Apollon-Issue Four.pdf

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Apollon

The Oracle & The Family Curse ~ Liz GreeneThinking Magically & Critically ~ Erin Sullivan

The Golden Age ~ Nicholas CampionMeasuring theDaimon ~Lynn BellThe Progressed Moon ~ Brian Clark

An Encounter With The Ambassadors ~ Simon Chedzey

Issue 4

December 1999

6

The Journal of Psychological Astrology


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Posthumous portrait of

Nostradamus by hiseldest son, Csar, alleged-ly as he looked at age 62(i.e. shortly before hedied).Bibliothque de la Bjanes[(c) et archive]

Issue One - Creativity Issue Two - Relationships Issue Three - Healing

Apollon

Brother-Sister Marriage ~ Brian ClarkThe Eternal Triangle ~ Liz Greene

The Sacred Marriage & The Geometry of Time ~ Robin HeathEros & Aphrodite, Love & Creation ~ Erin Sullivan

Neptune and Pluto: Romance in the Underworld ~ Sophia Young

Issue 2

April 19996


Apollon

The Sun-god and the Astrological Sun - Liz GreeneCreativity, Spontaneity, Independence: Three Children Of The Devil - Adolf Guggenbhl-Craig

Whom doth the grail serve? - Anne WhitakerFire and the imagination - Darby Costello

Leonard Cohens "Secret Chart" - John Etherington

Issue 1

October 19986


Apollon

Astrology As A Healing & A Wounding Art ~ Anne WhitakerSpirit Child - Melanie Reinhart & Isabella KirtonWounding & The Will To Live ~ Liz GreeneThe Saturn-Uranus Duet ~ Charles Harvey

Wilderness Transformation Trails ~ Marilyn McDowell & Philomena ByrneA Fatal Vocation To Witness ~ Suzi Harvey

Issue 3

August 1999

6


Cover PictureFatalismeJan Toorop (1858-1928)Collection Krller-Mller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands

Jan Toorop was one of The Netherlands' most important symbolist painters. Around 1890, he broke withnaturalism, a trend in art in which the artist strives after the imitation of reality. Toorop became interestedin a highly personal interpretation of his topics and the deformation of his perceptions. Next to seascapes,he painted symbolist-literary topics in a highly decorative style announcing the Art Nouveau.

To order back issues of Apollon, see centre pages


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Published by:The Centre for PsychologicalAstrologyBCM Box 1815London WC1N 3XXEnglandTel/Fax: +44-20-8749 [email protected]

www.astrologer.com/cpa

Directors: Dr Liz GreeneCharles HarveyAdmin: Juliet Sharman-BurkeDistribution:John EtheringtonMidheaven Bookshop396 Caledonian RoadLondon N1 1DNEnglandTel: +44-20-7607 4133Fax: +44-20-7700 [email protected]

Advertising:Anne Whitaker74 Victoria Crescent RoadGlasgow

G12 9JNScotlandTel/Fax: +44-141-337 [email protected]

Edited by:Dermod Moore4 Midhope HouseMidhope StreetLondon WC1H 8HJEnglandTel: +44-20-7278 9434Fax: +44-20-7209 1648www.astrologer.com/apollon

[email protected]

Subscriptions:Please see centre pages

Contributions:Please do not send unsolicitedarticles. Suggestions with out-lines are welcome, and shouldbe sent to the editor.

Printed by:The Magazine Printing Company PlcMollison Avenue, Enfield EN3 7NT,United Kingdom

Copyright: 1999Centre for Psychological Astrology

All rights reserved

Editorial 4Dermod Moore

The Oracle and the Family Curse 5Liz Greene

The Golden Age 15Nicholas Campion

Reflections: Breaking the Taboo on God 21Melanie Reinhart

Measuring the Daimon 24Lynn Bell

The Progressed Moon: Mnemosynes Recollections 29Brian Clark

Thinking Magically and Critically: Contemporary Astrology and Divination 38Erin Sullivan

Prediction and the Tarot 47Juliet Sharman-Burke

The Astrologers Curse 49Kim Farnell

The Future 51Members of the Psychological Astrology Mailing List

An Encounter with The Ambassadors 57Simon Chedzey

ApollonThe Journal of Psychological Astrology

Apollon

polon he who causes the heavenly bodies to move together in harmonyhaploun the simple, a euphemism for the complexity of the oracle, which is also honestiepaieon to heal, also to throw or strike (with consciousness)

from Greek and Egyptian Mythologies, compiled by Yves Bonnefoy, transl. Wendy DonigerUniversity of Chicago Press, 1992

CPA Seminar Schedule and CPA Press Order Form - centre pages


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Dermod Moore is aDubliner. A former actorwith Irelands NationalTheatre, the Abbey, heholds the Diploma inPsychological Astrologyfrom the CPA. He is awriter and columnist, and isin training as aPsychosynthesis therapist.He practices as a psycholog-ical astrologer in Londons

Neals Yard TherapyRooms. He moderates thediscussion group on theInternet on psychologicalastrology, and runs theMetalog Directory ofAstrologers atwww.astrologer.com. He islooking forward to supervis-ing students at the CPA inearly 2000.

EditorialYou will meet a dark stranger...

F

ate and the thorny question of predestina-tion are the themes for this issue. Its in the

air, as we step forward into a new era. Whatdoes this vast new chunk of future hold for us?Once weve survived the dreaded bug, andovercome the disappointment in discoveringthat hangovers feel the same in any century, thefuture is much less pockmarked with projec-tions than those that have marked this millenni-um - apart from Kubricks 2001: A SpaceOdyssey, with its haunting soundtrack of StraussAlso sprach Zarathustra, set against the atempo-ral infinity of space. The individual enters theworld, or the world enters the individual,

wrote Strauss on the title page to his score.

This future, our future, is a smooth, blankcanvas; all the more capable of scaring orreassuring us, depending on our own fears andfaiths. As astrologers, more used to thinking interms of cycles and epochs than most, it is, per-haps, easier for us to contemplate the person-al, societal and cultural shifts that lie ahead, toimagine what marks we may leave on that can-vas. Which is not to say that such imaginings areany more or less likely to come true; none of us

has the capacity to step outside our consciousand unconscious inheritance, and achieveOlympian perspective on our lives. We are allin the gutter, but some of us are looking at thestars. Our future lies as much in the gutter as inthe stars; its up to us to choose where we look.

As Melanie Reinhart points out in herReflections piece in this issue, the new mil-lennium starts with a Chiron-Pluto conjunctionin Sagittarius. Our capacity to make meaning ofour lives is being reborn; but only after we haveendured the experience of meaninglessness, a

dearth of hope; making way for a new, person-al vision; enriched by the experience of ourhumanity. The Piscean age ends with a sting inits tail, as God forsakes us; and only then can webegin to build a truly Aquarian society.

In this issue, we look back in history for cluesto this future. In an extract from NickCampions definitive The Great Year, heexplores the recurrent myth of the golden age,and remarks how the lost age is always in thedistant past, and the future age, while imminent,

is invariably always just beyond reach. Onegolden age was recalled during the presidencyof John Fitzgerald Kennedy - Camelot. In herpoignant study of the family dynamics at workin this fated Irish-American clan, Liz Greene siftsthrough their history and views their story in

the light of her understanding of family curses inGreek mythology. By highlighting those timeswhen family members failed to seize themoment, and break away from the family dai-mon, she brings home to us the reality that theirstruggles and failures, although heightened andexaggerated in the glare of publicity, are not sofar removed from our own.

Going back to basics is always a good idea;the eloquent Erin Sullivan contributes avaluable article, in which she lays out the philo-sophical and practical groundrules of our art -an ideal introduction for those unfamiliar with

astrology.

Mention Fate to a lay person, and they aremore likely to mention the Tarot beforeanything else; for it is the repository for some ofthe gloomier projections and fears that exist inour culture. Juliet Sharman-Burke, fresh fromproducing her marvellous The Mythic Journeywith Liz Greene, reflects on this and the Deathcard, continuing her excellent series. We alsohave Brian Clark sharing his insight into the pro-gressed Moon, and how it has reflected change

in his clients lives. Also writing about her expe-rience with clients is Lynn Bell, whose movingaccount of the malus daimon or dark angel ofthe 12th house gives us great food for thought.

The Internet is undoubtedly part of thefuture; the Psychological Astrology MailingList has been running for over four years now.In an edited selection of a thread of conver-sation from the list, the members from aroundthe world share their concerns about thefuture, and how they, as astrologers, grapplewith their fears and make meaning of their own

lives. We also have Kim Farnell adding her ownspicy irreverance to this issue, to prevent usfrom taking ourselves too seriously. God forbid.

We end with Simon Chedzey, and hisunique insight into the symbolism of a500-year-old painting - The Ambassadors byHans Holbein. It is by such imaginative explo-ration of our past that we can begin to grasp asense of what lies in store for us.

