HINDUS trace their religious wisdom back to seven ancient sages known as the Rishis. The word rishi means “to shine”, and the original Rishis were the seven stars of the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper). Hindu religion literally began with the stars Vishnu, the reigning god of Hinduism, is the Sun incarnate, their most divine being. Sometimes, when the world is in discord, Vishnu takes various forms and visits the earth. Some of the shapes he takes on are the Ram, the Bull, and the Lion, and carvings of these shapes are found on temple walls dating back 7,000 years. In modern astrology we still use those three symbols: Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Leo the Lion. The Hindus divided the sky into 28 equal parts, called Lunar Mansions - each part representing a passage of the Moon through its 28-day cycle. The lunar cycle, in fact is a basis of Eastern astrology. Western philosophy is founded much more on the solar cycle. As a result astrologers often refer to the Western world as children of the Sun and to the Eastern world as children of the Moon.
The Indian zodiac has twelve signs, the same number our zodiac has. However, in India there is a concept not found in Western astrology. This is the doctrine of karma and reincarnation. Karma is the journey of the soul through various lives (incarnations). A person’s karma is based on three things: 1) the influence in this life of acts committed in previous lives; 2) the influence of one’s present acts on the next life;. 3) unrealized acts. The practice of astrology in India’s often linked to the discovery of what stage a person’s soul has reached.
With Marco Polo’s adventurous travels in A.D 1275, Europeans learned for the first time of the great beauty, wealth, history. and romance of China. Untouched as they were by outside influences, the Chinese had developed their astrology along somewhat different lines from the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Babylonians and Greeks.
Life in ancient China revolved around the Emperor. His title was Son of the Heavens, and he was an absolute ruler. Confucius wrote of the Emperor "The sovereign who rules by virtue is like the polar star. He stays motionless in his place while everything turns around him." It was the Emperor who maintained good relations between the forces of heaven and human beings here on earth.
Some historians mark the beginning of Chinese astrology during the reign of the Divine Emperor Fu Hsi around 2800 B.C. The Bamboo Annals (a manuscript found in a Chinese prince’s grave in A.D. 281) tell about Emperor Yao, who named the 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac and divided the sky into 26 Mansions of the Moon.
The Chinese zodiac differs from the zodiac of the West. There are 12 years, and each year is represented by a different animal. This 12-Year cycle is sometimes called The Yellow Road of the Sun. The 12 animals are the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, cock, dog and boar. Legend tells us that when Buddha lay on his deathbed, he asked the animals of the forest to come and bid him farewell. These 12 were the first to arrive. The cat as the story goes, is not among the animals because it was napping and couldn’t be bothered to make the journey.
Chinese astrology is not content to rest with a division into 12 animals. There are also five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). A Chinese horoscope is divided into interlocking sets of the numbers ten and 12 (e g., ten Celestial Stem signs and 12 Terrestrial Branch signs). In addition, the ancient principle of Yin and Yang (negative and positive forces) is very much involved in charting a horoscope.
Astrology has been an integral part of everyday life in China. The new Communist regime, which prides itself on rationalism and materialism and derides astrology as mere superstition has made new inroads on the people’s faith in the divinations of the horoscope. Not even the authority of the state has prevailed against astrology. This is only one version of the legend. In certain Far Eastern countries (e.g. Vietnam) the cat is the astrological symbol instead of the hare. A Chinese person always knows his or her animal sign and will often give his or her age by naming the animal year in which birth occurred. Major decisions in life are still made according to astrology. This is especially true when the Chinese seek guidance about whom to marry and when. Astrology is also a guide as to when to conclude financial agreements, begin journeys, start building a new house, and even where to bury the dead. Some modern astrologers have tried to combine Western astrology with Chinese astrology. They give each person both an astrological sign and an animal sign. One becomes, for example, a Gemini Tiger or a Libra Dragon. For those interested in learning more about this fascinating attempt to merge two cultures, there are some books on the subject. In truth, however, the astrology that we practice owes less to these Eastern influences. We are, after all, children of the Sun and rely more on solar astrology than the Eastern world and its children of the Moon. Our astrological lore can be traced back to the Sumerians and to the fascinating fragments of documents that contain the astrological predictions of Sargon the Ancient, who ruled around 2800 B.C. in a city known as Babylon.
