Celtic Astrology -- Early Irish Astrology: An Historical Argument by Peter Berresford Ellis The Manifesto|The Dominion|Texts and Articles|Review|Links|ACCUEIL (FR)|HOME (EN)Early Irish Astrology: An Historical Argumentby Peter Berresford EllisEd. N.: This article was first published in Réalta (vol 3.n. 3, 1996), the journal of The Irish Astrological Association. In all histories of western astrology there is acurious omission. There are no references to early Irish, nor - indeed- ancient Celtic, astrological practices. In fact, the only serious scholarlystudy on Celtic astrology was published in a French academic journal in1902. [1] This dissertation, in the light of modem research, is open todebate. The major reason for this neglect of the subject,at least during the last fifty years, has undoubtedly been the insidiousinfluence of Robert Graves' The White Goddess (1949). This bookhas done singular disservice to those who seek to study the realities ofCeltic cosmology and, especially, the practice of astrology. Graves wasnot a Celtic scholar. His highly imaginative inventions of the so-called'tree calendar' and 'tree zodiac' inspired an outpouring of books purportingto be on 'Celtic astrology'. Graves and his acolytes have, unfortunately,seized the popular imagination but their 'tree zodiac' has nothing at allto do with the realities of the ancient Celtic world. This is not the place to dissect Graves' inventions.This would take a lengthy article. In this polemic, I intend to confinemyself to a brief outline of the historical reality of astrology in Irishsociety. Ireland was, and still is, part of the Celtic world. The Celtsby the 3rd Century BC had reached their greatest expansion in Europe. Theyoccupied a territory through Europe from Ireland, in the west, to the centralplain of Turkey (Galatia), in the east, even as far as the sea of Azov,and north from Belgium, south into Italy, as far as Ancona, also southto Cadiz on the Iberian peninsula. They were one of the great foundingcivilizations of Europe; the first northern European civilization to emergeinto recorded history. Although we have many hundreds of texts and inscriptionsin Continental Celtic languages dating from the 4th Century BC, our earliestsurvivals from the extensive literatures of the Insular Celts, the Irishand Welsh, do not start to date much before the 6th century AD. Greek and Latin writers show clearly that the Celtswere not only advanced in astronomy but that they were respected, especiallyby the Greeks, for their 'speculations from the stars'. Even the Romans,from Caesar to Pliny, paid tribute to their astronomy. One of the firstto note that the ancient Celts believed the world to be round (not flat)was Martial (c. AD 40-103/4) who, himself, claimed Celtic ancestry. The famous 1st Century BC Coligny Calendar, oncethought to be the most extensive document in a Celtic language but nowsurpassed by other fascinating discoveries, has been dated to its originalcomputation, by its astronomical observations and calculations. This highlysophisticated lunar and solar predictor was, according to the leading Celticscholar, Dr Garrett Olmsted, first constructed in 1100 BC. [2] It is importantto note that the concepts of the calendar find parallels in Vedic cosmology.We will return to this later. It was the Greek Hippolytus (AD 170-236), using anearlier source, who stated that the ancient Celts foretold the future fromthe stars by ciphers and numbers after the manner of the Pythagoreans.Space precludes a discussion on the argument which took place among theAlexandrian School of Greek writers as to whether the Celts borrowed theirideas from Pythagoras or whether Pythagoras borrowed his ideas from theCults. This fascinating argument among Greek scholars began in the 2ndCentury BC and continued for some centuries. The concept that the Greeksborrowed from the Celts, found a leading advocate in the Athenian-bornscholar Clement of Alexandria (c. AD 150 - AD 211/216). To turn to the position in Ireland, the evidenceshows that the Irish, like the rest of the Celtic world, were also highlyadvanced in astronomical observation, particularly in the constructionof calendars. One of the first Irishmen we can name as an acknowledgedexpert in this field was Mo-Sinu maccu Min (d. AD 610), the abbot of Bangor,Co. Down. [3] His pupil, Mo Chuaróc macc Neth Sémon of Munster,is recorded as having written a major work on astronomical computations.Alas, no copy of that seems to have survived but we do have a similar workby Cummian (d. AD 633), a professor at Clonfert, Galway. [4] Then we havea mid-7th Century astronomical text by Aibhistin (more widely called Augustinand once confused with Augustine of Hippo). Aibhistin was the earliestmedieval writer to discuss the question of the tides in relationship tothe phases of the moon. [5] The Julian calendar appears to have been introducedinto Ireland by the end of the 5th Century