the-astrology-book

History of Western Astrology
HISTORY OF WESTERN ASTROLOGY
The investigation of the heavenly bodies, in the forms that are now distinguished as
astrology and astronomy, began in the European world at the beginning of Greek civilization.
The word “astrology” comes from the Greek astron, meaning “star,” and logos,
meaning “study”). The study of the stars had both scientific and religious purposes.
The rhythms of the stars provided the basis for calculating calendars. The stars also
represented a kind of natural watch in a clockless age and provided spatial reference
points, important for such practical matters as navigation.
Berosus, a Chaldean priest from Belus who settled in Cos to teach, probably in
the early fourth century B.C.E., is traditionally regarded as having introduced astrology
to Greece. The Greeks were interested in the study of the stars much earlier, however.
The pre-Socratic philosopher Thales (c. 625–c. 547 B.C.E.), who founded the Ionian
school, and Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580–500 B.C.E.), founder of Pythagoreanism, had
already devoted attention to the stars and speculated about the nature and constitution
of the heavenly bodies. The fourth century B.C.E. was particularly fertile for the
proliferation of astrology. Plato and Aristotle had a unified view of the universe (Aristotle
even spoke of connections between the heavenly bodies and the sublunar
world), reflecting Greek culture’s Eastern heritage.
Astrology also influenced the study of medicine, as is evident in the work of
Hippocrates (c. 460–c. 377 B.C.E.), who lived on the island of Cos. Hippocrates
defined the four humors, which are based on the status of blood (warm and moist),
yellow bile (warm and dry), black bile (cold and dry), and phlegm (cold and wet), and
set forth a correspondence of the humors with the planets. In 140 B.C.E., Hipparchus
of Bythnia catalogued 1,081 stars, while a few decades later the Syrian Posidonius of
Apamea spread his knowledge of magic and astrology in the school he founded in
Rhodes, where both Romans and Greeks studied. Marcus Manilius was probably influenced
by Posidonius of Apamea when he wrote his verses entitled “Astronomica.”
The Romans, who had an indigenous form of divination traditionally practiced
by augurs, received astrology in the second century B.C.E. from Greeks living in
the colonies of southern Italy. The Romans adopted the Greek system of the zodiac,
naming the planets after Roman-Latin deities (names that are still in use) and naming
the seven days of the week after the corresponding planets and deities. This tradition
also influenced the English names of the days of the week, which still reflect the
ancient connection (e.g., “Saturn-day,” “Sun-day,” and “Moon-day”). In about 270
B.C.E., judicial astrology and medical astrology were mentioned in the poem “Diosemeia”
by the Greek Aratus of Soli. Aratus’s poem was translated into Latin and influenced
the Romans.
In ancient Rome judicial astrology survived the years of the Republic despite
antiastrology efforts by such famous intellectuals as Cato and Cicero (De divinatione).
In 139 B.C.E., after the unrest of the slaves and the lower class in Rome, astrologers
were expelled from the city and from the Roman borders of Italy. Despite this opposition,
astrology gradually came to be accepted among intellectuals toward the end of
the first century B.C.E., largely as a result of the spread of Stoicism (which had adopted
astrology as part of its system). Although during the imperial age astrology was several
THE ASTROLOGY BOOK
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