The Dawn of Astrology - by Anita Burns
In the ancient world, humans lived mostly under an open sky. They were
filled with wonder at the workings of the heavens—thunder, lightening,
meteors, Sun, Moon, and stars. The bright lights in the night sky, the
Sun, and the Moon held a different meaning to humans than they do now.
People, in those long ago cultures, sensed something beyond the
physical lights in the sky. They sensed something magical, something
esoteric. They began to incorporate the stars in their mythology, and
their religious and spiritual rites. In ancient Sumeria, the symbol for
divinity was a star.
Looking up into the sky, the planets, Sun, Moon, and stars all look
like they are moving across the sky and circling the earth. Its' no
wonder that humans, for so long, believed the earth to be the center of
the universe. From our perspective, it is. Ancient civilizations called
the planets that they saw moving in front of the backdrop of stars,
"Goats.” But it wasn’t long before the great civilizations, like the
Babylonia and Sumeria, began naming the planets after their gods and
goddesses.
To modern science, the relationship between a god or goddess and a
planet was random, without any real meaning. But astrologers believe it
was done purposefully, through sensitive priests and priestesses who
claimed to experience the subtle energies emanating from the planets.
Each god and goddess had dominion over a particular area of human life,
and the gods and goddesses were paired with planets that matched their
particular characteristic s and influence.
This practice of naming the planets after the deities was borrowed by
the Greeks, who renamed the planets after their versions of the same
gods and goddesses that reigned in Babylonia. Each planet had the same
influence as before, but with a new name. This was the birth of
astrology.
Oddly, astrology seems to have started all over the known world at
about the same time. The planets were all given basically the same
influential characteristics in each civilization. Mercury, regardless
of name, had the same influence in the Americas as it did in China or
Babylonia.
The form of astrology we use today can be traced back to Egypt around
4200 BC. And, until about 300 years ago, anatomy, astronomy, and
astrology were the same science. Events, as well as health were
foretold or analyzed according to the planets.
The Chaldeans were the first to create an astrological chart. They
devised mathematical calculations of the planets in relation to a
specific plane (ecliptic) in the heavens, and devised the ephemerid—a
chart showing the movements of the planets. The earliest known
ephemerid dates from the mid 7th century during the reign of Assyrian
King Assurbanipal.
The Chaldeans mapped the twelve constellations within the ecliptic. It
is these twelve, that the planets seem to move across. They noted that
every two hours, the constellations would shift in the sky about 30°
(1/12th of a complete circle). The Chaldeans also divided the heavens
into twelve other segments, called "Houses.” Houses represent areas of
life and are influenced according to which planets are passing through
them. The angle between the planets would determine the nature of their
influence.
Most astrology of the ancient civilizations was concerned with
large-scale events such as war, natural disaster, and the rise and fall
of kings. Personal astrology came much later. Around 25 BC, the
Babylonian astrologer Berosus opened an astrology school in Greece.
Over the next 400 years, the Greeks succeeded creating a complex and
formal system of astrology which calculated horoscopes for individuals
based on their moment of birth. Ptolemy, astronomer, mathematician, and
geographer wrote the first astrological textbook around AD 150. This
book established the astrological principles we still use today. This
form of astrology spread to Rome and became so popular that Juvenal
reported, around AD 100, that some people wouldn’t appear in public,
dine, or bath without first consulting the stars.
When Ptolomy died in AD 180, astrology in Europe began to decline
because the system of calculation was lost with his death. When
Imperial Rome crumbled, astrology slid into a corrupt superstition.
Then Christians gained power in Europe. They knew astrology only from
this decadent state and denounced it as evil. Astrology would have been
lost entirely if it had not been for the Arabs of North Africa and the
Eastern Mediterranean. In the 8th century, the Caliph al-Mansur of
Baghdad founded an important observatory and library. Damascus also
held a major center for learning which included astrology.
