History of astrology: Encyclopedia II - History of astrology - Overview

History of astrology - Overview

Astrology is not limited to Western astrology alone, which by itself has dozens of branches and various offshoots. In modern India the ancient Vedic astrology (or Jyotish) is commonly used to this day, and in China Chinese astrology has existed for thousands of years and continues to flourish. The ancient Greeks formed Hellenistic astrology while the Mayans of Central America also developed their own form of astrology. The ancient Egyptians also had another system of astrology. A unique system of astrology eventually emerged in Tibet as well. Other cultures and civilizations around the world also developed their own astrological systems independently.

For the overwhelming bulk of human history, astronomy and astrology were regarded as one and the same subject, with a distinction being made between "natural astrology" (the study of the motions of the heavenly bodies, timing of eclipses, etc.) and "judicial astrology" (the study of the supposed correlations between the positions of various celestial objects and the affairs of human beings).

Isidore of Seville (d. 636) was one of the first to distinguish between astronomy and astrology. However, astronomy did not begin to be separated from astrology until the 16th century, when, with the system of Copernicus, the conviction that the earth itself is one of the heavenly bodies was finally established.

The study of astrology and the belief in it, as part of astronomy, is found in a developed form among the ancient Babylonians; and directly or indirectly through the Babylonians, it spread to other nations. It came to Greece about the middle of the 4th century B.C., and reached Rome before the opening of the Christian era.

In India and China, astronomy and astrology are largely reflections of Greek theories and speculations; and similarly with the introduction of Greek culture into Egypt, both astronomy and astrology were actively cultivated in the region of the Nile during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Astrology was further developed by the Arabs from the 7th to the 13th century, and in the Europe of the 14th and 15th centuries astrologers were dominating influences at court.

Even up to the present day, some peeople of intellectual eminence believe that astrology has a foundation of truth, just as there are still believers in chiromancy or other forms of divination.

There is an obvious tendency, however, for astrology to be employed, like palmistry, as a means of imposing on the ignorant and credulous. The generally established belief of the scientific community is that astrology is either mere superstition or absolute imposture, and that its vogue is due either to willful deception or to fatuous, unscientific gullibility.

On the other hand though, the people who do believe in astrology or divination accept that there are certain aspects of reality that cannot be explained through the process of logic. They regard this aspect of reality as something beyond comprehension and scientific understanding and as something that can only be felt, possibly through the sixth sense. They view the scientific community as ignorant because unable to accept anything that is not explained; this is more an acceptance of human limitations, and embrace of that which can only be felt and not understood. Since these senses have not been explained in a scientific sense, they are discarded as nonsense. The people that believe these mystical aspects of life trust these to be the true underlining principles of reality and deplore the scientific community for its simplistic materialistic view of reality that tends to strip the world of any spiritual meaning.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Overview", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki