The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 177
conjunction at the same point of Cancer, and brought
with it a general conflagration. On the other hand,
their winter came when all the planets were joined
in Capricorn, and its result was a universal flood.
Each of these cosmic cycles, the duration of which
was fixed at 432,000 years according to the most prob
able estimate, was an exact reproduction of those that
had preceded it. In fact, when the stars resumed
exactly the same position, they were forced to act
in identically the same manner as before. This Baby
lonian theory, an anticipation of that of the "eternal
return of things," which Nietzsche boasts of having
discovered, enjoyed lasting popularity during antiquity,
and in various forms came down to the Renaissance.39
The belief that the world would be destroyed by fire,
a theory also spread abroad by the Stoics, found a
new support in these cosmic speculations.
Astrology, however, revealed the future not only
of the universe, but also of man. According to a
Chaldeo-Persian doctrine, accepted by the pagan mys
tics and previously pointed out
cessity compelled
by us,* a bitter ne
the souls that dwell in great num
bers on the celestial heights, to descend upon this
earth and to animate certain bodies that are to hold
them in captivity. In descending to the earth they
travel through the spheres of the planets and receive
some quality from each of these wandering stars, ac
cording to its positions. Contrariwise, when death
releases them from their carnal prison, they return
to their first habitation, providing they have led a pious
life, and if as they pass through the doors of the super
posed heavens they divest themselves of the passions
and inclinations acquired during their first journey,