Theme Three: Knowledge is Power
A Continuation of AI and Big Data, Historical Cycles & What to Expect Next: An Astrologer's Take (Part 4 of 4)
To view Theme Two (Part 3 of 4), go here.
Now You See Me…Now You Don’t
In Part 3 of this series, we traced how libraries and archives rose and fell across the Ages of Air, often caught between preservation and destruction. In this fourth part, we’ll turn to a different dimension: how knowledge has been treated as something sacred, healing, and even magical — and how, when hoarded or manipulated for power, it often led to devastating losses.
From Egyptian “clinics for the soul” to the chained libraries of medieval Europe and today’s digital battlegrounds, the story reveals that to hold knowledge is both a privilege and responsibility. It also tells us that the fate of knowledge has always depended on whose hands held it, and to what ends.
2052 – 1814 BCE
As discussed in Parts 2 and 3, the Per Ankh (or “House of Life”) of ancient Egypt served many roles: a center of priestly training, a place for healing and magic (perhaps an ancient version of a hospital), and a library and scriptorium. The ritualistic copying of texts was not only scholarly work but also a sacred act meant to ensure Osiris’ yearly rebirth, coinciding with the Nile’s flooding and the land’s renewal. This practice mirrored Egyptian beliefs in the cycles of life, death, and rebirth, reinforcing the conviction that order would triumph over chaos.
In Egyptian thought, language and writing themselves were powerful forms of magic — imbued with heka, an energy that reenacted creation myths and helped the dead journey to the Field of Reeds. Preserving and copying texts was therefore more than cultural continuity. It was an act of renewal for the scrolls, for the stories they carried, and for the collective soul of Egyptian society.
1238 – 960 BCE
The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus recorded that above the library of Ramses II (1279 – 1213 BCE) was the inscription “Clinic for the Soul.” This phrase captures the idea we now call bibliotherapy — the belief that literature has the power to heal the psyche.
For Egyptians, preparing the soul for the afterlife was central, from ensuring a virtuous heart to weighing it against the feather of Ma’at. It is striking then, that they may also have considered reading itself a form of therapy — something that lightened the soul, contributed to virtue, and prepared one for eternal life.
463 – 165 BCE
The Nile’s abundance enabled the Ptolemaic kings to attract the world’s finest scholars, mathematicians, and philosophers to Alexandria, transforming the city into a glittering cultural hub. But as political fortunes shifted — particularly after the Battle of Raphia in 271 BCE — the kings began to prioritize “Egyptianness” and grew hostile to foreign thought.
This culminated in 175 BCE when Ptolemy VIII expelled Greek scholars from Alexandria, triggering an intellectual exodus. What had once been the city’s greatest strength — its cosmopolitan richness — became a casualty of cultural superiority and insularity. Alexandria’s intellectual capital drained away, taking with it the city’s influence.
It’s worth noting that the Ptolemies had not amassed their library by pure devotion to learning. They aggressively “acquired” works — confiscating texts from private owners and often promising to return them after copying but never doing so. Ironically, many of those texts might have survived antiquity had they remained in private libraries rather than hoarded for royal prestige by kings without any concept of “overdue books.”
332 – 690 CE
While libraries like those in Alexandria and Constantinople faced fiery destruction, other communities worked tirelessly to preserve knowledge. As discussed in Parts 2 and 3, Monastic Scriptoria in Europe and the Fangshan Stone Sutras in China stand as remarkable examples.
For centuries, monks on two different continents dedicated their lives to the sacred task of preserving knowledge. Christian monks quietly devoted their lives to copying texts by hand. Similarly, Buddhist monks carved over 14,000 texts into cave walls, creating a form of preservation impervious to fire and decay.
The written word was clearly recognized as powerful — powerful enough to burn, ban, or banish. But it was also cherished as sacred enough to devote a lifetime of labor to protecting. Knowledge, in this sense, was not only intellectual capital but a spiritual resource deemed too precious to lose.
1185 – 1425 CE
As books began to function as a form of currency, their value shifted from the intellectual to the economic and political.
Colleges and convents pioneered a “two-collection” system: a circulating collection for limited private use, and a reference collection in the “common library,” where books were kept chained to the furniture. This model spread to universities across the English Isles, where chained books symbolized both their worth and their inaccessibility.