AD, with the incoming of Christianity,displacing native calendars. But a most exciting recent discovery has beenthe 'lost' Irish 84-year Easter Table covering the years AD 438-521, foundduring the 1980s in the Biblioteca Antoniana, in Padua. This was the calendar,or computus, referred to by Colmbanus in his famous letter to Pope Gregoryto support the Celtic dating of Easter. [6] It becomes clear from bothcalendrical studies and astronomical tracts that the forms of astrologybeing practiced in Ireland from the introduction of the Christian periodwould be substantially the same as those being practiced by the Greco-Romansat this time. The Greco-Latin forms appear to have displaced thenative Irish system when Christianity and Latin learning entered the country.This system was fairly well established in Ireland by the 7thCentury AD from when our earliest surviving texts, on astronomy and relatedastrology, survive. In the 12th Century AD the new Arabic learning sweptinto Ireland, carried there by returning Irish religious and scholars whohad been teaching in the great universities of Europe such as Bologna,Padua and Montpellier. Father Francis Shaw SJ has pointed out that at thistime the Irish medical practitioners, who were renown throughout Europe,adopted Arabic medical ideas. As Father Shaw says: 'Arabian medicine hadfor sisters Arabian philosophy and Arabian astrology'. [7] During the period of the 12th to 17th Centuries wefind many works on Arabic astronomy and astrology being translated intoIrish [8] and that the Irish astrological practices took on the Arabicforms which were also adopted by the rest of Western Europe. One of theareas in which scholars must do more work is with the countless untranslatedand unedited Irish medical texts, an area where astrology was used. Before1800 the Irish language contained the largest collection of medical manuscriptliterature surviving in any one language. With the English conquests of the 17th Century, thenative traditions of astrology were quickly stamped out and astrology becamethe province of the colonists and their culture. One of the last nativeworks was written by a Jesuit priest from Co. Down, Father Manus O'DonnellSJ in the mid-17th century which was based on the Lunario of GeronymoCortès, which has subsequently been translated, introduced andedited with notes and a glossary by F.W. O'Connell and R.M. Henry entitledAn Irish Corpus Astronomiae (David Nutt, London, 1915). We can trace this historical development of Irishpractices in a linguistic mode in the earliest writings we find that thevocabulary used to name the zodiac, planets, the galaxy and constellations,were given in native concepts. [9] For example: The constellation of Leo was known as An Corran,which means a reaping hook. Next time you look at Leo note the sequenceof brighter stars rising above Regulus in the shape of a back-to-frontquestion mark'?' which consequently resembles a sickle. Mars was calledAn Cosnaighe or 'the defender'. Venus was identified by at leastthree or four ancient names, as was Mercury. These survive in modem Manx;The Pole Star was An Gaelin - the beam that lights the way home.The Galaxy or Milky Way was called Bealach na Bo Finne (the wayof the white cow). Of the sun and moon we have a surprisingly extensivevocabulary in Old Irish. There are five names for the sun and six for themoon, all native concepts. Perhaps it is superfluous to add that these termswere also backed by the necessary mathematical technical jargon requiredfor the practice of astronomy and astrology. One should point out thatwhile this vocabulary still survives in Irish, the English equivalentsare loan words from Greek, Latin and Arabic. When the Greco-Latin ideas took firmer hold on theIrish perceptions, we note a change in the vocabulary. Native ideas ofplanets and zodiacal signs began to be dropped in favour of the Greco-Latinconcepts and these were, at first, simply translated into Irish. For example: Aries became An Rea or Reithe, a translationof ram (aries = Latin for ram and so on); thus the constellationof Cancer was known as An Portán, the crab. There being noconcept of lion in Old Irish the word used for Leo here was Cú- a large hound; while Virgo was Oighbhean, a young girl; Capricornbecame Pocán, the goat; Sagittarius was An Saighead, anarcher or soldier, and so on. We can perceive areas where the native and importedconcepts ran side by side for Orion was named An Selgaire Mhór(The Great Hunter) but the Belt of Orion was called Buaile an Bhodaigh(enclosure or belt or the enlightened). The final linguistic process in Irish took placeafter Arabic learning was introduced in the 12th Century and soon eventranslations of the names were dropped in favour of a simple Irish-isingof the foreign word. Therefore, Orion became Oirion, Aires was Airges,followed by Leo, Saigitairius, Mercuir, Uenir, Joib and Mars.The modern Irish astronomical vocabulary (in terms of