EGYPTIAN astrology was also bound up in their religion. The priests held the secrets of the heavens. Within a complicated hierarchy of gods and deities, each god had a specific power and ruled over a particular kingdom of influence. For example, Osiris was god of the dead. Isis was Osiris’ wife and sister, protectress of the dead. Thoth was the god of learning, inventor of hieroglyph and scribe of the gods. Many Egyptian symbols and deities reappear in the present-day occult study of Tarot cards.
The Egyptians were the first people to foretell a person’s character by the date of birth. They also gave to each month, and indeed to each day, a special deity who ruled that day and that month.
The River Nile was the focus of Egyptian life. The river made their barren region fertile and so it is not surprising to find the imagery of water used again and again in their mythology. The sky was a goddess named Nut, who was also an enormous river. Lesser gods crossed the sky - river in their individual boats. When an Egyptian pharaoh died, he was provided with everything he needed for the journey across a great river into the afterlife.
At first, Egyptians divided the sky into 36 sections. (The Greeks later called these sections dekanoi, meaning ten days apart, from which we get our words decan and decanate). These 36 decanates remain unchanged to the present day. Later, the sky was divided into twelve parts, and each part was given a form and a name. Each part of the sky was assigned three stars to call its own, and each was given a boat in which to cross the sky. See how similar the twielve Egyptian sky gods are to our modern astrological signs:
The Egyptians believed the Sun, another powerful deity, controlled the waters of the Nile. The Sun brought the Nile to flood stage, providing needed irrigation to the surrounding countryside and making the deserts fertile. The Moon was also a special deity. The Egyptians designated several gods to represent it. The famous Eye of Horus, sometimes worn as an amulet to protect against danger, was a picture of the Moon. When the eye of the hawk-god Horus was completely open, the Moon was full.
Venus had her honored place among the gods. The planet Venus is a brilliant, silvery star that at times is seen in the morning and at othertimes in the evening. She was pictured by the Egyptians as a two-headed goddess, each head wearing a different crown. One of the most famous astrologer-kings in ancient Egypt was Ramses II (19th Dynasty). At his death in 1223 B.C., Ramses’ body was placed in a sarcophagus covered with astrological symbols, and put inside a pyramid at Abou-Simbel. There the great pharaoh lay, like Merlin, in his room of wonders. Some of the wonders are still being discovered.
For example, we have learned that Ramses’ tomb was constructed so that on a certain date the rays of the Sun would find their way into the very pit of the grave.
To this day, and on that very date, they do. When Ramses VI (a successor to the great Pharaoh) died, a star map drawn in the shape of a seated man was placed on his tomb. Modern scientists discovered that by using this map, they can chart the journey of the stars for each hour of the night throughout the year. Not until human beings are replaced by a civilization of machines run by a great computer are we likely to get any greater precision than that!
In a fertile plain in the Middle East, bordered by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, lies a region that was once known as Mesopotamia. The southern part was called Babylonia, the north was called Assyria.
The Sumerians were the first people to settle in the area, sometime around 4000 - 3500 B.C. They were mostly shepherds and farmers, who apparently spent a great deal of time looking up at the sky. They soon noticed a connection between the heavenly cycles and the cycles of growth in plants and food. Based on such observations, the Sumerians began to worship three all-important gods: Sin the Moon god, who traveled in a crescent boat and was the most powerful, Shamash the Sun goddess; and lshtar the goddess of fertility, whose home was the bright star of Venus.
