watershed for the translation of Arabic materials into Latin. To fully understand the
significance of this transmission, it is important to recall what actually happened to
astrology in the Arabic period:
Hellenistic (and Persian, i.e., Babylonian) methods were translated into Ara-
bic and studied.
Vedic methods were also translated in Arabic.
Hellenistic (Western) and Vedic methods could be combined and synthesized.
The Arabic-speaking practitioners themselves added and modified the inheri-
tance they received.
The influx of material into the Latin West was even more extensive than that
experienced by the Arabic scholars four centuries before. Thus, when Guido Bonatti
wrote on horary in the thirteenth century, the tradition he built upon was already rich.
The medieval horary astrologer practicing in the West navigated turbulent
waters since the very essence of horary astrology—divination—was at best an uncom-
fortable topic for the Christian church, and at worst, a mortal sin. Church philoso-
phers postulated that if one can really predict human behavior, then the individual is
not “free” to choose Christ and salvation. While other branches of astrology can
adopt the position that the stars incline, but do not compel, doing so for horary would
destroy its very substance, which is the prediction of human behavior. The church had
effectively restricted prophesy as its own perquisite, banning and anathematicizing it
in other quarters. So despite brilliant individual horary astrologers like Bonatti, most
portions of horary apart from medical usage were outside the pale of acceptable astro-
logical behavior for much of the Middle Ages. Yet somehow, its rules continued to be
transmitted to future generations, and no doubt individual astrologers continued to
answer their own questions.
The survival of horary astrology is due in no small part to the fact that people
continued to ask the kind of questions that are the grist for horary astrology: Will I marry
X? Is she a virgin? Where is my brother’s ship? Will my son die in the war? The people
wanted the answers, while the church said it either was not possible to have them, or the
answers were from a demonic source. This hardly represented a stable situation.
Ultimately, every town had its own cunning man or woman. He or she would
either “fix” the problem, or at least explain what was going to happen. These people
were often the targets of the Inquisition in Catholic countries, but they flourished in
Protestant ones, as long as they kept a low profile. Howthey did their job might vary,
with prayer a frequent accompaniment, but there were herbalists, palmists, readers of
bird lore, physiognomists, scryers, talisman makers, psychics, and some astrologers.
The astrology practiced might have been primitive by the usual standards, but as liter-
acy increased and books became more available, astrological technique became
increasingly available.
The Renaissance had opened the door on classical learning, and it was never
completely closed again after that. Part of what this opening represented was an alter-
nate source of knowledge, one not controlled by the church. Distracted by the rise of
Protestantism, the Catholic Church was never able to regain the keys to knowledge. It
was in this heady mix of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that horary onceHorary Astrology
[330] THEASTROLOGYBOOK