A Brief History of Astrology
Morgan Drake Eckstein
Recently when asked if he thought there were any continuously surviving pagan customs and beliefs, an acquaintance of mine replied, “Sure, astrology.” And while I would argue that many of the beliefs and methods of astrology have changed down though the centuries, I understand exactly what he means. If any pagan beliefs can be claimed to handed down intact throughout the ages, astrology must be given a seat of honor.
Astrology was born in the early days of civilization. For instance, the concept of the zodiac, a way of tracking the sun’s journey along the ecliptic, was invented in Babylon, Egypt and China (all independently of one another). The division of the ecliptic and the zodiac into twelve equal parts occurred around the sixth century BCE.
The earliest known horoscope that we have evidence from dates to 409 BCE. It was written in Babylon, and the text is damaged. It reads in part:
“Month Nisan night of the 14th…son of Shuma-usar, son of Shuma-iddina, descendent of Deke, was born. At that time the Moon was below the Horn of Scorpion, Jupiter in the Fish, Venus in the Bull, Saturn in the Crab, Mars in the Twins, Mercury, which had set was [still] invisible…the 27th was the day when the Moon appeared for the last time. Things will be good for you.”
Astrological symbolism occurs in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, both the Old and New Testaments, the Nag Hammadi texts, the medieval guild plays, alchemical and magical literature of the Renaissance, and in Freemasonry. Perhaps the most famous mention of astrology in literature occurs in the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, “The stars do not compel.”
None of the preceding is proof that astrology has not changed over the centuries. For instance, one of the innovations of modern astrology is the “look-up charts” and computer generated horoscopes. The “look-up charts” were the invention of Alan and Bessie Leo, who besides starting The Astrologer’s Magazine, also created a postal consultation business. They invented a system of rapidly putting together horoscopes for subscribers, having sheets detailing the symbolism and attributes of the various aspects of a horoscopes which they put together to create a full report. This method, invented in the 1890’s is still in use (though computers do the compiling today).
Another development was the invention of sun-sign astrology. In 1930, R. H. Naylor was commissioned by the Sunday Express to create a horoscope for the newly born Princess Margaret. The interest that the horoscope received was so high that Naylor was commissioned to write a series of astrology articles. Naylor realized that he needed to involve all the readers of the column, and started to publish a paragraph for each one of the zodiac signs. This development has lead to almost everyone knowing their sun sign, even if they have no clue about anything else astrologically.