As in most early cultures, the astrologers were the priests, and the priests were not only religious leaders but leaders of government as well Each priest ruled his separate province (called city-states), and dispensed divine wisdom to his followers. Large observatories or watch towers (called ziggurats) were built for the priests to study the movement of the stars and planets. The ziggurats in the cities of Ur, Uruk and Babylon were almost 300 feet high. We can still visit a ziggurat built by King U-Nammu, who founded the Third Summerian Dynasty (2079-1960 B.C.) It is widely believed that the biblical story of the Tower of Babel describes the building of a ziggurat and tells in mythic terms of the folly of trying to master the secret of the heavens.
By the time the Babylonian culture was in full flower (between 2800 and 500 B.C.), astrology had become more sophisticated. Besides the Sun, Moon and Venus, four other planets had been discovered (Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). The planets were given individual characteristics and properties, and a god was assigned to each. For example, Mars, reddish in color, became identified with the fiery god of war. Venus, seen early in the morning, was in a sense giving birth to the day; she was therefore a feminine planet associated with love and fertility. To this day, Mars and Venus have these same characteristics in modem astrology. The four seasons were also given symbols:
Spring was a Bull, summer a Lamb, autumn a Scorpion, and winter a Turtle. These divisions of the calendar date back to the twelfth century B.C., and two symbols, the Bull and the Scorpion, are still used in modern astrology. Note also that in today’s astrology, the Bull (Taurus) is the sign for late April and early May (spring), and the Scorpion (Scorpio) is in late October and early November (autumn).
The invention of the modem zodiac is credited to the Babylonians. Cicero, the famous Roman orator who lived during the last century B.C., had an explanation for why the Babylonians were such acute astrologers: "They reside in vast plains where no mountains obstruct their view of the entire hemisphere, and so they have applied themselves mainly to that kind of divination called astrology."
It was the early Babylonian priest-astrologers who set down the basic principles of astrology that have remained almost unchanged until today. They divided the sky into 12 equal parts, through which the Sun and Moon traveled. One theory is that they patterned the 12 divisions after the 12 months in the Babylonian year, one month for each lunar cycle. The sky was thought of as a circle of 360’’ with each division being 30’’. This is the way astrologers measure the sky today The 12 sky divisions, or signs as we call them, were given names: Aries, PIeiades, Gemini, Praesepe, Leo, Spica, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. The Greeks later changed Pleiades to Taurus, Praesepe to Cancer, and Spica to Virgo. These are the names we still use for the 12 signs of the zodiac.
Each of the signs had a precise influence over events on Earth. Each ruled a plant, an animal, a precious stone, and a color. The Babylonians also named 12 Houses. These are divisions of the zodiac that govern various areas of life. The Babylonian Houses were:
With some exceptions, these are more or less what the Houses in modern astrology govern.
By the time of the reign of King Assurbanipal in the middle of the seventh century B.C., the basic tenets of astrology had been set down. One of the reasons we know so much about King Assurbanipal is that he left behind a great library, much of which survives. We even have some memoranda written to the king by his astrologers. One of them (which reflects a narrowly monarchist point of view) reads in part as follows:
To my Lord the King of all Countries - If an eclipse occurs but is not observed in the capital, such an eclipse is considered not to have happened. The capital means the city in which the King is staying...
Astrology was mainly used for wide-scale predictions: weather forecasts, floods, good and bad harvests, eclipses, war, and the fortunes of the king. Around the fifth century B.C. astrology became more personal. There is a Babylonian horoscope dated 409 B.C. that is still in existence. We also have a translation of a horoscope cast in 234 B.C. for a man named Aristokrates. The position of Jupiter means that his life will be regular. He will become rich and will grow old. The position of Venus means that wherever he may go it will be favorable for him. Mercury in Gemini means that he will have sons and daughters
In Babylonian astrology the constellation of Cassiopeia rules over Syria and Palestine. This constellation was called the Woman with Child because every 300 years it produced an unusually bright star. Astrologers calculate that this star appeared after the birth of Christ, and may be the very Star that the Three Wise Men followed to the Manger.
