Article: The Backstory to Astrology Part 1

Francis O’Neill

A bitesize look into the roots of Western astrology, in two parts.

Some misconceptions

First let’s take a look at a couple of misconceptions…

1. Astrology is a new age belief

For people who don’t know better, astrology is often labelled a “new age” belief, a hangover of the hippy movement of the 1960s to 1970s. While there may be no obvious issue for astrology with new age ideas, it is incorrect to describe its beginnings as such…

But to be fair…
Interest in astrology in N. America, Europe and a few other places around the globe, certainly blossomed towards the latter half of the twentieth century – and has gained a growing popularity since, with the advent of the Web.

It combined with a resurgence of interest in holistic topics generally during the hippie movement of the time.

But Western astrology is much, much older…

 

2. Astrology is a mediaeval superstition

Astrology is otherwise sometimes described as a “mediaeval superstition.” It is clearly not in terms of its roots. Astrology certainly flourished during the mediaeval period but it didn’t begin there.

There is no doubt in my mind that the “superstition” part is primarily linked to the belief that astrology stopped having any value, notably into the post-mediaeval period. This was an outcome of it being established (through the work of Nicolaus Copernicus) that the Earth was not the centre of the solar system, but rather the Sun was at its centre.

Nicolaus Copernicus

See also The Man Who Moved the Earth. 
Before, and during mediaeval times, the Earth was understood to be fixed at the centre of the known Universe. The Sun was believed to orbit the Earth.

Nicolaus Copernicus’ heliocentric theory (of 1543) changed all that… arguing the Earth went around the Sun.

It was a literal shift in worldview. The Church (the science of its day) treated the idea as blasphemous. It tried to quash the theory and that is why it also took a long time to catch on.

Western astrology was damaged by the eventual acceptance of the heliocentric model – and to critics it has never recovered. But, in reality, this was only in the public perception of it. It continued on using the old Earth centred view of things in its calculations. It still uses it today – and there is good reason for this…

To the practice of Western astrology it really makes no difference whether the Sun goes around the Earth, or the Earth around the Sun. The effect is the same for interpretation purposes. This is because it is the solar system, as seen from the Earth vantage point, that astrologers treat as symbolical and meaningful. The Sun still “appears” to us to go around the Earth.

Modern astrologers are, of course, well aware that it is the movement of the Earth that causes this impression of the Sun moving – but symbolically it makes no difference which body is actually doing the moving.

So, when did astrology begin?

Well, it might surprise you but the astrology we are familiar with today is generally accepted to have had its beginnings around the 3rd to 2nd millennium BC – with later Greek adaptions. The astrology we use in the West with its tropical zodiac is essentially Greek in design.

That said the roots of astrology could be even older… take a look at Identifying Four Stages of Development of Western Astrology
Go to Part 2

 

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