Principles of Medieval Medical Astrology
Principles of Medieval Medical Astrology
By
Roland Matthews (2003)
Medieval medical astrology attributes the health of humans to the cosmological concept that God’s emanations descend through the celestial and planetary spheres to earth and that each part of the body is affected by corresponding zodiac signs. The first part of this paper discusses how the healing arts of herbalism, alchemy, and physical anatomy used sympathetic astrological associations to the stars and planets and the human body. The second part of this paper will deal with the reemergence of Greek philosophy into Western Europe, the stronghold held by monotheism, and how new cosmologies were developed to reconcile the strain between religion and science. In the final part, it will be seen how the combination of astrology, medicine, and philosophy led to the culmination of Kabbala and Alchemy, the key components of medical natural philosophy during the medieval age.
In the medieval period (c. 500 – 1500 CE) the people of Western Europe did not have the modern medical techniques we use today. They relied on herbs and medical astrology for maintaining their health. When the practice of using certain plants as cures for ailments began can only be guessed at, for it is an ancient custom from prehistory.
Hippocrates (b. 460 BCE), Polybius (f. 410 BCE), Herophilus (c. 340 BCE), Berosus (c. 280 BCE), Dioscorides (b. 20 CE), Pliny (23-79 CE), Dorotheus (c. 1st century CE), Galen (b. 130 CE), and Celsus (25 BCE-50 CE) were some of the most prominent scholars who began studying the relationships between astrology and medicine. Through their contributions of time and research we have the theory that the zodiac signs have rulership over various parts of the human anatomy and that medicines could be made to correspond with those parts and the stars that governed them. Whitfield says in his book Astrology a history “The fundamental tenet of astrological medicine was that man’s physical nature depended on the balance of the four primary qualities of heat, cold, moistness and dryness, called in the human body the humours, and that the dominant influence on this balance came from the heavens.” (1) He goes on to state “The principle of correspondences also lay behind the use of herbs in medicine, the belief that plants shared the qualities of the celestial bodies, and that this fact could be systematically used to strengthen or weaken the influence of the planets over the human body.” (2) The four bodily humours are: blood which is sanguine or moist and hot, yellow bile also known as choler which is choleric or hot and dry, black bile which is melancholic or dry and cold, and phlegm which is phlegmatic or cold and moist. Every person has their own blend of these temperaments, possibly due to the arrangement of the planets at their nativity, and sickness was caused by an imbalance resulting from the moving planets and changing seasons which also shared these qualities. (3)
According to Whitfield, “The second great principle of diagnosis and treatment was that parts of the human body are all under the special influence of one of the zodiac signs, from Aries at the head to Pisces at the feet.”(4) The Corpus Sophia or body of wisdom (also called the Zodiac man) shows that Aries governs the head, Taurus the neck, Gemini the arms, Cancer the breasts, Leo the heart, Virgo the abdomen, Libra the hips, Scorpio the genitals, Sagittarius the thighs, Capricorn the knees, Aquarius the lower legs, and Pisces the feet. The first full textual description of this system is to be found in the Latin poet Manilius’s Astronomicon, dated around 15-20 CE. (5)
Paracelsus not only believed that herbs would work as medicine, but like his contemporary Agrippa, believed that almost anything could be used. Paracelsus said: “For there is no sickness against which some remedy has not been created and established, to drive it out and cure it. There is always some remedy, a herb against one disease, a root against another, a water against one, a stone against another, a mineral against one, a poison against another, a metal against one, something else against another.” (6) This belief probably stemmed from his strong religious convictions that God was good and that since everything was created by God, it must be good as well. Another source, if not the main source, of healing at this time period was a strong faith.
During the early Middle Ages, between the third and fifth centuries CE, the pagan idea of multiple deities gave way to and was absorbed by the concept of monotheism, the belief in only one absolute god. God is defined as “a being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, originator and ruler of the universe, the principle object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.”(7) Plato, Aristotle, and others theorized that God created the universe by allowing energy to descend in harmonic order in concentric spheres finally coalescing by order of density into the earth, which was at the center of the creation. The motion of the spheres explained the movement of the planets. The theory of the cosmos consisting of the four elements fire, air, water, and earth was postulated by Aristotle and later he said that a fifth element, ether, was interpenetrating all the spheres. When the spheres moved, it caused the fifth element to press down to the earth affecting life thereon. It had been observed that the oceans, plants, and animals were affected by the sun and moon, and by conjecture it was assumed that they and the other planets affected humanity as well. The blend of Greek philosophy and monotheism created a centralized cosmology in which medieval physicians could use astrology as a tool in their medical arts.
