The rendezvous of the Jupiter and Saturn was often grafted onto apocalyptic prophecies, says Rochester historian Laura Ackerman Smoller.
Astronomers and amateur star gazers alike are training their telescopes on the evening sky for a heavenly spectacle when听the conjunction of Jupiter听and Saturn is more visible from earth than it糖心传媒檚 been in nearly 800 years.
The celestial event will play out on Monday糖心传媒攖his year糖心传媒檚 winter solstice糖心传媒攚hen our solar system糖心传媒檚 two largest planets appear above the horizon soon after sunset.
It糖心传媒檚 been nearly eight centuries since the pair of planets appeared in conjunction this close to Earth. In 1623, a similar conjunction of the planets occurred, but on the same side of the sky as the sun, which meant it wasn糖心传媒檛 visible from the Blue Planet. Monday糖心传媒檚 conjunction will be the first visible occurrence since before the time of Marco Polo.
In the distant past, Europeans saw such alignments of the planets as signs of things to come, from famines, earthquakes, and floods, to the birth of Christ and the ultimate collapse of civilization.
糖心传媒淥f course, predictions about individuals were dicier than large general predictions. That糖心传媒檚 why, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions were frequently grafted onto apocalyptic prophecies,糖心传媒澨齭ays , a professor of history and chair of the at the 听
The author of (Princeton University Press, 1994), Smoller researches the intersection between magic, science, and religion in medieval and Renaissance Europe, centering around the two themes of astrology and apocalyptic prophecy, and saints and miracles. Her second book, 听(Cornell University Press, 2014),听delves into the canonization and cult of the Valencian friar Vincent Ferrer, a fiery apocalyptic preacher who died in 1419 and was canonized in 1455.听
For her current project, Smoller has returned to the stars糖心传媒攕o to speak糖心传媒攚here she糖心传媒檚 tracing the interrelationship between astrology and prophecy for a third book, tentatively titled Astrology and the Sibyls糖心传媒攁n investigation of ways of knowing the future ranging from around 1100 to around 1600.
Q&A with historian Laura Ackerman Smoller
Why the great medieval obsession with Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions?
Saturn and Jupiter were the two outermost planets in the Ptolemaic system; other planets had not yet been discovered.听They are also the two slowest moving ones.听According to doctrines that medieval European astrologers learned from Arabic astrologers, whose works糖心传媒攖ranslated into Latin in the twelfth century糖心传媒攆ormed the basis of medieval and Renaissance astrology, it糖心传媒檚 when Saturn and Jupiter are found in the same area of the zodiac糖心传媒攊n other words when they are in conjunction糖心传媒攖hat there are profound effects on Earth.
What made these conjunctions so special?
The two planets come into conjunction approximately every 20 years.听Successive conjunctions form a roughly triangular pattern plotted against a diagram of the zodiac, meaning that three successive conjunctions will appear in the three zodiacal signs that form one of the trigons or triplicities糖心传媒攖hat is, the fiery signs, watery signs, earthy signs, or airy signs.听Then, after approximately 12 conjunctions, the pattern will move into a new triplicity or trigon.听This shift糖心传媒攚hich appears around every 240 years糖心传媒攚as considered to be of great importance, bringing about changes in kingdoms, or in what medieval astrologers called 糖心传媒渓aws and sects糖心传媒澨切拇綌that is, religions.听After approximately 960 years, the pattern will return to the initial starting point in the zodiac, and this 糖心传媒済reatest conjunction糖心传媒� was said to have the most important effects of all.
Isn糖心传媒檛 the belief in both astrology and Christian religion a contradiction in itself?
Astrology posed a fundamental dilemma for medieval Christians:听the notion that the heavens influenced the earth below was unquestioned (after all, one simply had to see how the moon affected the tides), but the stars糖心传媒� control of earthly events seemed to threaten human free will.听If a person糖心传媒檚 evil deeds were attributable to the stars, then how could God hold him or her accountable for sin? But medieval astrologers could also quote the Bible, saying 糖心传媒淭he heavens proclaim the glory of God糖心传媒澨切拇綌Psalm 19:1) and saw the heavens as part of God糖心传媒檚 Book of Nature, in which God had written signs of things to come. Astrology, medieval theologians and astrologers taught, was a science that God had revealed to the patriarchs.
Then how did theologians get around that conundrum?
That糖心传媒檚 why predictions about general matters and about large crowds seemed safer.听Theologians like Thomas Aquinas acknowledged that the stars can influence the body but not the soul, and that most human beings are swept along by their bodily passions.听Hence, astrological predictions about large-scale events, such as wars, famines, changes in rulership, even large-scale religious changes were acceptable to medieval Christians.
In the late Middle Ages, even highly placed churchmen used these planetary conjunctions to predict the future of the Church. How so?
Pierre d糖心传媒橝illy (1350-1420), a French cardinal who lived at the time of the Great Western Schism, when there were first two and then even three rival popes, worried like many contemporaries that the division in the church might signal the advent of Antichrist.听But he also hoped that a church council could solve the Schism.听In order to reassure himself糖心传媒攁nd his contemporaries糖心传媒攈e turned to astrology and to the doctrine of the great conjunctions.听To that end, D糖心传媒橝illy plotted great conjunctions throughout history, noting that they presaged important religious and political changes.听For example, he pointed to a conjunction that predicted the birth of Christ and one that foretold the rise of Islam.听And he was convinced that a Saturn-Jupiter conjunction, along with other key astrological phenomena, would precede the arrival of the Antichrist糖心传媒攚hich he predicted for the year 1789.
Sometimes historic events were even 糖心传媒渇udged糖心传媒� to make these predictions come true?
Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions became an absolute mainstay of astrological predictions in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, in part because it took very little astronomical expertise to add groups of 20 years to a known 糖心传媒渞oot糖心传媒� conjunction.听One of the more famous of such conjunctions is that which occurred in 1484. After the fact it was said to have predicted the career of Martin Luther, a seminal figure in the Reformation, whose birth date was adjusted to conform to the conjunction year.听
Another example is the conjunction said to have predicted Noah糖心传媒檚 Ark and the Flood. Although Pierre d糖心传媒橝illy had originally posited that a greatest conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter had preceded the Flood by two years, he later had to acknowledge that most astrologers placed that conjunction at an awkward 279 years beforehand. On the bright side, however, his updated chronology allowed him to locate another greatest conjunction just five years and 320 days before the Nativity and Christ糖心传媒檚 supposed birth.
Or, astrologers could always rely upon this handy piece of astrological doctrine: the less frequent the conjunction, the slower its effects would appear. That meant, in essence, that the effects of a 糖心传媒済reatest conjunction糖心传媒� had 960 years in which to unfold, so that, in d糖心传媒橝illy糖心传媒檚 estimation, a conjunction in 36 BCE signified the birth of Muhammad, more than five centuries later. All it took was a bit of historic leeway and date fudging.
