A Scheme of Heaven: The History of Astrology and the Search for our Destiny in Data

Author: Alexander Boxer
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039363485X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
An illuminating look at the surprising history and science of astrology, civilization’s first system of algorithms, from Babylon to the present day. Humans are pattern-matching creatures, and astrology is the universe’s grandest pattern-matching game. In this refreshing work of history and analysis, data scientist Alexander Boxer examines classical texts on astrology to expose its underlying scientific and mathematical framework. Astrology, he argues, was the ancient world’s most ambitious applied mathematics problem, a monumental data-analysis enterprise sustained by some of history’s most brilliant minds, from Ptolemy to al-Kindi to Kepler. Thousands of years ago, astrologers became the first to stumble upon the powerful storytelling possibilities inherent in numerical data. To correlate the configurations of the cosmos with our day-to-day lives, astrologers relied upon a “scheme of heaven,” or horoscope, showing the precise configuration of the planets at a particular instant in time as viewed from a particular place on Earth. Although recognized as pseudoscience today, horoscopes were once considered a cutting-edge scientific tool. Boxer teaches us how to read these esoteric charts—and appreciate the complex astronomical calculations needed to generate them—by diagramming how the heavens appeared at important moments in astrology’s history, from the assassination of Julius Caesar as viewed from Rome to the Apollo 11 lunar landing as seen from the surface of the Moon. He then puts these horoscopes to the test using modern data sets and statistical science, arguing that today’s data scientists do work similar to astrologers of yore. By looking back at the algorithms of ancient astrology, he suggests, we can better recognize the patterns that are timeless characteristics of our own pattern-matching tendencies. At once critical, rigorous, and far ranging, A Scheme of Heaven recontextualizes astrology as a vast, technological project—spanning continents and centuries—that foreshadowed our data-driven world today.

A Scheme of Heaven

Author: Alexander Boxer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781259641
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Despite a resurgence in popularity, horoscopes are generally considered to be pseudoscience today - but they were once a cutting-edge scientific tool. In this ingenious work of history, data scientist Alexander Boxer examines a treasure trove of esoteric classical sources to expose the deep imaginative framework by which - for millennia - we made sense of our fates. Astrology, he argues, was the ancient world's most ambitious applied mathematics problem, a grand data-analysis enterprise sustained by some of history's most brilliant minds, from Ptolemy to al-Kindi to Kepler.A Scheme of Heaven explores the wonderful subtleties of astrological ideas. Telling the stories of their inventors and most influential exponents, Boxer puts them through their paces using modern data sets - finding that the methods of today's scientists are often uncomfortably close to those of astrology's ancient sages.

The Sword of Heaven

Author: Mikkel Aaland
Publisher: Travelers' Tales
ISBN: 1609520076
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Book Description
“Any attempt at peace must be attended by a knowledge of self,” discovers writer and photographer Mikkel Aaland, who grew up with a bomb shelter for a bedroom, in terror of nuclear war. At the height of the Cold War, Aaland finds himself drawn into a mysterious Shinto priest’s plan to save the world. Traveling from Norway to the Philippines, Iceland to South Africa, he places pieces of a sacred Shinto sword in key power spots around the world. Along the way, he comes face to face with his deepest childhood fears of war and destruction, encounters the compelling and mysterious Shinto religion, struggles with the uncertainties of love, and learns to face life with an open heart. The Sword of Heaven tells the extraordinary true story of a journey in which all boundaries are pushed—geographical, cultural, and personal—and in which the healing of the world and the healing of one man appear to be inextricably linked.

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

Author: Mitch Albom
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062294466
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
In this enchanting sequel to the #1 bestseller The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom tells the story of Eddie’s heavenly reunion with Annie—the little girl he saved on earth—in an unforgettable novel of how our lives and losses intersect. In Mitch Albom’s beloved novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, the world fell in love with Eddie, a grizzled war veteran-turned-amusement park mechanic who died saving the life of a young girl named Annie. Eddie’s journey to heaven taught him that every life matters. Now, in this magical sequel, Albom reveals Annie’s story. The accident that killed Eddie left an indelible mark on Annie. It took her left hand, which needed to be surgically reattached. Injured, scarred, and unable to remember why, Annie’s life is forever changed by a guilt-ravaged mother who whisks her away from the world she knew. Bullied by her peers and haunted by something she cannot recall, Annie struggles to find acceptance as she grows. When, as a young woman, she reconnects with Paulo, her childhood love, she believes she has finally found happiness. As the novel opens, Annie is marrying Paulo. But when her wedding night day ends in an unimaginable accident, Annie finds herself on her own heavenly journey—and an inevitable reunion with Eddie, one of the five people who will show her how her life mattered in ways she could not have fathomed. Poignant and beautiful, filled with unexpected twists, The Next Person You Meet in Heaven reminds us that not only does every life matter, but that every ending is also a beginning—we only need to open our eyes to see it.

