Astrology, a system based on the belief that events on Earth are represented by the positions and movements of astronomical bodies, particularly the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. The word "astrology" derives from the Greek astron (star) and logos (word, study). Astrologers maintain that the position of astronomical bodies at the exact moment of a person’s birth and the subsequent movements of the bodies reflect that person’s character and, therefore, destiny. The celestial patterns are interpreted so as to understand, plan, or predict events on Earth. They are deemed to be associated with the characteristics of individuals. Astrologers use charts known as horoscopes, which map the position of astronomical bodies at certain times, and are based on the signs of the Zodiac; these are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
Astrology is one of the oldest known forms of study and its continuous history can be traced back over 4,000 years to the ancient Middle East. The astrology used in India and the West share common origins, but most cultures have developed their own forms of mystical cosmology, and at least two, China (by 2000 BC)and the Mayan and Aztec cultures of central America, also developed complex systems of astrology. These people may have observed that the movements of certain astronomical bodies, particularly the Sun, affected the change of seasons and the success of crop harvests. It was astrology, and the hope of predicting the future, that led to systematic study of the heavens, and to the development of the science of astronomy—as alchemy led to chemistry. SeeArchaeoastronomy. Astrology’s current popularity dates from the late 19th century, and the invention of the distinctive twelve-sign newspaper horoscope column in 1930 made it an entrenched part of modern mass media and popular culture. II A HISTORY Middle-Eastern Origins Astrology can be traced back to the earliest literate urban civilization in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) before 2000 15000 BC, although its origins may date from earlier attempts to create calendars in order to regulate civil and religious life or to divine the future. Deer antler markings dating from BC may indicate lunar phases, while the earliest post holes at Stonehenge in southern BC. England are dated to 8000 Little is known about what kind of astrology may have been practised by Neolithic people, or by later peoples who left no written records, such as the Celts. The first complete surviving astrological text is the Venus Tablet, a collection of omens on the planet Venus compiled in the reign of the Babylonian king Amisaduqa, around 1650 BC.
A thousand years later the Assyrian emperor Ashurbanipal collected all the known astrological tablets together in a single collection, the Enuma Anu Enlil. Originally all astrology seems to have been devoted to the king and the state, and the astrologer’s task was to offer political advice. The first known individual birth chart dates from the Persian period, 410 BC. Developments in Egypt followed a different course and it has been argued that, as the inhabitants of the Nile delta lived in a relatively secure environment, they felt little need to forecast the future and therefore did not require a complicated predictive astrology. Instead, they evolved an elaborate astral theology in which the Sun was the symbol of the supreme creator god Amon or, in earlier times creator goddesses such as Sekhmet or Hathor. The constellation Orion represented the god Osiris, of whom the Pharaoh was regarded as an incarnation, while the star Sirius represented his consort, Isis.
The great monuments of Egyptian history tend to be aligned with the Sun or stars. The Great Pyramid (c. 2600 BC), for example, was aligned with Sirius and Orion. B Ancient Greece The classical Greeks devised the philosophical and technical basis of the astrology still in use today. The Athenian philosopher Plato (c. 428-347 BC) argued that the entire universe was divine and originated the concept of the Greeks had developed whose could be seen as an image of God, who placed the planets in the sky in order that his nature, ideas, and intentions might be understood. Aristotle (c. 384-322 BC) celestial causes and influences, although he believed that the planets were “secondary causes” responsible for transmitting God’s will to humanity. By the 1st century BC the horoscope of 12 zodiacal signs, 12 houses, 7 planets, and 5 major aspects that is the basis of modern horoscope interpretation. The principal figure was Claudius Ptolemy (c. 120 standard text in medieval and Renaissance Europe. AD), Tetrabiblos summarized much of the astrological teaching of the time and was to become a C India Astrology is known in India as Jyotish and was originally used to fix the most auspicious dates for the performance of religious rituals and the regulation of the sacred calendar prior to 2000 Greek world which, under the conquests of Alexander the Great (356-323 to the Indus valley. BC. However, the bulk of technical Indian astrology appears to have been imported from the Hellenized BC), extended eastwards D Roman Empire BC Astrology became a standard part of life in the Roman Empire from the 1st to 4th centuries and was used extensively by the emperors, who came to regard themselves as incarnations of the Sun God: the main festival of the cult of Sol Invictus, the reborn and unconquered Sun, was December 25. Astrology was also central to the Mithraicreligion, which was popular among the Roman legions, and in which the planets, as spiritual entities, were seen as a path to God and spiritual enlightenment. E Christianity and Islam The ambivalence towards astrology evident in the Old Testament, combined with its associations with paganism in the Roman Empire, led to hostility from many Christians, notably St Augustine (354-430), who attacked it in his Confessions. Christians were particularly concerned that astrological determinism conflicted with the individual’s freedom to choose between right and wrong or to seek salvation. This, combined with the collapse of the Roman Empire in western Europe in 476, moved the focus of attention east to India and Persia. From here astrology was rediscovered by the Arabs after their conquest of the Middle East. European scholars began to relearn astrology from the Islamic world in the late 10th century, and by the 12th century it was a central part of the new world view, studied at university as a single subject with astronomy. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) reconciled astrology with Christianity by arguing that while the soul, and hence the individual’s freedom to make moral choices, was responsible to God, their physical needs and passions, and hence matters of war and peace, disease, or economics were also influenced by the stars. As long as astrologers respected the primacy of Christian theology and ecclesiastical power, the subject was an accepted part of natural philosophy. In the absence of developed science, technology, and medicine, it was seen as an essential part of medical diagnosis and treatment, an aid to political power used by kings and popes, a topic for philosophical speculation, a means to arrange marriages or make money, and a tool for forecasting the future. F The Scientific Revolution By the late 17th century, European astrology had lost its intellectual respectability. It has been argued that this was due to the scientific and astronomical discoveries of Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Nicolaus Copernicus, which showed that the Sun was the centre of the solar system, and that other aspects of the solar system were not arranged as previously thought. These discoveries, along with the growth of materialism and the scientific method, led to the rejection of astrology by many Western scientists and philosophers. Another argument is that astrology suffered from its association with radical and popular political movements that sprang up in the early 17th century. G Nineteenth-Century Revival The revival of interest in astrology began at the end of the 18th century in England, and benefited from parallel developments such as the spread of spiritualism and discovery of eastern religions. The most notable figure was Alan Leo (1860-1917), a British astrologer who wrote extensively. Leo began the shift of psychological astrology away from the delineation of fixed personality characteristics defined at birth towards a dynamic system in which the individual can grow and develop. He popularized the aphorism “character is destiny”, arguing that astrological prediction was dependent on the individual’s personality and behaviour. The psychologist Carl Jung studied astrology and discussed it throughout his published writings, thereby contributing to the evolution of a humanistic astrology based heavily on psychoanalysis, and to the emergence of professional astrologers who work primarily as psychological counsellors. H Eastern Astrology Astrology remains an integral part of religious and social life in India, particularly in arranged marriages. However, it is used to time and forecast events with greater precision than in the West, and uses a sidereal, or star-based, zodiac based on slightly different coordinates. Chinese astrology is as complex as its Western and Indian counterparts and is closely connected to traditional medicine and feng shui, the alignment of buildings with the natural environment. It has a system of 12 “year rulers”: these are the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare or Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Horse, Dog, and Pig. There are 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches. Together these make a 60-year cycle. The lunar month, day, and hour of birth are also taken into consideration in a Chinese horoscope. There are character types associated with elements (such as wood and air). There are also “mansions” (Chinese, gong) into which people are born. Charts of the 60-year cycle are produced in Hong Kong and other parts of the Chinese world. III ASTROLOGICAL TECHNIQUES Traditionally, astrology was divided into two branches: natural, which dealt with planetary influences, and judicial, in which the astrologer’s interpretation was crucial. Judicial astrology has four sub-branches: natal (the casting of charts for individuals); horary (the answering of specific questions); electional (the timing of events); and mundane (the study of history and politics). A The Zodiac Most Western astrology relies on the tropical zodiac, the division of the ecliptic (the Sun’s annual path through the sky as seen from the Earth) into twelve equal divisions, beginning with the “Aries point”, the Sun’s location on the spring equinox (the autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere), usually March 21. B Horoscopes A horoscope is set for the time of the event to be studied. The sign rising over the eastern horizon is known as the Rising Sign or Ascendant and is the basis of the twelve houses that represent different areas of life. The ten planets—the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto—are then placed in the houses and signs. Their location and aspects (the distances between them, seen from the Earth) then provide the basis for interpretation. The signs, houses, planets, and aspects are generally seen as symbols that can be used to describe personality and anticipate future trends. Few astrologers believe that the planets exert a causal influence. More common is Jung’s concept of synchronicity (meaningful coincidence), in which celestial patterns coincide with events on earth at significant moments. A similar classical concept is that the heavens and earth are inextricably linked, and therefore any movement in the former corresponds to change in the latter. C Science and Astrology Traditionally, astrology and astronomy were viewed as complementary sciences. However, astrology is no longer regarded as a science by many, because its claims are almost impossible to test empirically in controlled laboratory conditions, and it can not meet the scientific need for reproducibility. It is argued that it can therefore be neither proved nor disproved. However, there have been a number of attempts to prove statistically astrological claims about personality. The most notable was the research by the French statistician Michel Gauquelin (19281991) in collaboration with his wife Françoise. Using vast banks of data on the birth charts of individuals successful in various fields, he claimed his studies showed that certain planets correlate statistically to outstanding professional success when they are either rising over the eastern horizon at birth or culminating overhead. The most significant was the “Mars effect”, linking the position of Mars at birth to sporting success. The Mars Effect remains the subject of academic argument and is not supported by most scientists. Scientific opinion in general sees astrology as a means of satisfying psychological needs and, as a practice, as lacking any objective basis. They point to the “Barnum effect”, which claims most people agree with most statements made about them as long as they are sufficiently general. Such criticism has, however, had only a marginal effect on astrology’s spread, and most western countries have astrological societies and schools that train professionals. Astrology has also become increasingly popular in former communist countries, particularly Russia.