The Jews of that era are also known to have practiced astrology. Among modern-day Jews the expression mazel tov is used on occasions of joy, such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries. Few people know that mazel toy has its roots in astrology. The word mazelot in biblical Hebrew meant ‘’sign of the zodiac" or ‘’constellation,’’ and thus to wish anyone mazel tov literaly means to wish them a »good constelation.«
The Greeks, who came later to the study of astrology, were not as patient observers of the skies as the Babylonians. Not until the ninth century B.C. did the Grecian astrologers learn to differentiate between the stars and the planets. When they did discover there were five planets, they gave them names based on their appearance: Venus was the Herald of the Dawn because it appeared in the morning. (The Greeks did not yet realize that at times Venus also appeared in the evening. They thought that was a different planet, which they named Vespertine.) Mercury was the Twinkling Star. Mars was the Fiery Star. Jupiter was the Luminous Star, and Saturn the Brilliant Star.
In the sixth century B.C. the philosopher Pythagoras wrote his famous Harmony of the Spheres. He said that the universe was a giant sphere that contained the earth and the air around it. His thoughts on the subject are poetic:
The Sun, Moon, and planets revolve in concentric circles, each fastened to a sphere or wheel. The swift revolution of each of these bodies causes a swish, or musical hum, in the air. Evidently each planet will hum on a different pitch, depending on the ratios of their respective orbits - just as the tone of a string depends on its length. Thus the orbits in which the planets move form a kind of huge lyre whose strings are curved into circles.
Two hundred years after Pythagoras, in the fourth century B.C., a Greek astronomer and mathematician named Eudoxos introduced a calendar, based on the Babylonian one. Eudoxos also divided the sky into twelve equal signs. He was the first Greek astronomer to explain the movements the planets in scientific terms. (Our word planet incidentally, comes from the Greek plenetes, meaning wanderer. While the stars remain fixed in their positions in the firmament, the planets move in their orbits, so they were thought of as travelers who crossed the sky and collected souls.) Eudoxos’ theory was that the planets were held in place by spherical shells that kept them in their paths.
A turning point in Greek astrology came when Alexander the Great conquered Babylonia in 331 B.C. We know that Alexander consulted astrologers. There is a legend that when he was about to be born, an astrologer named Nektanebos stood by the bedside. Nektanebos asked Alexander’s mother to hold back the birth until all the stars and omens were propitious. At last Nektanebos said, “Queen, you will now give birth to a ruler of the world,” and Alexander was born.
There is another story about Alexander’s entry into Babylon. It seems that Babylonian astrologers had predicted Alexander would die in their city. To avoid this fate, he entered the city by the west gate, which was apparently not the expected route for a conqueror. The prediction did not come true, and Alexander went onto annex all of Babylonia, Persia and India. However. when he did die, in June 323 B.C. at the age of 33, it was in Babylon.
The Greeks took over Babylonian astrology and made it theirs. They gave the five planets new names, taken from the gods of their mythology. Later, the Romans renamed the planets again, according to their gods of mythology. The Roman names are the ones we use today. Or, to be precise, they are an English translation of a Latin translation of a Greek translation of the original Babylonian nomenclature.
The father of modern astrology is Claudius Ptolemy. In A.D 140 this Greek astronomer from Alexandria wrote a four-volume treatise called the Tetrabiblos (meaning The Four Books), in which he set down his obseryations and theories about the universe. The Tetrabiblos is considered the first modern textbook on astrology. Ptolemy described the function of the planets, houses and signs of the zodiac. He formulated the theory of aspects, in which the distances between the planets in one’s astrological chart have a good or bad influence. The study of aspects is still an important part of modern astrology.
Ptolemy’s teachings remained unchanged for the next 1.400 years. It was not until 1543, when Nikolaus Copernicus published his treatise, that Ptolemy’s vision of the earth as the center of the universe was seriously challenqed.
Astrology was brought to Rome by Greek slaves whom the Romans took captive. These early astrologers were sometimes known as “astrologers of the circus”, the Romans liked to bet heavily at chariot races and brought along their Greek astrologer-slaves to predict winners for them.
