Why did medieval people believe in astrology?
Added 2023-11-02 16:52:14 +0000 UTCHere's the patron-only video for November. Astrology was used almost universally during the Middle Ages. It was a standard subject taught at universities. Everyone with a university education was expected to be familiar with it, and it was an integral part of medical practice. Rulers consulted astrologers when making important decisions.
So these are the questions I address here: What was astrology in the Middle Ages? Why did people take it seriously? Why did it finally go away? (We don't actually know the answer to that one.) And what was the attitude of the medieval Church toward it?
Comments
It means you were born some day between November 22nd and December 21st.
Chris
2024-10-20 22:10:30 +0000 UTCso what does it mean if i’m a sagittarius
nina bennardo
2024-05-16 04:47:13 +0000 UTCThat's fascinating. It must not get in the way of business if the company is doing okay.
Premodernist
2024-05-12 23:39:19 +0000 UTCModern-day Chinese astrologers do still determine which dates are auspicious or inauspicious for doing certain activities. Every year, the company I work for — which is owned by a Chinese family — issues these official, company-branded calendars that tell you as much for each day of the year. Example activities can range from weddings and travelling to something as niche/specific as net-weaving.
Jazreel Darwin
2024-05-12 12:26:44 +0000 UTCSuperb
Joe Faliszek
2024-04-11 18:52:08 +0000 UTCThank you very much, great video!
Mahmoud
2024-01-30 11:25:36 +0000 UTCI am a fan of the footage editing of your past videos. I can say that a little goes a long way really. The old eye-brain-chuckle-refocus cycle needs time to reset anyway. Hope that feedback helps. If I were in your position I would probably never finish a single video haha. Veritasium is cool, I should check those new vids out - thanks!
Erin O'Shea
2023-12-27 04:05:09 +0000 UTCYes, I've got to do that. I've been enjoying seeing Veritasium branch out into history of science. I've been holding out on the Scientific Revolution because I have grand ideas about the animated graphics I'd want to use. But I should probably scale those ideas back and just make the videos.
Premodernist
2023-12-27 00:54:29 +0000 UTCI just checked out Simon's Forehead. I'll never be the same. Thanks
Erin O'Shea
2023-12-26 00:36:06 +0000 UTCI'm not the richie rich tier that can suggest topics but I will second your own suggestion wholeheartedly: Please do the video on the scientific revolution! I love nuanced tellings of scientific history and there can never be enough of those stories for me! I think your take would be super cool and blow our minds for sure.
Erin O'Shea
2023-12-26 00:34:37 +0000 UTCInteresting. I like the idea of doing a video on early modern medical astrology. I'm going to add it to my list of ideas and start investigating the scholarly literature on it.
Premodernist
2023-11-27 02:12:26 +0000 UTCI've been trying to convince the devs (one of them in an acquaintance) to do a sequel on Foreman's herbology counterpart Nicholas Culpeper. Would love to see a video on his discoveries!
Author Michelle Franklin
2023-11-26 06:02:15 +0000 UTCThanks! Someone else also recommended that game to me recently. I'm going to have to give it a try.
Premodernist
2023-11-26 00:38:12 +0000 UTCFantastic talk. Reminds me of Simon Forman and his astonishingly impressive forehead. There's a wonderful interactive narrative called Astrologaster about how he used astrology to 'cure' people.
Author Michelle Franklin
2023-11-25 08:22:29 +0000 UTCThese are great ideas! I'll add them to my list for the YouTube channel.
Premodernist
2023-11-20 21:33:23 +0000 UTCMeesa love this video! I wanted to suggest some topics that I would like to see. * The nations that existed in Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. before the Dutch East Indies. * The multi-ethnic military coalition that lead to Spanish Conquest of the Americas * The Byzantine church, monophocitism, and how religion and politics were intertwined between ~600 until schism. * Why was Thailand never colonized? History of thailand maybe with an emphasis on a strong centralized government. * The state of China leading up to European contact and the century of humiliation.
Jar Jar Binks
2023-11-19 20:37:04 +0000 UTCOkay, yeah, it was days. I.e. trying to find the propitious day to found a building, etc., and avoiding doing so on a day that the stars warned of misfortune.
Premodernist
2023-11-15 04:44:49 +0000 UTCI was just curious how you defined time in the context of this video. You emphasised it many times.
Dakapo
2023-11-14 19:34:42 +0000 UTCDo you mean needing to know the exact time to do a reading? Some of the variables were whether the planet is near the horizon or near the zenith, and that changes by the hour. Modern astrologers use exact times to the minute. In the Middle Ages they tried to be exact to the nearest hour.
Premodernist
2023-11-14 19:18:03 +0000 UTCWhen you talk about time, is it days?
Dakapo
2023-11-14 18:54:14 +0000 UTCCome to think of it, the constellations of Western astrology are along the ecliptic, making them visible from both hemispheres as long as you're not to close to the poles. But an astrological system doesn't actually need a set of constellations necessarily. Chinese astrology doesn't use constellations.
Premodernist
2023-11-13 23:46:28 +0000 UTCThe only contact with the Southern Hemisphere that I'm aware of before 1400 is the extension of Islam along the eastern coast of Africa. (There is also some genetic evidence of contact between South Asia and Australia but I don't know when that is supposed to have happened.) With regard to East Africa, if they had a native astrological tradition I don't think it had any influence on the astrological tradition of the Middle East.
Premodernist
2023-11-13 23:41:27 +0000 UTCDid the Eurasian cultures ever come into contact with a culture whose astrology was based from the Southern Hemisphere? If so, how did they reconcile the difference? I ask because the constellations would look different.
Lirisa
2023-11-12 23:07:34 +0000 UTCIn case anyone is interested, Augustine talks about astrology in The City of God 5.1-7, and Aquinas's remarks are in the Summa Theologiae I-II.9.5.
Premodernist
2023-11-07 01:37:30 +0000 UTCThanks, I'm glad it helped!
Premodernist
2023-11-07 01:32:18 +0000 UTCThis was awesome! I hadn't considered the concerns with determinism and would have assumed the theological objections would be more along the lines of using astrology as some kind of divination tool. But given your comments about how this system works within a more comprehensive worldview/epistemology, I suppose those may not be nearly as categorically distinct. Thank you for this excellent video and for addressing my question!
louie hogan
2023-11-02 19:48:20 +0000 UTC
