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| Origins || Greeks || Middle Ages|| Age of Reason || Modern Times |  |
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A Brief History of Astronomy
and Astrology
Astronomy is concerned with the observation of the motions of heavenly bodies, and reduces to mathematical order these observations. Astrology is the study of the effects the movements of these celestial bodies have on human affairs. Through prolonged observation, the ancient astronomers were able to predict the recurrence of cosmic phenomena, and astrologers began to forecast the earthly events which coincided with these. Astronomy is probably as old as man’s conception of time itself. In the beginning, astronomy was largely used to predict weather patterns and the most propitious time for sowing and planting crops. Later, these orbs of moving light, the planets, were believed to be gods, and the subsequent quest for divine knowledge was probably the beginning of astrology.
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Astronomy-astrology is said to have originated with the Chaldeans, in Babylon, Mesopotamia, (now Iraq) around the fourth millennium BC. It was practiced in the temples, where it was blended with religious elements. Later, it spread to Egypt, and around the third millennium BC was being used by rulers to predict the fate of nations: war or peace, famine or plenty.
Recent researches into the Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza suggest that observation of heavenly bodies may have even more distant origins. There is startling new evidence that the principal Giza monuments form an accurate terrestial “map” of the three stars of Orion’s belt as these constellations appeared in 10,500 BC.
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| Greek
and Roman Times
Much later, after the death of Alexander The Great, astrology began to influence Greek life, as Greeks and Orientals mingled in the kingdoms of the Seleucids and Ptolemies. It became an increasingly important part of Greek and Roman life. The Stoic philosophers secularized this ancient art: Hippocrates, the “father of medicine” taught astrology to his students so that they could determine the critical days in an illness; and the poet Hesiod, who lived in the 8th century BC, wrote in his long poem ”Works and Days” that the positions of the planets and stars should be used to predict propitious times at which to start things. Astrology reached its zenith in imperial times, was used by people of every social strata, and in fact, was a part of almost every branch of ancient culture.
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| The
Middle Ages
The tradition of Greek, Arabic and Mediaeval astrology which was inseparable from the parallel tradition of alchemy, believed that Man responds to certain indefinable energies or vibrations of the Sun, Moon and planets, and words still used today to define different human characteristics, such as mercurial, saturnine, lunatic, venereal, jovial, martial, came from the astrological-alchemical schools of the 13th to the 17th centuries, remaining a tribute to the work of those times.
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| The
Age of Reason
Astrology for centuries was used by kings, emperors, popes, scientists, doctors, the bourgeoisie and the poor alike, and together with astronomy was taught in the schools and universities of the world. But, as with most things, it was destined to reach an interval in the affairs of men, and toward the close of the sixteenth century in Europe, astrology was losing ground; although in England it continued to flourish through most of the 17th century. The reasons for the decline in astrology are varied.
A new scientific age was dawning and with it an excessive demand
for technical explanation—everything not scientifically provable
or rationally explicable was rejected, including astrology. To add to all of this, an increasing number of “quacks” appeared out to make quick money, mingling with the genuine astrologers, which could not have helped matters–and while it is true that there have always been consultant astrologers and their clients–in Europe and in America, astrology for a long period seemed to lie dormant, and was used for little more than the publication of Almanacs for predicting the weather.
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| The
Twentieth Century
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| The
New Millennium
As an art and science astrology leaves still much to be discovered. The focus today is less on the attempt to predict events, and more on the use of astrology for personal growth: self-discovery, realizing one’s potential, and learning to resolve conflicts, with a strong trend toward spiritual astrology–the realization of the Self or the Soul. There is an abundance of profound knowledge available in books (not the sun-sign kind), and there are to be found in almost every city, genuine, serious, professional, astrologers, who are doing much to help improve the quality of lives, and raise consciousness. Astrology is helping us all to become more AWAKE to our lives. The End....
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The
Chinese were also skilled astronomers, and are thought to have independently
begun to use forms of prediction, along with the Maya of Central
America and the peoples of ancient India. Some experts believe that
Chinese astronomy may extend as far back as 5000 BC. 
Around
the 2nd century A. D. Ptolemy (pictured left), a Greek scientist,
wrote a colossal work on astrology, which is divided into two parts:
The Almagest and The Tetrabiblos. The Almagest deals with the movement
of the Sun, Moon, and planets; The Tetrabiblos with the interpretation
of these movements as they affect man and human events. These books
are perhaps the most complete written records of ancient astronomy
and astrology that have remained to us, and are a compilation of
works from previous centuries.
The
vast distances of the planets between each other was discovered,
and people began to say that these distances were too great for
any influences to reach earth. Also, the realization that the sun,
and not the earth, was at the center of the solar system somehow
added to the devaluation of astrology—even though Sir Isaac
Newton (pictured right), and others, pointed out that astrology
is about the relationship between planets, and could therefore be
valid no matter which heavenly body was at the center of the system.
It
was the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that began
the present revival of interest in Astrology. Much of this is owed
to the great Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustave Jung (pictured left),
who used astrology in his studies and wrote on the subject extensively,
awakening at the same time the interest of other scientists. 
The
English astrologer Alan Leo, and Russian, Madame Blavatsky (pictured
right) did much for the resurgence of astrology in England and Germany.
There were others, too, such as the American, Dane Rudhyar, who
came to astrology through studies in music and philosophy, and wrote
a valuable work called “The Planetarization of Consciousness”
in 1970. In this way astrology was revived in America, in France,
and in Holland. Associations and schools for professional astrologers
were founded in America and in Britain, and today astrology is again
practiced in almost every country of the world.