Astrology / History

Mesopotamia

    
    Soon after 600 B.C. the Greeks began to study astronomy, and the Hellenistic and Mesopotamian worlds started the gradual process of cultural mixing which was to reach its climax with the conquests of Alexander the Great some 300 years later. Somewhere between 569 and 510 B.C. Pythagoras studied at Babylon and it is possible that other Greek scholars followed his example. Following the Persian invasion of Babylon in 538 B.C. tremendous developments took place in astrology with the first use of astrological signs rather than constellations, around 432 B.C., and the first individual horoscope in 409 B.C. It is important to remember that because historical evidence is often confusing not all historians agree on these precise dates. Following the invasion of Alexander the Great (331 B.C.) the distinction between Greek and Mesopotamian culture becomes blurred. One result of this blurring is that it is not possible always to tell what advances were due to the Greeks, what to the Mesopotamians and what to the interaction of the two. Perhaps the most important result was that the Babylonian 'sexagesimal' system became widespread, and as applied to the recording of time, this gave birth to the twelve-hour day. Although this was later replaced by the Egyptian twenty-four hour day, 20th century time is still based on the division of the hour into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds.
    
    We know remarkably little about the rapid development that took place in astrology at this time, but it is possible to pick out some important dates. These act as sign-posts through one of astrology's obscure periods. There was a rapid increase in the use of natal astrology and a slow development of the concept of the rising sign and the consequence of that, the houses. The earliest known planetary ephemeris dates from c 308 B.C., while the first known use of zodiacal degrees dates from 263 B. C. The last horoscope written in the ancient cuneiform script dates from 68 B.C., and the first known Greek horoscope dates from 61 B.C., although other evidence suggests that the Greeks cast horoscopes sometime before this date. This chart was not in fact a nativity but an event chart, being cast on the orders of the Greek ruler, Antiochus I of Commagene. Antiochus had the chart hewn in the cliff face at the summit of the Nimrud Dagh, no doubt as a sign to the gods and whoever else cared to look, that his reign was destined to be a glorious one. The first recorded natal chart to make use of an ascendant dates to from 4 B.C., appropriately enough a mere four years after the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction of 7 B.C. which saw the probable birth of Christ.
    
    As far as we know astrology in its earliest days was the preserve of the baru priests, who were in charge of divination, and its purpose was to provide an additional source of
    
    Soon after 600 B.C. the Greeks began to study astronomy, and the Hellenistic and Mesopotamian worlds started the gradual process of cultural mixing which was to reach its climax with the conquests of Alexander the Great some 300 years later. Somewhere between 569 and 510 B.C. Pythagoras studied at Babylon and it is possible that other Greek scholars followed his example. Following the Persian invasion of Babylon in 538 B.C. tremendous developments took place in astrology with the first use of astrological signs rather than constellations, around 432 B.C., and the first individual horoscope in 409 B.C. It is important to remember that because historical evidence is often confusing not all historians agree on these precise dates. Following the invasion of Alexander the Great (331 B.C.) the distinction between Greek and Mesopotamian culture becomes blurred. One result of this blurring is that it is not possible always to tell what advances were due to the Greeks, what to the Mesopotamians and what to the interaction of the two. Perhaps the most important result was that the Babylonian 'sexagesimal' system became widespread, and as applied to the recording of time, this gave birth to the twelve-hour day. Although this was later replaced by the Egyptian twenty-four hour day, 20th century time is still based on the division of the hour into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds.
    
    We know remarkably little about the rapid development that took place in astrology at this time, but it is possible to pick out some important dates. These act as sign-posts through one of astrology's obscure periods. There was a rapid increase in the use of natal astrology and a slow development of the concept of the rising sign and the consequence of that, the houses. The earliest known planetary ephemeris dates from c 308 B.C., while the first known use of zodiacal degrees dates from 263 B. C. The last horoscope written in the ancient cuneiform script dates from 68 B.C., and the first known Greek horoscope dates from 61 B.C., although other evidence suggests that the Greeks cast horoscopes sometime before this date. This chart was not in fact a nativity but an event chart, being cast on the orders of the Greek ruler, Antiochus I of Commagene. Antiochus had the chart hewn in the cliff face at the summit of the Nimrud Dagh, no doubt as a sign to the gods and whoever else cared to look, that his reign was destined to be a glorious one. The first recorded natal chart to make use of an ascendant dates to from 4 B.C., appropriately enough a mere four years after the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction of 7 B.C. which saw the probable birth of Christ.
    
    As far as we know astrology in its earliest days was the preserve of the baru priests, who were in charge of divination, and its purpose was to provide an additional source of

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