What is the ruler of astrology?

1
According to traditional astrology it's Mercurius.
Modern astrology says it's Uranus. And Dante
Aligieri says it's Saturn. How can we symbolically
determine the planet that fits best.?

Astrology is limiting, exacting in the creation and
interpretation of the natal chart. So I think that
Dante might have a point, Saturn is the ruler
of astrology. Mercury has to do with Sun Sign
newpaper astrology. And Uranus with New Age
astrology. How's that?

2
Hmmm, not bad.. how about...

Saturn is the existence and application of a clear set of astrological rules, mercury the detailed approach to analysing charts and uranus the way it is currently viewed by society in general.

3
Jupiter --

I recently discovered that it was Hamurabi as priest of Marduk/Jupiter who turned Babylon from a city to an Empire and with it Marduk as a local urban clan deity to supremacy as Ruler of the Gods ... which also established the planet Jupiter as Marduk's celestial presence & Hamurabi as his earthly agent --

5th tablet of Epic of Creation

With this Katarche (1800 BCE) began divinatory astrology ...

I've also been toying that the reason for Zeus/Jupiter's supremacy in the Greco-Roman pantheon is some sort of Babylonian influence ... even given Hesiod, who is a millenium later than Hamurabi

Other cultures -- eg Scandanavian -- do not have Jupiter as the Supreme Deity ... Loki/Thor does not outrank Odin (Mercury) ... Virachocha/Quetzcoatl of MesoAmerica too is Mercury -- Thoth/Mercury in Egypt too

For that reason, I see Jupiter as the ruler of astrology, given its place in the invention/creation katarche of the craft or art in western terms

6
How can we symbolically determine the planet that fits best.?
I like John Frawley's reason for preferring Mercury to Uranus: "We are thinkers not eccentrics."

Tom

Mercurius

7
While I am in complete agreement that Mercurius is as good a candidate as any for ruler of astrology, and with all due respect to Frawley, I not so sure that the statement, "We are thinkers not eccentrics." is entirely defendable when referring to astrologers. Maybe I should just speak for myself...I am much more eccentric than a thinker...just use this post as evidence.

In response to " Mercury has to do with Sun Sign
newpaper astrology" one wonders what the ancients did with Mercury since, to my knowledge, newspaper astrology was not invented till about 1936.
Last edited by James Frazier on Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.

9
If one reads ancient texts, one will find a lot of evidence in support of Mercury ruling astrology. Uranus does have a strong affinity with it as well. There is a difference between the seven ancient planets and the rest of the bodies, however. Only ancient planets can 'rule' anything, by definition. If you want to involve the rest of the planets, you will need to define what you mean by 'rule'.
Peter

10
Could you say more about what you see as the affinity between Uranus and astrology? I am not wishing to challenge you, simply to hear more from you about what leads you to see affinity between them?
Last edited by James Frazier on Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

12
aquirata wrote:James,

Philip Graves puts astrologers with Uranus in http://www.skyscript.co.uk/uranus3.html. Kim Farnell quotes Robert Cross, the last Raphael, as such: "Astrologers, as a rule, have Herschel prominent in their nativities" (1879) http://www.skyscript.co.uk/ur_aq.html
Thanks for the reference to these articles and discussion lines. Unfortunately, I can't make the link to Phillip's work. :-cry Kim's article and discussion thread were most enlightening. :' I appreciate the referrences.