Close your eyes.
You are knee-deep in water. Or maybe not. Two fish circle your feet. They move up your leg. Your knees as steady as those of a goat jumping from rock to rock, thighs strong like a centaur galloping through the forest.
This. Is the beginning of Zodiac Man.
In the 11th century, Islamic scholars were perfectly placed between the perceived East and West. This access to a global wealth of knowledge inspired several treatises. For instance, Arab scholar Abu Ma’shar’s (787-886) Introduction to Astrological Prediction and De magnis coniunctionibus were translated to Latin in 1133, helping popularize Middle Eastern scholarly work. His writing influenced thinkers like Albert the Great and Roger Bacon who further legitimized astrological work in early modern Europe.[1]
Islamic scholars also contributed to astronomic cosmologies as it moved, translated and transformed, like the microcosm/macrocosm theory. Just as the Earth was split into regions, each influenced by a planet, scholars assigned an astrological sign of the Zodiac to each part of the body. Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) even said “just as were the soul of man and the ‘World-soul’; stars had spirits too, that were relevant to our lives.” Galenic humoral theory, in which four humors circulated the body, persisted at this time and completed the ideology. The four humors within the body are microcosmic substances and connected to the four elements that make up the universe, macrocosmic substances. While these ideas were prevalent in Europe and broader Islamic regions, each area conceptualized treatments differently.[2]
Now back to your body. This time, imagine a huge scorpion giving strength to your pelvis, scales representing the balance at your hips. A maiden guarding your stomach. A proud lion protecting your strong heart.
And then there was God. In broader Islamic regions there was a deeply woven relationship between God and medicine. People practiced Unani-Tibb, humoral theory, and Tibb-an-Nabawi, prophetic medicine. However, they practiced medicine differently from Europeans. They did not focus on prognosis and diagnosis, fearful they were overstepping their boundaries with God.[3] Microcosm/macrocosm theory fit this framework because God, angels and ruhaniyyat, which are spiritual beings, were embedded within it. Ruhaniyyat were linked with the planets and each had a counterpart within the human body. For instance, Brimas, is the principle ruhaniyya of Saturn. He has constituent parts for the upper part, Tus, lower part, Khrus, front, Tamis, and back, Drus, and more. There was also Israf’il, the angel of the sun who controls the completeness of the universe and corresponds to the innate heat within the body. Thus, studying planets allowed a better connection with God.[4]
Then there was Marsilio Ficino. He played a crucial role in broadening the humoral system to incorporate such practices.[5] Initially, medical practices in Europe involved phlebotomy to rid excess humors and bring back balance to the body to cure disease. With translations of Middle Eastern texts on planetary systems came a revival of the microcosm and macrocosm theory and the prominence of ideas like objectivity, allowing astrology to gain traction in Europe. Instead of depending on subjective interpretations of patient signs, physicians depended on celestial bodies which could not be corrupted by their time on Earth.[6]
Ficino integrated microcosm/macrocosm and the idea that bodies are synchronized with celestial spheres to create an elaborate metaphysics in which humans were one with nature and the stars. These connections between Islamic and Catholic scholars inspired the creation of a chart that dictated medical practices for over a hundred years in Europe.[7]
A crab attacks you. Ouch. A twin on each shoulder looks up at your neck to hear a bull’s bellow come out your throat. Finally, the ram sits atop your head, like a crown.
This. Is the Zodiac Man.
He was born in 1491, adorned in animals of the Zodiac, from fish to scorpion to ram. He represented a hybrid of sorts, connecting Islamic astrology and European medical practices. He guided physicians for over a century in deciding where to make cuts on the body. If the moon fell in a certain Zodiac, he would say it is too dangerous to bleed that part of the body until the moon moved.[8]
While Zodiac Man exemplifies prominent ideas of 14th century Europe, he also highlights the fluidity of our conceptions. The body that had contained four humors and was a separate entity from Earth was now an extension of the universe and influenced by celestial bodies far beyond our reach.
As we advance in time, so too do our ideologies, interactions, and understandings of new and old ideas around the world. The interconnectedness of our abstract ideas, physical constructions, and perceptions allow each individual to be ever changing. Zodiac Man may appear to be the offspring of one culture, but in reality, he was born through global exchange.
The next time you go to an aquarium and you press your face up to the glass, only to be nose to nose with a graceful sea creature, know that you might be closer than you think to that fish.
REFERENCES
[1] Hartner, Willy. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 1 (1972): 63-65. Accessed April 12, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25203330.
[2] Arikha, Noga. Passions and Tempers: a History of the Humours. (Harper Perennial, 2008), xviii, 12-13, 15.
[3] Hoosen, Mujeeb. “Temperament: an important principle for health preservation in Tibb an-Nabawi and Unani-Tibb.” Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science, 2007. https://doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v16i4.33600
[4] Porter, Venetia, Saif, Liana, and Savage-Smith, Emilie, Medieval Islamic Amulets, Talismans, and Magic, (John Wiley & Sons, 2017), 521.
[5]Arikha, Noga. Passions and Tempers: a History of the Humours. (Harper Perennial, 2008), xviii, 12-13, 15.
[6] Moulinier, Laurence. William the Englishman’s De urina non visa and its fortune. (HAL, 2013). https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00849385.
[7] Arikha, Noga. Passions and Tempers: a History of the Humours. (Harper Perennial, 2008), xviii, 12-13, 15.
[8] Farrell, Alana. “Lecture: Early Medical Printing and the Fasciculus Medicinae of Johannes De Ketham.” Rediscovering Culture, 2014, rediscoveringculture.com/2014/05/lecture-early-medical-printing-and-the-fasciculus-medicinae-of-johannes-de-ketham/.
[9] “[Zodiac Man] – Digital Collections – National Library of Medicine.” U.S. National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health. Accessed May 4, 2021. https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101448217-img.
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