Whether the dark stranger that is in our

path is a dark angel, the Antichrist, orthe man of our dreams, is to a large extent upto us. We see what we want to see. Particle orwave; angel or devil; faith or despair. Ourchoice.

page 4 Apollon Issue 4 December 1999


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In 1969, when Senator Edward Kennedyfaced the collapse of his Presidential hopesafter Chappaquiddick, he asked whether therewas a curse on his family. Over the decades, agreat many people have asked the same ques-tion, privately and in print; the history of this

extraordinary clan does make one wonderwhether some daimon of misfortune dogs itsmembers. The recent death of John F.Kennedy Jr. has once again roused speculationabout why the male Kennedys seem to bepicked off like wooden ducks in a fairgroundbooth, not to mention the drug-related hospi-talisat ions, virulent divorces, and other humanmesses which, although more private and lessflorid, are perhaps no less tragic for thoseinvolved. No generation of this powerful fam-ily has remained unscathed. Naturally, the

Kennedy horoscopes have been pondered byastrologers from every perspective. Anyonewho has studied them can recognise factors ineach individual birth chart which might reflect,at least in part, the tragedy of that particularlife. Yet here is a sequence of tragedies whichare strangely coherent in their continuity. Canwe link these astrologically? Do they makesense psychologically? Are we looking at whatthe Greeks meant by a family curse? Are welooking at the products of a lethal but veryhuman mixture of ingredients - a dysfunction-al family driven by obsessive ambition and

habitually involved with echelons of powerand corruption that, sooner or later, wouldinvolve danger and possibly violent death? Arewe viewing coincidence? Or, as Ian Flemingwould have suggested, is it enemy action?And if so, what, and where, is the enemy?

The word curse conjures up images ofwitchcraft, black magic, Dennis Wheatleynovels, and B-grade films about reanimatedEgyptian mummies. It is a word which, under-standably, we do not like to use these days,

and any mention of the Curse of the Kennedystends to provoke uneasy laughter. But theancient mythology which underpins ourWestern culture and permeates our Western

psychology took the concept of the familycurse very seriously indeed, and did not asso-ciate it with witches or malevolent occult rites.The English word curse has obscure origins,but my etymological dictionary

1

suggests thatit derives from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning

wrath. The first known example of the wordoccurs in the 11th century: Goddes curs, thewrath of God. A curse is thus somethinginflicted by a wrathful deity in response tohuman wrong-doing. Its roots lie in the past,but it predetermines the future. Most of us donot think in terms of our families beingcursed, whatever difficulties we experiencewith and through them. Some families exhibitclearly repetitive patterns, but these mayinvolve gifts and good fortune as often as theyinvolve misfortune and pathology. But there

are some families which seem to bear morethan their share of tragedy, albeit on a lessgrandiose scale than the Kennedys. Repeatinggenerations of broken marriages, alcoholismand drug addiction, suicide, financial ruin, andfunctional disease dog many families.Sometimes these patterns are deeply disturb-ing in their consistency and precision. Lynn Belldemonstrates, in her excellent book, PlanetaryThreads

2

, the ways in which particular attitudesand experiences, embedded in the familypsyche, can unconsciously dominate behaviourover several generations, sometimes emerging

only when each individual reaches the preciseage at which his or her predecessors them-selves re-enacted the ancient story. Familytherapists cal l this the anniversary syndrome.Astrologers, accustomed to the cyclical natureof transits and progressions, can map it withprecision, but its meaning may be more elu-sive.

An important question for the astrologer iswhether family tragedies can be seen innascent form in the birth chart, and counter-

acted before they have a chance to repeat. Forif we take seriously the possibility of a destruc-tive psychological inheritance, we are forcedto consider the implications for astrological

Apollon Issue 4 December 1999 page 5

Breaking free from family dynamics is never easy, writes Liz Greene in this compas-

sionate study of the unhappy Kennedy clan. One must find the courage to make theheartbreaking separation from the matrix of the family psyche in full consciousness,emerging as an individual - lonely, unique, and attuned to the needs of one's own soul.Sadly, in the Kennedy family, such courage was hard to find.

Liz Greene holds aDoctorate in Psychologyand the Diploma of theFaculty of AstrologicalStudies, and is a qualifiedJungian analyst. She works asa professional astrologer

and analyst, and teaches andlectures extensivelythroughout Europe. She is aPatron of the Faculty ofAstrological Studies. She isthe author of many bookson astrological and psycho-logical themes, includingSaturn, Relating, Astrology for

Lovers, The Astrology of Fate,

and The Astrological Neptuneand the Quest for

Redemption. She lives inSwitzerland. The MythicJourney, written with JulietSharman-Burke, has justbeen published by GothicImage.

1 Ernest Weekley, AnEtymological Dictionary ofModern English, DoverPublications, New York,1967.2 Lynn Bell, PlanetaryThreads: Patterns of RelatingAmong Family and Friends,CPA Press, London, 1999.

The Oracle and the Family CurseLiz Greene


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prediction. A family curse, in myth, demandsan expiation of some kind, without which itcontinues to unleash its wrath on subsequentgenerations. The future of an individual, in thiscontext, is dependent not on his or her con-scious choices, nor even on his or her birthchart, but on something from the past whichlies buried beneath the surface of life and influ-ences or conditions future choices and conse-quences. In other words, the family cursemakes us live the placements in our individualcharts in particular ways which are not entire-ly our own. Our special pattern of planets andsigns and aspects, so unique and so full of indi-vidual potential, becomes the unwitting vesselfor a larger, older, and often inimical collectivedaimon. John F. Kennedy, before he went toDallas in November 1963, was reputed tohave received many warnings, amongst themseveral from astrologers who did not like thelook of the configurations being triggered in

his birth chart. He chose to disregard thesewarnings. John F. Kennedy Jr., before he tookhis fatal flight in July 1999, was warned not toattempt it in the prevailing bad weather con-ditions, especially in light of his inexperienceand his injured foot. He chose to disregard thiswarning. Is chose perhaps the wrong wordto use here? Later I will look very briefly atJohn Kennedy's chart, as well as those ofJoseph P. Kennedy Sr., Robert Kennedy, andJohn F. Kennedy Jr. First I would like to explorein greater depth just what the Greeks might

have meant by the family curse, and how thiscould be relevant to us psychologically and asa pattern of destiny within a family.

The family curse in Greek mythIn Greek myth, the family curse is presentedas a punishment inflicted by an angry deity onthe descendants of an individual who hasoffended that god. The curse or punishment isalso intimately connected with Apollo's oracle,and most of the family curses in myth involveone or another member of the family consult-ing the oracle for help or a revelation about

the future. The curse, although a legacy fromthe past, is also a destiny, and involves prophe-cies of what is to come. It has the power tooverrule any potential individual development,rendering the person a mere vehicle for theunfolding of the curse. Only in understandingthe words of the oracle, accepting the fatedecreed, and performing expiation accordingto the god's will, can the curse be lifted orneutralised. Inevitably, the figures of Greektragedy neither understand nor accept theoracle, nor do they perform the expiation

required. Each person is either ignorant of thecurse or feels he or she is exempt, and thusmeets a destiny which is both imposed andchosen - inherited consequences interwoven

with present choices to create a predeter-mined future.

For example, the curse imposed upon themythic house of Thebes begins with KingLaius, who manages to offend both Apollo andArtemis, the divine protectors of children, byraping a noble youth who is the son of hisfriend. Laius is warned by the oracle of the godhe has offended that, should he have a son, hewill meet his death at this son's hands. Thewrathful deity, although ready to inflict punish-ment, also simultaneously offers the possibilityof expiation through that punishment. Sinceevery human must meet death one way oranother, and given the nature of Laius'offence, the expiation might be seen as just.Laius, however, will not accept the sentence.He interprets the oracle as a warning ratherthan an opportunity for expiat ion, andattempts to avoid the punishment by avoiding

intercourse with his wife. But his shame makeshim secretive, and he neglects to tell her thereason for his sudden aversion to the maritalbed. Because Jocasta is ignorant of the realcause of the rejection, her feminine pride isoffended, and she seduces him while he isdrunk. She becomes pregnant, and when thechild is born, Laius again tries to cheat the ora-cle by leaving the newborn boy on a hillside todie. The deities' wrath is thus compounded,and the entire city of Thebes now comesunder their curse in the form of the monstrous

Sphinx.

The child is, of course, Oedipus, whosename means swollen foot because hisfather, determined that he should die of expo-sure, has nailed his feet to the ground with aspike. But Oedipus is rescued by a kind shep-herd and survives, and spends his youth believ-ing he is the son of the King and Queen ofCorinth. Then he, like his father, consultsApollo's oracle, which informs him that he willbecome his father's murderer and the hus-band of his mother. The possibility of expia-

tion is no longer offered. Because Laius hasexacerbated the gods wrath by compoundinghis crimes, the curse has crystallised into anirrevocable future. Oedipus, like his father,tries to flout the oracle, flees Corinth, and runsstraight into the arms of his destiny - a destinywhich is both irrevocable and self-architected.Here is a strange blend ofhubris (an arroganteffort to cheat the gods), innate character (hekills Laius on the road in a fit of uncontrollabletemper because the unknown older man hasblocked his way and spoken to him in an abu-

sive fashion), heroism (he courageously con-fronts the Sphinx and breaks the curseimposed on Thebes, thereby winning both thekingship and, unwittingly, his mother, as a



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...Anything in thebirth chart canbehave like a curseif it has been han-dled destructivelyor wilfully sup-pressed for many

generations.

reward), and a genuine wish to remain adecent human being. [Editor invites the readerto see Oedipus and the Sphinx by Ingres, repro-duced on the back cover.] Yet even Oedipus'terrible expiation does not alleviate the curse,for after he blinds himself and dies outcast, thecurse moves on to his children. It is only whenevery member of the House of Thebes is deadthat the curse is at last spent. This mythic fam-ily inheritance is shocking in its relentless bru-tality. Yet we can see that individual choiceand individual consciousness are as relevant tothe outcome as the workings of deity and thepredeterminants of the past.

