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Asia

The largest continent, spanning from the Middle East through India and China to the Pacific, cradle of most of the world's major religions. Ptolemy's chorography splits it across two of his four quarters, the southeast and the northeast, giving it two triplicities rather than one.

Facts
Geography
Latitude
34.8 degrees north 1
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a large or historical region has no formal center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a precise boundary claim.
Longitude
100.6 degrees east 1
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a large or historical region has no formal center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a precise boundary claim.
Identity
Element
Earth for the southeast quarter, air for the northeast 2Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Attributions
Tradition
Babylonian celestial omen work and mathematical astronomy underlie the technique, and the zodiac of twelve equal signs is a Babylonian construction Greek astronomy inherited. 3Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Tradition
Ptolemy's chorography quarters the inhabited world by compass direction rather than mapping continents, which is why Asia falls across two quarters and two triplicities. 4Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Correspondences
Zodiac Rulership
The air triplicity, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, for the northeast quarter, which Ptolemy calls Scythia 2Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Zodiac Rulership
The earth triplicity, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, for the southeast quarter: India, Persia, Babylonia, Mesopotamia and Assyria 2Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Origins
Region
The inhabited world east of the Mediterranean, from Mesopotamia to India and the lands beyond the Caspian 2Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Learn More
Two Quarters, Two Triplicities

Ptolemy's second book divides the inhabited world into four quarters and puts each in familiarity with one of the four triplicities of signs. Asia is the only landmass in the scheme that falls across two of them.

The southeast quarter, which Ptolemy fills with India, Persia, Babylonia, Mesopotamia and Assyria, is in familiarity with the earth triplicity, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. The northeast quarter, which he calls Scythia and populates with the lands north and east of the Caspian, is in familiarity with the air triplicity, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. Ptolemy assigns planetary co-rulers to each quarter as well, and those assignments are not identical to the ordinary triplicity lords, so this entry does not name them rather than report one as the other.

Splitting Asia is not a failure of the scheme. The scheme is not a map of continents. It is a division of the oikoumene, the inhabited world as a second century Alexandrian understood it, by compass quarter from a centre near the Mediterranean, and continents are simply not what it divides. Reading it as geography produces the impression of an error where there is none.

What the quarter assignment is used for is mundane astrology, the reading of eclipses, comets and great conjunctions for their effect on regions. Ptolemy's chorography is the lookup table that tells such a reading which part of the world an event in a given sign concerns.

The Astrology Asia Sent Westward

Beyond the chorography, Asia's place in this atlas's astrological material is as the source of most of it.

The technical apparatus of horoscopic astrology is built on Mesopotamian celestial omen work and Mesopotamian mathematical astronomy, and the zodiac of twelve equal thirty degree signs is a Babylonian construction that Greek astronomy inherited rather than invented. The Hellenistic synthesis of the last centuries before the common era took that material, combined it with Egyptian and Greek elements, and produced the natal astrology this vocabulary belongs to.

The traffic then ran in several directions. Greek astrological texts were translated into Sanskrit and reworked into the Indian tradition, where the technique developed along its own line and is practised continuously to the present day. From the eighth century the Abbasid translation movement carried Greek, Persian and Sanskrit astrological material into Arabic, where it was systematised and extended before passing into Latin Europe from the twelfth century onward.

So the medieval European house catalogue this atlas records under so many entries is an Asian inheritance twice over, Babylonian in its zodiac and Arabic and Persian in the form Europe actually received. Lilly's Christian Astrology of 1647 sits at the end of that chain, and the chain is the reason a continent entry belongs in an astrological vocabulary at all. The atlas records the transmission as history, and states each attribution at the level the scholarship supports rather than more precisely.

Sources A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion with Christian AstrologyWilliam Lilly

Connections

Associated With

This source names Asia directly: "Stuart-Fox is a historian of Southeast Asia, and this Cambridge University Press book is his standard general history of Laos, covering the country's political and religious history including the..."

Source A History of LaosMartin Stuart-Fox

This source names Asia directly: "It expanded across Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia within its first year and was reaching an estimated 160 countries by 2006."

Source Aastha TV (Wikipedia)

This source names Asia directly: "spreading from Armenia through Asia Minor and the Levant during the forty-five-year reign of Artaxerxes II, 405 to 358 BCE."

Source Achaemenid Empire (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Asia directly: "incorporated into the Northern Asia-Pacific Division of the world church."

Source Who We Serve: Mongolians (Adventist Frontier Missions)Adventist Frontier Missions

This source names Asia directly: "works in around 30 countries across Asia and Africa, operating without regard to the faith, origin or gender of those it serves, and is the principal vehicle through which the Nizari Ismaili Imamat..."

