The History of Astrology

Like most astrology buffs, I usually start my week by reading my horoscope. My favorite horoscope writer is from cosmopolitan, I read it religiously each Monday. When most people are sipping coffee and checking their social media accounts, I’m sipping coffee and reading cosmopolitans predictions about my week. This week’s horoscope told me to look out for financial gains and to not take something personal that my friend may say to me later in the week. In this blog post, I’ll talk about the history of where astrology comes from and how it works in a general sense.

Cosmopolitan isn’t 100% accurate, but they often predict my weeks with a lot of accuracy. How do they do it? What method does a horoscope writer like Cosmopolitan use, and what makes some better than others?

To understand these questions, we need to first understand the basics of astrology. Whether you are a fire, water, air, or earth sign, you’re not going to be able to comprehend what that means without knowing the basics of astrology. When a horoscope writer makes predictions, she is relying on the constellations:

Fire signs: Aries, Sagittarius, Leo

Water signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

Air signs: Libra, Aquarius, Gemini

Earth signs: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo

In the early stages, astrology was used as a weather indicator so that people could farm accordingly. They used it to tell which seasons were happening and how they were shifting. This allowed them to recognize agricultural patterns and what they could grow at specific times of the year. Eventually astrology morphed into a way to predict the future for humans. Most astrologers focused on big events — natural disasters and wars — but eventually, astrologers realized that their audience also wanted to know what tomorrow would bring for them personally: would their love propose? Would they land the job? Would they get lucky in business or personal relationships?

While astrology had an early start with the Babylonians, the zodiac is believed to have started in Egypt. The word zodiac means “circle of animals,” which is why each zodiac sign is represented by a different type of animal or mythical creature:

Capricorn: Located in the southern hemisphere and represented by a sea goat

Aquarius: Located in the southern hemisphere and represented as a water bearer

Pisces: Located in the first quadrant of the northern hemisphere and represented as a fish

Aries: Located in the northern hemisphere and represented as a ram

Taurus: Located in the north and represented as a bull

Gemini: Located northeast of Orion and represented as the twins

Cancer: Location varies on the time of year and represented as a crab

Leo: Located in the northern hemisphere and represented as a lion

Virgo: Located southeast of the Big Dipper and represented as the virgin

Libra: Located in the southern hemisphere and represented as a weighing scale

Scorpio: Located in various ways and represented by the scorpion

Sagittarius: Located at the center of the milky way and represented as the archer

The reason there are twelve signs is because “early astrologers knew it took 12 lunar cycles for the sun to return to its original position. “They then related the twelve different constellations to each animal. Then those constellations and cycles were related to different seasons and an animal was assigned to the zodiac signs. So when cosmopolitan creates a horoscope, they use both the stars and their related animals to predict characteristics about a person. For example, a Sagittarius is an archer and often horoscopes draw on the fact that they are full of strength and shooting for what they want.

According to the AFA, a horoscope “is a map of zodiacal circle with Earth at the center. “Within that circle there is also the sun and the eastern and western horizons. Astrologers don’t use the clock time like we do today, but rather they use the sun, the stars, the moons, and the planets.

From here, astrologers began to use the stars to predict individual personalities and daily events. In the 19th century, newspapers and magazines started including horoscopes in their works.

So when I read my favorite horoscope I know that the predictions are based a lot on the moon. We know this because the moon shifts locations every 2 days or so. This is part of making predictions because the moon actually affects our moods. But this is just the tip of the iceberg and now that we know the history we can look more into how horoscopes are exactly written because we will know all the knowledgeable terms related.

Sources:

“History of Astrology.” American Federation of Astrologers. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

“Constellations: The Zodiac Constellation Names.” Space.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.