In Florence, the Library of San Marco (1444 CE) embodied a different philosophy. Built on humanist ideals, it became Europe’s first “public” library — though “public” meant something different than today. It was not open to everyone but rather positioned as a tool by the elite for the public good, and in practice, for publicity and political capital.
Thus, on the eve of the Reformation, libraries were caught between ideals of accessibility and the strategic imprisonment of knowledge. When the Reformation swept through Europe in the 15th century, new political and religious ideals were positioned to devastate collections, wiping out 70–80% of their contents.
1980 – 2219 CE
The struggles over knowledge continue into our own era. In 2023, four of the largest U.S. publishers brought a lawsuit against the nonprofit library Internet Archive, challenging its efforts to digitize and lend books online. At stake was not only the principle of fair use — a doctrine with enormous implications for libraries, as well as AI companies training their models — but also the Archive’s mission of providing “universal access to all knowledge.”
This case underscores the deep tensions between digital preservation, copyright law, and equitable access. Whether knowledge is safeguarded for public benefit or controlled for corporate profit, the outcomes of such battles will shape the future of how information is shared and preserved.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure for storing the digital universe has become a battleground of its own. In 2024, controversy erupted when Microsoft partnered with Constellation Energy to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant — site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history — to power data centers. As humanity’s appetite for data grows, so do the ethical questions about the lengths we will go to preserve it.
Takeaway Three: Infernos, Megalomaniacs and The Real Culprit
The Horror of Decadence and Decline
Across these six Ages of Air, knowledge appears not only as powerful but as sacred — even magical. It could sustain empires, heal souls, or ensure cosmic order. But history also shows that when knowledge is hoarded, controlled, or weaponized, its loss becomes inevitable.
And yet, it’s easy to make infernos and megalomaniacs scapegoats for the loss of centuries of knowledge. As Matthew Battles observes in his book Library: An Unquiet History:
“The loss of libraries is often enough the product of the fear, ignorance, and greed of their supposed benefactors and protectors. The willful ineptitude of bureaucracies throughout history plays its role as well. Threatening images of invading barbarians may be a salve in such instances; only catastrophe can provide the drama that acts as a drug against the existential horror of decadence and decline.” (Battles, pg. 30-32)
The Ptolemies hoarded knowledge and eventually saw Alexandria burn. Emperor Justinian expelled scholars only to watch that intellectual capital flourish in enemy territories. Over and over, those who sought to control knowledge for private gain ended up weakening their own power.
Ages of Air show us it was cross-cultural knowledge centers who pooled their intellectual capital and embraced the cross-pollination of disciplines that birthed innovation. Limiting knowledge to silos or specific sanctioned ways of thinking is like cutting off the oxygen to progress.
Intent Matters
When knowledge was sequestered or destroyed for selfish ends, civilization suffered. But when texts were hidden, copied, or stored for the collective good, they endured. The lesson is not simply about loss versus preservation — but about intent. Whose purposes are served? Who stands to profit? And who seeks to steward knowledge for humanity as a whole?
If, as the Egyptians believed, knowledge has the power to heal and to renew life, then it is both a great responsibility and privilege to steward the knowledge we have been given. The question for us today is clear: in whose hands do we want that power to rest?
Shared openly and safeguarded collectively, knowledge resists the “horror of decadence and decline.” It becomes what it has always been at its best: a source of life, resilience, and renewal.
To return to the Intro (Part 1 of 4), go here.
Sources:
Battles, M. (2003). Library: An Unquiet History. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Casson, L. (2001). Libraries in the Ancient World. Yale University Press.
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Mandler, C. (2024, September 20) “Three Mile Island nuclear plant will reopen to power Microsoft data centers.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/09/20/nx-s1-5120581/three-mile-island-nuclear-power-plant-microsoft-ai
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Rice University, “Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction Series from 0 CE to 3000 CE.” https://sparky.rice.edu/public-night/jupsat2.html
Sweetman, K. (2021, January 7). “The Great Mutation from Earth to Air.” Empowering Astrology. https://empoweringastrology.com/the-great-mutation-from-earth-to-air/
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