A History of Astrology – Part One: Early Origins
Posted on Friday, May 13 2016 09:38:00 AM in Astrology by SEAH® LLC
To commemorate the release of our new Planets Collection, The SEAH® Team Presents part one of our History of Astrology series.
A History of Astrology: Early Origins
Since time immemorial the human race has looked to the sky for meaning. The life-giving sun, steadfast in his return to us every morning. The moon, pulling the tides and reflecting the sun, assuring us of the new day to come. The stars, those shining pinpoints of our limitless dreams; and the planets, pulling our imaginations along as they travel on their solitary sojourns past earth’s field of vision on their journeys around our shared sun.
Our human history a search for meaning influenced heavily in the measurement, recording, and prediction of the seasons and their changes, reflected through astronomical cycles. As early as 25,000 years ago, marked on cave walls, carved into bone, our ancestors were marking moon cycles and tide changes around which the first calendars emerged. We ached over the constellations, watched them change with the seasons, bringing with them transformations in the weather, and annual floods. We built our temples to align with the risings of the stars.
The first documented cultures to reference astrological studies can be found in Babylon and Sumer as early as 2300 BC. Babylonian astrology envisions our first organized astrological system, predicting both weather patterns and politics. People looked to astrology for instruction on when to sow and harvest their crops, when to fish and with what tools, when to hunt. Their astrology was their survival guide. Soon advances in mathematics would add planets to their guide.
The Planets in early astrology
Look to the planets and the stars and see the gods of the ancient Babylonians. Omens, both good and evil, presented in the sky and attached to specific stars and planets. Here we see the early throes of science, for though much of Babylonian astrology involves the influence of magic, it is a magic that is operating objectively, untargeted and without revenge. Known rules of the movement of the sky’s inhabitants based on observed data defines early astrology.
Coming Soon: A History of Astrology – Part Two. Astrology in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome
