- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Hambledon Continuum (17 April 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1847252141
- ISBN-13: 978-1847252142
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.8 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 897,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
'He [Campion] provides an accessible, humanistic treatment that explores the relationship of astrology to the histories of religion and magic as well as that of science.' --Time and Mind: The journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture
Product Description
This first volume comprehensively charts Western astrology from 30,000 BCE to the 17th century, with particular focus on its magical, political and apocalyptic movements and use in everyday life throughout history.This is the first in a two-volume history of Western astrology, a survey which stretches from Paleolithic lunar counters 30,000 BCE, to popular astrology in the 21st century. Most general histories of astrology have focused on the period between classical Greece and the seventeenth century, excluding both preceding cultures and modern developments. By contrast this book includes Neolithic culture, Mesopotamian astral divination and Egyptian stellar religion from the early period, and the development of popular astrology and New Age cosmology from the eighteenth century to the present. While there is some reference to astrology's technical history the emphasis is cultural, religious and philosophical.The book's original argument focuses on the interplay of three explanatory models of astrology which originated in Mesopotamia and Greece; the stars are seen either as signs, measures of time, or influences.Other themes include astrology's shift from an elite, authoritarian practice to a popular democratic one as it moved from Mesopotamia to the classical world, and the arguments about the relationship between the spirit and the stars which coloured Gnostic and Christian attitudes to astrology. Astrology is considered in relation to magic, politics and apocalyptic movements and, throughout, the theory of astrology is related to examples of its use at all levels of society.Astrology is the practice of relating events on earth to patterns in the sky. Most histories of the subject follow a conventional scheme in which astrology begins in the 3rd-1st centuries BCE but here this narrow definition is challenged. It concludes that European astrology emerged as a combination of the technical structure developed in Babylon together with Egyptian theories about the relationship between the soul and the stars.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A serious look at the role of astrology in ancient history.,
By Matt G (Greenwich UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Dawn of Astrology: A Cultural History of Western Astrology - The Ancient and Classical Worlds (Hardcover)
At last an academic approach to astrology that takes the subject seriously.There has been a lot of interest in the starlore of the ancients.Think about the alignments of stone circles and pyramids and speculative books on those subjects.All of this book is good but what particularly struck me were the chapters on how platonic philosophy and later Christianity reacted to astrology.Some of the arguments still seem pertinent today.My only fear is that the the high street bookshops will stock this next to the the pop sun sign books. This is an important work that deserves a wide readership.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than just a good book,
By Stuart Schulz - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Dawn of Astrology: A Cultural History of Western Astrology - The Ancient and Classical Worlds (Hardcover)
The first reviewer of this book is perfectly correct in giving this book a five star-rating and calling it a must read. But she doesnt go far enough! This book, and its sequel, Volume Two, are masterpieces of good history and good writing. I review both books under Volume Two but feel compelled to repeat my analysis here as well, and I am not even an astrologer, nor actually believe in it with any certainty. Having completed Volume One, and now, finally, Volume Two after an entire summer of reading, I stand in awe at this man's ability to wade through an ocean of conflicting and confusing history, involving philosophy, religion and social upheavals, and somehow never lose cite of his central thesis--the ebb and flow of astrological beliefs. And all in very readable prose, carefully documented, and largely unbiased. Of course, with such a broad overview, and with so many influences and trends to dissect and analyze, there is no doubt that experts in individual fields may quibble about certain points and generalizations. After all, this is controversial material concerning a movement embraced by some, but reviled by many powerful forces. But that doesn't detract from the value of this encyclopedic work. Whether you believe in Astrology or not, noone can deny that it has played a major role in the intellectual and psychological life of Man since the beginning of time, and a respectful interest in its development is certainly warranted by anyone, whether academic or not. And noone does this with such clarity and insightful prose through the jungle of intellectual ideas than Campion, in two massive volumes of scholarship. I should know...I am a college writing teacher, and can professionally declare that this is great writing, not just great scholarship. I only regret that having read the complete work through once, I will probably have to do it several times over again, before I retain even a tiny portion of the information presented in these dense but fascinating texts.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Dawn of Astrology Volume,
By Peggy Schick - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: History of Western Astrology Volume I: The Ancient and Classical Worlds: 1 (Paperback)
this is a must read for everyone. you do not have to be an astrologer to appreciate the historical sequence of reglion and the sciences. astrology was the first science and without it we would not have medicine, mathematics, astronomy or any of the knowledge we have today. The Dawn of Astrology clearly outlines the rise and fall of oldest science, astrology.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best history of ancient astrology out there,
By N. Grossman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: History of Western Astrology Volume I: The Ancient and Classical Worlds: 1 (Paperback)
Campion's history of ancient astrology does what other such histories do not: it places astrology in the context of the societies in which it developed. So Campion's book describes the religious practices and beliefs of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and the British Isles and shows why and how they spawned astrology. This method is far preferable to that used by other histories, which often treat astrology as a subject unto itself without fully explaining its connection to the societies that gave it birth. Campion relies on both primary and secondary sources -- the bibiliography is staggering in its size and scope -- as well as on his own insights. Highly readable for a work of this type (which can easily suffer from dryness), comprehensive and thorough, The Dawn of Astrology is simply the best treatment of its subject I have yet encountered. Highly recommended.
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