Astrology / History

Egyptian Astrology

    
    The belief that the Egyptians originated astrology is an ancient one and was propagated by the ancient Greeks, who should have known better. The Roman Diodorus, writing around 59 B.C. alleged that the Egyptians had invented astrology, and that the Babylonians were Egyptian colonists who had taken astrology to Mesopotamia. However, although the stars were extremely important in Egyptian religion and time-keeping, but we only have one major example of the use of planetary omens prior to the introduction of Greek astrology in the useful points to regulate the year as were other early civilized peoples, but horoscopes were only introduced to Egypt in the century before Christ.
    
    The early Pharoahs, from around 3,000 B.C. were aware of the symbolic power to be exploited by equating themselves with the heavenly bodies, and it has been suggested that the Great Pyramid (c 2,600 B.C.) was built in alignment with the Sun. Pharoah Akhnaton (1375-1358 B.C.) the father of Tutankhamun actually created one of the world's earliest monotheistic religions, focused around the worship of Aton, the Sun-disc. The earliest Egyptian calendar was based on a year beginning and ending with the annual flooding of the Nile, the most important event in the agricultural year. The year consisted of 3 seasons of 120 days each with 5 intercalary days. Historical evidence is so vague that it is not known at which date between 4,200 and 2,800 B.C. this calendar was introduced. As with the Greeks of Hesiod's time great attention was paid to the Heliacal rising of various planets, the most important of which was the heliacal rising of the dog-star Sirius which heralded the annual flooding of the Nile.
    
    Egyptian astronomy and mathematics was relatively simple compared to Mesopotamian, and this is one reason why the Egyptians never developed their own astrology. They were also more interested in the abstract measurement of time than the detailed observation of the heavens, and their achievements in this field have lasted to the present day. They invented the decanates, periods of ten days, which were later applied to the zodiac, and were responsible for the division of the day into 24 hours as against the Babylonian 12 hours. Herodotus, writing around 460 B.C. in Greece, reported that the Egyptians were more involved in divination than any other nation, and said that they foretold a man's future by reference to his date of birth. This does not necessarily indicate that they used astrology, but that they gave each day a particular character.
    
    The system of Egyptian days which arose from this practice was in fact the most common form of divination in Anglo-Saxon England. In spite of the fact that Egypt was invaded by the Assyrians in 671 B.C. and the Persians in 525 B.C., it was not until after the invasion of Alexander in 332 B.C. and the establishment of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, that Egyptian culture accepted astrology.
    
    It may be as early as the 5th century B.C. that the Egyptians were using the appearance of the Moon as a tool for divination, but the zodiac was not introduced until about 250 B.C. The earliest known zodiac was made in 221 B.C. under the reign of Ptolemy III, but has been destroyed. The famous zodiacs at Dendera, often quoted as proof of the existence of astrology in remote times in Egypt were probably constructed around 30 B.C. It is not until the 2nd century B.C. that prediction according to the heliacal rising of the stars is known to have occurred, 1,400 years after the first evidence of such practices in Mesopotamia.
    
    Egypt is perhaps remembered for its contribution to alchemical thought through the works of the mysterious Nechepso, priest to the mythical pharaoh Petosiris, composed in Alexandria around 150 B.C. and the writings of the equally mysterious Hermes Trismegistus, composed around 100 A.D. These works had a profound effect on Renaissance astrologers, and were influential amongst those who combined magic with their astrology, such as John Dee, astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I.
    
    The greatest gift of the Hellenistic monarchs (successors of Alexander the Great) to Egypt, was the library at Alexandria, founded in the 3rd century B.C. During the last centuries of independent Egypt this library was eclipsed as a cultural centre by activities in Greece itself, but after the inclusion of Egypt in the Roman Empire in 30 B.C. Alexandria began to assume more importance in Mediterranean civilization, and the city was briefly to become a centre of astrological learning.