Overview
Recent surveys indicate that up to 70% of Britons check their horoscopes. The BBC's The Sky at Night is one of the longest continually broadcast programmes in history, and we are constantly dazzled by new images from the Hubble telescope, visions of space from Hollywood, and musings on what is 'out there' in modern literature.
This is the first comprehensive examination of astrology's origins and examines the foundations of a major feature of popular culture in the contemporary west, one which has its origins in the ancient world. Campion explores the relationship between astrology and religion, magic and science, and explores its use in politics and the arts in fascinating and readable fashion.
The book's scope and depth is greater than any other comparable text. Beginning with theories of the origins of religion in sun-worship, it spans the period between the first Palaeolithic lunar counters around 30,000 BC and the end of the classical world and rise of Christianity. Campion challenges the idea that astrology was invented by the Greeks, and asks whether its origins lie in Near Eastern religion, or whether it can be considered a decadent Eastern import to the West. He considers the evidence for reverence for the stars in Neolithic culture, Mesopotamian astral divination, Egyptian stellar religion, and examines attitudes to astrology and celestial prophecy in the Bible. He considers such artefacts as the mysterious, fifteen-thousand year-old 'Venus of Lauselle', the latest theories on Stonehenge as a sacred observatory, Greek theories of the ascent of the soul to the stars and the Roman emperor Nero's use of astrology to persecute his rivals.
The second volume will be published as The Golden Age of Astrology. |
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From recent reviews:
| 'The Dawn of Astrology is an extremely impressive synthesis. Campion's two volumes will set a new standard for histories of astrology, and are themselves a significant contribution to our cultural self knowledge.'
DR PATRICK CURRY, UNIVERSITY OF KENT
'Nicholas Campion has given us a most impressive story of the rise of astrology, supported by a wealth of original sources.'
HERMANN HUNGER, UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA
'All aspects of human civilization change, but the celestial realm largely constant and predictable across time and geography, inspiring a transcendent awe that has always captivated the human imagination. In The Dawn of Astrology Nicholas Campion explores how astronomy and astrology have served humanity from prehistoric times to the 21st century. Most scholars do their work looking down: archaeologists stoop to excavate the earth for material artefacts, and text scholars sit at desks pouring over literary artefacts. Campion, however, asks us to look up, and when we join him in this endeavour, we encounter anew the cosmic artefacts. The Dawn of Astrology is an impressive accomplishment because of both its broad historical span and Campion's ability to synthesize data from diverse academic fields.
'Carefully documented, Campion's interdisciplinary treatment is equally rigorous, creative and elegant, opening new vistas for exploring the history of humanity's quest to hear the stars speak. The Dawn of Astrology will be of interest to scholars and students of the social sciences and humanities. It will also serve a wide public audience interested in how humans have and continue to relate to the world "up there".'
J.EDWARD WRIGHT, PROFESSOR OF EARLY JUDAISM, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
'Although the book's subject is the history of western astrology, that account entails an informed analysis of this culture's attempts to characterise and understand the world in which we find ourselves. Campion does such a good job of this that The Dawn of Astrology really deserves to find a wide audience. In all events, Campion has certainly performed a service to astrologers by writing this book, by making them aware of their history. He has also opened up new ground for thinking about astrology's nature and function through his documentation and clarification of the various philosophical and technical approaches to it, and by showing how central a place the subject occupies in western culture.'
GARRY PHILLIPSON
'Campion has raised the bar considerably for what constitutes a competent history of astrology. The book is clearly and lucidly written. The depth and breadth of the erudition displayed in it is unprecedented in the field of general histories of astrology'
ROBERT HAND
'Campion's book is overwhelming: it is archeohistorical scholarship that has never been grasped in Astrology before. From his record of primitive awareness of the heavens some 300,000 years ago through the emergence of meanings indigenous to so many ages thereafter -basic and practical, even megalithic; spiritual and didactic, even transcendental- we learn the course of astrology's growth among magic, religion, philosophy, science, and politics. Campion does more than mirror epic social developments, names, theories, and achievements still alive in our present cultures: he vivifies the minds of ancient thinkers who, through their conceptualizations, still live among us today. We have the reincarnating trance of the Egyptian temple tradition, the political resourcefulness of the Persians, the intellectual grace of the Greeks and their Platonic lift to oneness with the godhead, the authoritative pomp of the Romans, the competitive Judeo-Christian dialogues … and this barely touches the surface of Campion's sphere of learning. Every philosophical thinker you can name finds audience in this extraordinary record and analysis of Astrology's development. '
NOEL TYL
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