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| Austa The Journal for the Study and Research into the Mandaean Culture, Religion, and Language. |
| Volume 5 Special Issue Online edition |
| Sabians, Sabaeans, or Sabeans |
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| Researched by AJAE Copyright 2000 |
| The Sabian Assembly |
Marc Edmund Jones was born to Edmund H. and Annie Louise (Holmes) Jones at 8:37 a.m. on October 1, 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1913, at the age of 25, Dr. Jones began to study astrology. Although he held a variety of jobs, Dr. Jones loved to write and became a free-lance writer. His writing would pay off and for a while he dabbled in the film industry. All the time he continued his studies in to astrology and the occult by vesting the friendship of W.J. Colville, author of Universal Spiritualism, teaching classes for the Max Heindel group and joining the Rosicrucian Society . |
| After his joining the military at age 30, during WWI, and serving for four years he was honorably discharged. He resumed his writing career. By 1922 he started to develop the Sabian Symbols that would become the basis for his astrology work. Dr. Jones created the Sabian Assembly on October 17, 1923 (the official birthday of the Assembly) in Los Angeles, California. In 1928 his students selected the name Sabian to call themselves, as representative of people who were interested in what was then astrology. (1) |
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| While it is known that Sabian comes from Sabi, an Aramaic word, many people still try to use of the word Sabean to mean “army” and that they are the same word. E. Peacock introduced the “army” theory in 1649. He tried to prove that the word sabi is derived from the Hebrew sabba meaning “army, troops”. M. Tradieu has revised this out dated theory in 1986. (7) According to Strong (#05436) the word Sabean with the meaning drunkards" and indicating the people of Saba . (8) |
| Figure #1 Marc. E. Jones |
| Updated December 2002 |
| On October 17, 1923 (the official birthday of the Assembly) Dr. Jones created the Sabian Assembly in Los Angeles, California with Elsie Wheeler. In 1928 his students selected the name Sabian to call themselves, in order to But why the word Sabian? He explained in his book "The Ritual of Living" published in 1930: |
| “represent people who were interested in what was then astrology” (2) |
| “The present employment of 'Sabian' was in the nature of a 'lucky accident,' a matter of gradual growth and development rather than design. The use of the word began casually with the members of the group. In the lessons the archaic Babylonian or Syrian culture had been termed Sabian, because the traditional "Chaldean" has gained undesirable connotation in the twentieth century ... but while an intuitional debt to Babylonian sources has been very great, throughout all the earlier group activities, there was yet no intention of finding a label for the work as a whole through that channel. The advantage of the name, however, is marked. It is completely and perfectly indefinite and it does represent people who were interested in what was then astrology.” (3) |
| Dr. Jones did not want to use the traditional term "Chaldean" because the term had gained undesirable connotation in the twentieth century. So he went ahead and adopted the name Sabian because “it does represent people who were interested in what was then astrology.” |
| The Sabian Assembly has been in continuous existence since October 17, 1923. Selection of the title Sabian, formally adopted in January, 1928, proved fortuitous on a number of counts. "The students themselves picked the word Sabian, which was lucky because it afterward turned out that the Sabians were a Mohammedan group, and nobody knew just what they were. It is not a historically legitimate word for what we do, but it's a good substitute, and it did represent people who were interested in what was then astrology. Later Jones would derive the word from the Hebrew phrase "Yahweh Saboath," Lord of Hosts, referring to the hosts as the potentialities or basis of all study in the Sabian work and calling it a convenient term for the pre-Biblical Mesopotamian mysteries in "lieu of the much abused terms Chaldean and Magian." Significantly, the Koran entitles Sabians, Christians and Jews to tolerance. (2) |
| The students were lucky because the Sabians were a “Mohammedan group” and “nobody knew just what they were”! By 1930 it was known that the Sabians were as star-worshipping group based on incomplete and misleading data. In Dr. Jones’ opinion the Sabians were the original star worshippers since there were no other Sabians really known to the vast public at that time. He wrote: |
| “The Sabian body of students is well named because its principal objects of research are the superstitions of humanity. The ancient Syrians who gave the word to the language, and the Harranites who pursued devious and dark ways of self-development, instinctively knew that the fears and vague inner apprehensions of man are intuitions of the ever-elusive truth, no matter how false they may be. They also realized the principle to which modern thinking often blinds itself--although a true science does not--that it is through these vague and almost unaccountable superstitions that the first grasp of the most exalted understanding is often to be found. Therefore this present-day research body frankly acknowledges its beginning, but by no means its final goal, in the star or potentiality worship of the original Sabians." (3) |