Astrology soon became a topic of great interest to Romans. By the time of Julius Caesar (102 - 44 B.C.) just about every important Roman statesman and military man had his horoscope cast. Julius Caesar had a detailed horoscope prepared for him, and Mark Antony’s astrologer was a “gift” to him from Cleopatra. Caesar. in fact wrote a book about different kinds of divinations. He was warned of his death by someone versed in astrology “Beware the Ides of March...”
The Roman emperors who followed Caesar took astrology very seriously. Augustus (27 B.C. - A.D. 14 ordered coins to be minted that bore his astrological sign of Capricorn. Two stories have grown up about his early experiences with astrologers. One is that on the day Augustus was born, his father, who was a senator, arrived late at the Senate because of the happy event. He explained to the assembly that a son had just been born. At that point Nigidius, a famous Roman scholar and astrologer, stood up and predicted that the new child would grow up to be a ruler. The second story is about a time, before he was emperor, when Augustus visited an astrologer. The astrologer did not know who Augustus was. Suddenly, upon learning the birth date, the astrologer threw himseIf at Augustus’s feet and worshipped him as the future master of the empire.
Tiberius (A.D. 14 - 37), who became emperor after Augustus, studied the horoscopes of political rivals. If he saw any that were likely to gain power in the future, he had those persons put to death. Life under Tiberius was equally hazardous for astrologers. If the emperor was presented with a horoscope he didn’t like, he had the astrologer thrown into the sea. Clearly, Tiberius believed that astrology should be a science in which never is heard a discouraging word.
The infamous Emperor Nero (A.D. 54 - 68) believed in the auguries of the stars so firmly that he waited until his astrologer told him it was the propitious time before proclaiming himself emperor.
Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117 - 138) announced on the first day of each year the events that his charts told him would happen during the coming year. Hadrian correctly predicted the hour of his own death. If that happened today it would cause the kind of shock among skeptics that would register high on the Richter scale.
After the fall of Rome. astrology went into a decline-actually more of a total eclipse-from which it did not recover until after A.D 1200. One ofthe reasons for its decline is that astrology became very linked with superstition during the Roman era. When Christianity became widespread. astrology was opposed as the work of the devil and its study vigorously discouraged. St. Augustine (354-430) was one of those in the early Church who vehemently preached against the practice of astrology.
Though there was little astrology practiced in Europe during this time, it did not disappear completely It merely changed its principal residence for a time. In the Arab world astrology remained a serious science. One of the great and most renowned Arab astrologers is Albumassar (805-886), and translations of his writings found their way into Europe and were influential in turning the tide back toward astrology. Another influence in turning the tide was the renowned Church figure, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). He lent legitimacy to the study of the stars when he declared, "The celestial bodies are the cause of all that takes place in the sublunarworld."
By the time of the Renaissance, astrology was in full bloom again. The Catholic Popes now used astrology as a matter of course, and Leo Tenth (1475-1521) had many astrologers on staff at the papal court. The di Medici family, the ruling princes of Italy from around 1400 to 1600, were great patrons of astrology along with arts and literature. Catherine di Medici was influenced by Nostradamus, the famous French astrologer and physician. He correctly predicted the death of her husband Henry II -and its exact circumstances four years before it happened.
In the sixteenth century, a lonely and frightened young princess in prison, facing possible death, had her horoscope read by a Dr. John Dee. Dee told her that she would live to ascend to the throne. Throughout the long reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, Dr Dee continued to advise her on affairs of state as well as on her more personal affairs. One of the famous names in astrology at that time is William Lilly (1602-1681), an English astrologer who accurately predicted the Great Fire of London. As a result, he was summoned before Parliament and charged with having conspired to set the fire. He was later acquitted. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, astrology again fell into disfavor. The succeeding century was known as the Age of Enlightenment and astrology was linked with superstition and occultism.
