The Thema Mundi was used, as near as we can tell based on the remaining texts, as an exemplar for planetary domicile, exaltation and aspectual/relationship schemes. It appears to be so foundational that more specific, detailed, predictive methods are not really tied to it. For example, Olympiodorus, commenting on another astrologer's work, illustrates the concept of angularity in a chart with reference to the Thema because this chart would presumably have been easy for even a novice astrologer to visualize. It's also worth noting that Firmicus Maternus, in the same book/chapter in which he details the Thema Mundi, repeatedly states that the individual nativities of human beings are judged against the Chart of the World. I think this is a legacy of natal astrology's primacy once the core system of astrology came together from Babylonian, Egyptian and Hellenic elements in Hellenistic Egypt.
For an "actual" time that the chart might correspond to, Demetra George writes, "The thema mundi is timed to the Egyptian New Year, which begins in summer with the heliacal rising of the star Sirius that announces the flooding of the Nile River.... Egyptian astro-theology held that the heliacal rising of a star represented the birth/rebirth of stars and hence the rebirth of the souls who were encased in stars--a fitting moment for the birth of the world" (Ancient Astrology, Vol. 1, pg. 172).
Conceptually, the birth of cosmos is a "perfect" moment against which the charts of imperfect human beings are compared, whereas the movement of time and the unfolding of a life within it rests on differing symbolism and thus requires a separate toolkit. It was really the early medieval Perso-Arabic astrologers, especially Abu Ma'shar, that really refined and developed solar returns as a predictive tool. I would dig into the mundane astrology of this period because the later European astrologers--including William Ramesey--often draw from them.
All that being said, I don't think you couldn't use the Thema Mundi for mundane astrological predictions (after all, contemporary magicians are using it to time planetary consecrations, a la Kaitlin Coppock). It would also be interesting to also see how the birth charts of individual nations fit into the Nativity of the World.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2023-08-20 12:53 am (UTC)For an "actual" time that the chart might correspond to, Demetra George writes, "The thema mundi is timed to the Egyptian New Year, which begins in summer with the heliacal rising of the star Sirius that announces the flooding of the Nile River.... Egyptian astro-theology held that the heliacal rising of a star represented the birth/rebirth of stars and hence the rebirth of the souls who were encased in stars--a fitting moment for the birth of the world" (Ancient Astrology, Vol. 1, pg. 172).
Conceptually, the birth of cosmos is a "perfect" moment against which the charts of imperfect human beings are compared, whereas the movement of time and the unfolding of a life within it rests on differing symbolism and thus requires a separate toolkit. It was really the early medieval Perso-Arabic astrologers, especially Abu Ma'shar, that really refined and developed solar returns as a predictive tool. I would dig into the mundane astrology of this period because the later European astrologers--including William Ramesey--often draw from them.
All that being said, I don't think you couldn't use the Thema Mundi for mundane astrological predictions (after all, contemporary magicians are using it to time planetary consecrations, a la Kaitlin Coppock). It would also be interesting to also see how the birth charts of individual nations fit into the Nativity of the World.