| Drower famous book “The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran“ was published in the 1930’s. Her book introduced the world to the Sabians who were assumed to be gone. From the late `930 to early 1950’s there is a flood of information on the Mandaeans. Dr. Jones must have been aware of the Mandaeans because he writes in "Sabian Manual" |
| The term Sabian also took on a wider definition. Dr. Jones identified the Sabians as the fifth sub-race of the Atlantean root race and smoothes out the star worshipping aspect. |
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| Dr. Jones notes that the Sabaeans are the ancient star worshippers. But why does he continue to use the word Sabians in the title of his astrology group? The term Sabian had to fit into Dr. Jones’ newly formed astrology framework. As the Sabian Assembly slowly changed and began to expanded their teachings to “philosophy and the Bible”. He also started to connect the Sabians to the Bible. The theory on who the Sabians were also took on a more mystical and biblical connotation. |
| "There has long been a marked confusion between Sabaean and Sabian. The former identifies the star worshipers of the ancient Near East,..." (4) |
| "There has long been a marked confusion between Sabaean and Sabian. The former identifies the star worshipers of the ancient Near East and may arise from Saba' or Sheba. There is a likely relationship between Sabaean and Sabaoth or the hosts in the designation a Lord of Hosts. These hosts would be armies literally, but in more important and symbolic reference they were the stellar myriads that represented the powers of heaven.” (4) |
| "As a word, 'Sabian' comes from the Hebrew 'Sabaoth,' the plural of 'army' as found in the scriptural phrase 'Lord of Hosts' (Romans 9:29), and the Sabian Philosophy is properly to be understood as the study not of the stars, the 'powers' to whom the Sumerian masses transferred the Sabian worship, but the "potentialities" of all life and all manifestation in all things." |
| The Sabian Assembly also connects the Sabian of the Qu’ran to the Harranians |
| "The people of Harran identified themselves with the Sabians as a protection against the Islamic persecution of Al-Mamun (the Koran offered sanctuary to Sabians). They adopted Hermetic traditions and passed this Egyptian lore to the European occultists. Harran subsequently became the clearinghouse of Arabian enlightenment. The achievements of the philosophers of this place and period, with their link to Ibn Gabirol, provide inspiration and challenge to the present Sabian Assembly group." |
| The Sabians that Dr. Jones relates to astrology are called the Harranians or Chaldeans. In the beginning it appears that he did not really understand who the Sabians were and used the term since no one would be able to deny that his form of astrology was not the Sabian form. Dr. Jones at some point became aware of the difference in spelling and that the Sabaeans are the star worshippers where as the Sabians are not. But he continues to use the Sabian spelling. Was this because his new astrology theology is known under that term and to change the spelling would be confusing? Or could the addition of Biblical studies into the astrology have something to do with keeping the spelling closer to Christian views? I think the latter had something to do with the decision to use the spelling Sabian. As more and more people realize that the Sabaeans of Harran were in reality not only star worshippers but delved into the practice of blood and human sacrifice, they become more undesirable as an image for the Sabian Assembly. By keeping the spelling “Sabian” and bringing up Harran as the Hebrew word 'Sabaoth, and tying in with the Qu’ran as oneof the people of the book equated with Jews and Christians, the Dr. Jones use of ancient pagan origins seem more ciilized. From their own WORDS: |
| “The students themselves picked the word Sabian, which was lucky because it afterward turned out that the Sabians were a Mohammedan group, and nobody knew just what they were. It is not a historically legitimate word for what we do, but it's a good substitute, and it did represent people who were interested in what was then astrology. Later Jones would derive the word from the Hebrew phrase "Yahweh Saboath," Lord of Hosts, referring to the hosts as the potentialities or basis of all study in the Sabian work and calling it a convenient term for the pre-Biblical Mesopotamian mysteries in "lieu of the much abused terms Chaldean and Magian." |
| Dr. Jones did not consider that by stealing the name Sabians, as the Harranians had done centuries before, it could cause confusion and misunderstanding with the true Sabians (the Mandaeans). By associating the Sabians Assembly with astrology and occult practices many people then mark the true Sabians with those old false allegations of being planet and star worshippers. |