names of planets,constellations and so forth) is now mainly made up of loan words just likethe English astronomical/astrological vocabulary. During the early 20th Century, when there was a reawakeningof interest in astrology, researchers, seeing this obvious loan word vocabulary,jumped to the wrong conclusion that there had been no native traditionof astronomy or astrology in Ireland. Both A.H. Allcroft (The Circleand the Cross, 2 vols, Macmillan, London, 1927) and Lewis Spence (TheHistory and Origin of the Druids, Rider and Co, 1949) believed therewas no advanced native traditions. The reverse was, of course, true. Indeed,as Dr Dáibhi Ó Cróinin has already pointedout in his excellent book Early Mediaeval Ireland 400-1200, Longman,1995, the Irish astronomers were doing work, which was often far more advancedand accurate than their European counterparts. The lists of astronomicalsightings of bright stars, comets, eclipses and so on, recorded in theannals and chronicles are more accurate than in most other European documentation.[10] It would be bizarre if the early Irish had been highlyadvanced in astronomy at this period but did not practice astrology. Theproof comes with our first surviving Irish astrological charts dating fromthe 8/9th Centuries. These are to be found in Swiss and German librarieslike many Irish literary remains of this period. [11] As an aside, we significantlyfind the signs of the zodiac carved on some of the Irish High Crosses,such as the early 10th century cross of Muiredach at Monasterboice. Indeed, in Old Irish there were at least seven wordsfor an astrologer. Rollagedagh (one who gains knowledge from thestars), fisatóir (one who gains knowledge from the heavens)- still found in Manx fysseree as a word for philosopher; eastrolach(one who gains knowledge from the moon), fathach (one steepedin prophecy) and n éladoir (one who divinates fromthe sky), and réalt-eolach (one versed in astrology) andréaltóir. To be pedantic, néladoir isargued as meaning a 'cloud diviner' but it is glossed in a 14th Centurymanuscript as 'astrologer' as are all these terms. [12] In the Brehon Laws we find that astronomers/astrologershad to be qualified. The degree of foirceadlaidhe was a degree ofthe fifth order of wisdom, in which one had to prove their knowledge ofastronomy and astrology. The earliest word for a horoscope in Irish occursas nemindithibh, noted by Dr Whitley Stokes in the ThesaurusPalaeohibernicus. Nem = heavens/sky while nemgnacht means astudying of the heavens, perhaps our earliest word for astrology. Indithemis an act of consideration. For overwhelming proof that predictive astrologywas practiced in ancient Ireland one only has to turn to the innumerablereferences in Irish mythological texts and what are rather disparaginglyreferred to as 'pseudo' histories, that is stories of early Irish historywhich fall in the scholastic mind in the grey areas between mythology andhistory. Stories are full of references of birth charts drawn up by Druidsand also Christian religious. In one text attributed to the 7th Centuryis there a question asked of Cillin, which disproves the theory of somecritics that the ancient Irish merely look for omens in the clouds. Dénamhme an leársgáil na realtai. Cen uair rathciuil agam?' ("Makeme a map of the stars. What hour will be auspicious for me?") Now the termleársgáil na realtai, a chart or map of the stars,makes it clear what is wanted - a horoscope. Most important is the statement given by Felim BochtÓ hUigiunn in the 14th Century: 'bi uair ag an impidhe na reaht-eolais'-there is always a correct moment to ask a question from the stars(or to gain star knowledge). Any modem horary astrologer will tell youthat much. There is an 8th Century Irish poem which endorsesthe idea that the ancient Irish did not begin work on building houses untila right moment to start had been assessed by an astrologer. One verse says:I have heard there was a house buildingIn Tuaim InbhirNor is there a house more auspiciouswith its starswith its sun and its moon To come to our most important question: it is pertinentto ask whether anything can be salvaged of the earliest Irish astrologicaltraditions before the introduction of the Greco-Latin forms? It is stillearly days to make definite pronouncements but initial researches indicatethat the ancient Irish, and, indeed, the ancient Celts, were practicinga predictive form of astrology which paralleled the early Hindu forms,that which we now called Vedic astrology. In other words, a study of linguisticconcepts and early cosmological motifs and calendrical philosophies ofboth Celtic (inclusive of Old Irish) and Sanskrit/Vedic cultures give apath back to the common Indo-European roots of our cultures, This is not at all surprising. Most readers willbe aware of the Indo-European hypothesis and know that, of all the Europeancultures, Ireland has preserved more links with the Hindu branch of theIndo-European