Climacteric (astrology)

In Ancient Greek philosophy and astrology, the climacterics (Latin, annus climactericus, from the Greek κλιμακτηρικός, klimaktērikós) were certain purportedly critical years in a person's life, marking turning points.

According to the astrologers, the person would see some very notable alterations to the body, and be at a great risk of death during these years. Authors on the subject include the following: Plato, Cicero, Macrobius, Aulus Gellius, among the ancients; as well as Argol, Maginus, and Salmasius. Augustine, Ambrose, Bede, and Boetius all countenanced the belief.

The first climacteric occurs in the seventh year of a person's life; the rest are multiples of the first, such as 21, 49, 56, and 63. The grand climacteric usually refers to the 63rd year, with the dangers here being supposedly more imminent; but may refer to the 49th (7 × 7) or the 81st (9 × 9)..

The belief has a great deal of antiquity on its side. Aulus Gellius says that it was borrowed from the Chaldeans; who might probably receive it from Pythagoras, whose philosophy (Pythagoreanism) was based in numbers, and who imagined an extraordinary virtue in the number 7.

These turning points were viewed as changes from one kind of life, and attitude toward life, to another in the mind of the subject: the locus classicus is Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos,C204‑207, which in turn gave rise to Shakespeare's delineation of the Seven Ages of Man.

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