There are certain consistent features whichappear in every myth about a family curse.In a way, they form the criteria for whatdefines a family curse. These features may helpus to understand what we are looking at psy-chologically.

1. The individual who first activates the curseis invariably royal, descended from a god, andblessed or gifted by a god. He or she is nevermerely ordinary, but has received some specialboon from the deity. The wrath of the deity isthus linked not with mere human trangression,but with the abuse of a god-given talent oradvantage. In other words, the curse is not acurse from the outset, but begins as somethingpositive and creative which has been misusedor distorted through arrogance, greed, or cru-

elty. Since the gift of a god is a symbol of thegod's nature translated into human form, thecurse is really an inversion of something divinewithin, an abuse of that which is a property ofone's own soul.2. The individual is afflicted byhubris - a disre-spect for mortal limits and the conditions andrequirements for living imposed by the gods.Hubris is, in effect, arrogance of a special anddeadly kind. Although it contains elements ofcourage and heroism, it is nevertheless a repu-diation of that deeper religious sense whichacknowledges with humility the gifts and ben-

efits which life bestows.3. The curse is usually linked with the abuse ofchildren. We need to view this symbolically, asthe abuse of creative potentials, although itmay also be relevant literally; every sociologistand social worker knows that child abuse with-in families tends to have long-lasting repercus-sions over the generations. In the myth, Laiusrapes a youth, and then exacerbates the curseby exposing his own son to die. Tantalus, inthe myth of the curse of the House of Atreus,cuts up his son and serves him as a meal to the

gods, merely to test them. His sons, Atreusand Thyestes, in turn destroy their own chil-dren as a means of revenge upon each other;and Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, in turn

destroys his daughter in order to gain victoryin the Trojan War. Each subsequent genera-tion of this tortured family is involved in someform of calllous injury to or destruction of achild or young person.4. The members of the family who inherit thecurse exacerbate it through their own hubris.Each generation has the opportunity to expi-ate the curse by accepting the punishment, buteach generation fails to do so because theindividual cannot resist indulging in greed,anger, or desire for personal vengeance. Thecurse therefore becomes more powerful andmore all-encompassing. What is really inherit-ed is a particular set of attitudes which theindividual does not wish to relinquish or trans-form, resulting in a blind wallowing in instinc-tual responses and a refusal to make necessarysacrifices or impose internal limits - even whenwarned by the god. It is, in effect, putting theself before the Self when the chips are really

down.5. The oracle always warns the perpetrator orinheritor of the curse about the consequences,but the terms of the oracle are wilfully misun-derstood, or there is a determined attempt toavoid the prophecy. The attempt to cheat theoracle paradoxically results in the fulfilment ofthe oracle.

In viewing psychologically inherited patternsfrom a mythic perspective, I am not attribut-ing some literally supernatural agency to the

kind of repeating sorrows which so oftenplague families. Rather, I am thinking symboli-cally. The features listed above suggest thatthe family curse is a psychologically predeter-mined set of behaviour patterns, whichrequire consciousness and inner struggle if anykind of transformation or expiation is to occur.We inherit not only our ancestors geneticblueprints, but also certain deeply entrenchedemotional and mental perspectives. Perhapswe also inherit certain complexes - inherentstories or archetypal enactments which arenot, in themselves, malevolent, and may

involve gifts and talents of a special kind. Theseinherent family perspectives and archetypalpatterns are not difficult to trace in the horo-scope. We can glimpse their outlines in theparental significators in a birth chart, and in therepetition of signs, planetary aspects andhouse placements which are so common inevery family. These patterns are not in them-selves suggestive of a curse, but anything in

the birth chart can behave like a curse if it hasbeen handled destructively or wilfully sup-pressed for many generations. It is not clear

just how we inherit these things. Dedicatedgeneticists would suggest that human charac-ter, like the human body, is a matter of DNA,and if alcoholism or depression runs in our



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Joseph P. Kennedy holdssons Joseph Patrick Junior(left) and John FitzgeraldKennedy, in 1919

3 See The Astrology of Fate,Liz Greene, George Allen& Unwin, London, 1984,Thorsons, 1996.4 Taken fromhttp://record-journal.com,Commentary by GlennRichter: If it's not arro-gance, what is it?

family, we stand a good chance of becomingalcoholic or depressed because it is in thegenes. At the other extreme, archetypal psy-chology postulates the reality of the familyunconscious and the unity of the collectivepsyche of which every individual is a part.

Perhaps the truth lies in a combination of thetwo. But whatever the means of inheritance,physical, psychic or both, something seems topass down the generations in response to therepeated abuse of some natural law. Thissomething appears to have a morality of itsown, whether we attribute this morality toGod, the psyche, the Self, the instincts, Nature,or life itself.

3

The Curse of the Kennedys

A

brief summary of the Kennedy tragediescan help us to see how aptly the suffering

of this family fits the criteria for the Greek fam-ily curse. The patriarch of the family, Joseph P.Kennedy, rose to a position of enormouspower and wealth during the 1920's and '30's,much of which was acquired through bootleg-ging and other questionable means. GlennRichter, in an article written after the death ofJohn F. Kennedy Jr., suggests that the Curse ofthe Kennedys is simple arrogance, exhibited inequal quantities by each generation. Hisassessment of Joe Kennedy is damning: ...All ittook was a little help from his good friend FDR

and plenty of nerve, something Papa Joe hadin abundance. How else could he keep con-sorting with crooks and still hold his head highin high society? How else could he keep cal-

lously canoodling with sexy screen sirens whilehis wife stayed home cranking out moreKennedys? Papa Joe was not exactly whatyou'd call a nice guy.

4

Here is the gifted indi-vidual of Greek myth, favoured by the godswith a heady mix of audacity, determination,

charm, and political brilliance. However,Papa Joe was clearly afflicted with hubris inthe best Greek sense. His eldest daughterRosemary, born in 1918, was a happy andgood-natured child. But she was mildly retard-ed, and was a source of enormous social dis-comfort to her father. He seems to have beenincapable of accepting her as she was andcounting his many blessings. In consequencehe ordered a lobotomy performed on her in1941, when she was twenty-three years old.The operation went badly wrong. This oncecontented and sweet-tempered girl emerged

severely retarded, and was consigned by herembarrassed father to an institution for therest of her life. The deities of Greek myth donot appear to concern themselves with gar-den-variety transgressions such as bootleggingand adultery; after all, they indulge in such pas-times themselves. But if these were charactersin a Greek tragedy, we would be told in nouncertain terms that Joe Kennedy, in destroy-ing his daughter, set something in motionwhich would have terrible consequencesdown the generations. Perhaps equally

destructive was his obsessive ambition to pro-duce a son who would be President. On asubtler level that, too, is a form of child abuse,for his children were given no opportunity


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John F. Kennedy

29 May 19173.00 pm ESTBoston, MassachusettsTropicalPlacidusGeocentric

whatsoever to become themselves. Obsessiveambition, already overweening long before JoeKennedy was born, ensured that every individ-ual's unique potentials were swallowed up bythe familydaimon. I do not pretend to knowwhether the cosmos truly carries such a stern

morality as the Greeks believed in. In the con-text of our more simplistic and highly person-alised Judaeo-Christian morality, the Greekconception of the universe may seem shock-ingly impersonal. But if we consider the list offeatures of the family curse I have given above,it is clear that Joe Kennedy faithfully metCriteria Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Does this really mean that his sin wouldinevitably be punished down the gener-ations? I am not suggesting this, nor do I per-sonally believe life is that simple. The world is

full of extremely nasty pieces of work who livelong and destructive lives and die self-satisfiedin their beds, while many good, decent peopleencounter terrible experiences which neitherthey nor their ancestors have mer ited.Moreover, not all tragedies form part of arepeating ancestral pattern. When they do,however, we need to sit up and take notice.Let us bear in mind Criterion No. 4, and con-sider in brief the unfoldment of the chain oftragedies which has afflicted the Kennedy fam-ily. This short list does not include issues such

as divorce, adultery, alcoholism, and otherfamily pastimes which are sufficiently commonnot to merit the term tragedy except, per-haps, to the individual participants.

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Joe's eldest son, thegreat hope of his father for the AmericanPresidency, is killed in a plane crash in 1944,aged twenty-nine. Kathleen Kennedy, Joe's second daughter,dies in a plane crash in 1948, aged twenty-

eight.John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the US,is assassinated in Dallas in November 1963,aged forty-six. John F. Kennedy's son, Patrick BouvierKennedy, born prematurely to the Presidentand his wife in 1963, dies three months beforehis father's assassination. Robert F. (Bobby) Kennedy, Joe's third son,is assassinated in June 1968, aged forty-two. Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy, Joe's youngestson, drives a car off a bridge onChappaquiddick Island in July 1969, after a

party. His aide, Mary Jo Kopechne, is founddead in the submerged car. His political careerhas not survived the speculation surroundingthe incident. Bobby Kennedy's son Joseph is involved in1973 in a car accident which leaves a femalepassenger paralysed for life. Ted Kennedy's son, Edward Jr., has his rightleg amputated in 1973 because of cancer. Bobby Kennedy's son David dies in 1984 ofa drug overdose. Ted Kennedy's son Patrick is treated for

cocaine addiction in 1986. Ted Kennedy's nephew, William KennedySmith, is acquitted of rape in 1991. Bobby Kennedy's son Michael is killed in a


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Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.

