Astrology History Part 1

History
Main article: History of astrology
The Zodiac Man, a diagram of a human body and astrological symbols with instructions explaining the importance of
astrology from a medical perspective. From a 15th-century Welsh manuscript
Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese,

and Maya developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. In the
West, astrology most often consists of a system of horoscopes purporting to explain aspects of a
person's personality and predict future events in their life based on the positions of the sun, moon, and
other celestial objects at the time of their birth. The majority of professional astrologers rely on such
systems.[6]: 83
Astrology has been dated to at least the 2nd millennium BCE, with roots in calendrical systems used to
predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. [5] A form of
astrology was practised in the first dynasty of Mesopotamia (1950–1651 BCE).[citation needed] Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa is
one of earliest known Hindu texts on astronomy and astrology (Jyotisha). The text is dated between 1400
BCE to final centuries BCE by various scholars according to astronomical and linguistic evidences.
Chinese astrology was elaborated in the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE). Hellenistic astrology after 332
BCE mixed Babylonian astrology with Egyptian Decanic astrology in Alexandria, creating horoscopic
astrology. Alexander the Great's conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread to Ancient
Greece and Rome. In Rome, astrology was associated with 'Chaldean wisdom'. After the conquest of
Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were
translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe
and translated into Latin. Major astronomers including Tycho Brahe, Johannes
Kepler and Galileo practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in the works
of poets such as Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer, and of playwrights such as Christopher
Marlowe and William Shakespeare.
Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition. It was accepted in political
and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such
as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine.[7] At the end of the 17th century, new scientific
concepts in astronomy and physics (such as heliocentrism and Newtonian mechanics) called astrology
into question. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology
has largely declined.[12]
Ancient world
See also: Babylonian astrology
Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky. [15]: 2, 3 Early evidence for humans
making conscious attempts to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to
astronomical cycles, appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that lunar cycles were
being noted as early as 25,000 years ago.[16]: 81ff This was a first step towards recording the Moon's
influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organising a communal calendar. [16] Farmers addressed
agricultural needs with increasing knowledge of the constellations that appear in the different seasons—
and used the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities. [17] By the 3rd
millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented
temples in alignment with heliacal risings of the stars.[18]
Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made in the
ancient world. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa is thought to have been compiled in Babylon around
1700 BCE.[19] A scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign
of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash (c. 2144 – 2124 BCE). This describes how the gods revealed to
him in a dream the constellations that would be most favourable for the planned construction of a temple.
[20]
However, there is controversy about whether these were genuinely recorded at the time or merely
ascribed to ancient rulers by posterity. The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an
integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records of the first dynasty
of Mesopotamia (1950–1651 BCE). This astrology had some parallels with Hellenistic Greek (western)
astrology, including the zodiac, a norming point near 9 degrees in Aries, the trine aspect, planetary
exaltations, and the dodekatemoria (the twelve divisions of 30 degrees each). [21] The Babylonians viewed
celestial events as possible signs rather than as causes of physical events. [21]
The system of Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE) and
flourished during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE), during which all the familiar
elements of traditional Chinese culture – the Yin-Yang philosophy, theory of the five elements, Heaven
and Earth, Confucian morality – were brought together to formalise the philosophical principles of Chinese
medicine and divination, astrology and alchemy.[22]: 3, 4
Ancient objections
The Roman orator Cicero objected to astrology
The Hellenistic schools of philosophical skepticism criticized the rationality of astrology. Criticism of

astrology by academic skeptics such as Cicero, Carneades, and Favorinus; and Pyrrhonists such
as Sextus Empiricus has been preserved.
Carneades argued that belief in fate denies free will and morality; that people born at different times can
all die in the same accident or battle; and that contrary to uniform influences from the stars, tribes and
cultures are all different.[23]
Cicero stated the twins objection (that with close birth times, personal outcomes can be very different),
later developed by Saint Augustine.[24] He argued that since the other planets are much more distant from
the Earth than the Moon, they could have only very tiny influence compared to the Moon's. [25] He also
argued that if astrology explains everything about a person's fate, then it wrongly ignores the visible effect
of inherited ability and parenting, changes in health worked by medicine, or the effects of the weather on
people.[26]
Favorinus argued that it was absurd to imagine that stars and planets would affect human bodies in the
same way as they affect the tides,[27] and equally absurd that small motions in the heavens cause large
changes in people's fates.
Sextus Empiricus argued that it was absurd to link human attributes with myths about the signs of the
zodiac,[28] and wrote an entire book, Against the Astrologers, compiling arguments against astrology.
Plotinus, a neoplatonist, argued that since the fixed stars are much more distant than the planets, it is
laughable to imagine the planets' effect on human affairs should depend on their position with respect to
the zodiac. He also argues that the interpretation of the moon's conjunction with a planet as good when
the moon is full, but bad when the moon is waning, is clearly wrong, as from the moon's point of view, half
of its surface is always in sunlight; and from the planet's point of view, waning should be better, as then
the planet sees some light from the moon, but when the moon is full to us, it is dark, and therefore bad, on
the side facing the planet in question.[29]
Hellenistic Egypt
Main article: Hellenistic astrology
1484 copy of first page of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli
In 525 BCE, Egypt was conquered by the Persians. The 1st century BCE Egyptian Dendera
Zodiac shares two signs – the Balance and the Scorpion – with Mesopotamian astrology. [30]
With the occupation by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, Egypt became Hellenistic. The city
of Alexandria was founded by Alexander after the conquest, becoming the place where Babylonian
astrology was mixed with Egyptian Decanic astrology to create Horoscopic astrology. This contained the
Babylonian zodiac with its system of planetary exaltations, the triplicities of the signs and the importance
of eclipses. It used the Egyptian concept of dividing the zodiac into thirty-six decans of ten degrees each,
with an emphasis on the rising decan, and the Greek system of planetary Gods, sign rulership and four
elements.[31] 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of
certain decans, particularly Sothis.[32] The astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy lived in Alexandria.
Ptolemy's work the Tetrabiblos formed the basis of Western astrology, and, "...enjoyed almost the
authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of a thousand years or more." [33]
Greece and Rome

The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas from Syria, Babylon, Persia
and central Asia.[34] Around 280 BCE, Berossus, a priest of Bel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island
of Kos, teaching astrology and Babylonian culture.[35] By the 1st century BCE, there were two varieties of
astrology, one using horoscopes to describe the past, present and future; the other, theurgic,
emphasising the soul's ascent to the stars.[36] Greek influence played a crucial role in the transmission of
astrological theory to Rome.[37]
The first definite reference to astrology in Rome comes from the orator Cato, who in 160 BCE warned
farm overseers against consulting with Chaldeans,[38] who were described as Babylonian 'star-gazers'.
[39]
Among both Greeks and Romans, Babylonia (also known as Chaldea) became so identified with
astrology that 'Chaldean wisdom' became synonymous with divination using planets and stars.[40] The 2nd-
century Roman poet and satirist Juvenal complains about the pervasive influence of Chaldeans, saying,
"Still more trusted are the Chaldaeans; every word uttered by the astrologer they will believe has come
from Hammon's fountain."[41]
One of the first astrologers to bring Hermetic astrology to Rome was Thrasyllus, astrologer to
the emperor Tiberius,[37] the first emperor to have had a court astrologer,[42] though his
predecessor Augustus had used astrology to help legitimise his Imperial rights.[43]

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History

Main article: History of astrology

Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese,

The Roman orator Cicero objected to astrology

The Hellenistic schools of philosophical skepticism criticized the rationality of astrology. Criticism of

Greece and Rome

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