Did Plato invent astrology’s secondary progressions?
In studying Hellenistic astrology, I was surprised to learn that Vettius Valens had mentioned secondary progressions in the 2nd century CE when he discussed his “day for a year” method of forecasting. Here is a direct quote:
“… add a number of days to the birth date equivalent to the age (in years) of the native. Then, having first determined the date, whether in the following month or in the birth month itself, cast a horoscope for that day. which star, if any, is in the Ascendant or is coming into conjunction with another star, and whether it is moving from an angle to a point following or preceding an angle, or from a point preceding an angle to an angle, or whether it was rising at the date of the delivery but is now setting or coming to some unrelated phase, or to something better. You may consider these to be the periodic forecasts.” — Vettius Valens, Anthologies, Book IX, Ch. 3, Mark Riley trans., 2010, p. 154.
Did Plato invent secondary progressions?Recently while reading about the so-called Peters–Hilprecht controversy, I learned that six hundred years earlier than Vettius Valens, the Greek philosopher Plato (428 – 348 BCE) proposed that a day in the life of man corresponds to a year in the life of the universe. Here is a quote from Robert W. Rogers, Ph.D., of the Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, NJ, published on page 344 of the 1908 Proceedings of the Committee Appointed by the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (source: https://archive.org/details/socalledpetersh00petegoog/page/n353/mode/1up):
From Appendix B of the Proceedings of the University of Pennsylvania, 1908, regarding the Peters-Hilprecht controversy. In the above quote, we see a reference to the Babylonian idea of a 36,000-year aeon for the universe and a 100-year lifespan for human beings. There is also mention of Plato’s use of 360 days (rather than 365.25 days) as the duration of the year, just as is found in Valens discussion of the method of Zodiacal Releasing. From these references, it seems likely that Plato’s philosophy, mathematics and cosmology had a major impact on the development of Hellenistic astrology in the period between the time of Plato and that of Vettius Valens.
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