The History Of Astrology: In Brief

---

 

Astrology in the West can trace its origins back to Mesopotamia – it was a part of the polytheistic religion that the Mesopotamians practised, with the planets associated with or actually being their gods. The seven visible bodies (5 planets, the Sun and Moon) were named after their primary deities, and their position seems to have been referenced more against individual stars rather than constellations. Compared to Hellenistic (Greek) astrology, Babylonian astrology seems quite terse and patchy. This is almost certainly because, at the time, they were having to develop the tools and skills with which to consistently observe the heavens, as well as discover the nature of particular associations between events on Earth and the rest of the Solar System.

 

The dates of Mesopotamian history and the development of astrology in that empire are loose. Because translations are not comprehensive, there is not any certainty about when particular beliefs developed, and fairly scant knowledge about how developed they actually were. The rough estimate for the beginning of astrology is about 4000 - 6000 years ago.

 

When Babylon and Egypt came under the same rule, first under Persia, then under the empire of Alexander the Great, the basic framework of astrology spread through scholarly and priestly circles and flourished in the Persian Empire. Horoscopic astrology is thought to have developed in Egypt, though there is very little (or no) evidence of Egypt having a comprehensive mathematical system with which to build astronomical or astrological judgements. It is possible that they borrowed exclusively from the more advanced mathematics of the Mesopotamians and there is simply no record left of their use, or that they had an oral tradition of teaching and learning, as many ancient societies did.

 

The proliferation of Greek language and culture under Alexander the Great's rule did more for knowledge in the West than any other campaign, as it linked several major cultures under the same Lingua Franca for the first time. Contemporary cultural scholars often refer to our own age, the Postmodern age, as the first age of globalisation, but this is not strictly correct: for the West, the Alexandrian and Roman periods are comparable. Texts were translated and spread, and scholars moved from place to place, between Greece through to Northern India.

 

There is significant evidence that shows Indian Astrology to be derived from Greek Astrology, and definite links between Greek and Jewish mysticism. The links between them, and the question of 'which one is derived from which' is a topic of contention, but it is my personal belief that Greek and Egyptian mysticism spread into other cultures, where they diversified and evolved within that setting according to that culture's beliefs.

 

Antiquity saw the rapid development of astrology, mathematics, mysticism, philosophy and syncretism. It was in this period that solar cults (Mithras, Osirus, Dionysus, Jesus), pre-existing mysticism and religions (Egyptian and Greek, but also Jewish monotheism) and the practice of magic came together under the loose umbrella of Hermeticism, named for the Greek god Hermes. Hermeticism, at that point in history (about 200 – 300 AD), was not so much a unified practice as it was a diasporic body of spiritual practises across a number of cultures that came together under the aegis of like-minded people. Its stand-out feature was a focus on balancing doctrinal faith with enlightened rationality, when human nature tends to favour veering from one to the other.

 

From about 150 BCE, the model of the universe in use was Ptolemy's system, which was Terracentric: in other words, the universe was seen to revolve around the Earth, which was the centre of a series of nested spheres which the planets occupied. Within this framework, astrology was seen to be an expression of a natural order, which featured humanity at the centre. There was a second wave of development and interest in both astrology and Hermeticism around the 1400's.

 

In 1543, Copernicus began to argue for his own Heliocentric (Sun-based) model of the solar system, which was further developed by Johannes Kepler and Issac Newton. Issac Newton's Principia Mathematica changed the way that the western world viewed astrology and astronomy, with the latter coming into favour as the Age of Reason came into power. The Materialist view, which is arguably prompted by the horrors of the Black Plague and the ineffectiveness of traditional cures, began to push astrology from its exalted place.

 

Astrology only really declined in the 19th century onwards – even in the darkest periods in the Middle Ages, it could be found in use. By William Lilly's time, astrology was under a great deal of suspicion because of its occult links (hence his pains to make it appear exclusively Christian), but by the beginning of the 20th Century, it was nearly extinct in the public eye, associated with witchcraft and superstition, with much of the knowledge only retained by dedicated mystics who still practised it for their own orders.

 

The occult revival in the early and mid-20th century, spurred by the Golden Dawn and similar organisations, revived astrology to a point, along with a number of other associated mystical tools, such as the tarot. They also made up or reinvented a fair few things, trusting in their spiritual connections to higher realms and beings, some of which was probably true, some of which may have been spurious. The role of Egyptian influence was exaggerated through fascination with Dynastic Egypt, while other sources – the Persian and Chaldean – were barely touched on.

 

The orders that formed in Britain and Europe combined what they knew of Hermeticism, Egyptian pantheism, Freemasonry and Rosicrucian practise into a single body of spiritual literature, which is now what most think of when they think of the Occult. This was taken up by people who are now both famous and infamous – Aleister Crowley, Isreal Regardie and Dion Fortune, to name a few. C.G Jung seems to have been heavily involved with a personal form of Gnosticism, but his connection to particular orders is tentative at best. However, all these individuals practised and furthered astrology in their own ways, along with other more specialised astrologers: Alan Leo, Sephariel, Dane Rudhyar, Michel Gauquelin, Karl Ernst Krafft, and many others.

Since WW1, astrology has been increasingly popularised and capitalised on. Some continued to practise it seriously, usually within the context of mysticism or the New Age. Some reinvented it, giving birth to 'modern' astrology. Some, like Alan Leo, took the modern recreation of astrology and turned it more towards entertainment, which is what is mostly known for today. However, astrology seems to be going through another Renaissance of sorts in the Postmodern era, along with the ccult itself. There is renewed interest in the academic and ancient aspects of astrology, a movement of which this website is a part.

Home Page