Sapiens dominabitur astris

The phrase has been traditionally attributed to Greco-Roman scientist Ptolemy, but modern scholarship views it as a compilation from two later sources.

[1] Modern scholarship views the phrase as being likely derived from the pseudo-Ptolemaic work Centiloquium and passages from the introduction to the Introductorium maius in astrologiam (Kitāb al-mudkhal al-kabīr) by the Islamic astrologer Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi.

[1] One passage of the Centiloquium stated that "a skillful person acquainted with the nature of the stars is enabled to avert many of their effects and to prepare himself for those effects before they arrive", while another passage stated that "a sagacious mind improves the operation of the heavens, as a skillful farmer, by cultivation, improves nature".

It is through astrologers' knowledge of the cycles and repetitions of the celestial ecosystem that they are able to put themselves in command of the forces and effects these movements exert.

The phrase was chosen during the Russo-Ukrainian War in response to the Russian military intelligence's motto "above us only stars".