Гороскоп

Those who cross boundaries turn the words of Moses into a defense of the science of birthdays and say that our life depends on the movement of celestial bodies, and on this basis the Chaldeans made indications from the stars of what should happen to us. And this is a simple expression of Scripture: for signs (Gen. 1:14), at their own discretion, they mean not about the states of the air, and not about the changes of the annual seasons, but about the lots of life. Because what do they say? The confluence of certain moving stars with the stars located in the zodiac, when they come together to form a certain figure, produces certain births, and a different arrangement of stars produces the opposite lot of life. It is perhaps not useless to discuss this, starting, for the sake of clarity, a little higher. But I will not say anything of my own, but will use my own words to expose them, in order to provide some healing to those infected with such an illness and to warn others against falling into such delusions. The inventors of this science of birthdays, noticing that in long periods of time many figures elude them, confined the measures of time to the narrowest possible limits, because in the smallest and shortest time, and as the apostle expresses it, suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52), there is the greatest difference between birth and birth. And the one born at this point in time will be the owner of cities, the prince of nations, will begin to abound in wealth and rule, and the one born at another moment of time will be a beggar and a beggar and for the sake of daily food will begin to walk from door to door. Therefore, having divided the so-called zodiacal circle into twelve parts, since the sun passes this twelfth part of the so-called fixed sphere in thirty days, they divided each twelfth part into thirty parts. Then, dividing each such part into six to ten parts, each of the sixtieth parts was again cut into sixty. So, assuming that for those born there are known positions of the sky, let's see if they can maintain such accuracy in the division of time. As soon as the baby is born, the grandmother begins to consider whether the baby is male or female, and then waits for a cry, which would serve as a sign of life in the newborn. How many sixties will flow during this time! So she announced to the Chaldean about the newborn. How many small parts should be put into retelling the grandmother, especially if it happens that the person noticing the hour was standing outside the women's section in the house? For anyone who wants to look at a horoscope must accurately describe the hour, whether it be daytime or nighttime. How many sixtieth beats will still flow at this time? The one looking at the horoscope needs to find out about the stars not only in which of the twelfth parts they are, but also in which part of the twelfth part and in which sixtieth part of those into which, according to what has been said, each of the first parts is divided, or, to get to the point, in which sixtieth part of those into which the first sixtieth are divided. And such a fractional and elusive calculation of time, they say, must be done for each of the planets in order to find what position they had in the consideration of the fixed stars and what figure the stars taken together made of themselves at the moment of the birth of the baby. Therefore, if it is impossible to accurately determine time, and the replacement of one shortest fraction with another makes everything fallible, then those who work on this untenable science and delve into themselves with open mouths, as if they can find out what will happen to them, are ridiculous. What are the conclusions? They say: this one will have curly hair and blue eyes, because he was born in the hour of Aries and this is the appearance of this animal. But he will also be a man of great spirit, because Aries has the sovereign in him, and is also generous and industrial, because this animal, without grief, puts off the wave 38 and conveniently puts on a new one, according to the action of nature. And the one born in Taurus, they say, will be patient in labor and servile, because the Taurus wears a yoke. Born in Scorpio, he is a hunter of fights, in the likeness of this animal. The one born in Libra is truthful, because of the faithfulness of our scales. What could be funnier than this? Aries, from which you take the time of a person’s birth, is one of the twelfth parts of the sky in which the sun, located, touches the signs of spring. And also Libra and Taurus are the twelfth parts of the so-called zodiac circle. How, then, when you say that there are the main reasons for human life, do you give human morals distinctive characteristics taken from the cattle born among us? One born in Aries is generous, not because that part of the sky produces such a disposition, but because such is the property of the sheep. Why do you frighten us with the certainty of the stars and try to convince us with the bleating of sheep? If heaven has such properties of morals, having borrowed them from animals, then it itself is subject to extraneous principles, as having causes dependent on animals. But if it is funny to say this way, then it is much more ridiculous to try to give credibility to a teaching from things that have nothing in common. But such tricks of theirs are like cobwebs, in which if a mosquito or a fly or something equally powerless gets stuck, it remains bound, but if another strong animal approaches them, it conveniently frees itself and breaks and destroys the weak web. But they do not stop at this one thing, but attribute to the celestial bodies the reason for that in which the will of each of us has power, that is, the reason for the disposition towards virtue or vice. On the one hand, it is ridiculous to dispute them, but on the other, since many are infected with this error, perhaps necessity requires not leaving this in silence. So, first of all, let us ask them: do not the figures of the stars change a thousand times every day? For the so-called planets are constantly moving, and some quickly converge with each other, while others make the slowest revolutions, often appearing at the same hour and in sight of one another and are hidden from each other. And at the moment of birth, as they say, it has very great power to be in the sight of a beneficent or a malefic star. And often, out of ignorance of the slightest detail, not finding the time at which the star showed itself to be beneficial, they described it as being among the unfavorable. For I am forced to use their own words. But in these words, of course, there is a lot that is unreasonable, and much more wicked. For the evil stars transfer the cause of their evilness to their Creator. If evil is natural to them, then the Creator is the creator of evil. And if they become evil at will, then, firstly, they are living beings, gifted with arbitrariness, indulging in spontaneous and free aspirations. To assert this about inanimate things is the height of madness. Then, how inconsistent with reason is it that evil and good are not given to each according to their merit, but that a star should be beneficial because it is located in such and such a place, and that it should become maleficent because it is seen under such and such a star, and again immediately forget its malignancy if it deviates somewhat from a certain figure!.. If at every moment of time the relative position of the stars changes from one type to another, and given the countless number of such changes, outlines are drawn up more than once a day showing the birth of kings, then why are not kings born every day? Or why do they inherit the kingdom from their fathers? For, of course, not every king carefully considers the birth of his son with the royal outline of the stars? And what kind of person has the power in this? How did Uzziah beget Jotham, Jotham Ahaz, and Ahaz Hezekiah? And not one of them happened to be born in the hour of slavery? Moreover, if the principles of vicious and virtuous actions do not depend on us, but are necessary due to birth, then it is in vain that there are legislators who determine what we should do and what we should avoid, and in vain there are judges who reward virtue and punish vice. Neither the thief nor the murderer is guilty of a crime; even if he wanted to, it was impossible for him to restrain his hands, because necessity inevitably prompted him to these actions. And those who work on the arts are the most deceived. On the contrary, the farmer will reap abundant fruits without throwing seeds into the ground or sharpening his scythe, and the merchant will become rich, whether he wants it or not, because fate will collect heaps of money for him. The great hopes of Christians will turn into nothing among us, because neither righteousness will be honored, nor sin will be condemned, since people do nothing of their own free will. For where necessity and fate reign, there is no place for reward according to merit, which is the advantage of justice (2). You might be interested in: