Astrological astronomy: a way to pagan denial of God

By Dr.P.R.Palodhi Perhaps we could have better insights of pagan astrology and its anthropomorphic cosmogonies after reflecting to starry handwriting of God on the wall of the heavens. Psalm (19:1) says: the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm (147:4): "He counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by name." David wrote in Psalm (8:3): the work of Your fingers. The letter Aleph from which Gods name begins, is the father of the all Aleph-Bet, whose original pictograph represents an ox or strength. Aleph is derived from primordial symbol is that of the Rams head (incidentally, Ram is the first sign of the Zodiacal constellations) and also related later to the Bulls head (the Age of Taurus, the primordial beginnings of human consciousness). God reveals in Quran: It is We Who have set out the Zodiacal Signs in the heavens, and made them fairseeming to all beholders. (Q, 15: 16); Do they see nothing in the government of the heavens and the earth, and all that God has created? (Q, 7: 185); None can dispute about the Signs of God but the Unbelievers. (Q, 40:4) By the Sky and the Night-Vigilant therein; and what will explain to thee what the NightVigilant is? It is the Star of piercing brightness; there is no soul but a protector over it. Now let man but think from what he is created. (Q, 86: 1-5) Long before advent of modern science ancient civilizations are found to possess amazing information about constellations and heavenly affairs. This knowledge originally came to early mankind from two different sources: one, from the Prophets through whom God sent knowledge pertinent to humanitys journey on earth. Thus from remote past people had their own type of calendar which is at the base of what is in use today. They knew the cycle of the moon, period of month in 29 and 30 days, and about 365-day year. They could navigate the oceans, and they used knowledge of stars to guide them.

[A cuneiform clay tablet shows how the ancient people knew that sun being circled by ten Planets long before modern science discovered it]

They predicted sun risings and settings that were accurate enough to predict eclipses. Necessary to predict eclipses was knowledge of the shapes, movements, and relationships between the earth, moon, and sun. They accomplished this by using the same heliacal system we use today, by measuring the rising and setting of the stars and planets in our skies relative to the sun. They kept accurate ephemerides, tables that predicted future positions of celestial

bodies. Those ephemerides were not based on observations, which were impossible with the naked eye, but on mathematical formulas governed by rules handed down from some as yet undetermined source. And the other was from pre-human Jinns who used to steal the secrets of heaven (e.g. titan god Prometheus in Greek mythology who steals fire from heaven as a gift for man). With this pilfered knowledge they could exert arcane influence on man; and men used to worship Jinns mistaking them as some aspects or forms equal to the Creator God. Thus the foundation of planetary knowledge laid by the Prophets used to get mixed up with God denying astrology where innumerable gods and goddesses were mythicized as the rulers of heavenly and earthly phenomena. ASTROLOGY A LEGACY OF THE JINNS PAGANISM: Astrological astronomy continued to mesmerize people since unfathomable antiquity. Nothing can prevail so long in history without some foundation of truth thus incredible epoch of gods, goddesses, their idols and mythology prevailed because mysterious pre-humans truly existed; and tradition of astrology is lasting for many millennia because it has incurred vitality from the partial elements of creational truth. I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve (worship) Me. (Q, 51: 56); And the Jinn race, We created before, from the fire of a scorching wind (Q, 15:27); Yet they make Jinns equals with God, although God did create the Jinns. (Q, 6:100); And Jinns did pry into the secrets of heaven, but found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires (Q, 72: 8); If they (pagan Jinns) had only remained on the right Way, We should certainly have bestowed on them Rain in abundance; that We might try them by that means. But if any turns away from the remembrance of his Lord, He will cause him to undergo evergrowing Chastisement. (Q, 72: 16-17); True, there were persons among humankind who took shelter with the persons among the Jinns. But they increased them in folly (Q, 72: 6); Men worshipped the Jinns and most of them believed in them (Q, 34: 41); Verily ye unbelievers, and the false gods that ye worship besides Allah, are but fuel for Hell! To it will ye surely come! (Q, 21: 98) The Quran informed about the God denying Jinns created before humankind who by virtue of their fire-based origin were capable of celestial movements. Stealing information from celestial orbits and Zodiacal signs was habit of the Jinns by which they could develop charms of astrology, psychic magic etc and subdue mankind. But their pilfered knowledge was only partial, because, in such celestial ventures many had been destroyed by the flaming fires (i.e. comets) of Divinely protected heaven (Q, 15; 16-18; 67:5). This has been corroborated by the mention of Aztec calendar stone: If a comet, or star that smokes, appeared in the sky, it foretold the death of their noble person. Moreover, heavenly parameters are dependent on Gods Will and not to whims and fancies of man or Jinns. God has shaken the heavens in the past; God shakes the earth out of its place (Job 9: 6). God changes the time and season (Kgs 20: 11; Is 38: 8; Josh 10: 13-14; Dan 2: 21). God said, Once more.I will shake the heavens (Hag 2:6). If God shook the heavens, many of the star dating can be challenged. Hence the inadequate knowledge astrological astronomy delivered to man proves to be out of the religious contexts and twisted more with falsehoods than straightening with truth. The imposed astrological astronomy upon men based on half-truth has deceived ancient generations quest for knowledge and understanding of Divine omnipotence. How astrological abstractions divorce man from the ways of Divine was noticed by the prolific scholar Al-Biruni in context of Hinduism. He quoted in his Indica (ed. Dr. E.C. Sachau): Hindus can never speak of anything, be it an object of intellect or of imagination, without representing it as a personification, an individual. They at once marry him, make him celebrate marriage, make his wife pregnant and give birth to

something. Thus Vishnu Dharma relates Atri the star who rules the stars of Great Bear, married the direction, represented as one person though they are eight in number, and that from her the Moon was born. They relate The Sun, the son of Kasyapa and of Aditya, his wife, was born in the sixth Manabantara on the lunar station Visakha; the Moon, the son of Dharma was born on the station Krittika; Mars the son of Prajapati on Puvashadha; Mercury the son of Moon on Dhanishtha; Jupiter the son of Angiras on Puvaphalguni; Venus the daughter of Bhrigu on Pushya; Satern on Revati; the bearer of tail, the son of Yama the death, on Aslesha and the head on Revati. From pagan Jinns later human followers inherited the unfair knowledge of cosmos, with which they used to deny God - firstly by associating origin of the world, functions of the heavenly bodies, geophysical features and the natural forces of earth with the demigods, heroes, and spirits etc. Thus sky god Zeus in Greek or Indra in Vedic etc used to rule the sky of pagan mythologies. Secondly, such traditions bestowed power upon the pagan gods and celestial stars to decide the destiny of man and societies, rather than laws of God to give man the power to learn and use natural phenomena beneficially. The heritage of pagan Jinns tended to exalt by making a notion that the gods and goddesses are the determining principles of universe. Although God reveals that: it is not those gods or Jinns, rather human (Insaan) is chosen as the vicegerent for this earth. Hence we find that Jinns days on earth are becoming limited gradually by way of increasing the human population and raising certain spheres of human instinct and intellect. O you assembly of Jinns! much toll did you take of men. (Q, 6: 128) As we turn to ancient civilizations we come across countless mythological abstractions of astrological astronomy. Mesopotamians associated their divinities with specific heavenly bodies. A similar system was later adopted by the Greeks and by the Romans, after whose deities the planets now have their English names. In India, too, the planets have been worshipped as minor divinities for the past two millennia at least, and each of them has one of the principal gods of Hinduism as its overlord. Thus cosmologies turned into anthropomorphic cosmogonies. Anthropomorphism is the interpretation of what is not human or personal - in terms of human or personal characteristics. One form of an anthropomorphic worldview in animism, the belief that all things are animated by the will of different spirits, all of which hold some opinion toward humans, and any of which may actively aid or frustrate human plans. Less purely anthropomorphic cosmologies may hold that some portions of the universe are inanimate but are created and affected by animate beings, perhaps by a pantheon of gods as well as humans. In a Chinese legend we find: Buddha summoned all animals to come to him before he was departed from earth. Only twelve came to bid him farewell. As a reward he named a year after each one in the order that it arrived, first came Rat, then the Ox, the Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar. Such myth had foundation in preexisting knowledge of the twelve animal signs of the Zodiac in China known since at least the time of the Shang (Shing or Yin) dynasty (1766 BC 1050 BC). Coincidences between positions of astronomical objects and cyclical nature of events on earth also gave rise to myths under guise of mnemonics for remembering the correlations. A VIEW TO ASTROLOGY OF ANCIENT GEREATIONS: As for disbelievers, whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not. They think to beguile God and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not. (Quran, 2: 6-7)

Pagan Sumerian astrology is purported to be based on a theory of polytheistic government of the world; all the great gods had their seats in the heavens. The movements of the sun, moon and five planets were regarded as representing the activity of the five gods in question, together with the moon-god Sin and the sun-god Shamash, in preparing the occurrences on earth. If, therefore, one could correctly read and interpret the activity of these powers, one might know what the gods were aiming to bring about. Of the planets, five were recognized Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury and Mars to name them in the order in which they appear in the older cuneiform literature; in later texts Mercury and Saturn change places. These five planets were identified with the gods of the Babylonian pantheon as follows: Jupiter with Marduk; Venus with the goddess Ishtar, Saturn with Ninurta (Ninib), Mercury with Nabu (Nebo), Mars with Nergal.

Sumerian Heavenly Gates

(providing either ascent into the high Heavens or into the Underworld and/or watery abyss, the Abzu of Enki).

The Ancient Egyptians divided the night sky into 36 groups of stars, star-gods or constellations, known as decans, which rose above the horizon at dawn for a period of ten days every year. The Dog star Sirius (goddess Sopdet, Septet) was the most important one. The ceilings of many royal tombs show that the decans moving across the sky in boats. Some painted wooden coffin lids of the early Middle Kingdom, and also the Late Period, show calendars consisting of 36 columns, that list the 36 decans and the rising period of each. This calendar was flawed because its year was six hours short, thus losing ten days every 40 years. Since the Egyptians had a zodiac with 36 decans, some speculate that the Greeks took the Babylonian zodiac and added their own ideas to create the round zodiac ceiling from the temple of Hathor at Denderah. This proposes that the outer ring of 36 decans stars is in concordance with the Greek astrological zodiac. The temple of Hathor contains two representations of the heavens, a round zodiac ceiling (i.e. Denderah Zodiac) and a square zodiac (i.e. Grand Temple) in the outer hypostyle hall. The Northern Stars were: Ursa Majoris, Draconis, Capella, and Spica. The Southern Stars were: Phact, Centauri, Canopus, and Sirius.

Denderah zodiac

In China astrology was always regarded very highly. The 60 year cycle combining the five elements with the twelve animal signs of the Zodiac has been documented in China since at least the time of the Shang (Shing or Yin) dynasty (1766 BC 1050 BC). Oracles bones have been found dating from that period with the date according to the 60

Replica of an oracle bone turtle shell

year cycle inscribed on them, along with the name of the diviner and the topic being divined about. Astrology in China also became combined with the Chinese form of geomancy known as Feng shui. Chinese refers to the 5 major planets by the one of the Wu Xing they were associated with: VenusMetal (White Tiger) JupiterWood (Azure Dragon) MercuryWater (Black Tortoise) MarsFire (Vermilion Bird) SaturnEarth (Yellow Dragon) Harappan Vedic tradition: Although the Harappan script is still un-deciphered, there are numerous indications that Harappans were well versed in astronomical astrology. Archaic forms of Zodiacal signs are traceable from several Indus seals (2347, 7038, 7040, and 7711) [1]. The centaur (Greek: kentaur, Vedic: gandhara) depicted in the seals can be compared to the 12

main nakhsatras or moon-houses of the Zodiac [2]. Vedic Aryans, after separating from Avestan brothers, are known to have adopted Harappan astrology. The star-calendar used by the later Vedic Aryans in India has no references to it in the Avesta, or in the oldest books of the RigVeda. On the other hand, astronomical evidence dates the compilation of this calendar at around the 2300 BC, when the Indus civilization flourished at its peak. The Pleiades hold a prominent place as the mothers or wet nurses of the newborn infant in one of the most ancient Hindu myths, that of the birth of the war-god Rudra/ Skandha, who evidently represents, among other things, the victorious rising sun (and as vernal sun the new-year).

Pleiades the wives of seven sages The Pleiades are said to have been the wives of the seven sages, who are identified with the seven stars of the Great Bear. The Great Bears Old Tamil name elu-meen seven-star corresponds to the combination of the pictograms 7 + fish, which alone constitutes the entire text of one finely carved Indus seal. The Satapatha-Brahmana states that the six Pleiades were separated from their husbands on account of their infidelity; other texts specify that only one of the seven wives, Arundhati, remained faithful and was allowed to stay with her husband: she is the small star Alcor in the Great Bear, pointed out as a paradigm of marital virtue to the bride in the Vedic marriage ceremonies. Evidence for the Harappan origin of this myth is provided, among other things, by Indus seals which show a row of six or seven human figures; their female character is suggested by the one long plait of hair, which to the present day has remained characteristic of the Indian ladies. Meso-America: Codex Vaticanus A is a wealthy source of information on how Mayans viewed the universe. The Mayans tracked the movements of Vevus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, and possessed a zodiac of some kind. The Mayan name for the constellation Scorpio was also 'scorpion', while the name of the constellation Gemini was 'peccary'. There is evidence for other constellations being named after various beasts, but it remains unclear [3]. Tonatiuh, a red eagle with a large and all-seeing eye, was the god associated with the sun. Moon represented by a female deity who had powerful influence on terrestrial events. A waxing moon had the attributes of the beautiful, ideal woman, while a waning moon was considered to be an old female deity who ruled over childbirth. Venus held a particular attraction for the Mayans. It was considered to be connected with the major deity Quetzalcoatl. It was called Xux Ek, the Great Star. The Pleiades was called tianquiztli, which meant market-place. PROPHETIC ROLE: Behold! In the creation of heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day there are indeed Signs for men of understandings. Men who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down on their side, and contemplate the wonders of creation in the

heavens and the earth, with saying: Our Lord not for naught hast Thou created all this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the Chastisement of the Fire. (Q, 3: 190-191) When the stars fall, losing their lustre .then shall each soul know what it has put forward. So verily I call you to witness the Planets that recedes, go straight, or hide; and the night as it dissipates; and the dawn as it breathes away the darkness. (Q, 81: 118) It is We Who have created you: why will you not witness the Truth? (Q, 56:57); O you children of Adam! Let not Satan seduce you, in the same manner as he got your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their raiment, to expose their shame: for he and his tribe watch you from a position where you cannot see them: We made the evil ones friends only to those without faith. (Q, 7: 27). Prophet Noahs son Shem was 98 years old when the Flood came; he started Sumerian civilization probably prior to the Flood and continued it for centuries after it. This would explain the sudden civilization in that area of the world after the waters receded. In later course of history the Semitic Akkadians are among the first people credited to have kept astronomical records, and the earliest date from around 2500 BC. They lived in the northern part of what was later called Babylon. Pagan Sumerians of unknown ethnic origin came from eastern mountains. The astrologer-priests that lived later in Babylon were able to use the records of the Akkadians to predict some of the motions of the sun, Earths moon, and stars. Both in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the farmers, priests and businessmen were used to a time table; Pyramid texts appear to show that it was in full working order before 2400 BC. Egyptians were able to figure out the length of a year based upon the movements of the sun and the flooding of the Nile River. The Egyptians were one of the first to create an accurate calendar. Shah Wali Allah [4] explained in Hadith: Abrahams story is his hankering after acquisition of the true religion (fitra). When Abraham dedicated entirely to God he was addressed (through intermediary of al-mala al-ala i.e. supreme Angels) in a loud voice by a tongue of Divine will and election, from an opening for light in the heaven of the Godly man (i.e. prototype of human sp. from whom institution for mankind descend). So he brought to light the falsehood of astrology, magianism and polytheism. In this instruction God restored to a particular contrivance. Since it had turned out that from magianism inconsistent schools of thought (syncretism) resulted and that through astrology polytheism expanded; for removing this falsehood God commanded to follow true religion (fitra) and to obey the tongue of the Divine will instead of directing oneself to the course of heavenly bodies. In the beginning of our aeon the things that happened in the world were direct effects of the powers of celestial spheres and elements (anasir; Gr. Stoichia). And that was the creation up to. So Prophet Idris had spoken of science relating thereto. After that, in the Holy compound (hazira al-quds) the al-mala al-ala steadily increased and crowded together. Well then, each of those supreme Angels could function, so to speak, as a secret mechanism in which a potency of the celestial sphere had been laid. Now, if God wanted something to be done, there had to be a restrain or letting loose (see Arabic verse of Q. 2: 246/5) of the causal process on earth, effected by the al-mala al-ala. In that way He could have His intention realized. The celestial spheres did no longer keep unlimited command (as we know from Quran they were the first to surrender to Divine will). Hence Abraham came to refute the importance attributed to the stars, to teach monotheism, and to call attention to Divine irradiation (tadjalli) produced in the Holy compound. Again after arrival of the Persians, the Euphrates Valley received a religion which differed markedly from the Babylonian polytheism. Prophet Zarathrustra was Divinely ordained with a

