Kepler astrology training
Thus, he earned the sobriquet ‘the skeptical astrologer.’ Nonetheless, he felt passionately that predictions could be made by studying the heavens. Like any good rationalist in the 17th century, Kepler did not buy wholesale the soothsaying and fortune telling that infested the study of astrology. Kepler lived and wrote in a time when general opinion was shifting away from the closed Ptolemaic view of the world and towards the infinitely open Copernican view. ( Youtube Screenshot ) The Skeptical Astrologer The Cosmos with overlay of the Astrological Zodiac. Kepler derided much of this as “Arabic art amounting to nothing,” however, he did manage to predict a winter of severe cold and possibly a Turkish invasion (Kollarstrom, 2006). Similar to today’s farmer’s almanac, 17th century almanacs were “expected to include such things as war and pestilence, weather and harvest, the religious and political upheavals, and when to sow or bleed or purge and the like” (Kollarstrom, 2006). This served as both an enjoyable and educational form of entertainment.ĭespite this, Kepler’s renown as an astrologer mostly derived from his annual almanacs, which he published for over three decades. While serving as the court mathematician of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, Kepler calculated the horoscopes of famous people such as Emperor Augustus Caesar and the Prophet Mohammed in order to explain why their fates developed as they did. Kepler drew up some 800 horoscopes (not all of them flattering) for friends and patrons. ( Public Domain ) Kepler’s Astrological Almanacs Kepler was arguably the last astronomer to believe in astrology, at least in the Western world. Astrologers believe that the position of the Moon and Sun within these twelve divisions influence what happens on Earth, from the personalities of people born under a certain sign to the likelihood of certain kinds of undertakings to be successful” (Weatherbee, 2010). According to astrology, there are 12 divisions in the sky, measuring exactly 30 degrees each… These are the 12 signs of the zodiac. In contrast, an astrologer “interprets the influence that the Sun and Moon have while they are in a specific sign of the zodiac.