Bernadette Brady
University of Wales, Lampeter

The horoscope as an imago mundi, - thoughts on the cosmology of western astrologers.

My ongoing research is revealing a great diversity within the opinions and philosophy of Western astrologers as to the nature of astrology. Nevertheless, a central theme that is emerging is of the horoscope as, what Mircea Eliade defined as imago mundi,  a map of sacred space where time is non-linear, illud tempus, and used to locate an individual within their world while providing a personal link to the cosmos. In this light, rather than the horoscope being seen as a profane object, a simple tool or map of the solar system, it becomes instead  a sacred one belonging within the tradition of other cosmological maps.

Bernadette Brady holds an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology from Bath Spa University and is a tutor for the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology at The University of Wales, Lampeter, and tutors for Schumacher College, in partnership with the University of Plymouth, in their MSc programme on Holistic Science. She is currently reading for her doctorate in determinism in western astrology at The University of Wales, Lampeter, UK. Her publications include “Chartres Cathedral and the Role of the Sun in the Cathedral’s Christian Platonist Theology" in Sky and Psyche, Floris Books 2006, "Four Galilean Horoscopes: An Analysis of Galileo's Astrological Techniques" in Galileo's Astrology, Cinnabar Books, 2003 and “Some philosophical roots of determinism in astrology” in Jupiter, Astronomy, Mathematics and Anthroposohy 2009. She has numerous publications within the field of astrology and additionally develops and publishes software to aid in the study of sky mythology in culture. In 2006 she received the Charles Harvey Award (Astrological Association of Great Britain) and in 2008 she received the Regulus Award for Theory and Understanding in Astrology (UAC).