Source Aga Khan Development Network (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Air, Elements

The air triplicity governs the northeast quarter.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

This source names Asia directly: "reasoning across South and Central Asia and remains studied in traditional madrasa curricula today."

Source Al-Hidaya fi Sharh Bidayat al-MubtadiBurhan al-Din al-Marghinani

This source names Asia directly: "Golden is a historian of the Eurasian steppe, and this Otto Harrassowitz book is his standard academic survey of the ethnogenesis and history of the Turkic peoples, tracing their emergence and..."

Source An Introduction to the History of the Turkic PeoplesPeter B. Golden
Aquarius, Zodiac Signs

Aquarius, of the air triplicity, in familiarity with the northeast quarter.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

This source names Asia directly: "Allen is an experienced popular historian of South Asia rather than an academic Ashoka specialist, so the book is best used for its well-documented narrative of the rediscovery process."

Source Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost EmperorCharles Allen

This source names Asia directly: "Asia Times' 18 October 2018 report (updated 18 February 2020) on Wirapol's sentencing, naming the Criminal Court in Bangkok and reporting that Wirapol rejected the charges against him, maintaining..."

Source Asia Times: 'Jet-Set Monk' Gets a Further 16 Years for Rape of MinorAsia Times staff and Dusita Maneemuang

This source names Asia directly: "Asian Studies is the interdisciplinary study of the societies, languages, history and cultures of Asia, given an academic home when William Jones founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784 to..."

Source Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental DevelopmentOECD
Ayutthaya, Cities

This source names Asia directly: "temple architecture in Southeast Asia, with the remains of hundreds of temple complexes still standing across the city's island site at the confluence of three rivers."

Source The Buddhist World of Southeast AsiaDonald K. Swearer
Balkh, Cities

This source names Asia directly: "the oldest cities of Central and South Asia and was traditionally called Umm al-Bilad, the Mother of Cities, in Islamic-era Arabic sources for its antiquity and importance."

Source A History of ZoroastrianismMary Boyce
Bells and Man, Sources

This source names Asia directly: "Its breadth, covering bell traditions from Europe to East Asia in one volume, is both its strength and its limit, a genuinely useful single reference for the history of bells generally, but any..."

Source Bells and ManPercival Price

This source names Asia directly: "article on Buddhism in Central Asia, maintained through ordinary community editing rather than a fixed editorial board."

Source Buddhism in Central Asia (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Asia directly: "the event is anchored to Central Asia, the nearest real region, with the approximation stated here rather than rounded silently onto any one modern state."

Source Buddhism in Central Asia (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Asia directly: "forest monks of Theravada Southeast Asia to the Seon and Pure Land masters of Korea and China and the hierarchs and treasure revealers of Tibet."

Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions

Capricorn, of the earth triplicity, in familiarity with the southeast quarter.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

This source names Asia directly: "University Press in its Images of Asia series, an accessible academic paperback line aimed at general but serious readers rather than specialists, surveys the tong shu almanac tradition, its..."

Source Chinese AlmanacsRichard J. Smith

This source names Asia directly: "to religious disaffiliation in East Asia and a comparatively low birth rate."

Source Countries with the Most Buddhists & Global Buddhist Population Change, 2010-2020

This source names Asia directly: "of the global Hindu population in the Asia-Pacific region and about 95 percent of all Hindus living in India."

Source Countries with the Most Hindus & Global Hindu Population Change, 2010-2020

This source names Asia directly: "by further research across South Asia, which this citation alone does not cover."

Source Diclofenac residues as the cause of vulture population decline in Pakistan, Nature 427J. Lindsay Oaks and others
Earth, Elements

The earth triplicity governs the southeast quarter of the inhabited world.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

This source names Asia directly: "Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia, published by I."

Source Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South AsiaAli S. Asani

This source names Asia directly: "Atwood is a historian of Mongolia and Inner Asia, and this Facts on File volume is a single author reference encyclopedia covering the Mongol Empire and the broader Turkic Mongolic steppe world from..."

Source Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol EmpireChristopher P. Atwood

This source names Asia directly: "Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia, published by Harvard University Press in 2006, is a scholarly history arguing that the Russian imperial state, rather than simply suppressing Islam among..."

Source For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central AsiaRobert D. Crews
Gemini, Zodiac Signs

Gemini, of the air triplicity, in familiarity with the northeast quarter Ptolemy calls Scythia.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy
Girih, Sacred Geometry

This source names Asia directly: "wood and tile from Anatolia to Central Asia."

