What is Hellenistic astrology?

The horoscopic astrology practised in Greek from about the second century BCE to the seventh century CE, in Egypt, Rome and the eastern Mediterranean. It introduced the birth chart itself — the rising sign, the twelve places, the seven planets in their signs — and is the root of every later Western tradition.

How is Hellenistic astrology different from modern astrology?

It judges every planet by sect (day or night chart), uses whole-sign houses, reads the lots such as the Lot of Fortune, ranks planets by five dignities including the bounds, and times the life with profections, zodiacal releasing and other time-lord systems that modern astrology largely dropped.

Who were the Hellenistic astrologers?

Dorotheus of Sidon, Claudius Ptolemy, Vettius Valens, Antiochus of Athens, Paulus Alexandrinus and Hephaistio of Thebes, along with the earlier sages known as Nechepso and Petosiris and the writings under the name of Hermes.

Can I get a Hellenistic reading of my birth chart?

Yes. Occult Astrology casts your chart from your birth date, time and place and reads it by the Hellenistic rules — sect, places, lots, dignities and time-lords — with a Vedic and a modern chart beside it for comparison.

Hellenistic astrology

The astrology practised in Greek from roughly the second century BCE to the seventh century CE — in Alexandria, Antioch, Rome and Athens — is the root of every later Western tradition. Occult Astrology casts a birth chart and reads it by that tradition's own rules.

What Hellenistic astrology is

“Hellenistic astrology” names the horoscopic astrology that appeared in Ptolemaic Egypt and spread through the Roman world, written in Greek and later carried into Arabic, Persian, Latin and Sanskrit. It is where the birth chart itself comes from: the rising sign (the horoskopos), the twelve places counted from it, the seven wandering stars in their signs, and a body of doctrine for judging them. The medieval astrology of Abu Ma'shar and Bonatti, the Renaissance astrology of Lilly, and much of what a modern chart still does, descend from it.

Its core authors are known by name: Dorotheus of Sidon, Claudius Ptolemy, Vettius Valens, Antiochus of Athens, Paulus Alexandrinus, Hephaistio of Thebes, and the fragments of earlier sages such as Nechepso and Petosiris.

How a Hellenistic reading differs from a modern one

Sect. A chart is a day chart or a night chart, and every planet is judged by whether it belongs to the sect in charge. The Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are of the day; the Moon, Venus and Mars of the night; Mercury goes with whichever it rises with.
Whole-sign places. The rising sign is the first place, and each following sign is the next place — no unequal house cusps. The places carry their ancient names: the Helm, the Gate of Hades, the Goddess, the depth, Good Fortune, Evil Fortune, the setting place, death, God, the Midheaven, Good Spirit, Evil Spirit.
The lots. The Lot of Fortune and the Lot of Spirit (the body and the doings), and the Hermetic lots of Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory, Nemesis, Basis and Exaltation, each a point reckoned from three others and read with its ruler.
Dignities in five kinds. Domicile, exaltation, triplicity, bound (the Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Chaldean systems) and face. The bounds and triplicities differ between authors, and the reading lets you choose which author's table it follows.
Time-lords. The life is divided into periods ruled by planets: annual profections, zodiacal releasing from Fortune and Spirit with the loosing of the bond, the decennials, the ages of life, and the climacteric years — a system of timing that modern astrology largely lost.
Configurations by sign. Planets are in aspect by whole sign — sextile, square, trine, opposition — with the applying and separating partner, the right and left side, and the doctrines of bonification and maltreatment.
Fixed stars, twelfth-parts and decans. The bright stars on a planet or the rising degree, the sign each planet's twelfth-part falls in, and the thirty-six faces of the decans.

What Occult Astrology does with it

The app computes every technique of the tradition — sect, the places, the lots, the five dignities, the time-lords, the stars — and where the ancient authors differ, as they do about bounds, triplicities, the Lot of Fortune by night and the twelfth-parts, it lets you switch between their positions. A chart with no birth time has no rising sign, and the reading says so rather than inventing one.

The reading comes in several registers. A plain-English basics reading explains what each piece of a chart is and what yours says. The main point says what matters most, simply. The whole chart readings walk every section of the doctrine, and a scholarly register goes through the doctrine in depth.

Beside the Hellenistic chart the app draws a sidereal Vedic chart (Lahiri ayanamsha, the Vimshottari dasha, the sixteen vargas, the nakshatras, the panchanga and ashtakavarga) and a modern Western chart (the outer planets, twelve house systems from Placidus to Whole sign, the aspect patterns, Chiron, the asteroids and the nodes) — for comparison.

Read next: the techniques, one by one, try the free profection calculator, or open the demo charts — Vettius Valens's own nativity, read in full.

Questions

What is Hellenistic astrology?: The horoscopic astrology practised in Greek from about the second century BCE to the seventh century CE, in Egypt, Rome and the eastern Mediterranean. It introduced the birth chart itself — the rising sign, the twelve places, the seven planets in their signs — and is the root of every later Western tradition.
How is Hellenistic astrology different from modern astrology?: It judges every planet by sect (day or night chart), uses whole-sign houses, reads the lots such as the Lot of Fortune, ranks planets by five dignities including the bounds, and times the life with profections, zodiacal releasing and other time-lord systems that modern astrology largely dropped.
Who were the Hellenistic astrologers?: Dorotheus of Sidon, Claudius Ptolemy, Vettius Valens, Antiochus of Athens, Paulus Alexandrinus and Hephaistio of Thebes, along with the earlier sages known as Nechepso and Petosiris and the writings under the name of Hermes.
Can I get a Hellenistic reading of my birth chart?: Yes. Occult Astrology casts your chart from your birth date, time and place and reads it by the Hellenistic rules — sect, places, lots, dignities and time-lords — with a Vedic and a modern chart beside it for comparison.

Occult Astrology reads a birth chart the way the Greek-language astrologers of antiquity did. Cast a chart and compare it with a Vedic and a modern reading of the same sky.

Cast a chart Demo charts