6 September 18887.06 am ESTBoston, MassachusettsGeocentric

TropicalTrue Node

skiing accident in December 1997, aged thirty-nine.John F. Kennedy's only surviving son, JFK Jr .,

dies in a plane crash in July 1999 (exactly thir-ty years after Chappaquiddick), aged thirty-eight.

Even given the fact that there are a greatmany Kennedys and that therefore, statisti-cally, their chances for a list of tragedies suchas this are greater, the males in this family doseem to have suffered more than their shareof catastrophes and early deaths. Could allthese people have been aff lic ted withCriterion No. 4 - with hubris, a refusal to alterthe inherently destructive or arrogant attitudes

which are part of their psychological inheri-tance? We could certainly say this about some,if not all, of them. Even JFK Jr., who eschewedthe political l imelight and seems to have beena well-liked and relatively innocuous individual,insisted on flying his plane with a broken footand in weather conditions that would daunteven an experienced pilot. It is unnecessary toelaborate on the kind of world in which JohnF. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy moved; onedoes not need to postulate family curses torecognise that members of the Mafia tend to

shoot people when they are crossed and, justpossibly, so do members of the American mil-itary, the FBI, and the CIA. And ambition,power, and great wealth can generate their

own kind of curse. We do not need to imag-ine some dark ancestral daimonto understandwhy cocaine addiction or alcoholism might

afflict a member of this family. Taken individu-ally, each tragedy is explicable in its own, veryhuman terms. Taken together, they present arather more disturbing picture.

The horoscopesIf I were to peruse a horoscope for traces ofwhat I understand as a family curse, I wouldconsider first of all the presence of planets inthose houses concerned with inheritance fromthe past. Until we have some insight into thecomplexes belonging to the larger matrix fromwhich we have emerged, we are liable to suf-

fer from unconscious compulsions and behav-iour patterns which may reflect our own char-acters only in part. Family complexes underpinall the buried feelings which colour the psychicatmosphere in childhood, and as determiningpatterns they form part of our ancestral inher-itance. My analytic work has taught me thatnothing is quite as powerful as a family secretnursed in the darkness for many generations,accruing energy and wrath in proportion tothe ferocity with which it is blocked from con-scious awareness and expression. Family

ghosts may not take the form of dead UncleFred speaking through a medium. But they arevery real and very powerful, and they canhaunt us as relentlessly as the Furies did


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...The Kennedy fam-ily curse appears tohave begun notwith Papa Joe, butin the collectivestruggle of Irishagainst English,Catholic against

Protestant, and thetragedy of the GreatHunger whichdrove his grandpar-ents from Ireland toseek their fortuneacross the sea.

Orestes. Astrologically, planets in the 4th, 8thand 12th may suggest energies, patterns andqualities which are inherited but which needindividual consciousness to release their mostpositive dimensions. Left unconscious, theymay release more destructive dimensions,impelling the individual into compulsive behav-iour which results in events which feel fated.The parental significators - planets placed inthe 10th or 4th or conjuncting the MC or ICfrom the 9th or 3rd - may also be importantin understanding the family inheritance. And Iwould place considerable importance on theposition of Pluto in the horoscope, paying par-ticular attention to Pluto on an angle, placed inthe 4th, 8th, or 12th, or in strong aspect to theSun or Moon. This planet seems to reflect thatLaw of Nature for which the Greeks had somuch awe and respect - a kind of instinctivenatural justice which serves the survival andevolution of the species, the group, and the

creative daimon of the family. If a family curseinvolves some violation of natural law by earli-er generations, we may expect Pluto be strongin the horoscope, demanding that the individ-ual face and make peace with an inheritancefrom the past which requires reparation. Untilthis challenge is met, the individual's ownpotentials may be partially or even entirelysubsumed by issues that began long beforeone's birth.

I

n Papa Joe Kennedy's chart, bearing these

factors in mind, I would view the full 12thhouse as significant, and also the placement ofChiron in Cancer at the MC. This chart canobviously be approached from many differentperspectives. I am concerned here not with acharacter analysis so much as the indicationthat Joe Kennedy was himself the vessel forunresolved inherited psychological issues. Theinterpretations which follow are thereforeunavoidably brief and focused on this singlepoint. To me, any planet placed in the 12thdescribes some impetus, drive or daimonwithin the ancestral psyche which has not

been sufficiently or fully lived, and which turnsthat planet into a kind of medium for whathas been left unfinished from the past. Theindividual's expression of the planet is there-fore coloured by what previous generationshave or have not done with it. Left unfin-ished does not necessarily mean destruc-tive; a paint ing may also seem unfinished toits creator although complete in the eyes ofthe viewer, and it could be argued that nocreative endeavour is ever really complete interms of i ts ultimate potential. The designs of

the familydaimontake much longer to unfoldthan one individual life. Everything dependson how the individual handles that unfinishedbusiness.

Joe's new Moon placed in the 12th house,with the Sun widely square Pluto in the 9th,suggests an inheritance involving complex reli-gious issues as well as an overwhelming drivetoward individual expression and achievementwhich has somehow not found sufficientexpression in the family background. We mayneed to go back to Joe's Irish Catholic ances-try and the years of the Great Hunger tounderstand something of what he may havebeen carrying. Although it would be easy toview Joe Kennedy as the initiator of the diffi-culties of the family, it would seem that hehimself was the inheritor of family complexeswhich drove him compulsively toward person-al power and achievement. It is as though thevoices of long-dead ancestors, starving andpersecuted, pushed him along, demanding thathe and he alone be the redeemer of the fam-ily past. Chiron in Cancer at the MC suggestsa wound in relation to his standing in the

world, a wound inherited through the mater-nal line and linked with his family's social sta-tus. Chiron placed here implies that he suf-fered from a profound sense of himself and hisfamily being unacceptable and inferior in theworld in which he moved. The compensationfor this kind of wound is often obsessive ambi-tion - although the real motive is not materialgain, but an attempt to assuage a much deep-er emotional suffering. We may also view histreatment of his daughter in the light of thisChiron placement, for she must have seemed

to him the living proof of his family's inferiori-ty. That Joe Kennedy was determined to fatherthe first Irish Catholic President in a nationwhich tends to like its Presidents unambigu-ously Anglo-Saxon and Protestant sheds lighton how desperately important the religiousissue must have been. What I believe thischart does not show is how Joe Kennedyelected to use the talents and energy he hadat his disposal, nor with what ethics - or lackthereof - he attempted to fulfil the ambitionswhich were fuelled by something so mucholder and vaster than his own personal

Virgoan dreams. Here is choice rather thandestiny, and arrogance rather than an honour-ing of the enormous talents and life-force athis disposal. In light of this chart, the Kennedyfamily curse appears to have begun not withPapa Joe, but in the collective struggle of Irishagainst English, Catholic against Protestant, and

the tragedy of the Great Hunger which drovehis grandparents from Ireland to seek their for-tune across the sea.

In John F. Kennedy's chart it is the 8th house,

rather than the 12th, which carries theemphasis. This is, to me, no less a house offamily ghosts. But the ghosts do not quietlyand surreptitiously possess planets in the 8th;



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Robert Kennedy

20 November 19252.48 pm ESTBrookline, MassachusettsGeocentricTropicalTrue Node

Photo: Bobby on the cam-paign trail, Arizona 1968.David Hume Kennerly

their haunting is more precipitous and oftenenacted through ferocious compulsions anddramatic events. Here, too, is portrayed theunhappy family inheritance carried through thematernal line, reflected by Saturn in Cancer atthe MC conjunct Neptune in Leo. This echoes

Joe's 10th house Chiron in Cancer, and impliesan enormous unease in terms of worldly posi-tion and acceptability, as well as a powerfulmessianic need to be the redeemer of his fam-ily and country. We might wonder how suchan apparently confident and well-loved man

could ever have ever worried about beinginferior and coming from inferior stock. Butwhat do we really know about him? And whatdid he really know about himself? We are toldthat he was sexually driven, that he could notresist flirting with some of the darkest criminalelements in American society, that he couldbe ruthless and manipulative like his father,and that, whether he wished to or not, he wasdriven from the moment of his brother'sdeath to aim for the Presidency and the fulfil-ment of the family dream. I do not interpretplanets in the 8th as indicators of a violentdeath. I have had too many clients who havelived to ripe ages with full 8th houses to inter-pret the subtleties of Pluto's world on such aliteral level. But planets in the 8th suggestpowerful unconscious forces of an impersonalor nonpersonal kind, usually linked to secretsin the family past, which erupt into the daylightworld in the form of compulsions and crises

which demand a relinquishing of control andan acceptance of the invisible dimensions oflife. The 8th can convey great power, strength,and insight, if the conscious attitude is humble.But if there is too much arrogance and arefusal to look within, then planets here maysometimes behave like avenging Furies - or likeenemy action. Like his father, John Kennedywas disinclined to do any relinquishing of anykind, let alone engage in the kind of introspec-tion the 8th house requires. Like Atreus andThyestes, he followed faithfully in the family

footsteps. We do not need to think in termsof a family curse to see that JFK's politicalactivities would win him virulent and powerfulenemies. But we may need to think in theseterms if we wish to understand why he wasdriven to such activities. The Sun conjunct


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John F. Kennedy Jr.

