The history of astrological development is as foggy as the history of mankind. Definitely, there is a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Also there is a not-fully-proven theory of an astrology development that our ancestors observed- they observed the star sky, wrote down everything, that occurred there, and as a result they came to the conclusion that, supposedly, some configurations in the sky correspond to some proceedings on the earth. I do not wish to go deep into scientific disputes, but the theory of Mankind as a result of natural selection seems to me unreal. For the tens of centuries reflected in history, people changed very little. In the same way I do not consider possible the occurrence of astrology just from observation. Certainly, a lot of imperative astrological observations have been done in the past, especially in Babylon. However their purpose was not the discovery but only the acknowledgement of astrological laws. We can ask then, from where have these laws come? I would answer: they have been the result of the practical appendix of certain philosophical-religious concepts. Of course we can continue from where these concepts came, etc. If we continue to do this we will go too far from our sphere of interests in a practical astrology. There are many blank spots in the history of astrology. When you try to understand it very often there is an impression, that there once existed an extensive knowledge that was gradually forgotten. For example, there exists the evidence that the very deep and detailed understanding of astronomy (that is, actually, astrology as the astronomy at that time was an integral component of astrology) were around in Egypt in days of the Pyramids creation, that is about 2400 BC. Around that time (1650 BC) they created complex calendars and it looks like later on the Egyptians began to forget the astronomical basis of those calendars. It is possible to tell that astrology has come to Europe (we shall concentrate on the European branch of astrology as the closest to us) from the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian sources. The middlemen in this process, also interpreters and distributors of astrological knowledge in the first century AD., were the Greek philosophers. The Greek books were a source of astrology for the civilized world of those times, including the Roman Empire. Astrology played an important role in the Roman Empire and by IV century AD, was finally stated as a public science. However after the Roman Empire collapsed around 500 AD and the rise of the barbarian kingdoms in Europe (present-day Italy, France, Germany, etc.) the astrological tradition in Western and Central Europe stopped. And in the east, in the Byzantium Empire, religious and political conditions completely suppressed the practice of an astrology. Then onto the stage came the Arabs. In 711 AD their empire extended from the territory of present Spain in the west up to India in the east. In VIII century the Arabian governors and leaders of the Muslim world motivated the intelligence of the country to study the Greek language and assimilate the scientific achievements of other nations. So Greek astrology along with other Greek sciences became a component of the Arabian Islamic science. In this condition astrology continued to develop, while in Europe during the six centuries, from 500 to 1100 AD, the practice of astrology was extremely complicated. One of the major reasons for the decline of astrology in Europe was the degradation in the field of mathematical and other scientific formations that followed the fall of the Roman Empire. However by 1100 the West has realized, at last, the necessity of the development of a science - in the same way as it occurred in the Muslim East in VIII century. The mass translation of Arabian scientific (including astrological) texts to Latin language had begun. The result became the revival of interest in astrology in Europe, which prolonged up to XVII century. If you would like to learn more about astrology, especially mystical parts of astrology, visit the Astrology-Wisdom site. |
