The Moon Cycles and our observation of time

“A study of the past shows us how there were ‘great waves of change which spread from country to country, sweeping over continents, and passing away, only to be succeeded by similar waves.’ Without an acquaintance with these waves, it is impossible for us to comprehend the present.”

Chaldea

ANCIENT STATE, MIDDLE EAST

“Chaldea was a country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was located in the marshy land of the far southeastern corner of Mesopotamia and briefly came to rule Babylon. The Hebrew Bible uses the term כשדים(Kaśdim) and this is translated as Chaldaeans in the Greek Old Testament, although there is some dispute as to whether Kasdim in fact means Chaldean or refers to the south Mesopotamian Kaldu.”

Source
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldea

The Planetary Days & Hours
The planetary hours are a system created in antiquity, where one of the seven observable planets are given rulership over a day, and certain hours within each day (ex., Monday = Moons Day). Planetary days & hours were nurtured and matured in Hellenistic astrology; which historians believe is rooted in the Babylonian astrology, astronomy and calendar.

Hellenistic Period
Spans the Mediterranean history from 323 BC - 31 BC.

The Ancient Greek word Hellas (Ἑλλάς, Ellás) is the original word for Greece, from which the word Hellenistic was derived. [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_period
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_astrology

Babylonian Astronomy (observation of the planets)
The Babylonian calendar is a lunisolar calendar, with years consisting of 12 lunar months. The calendar was informed from the Babylonian and Chaldean observations - creating a chronological system based on the lunar cycle. A year of 12 synodic months (i.e., 12 complete cycles of phases of the Moon). This lunar year of about 354 days was the framework for our modern solar year (year of the seasons).

The Chaldean foretold eclipses of the moon; they divided their lunar month of 29 1/2 days, into four quarters of seven days each. They were the first to name our seven days of the weeks, after the seven observable planets [3].

Part of the Babylonian culture, observation, rites and worship strongly tied in divinity to the planets. The planetary days, being named after the planet - who is associated with a god who’s quality were like the planet. For example, Mars was the Roman god of war and ascribed to Tuesday / Martes.

“Our relationship and understanding of time is rooted in the observation and relationship of the dance between the Sun and Luna - the cyclical rhythm of nature, and the delicate balance between the light and shadow.”

Our understanding of time, first began with observation and learnings of the rhythm of nature. We can observe the sun and moon / day and night. We can then further quarter the lunar cycle (full moon, new moon and the two quarter moons); and from this quartering we arrive at the 7 day week. The Moon takes 27.3 days to orbit Earth, but the lunar phase cycle (from new Moon to new Moon) is 29.5 days. The Babylonians rounded the lunar cycle down to 28 days, and divided this time span into 4 periods of 7 days.

28 (lunar days) ÷ 4 (observable moon phase) = 7 day week

Tablet with a list of eclipses between 518 and 465, mentioning the death of king Xerxes [2]

Babylonian & Chaldean astronomy was the study or recording of celestial objects during early Mesopotamia history. These records can be found on Sumerian clay tablets [4]. Which the Babylonians recorded the observable qualities of the planetary gods.

These planets were observed to move either fast or slow. For example, the moon moves the fastest, Saturn observed as moving the slowest. Granted, there are times when planets like Venus or Mercury, which station, goes retrograde / or direct. They are observed as moving “slower”. However, on average below is how the Chaldean observed and ranked the planets.

Chaldean observed the planets and recorded their movements by constructing observatories ‘ziggurats’ (i.e., ‘mountain peak’). Ziggurats were tall pyramidal towers constructed in stages / floors after the scared numbers: three, five and seven. In later years, the floors / stages were usually, if not always, seven floors high.

The seven stages / floors, represented the seven spheres, in which the seven planets moved.

Each stage was assigned to a planet:

7th Stage = Silver / The Moon
6th Stage = Azure / Mercury
5th Stage = Yellow / Venus
4th Stage = Golden / Sun
3rd Stage = Blood-Red / Mars
2nd Stage = Orange / Jupiter
Basement = Black / Saturn

One of the more famous Ziggurats is the Etemenanki (see photo below); which is rumored to have been the inspiration for the biblical story of the Tower of Babel (and the Tower in the Tarot, Major Arcana).

• Three [3] = Divine triad

• Five [5] = Five planets

• Seven [7] = to the five planets (Hea / Saturn, Bel / Jupiter, Nergal / Mars, Astarta / Venus, Nabu / Mercury) , Sun and Moon.

Etemenanki Ziggurats
One of the most prominent buildings of Babylon (today it is ruins) was the ziggurat Etemenanki "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth").

Return to: The Foundation

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[3] The 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st and the 28th days of the lunar momth were kept even in the Accadian times, and were actually so named in Assyria. They were termed dies nefasti in Accadian, rendered ‘ days of completion (of labor) in Assyrian; the Assyrian Sabbttu or ‘Sabbath’ - being the further defined as meaning ‘ completion of work’ and ‘day of rest for the soul.’

Kidinnu, the Chaldaeans, and Babylonian Astronomy
[4] https://www.livius.org/articles/person/kidinnu-the-chaldaeans-and-babylonian-astronomy/