task of establishing a solar observatory on an island on Helmand Lake in Eastern Iran. The purpose of this observatory was to establish the correct time of the Spring Equinox. It was used to measure the exact time of NoRuz, the Persian New Year, which would be the equivalent of an astronomically precise Easter. Since very ancient time Indo-Europeans are known to observe in the spring the New Year, NuRoz (means New Day). As to the Winter Solstice, the Indo-Europeans celebrated a Yule tide festival at mid winter. The early followers of Zarathrustra, or perhaps even Zarathrustra himself used to observe a Mid Winter Gahan Bar, but either because of a renewal of the early tradition, or for other reasons, it got mixed up with the Yule tide and became what is now known as Yalda. These festivals were concentrated on studying preaching and singing the Gathas for Five Gathas Days. Gradually spread of astronomy was coincident with the rise of a scientific phase of astronomy in a newer world. All these factors weakened the hold of deep rooted astrology a traditional practice of all ancient civilizations.

ASTRONOMY Vs ASTROLOGY: Confucius reflected to astrology by saying: "Heaven sends down its good or evil symbols and wise men act accordingly." [5]. Ancient star-reading later developed into the art of pagan astrology; especially under the Chaldeans it turned into astrological astronomy during the reign of king Nabonassar (747 BC) when observations of sky became continuous with keeping of records on file list. Wikipedia and other sources informed that: Astrology and astronomy were indistinguishable for a very long time. In Medieval Europe the word Astronomia was often used to encompass both disciplines as this included the study of astronomy and astrology jointly and without a real distinction; this was one of the original Seven Liberal Arts. Copernicus didnt practice astrology (nor empirical astronomy; Newton most likely rejected astrology, however (as did his contemporary Christian Huygens) [6]. Newton said that as a young student, he had read a book on astrology, and was "soon convinced of the vanity and emptiness of the pretended science of judicial astrology". In compilation work Etymologiae Isidore of Seville author noted explicitly the difference between the terms astronomy and astrology (Etymologiae, III, xxvii) and the same distinction could be traced in the famous work of Al-Biruni [7]. Isidore identified the two strands entangled in the astrological discipline and called them astrologia naturalis and astrologia superstitiosa. Kepler was cautious in his opinion; he spoke of astronomy as the wise mother, and astrology as the foolish daughter, but he added that the existence of the daughter was necessary to the life of the mother. He may have meant by this that the "foolish" work of astrology paid for the serious work of astronomy. From their great centers of learning in Damascus and Baghdad Arabs revived the learning of the ancient Greeks in Islamic astronomy, astrology, Islamic mathematics and Islamic medicine which Europe had forgotten before but developed it afterwards. Their knowledge was then imported into Europe, during and after the Latin translations of the 12th century, helping to start the Renaissance. Albumasur was the greatest of the Arab astronomers, whose work 'Introductorium in Astronomiam' was later highly influential in Europe. Also important was Al Khwarizmi, the Persian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer, who is considered to be the father of algebra and the algorithm. The Arabs greatly increased the knowledge of astronomy, naming many of the stars for the first time, such as Aldebaran, Altair, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Vega. In astrology they discovered a system still known as Arabic parts, which accorded significance to the difference or "part" between the ascendant and each planet. The mode of astrological study was refuted by several medieval Muslim astronomers such as Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), Avicenna, Abu Rayhan al-Biruni and Averroes. Their reasons for refuting astrology were often due to both scientific (the methods used by astrologers being conjectural rather than empirical) and religious reasons [8]. Ibn

Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (12921350), in his Miftah Dar al-Sa Cadah, used empirical arguments in astronomy in order to refute the practice of astrology and divination [9]. Al-Jawziyya also recognized the Milky Way galaxy as a myriad of tiny stars packed together in the sphere of the fixed stars and thus argued that [10] it is certainly impossible to have knowledge of their influences. The distinguishing features of astronomy and astrology are: Mechanical astronomy aims to probe into the physics of the universe which in turn proceeds toward the understanding of the integral harmony of the universe emanating from the omnipotence of the Creator. Contrarily, astrology uses astronomical calculations for the positions of celestial bodies in an attempt to correlate celestial events (astrological aspects, sign positions) with gods, goddesses, earthly events and human affairs. Astronomers consistently use the scientific method, naturalistic presuppositions and abstract mathematical reasoning to investigate or explain phenomena in the universe. The scientific method is not consistently used by astrologers; instead they use mystical or pseudo-religious reasoning as well as traditional folklore, symbolism and superstition blended with mathematical predictions to explain phenomena in the universe by denying the Creator God and His aspects of creation. Astrologers practice their discipline geocentrically, considering the universe to be harmonious, changeless and static; while astronomers have employed the scientific method to infer that the universe is without a center and is dynamic, expanding outward. Both astrologers and astronomers consider Earth as being an integral part of the universe, that Earth and the universe are interconnected as one cosmos (not as being separate and distinct from each other). However, astrologers philosophically and mystically ascribe the supernatural and metaphysical essence of universe to gods and goddesses who actively influence world events and the personal lives of people. Astronomers cannot use in their scientific articles explanations that are not derived from empirically reproducible conditions, irrespective of their personal convictions. Scientific discourses must provide explanations based on known measurable laws of nature, according to which Earth is just as integral a part of the universe as are celestial objects. Concluding remark: From the basic truth that God set out the Zodiacal Signs in the heavens, and made them fair-seeming to all beholders (Q, 15: 16), eventually sprang up pagan myths of astrological god-hoods. Hence to overcome the spells of pagan falsehoods, wiser approach of scientific comprehension of astronomy was necessary. But again human quest for truth is under spell of another hegemony that tends to reduce science into God-less materialism and divert astronomy towards self-willed apprehension of cosmos. With apparent success of materialistic science present euphoria must not hoodwink us from the fact that atomic/molecular domain in universe is only 4%, and rest of 96% is yet unknown dark-matter and dark-energy. O ye assembly of Jinns and men! If it be ye can pass beyond the zones of the heavens and earth, pass ye! Not without authority shall ye be able to pass! (Q, 55: 31-33)

[Republished from my article in Articlesbase.com http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/astrologicalastronomy-a-way-to-pagan-denial-of-god-6140292.html] References: 1. E. Richter-Ushanas. (1997), The Indus Script and the Rg-Veda, p. 82, (Motilala Banarasidas, New Delhi). 2. H. Frankfort. (1937), Cylinder Seals, London. 3. Michael D. Coe, (2005)'The Maya', pp. 22729, Thames and Hudson, London.

4. Shah Wali Allahs Tawail Al-Ahadith, Trans. by J.M.S Baljon (E.J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands), 1973 5. Derek and Julia Parker, "The New Compleat Astrologer" Crescent Books, New York, 1990 6. D.T. Whiteside, M.A. Hoskin & A. Prag (eds.), The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1967), vol. 1, pp. 15-19 7. S. Pines (1964). "The Semantic Distinction between the Terms Astronomy and Astrology according to al-Biruni". 8. Saliba, George (1994b), A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, New York University Press, pp. 60 & 6769, ISBN 0814780237 9. Livingston, John W. (1971), "Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century Defense against Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation", Journal of the American Oriental Society 91 (1): 96103, 10. Livingston, John W. (1971), "Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century Defense against Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation", Journal of the American Oriental Society 91 (1): 96103 [99] [Other References: Hugh Thurston. (1994). Early Astronomy, (New York: Springer-Verlag); Anthony Aveni, Sky watchers of Ancient Mexico Univ. of Texas Press, 1980; Michael Coe, Native Astronomy in Mesoamerica In Archaeo-astronomy in Pre-Columbian America edited by Anthony Aveni. Univ. of Texas Press 1975]