History of astrology

It can be said that in a broad sense, that astrology (Gr. “Star science”) began together with civilization, with the observation of celestial bodies and the search for connections between the macro and microsystems – celestial bodies and humans. And astronomy, which studied only the physical, material, manifestations of celestial bodies, was for many millennia only a part of astrology. In many ancient civilizations, astrological texts are part of the Sacred scriptures (Babylonian, Indian, Persian, Chinese, Tibetan, and in some ways Mayan).

The origins of astrology

Babylon

However, current astrology is a legacy of the Babylonian civilization and originated in the Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations about 4-5 thousand years ago. The names of the signs of the zodiac, the system of constellation names that we use to this day, are created by the priests of Babylon around 700 BC. (well, the Greeks made some corrections). The Babylonians also formed the classical system of the “seven” (“great seven”), which consists of two luminaries and five visible planets. This system was later used in Greece, India, the Arab world, and medieval Europe.

The first horoscopes (in the sense of the present day) also appeared in Babylon no later than the 7th century BC. So the civilization of Babylon gave us the Signs of the Zodiac, the system of the seven planets – “the great seven” – and the first horoscope. Starting from 600 BC. Babylonian astrology has spread to Egypt, Greece, and other Middle Eastern states.

Egypt

Egyptian astronomers were most concerned with timing: they compiled a calendar associated with the Nile floods, with 356 days and 12 months, each with thirty days, and five additional days. They have also already compiled and circulated daily horoscopes. Astrology in Egypt, unlike the Chaldeans, was a secret science inaccessible to the uninitiated, probably because of it the Egyptian tradition of astrology hardly reached us. There are versions that the Egyptians received knowledge about space not only from Babylon, but also from their neighboring Africans, a Dogon tribe who played the role of mediators between the modern world and Atlantis, and perhaps the extraterrestrial mind.

Greece

In the 5th century, Democritus popularized astrology throughout Greece. The names of the zodiac signs, as well as the names of planets, given by the Greeks, later Romans, we use to this day. The Greeks developed a coherent cosmology, a mathematical cosmic system expressing celestial harmony. Pythagoras, known to us, contributed significantly to this creation.  Ptolemy created a geocentric system, summarizing all that was known in ancient times about stars and planets in his famous astrological work, Tetrabiblos. His model of the world with the seven planets moving around the spheres of the Earth was considered the basis of astronomy until  16th age.

Arabs

Arabs, famous mathematicians, gave astrology many computational methods for obtaining information from the stars. This is primarily the calculation of derivative points between planets that have been given independent meaning (which is why these points are still referred to as “Arabic points”).

China

Well, Chinese civilization has paid more attention to large cycles: they have discovered a 12-year cycle of solar activity, a 12-year period of Jupiter, and a 29.58-year period of Saturn, which together forms a 60-year cycle that became the basis of the Eastern horoscope (12 years and 5 elements ).

India

Indian astrology, thus having Babylonian origins, has developed a system of approximately 100,000 cards that includes typical descriptions of human destiny by date and place of birth, with a variety of variations and possibilities.

America

A separate branch would already be Mayan and Aztec astrology.