The Arabs devised a system of astrology that would predict auspicious
times for things in everyday life, such as journeys, weddings,
celebrations, and such. This method was later incorporated into Western
astrology. Albumasur (805-85) wrote, "Only by observing the great
diversity of planetary motions can we comprehend the unnumbered
varieties of change in this world.” His was one of the first Eastern
books to be translated into Spanish and read by Europeans. This book
sparked a revival of scientific astronomy and astrology in Europe.
In the Middle Ages, the Christian leaders in Europe were faced with the
dilemma of what to do with astrology. Should they rethink it and
declare astrology a legitimate science, or keep it forbidden as
sorcery? John of Salisbury (1115-80) believed that astrology usurped
God’s power. God was, after all, the creator of the stars. Could they
steal the power of prophecy from Him? However St. Albertus Magnus
(1200-80) believed that the planets did influence both the body and
free will. St Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) wrote that astrology was an
acceptable subject, worthy of intellectual study—as long as necromancy
was excluded. He believed that astrology was in harmony with church
doctrine.
Because of the change in attitude about astrology, studies flourished
throughout Europe. The universities now taught astrology as a part of
their curriculum. Astrology was again a respected occupation. Even Pope
Sixtus IV was an accomplished astrology, and Pope Julius II consulted
an astrologer to help him select a good day for his coronation.
Soon came a new astrology. Risking the wrath of the Church, in 1543,
Nicolaus Copernicus published a book supporting the theory that the
sun, not the earth, stood at the center of the solar system. This
heliocentric theory was already accepted by many scholars and
mathematicians. But the Church upheld Ptolemy’s Earth-centered theory
because they believed it to be more in line with Biblical teachings.
Later, Tycho Brahe, an astrologer and astronomer, who was adamantly
opposed to Copernicanism , became a famous astrologer by predicting the
death of the Sultan of Turkey.
The Church stubbornly clung to its belief that the heaven’s were fixed
and unchanging, with the earth in the center of the solar system. But
that all changed in 1572. A supernova occurred which was large enough
for all to see in the middle of the day. Everyone, including Church
officials, were witness to a spectacular change. This opened the door
for scientists like Tycho Brahe.
Brahe spent his life trying to prove Copernicus wrong but could not.
After he died, Kepler, an astrologer and staunch supporter of
Copernicus, used Brahe’s records to prove a heliocentric solar system
and to correct Copernicus’ mistakes. Kepler had discovered that the
planets revolved around the sun in elliptical orbits, and that their
speed is not constant.
One would think that this new view of the solar system would have
disastrous repercussions on astrology, but not so. Whether the Sun or
the Earth was the center of the solar system, we experience the
universe as if it were all revolving around us. The planets, Sun, and
Moon still appear to cross our sky. The constellations still appear to
circle the earth. The influences remain the same , but now we are able
to predict the motions of the celestial bodies with more accuracy.
Toward the end of the 17th century, there was a growing trend toward
separation of science and religion. The Church still supported
astrology. The scientific community was growing more dependent on
mathematics and more skeptical of anything intuitive. When Isaac Newton
published the Principia Mathematica in 1687, the end of astrology as a
recognized material science finally came. It, again, declined into
superstition and corruption, becoming mired in trivia and mystical
exploitation. Astrology didn’t revive until the end of the 19th century
when Madame Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, taught the
validity of astrology in her writings. Then Alan Leo began writing
seriously about astrology. His works are still used by astrologers as a
base for modern astrology.
Astrology cannot yet be explained by materialistic science, but neither
can some aspects of weather. The laws governing astrology are those not
yet uncovered by modern science. The future of astrology, as a
respected science, rests in the hands of qualified astrologers.
Astrology, like astronomy is only as good as its interpreter.
Although astronomers would have the public believe that all astronomy
is based on proven fact, much of astronomy is still based on intuition
and guesswork. Yet many astronomers , who cry out "blasphemy” against
astrology, base much of their work on that same intuition and guesswork.
Fortunately, a new wave of science is sweeping the earth. Science is
revealing mysteries that may one day bring materialistic science and
spiritual science together. That there are "unseen” and unknown forces
at work in the universe is being experienced by quantum physicists and
others every day. Eventually, we hope, there will be a time when the
best of both worlds of science and astrology will again work together