Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com - Examining historical books, manuscripts, and rare scrolls provides a distinctive insight into the lives and beliefs of our ancestors. Occasionally, these ancient documents can astonishingly unveil previously unknown civilizations or sects to historians. This was precisely the case in the Judean Desert, Israel, where an enigmatic scroll known as the "Horoscope" was found.
Ancient Horoscope Scroll discovered in the Judean Desert. Credit: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority.
This unique text, originally written in Hebrew from left to right, incorporates symbols from Greek, Aramaic, and ancient Hebrew scripts and coded language.
It is an ancient, valuable document that illuminates the historical practices of astrology and mysticism. Ever since its discovery, the document has sparked considerable interest among historians and archaeologists. The "Horoscope" scroll offers an intriguing insight into the realm of a mysterious sect that lived thousands of years ago. It outlines a cosmology where an individual's birth date not only determines their astrological sign but also dictates their physical characteristics and the balance of light and darkness within their soul.
"From the writing style, it seems the text was intended only for those who were supposed to know how to read it," says Dr. Oren Ableman, a scroll curator-researcher in the Judaean Desert Scrolls Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority. 1
"The texts were apparently secret, comprehensible only to the leadership of the Scrolls sect."
Each calendar date corresponds to varying degrees of light and darkness, symbolizing the balance of good and evil within the soul of an individual born on that particular day.
Dr. Ableman suggests that some researchers believe this work is linked to a test that prospective members of the sect had to pass before being accepted into the community, which referred to themselves as 'sons of light.'
Essentially, it served as a guide for creating a 'horoscope,' using one's birth date to determine personality and physical characteristics. Every new member was required to demonstrate their suitability to join the righteous. This implies that even if an individual aligned with the sect's beliefs and customs, they could still be denied membership due to factors such as an incompatible birth date or head shape.
Andreas Cellarius, 1661: Astrological aspects, such as opposition, conjunction, etc., among the planets.
"The Zodiacal Light appears in the form of a luminous pyramid or cone in the eastern sky, before the morning twilight, and in the west, soon after the evening twilight. It rises like an almost vertical wedge-shaped column of light in the direction of the ecliptic in or near the zodiac, hence its name the ZL." 2
Scholars have established that the Zodiacal Light played an important part in the mythology of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and almost all the other Semitic races. 2
A more detailed analysis of the Horoscope Scrolls may yield additional insights into the significance of the Zodiacal Light to the mysterious ancient sect that existed thousands of years ago.
Written by Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com Staff Writer
Expand for references
- Israel Antiquities Authority
- Gandz, Solomon. “The Zodiacal Light in Semitic Mythology.” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 13 (1943): 1–39