The mixture of cosmology and astrology led to the combination of science and religion called Kabbala which culminated in the art of medicine called Alchemy. It will be necessary to have some definitions before we continue. Kabbala is “a body of mystical teachings of rabbinical origin often based on an esoteric interpretation of Hebrew scriptures.” (8) Mysticism is “1. the immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God and 2. a belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptional or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.” (9) Alchemy is “a medieval chemical philosophy having as its asserted aims the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of the panacea, and the preparation of the elixir of longevity.” (10) The panacea that Alchemy strives to achieve is called the philosopher’s stone and is defined as “a remedy for all diseases, evils, or difficulties; a cure all.” (11) Kabbala is a Hebrew form of mysticism that took the philosophical concept of emanations and combined it with an orderly hierarchical description of each individual emanation called a sephiroth and associated each one with a planet, and the paths between them with the zodiac and the elements. Each of the paths between the spheres was also associated with a Hebrew letter of the alphabet, adding up to twenty two paths; and including the sephiroth, makes a total of thirty two paths of wisdom. (12) These were also related to the thirty two adult teeth. The seventy two names of angels making the Shemhamemphorash (the secret divine name of God) are correlated to the seventy two joints in the body. (13) The “Tree of Life” is the framework from which this cosmology bears its fruits. It consists of ten spheres or emanations connected by twenty two paths. The first sphere is called Kether which means crown. Its color is white and it is representative of the logos, Primum mobile or first swirling. The second is Hockmah that is to say wisdom. Its color is gray and it represents the celestial sphere. The third is Binah or understanding. It is black, melancholic Saturn whose metal is lead. Chesed or mercy is the fourth and its color is blue; it relates to sanguine Jupiter and the metal tin. Red, choleric Mars is called Geburah which means strength, which may be why its metal is iron. The Sun is yellow, choleric and called Tipheret which means beauty. Who can deny the beauty of its metal gold? Venus is related to green, phlegmatic and its name is Netzach or victory. Copper or brass is often associated with her. Variable as the liquid metal itself, Mercury is called Hod or splendor whose color is orange. The Moon’s color is purple, phlegmatic and is called Yesod the foundation. Silver is the metal of the Moon. Last but definitely not least is the Earth, divided into four colors representing the four elements fire, air, water, and earth, is melancholic as a whole and is called the kingdom or Malkuth. (14)
These associations of colors, metals, and angelic names were all used as a powerful tool to connect with God, coerce the stars, and control angels. The purpose for these actions was to guard against evil, heal the sick, and any number of other mystical acts. Kabbala was originally a secret oral tradition, but it began to be written down as early as the third century CE. With the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1454, information began to spread among the educated. The strength of monotheism, the popularity of hermeticism, and the reemergence of Greek philosophy combined with the technology of printing spread the cosmology of Kabbala across Europe and planted the seeds of Alchemy. Alchemy took all of the preceding centuries of gathered information and focused it into the first unified field theory of its time for the sole purpose of seeking the ultimate medicine. Religion was its foundation, the seven liberal arts its tools, the cosmology of harmonic spheres its laboratory, while transmutation and purity were its goals.
In conclusion, we see that the mystery of illness has perplexed humanity for as long as our history has been recorded. In antiquity illness was regarded as an evil omen or punishment from the gods, and medicine was seen as the bridge between life and death. Whitfield adds to this concept by saying “One of the original applications of omens in ancient Babylon had been to predict the course of disease.” (15) Paracelsus said “God has sent us some diseases as a punishment, as a warning, as a sign by which we know that all our affairs are naught.” (16) It was the connection between the spirit world and the material world. Astrological medicine was the resulting mixture of religion, science, art, and magic; it was the peak of human technology in the middle ages. The principles of medieval medical astrology are rooted in the study of the four qualities of the elements, given to us by the Greeks, the mixture of those elements in the four humours of the body, discovered by the physicians of the day, and their relationships to the heavens above, believed to be created by a singular deity, and interpreted by the ancient art of astrology.
Bibliography
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Paracelsus: Selected Writings, edited by Jolande Jacobi, Princeton University Press, 1995, p. 77
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