25 November 196012.22 am ESTWashington, D.C.GeocentricTropical

True Node

Venus in Gemini, with Libra on the Ascendantand the Moon in Virgo, all suggest a flexible,refined, and easy-going nature. This chartmakes me think of a wolf in sheep's clothing;but the wolf is not the man himself. Rather, itis the family inheritance.

B

obby Kennedy's horoscope presents uswith Pluto in a position of power, virtually

exactly at the IC in Cancer. Here it is not dif-fuse ancestral ghosts so much as father writlarge and archetypal - a dark Plutonian inheri-tance coming down through the father's line.The 10th house is heavily tenanted, but by abenign stellium of Moon-Venus-Jupiter. Bobbywas probably far more comfortable enjoyingmoney, power, and status than his brother andfather. But Jupiter and Venus oppose Pluto,suggesting a ferocious inner struggle betweenhis individual nature and his inheritance whichturned him into a fanatical crusader against evil

in the world. One wonders whether the darkforces he hunted in society, and which ulti-mately destroyed him, were really the darkforces at his own roots. On some level Ibelieve Bobby Kennedy deeply hated andfeared his father, but projected this Plutonianfigure onto the criminal elements he perceivedgnawing away at the roots of American soci-ety. Uranus and Chiron are in the 12th,although Chiron is close to the Ascendant; bit-ter family wounds as well as messianic familyideals drove him from within. More important-

ly, the Sun is close to the 8th house cusp,telling a tale similar to that of his brother. Hisindividual nature and aspirations were con-stantly invaded by the unconscious compul-sions of the past. Insight and humility arerequired for the Sun to shine its light from the8th. But a Kennedy upbringing does not usual-ly encourage insight and humility. As a Scorpio,Bobby may also have been driven by a spirit ofpersonal vengeance, and this craving forvengeance, common to so many figures inGreek myth, is not conducive to making peacewith a wrathful deity or easing the strictures of

a family curse. But most of all, it is the angularPluto which suggests the intrusion of theancestral past into the present. Had the fathernot appeared as a figure of such compulsivepower in this chart, much might have been dif-ferent. Politics might well have been Bobby'schoice as well as his family's. But he might nothave invoked the enemy without quite so vir-ulently if he had understood better the natureof the enemy within.

Finally, we can look very briefly at the chart

of John F. Kennedy Jr. No compulsive flirta-tion with the darker echelons of powerappears to have afflicted him; it seems he trulydid not want to follow in his father's footsteps,

but was content to live the pleasant Jupiterianlife of a playboy and dilettante. The 10th houseis empty; evidently he did not feel impelled tochange the world or make his mark on it in anymythic way. We might well hope that, in relin-quishing the voracious demands of the family

daimon, he might have avoided that courtshipof a tragic end which destroyed his father andhis uncle. Yet he had a tragic end anyway.What in the world made this man choose torisk his life, and the lives of three other people,in such a blind and foolish way? We cannotever know what was in his mind - or perhapsmore to the point, what was at work on theunconscious level - when he made this deci-sion. Uranus and Pluto are placed in the 12th,with Pluto close to the Ascendant and con-junct the north Node. Once again the familyghosts make their appearance, colouring his

perceptions of the outer world with the com-pulsions of the past. Pluto is also square theSun, which is in the 3rd but conjunct the cuspof the 4th. It seems that even this likeable andexuberant puer aeternus was required to grap-ple with his Plutonian inheritance if he wishedto fulfil his individual potential. Glenn Richterstates in his article that JFK Jr.'s fatal flaw wasarrogance. No doubt that is partly true; he, too,fits Criterion No. 4. But there are other factorsin this chart (particularly Venus conjunctSaturn, Mars opposite Saturn, and Moon and

Chiron exactly conjunct) that describe consid-erable inner pain, loneliness, and struggle - per-haps not entirely conscious, but all the moredestructive for being so carefully denied.


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5 All data for the Kennedys comesfrom Internationales HoroskopeLexikon, Hans-Hinrich Taeger,Verlag Hermann Bauer, 1992."Papa" Joe's father, Patrick JosephKennedy, had, in a chart set forsunrise, Venus at 13 Capricorn,Moon at 16 Capricorn, Sun at 24Capricorn, Mercury at 25Capricorn, and Saturn at 24Cancer. Joe's mother, MaryAugusta Hickey, had Saturn at 27Cancer. "Papa" Joe had the MC at5 55' Cancer with Chiron at 1011' Cancer and the north Node at29 43' Cancer. Rose, his wife, hadChiron at 26 41' Cancer.Rosemary, the daughter he con-signed to the twilight, had Pluto at6 Cancer and Jupiter at 11Cancer. Joe Jr., whose death began

the long series of family tragedies,had Saturn at 9 Cancer, Mercuryat 16 Cancer, and Venus at 21Cancer. Kathleen, who died at vir-tually the same age as her brotherJoe Jr., had Pluto at 6 Cancer andVenus at 26 Capricorn. John F.Kennedy had the north Node at11 14' Capricorn, Pluto in 3 16'Cancer, and Saturn at 27 09'Cancer. Jackie, his wife, had Plutoat 18 22' Cancer. Caroline, his

daughter, has Venus at 21 52'Capricorn. Bobby Kennedy hadthe IC at 13 59' Cancer, withPluto at 14 29' Cancer, the northNode at 27 14' Cancer, Venus at15 02' Capricorn, Jupiter at 2009' Capricorn, and the Moon at28 12' Capricorn. Ted Kennedyhas the Ascendant at 10 44'Capricorn with Pluto at theDescendant at 20 16' Cancer.John F. Kennedy Jr. had Jupiter at5 49' Capricorn, Saturn at 15 33'

Capricorn, Venus at 11 53'Capricorn, and Mars at 18 30'Cancer. There are, of course,many more Kennedys whose chartplacements might be included here.Amongst the younger members ofthe family, the Cancer-Capricornaxis continues its undeterred pas-sage down through the genera-tions. It is worth noting in passingthat the Sun in the birth chart ofthe United States is at 13 19'

Cancer. The destiny of this familyhas been inextricably bound upwith the destiny of the countryover which they have exercisedsuch enormous influence.

Pluto was transiting back and forthacross JFK Jr.'s natal Sun in the yearbefore his death, and it was square its ownplace and very close to the IC at the timeof his death. Something inescapable washunting him from within. The progressedchart is also eloquent; progressed IC wasexactly conjunct progressed Jupiter, sug-gesting that the puer spirit longed for away out of the conflict between his ownpersonality and the inexorable demands ofhis inheritance. What is more peculiar isthat this progressed MC-IC axis was in 1428' of Cancer-Capricorn, precise to theminute on his uncle Robert's natal Pluto atthe IC - as though some strange identifica-tion was occurring between the livingnephew and the dead uncle. Those whobelieve in simple tragic accidents may nodoubt feel anger at the suggestion thatthere might have been something volun-

tary, something chosen about this saddeath. I am not implying, if there wereindeed a choice, that the choice was con-scious. But the precision of such astrologi-cal contacts makes me wonder whetherthe family daimon - one dimension ofwhich seems to reveal itself in the familycharts through the Cancer-Capricorn axis- was at it once again. This repetition ofplanets falling within a few degrees in thesame signs in so many of the family chartsdoes not suggest a family curse. Rather, it

suggests a family inheritance of a poten-tially creative kind, involving not only polit-ical shrewdness, tenacity, and leadershipabilities, but also the profound emotionalnourishment provided by close familybonds. However, it might also be said thatthe gifts of the Cancer-Capricorn axis

5

were sorely misused in every generationof the Kennedy family. Global ambitionthat subsumes the personal happiness ofindividual family members, and a tyrannicalclannishness that permits no freedom tomove beyond the family circle emotional-

ly, intellectually, professionally, or spiritual-ly, may be interpreted as abuses of god-given talents. The Cancer-Capricorn axis,at its best, epitomises those values whichpreserve the loving container of the familyas a basis for the structures of a lawful andstable society. If I were an imaginativeancient Greek, I might think of the goddessHera, protectress of family and socialbonds, incensed beyond bearing becauseher gifts were bestowed so freely and thenused so irresponsibly.

ConclusionThe family curse is, when all is said anddone, an inversion of a family blessing.That is what emerges from thinking long

and hard about how the Greeks portrayedit, and I am convinced that they knew farmore about this unfolding of patterns overgenerations than many orthodox schools ofpsychology do today. Psychoanalysis andanalytical psychology have, of course,always recognised the reality of the uncon-scious and the continuing power of familysecrets. Family therapy acknowledges thegenerational repetition of critical events onspecific dates and at specific ages; the ana-lytical family therapist knows, too, that theidentified patient, like Orestes, is therecipient and mouthpiece, rather than theperpetrator, of a conflict much older thanthe individual. From a reductive perspec-tive, the family curse may seem like a doomimposed on the innocent. Yet our ownsmall family curses, whatever florid or sub-tle form they take, may be viewed, not as afuture in which we are fated to re-enact the

tragedies of the past, but as an opportunityto redeem something which was once thegift of a god, but which has been deformedover time through arrogance, stupidity, mal-ice, or wilful unconsciousness. When pat-terns from the past make us shape ourfutures compulsively, we will solve nothingby either passively anticipating disaster orbelieving ourselves to be exempt. Any indi-vidual with a powerful Pluto or an empha-sis in the watery houses is the potentialrecipient of enormous power and insight

built on a profound comprehension of thepast and the inner world. But there is nosuch thing as a free lunch, and one mustfind the courage to make the heartbreakingseparation from the matrix of the familypsyche in full consciousness, emerging as anindividual - lonely, unique, and attuned tothe needs of one's own soul. The luxury ofblind identification with the family, or withany collective, is not an intelligent option foranyone with such placements in the birthchart. There is no room for either naivetyor arrogance when the chart reveals the

participation of family ghosts. One needs toreflect on the past as carefully and deeply aspossible, for one is,in the most pro-found sense, amedium for theunlived gifts of thefamily psyche and avessel for all theenergy and life thathave been deniedor abused and are

now longing to beexpressed in newcreative forms.


