WHEN DID ASTROLOGY BEGIN?  

by Monica Ann Wallach

www.MonicaWallach.com     MW@MonicaWallach.com 

          It is hard to say how or when astrology started, but it seems likely mankind has always looked to the sky for guidance.  What information we do have from antiquity shows all ancient civilizations had developed astrology to a high degree.  In every early agricultural society -- Sumerian, Egyptian, Mayan, Chinese, and Indian -- there were astrologer/priests who watched the heavens to determine the timing of events.  It is generally accepted that the wise men who visited the baby Jesus were astrologers from Persia.  These magi noticed a magnificent conjunction of the planets in the sign of Pisces, which indicated the birth of a great spiritual being, whom they set out to find.

        Look into the design of almost any ancient temple, and you will find it is built on astrological foundations.  The two shafts leading from the king’s chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza are in exact alignment with the North Star and the stars on the belt of the Orion constellation.[1]  In fact, when viewed from an overhead position, the three pyramids of Giza look just like the stars on Orion’s belt.   Stonehenge, a megalithic monument near Salisbury, England, orients its main access ramp toward the position of the Sun on the horizon at the summer solstice.  Astronomer G.S. Hawkins of the Harvard College Observatory showed Stonehenge could be used to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon.[2] 

          As the ancients watched the stars, they began to see a correlation between the movement of the planets above and events on Earth below.  They observed the position of the planets at the time of a person's birth indicated certain personality traits.  They saw that as the planets transited key points in relation to the birth planet positions, the person might experience certain things.  They began to make predictions based on these observations, just as astrologers do today.

          For most of its existence, astrology has been a respected science.  In fact, until the past few hundred years, astronomy and astrology were not separate sciences.  Claudius Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe, both well-known astronomers, also were practicing astrologers.  Johann Kepler cast horoscopes.  Kepler is the man regarded as the father of modern astronomy.  He discovered the three laws of planetary motion upon which Isaac Newton based his work.  Kepler stated, “the belief in the effect of the constellations derives in the first place from experience, which is so convincing that it can be denied only by those who have not examined it.”[3]  

    Throughout history, those who have studied astrology have found it to be an incredibly valid science.  In our modern age, astrology is like a dusty jewel, waiting for us to recognize its value and worth.