For millennia, early civilizations lived in harmony with nature’s cycles, hunting, harvesting, and migrating in lockstep with the stars. Astrology was reduced to curiosity and a means of increasing self-awareness. Humans are storytellers, continually weaving the past, present, and future together to make sense of our lives. In this article, Astroyogi deconstructs the origins of astrology. Let’s get started.
What exactly is astrology?
It’s nothing more than a way of predicting earthly and human events by best astrologer in Canada based on the positions of the sun, moon, and planets inside astrological constellations. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces are the 12 zodiacal constellations.
The sun’s position on your birthday determines your “sun sign.” According to your “birth chart,” the position of the moon at the moment of your birth—provides extra insight into your personality and life events.
The Babylonians of Mesopotamia
The Sumerians, who lived in Mesopotamia, a historical region of Western Asia, were the first to keep track of the planets and stars. They noted and recognized the notable constellations and patterns around 3000 BCE.
The Babylonians (also known as the Chaldeans) were Mesopotamia’s first renowned astronomers. The Babylonians built the first zodiac wheel, building on the Sumerian study.
Babylonian astronomers split the ecliptic into 12 equal “signs” at the end of the 5th century BCE, corresponding to the 12 months of the year, each with 30 days.
The earliest known celestial coordinate system was created when each sign comprised 30 degrees of celestial longitude. The name of an animal was frequently used to identify each piece.
Egypt During the Hellenistic period
Egypt fell under Hellenistic domination when Alexander the Great conquered it in 332 BCE. Horoscopic astrology was formed by combining Babylonian astrology with the Egyptian tradition of the Decanic zodiac at Alexandria, which Alexander founded in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.
The rising decan, the Greek system of planetary gods, sign rulership, and the four elements were all important to the Egyptians.
The term “ascendant” derives from the ancient Greek word “horoskopos,” which is also where the English word “horoscope” comes from.
A horoscopic astrologer was first used to create astrological charts depicting the positions of the stars, sun, and moon at the time of a person’s birth. These birth charts were used to deduce a person’s personality traits and even their fate.
Antique Greece and Rome
Around 280 BCE, Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Bel, traveled to the Greek island of Kos to teach the Greeks astrology and Babylonian culture. By the 1st century BCE, two types of astrology were frequently used: horoscope reading and theurgic astrology (literally “god’s labor”).
The former was interested in learning about the past, present, and future, whilst the latter was more interested in the soul’s ascension to the stars and personal development.
The Greeks were instrumental in introducing astrological thought to Rome. Emperor Tiberius, who employed Thrasyllus of Mendes in the first century CE, is said to be the first emperor to have a court astrologer.
Claudius Ptolemy, an astronomer in the second century CE, became so obsessed with predicting accurate horoscopes that he began drawing detailed globe maps to trace the link between a person’s birthplace and the stars.
Before this, maps were mostly illustrative and symbolic. Therefore, Ptolemy assisted in developing maps as we know them today while searching for astrological meaning. He was the first to invent the term “geography.”
Astrology in India
Several Sanskrit translations of Greek astrology were conveyed to India in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, the best known of which was done in AD 149/150 by Yavaneshvara and versified as the Yavanajataka by Sphujidhvaja in AD 269/270.
An astrologer in Toronto procedures is comparable to those of their Hellenistic equivalents. However, the tactics were passed down without their intellectual foundations (which the Indians replaced with divine revelation). Instead, the Indians adopted the forecasts originally meant for Greek and Roman culture to make them relevant.
They considered the caste system, the notion of soul transmigration, the Indian philosophy of the five elements (earth, water, air, fire, and space), and Indian value systems in particular. We still turn to the sky for solutions today but we can only guess whether our horoscopes will come true.