Astrology should not be confused with astronomy, although both share the same Greek root, astron, which means �star.� Astronomy is the scientific study of the heavenly bodies, such as stars, planets, moons, comets, and meteors; astrology is a more fanciful pursuit that seeks to explain and interpret the influence of the heavenly bodies on earthly life. Both disciplines emerged in ancient Babylonia more than 7,000 years ago when sky watcher first began to keep accurate records of the movements of the sun, moon, and stars. One of their earliest observations was that although most of the stars remained in the same position relative to one another, a handful did not. Along with the sun and the moon, these so-called �wandering stars,� which the ancients thought to be home of the gods, travelled across a narrow band of sky called the zodiac. Today we know that these wanderers are not actually stars but planets (�planet� means �wanderer� in Greek).
In time, the Babylonians assigned meanings and resident deities to the planets based on their appearance. Fore example, Mars, which has a distinct reddish glow, was considered fiery and bloody and became identified with the god of war (Nergal for the Babylonians, Ares to the Greeks, and Mars to the Romans); Venus, which outshines every star in the sky but can disappear for six weeks at a time, was the bringer of love, fickle or faithful; and Saturn, which appears to roll across the sky more slowly than the other visible planets because it is the most distant, was associated with evil, old age, despondency, and death. Only the five planets visible to the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) were known, and all were thought, along with the sun and moon, to revolve around the Earth, which was then believed to be the center of the universe.
In addition to observing the shifting patterns of the cosmos, Babylonian sky watchers tried to correlate what they saw with the events on Earth, such as earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters. Their reasoning was simple: They believed that everything in the universe was interconnected and that events in heaven must reflect, or even foretell, events on Earth. For instance, the appearance of a comet, the most unpredictable of all celestial events, might forebode a major occurrence, such as the death of a king. More common events�Such as full moons, eclipses, the appearance of a halo around the moon, or the convergence of two or more planets�were less ominous but could still herald news of a famine, storm, flood, epidemic, or other disaster.
Thus astrology, even in its most basic form, was an important tool of divination. Its practitioners searched the sky for omens and recurring patterns and made predictions. But unlike astrologers today, who work for many clients, ancient astrologers restricted their attention to the king and the society as a whole.
This changed in the fifth century B.C., when the concept of the zodiac as a set of twelve constellations became fixed and astrologers began to cast personal horoscopes for individuals. The Greeks and Egyptians became interested in astrology in the third century B.C. and added many new and complex procedures to the field, linking it to medicine and magic. Not only were the positions of the stars and planets thought to forecast events, but it was widely believed that the stars affected the physical nature of everything and everyone on Earth. Each sign of the zodiac was said to influence a different part of the human body, and every flower, herb, and medicinal plant was said to be ruled by a different planet. Even minerals and gems absorbed influences from the stars. A physician, therefore, needed to understand to principles of astrology to diagnose and treat his patients. Similarly, magicians needed to understand astrology to determine the planetary influences and discover the most favourable time to carry out their activities. A love spell, for example, would best be timed to coincide with the influence of Venus rather than Saturn.
From Greece and Egypt, astrology spread to Rome, where it was widely accepted as a wonderful new addition to the many systems of divination already in use. A number of influential thinkers railed against astrology as a worthless superstition, and practitioners were repeatedly banished from the city, but public demand kept bringing them back. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, astrology ceased to be an important factor in European life until the twelfth century, when knowledge of the subject was reintroduced from Arabic sources.
During the Middle Ages, universities in England, France, and Italy taught astrology, and most European kings and queens employed court astrologers to cast their horoscopes and advise them on the best days for taking action. In Renaissance England, Queen Elizabeth I chose the mathematician and astrologer John Dee to select the date for her coronation according to the planetary influences. In France, the famed astrologer Nostradamus performed similar functions for Queen Catherine de Medici. An although the Church was generally hostile to astrology, Pope Urban VIII hired an astrologer in 1629 to perform magic rituals to counter the anticipated ill effects of a series of eclipses.
At the same time, however, the scientific revolution was under way. In 1542, Copernicus stated that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the solar system. This seemed to threaten the very basis of astrology, since the planets supposedly radiating their influence down on Earth were, in fact, not circling Earth at all. In the seventeenth century, other scientific discoveries followed, and serious-minded people for the most part turned away from astrology. Yet even as astrology lost prestige, astrological almanacs became immensely popular and people began to keep track of their own good and bad days without the aid of a professional. Indeed, the monthly and daily predictions found in magazines and newspapers today are part of a tradition that began with those almanacs centuries ago.
Astrology today occupies a peculiar position. Although it retains none of the intellectual respectability it once had, its popularity is vast, and many people take astrological advice as profound truth. Still, sceptics abound. In fact, several of the most sceptical people we can think of happen to be students at a certain school of witchcraft and wizardry