The Behenian Fixed Stars

Hi Scion, Thanks for the inspiration for this! I tried the pairs, but I could not get them to fit the Behenian stars- but each of these triangles has a planet or sometimes two, but I have concentrated the planets near the stars on the planet ecliptic- because they do not appear elsewhere. For instance a planet would not appear within 6 degrees of Alkaid, to man's eye. Unless Agrippa astral traveled. I am also working my way through geomancy and the star shapes- That is why I gave Ala corvi to the tower for instance.
I have decided that this Behenian list is from the middle East somewhere as it is only the window of the sky that could be planned on a Planisphere for that area somewhere. That tower I drew on the doodle- is only when Sirius rises in the East and Antares is up at the same time due West I am guessing about 10 days. I still have no idea why Agrippa honed in on these particular Stars- unless he had an antique list from somewhere that he was following and thought it magical. It kinda looks like this clay depiction if you think about it that I scanned. I wish it were Tarot- but I still do not think it is. Fascinating stuff- I have really enjoyed this and Thank you and Kwaw for all the information. I hope you will critisise my offerings. For example I want to know why you put the World where you did? Is it because of the flying Man Talisman?~Rosanne

I will definitely be examining it in detail! I'm looking forward to digging in.

I think I know where the 15 Behenians came from: Agrippa pulls them from the Liber Hermetis (Incipit liber Hermetis de 15 stellis tractans) & good old Thabit Ibn Qurra.

I may be wrong, but I think Thabit ibn Qurra (and possibly the Hermetis as well) gets them from the anwa tradition, which is essentially pre-Islamic Arab astrology, which when blended with the Greeks gives us the strange magical astronomy of the renaissance by way of Agrippa.

I think.

Scion

Just acquired Stellarium, which is a planetarium package that should make plotting all these a little easier. Headed to Texas for a few days, but when I get back I'm gonna try and run these differing systems and see what pops up in the virtual sky...

And I still have my kooky Denderah version to do...

X

S

just some observations

(and not really dealing with the positions of the stars)

Colors - no they're not all yellow. Indeed, they run the gamut from red (Aldeberan) to blue-white (Sirius).

Pleiades - not a star (as noted) but a star cluster. In Mythology, they were the "7 Sisters" (and now are seen as the logo of Subaru....). I've often heard that the star formation in "The Star" (in the Marseilles deck, it's 1 large star and 6 smaller ones) representing the Pleides

Now, some astronomy here. Looking at what seems to be an astrolabe-like object in the opening photo, I immediately thought of it as using the northern circumpolar stars for navigation (as was very often the case). Circumpolar stars are those stars which never set - the earth's northern (and southern) axis points towards one star (currently Polaris) and the other stars revolve around it. (or more accurately, the earth rotates and that's what we see)

Not that I said "currently." The earth's rotation isn't quite fixed and it 'wobbles' on it's axis like a top. In 3000 BC, the 'north star' was Draco and some different stars were circumpolar. Note that most of the stars on the Behainian list are circumpolar to near circumpolar....this slight wobble may acct. for some of that difference.

Hate to post and run, but I must......

Not dead yet! Back from Texas...

Finally received Zoller's translation of the Liber Hermetis... Took forever to track down and then another 2 weeks to arrive. I'm gonna be coimparing it to the Picatrix and Thabit Ibn Qurra to see what kind of primary source designation/disctinctions I can find for the 15 Behenians.


S

Hi Scion,
This may be a total shot in the dark, but I was doing some reading today and thought of your project here. What if there is a geomantic model that could be applied to the fixed stars? It actually seems to fit part of what Agrippa was talking about, I think, in the first or second page of posts from this thread. (A quote from Roseanne I believe.)

So, I wonder if there is some way to divine, using the cartomantic model seen on some of the french playing cards that include the geomantic symbols, by using the fixed stars/constellations?

One would substitute the constellations of the fixed stars for the geomantic symbols, and go from there? Follow me? Does this make sense, and has this already been done??? I imagine it has, and perhaps has no place here. But, thought I would mention it.

S'funny you should ask that.

Geomancy is something I haven't explored at all, but in looking over Kircher's Oedipus Aegypticus for the Liber T... I was mulling his section on the celestial alphabet... and wondering if there could be a connection to the Behenians... which in turn begs the question: what is the connection between geomancy and astrology. Truth is I know NOTHING about geomancy, so that's a topic I suppose I need to get on, pronto.

Does anyone else know of any connection between Geomantic figures and the constellations that contain the Behenian stars? Or for astrology in general for that matter?

Scion

Found this....scroll way down to see the chart.
http://www.servantsofthelight.org/knowledge/marathakis-geomancy.html

I was thinking that the geomantic approach brings the stars to earth in a way...allows us to ground that celestial energy in a way that we can then utilize in our lives. So I was seeing the Behenians as casting these far reaching shadows upon the earth...and what would those shadows look like? And could there be a geomantic connection. This occurred to me as I was reading the book by Ana Cortez, Playing Card Oracles. The book discusses geomancy and Agrippa...and so I made the leap. In fact, here is the quote that struck me:

Ana Cortez said:

Laying out a spread of cards is like laying out a section of Earth upon which geomantic figures are cast.

Click to expand...

There is also an illustration in the book showing two cards from The Astro-Mythological Game by Mlle Lenormand, 1845, showing both constellations and geomantic symbols.
http://www.playingcardsales.co.uk/cards/moreimages/10151_4_astro_mythological.jpg

Apparently geomancy was once known as the "Science of the Sand" and during the Renaissance "was referred to as terrestrial astrology".

http://www.philhine.org.uk/writings/rit_geomancy.html

Did find this article. Not sure if it will be useful....

I've read this whole thread, and I'm not sure how much I understand... but I just ordered Bernadette Brady's workshop on Visual Astrology DVDs (Babylonian astrology), and when that comes, perhaps I'll find this thread more understandable.

I do know that I the pictures of the old astrolabes, and it reminds me of this particular statue of the Queen of Heaven (newly made): http://www.mayhemltd.com/tools-queen.htm

As I can't afford the statue (and don't particularly like her expression), I've been thinking of painting one of my own... Don't the swirls (with the names of the stars, if you look closely) remind you of the astrolabes? I'm going to have to print out all of the above, and get a closer look.

As though I don't have enough things to do!