Join IAAM for a conversation with Danny Larkin about the gods of mesopotamia, their influence on the formation of astrology and essential dignity, and how their legacy lives on in astrological magic.
https://astromagia-org.zoom.us/j/88912716056?pwd=jKXPrippexEiBloWGip4S3TWFXH01H.1
This illustrated lecture will share highly quality images of extant artifacts to introduce the Mesopotamian gods associated with the planets - Marduk (Jupiter), Ishtar-Inanna (Venus), Ninurta (Saturn), Nabu (Mercury), Nergal (Mars), Utu/Shamash (Sun), Sin/Nanna (Moon). Some quotations from literary sources will be shared.
Since the Project Hindsight translations of the 1990s, there has been an explosion of interest in essential dignity in the astrological community. Among astrological magicians, essential dignity is a pivotal concept as we search for auspicious times for planetary invocations and elections. Given the laconic nature of discussions of essential dignity in early Greek and Latin astrological treatises, many astrologers have drawn parallels with themes in Greek and Roman mythology to further illuminate these doctrines.
However, Essential Dignity was developed by the astrologers of Ancient Babylon, long before Alexandria and Athens became nexuses of astrological learning. This Babylonian work crystallized into what we now call the domiciles and exaltations. Its core substance remained intact in the later evolutions of astrology in Egypt, as well in its mutations and evolutions during the hellenistic, persian, medieval and renaissance periods.
In 1998, Francesca Rochberg, an Assyriologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, published groundbreaking translations of Babylonian clay tablets written in cuneiform that record the positions of the planets in zodiacal signs at the time of an individual’s birth. A few tablets even offer rudimentary interpretations of character traits or predict future life events based upon the planet's essential dignity and zodiacal positions. The earliest tablet dates from the 5th century BCE.
How might we more fully integrate these Babylonians roots into our approach to essential dignity as astrological magicians? Although, it is evident that the doctrines of the domiciles and the exaltations trace back to Mesopotamia, the cuneiform tables are frustratingly succinct. But there is enough text on the cuneiform tablets that we can begin to draw parallels with other words, names and ideas in extant literary sources from Mesopotamia.
How might our understanding of Venus’s strength in Pisces, Taurus and Libra connect with metaphors in existing texts on Inanna? How might our understanding of Jupiter’s strength in Pisces, Cancer, and Saggitarius connect with the symbolism of Marduk? There is a golden opportunity here to explore the myths of Mesopotamia to shed light on essential dignity in its initial Babylonian milieu.
Recent scholarship has rewritten the history of myth. Mesopotamian lore is now widely understood as a formative influence upon Hesiod, Homer and other Greek writers whose stories would shape the pan-hellenic pantheon after whom the planets were renamed, superseding their earlier Babylonian and Egyptian names. These Greek myths were formed in a dynamic literary tension with Mesopotamian and Egyptian antecedents. Certain themes and tropes were repeated and carried forward, others were discarded, and new ideas for new times were introduced. For example, it is not a mere chance that Zeus like Marduk is a storm god who reigns as King of the Gods. Although, other facets of the justice and harmony of Zeus diverge from what we know of Marduk.
The purpose here is not to diminish or to subtract from any of the profound work with greco-roman myth of the astrologers that came before us. It is additive - our contemplations and storytelling can be enhanced by expanding and integrating the older gods of the Fertile Crescent, based upon recent scholarship that was not previously available.
Because of the protracted conflict in Iraq since the shambolic 2003 US invasion during the mendacious presidency of George W. Bush, astrologers have not been permitted to visit the ruins of sacred sites in Iraq, explore the statues at the Baghdad Museum, and to intuitively encounter these deities despite their formative influence on astrology. Greece and Egypt are relatively more accessible.This talk is a start towards healing an epistemological war wound that scars astrological magic.
Danny Larkin is the Vice President of the International Association of Astral Magic (IAAM). He previously served as Vice President and then President of the Association for Young Astrologers (AYA) (2017-2020). He is a lifetime member of the International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR) as well as the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR).
Danny is a pillar of the astrology community in New York City. He studied modern astrology with Annabel Gat and John Marchesella. He serves as a fellow of the New York NCGR chapter and teaches classes as part of its faculty. He organizes the largest monthly gathering of Astrologers in New York - the Big Apple Astrology Meetup at the New York Theosophical Society, which he inherited from the late Kirk Kahn. Danny is certified at the first level by NCGR-PAA. He is fully certified by ISAR, passing the ISAR competency exam after a series of workshops organized by Anne Ortelee.
Danny is deeply connected with Psychological Astrology and the Faculty of Astrological Studies. He has attended every in-person Summer School at Oxford since 2017, and shares a birthday with Melanie Reinhart. He is currently working towards its certificate, and eventually aspires to attain its formidable diploma in modern astrology. Along with Rory Keys, he is one of the few astrologers in his generation with the distinct privilege of studying in person with Liz Greene, when she gave a workshop in Cornwall in 2017 on Jung’s Red Book and the interconnections between astrology, theurgy, myth and analytic psychology.
Danny is deeply connected with the revival of Hellenistic and traditional astrology. He attended Demetra George’s inaugural retreats in Hellenistic Astrology in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He joined Demetra on a pilgrimage to sacred sites in Greece in 2019 - right before the pandemic - exploring the mysteries as one of the roots of the magical tradition. He passed Demetra’s first and second Herculean exams in Hellenistic Astrology with Distinction, and is currently bringing his third time lord exam to completion. He assisted Chris Brennan with research projects for his landmark 2017 book on Hellenistic Astrology, and plans to re-engage and finish his course after completing Demetra’s exams. In 2024, Danny began studying Medieval and Persian techniques as an enrolled student of Benjamin Dykes, as an extension of his penetrating studies with Demetra and Chris.
Danny is Irish-American. In 2022, he traveled to Ireland with his brother Sean. As brothers, they underwent an initiation into the celtic path with Ireland's most prominent living druid - Ard Druí Con Connor - in the bogs of Roscommon - the county of their ancestral Larkin roots. As brothers, they crawled through the mud and entered into the depths of a cave to the otherworld that freed their Celtic ancestors from fear. Danny is fearless about facilitating pagan and astrological community. He is passionate about crawling through the mud to organize events in person and online that resurrect the celestial spirituality of his druid ancestors. At times grandiloquent, loquacious, over-opinionated, unabashedly anti-colonial, prone to angry tirades, but overflowing with the wit and blarney of the Emerald Isle, Danny is probably too passionate about astrology’s past, present and future.