Source Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic ArchitecturePeter J. Lu and Paul J. Steinhardt

This source names Asia directly: "Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia."

Source Great Synagogue at Aleppo, Syria

This source names Asia directly: "Among the Parsi community of South Asia, where the term survives today as ervad, a herbad is qualified to perform the lower, outer liturgical ceremonies but has not received the further ordination..."

Source Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and PracticesMary Boyce

This source names Asia directly: "hijra communities and custom in South Asia, consulted 2026-08-11."

Source Hijra (South Asia) (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Asia directly: "than eighty languages across Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and the Pacific by the 2020s, each producing programming contextualized to its own local language and culture around wholistic..."

Source Hope Channel (Inter-American Division, Seventh-day Adventist Church)

This source names Asia directly: "policy toward Islam in Central Asia and of the region's religious life since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991."

Source Islam after Communism: Religion and Politics in Central AsiaAdeeb Khalid

This source names Asia directly: "Islamic institutions across Central Asia."

Source Islam after Communism: Religion and Politics in Central AsiaAdeeb Khalid

This source names Asia directly: "attested Islamic kingdom in Southeast Asia."

Source Sufism: A Global HistoryNile Green

This source names Asia directly: "mystical current across Central Asia, Africa and South Asia."

Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions

This source names Asia directly: "monograph from the Harvard University Asia Center, covers the Japanese monarchy's political, societal and cultural role since 1945 through recent events including Akihito's 2019 abdication, informed..."

Source Japan's Imperial House in the Postwar Era, 1945-2019Kenneth J. Ruoff

This source names Asia directly: "conflict and refugee crises across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, operating without regard to the faith or nationality of those it serves."

Source Khalsa Aid International: Charity Commission Filed Accounts, Year Ended 31 March 2025Khalsa Aid International
Kshitigarbha, Figures

This source names Asia directly: "Known in Japan as Jizo, he is venerated in East Asia as protector of travelers, expectant mothers and, distinctively, of deceased children, whose souls are said to be gathered under his robe..."

Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Libra, Zodiac Signs

Libra, of the air triplicity, in familiarity with the northeast quarter.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

This source names Asia directly: "religion, and this Harvard University Asia Center book is his scholarly study of the Kumano pilgrimage, examining how the mountainous Kumano region of Japan came to be understood as a physically..."

Source Localizing Paradise: Kumano Pilgrimage and the Religious Landscape of Premodern JapanD. Max Moerman

This source names Asia directly: "across South and Southeast Asia."

Source An Introduction to HinduismGavin Flood

This source names Asia directly: "nearly thirty countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas, focused on smallholder agriculture, climate adaptation and emergency response, and is a member of the Corus International..."

Source Lutheran World Relief (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Asia directly: "across country programs in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean, coordinated from Geneva, Switzerland, with emergency hubs in Yaounde, Cameroon and Kathmandu..."

Source For Hope and a Future: LWF World Service 2024 Annual ReportThe Lutheran World Federation, World Service

This source names Asia directly: "work across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and North Africa."

Source Malteser International (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Manichaean, Pantheons

This source names Asia directly: "from Roman North Africa to Central Asia and southern China, but the religion did not survive as a living tradition."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

This source names Asia directly: "range from North Africa to Central Asia and China."

Source Manichaeism: An Ancient Faith RediscoveredNicholas Baker-Brian

This source names Asia directly: "Paula Richman is a scholar of South Asian religious literature, and this University of California Press volume is an edited academic collection she assembled, bringing together specialists to..."

Source Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South AsiaPaula Richman (editor)

This source names Asia directly: "Taiwan Studies Programme within its Asia Research Institute, checked directly at its own URL."

Source Mark G. Murphy, "Digital Cultivation: How Taiwan's Video Games Transform Wuxia into Cultural 'Internal Power' (Part 2)" (Taiwan Insight, 2024)

Showing 1 to 50 of 115 in Associated With, page 1 of 3.

Contrasts With

Americas, Continents

Asia holds two of the four quarters of the classical chorography. The Americas hold none, because the hemisphere lay outside the inhabited world the scheme divides.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy
Global, Continents

Global is not a landmass. It marks material whose spread crosses the continents rather than belonging to one of them.

Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
2. Tetrabiblos
Claudius Ptolemy, W. Foulsham, 1900Book II, on the familiarities of countries with the triplicities and starsView the Source
3. A History of Western Astrology
Nicholas Campion, Continuum, 2009View the Source
4. Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune
Chris Brennan, Amor Fati Publications, 2017View the Source
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