The History of Astrology

Excerpted from
Planets and Possibilities: Explore the World of the Zodiac Beyond Just Your Sign
By Susan Miller

Life in Mesopotamia

Astrology is nearly as old as mankind. Some of the very first written records-in cuneiform characters, created by pressing wedge-shaped implements into soft clay-date back approximately to 3000 B.C. in Sumer. It was in this region of Mesopotamia, as well as in the other "cradles of civilization" (Egypt, China, the Indus Valley, and Meso-America), that the study of astrology as we know it today began.

When humans evolved the first agrarian societies, life was very precarious. It was a world without modern medicine, a time when people could not expect a long life. If starvation or disease was not a problem, there was always the danger of a surprise attack from an enemy. When inclement weather destroyed crops, bringing pain, suffering, and even death, community leaders would scan the sky, as much to discover a better way to forecast weather conditions as for omens of upcoming events. The ancients spent a great deal of time studying the heavens, where, they believed, their gods and goddesses lived and oversaw the care of mortals below. It is important to note that unlike today the ancients believed that the planets were their gods. Through observation over time, they decided that certain planetary activity correlated with particular traits and events, and to explain their insights in a way that people could understand them (and to make them vivid and memorable), they associated these findings with certain myths. These were the first steps in the creation of the vast body of work called astrology.

What is surprising is not that the ancients developed a system of forecasting, but that they designed it to be the rich, complex, and creative tool it remains to this day. Astrology has proven to be relevant and flexible enough to encompass the vast changes that mankind has experienced over the centuries and across geography. As you come closer to astrology, the textual depth of the subject becomes even more remarkable because it is based on a sophisticated combination of mathematics and mythological meaning. Astrology- reveals itself slowly, for there are layers of meaning that can be translated from various symbols underlying the horoscope. Each chart is unique and dynamic too, encompassing not only natal planets positions but also the continual motion of the planets astrologers call "transits" in relation to those natal planetary positions. Some planetary aspects form common and recurring patterns, while others are rare, once-in-a-lifetime events. Some aspects are rewarding, others are challenging- but both teach us about ourselves and the world where we live.

The ancient people saw the same stars and constellations that we do now, a thread that links all generations and nationalities in one human family. Without the dense atmospheric conditions, bright lights, and tall buildings that we have in our cities, the average citizen in ancient times could see the stars and planets clearly. On the other hand, now we have the Voyager programs from the 1970s and the Hubble Space Telescope, which, since its launch in April 1990, has sent back thrilling photographs of the planets, stars, and galaxies. Hubble's photographs have pushed back the boundaries of deep space. It is exciting to realize that we are the first generation of people to see all the planets up close and in great detail.

The Cultures Associated with astrology's Development

The astrology of the Western world (as opposed to Chinese, Vedic, Indie, or Native American astrology) is based strongly on the astrology developed by the Babylonians. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Persians were also instrumental in our understanding of astrology, as virtually all these ancient peoples presented different cultural contributions for astrology to draw upon. Scholars believe that cultures developed versions of astrology independently from one another, and that the influence of travel and exploration as well as the building of empires through military conquest both blended and edited parts of these versions over time. This, though, is an oversimplification. Let's take a look at some of astrology's key moments so that the intricate evolution of this ancient art and science can become clearer

The Oldest Evidence We Have Unearthed Comes From Babylonia It was in Babylonia, around the second millennium B.C., that one of the first codifications of astrologic information was compiled. This was the Enuma Anu Enlil, a catalog of the celestial gods that was etched into clay tablets. Archaeologists have not been able to recover all of the tablets. The ones that have been discovered were found at the library of King Ashurbanipal, a seventh- century B.C. Assyrian leader who had the forethought to make copies of the original Babylonian tablets.

Another important collection of clay tablets were the Venus Tables of Ammizaduga (the probable date of this information is still the subject of debate), which contain information about the movements of Venus's position in relation to the Moon and, to a lesser degree, the Sun. The Babylonians referred to Venus as the "mistress of the heavens" and carefully tracked Venus's whereabouts in the sky. It is important to note that the Babylonians felt that the position of the Moon in a horoscope was even more important than the position of the Sun. The Babylonian calendar was based on lunar months too.

The Chaldeans, who at about 700 B.C. populated the southern region of Babylonia in Mesopotamia (now roughly Iraq) and were considered "latter-day" inhabitants, were particularly keen observers of the skies. The Chaldeans noticed that among the stars they saw above, a few of them actually moved-those were the planets. The twelve constellations provided perfect fixed points from which to watch the movements of these "wandering stars" (literally, planets), and those constellations allowed the Chaldeans to track how fast the various planets were traveling. The Chaldeans carefully collected much information about the movements of all five of the known (and visible) planets, namely Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as the movement of the Sun and Moon. So important was their contribution to astrology that people in those days referred to astrologers generically as "Chaldeans." The Chaldeans are credited with developing some of the key foundations of astrology that are still in use today.

The Constellations

A word about the constellations seems appropriate here. The constellations are the fixed points from which ancient astrologers could track the paths of the planets. They are the primary navigational points, for it is the planets that give the constellations their significance, not the other way around. In ancient astrology these constellations played a much greater role than they do today. In those days, for example, farmers knew it was wise to plant in the spring and reap in the fall, but in some regions the seasons were not as easily distinguished as they were in others. So those farmers looked to the constellations to tell them what month it was. For example, in the Northern Hemisphere, Scorpio is visible in the evening sky only in the summer. Hence, the constellations provided a convenient calendar in the sky.

In the 4,000 or 5,000 years that constellations have been recorded by man, their numbers have grown. The International Astronomical Union has recently approved boundary lines that define eighty-eight official constellations. In ancient times, eighteen constellations were selected for astrological purposes, but in time these were narrowed down to twelve classic constellations. The progress of the transiting Sun was tracked through the twelve signs of the zodiac that the Egyptians adopted and later handed down. Of the zodiac constellations, Taurus, the then sacred Bull, is thought to be the oldest, and Libra is the most recently added of the twelve. Libra was not part of the zodiac in Babylonia but made its appearance as a separate and distinct zodiac sign by the time of the Egyptians. (Previously Libra was part of Virgo and of Scorpio, varying by culture.)