Department of Foreign Philosophy

Western Europe since the Middle Ages, astrology has always fought for the right to be an academic science. There were periods of success when astrology was taught at universities (Cambridge, Bologna, etc.), but there were periods of disgrace. The reasons for such fluctuations are uneasy relations: first of all, relations, which formed between astrology and theology, and then, between astrology and natural sciences. Through the prism of these difficulties, we will observe the views of modern scientists on astrological ideas. And the biblical story of the ancient magi who came to greet the birth of the Messiah can serve as a vivid example for that. We will consider one of the latest hypotheses expressed by the scientist Michael R. Molnar (formerly an astronomer at Rutgers University, New Jersey) in his book, «The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi» (1999). And also get acquainted with the comments to it, which have made at the interdisciplinary colloquium in the University of Groningen, «The Star of Bethlehem: Historical and Astronomical Perspectives» (2014). Proceeding from this, we will distinguish the features of astrological approaches, which make astrology rather complicated for superficial familiarization, but deep enough for scientific research. Also, we will try to assess the relevance of the astrology ideas during crisis of scientific paradigms.

O. Kalantarova
THE PHENOMENON OF DEATH ACCORDING TO THE CALCULATIONS OF BON TRADITIONS OF «BLACK» ASTROLOGY GIVEN IN THE TEXT «MIRROR OF THE UNIVERSE» (NAG RTSIS SNANG SRID ME LONG)
The article focuses on the theory of death in Tibetan culture. Based on pre-Buddhist Bon tradition, we represent the original text of Bon astrology. It was the object of our culturological analysis of the special prescriptions for human burials.
We provided the initial analysis of the text and peculiarities of the astrological traditions of Tibet, including the availability of the astrology of deceased.
Astrology still prevails in Tibet, forms the ritual life, influences the cultural strategy of development of traditional societies and fully reflects the degree of philosophical ideas of these cultural-ethnic regions. The article highlights the necessity of consistent and systematic study of ancient astrological traditions to establish a complete picture of cultural reflection of the social and personal values of societies. Also, one of the main tasks in this research was to work with primary sources by using special translation from Tibetan language.
Keywords: Tibet, bon (bon), yungdrung bon (gyung drung bon), Menri (sman ri) monastery, astrology, tibetan astrology of elements (nag rtsi), tibetan astrology of stars (dkar rtsis), tibetan astrology of arising vowels (dbyangs ’char), tibetan astrologer (rtsis pa), astrology of deceased (shin rtsi), wheel of time or kalachakra (dyu ki cor lo), Lion of Speech or Manjushri (Ma we Sen ge), Shung-Shoong (Zhang Zhung), Khedup Lungtok Gyatso (mKhas grub Lung rtogs rGyam thso), Kongtse Trulgyi Gyelpo (Kong tse ’Phrul gyi  rGyal po).
Матеріал надійшов 31.01.2017

Typical "postmodernist" sentiments in culture-it is quite natural, because the information saturation of the space forces to disperse thinking to ultrahigh velocities. And those who want to preserve for themselves not only symbols, but also the meanings, must tidely archive thems. The inertia of the familiar outdated material systems leaves all possible attempts at reflection far from the fleeting Time. "Being here and now" becomes a rescue straw, for which we cling as to the last hope. But without prehistory and imaginary future, we lose all the landmarks. And we are afraid of such uncertainty. Can we find a way to overcome this horror? Is there any way to build a model of the space in which we find ourselves to understand what by and how to manage our attention? Let's try to find answers in the distant past, in the warnings of those who forecasted the future, because they still remembered what it was already over once .... We will plunge into the ancient, but unknown to us, sphere of human research, like astrology. It permeates all the traditional cults of the peoples of the past and is the key to their outlook and social construction. We will look at the historical stages of the development of astrology, and turn to the philosophical and mathematical aspects of it. We will look for the answer to the question: is there a universal model of a phenomenal world that can simultaneously reflect the whole and the part, space and time? And why astrology can give us an example of its creation ... For we think that astrology preserves past technology, but in fact-the future one ... We will meet with such great academic scholar researchers who turned to astrology for new ideas and did not reject its significance for the philosophical conception of the Truthand Cognition. Among them are F. Bacon, J. Kepler, E. Rutherford, B. Van der Wadden, M. Molnar, S. Shnol and others.

The studying of movement and evolution of the astrological ideas complements the picture of development of not only esotericism, but cultural spaces in whole. Now, I propose to study astrological ideas and their migrations between East and West in the Golden Age of Islam. Those were recursive astrological transmissions, because they moved in a circle: from the Roman Empire to the Arabic World, and then from the Arabic World to Europe again. During these migrations, different cultural traditions enriched each other. These transmissions contributed to the communication of Hellenistic, Indian, Persian and even Sino-Tibetan astrological schools. Whereby, cultural spaces went beyond their borders and obtained the start-trigger for transformation.

The article is devoted to the issue of the culture of time in Tibetan Buddhism. To study the subject, the author of the article chooses the doctrine of time, named Kalachakra Tantra, and its tradition of texts. In addition, the author pays attention to the importance of the open teachings of the HH Dalai Lama XIV in the 20th century beyond Tibet for the development of Kalachakra’s scientific research. In fact, this essay is only the preparation for the historiographic research of Kalachakra. Therefore, first of all, the author decided to establish the cultural and information reason for this research in the field of Ukrainian Tibet- ology. The list of the main traditional texts dealing with The Wheel of Time, as well as its history, has become exactly that case.The author spotlights the chronology of Kalachakra texts and comments. She notes the common core of the Buddhist and Bon versions of the origin of the doctrine. The researcher proposes to conduct the cultural review of the impact of Kalachakra on all spheres of the Buddhist cultural life: its manifestations in art, religious practice, and, particularly, in scientific reasoning.Thus, we get an opportunity to consider the basic stages of the propagation of the doctrine and to notice the correlation between Kalachakra and calendar culture, embodied in the “black” and “white” calculations of the minor Buddhist astro-science. By the way, the basic texts of traditional Tibetan calculations considered in the essay confidently confirm this fact.The author presents the idea of the structure of the Phenomenal World, described in Kalachakra, and marks the logical correlation between three levels of the Wheel of Time and three main branches of traditional Tibetan astrology. In addition, the author lightly touches the Kalachakra iconography to introduce its basic concepts.The article prepares the backgroundfor further study of the comprehension of time in Tibetan Buddhism and emphasizes the relevance and prospects of the research of Kalachakra’s doctrine and its practical use in terms of culture and philosophy.