culture than any other western European people. The linksbetween ancient Irish culture and Sanskrit/Vedic culture have been commentedon by scholars since the 19th Century. As early as 1815 Adolphe Pictethad pointed out the links in De l'affinite des langues celtiques avecle Sanscrit. Professor Myles Dillon (1900-1972) was one of the leadingpioneers in this fascinating field of study, showing the commons pointsin mythology, in social custom and, importantly in law. There are manypoints of reference in the Law of the Sénechus or, as it is popularlyknown these days, the Brehon laws and Hindu Laws. [13] But the common linkof language is obvious. As Dr Calvert Watkins of Harvard University has pointedout: the Celtic languages, most clearly Old Irish, represent an extraordinarilyarchaic and conservative linguistic tradition within the Indo-Europeantradition.... The classical Old Irish nominal and verbal system of theeighth century of the Christian era is a far truer reflection of the stateof affairs in Indo-European than is the Latin system of more than a thousandyears before. In the syntactic domain of word order, the structure of thearchaic Old Irish sentence can be compared only with that of the sentencein Vedic Sanskrit or the Hittite of the Old Kingdom.' [14] As early as 1895 Dr Heinrich Zimmer had observedcorresponding cosmological perceptions in the earliest surviving Celticcalendar, that of Coligny, and Vedic cosmology. The final word confirmingthis appears to be Dr Olmsted's detailed analysis of the calendar. [15] The idea that these 'signposts' might lead to thefact that ancient Celtic astrology and Vedic astrology also had a commonlink, another surviving parallel, was thrown into sharp relief by a smallgloss on a 9th Century Irish manuscript at Wurzburg. The word budh wasglossed by 'point of fire' and 'planet Mercury'. Certainly Cormac's 10thCentury Glossary (an early Irish dictionary) explains that budh/bott'means 'Aine's fire', Aine was an Irish deity, thought to be a moongoddess, although she appears in a male form as well as female.If budh was a name for Mercury then it places us close to the Vedicball game. Boudi and the stem budh appear in allthe Celtic languages. It means - all victorious, gift of teaching, accomplished,exulted, virtue and so forth. In Breton today, for example, boud means'to be'. You will see the stem in the name Bouddica, more commonly referredto in English as Boadicea, the Celtic warrior queen of the Iceni who ledan uprising against Roman rule in 60 AD The important thing is that theword occurs in Sanskrit and Buddha is the past participle of the stem budh,to know or enlightened. This is the title given to Sakyamuni Gautama- the Enlightened One. What is important is that in the Vedas the planetMercury is also known as budh. Can the Celtic branch of Indo-European and the Sanskritbranch of Indo-European both retain this same concept? What other commonconcepts do the Celts and the Vedas have in common when observing the nightsky? I believe that this research will eventually point the way to theearliest forms of Celtic astronomy and astrology. The Old Irish name forthe month of July, incidentally, was Boidhmis (month of Boidh).Orion's Belt, as previously mentioned, was BuaiIe an Bhodaigh. AndBudh na Saoghal was a term for 'world knowledge'. But, as I stress, it is early days as yet. The researchis ongoing and I am well aware that my good friend, Professor GearóidMac Eoin is currently is inclined to believe that budh in Irishis only a 'ghost word', an element deriving from bith 'world, life'often given as findbudh and which was misidentified by MicheálÓ Cléirigh, compiler of Foclóir no SanasanNua, the first published Irish dictionary, printed in Louvain in 1643.There is still much to sort out linguistically before we can draw the finalline but these studies are demonstrating early Irish perceptions of cosmology. Naturally, most astrologers would doubtless liketo see, as final proof, a collection of specific early Irish, orCeltic, charts - comparable with surviving Greek horoscopes of VattiusValens, or Critodemus or Antigonus of Nicaea. Such charts have still tobe to be found and identified. I am not too sanguine about this. We arelucky that the 8th/9th Century Irish charts survive in Basel. A lot ofearly material was destroyed in the 17th and 18th Century during the concentratedattempts to suppress the Irish language and books and manuscripts. I doubtthat we will find anything that predates the medieval period. That is notto say the situation is entirely without hope. [16] The field of research is wide and there are, sadly,hardly any workers in it. To give an idea of the problem, the vast wealthof Irish language medical books are still fairly untouched by translatorsor researchers. Our Knowledge of Irish mythology is based on some 150 talesProfessor Kuno Meyer and Dr Eleanor Hull have both estimated that thereare a further 400 identified