subject: History of Astrology - An Overview [print this page] History of Astrology - An Overview History of Astrology - An Overview
History of Astrology
It is generally accepted that the Babylonians were the first people to start the practicing astrology. In fact, their astrological charts made it possible for them to predict the recurrence of seasons and also a number of celestial events. For this reason, there was essentially very little separating astrology and astronomy from a scientific point of view, and this basically remained unchanged for more than 2,000 years.
By the 4th century BCE, the Greeks had adopted Babylonian astrology, and it was through the studies of Plato, Aristotle, and others, that astrology eventually became recognized as a highly regarded as a science. Soon after being adopted by the Greeks, the Romans and the Arabs also accepted it as a science, and in fact, the Roman names for the various zodiac signs are still used to this day.
As history of astrology says it was originally used to try and understand the natural order of things, but it soon evolved to an extent where it was being used to predict weather patterns, primarily for agricultural purposes. As time went on, astrology continued to develop and soon was being employed to predict natural disasters, war, and a variety of events with the potential for affecting the human living conditions. Once it had proved itself in this field, it continued to gain a vast following, and before long, astrology was being used as a tool for advising for kings and emperors, and even the entire population.
If you go through history of astrology you will find,while the Babylonians may be the original discoverers of astrology, it was the ancient Egyptians who actually developed the zodiac, which interestingly enough, is a derivative of a Greek word which means" circle of animals". Astrologers had by then already established that it takes twelve lunar cycles for the sun to return to its original position. They then went ahead mapped twelve constellations which were linked to the changing seasons. These constellations were then named after animals and people. For example, when it was the rainy season, the sun was in a certain constellation, and so they named it Aquarius (the water bearer).
Around the year 2000 BCE, Babylonian astrologers were only aware of the sun, the moon, and five planets, and they believed these all had very definite powers. For example, because Mars appears to be red, it was associated with war and aggression.
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