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Nick Campion's seminalstudy of apocalyptic beliefs,The Great Year, was pub-lished by Arkana in 1994and was the winner of thePrix Georges Antares. He

has also been President ofthe Astrological Association,President of the AstrologicalLodge and editor of theAstrology Quarterly, and wasawarded the 1992 MarcEdmund Jones Award andthe 1999 Spica Award forProfessional Excellence. Hisbooks include AnIntroduction to the History of

Astrology (1982), MundaneAstro logy (1984, withCharles Harvey and MichaelBaigent), The PracticalAstrologer (1987), The Bookof World Horoscopes (1988)and The New Astrology(1999, with Steve Eddy). Heis currently researching forhis PhD on the extent andnature of contemporarybelief in astrology and isworking on a major new his-tory, Cosmos: A History of

Astronomy and Culture,scheduled for publication in2001. He is also a memberof the Clifton Poker Group.

Men always, but not always with good reason,

praise bygone days and criticise the present, and

so partial are they to the past that they not only

admire past ages the knowledge of which has

come down to them in written records, but also,

when they grow old, what they remember having

seen in their youth.

Machiavelli

Discourses, II, preface. (14)

The Age of Innocence

When the passage of time is compared tothe growth and decay of earthly phe-nomena such as plants, animals, human beingsand empires, it is very easy to read into partic-ular times the qualities of the events with whichthey coincide, and which they measure. Eventoday the simple statements times are bad ortimes are good reflect a residual tendency to

endow time with quality. This is perhaps at itsmost marked in the almost limitless capacitywhich we enjoy in looking back on our child-hoods as a time of bliss, of endless summer. Italso shows in our capacity, as we grow older, tocomplain about the increasing violence and laxmorals of our times. The sum total of such indi-vidual feelings seems to be responsible for thecollective myth that once, long ago, li fe was bet-ter.

T

he belief in a primeval springtime of inno-cent happiness is one which occurs in many

cultures; the fact that it is so widespread sug-gests that it fulfils a vital psychological function.Perhaps this is because it provides a model ofan ideal existence, against which current aspira-tions may be measured. It may also offer hopethat the future might bring a restoration of thelost bliss of collective childhood. Such notionsare easily adapted to theories of cyclical histor-ical law, for they indicate a decline from an orig-inal high point while, thanks to recurrence,growth (culminating in the cyclical recovery ofinnocence) will soon be resumed. After 1000

BCE, the possibility that historical laws could beunderstood, through a combination of mathe-matics, astronomical cycles and astrologicalinterpretation, offered hope that order could

be maintained, and the future controlled. Yetgolden age myths have always resisted system-atisation. The lost age is always in the distantpast, and the future age, while imminent, isinvariably always just beyond reach. Men havedreamt of and worked for future Utopias, butnone have ever achieved their goal.

The term golden age itself is of classical

Greek origin, but it is also now applied todescriptions of an original paradise which havebeen discovered in the cuneiform literature.Indeed, it seems that the primitive democracyof the pre-dynastic proto-literate period (thefourth millennium and earlier) before the inven-tion of royal and priestly hierarchies, wasremembered as a Golden Age in laterMesopotamian literature.

1

A Sumerian tabletfrom about 2000 BCE describes the blissful sit-uation of the Earth's earliest inhabitants:

'In those days there was no snake, there was noscorpion, there was no hyena,There was no lion, there was no wild dog, no wolf,

There was no fear, no terror,

Man had no rival,

In those days, the land Shubur, the place of plenty

of righteous decrees,

Harmony tongued Sumer, the great land of the

decrees of princeship,

Uri, the land having all that is needful.

The land Martu resting in security,

The whole universe, the people in unison,

To Enlil in one tongue (gave praise).2

The final Babylonian description of the pre-historic age occurs in a third century work,The Babyloniaca, an account of Babylonian his-tory and wisdom compiled around 281 BCE forthe benefit of the Greeks by Berossus, a priestof Marduk, who was, in all probability, a courtastrologer to the Hellenistic Seleucid monarchAntiochus I

3

. Berossus was clearly enthusiasticabout the building of bridges between theMesopotamian and Greek cultures, and per-suading the colonising Greeks to respect the

culture of the defeated barbarians, theBabylonians. He was also, apparently, the firstastrologer to begin formal tuition of the subjectin the Greek world. It would be an exaggera-

The Golden AgeNicholas CampionOne of the most persistent millenarian myths is that the new age, or the millennium, willbring a revival of the primeval golden age. In this extract from his book, The Great Year, Nick

Campion looks at the earliest belief in ancient golden ages.


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1 Frankfort, Kingship, p 2162 Samuel Kramer, MansGolden Age: A SumerianParallel to Genesis XI.1 inJournal of the AmericanOriental Society, LXIII(1943), 191 - 4. Words inparentheses indicate anuncertain translation.

Twenty years later Kramerdated the tablet to around2400 BCE - see TheSumerians, p 285. That thisis the only such tablet sofar discovered contradictsFrosts claim that goldenage recurrent mythologywas orthodoxy inMesopotamia from an earlytime.3 See the recent edition of

The Babyloniaca of Berossus,by Stanley Mayer Burstein,Malibu, 1978. The firstmajor study of Berossus,upon which all later workdraws, was Paul Schnabel'sBerossus und dieBabylonische-HellenistischeLiteratur, Leipzig, 1923. Seealso additional commentsin Van der Waerden,Science Awakening II: TheBirth of Astronomy, esp pp

113-5. Isaac Cory,Fragments, 2nd edition,London 1832, includes theseparate secondaryaccounts of Berossusswork in AlexanderPolyhistory, Apollodorus,Abydenus and Josephus.Bursteins allegation thatthe Babyloniaca is not prop-er history is answered byOswyn Murray,

Herodotus and HellenisticCulture, ClassicalQuarterly, 66 (1972). Se alsothe discussion in RobertDrews, The BabylonianChronicles and Berossus,Iraq, 37 (1975).4 Ezekiel I. The four crea-tures also seem to be con-nected to the youthfulappearance of Marduk inthe Enuma Elish. Oannesemerged from the watersof the Persian Gulf, andwas a late equivalent of theSumerian Ea, the god of thewaters and one of the fourcreators. In view of his

tion to describe this primeval epoch betweenthe creation and the arrival of Oannes, whotaught men wisdom, as a golden age. Hedescribes the strange creatures which inhabit-ed the earth in those distant days - some menwith two wings, others with four wings andtwo faces, creatures resembling those in theOld Testament vision of Ezekiel.

4

Four were his eyes, four were his ears,...

Four ears grew large.5

There was no sexual differentiation amongstBerossus primeval humans, the hermaph-roditic population possessing both female andmale organs - a primitive condition which inJewish and Christian morality would be char-acterised as a state of primeval innocence.However, Berossus gives us no hint of moraljudgment. Neither did he attribute the happyqualities to the primeval age that we find in

genuine golden age stories. Unfortunately, bythe 3rd century BCE it is impossible to distin-guish indigenous Babylonian tradition fromGreek imports following in the wake ofAlexander's defeat of the Persians and con-quest of Babylon in 331. Although Berossus'apparent aim was to teach the Greeks aboutthe marvellous antiquity of Mesopotamian cul-ture, his account of the primeval hermaphro-ditic beings bears a strong resemblance to anaccount given by Aristophanes in Plato'sSymposium, from which it may have been

taken. Perhaps Berossus knew of it at secondhand, and thought it was a Babylonian story.Or, perhaps, Plato himself had taken the storyfrom an earlier tradition. All we can say is thecultural cross currents often make it difficult tosay with any certainty that one idea wasGreek, another Babylonian and anotherEgyptian. It may even be misleading to try todistinguish one from the other.

In the Sumerian account, the Golden Age wasthought to be under the direct rule of Enlil,the storm god, and the geographical locus was

often assumed to be the fabled land ofDilmun, which may have been the island ofBahrein. A possible historical memory of aprosperous and peaceful land was interwovenwith self-consciously mythical elements, includ-ing direct rulership by a supreme god and theabsence of wild animals, combining a factualaccount of the past with allegorical elabora-tion. A universal faith and language represent-ed the spiritual and intellectual unity underwhich humanity had basked before the currentdreary times, and to which it hoped one day

to return6

. While it is possible to discern sim-ilar Golden Age ideas in Egypt, the theme ofhistorical decline from an original high point isone which permeated Mesopotamian thought

and recurs in later Greek historical theory. Thisdoes not imply that these ideas were ofSumerian origin, for the earliest tablets maywell represent only the earliest literary form ofa far older and widespread tradition.