texts that had not been examined and thata further 50/100 which could still be hidden in libraries. This shouldgive an idea of the enormity of the task to be undertaken in areas of Irishmanuscript research. Texts in Continental Celtic are still being discovered.In 1993 a bronze tablet with 200 lines of legal material in Celtic wasfound in Northern Spain. So far, however, the Coligny Calendar remainsour principal text from the pre-Greco-Roman period giving information onearly Celtic cosmology. What we can be sure of, at this time, is that theIrish (and the Celts generally) have a long tradition of astrological learningstretching back to a time before Christianity and the incoming of Greekand Latin learning. We can trace the development of Irish astrology fairlyeasily from the 7th Century AD, when our records in Irish and Hiberno-Latinbegin to survive. But for anything prior to this period we must, at thistime, turn to Continental Celtic remains. One point cannot be over stressed; that this longand rich tradition of Celtic astrology has been sadly neglected and, albeitperhaps unwittingly, suppressed by those who would prefer to follow thefantasies and inventions of Robert Graves and his 'tree zodiac'. Untilrecently, in an Irish and wider Celtic context, we have not been able tosee the star' for the trees! Notes[1] 'L'Astrologie chez les Gallo-Romains', H. de la VilleMirmont, Revue des Études Anciennes, Vol.4, 1902. « Text[2] 'The Gaulish Calendar: A Reconstruction from theBronze Fragments from Coligny with an analysis of its function as a highlyaccurate lunar/solar predictor as well as an explanation of its terminologyand development ', Dr Garrett Olmsted, Dr Rudolf Habelt GmBh, Bonn,1992. « Text[3] Mo-Sinu maccu Min and the computus at Bangor', DrDáibhi Ó Cróinin, Peritia, 1982. « Text[4] 'A Seventh Century Computus from the Circle of Cummianus'by Dr Dáibhi Ó Cróinin Proceedings of the RoyalIrish Academy, vol. lxxxii (1982). « Text[5] 'On Augustin, an Irish 'writer of the 7th Century'by Dr William Reeves, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Volii, 1861, and 'On the pseudo Augustinian treatise De Mirabilius & etc'by Mario Esposito, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol xxxv,1918-20. « Text[6] 'The 'Lost' Irish 84 year Easter Table rediscovered',by Drs D. McCarthy and Dáibhi Ó Cróinin, Peritia,6-7, 1987/8. « Text[7] 'Irish Medical Men and Philosophers' by Francis ShawSJ, in Seven Centuries of Irish Learning 1000-1700 ed. Brian ÓCuív, Mercier Press, Cork, 1971. « Text[8] An example of one such text is An Irish AstronomicalTract, based on a Medieval Latin version of a work by Messahalah, editedby Maura Power, Irish Text Society, London, 1914. Also: 'Remarks on a CosmographicalTractate in the Irish Language in the library of the Royal Irish Academy',Maxwell II. Close, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol vi,1900-1902. « Text[9] The basic references for Old and Middle Irish vocabulariesare: Dictionary of the Irish language: based mainly on Old and MiddleIrish Materials, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1983; Cormac’s Glossary,trs. and annotated by John O'Donovan, ed. with notes by Whitley Stokes,Calcutta, 1868 and O' Davoreen's Glossary (c. 1554-69) ed. WhitleyStokes, Halle, Germany, 1904. « Text[10] 'The Chronological Apparatus of the Annals of UlsterAD 431-I 131', D. McCarthy, Peritia, 8(1994): see also Chronologyof Eclipses and Comets AD 1 - 1000b3'D. Justin Schove, The Boyd ellPress, Suffolk, 1984. « Text[11] 'Notes on the Irish Zodiac Preserved in the Libraryof Basel', Henry S. Crawford, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquariesof Ireland, vol iv, 1925. and 'Illuminations and Facsimiles from theAncient Irish Mss in the Libraries of Switzerland, Dr Ferdinand Keller,trs Dr William Reeves, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol iii. « Text[12] See note 9 (above). « Text[13] Celt and Hindu, Myles Dillon, University College,Dublin, 1973, and Celts and Aryans, Myles Dillon, Indian Instituteof Advance Study, Simla, Navrang, New Delhi, 1975. « Text[14] 'Indo-European Metrics and Archaic Irish Verse',Calvert Watkins, Celtica (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies),1963. « Text[15] See note 2 (above). « Text[16] 'On the Celtic Languages of Continental Europe',Karl H. Schmidt, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, Cardiffvol. xxviii, 1979. 'Gaulish and Celtiberian Poetic Inscriptions', Dr GarrettOlmsted, The Mankind Quarterly, vol xxvii, no 4, 1988. « TextTo cite this page:Peter B. Ellis: Early Irish Astrology: An Historical Argumenthttp://cura.free.fr/xv/11ellis1.html-----------------------All rights reserved © 1996-2001 PeterBerresford EllisHOMEACCUEIL PORTADACentre Universitaire de Recherche en AstrologieWeb site Designer & Editor: Patrice Guinard© 1999-2001 Dr. Patrice Guinard  |
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