represents what is sometimes called "approximate eclipse conditions," and can become an
important factor if it falls exactly upon the degree which posits a planet.
The ancients did not have the benefit of the modern Ephemerides. They actually studied the
motion of the bodies in the heavens, and thereby discovered the various cycles that would enable
them to calculate the intervals between successive recurrences of similar phenomena; therewith
to make calculations of the psychological fluctuations that produce events. Among these were
the Mercury cycle of 92 years, the Venus cycle of 486 years, the heliacal rising of Sirius in
September every 162 years, the Metonic 19-year luni-solar cycle of eclipses, the mutation
periods based on the conjunctions of the great chronocrators Jupiter and Saturn, and most
important of all the solilunar Saros cycle and its multiples and derivatives. As this cycle brought
the recurrence of the same eclipse 18 years and 10 days later, at a point about 10 degrees farther
along the ecliptic, it was found that each third return, an interval of 54 years and 1 month,
brought a similar return of a visible eclipse at about the same time of day; also that in 12 times
that period, or 649 years, the cycle was completed with a Solar eclipse prior to the seventh
month after the Autumnal equinox, then the beginning of the ecclesiastical year; and that the
lunar eclipse two weeks later began a new 649-year cycle. It was by such means that most of the
prophecies and the dates of their fulfillment as recorded in the Bible were arrived at.
The 15-year Solar cycle of the Chaldeans was a slightly different cycle: largely a chronological
point of reference, arrived at by dividing the 360 degrees of the circle into 24 hourly segments of
15 degrees. On the basis of 1 degree to a year, it became a method of reckoning occurrences,
terrestrial as well as celestial, in fifteen-year intervals. This cycle was adopted by the Romans as
the period of reappraisals for taxation, and became known as the Indiction cycle. The Solar cycle
of 28 years was the period in which the days of the week reoccurred on the same days of the
month.
J. J. Scaliger devised the Julian period from the product of these three cycles: the 28-year Solar
cycle, the 19-year Soli-Lunar cycle, and the 15-year Indiction cycle (28 x 19 x 15 = 7980), and
made it begin January 1, 4713 B.C., when the three cycles coincided.
About 1896, J. B. Dimbleby began the reconciling of Biblical dates, and arrived at the
conclusion that the historical records of the Anti-diluvian Epoch were based upon a 7-year Solar
cycle - one fourth of the Solar cycle as it was employed in a later epoch; and that after the
deluge, chronology was recorded by the 15-year Solar cycle of the Chaldeans.
His chronology is thus given in successive years, beginning with the Creation year as 0 A.M. -
Anno Mundi, "the year of the world" - thus avoiding much of the confusion incident to B.C. and
A.D. dates. It begins with the eclipse that fell on the Autumnal Equinox, September 20, 3996 B.
C., a year in which its two Solar eclipses fell in April and October, in which the Solar and Lunar
years began simultaneously, and which coincides with the command recorded in Leviticus
23:24.
Few astrologers of today take the trouble to study the major cycles through means of which the
ancient Biblical porphets were able to foresee the workings of Destiny - that man could stay if he
would, but seldom does. It is certain that a study of the Eclipse cycles, and the application of
modern adaptations to the study of the various cycles that were successfully used by the early
astrologer-astronomers, will be productive of gratifying results.