{"title":"Sidereal Astrology in Medieval Europe (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries): Traces of a Forgotten Tradition","authors":"C. Nothaft","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Sets of astronomical tables available in Latin Europe during the Middle Ages can be classified based on whether they imitated Ptolemy in using a tropical zodiac for displaying planetary mean motions or followed an Indian tradition of preferring a sidereal reference frame. While this basic bifurcation in medieval computational astronomy is well known to modern scholars, there has so far been no systematic research concerning its consequences for the practice of astrology in this period. This article makes a first step by documenting cases from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries where Latin astrologers employed the sidereal zodiac for their calculations or expressly recommended its use for astrological purposes. Basing itself on printed sources as well as unpublished manuscript material, it provides evidence that a commitment to sidereal coordinates united several important figures during the early phases of the assimilation of Islamic mathematical astronomy in Latin Europe, but largely disappeared after 1250. As will be argued in the conclusion, this move away from sidereal astrology may possibly be linked to the thirteenth-century emergence of Paris as a major European center for the study of astrology.","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"146 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122257447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How to Write a Coherent Introduction to the Commentary on the Apocalypse: On an Edition of the Writings of Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202)","authors":"Klaus Herbers","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The article examines the various states of Joachim of Fiore’s eschatological works and their commentaries, thus assessing the evolution of eschatological thought in the thirteenth century.","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127822845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transcendent and Immanent Efficacy in Divination: A Description and Classification of the Diviners from Hong Mai’s 洪邁 (1123–1202) Yijian zhi 夷堅志 (The Chronicles of Yijian)","authors":"Radu Bikir","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The term shushu\u0000 數術 is commonly accepted to describe and include a wide range of diviners in China. But can we use the same group identifier to classify both a clairvoyant master, who is highly skilled and accurate in prognostication, and a purely technical user of shushu, who may often fail in his interpretations? The goal of this article is therefore to nuance this classification by finding other ways of categorization through close examination of the mantic specialists encountered in Hong Mai’s Yijian zhi. This examination focuses on three groups: the clairvoyants, the technicians, and the perspicacious characters. All three of these groups make use of what the author identifies as transcendent divination and immanent divination.","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132251353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Helena Avelar de Carvalho (17 September 1964–9 March 2021)","authors":"Charles Burnett","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340019","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116517780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Who Wants to Live Forever? Astrological Methods for Calculating Lifespan in Western Culture and Perspectives on Determinism in Astrology","authors":"Helena Avelar","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The calculation of an individual’s life span has been a constant presence in premodern astrological practice. It was used by physicians to calculate the expected life of a patient or to ascertain if an illness was likely to be fatal. On a personal level, this knowledge could also offer a means of control over one’s life and, more importantly, a way to prepare their access to a rewarding afterlife.\u0000This article contains an overview of determinism in astrology and a brief survey of the main methodologies used to determine the length of life, exploring their history, primary sources, and variations from antiquity to the early modern period. Although it discusses to some extent the chief methods for determining the lifespan, an in-depth study of the techniques, with all their details and discrepancies is out of its scope. The goal is to correlate the astrological practice with different perspectives on determinism and free will.","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130099737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Document on Rain (Yushu 雨書): Weather and Prognostication in Early China","authors":"R. Robinson","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Document on Rain (Yushu 雨書) is a short manuscript that forms part of the Beijing University collection of Han slips. This text, divided into two sections, has thus far garnered little scholarly attention. However, it presents to us an unusual example of a daybook (rishu 日書)-type manuscript, one which is primarily concerned with the weather. The Document on Rain, while sharing many characteristics of excavated daybooks, is unusual in its treatment of humans. Rather than providing advice on whether or not one should undertake activity on a certain day or engaging in the discourse about whether or not humans can manipulate the weather, the Document on Rain represents an understanding of the weather as a phenomenon that cannot be manipulated by humans, but one which can, perhaps, be understood. The Document on Rain integrates practices of prognostication based on calendrical and sexagenary cycles with theories about rain and its relationship to the symbolic characteristics of the twenty-eight lodges (ershiba xiu 二十八宿). This article analyses some of the predictive methods in the text and situates it within a longer tradition of meteoromantic practices.","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116873791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Secret of Secrets: The East Slavic Version; Introduction, Text, Annotated Translation, and Slavic Index, written by William F. Ryan and Moshe Taube","authors":"Florentina Badalanova Geller","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340021","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131951863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Man-Bird Mountain: Writing, Prophecy, and Revelation in Early China","authors":"Fabrizio Pregadio","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Taoist Canon (Daozang) contains a remarkable illustration entitled Renniao shan tu, or Chart of the Man-Bird Mountain, found in a text originally dating from the mid-fifth century. Other Taoist works describe this mountain as the ultimate origin of revealed scriptures and even of the entire Canon. In this article, I examine three main themes related to the Chart. The first is the role of birds in traditional accounts of the origins of Chinese writing. The second theme concerns the function of birds in the revelation of prophetic charts and texts, described in Han-dynasty “weft texts.” The third theme is the early narratives focused on the so-called “winged men” (yuren). This is followed by an analysis of the Chart, including its inscriptions, and of the text that contains it. An appendix provides translations of the inscriptions and of similar passages found in other Taoist sources.","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"225 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122349151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chinese and English Horoscopy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: The Astrological Doctrines of the Twelve Houses and the Lot of Fortune in Xingxue dacheng 星學大成 by Wan Minying 萬民英 (1521–1603) and Christian Astrology by William Lilly (1602–1681)","authors":"J. Kotyk","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This study compares the astrological doctrines of the Twelve Houses and Lot of Fortune as they are explained in Xingxue dacheng 星學大成 of Wan Minying 萬民英 (1521–1603) and Christian Astrology by William Lilly (1602–1681). These two astrologers, who were near contemporaries, lived on opposite sides of Eurasia, yet both were heir to traditions of astrology that together reached back to identical origins in the Near East. The use of largely similar doctrines between both authors testifies to the enduring integrity of astrology throughout centuries of transmission westward and eastward through multiple cultures and languages.","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125291239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Written in Stone? Creative Strategies for Struggling with Fate in Chinese Character Divination (cezi 測字)","authors":"Anne Schmiedl","doi":"10.1163/25899201-12340004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/25899201-12340004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper analyzes how fate is understood in imperial Chinese anecdotes on character divination (cezi 測字). It demonstrates that character divination, due to its qualities as a script-based method, allows the protagonists of divination anecdotes to intervene creatively in the predictive process. The protagonists use this opportunity to seize agency and attempt to influence or change their fate through different strategies. The paper explores these strategies in detail. To transform the outcome of the predictions, protagonists make use of apotropaism, repetition, mimesis, name changing, and the interpretative techniques of diviners. This paper contributes to the study of the notion of fate in imperial China by proving the unique role of character divination. It shows that in anecdotes on character divination, unlike in many other divinatory methods, fate is presented as determined. Even though protagonists attempt to assume agency over their fate, they ultimately fail. In Chinese character divination, fate is written in stone.","PeriodicalId":386891,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Divination and Prognostication","volume":"85 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130412301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}