We have noted how the origins ofMesopotamian political and religiousstructures, especially the marriage of kingshipand divination, lay in the chronic insecuritywhich afflicted Sumer and Akkad in the thirdmillennium as the various city states began tovie for supremacy. This proposition is con-firmed by the clear longing for a primeval agein which there was no fear, no terror, whennatural predators had not been created, andsociety was secure and united. There is also aninteresting parallel between line 9 of theSumerian Golden Age tablet and the descrip-tion of the pre-diluvian world in Genesis XI, 1:Now the whole earth had one language and

few words.

Golden age mythology generally assumesthat the present time is one of unprece-dented moral decline and political and socialdisintegration. It is in the ritual condemnationof current conditions, the inability to live in,and accept, the present, that this myth sets itsgreatest trap. The great Babylonian flood myth,the Epic of Gilgamesh, bemoans the dismalstate of the post-diluvian world:

Since the days of yore there has been no(permanence);

The resting and the dead, how alike they are!

Do they not compose a picture of death,

The commoner and the noble,

Once they have drawn near to (their fate)?

The Anunnaki, the great gods, foregather;

Mammetum, authoress of destiny, with them the

fate decrees:

Death and life they determine;

Yet of death the days are not revealed.7

The question of recurrence, of a return to

the Golden Age, is little attested incuneiform literature, although we do possess ahymn which describes a coming golden age as:

Days when one man is not insolent to another,

when a son reveres his father,

days when respect is shown in the land, when the

lowly honour the great,

when the younger brother... respects (?) his older

brother,

when the older child instructs the younger child

and he abides by his decisions.8

We should perhaps not read too muchinto this, for the longing for a more sta-ble regime does not imply a full-scale theory of


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cyclical history, featuring the inevitable return oforiginal ideal conditions. Yet this passage does,at the very least, represent a literary precursorof such theories. The principle characteristic ofthis returning Golden Age is order, with obedi-ence the major human virtue. Whether suchobedience will hasten the return of stable con-ditions is not specified but, as we have seen, itwas an essential prerequisite of political stabili-ty: people obey their king and he obeys his god.

Both past and future golden ages were con-siderably more than mere periods of humanhistory. In that they represented perfect modesof being to which everyone should aspire, theyalso possessed a permanent reality which paral-leled the ordinary, harsh world of death and thestruggle for survival. It was therefore theoreti-cally possible that the eternal atemporal dimen-sion represented by the Golden Age might atany moment break through that which chained

humanity to its daily cycle: liberation was a per-petual possibility.

9

It is this simple paradoxwhich was, amongst Jews and Christians, toinspire the belief that the dawning of the mil-lennium, the end of history, the Last Days, thekingdom of God and the final battle were immi-nent. This was to be the psychological motorwhich underpinned the revolutionary fervour ofEuropean millenarianism for two thousandyears. Even if there were cycles in history, theymight be brought to an abrupt end at anymoment by a supreme act of will, coupled with

divine intervention. Central to the Babyloniantheory of history was a tension between theworld of infinitely recurring cycles, or waves, ofsuccess and disaster, and a finite one, in whichthe entire process might be brought to a halt,and cyclical time vanquished by eternity. Interms of the political process, while the mon-archs of Babylon and Assyria knew that theirempires would one day collapse, they nonethe-less strove to make their states the embodi-ment of the true and final Golden Age. Themyth becomes a means of applying the sym-bolism of time to the service of political power.

The state which has restored the glory of thepast must be obeyed now and in the future, forit has liberated its subjects from the chains ofthe present. Against the background of thegreat empires of ancient Mesopotamia, goldenage mythology, exploited in support of the uni-versal state, might therefore be seen as an ide-ology of imperialism.

Catastrophe Theory - The Fire and the FloodUnless God, or the gods, were to interveneto bring the cycles of time to an end, thepast and future ages of bliss would remain forever beyond human reach. However, worsethan this, they were separated from the presentby the impenetrable barrier of two great cata-

clysms which, in the Babylonian tradition of thethird century BCE, were portrayed as a pastglobal flood and a future world fire. From a

modern perspective, informed by two thou-sand years of Christian millenarianism, it isalmost as if the memory of past pleasure andthe hope of future happiness could only becontacted through a barrier of pain and suffer-ing, of collective self-denial. Of course, we can-not be sure that the Mesopotamians of the firstand second millennia BCE thought in preciselythese terms, but the literature they have left us,such as the Lamentation over the Destruction ofSumer and Ur, suggest that they did indeed seecollective suffering as an inevitable part of the

historical experience. Whether they regardedsuch experiences as collective cleansing isdoubtful, for the question is, cleansing fromwhat? From sin would be the Christiananswer. On the other hand, to the Hebrews,Gods punishment was provoked by disobedi-ence, which they saw as sin. It is clear from theLamentationthat the Sumerians did see disobe-dience as the cause of their suffering, whichthey could then see as punishment, exactly asdid the Hebrews. Historically such cataclysmsfulfil a useful function by simplifying chronologyand bringing a structure of fixed points into an

otherwise infinite expanse of time. But in theirall-consuming intensity they are clearly far morethan mere historical signposts, separating pastfrom present and present from future.

10

The universality of flood myths in so manycultures suggests that they embody somemysterious element with a deep appeal to thehuman psyche.

11

The fact that floods were sucha part of Mesopotamian life, and a potent causeof societys collective insecurity, has given riseto speculation that the deluge myth originated

in the Tigris-Euphrates valley.12

The widespreadoccurrence of such myths points to a psycho-logical origin independent of local conditions,although no doubt the physical occurrence of


name, it is tempting todraw connections betweenhim and the Hebrew Johnthe Baptist.5 Enuma Elish Tablet 1, 95,in Heidel, Langdon.6 Only Gadd is cautious ofimposing modern GoldenAge ideas on Sumerian

tales, pointing out thateven in Dilmun under thedivine rule of Enki andNinhursag, life lacked cer-tain basic necessities. SeeIdeas of Divine Rule, p 68, 4.Dilmun is often thought tobe the modern island ofBahrein, although Frankfortconsiders it more likely tobe the Harrapan, or IndusValley culture, which flour-

ished in the 3rd millenni-um. See the discussion inThe Sumerians, esp. pp 281-4. The poem Enmerkar andthe Lord of Aratta: ASumerian Epic Tale of Iraqand Iran, which incorpo-rates the Golden Age pas-sage cited above, describesthe spell of Enki whichwas instrumental in bring-ing the rule of Enlil to anend. See Kramer, Kingship,

p 270.7 Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet10, col 6 in J Pritchard (ed),Ancient Near Eastern TextsRelating to the OldTestament. Speiser, op. cit.,pp 68 - 70, develops thetheme of Gilgamesh as therighteous sufferer resem-bling the Biblical Job anddiscusses the relationshipbetween this theme and

the possible Mesopotamianidea of history.8 Cited in Frankfort,Intellectual Adventure, p 202.9 H & H.A. Frankfort inIntellectual Adventure, pp 25- 26.10 This theory was pro-posed by A.W.Nieuwenhuis. For sum-maries of this and othertheories see Frankfort,Kingship, p 397. Frankfortwrites that the flood is adevice by which the primi-tive makes tabula rasa.Only by doing this can theinexhaustible stream of

Figure 1 - Patterns of History

Destruction ofthe world by fire

corresponds to summerand Cancer

Destruction ofthe world by water

corresponds to winterand Capricorn


18/68

floods may have given the myth greater forceamongst the Mesopotamians. There are alsoclear parallels with the Hebraic flood of Noah,which suggests diffusion of the myth from theTigris-Euphrates valley to Palestine, carriedalong the trade routes by Semitic tribes.

T

he classic Mesopotamian flood myth datingin its final form from the second millennium,

caused much excitement when it was discov-ered by George Smith in 1872, for it seemed tooffer independent verification of the Biblical del-uge. The story is included in twelve tablets(possibly representing the twelve months of thesolar year) of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of thegreatest of the antediluvian kings.

13

TheBabylonian story is not exactly the same as theHebrew, although the parallels are close. LikeNoah, the Babylonian hero, Utna-pishtim,received a divine warning and escaped theworld-cleansing deluge in an ark, constructed

according to various sacred measurements. Theonly other reference to the primeval delugeoccurs in Berossus Babyloniaca. Berossusopened his astrology school on the isle of Cossometime after 281, and his close contact withthe Greeks is presumably a major reason whyhis work was preserved.

Berossus work survives only in fragments.We are unfortunate in having no original,but are obliged to reconstruct whatever we canfrom later fragments, and the deluge myth is

known only from a second-hand report inSenecas Quaestiones Naturales, written almostthree hundred years later. Berossus accountintroduced two themes unknown in the previ-ous Mesopotamian catastrophe myths. First wasthe concept of a future conflagration as a sec-ond destructive global purification, and secondwas the notion that these were to coincidewith astronomical cycles, and hence were torecur in the future. He made no mention of aprimeval conflagration, but, in Seneca's words,clearly infers a future flood:

Some suppose that in the final catastrophe theEarth, too, will be shaken, and through clefts in the

ground will uncover sources of fresh rivers which

will flow forth from their full source in larger vol-

ume. Berossus, the interpreter of Belus, affirms

that the whole issue is brought about by the

course of the planets. So positive is he on the point

that he assigns a definite date both for the con-

flagration and the deluge. All that the earth inher-

its will, he assures us, be consigned to flame when

the planets, which now move in different orbits, all

assemble in Cancer, so arranged in one row that

a straight line may pass through their spheres.When the same gathering takes place in

Capricorn, then we are in danger of the deluge.