Scala Coeli: The Ladder of Heaven

Author: Mari Garcia
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780646570617
Category : Astrology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description

Blue Heaven

Author: Willard Wyman
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 080618292X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Book Description
The year is 1902. A young stock-handler named Fenton Pardee has just survived the train wreck that almost destroyed William F. Cody’s Wild West show. Surveying the train’s smoldering ruins—and what is left of Cody’s company of stunt-riders, trick-shooters, and stage actors—Fenton realizes that turning the West into a circus to thrill the world is no longer thrilling for him. Salvaging a saddle horse and three pack mules, he heads back into the West, seeking the reality of the Montana Rockies. Blue Heaven marks the return of Fenton Pardee, veteran guide and packer, who figured so memorably in High Country, Willard Wyman’s highly acclaimed first novel. Now Wyman moves back in time, filling in the story of the legendary packer. As he begins his westward journey, Fenton is not nearly as sure of where he is going as of what he wants to leave. Crossing the National Divide, he follows Indian trails and game trails, learning the lay of the land as he moves into a wilderness that comforts him as it draws him ever deeper into it. Stumbling into the camp of Tommy Yellowtail, a Flathead Indian as determined to remain in these mountains as Fenton is to embrace them, he finally finds his way. Together the two men discover that showing people what they want to preserve has its own way of keeping it alive. The tale of Fenton and Tommy—and of the women they love, one of whom is tragically taken from them—cuts through the romance of the West to offer an earthier reality, even as twentieth-century expansion and a looming world war threaten to take it all away.

Shakespeare's Ideas

Author: David Bevington
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444357638
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
An in-depth exploration, through his plays and poems, of the philosophy of Shakespeare as a great poet, a great dramatist and a "great mind". Written by a leading Shakespearean scholar Discusses an array of topics, including sex and gender, politics and political theory, writing and acting, religious controversy and issues of faith, skepticism and misanthropy, and closure Explores Shakespeare as a great poet, a great dramatist and a "great mind"

The Fated Sky

Author: Benson Bobrick
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743268954
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
'The Fated Sky' looks at famous figures and important historical events that were influenced by astrology.

Christian Astrology, Book 3

Author: William Lilly
Publisher: Astrology Center of America
ISBN: 9781933303031
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Book Description
In 1647, William Lilly, renowned throughout England, sat down to write his famous book on astrology. He was ill, but he had foreseen that. He had decided that rather than struggle with clients while sick, he would give himself a year to study, reflect, and write. But before he was quite finished with his book, plague swept through London, killing two of his servants, and forcing Lilly and family to flee to the countryside. This is Book Three, An Easie and plaine Method Teaching How to judge upon Nativities, the conclusion of his great work, Christian Astrology. In this astounding book, Lilly gives not only his own hard-won knowledge of natal astrology, but also what he gleaned from close study of the greatest astrologers in history, as found in his own astrological library, one of the largest of its day. In this book you may learn: . How to determine the Hyleg, or Apheta, the Prorogator of Life. . How to determine intelligence, stature, shape and complexion of the native. . If the native will be rich, and, if so, whether by fair means or foul. . The illnesses he may suffer, if he may die a violent death. . Of Marriage: The number and kinds of spouses, where they may come from, if there will be children or not, and if so, an idea of their number. . The kind of career best suited to the native, and much more. In the section on Directions and Forecasting, Lilly gives comprehensive interpretations for Primary Directions, Solar Returns and Profections. The book concludes with a priceless analysis of the Nativity of an English Merchant, including more than twenty years of forecasts, up to the time that Lilly judged to be the end of the man's natural life. For the first time, unique to this edition: Spelling and verbs modernized. Glossary of obscure terms, including Latin words and phrases. Calculations in modern format. All 24 solar returns and all 12 profection charts in standard wheel format. Fixed star positions updated to 1 January 2005. Modern symbols for aspects (including minor aspects) used throughout. Primaries untangled, as much as possible. Available separately: Christian Astrology, (books 1 & 2): An Introduction to Astrology, The Resolution of All Manner of Questions, by William Lilly.

Picturing Heaven in Early China

Author: Lillian Lan-ying Tseng
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674060695
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
Preliminary Material -- Images and References -- Constructing the Cosmic View -- Engraving Auspicious Omens -- Imagining Celestial Journeys -- Highlighting Celestial Markers -- Mapping Celestial Bodies -- Visibility and Visuality -- Illustration Credits -- Endnotes -- Works Cited -- Index -- Harvard East Asian Monographs.