecast the future of human actions, then these actions would be preordained and sin, fault or redemption would be meaningless since things would just occur as they would have to.
However, astrology was an accepted form of knowledge in this period, so its evidence could not be denied. Thus, the Church only allowed astrological practices that could be explained by means of natural causes (in an Aristotelian sense), that is those that conform to the explanations of pre-science of this period. So, the Jesuits, being men of the Church as well as men of science, attempted to reform astrology so that it would at the same time be highly scientific (again, in a pre-modern sense) and morally correct for a Catholic.
This according to my research was their approach and contribution to the history of astrology. An interesting fact is that the Jesuits, via their missions, introduced the early modern European form of astrology to China, Japan and the Far East. (I must note that not all Jesuits agreed with this approach, some of the more orthodox denied astrology completely.)
C: You recently published a paper on nautical astrology during the early modern era. What are the origins of this tradition and why did some thinkers believe the “perfect navigator” had to be an astrologer?
LR: This is an old tradition, appearing in the early Greek astrological texts. There are many facets in the connection between navigation and astrology. The first and perhaps the most obvious is that navigation used the stars, the sun and the moon as main reference points in the high sea. This requires astronomical computation, and as I referred to earlier, astronomy and astrology were part of the same subject. This creates what I believe to be the first and main link with navigation. Now, in this context astrology is applied by seamen in two manners.
The first, and perhaps for the modern mind, the most scientific is the weather forecast. Until the eighteenth century, this was done largely with astrology. The continuous relationships of the moon with planets and stars, the astrological charts for the beginning of the seasons, new and full moons, and eclipses were studied to conjecture on the future weather. This would have been valuable for a sea journey where the weather would determine a good sailing or a disaster. Thus, as I develop in my paper, some authors consider this to be an indispensable tool for the “perfect navigator”.
The second manner would be to use astrology to predict the outcome of the journey, if safe, profitable, or successful. There are examples of merchants asking the astrologer if the ship with their valuable cargo would arrive safely, or women asking for their husbands at sea if they were well and if they would return safely. This would be the providence of the common astrologer and did not require any knowledge of navigation.
C: What other projects or conferences are you currently developing?
LR: Currently, I am organising the first international conference of the Astra Project, which will finally happen. It will take place on the 6th and 7th of May and gather several researchers of the history of astrology. I have now finished the proofs of my thesis book, Jesuit Astrology: Prognostication and Science in Early Modern Culture, which will be available in the next few months.
Another postdoctoral research project that I am engaging in is the effects of early modern globalisation in astrology. This is a topic I already approached in my thesis, but now want to develop further.