Astro-meteor- periodical revolutions of the heavenly bodies, appear to have
ology based ^ ^ to that each of those bodies was a celestial
on the five
planets,
spirit, to whom, agreeably to the confused idea which prevailed
among mankind that some kind of atonement for sin was
necessary, a high mediatorial office was ascribed.
It has been supposed with great probability, that this belief
led to the first departure from the purer light of the primeval
religion, which was transmitted, though dimly, through Noah’s
immediate descendants. To the celestial bodies, as divine
intelligences, were ascribed an intermediate place between the
earth and that Almighty Being, who had thus been partly
forgotten, or, according to the Chaldean creed, was by far too
exalted to fake cognizance of what is passing in the terrestrial
world.
The planets occupied the most prominent places in the
astro-meteorological system, and amongst these, the Chronus of
the Greeks, or Saturn,1 also the Babylonian Yenus, and the
Zohak of the Arabs,2 were supposed to exercise particular influences
; but the sun,3 as having the greatest power of all the
celestial bodies, was believed to have most weight in the production
of important events.
The Chaldeans, like the Greeks at a later period, distinguished
all the visible planets by particular names, as Merodach
(Mars), Meni (Yenus), Nebo (Mercury), and Bel (Jupiter) ;
and the whole five were styled interpreters, as being supposed
to mark by their risings, settings, and colour, the events to
which individuals are to be subjected. The phenomena of
nature, such as the appearance of a comet, the occurrence
of an earthquake, and eclipses, were supposed to indicate the
approach of events connected with nations and their sovereigns,
as well as private individuals.4
Subordinate to the five planets were thirty stars called
counsellors, one half destined to observe what passes below, or
1 Also called II, as well as Saturn.—Euseb., Prsep. Evan., lib. I., cap. 10.
8 A temple was dedicated to this deity at Mekkah.—See Lane’s Koran,
p. 29, Madden and Co., London, 1848.
3 The Assyrians gave the name of Bel to the Sun as well as to Saturnus.—
Procopius, Comm, in Esai, cap. xlvi.
1 Diod. Sic., lib. I I ., cap. xxi.
and comets.
the actions of men, and the remainder what is passing in g^erB3enser
heaven; mutual intercourse being maintained by means of
messenger stars traversing, once in ten days, the space which
separates the celestial and terrestrial worlds.
To each of the twelve principal of these counsellors was supposed in-^
allotted a month of the year, and one of the twelve signs of the constellations!
Zodiac; 1 through which latter, the motions of the sun, moon,
&c., appear to have been determined with considerable precision.
The-Chaldean system of astrology appears also to have
included twenty-four constellations beyond the Zodiac, one-
half in the northern portion of the heavens, and the other in
the southern. The latter was supposed to have reference to
individuals who are deceased, and those of the former, which
are visible, to the actions of the living, and these were considered
to influence the whole train of good and evil to mankind :
to these were added, as an additional means of predicting what
is to happen, the art of divination by the flight of birds, the
entrails of victims, and the interpretation of dreams.2
The divine mediatorial power attributed to the planets, &c.,
appears to have been followed by a lower kind of idolatry,
namely, the use of images; which being made under certain
aspects of those bodies, and consecrated by magical rites, were
believed to continue under their influence. It is sufficiently Consecrated
clear, that images of this kind, whether small or great, were image£-
connected with Babylonian worship,3 and doubtless, they were
similar to the Teraphim mentioned in Scripture:4 but it may
here be observed, that as the names of these images are She-
mitic, and correspond with those of the heavenly bodies,5 it
has been inferred that they were purely astrological.
1 Compare Diod. Sic., lib. I I ., cap. xxi., with Ideler, Ueber der Ursprung
des Thierkreises. Letronne, while questioning the derivation of the Zodiac
from the Chaldeans, admits that the Dodecatemaries came from that people
to the Greeks,-—See his Review on Ideler’s work, Journal des Savans for
1839, pp. 493, 528.
8 Diod. Sic., lib. I I ., cap. xxi. 8 Dan., chap. I I I . , v. 6, 7, 11, 15, &c.
4 Judges, chap. X V I I ., v. o, chap. X Y I I I ., v. 4 and 20 ; Genesis, chap.
X X X I., v. 19, 34, chap. X X X V ., v. 2, 4.
5 Ba’al, Nebo, Merodach, Succoth, Benoth, &c., note by Aloys Sprenger,
M.D.