Midsummer is at present brought around by the

former, midwinter by the latter. They are zodiacal

signs of great power, seeing that they are the

determining influences in the two great changes of

the year.14

The prospect of a future deluge was regard-ed as a danger, rather than an inevitabili-ty, and Berossus did not imply that future floodsneed recur indefinitely. There may be only one,and if the danger passes, none. Whether it wasto recur or not, it certainly threatened a returnto the disorder of which the Mesopotamianswere so fearful. For they shared with theHebrews and Egyptians the concept of water asthe material substratum of the universe priorto the creation itself; a reasonable enoughassumption for a people living in a countrywhere life blooms in the desert after the annu-al rains, but where water is also regarded as agreat destructive force. The Enuma Elish offersa vivid description of these primeval conditions:

When on high the heavens were not named,

And beneath a home bore no name,

And Apsu (i.e. fresh water) primaeval, their engen-

derer,

And the Form, Tiamat (i.e. salt water), the bearer

of all of them,

There mingled their waters together;

Dark chambers were not constructed, and marsh-

lands were not seen;

When none of the gods had been brought into

being,

And they were not named, and fates were notfixed.15

The primary function of water as the onlysubstance which existed before the cre-ation was retained by the Hebrews. Accordingto Genesis, The earth was without form andvoid, and darkness was upon the face of thedeep; and the Spirit of God was moving overthe face of the waters.

16

T

he worst fate that could be imagined was areturn to such formless conditions. Ea,

Sumerian god of the waters, makes clear in hisfinal rebuke to Enlil, who had sent the flood todestroy human life:

Would that a lion had ravaged mankind

Rather than the flood,

Would that a wolf had ravaged mankind


Would that famine had wasted the world


Would that pestilence had wasted mankind

Rather than the flood.17

Humanity was punished by water, and wasalso judged by it, as the agent acting onEa's behalf. The second paragraph of


imaginable past events bedammed up, and the exist-ing world allowed toemerge at that point. It isas if he said: Whateverexisted before, it wasdrowned and done with...11 The comparative studyof flood myths deserves a

volume of its own, andindeed, the available litera-ture is extensive. For anexcellent discussion of theMesopotamian, Biblical andother flood myths, includ-ing psychological consider-ations, see the variousessays in The Flood Myth,edited by Alan Dundes,Berkeley, Los Angeles,London 1988.

12 See for example, Kirk,Myth, p 225: The theme ofa great flood (which canonly have originated in thecondition of the Tigris-Euphrates valley, and cer-tainly not in Egypt) is takenover by the Greeks.13 A useful introduction tothe Mesopotamian versionsis to be found in TheBabylonian Legend of theFlood, by Edward

Sollberger, 3rd edition,London 1971. The Epic ofGilgamesh, which includesthe flood story, is availablein a number of versions,translated by N.K. Sandars,Middlesex, 1964, or bySN.Kramer and E.A.Speiser, in Ancient NearEastern Texts Relating to theOld Testament, ed J.B.Pritchard, 3rd edition,

Princeton, 1969. Also seeAlexander Heidel, TheGilgamesh Epic and OldTestament Parallels,Chicago, 1946 and W.G.Lambert and A.R. Millard,Atra-hasis: The BabylonianStory of the Flood, Oxford1969.14 This version, Book I.3,in Bursteins account istaken from John Clarke's1910 translation ofSenecas QuaestionesNaturales, Bk III, ch. 29.Book II, chap 2:1 recordsthat the deluge began on15th Daisios, which


19/68

Hammurabi's law code, dating from the 18thcentury BCE, established the model formedieval versions of trial by ordeal, by orderingthat those accused of sorcery be thrown intothe sacred river.

18

The return to watery chaosmight therefore be seen as a punishment, and amajor responsibility of the king and his priestswas to ensure that no such action was neces-sary, to save both themselves and their peoplefrom potential divine wrath. It has been sug-gested that the Akitu festival was held at theNisan new moon in order to coincide with theperiod when the flood threatened. It was thusan apotropaic measure designed to ward offthe threatened evil for another year.

19

The del-uge myth may then be seen less as a quasi-his-torical account of the past, than a warning ofwhat might happen in the future if the godscosmic order were disobeyed. If the Akitu ritu-al was successful, Marduk, it was hoped, wouldthen give his guarantee of future prosperity,

much as Yahweh gave his promise to Noahafter the flood:

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,

shall not cease20

It is also possible that texts such as the EnumaElish, the King List or the Babyloniaca repre-sented theological attempts to systematise an

earlier pre-literate cyclical theory which hadneither beginning nor end. Even withinBerossus scheme, there is scope for the indi-vidual rise and fall of states, and therefore forsub-cycles, just as the Suns diurnal cycle was amicrocosm of its annual journey. The fact thatboth Berossus catastrophes take on a naturalform clearly suggests the direct projection ofnature into history, the divine element inhuman destruction being a function of the peri-odic death of the fertility deity, whether it wereTammuz or another god who took on similarattributes.

There are a number of theories which seekto explain the origin of water in the floodmyths. Some assume cataclysm legends to beliteral memories of past celestial events, or ofpast geographical ages. Water obviously pos-sesses cleansing properties, but the flood is sentas a divine judgment and the only surviving

texts emphasise punishment rather than thecleansing which we might expect. Nobody hasyet explained why the deluge should lie in thepast while the conflagration is yet to come, whywater should be associated with the past andfire with the future. Conflagration myths mayoriginate in dry or desert regions, explainingtheir relatively late appearance inMesopotamian historiography as a Persian orGreek import. On the other hand, their origin

according to Samuel, cor-responds to Airu, the sec-ond month, and hence thefull Moon in the modernsign of Scorpio. See Alan E.Samuel, Greek and RomanChronology, pp 143,Burstein, Babyloniaca, p 20,n 52. If this is correct, the

Sun would have been inTaurus, the sign of the Bull,evoking connections withthe destructive BabylonianBull of Heaven which fea-tures in the Gilgamesh Epicand hence with Mithrasperennial battle with thebull. The conflagrationwould have taken place atthe beginning of the fourthmonth, Duzu, the point of

the year when the Sun andMoon formed a conjunc-tion in Cancer. The deluge,on the other hand, wouldhave taken place at thebeginning of the tenthmonth, Tebetu, defined asthe period of the Sun-Moonconjunction in Capricorn.

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15 Heidel, Enuma Elish,Tablet 1, 1 - 8.16 Genesis, 1:2.17 The Epic of Gilgamesh,trans N.K. Sanders, p 109 -

110.18 Chiera, The Code ofHammurabi, 2., p 183.19 Jacobsen, IntellectualAdventure, p 199.20 Genesis 8:2221Maqlu, tablet II, 104-15,quoted by Jacobsen in TheIntellectual Adventure ofAncient Man, p 134. Notealso the description ofMarduk/Assur in the

Enuma Elish, I.96: Whenhe moved his lips fireblazed forth.22 The Lamentation over theDestruction of Sumer and Ur,ed Michalowski, 1 - 3, 25,28, 76, 79 - 84. Theimagery suggests an eclipse,although this does notrequire that such an eventactually occurred. Perhapseclipse imagery would beused as a metaphor todescribe destruction.23 Jacobsen, Treasures ofDarkness, p 184.

may also be found amongst northern migrantsor invaders who entered Mesopotamia with atradition of slash-and-burn agriculture unknownto the farmers of the river valleys. That theconcept of fire as judicial power was known tothe Babylonians, is evident from the prayer ofthe man who believes he has been bewitched:

Scorching Fire, warlike son of Heaven,

Thou, the fiercest of thy brethren,

Who like the Moon and Sun decidest lawsuits -

Judge thou my case, hand down the verdict.

Burn the man and woman who bewitched me;

Burn, O Fire, the man and woman who bewitched

me;

Scorch, O Fire, the man and woman who

bewitched me;

Burn them, O Fire;

Scorch them, O Fire;

Take hold of them O Fire;

Consume them, O Fire;

Destroy them, O Fire.21

The savagery of this plea stands in contrast tothe impartial tones applied to the judicialqualities of the sacred river in the second para-graph of Hammurabis law code; yet both waterand fire were to act as judges of individualcrime in the Mesopotamian cosmic state. TheBabyloniaca gives us the first recorded indige-nous use of both as instruments of the cosmiccontrol of human history.

Whatever the mythical ingredients of suchstories, Mesopotamian history was richin examples of historical cataclysms which didaway not with the whole world, but with singlestates. One such is The Lamentation over theDestruction of Sumer and Ur, which commemo-rates the events of 2004 BCE, when the greatcity of Ur fell to a city from the east, bringing toan end an empire which was to be remem-bered as a golden age for the following fifteenhundred years. The lamentation describes thefate decreed for Ur by An, Enlil, Enki andNinmah, the four creator deities, its consequent

abandonment by Nanna, the Moon god, thecity god of Ur, and its destruction by the Guti.The necessary celestial portents are accompa-nied by supernatural intervention, natural disas-ter and war in a combination which was tobecome the model, via Old Testament paral-lels, for all subsequent European millenarianism.The memory of the past disaster was to betransferred to a mixed longing for, and fear of,the future

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