Course on the History of Western Astrology

In 2024, Philip Graves, a dedicated student of astrology and its history since 1995, has been developing an introductory five-hour lecture-based course on the history of western astrology, aiming to give a thorough overview of the chronology of significant developments and an introduction to the most influential astrologers and their works.

This course is offered in association with the Moira School of astrology run by Andrea Gehrz, accomplished translator since the 2000s of works by Vettius Valens, Ptolemy and Porphyry from ancient Greek into modern English, and author and co-author of a number of other popular astrological books. Recordings of the first four classes can be purchased from her website here.

Each class is based on an independently researched and carefully written original 7500-word script and brings to bear the fruits of Graves’s many years of private study of the history of astrology from original primary sources as well as high-quality secondary ones.

As they are finished, outlines of the classes offered on this course will be added below.

This course is just the beginning of Graves’s plans to teach the history of astrology. He plans to develop more detailed lectures on specific topics in the near future, and can be hired to teach a wide variety of topics in the history of western astrology.

 

Class 1: Ancient Greek and Roman Astrology

• Introduction (Historical Context from Babylonian Celestial Divination to Horoscopic Astrology)
• Marcus Manilius
• Dorotheus of Sidon
• Claudius Ptolemy
• Vettius Valens
• Antiochus of Athens
• Julius Firmicus Maternus
• Afterword on late Classical Astrology

 

Class 2: Medieval Astrology

• Introduction (Historical Overview)
• The early history of astrology in the Abbasid Caliphate
• Nine important medieval astrologers writing in Arabic
  • Māshā’allāh
  • Abū Alî al-Khayyāt
  • Sahl ibn Bishr
  • Abū Ma’shar al-Balkhî
  • Al-Kindî
  • Abū Bakr al-Hasan ibn al-Khasîb [Albubater]
  • Abū al-Saqr al-Qabîsî [Alchabitius]
  • Alî ibn abî al-Rijāl [Haly Abenragel]
  • Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bîrunî
• Abraham Ibn Ezra
• The Twelfth-Century Translation Movement
• Guido Bonatti
• Leopold of Austria
• Palchus
• Campanus
• Alfonso X, Bartomeu de Tresbens and Enrique de Villena
• Albertus Magnus, the Speculum Astronomiae and Thomas Aquinas

 

Class 3: Renaissance and 17th-Century Astrology

• Introduction
• Part 1: 20 Authors of New Astrological Texts in Latin
  • Giovanni Pontano
  • Regiomontanus
  • Luca Gaurico
  • Johannes Schöner
  • Gerolamo Cardano
  • Francesco Giuntini
  • Valentin Naboth
  • Heinrich Rantzau
  • John Dee
  • Johannes Gartze
  • Claude Dariot
  • Christophe Pezel
  • Giovanni Antonio Magini
  • Andrea Argoli
  • David Origanus
  • Tommaso Campanella
  • Johannes Kepler
  • Jean-Baptiste Morin de Villefranche
  • Placido de Titis
  • Antonio de Bonattis
• Part 2: Authors of New Astrological Texts in Modern European Languages
  • A. Three French Astrologers
    • Simon de Phares
    • Auger Ferrier
    • Henry de Boulainviller
  • B. Six English astrologers
    • William Lilly
    • Nicholas Culpeper
    • William Ramesey
    • John Gadbury
    • Henry Coley
    • John Partridge
• Part 3: The Battle between Opponents and Defenders of Astrology
  • Marsilio Ficino
  • Pico della Mirandola and Girolamo Savonarola
  • Lucio Bellanti
  • Melanchthon and Peucer
  • Pontus de Tyard
  • Sixtus ab Hemminga
  • Benito Pereyra
  • Alessandro de Angelis
  • John Chamber
  • Sir Christopher Heydon
  • George Carleton

 

Class 4: 18th- and 19th-Century Astrology

• Introduction
• Part One: Astrology from 1700 to 1783
  • George Parker
  • John Whalley
  • Richard Mead
  • Samuel Penseyre
  • Other astrological publishing activity in the 18th century
• Part Two: Astrology in Britain from 1784 to 1854
  • Ebenezer Sibly
  • George Mensforth
  • C. Heydon Junior
  • John Worsdale Senior and Junior
  • Thomas White
  • James Wilson
  • Robert Cross Smith and Mr. Dixon
  • Thomas Oxley
  • Rupertus Stella
  • Richard J. Morrison (Zadkiel)
  • W. J. Simmonite
  • William Sharp Cross and Christopher Cooke
  • The Ptolemy and Placidus Translation Movement, 1786-1828
  • Other British Astrological Magazines from 1791 to 1854
• Part Three: Astrological Publishing in Britain, 1855-1899
  • New Books on Astrological Weather Forecasting
  • Alfred John Pearce
  • Casael
  • Robert Thomas Cross
  • P. Powley and R. Bland
  • Rosa Baughan
  • Sepharial
  • Alan Leo and Frederick Lacey
  • George Wilde, J. Dodson and A. G. Trent
  • Charubel and H. S. Green
• Part Four: Astrological Publishing in Continental Europe, 1800-1899
  • J. W. Pfaff
  • Mlle. Le Normand
  • Paul Christian
  • H. Torné-Chavigny
  • Ély Star
  • Abel Haatan
  • G. W. Geßmann
  • Fomalhaut
• Part Five: Astrology in the USA, 1838-1899
  • Thomas Hague
  • Mark and Luke Broughton
  • Regulus
  • Hiram Erastus Butler
  • Thomas Burgoyne
  • W. H. Chaney
  • Karl Anderson
  • Eleanor Kirk and W. J. Colville
  • Frank Earl Ormsby
  • Ellen Bennett
  • G. W. Cunningham
  • Frederick White and R. Hollingsworth

 

Class 5: 20th-Century Astrology

• Historical Introduction
• Astrological Philosophies in the 20th Century
  • Traditional Astrology
  • Theosophical, Esoteric and Karmic Astrology
  • Scientific and Statistical Astrology
  • Psychological and Humanistic Astrology
  • Popular Astrology