During these skeptical times, in 1781, Sir William Herschel discovered a new planet, first called Herschel and then renamed Uranus. This contributed to a growing feeling by the public that astrologers simply had their facts wrong when giving their chart of the heavens. Astrologers also had to accommodate to the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, and to the discovery of Pluto in 1930. This did not prove hard to do. Just as astronomers were doing, astrologers simply enlarged their vision of the universe. The three new planets are now very much a part of modern astrology. The founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875 by Madame Helena Blavatsky started astrology on the comeback trail. The aims of the society were to encourage the study of comparative religions and to investigate unexplained laws of nature. The Theosophical Society played a large part in the revival of intellectual interest in astrology, and many prominent astrologers of the day were active in the society.
Around the turn of the century, two very popular astrologers helped to bring astrology to millions. In effect they discovered the power of the media to promote ideas. Alan Leo, a British astrologer, published an influential magazine called The Astrologer’s Magazine. In 1914 he was taken to court for being a fortune-teller. The case was dismissed. In 1917 he was prosecuted again, and this time fined 25 pounds. Alan Leo’s magazine, renamed Modern Astrology, flourished and gained many new converts to astrology. Leo lectured widely and wrote a number of astrology textbooks, still in use today. His were the first books that explained astrology to thelayman.
The famed astrologer, Evangeline Adams, has been called the First American Astrologer. Miss Adams reputation was established during her first visit to Newyork when she said that the hotel in which she was staying ‘’was under the worst possible combination of planets, bringing conditions terrifying in their unfriendliness.’’ That night the hotel burned to the ground.
In 1914 (the same year as Alan Leo’s trial in England), Miss Adams was also brought to trial in America. She, too, was charged as a fortune-teller. In court she was given an anonymous horoscope to interpret. The horoscope was that of the judge’s son. Miss Adams’ reading was so accurate that the judge congratulated her, remarking that ‘’the defendant raises astrology to the dignity of an exact science.’’ He dismissed the charge against her. By 1930 Evangeline Adams had a very popular radio program on astrology, which won hundreds of thousands of converts.
During World War Two, Nazi leaders used astrology for propaganda purposes. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, had a number of astrologers on his staff, among them one Karl Ernst Krafft who translated and reinterpreted the predictions of Nostradamus in ways that seemed to favor the Nazi cause. Krafft fell from grace after Rudolph Hess’s defection to England (The Nazis blamed astrology for Hess’s defection, saying he was ‘’crazed by astrologers.‘’) Krafft later died in a concentration camp. Beginning in the 1960s, we have seen a new resurgence of interest in astrology. It’s not just popular with the younger generation or with those who read newspaper horoscopes every day. It’s also the subject of serious research. More people are learning more about this oldest science all the time. In 1988, astrology became headline news when a White House adviser revealed the First Lady Nancy Reagan, wife of President Ronald Reagan, regularly consulted a personal astrologer. Mrs. Reagan apparently used her astrologer’s advice to schedule key events and appointments, both for herself and her husband.
Understandably, this created a great stir in the media and the general public, who felt that astrology should not be a controlling factor in national politics. Mrs. Reagan defended herself, saying she sought the support and counsel of an astrologer, who became her confidante, only after her husband’s near-fatal brush with an assassin’s bullet on March 30, 1981. The astrological community has long understood that the Reagans consulted astrologers as far back as the 1960’s, when Ronald Reagan was Governor of California.
Nancy Reagan’s description of her relationship with her astrologer is interesting. Joan Quigley, the astrologer, became a psychological support system for Mrs. Reagan, an intimate friend who listened sympathetically to her problems and anxieties. The value of this role of counselor and supporter is often overlooked when arguing the pros and cons of astrology and, indeed, is in itself a great benefit to those who seek the advice of an astrologer. More and more, astrology has entered the mainstream of our culture. It is no longer considered out of the ordinary for people in business, commerce, banking, the law, the arts, politics - in fact almost every major profession - to consult a personal astrologer.
